1. Whew. That’s all I can say on this particular Friday. Oh, wait, I can also say this: THANK YOU SO MUCH! Because of all the support from you guys, the readers, THE MOON AND MORE will hit the New York Times Bestseller list at #3. HOORAY! The list is REALLY hard to make these days so it means even more than ever before that I got a spot there. My cup runneth over. Seriously. It just keeps hitting me as I’m walking around and I get all wobbly. Although that MAY be the fact that I am still totally sleep deprived. I finished up my events in San Francisco Monday night, left very early Tuesday morning and flew all day to get back in time to put my daughter to bed. Then it was right back into the routine the next day, with day camp drop-off and pickup and grocery shopping, before heading off to Cary for an event at the Barnes and Noble there. Then on Thursday I was running on fumes, trying to keep moving because I knew if I stopped at any moment I’d just fall asleep standing up wherever I was. And, um, that moment came this morning, at about 9:15 am, when I had a million things to do in my office but instead fell back into bed and slept for two hours. I’m planning for a repeat performance once my babysitter arrives this afternoon. But it’s working! I can see the dark circles subsiding, slowly, and I’m slightly less scary to look at. Ah, sleep. The original Miracle Drug.

2. Another lingering effect of being gone so much is that my daughter now refuses to let me out of her sight. She is, as my husband keeps saying, “A stage 5 clinger,” just like in Wedding Crashers. I literally had to peel her off of me to go to Cary the other night, and that was just for a couple of hours. Oh, the tears and trembling lower lip and those little hands locking around your waist! I know I just have to keep proving to her that I AM here and not going anywhere, at least for awhile. (In less than two weeks, I head to ALA in Chicago, but that’s for just two nights, which is NOTHING after all this other travel. Not that I am telling her this. Yet.) It’s like an ongoing trust exercise, proving that if I go to the bathroom I WILL, in fact, return momentarily. But until she is convinced, she’s coming with me. Just to be on the safe side. It’s a little crazy but I have friends with older kids who are dealing with indifference and eye-rolls most of the time who tell me I should soak it up. So I am.

3. I can’t even begin to tell you guys how great the last two weeks have been, though, aside from the homeside heartbreaks. THE MOON AND MORE got the best welcome ever, and I LOVED meeting so many amazing fans and readers across the country, from D.C. to Boise to California. Wow. I got so many letters, which I am carefully pouring over now, as well as cupcakes and necklaces and just the kindest words, ever. I was especially struck by Angelene, who did nail art of all the things I love: my book, my home state of NC, GMA, coffee and Colby Realty. So freaking cool:

 

Did I mention I’m in awe of you guys? Well, I can’t say it enough. Whenever someone came through the line and told me that my books had some small part in getting them through high school, it was all I could do not to get choked up. Because I felt that way about reading, and music, back when I was that age. I was barely getting there, day after day, but I DID get there, with the help of some great characters whose creators I never got to thank personally. For all those people in the media out there who say teens these days do nothing but go on Instagram and play with their phones, you are WRONG. Girls are still reading, and reading a LOT. They’re out there. I saw it with my own eyes. And I am so, so grateful for that.

4. Speaking of writing, this week my editor Regina Hayes and I did this really cool piece for Slate.com about our joint process for seeing a book from draft to publication. We emailed back and forth all through Memorial Day weekend, just talking about all the books we’ve done together (seven in all!) and THE MOON AND MORE. I always say I have former editors the way other people have ex-boyfriends. Some left me, I left others, and with some it was mutual. But Regina is, and always has been, my Just Right. We have SO MUCH fun together and I admire her so much. It was really cool to think back on all those books and the work we put into them (although we had to wrack our brains a bit, seven is a lot!). I think these days, when self-publishing is such the rage, people can think maybe editors aren’t as crucial as they once were. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’d be NOWHERE without someone to help me clean up and hone my messy first, second and even third drafts. It’s pivotal. Every single time.

5. As I said, I’m done with events for awhile. My next one is Wednesday, June 26th at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, followed by ALA. So it’s not a full stop right now as much as a pause, but a really nice one. I have never so looked forward to organizing drawers and busting out my labelmaker as I get settled back in and do some post-tour super decluttering. (There is something about being on book tour that makes you want to Make Changes In Your Life: not sure what it is, but happens each and every time.) All this travel, and new places and faces, was fun. But it is SO good to be home. As I said above, I feel like it’s all kind of one big blur of turkey wraps (which I ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner, sometimes all three on the same day) and views from airport windows. Now I’m fixing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for my kid, and watching my husband and Will, the guy he works with, stroll leisurely down the driveway with a pellet gun to take out a few of our thousand or so voracious squirrels. The garden is coming in like crazy, and we have enough eggs in the fridge for as many deviled ones as I chose to make. But I know once I’m rested up (someday) I’ll feel a bit wistful for everything I just did. Highs and lows, I guess. And other things….

 

 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

1. Okay, so this has been SUCH a wild week I didn’t event GET this Five before now, Saturday morning. I don’t even know where to begin. I did my local kickoff fo THE MOON AND MORE on Monday evening at the Regulator in Durham, the book was released the next day AND I also hit the road. Whew! I’m actually writing this from the airport Saturday morning, waiting to catch a flight to Boise. Then it’s two dates in the San Francisco area and HOME. But for now, a recap. First, of course, there was my moment on GMA Live, which I STILL can’t believe actually happened. But it did! Then I headed to DC, where I had a great event with Politics and Prose, and the next day to Boston, where a ton of folks turned out my event in Natick with Wellesley Books. I even got an amazing necklace for a pre-birthday gift from reader Shana. LOVE.

It even has the first couple of lines printed on real pages inside, so I’ll never forget them. Nice!

2. Then, on Thursday, it was my birthday. I mean, seriously: book release AND turning 43 all in the same week? That’s just crackers. Anyway, I woke up in Boston, got a sweet video of my kid wishing me a happy birthday, then headed to the airport to fly to Houston. While I was sitting at the gate, I got a happy birthday text from my friend Cap at GMA, saying I should watch the crowd that morning during the show. I panicked, as was nowhere near a TV, but then spotted a sportsbar open for breakfast. I asked the bartender to switch the channel to GMA (I’m sure she thought I was nuts, but whatever) and then totally shrieked out loud (confirming her hunch) when I saw this right before the 8am hour began:

I love my GMA friends. Have I ever told you that before? (A joke: I know I talk about it WAY TOO MUCH.)

3. In Houston, I had a great event with Blue Willow books. I was a little sad to be away from my husband and kid on my birthday—it’s the first one I’ve spent without her since she was born, and without my husband since I was eighteen—but the folks at the bookstore and my Penguin rep Jill made sure I got a proper celebration. Also some of my loyal readers brought me cupcakes and cards, which just confirms what I already knew: I have the best fans ever. Here’s me with my Penguin pal Jill, and the red velvet cupcakes she brought me:

 

I ate one before bed that night. And I am NOT EVEN SORRY. (Although I did somehow manage to get frosting all over my phone screen while doing so. I’m a bit sorry about that.)

4. Then it was off to Cincinnati, where I had a fabulous event last night at Joseph-Beth. It was so totally summer themed, with leis and beach toys, that I could almost SMELL the suncreen and hear the waves. (I would normally be at the beach right now, for my birthday/anniversary week, so it isn’t so hard for me to visualize this.) Plus they had the BIGGEST sign for THE MOON AND MORE ever:

They told me I could have this to take with me, but 1) I couldn’t fit it in my suitcase and 2) I couldn’t imagine trying to convince my husband that I needed to hang it up somewhere in the house. So I gave it to this lovely reader instead, who I KNOW will give it a good home.

During the event, while I was signing, a girl came up and wondered if she could ask me something. I said sure, thinking it was probably about writing or the book. But she said, “I wondered if you have any advice on getting through high school.” People: my heart just ached. Because that was SO ME, back at that age. I just wanted to know if there was something, ANYTHING, I could be doing to make things easier. I didn’t even know the right thing to say, but I tried anyway. I told her that I totally understood. That is would be okay. That even if things were great now, high school was short and life was LONG. That she’d made it, and maybe even have some good stories to tell. And I told her to hang in there. And then when she left, I swallowed hard, cleared my head, and smiled at the next person in line. But man. I won’t forget that anytime soon.

5. So now, as I said, I am on my way to Boise, ID to do an event today, Saturday the 8th, at Hastings Bookstore at 3pm. I’m writing this from the sky somewhere between Cincinnati and Salt Lake City, where I have a connection. Never been to Idaho and am EXCITED to see what it’s all about. This trip has been so fun, but also tinged with homesickness now and then. It’s always about the highs and lows, right? I have a birthday wish from GMA, but my kid sobs uncontrollably when I leave for the airport. So many amazing readers who are so kind to me, but then my husband texts me a picture of my dogs and my heart pangs. But I know that I’ll be home soon, with so many great memories I can pull up during those hard writing days when I feel like I want to tear my hair out. And really, I have a job I love, and for that I am forever grateful. The best, though, is when my two worlds collide, work and home, in the best way. Like this:

Thanks to you ALL for the comments, tweets and reblogs on Tumblr during this fun, crazy week. I’ve got three events left on this tour, including today’s. Get all the info here.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

1. I’m starting this Five on Thursday morning, as I am en route to the airport. I’m going to New York for BookExpo America, the big publishing convention that is always tons of fun. And hectic. Which is why I think tomorrow, when I am scheduled basically from 10am until I go to bed, will NOT be the ideal time to be trying to blog. Just a hunch. Once I get to NYC today, I’m going to a fancy party (thrown by People magazine, OMG, regular readers KNOW how excited/nervous/insanely neurotic I am to be invited)  and then to the great panel I am a part of at the Barnes and Noble in Union Square. Before I do any of that,  however, I have to go to the Disney Store in Times Square, because I promised my kid I would. Have you been to this store? Even for Times Square, it’s intense. My teeth start chattering from all the stimulation. The things I do to go out of town, I swear.

2. Speaking of my kid, I totally put her through the ringer this week. First, on Tuesday, we went in for her kindergarten shots. I didn’t tell her about this until we were almost at the doctor’s, which was good because she immediately burst into tears. Luckily it was only two, and they did them quick. A trip to Target and all was forgiven. (Yes, I  too am sensing a parenting pattern here.) Then yesterday, it was the dentist to get a cavity filled. This was NOT quick and we both cried. I actually broke a sweat, it was that traumatic. And yes, I MIGHT have taken her to the toy store afterwards. Hopefully we are in the clear now for a little while. I don’t think my wallet (or our house, bursting with STUFF) can take any more appointments.

3. Of course, I am already a nervous wreck even without all this, because, you know, MY BOOK COMES OUT ON TUESDAY. Oh, my goodness. I’m so scared and ready, all at once. These last couple of weeks, waiting for the pub date and all this traveling to begin, have been excruciating. I kept trying to put it into words, without any luck, until I remembered going to marathons with my husband and watching all the runners in the last few minutes before the start. Everyone’s been training forever, and people are just waiting, jumping up and down, stretching, SO ready to just DO THIS. That’s how I feel right now. Like that starting gun can’t fire soon enough. Thank goodness I am going to do some work stuff right now or I might just explode. Nobody wants that.

4. Okay, so now I’m in NYC and it’s Friday. It’s like time travel! Anyway, so far my trip here has been AMAZING. I got here yesterday, then immediately went to brave the Disney store (see Bribery of my Child for various things, above). I tweeted I was en route there, then did a little browsing before I bumped into Jaclyn and her mom, who were in the area, follow me on Twitter, and came to say hello. They were headed to my panel that night at the B&N Union Square, but we got to hang out a bit in the Monsters Univeristy section of the Disney Store anyway. Then I did my shopping, scoring some plush Princesses for my daughter and a Phineas and Ferb playset for me and my husband. (We can’t wait to set Doofenschmirtz up in the dollhouse with Aurora.) Then it was back to the hotel to get ready for the People mag party. I was nervous about my outfit:

But my friend Jenny Han gave it a thumbs up, so I went for it.

Because of my panel, I could only stay at the People mag party for about a half hour, which I spent scoping for famous people. I saw Elizabeth Gilbert of EAT, PRAY, LOVE and Melissa Joan Hart. But the biggest score for me was meeting amazing author Jami Attenberg, whose book THE MIDDLESTEINS was one of the best I’ve read in ages:

I was nervous. But she was SO nice. If you don’t follow her on Twitter (@jamiattenberg) you are missing out. Then it was OFF in a mad dash (car ride) to the B&N, where I had a great time talking with Richelle Meade, Andrea Cremer, Rick Yancey and Marie Lu in front of about 350 of our best friends. Thank you to ALL that came out. You guys rock. Then I went back to my hotel, ordered a burger, and basically fell asleep while eating. No pictures of that. You’re welcome.

5. And now, it’s Friday, and I’ve spent a lot of the day dealing with my website, which is either under attack from spammers (still) or currently inhabited by gremlins. We’re not sure. Anyway, I’m just HOPING this post goes up and you can find it. This is not a good week for the site to be down, but oh, well. Maybe it’s just feeling anxious, too.While my awesome website guy Mark was dealing with things early this morning, I distracted myself by walking down to Times Square to catch a bit of GMA. They were getting ready to head to Central Park for a concert, but I got to say hello to Robin and Josh. Then I had some time to catch up with my friend Capp, a GMA stagehand who thinks my obsession with the show is hilarious. We met about a year back when I was in the studio and fangirling like crazy and she  just rolled her eyes. Anyway, she’s been so nice, getting me in and giving me some inside scoop like us fans always want. We shot this pic as I left:

Okay, now to see if I can post this without spammers making the site implode. Fingers crossed…

Have a good weekend, everyone!

 

 

 

1.Okay, people: my pub date is getting SERIOUSLY close. In fact, this time next week I’ll be at BEA in New York, having already done this amazing event that I still can’t believe I am a part of:

If there is a JPEG image, it must be really happening, right? So that’s Thursday night. Friday I’m running around and have a big party thrown by my publisher, and then Saturday it is off to the Javits Center to sign books. (If you are attending BEA, I’ll be in the autographing area at Table 5 from 10-11am.) After that, I head home for a couple of days before THE MOON AND MORE’s big release event at The Regulator Bookshop in Durham on Monday, June 3rd at 7pm. The next morning, I fly out to DC to begin the tour. WHEW! To see full tour details, go here. I am so excited and totally nervous and may be having a BIT of a problem settling down, even this far in advance. I better try, though. Because once it all starts, I’ll be goinga million miles an hour. Whee!

2. Speaking of the new book—and fair warning: I’ll be doing a LOT of that in the next few weeks—this week the trailer for it was revealed over on MTV’s Hollywood Crush. Check it out here. It’s always really cool to see how someone else chooses to explain your book, and this was a particularly cool way. And, of course, it made me want to go to the beach. One of the downsides of this busy travel summer is that I haven’t yet been to Emerald Isle, and I don’t even know if I’ll GET there before my kid has to start kindergarten in the fall. I’m trying not to think about this, as I’m basically already having shrimpburger withdrawls, but every once in awhile a picture will come up on my iPhoto screen saver like this:

 

And I just so SIIIIIIGGGGGGHHHHH. I have to find a way to sneak there, even if it’s just for the day. I mean, look at that!

3. It’s not just work that is busy right now. On the domestic front, we have milestones aplenty, and I keep getting all emotional. First off, my kid got her first loose tooth this week. What? How is that even possible? It’s one of the front ones, and we have a daily Tooth Watch going to check its progress in falling out. I feel like I was just comforting her as a baby as those were coming IN, and now she’s losing them? What the heck is going on here? At the same time, today is the last day of preschool. I am sniffling just typing that. We’ve been SO lucky to be at such a great school for three wonderful years, and I have a feeling I will be a weeping mess when I do my last pickup there in a few hours. If you want to see the truly great and wonderful in the world, look no further than preschool directors and teachers. The ones we’ve been lucky enough to have are SUCH rock stars. I wish I could drag them all to kindergarten with us. (No, I really do: if I could, somehow, without breaking laws, I totally would.) I know this is how it is all supposed to go. Babies are born, they get teeth, teeth fall out, they start school, that school ends. But nobody told me it would be so hard on ME. Whoa.

4. I have no way to move into this next item other than to say this: it has been the earworms of ALL earworms the last few days. (And yes, I am including that one Taylor Swift song I can’t even speak the name of aloud or it becomes stuck in my head for at least a month.) I may have written here before about this one show my kid discovered at the beach one year called MAKING FIENDS. It was on a cartoon network, but I don’t really think it’s actually for kids. It’s about this evil little girl named Vendetta who holds her whole town, Clamburg, hostage to her bad deeds. She has a giant hamster for a sidekick and only eats beef jerky, clams and grape punch. The whole show basically revolves around her relationship with this other little girl, Charlotte, who is as sunny and cheerful as Vendetta is dark. It’s so twisted and nuts, and there’s this one song that is in one of the early episodes called “Why Don’t We Pretend to Be.” My kid knows it by HEART, which is hilarious considering it has lines about telemarketers and CEOs, and she has no idea what those are. But she sings loudly and proudly anyway. You probably will do.  Fair warning. If you want to take the risk, enjoy.

5. Finally, today is the start of Memorial Day weekend AND the official beginning of summer. You all KNOW summer is my favorite season (see number 2, above) but not JUST because of the beach. There’s also flip-flops and daylight until practically bedtime and, of course, the FOOD. Only in summer can I justify a popsicle as a full meal, even breakfast. But regular readers also know that for me, summer is ALL about deviled eggs:

 

(These are from a few summers back. They don’t appear to have paprika on them, yet. But I am sure they did before they were devoured.) I’ve been asked before for my deviled egg recipe, but the truth is, I don’t really have one. I just boil eggs, peel them, then halve them and mash up the yolks. Then I add low-fat mayo, yellow mustard and sweet relish, going by instinct after all these years, plus salt and pepper to taste. Then I fill up the halves, sprinkle them with paprika, and eat. The funny thing is I am NOT someone who cooks without recipes: this is the only thing I can make that way. Which means something. Although I’m not sure what, nor do I care, because I can’t stop looking at that picture. YUM!

Have a great (and safe) holiday weekend, everyone!

1. Full confession: I am writing much of this Five on Thursday night, because I just KNOW how nuts this week has been and I expect nothing less from Friday tomorrow. Also, my kid is actually ENTERTAINING HERSELF (I know!) so I better make the best of it while it lasts. We had so much crazy happening here this week. My daughter got sick, with only two weeks of precious preschool left. Our dishwasher, the old soldier, finally gave up the ghost after 13 years of service. Plus my husband was getting ready to leave for the track, with me left in charge of the child, dogs and chickens, including our littlest ones, who apparently keep escaping. Uh-oh. I’ll let this GIF that was made this week for me by Twitter friend and follower Haley sum it up:

Yeah, that’s pretty much it.

2. I also realized that week that even though I have been talking about it here nonstop and on Twitter pretty relentlessly, there are still some people out there that didn’t realize I have a new book coming out next month. (I know: you are NOT these people. But bear with me, I have to do this.) Anyway, we have a new listing put together of all my tour dates so far, along with the links for each store. Some of the events are ticketed ones, so be sure to find out what’s planned for YOUR place before you go. Here’s the updated list:

New York, New York

Barnes & Noble – Union Square, 33 E 17th St – Thursday, May 30, 7 pm (This is a group event: see more below in #3!) 

 

Durham, NC

The Regulator – 720 Ninth St – Monday, June 3, 7 pm

http://www.regulatorbookshop.com/event/2013/06/03/day

 

Washington DC

Politics and Prose – Great Hall, Martin Luther King Jr. Public Library

901 G St., NW– Tuesday, June 4, 7 pm

http://www.politics-prose.com/event/book/sarah-dessen-moon-and-more

 

Natick, MA

Wellesley Books – The Morse Institute Library, 14 E Central St –

Wednesday, June 5, 7 pm 

http://www.wellesleybooksmith-shop.com/event/sarah-dessen

 

Houston, TX

Blue Willow Bookstore – West Houston Community Center, 725 Bateswood –

Thursday, June 6, 7 pm

http://www.bluewillowbookshop.com/event/sarah-dessen-0

 

Cincinnati, OH

Joseph-Beth Booksellers – 2692 Madison Rd – Friday, June 7, 7 pm

http://www.josephbeth.com/KidsEvents.aspx

 

Boise, ID

Hastings – 7500 Fairview Ave – Saturday June 8, 3 pm

Does not appear to have event listings

 

Pleasanton, CA

Towne Center Books – 555 Main Street – Sunday, June 9, 2 pm

http://www.townecenterbooks.com/events.html

http://www.townecenterbooks.com/townecenternews.html

 

San Francisco, CA

Books Inc. – Opera Plaza, 601 Van Ness – Monday, June 10, 7 pm

http://www.booksinc.net/event/sarah-dessen-books-inc-opera-plaza

 

Cary, NC

Barnes & Noble – 760 SE Maynard - Wednesday, June 12, 7 pm

http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/event/4390234

 

Raleigh NC

Quail Ridge Books & Music – 3522 Wade Ave – Wednesday, June 26, 7 pm

http://www.quailridgebooks.com/event/sarah-dessen-moon-and-more

 

Falmouth, MA

Eight Cousins Bookstore - 189 Main Street - Tuesday, July 23rd, 3 pm

Not listed yet

For you booksellers, I’ll also be at BEA signing on Saturday, June 1st. And we’re in the process of adding a date in Asheville at Malaprops, one of my favorite NC stores, later in the summer. Stay tuned!

3. So I was already SUPER excited about my trip to NYC for BEA in a couple of weeks, for lots of reasons. First, BEA is a great convention for booksellers and publishing folks and anyone who works with books, so it’s always a blast. I haven’t been since two years ago, when I got to speak at the Children’s Breakfast and met Julianne Moore. Oh, did I mention that?

I think I might have.

Anyway, I knew I was signing books on Saturday June 1st AND going to a super fun party my publisher was throwing the night before. THEN I got invited to a party where, no joke, I think there might be celebrities. YIKES! It’s on Thursday night, the 30th, so I was already obsessing about what to wear (don’t want to look like I’m trying too hard, but also want to look cute, you know the drill) and everything else, like what if I see a Real Housewife? (I have it on good authority a few of them were at this party last year). Anyway, I was pumped. THEN I found out  that the very same night, but later, I had been invited to be part of a super rock star YA panel at the Barnes and Noble in Union Square with Rick Yancey, Andrea Cremer, Marie Lu AND Richelle Mead. I mean, hello! I am not sure how I ended up on this panel as these people are SUPERSTARS but I am going to keep quiet and hope nobody notices the error. So I get to (maybe) see celebs AND do an event at this awesome star with rock star writers, all on the same day? There is not enough punctuation to convey my excitement. Seriously. I won’t even try. *squeals*

4. In other news, tonight is the series finale of The Office. Regular readers of this blog remember when I first discovered this show on DVD, then got totally hooked. The Jim and Pam romance, as it built, just about killed me (in a good way). I will admit to not watching AS devotedly the last year or so, but only because we’ve stopped watching a LOT of things because we go to bed so early. (It’s not you, TV shows, it’s my early-rising kid.) But I’ve been tuning in the last four or so eps, as well as watching older ones on my DVDs and I know I will be WRECKED at the ending, even if it’s so well done. I just don’t do well with finales. I hate saying goodbye! At least I know I am not alone:

(images from Television Without Pity, thank you!)

Edit: Okay, it’s Friday morning now, and I DID watch The Office retrospective AND finale. And I cried. I think I’m going to miss Jim and Pam, and everyone else, a lot more than I thought I would.

5. As I said, I’m picking up this Five on Friday morning, around 8am, which is total meltdown time around here. My kid needs to go to preschool in a half hour, the dogs are barking, and I’m trying to juggle it all along with breakfast and blogging and everything else. I can VAGUELY remember a time when my mornings were leisurely, just me eating my breakfast and watching GMA while my older animals (now passed) snoozed peacefully at my feet. But it was long ago. Now, mornings are like being shot out of a cannon, and the day pretty much follows suit. Plus, my husband is away, so tag-teaming isn’t even an option. The bottom line is right now, I am SO APPRECIATIVE of my husband and all he did, and is going to do in a couple of weeks, while I do book tour. I love my job and love meeting my readers, but the flip side is someone has to hold down this crazy fort. Two weeks from today I’ll be waking up in NYC, starting up BEA and then the tour the next week. But for today, as crazy as it is, I am glad I am here doing my part while HE gets a much deserved break. Even if my kid is jumping on her trampoline and I’m still mourning the loss of my butterfly Havaiana flipflops, which puppy Goose got when I had my back turned. (They were silver. I loved them.) It takes a village. Sometimes, and in our case, a small city. But even in the midst of chaos, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Although a bit more sleep might be nice.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

 

1. Okay, I know that I say this every Friday, but this week has been CRAZY. For all the regular reasons—two dogs recovering from surgeries with a billion pills to force down them each morning, Teacher Appreciation Week at preschool, the day-to-day chaos—but also because on Wednesday, I flew up to Chicago for a do-over for a school visit that I was scheduled to do during the paperback tour for WHAT HAPPENED TO GOODBYE. It was at Granger School in Aurora, which was closed on the day I supposed to come back in April because the roads were all flooded from a crazy bunch of rain. People, honestly: I have never had such a nice welcome in my LIFE. We pulled up and the girls were all waiting, waving ruler flags with pictures of my books. They gave me flowers and CHEERED as I walked up to the front doors. I mean, HELLO! How often does that happen? Then, in the media center, they had ALL my favorite things waiting for me:

Yes, that IS Sriracha Chips, Hershey’s Special Dark with Almonds nuggets, and Carolina Blue cupcakes. Also pics of GMA and my beloved Tarheels. Do they know me, or what? The visit itself was GREAT, the girls were so amazing and asked incredible questions, and the staff and teachers made me so grateful there are such amazing people teaching in our public schools. Yeah, it was pretty much an all-on lovefest. Here’s a collage that the fabulous librarian who set ALL this up, Ms. White, made:

Bottom line: I felt loved. BIG TIME.

2. In other exciting news, this week I was finally able to share this SUPER big secret I’ve been having to keep for a few weeks now. Regular readers of this blog—especially those who were with me all the way back at LiveJournal—will remember how obsessed I was with the show Veronica Mars when it was on. I watched every season, swooned over Logan Echolls and was basically pushing it on everyone I met, insisting they join the cult with me. (So to speak.) Then I was one of MANY people who contributed to the Kickstarter to fund the VM movie, which I am so excited about I pretty much can’t even stand it. So imagine how I felt when I found out that I’d been invited to speak at the Austin Teen Book Festival in September with none other than Rob Thomas, who CREATED the show. WHOA. (I actually didn’t believe it until I saw it on the official website, but look, here it is.) Anyway, I’m SO excited both to read Rob’s YA book RATS SAW GOD and talk with him about books IF I can even look at him without dying of fangirling. We’ll see how that goes.

3. The other big thing happening around these parts this weekend is graduation at UNC, as well at NC State AND Duke. It is a weekend of caps and gowns and out of state license plates and crowded restaurants, as well as feeling of both accomplished and bittersweet. Two of my rock star babysitters are graduating, one to graduate school and the other to a great job, so I am so happy for them, but sad for us because they will be SO missed. It is the downside of hiring college girls and considering them family: they always have to move on. I won’t be attending graduation this weekend at Carolina—in fact, I will be avoiding campus and downtown like the plague, as we locals do—but I will take a moment on Sunday morning to wish the class of 2013 well. What a big adventure to be beginning. Hang on!

4. Also happening this weekend: Mother’s Day. Is it weird that I still associate this day with MY mom, as well as my mother-in-law and my husband’s grandmother, and don’t think about myself at all? I guess a habit of 37 years is hard to break. Which means I’ve been rushing around today getting gifts together, planning how to wrap them, and generally forgetting totally that I, too, am a mother. (Which is shocking, considering that this morning my kid put this crazy beaded necklace on me, which I forgot about until I was out at Sam’s Club, looked down, and discovered I was still wearing it. Whoops.) I’m sure my husband and daughter have something planned, but honestly I got the best gift already today, when my kid looked at me and said, “You look beautiful, pretty face.” I mean, come ON. Who needs a card when you have that?

5. Finally, I have to share this one last thing about my IL school visit. During this paperback tour—and whenever I do events—I love to do Q&A. It’s MUCH more fun than me just babbling on, although I can totally babble, it’s like a strength of mine. But questions are more fun all around. I can usually count on getting the same ones each place, like, “Where do you get your ideas?” (Everywhere and anywhere) and “What’s your favorite book you’ve written?” (Can’t pick, but have a soft spot for This Lullaby) and “What advice do you have for someone who wants to be a writer?” (Read and write as much as you can). Every once in awhile, however, I get one I haven’t heard before, and that happened yesterday at Granger Middle. This girl raised her hand and said, “If you had to pick one of your boy characters for your daughter to date, who would it be?” And I was STUMPED. My daughter? She’s only 5! She won’t be dating until she’s 30 at least (if my husband has any say it it, anyway). But still, I had to answer. The easiest reply was “Not Rogerson from Dreamland,” but that’s sort of cheating, so I really thought on it. In the end, I went with Wes from THE TRUTH ABOUT FOREVER, because I would want her to be with someone who didn’t expect or even want her to be perfect. But really, Dexter or Owen or Dave or Nate…they’d all be just fine with me. I mean, what mom WOULDN’T want to have hand-created the boy their daughter went out with? Sadly, I don’t think this will be an actual option when my kid is older, unless science comes a LONG way. Luckily, I still have some time. Although it is flying. Hug your mother this weekend! She probably needs it.

 

Have a great weekend, everyone!