Dear Santa,

Here's a little sampling of what I hope to

find under the tree this Christmas.

Who says you have to grow up?

*Just in case you want any of these lovelies for yourself or any of

my wonderful friends or family stumble upon this post,

I made it so you can click on the images to find out where to purchase!*

I've heard this series is awesome. How could it not be with that box design?

I refuse to give up my real books but a Kindle is awesome

for proofing your own work and for those times when you

 need to read a book and can't wait to go to the store.

Wait, that mightbe a bad thing...

*Please provide a very large amout gift card if you purchase this item*

Harry Potter mug set. Need I say more?

So I can proudly display my love of The Hunger Games.

Even at the grocery store.

Of course, I already own all the Harry Potter books but I've drooled

over the complete hardcover box set since the last book came out.

I. Must. Own. This.

Where else would I store my vervain?

Because every mom should have a cool bag to carry around all their

uncool stuff like diaper cream and crushed cheerios in.

What are you hoping to find under your tree?

Stefan's Diaries! What are you reading?

Here's what I started reading tonight!

(SO excited they used the

Stefan from the show on the cover)

Is anyone else out there enjoying a good book this weekend?

She did it. She really did it! Coming soon to a book store near you...

One of the best perks of being on  Twitter is the personal connections to be made. I've met some truly incredible people there, one of them being Miranda Kenneally. She has to be one of the most dedicated and hard working writers I've ever met. We're talking ninja-like editing skills, people. Thanks to Twitter, Miranda and I swapped pages as we worked on our current projects a few drafts back, and I owe a lot to Miranda for helping me get my book started off with a strong foundation. BUT who cares about me! Today I want to share some super awesome news about Miranda.

She has a book deal!!!!!!

Please visit Miranda's blog for the full scoop on SCORE and to congratulate her and her rockstar agent, Sara Megibow. It's awesome to see something this great happen to someone who has worked so hard to deserve it. And I can promise you this is just the beginning. On top of her fabulous writing Miranda has oodles of ideas waiting in the wings so there are sure to be many more books from Miss Miranda. (There's one more in particular that I hope the world gets to see)

And what celebratory post would be complete without a funny photo?

Yep, that's me on the L and Miranda on the R with the infamous Vordak at ALA back in June

Congratulations Miranda!

What brought such a BIG author to our SMALL town area

Yesterday was epic.

My sister and I had the opportunity to spend some time with the incredibly talented, super nice, generous and way fun author, Lauren Oliver. To say that I love her books, BEFORE I FALL and the upcoming DELIRIUM (out in Feb 2001) is an understatement. And after meeting her in person I can say she's as fabulous as her writing.

The writing, the concepts, the plot, the characters---all genius.  Lauren brings the "why can't I come up with a concept like that?" to a whole new level. Which is why meeting her was such a thrill. I spent a good deal of time this morning writing about this for our Fallenarchangel blog so I thought I'd just share that link. You can find that here. It's inspiring and touching to see an author reach out to a community through her book and to help set forth a positive chain of events that stem from a tragedy.

Here are a few pictures. We had our books signed and were given the BEST treat...If we look all fangirly and delirious with the cover its because we were!

Lauren showing off the amazing cover jacket to DELIRIUM before her lecture

began at the Scranton Cultural Center. We were totally drooling over it!

 Tomato face sisters rejoicing over the fact that Lauren GAVE US the amazing
cover jacket. She even signed it with a great little inside joke from earlier in the day.

(Yes, I spelled delirious that way on purpose)

Library Director: Shu Qiu, my sister, Jenn, Lauren and I after the dedication of the

renovated children's room at the Dalton Community Library

If you've read BEFORE I FALL and loved it as much as we have or haven't had the chance to read it yet, we'd love to have you join us later this month when we do a read-along over 2 weeks followed by a live chat with Lauren. More info on that here. There's no doubt we'll do something like this for DELIRIUM as well. I've been fortunate to read it and I have no doubt that it will be one of the biggest books of 2011! Swoon.