Where was I last week?

BYU Symposium Books for Young Readers, July 18-19, 2013 was energizing! I had a great time with my son Scott! (We're both story time librarian-type people! ... and he didn't even blink when I dropped some extra leftover bagels-for-later into my bag.)

And here are some author friends old... (not in years, just already befriended, like Jennifer Nielsen, who came to our library with her very first book and a jar of pickles to entertain children, and has since gone on to be on the New York Times Bestseller list!)

(I'm right behind you, Jennifer!)

and new friends, (like Erin and Philip Stead, who write and illustrate their own books and have a studio to die for, but if you really died for it, then it would be kind of hard to keep writing)

(and Sara Pennypacker, who knows how to write so that readers draw their own conclusions)

(and Karen Cushman, who didn't start writing until she was 50)

(and Steve Jenkins, who has drawn animals since he could pick up a pencil)

(and Tony DiTerlizzi, who wrote Spiderwick Chronicles and is still very much a kid. Me too, me too!)

I'm SO GLAD I got to go, thanks to my son, Scott! The event re-charged my writing batteries. 

So what is it that recharges your batteries? 

Meeting authors at Books for Young Readers

Melting socks and brilliant sons

by Shirley Bahlmann
I got to go to the LTUE writing conference at BYU last weekend! WooHoo! "Life the Universe and Everything" was smart enough to invite my oldest son, Andy, (Andrew on the program) as a presenter on Tolkein and the Wanderer. I dropped off three of my other sons to listen to their brother, but then I couldn't find a parking space to save my life! (They REALLY should have a "mother of presenters" private lot.) Finally I had to park off campus and run like a maniac to get there 10 minutes late. Andy was so professorial that he even read some Old English. The audience seemed to understand his lecture, even though most of it went over my head until the question and answer section. Then it got fun and laughing, so I could follow that! Take my word for it, he did a GREAT job!
To my chagrin, I'd only packed one pair of pink fuzzy socks for the 3-day trip. Well, I didn't pack them, they were on my feet. No worries! I washed them at night and hung them up to dry. But by morning, they were still damp. I could fix that. I stuck a hair dryer in the sock opening and turned it on. First steam came out, then a stinky smell. "Hey, what's up?" I thought. "Didn't I use enough soap?" I left the dryer drying and went to get my perfume to spray on my socks. By then it seemed the sock was dry enough, so I pulled it off the dryer nozzle and put the other sock on. Then I noticed crusty patches inside the dry sock. What the HEY? I turned the sock inside out and saw that the furries on my sock had melted together in patches! Ahhh! The stinky smell wasn't dirty sock, it was melting sock!
I pulled the socks on anyway, but the melted parts scratched my skin. I thought for sure that my favorite socks were ruined. But wait... no! They weren't, not when I turned them inside out! My feet were happy, I was happy, and I hope you're happy to know that you should never give up. Take courage! There's always a way to get past the trials of melted socks in your life.