Writing Life 5

So, back from ALA. And what a show! Here's who I met or saw again: from RH: Adrienne, Tracy, Catherine, Nancy (Knopf), Rachel, Beverly, Greg; Wendy Lamb; David Gale; David Lubar, Terry Trueman (Truefriend!), Kirby Larson, David Almond, Markus Zusak, Christopher Paul Curtis, Marilyn Singer, John Green, Dana Reinhardt, Jack Gantos, Traci L. Jones, Walter Dean Myers, Christopher Myers, Gene Yang, James Sturm, Kadir Nelson, and the list goes on. And the list of librarians is even longer and just as strong and impressive! Thanks to them all for pushing our books, those of us fortunate enough to write books.
I got ARCs galore: Elijah of Buxton by Curtis, Stachel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow by Sturm and Tommaso, One Good Punch by Wallace, Gym Candy by Deuker, I Am Not Joey Pigza by Gantos, The One O'Clock Chop by Fletcher, Bone By Bone By Bone by Johnston, The Name of this Book is Secret by Bosch, Yellow Flag by Lipsyte, and more. Where will I find the time to read!
I also know for a fact that Dana's third book is almost good and ready to go. I can't wait for it to get to book form. Kirby Larson and Jennifer Holm both looked great receiving their Newbery Honors plaques. Heartfelt kudos to the two of you! Zusak and I got to talk boxing for a bit; what a real and true guy this writer is, a family man, a rock star of a writer, genuine. Bobby and Lee Byrd of Cinco Puntos out of El Paso, thanks for the coffee, the sit down time. Lynn Rutan, grandmother of twins born a day after my oldest son, Lukas (Sept 6 and 5 respectively). Do I sound like I'm just dropping names? Sorry. But it was so awesome!
Thanks to RH for getting me the gig. YALSA, ALA, all the backers, true champions. If this were an acceptance speech at the Oscars the music would have started playing a while back.