Dark Days Tour from the Inside– Attempt Number Two

I’m completely reposting this blog because Blogger decided to spontaneously delete it. Sorry about the comments I can’t reply to!

So I was lucky enough to spend the week of my book release on book tour– rather than obsessing about the fact that INSIGNIA released July 10th.

First of all, can I mention how drastically different travel is when you 1) plan none of it yourself, 2) pay for none of it yourself, and 3) have drivers automatically there to pick you up, airport to airport, destination to destination?

It really does improve what otherwise could’ve been a daunting amount of plane travel. Logistics aside, the whole trip didn’t really begin until I reached my gate in Chicago and ran into Veronica Roth, author of the amazing DIVERGENT:

We flew together to St. Louis, and then met Aprilynne Pike, author of the awesome WINGS series, in the baggage claim.

It wasn’t until we were at the hotel that we met the fourth member of this Dark Days tour group, Dan Wells, author of the fantastic PARTIALS.

After getting lunch, we headed out that evening for an event hosted by Left Bank Books. Aprilynne is a total pro at the group event thing, so she moderated our events, having people ask group questions that would apply to all the books.

The Q & A was followed by some book buying, and signing, and luckily the event was stocked with my book a day early. It was a great first event.

The next day was the day of my debut, and I have to admit, it still didn’t feel quite real. We flew out in a cramped little plane to Los Angeles for an event at Barnes and Noble, Huntington Beach. Early in the day, I met with Patrick Walmsey, one of the producers working with Fox on INSIGNIA. It was fantastic meeting a fellow history buff.

Then it was time for the signing in Huntington Beach. The crowd was huge– and it included my parents, who’d driven all the way up to Los Angeles to see this. First, though, we had an interview with Lauren of 365 Days of Reading:

Needless to say, Veronica Roth probably wore out her hand that night, since she was signing for another two hours! I put the time to good use, however, and hopefully persuaded an artist to hopefully open a store on Etsy. Not book-related, but yay! Alas, my parents had to leave, but a few of us got some awesome sushi that night, so the night still turned out well. (Thanks, HarperCollins!)

The next morning, we flew to Salt Lake City. I’d driven through Salt Lake City before, but my God, I guess I’d never looked down at it from above, because it is gorgeous.

The people we met in Salt Lake City were all incredibly nice, from the people who worked at the hotel, to our media escort, and to the fantastic people at the event. It took place in the Salt Lake City Public Library, hosted by King’s English Bookshop. This library was magnificent, this huge, gorgeous building where you just want to set up camp. First we had an interview with book blogger, Emily Ellsworth, seen here:

Then another group signing, where I met a lot of fantastic people, including – to my surprise – Elana Johnson, Author of POSSESSION and Bree Despain, author of THE DARK DEVINE. Plus, we met the extremely adorable kids of Dan Wells.

The next morning, Veronica Roth parted ways with us to head to Ascendio in Florida. I parted ways with Dan and Aprilynne for a day to fly out to Houston, Texas, for a solo event at Blue Willow Bookshop, where I got to see Cathy Berner again, one of the fantastic booksellers who blurbed the first galleys of INSIGNIA. I also ran into Yara, a blogger I met at the Katherine Tegen Books party during BEA, which was very cool.

Luckily, I wasn’t so slow signing books that anyone wanted to stab a pencil in my eye…

The next day, I flew out to San Diego. The day came of my panel at ComiCon. It was called “LOCKED AND LOADED”, with Joseph Nassise (By The Blood of Heroes), Myke Cole (Control Point), Taylor Anderson (Destroyermen Series), Jack Campbell (Lost Fleet Series), Harry Turtledove (The War That Came Early).

Let’s just say… It was interesting. Definitely not my finest ever public exhibition.

After this, I had an interview with Kiersten White, author of PARANORMALCY and creator of the hilarious character, Evie. Then there was a last signing at the Dark Days Booth, and at long last, I met the awesome Stephanie of PoetrytoProse!

My first ever book tour was thus complete. I am not sure what happened after that, due to being slightly comatose for a few days.

Wisdom I learned?

1) New authors sit in the middle for practical reasons when it comes to signing

2) Books should be signed with more than just a bland, ‘Enjoy the book’. Authors have cool little things they tend to write. Sorry to everyone who has an, ‘Enjoy the book’ or ‘Hope you enjoy!’ I have a better phrase now

3) Flying, like chronic illness, is something that one can become accustomed to if experienced repeatedly, day after day

4) Publishing is a marathon, not a sprint (thanks, Aprilynne!)

5) Dan Wells can be easily impersonated by anyone with an Indiana Jones hat.

6) Veronica Roth is a Hufflepuff

Valuable things to know all of them.