Once again, the combo of too many hours in a convention center + airplanes + half my usual sleep has = head cold. Now with slight fever! (Yes, if my fever doesn’t go away shortly or I get more symptoms I will get checked for the big H1N1.) I majorly failed to take my camera but pictures should be cropping up here and there on other blogs—such as the fabulous Sarah Dessen’s! Notice how we accidentally coordinated our outfits. We are now ready to serve as your bridesmaids for a small fee and an engraved champagne flute.

If I were feeling better, I’d go into all the details of the trip, such as the Mysterious Benedict Society fun bus from Javits to Brooklyn (also known as the Decapitation Express), the exhausting but incredibly helpful Speed Dating event (if you don’t have your short pitch down after 22 tables in 90 minutes, you never will), bowling with the Geektastic crew (my team’s motto: “bowl as if your life depends on it”), and an amazing dinner with the Little, Brown Books for Young Readers family which really and truly does feel like family. They must have a special hiring policy that only allows for good and kind and funny people. I hope our guests had as much fun as I did. (With apologies again to Elise from WA for saying “butt” during dinner.)

And finally, what the trip was really all about for me, introducing Once Was Lost to the bookselling and bookreading world. As Sarah D. mentions in her blog post, you never know what to expect at these things as far as turnout, but my line stayed hopping the whole hour and it was so GREAT to meet some of you blog friends and fellow authors in person! Thank you so much for coming to see me. This is always a nervous time for writers. It’s too late to change your book, but it’s awhile before it’s really out and getting responses. With every book of mine so far there’s been a moment during this limbo time when I exhale and think, okay, I think it might be a little bit okay. When I got home last night there were already three emails from people who had picked up the ARC, read the book, and wanted to share a positive personal response. Say it with me now: PHEW! I’m proud of this book in a different way than I’ve been proud of the others and eagerly anticipate talking about it with you all in more detail when it’s closer to pub time.

It’s June now, and that means Sweethearts is claiming the book-of-the-month crown at Readergirlz. Here’s the page with the whole scoop, including fun facts about me, a Sweethearts playlist, discussion questions, ideas for Sweethearts-themed events, and more! There’s a live chat coming on June 17th. I’ll be blogging reminders all month.

Going back to bed now. Happy June!