Alley babble and the 40 scribes

So I spent Friday and Saturday hanging out in an alley. Happily, it was Authors' and Illustrators' Alley at the NJ Association of School Librarian's conference. Imagine a long hall (or long haul, if you're driving there from PA), lined on both sides with tables. Tons of kidlit creators. I shared a table with Wendy Mass (rhymes with "class"), right next to Jordan Sonnenblick (rhymes with "Chanukah") on one side and Margery Cuyler (rhymes with "smiler") on the other. Wendy, Jordan, and I will all be going to Denver in February. I'm hoping there will be someone there who weighs more than I do, since we'll probably get snowed in, and someone will have to die so that others may eat. But back to NJASL (which rhymes with nothing one can say in public). NJ librarians are awesome.

This is definitely a tough time for NJ. I heard a lot of stories about layoffs, and far too many about districts where one librarian was supposed to cover several schools. Governor Christie is building his presidential aspirations on the backs of New Jersey's children. He believes he can crush the schools and look like a hero to people who are far enough away from NJ so all they see is staged Youtube political ads. In truth, Christie is a surgeon who carves away healthy organs in order to give the cancer more room to grow.

But I digress. The conference was a joy. It was great to talk shop with so many writers, and wonderful to talk books with so many librarians.