Tomorrow: A Day so Full, so Rich

5:26 AM Train to Philadelphia

6:30 AM Train to NYC

8:30 AM Pre-conference conversations with my dear friends Jennifer Brown (our nation's ambassador for children's books), Laura Geringer (editor of five of my YA books), Rahna Reiko Rizzuto (a very dear friend with whom I have strolled so much of New York (and Central Park)), and Melissa Sarno (the fab blogger at This, Too, and the brain child behind the title of Handling the Truth). I'll also have the great pleasure of seeing, again, Ed Nawotka and Dennis Abrams of Publishing Perspectives and, later, Eliot Schrefer. 

9:30 AM Lamp Lighters and Seed Sowers:  Tomorrow's YA/
Publishing Perspectives Conference, Keynote Address, Scholastic Building, New York City

10:30 AM: Drawing the Line: What's the Difference Between a YA and an Adult Book?/
Publishing Perspectives Conference Panel, with Andrew Losowsky, Books Editor, Huffington Post, Aimee Friedman, Senior Editor, Scholastic Trade, Elizabeth Perle, Editor, Huffington Post Youth Network, and Dan Weiss, Editor-at-large, St. Martin's Press

2:00 PM  Marketing meeting with the very good people of Gotham/Penguin (launching Handling the Truth next August)

3:15ish PM  Grabbing a hug from the one and only Jessica Shoffel of Philomel/Penguin (who took such good care of Small Damages)

4:40 PM Train from NYC to Philly, second train from Philly to Bryn Mawr in time to see...

7:30 PM  Anne Lamott, speaking at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, where I will be joined by Deacon Supreme, my own father, Horace Kephart

I will do nothing on Thursday, or almost nothing.  But tomorrow, I will leap, headlong.

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Lamp Lighters and Seed Sowers: Tomorrow's YA (keynote address for Publishing Perspectives Conference: YA: What's Next?)

I'm honored to be giving the keynote address at the upcoming Publishing Perspectives Conference, "YA: What's Next?," which will be held this coming Wednesday in the Scholastic Building in New York City.

My talk, "Lamp Lighters and Seed Sowers: Tomorrow's YA," will feature illustrations by my husband-collaborator, William R. Sulit.  These images have been modeled with 3-D software and amplified by small human interventions, including the lovely "real" hand shown here, which was donated to the cause by my niece, Miranda.

If any of you wish to attend this half-day event—which will feature Ellie Berger, Carl Kulo, David Levithan, Eliot Schrefer, Mara Anastas, Jennifer Brown, Andrew Losowsky, and many more—let me know.  I might just have a discount coupon for you.

Opening words from my talk:

In the days following the colossal storm called Sandy, stories held us captive, terrifying aerial views, the news that began to leak in from friends.  Trash bags strapped on like shiny boots, brand-new adults walked through rising fumes and fresh flotsam, looking for signs of ordinary life.  Heartbroken by saturated eggplants and devastated garden fruits, they crouched to gather seeds.  Asking What can we do?, they collected blankets, baked tins of lasagna, emptied their personal libraries of books and took their spontaneous gifts into darkened neighborhoods.  Meanwhile, the 19-year-old Rutgers student who lost both her parents to a capsized tree and will now raise three younger siblings on her own, was reaching into some impossible well of suddenly-now-adultness to help others suffering the ravages of weather.

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