Griffins Galore!

I dunno, that just felt like a good title.

You see, it's not so much griffins galore, it's mostly one griffin.  One AWESOME griffin, one Rufus by name!

Since last I blogged, you see, some things have happened.  WEDNESDAYS IN THE TOWER came out . . . and debuted at #10 on the New York Times Bestseller List!  I was on a cruise at the time, and didn't get the news for a couple of days, and when I did, my arms went numb!  It was quite weird.  I was sitting in our cabin with my feet up, getting my email, and I saw that email and just . . . went numb.  I sat there laugh-crying at my husband while he read the email, because I was too stunned to talk!  It is still so surreal to me.  Every so often it hits me that from now on, my books will all say, "New York Times Bestselling Author" across them, and I freak out a little all over again.

So, yes, I was on a cruise.  I was also on a book tour, so the month of May was a little crazy.  I lost track of how many flights I was on, now many times I got up at 4 am to get to the airport, and how many times I gave a school presentation.  But it was fun, all of it!  The schools were great, the bookstores were great, the cruise was great.  All great all around!  I highly recommend both cruises and book tours as vacation options in the future, if any of you are wondering.  (Although in all honesty, swimming with dolphins in Cozumel was slightly better than giving three school assemblies in one day.  Slightly.)

I also found out in May that TUESDAYS AT THE CASTLE is one of the Summer Reading books for Barnes & Noble, and I could not be more delighted.  Kids who do their Summer Reading program and read 8 books this summer can pick a copy of of TUESDAYS as their free book!  Yay!

Now that WEDNESDAYS is out there in the world, allow me to take this opportunity to apologize for the ending.  It's not a bad ending . . . it's just a bit of a cliffhanger.  But don't worry, I'm working hard on THURSDAYS IN THE SOMETHING SOMETHING, and soon all questions will be answered!  (By soon, of course, I mean next spring.  Sorry.)

And now on to Other People's Books.

You know what time of year it is?  It's SUMMER READING TIME!

I am not even going to try and challenge myself to a certain number this year.  I mean, on Goodreads I've challenged myself to read 160 books this year, and I'm falling a wee bit behind, but no specific number for the summer.  I do have a large stack of books on the bedside table, as per usual.  I probably have close to 50 other books in my house that I haven't read yet, but this is my method for this summer.

1. Find fun book.
2. Read fun book.

Basically, I've decided to choose my books this summer by whatever pops into my head as being the Most Fun This Second.  Let's face it, we all have books we know we SHOULD read, like OUR MUTUAL FRIEND or EAST OF EDEN, but I'm putting those aside this summer.  I took a look at my Goodreads to-read shelf last night, then I went onto my library website, and put the five books that jumped out at me on hold.  I might reread a few things, I might very well decide to read OUR MUTUAL FRIEND, but I'm going to take it one book at a time.  Right now I'm reading FRAGMENTS by Dan Wells (which is awesome).  And I read some very fun things on my cruise and book tour (like TIMELESS, TOURIST SEASON, and CRUCIBLE OF GOLD), and so I think I will include those on my summer reading list.  So let's say that Summer Reading this year starts on May 1st, shall we?  And goes until September 3rd!

Which means that thus far I have read:

CATE OF THE LOST COLONY by Lisa Klein
NEED by Carrie Jones
TIMELESS by Gail Carriger
TOURIST SEASON by Carl Hiaasen
THE HERO AND THE CROWN by Robin McKinley (a reread, obviously)
LET'S EXPLORE DIABETES WITH OWLS by David Sedaris
CRUCIBLE OF GOLD by Naomi Novik
THE BLUE SWORD by Robin McKinley (reread)
THE HERO'S GUIDE TO SAVING YOUR KINGDOM by Christopher Healy
DEAD EVER AFTER by Charlaine Harris
ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL by James Herriot
THE SPINDLERS by Lauren Oliver

I have also read CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG and ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND aloud to the kids.

Go forth and read!  And if you feel like picking up some copies of WEDNESDAYS IN THE TOWER for your friends and family, I'm not gonna object.