Five With Leah Jones

For our next "Five With...", I'd like to introduce you to someone who has mostly been toiling away behind the scenes here at Pilcrow, making Pilcrow the social media savvy festival it is. But, during the festival, she'll be leading a one-hour workshop for authors and publishers and utilizing social media, which will be very cool, as I can personally attest to her mad skills in that area. Anyway, without further ado, I present, Leah Jones.

1. What are you working on now?

My day job is Digital Culture Evangelist at Edelman PR in the Digital group, but my nights are spent blogging at Accidentally Jewish, doing freelance marketing gigs for authors, artists, and lit fests, and trying to write my first book.

2. What is your favorite part of literary festivals and why?

Shhh, don't tell anyone, but I've never been to one. I guess that means my favorite part is the anticipation of not only attending my first lit fest, but getting to be on the organizing staff. That means I'll get to shmooze with the nerdy hawt writers, right?

3. Who are your favorite small press mover/shaker types at the minute?

It isn't books, but I'm most closely involved with the PresenTense magazine. It's a small magazine that also has a sister organization for start-up social entrepreneurs each summer in Jerusalem.

4. Which author do you wish was coming to Pilcrow Lit Fest this year who is not?

Oooh, that's good! I wish that Scott Westerfeld and Hillary Carlip were coming. Scott because he's just so kind to his readers. He writes Young Adult Lit and I think he does a great job of talking to his readers and keeping them involved. Hillary, because I've met her and always want to hang out with her. Also, through the Memoirists Collective, she's helped build a community of people telling personal histories. That's rad!

5. If you were in charge of picking a theme song for Pilcrow Lit Fest this year, what would it be?

Immediately the lyrics, "I wanna rock and roll ALL NIGHT and PARTY every day" popped into my head. I don't know what that means, but I'm gonna go with it.