2012 In Bookish Awesomeness (and Fangirlishness)

While 2012 was a huge emotional rollercoaster for me and my family personally (except for the baby nephew, I don't want this year to repeat EVER. OMG, awful,) writing and book-geek-wise, it was wonderful.

And I'm going to list it all here :) because that's apparently the bloggy thing to do at the end of the year:

January

The SCBWI Winter Conference in NYC.

• Where I finally met my friend (and CP) D.B. Graves in person. And the two of us TOTALLY fangirled Cassandra Clare.
• Where I met the amazing Kimberly Sabatini (who confessed to me later that she talked to me because of my shoes :-P) and whose book, Touching the Surface helped feed my fictional dead boy addiction when it came out in October.
• Where I asked Alison Cherry to sign a printout of her fictional boys blogpost, because it is that awesome.
•  Where I fangirled Tara Weikum from Harper Teen, who has edited some of my favorite books ever, including Die For Me.
• Where Henry Winkler made an inspiring surprise appearance and Chris Crutcher drove us to tears.

Henry Winkler!!!!

Me taking a picture of Deena taking a picture of Cassie Clare

April

The SCBWI PA Conference in the Poconos (Thanks to Kim's pressuring gentle suggestions that I attend)

• Where I cried all over the great Laurie Halse Anderson and learned that revision is AWESOME
• Where I made so many new writerly friends *hugs all of the ladies from SCBWIPA*: Stephanie, Megan, Jodi, Taylor, Kit, Ann... and I know I'm going to forget someone, so kick me REALLY hard (it's almost 11 here.) I lost my grandmother that weekend and not only were you just plain fun to be around, you comforted me when I was far from home)
• Uhm, early morning bagpipe tweets, anyone?
• Where Stacy Cantor Abrams' (Entangled Publishing) talk on character jump-started Phoebe's voice in my WIP and Sara Sargent's (Balzer and Bray/Harper Collins) talk on tension helped me figure out the timing for that same story.
• Where I won a copy of Pretty Amy to totally devour before it hit the bookshelves. And won my bid on an ARC of Touching The Surface. Yay, early copies!

Sadly, I had an SD card malfunction and lost most of my pictures from the Poconos! *sniffle* *cry*

May

Until I Die booksigning at Books of Wonder in NYC

• Where I got to see the amazing queen of French fictional dead boys Amy Plum
• Where I met Natalie Zaman, co-author of the Sirenz series, fellow knitter, and all around awesome person.
• Where I met Kristi Cook (author of Haven) and Jocelyn Davies (author of A Beautiful Dark)
• Where I learned that driving into NYC from my office isn't awful, but parking is (well... $$$$$!)

Amy Plum, Jocelyn Davies, and Kristi Cook

June

Dark Days Tour in Fairless Hills, PA

• Where I got to meet Aprilynne Pike, author of the Wings series *fangirl squee* and the upcoming Life After Theft and Earthbound. And baker extraordinaire.
• Where I met two AWESOME bloggers, Jena of Shortie Says and Jaime of The Perpetual Page Turner and The Broke and Bookish.
• Where I also met Liz Norris, author of Unravelling and Bethany Griffin, author of Masque of the Red Death. These two ladies were also wonderfully fun.
• Where I followed mapquest to come home and (I swear) it took me through the middle of nowhere New Jersey. I was convinced I was going to end up breaking down in the middle of a field and zombies were going to eat me.

Liz Norris, Aprilynne Pike, and Bethany Griffin (and me, of course)

  
Book Expo America Power Reader Day

•  Where the publishing industry opened its conference doors on its last day to (some) of the public
• Where I rushed straight to the RWA booth to see Jeri Smith-Ready, author of the Shade series
• Where I saw Stacy Cantor Abrams and Jocelyn Davies again
• Where I ran into My Mercurial Muse while waiting on line for Victoria Schwab, author of The Near Witch
• Where I took a picture in a bubble
• Where I picked up a LOT of books to read...
• ... and then, while getting on the bus home afterwards, kind-of fell into my seat and blocked the bus aisle while the very cute guy behind me laughed at me the entire time. Because I am the most awkward person on the planet and am doomed to never date. Ever.

Jeri Smith-Ready!!!! OMG, I'm wearing flats next to her and am a GIANT.

The Shadowhunter Stairs at BEA

What I brought back from BEA. I'm STILL working on getting to Code Name Verity.

Yes, that's me in a bubble!!!

 August

Bring YA to PA

• Where I took a workshop with so many amazing author-mentors-speakers. If I try to list everyone here, I'll forget someone. The YAPA page has everyone listed.
• Where I sat right next to Gwendolyn Heasley, author of Where I Belong and, when she introduced herself, I said: "You're in my Nook!!!!!" *facepalm*
• Where I totally fangirled Jennifer Armentrout (Lux Series) and Wendy Higgins (Sweet Evil)
• Where I finally saw Frankie Diane Mallis in person (my schedule has stunk for going to the Philly Lit nights)
• Where I had an awesome time chatting a while with so, so many people, including:
  Charlotte Bennardo, co author of the Sirenz series and a transplant to NJ :)
  Jackie Kessler, whose book Hunger kept me company on my flight to Portugal. I really need to blog about it on my book blog, because it's another incredibly powerful eating disorder book.
  Amalie Howard, author of Bloodspell, sweetest person ever, love her!
• Where I won an ARC of Send Me a Sign by Tiffany Schmidt in the raffle (OMG, I loved this book)
• Where I stood on line talking for ages with Stacy O'Neale and didn't even realize it! She's so much fun. If you don't follow her blog or twitter or youTube... WHY?
• Where I saw Jeri, Jena, Kit, and Ann again!

(this was another victim of the dead SD card fiasco... the only ones saved were those I saved to my desktop for tweeting)

Jennifer Armentrout (after I ambushed her)

Wendy Higgins

Jena of Shortie Says

The signed poster of Onyx in my "book picture corner." I LOVE how
Emily looks totally disapproving of Katy and Daemon

In between all of these fun events, I've been writing and growing and changing. I've learned so much this year from contests and tweets and cheering on all of the wonderful people I've met on this journey

I wish you all a wonderful 2013. Writers that I follow, I can't wait to squee over your new releases, or over your steps further on the way to publication. Readers that I follow, I can't wait to hear about the next book boyfriend I'll be crushing on or author I'll be fangirling. Editors that I follow-- I can't wait to see what you acquire next.

This is going to be an awesome year. I just know it. (and, hopefully on the personal side, we're done with deaths in the family for a while, okay? Pretty please????)