My WAY FUN weekend in Vegas and Seattle

What a weekend!

I flew to Vegas on Friday to see the lovely and talented Lindsey Leavitt. Have you read her Princess for Hire books or her awesome YA novel, Sean Griswold's Head? If not, you should! I love Lindsey so much. We have known each other a long time, before she had any kids. Now she has three! And they are SO cute. I woke up this morning and was sad I didn't have a baby hug to look forward to not to mention a fun friend to talk to.

Anyway, we only got one picture of us - how did that happen? Oh, because we were too busy having fun!

Friday night we went to a Lifehouse concert. It was at the Red Rock hotel and casino and what a great venue for a concert. It was outside, where there are lots of swimming pools, so we sat poolside for a while, with our feet in the water, and then walked around, finding different spots to watch the show.

My favorite part, by far, was when the band took a break (it was SO hot that night) and the lead singer, Jason Wade, grabbed his acoustic guitar and took requests from the audience, and just sang with his guitar. SO awesome. I didn't take a picture of that, but here's a pretty good picture of him.

And one more of the view we had toward the end of the show when we stood at the end of one pool and looked straight on at the band as they sang one of my favorite songs, "Everything."

We visited a darling bakery called Retro Bakery. Lindsey bought us a dozen cupcakes, and I am not kidding when I say they were some of the best cupcakes I have EVER had. Seriously, if you are in Las Vegas, check them out.

Saturday I signed books at the Barnes and Noble on N. Rainbow and met the fabulous bookseller, Crystal, who is known far and wide as one of the best advocates of YA fiction out there. Thanks to those of you who came out and bought books, it was GREAT to meet you. Here's a picture of me and Crystal.

On Sunday, I flew to Seattle to meet up with five other YA authors for a Summer YA Extravaganza at Third Place Books. Here we all are (from right to left): Kimberly Derting, Suzanne Young, Cat Patrick, Me, Mandy Hubbard, and Eileen Cook. (Picture courtesy of the marvelous Heather Davis). I had a piece of candy in my mouth when she decided to shoot this picture, thus the reason I am not smiling. I can't help it, I LOVE CANDY and Cat brought a LOT of candy!!

One of the highlights for me was meeting Maddie, a teen who wrote to me shortly after I Heart You, You Haunt Me came out, and we've stayed in touch ever since. This is me with Maddie (on the right) and her friend Lauren.

I drove home with Suzanne last night, and from now on I will only drive to/from Seattle with Suzanne and her husband because it was REALLY fun and the 3 hours flew by!

Now, there are chores to do and bills to pay and kids to catch up with and SUNSHINE to enjoy! It's supposed to be 80 and sunny ALL WEEK LONG!!! While much of the country has been burning up, it has been a cool summer here, so it feels like summer has finally arrived here! I can't believe it's already August 1st already. YIKES!

Have a great week!