Interesting stuff ... well, at least I think it is...

So I've been out of commission due to a bad case of bronchitis which came about due to ongoing allergies that spiraled out of control. But now I'm finally breathing a bit better without coughing up a lung. Unfortunately, part of my recovery meant trying to stay indoors as much as possible, feeling completely exhausted and being unable to do more than wheeze pitifully. Even the internet was tiring to me, which was kind of unheard of and strange, even to me.

Now that I'm better, I can finally report on the fact that I met with my agent, Joe MOnti, and his lovely family on my birthday. We had an amazing dim sum lunch where his adorable 3 year old son proceeded to out eat my 12 year old and myself combined. I brought along Oldest who came for the sole intention of asking Joe about all the famous authors he's met over the years. And she was in complete awe at the fact that he not only met J.K. Rowling, but that he'd also worked with Stephanie Meyers on the Twilight movie tie-in book.

Meanwhile I was blown away by the absolutely amazing birthday present he and his wife brought me. Ta Da!

It's a ninja sword handled umbrella!! How cool is that? I've been gloating over this umbrella all week! I also had to beat the kids off of it as I refuse to share it. I love that my agent knew me well enough to recognize what present I would absolutely adore.

Next up, I get to meet with my fabulous HarperCollins editor, Phoebe Yeh, in the flesh! I get to meet her in her offices and I've already been promised a stack of new books. I am seriously having palipitations over this because there is a huge list of new HarperCollins books that I'm dying to get and this is almost as good as letting me loose in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. Hopefully, I will remember to be professional and not scare my editor off by acting like a crazy person.

And then I will be attending Cindy Pon and Malinda Lo's Diversity in YA book tour in NYC on May 14th. If you are in the NY area, please come to the event.

Saturday, May 14 at 1 p.m.

Books of Wonder

18 West 18th Street

New York, NY 10011

Not only will you be supporting a great cause, diversity in books! and the authors who write them - but apparently, Cindy and Malinda plan to release information about their supersecret epic Asian Vampire fantasy novel that they are co-authoring! So if you plan on attending, leave me a comment and I'll blog and tweet what I'm wearing the day of the event so that you can find me. I would love to meet my blog buddies in real time!

And that's all the news that's fit to print.