It was another early flight out of Miami, but it wasn’t hard to make the plane because I was still buzzing with adrenaline from the Books & Books event. I flew North, to Ohio.
My author schlepper here is Kathy Tirschek. (The proper title is “media escort.”) Her job is to take me from event to event, and make my life on book tour as smooth as possible. Kathy is a total pro. As we drove to Fort Thomas, KY to the first event, I didn’t even notice the car was moving.
The Blue Marble Bookstore, an independent children’s bookstore, was my first stop of the day. I met the owners, Tina and Peter Moore at the McConnell Literature Conference years ago, and it was delightful to finally make it to their store. Along with being wonderful people and experts on children’s literature, their bookstore has a Goodnight Moon room.
It is adorable!
Goodnight cow jumping over the moon.
Bears, chairs, and more.
The mittens! The mittens!
Stars and moon, just for you, Meredith, adastraperasper. (I think we should take a road trip this summer so you can see this room.)
After catching up with Tina and Peter, and meeting David and Tish, I enjoyed a homemade lunch made in Tina’s kitchen with a group of teachers and librarians. It was so nice to sit down to a meal with people! After lunch, I presented to a surprisingly large group of folks. About half of them were college students who woke up early on a Saturday morning and drove 40 miles for the event, at the suggestion of Professor Brenda, who is very, very cool. (Hi, Brenda!)
There was also a teen book club from Winton Woods High School. (Hi Angelica, Stephanie, Michell, and Edd!) The fact that they woke up on a Saturday morning and came out to hear me blew me away.
I said good-bye to the moon and old lady whispering hush, and headed to Joseph-Beth Books in Cincinnati. Joseph-Beth is a small independent chain. The store is booklover heaven. It is a Mothership bookstore, like Books & Books in Miami; it has an enormous selection, room to read, a cafe, pretty things (Vera Bradley bags, Mer) and very intelligent booksellers who actually read the books they recommend.
It also has 60 (you read that right, SIXTY) book clubs that meet regularly. This picture is of one section of the wall of bookclub reads. A wall. 60 book clubs. I was impressed.
Despite the fact that it was the first sunny Saturday afternoon Cincinnati had seen in a long time, a group of teachers, real-live teenagers, and college students came to here me speak.
Including skylark913! Yeah, an LJ Friend!!!
A couple of the teens had already read TWISTED and asked me questions about it. IT WAS SO NICE TO TALK TO PEOPLE WHO HAD READ THE BOOK!!!! Remember, I finished writing the book a year or so ago. And I have been dying to talk about it and share it with folks, but I couldn’t until they had actually read the darn thing. It felt like sitting on a giant secret for a year – I almost exploded. So the Joseph-Beth event rocked my world.
After a quick stock signing at another store, I had the night off. This was a Good Thing. I was beat. I had a massage to get out the airplane kinks, a big dinner, and I watched basketball until I fell asleep. Not an exciting night, but a restful one.
Want to read a little more from TWISTED? black-kitten has posted her favorite quotes.
TODAY’S SCHEDULE
Morning – Sleep in. (check) Eat breakfast. (as soon as I post this) Shower. A long, hot shower. Catch up on email and other correspondence. Read. Read. Read. Pack up, check out, and hit the road.
2PM – Signing
Books & Co.
The Greene Town Center
4453 Walnut Street
Dayton, Ohio 45440
937-429-2169
Drive to next town.
6PM – Signing
(event location) Upper Arlington High School (open to public)
1650 Ridgeview Rd.
Upper Arlington, OH 43221
Sponsored by: Cover to Cover
3560 North High Street
Columbus, OH 43214-4041
614-263-1624
Because of the schedule, I will probably miss most of the Georgetown-UNC game. (Being an author requires all kinds of personal sacrifices.) If you come out to the event, and you see me in the corner petting a basketball with my eyes closed, muttering an incantation to myself (hoya saxa, hoya saxa, hoya saxa), you’ll know why.
G’night mush.
Best line in the book, hands down.
I love your photos of the Good Night Moon room! I should forward them to our local indy and tell him to get with the program! haha!
Thanks for sharing, Laurie!
~Della
Rivers End
I got your book yesterday from your self proclamed “favorite book store” in oswego county. Wow, they love you right now! When you walk in there is a a big display, with books, and your picture. There are pictures of you, and your book all over and when I bought Twisted, they gave me a twisted pencil! So cool! I’ll start on it today (after I do some homework because I’m a good girl..) and I’ll let you know how much I love it.
Yay, Columbus! That’s where I’m originally from…I visit there a couple of times a year when I can and I LOVE it (my father and stepmom still live in the suburbs there). Hope you have fun, and that the rain has stopped!
Twisted Playlist
I looked at the Twisted playlist and I noticed that about 20 of those songs are in my music library. Good taste.
bookstore adventures
reading about your adventures in both of the bookstores makes me want to go there too. hopefully someday when i’m famous i will go there. or maybe i can convince my parents to go there for a summer trip. who knows. i hope you and meredith get to take that trip this summer. =) ♥
Thanks for sharing your tour news! I saw your fab presentation at last spring’s Rochester Teen Book Fest, so I’m sure everone coming to see you on this trip is loving you even more. I’m hoping to see you at the SCBWI upstate NY conf this summer…we’ll see…. 🙂
YAY!
(squealy teen voice from clueless).. ROADTRIP!!
I can’t wait! I am so jealous that you got to be inside of Goodnight Moon. That seriously made my day a million times better. I can’t wait to see you!! Oh, and I hope you at least thought about purchasing your first Vera. If not, I’ll forgive you and help you with the selection process later.
ps. I have some big news. Check your email later tonight for a picture.
Well-done room. Wow.
Glad that the tour is going well.
Eiiieee! Can you say Busted Bracket?!
Laurie! Oh my goodness! It was so awesome meeting you today! I’m going to post a picture at my LJ (and email you some, as well), feel free to use any of them. You’re such an inspiration on so many levels! ♥
It was super cool getting to meet you and hear you talk about not only Twisted, but about the generallities of teaching as well.
Georgetown won!! Yay! I work at a telethon for my college and I called this one guy tonight who the first thing he said was, “I’m watching the game. Can you call back?” lol
Love your books and your blog. I wish that you were stopping somewhere close enough that I could meet you.
The Goodnight Moon room is amazing!! Every friend of my family’s that has a baby gets that book because we love it so much.
Delphine