Signing at Face in a Book Plus A New Video

The signing, reading, and Q&A at Face in a Book is only a few days away! And if you'll be joining us Saturday at noon, you're in for a treat because I'll be sharing a sneak peek at the illustrated companion to Crow's Rest, which is called A Compendium of the Faer Folke. You might pick up some Faerie lore to help protect you from the Fae!

Here is some more about the Compendium and how this field guide fits in with Crow's Rest:

The town of Crow's Rest may have a California zip code, but it shares a weakening border with Faerie--and Fae forces are making a move into our world.

Good thing there are references like A Compendium of the Faer Folke to help prepare our intrepid heroine, Avery Flynn, for the coming Faeriepocalypse.

Now you can read it too, and discover how to recognize and protect yourself from such creatures as corbin, lycorises, and wyverns.

Don't be caught unawares by the the Fae and their tricksy ways!

If that sounds intriguing, make sure you join us AT NOON on Saturday, June 6th, at Face in a Book in El Dorado Hills Town Center! And don't forget that if you're out of the area, you can also order a signed copy and FiaB will ship it to you after the event. Details on how to order are here.

And if you missed out on watching my episode of Story Connection during its airtimes, you can now watch it whenever you wish on YouTube. In this interview, I talk with host Danna Wilberg about cover art, research and inspiration, and how my writing journey played out. It's worth a watch!

Road Trip Wednesday: Chocolate Covered Edition

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: How do you reward yourself when you meet your writing goals? Answer for big goals (i.e. I will buy a Lear jet when I get published) and/or small goals (I eat an entire pint of Ben and Jerry's in one sitting when I finish each chapter).

I think my rewards for goals large and small all involve chocolate--just bigger and better forms of chocolate for escalating goals!

But seriously, back in the naive days when I was close to finishing my first draft of Spirits from the Vasty Deep, my husband and I decided that when I sold my book (which we thought was about 3 months tops) we would use part (snort! part!) of the advance to go to some of the places mentioned in the book: Spain, Jamaica, Antigua, New England. We haven't yet been put in the position to decide if that's still what we want to do.

For smaller goals, I often reward myself with some reading or TV watching. I have difficulty reading fiction while I'm drafting new writing or deep in revisions (the other book's style creeps in, or I'm in editor mode and too critical to enjoy it), so if I've hit my writing goal during the week I might splurge by reading a novel over the weekend. Or celebrate with an anticipated TV show, like Dr. Who, a Britcom, True Blood, or Castle. While eating chocolate.

Today, I came down from an Interesting Phone Call with a peanut-butter chocolate-chip Lara Bar and an episode of Psych. I'll be good and have blueberries and pecans for dessert later.