NYC part 2 - The Rita Awards!

Kim Derting and I after we went out to dinner, before the awards.

Ready for the ceremony!

Meg Cabot was a fabulous Master of Ceremonies

I snapped a picture when Chasing Brooklyn was announced.

Me and my editor, Annette Pollert

Me with two of the finalists - Simone Elkeles and Heather Davis

Such a fun night!! A huge congratulations to Julie Kagawa who won in the YA category with her book, THE IRON KING.

NYC Here I Come

Tomorrow morning I get up bright and early to head to NYC.

I can hardly believe it!

It's my first trip to the Big Apple and I have so many things planned. I have a date to eat NYC pizza Monday night. On Tuesday, I'm hoping to do lots of touristy stuff, exactly what depends on the weather. I hope to ride the free ferry, stroll Central Park, and visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As if that's not enough, I'm seeing Jersey Boys Tuesday night! I got a 9th row seat - woo hoo!

Wednesday I'm meeting publishing people and having an authorly kind of day.

Thursday I hope to hit a workshop or two, plus an awards reception in the afternoon, and then at 6:00, I'll be reading and signing THE DAY BEFORE at Books of Wonder. SO excited about this event!

Friday night, I'll get all dressed up for the awards event, because, as you may or may not remember, Chasing Brooklyn is a Rita finalist in the YA category. Look at the great company I'm in:

From the Romance Writers of America. Source: YA Fresh.

• Chasing Brooklyn by Lisa Schroeder (Simon Pulse, 2010)
• The Clearing by Heather Davis (Graphia, 2010)
• Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare (McElderry, 2010)
• I Now Pronounce You Someone Else by Erin McCahan (Arthur A. Levine, 2010)
• The Iron King by Julie Kagawa (Turtleback, 2010)
• Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles
• The Summer of Skinny Dipping by Amanda Howells

It's gonna be fun!!!

Three. More. Weeks! And NYC book signing!

Just three more weeks until THE DAY BEFORE hits stores!

Eeeep!

Some tweets I've accidentally seen tell me some early readers love it. And some, not so much. But that's just the way the pages fall. Ha! I'm trying to avoid reviews right now - lots of bloggers have been reading it, and while I'm working on this huge, difficult revision, I have to stay as strong and as confident as I can.

It is not a secret - my books are different. They just are. I'm not going to apologize for that or feel badly that some people won't like them or get them because they are different. There is a lot on the shelves right now that is similar. Sometimes a change of pace is nice, right?

Man, I hope so.

My friend, Shannon Messenger, who is all kinds of awesome, helped me with a book trailer, so watch for that to be revealed on release day - June 28th!

The most exciting news to share with you today - I'm doing a book signing at Books of Wonder! This is a DREAM COME TRUE! In case you don't know, Books of Wonder is this awesome children's book store in New York City I've always wanted to visit and now I don't get to just visit, I get to be an author reading from my book and signing too! To make it even more fun, my friend, Kimberly Derting is doing it with me, signing copies of her books THE BODY FINDER and DESIRES OF THE DEAD.

If you are in the New York City area, please come and see us! We'll be there Thursday, June 30th at 6:00 p.m.