Readercon, Northboro Library, and Fitchburg Trip Report

One Reason Why I'm Glad I'm a Writer

After arriving at my dad's house last Thursday night...

Me: "I have to wake up early tomorrow. Maybe I'll see you before you leave for work?"

Dad: "What time are you leaving?"

Me: "My talk is at 8:30 in Fitchburg. I think I'm going to leave by 7. What time do you leave for work?"

Dad: "5:30."

More Reasons Why I'm Glad I'm a Writer

This weekend, I had three book events:

AP Institute at Fitchburg State College

On Friday morning, I spoke with a class at an AP teacher training institute and had the chance to thank one of my high school English teachers (Ms. Tsang, who was teaching the class) for believing in me and encouraging me. How often do you get to say thanks to someone like that? I'm so pleased I was able to do this.

Northboro Free Library

On Friday afternoon, I talked about and read from Out of the Wild at the Northboro Free Library (my childhood library and the library that appears in chapter seven of Into the Wild). I think this was one of my absolute favorite book events. To understand why, check out this photo of the audience:

My Heroes

There are more people on the sides (maybe four or five more girls on either side) that I didn't manage to fit in the photo. But the cool thing isn't just the size of the audience on a random Friday afternoon. No, the cool thing is this:

None of these people are related to me.

Okay, one of them is a childhood friend who I haven't seen since fifth grade, but the rest... They came because they like my books. Or because the librarians bribed them to come so that I wouldn't feel unloved. Either way, I want to thank everyone who came. You made it a really special day for me. I hope that you use the bribe money to purchase something extra-nice for yourself. Like a chandelier composed entirely of gummy bears. (Seriously. It exists. How awesome is that?)

Readercon

Friday evening, I began my weekend as a program participant at Readercon. (Readercon is a Boston-area science fiction and fantasy convention with an emphasis on books -- in other words, it's not about costumes, LARPs, filking, or panels about Babylon 5, but it is about 2am discussions on the narrative function of werewolves.)

I did seven programming items (a reading, an autographing, a kaffeeklatsch, and three panels) and talked with precisely one bajillion people over the course of the weekend. I had a fantastic time.

One highlight was my kaffeeklatsch (a "meet-the-author" session, in which con-goers can sign up to chat for an hour with a particular author). People came! I was shocked. And they even laughed at my jokes, which is even more shocking since one thing I learned from school visits is that my sense of humor is precisely fourth grade. Again, I suspect the Northboro librarians of bribing people...

Another highlight was hanging out with the YA author brigade. Friday night, I was up to the wee hours with Holly Black, Theo Black, Cassandra Clare, Josh, and Sarah Rees Brennan discussing werewolves and other pressing issues. Saturday evening, I had a lovely time out to dinner with Sarah, who talks exactly like her hilarious blog and is super-awesome. And Saturday afternoon, after a YA panel, a group of us lingered in the panel room for about two hours talking about writing and books. Very cool and very fun.

The YA Brigade (Cassandra Clare, Nancy Werlin, Me, Holly Black, Sarah Rees Brennan)

From beginning to end, it was a great weekend. I met lots of really fun and friendly people (way too many to even try to list them all here) and hung out with lots of friends, both old and new.

Readercon, Northboro Library, and Fitchburg State

This Friday, July 18th, I'm heading up to Massachusetts for not one, not two, but THREE book events. Yes, three. This is a new record for me. Hmmm, perhaps I've overbooked myself ever so slightly...

8:30am - Fitchburg State College

My high school English teacher, Ms. Tsang, is giving a course at an AP teacher training institute (teaching teachers to teach AP English) and invited me to be a guest speaker. Should be very cool.

2pm - Northboro Library (17 Lyman St, Northboro, MA)

I've been looking forward to this for a while. I'm doing a library visit in Northboro (my hometown and the setting for Into the Wild and Out of the Wild) at the library where I spent a large fraction of my childhood. I'm really, really excited about this event. The Northboro Library is where I learned to love books. It's where I discovered Lloyd Alexander and Tamora Pierce and David Eddings and Diane Duane and Diana Wynne Jones and... My mom used to take my brother and me there all the time, and we'd leave with this huge L.L. Bean bag full of books. (My mom eventually had to put limits on me, or I would have walked out with entire shelves straped to my back. And by "limits" I don't mean "you can take one." I mean, "Sarah, please try to limit yourself to twenty.")

And check this out. I've even got a picture of myself, at age four, signing up to get my first library card at the Northboro Library. A newspaper photographer happened to be there at the time, covering some sort of card registration drive at the library, and I happened to be absolutely adorable, so I got my picture in the paper! And my mom kept the article for the past thirty years! Take a look:

Hey, that's me!

Plus, this library also features prominently in Into the Wild -- an entire chapter takes place there! So, yeah, I'm kinda excited about this event. I'll be talking about, reading from, and signing copies of my books. And I'll probably tell a few embarrassing tales from my childhood. So, if you're in Northboro this Friday (7/18) at 2pm, come on by!

6pm (and the rest of the weekend) - Readercon

After Northboro, I'm hightailing it (I love that expression -- where does it come from?) over to the Marriott in Burlington, MA for Readercon. Readercon is a Boston-area fantasy and science fiction convention with an emphasis on literature. It's attended by lots of excellent authors and is always well-run and well-organized. I'm really thrilled with my schedule this year. My first event of the weekend is a reading from Out of the Wild at 6pm (thus completing my book triathalon). Here's my full schedule:

Sarah at Readercon 2008:

* Reading - Fri. July 18, 6pm - Sarah Beth Durst

* Autographing - Sat. July 19, 11am - Ellen Datlow, Sarah Beth Durst

* Panel - Sat. July 19, 1pm - Beth Bernobich, Suzy McKee Charnas, Michael J. Daley, Sarah Beth Durst, Walter H. Hunt, Ellen Kushner, Judith Moffett - "Are You Writing a Sequel?"

* Panel - Sat. July 19, 3pm - Judith Berman, Cassandra Clare, Michael J. Daley, Sarah Beth Durst, Charles Oberndorf, Nancy Werlin - "Gatekeepers to the World of Letters"

* Workshop - Sun. July 20, 10am - Kay Kenyon, Sarah Beth Durst, Walter H. Hunt, Elaine Isaak - "Stop Making Sense: Next Stage Dialog"

* Kaffeeklatsch - Sun July 20, 11am - Paolo Bacigalupi, Sarah Beth Durst

* Panel - Sun July 20, 1pm - Shira Daemon, Sarah Beth Durst, Scott Edelman, Louise Marley, Ann Tonsor Zeddies - "Finding Hamster Huey's Head: The Nature of the Childhood Favorite Story"

And after that, I collapse into a little puddle of tired (but happy) Sarah.

Readercon Trip Report

Readercon was AWESOME. So awesome that I missed all but a single meal a day and nearly forgot to sleep on Saturday night. (This is unusual. I like sleeping and eating. Especially if it involves chocolate. Eating chocolate, I mean. But I digress.)

In case you're wondering what I'm talking about... Readercon is an annual fantasy and science fiction convention held outside of Boston that focuses exclusively on literature (in other words, no Stormtroopers were harmed in the making of this convention). I was a program participant and scheduled to appear on two panels, give a reading, sign autographs, and hold a kaffeeklatch (a "meet the author" hour). It's a small convention but extremely well-run.

OK, in no particular order, here are some of the things that made Readercon awesome:

The Name Badge. I LOVE having a participant badge. For Readercon, participants had an orange stripe at the top (other people had green or maybe it was blue -- I didn't even notice because I was far too enamored with my orange stripe). It's like wearing a sign that says, "Come talk to me!" Except if you actually wore such a sign, no one would really talk to you because you'd look like, well, totally crazy. Anyway, the orange stripe gave me the courage to talk with lots and lots of very awesome people.

Panels. I was on two panels at Readercon. I LOVE being on panels. I am the perky puppy of panels. I stare out into that audience and all I can think is, "People! Looking at me! Listening to me! Yay for people! I love people! You! I love you! I love you all!" I try very, very hard not to bounce up and down in my seat... which reminds me of the other cool thing about Readercon: instead of the normal chairs with a table in front of you, you have these comfy throne-like chairs, a coffee table, and microphones! It totally feels like you're on Inside the Actors Studio with James Lipton.

Me and Famous People Sitting in Comfy Chairs

Friday night, I was on a panel with Holly Black, Michael J. Daley, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Sharyn November, and Elizabeth Wein called "Young (and Very Young) Adult F&SF," in which I revealed that I began working toward publication at age ten after becoming increasingly concerned that I was double-digits and still lacked a career goal. And Sunday, I was on a panel with Steve Berman, Holly Black, Kelly Link, and Sharyn November called "After Rowling and Pullman," in which I revealed that I like fantasy books because I want to wake up one morning and discover I'm really the Princess of Unicorns.

Don't judge me.

Autographing Session. This was the very first convention where my book was sold in the Dealer's Room (yay!) and the very first convention where I had an autographing session (double-yay!). My autographing session was with Elizabeth Wein, a YA fantasy writer who is extremely nice and such a pleasure to talk with. Here's a photo of me at my signing with purple pen in hand. (You can't see the lovely orange stripe on my name badge because it's turned around, but I swear it's there.)

Me at my Autographing Session (photo courtesy of Ellen Datlow)

In terms of actual book sales in the aforementioned Dealer's Room... my books sold out twice, and the bookseller had to get more. This made me a very, very happy puppy. :)

Kaffeeklatsch. I had steeled myself for no one to show up to my kaffeeklatsch. After all, INTO THE WILD just came out. Who would come? I'd decided that if no one showed, I'd just call my husband on the cell phone so at least someone would talk to me. [sniff, sniff, whimper] But people came! Michael and Nomi Burstein, Ryan Freebern, and other awesome people who I'd just met that weekend... I had a full table! We even needed to pull over an extra chair. And we had a very cool conversation about fairy tales. The hour flew by.

Meet the Pros(e) Party and Mafia. On Friday night, Readercon holds an event called the "Meet the Pros(e) Party" where all the participating authors have a sheet of stickers with a single line from their novel or story written on it, and everyone else has a sheet of wax paper. You're supposed to go around and collect as many sentences as you can. I used the first sentence from INTO THE WILD: "In the darkness, the heart of the fairy tale waited..." Got to meet many awesome people. (Yes, "awesome" is my word of the day. Feel free to substitute in another superlative as you read if the redundancy bothers you.)

On Saturday night, I participated in a game called Mafia, in which a bunch of people are designated... okay, I'm not going to explain the rules here. Google it if you're interested. Anyway, it was entirely Nina Kiriki Hoffman's fault that I played. And Holly Black too. Since I'd never played before, they both felt it necessary to my full-convention experience. Peer pressure was used. But I've forgiven them since it was fun and I met many (yes, the word is coming again) awesome people.

Lots of Awesome People. The person with whom I spent the most time at the convention was Holly Black. She pretty much defines awesome -- fun, smart, sweet. I'm very happy that I got to spend time with her. I also got to chat for a bit with Wen Spencer, author of the very cool TINKER books. I met her at a Boskone a number of years ago, and she's really great. Also talked several times with Victoria McManus, Laura Anne Gilman, Jim Freund -- all super-nice and super-fabulous people. And Steve Berman, who is both sweet and hilarious.

Holly and Me

I am not even going to attempt to mention everyone who I talked to. Emboldened by the orange stripe on my name badge, I pretty much talked with anyone who was foolish enough to meet my eyes, including a few who weren't even connected to the convention but were merely unlucky enough to step into the elevator with me. Except the clown. I did not talk with the man dressed as a clown in the elevator. Clowns in elevators kind of freak me out.

Anyway, if I met you at Readercon... so great to meet you! You're awesome!

Readercon

Happy (day after the) 4th of July! Hope you all had a wonderful day filled with lots of family, hamburgers (or veggie-burgers), and fireworks. I had the first two but missed the third. I got together with relatives, ate a LOT of food, and then came home and did laundry (because that's how cool and exciting I am). Seriously, though, the laundry was VERY necessary. While I can convince myself that socks are okay to wear two days (not in a row, of course -- that would be gross; you need to air those puppies out) at home, I don't feel comfortable sporting twice-or-thrice-worn socks at public events. And tomorrow, I'm off to a public event.


Tomorrow through Sunday (July 6-8), I will be attending Readercon. To quote the Readercon website, "Readercon is, depending on your point of view, either an annual literary conference (except it's infinitely more fun than that) or an annual science fiction convention (except we've stripped away virtually everything except talking about and buying books)." It's held in Burlington, MA, at the Boston Marriott Burlington, and I will be one of the program participants. Yay!

I've been to a bazillion cons over the years, but this will be the very first one where copies of my book will be sold!!!

Here's my schedule:

* Panel - Fri. July 6, 7pm - Holly Black, Michael J. Daley, Sarah Beth Durst, Sharyn November, Elizabeth Wein - "Young (and Very Young) Adult F&SF"

* Reading - Fri. July 6, 9:30pm - Sarah Beth Durst

* Autographing - Sat. July 7, 1pm - Sarah Beth Durst

* Kaffeeklatsch - Sat. July 7, 2pm - Sarah Beth Durst

* Panel - Sun. July 8, 12pm - Steve Berman, Holly Black, Sarah Beth Durst, Kelly Link, Sharyn November - "After Rowling and Pullman"

I will also be attending the Meet the Pros(e) Party on Friday night.

Isn't that a cool schedule? Look at those people on the panels with me! I really, really hope I don't sound like an idiot next to them. Also, this will be my very first autographing session at a convention. Hee-hee! And I get to do a kaffeeklatsch. (A kaffeeklatsch is basically a meet-the-author hour. Up to ten or so con attendees can sign up to hang out with an author and talk about whatever. If you're at Readercon, come hang out with me! I promise not to talk about my laundry.) And I have a 30-minute reading! For my reading, I am planning on doing a never-before-read-outloud-except-to-my-cat scene. My cat didn't bite me while I read it, so I think that's a good sign.

Hope to see you at Readercon!