In the last 5 weeks I've been to Provo, SLC, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Anaheim, New Haven CT, and Boston. The kids and Dan came to Provo, SLC, and Anaheim with me.
I probably don't need to say much about *why* we've done so much traveling--my book came out at the end of March!
So we started with a book signing here in Cedar City at our local independent bookstore. Dan couldn't stay the whole time because he had pack meeting, and Andrew was helpful and went home with Dan to put Oliver to bed. Evelyn stayed and helped me with the event--she was especially good at telling people about all the little booths and helping them pick out temporary tattoos (we had a photo booth, temporary tattoos, drawings for giveaways, and a quiz where you could figure out which magical order from the book you belong to). I had a wonderful time--we had a pretty steady stream of people and we sold out of books, which is all I really wanted. (I spent the first twenty minutes worried no one would come). So many friends and family came out to support me--it was really humbling.
The next day we were up early to head to Provo. Evelyn and Andrew wanted to help me, so they came with me. I had an author visit at my old high school (and got to see a huge image of the bulldog I painted years ago hanging on the wall of the school), then we spent the afternoon prepping for another author event at the Provo library. We got really fancy cupcakes (Better than What--a chocolate, caramel delight--and carrot cake) from a bakery in Pleasant Grove, and we set up a few of the events from the previous night (we had leftover props from the photo shoot, temporary tattoos, and the quiz). Luckily, my friend Cristie and her boys showed up early to help, as I was wearing a beautiful Victorian-style gown my mom had made for me--with a petticoat!--and I could barely navigate the stairs, let alone carry up boxes of bottled water. After worrying (again) that no one would come, the room ended up filling and there was standing room only. My brother and his wife (Justin and Lia) came, though I didn't get to talk to them, and my aunt Jeannie. I saw lots of old friends, and several of my parents' friends came too, which was a lot of fun.
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| A bunch of friends from high school |
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| Several writer friends |
Saturday, trying to take advantage of our time up north, Dan and I went to the Lion King while the kids played at Sarah's, then I had another signing at the King's English--Sarah and Krysti, a couple of YA book bloggers, hosted my event (they asked great questions!). Jared and Mitcee came with their kids, Bubby and Sarah were able to squeeze in the back, and my mom's sisters (Tara and Dahnelle) came too. In what was starting to be a common refrain, I was so grateful for all the support and interest in my book. (Some people even came that didn't know me!)
So much for late March/early April.
In mid-April I had a mini-tour set up by my publisher--I went to Los Angeles (well, technically Pasadena) and Phoenix (technically, Tempe) and had two signings with other authors (Jessica Cluess and Aprilynne Pike). I spent lots of time wandering around by myself and then appreciating being around people at the signings! Fun--but a little unnerving to not know if anyone I knew would show up (both times there were at least a few familiar faces, including an old roommate and my cousin in Phoenix). I was glad to get back to my kids and Dan, even if we only had a few days before we were off again. As soon as Dan finished his last class of the semester, we drove down to CA for the kid's spring break--we went to Universal Studios and Disneyland. (I'll post pictures of all this as soon as I can get my computer to talk to my phone! On try 3 right now . . .)
We were home for all of one day before I was off again, this time to New England. I flew to Hartford, CT, and spent the night with Jeni's family before spending the morning doing classroom visits for her kids' English classes, then took a train to Boston for a book signing with Heidi Heilig at Trident Books. It was a lot of fun, but coming home was less so, as weather in SLC meant that our flight might be delayed up to two hours and I'd miss my connection and get stuck in SLC at 11 pm on a Friday night. Luckily, they were able to reroute the flight and got us in just a few minutes late. It was still a late night, and the turbulence as we flew into St. George was not fun.
We had a lovely dinner today with Bubby and Poppy (Bubby is recently returned from her own adventure to Mexico to assist with volunteer eye surgery). I'm really looking forward to staying in the same city more than a week.
