Valentine's Day and Voracious Reader

I have a love/hate relationship with Valentine's Day.

On the one hand, I believe in true love and think it's thoroughly appropriate to have a day devoted to telling your soulmate that he is the phoenix of your heart, or whatever. On the other hand, I resent that a greeting card costs nearly as much as a paperback book. (I ran out of clever non-card small-yet-meaningful gift ideas ages ago. Sorry, dear phoenix of my heart.)

Best Valentine's card ever was the one where we jointly bought a single card then covered up half as we each wrote our message to the other. I also loved the year where we both bought the same exact card for each other, proving how in-sync we are (or how poor the card selection at the supermarket was).

Anyway, this Friday, to console me while I suffer through the traditional card-buying angst, I will be participating in a very fun book event with four other awesome authors at The Voracious Reader, a wonderful bookstore in Larchmont, NY. Here's the description from the bookstore's website:

Won’t You Be My Paranormal Valentine?
Friday, Feb. 11th, 2011
7:00 - 9:00 PM
Meet FIVE thrilling authors of the paranormal: Cynthia Leitich Smith, Daniel Nayeri, Jen Nadol, Sarah Beth Durst, and Shannon Delany. Discover your destiny, find your heart's desire, or a book you can sink your teeth into. Come in costume (there will be prizes!), semi-formal (there will be photos!), or casual-as-you-like-it. Teens and YA fans welcome!

Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Book Revue and The Voracious Reader

Last week, I did a wonderful book event at Book Revue in Huntington, NY. Thanks so much to the fabulous booksellers and everyone who came by to listen to me babble. I read from and talked about ICE, and then we ate Cassie and Bear:


How cool is that?

Yummy too.

I love edible photos. I love that someone sat down and said, "You know what this world needs? The ability to eat a photograph."

And you know what? I think he or she was right. The world does need things like edible photos -- things that exist purely to make someone smile. I think that is a noble purpose. Honestly, it's one of the reasons that I write. I love the idea of creating a story that can touch someone, make someone smile, take someone out of their worries and problems for at least a couple hours...

My next book event doesn't involve edible bears, but it does involve two other fabulous authors. This Friday, I will be at The Voracious Reader with Carolyn MacCullough (Once a Witch) and Delia Sherman (The Magic Mirror of the Mermaid Queen). Here are the details:

The Voracious Reader
Friday, November 13th at 7pm
1997 Palmer Avenue, Larchmont, NY


Hope to see you there!