Greetings from LA! Back in my publicity days, my favorite book festival to attend was the LA Times Festival of Books. So when Scholastic told me that I was invited to attend this year's festival, I was excited and extremely honored. I didn't think it could get any better until I found out that my co-panelists were Lisi Harrison, Joanna Philbin, and Abby McDonald. I worked with Lisi on the Clique series years ago, was a huge fan of Joanna's The Daughters series, and recently started talking to Abby (who also has a "prom-themed" book this year, The Anti-Prom). So not only did I get to be on a panel at the LATBOF, but with some of my favorite authors.
The panel was so much fun. We each read from our books, talked about the writing process, then answered questions from the audience. I love hearing other authors talk about their process. I always learn something. And the audience was awesome!
After my panel signing, I headed to the Diesel Bookstore/Scholastic booth to sign there. I was so happy to get to sign along the fabulous Cecil Castellucci.
My day wasn't done yet! I participated in this super fun game show with several other authors called LAYAPALOOZA (it's Cecil's brainchild). I was worried about embarrassing myself in front of everybody by totally getting my questions wrong, but fortunately, I got my one question right - phew! And my team, Team Scout, won! YAY! A big part of our victory was due to Team Scout MVP, Kami Garcia.
As if my day couldn't get any better, we had a Scholastic dinner where I got to see my dear friends Mark Teague and Pam Munoz Ryan. I was Mark and Pam's publicist back in the day when I was working at Scholastic. We've kept in touch through the years and I was so happy to be able to spend some time with them.
A HUGE thank you to everybody for coming out yesterday and to my fellow authors. And of course, to Scholastic for bringing me here! It was an amazing time...and hopefully not my last trip!
XO, Elizabeth