My Crazy Week in New York Part One
(For Pictures see the new website http://www.tigerscursebook.com/)
Hi Everyone,
Welcome to the new website. Have fun exploring and keep coming back because we'll be adding some cool stuff as we get ready to launch Tiger's Curse. For those of you who have been asking about the movie, Raffi has given me permission to invite you to his Facebook and Twitter pages for his production company called Ineffable Pictures. For those of you wondering what ineffable means like I did, he said that it means that something is so cool you can't even talk about it.
I recently met a foreign rights agent I'm working with. Her name is Kate and she sold my books to Thailand. She was traveling through Oregon and stopped by to say hello. She also brought me a present from Thailand-a beautiful scarf made from Thai silk. Just before she left she handed me a second scarf to give to my mother because she saw pictures of my mom with the tigers in LA. I told mom that she's famous now. Here's a picture.
Now on to my New York Trip
My Crazy Week in NYC
Part One
I was invited along with my husband and my parents to come to NYC to meet my new publishing team from Sterling. I had already met four of them when they flew to Oregon the first week of August. So let me backtrack and tell you about that visit first. The four who came to see me were the ones I am working with the most—Marcus, the overall president of the company, is a Brit expecting his second set of twins. He’s a man who thinks outside the box and he’s also a man willing to take risks. Then there’s Frances, who is the president of the Children’s book division. She’s a smart lady who loves children, is soft spoken, and is head over heels for their new children’s book called The Secret Lives of Princesses which I fully intend to buy. Gorgeous book.
I met Cindy who is not only the Editorial Director but the editor for the Tiger Series. She’s full of bubbly energy, loves the tigers, and she was married in two dresses, a traditional white one and a red dress just like Li described at the Chinese wedding in Tiger’s Quest. My last visitor to Oregon was Judi who is the marketing director at Sterling. She has announced that she will be my second mom on the road, even though I think she’s younger than me, and she loves to lecture me on staying hydrated. She has crazy fun ideas for promoting the series and kept me organized the entire time I was in New York.
So the whole group of them came to visit me in Salem and took me out to lunch. Marcus flipped over a paper menu and drew an org chart on the back, showing me who’s who in the company. We talked favorite books and the book business and Marcus made a bet with me on book sales for the first year. If we sell a certain number of books he said he’d take me to India. I fully intend to win that bet. After lunch I took them on a tiger tour. We visited the Polk County Fairgrounds where we met up with Raffi the film producer and we then shocked the manager of the Western Oregon Bookstore as our group, who were obviously not students, descended upon her and asked her all kinds of questions about books and sales. She was grinning from ear to ear, since she is a fan, and proudly showed off her tiger section in the wolf themed school. After that we headed to Burgerville for milkshakes and talked tigers. We finished the night at the DaVinci restaurant in Salem where my husband joined us and we talked about marketing and cover design.
They left telling me they planned to fly me out to New York which I agreed to do with enthusiasm, but as I drove home, I wondered if my week in NYC would be as tiring as the single day they’d spent with me in Salem. I was right to wonder.
Now that you know the backstory and the players, I’ll tell you about what happened in New York.
Sunday-October 10
Our trip started out bad when my parents realized that they’d left a bag at home after we’d driven all the way to the airport. Fortunately, my father likes to arrive at airports three hours early so he drove back home and was able to return in time so we could board, though we were the last ones on the plane. We landed in Newark, NJ and were met by a driver and taken to our hotel called the Indigo-Chelsea which is in the flower district of NYC. I received a lovely bouquet of flowers from Sterling as well as a large fruit basket. We ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant down the block from the hotel and walked down to Penn Station and Madison Square Garden.
Monday-October 11
We went walking in the morning and headed for the Empire State Building. When we got in line, the worker said it would be about twenty minutes until we could get to the top. Forty minutes later we hadn’t progressed except to get through security and decided to duck out since we had to meet with my agent. All along the walk we were bothered by guys wanting to sell us tour bus tickets. There was a guy every five feet or so and they’re hard to deter. We got to Alex’s building just in time and met his assistant, Kate.
Trident Media Group is on the 36th floor in a tall brown building next to Madison Square Park and adjacent to a famous New York building called the Flat Iron. Their lobby was full of books. Their front office was full of books. The conference room was full of books. Their bathrooms were full of books. New books, old books, all the books they’d sold lined shelf after shelf after shelf. We met in the conference room with Alex, my agent, Libby, who sells audiobook rights, and Jessica who just returned from the International Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany, who sells internationally. My parents were able to ask Alex questions and he talked about what stages my books were in, then he took the four of us out to lunch at a restaurant called Eleven Madison Park.
This was the craziest restaurant we ate in that week. They have a large tree with cut roses attached to it so they probably change the flowers every other day. Waiters watch your every move and if you leave to go to the restroom your napkin is folded and your dinnerware is replaced. It’s themed sort of like Iron Chef except you choose the secret ingredient and then they make you whatever they’re inspired to. The menu looked like this.
BEET PRAWN SOLE FOIE GRAS
ENDIVE SWEETBREADS TOMATO LOBSTER
PORK CHICKEN BEEF VENISON
CHEVRE CHOCOLATE APPLE HAZELNUT
We had a three course lunch which means we chose one word from the top two rows and then one entrée from the third row and one dessert from the last row. This meal came not only with bread on the side, there were several add-ons as we waited between courses. We started with a large potato chip served in slits on a wooden plank. They were salted and had a dollop of sour cream and chive. We also had a row of eggs in little cups brought out. The tops were sheared off and we were given tiny spoons that just fit inside. In the eggs was a sturgeon cream with chive oil on the bottom. I didn’t think I’d like it but it was delicious. We also had a palate cleanser before dessert which was a malt ice cream, crumbled malt, a malt wafer, malt sauce, and cracked black pepper. The entire dish was white except for the pepper. This restaurant was fun and delicious and mom had a fun time taking pictures of everything we ate.
After our three hour lunch, Alex hailed us a taxi and we went to Ground Zero. There is a museum out there that sells books, T-shirts, and postcards to raise money for the memorial that’s under construction. It should be beautiful when it’s done and it’s supposed to open on Sept 11, 2011. Where the two towers stood they are building a park and two water features will outline the dimensions of the building.
Finishing there, we boarded a tour bus and you have to be pushy and time it right to get to the top which is where a tourist wants to be. The top is open air and you can see everything, hear the guide, and take pictures. Inside the bus is hot and you can’t see anything. I was the first to the top and was able to see Trump Tower. They said that those who work or live on the top floors of Trump Tower can feel the wind rock the building back and forth. We all finally got to the top of the bus as we neared Times Square where we all had to disembark and then board again when they flipped the sign to night bus.
The night bus wasn’t as full and we all agreed it was the best thing to do in New York. The buildings are beautiful at night and the guide was fun. I saw Parson’s School of Design which is where they film Project Runway. Mom and Dad never heard of it and didn’t know why I was excited. We went into Brooklyn over the Brooklyn Bridge and drove through Chinatown and Little Italy. The guide told us that every visitor to New York had to try four things—New York cheesecake, a bagel, pizza, and a hot dog. He also explained his theory as to why NYC style pizza cannot be replicated in other places. He said it’s all in the water. “NYC has a very special tasting tap water which makes the bagels and pizza taste different.” After spending a week there, we agreed with him.
It started raining towards the end of our tour and we were let off the bus about six or seven blocks from our hotel. We found a Nathan’s Hot Dog and decided to make a dent in our list. The hot dogs are thin and long and have a sort of snap to them. Then, on our walk home, we had to duck under the ever present construction awnings as we were pelted with pea sized hail. The streets filled with water as it began to rain heavily and we ducked and ran from shelter to shelter finally arriving at our hotel soaked and laughing. Helpful tip: If you’re walking in NYC in the rain, move as far away from the street as possible. A taxi plunged into a large puddle near the curb without slowing down and I was soaked from my waist down and I mean soaked. I might as well have jumped into the ocean.
That's is for my crazy week in New York Part One. Stay tuned for part two and part three coming soon!
Colleen
Hi Everyone,
Welcome to the new website. Have fun exploring and keep coming back because we'll be adding some cool stuff as we get ready to launch Tiger's Curse. For those of you who have been asking about the movie, Raffi has given me permission to invite you to his Facebook and Twitter pages for his production company called Ineffable Pictures. For those of you wondering what ineffable means like I did, he said that it means that something is so cool you can't even talk about it.
I recently met a foreign rights agent I'm working with. Her name is Kate and she sold my books to Thailand. She was traveling through Oregon and stopped by to say hello. She also brought me a present from Thailand-a beautiful scarf made from Thai silk. Just before she left she handed me a second scarf to give to my mother because she saw pictures of my mom with the tigers in LA. I told mom that she's famous now. Here's a picture.
Now on to my New York Trip
My Crazy Week in NYC
Part One
I was invited along with my husband and my parents to come to NYC to meet my new publishing team from Sterling. I had already met four of them when they flew to Oregon the first week of August. So let me backtrack and tell you about that visit first. The four who came to see me were the ones I am working with the most—Marcus, the overall president of the company, is a Brit expecting his second set of twins. He’s a man who thinks outside the box and he’s also a man willing to take risks. Then there’s Frances, who is the president of the Children’s book division. She’s a smart lady who loves children, is soft spoken, and is head over heels for their new children’s book called The Secret Lives of Princesses which I fully intend to buy. Gorgeous book.
I met Cindy who is not only the Editorial Director but the editor for the Tiger Series. She’s full of bubbly energy, loves the tigers, and she was married in two dresses, a traditional white one and a red dress just like Li described at the Chinese wedding in Tiger’s Quest. My last visitor to Oregon was Judi who is the marketing director at Sterling. She has announced that she will be my second mom on the road, even though I think she’s younger than me, and she loves to lecture me on staying hydrated. She has crazy fun ideas for promoting the series and kept me organized the entire time I was in New York.
So the whole group of them came to visit me in Salem and took me out to lunch. Marcus flipped over a paper menu and drew an org chart on the back, showing me who’s who in the company. We talked favorite books and the book business and Marcus made a bet with me on book sales for the first year. If we sell a certain number of books he said he’d take me to India. I fully intend to win that bet. After lunch I took them on a tiger tour. We visited the Polk County Fairgrounds where we met up with Raffi the film producer and we then shocked the manager of the Western Oregon Bookstore as our group, who were obviously not students, descended upon her and asked her all kinds of questions about books and sales. She was grinning from ear to ear, since she is a fan, and proudly showed off her tiger section in the wolf themed school. After that we headed to Burgerville for milkshakes and talked tigers. We finished the night at the DaVinci restaurant in Salem where my husband joined us and we talked about marketing and cover design.
They left telling me they planned to fly me out to New York which I agreed to do with enthusiasm, but as I drove home, I wondered if my week in NYC would be as tiring as the single day they’d spent with me in Salem. I was right to wonder.
Now that you know the backstory and the players, I’ll tell you about what happened in New York.
Sunday-October 10
Our trip started out bad when my parents realized that they’d left a bag at home after we’d driven all the way to the airport. Fortunately, my father likes to arrive at airports three hours early so he drove back home and was able to return in time so we could board, though we were the last ones on the plane. We landed in Newark, NJ and were met by a driver and taken to our hotel called the Indigo-Chelsea which is in the flower district of NYC. I received a lovely bouquet of flowers from Sterling as well as a large fruit basket. We ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant down the block from the hotel and walked down to Penn Station and Madison Square Garden.
Monday-October 11
We went walking in the morning and headed for the Empire State Building. When we got in line, the worker said it would be about twenty minutes until we could get to the top. Forty minutes later we hadn’t progressed except to get through security and decided to duck out since we had to meet with my agent. All along the walk we were bothered by guys wanting to sell us tour bus tickets. There was a guy every five feet or so and they’re hard to deter. We got to Alex’s building just in time and met his assistant, Kate.
Trident Media Group is on the 36th floor in a tall brown building next to Madison Square Park and adjacent to a famous New York building called the Flat Iron. Their lobby was full of books. Their front office was full of books. The conference room was full of books. Their bathrooms were full of books. New books, old books, all the books they’d sold lined shelf after shelf after shelf. We met in the conference room with Alex, my agent, Libby, who sells audiobook rights, and Jessica who just returned from the International Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany, who sells internationally. My parents were able to ask Alex questions and he talked about what stages my books were in, then he took the four of us out to lunch at a restaurant called Eleven Madison Park.
This was the craziest restaurant we ate in that week. They have a large tree with cut roses attached to it so they probably change the flowers every other day. Waiters watch your every move and if you leave to go to the restroom your napkin is folded and your dinnerware is replaced. It’s themed sort of like Iron Chef except you choose the secret ingredient and then they make you whatever they’re inspired to. The menu looked like this.
BEET PRAWN SOLE FOIE GRAS
ENDIVE SWEETBREADS TOMATO LOBSTER
PORK CHICKEN BEEF VENISON
CHEVRE CHOCOLATE APPLE HAZELNUT
We had a three course lunch which means we chose one word from the top two rows and then one entrée from the third row and one dessert from the last row. This meal came not only with bread on the side, there were several add-ons as we waited between courses. We started with a large potato chip served in slits on a wooden plank. They were salted and had a dollop of sour cream and chive. We also had a row of eggs in little cups brought out. The tops were sheared off and we were given tiny spoons that just fit inside. In the eggs was a sturgeon cream with chive oil on the bottom. I didn’t think I’d like it but it was delicious. We also had a palate cleanser before dessert which was a malt ice cream, crumbled malt, a malt wafer, malt sauce, and cracked black pepper. The entire dish was white except for the pepper. This restaurant was fun and delicious and mom had a fun time taking pictures of everything we ate.
After our three hour lunch, Alex hailed us a taxi and we went to Ground Zero. There is a museum out there that sells books, T-shirts, and postcards to raise money for the memorial that’s under construction. It should be beautiful when it’s done and it’s supposed to open on Sept 11, 2011. Where the two towers stood they are building a park and two water features will outline the dimensions of the building.
Finishing there, we boarded a tour bus and you have to be pushy and time it right to get to the top which is where a tourist wants to be. The top is open air and you can see everything, hear the guide, and take pictures. Inside the bus is hot and you can’t see anything. I was the first to the top and was able to see Trump Tower. They said that those who work or live on the top floors of Trump Tower can feel the wind rock the building back and forth. We all finally got to the top of the bus as we neared Times Square where we all had to disembark and then board again when they flipped the sign to night bus.
The night bus wasn’t as full and we all agreed it was the best thing to do in New York. The buildings are beautiful at night and the guide was fun. I saw Parson’s School of Design which is where they film Project Runway. Mom and Dad never heard of it and didn’t know why I was excited. We went into Brooklyn over the Brooklyn Bridge and drove through Chinatown and Little Italy. The guide told us that every visitor to New York had to try four things—New York cheesecake, a bagel, pizza, and a hot dog. He also explained his theory as to why NYC style pizza cannot be replicated in other places. He said it’s all in the water. “NYC has a very special tasting tap water which makes the bagels and pizza taste different.” After spending a week there, we agreed with him.
It started raining towards the end of our tour and we were let off the bus about six or seven blocks from our hotel. We found a Nathan’s Hot Dog and decided to make a dent in our list. The hot dogs are thin and long and have a sort of snap to them. Then, on our walk home, we had to duck under the ever present construction awnings as we were pelted with pea sized hail. The streets filled with water as it began to rain heavily and we ducked and ran from shelter to shelter finally arriving at our hotel soaked and laughing. Helpful tip: If you’re walking in NYC in the rain, move as far away from the street as possible. A taxi plunged into a large puddle near the curb without slowing down and I was soaked from my waist down and I mean soaked. I might as well have jumped into the ocean.
That's is for my crazy week in New York Part One. Stay tuned for part two and part three coming soon!
Colleen
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