When Goodness Falls

So I've been hopping to a few young adult book events recently. Sunday was the largest signing and gathering of YA authors I'd ever experienced. I arrived late and stood in the back, shifting from side to side and listening carefully as they read and talked about their work. My book event a few weeks ago was at this exact book store, and D and I had just attended their celebratory thirtieth anniversay party the past Monday. Having D along for all of these things makes it incredibly great because for the most part I have no idea who these people are, and even peering at name tags only brings up vague recollections of who they might be. At best I've kind of heard for their work or maybe seen their book cover around. D knows a lot of the authors, editors, and industry people by sight, or at least reputation, and so going as a duo makes me feel not as totally lost. Or awkward.

I've met authors before, of course, but mostly in small groups or through my online YA circle. Seeing ten illustrious authors gathered together was an entirely new experience for me, and I'd never actually been to an author panel as an audience member. Even when I'm part of an event, I find it so fascinating to hear what my fellow authors say, and most of the time I wish I was the one asking the questions, as I have a bajillion and one things I'm curious about.

Another novel experience presented itself when I got to attend an authors only drinks night during the week. There I met and talked to a handful of authors, some of whom I actually knew about, and one whom I'm actually kind of a fanboy of. His book was the very first YA book that I read, as my agent had recommended it to me when we had first talked about writing in the genre. As I was introduced around, I was physically surprised when I saw this person. After a few years of only following someone online, and seeing their posed author photos, it totally shocked me that he was there. Like in front of me, and I was able to like meet and talk to him.

So that's the kind of things that have been really cool about being in New York, at least from the industry standpoint. Everything is new to me, and just having events and people who do what I do, after being physically community-less my entire writing career, is kind of exciting and dare I say it, inspirational?