this is not a proper post-BEA post.

I am back after a whirlwind week in NYC.

To say it was amazing would not do it justice. It was phenomenal on several levels. My one regret is that I did not pack sandals, because it was hot. (In my defense, it was freezing and rainy here when I was packing. Also, I seem to have returned to summer, complete with flopsy kittens.)

I am in recovery mode, trying to catch up on things and sleep a great deal. So there is a proper BEA report forthcoming but it will take a couple of days.

For now, here is a photo of a scarf-clad lapin overlooking Times Square from my hotel room:

 

flax-golden tales: sweet temptations

 

sweet temptations

It used to require much more coercion. Whispered hints and slow seductions. Long, drawn-out bewitchments carefully escalated until the meeting of lips and flesh became an inevitability.

Times change, I suppose, and one must always be willing to adapt.

They beg for them now, lining up to eagerly seal their fates and paying for them, though the prices are quite reasonable.

All it takes is caramel and chocolate, I wish I’d realized that years ago. They never even taste the poison, succumbing to it as though it were simply another nuance of the sugar high. Delirious already from the sweetness.

It’s so easy. It almost takes the fun out of it, really.

 

About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.

this is a pre-BEA post.

First, the very basic facts:

 

Yes, I am going to be at Book Expo America next week.

I will be signing ARCs of THE NIGHT CIRCUS at 3pm on Wednesday the 25th at Random House booth #4420.

 

Now you know, and I will return to normal, not-bolded font.

I will be in NYC all week, at BEA on both Tuesday & Wednesday. I have various intimidating things on my schedule like video interviews and cocktail parties and I am trying not to get too terribly nervous about them. If I think too hard about all this, my head starts to hurt, so I am kind of coasting on nervous/excited and attempting to be zen.

I was going to take pictures of kittens in suitcases to go with this post, but I haven’t actually gotten around to properly packing yet. There may be bonus kittens in suitcases over the weekend.

flax-golden tales: guard pig

 

guard pig

Every house on the street requires a protector, a fact that is bolded and italicized in all of the paperwork. Though if the reason is specified in there it’s been buried in small-font, legal-speak sentences and footnotes.

Each protector is different, I don’t think that’s a bolded rule, but I’m not certain and none of them are the same, standing or sitting or draped over front doors in their own particular fashion.

We moved in most recently, but our house is the oldest and it shows, the steps are worn and the brick has seen better days. The list of things to fix once there’s enough time and money just keeps getting longer.

Our protector came with the house. He’s seen better days, too, and for a while after we moved in I was kind of ashamed, since other houses have regal-looking lions or glimmering dragons curled around their entryways.

Until one of the neighbors (the lady with the golden-eyed owl perched by her own door) came over, bearing a welcoming platter of fruit tartlets individually wrapped in wax paper.

“You’re so lucky to have the pig,” she said as I let her in, and she looked so scared I didn’t dare ask why.

But after she left, I gave the pig a tartlet.

 

About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.

so cold!

It is so cold and bleak and rainy it’s like someone rewound the year to February. I refuse to turn my heat on in May on principle, instead I am wrapped up in sweaters and thick socks and drinking absurd amounts of mint tea.

Also, kittens are hogging all the blankets.

And Tessa appears to be a pirate, or she’s trying, at least.

Pre-BEA post forthcoming, possibly with packing photos if I can keep kittens out of suitcases.