where in the world is cindy pon?

okay. maybe not in the world. as i’ve been staying

fairly local in the last month or so. but have been so

busy with various bookish and author events. all fun,

but leaving me little time or desire to update here. woe!

now the bubs are home with me full time after summer

camp has ended (right in time for a heat wave) so even

less time for me to dawdle on my blog. but as an apology,

i’ll give you a monster catch all catch up update with loads

of visuals! forgive me? =)

Comic-Con

*hard to believe this was my 4th time attending comic-con.

and i started it off right with a quiet and nice breakfast with

rae carson, paolo bacigalupi, and greg van eekhout!

*got to meet and hang out a bit with these rad authors!

sarah dennard whose debut Something Strange and Deadly

just released, lish mcbride (i’m eagerly awaiting her sequel,

Necromancing the Stone) and leigh bardugo, whose YA fantasy

debut Shadow and Bone hit the NYT list!

*i wasn’t able to attend barry lyga’s panel but

loved I Hunt Killers and absolutely *had* to stalk him

and tell him so in person. i also had to tell him i

appreciated the diversity he included in the story.

*after being online deb buddies since before our

debuts released, i was excited to find out that

aprilynne pike was at a signing upstairs after i visited

the harperteen booth on the convention floor. of course,

i ran up to meet her before going to pick the bubs up

from their summer camp.

*had a lovely lunch AWAY from the con with marie lu

and her man.

*a glimpse of our delicious and unhealthy meal

at Seersucker. highly recommended!

Author Signings & Stuff

*i did a great Oceanside library visit then signing

at the BN after with the fabulous kirsten hubbard.

*holly black and cassandra clare were co-teaching at

clarion this summer–and holly invited me to talk to

the clarionites on writing diversity in spec fic. i had so

much fun! and also attended their author signings at mysterious

galaxy. here is holly with her fans! (note the cute shoes.)

*we had yummy taiwanese after and i shared a mango

chua bing (shaved ice) with holly. we didn’t make much of

a dent. and this isn’t even a big chau bing. ha!

*cassie didn’t think that many fans would show at

her signing. well, over 200 did, coming in from Texas

even. it was amazing and crazy!

*a foto with holly at cassie’s signing. (cassie, alas,

was signing for fans for over three hours. whew!)

SCBWI

*the first people i saw that i knew at the scbwi gala

were the lovely mandy morgan and suz young.

*my first foto alone with amaris, one of the most

original people i know!

*some of my rad SD writing posse! nikki, andrea,

matt, me and debra driza.

*hamming it up with cynthea liu and jo whittmore!

it was a hippie theme and i wore my lace betsey johnson

dress. any excuse to put it on–not hippie theme at all. ha!

*a reprisal of suz and mine original charlie’s

angels pose. with mandy added! hehe!

*had loads of fun carpooling back from the con

with jo. then a couple days later, jon yang and i helped

to celebrate jo’s release of her third middle grade

contemp novel, D is for Drama. we ate well and gabbed

and laughed. jo was kind enough to sign and give 3

of her books to sweet pea and she has read them all and

loved them!

so *that*, lovely readers, is what i’ve been up to.

now, a long weekend up in san francisco for a much

needed family holiday and seeing friends. it’s hard

to believe that summer is winding to an end!

enjoy the rest of it!

currently reading:

Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kirstin Cronn-Mills