Penguin 101

So last week I got to fly to the Big Apple and meet my editor, agent, and publisher for the first. time. ever.  The whole experience was just beyond anything I'd ever dreamed I'd find myself doing. I mean--PENGUIN. What. The. Junk? ME? At PENGUIN? I hardly felt like a bonafide author while there. I felt more like a gawky kid in Disney World gaping at everything and practically jumping up and down with pure, heady euphoria, but everyone was very nice and pretended not to notice. =)

My day started here, at the building which houses the Penguin Young Readers Group (and thusly Razorbill) offices:

 

Yeah. I was like O_O whooooooa sweet mother. Understand, I live in a town in which a building with an elevator is high falutin' shiz. So I was rather impressed. We also headed to a nearby building which houses the main, adultish Penguin biz, to shoot some author vid. That was pretty cool. Everyone was super gracious and let me start over when I got tongue tied.

Here's the lobby. With the receptionist lunging to the side so as not to be caught in Cheesy Visiting Author's photo. But honestly, everyone at Penguin was so, so nice. I was like a little kid discovering Candy Land is actually a real place and you can go there and you want to ask for the autograph of every single person you meet, even the lunging receptionist and the guy in the hallway scraping gum out of a trashcan. Because in my mind, anyone associated with Penguin is a rock star. Or a book god. Or a superhero.

The place is JAMMED. WITH. BOOKS. And not just any books. Familiar books. Beloved books. The books I grew up reading over and over until the spines had more cracks than a day at the chiropractor's. The books I hid under my pillow until my parents were asleep and then I'd pull them out and read them under the covers with a flashlight. The books that made me laugh and cry and inspired me to write my own books. Books by Brian Jacques and Lloyd Alexander and Eric Carle and Astrid Lindgren and Roald Dahl and Jean Craighead George. And the whole time I'm thinking My book is going to be on these shelves. My name is going be on these lists. It was surreal and overwhelming. A Cinderella-meets-the-prince or a Little-Mermaid-gets-legs kind of moment.

Here's me and my amazing editor, Laura. She's totally gorgeous and sweet and I couldn't imagine anyone else looking after Pia. She gave me a little tour and introduced me to all kinds of amazing people who have had a hand in Origin. And everyone I met was so enthusiastic and energetic and engaging. You know--kind of how you always imagine everyone at Google or Facebook or Pixar to be. You can just tell these people love books and love making books and are good at it too. We had a delicious lunch and talked about books and TV shows and Origin and which Hogwarts house we'd be in and all kinds of extremely important, businesslike, solemn things like that.

One of the best parts? Leaving with a sack full of books and ARCs. Because, hey. The way to any author's heart is through her bookshelf. My husband figured that out pretty quick, which is why he's built me so many bookshelves. Anyway, I've already raced through Falling Kingdoms, which was A.Ma.Zing. and I'm agonizing over what to pick up next. Possibly might be doing some ARC giveaways in the near future (if I can bring myself to part with any) so keep an eye out for that!

Oh, and some touristy stuff (it was my first time in NYC; previously I'd only seen it from Staten Island). Here's Ben and me chillin' at Times Square and looking cheesy.

 And seeing Evita--which is only my FAVORITE MUSICAL EVER and it was fabulous. Also, Ricky Martin was in it and he rocked, as did Elena Roger (awesomeness--an actual Argentinian playing the Argentinian Evita).

So much more I could say, but as I write this it's getting pretty late and I have to clean my entire house tomorrow as well as babysit my kid sisters, so I'm going to wrap it up. But before I go I have questions for you!


  1)  Have you ever been to New York? What was your favorite memory there?
               and
  2)  If you could meet any author in the world--alive or dead--who would you want to meet?
                (Me, it'd be Lloyd Alexander.)

   Leave your answer in the comments! I look forward to reading! =)


Cheers!
Jess