Kidlitcon Update

Greetings from Sacramento! After sleeping in because my roommate Charlotte is a super stealth ninja (I woke up to the gentle click of the door and the smell of coffee; truly impressed!), I have deposited myself in the lobby of the Citizen Hotel, where they have a lovely red velvet couch upon which I can sit with my BOTH my back touching the couch AND my feet touching the floor, and there is 1940s music playing. I firmly expect the Andrews Sisters to round the corner at any moment, although so far it has only been bleary eyed people who are glad to know The Secret of the Keurig in the Armoire. (I brought my own tea bags and am sitting here with tea; no addiction at all!)

Kidlitcon is very interesting. Meeting the bloggers and authors with whom I have worked for years was fascinating. I loved that Tanita Davis (http://writingya.blogspot.com) actually remembered that I had won a copy of her marvelous book Ala Carte, and it was fun to talk to her about topics on which I would love to see books written, and to hear about her time living in Scotland.

Charlotte ( http://charlotteslibrary.blogspot.com) did a great presentation on "Finding Your Blogging Voice". It was good to hear that I'm not the only one who feels bad saying things that are less than positive about a book, and seeing examples of engaging bloggers was helpful.

My arch nemesis, Kelly, (http://www.stackedbooks.org) not only wiped the floor with me in number of books and pages read when she was a Cybils panelist (It's not a contest. So why is there a list of readers with most books read, hmmm?), but demonstrated how she has mastered social media in ways that I never may. If I can't even post a picture from an iPad, what are my chances with Twitter Analytics? And Pinterest. Honestly, the only time I've ever spent considerable time on Pinterest was when my older daughter would be out late on dates and I would wait up for her with Pinterest and a glass of wine. Since I rarely drink, and it was the only thing that made Pinterest palatable to me, I don't see anything good coming of this. Maybe if Picky Reader starts dating...

So many people looked vaguely familiar- our profile pictures are all so tiny! It was fun to see that the lovely Jen (http://jkrbooks.typepad.com) was just my height; working at a middle school, I forget that 5'2" is short in the real world. Cybils database guru Sheila (http://wandsandworlds.com) once again came to my rescue by loaning me $3 when the restaurant didn't take Discover. Freya Hooper (http://onegreatbook.blogspot.com) boosted my self esteem by saying that if she posts a book on Goodreads that I haven't read, she feels really successful!

It was fun to have a little introvert downtime with Leila (http://www.bookshelvesofdoom.org), Maureen (http://bloodyyank.blogspot.com), Anne (anneboleslevy.com), Melissa (TheBooknut.com) and several others.

Have gotten a few things read, and look forward to today's sessions (http://www.kidlitosphere.org/news/2014/8/25/kidlitcon-2014-program.html). Kidlitcon 2015 will be in Baltimore, so if you have time and resources next October  to attend, definitely plan ahead!