BEA Kidlit drink night

I don't like noise or crowds, and I'm basically a shy person. So when I arrived at the Landmark Tavern for my first Kidlit Drink Night, I was dismayed to see crowds of people jammed into a tiny strip in front of the bar. But, knowing that most of those people were kidlit people, and thus good folks, I took a deep breath and plunged in. I'm glad that I stayed, because I had a great time and met so many interesting people that I can't possibly remember them all.

I was thrilled to finally meet fellow Cybils organizers Liz B. and Fuse #8, as well as Cybils Fantasy and Science Fiction judge Greg Fishbone, author of the forthcoming The Penguins of Doom. (You can win a manuscript page from Penguins of Doom by commenting on certain posts on Greg's blog.)

Sisters Grimm author Michael Buckley was there, and I told him how much we enjoyed the new book and how thrilled my son and I were that the Empire State Building had been lit up in purple the previous day. (If you've read the latest Sisters Grimm book, you'll understand the significance of that). Harry Potter editor Cheryl Klein introduced herself to me, "Hi, I'm Cheryl Klein, an editor at Arthur A. Levine Books..." which seemed very modest considering that I knew who she was as soon as she said her name.

Other fabulous people I talked to, in no particular order, included:

• Flux editor Andrew Karre,
  
• Dian Curtis Regan, author of Princess Nevermore and Cam's Quest.
  
• Michelle Knudsen, author of Library Lion
  
• Erec Rex author Kaza Kingsley and publisher Neil Jobalia
  
• Jenny Han, of the Longstockings, and author of Shug.
  
• Carrie Jones, author of Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend, who was the sweetest and nicest person. I'm sad that I'll probably never read her book, because high school books just aren't my thing. (I had enough of high school the first time around and have no desire to relive it). But I hope her book makes the challenge list so it'll get lots of attention and teens will read it to find out what they're being prevented from reading. I'm just kidding, of course, but I do hope her book gets lots of attention, because she deserves it.

I know there are many people that I'm forgetting, so if you talked to me and I left you out, please leave a comment!

More BEA and Kidlit drink night wrapups from:
Fuse #8
Jenny Han
Edited to add:
Liz B.