I am now 6 days out from flying to the shores of the United States. It's been over two years since my last jaunt there and this time there will be no NYC. I will be hitting up four states in less than three weeks (6 days of which will be on planes or in airports blergh).
Some is work related and I cannot thank the State Library of Victoria and Copyright Agency Limited enough for their support.
My first stop is the YA LITERATURE SYMPOSIUM.
Where I will be presenting for the first time at a conference. I've presented to school groups, and assemblies and to teachers too but this will be the first conference audience. Quite funny considering I've always loathed public speaking and shake from ankle to knee every time I approach a lectern.
Quite disappointingly I found out I am presenting at the same time at Liz Burns (SLJ blog) and Robin Brenner (No Flying, No Tights). I was very much looking forward to hearing their presentation on YA Literature and the Fan Created Work.
I am presenting on up and coming Australian young adult authors who should be better known or signed in the States. I'll post my presentation after the fact but know that the preparation phase has been fun as I've interviewed many authors the blogging community are VERY fond of but are yet to be traditionally available in the US. If you're attended the symposium please say hi. I'll be the tall, curly haired Australian - I'm guessing my accent alone will make me easily placable.
One of the BIG highlights of being in St Louis is that I'll finally be meeting my friend ShabbyGeek aka That Cover Girl for the first time. We've been online friends for well over four years at this point and finally having the chance to hug her is kinda incredible. There will be fun had - especially as we both land in STL on Halloween night. We've also been practising on Skype and worrying if we'lll disappoint one another...it's one big neurotic friend-fest.
Stop 2 is New Orleans for what I like to call the 'cemetery and eating tour'. If you have any recommendations for my handful of days there...hit me.
Stop 3 will be Charleston and the second annual YALLfest - a treasure trove of authors that I've long be waiting to meet...and those that I want to hug again.
Stephanie Perkins - my entire team has a major crush on this lady so I am getting major jealous vibes that I'll see her live and in person. I always want to have the ability to work hair like her...alas that's not the case.
David Levithan. Do I really need to explain this?
(I am going to take this opportunity to voice my extreme disappointment that I will be within a state of Sarah Dessen and yet I still haven't been able to meet the lady. Worst. Luck.)
I just realised I could name every author appearing and there are many. So I'll stop as I am exhausted after two days of Inky award celebrations at the State Library of Victoria. Let's just say - I am beyond stoked that I've been able to attend events where many authors are on hand...and I'm not the one coordinating the event. That being said, I might not be able to turn off coordinator / moderator mindset....here's hoping.
My iPad is chock full of authors I may see in action. I figure with a flight that will rob me of a day + of my life I might as well read :) Any recommendations - I plan on buying more these next few days.
Last stop is LA where I will be holed up for five days. If there's anywhere I need help deciding what to do it's LA. I don't really want to do Disneyland or many uber-touristy places. I would much rather hole up in a cafe with a author or four but I've discovered my known author contingent is rather NYC based.
And on the note I will sign off. It's been a big week in CYL (Centre for Youth Literature - my job) world and the Inky awards have been done and dusted. Congrats to Gold Inky winner for 2012 Em Bailey for Shift and Silver Inky winner John Green for The Fault in Our Stars. It's been an absolute pleasure presenting on the awards across Melbourne and regionally. But now its time for a rest - I'll see some of you soon!
5 comments:
Sounds like an awesome but very busy schedule. Best of luck.
=]
New reader-follower and all that good stuff...Welcome back to the US- wish I was going to the fest!
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!! (Much better than coherent rambling right?)
I got all excited when you mentioned Disneyland before re-reading and seeing that's what you DIDN'T want to do. Haha. Without knowing where you're staying in LA, one of my favorite places is the Bourgeois Pig in Hollywood. It's a coffee shop open til 2am with a pool table and a Moroccan room-turned-enchanted forest in the back. The place is loud and blue and awesome. It's also up the street from Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles which is as amazing as it sounds.
Another place I like (but haven't been to in a while) in Hollywood is Sabor y Cultura. They have a fantastic Mexican mocha.
On the Westside, Literati Cafe is a cute place for coffee and brunch -- and it has WiFi. Urth Cafe is where to go if you want to see celebrities and possibly end up on a gossip blog. But hey, if you're in LA. :)
Lamill Coffee is Silverlake is hit or miss with service, parking, etc but their Jindori Chicken is ah-mazing.
While you're in LA, definitely try to get to In-N-Out or my personal favorite burger place and the inspiration for The Peach Pit on 90210 -- The Apple Pan in West LA.
Hope you have an amazing time and some of these recs were useful! :)
-Maggie
Oh shoot, Maggie - why am I only seeing this right now???? Blast it. They all sound awesome....except I am fraidy cat when travelling solo so they'll have to wait until I am there next time.
I am sad in that I achieve not one iota of this :(
xx
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