My Crazy Week in New York Part Two
Hi!
Thank you everyone for all your patience as we update and make changes to just about everything tiger. Here is part two of my NYC blog. For pictures see my website http://www.tigerscursebook.com
Tuesday, October 12
This was the longest working day for me. While my husband and parents went on the Circle Line tour, a three hour tour around Manhattan, I was busy with Sterling. We started the day at a breakfast meeting with representatives from Barnes & Noble. I met the national buyer for YA fiction, a representative from B&N.com, and the vice president of children’s merchandising. The restaurant was called Olive’s which is a Todd English place and if you go, I would suggest you get their Benedict Flatbread. We had a great lunch and I especially bonded with Shimul who is the Manager of National Accounts at Sterling. She could totally be Nilima in the movie. She’s so pretty! We talked hot Bollywood men during breakfast, after the meeting was over, of course.
After breakfast I headed over to Sterling and met several employees who have all worked on the book in various ways and made another new friend, Derry, who is the Manager of Children’s Publicity. I got a peek at the new book trailer and was brought the revised cover and shown the interior maps etc. I went out to lunch with Derry, Cindy, and Judi, at an Italian place called I Trulli. There was a sweet little woman rolling homemade gnocchi as we walked in. I ordered the Malloreddus which is saffron dumplings with sausage and tomato and managed to spill saffron pasta down my new shirt when I had a video shoot that afternoon. Luckily I was prepared with two other shirts.
After lunch I went into a three hour video shoot that will be shared all over the internet. They said the shoot went well. I hope so. You can all be the judges and tell me if I look too nervous on video. I told the camera guy, who was very good looking by the way and all the employees wanted his phone number, to make me look as skinny as possible and if he wanted to soften my aura to diminish wrinkles like they do with Cher and Hillary Clinton, all the better.
When the shoot was finished, I had a brief rest before I met my agent, Alex for dinner. We went to the Mesa Grill which is a Bobby Flay restaurant. He has tons of cookbooks for sale in his store but, alas, he wasn’t there that night. Our group was me, Alex, Frances, Cindy, and Judi and we were gifted with a table full of appetizers because someone knew someone who worked there. The theme was blue corn. We had blue corn tortilla chips to dip in cheese, blue corn muffins, and my favorite was a blue corn crepe filled with BBQ duck. I got pork tenderloin for my entrée which they suggested should be cooked medium which I didn’t know you could do with pork. It was rolled in ancho chili sauce which was a bit too spicy for me but it came with a sweet potato tamale with crushed pecan butter that was to die for. We shared coconut cake and churros with chocolate sauce for dessert.
I have no idea how these people stay so skinny. It must be all the walking they do in NYC.
Wednesday, October 13
I got to sleep in which was good since I didn’t get back from dinner until eleven or so. A car arrived at our hotel to take all of us, my parents and Brad included, to a special celebration brunch at Sterling. About fifty employees showed up and some came who weren’t even invited. Marcus gave a speech and then asked me to say something. I can’t remember exactly what I said. I think it was something to the effect of, “heartfelt thanks for all their hard work and for welcoming me with open arms.” I added that it was humbling to know that all of them were taking a risk on me and promised that I would do my best to write them a fabulous story. My dad started bawling which made me cry too. We watched the new book trailer and there were collective oohs and ahhs when it was finished. The table was filled with fruit, cream cheeses, and NYC bagels, which was another item to check off our list, but I was so busy meeting people and signing galleys, each employee got a free galley, that they had to shuffle people out the door and I only had time to grab a bagel and run to my next meeting.
I met with Chris who is the Director of Library Marketing who picked my brains about which libraries have my old versions of the book and we talked the library systems of Oregon. Then I met with Elizabeth who some might recognize from the Facebook and Twitter pages. She is the manager of Online Marketing and she’s fabulous! I met Emily who knows everything about Twitter and looks young enough to be in HS so I believe her. I also met Buzz whose real name is Meagan who is going to be arranging all kinds of crazy fun events for fans, like…having all the fans in Chicago go to a park with a Kelsey ribbon at 5 pm. She’s fun to brainstorm with and totally wants to be Kelsey in the movie.
I ate lunch with Judi in her office. We had mozzarella, tomato, basil sandwiches on pretzel bread. Yummy. Then we met Stephenie who is the National Account Manager for B&N.com and drove over to their offices for an exclusive video shoot for B&N. We lucked out and got another handsome camera man who once again promised me he’d make me look good and we went through the interview pretty fast. I found out all the B&N author videos are shot there and I asked about Leonard Nimoy who they shot recently for his new photo book. The interviewer said all the Star Trek geek employees kept walking casually by the studio trying to catch a peek.
Went back to Sterling to meet with Emily who is my Twitter mentor and Elizabeth who is in charge of the website. We took some pictures and they sent me home. My parents took me to a place for a slice of NYC pizza which was really, really good.
At nine that night, Raffi had flown in to town and took me, mom, and Alex to dinner at the Gramercy Tavern. He wanted to try the tasting menu which is the most expensive thing. We keep telling him Denny’s is fine but he insists. One of these days we’ll arrange an eight course Denny’s meal. “And right here you have your buttermilk short stack of pancakes with your pat of margarine that has been chilled to exactly forty-five degrees. Your maple syrup has been placed on the side in this convenient server and should you require more paper napkins, they will of course be provided free of charge. And here is your palate cleanser, an assortment of fresh melon and berries shaped as a garnish. Enjoy!”
So instead of Denny’s we got a Taste of Autumn which included a fluke tartar with orange caviar, crab soup, smoked trout, squab, which I didn’t know what was until mom started sharing a story of pigeon pie back on the farm, venison with blood sausage, and then dessert, along with various in between courses. The venison came with bone marrow which is an inside joke with Raffi. He loves the stuff so we tease him about it constantly. That and his hair (see below). We had a nice dinner and mom and I returned to our hotel at midnight to find both of our husbands waiting up for us to hear all about it.
Thursday, October 14
I got to sleep in again though I still had to set the alarm to do my hair. It takes forever to straighten it and when I complained about it to Judi she brought me a bag full of her favorite hair products. This was the most special day of the week because it was the day I met the press for a special luncheon. We met at a restaurant called Tabla which is kind of an Indian restaurant fused with something so it doesn’t really taste that Indian. They had fabulous naan bread with three chutneys, a tomato, a pear, and a lemon. Yum! We had the entire upper floor of the restaurant to ourselves and I was flanked by my trusty sidekicks—Cindy, Frances, and Judi.
In attendance were representatives from School Library Journal, Seventeen Magazine, the Associated Press, and RT Book Reviews, formerly known as the Romantic Times. Lunch was fabulous! I talked libraries and books with the SLJ blogger, favorite romance authors with the RT reporter, baseball, not really my thing but I can fake it well with AP, and Justin Beiber and Vampire Diaries with the reporter from Seventeen. Somehow during all the conversations I was actually able to eat too. It felt a bit like I was being interviewed for a job at four different companies and I had no idea what the jobs were or what they were looking for.
I followed my Sterling gang back to the office and met with Elizabeth to craft the announcement for the cover release and to work on the website and then with Emily who gave me a crash course in all things Twitter and Hootsuite. We were interrupted by a stream of Sterling employees who wanted their books signed which was really cool and Emily was very patient at the constant stopping and starting of her lesson. They eventually had to close the door so I could get some work done.
More pictures and then I was excused for the rest of the day. Went with my family to a place called Jackson Hole Burgers, home of the 7 oz burger. Then we went to see The Phantom on Times Square. I loved it. I still get goosebumps when the music starts. If you have never been able to see Phantom live, it's worth the experience and if you just can't make it to a theater, the movie is really well done and you can stare at Gerard Butler.
That's it for part two. Part three, the conclusion, coming soon.
Colleen
Thank you everyone for all your patience as we update and make changes to just about everything tiger. Here is part two of my NYC blog. For pictures see my website http://www.tigerscursebook.com
Tuesday, October 12
This was the longest working day for me. While my husband and parents went on the Circle Line tour, a three hour tour around Manhattan, I was busy with Sterling. We started the day at a breakfast meeting with representatives from Barnes & Noble. I met the national buyer for YA fiction, a representative from B&N.com, and the vice president of children’s merchandising. The restaurant was called Olive’s which is a Todd English place and if you go, I would suggest you get their Benedict Flatbread. We had a great lunch and I especially bonded with Shimul who is the Manager of National Accounts at Sterling. She could totally be Nilima in the movie. She’s so pretty! We talked hot Bollywood men during breakfast, after the meeting was over, of course.
After breakfast I headed over to Sterling and met several employees who have all worked on the book in various ways and made another new friend, Derry, who is the Manager of Children’s Publicity. I got a peek at the new book trailer and was brought the revised cover and shown the interior maps etc. I went out to lunch with Derry, Cindy, and Judi, at an Italian place called I Trulli. There was a sweet little woman rolling homemade gnocchi as we walked in. I ordered the Malloreddus which is saffron dumplings with sausage and tomato and managed to spill saffron pasta down my new shirt when I had a video shoot that afternoon. Luckily I was prepared with two other shirts.
After lunch I went into a three hour video shoot that will be shared all over the internet. They said the shoot went well. I hope so. You can all be the judges and tell me if I look too nervous on video. I told the camera guy, who was very good looking by the way and all the employees wanted his phone number, to make me look as skinny as possible and if he wanted to soften my aura to diminish wrinkles like they do with Cher and Hillary Clinton, all the better.
When the shoot was finished, I had a brief rest before I met my agent, Alex for dinner. We went to the Mesa Grill which is a Bobby Flay restaurant. He has tons of cookbooks for sale in his store but, alas, he wasn’t there that night. Our group was me, Alex, Frances, Cindy, and Judi and we were gifted with a table full of appetizers because someone knew someone who worked there. The theme was blue corn. We had blue corn tortilla chips to dip in cheese, blue corn muffins, and my favorite was a blue corn crepe filled with BBQ duck. I got pork tenderloin for my entrée which they suggested should be cooked medium which I didn’t know you could do with pork. It was rolled in ancho chili sauce which was a bit too spicy for me but it came with a sweet potato tamale with crushed pecan butter that was to die for. We shared coconut cake and churros with chocolate sauce for dessert.
I have no idea how these people stay so skinny. It must be all the walking they do in NYC.
Wednesday, October 13
I got to sleep in which was good since I didn’t get back from dinner until eleven or so. A car arrived at our hotel to take all of us, my parents and Brad included, to a special celebration brunch at Sterling. About fifty employees showed up and some came who weren’t even invited. Marcus gave a speech and then asked me to say something. I can’t remember exactly what I said. I think it was something to the effect of, “heartfelt thanks for all their hard work and for welcoming me with open arms.” I added that it was humbling to know that all of them were taking a risk on me and promised that I would do my best to write them a fabulous story. My dad started bawling which made me cry too. We watched the new book trailer and there were collective oohs and ahhs when it was finished. The table was filled with fruit, cream cheeses, and NYC bagels, which was another item to check off our list, but I was so busy meeting people and signing galleys, each employee got a free galley, that they had to shuffle people out the door and I only had time to grab a bagel and run to my next meeting.
I met with Chris who is the Director of Library Marketing who picked my brains about which libraries have my old versions of the book and we talked the library systems of Oregon. Then I met with Elizabeth who some might recognize from the Facebook and Twitter pages. She is the manager of Online Marketing and she’s fabulous! I met Emily who knows everything about Twitter and looks young enough to be in HS so I believe her. I also met Buzz whose real name is Meagan who is going to be arranging all kinds of crazy fun events for fans, like…having all the fans in Chicago go to a park with a Kelsey ribbon at 5 pm. She’s fun to brainstorm with and totally wants to be Kelsey in the movie.
I ate lunch with Judi in her office. We had mozzarella, tomato, basil sandwiches on pretzel bread. Yummy. Then we met Stephenie who is the National Account Manager for B&N.com and drove over to their offices for an exclusive video shoot for B&N. We lucked out and got another handsome camera man who once again promised me he’d make me look good and we went through the interview pretty fast. I found out all the B&N author videos are shot there and I asked about Leonard Nimoy who they shot recently for his new photo book. The interviewer said all the Star Trek geek employees kept walking casually by the studio trying to catch a peek.
Went back to Sterling to meet with Emily who is my Twitter mentor and Elizabeth who is in charge of the website. We took some pictures and they sent me home. My parents took me to a place for a slice of NYC pizza which was really, really good.
At nine that night, Raffi had flown in to town and took me, mom, and Alex to dinner at the Gramercy Tavern. He wanted to try the tasting menu which is the most expensive thing. We keep telling him Denny’s is fine but he insists. One of these days we’ll arrange an eight course Denny’s meal. “And right here you have your buttermilk short stack of pancakes with your pat of margarine that has been chilled to exactly forty-five degrees. Your maple syrup has been placed on the side in this convenient server and should you require more paper napkins, they will of course be provided free of charge. And here is your palate cleanser, an assortment of fresh melon and berries shaped as a garnish. Enjoy!”
So instead of Denny’s we got a Taste of Autumn which included a fluke tartar with orange caviar, crab soup, smoked trout, squab, which I didn’t know what was until mom started sharing a story of pigeon pie back on the farm, venison with blood sausage, and then dessert, along with various in between courses. The venison came with bone marrow which is an inside joke with Raffi. He loves the stuff so we tease him about it constantly. That and his hair (see below). We had a nice dinner and mom and I returned to our hotel at midnight to find both of our husbands waiting up for us to hear all about it.
Thursday, October 14
I got to sleep in again though I still had to set the alarm to do my hair. It takes forever to straighten it and when I complained about it to Judi she brought me a bag full of her favorite hair products. This was the most special day of the week because it was the day I met the press for a special luncheon. We met at a restaurant called Tabla which is kind of an Indian restaurant fused with something so it doesn’t really taste that Indian. They had fabulous naan bread with three chutneys, a tomato, a pear, and a lemon. Yum! We had the entire upper floor of the restaurant to ourselves and I was flanked by my trusty sidekicks—Cindy, Frances, and Judi.
In attendance were representatives from School Library Journal, Seventeen Magazine, the Associated Press, and RT Book Reviews, formerly known as the Romantic Times. Lunch was fabulous! I talked libraries and books with the SLJ blogger, favorite romance authors with the RT reporter, baseball, not really my thing but I can fake it well with AP, and Justin Beiber and Vampire Diaries with the reporter from Seventeen. Somehow during all the conversations I was actually able to eat too. It felt a bit like I was being interviewed for a job at four different companies and I had no idea what the jobs were or what they were looking for.
I followed my Sterling gang back to the office and met with Elizabeth to craft the announcement for the cover release and to work on the website and then with Emily who gave me a crash course in all things Twitter and Hootsuite. We were interrupted by a stream of Sterling employees who wanted their books signed which was really cool and Emily was very patient at the constant stopping and starting of her lesson. They eventually had to close the door so I could get some work done.
More pictures and then I was excused for the rest of the day. Went with my family to a place called Jackson Hole Burgers, home of the 7 oz burger. Then we went to see The Phantom on Times Square. I loved it. I still get goosebumps when the music starts. If you have never been able to see Phantom live, it's worth the experience and if you just can't make it to a theater, the movie is really well done and you can stare at Gerard Butler.
That's it for part two. Part three, the conclusion, coming soon.
Colleen
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