I LOVE going to the OLA superconference. What can be better than mingling with librarians, booksellers and authors? For an entire hour on Friday, Fitzhenry & Whiteside gave out free copies of Daughter of War and I autographed. It was great to chat with so many teacher-librarians and public librarians. Here is a photo of me at the signing. With me is Marina Cohen, author of Trick of the Light and Shadow of the Moon.
What was also amazing was to meet up with so many of my book buddies from private kidcrit, which is an online critique group within the Books and Writers Community.
Private kidcrit participants must have thick skins and they must be superb writers. Otherwise they don’t last. It was thrilling to see kidcritter extraordinaire, Natalie Hyde. She doesn’t believe in succeeding in a small way. Her first book has just been published. And so has her second. And her third!!!
Not to be outdone, kidcritter Hélène Boudreau has FOUR books out this year. She was signing her novel, Acadian Star!
Here’s a photo of a bunch of us kidcritters whooping it up at dinner after the conference:
From left to right is:
Natalie Hyde, with three new books out right now.
Marina Cohen, with two books out and an awesome thriller in the works.
Me.
Marisa Zammit, not yet published, but working on an amazing WWII novel set in Poland.
Hélène Boudreau, author of Acadian Star and three brand new non-fictions!
Martha Martin is seated to the right of Hélène. Not yet published, but on the cusp, with her Camp Diaries (soda up the nose hilarious) and her contemporary thriller (cheeky and un-put-downable).
Above Martha is Karen Bass, the only non-kidcritter but I think she’ll be coming over to the dark side soon. Karen is the author of Run Like Jager, a superb YA.
Standing beside Karen is kidcritter Deborah Kerbel, whose first Canadian published YA novel, Mackenzie Lost and Found is getting lots of attention.
Sitting just below Deborah is kidcritter Mahtab Narsimhan, whose first novel, The Third Eye was just recently published and has been nominated for the Silver Birch!
Kidcritters rock!!!
(These photos are courtesy of Helene, who is obviously much more organized that I am)
What a good looking bunch we are! 🙂
I LOVE that picture of Natalie, what a star. And congrats on the awesome success of DOW.
Karen, if you’re out there, we’re coming for you….
And YOU, Helene! What great success you’ve had these last few months. We kidcritters show that hard work and talent pays off!
And you too, Helene! You really know how to make an entrance!
Thanks Marsha and Helene!
Kidcritters are a force to be reckoned with! Watch out world, here we come!!!
Oops!
That was my comment, by the way. Forgot to sign it…
Deborah
Re: Thanks Marsha and Helene!
You’re right, Deborah!
Re: Thanks Marsha and Helene!
I feel brushed by greatness to be in such an illustrious crowd. We DID have a great time, didn’t we?
It was SO exciting to see Natalie’s and Helene’s non-fiction (and James’ and Pat Bow’s as well!) I had no idea so many of our peeps were published in non-fic as well. There are a number of publisher reps who think I’m quite insane, I suspect, as I ran around screaming as I found more and more kitcritter stuff in the Expo! HA!
And you, my Sensei and Sista’ with the Pointy Boots are FAR too modest about your signing. You didn’t sign for an hour, because the line was so long and the signing so busy, the company RAN OUT OF BOOKS BEFORE THE HOUR WAS UP! Now THAT is something to brag about, my love!
Re: Thanks Marsha and Helene!
Ha ha ha! I went up and down the aisles, pointing to kidcritter books in various booths, saying, “I critted that, and that, and that…” It is so awesome to see so many of our little group being published — and in so many genres.
My signing wasn’t a full hour?? It felt like an hour. We went through TONS of books!
Re: Thanks Marsha and Helene!
You were certainly there for an hour, being your usual gracious self. They just ran out of books faster than that. Some of your diehard fans, of course, had their own copies ahead of time. (You’ll need to come to my school to sign my four copies now!HA!)
Re: Thanks Marsha and Helene!
I was actually surprised by how many people in the lineup had already read Daughter of War. Got some great feedback. Now to write the next one…
Hey Marsha! There’s a certain magic that goes with OLA, isn’t there? It was awesome seeing you! I’m going to try to make it to Georgetown this week!
It was great to see you, Marina! Too bad it was so loud in that restaurant. Made conversation difficult.
Thanks Marsha!
OLA was a blast!!
You guys are great, but I wouldn’t be standing there holding those books if it wasn’t for the support and mentoring of all my kitcrit homies. 🙂
Wouldn’t it have been cool to have had a pic of the five kidcritters who took over the entire Sports Science series??? (James Bow, Pat Bow, Helaine Becker, Helene Boudreau and Me)
And Martha, you absolutely RULE the OLA! Those guys at Crabtree didn’t know what hit them when you descended on the snapping pictures and rearranging their displays!!
Good times.
Re: Thanks Marsha!
Sorry!
That was me, Natalie 🙂
Cool! Congrats to all the published kidcritters! (What day was this? I remember you mentioning it, and I know there was a good reason I wasn’t there, but now I know I’ll have to set aside time next year.)
– EE
RE: SuperConference and KidCrit
I can’t believe it was at SuperConference 2 years ago that I met you, Marsha, and you told me about the wonders of KidCrit! It was a joy to see everyone again. The photos look great, and I feel so lucky to be a part of such an illustrious group of writers. I hope one day I will be there signing copies of my book!
And you’re much more organized than me, already posting about Friday.
The whole two days of the OLA Expo were fun, but the dinner was definitely the highlight. Awesome to meet so many fantastic writers face-to-face, ones I did know and ones I didn’t.
Wow. Such a slave-driver! Will certainly go (for fear of retribution). Tonight. I hope.
You could always fly out and MAKE me get it done. 😉