My birthday.

I know I owe several posts on the epicness of this past week, starting with my book deal (it still sounds so very strange saying that) and BEA and Backspace and all of the amazing people I've met and all of the amazing books I've scored, but what happened today topped it all.

Monday (today) is my birthday. A great friend of mine from college was supposed to hang out with me the day before (Sunday), but on Saturday night, my brother who lives in New York told me he wanted to hang out with me Sunday instead. He guilted me into changing my plans with said friend in the way that only family can. So I just mentioned that I'd see my friend tomorrow. Then he told me he wanted to hang out with me tomorrow also. Now, I love my brother. Adore him, even. But I'm planning to be back in the city pretty soon, and we're going to be spending time in Miami together in August, too, and I don't get to see said friend very often. So I started asking him if he had a problem with my friend. He dodged the question, and told me he'd meet me at the Metropolitan Museum of Art at 1pm.

Typically, I was running a bit late, so I hopped in a cab instead of taking the train. When I got there, the steps were packed. Tons of people were out enjoying the gorgeous weather. I scanned the crowd looking for my bro. No dice. I called him. No answer. I called again, no answer. I kept scanning.

And saw my mother, sitting on the steps to the Met.

My brain didn't compute what I was seeing. She should have been in Miami. I had a brief "am-I-crazy" moment and then finally it sunk in that she was there--I saw her before she saw me. I called out to her and she turned, smiled, and said:

"Your brother was running late, so he sent me instead."

My mom flew into NYC for my birthday. My perfect birthday, capping off my pretty damn perfect week. We screamed. We hugged, on the steps to the Met.

The thing about family is that you can't choose them. You get what you get, for better or worse. But if there were a Mom store, and I was given the opportunity to choose the perfect mother, I'd choose mine.

I love you, Mom. So, so much.

YA Highway's Roadtrip Wednesday - the Twitter edition

If literary characters had twitter accounts, whose tweets would you follow?

It would be impossible to show up Kristin M. and Michelle S. so I won't even try.

But there's definitely a list:

Artemis Fowl
George & Shaun Mason from FEED
Dexter Morgan
The Lord of the Rings crew, fo' shizzle.

Who would you follow?

YA Highway's Roadtrip Wednesday

The topic? What photos inspire YOUR books.

My answer? There are many, but this one says it best, I think:

Contest! Contest! (Not mine)

Ooooh, lookee, lookee! From Martina & Marisa over at http://childrenspublishing.blogspot.com

"Do you know any UNDER-APPRECIATED young adult authors? Any books that didn't generate the buzz they deserve? Something you think is absolutely wonderful but didn't make everyone else's list?

Please share it with us! We'll run this contest for two weeks taking nominations, and then we'll compile a list of the submissions and ask everyone to pick their top five favorites. Hopefully, we'll all come away with some great new books and encourage authors who deserve exposure.

To reward your nominations, we'll follow the Spread the Awesome example add some prizes. We'll draw five random winners and give away goodie bags each containing a great YA book (Fallen, Beautiful Creatures, Shiver, Hex Hall or Body Finder) for inspiration along with some tension-taming writing essentials like bath soak, aromatherapy stuff, and chocolate.

Winners will be selected at random. We'll submit one entry for you for each of the following:
Following the blog
Commenting with a book recommendation (you can duplicate someone else's recommendation, but we will only count one recommendation for each commenter per book. If you comment twice with the same recommendation, we will enter you only once. If you comment twice with two different recommendations, we will enter you twice.)
Posting a link to this contest on your blog or website
Retweeting a link to this contest

If you link to the post or tweet, please comment including the Twitter name you used or the page URL on your blog. Hopefully, we'll find some great new blogs and tweeples at the same time we promo some fantastic authors.

This is going to be fun. Go read and comment and enjoy!"

I already nominated Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan. I am SURE you have thoughts about this, Internet! Go enter here: http://bit.ly/bexVMq