Yesterday was my first B&N event, which thankfully involved lots of teachers and booksellers and folks who *love* to talk books. These are my kind of people!

I know that, as a newbie author, I should focus on things like self-promotion or presence or pushing my books (and there were mighty impressive stacks of LUMINOUS and DEAR BULLY flanking me at the table) but what I look forward to most is meeting new people and having passionate conversations about the books we can't wait to share!

Although, I'll admit: seeing this in the window made me pretty happy too!

I sat down and warmed my hands around a mug of tea and let the magic happen. I got to speak with someone who loved my book (and admitted that she was glad Consuela finally freaked out in the bathtub scene*). We talked about the Nook and e-books and access. I met a middle-grade teacher and we talked about bullying and programs and that outside of bullies and victims, it's the audience of other kids that can really make a difference. I met Chrissy, a teacher and writing student at Simmons, and we gushed about our mutual admiration of the fabulous Jo Knowles. Someone was interested in writing "southern genre YA" and I gleefully recommended Myra McEntire's HOURGLASS and BEAUTIFUL CREATURES by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl both for their stories as well as their great voice. Seeing folks write these down makes me as happy as recommending a great restaurant or new movie to a friend, yet somehow it's infinitely better because books feel more personal and often, I know something about the person on the other side of the page. Paying It Forward and Giving Back is gold! So I sat at my table, signing a couple of books, and beaming the whole time (although that might have been the complimentary chocolate chunk cookies at work...) surrounded by books, people who love books, and talking about books. Basically: bliss!

Fortunately, I wasn't alone -- just ask any author who's had a solo event. It's *so* much better with company! -- meeting other local authors, Vicki Hathaway and Jane Schoenberg (author of the Stuey Lewis stories). We talked about publishing and different markets, publicity and promotion, and our collective awe of the masters of crossing categories like Jane Yolen, Neil Gaiman, and MT Anderson. (I'm in awe of all three and have now met every one of them in person!) We talked about the controversy with SHINE and Lauren Myracle's incredible poise and class, the very small world of astonishing authors living in Western Massachusetts, and how the publishing world is changing. I left feeling stimulated, satiated, inspired and excited (right before a great #YALitChat session, too!) and really, that's what I love most: meeting great people & sharing the smiles!

Me in front of a bunch of smile-worthy stuff.

Inspired? Excited? Go Write Now!

* I swear, it's the bathtub scene and the final skin that really freak people out the most. In my mind, I'm going: *tee hee hee*!

I'm baaaaa-aaaack! And you thought you were rid of me? No sir! Now that the holidays are past, the editorial letter has been received, digested, and changes are currently underway, I am plugging myself back into the World Wide Web to see what's what in the universe outside my brain space.

*taps monitor* *looks around* Hmm. You've been up to something, haven't you? Well, that's only fair, because I have too!

Firstly, have you been following the First Annual Creepy Cake N Bake? I'm *loving* it! From Sydney Salter's Black-Bottom Witch Cupcakes to Brenna Yovanoff's uber-realistic (omigawd...) Red Velvet Cardiac Event, Tara Hudson's bleeding heart cupcakes and Karen Healey's good-to-the-last-sinful-spoonful Dark Teacup Puddings and a thankfully NOT original Witch's Cake by Robin Bridges right on up to yesterday's happy Snowball Spider by Michelle Zink! Whoo!

DUDE! Seriously, have you *seen* this?!? Brenna awes and fascinates me...from waaaaaaay over here.

These gals are bringing their A-Game on a wooden spoon and I am going to have to get cookin' (so to speak) but luckily, I had some incredible inspiration while I was away. Namely, this:

YES! I was at Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party!!! This was the culmination of a dream; not mine, oddly enough...but therein lies the story.* As Tessa Gratton was good enough to quip: "Dawn, you've gotten a two-book deal, what are you going to do next? GO TO DISNEY!" Crazy, insane, and it-must-be-done! We brought the children for their first-ever experience with the Mouse and my parents were there to witness the looks on their faces: it was an incredible time! For me, especially. I know that there are many measures of success for a writer that are deeply personal--from seeing their work on a shelf to getting their first fan letter to getting awards from their peers or making gobs of cash, but one of my personal goals that let me know that I "made it" was to earn enough money with my writing to treat my whole family to a vacation where we could make memories that would last a lifetime. And it happened. I did it!!! And I'm smiling all the way!

And now we're heading deep into Halloween territory and I'm already feeling the sugar rush. So get ready for some more scary goodies around here because dressing up and spooking is *my* kind of fun! (Although not so much being spooked, as I say in this guest post about Books That Scare Me over at Nova Ren Suma's blog (if you comment, you could be entered to win her October 31st Giveaway!) ((shudder))) I'm more into things involving me on the happy side of the chain saw and I, for one, can't wait to have a little more creeptastic creeping into my day.

So from this side of the keyboard, Boo to YOU!

* The story, super-condensed version, is that my parents brought us to Disney World when we were younger and my mother decided that this was the perfect place to celebrate a new year. Yay! She meant New Year's Eve for the Millennium. Um...Okay! Why did I hesitate? Because this was 1986 and my mother was pre-booking four rooms at Walt Disney World fourteen years in advance! (The computers couldn't even go that high due to the Y2K issue. She had to get paper contracts!) So: why four rooms? She explained calmly that it was for me and my family, my sister and her family, my brother and his family & my parents together. Fair enough, thought I, that's possible...but what really happened was that my husband and I were married October of 1999** and didn't have kids yet and neither did either of my siblings so my mother never got to bring her grandchildren all together to experience Disney for the first time. Now this was my chance to make a bit of that dream--my mother's incredible dream--come true. Hence why we went to Disney.

** Yes, this means that I just celebrated my 12th wedding anniversary with my husband while hanging with Mickey Mouse!