Southern Festival of Books

This weekend, I took a day off work and attended the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville.  I and my party arrived first thing in the morning, around 8:30 am, primed to see the first major speaker of the day, Pseudonymous Bosch, author of the hit “Secret” series (The Name of this Book is Secret, etc).  To my dismay, Mr. Bosch was a no show, his name not even on the program any more.  Conspiracy?  I think so.

 We looked around for a bit after that, checking out the booths, and chatting with representatives from Usborne, and authors Mary Casanova and Mark Wayne Adams (who gives a great presentation).  We when from there to our first panel of the day, featuring Sarah Sullivan, author of the lovely Passing the Music Down and Laura Murray, author of Gingerbread Man Loose in the School.  Both women were very informative about their process, and the panel was a success.  Immediately following this panel was another one in the same room, a YA discussion on teens coping with real world issues featuring authors Susan Vaught, with her new book Going Underground, and Judy Christie, author of Wreath, her first novel for YAs.  The authors spoke well about their books, but the discussion afterwards declined into a ‘what you can and can’t say in a YA book’.

 This was followed by lunch, from a food bus parked on the side of the road, the name of which I’ve now forgotten.  Tasty chicken on a stick, though.

 Following lunch, we canvassed the booths again, I got my picture taken with Llama Llama (in his red pajamas), and we made our way to the House Chambers to see Ruta Sepetys speak about Between Shades of Gray.  First of all, if you haven’t read Between Shades of Gray, get thee to a library immediately.  Secondly, if you ever have a chance to hear Ruta talk, jump.  She gave a wonderful presentation.

 As soon as Ruta’s talk was done, we hurried back to the signing colonnade so I could have my ARC of Bird in a Box signed by Andrea Davis Pinkney (squee!) and then we caught the tail end of Matt Phelan’s presentation on the youth stage about his artwork.  I’ll tell you what, that guy can draw, and he makes it look so easy.  I’m so looking forward to getting my hands on Around the World now.

  All in all it was a lovely afternoon.  And until I see him (or her) in person, I’m not entirely convinced this Pseudonymous Bosch person really exists. *shifty eyes*