Since a few people have asked, for the origami stars I followed these instructions. They’re pretty easy, the only complicated part is cutting properly sized paper. Sometimes the edges are hard to squish evenly, but that makes for slightly lopsided stars that look rather endearing in their lopsidedness.
I still have so much tour stuff to catch up on and dozens of photos to share but at this point I suspect it will be easier to do a recap when I’m home for a decent amount of time.
I went on the shortest trip to London ever on Friday (got in Friday morning, left Saturday morning) to go to the Galaxy Book Awards and wear a sparkly dress and lose the International Author of the Year award to Jennifer Egan (I was rooting for Murakami, myself) and I am still rather baffled and honored that I was included in such esteemed company.
I had an all too brief stay at the St. Pancras Rennaissance Hotel, where the UK launch party I have not yet had time to blog about was held in October. (It’s also the former Midland Grand Hotel, which is featured in The Night Circus.) My room overlooked the adjoining train station. I took the rubber duck from my bathroom home with me. Apologies if I was not supposed to steal him, but how could I not?
He has stars! I love him. And for some reason I did not have a rubber duck, which seems like something everyone should have.
In other news, I hear tell my NaNoWriMo pep talk went out to all you daring NaNo-ers, hurrah! I hope you are properly pepped and inspired and not hitting that week-in “why am I doing this again?” stage now that the initial rush is starting to wear off. I am waving little black & white striped flags of encouragement for you! (The full pep talk is over here if anyone who didn’t get the email or simply isn’t NaNo-ing would like to read it.)
Tomorrow I am off to D.C. for an event at Politics & Prose! Also, I am behind on replying to pretty much anything that requires replying to, but relatively soon I will be off the touring carousel and hopefully I’ll be able to catch back up with my life.
I meant to have time to put together a proper post today, but time, she is a fickle thing.
Instead, have a musical interlude. This album is going to be the soundtrack of my next novel, I can tell already.
Pardon me, but where did August go? Excuse me whilst I cling to this final day, in denial that the morning will bring September in all its autumnal, impending book release glory.
This post is going to be all over the place, be prepared. Proper blogging keeps getting lost in the wilds of the to-do list.
I would have been updating the internet on all manner of happenings were it not for the cumbersome to-do list and also the fact that I had a horrid summer head cold for the last week, so I was hampered by a mucus-y haze. It felt as gross as that sounds. Mostly better now, just slightly sniffly.
I added a tour page to this poor neglected site, I meant to do it ages ago but formatting is hard. It’s still not perfect and it doesn’t have Canadian or UK info but I’ll be adding to it, hopefully in a timely manner.
Last week I spent a delightful evening under tents in a field in Concord, meeting booksellers and flouncing around in a white dress with red feathers in my hair. The lovely ladies of Random House put together a marvelous circusy event and I got to tell the story of why Bailey is from Concord, which is not a story I’ve gotten to tell very much so that was particularly fun. I wish I’d had more time to talk to everyone but I signed a lot of galleys (I ended up with a very nice not-mine pen that I’m pretty sure I was told I can keep, which I hope I’m remembering correctly but it’s always possible that I am just an incorrigible pen thief). I had a splendid time and there will be splendid photos soonish, as Kelly Davidson who did my wonderful author photo was there shooting for the Boston Phoenix and we ran around taking photos in fields with sunflowers and the very heavy crystal ball the tarot reader was kind enough to let us use. (Late in the evening I had my cards read, which was a lovely end to the night.) My sincere thanks to everyone there, from organizers to guests and my darling editor who was my date for the evening, for participating in such a fantastical event.
Now, almost post-head cold, I am in pre-tour mode, trying to get myself organized for the impending whirlwind, looking skeptically at September. I had a lot of things I’d intended to do over the summer that seem to have fallen by the wayside. September seemed far away for a very long time and now it is hard to wrap my head around the fact that The Night Circus comes out in less than two weeks. I waver between terribly excited and extremely apprehensive, so I feel like I am lightly caffeinated at all times, even when I’m not.
I’ve been mostly trying to take care of myself as I think I’m going to need it. I’ve been reading a lot as it tends to calm my brain, escaping into a book. And I have a perfect escape in Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 that I was lucky enough to grab an ARC of when I was in NYC signing thousands of books, it was a much better reward than a wrist massage. I’m about halfway through at the moment, attempting to finish all almost-1000 pages of brilliance before tour so I can take lighter weight reading on planes.
And I have been listening to the new Florence + the Machine song over and over and over. Saw her do this live and delighted that it is just as good now, studio recorded and tipping into autumn as it was under a summer night sky.
So, that is what Erinland sounds like at the moment, tinged with September-eve disbelief.
Recap of whirlwind NYC signing trip forthcoming, for now, check out the photo gallery over here on facebook.
Also…
I didn’t even know she was back there until she started kicking books off the shelf.
She looks far too pleased with herself.
