The St. Louis Photo Recap: I am a verb.

I just got back from St. Louis where ALL THE AWESOME LIBRARIANS (Okay. A few couldn't make it. But still.) were hanging out at the YALSA Symposium.

As I boarded my plane in Philly, I got some groovy news:

A starred review in Shelf Awareness! Sweet!

★ "Printz Honor author A.S. King (Please Ignore Vera Dietz; Everybody Sees the Ants) has delivered yet another YA novel that may well have booksellers chasing customers around the store to handsell it."

And THEN, if that wasn't enough awesome news for one day, I found out that Ask the Passengers landed on the Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2012 list.

No kidding.
Click here to see the entire list. 

Fantastic news and many thanks to PW and Shelf Awareness for the honor.

While I'm talking about awesome reviews, I should really link to this one at Stacked. Here's a teaser:

This is a story about being a person, not a label. Good readers will see that. I think defining this as simply a book about sexuality belittles the depths to which King aims to talk about the varied human experience. 

A deep bow of gratitude to the ladies of Stacked for that. *bows*

Now, here's a picture recap of St. Louis because I've got copyedits due in 2 days and I still haven't finalized the library minutes from last month and I just realized the meeting is on Thursday. Oops.

Friday: Heather Brewer, Andrew Smith and I met in hell. (See the flames?)
We ate dinner and talked world domination.
Photo cred: Mr. Brewer

On my walk back to my room, I snapped this next shot.
Courthouse, moon, arch.

A picture of me and a nice man from Canada with the
Dred and Harriet Scott statue outside of the courthouse.
If you want to know why I was fascinated with this, read below.

This is Dred Scott's hand on Harriet's hip.
Something about it made me wonder if that court had a problem
with Dred and Harriet's right to marry.
I bet they didn't.
Married slaves made...new slaves.
Very convenient for the people in charge.

I spent Saturday morning at the St. Louis Art Museum with my good friend Andrew Smith. It was an awesome museum. Andrew has a picture of me in the museum. I'll link you if he posts it. The museum's collection of Beckmann is large and lovely.

After lunch, I wanted to see the Gateway Arch because I knew it would be my only chance to see it. By pure luck, Terry Trueman happened to call me while I was on my way. And so, a few hours of very inappropriate banter commenced. Also, there is NO POSSIBLE WAY to capture the enormity of the arch with an iPhone camera. I tried, man. But I failed. The arch is huge.

Terry Truman with the Gateway Arch being awesome.

Me with the Gateway Arch. Photo taken by Terry
who stopped traffic to stand in the road to take this
because he is completely insane.

The only picture I took that seems to give that arch any perspective.

After this, the YALSA Symposium started for me. The funny part: I have no pictures.
Other people took pictures of me.
But I don't have them.
So, picture a really awesome book signing on Saturday night.

Then, picture a great panel on Sunday morning with the amazing Helen Frost and Scott Westerfeld run by awesome librarians Teri Lesesne and Rosemary Chance.

BONUS AWESOME PICTURE ADDITION thanks to Carrie Kausch!

We eventually removed the glasses, though I was tempted to wear them the whole time.

The panel was called "Collapsing Boundaries and Blurring Lines" and we talked about how books are big (Westerfeld) and language is expansive (Frost) and how things don't always fit neatly in a box (me.) Awesome librarians live tweeted the panel. Here are some gems.

You're wondering what that last one means, aren't you?
The question from the audience was, "Do you ever want to correct people who get your books all wrong when they review them?" That line was part of my response.


Bonus weird stuff picture time.

Okay. No.
First, he's got her cornered at the back of a boat.
Second, he's leaning into her in a really creepy way.
And third, This is NOT where Hyatt bonus points take you.
Hyatt bonus points cannot buy women on boats.
And really: imagine all the cool travel pictures they could have used.
Instead, this odd shot of a ferry to somewhere flat in early winter?

Also, for the ladies who are collecting Hyatt bonus points, I'd like to
point out that bonus points are not useful while being cornered at the
back of a boat by a creepy guy.
Use your knee. 

BEST. SIGN. EVER.
Seen in my taxi on the way to the airport.
The driver will pull over FOR FREE, you guys.
Free. 

I wanted to buy this for a friend, but couldn't.
Do you know why? Look closely.

STL airport gem. Sweet.

Maintenance man fixing leak of hydraulic fluid in landing gear.
Awesome.

Landing gear got fixed.
I got to hang with my favorite Philly librarians (Yo Philly) in the airport.
I got home pretty late.

I will not be on a plane for another four months or so and I am entirely okay with that.

Now. Copyedits and library minutes. Then a week to read my favorite book and then I GET TO WRITE THE SECRET PROJECT. Finally. I've been trying to get to it since January.

Now is the time.
I am a verb.