Last weekend, I had a blast at the Teen BookFest by the Bay in Corpus Christi, Texas. It was snowing in Boston when my flight left, so the weather in Texas was a nice change of pace. The event was held at the American Bank Center, a gorgeous venue with a view of the bay. We had a wonderful author dinner the night before, and I had great conversations with author Margot Kelly and illustrator Evan Turk. I fell in love with his work. (Seriously, check it out online.) We received awesome author swag bags with treats. Woohoo! The T-shirt was even designed by a local student.

The next day, I appeared on the World Away Panel for four talks with a fabulous group of authors, including Joe Shine, Becky Wallace, and Manuel Ruiz. I was so impressed by the teens in attendance and their questions. Future authors, perhaps?

I snuck in two selfies when I could with author Rose Garcia and Jeff Zentner.Jeff is a fellow 2016 debut author who just won the William C. Morris Award for his book The Serpent King, so it was great to finally meet him in person. Sweet Sixteens unite! The day ended with a group book signing, where I was lucky enough to sit next to the fabulous Miracle Austin. The teens were super polite and excited to be there, and I loved talking to them about books.

After a great weekend, I spent an extra day there to finish edits on CONTRIBUTE. The next day, I got stuck in the Corpus Christi airport when a huge thunderstorm rolled through early in the morning. Brendan Kiely came to chat with me in the airport (thanks to Twitter). It was my first author event on the road, and it couldn't have gone better. Thank you to all the volunteers and sponsors who made the event possible.

Special shout out to Debbie VanZandt for your dedication to connecting teens and authors. And to all the teens, happy reading!