ALA Trip Report (part 2 of 3)

Sunday

6:30am - Wake early to attend the YA Authors Breakfast at ALA, the American Library Association Annual Conference. (Note: I hadn't actually signed up for the breakfast. I'd been so busy prepping for the pub date of Into the Wild that I didn't spend much time planning for the ALA Conference. But how many people would really be getting up so early on a Sunday anyway?)

7:30am - Arrive at convention center. Ask about breakfast. Get blank look.

7:32am - Ask someone else. Am told it's at the Renaissance Hotel. Trot over to hotel.

7:40am - Find breakfast location. It's sold out. It's been sold out for months. Feel like an idiot. The main conference doesn't start until 9! I could have slept two more hours!

7:42am - Decide to take Julie for a walk. Say, "Julie, how would you like to see the White House?" Get odd looks since Julie is the fictional main character of Into the Wild, and I'm talking to a book. Keep walking anyway.

7:55am - Blocks in DC are long.

8:05am - Really long.

8:10am - I'm hungry. Why is there nothing to eat in DC?

8:15am - McDonald's so doesn't count.

8:20am - Ooh, my first famous thing! Civil War Monument. Julie wants to pose.

Julie at the foot of the Civil War Monument

8:25am - The Washington Monument is really far away. White House isn't all that close either. Still hungry. Bet they have food in the White House.

Julie and the Washington Monument

Julie and I in front of some house with a big lawn

8:27am - Lose interest in the whole tourist thing and walk back to Convention Center.

9:15am - Enter ALA. Visit the lovely people in the Penguin booth, including everyone from the prior night plus Stefanie Daehler, Lara Phan, Ben Schrank, and Doug Whiteman.

10-ish - Wander and chat with various people. Score one of the coveted Harry Potter 7 tote bags from Scholastic. I intend to use it at my Eight Cousins event on July 20 (in which I'll be doing a reading/signing for Into the Wild right in the middle of their Harry Potter festivities!).

11-ish - Catch up with very cool author (and fellow Class of 2k7 member) Laura Bowers and very cool uber-blogger and librarian Liz Burns.

12:30pm - John Scalzi reads my blog! Since he's the King of Blogs, this kinda blows my mind. He's also really, really sweet. I had lunch with him, Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (also really, really nice), and Steven Erikson, who told us about the time he (accidentally) peed on a bear.

2-ish - More wandering and chatting...

3pm - Wander and chat with the fantabulous duo of Holly Black and Theo Black.

4pm - Find Shannon Greenland and Simone Elkeles signing books for an enormous line at the YALSA booth. (YALSA is the Young Adult division of the American Library Association.)

Simone, Me, and Shannon

5pm - Take taxi to Westin with Shannon, Simone, and Thais (Shannon's friend from college) to a WWE-sponsored YALSA cocktail party. (Yes, that's right, World Wrestling Entertainment sponsored the YALSA cocktail party as part of their literacy outreach program!)

5:15pm - Discover there are multiple Westins in DC.

5:30pm - Take taxi to another Westin with Shannon, Simone...

6pm - Talk with many marvelous librarians plus the fabulous Diana Peterfreund. Also meet WWE wrestler Chris "Harvard."

7:30pm - Go out for yummy sushi with Shannon, Simone, and Thais. Laugh a lot. (They are all fantastically cool and nice. I adore them.)

10pm - Sleep.

(Tune in tomorrow to read about my final day at ALA... or click here to read part 1 if you missed it.)