Seriously? *raises eyebrow at self* THIS is what you call staying in touch with your Minions? You haven’t blogged in a friggin’ MONTH??? That’s crazy talk! Unforgivable! You’ll be lucky if the Minions haven’t crawled away into tiny dark holes to ignore you forever. Not that you haven’t been busy, but still. A month. Psshaw, Auntie Heather! Psshaw!

Minions, I know I’ve said it before, but your dear Auntie is absolutely sorry for the looooooooooooong silence on her blog. Time sometimes gets away with me – especially when I live half of my life inside my head, and inside other worlds. Worlds full of vampires and blood and monsters and teeth. Worlds with katanas and darkness and the hope that our hero will somehow survive the impossible. It’s distracting – very distracting – from the real world, but I’ve been there plenty too. And so I’ve been pretty distracted from blogging lately, but never (never ever ever, my Minions) am I distracted from you. You are always in my thoughts, always at the center of my shriveled up, black little heart, and I love you all more than I can say. So, with that, I give you…the past month of my life.

After accepting the Truman Readers Award, I had a few adventures with some of my favorite authors. First off, in early April, I attended (for the third year in a row – wooooooo, threepeat!) Book Battle at Pattonville Heights Middle School in Maryland Heights, MO. As always, it was EPIC! I got to hang with Minions, and even got to meet and hang out with the great and powerful James Dashner – author of THE MAZE RUNNER series and five-star general of the Dashner Army. After Book Battle we had a nice lunch, wherein James and I contemplated our eventual world domination. (It’s what writers do – we also forget to take pics of us together…as in this case.) And so a good day was had by all!

These Minions designed their team t-shirts with me in mind (no, really)!

Shortly after Book Battle, I took a little trip to a place called Rochester, NY, where I took part in something so incredible that words cannot possibly convey how cool it was (is!). I took part in TBF (otherwise known as Rochester Teen Book Festival). First off, let me say that the good folks at TBF know how to spoil authors rotten. Dinner, presents, accolades, and great company, followed by getting driven to the event in classic cars, partaking in a parade, walking up the red carpet to screaming fans, and that’s all just before the festival! Seriously, Rochester – how am I supposed to enjoy other festivals now?? It was amazing. And even more amazing was the fabulous Punching Bag panel I was on with A.S. King and Jackie Morse Kessler. We discussed bullying in every form – external/physical bullying, self-bullying (emotional), relationship bullying (by friends and boy/girlfriends).

Yep. That's us!

We had three panels and I’m not sure we got through any of them without at least one person tearing up. But it felt so good to share our experiences, and it was so amazing to connect with so many of you on that level. I positively adore A.S. and Jackie, and love their books, so you should totally give their stuff a try – if you like books that make you feel like someone understands how you feel, theirs totally do. AND! I have pics!

Our Fabulous Ride to the Festivities

The Fabulous Eric Luper Takes the Passenger Seat

A.S. King, Yours Truly, and Jackie Morse Kessler Riding in Style

The floor was lined with gold stars with our names on them!

Our Keepers: without them, A.S., Jackie, and I would have likely wandered off into parts unknown! (which is something else that authors often do...)

Since TBF, I’ve been dealing with some weird jaw issues. Apparently, I clench my jaw when I sleep, due to stress. So I kinda injured a joint and muscle in my jaw, and had to get on all this weird medication just to fix it. It’s almost all better now, but it was incredibly difficult to sleep there for a while. And that really messed with my ability to write, so I’m a bit behind on BLOODBOUND (which my incredibly patient editor has been amazing about). But I’m working hard on it now, so the second draft of that book should be done very soon (WOOT!).

In how-FANGtastic-is-this? news: My Italian publisher, Nord, just created this trailer for CoVT! Check it out: http://youtu.be/skZTlzRyamM (Sorry – tried to embed it, but the video refused to bend to my omnipotent will…er sumfin’.)

And DUDE. When’s the last time you stopped by www.VladTod.com or www.highschoolbites.com?? We now have Minion Horde membership cards, and a couple new Fang lines of awesomeness (including the adorable Fangette). It’s crazy how big you’ve grown, Minion Horde. You do your Auntie Heather very, very proud.

And…she promises not to leave you all alone for another month.

Hey…who painted all the coffins purple??? And what happened to our spiderweb curtains??