Hello worlds!

As I said back at the beginning of the month, there’s a lot to be grateful for right now. I had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with my family last night, got a bit of writing done, knocked out about 80% of my Christmas shopping with relative ease (in and out of Kohl’s in 20 minutes during the first hour of Black Friday? What happened this year?), and honestly, I’m on cloud nine right now! The Unseen is in Blaze Publishing’s loving hands for the proofreading stages, and I’m incredibly excited about releasing the sequel to The Carver next year. With that, I have to say THANK YOU for the love of writing that I was born with, and the opportunity Blaze gave me to let that love blossom into an actual career. This is the one thing that I could do for all eternity and never get bored. I love living the life of a storyteller. Thank you for being a part of it with me!

Of course, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I had to ask a few of my characters what they’re thankful for, and I received these notes from them:

Pietro

I’m thankful for all the sweet deals I scored on Black Friday. Nike shoes were on sale, as was that Go Pro I’ve been eyeing at Best Buy. Now I can take videos in the sky! Oh, you probably want a real answer, huh? Well, I suppose I have to add coffee to the list, because coffee is life, and where would I be without my beautiful wife, my teenage mini-me, or my best friend Pino and his family? It’s one of my favorite traditions when we have Thanksgiving dinner together. Guys, I’m sorry I keep forgetting the cranberry sauce, but do any of you honestly like it?

Rosana

Besides the obvious choices like my mom and my friends, one thing I’m really thankful for is the kindness of strangers. Truly. I know what it’s like to be homeless. I’m not going to pretend like I enjoyed it or would ever want to go back to sleeping in the subway tunnels, but while most people think it would mess with your worldview, you actually see a lot of the best parts of humanity sometimes. I’ll never forget a single stranger who went out of their way to make sure I had dinner for the night, or a pillow and a fresh blanket, or even just a bottle of water. There really is still good in the world.

Enzo

I think my experiences are making me a better person. I’m guilty of complaining a lot. People used to say I was like one of those teenagers in an 80s movie, laying on the bed brooding and tossing a baseball up and down for hours. Sure, that kinda hurts, but I don’t think they were wrong. Everything I’ve been going through has really opened my eyes in a lot of ways. I’m starting to see the magic of this world, and maybe even enjoy it a little. I miss my family more than ever, but I have to stop and think how they’d want me to respond to my situation. How cool is it of Pietro to drive me across the country to look for them? So yeah, I do have a lot to say thank you for.

Liam

Snow made her famous pies last night, and almost everything else (I promise I offered to help her cook, but she was already in a very particular mindset…) This particular prince is in the most blissful of food comas this morning. I can’t say enough thank yous to my wife for being who she is. I’m thankful for Florindale and for the New World. I don’t always understand it, but it’s quite beautiful and filled with a different kind of light. I’m thankful that my life has been relatively dragon-free so far, because I’ve never been so fond of those beasts. And I’m thankful for Enzo, Miss Rosana, and our other chums.

Violet

My gratitude today belongs to The Order of the Bell: my guardians, my friends, and the defenders of the Old World. We have such a history together, and it is rich with both dark trials and unfiltered light. Along the way, I’ve always been certain that they trusted me, and that’s something I will never take for granted. No matter what happens to these worlds, these people, or these souls, I will forever be grateful to The Order for doing their very best to protect the light.

Happy Thanksgiving weekend!

Hello worlds!

Once again, I feel like I haven’t written in forever, and so much has been happening! It’s also November, and I feel that there’s so much to be thankful for right now.

Since I last wrote, I’ve been taking THE CARVER around Tucson and having a blast at places like Sunnyside High School as well as Barnes and Noble’s Mini Maker Faire! Seriously, what a dream to be signing books inside of Barnes and Noble. I loved the conversations I had this weekend. Honestly, how could I not form an instant bond with the four-year-old who loves Captain America and can’t wait to put a Carver button on his shirt? Or the woman who just wanted a fist bump for seeing a young Latino publish a book, or all the teens whose faces lit up when they saw the amazing cover work for this series? I also had such a great time at Sunnyside. My heart thundered with joy to see so many teens openly sharing their enthusiasm for books and writing. One girl listened to my book spiel and said, “Wow, you wrote that book? Do you, like, do autographs and stuff?”

Of course, I found that comment very endearing because only three or four days before, I was in full-on fanboy mode at Phoenix Fan Fest. (Because what else do I do with my free time when I don’t have my author hat on?) You all know about my love for cons, and this year’s Fan Fest will easily be one of my favorites for a long time to come. First of all, it’s much smaller and more intimate than the bear that is San Diego Comic Con, so thankfully camping out overnight wasn’t a thing this time. (Although I’ll be ready to take on the bear again in July!) Fan Fest lines are quick and painless, and I hardly had time to compose a Tweet! There were some great costumes as well, including a devoted group who went all out to form an ensemble of Harry Potter characters ranging from a very convincing Sirius Black to a Rita Skeeter with just the right amount of hair product…

And I’m very excited to have a Stranger Things poster on my desk now, signed by “Hopper” and “Eleven”! I loved chatting with Millie Bobby Brown, who had the best reaction when I asked her how Phoenix was treating her. Spoiler alert: nobody really liked the heat–do I blame them?–but they love the people! Elizabeth Henstridge from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D was incredibly kind and signed my S.H.I.E.L.D dvds, and as for Brett Dalton (who some of you might know as my “fan casting” for Liam), we need to start a hashtag to get him in a Carver Netflix series so I can be best friends with him. A long time ago, I actually wrote to him for an autograph request, and he responded with a handwritten note on a 3 x 5 card. I brought that card to Fan Fest to thank him personally for his time. He had a really great response to that, and then we had a fun chat about SHIELD and dinosaur rights, because he feels very strongly about the fact that people keep going back to Jurassic Park. We also got a few goofy selfies in! #BrettForLiam, please?

Lastly, I recently had a quick trip to Spokane, WA, and while I was there, I was so captivated by this Chinese Lantern Festival:

The whole time, I wondered how my characters would react to the festivities, especially Mulan! There were also contortionists, “face changers” (you must YouTube this!), and martial artists. It was a great time to walk around with a cup of hot chocolate and let my imagination stew a bit. After all, revisions for THE UNSEEN are nearly complete, and I’m shifting half my attention to two new projects: the third and presumably final book of THE ORDER OF THE BELL, along with a fun side project for NaNoWriMo! I’d love to tell you more about it, but I think I’ll save it for my first newsletter. I’m officially inviting you to jump on my mailing list before I roll out the first letter! I’d love for you to be first in the loop on all my future projects, events, and get some exclusive insight on these worlds I’m building. Who knows–I might even give some fun things away from time to time, just to say “Thank you!”

Until then, what are you thankful for this month?