Cupcake Madness Recap

I'm flying home today, after a fun weekend in Narragansett, Rhode Island. I had a great school visit on Friday with all the kids at Narragansett Elementary School. Yesterday, I signed books at the Cupcake Madness event, put on by Friends of Hazard Castle. Toward the end of the day, I got to taste nine cupcakes and assist in naming the best cupcake in Rhode Island, which went to Patticakes, for their green velvet mint cupcake.

Friday was beautiful and I spent the entire afternoon outside. People were actually sun bathing on the beach. It was a perfect day - warm, sunny and no wind. Today is a different story, which is good, because it makes me even happier to be going home.

I ate at Crazy Burger not once, but twice, so got in some good food while I was here as well.

For your viewing pleasure, here are some pictures I took at the Cupcake Madness event:

Yep, as some of you said, it was a tough job, but somebody had to do it.

Have a great week!

I get to be a cupcake judge!!

Yes, it's true! My wonderful job gets even better!

On Sunday, March 25th, I will be at an event called Cupcake Madness in Narragansett, Rhode Island. It's a fun, family event where you can walk around and taste cupcakes made by some of the best bakers in the state of Rhode Island.

Here's a picture of the strawberry lemonade cupcake that took home the title of "Best Cupcake" last year! Doesn't it look delicious??

I will be on a panel of judges who determines which is THE best cupcake after a timed bake-off of the finalists!

I've never been to Rhode Island, so I'm really excited about this trip. Along with Cupcake Madness on Sunday, I'll be doing a school visit on Friday, and Saturday night I go out to dinner with a family who won the opportunity to dine with me in a raffle prize drawing.

Along with eating delicious cupcakes, I'll be signing books (IT'S RAINING CUPCAKES and SPRINKLES AND SECRETS), which you can buy at the event from the local, independent bookstore, Wakefield Books.

To read more about the event, click HERE. I hope if you're in the area, you will come, eat cupcakes and say hi!

Vegas Book Festival Recap

I flew to Vegas this weekend to be a part of the Vegas Book Festival. This was the first year they had a Teen Book Festival as a part of it. So much fun! Thanks to all the teens, parents, teachers and librarians who came out. It was great to meet you!

Below are some pictures, courtesy of Suzanne Young, Crystal Perkins and Heather Davis, because I seem to forget to take many pictures. Okay, actually, it's just that I don't have an iphone and everyone else does and they snap pictures right and left while I seem to just get in them and smile.

Friday Night:

Suzanne Young, Liz Gallagher and me, as we looked for a place to eat

After we saw Blue Man Group - what an strange amazing show! 

Me, Suzanne Young, and Lindsey Leavitt waiting in the freezing cold to eat at Serendipity's.

The large topiary outside Serendipity's. Is that a milkshake? Yeah, I think it's a milkshake.

Saturday:

Contemporary panel w/ Lindsey Leavitt, Emily Wing Smith, Daisy Whitney, me, Liz Gallagher, Jay Asher

All of the YA authors with Crystal Perkins, B&N bookseller extraordinaire

Saturday Night (Paranormal Ball):

Suzanne Young and I dressed up like vampire slayers.

James Dashner (The Maze Runner series) was dressed in black. And scared of us.

Be careful James. Sometimes when you least expect it...

Cute kitty Heather Davis (latest book is WHEREVER YOU ARE) and me

A great time was had by all. Now, back to work!

Wordstock - part 2

Friday night we went to the author reception for a little while, and then six of us ventured out for dinner. Before we found a restaurant, we took our out-of-town guests to Powell's, and bought each other's books, of course. I really, really love this picture!!

Lindsey Leavitt, Me, Suzanne Young, Corey Whaley

Saturday was a middle grade panel I moderated, and after that, a bunch of us went out to dinner. Yes, apparently Wordstock means eating well.

Sunday I arrived a little early, and sat in on Suzanne Young's panel, with Maggie Stiefvater and Isaac Marion. They were very entertaining.

I got to share the stage not once, but twice with Lindsey Leavitt. The first panel was called Smells Like Teen Spirit, and it was Corey Whaley, whose book, WHERE THINGS COME BACK, is EXCELLENT, me and Lindsey Leavitt, whose book SEAN GRISWOLD'S HEAD is also AMAZING, moderated by the fabulous Sara Ryan. Here are a couple of photos Vania took of us. Yeah. We had fun.

After that, Lindsey and I did our cupcake/princess chat on the children's stage and it went really well. Here we are, hanging out before the big event. Lindsey dressed up. I wore a t-shirt with a cupcake on it that says, "Chance of Sprinkles." I think I should have dressed up. But it was the third day and jeans and a t-shirt sounded so good.

So now, it's back to writing, and some various library visits this month, which is always good. And then in November... the Las Vegas Book Festival! I have a cute dress all picked out for that one.

Sprinkles and Secrets release party! SO FUN!!!

I celebrated the release of Sprinkles and Secrets on Sunday at Powell's Bookstore in Beaverton. We had a nice turnout, and I'm really thankful to the people who came out to celebrate with me. Thank you!

Here are some pictures the amazing Sara of Novel Novice took.

I talked about how the book came to be, then read a couple of pages.

Sometimes when I'm writing I have to say, Stop! No more cupcakes!

Can you see the cookies? All the kids in attendance got one!

Lots of beautiful books! Thank you Powell's!

All of my little cupcakes, lining up to have their books signed.

Please take some bookmarks!

And pick which color pen you'd like

"May you always love cupcakes and reading!"

Look really adorable and make sure you show the book to everyone you know!

Thank you, Sara, for all of the great pictures and for being awesome!

Oh boy, I sure do love my young cupcakes, I mean, readers!!!

I love being an author

I was so excited last year when a librarian contacted me about participating in a fantastic event (the Cavalcade of Authors) for hundreds of students around reading and writing. The event was to be held in the Tri-Cities in Washington, somewhere I'd never been but had always wanted to visit. When it was time to figure out how to get there, I considered whether I wanted to drive myself the four hours, take a plane (a small one) there, or take the train. I opted for the train for various reasons, but mostly because I had never done Amtrak before, and I'd heard that particular trip was a beautiful one.

So last Wednesday, my husband took me to the train station where I proceeded to board the train and then wait for two hours because the "order system" was down. Finally, just as it was getting dark, we took off. So much for the beautiful scenery. Luckily I brought books and a movie and the trip went fairly quickly.

The next day, I went to Clara Brownell Middle School in Umatilla, Oregon, a very rural town, and spoke to 340+ students. They were great, and made me the biggest thank you card I've ever received!

The following day was the multi-city event with me and a bunch of other authors doing workshops on various aspects of writing. After the workshops, we signed lots of books and lots and LOTS of t-shirts and then did a panel where the kids asked us questions.

That's only half the room of kids, by the way. A highlight for me was meeting one of my favorite authors, Mary Pearson. I remember reading A ROOM ON LORELEI STREET in 2005, when I was starting to explore the world of YA fiction. I loved it SO much.  I think I'll get the audio book and reread it one of these days, listening to it this time around.

Here are all of the authors with some of the volunteers and the librarian, Michelle, who coordinated a lot of the event. I liked standing by Mary. She's short, like me!

On Saturday, I made my way back home via train. Everyone was right - the trip is lovely as the train travels along the Columbia River Gorge (on the Washington side). As I rode, it felt a little bit like I had stepped back in time. Back to a time when things were simpler. Slower. Quieter. I liked that part of it a lot. It's hard to take good pictures when you're moving, but I did take one when we stopped for a moment.

The best part of the trip, though, was talking to the kids. Hearing them say how a book touched them or helped them or that once they started reading, they couldn't stop. Events like these are exhausting, but they also feed me in a way nothing else can. I mean, I wish I could give a big thank you card to everyone who has been supportive of me and my books. Hearing from readers makes me anxious to get back to writing. To try my best to write new stories that will keep them up late, turning the pages. It is a wonderful thing, to have been at this long enough that I have teachers and librarians and kids telling me, "I can't wait until your next book!" Wow. WOW! I'm an author. I am really and truly an AUTHOR! And I love it so very, very much.

Rochester Teen Book Festival Recap

Wow.  Wow wow wow wow wow wow wow.

What an amazing weekend. The librarians and all of the volunteers work SO hard to pull this event off and make it something special and BOY is it something special. I feel so blessed to have been a part of it. We all really felt like rock stars.

I took the red eye Thursday night and flew into JFK, then wandered around blurry eyed in my practically pajamas attire, waiting for my flight to Rochester. I met Barry Lyga and Robin Brande there, since we were all on the same flight. They were very kind to this very tired traveler. Later, after I napped and showered, and was heading down to meet my friends Kate and Deena, Barry was in the elevator and he said, "Wow, you look much better." Hahahaha.

Here's Deena Lipomi and Kate Fall, my friends who I blog with over at Author2Author. It was great to meet them for the first time!!



This is the wonderful author dinner Friday night at the Strong National Museum of Play.



Look what was at each author's place setting!! That is a cookie, and OMG, it was the most delicious cookie I have EVER had. Seriously.



This is the limo ride. On the right is Martin Wilson and THE Simone Elkeles. Way in the back you can see Coe Booth, who I was thrilled to meet for the first time and chat with a little bit.



And this is the fabulous Sarah Ockler and the funny James Kennedy.



A marching band led the two limos into the campus, where we were greeted with cheering fans. So cool!





I couldn't get the whole gym in, but people also filled the bleachers on the sides. It was a great crowd, there to listen to us answer a round of speed questions. Ack! I'm not good at speedy things...



The authors used the special, secret tunnels underneath the college campus to avoid the crowds above. There was some cool artwork down there!



In the gym, they had huge posters of each of us so kids could find the line they wanted to stand in to get their books signed. SO COOL!!



When I was finished signing, I clicked this picture to show what it feels like to be Alyson Noel!! :)



Finally, I had two teen helpers throughout the day, and they were SO wonderful. When Anthony met me, he said, I read your book twice, I liked it so much, and he had a copy of I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME there, ready for me to sign. Sarah and I talked about driving a little bit, since I have a 15 YO at home and was curious about the classes she had taken. She was really sweet. I'm thankful I had them throughout the day to help get me where I needed to go.



My presentation went well and I had pretty good attendance at each one, which I was a tiny bit worried about. I mean, when teens have 25 amazing authors to choose from, including some big name authors, and can only hear 3 or 4 at the most, why would they choose me? But some did and to those who did, I want to say THANK YOU!!!! I was lucky to meet some people in person who I'd previously met on-line - fandoria, Kate from Eve's Garden,  ReaganStar, Lori Loveland, and more I know I'm forgetting - ack!! 

Oh - one cool thing that happened. A grandmother walked up to my table with two copies of IT'S RAINING CUPCAKES for me to sign. On one there was a sticky note with the name "Isabel" and the other one had a sticky note with the name "Sophie." I was a bit confused, because those are the characters in the book - Isabel is the main character and Sophie is her best friend. I said - do you want me to sign the books to Isabel and Sophie? She said - yes, Isabel is my granddaughter and Sophie is her best friend. They were born on the same day, one hour apart, and have been best friends their whole lives. WHOA!!!

Anyway, I walked away feeling so blessed to be an author for young adults. To see ALL those kids there, excited about reading and books - it was just so AMAZING!!!

THANK YOU ROCHESTER LIBRARIANS, TEENS, PARENTS AND FUN AUTHORS!!!