NERA

 
Yesterday I participated in an author event at the New England Reading Association conference in Nashua, New Hampshire.  When the directions came for the event, I smiled to see it was at the Crowne Plaza hotel.  For many years, the New England Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators held their annual conference in that hotel.

   I sat on the weird, round couch in the lobby for a few minutes in honor of all the good times and good friends I made at those NESCBWI conferences. 

   Then I picked up my materials and headed off to the signing room. 

The organizers let us sit anywhere we wanted, so I sat with two of my friends, Maine authors Charlotte Agell and Lea Wait.  We joked that we never get to sit together, because group signings are usually arranged alphabetically!  So with last names starting with "A," "L," and "W," we're always as far away from each other as we could get!

 
me, Lea, and Charlotte

Toadstool Books in Milford came as the bookseller, and Brian had a stack of. . . .

  It's the first time I've seen it! 

It was a very nice event.  I talked to quite a few teachers, including a big group from Milton, New Hampshire.  I grew up in Milton, so that was especially fun! The teachers told me they have nine substitutes today at school, because so many teachers were at the conference. "Wow! Good thing you're not there!" I joked, and they laughed.

They asked me to come do a school visit with the kids. I said I would do that. Hmmmm. I wonder if I could still run down those big stairs, two at a time?