Old Mill Road Elementary School
Awhile back, my dear friend and fellow author Jen Calonita asked me to participate in Author’s Night at Old Mill Road Elementary School in Long Island. Little did I know that it would end up being a star-studded event, with some of my favorite writers in attendance!
Jennifer E. Smith and I road-tripped it up together. I drove and she was oh so understanding of my directionally challenged-ness. She said, “You’re doing so well! You don’t seem stressed at all!” Which was not true, but just the fact that she said it made me feel so much better. And we arrived safely! No black hole of lostness for us! When we walked in the door of the school and I thought: Now my only job is to get Jen back into NYC in one piece in a couple hours.
Now, if you haven’t read Jen’s latest, THE STATISTICAL PROBABILITY OF LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT, you must do so immediately. I love love LOVED this book - and I’m not the only one who did. Check out this glowing review in the NY Times!
Here are Jen and me at our table (Do we look like two girls who were scared of falling into the black hole of lostness in Long Island? No, we do not.):
Across the table, the aforementioned, absolutely fabulous Jen Calonita (I just finished her soon-to-be-published book BELLES - oh, how I loved it!), and the ever gorgeous Alecia Whitaker, whose debut QUEEN OF KENTUCKY is on my nightstand:
And here are all our books hanging out together:
Down the aisle were Barry Lyga and Leslie Margolis - kids were buying up their books like crazy! But they stopped signing to pose for a picture:
Then Leslie and I posed our books together - we have the same cover artist! Tuesday Mourning, we love you! And that must make our characters sisters, right?
AND … at the end of the night, I delivered Jen back to NYC, safe and sound. We didn’t get lost at all! In fact, we made excellent timing! All an all, a successful night!