Bad Blogger!

I know, I know.... Where have I been? Why have I let more than a month go by without updating this blog? Well, I have no excuse, except to say that I have been ridiculously busy. Now that the series has officially launched, things are happening pretty quickly. Like Inigo Montoya says in The Princess Bride, "Let me explain.... No, there is too much. Let me sum up."

First, on Friday, January 29, I had my first book launch party! I invited a bunch of my closest friends, my family, and a few of the great people at Delacorte Press who worked on the book to Bowlmor Lanes in Manhattan for a few hours of food, fun, and of course, book buying. Yes, I arrived a little late, but I had a good excuse! I was all the way up on 116th Street in Harlem picking up an amazing cake from the Make My Cake bakery. Take a look.

Now, that's a cake! It was red velvet, delicious, and enough to feed a small army. I wish I could say my book was the star of the evening, but this cake pretty much stole the show. (It stole it again when I brought the rest of it in to my job for my coworkers to devour. It was gone in minutes.) 

I really have to thank Mobile Libris too. My friend Jodi, who is a publicist, turned me on to them. Basically, I just called them up, told them when and where my event would be, how many people would be in attendance, and the name of my book--and they did the rest. By the time I showed up at the lanes, the Mobile Libris representative, Amanda, had arrived, set up a table, and arranged a stack of books in a fancy swirl pattern that would have made you think I was some big-time bestselling author. (I'm not yet, despite what my parents would tell you.) 

Speaking of parents, mine had a great time. Here's my dad, about to score some points for his team. 

And here's my mom after she bowled what I think was her third strike of the evening. 

My friends and family bought me a ton of gorgeous flowers too. They sure know how to make a girl feel loved. 

You can see the rest of the pictures on the Your Life, But Better Facebook page. Anyway, the best part of the night (aside from having a ton of fun with all the people I love)? The books sold out! It turns out that Robin O'Brien (owner of Small Joys Gifts) was bowling right next to us and noticed that we were having a book party. She bought out the last nine books that were left to display in her store! Gotta love that. 

Then on the heels of that very successful book party, I got to be part of another book event with my friend and coworker, Elizabeth Paulson, whose book 98 Ways to Find a Great Guy came out around the same time as my book released. So we threw a joint book party at Sweet & Vicious, a cool little bar down on Spring St., on February 24. (Well, it was going to be on February 10, but the blizzard that came through had other plans.) A bunch of our friends and coworkers came out, and they were even nice enough to make treats! Camille made these tasty Whoopie Pies from scratch, and Shona made brownies that were eaten so quickly, I didn't even catch a picture of them. :) 

And of course, our friends at Mobile Libris came out and made a lovely display for our books:

Thanks to everyone who came out, we sold a bunch of books and felt like total rock stars. 

Since then, the good news  has just kept rolling in. Most important: There will definitely be a book three in the series! They even have the cover done already, and it's pretty cute. 

I'm working on the outline for that one at the moment, and then the writing shall commence! Wish me luck. In the meantime, I have been invited to do my very first book reading/signing at Barnes & Noble. (I can't even tell you how big-time that makes me feel.) I'll be at their Princeton, NJ, location on May 15 at 2 PM. Yay! And at the same time: Yikes! I haven't done a solo public reading more or less since college. Cross your fingers for me that I don't completely lose my cool and knock over the podium or anything. 

I've also been invited to participate in this year's Princeton Library Children's Book Festival on September 11. Children's authors and illustrators from across the country will be there, reading from or displaying their work and just meeting the book-loving community. And part of the proceeds are being donated to the Princeton Library's Youth Services fund. Sounds like a good time to me. I'm just so honored to be included in that group! It still doesn't seem quite real to me. 

Although I believed it a little more last week when I received my first fan email ever from a girl in California who said that she "love, love, LOVES" Your Life, but Better. I can't ask for anything better than that.