Not Yo Momma's Book Club

Sorry. The official name is Not Your Mother's Book Club, but it's so fun to find new ways to add Yo Momma to this blog. (Actually, I think that's the first time I've dropped a Yo Momma here, but I'm hoping to find more opportunities.) NYMBC organizes author events for Books Inc, an amazing chain of indie bookstores in California, and I was lucky to enough to join a panel of YA authors at their Palo Alto store.

The panel consisted of Kevin Emerson, Jandy Nelson, Cat Patrick, and me, with Daisy Whitney moderating. They named our event A Bucket of Awesome, and placed dozens of tiny metal buckets on the dessert table so people could fill them with goodies and munch during the event. Here we are, each dipping an authorly finger into a bucket, thereby filling it with awesome!

Kevin, Cat, Daisy, me, Jandy

Unlike my event a week earlier where I was on a panel with three authors I'd never met (though I now consider them all friends), this was a group of authors I've hung out with before. And that caused silliness to ensue immediately. (Hence, our fingers mingling in a bucket.)

The photo below was taken "backstage" as we waited to meet the readers. We had to wait backstage a little longer than expected so they could set up extra chairs. Yes, there were more people arriving than expected. (Do you know how awesome that makes authors feel? Our buckets runnethed over!)

(Sorry for that buckets runnethed over comment.
It didn't sound nearly that cheesy in my head.)

I've shown you photos pre-event and backstage, so here's one I took during the panel.

After the author introductions were over, I received a present from a co-panelist. Tired of reading my tweets and Facebook updates where I made fun of the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon, Cat presented me with my very own copy. But I'm not going to read it. I mean, I may glance at the first few pages to see what the big deal is, but then I'm stopping. I swear!

The panel was a lot of fun, thanks in large part to Daisy's great questions. And then it was time to sign books and pose for pictures.

Author Barry Eisler came out for the event, and it was a pleasure to finally meet him.

And an extra-special audience member in attendance was my agent, Laura Rennert.

After the last book was signed, I drove three-and-a-half hours home, slept for 50 minutes, then headed to the airport to fly to Portland, Oregon. There, I'll be giving two high school presentations. The best part is that my niece is a student at one of the schools, and she'll be introducing me!

And finally...

Yo, Mommas -

Happy Mother's Day!!!