Month: March 2007

Four o’clock in the morning is early. Very, very early. It’s so early when the wake-up call comes, you jump out of bed shouting, “Who’s sick?” And then, when the wake-up call you scheduled for 4:05am rings, you wander the room in daze for five minutes, looking for clues in your room about what your name is, where you are, and why you are there.

Then you remember the airport shuttle leaves in fifteen minutes.

I made the shuttle, made the plane, and made it to Miami. Miami. Yes. As in Florida. As in palm trees and sunshine and…… highways. Lots and lots of highways, punctuated by construction and detours onto other highways. Traveling to new cities is one of the fun parts of book tours, but the reality is, you don’t get to see much except for the inside of the airport and the traffic.

That’s why they hire nice author escorts, because let me tell you, if I had to do the driving, this tour would have ended in disaster four days ago. Today’s friendly escort is Kathleen who is born and raised here and knows her way around. She was the one who got me to Killian High School on time.

Cougars roar and authors adore pretty hotels….

“Mid-South” was my new word of the day yesterday. It refers to this geographical region, where Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi all come together. I know this is totally juvenile, but I still get excited when I cross from one state to another. I did it a lot yesterday because I had events in all three states. (Childhood flashback – flying on a plane to my grandmother’s in Florida and staring out the window in search of the dotted lines that I was sure were on the ground that showed the state boundaries. When my father explained that they only existed on maps, I was crushed.)

The day started in glorious, YA author fashion: at a high school.

All in all, things went well. No screaming babies on the plane next to me. No businessmen who had eaten beans and broccoli for lunch standing in the aisle next to my head emitting toxic odors. Of course, the airline will now charge you two bucks for that package of stale crackers, but the soda was free, so there wasn’t much to whine about.

Until I arrived at my destination.