Rocky Point, Teen Author Festival, and I-Con

Been a busy little Sarah here...

Rocky Point Middle School

I did a school visit on the 12th at Rocky Point Middle School (in Long Island), and here is the first sight that greeted me when I walked into the school:

Amazing Wall Mural of ICE Cover Art

Is there anything more awesome than that? And to those of you who reply that an actual polar bear waiting to greet me would be more awesome, I say, "You are incorrect, sir." An actual polar bear would have eaten me.

This mural was surrounded by the three winners of the poster contest:

Sooooo cool.

The rest of the day was similarly awesome. I spoke with the 8th grade first, then the 6th grade, then the 7th grade, and I had lunch in the library with the book club, the winners of the poster contest, and several faculty members.

Thank you to everyone at Rocky Point Middle School, especially their fantastic library media specialist Cathy O'Connell and wonderful principal Scott O'Brien!

NYC Teen Author Festival

The NYC Teen Author Festival rocked.

On Friday, I participated in the symposium at the New York Public Library. After saying hello to the lions...


... I was part of the panel on "Genre and Adolescence" with Judy Blundell, Lauren McLaughlin, Diana Peterfreund, Sara Shepard, Maggie Stiefvater, and Robin Wasserman. I had a tremendously fun time.

I also learned a valuable lesson: when participating in such events, choose socks with care. Sitting on stage, without a table to hide behind, my ankles were very visible to the audience. On Friday, I had managed to dress like a grown up in every respect except my socks. My socks had these ridiculous fat Garfield-esque cats on them.

I'm so not good at this looking-like-a-grown-up thing.

On Sunday (wearing polar bear socks), I signed books along with 60+ other authors at Books of Wonder for the final event of the NYC Teen Author Festival. It was like a whole afternoon-long cocktail party (minus the cocktails but plus a slice of Coe Booth's birthday cake) with tons of fantastic and fascinating people to talk to. Here's a photo from the event, courtesy of author Courtney Sheinmel:

Courtney Sheinmel, Natalie Standiford, Me, Elizabeth Scott

Huge thank you to Books of Wonder, NYPL, and David Levithan, who organized the entire festival!

Upcoming Event: I-Con

Next weekend I'll be a program participant at I-Con, a science fiction and fantasy convention at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, NY. My schedule is:

Friday 3/26, 8pm - Reception - "Meet the Pros(e)"
Sunday 3/28, 12pm - Reading
Sunday 3/28, 2pm - Panel - "Varieties of Writing"

Hope to see you there!

I-Con and NJ Library Conference

Contest Update

The Wild T-Shirt Design Contest (with the prize of an ARC of Out of the Wild) is still going on! Final deadline is 11:59pm on Tuesday, April 15, so keep those designs coming!

I-Con Trip Report

Last weekend, I was a program participant at I-Con, a science fiction and fantasy convention held on the Stony Brook University campus. I was on three really fun panels, including two with John Peel (author of the fun Diadem series) and one with Peter S. Beagle (author of the brilliant Last Unicorn).

At the end of our panel, Peter Beagle picked up a copy of Into the Wild. He looked through it and then he said something really nice about it. Unfortunately, I couldn't hear exactly what he said due to the fact that my brain was shrieking, "Peter Beagle! Looking at my book! Last Unicorn! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! YAYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!"

I also did a joint signing with the very cool and very nice Aaron Rosenberg. And I chatted with the guy who played Kawalsky on Stargate SG-1 (Jay Acovone). (Whenever I see TV or movie stars, I'm always surprised that they're human-sized. I know it's illogical, but I always expect movie stars to be about ten feet tall and TV stars to be about 17 inches tall. Anyway, I love SG-1, so I thought meeting him was cool. He was nice too.)

I also briefly met Charlaine Harris (author of the fabulous Sookie Stackhouse books). I actually didn't realize who she was before I began talking to her. She introduced herself midway through the conversation, so I didn't have that key moment to compose myself. If I'd had that moment, I would have said, "It's so nice to meet you. I really enjoy your books." As it was, I did a little bunny hop and squealed, "Ooh! Yay! I love your books! Yay!" I am such a dork.

New Jersey Statewide Children's and YA Author Conference Trip Report

Last Friday, I was a guest author at the New Jersey Statewide Children's and YA Author Conference (a.k.a. "Author Day"). Five authors spoke to librarians from around New Jersey at a one-day conference held at Woodbridge Library.

I loved, loved, loved this day!

Seriously, I think this was one of my favorite book events that I've done so far. There's a good reason for this... Librarians are awesome. Think about it: a room full of people who all love kids' books? Awesome! Also, the organizers, Sharon Rawlins and Susan Fichtelberg, were fabulous. Susan was the one who invited me (yay!), and Sharon gave me an introduction that made me sound much cooler than I am (yay!).

And the other authors (Michael Reisman, Marie Lamba, Kevin C. Pyle, and Tonya Bolden) were all great. I loved their presentations, and I loved talking to them. Very awesome people. I think that's one of the best things about this whole writer thing: meeting awesome people... which is a kind of funny perk for a job that's supposed to involve sitting at a keyboard by yourself most of time.

I-Con 2008 Schedule

This weekend, I will be a program participant at I-Con, a science fiction and fantasy convention in Stony Brook, NY. I'm really excited because (A) I'm on cool panels with cool people, including a panel with Peter Beagle (!!!), author of The Last Unicorn and other gorgeous/brilliant books, and (B) it's just two miles from my house, so this should be the easiest journey to a convention EVER.

Here's my schedule for I-Con 2008:

FRIDAY (4/4)

10pm Reception - "Meet the Pros" Party

SATURDAY (4/5)

11am Panel - Helen Collins, Wendy Delmater, Debra Doyle, Sarah Beth Durst, Drew Henriksen - "Pursuing Perfection: The Art of Revision"

2pm Panel - Peter S. Beagle, Sarah Beth Durst, Carol Emshwiller, John Peel, Patrick Thomas - "Making Fantasy Real"

5pm Panel - Sarah Beth Durst, Drew Henriksen, John Peel, Patrick Thomas - "I'd Never Miss a Book By..."

SUNDAY (4/6)

11am Autographing - Sarah Beth Durst

Hope to see you there!