fashion fight!

So, On the Red Carpet at ALA has put up their Fashion Statement movie showcasing the attendees' finery. Viewers can vote on their fashion favorites. Even though I am the first one showcased, I was the last interview of the evening--it was just about midnight when I was filmed which is why I am babbling incoherently. I am never very good on camera anyway, but at that time of night I was especially unintelligible. I tried to tell the story of the dress but it came out rather jumbled. Sorry, Cindy!

Anyway, I think I am at a disadvantage for the fashion favorite voting. Not only am I inarticulate, I am so short that no one ever gets to see my whole dress. The skirt is the prettiest part, don't you think? Boo.

The Newbery Banquet or my Cinderella night

Once upon a time, there was a Cinderella who received an amazing invitation program to a ball banquet.
It even had her name on it!
As she sat in the ballroom banquet hall, she looked in awe all around her. She was really there! She knew it was magic that got her there. But, unlike other well-known Cinderellas who only have one, measly fairy godmother, this Cinderella had many.

First there was the Dress Fairy...
Dress Fairy Cindy Pon who is the nicest & loveliest person to dress stalk as well as being a great author! Her Silver Phoenix is kind of a Young Adult Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.
who made sure Cinderella was clothed as well as a princess:


Because I went with the Dress #2! Majority ruled, even though I had to put straps on the dress.

And the Great Friends Fairies:

The blue rose girls, my greatest friends with me through thick and thin. From L to R: Anna Alter, me, Alvina Ling (back)Libby Koponen, Meghan McCarthy, Elaine Magliaro (missing: Linda Wingerter)
The Awesome Agent Fairy:

My agent, Rebecca Sherman, who so wisely guided & guides my career & does all the biz stuff that I hate to do, all while being a friend.
The Revelation Fairy:
Janet Wong, whose wise words pushed me to finish Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. As well as being witty and warm, she is a great author whose new book looks really good!
Cinderella met some fairies for the first time:

I met Pam Coughlin (MotherReader) for the first time at ALA. We've been reading eachothers' blogs for so long, we felt like old friends! Pam was passionate advocate of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, so much so that I almost felt like I needed to send her a check at the end of the year!

While other Fairies had been there along the way:

Marketing savvy (and great author--check out all the buzz for her Bamboo People)Mitali Perkins, who helped me create the online booklaunch...she is the one who had me start my FB fanpage!

The fabulous Kirsten Cappy of Curious City who put together the the Activity Book and the Event Kit which a librarian told me she used recently to rave reviews!

Besides the many fairy godmothers (there are a lot who missing from this story, so sorry!) Cinderella, of course, had her Prince Sasquatch.

Alex, aka Squatchie, who made up for having to be on good behavior by purposely making goofy faces in all his photos!

So with friends, magic and a Prince Sasquatch, Cinderella was at the ball banquet. And, oh, how happy she was!

The King spoke his words:

Jerry Pinkney, winner of the Caldecott medal, gave a heartwarming speech. People ovated (is that a word?) him 3 times.

And, then, Cinderella had a feeling that the big dance was coming...

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon on the big screen!

Yes! Her time had come!

I jump onto the stage to receive the NEWBERY HONOR!

"Is it really for me?" I ask Newbery Chair Katie O'Dell with my psychic mind. She assures me it is.

See, it IS mine! My name's on it!

I'm just going to take this with me, okay? You don't mind, do you?

Run! Before she changes her mind! NO TAKE-BACKS!

Safely back in her seat Gracefully retired, Cinderella listened to the words of the Queen:

Newbery winner Rebecca Stead gave an inspiring speech!

And then the evening was ending...the clock was striking midnight:

The receiving line after the banquet was really, really long! Though it was nice to meet so many people.

And Cinderella had no slippers:

But my feet couldn't take my heels anymore. And neither could Alvina's!

But she didn't care, because she had a much better accessory!

But my tired feet was still able to carry this home!

So, she lived happily ever after.

The end.

ALA, part 2.75

After the luncheon, there was just enough time for me to run to Listening Library's ( Where the Mountain Meets the Moon audiobook makers!) Lend your Voice mobile:This was a really neat event! Listening Library was making a "crowd-sourced" audio book of The Wizard of Oz-- anyone interested in recording a section could come by to participate!

Now, I have a little bit of a Wizard of Oz fixation. For any of you who have read The Year of the Dog, you'll know that the main character in the book wants to be Dorothy in the school play but has that dream destroyed when a friend says that Dorothy is not Chinese. Well, that really happened to me! So when I received the e-mail about the audiobook, I jumped at the chance to maybe make my Dorothy dream finally come true!

All I needed was for the section I received to have Dorothy saying something....anything...

And it did!

My line?

"But I don't want to live here," cried Dorothy. "I want to go to Kansas, and live with Aunt Em and Uncle Henry."

Squee! My fifth grade dream fulfilled!

ALA, part 2

I had time getting to sleep the night before the Newbery banquet. I was so excited! I felt like the next day was going to be Christmas and instead of stockings hanging on the mantelpiece, I had all my pretty dresses hanging in the closet. So, when the day came, I was awake really early! So early, that I indulged in ROOM SERVICE!
This is where I have to spout about how great my publisher Little, Brown & Co. is. If you ever publish a Newbery Honor book, publish it with them. One of the many neat things they did (as well as pay for my room service, thanks!) was put me & Squatchie up at snazzy hotel, complete with robes:I SOOO wanted to steal this robe, but I was a good girl and left it behind.
Now when I was deciding between the two dresses, many people suggested that I wear the one dress for the daytime events and the other dress for the Banquet. That was a good idea, except I had already settled on my daytime event dress.

The dress I had decided on was not only jade green, like my bracelet (in fact, it was the reason why I decided the 1st green dress wouldn't do and decided to keep looking--I didn't want to wear green for both the day & banquet) but it belonged to my grandmother.

I found it while rummaging through my mom's closets and loved it so much that I had it tailored to fit. And I also found an old pin of hers that went beautifully.
this isn't the best photo of the dress, I'll post better ones as I go on...

Thus attired, I made my way to the Convention Center, where I had great fun being a terrible pet,

running into amazing author and friend, Barbara O'Connor,
grabbing some bubble gum,
and posing with an origami yoda!
As I made my way to the Little, Brown booth, I noticed a long line of people waiting for a signing.... and was uber-suprised that it was for ME!

flanked by my agent, Rebecca, who is not only awesome but good at color coordinating with me
Neat! What fun! A good way to begin the day!

ALA, part one

So, it was time to go! My trip to ALA and the Newbery Banquet began with a game of iphone pacman on the airplane:

It was about the time that I lost my 5th game that I realized I did forget something! I had remembered the jade bracelet this time, but I had forgotten my blue rose! It was a specially made rose to match my dress and to match the other blue rose girls whom I had gotten banquet tickets for. It was laying on the table at home:
I tried really hard not to be a whiner about it but I kind of had had my heart set on taking a blue rose photo at the banquet just like we had at my wedding.

But as soon as we got in, I met Alvina to go to the Tea for Katherine Patterson (our new Ambassador Children's Literature), who gave a lovely speech even though I didn't hear any of it because I was way in the back...but I knew it was lovely because lots of people who DID hear it cried and clapped.

People like, Susan Kusel, the well-organized as well as kind librarian who got me the extra Banquet tickets:

and one of my favorite bloggers Jama Rattigan (check out her post on the tea to see the good eats)
There were many more, but I forgot to take photos. I think was distracted because an extremely lucky occurrence had just happened. as Alvina and I walked to the tea (very hot!), we passed many stores. As I glanced at one of them, I saw they had red rose hairclips in the window.

"Do you think they have a blue one?" I asked Alvina.
She shrugged, and I thought it was unlikely, but we went in anyway. And they DID! Not as nice as the custom made one, of course, but it was a blue rose! What were the chances? Ta-hah!
I'm making the "I forgot!" Ting face from Ling & Ting
Fate or luck? Who knows? But I am never going to bet against the jade bracelet!

After the tea, I had a quick drink (big glass of water, which I really needed after walking in the DC heat! really not recommended.) with Harold Underdown. If you remember he was my first editor, the one who acquired The Ugly Vegetables, my first book and my first break into the children's book world, and is miraculously still in print! Thank you very much, Harold!!

After that, I met up with good friends for dinner (somehow I don't have a photo of everyone):

at a restaurant called Busboys and Poets, chosen with hopes of grand inspiration for our poet friends Janet Wong & Elaine Magliaro:

which I'm not sure was accomplished. However, we did plan an epic called, "The Velveeta Rabbit, or How Fake Cheese becomes Real."