Last night was . . . WOW

Our NYC Teen Author Festival event last night at the Mulberry Street Branch of the NYPL was unbelievable. Over a hundred people showed up. Standing room only. And many of them were actual teenagers—YAY!—who asked incredibly good questions including one we’d none of us ever heard before. But more on that that below.

The event was to celebrate everything that Joe Monti has done for YA literature in the US of A. Joe used to be the YA buyer for Barnes & Noble. In that role he went out of his way to champion a whole host of fabulous books that otherwise might otherwise have disappeared. He was a supporter of Scott and mine and played a huge part in any success we’ve had in the US. He also put me on to more great books than anyone else I can think of. We love Joe.

So last night we read from our not yet published work for the very first time. It was VERY nervous making. As I waited to read I wondered if my hands were ever going to stop shaking.

[Here followed a long description of each of the readings, which WordPress in a fit of evil decided to eat. All spit on WordPress. Grrrr. And, yes, I did have the revisions setting on. At least I thought it was on but some recent plugin update seems to have disable revisions. Today I am full of WordPress hate.]

In conclusion it was the best reading I’ve ever been part of and I can’t wait till Holly Black, Libba Bray, Rachel Cohn, Eireann Corrigan, Barry Lyga and Scott’s books are published. You will love them all.

The best question we were asked was whether things ever get blurry between ourselves and our characters. None of us had ever been asked that question before. Trust me, a new question is a rarity. The answers were dead revealing.

I stop now because of my WordPress fury.

See you tonight:

Authors by day, rock stars at night. Libba Bray, Daniel Ehrenhaft, Barney Miller, and Natalie Standiford are TIGER BEAT, a YA author rock band. They’ll be legends! Opening act: The Infinite Playlists (Rachel Cohn & David Levithan)

Posted by Justine at 12:08, 19 March 2009 under Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Praising, Young Adult literature | 6 Comments »

Comments

Tiffany Schmidt Says:

Justine,
It was WOW from an audience member’s perspective too! I am so excited about all the great books that you all will be putting out in the next year or so and it was lovely to meet you all.

I did blog about each of the readings (w/ photos!), so I’ll offer up mine as a substitute until you forgive wordpress & type it up again : http://tinyurl.com/bju89f

Also, I’d like you to know that the first words out of one of my student’s mouth this morning were NOT “Good morning, we missed you yesterday” but “Can I have your copy of How to Ditch my Fairy back? Yesterday was TORTURE!” (Although, to be fair, the next words out of her mouth were, “And we really missed you. Did you have fun?”

The class is ecstatic about the signed books – thanks for making my night yesterday and their day today!

March 19th, 2009 at 10:31 PM
Patrick Says:

“The answers were dead revealing.”

And now, you will not reveal them? Cruel cruel mistress!

March 20th, 2009 at 9:48 AM
3. Justine Says:

Tiffany: Thanks so much for coming and for the lovely write up. I’m so pleased your student thinks not reading me is TORTURE!

Patrick: Still cranky with wordpress. When I forgive it I will talk about the most excellent question and the answers.

March 20th, 2009 at 10:25 AM
Danielle Says:

I was at the reading too and it was excellent. Everyone did a great job. Justine, I’m so intrigued by what you read, and can’t wait to read it- I guess it’s going to be a long time until it’s out, but I’m excited for the Liar book too.
Thanks also for being so nice when I came up to you after. It was really great getting to meet you!

March 20th, 2009 at 1:07 PM
Tiff E Says:

Hey Justine! It was so lovely to meet you Wed night and you’re right: I absolutely cannot wait to read ALL of the books that were previewed! Including yours! Also, I was happy to see that you still have your good boots fairy. I decided I would like a always-the-perfect-temperature fairy as typing this right now my hands are turning blue and numb as I often seem to be cold.

I took a bunch of photos at the event which I have shared with almost everyone on facebook – but since I did not see you there doesn’t mean you should miss out! You have probably seen some of these photos as my friend Tiffany Schmidt used them in her blog – but if you go to the link there are even more:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/t23e/sets/72157615558464553/

Although I was sad to not get a photo of your fabulous boots.

Thanks for being a part of the festival! I’ve decided next year I will just have to move to NYC for the entire week because I want more than just one night of YA author awesomeness.

March 21st, 2009 at 11:39 AM
Rebecca Says:

I loved this event. Stupid WordPress! Oh wells. Anyway, I’m even more superexcited for your book, and Scott’s and Libba’s. And hearing from the other authors got me really interested in their books too. *sigh* AWESOME!

March 22nd, 2009 at 11:42 PM

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

Justine Larbalestier