Home from Hudson

Last Friday I headed to Hudson, NY for their annual Children's Book Festival. This is a HUGE event with over 100 children's book authors and illustrators. The organizers, Lisa Dolan or Maria Suttmeier, do an incredible job promoting. They even produced a SONG (you can go here to listen, just scroll down).

As I drove up the street to my bed & breakfast, I saw a hand come out of a white car and wave excitedly. It was artistq ! After we unpacked, we decided to take a walk and go window shopping in town, famous for its antiques. As we turned one corner, we came across this ENORMOUS sign:


I adore antique stores. Every item has a story.



Sometimes, it's hard to imagine what that story is.



Sometimes, you don't want to know.



But it is definitely a treat to imagine them with a friend. Thanks for hanging out with me, Laura!

Later that night, several of the authors/illustrators met up at the INCREDIBLE restaurant, Mexican Radio. My roommate for the night kmessner (aka Kate Messner) and her daughter were there, as well as agent extraordinaire literaticat (aka Jennifer Laughran). Since the party room was so crowded,we decided to grab a table for dinner. We were joined by the lovely Aimee Ferris and her sweet son, and Danielle Joseph. The food was out of this world, as was the company.

After dinner, we walked back to our place and Laura, Kate, Jenn and I had some champagne to celebrate Kate's wonderful news: She won a Crystal Kite Award!!!! It was so nice to catch up with everyone on our little porch.

The next morning Kate and her adorable daughter and I had a lovely breakfast in town before heading to the big event. We saw a sweet gazebo that looked like the perfect place to curl up with a notebook.


But on further inspection... guess not. :-)


When we got to the high school where the event takes place, we were amazed at the displays in the hallways. There were photos of all the authors and images of their book jackets. I didn't get a photo, but it was just lovely.

Then, we found the "author" room which was the gym. There were SOOOOO many familiar faces there. I was thrilled to see Laura Weiss, who I haven't seen in a couple of years! And Terry Truman introduced himself and asked to trade books! Wow! Here we are:



I also got to see our lovely jeannineatkins .



And Katie Davis, who interviewed me for her podcast (this was my first time doing something like that).



In the afternoon when things were starting to pick up for those of us who write for teens who like to sleep in, we were interrupted by a FIRE ALARM! Everyone had to evacuate the building.



We were afraid once everyone went outside into the beautiful sunshine, nobody would come back in. But we were wrong and the afternoon was fairly busy.

It was a really fun day and I'm so grateful to the organizers and volunteers for all their hard work. I'm sure the payoff is to see hundreds and hundreds of people of all ages celebrating books and reading. Thanks Lisa and Maria and all the wonderful volunteers!!

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Monday Morning Warm-Up:

Describe something you own that could end up in an antique store someday. What's its story?