mary e. pearson

 . . . and a world practically right in my backyard that I didn't know existed.  Yesterday I met newport2newport for lunch in San Juan Capistrano.  We had a wonderful time yakking and eating.  She has a fun slideshow and all the delicious details here.  And believe me, it was delicious.  How did I not know about this place?

I've been to SJC a zillion times at least.  I used to live nearby in San Clemente and SJC is also where I went on my first date with my husband.  It's a good halfway meeting point too,  for me and all my family and friends who live up in Orange County.  But in all the times I've been there I have never been down to this one tucked away and completely enchanting little street named Los Rios.  It is old and artsy and funky and eclectic with rows of old, old houses that are beyond adorable.

And it is not too often where you go to a restaurant and they have a rack of hats for you to choose from.  We made good choices, don't you think?


Yes, there were fresh roses on the table from their garden, and there were even edible roses that came on our plates alongside our heart-shaped scones. We even nibbled on a few petals. I had peach fruit tea and my teapot came in a pretty floral teacozy.  Is that what it's called?  I'm new to this tea world, but I like it.  I felt a bit like I was in Wonderland.
 
You never know what might be right in your own backyard.

Whew, it was only three days, but what a jam-packed whirlwind!

I arrived on Friday at my hotel, the Westin Bonaventure. It is a gorgeous hotel with fountains everywhere in the lobby, including this one where two fish are blowing a streamed arch of water to walk under. Cool, huh?


I grabbed my badge which was waiting for me and raced to the convention center so I could make it in time for marperez's signing for DEAD IS THE NEW BLACK. Unfortunately I got there just as they closed her line. But I could see her at her table packing up and I pleaded with the gate guard to let me by for a quick hello.

After a hug and getting a copy of DEAD (yay!) we were walking away chatting, and there among the 30,000 people at BEA, we ran into d_michiko_f! I was going to have to leave early Sunday morning so I would miss Debbi's signing, but I was so happy we got a few minutes to say hi before I had to leave to go get ready for the ABA Not A Dinner Dinner.

Back at my hotel, after a quick change, I hurried to the lobby where a whole bunch of us Macmillan authors, publishers, and such were meeting to drive to the dinner. Carl, and his human, Alexandra Day, were there too. Here is Carl, with his babysitter for the evening, and Laura Godwin. Usually he is unleashed, but he was about to hit the streets for a walk.

Carl is probably the most laid back, well-behaved dog I have ever seen. But we all know, that Carl is special. I wouldn't be surprised if he had an adventure with a baby or two while we were gone.


At the ABA Not A Dinner Dinner, I met up with too many authors, booksellers, and publishers to name. I was so busy yakking, I forgot to eat. Dumb. I wish I would have tried those mashed potato martinis. Check out lisayee's blog for a glimpse of the food. But the yakking was fun. Got to meet some new people, and catch up with old friends too. Oh, and I bid on a piece of art at the silent auction. I didn't win though. It was a pencil drawing of Library Lion. Beautiful.

The next morning I signedThe Adoration of Jenna Fox. It went by too fast! My agent, who sat next to me, said I was quite the gabber. Okay, I think we are seeing a theme here. Gab, yak, gab, yak. hm. But when you meet people in your line, you kind of actually want to MEET them. But I only had an hour to sign and the line was long so I had to curtail my chatting.

Afterwards I had a little free time and managed to snag a few arcs. My agent got THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins for me, and later I picked up IMPOSSIBLE by Nancy Werlin, and PAPER TOWNS by John Green. There were more I wanted to get, like THE POSSIBILITIES OF SAINTHOOD by Donna Frietas, and several others, but I was called for an impromtu interview and never finished my rounds! But I have plenty of reading material to keep me busy for a while anyway. And ALA is coming soon.

That night was the Macmillan Party at the LA Central Public Library, which is gorgeous. The party was in a room with marble floors and painted ceilings. I felt like I was in a museum. When I walked in I was surprised to see a big shiny poster of JENNA. Laura Godwin, the publisher at Holt, and I took a quick snapshot . . .


and then hit the dessert table which was magnificent. Meringues, chocolate dipped strawberries, crepes, and more. Yum. Several authors, including myself, gave brief talks, and I got to meet some booksellers who I knew online but had never met in person. It was a fun evening. The only downside was my shoes. They have a three hour limit and one minute past that and my toes turn to pumpkins. How do you spell relief? I walked barefoot back to my hotel.

Oh, and Carl was there. And he never begged for a single dessert. Good dog, Carl.

I visited a book club yesterday at Valley Middle School who had read The Adoration of Jenna Fox It was fun to talk with them and hear their thoughts. One girl asked if Jenna could eat cold food. My mind immediately flashed to ice cream. No ice cream? Just can't let my mind go there. Anyway, it is always fun to see what things readers will focus in on.

I leave for BEA tomorrow. Lots of meetings (will get to see my agent and film agent!), dinners (good food and good talk!), and signings (there are a billion at least) that I'm looking forward to. If you are going be sure to stop by the Henry Holt booth. They are giving away free signed copies of The Adoration of Jenna Fox beginning on Friday, I believe. I will be signing more books on Saturday at 9:30, table 10 so please come and keep me company!

A lot of my pals will be there signing too.

Marlene Perez on Friday at 3:00
Debby Garfinkle on Saturday at 9:30 (same time as me--see you can get a 2fer!)
Debbi Michiko Florence on Sunday at 11:00
Nancy Werlin on Saturday at 4:00
Kathleen Krull and Paul Brewer on Saturday at 11:00
Dave Barry on Friday at 2:00 (okay, he is not a pal, but he does crack me up.)

Here is the complete signing schedule of a gazillion authors.

See? I wasn't exaggerating.

I had my book launch in my hometown for The Adoration of Jenna Fox this past weekend. It was wonderful to share the afternoon with friends, family, and neighbors. My sister took photos of the event including this one she artistically altered. Cool. I wish my book glowed on every table.


Before the signing I gave my little spiel well planned talk, and shared a few insights about the book. There was also a photographer from the Union Tribune there and my sister told me he was on the other side of the bookcase behind me getting a picture of the back of my head. Certainly a much better viewpoint.


Then it was time to sign. See those flowers on the corner of the table? A very sweet young man (thanks Dan!) brought those to me.


And of course a picture with my sis who took all the pictures. And I swear we didn't color coordinate our outfits. There were LOTS of blue clothes that day.


When we got back to my house we celebrated and had a butterfly cake that my darling hubby ordered for me.


Oh! And the surprise at my signing!
Guess who came?! Richard Dreyfuss!

Well, not exactly. He was in the store at the time of my signing and then was an awfully good sport when one obnoxious author exuberant author interrupted his browsing and asked if she could have her picture taken with him. It was a fun "close encounter."

Someone sent me this picture in an email and it reminded me of one of my wacky friends. She has four little "snacks" like these--at least that is what my dogs call them--some sort of chihuahua mixes that don't amount to more than a handful of peanuts. She buys them Halloween costumes. She would like this one. Heck, for all I know, that is one of her pups.
She does lots of other crazy things too. You'd think she would end up as a character in one of my books, but sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, and I don't think anyone would believe that such a person exists. They would be wrong.
For instance, many years ago I had several couples in the neighborhood over for dinner. She arrived with a lampshade on her head. She said, why wait until the party got rolling? Besides, she said it went really well with her skirt. She was right. Later, during dinner I made a comment admiring her skirt. Most people would simply say thank you. Not her. She stood up right there in front of everyone, slipped it off and gave it to me. I had that skirt and wore it proudly for many years.
But if I wrote about a character like that, would you find it believable? Nah.
I have to say, she is the fun and generous heart of our neighborhood. Everyone should have a wacky friend or two.

Those New Yorkers have all the fun, don't they? Expensive shoes and now this:


Maybe wearing some of those high priced heels?

The shoe poll turned out interesting. It looks like a few shoeaholics lurk among us--and we may have sent poor courtneywrites over the edge. Sorry Courtney. And I hope that cedarlibrarian finds her butterflies because I do want to see what a $200 pair of kitten-heel sandals look like.

Today I have been going au natural--at least on my feet. It is plenty hot here and the less covered, the better.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of having lunch down at the beach with E. Lockhart and as a bonus she brought me a galley of her new book that will be out in March, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. I am loving it. Great cover too.

I've been printing out my wip, Road Trip, today. I am about halfway done (I think?!) and I need to lay it out so I can "see it." I staple chapters together and lay them all across my office floor so I can get a feel of how the story is flowing. I know it sounds weird because you can't really see anything by looking at stacks of pages, but it still seems to give me a visual sense of where I am. And when I'm in the muddled middle, I need all the sense I can get. Back to stapling . . .

Okay, I promise, no more cow pictures. I actually did do more fun and glamorous things than rollicking in the hills with the cows on my vacation, but I did love this picture. Maybe I will make it a user pic.

So, a few little snips . . .

Congratulations to medwriter on the publication of her first book, BLOOD BROTHERS! I've heard a LOT of good things about it and can't wait to read it.

My agent has a website! Very nice. You can check it out here

I got the happy news yesterday that THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX, my book that will be out next May, has sold French translation rights. Ooh-la-la!

In less happy news, Hunter was acting odd yesterday but I thought it was just his obsession with the nest of baby birds in the eaves of our deck. But today he is clearly not feeling well. Off to the vet. I hope it is just a tummy ache. (and hopefully he didn't eat a bird! nah . . . )

I had a great time. Met up with old friends and made some new. Got arcs. Sat in on BBYA discussions which is always interesting. Got to chat with publisher--they said this was the busiest ALA ever. Here's a few pics:

Friday night dinner at Central Michel Richard with authors(L to R) Debby Garfinkle, Martha Peaslee Levine, Jody Feldman, Cynthia Lord, and moi. Great food and conversation.


Saturday morning I met up with, L to R, Laura Wiess, me, Nancy Werlin, Melissa Wyatt, and Cinda Chima. I've known Melissa and Laura for years, but this was the first time we got to meet face to face. We had a great time strolling the booths. Dian Curtis Regan joined up with us later and I had a great time getting to know her. She is a kick. We ran in to too many people to mention them all, Annette Curtis Klause, Gail Giles, Linda Sue Park, Sarah Aronson, Richie Partington . . . we'd walk a few feet and run into someone else. No wonder it took us forever just to make it down one aisle.


Saturday night after the S&S dessert party I met up with more writers at the Washington Renaissance lounge. L to R, Debby Garfinkle, Liz Gallagher, me, and Ellen Wittlinger.

Ellen is another writer I have "known" for years online and finally got to meet face to face. We talked about the old AOL boards and how that used to be the only place for writers to gather. I also got to meet Sara Zarr and Kim Marcus for the first time face to face--but drat--forgot to take a picture. Next time. There were so many authors there I couldn't talk to them all, but did get a chance to talk with Emily Lockhart, Laura Bowers (an agent sib), Sarah the very lovely wife of John Green, Marilyn Singer, and more. You know, you let an author out of their cave, and they have to pack all their talking into just a few hours. I was hoarse the next morning.

Monday morning after sitting in on the BBYA talks, I joined Debby, Annemarie Pace, and Tracie Vaughn Zimmer for breakfast. By this time we were all pretty exhausted and in need of major coffee transfusions.


And yes, I did the tourist thing while in DC too. Here I am just leaving the Supreme Court. I pleaded my case for young adult books, and the justices agreed that YA Literature shall guide all their future court decisions. Victory is mine.

I present to you my hotel coffee maker:






oops--that's supposed to be a bathroom, isn't it? But for me, the only thing more important than a bathroom at a hotel is the coffee maker they have. Actually, I ended up ordering a pot of coffee because I have never seen a coffemaker like this before. You brew it by the cup. A styrofoam cup no less.

Looking forward to more of the sights of DC . . . and ALA!

I forgot to take my camera to ALA in Seattle so I had to use my cell phone camera and I finally got the pics off my cell phone and onto my computer. A little late but I thought I’d post a few.

Seattle is a wonderful town. I had a view of the Space Needle from my room. I ate lunch there once years ago, and the whole thing revolves at the top, so by the time you’ve finished your meal you’ve had a 360 degree view of the city. How cool is that?




My first night in Seattle I had dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant, Tulio Ristorante, with my agent and several of her clients. I did not take this picture (which is obvious by the quality of it) Not a blink in the crowd. From left to right, standing, are authors, Amber Kizer, Lawrence Mckay, Jr., Marcia Vaughn, and Kent Mochizuki. Seated are Trudi Strain Trueit (her husband is the fabulous photographer), Moi, our fun and wonderful agent, Rosemary Stimola, and the amazing Liz Gallagher, aka lizgallagher who rode her motorcycle there–wearing high heels! I kid you not.




Okay, this may seem like a weird shot, but did you know that Seattle is home to the original Nordstrom? It is a whopper–FIVE stories tall. I did pop in and buy a box of four truffles when I was having a major chocolate attack. Their double chocolate truffles are the best.




And of course at the Convention Center Exhibit Hall, I happened to run into Good Dog Carl. His human, Alexandra Day, asked him to pose for me against a white table. And when she asked him to smile, he happily obliged. What a sport.




The conference was fun. I had time to catch up with friends and meet new ones. One night I had dinner with fellow authors, Nancy Werlin, Jane Kurtz, Linda Johns (who is also the YA librarian at Seattle Public Library), Heather Vogel Frederick, Sara Ryan, Andrea Beaty, and LJ’s bgliterary. We ate at Wild Ginger and the food was fabulous (thanks to Barry and Sara's great choices.)

The nice thing about ALA midwinter is that it is smaller so you have the opportunity to meet and chat with more people. I had the pleasure of finally meeting Liz Burns and breaking bread with her (well, pizza out of our laps) and we strolled the exhibits for a while getting a few arcs. She is as lovely in person as she seems on her blog. Oh! And I strolled for a bit with librarians Melissa and cedarlibrarian Watch out with those two! They have eagle eyes when it comes to arcs (I bet they are wicked good shoppers, too) and in two minutes with them I had more arcs than I could carry and had to run to Fed Ex to mail them home.

There are lots of lines at any conference and this one was no exception, but one thing I have learned is that you can meet interesting people waiting in lines. Waiting to mail ARCS at Fed Ex, I met Diana Tixler Herald; waiting in line at Starbucks I met librarian, Ashley Flagherty; and waiting in line to go to the awards ceremony, I met librarian Rollie Welch, and he shared some interesting things about A Room on Lorelei Street with me. There were sightings and near misses, but I never did run into professornana Darn. I guess we didn’t frequent the same long lines.

And of course, strolling through the exhibits, I ran into too many people to mention them all, but I met a zillion. Some were folks who I had “met” online but never in person, so it was like meeting old friends. It took us forever to walk down just one aisle because of all the stopping and yakking. Boy, you let authors out of their caves and that is all they want to do.

One of the very best things to do at midwinter is to go to the BBYA talks where real bonafide teens get the opportunity to talk about the books they love (and sometimes hate.) I love listening to their comments. It is amazing how insightful, articulate, and passionate they are about the books they read. If you could go and do nothing else but listen to these teens, it would be well worth it. Makes you want to get right back to your keyboard and write (which I did.)

And last but not least, I want to say that the conference ended for me on a exquisite note. When I saw that our own cynthialord won the Schneider Award and then a Newbery Honor I could hardly contain myself. I loved RULES and I was so thrilled to see it get the recognition it deserved. I’ve already sent Cindy private congrats, but I will wave and holler here for her one more time because she more than deserves it.

YAHOO, Cyn!!

Yesterday I had lunch with an old friend. My oldest friend actually. We met when she moved in two doors down from mine when we were both four years old. She shaped my childhood because we spent every minute together. Interesting, but we both became writers, though very different types. She writes in the educational realm, an expert on teaching kids with disabilities who are second language learners. She travels all over the country and once we actually ended up at the same conference and we roomed together. Who would have thunk that we would both end up writing? But I have to say, we were both pretty creative kids. Our parents kicked us out the door to play, and we had to think up stuff to occupy ourselves. We weren't scheduled with activities.

Of course, some of those activities would have made our mother's hair permanently permed if they had known about them. Like climbing down into the sewers, or jumping off roofs, or accidentally starting a fire (it was small) in the garage right next to a tank of gas. But somehow we survived. (and lived to write about it ; )

Did you do anything as a child that it was better that your parents were blissfully ignorant of?

Hey! I mentioned a few days ago that A Room on Lorelei Street was a Richie’s Picks. Well, now the review is up at his website if you want to read it.

Oh! And here is a picture of Marlene and Debby at the launch party for their books. Marlene, see? There is a photo of you with your mouth closed.


You can read more about their successful launch on their blogs, marperez, and dlgarfinkle

Tonight I will be heading over to the YA Authors Café . There’s a great line up! Cynthia Leitich Smith, aka cynsations will be kicking off a discussion with other YA Authors, Nancy Werlin, , D.L. Garfinkle, and , Brian Yansky about gender and how it affects what we write. Can’t wait to hear what these authors think. I hope I see you there.

Now I'm off to get some words in the right order . . .

I went to the YA Authors Café last night. The wonderful Catherine Atkins was the host and it was fast and fun chat. April Authors, D.L. Garfinkle, author of STORKY: HOW I LOST MY NICKNAME AND WON THE GIRL, and Rosemary Honnold, author of MORE TEEN PROGRAMS THAT WORK, came to celebrate their new books. Congratulations again to both of you!

Another writing kudo: My friend Laura Wiess sold her first book, VICTIM SOUL. Laura gave me some terrific feedback when I was working on AROLS. I haven’t read VS but I have read another of her manuscripts and I think it is only a matter of time before that one is snatched up too. She is awesome writer. Congratulations again, Laura!

And something else that is exciting–I received my dear friend, Jill Rubalcaba’s latest books in the mail. My scanner’s on the blink or I would show you the pictures inside and out (though that may not be kosher with nonfiction?) Jill just keeps surprising me. I knew she was a phenomenal fiction writer, but wow, she can write nonfiction like nobodies business, too. The Early Human World, and The Ancient Egyptian World are beautiful books, and SO readable. And so many human interest type details. For instance a section about how the Egyptians adored their children–all children, male and female–and how they treated pregnant women royally. Yeah, I like that. Kudos to Jill and co-authors Eric Cline and Peter Robertshaw for some amazing books.

Boy, I don’t blog for days and now you can’t shut me up . . . maybe I will even get around to a third post today.

Speaking of ALA, one of the great fringe benefits of going is getting FREE books. I spend a bloody fortune on books throughout the year, so to have a day where someone hands you a book and says, “Enjoy” and you walk away with it without ever dragging out your wallet, it is something akin to winning the lottery. You can’t quite believe it.

As my friend, Jill Rubalcaba and I were strolling the exhibit booths, we came to her publisher, Oxford University Press, and there we got one of my really fun free finds: MORE WEIRD WONDERFUL WORDS. I guess as we invent new words there are some we stop using–but some of these are SO deliciously delightful and bizarre–everyone should have at least a few in their vocabulary. I mean, who knows when you might want to BUBULCITATE (cry like a cowboy) because you are LIMBECKED (worn out from the effort to have a new idea.) Don’t all writers LIMBECK themselves to some extent every day?

Some of these words are just plain fun to say: SPANGHEW (to cause a frog to fly into the air), RIMBOMBO (a booming roar), and YAPLY (eager or hungrily.)

So, if anyone can tell me what CAPILOTADE means, I will give you a BAISEMAIN.

Till tomorrow . . .