North of Beautiful Blog Stop: Stephanie's Confessions of a Bookaholic

Rounding out these last two weeks o' fun with bloggers, I'm headed over to Stephanie's Book Blog. So join me over there today!

A special thanks to Sara Easterly for spearheading this week's blog tour and to Mitali Perkins for managing last week's tour.

North of Beautiful: Beauty + Book Blog Tour!

North of Beautiful celebrates true beauty, and in honor of that, my good friend Sara Easterly has organized a Beauty + Book Blog Tour. So please drop in on the blogs and celebrate what makes YOU uniquely beautiful. While you're at it, upload your video essay on True Beauty at www.youtube.com/northofbeautiful!

Monday, February 9: The Bluestocking Society

Tuesday, February 10: Mythbuster Beauty http://www.mythbusterbeauty.com

Wednesday, February 11: MotherDaughterBookClub.com

Friday, February 13: Stephanie's Books

See you this week!

(Today I am grateful for all the beauty that surrounds me.)

Giving Thanks: A Week In Review

Thanks to countless wonderful people, all throughout this week I've been reminded of two of my favorite poems / quotes:

As earth stirs in her winter sleep
And puts out grass and flowers
Despite the snow,
Despite the falling snow.
--Robert Graves

Look. There's hope.
--Lorie Ann Grover

Despite the snow, the falling snow that's been upheaving my life, there's so much hope and so much to be thankful for. Here, then, are the grass and flowers that earth has given me so plentifully:

1. Holly Cupala who so generously created the much-talked about, much-forwarded beautiful Book Launch announcement. She is a dear and loyal friend.

2. Martha Brockenbrough who is single-handedly overseeing the North of Beautiful: Find Beauty Challenge. She is truly one of the most generous (and funny) people I know. Michael Sterns, you got yourself a treasure. So did you, Adam.

3. My son and his best friend, Gaby, who gave up their entire day AND the Super Bowl to be videographers, shooting video essays on beauty at my party. You both are becoming incredible young men.

4. Mitali Perkins who spearheaded the incredibly fun Book Blog Tour with luminaries like Shelf Elf, Sarah Rettger, Bibliophile, and Teen Book Review. We dished on everything from characters to bubble tea. Now, tell me, are these soul sisters or what?

5. Brenda Gurung, the world's best Community Relations Manager at my local Barnes & Noble, who said: Justina, let me host your Book Launch Party; you just show up. So the woman created a map collage as a backdrop.

Then she kicked off a virtual geocaching scavenger hunt around the store, arranged a collage station, gave away prizes, publicized the event all over town... Brenda, you are a gift.

6. My daughter who is the best meeter-and-greeter. Ever. And best daughter ever.

7. Miss Erin whose mom drove her 5.5 hours to surprise me at the party! I cried when I saw her!


8. All my friends who turned out for the party despite the Super Bowl--from Anita at the post office whose lips have kissed every manuscript that I've mailed (good luck lips, I'm telling you!) to my StrataGem pals to my sister who tore herself away from studying for finals. And especially my Diviners critique group, readergirlz, and Kim Swift (the famous gamer girl!) who baked and baked and baked to feed everyone at the party. A special thanks to Jackie Parker whose amazing cinnamon rolls save me after a dire energy lull.

9. Barnes & Noble for putting North of Beautiful in its coveted real estate: the home page scroll on its website. It was thrilling to see my book alongside President Obama, Bruce Springsteen, and James Patterson. And then merchandised my book prominently on the Teen Page. Thank you. I am so humbled by the company Terra got to keep this week. And I am absolutely humbled that in this economy, readers are spending their precious dollars on my words. Thank you so much.

10. And all the unexpected gifts that this week held for me: a starred review from Booklist, freshly baked bread from Barbara Stolzenburg (one of the first librarians to get behind my first novel), a collage and serenade from Miss Erin... These are just a few of the ways you have made one author feel nurtured and beloved. I thank you all.


Despite the snow, despite the falling snow, hope is waiting to bloom.

LOVE,
Justina

NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL: Book Blog Tours

Please visit me on my Book Blog Tours for North of Beautiful.

Week One was coordinated by the Beautiful Mitali Perkins in the midst of her own book tour for Secret Keeper.


NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL BOOK BLOG TOUR

February 2: Kickoff at Mitali's Fire Escape


February 3: Shelf Elf, Kerry Millar


February 4: Archimedes Forgets, Sarah Rettger


February 5: Bibliophile, Jennifer Rothschild


February 6: Teen Book Review, Jocelyn

Week Two of my Book Blog Tour was spearheaded by Sara Easterly. Is she not glowing miraculously, especially given having just had a baby? (And if you like her orange baby bag, thank you very much! I claim that one: I special ordered that one for her, bugging the designer so that my girl got the FIRST one. Sara also coordinated the Seattle portion of my Girl Overboard tour.)

February 9: The Bluestocking Society

February 10: Mythbuster Beauty http://www.mythbusterbeauty.com

February 11: MotherDaughterBookClub.com

February 13: Stephanie's Books

Today I am thankful for girlfriends who say, "Justina, let us celebrate."

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.