Visiting with an Author

When I was a practicing librarian and when I was on the state board for librarians, I had the opportunity to meet and greet many authors. One of my fondest memories was meeting Jerry Palotta. He was our guest author at the special Saturday luncheon. Now it has been more moons than I can count since I was in charge of any of those events but the memories are very fond! So it was with great anticipation I left my little town for Elizabeth City, NC( another quaint little town) to meet Mary Alice Monroe. She was on a 30 city tour to greet readers(mostly fans)  of all ages. Elizabeth City was as close as she was going to get to me so I made plans to go. Now my excitement was heightened because I had planned a trip last year to see her but that trip crashed and burned before the special date was close enough to pack my clothes!  We met her in an incredibly cute book store chock full of book lovers. The owner and her staff were straight out of movie, oh, you know the one I am thinking of!  The owner greeted us and treated us like we were entering her very own home. And then she said it! She said Mary Alice is already here, come and see. Oh my gosh, I was so excited I couldn't go over there. Crazy, I know.  I made motions to get my seat and get myself settled and acclimated just to calm down. Then someone said and her sister is here, too. Of course she was. I knew from the MAM Facebook page they were traveling together. The joke from MAM several times was that they were THELMA and LOUISE.  This was so funny to me. And special in many ways. So off I went to strike up a very enjoyable conversation with her. I pulled up a chair and we chatted like old buddies. Finally, I told her that I had been on the advance review team. She shuttled me away saying Mary Alice is going to want to meet you! It was at least two hours before I was able to tell Mary Alice who I was, at least who I was in her world.  Before I tell you about that, I do want to share how royally we were treated by the owner. A lunch handmade by the owner and the staff was delicious and perfect for the setting! I just felt heavenly and if I was a writer like Mary Alice Monroe I would have the right descriptors but I just do not. It was all so gracious and South Carolinian, though clearly we were in North Carolina, almost to Virginia.  Now I am not taking anything away from our Southern Heritage at all but you all know it isn't really the SOUTH! I feel like Pat Conroy might agree as well.  I love Virginia so much, but we missed out on some of the most endearing Southern traditions. Anyway, I shopped, I ate, and then enjoyed Mary Alice's presentation. She read to us, she made us laugh, and she heightened our awareness of some sweet creatures she has researched to include in her books. I had a great time and took a few pictures to punctuate our fun.
Do you remember I mentioned getting back to how I told MAM about me? Each guest received a number in order to reserve our place in line for autographs! I felt like some kind of groupie. Of course, I guess if one drives hours to see an author you ARE a groupie.  I actually missed my spot but a very nice lady told me I could squeeze in and then it was time. The book store owner had MAM seated at this AHHHMAZING ladies' desk. The whole picture was out of a novel or something. :>) So she takes my book and I squat down on the floor a bit so I wasn't towering over her and more eye to eye. As I said she takes my book and looks at me to begin her autograph. I say my name slowly and then I say..... I am an artist. Oh she says. Then can you draw a dolphin? Oh, gosh, how will I make her understand. So I repeat with emphasis, I am an ARTist! Ohhhhh, you are an ARTist! She jumps up and hugs me and is so excited.  In her closed fb page she calls her advanced reading team, HER ARTists.  Now the reason it didn't ring a bell for her right away is because unbeknownst to me, she had asked if anyone was an artist and could draw a dolphin for her on the desk where she was sitting. All authors who visit the bookstore autograph the table for the owner! Too cute, huh? So her mind was on that little dolphin pic she hoped to score and mine was on the ART team! We had a great visit after that and since the bookstore had cleared out, I was able to hang around for a bit and just enjoy her company in a relaxed atmosphere.  So there's my story of another very memorable author visit.  I was one of only two people who had already read her latest book, SUMMER WIND. I felt a wee bit special just like the memories I made that day!

Where Oh Where Have You Been?

That is the million dollar question! I got so caught up with family and work I just forgot about my blog readers! I am so sorry! My goal is to come back to talkin' about library stuff but to expand to book stuff as well. The inspiration for this expansion comes to me from an author visit. Now normally my comments would be about books for students due to the fact I have been working with children in one way or another for over 35 years. I am in a new phase and adult books are a huge part of that new phase so I hope you will continue to hang with me as I discover more about my new found love-grownup books ( had to find a better term than adult reading-sounds a little risqué)!

WOW Websites

I have just recently acquired the job of editing the LUCY website for our IMLS Grant. Some of the tasks are soooo easy and others are quite the challenge. I blame the software whenever I can. It is something the college uses and so, understandbly, it has a lot of rules! Limiting the size is a rule. File name rules abound! I went to a workshop and am actually signed up to take it again so I can improve my speed, if nothing else. Anyway, I say all this to let you know I know a little about website design. Great websites don't just appear overnight so when I was gathering websites to show my library science students, it occurred to me, you might be interested as well. Buffy Hamilton calls her blog "The Unquiet Librarian" which is chock full of engaging informational writing, but I was most excited about her Destiny website which is linked to her blog. http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/ Here is the library's Destiny page http://mediacenter.cherokee.k12.ga.us/quest/servlet/presentquestform.do?site=128 For my non-librarian readers, Destiny is the latest online catalog many districts are upgrading to. The opening webpage can be tweaked by the staff so when I saw the one from Creekview High School, I knew they had spent alot of time on the design. They did this for the students not for themselves. Engaging online catalogs will draw students to that resource. Please check out this website. If you do a search for Unquiet Librarian, you get a lot of hits. She has the blog, wiki, facebook, her library weebsite, etc. A great online presence. Of course, I always share Joyce Valenza's library website with library students. This website is such a role model for what we should be providing for students online. Love it! And I believe kids can move around on the site. Would your kids be able to do this? I found another site which is designed to help librarians, http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/969, and lo and behold, they reference Joyce's library site, but not always in complimentary terms. What do you think??? Will post some other examples soon.

Library class

Just got home from teaching my library class tonight. Great group and we, I think, had fun looking at the different aspects of evaluating reference resources! I did make homemade pumpkin bread for them so that probably helped some. One of the things they have to do is write an annotated bibliography of some of the resources. I did another LUCY advertisement!!! I told them about our wonderful free annotated bibliography. Just call me shameless. (Next week I will share with them the LUCY conference information. I will be emailing registration forms out next week so the timing is perfect. They could be my test group.) For those of you who are now librarians, but used to be one of my library students, you will be interested to know we are doing a lot more with online searching. I think this is incredibly important if we are to remain as vitally important as we are right now. Funny, it always comes back to public perception! Thanks!

LUCY Update

Hi, I am going to borrow my blog to talk about our LUCY conference again. For those of you who are not part of the LUCY facebook or LUCY twitter, here's another way to update. Many of us on the Advisory Board were thrilled to find The Red Umbrella last summer Thrilled also that the publisher saw fit to share this book with us. Anyway, we all loved it. We followed up and invited Christina Diaz Gonzalez to our conference. She said YES! I am so looking forward to this conference. Last Friday I had a wonderful chat with one of our authors, Cheryl Hudson. Her publisher also sent a book to LUCY. " My Friend, Maya" had a bit of surprise ending which is great for kids. Such a beautiful book! Janet Wong, another of our authors, has been delightful to work with. A gardenia lover, we have enjoyed some fun exchanges. Lastly, we not the least of our visiting authors by any means, is Jacqueline Jules. We are most grateful to her publisher as well. We now have several different copies in our LRC. One of her books was also one of my review books for Linworth, "Duck for Turkey Day ". I have to admit, the first time I read it, I was not as familiar with multicultural literature as I am now so my review would concentrate on that aspect more now. I hope you will all register for our conference. We will have book signings for you. Bedford Falls has agreed to secure the books we are eligible to sell. This is very exciting!!

Huck Finn

Everyone knows the kind of boy Huck was. So why are folks surprised at his colorful and sometimes inappropriate language, both in his time and ours? I read there is a publisher who is planning/has planned/has executed, just can't remember, to take out some of Huck's words. What do you think about that? Would Mark Twain be rolling over now or what? Or perhaps he would say go for it? What about you? What do you say? Are your students offended when they see inappropriate language in old books, classic or not? Can we change the culture we lived in by rewriting books??? Can't we look at it as look how far away from that we are now??? I want you opinion!

LUCY Conference Day

Almost everyone is talking about new beginnings right now. I guess January does that to us, along with spring time! January is a very motivating month for me. Once I get the house back together I feel such a sense of accomplishment which just rolls over to the rest of my life (note two posts very close together!). In January the entire year is out in front of you just for taking! I see some interesting things on the horizon and thought you might like to hear about them. This month is chock full of short trips. My husband, an avid UVA sports fan, and I met some friends for dinner and a game in Charlottesville last weekend. She and I will be taking an artisan bread making class later this month! Now that really is something to look forward to. Also this month I have TWO overnight trips to Williamsburg. One with friends and one for my 33rd wedding anniversary! Feb. is a little sparse, but in March I will be presenting at VSRA with a dear friend. The big deal for me this year is in August when LUCY is having a one day multicultural conference and as grant manager, I will be putting it together with our team. The author of Red Umbrella will be one of speakers. Christina Gonzalez's first novel is getting a lot of press and has shown up on numerous Top 10 lists! I am very excited. Tomorrow I will share some of the other authors who will be with us.
Take a minute and look at 2011 and all the blessings that are on your horizon!