So what exactly is a "Palooza" anyway?

I'll tell you what it is! It's a front!

Barnes and Noble wants you to think this event coming up on February 4th is some kind of a massive book signing but it's a lie! The whole thing! It's actually a test to weed out the unlikely's for a really big and exciting dystopian, end of the world, "Uglies" meets "Matched" type of... ok.... I couldn't do it.

I was going to lie to all of you wonderful readers out there but I just can't.

Sorry!

But I can at least tell you what this whole Authorpalooza thing WILL be.

It'll be epic.

I feel that the term 'epic' is overused nowadays... Being a gamer I reserve the right to use it on a regular basis but even I can use it inappropriately sometimes.

But not today.

Today I use it perfectly when I say:

This. Signing. Is. Going. To. Be. EPIC.

Want to know why?

Let me demonstrate with the following list.

1. Barnes and Noble does this every year. They're not banging rocks together here, they know how to do this shindig right.

2. There will be over 40 authors there. Yes. That's a four with a zero after it. (And if Shannon Hale is in attendance I'm definitely going to tell her we should do an international book tour together and call it "Shanno(e)n squared"... or maybe "Camp Hale!" We'll throw some ideas around)

3. I will have fastbreaks there. Like the candy. The delicious candy that happens to be one of my favorites and also happens to be clever when placed next to my book title. That was just a happy coincidence. Or a delicious one. Whichever.

4. You love me. OK fine so maybe you don't love me but I sure do love you. And I want to see your bright shining face! I want pictures with everyone, I want to sign some books, and I want to talk about everything under the sun (though in this case it will be under the roof).

5. FREE BOOKMARKS! I have these cute little sparkly bookmarks that my lovely cousin Whitney designed. They sparkle. Seriously. So come to the signing just for that!

I'm sure there are other reasons you should come, but I'll keep the list at 5. That seems like a nice number.

Hopefully soon I'll have some news for all of you on NEW books coming out so that I'll shut up about "The Breakup Artist" and you guys will know what the heck I'm talking about when I mention "Catching June" or "Pwned" which I've just realized I have to change the title of because even though I'm an avid gamer and I think it looks cooler to write "Pwn'd" that's APPARENTLY not the right way to spell it. So much for a book title with no vowels. I was so excited!

Also, one of these days I'll get a proper camera and when I do I'm thinking video blog! Thoughts? I'd like to hear them! Whether they're "That would be so awesome as long as you don't break out your guitar and sing songs to us" or even "Please no. It's bad enough hearing your crazy thought process in text, we don't need it in video format too!"

Annnnnnd last but not least. I think I may finally do a Q&A blog. One of these days. So if you have questions on "The Breakup Artist", writing, publishing, marketing, or how to destroy the monitor in test chamber 16 (which I finally did) then e-mail me or leave your questions in the comments!

OK now I'll leave you all alone.

Don't forget to come to Authorpalooza on February 4th at Barnes and Noble!
South Towne Marketplace
10180 S. State Street, Sandy, UT 84070, 801-233-0203

Until next time,

Shannen

The problem with being an author who's easily distrac--- does that shirt say Aperture Science???

I've already whined incessantly about how I work too much to have time for writing (though the alternative is living on the street eating nothing but old saltines so I'm fine with the working thing, especially since I'm surrounded by cute baby pictures all day) so I'll stop harping on that. But the problem with that whole situation is that when I get home from work (and I've been spending all day thinking of different things to write) I'm so tired that I just want to relax and writing can seem like a daunting task.

Not such an unusual situation I'm sure.

So why are you writing this blog Shannen? You may be asking yourself... or... I guess you'd be asking me since you just addressed me. Well, since you asked I'll tell you where it gets tricky.

See these little guys?


And her?

And them?

They're all awesome. And that's a problem. I happen to be VERY easy to distract. I also happen to love video games and puzzles... so what happens when I learn about a video game that's all about puzzles?

Bad things.

That's what.

My free time after work that I should spend writing, I start spending trying to decide if GLaDOS and Wheatly are my friends or not, all the while solving puzzles and internally yelling at myself for neglecting June's sequel and Regan's entire story that you guys don't even know about!

Fail.

No wait... epic fail.

So what's the solution?

Any ideas faithful readers? I mean, besides the obvious 'stop playing video games you big nerd' answer?

Until next time,

Shannen

Oh and just in case you can't figure out a solution to my little dilemma, just watch this instead :)