0 The Day Myra McEntire Came to Town

So, y'all know Myra McEntire, right?

She wrote this:

And this:

And the last book in this trilogy comes out this summer and OMG LOOK AT THE PRETTY:

So excited about this one.

So, I love these books, but I feel like I have a special love for Myra McEntire, because she's the one who kind of brought me and Emily together.  I mean, we knew each other in passing.  I came into the store (it's my childhood bookstore so when I moved back, I couldn't wait for regular visits!), I said hi, I think I had maybe mentioned that I was a librarian, but we hadn't really had a chance to talk all that much.  But one day, we started talking about Hourglass, and Emily mentioned that she had an ARC of Timepiece (this was MONTHS before it was out).  Now, booksellers get arcs by the boxful (as well they should), but libraries aren't really set up that way.  ARCs are basically librarian currency.  We hoard them and trade them like addicts.  So when Emily asked me if I wanted to borrow this ARC of Timepiece, I was so excited that I almost cried. I inhaled it in about a day, and I took to the twitter, where Emily and I engaged Myra in a lively debate about her penchant for cliffhanger endings.  And thus a relationship was born (ah, backstory).

So when Egmont decided to send her to Emily's store in September, I jumped at the chance to bring her to the high school in the city my library serves.  I have a great relationship with the head of the English department there, so I called and asked (read: begged) if she could find a way to bring an author to speak to some students.  She was excited about the chance, and so we arranged for her to come speak to the "Super Scholars" at the high school--these kids are in the top 20% of their respective classes.

Sure, there were some obnoxious boys in the front that asked dumb questions, but that's part of the charm of school visits, right, authors? RIGHT?!

The talk was a lot of fun (peppered with Myra's love for Doctor Who and Vampire Diaries), and the kids enjoyed hearing about her books and her process, and Emily sold some books.  After the talk, Myra signed books for the kids and they all got to hang out and ask questions.  I even saw her sign an arm or two (she's suck a rockstar).  It was so cool to see kids that I work with so excited to talk to her and hear what she had to say  All in all, it was a pretty fantastic day.  Score one for The League!!  There was also a store event that, unfortunately, I didn't get to attend.  I had to work or whatever.  Thanks to Myra McEntire and Katie Halata of Egmont and Emily for making this opportunity possible for these kids!!

The League and Myra McEntire! And I'm apparently wearing the least flattering outfit in the history of the world.  Good grief.  Don't let me wear this shirt again, y'all.

I posted about on this over on my library's blog in the fall, so y'all should all go check that out here (it has a few more pictures).

1 Working with Authors

As Ally so beautifully put it, the League is back! We kicked off the spring semester by working together on a very special event: Marissa Meyer, YA author extraordinaire, came to Jackson, MS! Marissa's Lunar Chronicles has been a smash hit here at Lemuria and we were thrilled to host her. (Check out my friend Lizzie's post on Cinder and mine post on Scarlet)

Now, you may be asking, "What does that mean? How does getting an author work?" It really can work a number of ways, but it all comes down to who's paying for the event. Usually, if a school or library requests an author, an honorarium must be paid, as well as travel expenses and all publicity and sales are on the school to generate. However, when an author comes to a bookstore, the publishing house is paying for that author to go to different cities and promote their book. We at Lemuria cherish this marketing tool that the publishers give us. I mean, what better way to promote an author's book than with the author?

This is where the awesomeness of the League comes in, for while that author is in town, as the children's manager at Lemuria, it is my responsibility to get that author in front of as many people as possible, and often the store event just won't cut it. So I take that author into schools: FOR FREE. I know, crazy right? I complete my goal of selling books and audience, and the school gets a free author, something that usually costs thousands of dollars. And what is really cool about this whole process is that it is built on partnerships.

In the case of Marissa Meyer, we visited Ridgeland High School where she spoke to a very engaging group of 50 and then a classroom of 20. For the store event, the beautiful Ally helped me brainstorm and even talked to some of her teacher contacts to encourage teachers to give extra credit to students who attended the store event and voila! We had a successful event! (and yes, Ally and I on the far right have capes on:))