Compass Rose

To celebrate the publication of a book, I usually buy something for myself that symbolizes my story. I was so pleased to find out that Nancy Pearl has the same tradition, as I learned when I was openly ogling her ring. She told me that she had bought it for herself in honor of Book Lust. (Do other authors do this? Please tell!)

The recent months have been hectic-hard, so I haven't had the wherewithal to shop. (Not my favorite thing to do in the best of times; it's even more of a chore now.)

But one of my hipster librarian friends, Brenna Shanks, wore a compass rose pendent

to my book party for NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL. I was so taken with the piece that she very generously shared the site where she purchased it.

What do you think? Is this the piece that I need to have to celebrate NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL?

Charmed, I'm Sure!

When I wrote the Mama Lecture Series in Nothing but the Truth (and a few white lies), I never really thought I'd be scripting my own lectures. But here I am, telling (lecturing) my kids that nothing really matters in life except for friends and family. (This, I'm sure, will come back to haunt me when it's back to school time and the kiddos are slacking off: But, Mom, you said nothing mattered more than friends. I want to hang out with my new ones in China!)

How important friends are has become so clear now that we're down to our last week in the U.S. LAST WEEK! LAST 7 DAYS!!

In between getting our final shots--who knew that there'd be a run on the rabies vaccinations in the U.S.?--we've been saying our last goodbyes to dear friends.

(Note: The Japanese encephalitis shot hurts.)

Readergirlz diva Lorie Ann Grover has been a great sport, going geocaching with me in the HOT, DRY heat in Winthrop where I love to write.

Then, she and Dia Calhoun sent me off with the most gorgeous readergirlz yearbook, filled with photos of everything our group did in the last 18 months! 31 Flavorite Authors! Operation Teen Book Drop! Books for Your BFF! And all the authors we've brought to teen readers over the year.

Dia also created a geocache in honor of North of Beautiful!

Here we are, sneakily hiding the cache together in a super secret location for other treasure hunters to find.




Two nights ago, my StrataGem group--the fabulous women who worked with me to help women and children--threw a party for me. It was the first time in 2 years when all of us were able to get together on the same night (except for Birgit who lives in Vienna). It was a miracle, I tell you. They created a charm bracelet for me with each of the charms symbolizing a special moment together. Like the Christmas box for the boxes we created for kids in third world countries. And the snowflake for our retreat at the Sleeping Lady Lodge where we figured out how to fix the world! (Of course, fixing our own worlds--how on earth do you balance family with career with philanthropy?!--was and is a conundrum.)

And then the readergirlz of Seattle went (what else?) geocaching with me for one final time as we filmed footage for a future North of Beautiful video.



Pictured here: Dia Calhoun, Jackie Parker (Interactive Reader & postergirlz), Holly Cupala, Sara Easterly (rgz publicist), me, Lorie Ann Grover, Janet Lee Carey, and Nancy Pearl (honorary readergirlz).

Friends, I tell you. They make up a charmed life.

Geeking out with Nancy Pearl

Way back in October, Nancy Pearl--as in Librarian with her own shushing Action Figure--invited me on her show, BookLust. After a devastating fashion faux pas (word to the televised: never, never, never wear the same color as the chair on a set lest you be a floating head), I managed to pull myself together enough to tell Nancy about my latest obsession: geocaching!

Think of geocaching as electronic treasure hunting, the ultimate in geekdom. You use a GPS device to find exact longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates (I warned you this was geeky). And hidden away in very sneaky places, geocachers have socked cool stashes of little treasures. For those wondering how I learned of geocaching, let me just say this: research for my forthcoming novel, NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL. Need I say more?

So today, the readergirlz divas and my kids went geocaching with Nancy.

Pictured here: Lorie Ann Grover, Nancy Pearl, moi, Janet Lee Carey, and Dia Calhoun.

Even after bushwhacking through brambles and spiderwebs, we were skunked by two of the caches. (Did I mention that I get hopelessly lost...and yet I love geocaching?)

Luckily, right when we were giving up hope, Dia spotted the teeny, tiny microcache wedged underneath a bench. Don't let Dia's Renaissance beauty fool you; the woman wields a cougar stick and isn't afraid to use it.

And here is Nancy, claiming her cache. Notice the glee with which she is signing her name on the log sheet! Now all she needs is to update her action figure with a GPS device, and BookLuster (her new geocaching nickname) is all set to geek out.