by hatfield13

Tuesday in NYC

I have come to the conclusion that there is no good way to go to New York City "for the day" when you live where I live. 

My JetBlue experiment, which began with a sprint through the Burlington airport at 7am yesterday and ended with a four-hour flight delay and my arrival home at 4:15 this morning, confirmed this.  Next time, I will spend the night. 

My time in the city,  however, was delightful. It began in this fabulously pointy building.

I love that the publisher for THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z, Walker Books for Young Readers, is in the historic Flatiron Building.  There’s something about the look of the building that I’ve always loved, and the people who work inside are wonderful, too.


The wonderful Anna and Mary Kate

Editor Mary Kate & I got to chat a little about my second novel with Walker, SUGAR ON SNOW, about a girl from a maple farm who earns a scholarship to figure skate with the elite in Lake Placid.  I love MK for a number of reasons, but she added one to the list yesterday, telling me that after she read the pancake breakfast scene in my manuscript, she immediately had to go to the store and get stuff for pancakes because it made her so hungry. 

After our coffee date, Mary Kate & Anna directed me to the right subway train to get down to SoHo, where I met with the editors and art director for my MARTY MCGUIRE chapter book series with Scholastic.  The series doesn’t have an illustrator assigned yet, so after lunch, we looked through some illustration samples, several of which made my writer heart go pitter-patter in a big way. 

Downstairs in the Scholastic store, there was a party going on to celebrate the paperback release of Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows.  The employee cafe upstairs got into the spirit, too.

I did not partake of the polyjuice potion, unsure of whether it would transform me into JK Rowling or Arthur Levine or Clifford the Big Red Dog or what.  It seemed too much of a chance to take with a long night of travel still ahead.  Those transformations, as you know, can be daunting.

This Friday, I am off to Chicago for five days at the American Library Association Annual Convention.  I’ll be signing ARCs of THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z at the Walker/Bloomsbury Booth (#1711) on Sunday morning from 10-11.  If you’ll be at ALA, too, please let me know.  I’m looking forward to meeting writer & librarian pals and checking out all those beautiful books!

18 Replies on “Tuesday in NYC”

  1. I was just talking to Deb Shapiro about how great you are, Kate!

    Thank you for the blog post. It was a lot of fun to read and I hope you have a great time at ALA.
    xo
    C

  3. Sounds like a busy, fun-filled day! Sounds as if everything is right on track for your books – AWESOME! I can’t wait to see the first ARC of Marty McGuire!

    I directed my friend Sara Brenizer Johns to your booth at ALA. One of my favorite people! (She is the past president of American Association of School Librarians.)

    Have fun in Chicago!

  4. That is a great place for your publisher to live!

    I think I would have tried the polyjuice potion. I mean, it does wear off, right?

  5. If you need to find a cheap place to stay there, I found the Pod Hotel very reasonable ($70/night last winter) Bare bones of course–almost more like a hostel–but clean and well kept and very pleasant to stay in.

  6. Were your ears ringing yesterday morning? I ran into Deb at the office & she asked how I knew you. (I also made my shameless request for an ARC of CAPTIVATE when it’s ready. Can’t wait!)

  10. I actually stayed at the Pod Hotel once a few years ago when I was in NY for a teachers’ conference. I liked the place, but my pod-neighbors were having entirely too much loud fun.

  11. I concur on the spending the night in New York thing. I once spent an unplanned night in New York, sleeping on a baggage cart in the airport. The only thing that could be said for it is that it was cheaper than a hotel room.
    Do you know that they polish the floors in the middle of the night at LaGuardia?
    I’ll be at ALA, signing on Monday at the Disney-Hyperion Booth from 1-2 p.m.

  12. Wow, aside from the airport part, that sounds like such a fun visit. :>)

    I wish ALA was in SoCal every year (last year it was in Anaheim)!…

  14. It was fun, and the airport was just a tiny (but sleepy) part of the experience. I would have loved to see ALA in California, too, but I’ve never been to Chicago, so I’m excited.

  15. What a cool trip! And you visited all my publishers! 😉 I lovelove the Flatiron building. My teens liked it too. Very, very cool.

    Could you look for my ARC at the Scholastic booth at ALA? I’d *appreciate* it.