YA in Bloom was an amazing, amazing event. Over 100 YA readers and authors got together upstairs in Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena to have lunch, talk books, and get signed copies. The raffles were generous and Upland High School won the big box of hardback raffle donations. I made so many new friends, caught up with old ones, and finally put faces to names from the net. Here are the authors:
Cindy Pon, Lisa Yee, Jessica Brody, Katie Alender, Andrew Smith, Deborah Bryan, Kathy McCullough, Gretchen McNeil, Jenn Reese, Kristen Kittscher, Marie Lu, and Suzanne Lazear
We had lunch, cake, a great talk about handselling books by one of the Vroman’s staffers and my Penguin rep, Nicole White. Then of course there was the SHOPPING. I got my daughter, Chumash Woman, a great purse with penguins and hearts on it. Katie Alender got the last otter one, which I’m glad about, since I would have had a hard choice between the penguins and the otters. But since I write for Penguin, it was fate that the penguins were mine.
If you have never been to Vroman’s in Pasadena, you need to go if you possibly can. The greatness that is Vroman’s is a very famous landmark in L.A. and in publishing. Plus they had a pet adoption fair right before our event. How can you not LOVE a bookstore that hosts a pet fair? I was very grateful that I was unable to even consider adopting the adorable dogs and cats I saw there, as we are full up here–two dogs, three cats, and a partridge in a pear tree.
I talked about books, reading, and my beloved Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Then some of us went to the Green Restaurant for dinner to discuss what kind of skirt Katie Alender should make next. I have given her a Spanish nickname: She’s “La Falda”–“the Skirt!” So far I have seen her in cupcakes and Day of the Dead fabric. I wore my new Camper shoes with flowers all over them (“YA in BLOOM”) but took them off as soon as we left for the restaurant for my bronze Birks.
After that, I went to visit my friend Charlotte McDuffie/Fullerton, with the thought of having a nice breakfast in the morning–but I got a call from my dogsitter (and the fire dept!) that my deck had caught on fire. I left to back to San Diego at 7 AM. Apparently the culprit was overheated mulch! A bit too much blooming, I guess…!
