ALA lesson #2: The Power of Teh Intarwebs

I didn’t have a Twitter for a long time. “That’s stupid,” I thought. “Why would I want to reduce my thoughts to 140-character vignettes? And who would want to read them? I’m content with updating my Facebook status. And my Tumblr. And also my LiveJournal.”

But when ALA started, I knew some of my favorite authors would be tweeting about the conference, as well as the official @alaannual twitter. I knew I wouldn’t have time to catch up on everyone’s blog posts at the end of a long day at ALA, so I wanted a more immediate way to get thoughts and information about the conference.

So I joined Twitter, and I can honestly say that my ALA experience wouldn’t have been the same without it. Not in a “community of librarians” way (although that too), but in an actual, concrete, monetary-benefits-and-higher-awesomeness-quotient way.

First of all, when Duncan (who tumbles here, movie-blogs here, and webcomics here) decided he wanted to go to ALA with me, I figured I’d just get him a $25 exhibits pass and he could hang around the exhibits while I went to panels and such. (I had no idea how mind-boggling and time-consuming the exhibit hall was, and that we’d both spend most of our time there anyway, author-stalking and ARC-hunting.) But through Twitter and the #ala2009 tag, I found out that someone who had previously bought registration for ALA wasn’t going to go after all, and did anyone want her registration?

YES PLZ. So I emailed her, and I was like “I would like your thing, but we are broke. How much are you asking?” and she was like “Nothing!” which was awesome. She emailed the ALA people, and they said we needed to have her actual badge and/or her actual registration confirmation, neither of which we had. So we weren’t sure it was going to work, but we figured if it didn’t, we could always go back to Plan A.

So on Saturday morning we were in line at the booth for registration changes, clutching our sheaf of hastily-printed emails, praying we would get someone nice and sympathetic. But the woman who called us up was obviously CROTCHETY and NO-NONSENSE, and we were sure we were DOOMED. So Duncan said “uh… we want to transfer this registration to my name, but all we have are these emails saying she wants to transfer it, and her badge number. Can we… do that?” and the SCARY WOMAN was like “All right, what’s the badge number? What’s your name? DONE.” And she printed out a badge for Duncan! And we high-fived!

(Me and Duncan, that is. Not me and the scary woman.)

Duncan with his FREE badge:

(Yes, the badge does say he’s from Boise State University. He decided to just go with it.)

The second awesome thing that happened due to Twitter was this: I reunited one of my favorite authors with a valuable possession.

TRUE STORY.

Duncan and I were at the Membership Pavillion, loading up on badge ribbons, when Duncan noticed a digital camera lying on the counter. We were like, “hey, is that someone’s camera?” But whoever owned it had left, so the chick behind the counter kept it in case they came back.

Later on, I checked Twitter, and Laurie Halse Anderson, incredibly awesome YA/children’s author, had posted asking if anyone had found a camera. I replied asking if it could be the one at the Membership Pavillion, and she posted that yes, it probably was, and could anyone make sure they kept it there for her? I had already left at that point, though.

So the next day I went to her book signing, and waited around until most of the line was gone, because I’d already had a book signed by her (several months ago) and figured other people should get a chance. I was going to ask if she’d gotten her camera back, but before I could, she took one look at the name on my badge and was like “OMG, you’re the person who found my camera! Thank you so much!!”

(She probably did not actually say OMG. Laurie Halse Anderson is not the kind of person who says OMG. All dialogue in this post has been filtered through my fuzzy recall of events and my internet-addled brain.)

Anyway, then she hugged me and had her daughter (Office Mouse, I think) take a picture of us, and thanked me some more, and I was verreh happeh. Laurie Halse Anderson isn’t just one of my favorite authors in terms of writing—she’s also really friendly and down-to-earth and genuine. From her LiveJournal you can see she’s been going through some hard times, but she still showed up and signed books for her fans and took the time to talk to me for a few minutes, just because I had tweeted about where her camera might be.

But this post is not just about the awesome power of Twitter to bring authors and cameras together. It is also about the awesome power of Goodreads to make me go, “OMG! Melina Marchetta knows who I am! Sort of!”

(I am the kind of person who says OMG. Half ironically and half out of pure nerdy enthusiasm.)

Melina Marchetta, you may know, is the author of the amazing Jellicoe Road, which won the Printz award this year. Jellicoe Road is a book few people in the United States had heard of before it won, and I only knew about it because of a glowing review in The YA YA YAs (a book blog; guess what kind). I started it on a Saturday, and by Sunday I couldn’t stop. I finished it in a frenzy of tears and amazement that night. The Printz winner was to be announced the next day.

So my review on Goodreads, written the night before the award announcement, implored the Printz committee to choose Jellicoe Road for the award. But due to the book’s low exposure in the US, I was pretty surprised when it actually won. I shouldn’t have been—the committee has awarded under-the-radar books before. But despite my review, I didn’t really think that I had the power to predict the Printz winner. It was like I had made it happen WITH MY MIND. [spooky organ music]

Anyway, I was excited to meet Melina Marchetta at ALA, but what I didn’t expect was that she REMEMBERED MY REVIEW. Apparently someone had sent it to her, so when I said I had read it the night before it won, she said “oh, you’re the one who predicted my win!” and I was like asdkljfjfkls;lkfsd; FLAIL.

ALA was just… awesome. It’s like, if I had met even ONE author whose work I loved, or gotten ONE advance copy of a book I’m excited about, I would have been overjoyed. But instead I met A BUNCH of my favorite authors and got TONS of free books, and it’s hard to believe that so much awesomeness could be condensed into one weekend. I’m so glad I got to go, and that Duncan could come too.

And to think, a couple of weeks before the convention, I wasn’t sure if I should go. Pfft. Silly past-me. She was not in possession of all the facts.