Philly Lit and Breathless Reads Recap

Hey Guys! Just got back to the real world for an event-filled three day weekend.

Saturday kicked everything off with an afternoon of writing at one of our favorite indies, Chester County Books and Music. Although admittedly, Donna and I did sneak off for sushi at one point.

After sushi (tofu for me) and writing and a little book shopping we headed over to the Iron Hill Brewery for official Philly Lit Night shenanigans.

Christine Danek (pictured above), Ilene Wong and Simon C. Larter

Simon C. Larter, Jessica Corra (AFTER YOU), Paul Joseph

K.M. Walton (CRACKED), Kelly Lyman, Donna Gambale, Me

Donna Gamabale, Amy Garvey (COLD KISS)

Sara T.K. DeSabato, Janine Burgan

And the most memorable moment of the night...when newcomer Tony arrived, he walked around  holding a sign with Simon's twitter handle on it until he found us! Awesome--also a really great way to meet us!

After Iron Hill the FNC and our last standing Philly Lit Night member, Paul Joseph went for coffee.

Sunday was Penguin's Breathless Reads Tour at The Doylestown Bookshop (another fabulous indie!). It was super fun getting to meet Marie Lu (LEGEND) and Andrea Cremer (THE NIGHTSHADE SERIES) for the first time. And so nice to see Beth Revis (ACROSS THE UNIVERSE) and Jessica Spotswood (BORN WICKED) again.

Beth Revis (ACROSS THE UNIVERSE), Jessica Spotswood (BORN WICKED), Marie Lu (LEGEND), and Andrea Cremer (NIGHTSHADE)

Beth Revis, Me, Marie Lu, Jamie Bennett (The Perpetual Page Turner), Jenna (Avid Reader Musings), Vivian (Confessions of a Vi3tbabe)

OMG captioning is getting exhausting--Jamie, Vivian, Beth, Jenna, Marie, Jessica, Andrea and Me!

Following the book signing, Jamie, Jenna, Vivian and Yan (Books By Their Cover) and I headed off to dinner.

My night ended by heading over to Sara's for a mini President's Day Writing Retreat which may or may not have been productive. I'm going to say productive. So all in all, awesome weekend.

And now...I have papers to grade.

The "Just Because" Giveaway - 3 Prize Packs!

Just because my bookshelves are overflowing, I'm giving away three prize packs of ARCs! 

If you'd like, you can enter for all three prize packs, but you can only win one -- so on the off chance that your name is chosen twice, you get first dibs on the one you want most!

Enter below for a chance to win...

Prize Pack #1

SERIOUSLY CONTEMPORARY

Irises - Francisco X Stork

Liar - Justine Larbalestier

An ex-Hallmark card writer's perspective on Valentine's Day.

Love it, hate it, or just don't care about it, you can't avoid Valentine's Day.

Here's an interesting perspective on the holiday from a guy who wrote Hallmark cards for five years:

Who Really Writes Your Valentine's Cards? Ex Hallmark Writer Shares Greeting Card Secrets

Personally, I favor the offbeat Valentines -- like this one:

(I wish I knew where I found this, so I could give credit, because it's awesome.)


Random tidbit about me: In my senior year of high school, I seriously considered working for the greeting card industry because I loved writing cards so much.

If you care to share --- what's your VDay perspective? Personally, I roll my eyes at the traditional trifecta of chocolates, roses, and jewelry, but I love cards and going out to an especially nice dinner (a couple days before/after Valentine's Day, so it's not a chaotic rush of a night when the only available reservations are 10pm).

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Frankie's DC Adventure

Hey Guys!

I'm back from another mini-road trip adventure. This time to DC to attend Jessica Spotswood's Born Wicked Launch Party. And I had a blast!

First I met up with Jeri Smith-Ready in Maryland where she whisked me away to one of my favorite vegan restaurants, Great Sage!

The food is so good, it kind of makes me wish I lived in Maryland...

After stuffing ourselves we then headed to the launch party where I got to meet a ton of the super cool writers in the DC area, and of course, see Jessica and get our copies of Born Wicked signed! I also got to try the signature Born Wicked cocktail which was blue and super yummy and welcome after walking through some seriously frigid wind to the venue.

Jessica signing books.

Jeri and Jessica! Two of the sweetest writers on the planet!

Here I am with Jessica.

I got to hang out with Cristin Terrill!

And the super sweet Sarah Enni!

Hanging with Jeri!

I finally got to meet the super fabulous Sara McClung!

I didn't get pictures with everyone but I also had super fun conversations with Caroline T. Richmond, Lynn Colt,  Jessica BS (who also gave me the sad news about Whitney Houston via twitter), and more!

DC Writers--I think you're all super cool and I hope I get to hang out with all of you again soon. 

After grabbing some coffee, Jeri and I headed out, and I was preparing to make the drive back to Philly when this happened:

Dangerous Snow Squalls!

The combo of the severe light snow and my mom's worried text messages about driving, convinced me to spend the night in Maryland, thus extending my adventure by a super fun extra night. Jeri and I have a history of being trapped by snow in February anyway.

But now it's back to the real world and I need to get some serious writing done.

How was everyone else's weekend?

FRACTURE by Megan Miranda Winner!

Life has been so hectic I almost forgot I had this contest running! But now it's over, and we have our winner.

Drumroll...

Congratulations to...

Natalie Aguirre!!

I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did!

How to plan an affordable writing retreat weekend.

My new favorite way to make my travel/getaway addiction more affordable is via rental properties you can find online.

The sites I use?

HomeAway.com and VRBO.com

I'm using them to plan an epically awesome, super-affordable writing retreat weekend for the FNC this spring -- our last group hurrah before Sara has her baby this summer!

We're looking at rural retreats --- with amenities like fireplaces and hot tubs and WiFi* and newly renovated kitchens --- for two nights at $75/person or less. That, my friend, is a bargain, especially since we'll be cooking all our own meals.

And with all the books and audiobooks we buy and writing events we attend, we need every bargain we can get!

If all goes as planned, we'll be spending the weekend being seriously productive and having a ton of fun somewhere like here:

Why yes, that is a hot tub outside.

Anyone have another favorite getaway site to share?

Happy retreat-planning!

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* WiFi was non-negotiable. We are addicted to the interwebs.