Wow. I just got back from the Tweens Read festival in Houston, hosted by the indie Blue Willow Books, and I am happy to report that it was THE BEST.

There were over 1800 kids!!!

They made us little book cupcakes.

Ali Benjamin is even cuter than her cupcake.

They fed us burgers larger than our heads! Kevin Sands could only eat half of his. Amateur.

Seriously, I felt very Dorothy-in-Oz the whole time. The other authors were rock stars, and also all incredibly nice people.

Ingrid Law, me, and Jennifer Nielsen.

Selfie time with… Linda Urban!

Kekla Magoon!

C. Alexander London!

Crystal Allen!

Wendy Shang!

The volunteers made us feel like honored guests at all times. They even clapped us into the library for lunchtime — like cheerleaders do at football games for the teams, if you can imagine that.

Karen, my amazing librarian/signing line wrangler!

They made a SIGN of my HEAD. It’s so… meta.

But my favorite part of the day was when I got to meet kids who had read my books… and kids who had emailed me, and came looking for me.

KAYLEN!!! I am so glad we got to meet.

It gave me all sorts of energy to work on my next book. I want to have more for Kaylen and all the rest to read!

I signed the wall at Blue Willow! I am now officially famous.

Thanks to Blue Willow Books and Penguin Books for Young Readers for sending me to Oz… I mean, Houston. I am overflowing with happiness today!

Kevin Sands, me, Christian Diaz Gonzalez, Linda Urban, and Katherine Applegate.