MotherReader

This is about the time I usually get Conference Envy. You know what I mean, that feeling that everyone is going to this really cool event and you’re missing out because you couldn’t decide if you should put another activity on your schedule, but now it seems stupid that you opted to take on the dance rehearsal carpool again instead of asking your neighbor to do it so that you could do something for yourself for a change because Lord knows you DESERVE IT!

Or something like that. Perhaps instead you’re an author or editor realizing that the opportunity to present your new titles to forty book-reviewing bloggers isn’t something you should pass up in this dicey economy and saturated book market.

If you are experiencing Conference Envy after hearing about our Library of Congress tours, Friday night dinner, amazing conference panels, Meet the Author session, fun charity raffle, Twitter breakfast, and bookstore visit, well… I can still take a few more people for the Kidlitosphere Conference. Email me at MotherReader AT Gmail DOT com.

If you live in the area, and absolutely can’t make it Saturday, let me encourage you to come out to our author event at Hooray for Books! in Old Town Alexandria on Sunday, October 18th, from 1:00–3:00 p.m. Bring the kids. Bring the neighbor’s kids. Bribe a teen to join you. We’re going picture book to middle-grade first, and then tweens to teens second with:

1:00 p.m.
Cynthia Cotten presents Rain Play
Jacqueline Jules presents Unite or Die!
Sue Corbett presents Last Newspaper Boy

2:00 p.m.
Caroline Hickey presents Isabelle’s Boyfriend
Elizabeth Scott presents Something, Maybe
Paula Chase-Hyman presents Flipping the Script

Let people know about this wonderful chance to greet bloggers, meet authors, and buy books, all while supporting an independent bookstore and the Kidlitosphere Conference.

You can also join us in supporting Donors Choose for our KidlitCon09 charity, and specifically two projects at Washington, DC, schools — Literacy is Fun-damental and It All Starts With Reading!. If you’d like to send something for our charity raffle on Saturday, email me soon at MotherReader AT Gmail DOT com.

If you’re still reading because you want to be convinced to come to the KidLitosphere Conference, then I’ll remind you that the conference is open to bloggers, wannabe bloggers, and the blogger-curious, along with YA/Kidlit authors, illustrators, editors, and publishers.

The meeting is at the Sheraton Crystal City Hotel, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and will cover:

• The Blog Within: An Interview With Your Inner Blogger
  
• Building a Better Blog: Best Practices, Ideas, and Tips
  
• Split Reviewer/Author Sessions:
  It’s All About the Blog: Approaches for Book Reviewing Bloggers
  It’s Not About Your Book: Writing Ideas for Blogging Authors
  
• Social Networking with Gregory K.
  
• Authors, Publishers, Reviewers (and ARCs): A Panel Conversation
  
• Coming Together, Giving Back: Building Community, Literacy, and the Reading Message

There will also be a “Meet the Author” time during the day, where writers and illustrators can share their books. A fun dinner to mix and mingle is scheduled for 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. with the continuing party moving to the hotel bar. The registration fee for all of this — including the breakfast and dinner — is only $100. Can’t make the dinner? Email about a reduced conference-only fee.

Here’s who’s coming so far:

• Abby — Abby (the) Librarian
  
• Sarah — Archimedes Forgets
  
• Jennie — Biblio File
  
• Melissa — Book Nut
  
• Rachel — BookPikks
  
• Anamaria — Books Together
  
• Kim — Bugs and Bunnies
  
• Liz — A Chair, A Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy
  
• Charlotte — Charlotte’s Library
  
• Maureen — Confessions of a Bibliovore
  
• Carrie — Dog Eared and Well Read
  
• Amanda — The Fictionistas
  
• Michelle — Galleysmith
  
• Greg — Gotta Book, Happy Accident
  
• Lara and Julie — Grow Up with Books
  
• Jen — Jen Robinson’s Book Page
  
• Alicia —LibrariYAn
  
• Bill and Karen — Literate Lives
  
• Tricia — Miss Rumphius Effect
  
• Pam — MotherReader
  
• Alexa — Not Enough Bookshelves
  
• Gina and Ann — PBS Booklights
  
• Paula — Pink Me
  
• Laura — Pinot and Prose
  
• Terry — Reading Tub
  
• Wendy — Six Boxes of Books
  
• Sondy — Sonderbooks
  
• Dawn — Teaching with Picture Books
  
• Sheila — Wands and Worlds
  
• Jill — Well Read Child
  
• Wendy — Wendy on the Web
  
• Susan — Wizards Wireless
  
• Kelly — Writing and Ruminating
  
• Mary Lee — A Year of Reading

And authors and publishers including:

• Sally Anderson — Mother Goose Programs
  
• Pam Bachorz — Candor
  
• Ernestine Benedict — Reading Is Fundamental
  
• Mary Bowman-Kruhm — The Leakeys: A Biography; Busy Fingers; Busy Toes
  
• Tami Lewis Brown — Soar, Elinor!
  
• Paula Chase-Hyman — Who Are You Wit’? That’s What’s Up! Flipping the Script
  
• Susan Cheng — Tor Books
  
• Sue Corbett —Last Newspaper Boy in America, Free Baseball, 12 Again
  
• Cynthia Cotten —Rain Play, Some Babies Sleep, Fair Has Nothing to Do With It
  
• Moira Rose Donohue —Penny and the Punctuation Bee, Alfie the Apostrophe
  
• Tracey Daniels — Media Masters Publicity
  
• Dee Garretson —Escape from Camp David
  
• Olgy Gary —Children Come First
  
• Sharon Hancock —Candlewick Press
  
• Helen Hemphill —Adventurous Deeds of Deadwood Jones, Long Gone Daddy, Runaround
  
• Joan Holub — Groundhog Weather School; Shampoodle; Knuckleheads
  
• Caroline Hickey — Cassie Was Here; Isabelle’s Boyfriend
  
• Sara Lewis Holmes — Letters for Rapunzel; Operation YES
  
• Jennifer Hubbard — The Secret Year
  
• Varian Johnson —My Life as a Rhombus, Saving Maddie
  
• Jacqueline Jules —Duck for Turkey Day, Unite or Die, No English
  
• Wendy Martin —Mother Goose Programs
  
• Diana Peterfreund — Tap & Gown, Rampant
  
• Wendie Old —To Fly; The Wright Brothers;
  
• Lisa Paul —Lands Atlantic Publishing
  
• Candace Ransom —Tractor Day, Giant in the Garden, Magician in the Trunk
  
• Jama Rattigan —Dumpling Soup, Woman in the Moon, Truman’s Aunt Farm
  
• Madelyn Ruth Rosenberg — Freelance writer
  
• Justine Rowden — Paint Me a Poem
  
• Marisa Russell — HarperCollins
  
• Elizabeth Scott —Something, Maybe; Love You Hate You Miss You; Living Dead Girl; Stealing Heaven
  
• Wendy Shang — Freelance writer
  
• Shelena Shorts —The Pace, The Broken Lake
  
• Laurel Snyder — Any Which Wall; Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains; Inside the Slidy Diner
  
• Sarah Sullivan — Passing The Music Down; Root Beer and Banana; Dear Baby: Letters from Your Big Brother
  
• Amy Thomas — Burning Money