Book Events Galore!

This past weekend I was lucky enough to attend two big-deal literary events here in Austin.  Both took place in one of my favorite spots in town, if not the whole planet: Book People, independent bookstore extraordinaire.

 

At 2 p.m. on Sunday I attended the triple-threat book release event for Cynthia Leitich Smith’s charming new picture book Holler Loudly, Bethany Hegedus’s sweet, moving middle grade novel Truth With a Capital T, and Brian Yansky’s hilarious young adult adventure Alien Invasion & Other Inconveniences. 

 
   

As you can see, the place was packed.

 

Cyn read her entire book and had us all laughing and shouting.  Her call of “soooouuuuieeee!” is still ringing in my ears, in fact.

                 

Bethany gave us the witty and quite touching tale of how her book came to be, followed by a reading.  And Brian gave a glimpse into his research, which included a showing of the hilarious (and real) movie trailer for Teenagers from Outer Space.

Along with the fabulous and fun presentation, we were treated to awesome chili (made by Bethany) and Anne Bustard’s famous frosted cookies.  It’s a good life here.

 

While there I visited with the wonderful staff – the amazing Mandy, Meghan, Madeline, Alison.  Lots of local book reps and authors were there.  Here’s a photo of Sara Bird, Alison Amend, and Margo Rabb, and another of Alison with her beautiful eyes open.

 

          

 

Those few of you in the web-verse who are unaware of Book People, it is a world famous independent bookstore, whose author events and literary theme camps are legendary.  When I was but a wee lass growing up in nearby Round Rock, I loved coming in to Austin and visiting a quaint book store called Grok’s Books, located in a renovated old house near campus.  Patrons could help themselves to hot tea as they perused the stock, dropping into one of the many comfy armchairs if they felt like it. 

 

At some point the store moved south and renamed itself Book People. Because I was young and without my own transportation, it might have well moved out of state.  I missed my visits there and my chats with the book loving staff.  And when I heard it was moving to a downtown location on 6th Street, I was overjoyed.

 

Years later I was even more thrilled when my first novel debuted and I threw a launch party at Book People.  It was such a success I repeated it when my second book came out.  Since then, the store has been the site of other significant and stellar launch parties (like the one described at the start of this post), as well as SCBWI meetings, café socializing, perusing, gift shopping, I-deserve-this shopping, and fun with animal puppets (this means you, Smudge).

 

 

So Happy Anniversary, Book People.  Thank you for all that you do for our community.  You really grok us.

 

And big congratulatory hugs to Cyn, Bethany, and Brian!  Thank you, too, for all that you do for the community, and for sharing your wonderful stories with the world.