It's officially author event season and I LOVE IT. If you've ever wanted to try going to hear an author speak and get your books signed, Allison and I have discovered that this is when it starts to pick up again after a lull for winter. We went last weekend to see Jay Kristoff, co-author with Amy Kaufman (who was unfortunately too pregnant to travel from Australia, next time she comes to America again we're definitely going because she's so nice and funny), for their new book Aurora Rising. I haven't read it and I already know I'm going to love it, that's how good they are together. Illuminae is one of my all-time favorite series, it's unique and impossible to put down and so much fun to read, and I just trust they're going to do great work. If you want to read great sci-fi definitely check it out!

We had another event on Tuesday, too, for Claire Legrand, author of Sawkill Girls, and Marissa Meyer, author of The Lunar Chronicles! If you haven't read Sawkill Girls and you want something creepy and epic and impossible to put down, you should definitely go find it. And Marissa Meyer is probably one of my top authors ever, and I don't need to tell you to go find her books because odds are pretty good you've already read them. But if you haven't, see the sentence I wrote about Illuminae. Plus romance.

I also have an exciting trip I'm going to take in September: I'm going to the PNWA Writer's Conference! I've been wanting to go for years and this time I decided to just go for it, so that's super exciting and scary at the same time. That also means, with the possible exception of July for Camp Nanowrimo, I'm going to be focusing on editing The House on the Rocks for sure. I'm still learning how to edit, so if you have any useful books or articles, please let me know! I'm always looking for new tools and resources.

That's all for now! Talk to you soon!

*jazz hands*

I did it! It wasn't a sure thing a couple of times, but I buckled down and did it! Final word count: 50,161, so pretty close, but I'm even happier than I have been with some previous years where I wrote more. I made myself stick to a plot and follow it instead of my usual MO of skipping around wherever my muse takes me, so it took a lot more work than usual. But I have a solid part of a story instead of something I need to start over!

Also, my Saturday of book-related adventures was fantastic. Allison and I went to two bookstores that were participating in Seattle Independent Bookstore Day and tried to get to a third but were foiled by parking. (Turns out there was no parking because that was the bookstore with jello shots. Which explains a lot.) Turns out that it's not just a race to get all the stamps, it's a party everywhere! There was cake and balloons and book signings and authors reading their work and coupons and champagne and crowds of people. If you're in the Seattle area definitely put it on your calendar and get a group together, it's the last Saturday in April and we had a blast. Next year we're strategizing and spending all day doing it, which will be awesome.

And then we went directly from bookstores to a play based on a book, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief: The Musical! We didn't know if it would be good like the books or bad like the movies (moment of silence for the movies and those of us who suffered through them...), but it turned out that it was fantastic. I definitely recommend it, if it comes to your area. The cast was very talented, it was incredibly clever, the songs were surprisingly well-written, and it managed to actually capture the quirky atmosphere of the book. I definitely recommend it. If it comes here again, I'll probably see it a second time.

Now to figure out what project I want to work on now that Nanowrimo is done. I'll let you know next week what I decide on! See you then!