Hawaii!

Alrighty, I am back. And to celebrate my longest lapse between post ever, I think we should have . . . . the longest entry ever!!!

Okay, not really, but maybe the most pictures ever.:)

But first, some news I have just been bursting to tell and I've been given the green light. Harper has invited me to go on not one, but two tours for my upcoming series! I will be going on a pre-publication tour in January that will focus on meeting bookseller, librarians, and teachers who will be buying, stocking, selling and/or telling students about my book (hopefully!). Then in May I will be going on a traditional tour where I will be visiting bookstores and doing signings and maybe if I am very lucky, some readers will show up. :) I have been bouncing off the walls with this news for a month and am so excited to be able to finally officially announce. The cities are still tentative, so I will share those just as soon as I can. *squee!!*

Okay, back to Hawaii. It. Was. So. Incredible! Seriously! One of the most wonderful trips of my life. I had such a great time.

First, the people. I finally got to meet my incredible friend Pat Wood who I have been friends with for about two years. Before either of us was agented or contracted and before her incredible book Lottery was published and critically acclaimed and short listed for the Orange prize and . . . am I getting carried away? Anyway, she was incredible and the camera just doesn't do justice to her dark brown eyes. In real life, they just sparkle! Totally beautiful!

I also good to meet my bestest author bud, Sarah Rees Brennan who I talked into coming to Hawaii from Ireland. Why yes, I am incredibly convincing.;) She was crazy! Crazy in a lovely sort of way. We had such a blast all week!!

And then I mixed Pat with Sarah and, I tell you what, the good times rolled!! Here is all of us at dinner.



By the way I should confess that I shamelessly stole this picture from Pat because it's a great picture of me.

Yes, totally shameless.:)

Oh, and at this restaurant we have this incredible view:



And they set our strawberries on fire. It was AWESOME!!




One of the interesting things about this trip is that I brought my one year old son.




Which meant that I also had to bring my 28 year-old sister to watch him.:) (She was devastated, let me tell you.;))





But as well as being a great babysitter, she is also a great organizer, which means that while Sarah and I were trying to figure out how to put a little structure in our novels (I now have a sixty plot point outline thank-you very much!) she arranged a trip out to the Polynesian Cultural Center, Hawaii's number one paid attraction. And it was gorgeous and awesome!! Here are a few photo highlights!

There were dancers on a canoe parade.




Huge statues of gods. (I think this one is sleeping . . . .)




This is a hut of a spiritual leader and traditionally, the higher the roof, the closer you could get to God. The picture doesn't do it justice. It was very cool!



They hosted a luau that included one very, very whole pig cooked in a pit covered with banana leaves.




There were sexy guys on drums . . . er . . . I mean, studious college students in traditional dress playing drums.




And the show they put on that night was INCREDIBLE!! Traditional dancing from eight different Polynesian islands!




And there was lovely vegetation everywhere!




We took a quick trip before the show to the Hawaii Temple and, religious or not, it's a beautiful building. Plus we were all wearing our leis and found flowers to put in our hair. Yay!!:)





We also took a really incredible sail on the hotel's catamaran at sunset that was both gorgeous and fun! The sunset was beautiful. Lots of clouds out that night to turn bright pink and orange!



And the catamaran went way fast. Lots of wind and getting sprayed by the waves! (That's Sarah, BTW.:))




Other highlights included our very cute waiter, Tai (who was also a really great waiter. I'm totally not biased!!;))




And the teen spread at the Borders Express that was less than a block from our hotel.




Seriously, all. I came to Hawaii with four books and left with 23. I think I have a problem . . . .

In my defense, six of them were ones that Sarah was returning to me. I did not buy them . . . at least not during this trip!! . . .that only leaves thirteen unaccounted for. *whistles and walks away.*

Anyway, I had a really fabulous time but was so happy to get home to my hubby and other two kidlettes.

And my blog readers. *mwah!mwah!*

Ciao!