Snakes, Dogs, and Lotsa, Lotsa Bookstores

It's been a breathtakingly busy book promotion week, but the icing on the cake came today with a good Booklist review for Positively Beautiful. Yay! I can't share the whole thing because, strangely enough, the review gave away ALL the important plot twists (um...???), but this gist of it goes like this:

"In this poignant contemporary drama, a teen is forced to confront not only the loss of a parent to cancer but the fact that she may also carry the BRCA gene, a mutation that would make her more prone to cancer herself… [t]he emotional core of the novel is convincingly powerful. Even through their inevitable tears, teens will likely appreciate the well-researched depiction of losing a loved one to cancer." 

In other news, I signed at the incomparable Macintosh Books on Sanibel Island on Friday, where I met some great people and ate way too many cookies. It's hard to see, but there's a black snake in the bushes below. This friendly snake and its buddy kept me company while I signed outside on the porch. It's a great location! The bottom picture I took on my way off the island. Ahhh, the water!

Also this week, I visited TWENTY-FOUR bookstores in two days. I traveled to Tampa and Orlando with my mom and aunt (and my aunt's itsby-bitsy dog) where we (in no particular order) came close to wrecking three times, traveled over a bridge big enough for a cruise ship to sail under, snuck an itsy-bitsy dog into a hotel when every other hotel in the city was booked, met some awesome booksellers, and found Positively Beautiful on the shelves of most of the bookstores.  My biggest regret is that I lost my notes on the names of the people pictured below. I'm blaming it on the itsy-bitsy little dog (just because), though my aunt vehemently disagrees. I've listed the names from memory, so if I get anybody (or everybody!) wrong, please leave a note in the comments or shoot me an email.

View from the top of the Sky Bridge. Note: I did not take the picture! My mom did. :) I've been on a cruise ship that steamed directly under this ridiculously high bridge.

Jake and Eugene at Bradenton Books-a-Million. My first stop of the trip and they were great guys!






  Rachel at Books-a-Million

Lindsey at Barnes and Noble.

Tiffany at Books-a-Million.

I also visited some awesome independent stores, including Haslam's in Tampa, where Raymond was very welcoming. I arrived at Inkwood Books in Tampa at ten minutes to closing time, and Stefani, i.e. the "Book Mama", kept me in stitches for a wonderful thirty minute chat. I also visited Books at Park Place in St. Petersburg and Writer's Block Bookstore in Winter Park.

All in all, it was a great week!