ALA Conf Days 2-3

Hi!

I am now writing from the seat of an AMTRAK train heading to Los Angeles. It's quite a fun way to travel. There's plenty of leg room, a little fold out desk to work on, and a conductor actually came by asking for tickets. He even had a hole punch just like in the Polar Express movie. It's too dark to see the California coastline but it's much more comfy than flying and the tickets are value bargains.

We have our five winners of the first edition signed copy of Tiger's Curse in the limited edition souvenir Kelsey suitcase. We have announced to the winners and are waiting confirmation to share their names with all of you.

So yesterday I had a fabulous breakfast with Cindy and Judi, my editor and marketing director, at the hotel then we met up again at the convention center. As I got ready to sign books a line formed around the side of the booth and Chris, who was running our show, schmoozed the crowd. I had a great assistant, Simone, who flapped all the books, which means she opened them to the page I needed to sign and wrote the name on a post-it so I didn't have to ask how to spell names. A great crowd formed since fantastic treats were being offered which were provided by Sterling's library marketing team, led by Chris Vaccari. They even had chocolate fondue! Some teen bloggers came in, bought the book, and then returned. One brought a friend, shoved her to the table and said, "Buy this book." The other came back to tell me what chapter she was on and that she loved it.

We held an impromptu reception for a few people specially invited for appetizers and goodies in the hotel lounge and then all the girls, me, Cindy, Simone, Judi, and Danielle had a girl's night out dinner at Quarter Kitchen. My favorite dish there was the burrata cheese with mint walnut pesto and grilled country bread. The cheese and pesto was served in a Mason jar. Best appetizer ever!

Today I had breakfast at Cafe 222 which was featured on on of Food Network's Best Things I Ever Ate show. Bobby Flay loved their peanut butter and banana French toast. I actually saw that show. I ordered it and it was good but I had to take out the banana. I haven't been able to eat them since my 20's but still breakfast was fun. I spent the afternoon with Judi. We drove all over San Diego signing books in stores so they'd have autographed copies ready to sell on Tuesday and then we hopped the train.

I'm using my phone as a wi-fi and my batteries are almost dead so I'm not going to upload pictures right now but Judi, my travel buddy, just loaded pictures on the facebook page that you can check out. The Facebook page is just called Tiger's Curse.

Have a great day and I'll check in with you next from Los Angeles!

Colleen