End of the road, and it was a perfect ending at the Mysterious Galaxy bookstore.

I’m now headed home after spending a very memorable month travelling all over and meeting so many readers, both young and old (er).  (If you like my books, you can’t really consider yourself “old”)

Many, many miles were covered on this trip.  There was snow in Denver and 90 degrees w/humidity in Texas.  I wish I could calculate how many kids in school I spoke to.  Many thousands.   Too many to count.  Each event was unique and special in its own way.  Someone once asked me what my favorite thing was about writing books.  That’s easy.  It’s when somebody comes up to me and says:  “I loved your book”.  It doesn’t get better than that, and I was fortunate to have that experience many times over in the stores and schools that I visited.  Thanks for that.

As the tour progressed it was fun to see how the questions from readers no longer became solely about Pendragon.  As a few weeks went by, I met many readers who had already read The Light, and it was fun to be able to discuss a new story.  (Though I’ll never get tired of talking about Pendragon)

I want to thank all the booksellers, teachers, librarians, principals and hosts who made the tour so much fun and go so smoothly.  And of course a big thank you has to go to my friends at Simon & Schuster who put the whole tour together.  It’s tough to piece together a puzzle like a book tour, and Paul and Bernadette did an amazing job.  Thanks guys!

What’s next for me?  Rest.  Ha, actually not.  Now I get to go back and do what I love best . . . write.  I’m finishing up a re-write of the first Equinox Curiosity Shop book.  (It’s called:  “The Teller of Tales”)  Then I’ll get right on to the next revision of Morpheus Road #2.  (I’m not saying what the title is yet, but many readers have already guessed.   It ain’t hard to figure out . . . kind of like “The Soldiers of Halla” was)

THEN, I’m going to write the second Monster Princess picture book.  The first book is coming out in August, so for all those out there who know little ones who you think will enjoy my brand of storytelling but in a completely different form, check it out.    I can say this because I didn’t do the illustrations, but I think the book is great.  The illustrator is Alexandra Boiger.  She’s a star.

To all those who I met on the tour, thanks for coming out and saying hi.  To all who have followed the tour on my blog, I hope to get to meet you in person some day.  It’s only about 11 months until the next tour.  I’d better rest up.

Back on the road, and up to Canada.  I’ve been to Vancouver dozens of times, and not once did it rain.  I started thinking that this whole “it’s always raining in Vancouver” thing was a fallacy… until today.  It was pretty gray and dismal.  But that was okay because I got to visit one of the best kids book stores in Canada…Kidsbooks in Vancouver.  Phillis has been a friend for many years.  I was once honored to be able to present her with the award for being the best kids book store in Canada.  (See, I’m not the only one who thinks so.   They actually got an award for it)

It was great seeing her and the event she and her staff put on was terrific, as usual.  On the way back to the hotel I was treated to a small tour of the Olympic Village.  Made me wish I had actually been here for the games!

Early morning tomorrow (as usual) and a flight to…San Diego to another of my favorite stores, Mysterious Galaxy.  Thursday night at 7.  This is the last official event of the Morpheus Road Tour.  I hope to see lots of readers there!

Yes, the tour continues.  Though it’s a lot easier when you get to sleep in your own bed.

The past few days I’ve been doing radio interviews for stations all over the country.  That’s a lot of fun, and strange at the same time.  The interviews happen right after one another, and you never know if the host is going to be a laid back FM NPR kind of guy, or a hyped up “morning zoo” maniac.  You have to learn to change gears quickly, which is odd considering I’m sitting at the kitchen table in my sweats, half asleep, being heard by lots of people, live.  If I thought too hard about it, it would freak me out.  So I don’t.

I’ve been visiting the Borders store in Torrance, CA since the first Pendragon books were published and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go again, now with a new series.  Lita Weissman runs their events, and she is fabulous.  Thanks Lita.  And Jan Wagner too!  (I first met Jan at the LA Times Festival of books when my wife was pregnant, and now Keaton is almost seven!  Yikes.  Time flies)

On a sad note, I learned that Manny Gonzalez, a good friend from the store and somebody who always hosted such great events for me, passed away this last year.  Manny was the one responsible for giving me the oomph to get the Pendragon series published in Spanish.  He is sorely missed.  So hearing that news made the event a bittersweet one.  Still, it’s nice to visit a place that feels like home.  Thanks guys.

Got SO CLOSE to getting home without a travel snafu.  Oh well.

On Friday morning I visited the Immaculate Conception school in  Columbus where I had the most kids talk about their own supernatural experiences.  Maybe there’s something weird going on in Columbus!

That was the last school visit for this portion of the tour, so I went right to the airport to head home.  Well, my flight was supposed to go to Detroit first, but there was bad weather there so flights were all delayed and/or cancelled and there was no way I was going to make my connection to LA.  So I scrambled around and got a flight to Atlanta and a connection home.  It took a lot longer, but I made it and rolled into bed at about 1am.  (Which was 4am east coast time, where I woke up)  So it was a looong day, but everything worked out fine, and I made it home for Mother’s Day!

The main part of the tour is complete now.  I’ll be making some local (L.A.) appearances over the next few weeks, and will also be hitting the road again for San Diego, Vancouver, and I THINK I’ll be going to Salt Lake City as well, but I don’t have any information about that yet.  I’ll post everything as soon as it firms up.

So…thanks to everybody for making this first part of the tour so successful.  I’ll still be blogging, but I won’t pick up the “Tour Blog” again until the next appearances kick in.

Got up very early today (4:30a) in Austin Texas and flew to Cincinnati, Ohio.   (Yes, jumping time zones again)  There was only one school visit today, the Nagel Middle School, but it was a fun one.  Thanks so much to Jacob for the interview, and the terrific introduction.  There were many young writers at Nagel, including one girl who let me read a poem she wrote that was inspired by Morpheus Road!

Now that the book has been out for a week or so, I’m starting to meet readers who have already finished it.  So it’s fun that I’m starting to get some Morpheus Road questions, instead of just Pendragon.  It’s also great to be able to finally discuss it without fear of giving away spoilers!

After the event I went to the BookPeople store (Which is great.  Cincinnatians are very lucky) to sign some books.  By complete coincidence, I ran into another author there.  Her name is Kaza Kingsley and she writes the terrific Erec Rex series.

Tomorrow it’s up early and a flight to Columbus, Ohio for more school visits and an event at the Cover to Cover bookstore at 4:30p.

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

Didn’t see the bat swarm last night.  I must have looked at the wrong time.  I only saw two random bats, and they were probably birds.  Oh well.  Or maybe it was all a joke that they tell tourists…

Visited two schools today:  West Ridge Middle School and O.Henry Middle School.   It’s great when some of the kids I speak to during the day decide to come and see me at a store that night, so thanks to all the students from West Ridge who came to see me at BookPeople.  AND…thanks to the dad who drove his kids all the way from Houston to see me!  I hope the coffee kicked in before you drove back.

Now I’ve got to get to sleep because I’m getting picked up at 5a tomorrow to get a flight to Cincinnati, Ohio.  No public events there, I’m afraid.  Just a school event.  I’ll be in Cincinnati for only one day, then head right to Columbus.  The next store event will be in Columbus on Thursday, May 6th at the Cover to Cover Bookstore.  4:30.