Once Upon a Time...

. . . I wrote a book called JUST PRINCESSES and a few months later, I got my copies of the finished book!

My first copies!

A little sneak peek at a couple pages,
illustrated by Manuel Preitano, lettered by Matt Krotzer,
written by me!

Since this was the first graphic novel I'd ever written, I had no idea how it would all come out in the end. In fact, I got to see only a few of the illustrated pages before the book came out, and those hadn't even been colored in yet. So seeing the finished product is pretty cool. Huge thanks to Manuel Preitano (illustrator), Matt Krotzer (letterer), Jessica Rossana and Dave Franchini (editors), Christopher Cote and Ashley Vanacore (production and design), Jennifer Bermel (managing editor), Joe Brusha (publisher), and the whole team at Zenescope and Silver Dragon Books. And special thanks to my old friend Matt Wang, who recommended me as a writer for this project. I tell you, having gone to Stuyvesant High School never stops paying off. Thanks, Matt!

And now it's time to promote, promote, promote. First up, yet another high school friend of mine, Dave Napitulu, has invited me to do my very first live interview tonight on a podcast he cohosts called Comic Book Chronicles. Hopefully I won't make a total fool of myself. Even if I do, though, I'll post the link to that as soon as I have it.

Then tomorrow I'm off to Brooklyn for the Summer Stroll, where I'll be signing books outside the BookMark Shoppe, one of the first bookstores I ever visited as an author. The owners and I have become friends, and when they heard I had another book coming out, they were so supportive. They ordered books right away and invited me to take part in their book fair. So tomorrow from 6-10 PM, that's where I'll be, hopefully signing and selling lots of copies of all my titles. (Psst... Even if you don't want to buy any of my books, rumor has it I'll have bowls of candy and stickers. So, you know, you might want to swing by anyway. Just saying.)

After that, my eyes will be on Comic Cons. First I'll be at the Baltimore Comic Con on September 1, handing out and signing copies of Just Princesses and hopefully catching up with friends. Then on October 6 you'll find me at New York Comic Con, signing books before sneaking away to hang with my brother and stop him from buying every piece of Star Wars merchandise in the place. Then there's the social media stuff, which I vowed to get better at, so I've been trying. I'm updating my website, I'm actually posting things on my Facebook author page, and yes, I even tweeted a few times this year! (What do you mean other people tweet a few times a day, at least. Argh... I can't keep up.)

All of this while writing two more books that I can't even tell you about, drawing up some ideas for a sequel to Just Princesses, doing my day-time editing job, and getting surgery real quick. (It seems my gall bladder is a troublemaker and needs to come out. Oh well.)

Anyway, I do hope you guys go forth and buy Just Princesses, and that if you do, you enjoy it. Oops, speaking of which... It's almost time for my interview. Wish me luck as I try my best not to do my nervous giggle thing. Ah, who am I kidding. I'm definitely going to do the nervous giggle thing. But I'll try not to.

Until next time!