Not Chasing Trends, Making Them: My Publishing Perspectives Story on the BEA's Buzz YA Authors

In a wall-to-wall session at the BEA, the season's top YA authors—Melissa Marr, Tonya Hurley, Siobhan Vivian, Jenny Han, Elizabeth Norris, and Bethany Griffin—gathered to talk about trendmaking, book writing, and teen readers. 

I covered the story for Publishing Perspectives here. 

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My BEA Day (with photos)

I rose at 3 AM, walked the just-before-dawn streets, took one train and then another (much, oh much too much delayed) train, then ran the long blocks toward the BEA.  I was, shall we say, windblown by the time I arrived.  But there to greet me were the ever-lovely, ever kind Danielle (There's a Book) and Florinda (The 3rs Blog)—first-rate bloggers and people. It was about time I met the generous Danielle.  About time I gave Florinda (who was my unofficial publicist last year at the BEA) another hug.

From there to see my dear friends at Philomel, to meet more of that tremendous team, and to finally say hello to the phenomenal Ruta Sepetys in person; she has a new book coming out that I think will be just as amazing (in many different ways) as Between Shades of Gray.  From there to listen to four of the buzz adult authors talk about the process, their books, their hopes.  A beautiful interlude with Lauren Wein.  Then to sit in the audience of Jennifer Brown (the fantastic children's editor for Shelf Awareness) and Kristi Yamaguchi, an Olympian with a heart of gold. A run from the Downtown Stage to the Uptown Stage so that I could sit in the front row (all other seats were gone) of the YA Buzz panel, featuring, among other people, Melissa Marr, Jenny Han, Tonya Hurley, and my friend Siobhan Vivian.

Just after dawn now, and I've filed all my stories for Publishing Perspectives. I'll link to them here when they go live.

Now I'm going to go fix my hair. Then settle down, and teach.

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The Lititz Kid/Lit Festival (a brief reprise)

We drove toward Lancaster on a sour-skied day—past sheep, goats, horses, cows, corn-stuffed silos, chicken cathedrals. The sun kept trying to come out, and sometimes, in a skittish mood, it did, but once we reached the town of Lititz, I wasn't thinking about weather. I was thinking about the town itself—cohesive, grounded, charming. I was thinking about that marvelous independent, Aaron's Books, which had engineered its first Kid's Lit festival and invited me to take part.

The first order of business was a panel seamlessly (and, because she's beautiful) beautifully moderated by Julie Peterson. Together with A.S. King, Lisa Greenwald, Lee Harper, Matt Phelan, Eric Wright, and Mara Rockliff I reflected on questions big and small; more importantly, I got to listen to what the others had to say about ambitions and priorities, about stories not yet told. It was be far one of the best panels I've ever sat on. It elevated book making, stayed focused on the true why for.

Later, there was pizza with local teens. After that, a long evening of clamoring and dishing with Caroline Hickey, Jenny Han, Siobhan Vivian, and Lisa Greenwald—long-time best friends who travel the children's/YA circuit together and (when you're lucky, as last night I was profoundly lucky) let you in for some of their outrageous (and so smart and it all comes from loving, seriously, I know it comes from loving) drubbing. An evening at the truly gracious Lititz House was next, a B&B you can't help but love, a B&B, let it be known, in which I actually slept five purified consecutive hours. That's no small thing. That's Lititz speaking.

This morning I rose early, walked the town, took photographs. Had a delicious Heidi breakfast at the B&B we were already calling home. Went off, then, to hear the writers read, to read a bit from Undercover.

We drove home on the same country roads, this time glossed by sunny skies.

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