Three signings in one week! (A personal record, I believe)

Since people seem to be in support of the "what went down and who I saw" routine, that's the one I will attempt to stick to!

On Monday, Feb 7, I went down to Borders at Columbus Circle to see Cynthia Leitich Smith. I met up with the lovely editor I work with at Lee & Low, Stacy Whitman, which was nice because she introduced me to Cynthia (and saved me all the awkwardness).

The awesome Cynthia Leitich Smith

Cynthia is just a fantastic speaker. And I really don't mind that she spoke a lot. And that she answered lots and lots of questions. It was really fun. Also I got a cool little Sanguini's magnet for my fridge!

Sadly, this picture didn't turn out so well, but you get the gist

Then on Wednesday, I had a major conflict. There were two events that I wanted to go to—at the same time! This is every book event frequenter's (okay, my) worst nightmare. Unfortunately I had to miss the February Teen Author Reading Night (and seeing Michael Northrop, E. Lockhart, Melissa Kantor, Maryrose Wood, and Gwendolyn Heasley, well, more on this last lady later). But the night was not a total loss, after all, I did get to see Ally Condie, Beth Revis, Kirsten Miller, Andrea Cremer, and Brenna Yovanoff at Books of Wonder as part of the Breathless Reads tour!

L to R: Beth Revis, Brenna Yovanoff, Ally Condie, Andrea Cremer, and Kirsten Miller

Highlights of the evening included running into lots of people that I knew (makes me feel connected and all) and also meeting new people. People who I saw that I knew included Mitali from Alley of Books, upcoming author Jocelyn Davies, editor Stacy Whitman, and author Kirsten Miller (who I adore both for her writing skills and for where she graduated, a.k.a. Barnard, a.k.a. the college I attend!). I also got to meet a handful of book bloggers, author Gayle Forman, and, of course, the rest of the Breathless Reads authors who I hadn't previously met! All in all, it was a lot of fun, but my personal favorite moment was when Kirsten was talking about a class in her college years and starting talking directly to me, from where I stood all the way in the back, about a Barnard professor. Weird but cool!

Mitali, Andrea Cremer, Beth Revis, Brenna Yovanoff, and me (thanks to Mitali for this picture)

Another awesome part of the evening was the posters that were handed out. Therefore, in addition to getting a couple of my books signed, I now have a gorgeous and SIGNED poster hanging on my dorm wall.

My lovely signed Breathless Reads poster

Want one too? Lucky for you guys, I got an extra one signed. So let's take a brief break from the signing goodness for a contest!

CONTEST CLOSED

(1) lucky winner will receive a signed Breathless Reads poster and bookmarks!

Fill out the form to enter:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dHVBSUNyWmZDTlRkZGxUa1dlb0kwN2c6MQ

Other details:

• US mailing addresses only.
• Contest ends 2/28/11, at 9 p.m. EST.

Remember, you must complete the form to be entered. If you have any questions about this contest, see my contest policy, or contact me and ask away.

Now back to the book signings! On Thursday, I headed down to the Barnes & Noble at Tribeca to see Gwendolyn Heasley (who I missed at Teen Author Reading Night). I met her super nice publicist, who in turn introduced me to Gwendolyn, who, surprise surprise, is also super sweet.

Lovely debut author, Gwendolyn Heasley

Gwendolyn talked a lot about where her debut novel Where I Belong came from, read a bit, and then answered questions from the audience.

And sorry if this post is rather lengthy, but I did break my book signing per week record!