Eileen Cook August 3, 2011

Third Place Books in Bothell was hopping on Sunday July 31st when six amazing YA authors took over The Den and stole the show from the shelves of autographed bestsellers lining the wall. (You better believe I drooled over the Fionavar Tapestry signed by Guy Gavriel Kay, but even it paled in comparison to the event.)

All six authors were great during their presentation and Q&A session, but the best part for me came at the end when the lovely ladies stayed around and signed copies of their books. (Did I mention books accounted for half my declared goods when we crossed the border?)

I wanted to talk with Eileen Cook because she was very witty during the presentation, and mentioned she lives in Vancouver. She also mentioned Ivan Coyote when she recounted her story about being afraid to submit her ms to editors/agents. (I met Ivan and had dinner with her last year, and anyone else who likes her is rockin’ in my books.)

She said Ivan, after hearing her lamentations, told her something to the effect of, “Eileen, I have some bad news for you. You’re already unpublished.”

(I can totally picture Ivan saying this. She’s a huge advocate for writers, and for getting out and just doing whatever it is you feel you need to do.)

Eileen said she realized Ivan was right. There wasn’t anything worse that could happen to her.

Eileen Cook, YA author

(Eileen now has eight published–or soon to be released–books listed on her website, btw.)

I introduced myself and we chatted politely about the waits at the border and I asked her if she attended SiWC (http://www.siwc.ca) last year. She said she had in the past, but not 2010, but is attending this fall – and is even speaking. We talked about the industry for a bit – she asked me to email her to let her know how [something I cannot reveal here, yet] goes, which was very courteous, and I’m totally going to do it when the time comes.

Eileen was engaging and fun to talk to. I look forward to reading her latest, The Education of Hailey Kendrick, and maybe catching up with her at SiWC in October. You can check her out at: http://www.eileencook.com/.

C.

(And yes, I will be posting about my conversations with the other five fabulous authors too!)

Book Signing in Washington State August 2, 2011

I had the extreme pleasure of attending a fabulous book signing at Third Place Books in Bothell, just outside Seattle on Sunday. I could have driven down and back all in one day, but my husband and I decided to make the weekend our birthday gifts to each other.

YA Authors Take Over Third Place Books

What? You’re wondering how I came to be so fortunate as to have found a husband who loves YA novels and salivates at the prospect of meeting six of them in one room?

Ha ha ha.

No. The book signing was his gift to me. He hid in the history section of the book store during the whole ‘sordid affair.’ My gift to him was tickets to a Mariner’s Game (and, yes, he was aware they’re not having the best season) for the Friday night.

We did some lovely touristy things on the Saturday, then booted it home after the book signing – coming across the border with just under $500 in purchases (over half of which were books). (Don’t get me started on the dangers of finding book stores adjacent to restaurants where we stopped for lunch…)

Anyway, we ended our getaway with the book signing at Third Place Books. I’m going to spend the next few blog posts talking about the authors who attended, but for those of you who are interested, the authors in the picture are (from L to R): Eileen Cook, Mandy Hubbard, Lisa Schroeder, Cat Patrick, Suzanne Young, and Kimberly Derting.

I’m glad to be home, but a little afraid of my To Be Read pile now…

C.

W8-BEN Form for Authors May 31, 2011

Now that I have the coveted ITIN (even though I am still waiting for my passport to be returned), I need to provide my publisher with a W8-BEN form. Given the pickiness involved in filling out the W7 to get the ITIN, to say I was paranoid about filling in the W8 would be an understatement.

That is, until I found this amazing blog post. Canadian authors, this is for you!

http://angelasstone.livejournal.com/15902.html

In other news, I got my line edits from my agent last night and she says the manuscript is ready to go out on submission! *happy dance*

C.