a chicken whose head will knock little speakers clear off their mounting. I agree, lets avoid Hoboken.

Meara, you said something a while ago about maybe being in town this weekend?

Speaking of being in town, and that town being D.C., this time I am coming for certain. Conference is paid for, ticket is bought. In fact, I am going from SFO-BOS-IAD so that I can visit Steve over Pres Day Weekend (not scheduling any Buffista get-togethers for Boston just yet - and it's not bad this time - it's that we might go out of town for that weekend once I get there).

So, I have the nights of Tues., Wed., Thurs and Friday (Feb 16-19) to spend quality time with Buffistas in DC. I'll actually be staying at the Westin in National Harbor, but it shouldn't be too much trouble to get to a more central location. I have other friends who aren't Buffistas to visit, but they have to work around the Buffista get-togetherage.

YAY, javachik! What will your schedule be like while you're here? Only evenings free?

Yeah, conference goes from 8:30 in the morning to probably 4:30 or 5 every day. I don't think I'll get roped into any vendor activities in the evening. So I am way flexible.

X-posted w/Literary, because it seems apropos:

Seattle-istas and NoCal-isatas, a friend of mine, Carrie Jones, is book-touring in the areas next week and she writes YA that I think might appeal to many of you guys.

Her two most recent releases Need and Captivate just hit the NY Times Bestseller list. Her earlier books, Tips on Having a Gay Ex-Boyfriend and Love (and other uses for Duct Tape) were critically lauded, but it's really the Need series that's taken off.

She's a total sweetheart and I'd love to get her some support-- she's also touring with another author, Alyxandra Harvey-Firtzhenry. I don't know much about her, but she's written a vampire YA that seems to be getting some buzz as being different from the rest of the pack: Hearts at Stake.

Anyhow, details of the tour are at Carrie's LJ [link]

But here are the dates and times as well:

February 8th Third Place Books 17171 Bothell Way Lake Forest Park, WA Time TBD www.thirdplacebooks.com

February 9th Barnes and Noble 19402 Alderwood Mall Parkway Lynwood, WA Time: 7 p.m.

February 10th University of Washington Event Time: TBD

February 11th Copperfield's Books 140 Kentucky Street Petaluma, CA Time TBD www.copperfieldsbooks.com

Not Your Mother's Book Club Valentine's Bash @ Books Inc 601 Van Ness San Francisco, CA 7 pm www.notyourmothersbookclub.com

February 12th Keplers 1010 El Camino Real Menlo Park, CA Time: 5:30

For those of us in Seattle, it could be opportunity for mini-F2F *she says ever-so-hopefully*

Finally booked my flight and car for my DFW trip. Sadly (at least I think so in terms of where localistas are), it is more Fort Worth than Dallas.

In any case, I arrive at DFW at 5ish on Thursday (2/11) and am renting a car. My TCU presentation is not until 3pm the next day. So, if anyone's interested, I could do dinner on Thursday or something in the morning or for lunch on Friday.

I would love a hotel rec for either downtown Fort Worth or around the TCU campus.

Atlanta-istas! I'll be in your city from April 7-11 for the NTEN conference. Non-Atlanta-istas who are going to NTEN: same message. I'd love to grab a drink or something if others are up for it.

My TCU presentation is not until 3pm the next day.

Oh, what kind of presentation? My little sister is at TCU.

Oh, I'm just meeting with the French dept professors to talk about the new edition of the French book they use.