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Days until The Ventana Inn & Spa reopens? 15
Days until The 13 Scariest Ghost Stories Countdown to Halloween begins? 2
Days until NaNoWriMo begins? 16

Which scares me more? Ah...well, everything. What do they say about doing things that scare you? Something about making a person feel alive, right. If you have a scary ghost story you'd like to have included in The 13 Scariest Ghost Stories Countdown to Halloween just email it [1000 words or less] to elliwrite [at] yahoo [dot] com.

On the road trip up north yesterday I had lunch with P and M in Santa Barbara and a late snack with my friend A in San Luis Obispo. So great to catch up with friends and talk writing. Shout out to my amigas:)

Tonight? Decorating the barrel for Halloween:)

Funniest/scariest sight I've seen on the road this Halloween?1/2-scale skeleton strapped to the back of a Harley Davidson so it was facing traffic, wearing a helmet.

Harmel, Kristin. 2008. When You Wish.

I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would. Typically books written about teens who have it all--money, popularity, good looks, etc--don't do much for me. And on the surface, this book is about that. About a teen girl who supposedly "has it all."

Star Beck. A sixteen year old pop star who already has more than a few bestselling, record-breaking albums to her name. A beautiful long-haired, red-haired princess of pop. But Star is missing a few things--a real mother who is there for her, who listens, who is kind, who is supportive, who isn't all about the money and fame; a real father, one who didn't abandon her when she was three only to resurface when she's one of the most famous teens on the planet; a real boyfriend, one who isn't all about showy kisses for the media and making a big entrance; a real friend, one who won't sell her out to the tabloids. Of course her job is far from average, and her schooling is as well. She's got her GED, but she's not been to a real school in forever. Not since Disney (I think it was Disney in the book, it might have been Nickelodeon.) plucked her out of her ordinary existence and made her the rich and famous "it" girl of the moment. The only girl who doesn't want to be Star Beck is Star Beck.

So after a particularly bad day, Star gives herself a hair cut (at least it wasn't a shave), dyes her hair, and runs away from her hotel room (she's on tour). Now calling herself Amanda, she is determined to make her way to Florida. On her way to see her dad for the first time in thirteen years. Can a pop star on her own survive in the real world? Can she survive without being surrounded by her entourage, her people? Will she like it? Will she love it?

This book is a coming-of-age story, in a way, of a girl realizing who she is and isn't. About a girl realizing that she should have some say in her own life.

I definitely liked it. I think it complements Audrey, Wait well.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Staycation?......fuggetaboutit! Let's hit the road!

I've been a bit too busy this summer to plan many road trips, but my next one will likely be here, The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. I visited this beautiful museum in Amherst, Massachusetts last year and have been itching to return. There's something about seeing children's book illustration up on a gallery wall that I find really enlightening. I saw a wonderful Quentin Blake exhibit here last year and it really changed my opinion on his work - it's gorgeous in person, and so unique.

If you live within driving distance or find yourself in New England, it's a must see. The exhibits change frequently enough that you could plan a trip or two each year - and it's VERY child friendly. The bookstore alone could hold a book lover's attention for hours. It's also just a short drive from the fun town of Northampton - a great place to shop, wander, and eat.

Green, John. 2008. Paper Towns. October release.

Prologue opening paragraph: The way I figure it, everyone gets a miracle. Like, I will probably never be struck by lightning, or win a Nobel Prize, or become the dictator of a small nation in the Pacific Islands, or contract terminal ear cancer, or spontaneously combust. But if you consider all the unlikely things together, at least one of them will probably happen to each of us. I could have seen it rain frogs. I could have stepped foot on Mars. I could have been eaten by a whale. I could have married the queen of England or survived months at sea. But my miracle was different. My miracle was this: out of all the houses in all the subdivisions in all of Florida, I ended up living next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman.

First sentence: The longest day of my life began tardily.

My favorite quote: I spent the next three hours in classrooms, trying not to look at the clocks above various blackboards, and then looking at the clocks, and then being amazed that only a few minutes had passed since I last looked at the clock. I'd had nearly four years of experience looking at these clocks, but their sluggishness never ceased to surprise. If I am ever told that I have one day to live, I will head straight for the hallowed halls of Winter Park High School, where a day has been known to last a thousand years. (18)

Quentin Jacobsen, our narrator, has been trying to puzzle out the mystery that is Margo for years now. And as their senior year comes to a close, the mystery is only deepening as far as he's concerned. It all starts with a late night visit. Margo appears at his bedroom window asking Quentin to join her in some mischievous revenge--she needs his car, or rather she needs his mom's car. And Quentin, or Q as she calls him, would do anything and everything for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend some quality time with the girl of his dreams.

What happens that night and in the following weeks will shape Quentin in ways he never would--never could have--expected.

John Green's first novel, Looking for Alaska, won the Printz award in 2006. Green's second novel, An Abundance of Katherines, earned a Printz honor. And, of course, along the way he's picked up an enormous number of fans both through his books and his vlogging with the Brotherhood 2.0. (And though that's over and done with, more videos and blogging can be seen on the Nerdfighters Ning site.

Note: I'm reviewing an ARC, so keep that in mind when I'm pulling a few quotes out. They may or may not be the same as what makes it into the finished book that will be released in October.

Now for some Weekly Geeks Q&A fun:

Bart's Bookshelf asks, "I've not read any John Green, so have you a favourite quote/line from Paper Towns that best sums up the relationship of the main protagonists?"

I've already quoted a bit of this one. But here are two more that will give you a feel for the book:

"Margo always loved mysteries. And in everything that came afterward, I could never stop thinking that maybe she loved mysteries so much that she became one." (8)

"I smiled. She smiled. I believed the smile. We walked to the stairs and then ran down them. At the bottom of each flight, I jumped off the bottom step and clicked my heels to make her laugh, and she laughed. I thought I was cheering her up. I thought she was cheerable. I thought maybe if I could be confident, something might happen between us. I was wrong." (58)

Jennie asks, "Is Paper Towns everything that we've now come to expect from John Green? Because I'm DYING to read this one!!! Will I just be disappointed, so is my internal hype well-deserved?"

Yes. If you've followed his vlogging and come to love his personality just as much as his fiction, then you won't be disappointed. Green's personality shines through on this one. I haven't read An Abundance of Katherines yet, but this one is just as good as Looking for Alaska.

M. Molly says, "John Green said that Paper Towns was written as a response to Looking for Alaska. Do you see signs of this in PT? Also, does PT break out of JG's "Nerdy boy meets awesome girl who changes his life" equation (not that I mind it...)?"

Yes and no. In some ways the two books are similar. Two guys on the fringe of 'the-in-crowd' find a few wacky friends, two unforgettable girls to dream about and idolize, and thus "come of age". Both have humor and sarcasm in just the right amount. Both have their serious and meaningful layers. Where they differ, in my opinion, is in the mixing. Looking for Alaska is very bittersweet, very contemplative. And Paper Towns has this too. But it's not as bittersweet. It's a bit wackier than Looking for Alaska. Miles and Quentin are not mirror images or anything. Quentin has enough of a personality--as does his friends and dream-girl--to make this one unique. It is not Looking for Alaska part two. But if you boiled it down to the basics, it would have many of the same ingredients, just in different amounts.

Suey says, "I 2nd everything everyone's said about Paper Towns. Dying to know if it's like his others. Better maybe even?"

It's good. It's very good. I won't say I think it's the best, best, best book ever written. But it's definitely one of the better books I've read of YA published in 2008. It would make my top ten list--so far at least--for YA novels published this year. I can't say it's better necessarily. But I can say it met my expectations. I expected really good work, and it delivered. I was surprised by Looking for Alaska. I read it before it was published. It was his first book. I didn't know quite what to expect. And it just blew me away, I thought it was one of the BEST books of the year. So it's hard to match my enthusiasm and passion since with this one I went into with different expectations.

Melissa asks, "Trying to say something different about Paper Towns: how does it compare to his other two? Better? Worse? Different? Do you think that his style works well for the story? (I don't even know the story!)"

I think Green is great at coming-of-age stories about awkward guys who come into their own and get comfortable with who they are and what they want. And he's great at depicting the highs and lows of teen life. The best and worst and most embarrassing. He definitely is a great storyteller.

I haven't read An Abundance of Katherines, but I thought this one was just as good as his first one, Looking for Alaska.

Joy Renee asks, "I'm interested in the technique and art of storytelling itself so anything along that line would interest me. My questions are for any or all of the fiction titles in your list:

How was Point-of-View handled? Was there a single POV character or did it alternate among two or more. Was it always clear whose eyes and mind were filtering?

It was written in first person. And I think this was an effective way to tell a very personal story.

How does the title relate to the story? Was it fitting?" It was very fitting. I can't really go into it all here because it would contain spoilers. I think if you *know* ahead of time what the title is all about, then you might approach the book differently. It's best just to go with it and learn as the character grows.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

I take a drive down Highway One today so I can try and see my host daughter and her sister again before they return to Belgium. About this time last year, we got out our calendars and decided on a good time for a visit. They’d be staying with friends in town for the July 4th weekend and with us for ten days after. A and L flew in the day we evacuated to San Jose. Incredibly bad timing. I did get to catch up with them last Monday though. We had a nice trip to the beach and watched some surfers. On the drive down the dolphins put on a nice show too. Ate at Neptune’s Net for lunch, Cho-Cho-San for dinner [A says that the Chinese and Japanese food in Belgium tastes very different] and saw "Wanted" before the evacuation lifted and I returned to Big Sur. A and L had fun with the friends A had met when she was an exchange student here three years ago. Hard to believe three years have passed since A lived with us.



Here’s a photo I took at the shore yesterday. I’ve seen jellyfish at The Monterey Bay Aquarium They are so amazing to see floating in nature.

Birthday fun in Zuma. I have no idea when I last went to the beach. No idea. Maybe, last summer? It's crazy to live so close to the ocean and never go. Note to self: beach more.

Took Mx to Burbank this AM. Here's my favorite bumper sticker that I read this morning: "A closed mind is a wonderful thing to lose" and my favorite vanity plate? Mnmnmnm

We head up north today. Hopefully much less drama this week than last week. Thanks for your good thoughts during the blaze, still burning.

Saw Wall-E. Really cute story about true love and so much more.

Now we're really home!

OfficeMouse learned all kinds of web-related goodness from the WebGod, Theo Black, who is a calm, ordinary sort of guy.

While they discussed Flash and code and other things I do not understand, I mostly curled up in a corner with my revisions. But Theo insisted that I try out the Wii, which I had never seen before. Note to BH - we must not buy a Wii or I'll never write another book. Addictive, to say the least.

After they were done with the computer magic, OfficeMouse and I went to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. This bug, disguised as a very hungry caterpillar, was in the parking lot.

This is a quilt of the famous caterpillar in the lobby. Visitors are not allowed to take photographs in the exhibit galleries, obviously, so I can't show you how wonderful they are. Three hours evaporated while we slowly walked through the exhibits and created our own masterpieces in the art room.

Mr. Carle painted these gorgeous, massive paintings for the front hall. We could have stood in front of them for hours, just lost in the color. I know gas is expensive, so you should carpool with some buddies and take a trip to this museum. Well worth the drive.

NPR has a wonderful interview with Eric Carle as well as a terrific slideshow of the man and his work.

Your fact of the day: Eric Carle was born in Syracuse, NY and credits his kindergarten teacher at a Syracuse public school with being the person who opened the door to his lifetime as an artist.

This reinforces my hunch that Central New York is a magical place for writers and artists. You should probably move here.

Although the polish on my final revision was calling, we were in the Amherst/Northampton region, and there was one more home of art we had to take in: the R. Michelson Galleries in Northampton. Along with other cool stuff, there is a terrific collection of the work of children's book illustrators there. Very satisfying.

Remember in my SCBWI-NE speech how I talked about the need to make time and space for art in your life? What artistic adventures have you gone on recently?

by way of Boise to see L, my good friend from high school. Her hubby recommended Sawtooth Mountain, ID. Told us how to get to Stanley, ID and where to stay and eat. We went. FABULOUS. Afterwards we wound our way to The Grand Tetons via Sun Valley, ID, where we stopped at The Hemingway Memorial. I love the literary connections of this trip. And also via Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve.



Candy after a swim and picnic at Firehole River

There's a few Yellowstone must-see/dos and packing a picnic and taking a swim in the Firehole River is definitely one of them.



Bison with baby

Seen so much wildlife. Elk and bison and deer everywhere.

This guy walked right up to our car!





A view from one of the parks thermal springs.....



Another must-see/do is to stay at the historic Old Faithful Inn.



We were lucky enough to get a room with a view of Old Faithful! [Goes off every 90 minutes].



Possibly THE best score of our trip...a last minute room at this wonderful Inn with a killer view!

Planning to visit Yellowstone? Get The Yellowstone Expedition Guide. Love, love, love this book. Can't say enough of how it MADE our visit.

Need a place to stay in Cody, WY? Don't miss The Cody Hotel. Brand new and fabulous. And...if you love those cowboys, there's a rodeo every night this summer across the street so come on by and check it out.

Haven't been able to post the last three days of the Rewilding road trip because we've ventured to places that, dare I say it? Don't have [wireless] Internet! *facepalm* [Curse of the MacBook Air owner but will put up with it for the really cool Ahhhhs she gets whenever using the same] So this is the first chance I've had to post in a while....

I'm falling asleep at the keyboard and Candy fell asleep writing in her journal.....hee-hee-hee, life's good.

Ran around all day getting ready for the trip.

The first sign that I am about to take a trip has to do with transferring all my stuff into the right purse. A total chick thing. My rewilding purse of choice? This trip is yet another chance I get to use the ultra cool Da Kine backpack I so love. It’s a backpack, but it’s teeny, so I don’t feel weighed down while exploring.

As a birthday present, Joe and I helped Candy purchase an awesome digital camera. Nice. And the folks who helped us were amazing. A local camera store, very old fashioned. Been taking cool shots all day.

Candy and I had a great discussion about journals we like to write in as we hunted for the perfect ones for the trip. Turns out we have very different ideas of the perfect journal. Mine has no lines. Candy has to have lines, and she’s pretty OCD about the spaces between them being equal on the page and that the lines have to go to the end of the page. I weighed in that when I do use a lined journal, the spaces don’t bother me nearly as much as the line weight. I hate dark lined paper–lines that scream out at me. Lines just need to fade in the background.

Scored an awesome room at Jackson Lake Lodge, another rec from my good amiga maedwen. Getting accommodations inside Yellowstone is proving a tough deal at the last minute. But…we might just pull off something amazing. Stay tuned.

Played with our cameras all night and talked about our route back to LA and if we could pull it off in time for Candy to start her job. Turns out it is possible. Yeah!

Watched a road trip movie: Pride and Prejudice. Many road trips taken in that film and it’s just so good.

Tomorrow we pick up our rental car….a Ford Escape–good name for a rewilding vehicle, dontchya think?

“Forrest, sometimes people do things that just don’t make no sense.”
--Mrs. Gump, Quote from Forrest Gump.

But, sometimes we do them anyway. Like road tripping when gas is at all time highs.

Why Mt. Rushmore, you ask? Why now? There’s a story there. When I was raising the kids there were times when I would get a little, well, overwhelmed. And I would smile at dinner and joke, "If you guys wake up one day and I'm gone, don't worry, I'm just on my way to Mt. Rushmore." Mt. Rushmore became my idea of freedom/sanity. Needless to say, I never did take that trip. [OK, insert joke about my sanity here.]

After Candy graduated from SFSU a few weeks back, she asked if I wanted to road trip to Mt. Rushmore with her. This on the heels of a good friend’s mother’s passing, just days before graduation. Today Candy is attending her friend's mom's memorial service in Los Angeles. So I guess the trip will be about more than just freedom and sanity but also a celebration of mothers and daughters. I feel so lucky that we have each other and a little time to rewild. What will we find on the road? Hmmm...stay tuned.

Yesterday, while drinking Chinese tea that Candy brought home from Hong Kong, we ooogled our TripTik [THE most powerful road trip weapon in our arsenal besides a fully loaded ipod] and talked Gold Country. We discovered that Mark Twain spent some time gaining a life time of inspiration and panning for gold here, in California Gold Country before he became a famous writer. Love the things we are discovering. We also discussed how the Coppertone Logo is sweet and somehow prolly politically incorrect in this day and age. Candy said when she grew up it creeped her out a little.

With an eye to the road:

6 ways you’re wasting gas

And, we’ll have none of these [BTW, why or why isn't an ipod on the list? Well have one of those:)]:

7 top road-trip tech gadgets

GO LAKERS!

It's been a week now since Candy graduated and I finally uploaded the photos. This is my best photo ever. What a smile! [What do you think Dad?] Candy just happened to be on the big screen when they awarded her diploma! What luck:) Woohoo. Still walking on air.

Click here to see graduation and Napa Pics.

Mucho good thoughts appreciated for my dad who, ever the energizer bunny, is getting his pacemaker's battery replaced tomorrow. And for my bro, healing from a dislocated shoulder AND a broken arm. And for my mom who is nursing them back to health. *HUGS* *KISSES*

Inspired by our road trip yesterday, here's my Friday Five:

1. 5 Hours on the road-a skunked, very cute dog surfs Hwy 1 shifting his weight from side to side on the snaking turns and needs to lick my hands and forearms to keep himself feeling well. We think he likes the salt. When he sees cows he loves to bark, this time in my ear. OMG! I lept out of my skin. For a full 20 miles I tried to get my heart to stop racing.

2. Discussions while on the road always take interesting turns. And, I don't know why exactly, but long about Santa Maria I asked Joe what his top three all-time favorite detectives were--TV or movies. Hmmm. This lead to a break down of the category. Favorite Private Dicks or Cops [solo], Favorite Cop Duos, and Favorite Ensemble. And the winners go to, well, who am I kidding, these were tough calls and at least one hundred miles of conversation....:

Private Dicks/Solo Cops:

1. Dirty Harry
2. Colombo
3. Jack Nicholson in Chinatown

Cop Duos:

1. LA. Confidential: Russell Crowe & Guy Pearce
2. The Negotiator: Kevin Spacey and Samuel Jackson
3. Lethal Weapon: Danny Glover & Mel Gibson

Ensemble:

Believe it or not, we couldn't nail this one down more than our top picks. Joe's fave? CSI...Me? Hawaii Five-0. And curiously, I could remember Jack Lord's real name but not his name on the show which I googled--Steve McGarrett. [Yes, it's sick. The things I'll do to avoid editing my outline for one of my novels. *hangs head in shame*]


3. Speaking of Guy Pearce....I loved, absolutely loved Priscilla Queen of the Desert [a great road trip movie, BTW] and recommended it to my folks once upon a time. They are still saying how much they hated that movie.

4. When Thursday comes 'round I always feel like I got my butt kicked by the week before. Ah...life on the road.

5. At this point, my little brain can only wrap it's head around making plans for no more than a week at a time. So much so, that even the mega road trip Candy and I are planning is being taken day by day with the caveat that we can fly back home at any time. [call it the road trip version of a three-ringed circus safety net, I often see the parallels between great road trips and three-ringed circuses:)].

Of all the epic moments in life, college graduation has got to rank in anyone’s top ten. Candy is interviewing and making decisions about where she’ll work. The choices now will either be in China or Thailand. It’s an exciting time. Like this morning I found out that she’s interviewing with a school in a city called Xi’an, the Eternal City. Seems like a perfect fit for an archeologist, the Qin Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses still being unearthed. Her last paper is being turned in today. There is nothing more magical than beginnings. She is surely on her way to an exciting one.

When I was busy raising a family, I turned to them one day and told them that if they woke up and I wasn’t here I’d be on a road trip to Mount Rushmore. I never went. It became a sort of joke for us when I was stressed about something. Mom’s on her way to Mount Rushmore. Well, Candy asked if we might want to take a trip there together this summer and make the trip a reality. We are planning it now. I have a few books we’ve been looking through. Excellent road trip planning books. One is James Dean Died Here: Locations of America's Pop Culture Landmarks, the other is MTV Roadtrips U.S.A [awesome because it includes playlists for your Road Trip]. Only when we search through those books, there really isn’t one that includes Mount Rushmore. Hmmm. Guess it’s not a particularly musical place, not a real MTV venue. And not even kooky enough to be included in the James Dean book. Which leads me to today’s Walk Through History…

Today, in 1804, Lewis and Clark set out from St. Louis on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. I looked at their map. Their route will get us from Mount Rushmore onto the Mississipi. So I think our road trip route will be a hybrid of research for my next novel which will lead me to a place I’ve always wanted to see then take us on the historic route of Lewis and Clark.

Some other pretty cool things happened today in history:

Skylab, the first US space station was launched into orbit in 1973. I so wanted to be an astronaut.

And Frank Sinatra died today, in 1998.

Isn't history so much cooler when you have a little of your own behind you? I don't know. Wasn't a real history buff. But I find I like it more and more as I get older.

This is for my little girl Mx who just rowed by the boat house a few days ago and is finishing her first year of college in the Big Apple, and a big Frank Sinatra fan. And, it begins with the cutest squirrels--shake that busy tail!]

It all started yesterday when Mother’s Day came early and I chose our movie last night. On our way to my favorite Independent Theatre [favorite because it has the best popcorn on the planet–real butter and loads of different toppers, my favorites are white cheddar and sour cream and onion and have to be alternately sprinkled and properly disbursed throughout the bag by banging it on the counter before I can even think of selecting a seat, but that’s another post] to see the movie The Visitor we drive by this!



I love living in LA [if only part-time now]. Where else on the planet can you drive to one movie and find the set of a castle for another movie sprouting out of a field of weeds on a remote country road?

I would recommend The Visitor, even if it had a bittersweet ending, as you know I am a fan of the happy one.

Then came this morning. Joe made me the best breakfast of the year, with a new twist. He always makes me Eggs Benedict. It’s amazing. Only this year I was served by a ‘rock star.’ It all happened yesterday. He was in LA on business and stopped by one of our favorite restaurants in Hollywood to pick up my favorite bread on the planet, sun-dried tomato bread. They didn’t have it but gave him another loaf [an awesome Hawaiian bread] on the house. When he asked the guy for change for the meter he gave him a bunch of quarters. There were a bunch of rock stars in the café having lunch. Joe said they were famous but wasn’t quite sure who they were. I guess that the guy at the counter thought Joe as famous too, but we weren’t quite sure who he thought Joe was. Joe does get mistaken for famous celebrities from time to time. But that’s another post too.

Isn’t it nice to be treated like ‘somebody’ every once in a while? It sure was nice having my breakfast served up by my famous hubby this year.

Happy Mother's Day MOM! And happy Mother's Day to all my writer moms out there. Now it's on the road. With a quick mother's day dinner stop in Paso on the way to Big Sur.

We head back down south tonight to go to a dinner for our priest who is leaving our congregation and heading to Santa Barbara. We’ve known Hank for around a dozen years. I love Episcopal priests and Hank in particular. Most people don’t know the very small town where Joe is from. But Hank knew right away, ‘cause he’d sold generators right after the big earthquake in Coalinga in ’83. Which, coincidentally, is coming up on its 25th anniversary tomorrow. Talk about an enterpriser. Bishop Bruno confirmed Candy and signed her prayer book on a surfboard. There’s just a lived-life quality to vicars that melts the barrier that sometimes come between people and their priests.

Then we drive back up north to scatter Ray’s ashes. It’s been about a year and a half since he’s left us. Never been to an ashes-scattering ceremony. Don’t quite know what to expect. Certain Ray’s ready to be roaming the hills with is dog Andrew though. A park is going to be dedicated in his honor this weekend too.

Then it’s back down south for a great meeting with my amazing crit group and a little trip to the dentist.

I’ve mailed and emailed queries and partials. It’s like Tom Petty says, the waiting is the hardest part. I love this story. Now, it’s time to shop it around, let it go. I’m going to miss working on it everyday. Even though I know I’ll still be revising here and there for a time. But soon, I’ll be moving on to my next novel, a YA contemporary that doesn’t have an ending yet. My other novels have beginnings, middles and ends. I really wonder why I stopped writing. Maybe I just wasn’t ready for The End. Maybe sometimes the writing is so fun I just don’t want it all to stop. Maybe I was trying to say too much with one story. Whatever it was, I’m excited to get back into it and see if I find my way to an ending.

Now that I think about it, so much about this weekend is letting go. Letting go of my story hoping it will find a good home. Letting go of Ray and watching him become a part of the desert hills he cherished. Letting go of Hank and keeping his words of wisdom close as he leaves. Even letting go of my kids as Candy is airborne on her way home from Hong Kong and Mx has been exploring parts of NYC that surprised her but left her with some great stories to tell.

It's about time I announced the winner of MP Barker's book! The lucky winner is...KAYLA! Kayla, email me for details on how to claim your prize. A big thank you to MP and I hope you all run out and get a copy of her book.

I'm in New Jersey and am T-I-R-E-D after all of the traveling. But I can barely sleep! I'm soooo excited about the photo shoot and spent an hour on the treadmill tonight trying to get tired so I'd fall asleep earlier. I feel like I'm running on 80 cups of coffee and sheer excitement about the shoot. :)

Here's a new video for you guys that I shot today. Enjoy!

All right! We've got guesses flying on the road trip purpose both on Blogspot and LiveJournal. Scroll down for yesterday's post (clue #2) and feel free to leave your guess. I won't comment on them this time and will reveal (!) the real answer by Wednesday at the latest.

I'm a writer. I write novels for teens. Three months ago I quit my day job as a healthcare data cruncher to become a full-time writer, and now I'm doing my best to get the word out about my recent novel, LEMONADE MOUTH. And this is what my family and I came up with... 

LEMONADE MOUTH ACROSS AMERICA! is my family's audacious attempt to make a writer's dream come true with a road-trip adventure and a shoestring budget. It's a summer-long, 26-city, 9,000 mile book tour across the USA and back--two adults, three small children and a pile of books all crammed into a minivan! For the story behind the story, click here. My website is www.markpeterhughes.com.

The Route: For a list of cities and dates, click here. If you're nearby, come see us--we'd love to meet you!

National Public Radio: NPR recently ran a commentary about me, my books, and how I quit my job to write full time.  To hear it click here.