So…it’s been a very busy, very crazy time in the Pauley household. The Max’s Nana (my hubby’s mom) and his cousin Cameron (yes, the one that Cameron in the book is named after!) came to visit for a week. We went ALL over, from dinner at the Signature Room on the 95th Floor of the John Hancock building to Lake Michigan (via beach in Racine, WI) to Medieval Times in Schaumburg, IL. It was a good time, but I’m totally worn out now! But I’d better pull it together soon since my older sister and her son are coming to visit on the 20th! (Then we’ve got more visits after that, with my in-Laws and my younger sister & her hubby). Very, very busy summer.

In the current book news (working title: Cat Girl Saves the Day), I’m still working on it. *sigh* I wanted it to be done by the end of June but that didn’t happen. It’s so very, very, very close though. I’ve got about 1/2 a chapter to the end and then some additions/corrections I need to make in the earlier chapters. So it *is* almost there. Almost. I’m hoping this week, if I can fit in writing between working my way through the mountain of laundry that seems to plague all the authors I know and doctor appointments and…

An Author Visit!

I’ll be at Glendale Heights at the Glenside Public Library tomorrow at 7 PM where I’ll be talking about writing and will even have VISUAL AIDS. No, I’m not bringing any funny bats. But I will have marked up copies of the first book so you can see what a manuscript looks like once your editor is done with it (Oh the red! Oh my eyes!) and other cool stuff. I’ll also be giving away tattoos and bookmarks and stuff. And who knows…if enough people are there, I’ll give away an STBM vase too… So, if you live in Northern Illinois, please do come by!

Where was I?

Oh yes…the craziness that’s my life. There’s also some really BIG BIG news that I can’t talk about yet. Life-changing stuff. Driving-me-crazy-stuff.

But I can’t talk about any of that.

But I CAN talk about where I am with picking winners of the Launch contest. I know, it’s been a month since the contest ended. I should’ve announced winners already. Besides going to ALA and having guests, I have no real excuse other than that it has been INCREDIBLY hard narrowing it down. First I went through all the entries and narrowed it down to a group of finalists. Then I sent those out to my guest judges. Then I tabulated the results. I marked my favorites (as well as the one Cameron gave a vote to while he was visiting). Then I noticed that two of the finalists were pretty close to each other, so I emailed them asking if, should they happen to win, a joint event would be feasible/possible. I just heard back from them (literally while I was typing this up) that they could do a joint event, so I’m going to be posting a FINAL poll for the Grand Prize so YOU can help me pick. Because I can’t narrow it down any farther. I just can’t. You guys are too awesome.

I am also going to award some additional runners-up prizes. Namely some Skype visits with me + swag packs (bookmarks, etc.). Honestly, I wish I could visit every single one of you! But I can’t afford it. Heck, after all this vacation-ing, I can’t afford anything!

Anyway, stay tuned for more on that soon (as in the next half hour).