Behind on putting together your PLA schedule? Here’s how to do it in just two steps. After all, you’re not really a procrastinator, you’ve just got too damned much to do, so you need all the help you can get.

[We’re sorry that budget issues means many of our colleagues won’t be there. Here’s hoping for better times in 2012 when PLA will be in Philly.]

1) Use the Programming Schedule, Not the Preliminary Guide

You might be tempted to go to the snazzy-looking Preliminary Guide, but one advantage of being a procrastinator is that you don’t have to deal with no stinkin’ incomplete information. What you want is the more prosaic Programming Schedule. It includes a helpful drop-down menu so you can sort by session track. You can also sort by speaker. Lurking on that list are some big-name authors, like Kim Harrison, on the Cross-Over Readers Advisory panel with Kaite Stover from Kansas City Library.

DON’T overlook the AAP’s mystery author panel:

Friday, March 26
10:30 – 11:45 a.m.
Oregon Convention Center
Portland Ballroom #253-254

Karin Slaughter, Broken (Delacorte Press/Random House Inc., June 2010)
Ted Dekker, The Bride Collector (Center Street/Hachette Book Group, April 2010)
Cara Black, Murder in the Palais Royal: An Aimée Leduc Investigation (Soho Press, March 2010)
Meg Gardiner, The Liar’s Lullaby (Dutton/Penguin, June 2010)
Dana Haynes, Crashers (Minotaur Books/Macmillan, July 2010)
Jo Nesbo, The Devil’s Star (HarperCollins, February 2010)

Unfortunately, you’ve probably missed out on the AAP’s author breakfast on Thursday morning, which includes Leila Meacham (Roses) and Kristin Hannah (Winter Garden). It’s always a great event. You can try sending an RSVP to Marlene Scheuermann, but we hear they are almost full.

2) Go to the Special Events listings.

Inexplicably, the Programming Schedule does NOT include major events like Nancy Pearl’s SRO “Book Buzz” program on Wed., 10:30 to noon, Convention Center, Oregon Ballroom (tip to procrastinators; get there EARLY).

There’s also a CHILDRENS BOOK BUZZ panel, which is NOT listed under Special Events. It’s on the Programming Schedule (see why you need this guide?). It runs 10:30 to 11:45 on Friday in the Convention Center — Portland Ballroom #256.

At this point, you can’t worry about the MEAL EVENTS until the show. These require advance registration, which was due Feb. 10, so us procrastinators  just have to hope that there will still be tickets at registration.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 18th, 2010 at 7:22 am and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.