World Book Night 2012 - Wrapup

World Book Night 2012 was a success! Literary Lonestars was honored to be asked by BookPeople to organize a group to handout books all over Austin this year. Stephanie and I gathered our local literary buddies and set out for the afternoon. Thank you to Megan, Magan, and Jen for helping out. That's right, two Jen's and two Me(a)gan's and one Steph make for a fun evening. Here is a look into what we did:

Our first stop was to LifeWorks to surprise a GED class with books! The teens were excited about their books and they were so funny! Most everyone picked Sherman Alexie's, Part-time Indian, one of my favorite books. Even the teachers dog loved his new book.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth Release party @ Book People

World Release of Book #5 - Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth 

No admission required.
WHERE: BookPeople, 603 N. Lamar Blvd., Austin, TX 78704 512-472-5050
WHEN: Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Schedule for Tuesday, November 9:

9 a.m. - Tickets available for book signing with Jeff Kinney (Limited quantities available. First come, first served, while supplies last).

4 p.m. - Parking Lot Party with Wimpy Kid themed entertainment and family-friendly activities:
Life-size ‘Cheese Touch’ game, where kids can actually walk around the game board and act like the game pieces

A dunking booth for kids to dunk adults

“Smell the Socks” game where kids will smell a sock (they’ll be scented with good smells) and identify its scent.

Matching game with real school lockers

Showing of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie, compliments of Alamo Drafthouse rolling road show

Face painters/caricature artists

Food from Austin’s Pizza, Main Root root beer, and Tao’s Gelato 5 p.m. - Presentation with Jeff Kinney

5:45 p.m. - Book Signing with Jeff Kinney


Because the event is on a school night, Jeff Kinney will only be signing copies of The Ugly Truth and one book brought from home. Tickets are available at the BookPeople registers beginning at 9 a.m. Signed copies of The Ugly Truth will also be on sale at the event while supplies last.

I'll be there! Hope I see you...

Happy Reading!

Beautiful Darkness Tour...I was the Swag Hag!

Ba-Ba-Beautiful Darkness!

I must say, Austin is a town that loves books and promoting literacy. The Beautiful Darkness release party at Book People was a ton of fun and for some (lucky) reason, I was allowed to be the Swag Hag! What is that you ask? I would be happy to tell you! Mundie Moms gave me a shout and asked if I would help out passing out the swag. Hellz yes was my answer! I dubbed myself...the Swag Hag. To be fair, my friend Stephanie Pellegrin was also passing out swag and I don't know how she would feel about the "hag" bit, but I am a-okay with it. I digress...

Margie, Anastasia, and Kami

The event started at 6pm for the muggles, but lucky us....we got to meet Kami and Margie beforehand. Enter the fab Anastasia Hopcus. She wrote Shadow Hills (which you need to read), and is a local gal. We dig that. Anywho, everybody went over their little jobs - Girls In the Stacks were in charge of the Blog TV feed, Justly Jennifer was the photog and made the super cute badges everyone was wearing. Anastasia was the interviewer along with Katie from Mundie Moms, and Stephanie and me were the hags. Happy, happy hags. 

 *swoon*

*swoon again*

Kami and Margie were so warm, funny, and engaging. You can tell they have known each other a long time. I think they are just like my husband and me. Crazy huh! There were some awesome questions and answers at the event. I tried to remember as much as I can. Here ya go:

Margie said Kami wanted to name Beautiful Creatures "Kami: a book by Kami Garcia. Lol!

Beautiful Creatures was originally called 16 Moons. The gals said they were pretty much set on the title, but it just wasn't meant to be. They were thumbing through the book looking for something catchy. They found it!

If Kami dressed up for halloween, they would be: Kami - a cool Star Wars person

Kami is a better cook than Amma.

Margi wrote some of her parts in Italy. Kami has never been to Italy. 

The event was recorded on their Blog TV channel. Check it out like NOW!

#Beautiful Darkness Swag Hags (its a good thing kids!)

It was a great event followed by a hilarious dinner at EZ's and a made dash through the Half Price Books the size of Costco. I hope everyone can catch Margie and Kami on the #beautifuldarknesstour. You won't regret it!!!

Happy Reading!

Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan Signing

Okay, I admit it. I have a reluctant reader. Actually, I had a reluctant reader. Thanks to the Percy Jackson series my 11-year-old reads till the wee hours of the morning. Like many kids in this age range, she watched The Lightning Thief movie. She was hooked and read the first book in a matter of days. She went on to read the whole series back to back with no breaks. This amazed me! The only thing my 11-year-old liked to read was anime and manga. This is OK with me, but you always want a reader to branch out a little bit. ;)

Luckily, Rick Riordan (author of Percy Jackson series) lives very close to Austin, and he always comes up for a book release party at Book People. What is Book People? The best Indie book seller in the world. Check em out! Back to story.... So, 11-year-old and I headed down to get our book and meet Rick. They had the whole parking lot set up with activities from Camp Half Blood. What's Camp Half Blood? Look HERE. Anyway, there were weapons for kids to explore, a fighting ring where men played the Gods and fought it out in the mud (so cool). There were 3 centaurs, knights, maiden's, kings, and even a talking tree! 

Rick came out and read a few pages from his new book The Heroes of Olympus, Book One: The Lost Hero then went on to give us some information about the direction of the series, future books, and his personal opinions on everything Percy. Here's the skinny:

There will be a total of 5 BOOKS in the Heroes of Olympus series. 

There will be a total of 3 BOOKS in the Kane Chronicles series. 

He says he has NO opinion on The Lightning Thief movie because he hasn't watched it. He said he has a vision of Percy and the other characters and didn't want that to change by watching the movie. Hmmmmm

He said that if he had to choose, he would be the son of Poseidon. 

He said Percy and Leo are more different than alike. 

All the characters from Percy Jackson will show up in the Heroes series. 

Yes, Percy and Annabeth are sill "together."

Talking Tree walking Rick out to the crowd 

Rick talking to the crowd

I wish I had a picture of the crowd - they were so bonkers for Rick! 

Happy Reading!