Long time no blog! I finished up a fabulous book tour with Kimberly Derting (author of THE BODY FINDER) and Claudia Gray (author of EVERNIGHT), then spent a week-long vacation in Arizona. Freshly recuperated, nails done, and sporting a tan, I'd love to tell you guys all about the tour and share some pictures!
I just returned from my first book tour. Wow. Even days later, it still doesn’t feel real. In fact, I’m quite sure that I dreamed it all up. This also might be because when I got home, I literally slept for two days. Going on book tour was even more grueling than a horse show! I knew the Dark Days tour was going to take a lot out of me, but I never imagined I’d go to sleep every night and wake up every morning feeling so exhausted and excited at the same time.
My car arrived on Thursday morning to take me to the Detroit Metro airport, where I boarded a plane for Minneapolis. There, I met my best friend and author of A TOUCH MORTAL, Leah Clifford, who joined the Dark Days tour for that stop! How lucky was I to go on book tour with my BFF? The car took us to the hotel, but we didn’t stay long. It was windy and freezing in downtown Minneapolis, but we were on a mission to roam. We grabbed burgers at an Irish pub and had root beer floats in honor of Will from ANGELFIRE! Our server wasn’t so sure about us at that point... When it was time to head to location, we met the fabulous Claudia Gray, author of EVERNIGHT. I’m a huge fan of her series (especially Balthazar! *swoon!*) and thankfully I had met Claudia before, so I had most of my fangirliness under control. Kimberly Derting, author of THE BODY FINDER (another of my favorite series!), arrived at the store and the event began. I’d done a big signing and reading at my launch party a few weeks before, so I wasn’t completely clueless, but I was no less terrified! I met some amazing fans and friends, and even met some potential new readers! We piled into the media escort’s car and went back to our hotel. After a light, late-night dinner to wind down from our first tour event, we hit the sack, knowing we had a crazy day in Chicago to look forward to.
I was asleep by midnight and when my alarm went off at four in the morning, I was too excited to worry about how tired I was. Claudia, Kim, and I were picked up to catch our very early flight to Chicago where we met Ellen Schreiber, author of VAMPIRE KISSES and my editor sister! Our media escort took us straight to Metea Valley High School, where we met with awesome students who loved reading and writing. They asked great questions and had tons of books for us to sign. Afterward, we went to our Chicago Public Library event. My amazing editor, Sarah Shumway, flew out from NYC to cheer Ellen and me on! We had a couple spare hours after the event, so Sarah, Ellen, and I went out for delicious stuffed pizza at a parlor in downtown Naperville before our event at Anderson’s Bookshop. I was told there were over one hundred people at the Anderson’s Bookshop signing, and I even took a picture for proof! So many fans came to see us and I signed so many books I was beginning to lose feeling in my right arm! An awesome young girl even brought fan art she drew of my characters, which is now proudly adorning my bookshelf.
Our next event, in Miami was at Books and Books, and what a gorgeous store that was. Everyone was so friendly! I met amazing fans, including a girl who read my book six times, and potential fans who loved the excerpt I read for them. When it was all over, I was so sad. I wanted to keep going, but I also wanted to sleep!
It was an amazing experience to spend so much time with such talented, generous women whose advice I’ll take with me throughout my career. I feel so blessed and honored to have been included in the Dark Days of Winter, which gave me the opportunity to meet so many readers and friends, and learn so much. I’ll remember this adventure for the rest of my life!
