Book Signing: American Library Association Conference, San Francisco

Signing A Day and Night in the Forest in the Capstone Booth, ALA, San Francisco

The American Library Association Conference met in San Francisco at the Moscone Convention Center June 25-30, 2015 and I spent two very full and exciting days in the Exhibit Halls signing books, meeting friends, and roaming the aisles to attempt at view all the new books. In the Capstone booth, on Saturday, June 26, I signed A Day and Night in the Forest, one of four new books in the Caroline Arnold’s Habitats series. There was a long line and I signed furiously until all the books were gone. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet librarians and fans from all over and I thank Jennifer Glidden, the marketing manager at Capstone, for making all the arrangements, taking photographs, and for helping everything go smoothly. I enjoyed the chance to meet the other Capstone people in the booth as well and to chat with editor Michelle Bisson.

Outside the Moscone Convention Center, San Francisco

The ALA convention was also an opportunity to meet with my agent, Andrea Brown, with whom I had a delicious lunch, and my editor at Charlesbridge, which will be publishing my book Living Fossils next year. I have already seen the proof pages with terrific illustrations by Andrew Plant. And I stopped by the StarWalk Kids booth to find out the latest news about the StarWalk Kids digital library, which includes many of my older books. Their catalogue, which continues to grow, now has more than 500 titles!

I went to the convention with my friends and fellow authors Joanne Rocklin and Susan Meyers (who both live in the Bay Area) and as we roamed the aisles we kept running into many of our other author friends as well as many of the librarians we have gotten to know over the years. That is one of the great things about ALA–the chance to meet and renew friendships, all in the midst of thousands of new and wonderful books from publishers big and small. I came home with a bag full of books, catalogues, posters and more. I only go to ALA when it meets in California, which occurs every five years or so. This conference brought back memories of my very first ALA, also in San Francisco, back in 1981, when I was a new author. I remember being overwhelmed by the wealth of books and publishers. I still am.