ALA Red Carpets, WriteCons, and Bits of Random

The other day when Fuse#8 was pointing out that she’d been Frogger-ized by Jim Averbeck, Kristin Clark Venuti & the crew on the ALA Red Carpet Interviews page, I had a brief spasm of memory… Hey! They asked me to play, too! (Hi, Jim!)

You gents will have to excuse that peal of completely disbelieving laughter when Kristin said, “Sensitive men.” I do believe they exist. No, seriously: THEY EXIST. Just… Look, I was tired, all right? It was hot, or it was dark or I was full or hungry or sleepy. And wearing heels. Or something.

I’m in Odds & Ends, too, but surely you don’t just want to see me –! You’ve got to look at the fashion section – Ellen Hopkins’ husband, John, designed and sewed her dress. What a great retirement project! And of course, Liz Burns was there, looking awesome. And don’t forget to take a gander at New Books — you’ll get a chance to see Holly Cupola and hear a bit about Alchemy and Meggy Swan by Karen Cushman, and hear other authors try to describe their new releases in five second soundbytes. There are some great things coming out, too – makes me anxious for September.

Look – you might as well just check out all of them.

Oh, wow – this week my S.A.M. is being highlighted at Casey McCormick’s Literary Rambles. If you aren’t aware, Ms. Casey is one of the writers responsible for this month’s WriteOnCon — which is a “free, interactive experience, designed to give writers many of the features of a writer’s conference, but in an online environment.” It looks like there’s a combination of live chat, transcripts and web forums so there’s a lot of give and take, discussion and feedback. This is such a cool concept – you might want to keep an ear to the ground, follow their Twittering, and check them out next session.

Things That Make Me Happy This Moment:
The pillowfight that erupted on a Lufthansa flight from Tel Aviv to Frankfurt, dancing bottlenose dolphins — on a beach in Belgium, and Sylvia’s alfajores recipe. Yum.