As you may recall, my local indie, BookPeople, has been named the Publishers Weekly 2005 bookseller of the year!

Greg and I were thrilled to join the staff last night for a celebration.

It was great. They had a good crowd, food, drinks, and live music.

The mayor spoke about Austin’s character, and I got to catch up with Jill, the children’s buyer, author Anne Bustard, and Cyndi Hughes, the former director of the Texas Book Festival.

Politico celebrity sightings included Jim Hightower.

Cynsational News

I received a copy of an invitation to one of my upcoming events that refers to me as “renowned children’s author Cynthia Leitich Smith.” I was so flattered. I repeated it to myself several times while trying to catch up on my laundry.

I also received a box of books from Walker, which included several interesting-looking titles: Fifteen Love by Robert Corbet; Shelf Life also by Robert Corbet; The Great Cake Bake by Helen Ketteman, illustrated by Matt Collins; Once Upon A Cool Motorcycle Dude by written and illustrated by Kevin O’Malley, illustrated by Carol Heyer, and illustrated by Scott Goto; and Red, White, and Blue Good-bye by Sarah Wones Tomp, illustrated by Ann Barrow. I also got my ARC of My Big Sister Is So Bossy She Says You Can’t Read This Book by Mary Hershey from Wendy Lamb Books.

Author Anastasia Suen debuts Blog Central: Blogs to Inspire Children’s Authors and Illustrators (divided in three categories: agents, artists, authors).