Laurie's best blog attempt...
With dragons.
Novels and Novelties in Hendersonville, NC
I visited The Fountainhead Bookstore (soon to be renamed Novels and Novelties) in Hendersonville, NC on Monday. (Okay the picture below is from an earlier visit on a sunnier day.) Monday it rained and rained. Despite the weather, the visit was great. I always feel welcome in Hendersonville and the bookstore is full of books and charm. I did a store event, a podcast with local author Ken Butcher, and later met for a delicious dinner with the tween book club.
Along with sword fighting and book talk, the store had a contest for ‘Best Dragon Art” and the winner, Ruth, drew an outstanding dragon!
If you’re in Hendersonville, make sure to stop by The Fountainhead Bookstore (soon to be Novels and Novelties) for cool books, great people, and neat gifts.
Happy Groundhog’s Day. QUEST MAKER Releases today!!!
QUEST MAKER, book two in The Last Dragon Charmer, is available today. Check it out at: Amazon, B&N, HarperCollins, Indiebound or ask about it at your local Indie bookstore.
So far – fluffy-ish white dog Sally is enjoying it 😉
Reading in the cold
The East Coast is being throttled by Winter Storm Jonas. The road in Durham is iced over with an inch or two of sleet. There is some snow mixed in there, too, for flavor. I have POWER though. Electricity is the best. Sleet is much better than freezing rain when it comes to that.
My dog Simon – who will be sixteen in February – is spending the snowstorm curled up by the fire.
Me – I’m catching up on my reading! First, it’s the THE DISTANCE BETWEEN LOST AND FOUND by Kathryn Holmes. Afterwards, I’m going to start on BOUNDERS by Monica Tesler. Then, PAPER WISHES by Lois Sepahban. Snowstorm reading is the best reading – especially while beside the fire with an old dog.
Happy New Year 2016
May 2016 be a year of dancing and books and all things good.
QUEST MAKER Goodreads Giveaway!!
HarperChildren’s has put up a #GoodreadsGiveaway for a chance to win one of 5 advance copies of QUEST MAKER, The Last Dragon Charmer #2. Click here to enter. Woohoo!
Awesome Asheville
This week I went to visit two great schools – Asheville Middle and Joe Eblen Intermediate – in Asheville, NC. Then, on Saturday, I met up with Constance Lombardo, author of Mr. PuffBall, Stunt Cat to the Stars, for the Day of Signings Event at Malaprops Bookstore.
All and all it was a great weekend!
Hooray for Alexandria, VA!!
I visited lovely Alexandria, VA recently. While there, the amazing HoorayForBooks set up several school visits and share some about my book VILLAIN KEEPER and my Last Dragon Charmer series. It’s a great book store with a large children’s section but also some adult books, too. The owner, Ellen, recommended a book – Ricky Ricotta – that my niece and nephew love. So hooray for Ellen. And Hooray for Hilary who set up the visits for me 🙂
The schools were all different and all interesting. The students asked great questions. At every school, at least one person asked me if I drew the dragons. Sadly, I can’t take credit for that. That honor goes to Eric Deschamps. One cool thing, a few days after the visits I received a nice pack of cards from the kids of Alexandria County Day School.
And book three of The Last Dragon Charmer is titled….
REALM BREAKER (The Last Dragon Charmer #3)!!! The title still could change but I don’t *think* it will. I’m revising REALM BREAKER now. I got a great editorial letter from my editor and good input from my agent, so my brain is full of ideas. IDEAS! Lots of then. Thanks to Jocelyn and David for those. I feel a bit overwhelmed, too, but mostly feel sparkly and amazed that I’m working on book three! Honestly, I don’t know how I managed to write three books.
I have lots of work ahead of me. I have to edit and think and make the draft better. There is so much work to do. So much work to do. That’s how I feel at the beginning of a revision, or a draft, or a story. Writing is hard! And fun…definitely fun, too. But also HARD…
School visits at Timber Ridge MS and Fischer MS
Last week, I visited 6th and 7th graders at Timber Ridge MS in Plainfield, IL and at Fischer MS in Aurora, IL with my fabulous fellow Fearless 15er fri
ends and authors David Fulk (RAISING RUFUS) and Mike Grosso (I AM DRUMS). Anderson’s Bookshop set it all up for us!
This was the first author visit I’ve done with other authors. Usually, before these visits, I’m excited, but also nervous. I have to find the school, find whoever I’m going to meet there, and then present my program – all on my own. Although I was still excited, still nervous, it was nice to share the stress and the spotlight with friends. And I *think* we put on a good program for the students.
At Timber Ridge, the students had made posters of our books. It was amazing to see the giant cover art posters. They also had a band playing at the beginning of our program. Afterwards, several students came up to us in the halls to talk about our books. It’s just great to see kids excited about reading.
(Below there is a pic of us beside our posters. If you didn’t know, I’m the one posing like supergirl.)
After Timber Ridge MS, we visited Fischer MS. We got great questions from the 7th grade class and then got to chat with some of the 6th grade library shelf helpers.
It was a great day at two great schools. 
On Saturday, we had an event at Anderson’s Bookshop in LaGrange. The booksellers gave us a warm welcome and we got to chat about our books and read to a nice group of kids and adults.
