There and Back Again: Kidlit Con

Oh, my.

I have absolutely no way to even begin to wrap my brain around KidlitCon, or even figure out remotely how to report on it. So, how about a few Book Nut awards?

Most awesome blogger in the whole world for putting this fabulous conference together: MotherReader, of course.

Best announcers: FatherReader and TeenReader and KidReader. Nothing like a lot of humor (and organization and creativity) to make a charity raffle memorable.

Best panel (even though it wasn’t, really): The FTC sent a representative to talk to us about the guides/regulations. Great round ups/discussions at A Chair, A Fireplace and A Teacozy, Galleysmith, and Charlotte’s Library (among others).

Best presentation (since it wasn’t a panel): Greg’s discussion of social media and how it can work for you. It was geared more towards the authors in the room, but it was very fascinating and interesting and helpful and useful. It’s all about connection. Really.

Best people to hang with: everyone. But, specifically…
Michelle at Galleysmith,

Maureen at Confessions of a Bibliofore,

Charlotte at Charlotte’s Library, Jennie at BiblioFile,

and Abby at Abby(the)Librarian (yay for finally meeting her!).

They totally made my day.

Best laugh: Varian Johnson. I want to have him and his wife over for dinner because he’s interesting, fun, and his laugh just makes me want to laugh.

Best idea: getting involved. There’s so many ways — that goes for you non-kidlit people out there — to share a love of reading. I won’t go into them now (one for the future that I want to participate in, and should have last year, is Share a Story, Shape a Future), but there is one relevant participation thing: tomorrow — October 2oth is National Day on Writing. The lovely ladies at A Year of Reading have set up a forum called A Lifetime of Reading for you to submit your stories about your reading experiences. It doesn’t have to be fancy — just go through old blog posts and find one about reading that you’d like to share. And then do it. 🙂

I could go one about the fabulous time I had and how much I want to go back, and how exciting it was to meet everyone (including my Nookish friends Corinne, Cami and Kelly, even though they weren’t actually at KidlitCon)

and how many people lived up to what I thought they’d be, and how weird it was being known as the person from Kansas with four girls (just embrace it, don’t fight it!)… but I won’t.

I am going to try really, really, really hard to go next year, though.

15 thoughts on “There and Back Again: Kidlit Con”

  6. Why thank you, Melissa! I'm glad the non-panel was useful.

    I love kidlitcon if for no other reason than to get to meet fabulous people who I often feel like I already know just from “hanging out” online. Three years in and I'm still amazed at how much people are like I expect!

    Great meeting you… and looking forward to seeing you in cyberspace.

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  7. Melissa!!!
    It was so great meeting you and hanging out with you! I, too, am trying to figure out how to wrap my head around KidLitCon (and I, too, am going to try really, really, really hard to go next year!).

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  9. MAN!! I'm so, so sorry that we didn't get to meet while you were on this coast, but I am so glad that you got to have such grand times during your visit! (And I just had to say that I adored your t-shirt when I saw it in the pic on Corinne's blog!) 🙂

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  13. UGH! Still not a fan of pictures of myself, haha!

    Thankfully I have a great picture mate to draw everyone's attention to. 🙂

    It was fabulous to meet you this weekend I had a great time gabbing with you about books and blogging and just life in general. What a fabulous way to spend a couple of days! Hopefully we'll be able to meet again soon.

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