I could chalk their eagerness up to the fact that I've been so busy over the past few years that I haven't gone on any trips with my friends, so now that I've mentioned wanting to go somewhere, they pounced before I could change my mind. But their enthusiasm could also be just because they all have as much love for the Harry Potter books as I do.
Case in point, I recently participated in a fund-raiser for Read Ahead (formerly called Everybody Wins!), an organization that promotes literacy among children. In addition to other education initiatives, Read Ahead pairs kids with adult volunteers, and they spend their lunch hour once a week reading together. It's a great way for the kids to get some individual attention, improve their reading, and associate books with stress-free fun. I actually volunteered for two years back when I was working at Tor Books, so I know how valuable the program is and how hard they work to keep it going. The event was a bowl-a-thon that took place at Frames in the Port Authority terminal. We had to form teams of four and come up with a team name and motto. My team, made up of friends of mine who are also fellow Penguin Random House employees, was called Harry's Lightning Bolts (Jenn's great idea). Our motto: I solemnly swear that I am up to no good. Teams were encouraged to wear costumes. We decided to keep it simple and go with Harry's glasses and one Hogwarts tie.
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| Harry's Lightning Bolts (from left to right): Me, Cindy, Alison, and Jenn. |
In addition to the bowling, they held raffles and a silent auction. I bought $20 worth of raffle tickets, completely convinced that I would win the picnic basket or the Birch Box of beauty products. (Alison actually won both.) Anyway, I'm proud to say that as a team--with help from Penguin Random House's charitable matching program--we raised almost $2,000, and all together, the event raised more than $40,000 for Read Ahead! It was a great night for a good cause. (But more important, I broke 100 on the bowling lane! Finally...)
As for the writing, exciting things are on the way. Last month I finished revising book two in the Hunters of Chaos series. And my publicist (I have a publicist!) at Simon & Schuster reached out to me about possible promotion opportunities here in New York. So if you're in the area, I may be visiting a bookstore near you very soon. I'll keep you posted. I'll also be visiting an elementary school in Queens this month. The teacher who invited me told me that kids in her school who are named Student of the Month receive a free book as a reward for their good work. Apparently, she often gives them my books, and they've told her they enjoyed reading them, so she thought it would be fun if I came to visit. :-) Of course, I'm thrilled! Especially since I live in Queens and haven't been to a school here yet. I can't wait.
I've also been invited to participate in a book fair in Boston in June, and I may be going to another in New Jersey in May. Again, I'll let you know when all the plans have been nailed down.
Since all this promotional stuff will be kicking off soon, I thought it was high time that I step up my social media game, which I'd kind of been slacking on for a while. The first thing I did was create an official Facebook page as an author: www.Facebook.com/CrystalVelasquezAuthor. (There isn't much on it yet. Feel free to help me fill it up!) I started to actually Tweet some things on what I consider to be my work Twitter account: @cvelasquez6. And I've enlisted a former coworker of mine to help me revamp my website. Hopefully, she'll be able to whip it into shape soon. I still have so much to learn about the business side of being a writer, it's ridiculous, and I am definitely technologically challenged. (I JUST learned how to access emojis on my iPhone.) But I'll try my best to get up to speed.
In the meantime, I guess I should start planning my trip to Universal in October. I do believe I've earned it. Harry Potter, here I come!
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