Beth Goes All Rogue Silly, and A.S. King Catches It on Film

I don't know what it is about lately.

Truly.

Ask A.S. King, that famous writer, She.  She is the one took the photo here.  Snapped it at Chester County Book and Music a few weeks ago, where I had gone to sign Small Damages, and where A.S. King and K.M. Walton and I practically shut down the little restaurant hours later.  Or, at least, we shut down the lunch shift at 5 PM.

Minutes after striking this hot little pose I was informed by a quite polite but anxious management team that this very table had collapsed beneath another's weight, a few signings back.  I wanted to ask if the other author had been a former Rockette, just like me, but decided to heed the caution and hopped off, pledging myself to adult behavior.

But here, forever, thanks to A.S. King, is me being me.

I will get back to my regularly scheduled seriousness on the morrow. 

Unless another odd photo surfaces.

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Last evening, at the Chester County Book & Music Company,

I read a little from You Are My Only and talked about where my books come from.  But far more important to me was this:  I stood in one of the great independent bookstores (think of this:  the children/YA section of the store is far bigger than my entire house) among kindhearted booksellers, emerging writers (look for K.M Walton's Cracked in mid-December and send good thoughts to Ilene Wong), my tremendous publicist Ellen Trachtenberg, my good friend and Shire colleague, Charlene McGrady, two friends from twenty years ago, and these five West Chester University students, all taking a course in childhood literacy. 

(The lovely young lady in pink also brought her boyfriend along, a history major looking forward, he says, to an upcoming trip to Prague and Berlin, two of my favorite places in the world.)

We talked for a long time and closed the store.  I drove home over leaf-scattered roads, grateful for booksellers and friends and grateful, too, for teachers who send their students out into the world in search of brand new stories.

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What's Next in YA? Tell me what you think. (And come see me live.)

Yesterday, my gorgeous niece Claire called, as she will, from time to time.  She had a school project on the docket, questions for my husband about his life in architecture, but I got to talk to her, too (it was part of the deal).  Claire is the niece who shares her love of books with me.  The sixth grader with a huge vocabulary and a very empathetic heart.  She'd just acquired a handful of new titles from Borders.  I sat on my deck, phone pressed to my ear, as she read the jacket flaps to me.  Together, and quite craftily, we speculated.

Not long ago, at a cocktail hour, someone said, indicating me, "Oh, don't talk to her.  She just writes kids' books for a living."  It was half a joke, but I suspected it wasn't really.  It was a prejudice I thought we'd snuffed, this ghetto-ization of YA writers.  I think of dear Claire whenever I think of those who want to make YA books a lesser category.  I think of the giants of the craft.

I'm going to be thinking out loud about the YA genre—the rise of fantasy, paranormal romance, dystopia, and steampunk, the ever-continuing importance of contemporary realism when handled by those who care about kids and about craft—during a few upcoming appearances.  I'm going to be talking about what I think is next.  In the meantime, I'd love to know what you think is next.  What you think is necessary, what is called for.  What trends are over and done for you?  What stories do you miss?  What books would you give my bright, loving, beautiful niece Claire, if you had the privilege of being her aunt?

Please let me know here.  And please come, too, to one of the following events, where I'll be talking about all this and more, while also reading pages from You Are My Only.  I want to see you.  Live, and in person.  It's about time for that. 

Wednesday, October 26, 4 PM - 6 PM 

Rutgers-Camden Visiting Writers Series
Young Adult Lit: It's Not Just Kids' Stuff Anymore
(details here)

Thursday, October 27, 7:30 PM

You Are My Only/Book Launch Party
Radnor Memorial Library, Radnor, PA
(details to come)

Monday, November 7, 6:30 PM
You Are My Only/Lecture and Reading
Haub Executive Center, St. Joseph's University
(details here)

Wednesday, November 9, 7:00 PM

You Are My Only/Reading and Signing

Chester County Book & Music Company

975 Paoli Pike
West Goshen Center, West Chester, PA

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Taking Patti Smith and Adam Foulds for a Ride

Because Lilian Nattel is a very brilliant author and reader, I trust her, and when she sang the praises of Adam Foulds' The Quickening Maze back in late June, I knew I'd be reading the book sooner than later.  And when the dear and deep and perpetually risk-taking Elizabeth Hand wrote (long before the National Book Award list had been unveiled) that I absolutely had to read Just Kids by Patti Smith (she'd reviewed it for the Washington Post), I said, All right, Liz.  I will.

Yesterday, released for the afternoon from client work, I headed to the Chester County Book & Music Company, which is another version of paradise on earth.  We're talking an indie book store here that feels a city block deep, and those who work there stack their favorite reads up and down end shelves.  I get lost there, and I don't mind one bit. 

This afternoon, I board a plane.  Smith's coming with me.  So is Foulds.

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