A scouting report from the North Texas Teen Book Festival

As a landing party of one, I descended upon the North Texas Teen Book Festival on Saturday. I was told that it was a potentially habitable place for intelligent life forms, but I had no idea. 


 

 

Luckily, the inhabitants of the planet were also quite friendly. And fashion-conscious. 

 

 

I started off my day with a session on Star Wars books, with two actual Star Wars authors: Ben Acker and Adam Gidwitz. How major are these guys? They have written books that are actually officially part of the Star Wars canon. Which means, as I understand it: There is like this nerd college of cardinals at Skywalker Ranch whose job it is to approve everything in every official Star Wars product, and these guys passed. 

Adam used the occasion to show off his Yoda-like Jedi-training skills:

 

 

 

I've met Adam before, and he very kindly let me tag along afterward to the green room, which is not green but is the place where authors hang out before their event. Do you want to know what your favorite authors are like when they are introduced to a new guy who is mumbling something about his new book, which he is promoting by handing out some fliers that he very hastily printed out the night before when he realized he maybe should be ready to hand people ... something if they asked for details? Here is a secret from inside that exclusive and highly secure chamber of elite and powerful people: 

They are, to a person, incredibly friendly, generous with their time and welcoming to newcomers. (One even had me sign my first autograph, on one of those cheap fliers.) 

Although there were some weird rituals that I do not quite understand. 

 

(Seriously, I have NO IDEA WHAT THAT IS ABOUT. But it apparently is a thing. I will report more on the trend in the future, if I am lucky.) 


Anyhow, after that, I saw a couple of great panels. Here's me at the end of one. 
 

(That's me in the back.) 

I also splurged on some swaggy swag.
 

And best of all, I saw a whole bunch of people enjoying books. 

 

Report summary: What a great event. I look forward to conducting future explorations in the future. 

 

Michael MerschelNorth Texas Teen Book Festival
Sensors indicate some kind of unusual release in Atlanta

Reports are coming in that advance copies of Revenge of the Star Survivors have been set free at the ALA Midwinter Meeting and Annual Conference in Atlanta.

 

I want to reassure everyone that this is a small, carefully controlled release that might affect only a small group of librarians and other bookish people. The general public is not at risk at this time. 

Michael Merschel