Friday, June 22, 2007

Praise ALA -- Jay

Right now, the American Library Association is having its annual conference in Washington D.C. But I don’t really care. Why should I? I spend forty hours every week working at a public library. I’m around librarians all the time. Trust me, they’re not as…

Okay, fine. You’re on to me.

I really wanna be there! I mean, I love the librarians I work with and all, but I wanna be around thousands of them. I wanna sit in on their workshops. I wanna see them pick up galleys of Thirteen Reasons Why and overhear them say, “Hmm…now this sounds interesting.” And I wanna watch my editor walk over and say, “It is interesting. Would you like to hear a little secret about the author?”

Tell me I’m not the only one out there who’s like this. And for those of you lucky enough to actually be at ALA…I don’t wanna talk to you right now. I honestly feel like there’s a party going on and I’m sitting at home wallowing in self pity because I wasn’t invited. It feels like high school all over again. No, that’s not true. In high school, I never heard about the parties till afterwards. But I know what you’re doing in D.C. right now!

This whole author thing is addictive. The more I immerse myself in it, the further I wanna immerse myself in it. It’s seriously all I think about. You feel the same way? Cool! My addiction loves company.

Next year, the annual ALA conference is in California. And if I’m not invited…I’m crashing it!

- Jay

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

But sweet Jay, this is how we East Coasters feel when you talk about SCBWI LA. :)

If I hear anybody talking about your book, I'll report back.

Stephanie J. Blake said...

That's exactly how I felt about the BEA this year...oh and the Not Your Mother's Book Club...and the Goth Prom thing...and SCBWI LA...wait, this year I get to go to that! WHOO HOO!

heidi said...

I know--the Judy Blume/John Green panel? *drool*

Heather Brewer said...

I'm sooooooo jealous of al the ALA-attendees...and ooh, the Goth Prom! *pout*

Sunday Scribblings said...

Ooh! IS it in California? BEA's in LA next year too, no? Could be a busy summer! Anyway, you got to go to BEA at least! I feel like a TOTAL wallflower. I keep thinking about it too, imagining my book out there. Waaa. Looking forward now most to Comic-Con and SCBWI for writerly enthusiasm! Now, in the meantime, to get some writing done. . .
- Laini

Disco Mermaids said...

Yes, I know I went to BEA. And yes, we've got SCBWI in L.A. But is it a crime to want more?

- Jay

Editorial Anonymous said...

I know! Did you hear about Mo Willems and Jon Scieszka acting as commentators at the synchronized bookcart routines? God, I'd love to be there for that.

Stephanie J. Blake said...

MORE MORE.

Anonymous said...

AND MORE AND MORE.

LindaBudz said...

OMG, I stopped in at ALA for about an hour and HAPPENED UPON (I kid you not, cuz I wasn't even thinking about ARCs and I knew it wasn't out yet) an ARC of 13 Reasons Why and the nice lady let me take it. So now I have the ARC. At last! At long last! Yea!!!

Off to blog about it....

(BTW, NEVER plan to spend "about an hour" at ALA. Torturous! But I had a crazy day, so that was all I could fit in.)

Erik said...

Did you REALLY just say "Praise ALA"???...

....you big dork.

:-)

LindaBudz said...

Jay, you may want to check out today's story from The Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/23/AR2007062301378.html

JenFW said...

Anyone know when ALA, BEA, or SCBWI is coming to Alaska?!

Emily Jiang said...

Hi Jay! I so agree with you! I've only recently started actively going to writing/book events, but the more events I go to, the more I want to attend (as you can tell from the haiku highlights on my blog). Next ALA & BEA in Socal? Hm, me thinks I'll be taking several roadtrips down to LA next year. See you and the other Mermaids in August at SCBWI LA!

Liz B said...

tape 1: find out Liz is at ALA
tape 2: find out she got the ARC
tape 3: Liz reads half way thru the ARC instead of doing anything ALA or DC ish
tape 4: Liz realizes the Jay who is the author of the book is the jay of Disco Mermaids.
tape 5: forgive Liz for being slow
tape 6: Liz has to go get ready to attend the Printz reception and eat cake.

Disco Mermaids said...

Liz, I'm sorry that reading my book cut into your ALA and DC time (okay, that's totally not true)...but did you have to rub the whole Printz thing in my face? If there was any ALA event I wanted to attend more than the others, that was it!

I expect a full report...

- Jay

Iris said...

I would just like to say that I'm a librarian, but sadly not at ALA. I did, however, get a copy of your ARC. A local teen back from college gave me the ARC and told me to read it.

No I don't know where she got it, but anyway, the book is awesome and I've passed it on to the next victim. Bravo on the first novel. Thinking about about doing author visits next year?

Disco Mermaids said...

Thank you, Iris. I'm thrilled that you enjoyed my book (I've always been fond of the word awesome, by the way). And yes, I've been fantasizing about reaching the Author Visit stage for years.

In our profile you'll find our group e-mail address. E-mail and let me know where you're at.

- Jay

Anonymous said...

Jay, yours was the only ARC I didn't get at ALA that I really wanted. :(

SIgh. I'll just buy it when it comes out like I was going to anyway, but I won't get to pass an ARC on to my librarian friend--I'll just have to let her borrow my copy. In forever when it comes out.

I'm blogging about ALA and there are actually a lot of people on LJ doing the same.