Good morning/afternoon/evening/what-have-you, Minions! I have a couple of tidbits for you today. First, I’m terrible at checking my P.O. box, but when I remembered to a couple days ago, I was rewarded with the most amazing gift–a big envelope stuffed with letters from the students of Ms. Levandoski’s Books Fall Open class (I visited with them in December). The letters brought tears to my eyes–their comments ranged from how EIGHTH GRADE BITES is sure to be a top seller (Are you paying attention, NY Times? Because this is inside info here, from the most important reviewers there are! Call me, we’ll do lunch) to how I inspired one student to change their mind about giving up their dream to be a writer. All in all, I think they had a good time. So did I. Funny how I could love spending time at school now, when I hated it soooooo much at their age. (Of course, I don’t have algebra coming up next period and can go home whenever I want) Anyway, I look forward to more classroom visits. They rawk muchly.

Secondly, I wanted to talk a bit about launch parties. I received an email from a curious writer, wondering where/when/how you’re “supposed” to hold a party, celebrating a publication. But I’m afraid the answer isn’t going to make them happy. The answer, of course, is that it depends. It depends how many guests you’ll have, what activities you want to do, how much money you want to spend, etc. A launch celebration can be as simple as dropping by your local bookstore to snap a picture of your book, then retiring to your cozy home with a nice bottle of wine (or blood, depending on your vampire status). Or it can be as complex as…well, as what I’m doing. I’m renting a banquet facility, decorating it in black and red and hosting an hors d’voeures/drinks reception with a vampire school dance theme for about 150 people. Why? Because I can. Because I want to. Because I celebrate every little success in life, and damn it, I’m celebrating this big one too. There are naysayers, people that beg me to reconsider, that perhaps I should use that money sensibly toward other book-related stuff. But to them I say “Nanny nanny boo boo–It’s Vlad’s party and he’ll bite if I want him too.”

As you can se, I’m totally mature.

The thing is, no matter how/when/where you host your celebration, absolutely celebrate. There are so many downs in this business and so few ups…we have to grab those ups while we can.

Speaking of ups, you have ten weeks to win cool stuff.

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