Teen Author Library Crawl!!!

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The YA blogosphere is on fire this week! NYC's Teen Author Festival is going full throttle, especially this gorgeous day, St. Patrick's Day. Today was the Library Crawl, where over seventy authors took over libraries in all five boroughs! 

And, I must note, it also happens to be my youngest boy child's NINTH birthday! (No small feat, let me tell you!)

I made the 8:13AM train from Bedford Hills this morning with only fifteen seconds to spare. Whoosh! Jam packed, wisps of green from every direction. I ran to Seward Park Library on the Lower East side from Canal Street, not realizing HOW FAR AWAY East Broadway was. I had negative fantasies of missing the entire thing because of my poor sense of geography, but the "abundant sunshine" (TY weather channel) wouldn't let me freak out, so get there I did.

It was a thrill to meet other YA authors, Philana Marie Boles, Leanna Renee Hieber and Mark Shulman. We had teens from three different schools: University Neighborhood, Lower Manhattan Arts, and the Urban Assembly for Government and Law. My adrenaline was pumping from the run, so I offered to "go first". (When I'm nervous, I have a tendency to jump right in to get it out of the way.) However, I have mucho to learn from more seasoned authors! They were much better at introducing themselves and their work.

Leanna, in her own words, "is obsessed with all things ghost and Gothic." So if you like historical fiction with a paranormal edge, you are in for a treat! She read from her book The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, Philana riveted us with her words from Glitz which is "every music fan's on-the-road fantasy come true." Mark Shulman, an amazing storyteller, read from Scrawl, "about a tough kid in a tough place making tough choices."

It was wonderful not only to listen to my colleagues read, but to hear about their own processes and paths during the Q and A period. We had so much fun!

Philana and Leanna unfortunately had other commitments, but Mark and I had a lovely time walking back uptown, talking about parenting and writing, and anything else that struck our fancy. We stopped at an Italian café for coffee and paninis, and discovered a mutual love for Phillip Pullman!

I feel so lucky to be a part of this! And I'm looking forward to morrow at the main branch of the NYPL where there will be panels and authors galore! I will be on the last panel at 5PM called Under the Influence - and will update you all about that tomorrow night!