My Going-Ons!

Hello. My name is Aprilynne Pike and I am an internet-holic.

No really. The last two weeks have been SO frustrating without internet. I mean, I have it on my phone, but YOU try blogging on a three-inch-wide keyboard!:)

So I have been doing a bunch of traveling. Last week I went to New York for BEA. As soon as I got there I had a dinner that was about a mile from my hotel and we had some minor delays and it started sprinkling. So I was in the cab and frantically called up another author friend whose hotel was right around the corner and was like, "Dude! Can I come change in your bathroom!?!?!?" Luckily he was nice and said yes, so I managed to get to my dinner only about five minutes late.:)

Wow. What a dinner. My whole publishing team was there. The people behind the magic. We chatted and laughed and joked and just had a fab time. I got to meet Susan Katz for the first time and she is hilarious! She is the publisher at Harper and has been very key in championing my book. I did refrain from kissing her, but only just.

On Friday I started BEA proper. Well sort of . . . I actually started out the day at Harper where I filmed interviews for book two (still unnamed) THEN to BEA where I got to shake Neil Gaiman's hand. *swoon* (I'm just a squealing fan-girl on the inside.;)) I had a luncheon with Tara and then that night I got to get all dressed up in my brand-new little black dress (yay!) and go to a way swanky party. That was the highlight of BEA for me. It was so fun! I got to meet Holly Black, Scott Westerfield, Jeff Kinney, and re-meet Shannon Hale.:) About four hours of wandering around talking publishing with people who didn't think I was weird!! (Well, not for talking publishing anyway. They may have thought I was weird for other reasons.:)) Awesome!

The next morning I got up a bit early so I could be at BEA when the floor opened and I discovered that THAT is the secret of getting ARCs! I got tons! A bunch of books I had on my list of wants and several that just looked interesting. I also picked up Sarwat Chadda's The Devil's Kiss and had him sign it for me. So my name is a little hard to spell, so I put my nametag up on the counter where he could see it and said, "Sorry, my name is hard."

And (imagine this in a heavy british accent) he says, "Wot? No, no, I love it, I love it! Pike! *pause* Oh wait, that wasn't the name you were talking about was it?" And then he signed my book "Very, very cool name." :)

Then I got to be social. I met up with some Debs for lunch and then a bunch of Blue Boarders for dinner.

And in the middle . . .

Wait for it . . . .

Wait for it . . . .

I WENT TO SEE WICKED!!!

Oh man. It was SO GOOD!!! I was on row CC, but apparently they took out row AA because I was in the second row in the middle! I could see everything!! And if you are familiar with the set, they have this big dragon that decorates the top of the stage. Get this; I was UNDER the dragon!! Seriously, if the dragon had fallen off, it would have hit me in the head! Man, it was so amazing! I love this musical so much, but being so close had this immersion effect that was amazing!! I floated out of that theatre! It was so wonderful!

Sunday I got to meet Moonrat from Editorial Ass(istant). Yes! I seriously did!! I know who she is!! (And no, I won't tell you.) What I will tell you is that she is just as bubbly and fun in real life as she is on her blog. Exactly the same!

So then I left for the airport and as I was boarding I found a blogosphere friend and her daughter and after some creative seat switching, we got to sit together! So fun!

So yeah, I came back from New York just blissfully exhausted.

And then Wednesday I headed off again! I got to have dinner with my friend Heidi on Wednesday night and spent the whole day yesterday signing stock around San Francisco and talking to schools. I love school visits! They are so awesome! Right now I am in Portland and when I got here, I found out they had upgraded me to the equivalent of the Presidential Suite. Whoa! So I have a sitting room and a canopy over my bed and lots of treats in the mini-bar. (Not. Touching. The. Mini-Bar.;)) And I am waiting for the rest of my comrades to arrive!

Because tonight is the first stop on the Supernatural Summer Tour!! I get to do a signing with three other NYT Bestsellers who are totally amazing and fabulous!!! I feel like such a little kid bouncing on my puffy bed and saying, "Are they here yet? Are they here yet? Are they here yet??"

Hehe. I'm such a fangirl.:)

So yeah. I have internet here and and will try to put up another post before I leave tomorrow (with some awesome fan art!) so that you don't have to suffer through another really, really long entry like this one.:D

Also, I have some really, really exciting news re: foreign rights and film rights that I should be able to share soon. *squee* So stay tuned!!

Ciao!