Greetings from Los Angeles! I flew back yesterday from Chicago. As promised, here's the rest of my blog about the Andersons Bookshop Young Adult Literature Conference that I attended on Sat. 9/27/08, where I spoke on a panel called "New Voices" featuring me, Ingrid Law, and Cameron Tuttle. Keep reading for more...

The YA conference was sponsored by the amazing folks at Naperville's indie bookstore, ANDERSON BOOKSHOP. Go here to check out their store website: http://www.andersonsbookshop.com/

The conference started around 7:30 a.m. which included a yummy continental breakfast. On each table was a slice of SPAM to celebrate my book! Below are pics of the SPAM and a special shot of YA author HOLLY BLACK (of "The Spiderwick Chronicles" fame) eagerly holding up her portion of SPAM!

SUZANNE COLLINS was the first main speaker. Her debut novel, GREGOR THE OVERLANDER, has received much international acclaim. She talked about her latest novel, THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy. Suzanne talked about her "military brat" childhood. Suzanne joked about how a friend realized that despite her "granola hippie" appearance, Suzanne was quite obsessed with war and gladiators! Suzanne talked about how scared she was as a child when she accidentally caught the violent (and iconic) imagery of the Vietnam War on the evening news, and about how her family life was affected after her father returned from Vietnam. When 9/11 happened in New York, Suzanne did not want her son to be scared like she was during the Vietnam era, so she took him to see their local firefighter station to thank the firefighters for their bravery during 9-11. It was a very moving moment in her speech. All of this life experience led to her writing of THE HUNGER GAMES, which Stephen King has praised in a recent review as "scarily addictive." The book is about a future United States, now known as Panem, a TV-dominated dictatorship in which teenagers are chosen by lottery to fight on a violent reality show similar to the ancient gladiator fights. Below is a very tiny photo I took of Suzanne as she spoke with my iPhone because I couldn't find my cool camera in time to make this trip to Chicago! To find out more about Suzanne Collins, check out her website at: http://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/

ELLEN KLAGES spoke after Suzanne (pictured above to the right). She's also an improv comic, and her jokes had us all rolling on the floor. She is so funny! She talked about her first children's novel called THE GREEN GLASS SEA (Viking '06) about the children of scientists working on the atomic bomb in the 1940s. Her sequel, called WHITE SANDS, RED MENACE (Viking '08), will be released in October 2008. Ellen, who started off writing for adults, was fascinated by the Manhattan Project, especially when she read a brief article about how the desert had turned to glass from the heat of the explosion. In doing her research, she found a brief sentence describing how the scientists took their families to a picnic near the atomic site to show them what "daddy did for work." This led to more research and eventually turned into a novel that unfortunately did not sell because it wasn't truly "Science Fiction" (although Ellen joked that it was "fiction about science"!). A chance meeting with a Viking editor at a sci fi conference led to Ellen turning that novel into a children's book which then sold to Viking. Ellen spoke about how the book reflects the truth and parents should discuss these important and often controversial topics with their children to show them how things have improved over the years. I sat next to her at the end of the day for the signing, and in the picture above, she's holding her latest book and some real life green glass created from the desert/atomic blast! For more info on Ellen, please go to her website at: http://ellenklages.com/

After Ellen's speech, I had to do two panels in a row. The panel was called NEW VOICES and it featured myself and YA authors INGRID LAW and CAMERON TUTTLE. We took turns talking about our books and how we became writers, and then we took questions from the audience.We're in the picture way above at the start of this blog!

I talked about how I became a writer and played some of the pieces from my novel on my violin. For more on that, you can check out this Readergirlz youtube video to see what some of my presentation is like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqQ6jQ_SrCY

Ingrid Law spoke next. Turns out her novel, the much acclaimed SAVVY (Dial 2008), simply began with this first sentence: "When my brother Fish turned thirteen, we moved to the deepest part of inland because of the hurricane, and of course, the fact that he'd caused it." Ingrid admitted she had no idea where the story was going after that first sentence, but she liked the first sentence so much that she kept going. For Ingrid, the most important part of her writing process was making sure the main character's voice was unique and special. Ingrid says she was influenced by tall tales, and wanted the magic in the novel to be less "fantasy" and more of the "Americana tall tales" variety. Her daughter is the same age as the main character of her novel, and Ingrid wryly noted how her daughter thinks even the most "mundane" events are HUGE. So in writing SAVVY, Ingrid tried to keep that urgency alive - the point of view of a tween who thinks everything is a big huge exciting event! And the movie version of her book will come out soon, so stay tuned for that! For more information on Ingrid, check out her website here: http://ingridlaw.com/

Cameron Tuttle spoke next about her debut YA series called PAISLEY HANOVER ACTS OUT (Dial May '09). Cameron had started out writing adult books, including the very funny (and empowering) "THE BAD GIRL'S GUIDE TO GETTING WHAT YOU WANT" series that became a TV sitcom series starring Jenny McCarthy. Cameron wrote a proposal for a YA series starring Paisley as a budding writer who used to be popular until she joins the Drama Club. Paisley then decides to turn the concept of being popular on its head and embrace being UNpopular instead. Cameron read an excerpt from her hilarious novel and noted, "Un is more FUN." The book will be out in spring 2009 and you have to check out the cool packaging - it features a notebook jammed with insider tips and other doodles from Paisley, all in this cool boxed set. For more info on Cameron, check out her website at: http://www.camerontuttle.com/

We then took a break to have an autograph session before lunch. I sat next to the totally hip chick YA novelist STEPHANIE KUEHNERT, whose debut novel I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE came out this year from MTV Books. It's about a teen girl named Emily Black who is on a search for her mother, all the while starting her own punk rock band. Publishers Weekly praised her debut novel as "raw and gritty... the intensity of the characters' emotions and experiences will beguile many teen readers." She even had cool guitar picks as little souvenirs with the name of her book on them! Below is a photo of Stephanie and her book and souvenir guitar picks! For more information on Stephanie, check out her website at: http://www.stephaniekuehnert.com/

Also pictured below on the right is myself with ABBY THE LIBRARIAN, a cool librarian who I met online when she wrote a nice review of my book on her blog:  http://abbylibrarian.blogspot.com/2008/03/book-review-good-enough.html

It was really neat to meet the real life Abby "off" line! Thanks again for your kind review!

We then had lunch and I got to sit with some super cool librarians and hear all their thoughts on books. Librarians are a funny, feisty bunch of passionate readers who really believe in their mission to help children and teenagers become educated readers. Librarians rock! The lunch was fairly average hotel fare (typical chicken breast lunch plate) but the strawberry cake was yummy and I thought the silverware was quite unique and hip! Yes, I'm a dork and took a picture:

Afterwards, the amazing JOHN STOKES spoke about his non-fiction book, STUDENTS ON STRIKE (National Geographic Books '07) which gives a personal history of the Brown v. Board of Education landmark case. He used colored pieces of paper (purple etc.) and had volunteers sit on a "bus" to show them how segregation worked. It was an amazing and eye-opening exercise in the history of discrimination in our country. Below is a picture I took of that exercise:

He also showed photos of what segregated schools looked like back in the early 1920s onwards. He spoke about how he had to graduate from high school at age 19 because he and his sister had to walk 4 1/2 miles to school every day. It was an inspiring speech, and afterwards, a librarian came up and gave him a hug, thanking him for his fight for civil rights because her children are biracial and she's grateful they can attend any school they want. It was very moving. What an inspirational man and writer. For more information on Mr. Stokes, check out this website: http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl/9781426301544.html

After Mr. Stokes, HOLLY BLACK gave a speech about her career and about her latest experience writing a graphic novel. Holly is of the "Spiderwick Chronicles" fame and her latest book is a graphic novel called "KIN - GOOD NEIGHBORS" (Graphix, Oct. '08). The graphic novel is about a young girl named Rue whose father has been arrested on suspicion of killing her mother, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The twist is that Rue is a fairy just like her mother and Rue must save her mother and also defeat a dark fairy who threatens the mortal world. Holly talked about her fascination with urban legends (like "Bloody Mary" and the hook arm/car story) and how she did research on Bridget Cleary, a young woman who was killed by her father because they thought she was a changeling. She said urban legends often speak to our society's deepest fears and anxieties and reflect the times we live in. She then showed some of how her graphic novel was written (a different process that is much more like screenwriting than novel writing) as well as some sample pages. For more information on Holly, check out her website at: http://www.blackholly.com/

I then attended a breakout session with Holly Black and Suzanne Collins and NANCY WERLIN on writing fantasy. Here's a pic I snapped of them:

It was a fun and lively conversation about how they write fantasy novels... the common ground was that all three authors detest it when writers do not respect the genre they are writing for. They said if you don't respect the genre of fantasy, it can lead to a confusing and often condescending storyline that makes no sense and insults the intelligence of not just fantasy fans but all book readers. Some of their advice included making sure the human interest story is as strong as the fantasy storyline, the world has to make sense, and the magic can't change midway through the story.

NANCY WERLIN (pictured above, left) then gave a speech in the main ballroom about how her latest novel IMPOSSIBLE (Dial '08) was written. It was inspired by the Simon & Garfunkle song, "Scarborough Fair." Because of a curse, the young women of the Scarborough clan becomes pregnant as a teen and goes insane after giving birth. The only way to break the cursre is to complete three songs described in the song, "Scarborough Fair." Werlin discussed the influence of her favorite book, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. She believes her novel is not just a love story but also a love story of a mother and daughter. For more information on Nancy, check out her website at: http://www.nancywerlin.com/

CAROLINE COONEY (also pictured above, right of Nancy Werlin) ended the conference with a speech about how she wrote her latest novel,  DIAMONDS IN THE SHADOW (Delacorte '07). In real life, her church had taken in a family of refugees. Caroline talked about how eye-opening it was to see the refugees assimilate to America - their amazement that we could take more than we could carry from supermarkets and so forth. It made Caroline and her church realize how much we take our own freedom for granted. After 9-11, Caroline decided to write a novel about a church who takes in a family of refugees... except what would happen if one of those refugees had a dark secret? For more information on Caroline, check out her website at: http://www.teenreads.com/authors/au-cooney-caroline.asp

After the conference ended, I met musician FLORENCE YOO for dinner in downtown Naperville. I had never meet Florence in real life but we had connected via myspace thanks to our similar interests in music and writing. She even wrote a lovely review of my book at her blog: http://florenceyoo.blogspot.com/2008/04/paula-yoos-new-novel-good-enough-is.html

We ate at this fantastic seafood/steak restaurant in Naperville. I tried taking our photo with my iPhone and failed miserably, so we had to ask a nice lady to take our photo for us:

It is so weird how much Florence and I have in common! She is one of the coolest rocker chicks I've met and she's got a great husky singing voice. One of her songs was featured on The Ellen Degenerese Show. Her music is very indie and has a sense of humor and punk rebellion plus some Jonathan Richmanesque lyrics. :) The only downside to our dinner was that for some reason, a bunch of mosquitoes attacked us. We even moved to another table, but I swear, no one else was bothered by the mosquitoes except for us! I wonder if it had to do with my perfume... hmmmm!

Finally, before I went to bed because I had to wake up and leave by 5 a.m. for my flight, I met Ingrid Law and Ellen Klages at the hotel lobby cafe. We sat together and chatted away for a few hours! It was a blast getting to know these two authors more - they are both so funny and smart and I really enjoyed our conversation. Here's Ingrid with a jar she made that plays the "Chicken Dance." It's based on the grandmother's character in her novel who can create radio frequencies with her mind. Ingrid says she's had some interesting looks and some confused moments at the airport whenever she brings these jar lids with her on a book tour:

Not to be outdone, here is a close up of Ellen Klages' real life green glass fragments from the desert where the atomic blast was so hot it turned the sand into glass!

Around 11:30 p.m., I realized I should hit the hay before my early flight the next morning! We all said good night and I went back to my hotel room and was able to sleep for a few hours before I had to leave at 5 a.m.! Yikes! I got home to LA and was greeted by Oreo, my lonely cat who missed me... awww... So I'm going to go play with Oreo because we have much play time to make up for! And then, yes, it is back to writing! I'll blog more soon when I go on my tour to Connecticut and New York next week, so stay tuned...!