On Friday night, GLS gave a keynote address on multicultural humor at the Texas State Reading Association, and B&N Westlake sponsored a quite successful signing. I'd guess we sold 40ish books to an audience of 50 teachers (regional directors from throughout the state).
The event was held at the new Hilton at the Austin airport, which is quite nice with Texas-themed decor (think big stars and bluebonnet murals). Apparently, it was one of the buildings from the old Air Force base, totally rehabbed.
The conference chicken dinner (with salad, wild rice, Hollandaise, and tiramisu) was on the dry side, but the sauce helped. Very friendly, welcoming crowd!
The next day, we did a joint breakout session at Writers' League of Texas' 2006 Agents & Editors Conference downtown at the Austin Hyatt. Highlights of the event included a Q&A panel featuring authors KA (author interview), CB, and AB (author interview), which was moderated by author-illustrator MGM (author interview). Sightings also included Blooming Tree publisher MH, one of the exhibitors.
I spotted but didn't get a chance to talk to the one children's agent there, AT, but word in the hallways was that those emphasizing the story did a lot better than those pitching the message, which only makes sense.
It was fascinating-horrifying to talk to the writers pitching their manuscripts to agents at 15 minute meetings. I'm SO glad I'm happily agented and never had to do that.
The conference chicken lunch (with salad, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, and cake) was moist and delicious. We skipped out on the speaker though in part because KA had to grab some party bronze shoes for me.
Beyond that, GLS and I are watching "Lois & Clark: Season 3," at which point Lois knows Clark is Superman and they're discussing marriage. Today we read aloud F&M in a copyediting effort. Late last night I finished and am still poundering--in a seriously impressed way--The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin (Dial, 2006)(author interview)(excerpt)(look for more on that coming soon to Cynsations).
