Cavalcade of Authors West Photos

Pacific Lutheran University the site for Cavalcade of Authors West this year

A panel of authors at the first ever Cavalcade of Authors West

Today sixteen YA and middle-grade authors and over 225 secondary students converged on Pacific Lutheran University for the first ever Cavalcade of Authors West (west of the Cascade Mountain range.) It was a wild and fun day and for my post at the information table I'd say that everyone had a great day.

Every student was assigned to three author sessions where the authors spoke about the writing experience and how to get published. They also were assigned to attend one panel discussion with four of the authors. Questions were asked and prizes were awarded. As the day went on students got more excited and delighted. I asked one group of middle school students how things were going. They all remarked that it was going well, but one girl hung back and exclaimed, "This has been one of the best days of my life!"

Left to right: Leslye Walton,  Stasia Ward Kehoe, Jim Whiting, Liesl Shurtliff

Midmorning the local bookstore, Garfield Books, opened up for book sales and the only girl they sent over was soon swamped and huge line formed. The kids were wild to buy books from the authors whose sessions they attended.

After lunch and the last session, the book-signing sessions commenced. Long lines formed for favorite authors but many students used their t-shirts for autographs and were getting signatures for all authors.

It was so fun.

Students queuing for Marissa Meyer's signature 

The line is pretty long. Notice friendly faces peeking over the crowd?

Showing off Kazu Kibuishi's signature

Finally at the front of the line with Marissa Meyer

Marissa Meyer, author of the Lunar Chronicles series

Think these kids are excited?

Getting Liesl Shurtliff's signature

Kazu Kibuishi signs a book for my library

Here it is, a work of art

Kimberly Derting signing a poster 

Kevin Emerson

Back for more Marissa Meyer

Leslye Walton

Hanging out after the event

Another happy bunch of readers and young, aspiring writers. Kia A. (center back) won the 1st writing context for Cavalcade of Authors West.

Can you tell the kids had a great day?

Cavalcade of Authors West is this Saturday.

This coming Saturday, May 2nd is the first Cavalcade of Authors West (west of the Cascades).

Here are the details:

Seventeen Young Adult and Middle-Grade authors will converge on the campus of Pacific Lutheran University for a day of seminars, author panels, and book-signings.

Who is invited to attend:

• 20 students from each of the area high schools and middle schools were invited to attend. These students had to pay the registration fee, read books by a minimum of four of the authors, and get themselves to PLU on Saturday.
• Students were also invited to submit their writing samples to be judged by college students.
• Preregistration was required.

These authors will present workshops:

Sorry about the poor quality of this photo. It is a copy of a copy of the handout given to potential participants in the writing contest.

In case you can't read the authors names (imagine that!?) Here is a list of the authors and a few titles of their books.

Author	Book titles (not an exhaustive list)
Royce Buckingham	The Terminals; The Dead Boys
Kimberly Derting	The Body Finder series; The Taking
Peggy Eddleman	Sky Jumpers; The Forbidden Flats (Mid grades)
Kevin Emerson	Breakout; Exile; The Dark Shore
Kristin Halbrook	Surfacing; Nobody But Us
Kazu Kibuishi	Amulet series (graphic novels) (Junior)
Mindy McGinnis	Not a Drop to Drink series
Lish McBride	Hold Me Closer, Necromancer series
Rachelle Mead	Vampire Academy series
Marissa Meyer	The Lunar Chronicles series (Cinder)
Alyson Noel	Immortals series; Soul Seekers series
Lisa Schroeder	The Bridge from Me to You; Far From You
Lisesl Shurtliff	Jack: the true story of Jack and the Beanstalk (Junior)
Terry Trueman	Stuck in Neutral; Life Happens Next; Cruise Control
Leslye Walton	The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender
Stasia Ward Kehoe	The Sound of letting Go; Audition
Jim Whiting	The Story of the Seattle Seahawks; Many other nonfiction titles (most for Mid-grades)

This is the first year of Cavalcade of Authors West.  Apparently a similar event has been happening on the other side of the mountains for several years. I am sure that it will be a fantastic event and I am excited for Saturday.