Entertainment Weekly, the Decatur Book Festival and other Surprises

So I found out yesterday that Cleopatra's Moon made Entertainment Weekly e-zine's "Must Read" list for the week of August 22nd.

What a surprise! Beyond exciting! Here's the link: http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20310286_20521465,00.html#21043406  There Selene is, sandwiched between the Coen brothers' Blue Ray collection and actor Paul Giamatti! Amazing.

Jackson Pearce, me, Laurel Snyder and Drag-Queen Cleo (DQC) strike a pose.

Learning about this was the perfect finish to a wonderful literary fest weekend. The Decatur Book Festival just gets better and better every year. I pretty much camped out at the teen stage, which just happened to be in the air-conditioned  library auditorium. 

There I saw Jackson Pearce (SWEETLY) Rachel Hawkins (HEX HALL series), Stephanie Perkins (LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR), Libba Bray (BEAUTY QUEENS), Victoria Schwab (NEAR WITCH), Terra Elan McVoy (SUMMER OF FIRSTS AND LASTS), Jennifer Jabaley (CRUSH CONTROL) and many other outstanding authors. I especially enjoyed meeting NYT's best-selling author, Simone Elkeles (PERFECT CHEMISTRY series). She was warm, gracious and funny--on stage and in person. I ended up spending most of the authors' party on Saturday night with her.

Speaking of funny, I was really blown away by how entertaining all of the teen author's were--comediennes, every single one of 'em!  Libba Bray, especially, had everyone in the packed house rolling. So did Jackson Pearce, Rachel Hawkins and Simone. I'm going to have to step up my game!

COAS and DQC!

The festival is also a great time to connect with writer friends, like Laurel Snyder, Cathy C. Hall, Kara Levy Bietz, Elizabeth Dulemba, Janice Hardy, Donna Bowman, Barbara Schneider, Connie Fleming, Ashley Parsons and others. On Saturday, Cathy-on-a-stick had a face-off with Drag-Queen Cleo. They each had servants fanning them so they kept their cool. Good thing as shrieking cat fight was barely averted. (DQC was overheard to mumble that there "woulda been no contest" and that she "woulda torn that commoner to bits.")

DQC took one look and said, "Mine!"

Elizabeth Dulemba showed off a rubber ducky Janice had given her, which then DQC claimed for herself. We had to pry her off Pharaoh-duck with promises of regular visits. Another ugly scene averted.

Moving from the teen stage to the adult one, I was so happy to finally meet historian Holly Tucker (BLOOD WORK) who is brilliant, kind and gracious. Holly is the genius behind one of my favorite blogs, Wonders and Marvels.

Yeah, I have no idea either...

My friend Ashley Parsons pointed out that I was on the "Emory Track" for my presentation on Sunday. Sadly, no one knew what that meant.  Was it for college students? Employees of Emory? No clue. But that didn't stop me from having my picture taken next to the poster in the lamest pose possible. 


The Decatur Book Festival really is an amazing event. Every year I think there's no way they can top it, and every year they do. Next year, plan on joining us!