*Click on image to enjoy a larger view

Homeward Bound – Nevada 2010

**All photographs in this post are clickable to enjoy a larger view

The Grand Canyon at Sunset – November 2010

**Clicking on any photo in this post will allow you to enjoy a larger view.

Raven had a big adventure – she traveled from California to New Hampshire and then south and west again back to California … a total of nearly 8000 miles! It was her first big road trip and she handled it remarkably well for a 22 month old dog. There were some memorable moments for Raven that she wants to share with you!

Number of new scarfs acquired: 2 (Grammy Ward gave me the pretty flowered one, and I picked up one with a Southwest theme in Arizona)

One of the best parts of the trip was meeting the east coast relatives:

Grammy and Grampy Ward (Wendy’s mom and dad)

Nana (Wendy’s grandmother)

The Cousins – some of my favorite people in the world! (In this photo you can see me with Sam, Wendy’s niece, and her boyfriend Brendan)

I also made one new best friend – one of the absolutely BEST parts of the trip was spending an entire day with Annie (who is a little younger than me, but is totally awesome!). We ran and played and wrestled and wished the day never had to end:

I also got a chance to stretch my legs and run like a crazy puppy when Kip stopped at Lake Michigan and let me run on the beach at sunset. That’s the Chicago skyline behind me.

I am now a really well traveled puppy.

Number of National Parks I visited: 6 (Perryville Battlefield in Perryville, Kentucky; Lincoln’s Birthplace in Kentucky; Pecos National Historic Park in New Mexico; The Painted Desert and The Petrified Forest in New Mexico; and the Grand Canyon in Arizona)

We hiked in Perryville…and because no one was around, I  even got to run off leash a little (shhhhh, don’t tell!)

At Lincoln’s Birthplace I had to stay in the car while Wendy and Kip explored. I hated that and howled until they came back!

At Pecos National Historic Park we explored an old Spanish Mission – if only Wendy had let me off my leash I could have found some cool places to hide in!

At the Painted Desert Wendy and Kip oooohed and aaahed over the colors…I would have just liked to run through the desert, but they insisted I stay on a leash.

Lots of sticks in the Petrified Forest…but much to hard for me to chew on!

The Grand Canyon was HUGE! Wendy had a tight grip on my harness there – she was afraid I’d fall over the edge – silly, Mommy.

This is what I did when things got boring:

But, when we got to interesting places, I was ready to go! Some places were better than others.

The least dog-friendly city was Central City, Kentucky. Wendy and Kip had to go to three different hotels before they found one that liked dogs. Luckily, most of the hotels didn’t mind me staying there – and usually I got my own bed to sleep in.

Most dog-friendly State: New Mexico

Here I am enjoying Albuquerque:

The most dog-friendly city (or maybe I should say town) was Madrid, New Mexico where I was invited to browse in a store with priceless Native American pottery. Wendy turned down the opportunity – she said something like she didn’t have the money to pay for the damage. The store lady laughed, but I would have been careful. Promise.

I also got my kicks on Route 66 at the Continental Divide – it was pretty crazy there with all kinds of stuff everywhere – I thought this tent was kind of neat too.

We made lots of stops at other places too – most of the time just to give me a potty break or for Wendy and Kip to shop (how boring). Here is me in Maryland (at a rest stop) and in Richmond, Kentucky.

I had one big complaint about this trip…Wendy and Kip got to eat in lots of cool restaurants and I had to eat my regular dog food in the hotel.

But, all in all, I had a great time…although to be honest, I’m glad to be home now in my own backyard with all my favorite toys!

**All photos are “clickable” to enjoy a larger view

Wow, the time has been flying by since Kip and I “hit the road” and started our trip back to California. We left New Hampshire on October 23rd (just over a week ago), and have traveled through Massachusetts, Rhode Island (making a quick stop at my Alma Mater – The University of Rhode Island where I bought a sweatshirt), and Connecticut. We took a little bit of a side trip to Intercourse, Pennsylvania to look at Amish crafts which put us about a half day behind our schedule (and where we encountered the only rain, so far, on the trip).

We breezed through the top part of Maryland, stopping only once at a rest stop that had stunning views.

We spent a bit of time in West Virginia, going off the Interstate to visit a really great antique store…as well as driving along Route 60 which was supposed to be quite historic and we hoped to see some unique shops. Unfortunately, the economy seems to have hit West Virginia particularly hard and many of the historic towns had boarded up buildings with shops boasting “CLOSED” signs. We did enjoy seeing West Virginia’s capitol building in Charlestown….and also strolled through a picturesque farmer’s market there.

It was in West Virginia that we first noticed the “Barn Quilts”…which continued into Kentucky. I’ll be posting more about the amazing Quilt Trail through Kentucky on a later post, but here is just one example in a terrific little border town in West Virginia:

We spent three nights in Kentucky, taking our time to visit antique stores and getting off the Interstate to drive through the rolling hills and farm country.We visited Perryville where the largest Civil War battle fought in the state of Kentucky took place, and hiked along a self-guided tour of the battlefield (one of Raven’s favorite parts of the trip!):

We also took a side trip to Berea (home of Berea College – which allowed interracial education until 1904 when the Kentucky Legislature passed the Day Law prohibiting education of black and white students together.) and enjoyed strolling through the artist area of the town where visitors can watch the artists at work and purchase their art (I bought several things there – including the scappy little bag I’m holding below).

We spent one night in the Bourbon Capitol of the World (Bardstown) and visited My Old Kentucky Home State Park there. It is a beautiful estate with sprawling grounds.

We spent a day visiting some of Kip’s relatives in Western Kentucky (and enjoyed a “tour” of Kip’s uncle’s farm land there). First we dropped by to spend a little time with Aunt Mary and Uncle Earl:

Then we spent a little time with Kip’s 91 year old Aunt Merle:

We had hoped to do a side trip to Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee…but time is not really allowing us to do everything we hoped to. So those two cities will have to wait for another trip. We drove straight through the western part of Tennessee, and breezed through Arkansas and Oklahoma with no stops for touristy things (we drove nearly 700 miles on one day). My memory of Oklahoma will be tarnished by the terrible road conditions on Interstate 40 which caused Raven to vomit all over the back of the car. Yuck! Poor Raven – the bouncy, uneven roads at 65 MPH were just a bit too much for her.

Yesterday we arrived in Santa Fe, New Mexico – the land of enchantment! I’ve taken a bunch of photos…but will wait for my next post to fill you in our the rest of the trip. We are having a great time…and enjoying fantastic weather (sunny and in the mid-60s to low-70s throughout). Raven is having a great adventure – I’ll be posting soon with some fun Raven photos to make you smile!

Thanks for the memories….

**NOTE: Click on ANY photo in this post to enjoy a larger view.

Before I start talking about the Book Blogger Convention…I realized that in my rush to get yesterday’s post up before leaving for the airport, I neglected to post the afternoon photo of the books that I picked up on Thursday afternoon. So here it is:

• The Ape House by Sara Gruen (signed)
• The Brave, by Nicholas Evans
• Alone, by Richard Logan and Tere Duperrault Fassbender
• Dangerous Neighbors, by Beth Kephart (signed)

Kip and I arrived at the Javits for the first Book Blogger Convention at 8:00 AM:

We picked up our swag bags and went in to enjoy a full breakfast and some early morning chat. I am still amazed at how every day I was in NYC I met a new to me blogger (or two or three or four!) and kept adding business cards to my stack. I am eager to start checking out some of these blogs (oh no, I can already feel my Google Reader growing!!).

After breakfast, we found our seats in the conference room for the start of the panels. The keynote  speaker was Maureen Johnson and she was hilarious. She gave a 90 minute presentation which just flew by and was filled with funny stories and great information about the impact of bloggers in the book industry. Some of the key points I wanted to mention:

• Bloggers are activists (she mentioned the recent controversy regarding diversity and cover art…ie: whitewashing covers).
• Bloggers are voices to defend books against challenges and bans.
• Bloggers are the new marketing and help to bring to light books which might otherwise go unnoticed.
• Bloggers are all about community and discussion (she mentioned how an off the cuff tweet she posted about blogging every day in April ballooned into a huge event in less than a day due to the bloggers).

Maureen Johnson, YA Author

The next presentation came from Ron Hogan of Beatrice (he has also worked as an industry professional with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Ron talked about professionalism and ethics and noted that the standard by which print reviewers (or literary critics) write are not necessarily the same  standards for bloggers. Ron referenced Linch Pin by Seth Godin for his presentation and made Godin’s principles relevant for book bloggers.  Ron  says regarding professionalism, bloggers must ask the following questions:

1. What binds you and your readers?
2. What makes your blog stand out? He mentioned here that bloggers have the benefit of unique creativity and the space to share it which traditional platforms often do not allow.
3. What is your focus?
4. Where are you pointing readers?
5. What do your readers do next (ie: how do you inspire readers)?
6. Do you know the territory?
7. What perspective do you bring?

Perhaps the most interesting part of Ron’s presentation was that which centered around ethics. An excellent point (and one I completely agree with) was that bloggers should be trustworthy without having to say so. We read our favorite blogs because we have a trust in the writers of them; we don’t read our favorite blogs because we demand a written code of ethics. Two major issues brought up:

1. Do you talk about how you get your books? This related directly to the FTC disclosure edict late last year.
2. Do you ask people to write for your blog for free, and is this exploitation?

When the floor was opened for discussion, many other issues came up…such as are we obligated to read and review every book we receive from a publisher (Ron says “no”  if you are working in “good faith” when you accept them; and more importantly, publicists and publishers agree and do not have the expectation that every book sent will get a review). Also a member of the audience mentioned that we should not refer to review books as “free” as it makes us look like we are just trying to get swag! There was also some discussion about how publicists should go about contacting bloggers.

Ron Hogan

We broke for lunch just before noon and I have to give a nod to the people who provided the lunch – it was excellent! During lunch I was thrilled to meet several people who I have had the pleasure to work with over the last year or so: Marissa at JKS Communications, Wiley Saichek  who is the marketing director at Authors on the Web, Joy Strazza at Joan Schulhafer Publishing and Media Consulting, and Meryl Zegarek and Rachel from Meryl Zegarek Public Relations.

After lunch it was time for the panels – which were all excellent. I am not going to try to recap these..but suffice it to say that they were all informative and the panel members provided some great opinions and thoughts on a variety of topics. I was thrilled to be a part of the Blogging With Social Responsibility panel.

I.  Writing and Building Content:

(left to right) Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness, Christina at Stacked, Rebecca at The Book Lady’s Blog (moderator), Betsy at A Fuse 8 Production, and Amanda at The Zen Leaf

II. Marketing:

(left to right) Gayle at Everyday I Write the Book, Ann at Books on the Nightstand, Heather at Age 30+ Books (Moderator), Yen at The Book Publicity Blog, and Thea at The Book Smuggler

III. Blogging With Social Responsibility:

(left to right) Zetta at Fledgling, Stephen at Band of Thebes, Marie at The Boston Bibliophile (Moderator), Me (Wendy) at Caribousmom, and Terry at The Reading Tub

IV. Impact of the Relationship Between Author and Blogger:

(left to right) Caridad Pineiro at Caridad Pineiro’s Blog, Bethanne at The Book Studio, Kristi at The Story Siren, Nicole at Linus’s Blanket (Moderator), Amy at My Friend Amy, and Beth Kephart at Beth Kephart Books

At the end of the day, I was left feeling amazed by the bloggers and industry professionals who champion books. I was also blown away by the level of organization for this first time event…many, many thanks to those who worked tirelessly to make this all happen: Trish, Michelle, Amy, Natasha, Nicole, Pam, and Rebecca. You guys ROCK!

So to wrap up this post, here are some of the goodies we all got by attending this fabulous convention:

• Suite Scarlett, by Maureen Johnson (audiobook)
• Summer at Tiffany, by Marjorie Hart
• The Outside Boy, by Jeanine Cummings
• Think of a Number, by John Verdon
• The Secret Life of Prince Charming, by Deb Caletti
• Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives, by Josie Brown
• The Perfect 10 Diet, by Michael Aziz M.D.

There were also other assorted goodies such as pens, a reading light, bookmarks and also a wonderful personalized luggage tag made by JKS Communications for each attendee at the convention.

Truly…it was overwhelming in a wonderful way. And I must tell you, I will be sharing some of the books I came home with…so stay tuned for some giveaways here on my blog in the next few weeks.

Well, I am sitting in the hotel lobby waiting to be picked up for the airport…so thought I would keep on trying to catch up with all the BEA fun. Thursday was the second day of the exhibition hall and I must admit, I was really dragging! The first thing we did was drop by the Unbridled Books booth for a blogger breakfast with the lovely Caitlin Summie and authors Masha Hamilton (31 Hours), Emily St. John Mandel (Last Night in Montreal AND The Singer’s Gun), and Joyce Hinnefeld. I was SO excited to finally meet Joyce whose book In Hovering Flight (read my review) topped my list of best reads for 2009. She has a new book coming out in October (check out Stranger Here Below).

Me and Joyce Hinnefeld

The Unbridled Books booth (Caitlin…this one is making me LAUGH!!)

I also finally got to meet the vivacious Miriam Parker from Little Brown and Company and picked up a copy of Kathleen Kent‘s latest novel.

I also met Beth Kephart and got her latest book signed. She is as lovely in person as she is on her blog…and I can’t wait to read her novel.

Kip and I headed out at lunch time to pack up the books I’ve picked up so far and take them to the post office (two blocks from our hotel) to be mailed media mail. We sent a HUGE box and only had to pay $20 which I considered a deal!

Later we headed back to the Javits to do some wandering about before the Book Blogger Convention reception. Here are some scenes from inside the exhibition hall:

Algonquin Books booth

Harper Collins

Other Press

Here are the books I picked up on Thursday:

• Still Missing, by Chevy Stevens (for a giveaway later this summer)
• Cleopatra, by Stacy Schiff
• The Wolves of Andover, by Kathleen Kent
• Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, by Helen Simonson (signed)
• The Bells, by Richard Harvell
• City of Tranquil Light, by Bo Caldwell
• Some Sing, Some Cry, by Ntozake Shange and Ifa Byeza (signed)

At 4:00 PM we headed downstairs to mingle at the Book Blogger Convention reception.

Natasha and Amy registering people

This event was very much a networking event with authors, publicists and bloggers all exchanging business cards and chatting it up. If there was ever any doubt that bloggers are not a huge part of the marketing plan for books, that was quickly dispelled!

Kip and I headed back to the hotel around 6:00 PM, grabbed a quick bite to eat and went to bed early to get rested up for the Book Blogger Convention on Friday!

**Click on any photos in this post to enjoy a larger view

Wednesday marked the first day of the exhibition part of the BEA and I have to say, it was overwhelming and exciting. Kip and I got up at 5:00 AM to get to the Javits by 6:00 AM to get tickets for a couple of author signings (Jan Brett and Joyce Carol Oates). We were delighted to discover Serena and Anna (along with “the girl”) just in front of us in the line (later Heather also joined us).

The exhibit hall opened at 9:00 AM, so we sat around drinking coffee and talking, talking, talking…so fun!

The masses of people who swamped the exhibit hall beginning at 9:00 was incredible. I met up with Lisa Roe while waiting in the autograph area (she is as animated and lovely in person as on her blog and in her emails!):

I missed getting Joyce Carol Oates autograph when she failed to show up for her signing (they gave us the book unsigned), and then meandered over to Other Press to meet Mitchell Kaplan who was delightful. I also met Caroline Leavitt and picked up a signed copy of her book.

I made sure to stop by the Unbridled Books Booth to meet Caitlin Summie – she feels like such a friend after all these months of working with her and it was great to give her a giant hug and sit and talk with her.

I did not get to visit any of the stages or presentations…there was just too much to see and do on the exhibit floor. After lunch I met Jan Brett and picked up a signed copy of her latest book. It is gorgeous!

After dodging the crowds and talking to authors, publicists and other bloggers…Kip and I finally crashed at around 3:00 pm. The last few days caught up to us (and the backpack was getting to weighted down with books for Kip), so we headed back to the hotel and collapsed on the bed for a 2.5 hour nap! Here are the books I picked up on Wednesday:

• The Rain Song, by Janice Grove
• Bamboo People, by Mitali Perkins (signed)
• The Gendarme, by Mark T. Mustian
• I Curse the River of Time, by Per Petterson
• The Things That Need Doing, by Sean Manning (signed)
• Mr. Toppit, by Charles Elton
• The Pages, by Murray Bail
• Pictures of You, by Caroline Leavitt (signed)
• Alzheimer’s Care With Dignity, by Frank Fuerst (signed)

• Crossing Antarctica, by Will Steger (signed)
• The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore, by Benjamin Hale
• Room, by Emma Donoghue
• Sourland, by Joyce Carol Oates
• The Man in the Wooden Hat, by Jane Gardam
• Sudan, by Art Ayris and Ninie Hammon
• The Blessings of the Animals, by Katrina Kittle
• Bone China, by Roma Tearne

After our much needed nap, it was time to get up, get showered, grab some dinner and head to the Algonquin Hotel for the Harper Collins Celebration of Book Bloggers.

The Harper Collins event was buzzing – there were so many bloggers there that it was hard to talk above the noise of all the chit chat. I was thrilled to meet Simon Van Booy who handed me a signed book of his short story collection Love Begins in Winter (remember how much I loved that book?!). Simon is funny and easy to talk with and it was such an honor to meet him.

And of course, I met LOTS of the bloggers whose blogs I love and read every day:

Amy, Natasha and me

Me, Kathy, Jill and Dawn

Nat (Tanabata) and me

Candace (Beth Fish), me, Rebecca, and Swapna

Me and Avis

Later on Kip, me and Avis moved down to the elegant bar at the Algonquin and laughed and shared stories until well after midnight!

And of course, what would a book blogger event be without a few books:

• Love Begins in Winter, by Simon Van Booy (signed)
• Manhood for Amateurs, by Michael Chabon
• Up From the Blue, by Susan Henderson

Wow, what an incredible day of books, meeting friends, and making new acquaintances. And there is still TWO days left!

Things have been SO busy that I am late posting updates…but I am going to go ahead and post the day to day happenings here in New York anyway!

On Tuesday Kip and I met up with a friend from Library Thing and had breakfast before heading out to a tour at the Penguin publishing house. I am not even going to attempt to list all the publicists we met! But Shannon Twomey, Senior Publicist with Penguin/Viking, gave our group of bloggers a thorough, book-filled tour; and I finally got to meet Lydia Hirt in person. I should have counted up the number of bloggers who attended, but I didn’t think to do it at the time. I’m going to guess it was about 15 to 18 of us. I was thrilled to see Jill from Fizzy Thoughts and finally meet Swapna from S. Krishna’s Books and Lenore at Presenting Lenore. I also picked up business cards from several other “new to me” bloggers.

Penguin is huge. We got a handout listing all their imprints and contacts for each imprint. We also picked up catalogs of all the up and coming books and I felt a bit faint thumbing through them!

We met with several publicists from various imprints in a large conference room where everyone introduced themselves. The publicists had lots of questions, such as: How much lead time do bloggers like in terms of getting review copies? Do we want to be “pitched” or would we rather request from catalogs? And what types of books are we looking to review? They also love getting our links to reviews (since Google Alerts are not always 100% reliable).

Once again, we picked up some great books:

The Divorce Party, by Laura Dave

Sima’s Undergarments for Women, by Ilana Stanger-Ross

Lake Wobegon Summer 1956, by Rebecca Goldstein

Why Dogs Eat Poop, by Francesca Gould and David Haviland (Tarcher/Penguin)

Every Dog Has A Gift, by Rachel McPherson (Tarcher/Penguin)

Through Black Spruce, by Joseph Boyden

Stay tuned for my post-BEA wrap ups (in the next couple of weeks) and ticklers of all the books mentioned here!

After the tour, Kip and I headed into Greenwich Village to grab some lunch and walk around the shops. Then we headed back to our hotel room for a little “down time” before going to the Javits to catch the opening ceremony of the BEA with Barbra Steisand promoting her new book My Passion For Design (due for release in November 2010). The interview with her was enlightening – I guess I had never realized how much of a perfectionist Streisand is (she actually matches the color of the flowers in her outside gardens to the colors of the rooms which overlook them!).

After the headliner event, Kip and I trudged back to our hotel and fell into bed to get a good night’s rest…and to anticipate Wednesday’s exhibit events!

Monday marked the first official “happenings” for the Book Expo and Book Blogger Convention.

Kip and I headed over to the Flat Iron Building in Chelsea for a tour of Bloomsbury Publishing at 10:30. Michelle Blankenship, Associate Director of Publicity, and Peter Miller, Director of Publicity, spent about an hour with us answering questions about publishing, and asking us questions related to blogging as a marketing tool for publishers. It was a small showing of bloggers including Rachel at Home Between Pages, Gaby at Starting Fresh, Angela at Dark Faerie Tales, and Tania at Literary Cravings…but I think in some ways that was a benefit to those of us there. Some high points of the discussion:

• Bloomsbury has found that creating “buzz” about a book three to four months ahead of the publication date boosts sales. Buzz might including providing ticklers of the book (for example, showcasing the book as part of memes like Mailbox Monday), and chatty posts highlighting the book.
• Publishers are interested to know the best way to approach bloggers with ARCs or review books. Bloomsbury (and probably most other publishers) can add a blogger to their mailing lists for catalogs of upcoming new releases so that a blogger can request a book they might like to cover vs. getting unsolicited pitches for books.
• Another interesting question: Do you prefer getting books direct from authors, or would you prefer to deal directly with a publicist. In our small group, the consensus was we preferred receiving books from publicists (for me, this is preferred because I think it is easier to be honest in a review of a book I might not have loved).

We had a tour of the Bloomsbury offices and met all the people who are responsible for making sure readers get the books in their hands! And, indeed, we managed to pick up a few books for our TBR shelves:

Chef, by Jaspreet Singh

Mrs. Tim of the Regiment, by D.E. Stevenson

The Brontes Went to Woolworths, by Rachel Ferguson

A Kid for Two Farthings, by W0lf Mankowitz

Love’s Shadow, by Ada Leverson

After touring at Bloomsbury, we traveled to another part of the Flat Iron Building and met up with James Meader, Director of Publicity, at Picador who popped a couple of bottles of champagne and poured each of us a mimosa before introducing us to the very friendly publicists of Picador. Very laid back and chatty, this meeting was informative and friendly. Some things you might want to know:

• The folks at Picador are really interested in what bloggers are doing and what they want to do in terms of book marketing…they asked a lot of questions about giveaways, ARC tours, author posts, and wanted to know about new or innovative approaches bloggers might have to market books.
• Picador doesn’t just reprint trade paperbacks…they are interested in taking a previously published hardcover and giving it a new twist such as a new or more pertinent cover and a new marketing strategy (and their covers are gorgeous!).

We met in the “book room” and it was a reader’s paradise. A floor to ceiling bookcase (their latest releases) stood on one side of the room, and we were told to pick what we’d like. Here is what I snatched up:

The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg

Blame, by Michelle Huneven

Cost, by Roxana Robinson

Many thanks to the wonderful people at these two publishing houses who welcomed us with open arms and took the time to talk to us and fill our bags with some great books.

Stay tuned for my post-BEA wrap up (next week) and ticklers of all the books mentioned here!

Kip and I caught some lunch over near Greenwich Village, and then made our way to The Strand Bookstore. Wow, this is one terrific bookstore and it ate up about 2 hours of our time. Of course, I could not resist picking up a book. I bought Burmese Lessons, by Karen Connelly for half price (this is the same author who wrote The Lizard Cage, which you might remember…I loved!).

From The Strand, we headed back to our hotel for a little nap and “down time” before leaving to go to the Upper East side of Manhattan to have dinner with Kip’s cousin (who he has not seen for 30 years). We enjoyed a delicious meal, and terrific conversation before making it back to the hotel at around midnight.