Travel Blurs & Graveminder

Sometimes I think the greatest illusion that writers create is not in the ones we write, but in what we tell ourselves: once I get past this to do list, I’ll slow down. I suspect we all create that illusion for ourselves though. Part of life is being busy. We all are. When I taught part-time and homeschooled, I was schedule-mad, convinced I was the busiest I'd ever been. Now, I look back & think how relaxed it was. I think we all do that, and to cope, we say "soon! I'll be less chaotic!" (Note: This would also be why vacations are such joy, right?)

That said, there are times we get crazier than others. Releasing two books within three months is going to rank up there on my "yep, it's busy" scale. Case in point, I think I missed April. I mean, technically, I know it happened. I have the photographs and the receipts to prove it, but I can't tell you when March became April became May. I went from departing in March for Italian tour event and the Bologna Book Fair to heading to Los Angeles for the RT Booklovers Convention less than 40 hrs after touching down in the US to a few days away hiking with my family to locked-in-my-chair writing window 12 hours after that. It feels like it was March last night, but it’s already May according to the calendar. If not for the days hiking, I'd be a muttering mess. (I still might be, but let me keep the illusion of focus, please.)

I'm home now, and I've been home for a week so I finally slept with no light on last night. One lesson I learned in travels is that I run into things if I don't know where I am, so unless I've been in the same spot for 5-8 days, I'm not turning off all the lights . . . unless I want to have bruised shins, elbows, etc, from running into doors or walls in the wee hours. That's been a catch phrase for "settled at home" in my house. "Did you turn the light off yet?"

Aside from the joy of travel--and yes, I do love a lot of it (not the jetlag part)--the biggest upside of my blur, of course, is that the waiting for release window has mostly passed. My Graveminder is out in less than two weeks. [Note: If you want to read a chunk of the book, go here.] The downside is that it’s almost time to re-pack the suitcase and those flower beds aren't going to plant themselves. That's my Mother's Day present: planting flowers with my kids and if my oh-so-subtle hints work, a good action movie. I might not be a big film person, but over-the-top movies where stuff blows up/more bullets fire than make sense . . . yeah. Add flowers, and that's quality mom time.

--interrupting myself to say "Happy slightly early Mother's Day, all!" I hope your day is lovely.----

Once I get the flowers planted, I’ll be headed off to NY; Boston; San Francisco; Houston; Decatur (outside Atlanta), Georgia; Columbia, South Carolina; & Oregon in the next 6 weeks—as well as doing an event in Virginia. Most of those are events for Graveminder. . . which is about dead folks, live folks, falling in love, and a murderer in a small town.

Rather than try to write a proper overview of the book, I'll plug in a video of me talking about it.





If you want to find me out & about, I'll be here:

NYC (Book Expo & Bryant Park)
May 25
11-12 Book Expo America, Javits Center NYC-Signing
12:30-2 p.m Bryant Park, NYC-Interviewing Charlaine Harris
3:30 p.m Book Expo America, Javits Center NYC-- Panel with Melissa de la Cruz and Ellen Hopkins.

May 26
10:30 Book Expo America, Javits Center NYC-Signing Darkest Mercy/Enthralled


Graveminder Tour
• 5/27EVENT -Brookline Booksmith in Boston
• 6/3 EVENT-Keplers, Menlo Park, CA
• 6/4 EVENT-Murder By The Book, Houston, TX
• 6/8 EVENT-Eagle Eye Bookshop (pairing with Oakland Cemetery) in Decatur, GA
• 6/9 EVENT-B&N in Columbia, SC
• 6/11 EVENT-Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, VA

FaerieWorlds
June 17-19 Eugene, Oregon

If you want to find me online, I'll be here:

• Website
• Twitter