Sunday started with the Literary Tastes Breakfast at the Palmer House Hilton. Once again, I got to spend quality time with Wendy Cornelisen, who also had made a reservation for this event. Four very entertaining authors were featured. Mark Harris told how he came to write Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood. Peter Manseau, (Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter) and Nick Taylor, (American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA, When FDR Put the Nation to Work), told how their books came into being. Toby Barlow, a first time novelist, spoke about his book Sharp Teeth, and gave a very humorous version of his inspiration and work. Had an armload again when I left that breakfast!
Next on the agenda, and thankfully in the same hotel, was a program called Revitalizing the Library Experience which was sponsored by ASCLA (Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies). The presenters, Joan Frye Williams and George Needham focused on what library patrons, or would-be patrons, really want.
From there I shuttled to the convention center and spent some quality time in the Exhibits Hall…so many vendors, so many books available for free or cheap…sometimes limited only by one’s willingness to stand in very long lines for very popular authors. But when I did, I met such neat people from all over the country and even beyond.
Later that evening I attended an ALTAFF program called The Laugh’s on Us! It featured six female author/humorists including Paula Poundstone (There’s Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say). She was joined by authors Anita Renfroe (Don’t Say I Didn’t Warn You: Kids, Carbs, and the coming Hormonal Apocalyse); Mishna Wolff (I’m Down); Jen Lancaster (Pretty In Plaid: A Life, A Witch, and a Wardrobe, or the Wonder Years Before the Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smart-Ass Phase); Lisa Grunberger (Yiddish Yoga: Ruthie’s Adventures in Love, Loss, and the Lotus Position); and Elizabeth Beckwith (Raising the Perfect Child Through Guilt and Manipulation).
It was so entertaining that I didn’t mind that the shuttle had stopped running and took the City bus back to the hotel, toting a couple of very heavy tote bags! (Smooth sailing, and actually a more direct route than the shuttles…)
4 comments:
You are so adventurous now...getting on the city bus all by yourself. WOW! I am impressed with you, lady! Good job! Now that you're home, have you read all your books?
Mom, I'm a little emotionally scarred that you even typed the "A" word. Vicki Goode does not speak/write like that.
It was in the title...what can I say?
Vicki, I am so proud of what you are able to get from a convention. I am so proud of you for being fit enough to make it to all of these situations and then once you make it to the place, to not have to find a gurney to recoup. You are my idol. love you.
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