coast to coast

Ten days ago I was in California; we had beautiful blue skies and sunshine, and no fear of the smoke now blowing over the Bay Area as fires rage in the northern part of the state. I went to San Francisco to participate in the Teaching for Social Justice conference and it was fantastic. My friends initially thought we’d form a panel but in the end, everyone was out of town except me and Matthew (center) and a few other indie author friends: Innosanto Nagara, Laurin Mayeno, and Jill Guerra. We hung out on Thursday and then on Friday I got to meet Allison Kenny, founder of Go Girls and a fellow indie author. That evening I went to Oakland to hang out with Rob Liu-Trujillo and finally got to meet his wife Joy who designed this awesome website. Their home is full of beautiful artwork, and Rob shared his vision of an indie-creator collective. I wasn’t feeling great so spent the rest of the night on my own in Laura’s peaceful apartment, and then woke up early for the conference the next day. My morning workshop, “Everyone Has a Story to Tell: Students & Self-Publishing,” was full of engaged educators and ALL the tech worked (I’d been stressing about it for weeks). I had enough handouts, I sold over 20 books, and then made my way to the airport using public transit. I felt autonomous and fully functional in the Bay Area and that’s usually how I feel in London. I’m a little stressed out about the 3 talks I’ll be giving around the UK, but I’ll be among friends and that makes all the difference. We have a lovely flyer for the event at Cambridge University, and here are links with more info about my events at UCL and Newcastle. If you know folks in the UK, please let them know all my events are free and open to the public. I’ve already met an indie author in London—check out BookLove!

When I got home from the Bay Area, I received an invitation to write an op-ed for the NY Times. I’m not sure they’ll end up publishing it, but I was happy to scratch one more item off my Summer Writing Agenda (one item left: The Dragon Thief). The Phantom Unicorn is in production, and I got another extension from my Random House editor so November will be all about dragons in Brooklyn. When I get back from the UK, I’ll be leading this free writing workshop at Weeksville Heritage Center. Join us if you can!