Hey there, friends! It’s been a minute, and boy-howdy have a lot of things happened since we last spoke. Back in February, of course, I went on a tour for the launch of my new middle grade Pearl Harbor novel, HEROES. I saw lots of fans from coast to coast, and got to visit Hawaii for the first time too!
I signed books at the Honolulu Barnes & Noble.
And visited the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor.
In Seattle, I got sainted by the ferris wheel at Pier 57.
And talked about HEROES with hundreds of middle schoolers.
In Portland, I stayed at a hotel that had a dedicated computer for the game Oregon Trail. (I did not die of dysentery.)
In Denver it snowed on me and my friend and publicist Seale Ballenger, which felt like a personal affront after the beautiful weather in Hawaii.
A cow in our Denver hotel gave me side-eye every time I got out of the elevator.
In St. Louis, I watched the Super Bowl in a hotel across the street from a baseball stadium.
I signed a boat-load of books in Chicago.
And a whole lot more in Winston-Salem!
I met a super-fan in Chapel Hill.
And gave out lots of free signed books to students in Moore County, NC thanks to the fund-raising efforts of my friend Angie Tally at The Country Bookshop!
And to top it all off, HEROES debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list! As of today, it’s been there for nine straight weeks—and seven of those weeks it’s been at #1! By far a new record for me!
Thank you to everyone who came out to see me on my cross-country tour. I had a blast, and I hope you did too! And a HUGE thank you to everyone who bought HEROES for the young readers in your life. Its success is thanks to you!
Didn’t you say something about free virtual events!?
Yes! I’m back home now (whew!) and back to doing my free, live, online events. In a little over a week, I’ll be hosting my April 2024 virtual school visit, where I will talk about my books and answer kids’ questions live. Please join me! If that day and time don’t work for you, I’ll be hosting another virtual school visit in May 2024. That will be my last public virtual visit this school year, but I’ll be back in the fall.
And just because my tour is over doesn’t mean I’m home for good! You can see where and when I’ll be appearing in-person in the near future here.
That’s it for this month! Thanks for being awesome.
What a tour! I hope you stayed healthy between all the hand shaking and airplane rides đŸ˜…
omg i love all your books and im about to get heros