Things to do today:
AMA at r/books. We’ll start answering at 11:00 am, but you can ask questions now.
Do laundry.
Fold laundry.
Figure out how many days for the first leg of the trip.
Pack for West Coast and San Diego Comicon: printed T-shirts and capris and shorts.
Schedule an appointment to do my nails, because they are a disaster and I will be signing, so people will be looking at my hands.
Buy more markers while I’m out.
Activate the travel iPads I bought for us, because the laptop is bloody heavy.
Load the iPads with all of the software we need.
Find time to write somehow.
Identify the knitting pattern and make sure I have the proper yarn and needles to work with on the plane.
Identify which audio books I can listen too on the plane.
Ugh. Uuuuuugh.
Good luck! Try to have some fun?
Find a washcloth book. Then you can knit with any scraps of yarn you have, and have an excuse to go yarn shopping if you run out.
Yes! Nails are important since you’ll be signing tons of autographs, you need to feel confident.
Bon courage and have fun!
Laurence
I was going to say, “Skip the nails! We’re looking at you guys, not your hands.”
Traveling is Hard! Good luck. Wish I was close by to come see y’all.
P.S. Six more days. Can’t wait!
What a wonderful busy life. Have you put the plans to move to Florida on hold?
On the Reddit thing Gordon is calling the last Kate book “Magic moves to St. Augustine” so probably not.
Any chance of a link to the reddit thing so those of us who missed it can read it?
If you click on the AMA link in Ilona’s post above then it’ll take you to the Reddit page.
There’s even a small Hugh snippet. Squee!
where is the Hugh snippet? Please share the link. thank you.
If you tap the link where Ilona mentions AMA (it’s in blue) at the top of this post, you’ll get to the questions. The Hugh snippet is somewhere in the middle. I just stumbled on to the short snippet.
Gordon also suggested the title: “Magic moves to Florida and doesn’t tell the kids”
Such a kidder!!!?!?!?!
Safe travels. And knitting is very important for one’s sanity.
“Close To You”. Garter based, easily memorized but has enough lace edge action that it’s not boring.
Baby blankets for Project Linus is always a great project, if you can’t think or find anything in particular you want to do. Project Linus blankies go to kids in hospitals and police/first responders to hand out to kids in crisis.
Good luck with the packing! Can’t wait to see you guys at Comic-Con!
Have a great time and safe and fun travels! Come to Boston sometime would love to meet you two!!!
You are brave to do such a big tour. Here’s hoping fan appreciation will help you get through. Hugs.
Good Luck! Have fun in San Diego!
It’s always a relief to finally just sit down on the plane!!! Have a great trip. Might be able to see you in Houston. I’m not a huge crowd person, but it would be fun to talk to people who actually GET my references.
Traveling itself is not fun. Airlines are taking away leg room, seat width and then they don’t even give you a whole can of diet coke. Hope once you arrive that all goes well and you can have some fun as well. Best wishes for a safe journey.
they will give you the whole can if you ask for it. 😉
Safe travels! If you have time in L.A. try Ajisai in West Hollywood. Small and cozy, great sushi and jazz. Always restorative.
Let’s hope you don’t get sick from traveling. Knock on wood!
Highly recommend Sylvain Neuvel’s audiobook Sleeping Giants which is insanely fun sci-fi told in a series of interviews. All the narrators are great for their characters. I did not love the sequel, Waking Gods, as much but the 1st is definitely worth a listen.
Good luck with the prep and happy travels!! Have a blast a SDCC!!
Lolz, lots of questions posted already. Tempted to start an account. 🙂
If you find a good pattern, please share. I’m in a knitting funk.
I love reading through your AMAs, thanks for doing another one! Also, I hope Comic-Con is a blast for you. I’ve always wanted to go, I just live on the wrong side of the country.
Right side of the country, wrong end of the state, plus I work during the weekend.
Sigh…someday when the person I take care of is elsewhere.
i have travel lists. and lists of my lists, because I’m crazy. and then, every time, i end up breaking and just throwing random stuff in the suitcase and thinking, “f—- it, i’ll buy whatever need.”
i hope you don’t get too worked up to enjoy yourself. have a great trip!!
Good luck with all that! Travel prep is the absolute worst.
BTW, when I was putting out new books today, I saw a beautiful wrap/shawl in the early Fall Vogue Knitting. I thought of you!
Hey, just realized the countdown clock is set for 1:00 a.m. EDT. Is that truly when it releases? Usually I can download ebook by 12:15 a.m. on release day.
I’ve also downloaded ebook from Amazon within a few minutes after midnight CT, then switched to audiobook around 2amCT. The eyes start crossing from fatigue, so I get farther in the story before I conk out. And I know ahead of time that I want both, anyway, so they’re both preordered.??????
I always order both book and audio also. I have been able to download on kindle the books at 11:30 instead of 12:00 am. I think it’s because they start charging accounts at 11:00 pm that night. Don’t know why for sure. I go to my account and if char g ed then request download.
Ilona lives in Texas which is on Central Time, so she set the clock to 12am CT, which is 1am ET. It should be set to 12am ET, which is 11pm CT. Or at least, I can download at 12am ET. I don’t know if that means everyone can download at 12am ET (so 9pm in California), or if it downloads at midnight local time, so a staggered deployment.
If California readers get it at 9pm, then I’ll be very jealous.
Yes, CA readers will get ebooks at eastern time. ?
I’ve also received my Kindle copy on Mondays so at this point I’m not sure what time zone is being considered.
i can normally down load it 12am German time 🙂
AAARGGHHH!!! I SO want to be at Comic-Con this year! 🙁 🙁 I’m planning to go next year, though. Do you think you’ll attend in 2018?
Safe travels. Hopefully San Diego is not as hot as Texas right now, so both of you will get a break from the heat. If you get a chance, take a stroll on the beach. The Pacific Ocean is very beautiful down there.
As for the knitting…..do something you can pick up, put down, and not drive you crazy. One post mentioned baby blankets which is a good pick up and put down project. Just pick a stitch that is not complicated and is easy to remember if you don’t have your pattern instructions with you.
I understand about all the pre-packing craziness. I was that way at the beginning of July when I packed for a road trip to St. Louis. It was nuts. 🙂
Last but not least have lots of fun and enjoy!
Laundry and other house work is very patient, so unless it smells bad or is about to burst into flames, it can wait until you get home… or potentially become paid work for resident teens ?. Have an amazing day and a safe & fun trip!
Unless the laundry is stuff that they need on the trip. But still have the resident teens do it for you. They need the practice.
Are the markers for kidnapping???
Good luck and safe travel!
Safe journey, be sure to find a little “me time” for each other in what is sure to be a hectic journey ?
Hope one day you guys will make it to the Uk ?? You will be very welcome ?
I don’t envy you. When I was in a similar situation my friend told me just to think about how good my home would feel when I get back.
Thank you Ilona Andrews for doing the AMA. I found Gordon’s tongue in cheek answers funny. At least that is what I thought they were as I have an extremely dry sense of humor. If not I prefer not to be enlightened otherwise.
Since boarding or pet sitter for Baybay was not mentioned on your blog above I assume that your teens will be home and undertaking that task. I have found that as long as the rules are laid out clearly to teens the house will still be standing upon return usually without any notes from law enforcement or first responders requesting an audience. So enjoy your book tour. Live life fully. stay well.
oh yes regarding the anime from last week. I was informed by the youngest teen at great length what anime was and how defined. I had no idea that pokeman was now called something else which lead to blah, blah, blah. Longest that teen has communicated with me in a while that was not yes, no or snark. So, thanks for a new topic of communication that was not regarded as nosy aunt.
Didn’t you plan a kidnapping with your last marker shopping trip? Shop carefully and may your adventures be grand.
Good luck with packing and flying. Its the middle part that counts. We took our family vacation at the end of June using the cheaper Space Available military flights. Flying to and back demanded the patience of Job. I do not want to see another airport or pack for a trip until next year sometime when we have to fly 14hrs to get home.
Thank you for answering all those questions! I’m very curious about the dragon story ?
On another note- my 6yr old niece wanted me to tell her a story that I read so I told her about the Baylor family and their magic powers (strongly edited for her age of course). I just finish introducing all the characters when she bursts out: “that’s stupid! Only the women do all the work!” I had to tell her that the men do lots of the work later in the story before she let me continue ?
Good luck and hope you have a fun time. ?
I keep each yarn project in its own disposable bag then just move that to whatever bag or backpack I am using helps a lot.
They let you have knitting needles on the plane??
Don’t get arrested!
What app do you use to write with on your iPad? I don’t find Pages app that user friendly
just reading through the AMA … you said:
Most, but not all, of these questions will be answered in Wild Fire. Though we do not reveal the identity of Caesar, that will have to be in the next books, if Avon wants to continue the series.
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that is a joke right you will not let us hang for a year or two without finding out who Ceaser is? oh noooo.
I am so traumatized!!!
I know still waiting for Ilona to tell us that Gordon was pulling our leg – or at least a “read on and find out…”
Check out Wildfiber Studio in Santa Monica if you have time, although it’s a very, very dangerous shop! They amazing yarns and cool classes 🙂 https://www.wildfiberstudio.com/
And safe travels!
My to do list…
Find time to reread Burn For Me and White Hot before so I am ready for release day!
Work
Take care of kids
Sleep (this might be sacrificed for the first item)
Aaack – the price of success. Due to comments on the blog I was able to pick up my copy of WHITE HOT two days before it was officially out, but we just got the library copy and it lists 7/25 as the street date. I guess with the 5-star review from RT, Avon decided to restrict WILDFIRE.
I hope laundry & packing go smoothly and your trip does as well, and that you are able to get in some time to relax along the way. Thanks for the Reddit AMA link, I couldn’t figure out how to access the page yesterday to ask questions but today the transcript was up and I enjoyed it very much.
safe travels
My husband and I are retired, now, with one daughter living on each coast. So, we travel a bit. We go by car (trying to “empty-nest” our house by taking them all their childhood stuff, one carload at a time) so there are days spent in the car on every trip.
As a person who hates to sit still and a knitter, I would like to recommend that you try knitting socks for a travel project. The ones that I do are worked on #2 needles with sock yarn. They are as simple or complicated as I want. I can tailor the difficulty level to the length of time I need the knitting to last.
And the best part? The project fits into a largish purse so I don’t need to do more than keep an extra skein of yarn or more in my suitcase for when I am ready to move onto the next sock.
Oh they allow needles on the plane now?
Have fun. 🙂
Was written your posts and more details
Well, I hope your return schedule isn’t at hectic as your outbound. Safe travels, a minimum of the unexpected, lots of enjoyment from your fans (I know we are very delighted with everything you guys have done for us. And writing fabulous books as well. 😀 )
We just got back from camping with the dogs. A first for us. Went fairly well. Pretty much the same as with the kids: “Drop that!” “What have you got in your mouth?” Yuck!” “I don’t know what kind of bug that is. ” “Don’t eat it!” “Wait! Don’t shake yet!” (Okay, the last one did not happen with the kids.)
I’ve done about three loads of laundry to clear the deck for the camping stuff including all the doggy stuff that got a good helping of snow, water, dirt or all of the above.
It was both weird and wonderful to have all the snow and somewhat weird to see people with both skis and bikes loaded on their vehicles in mid-July. (I’ll ride my bike down the mountain while you’re skiing. Just don’t run into me. Deal?)
If I’m a really good girl and get all my chores done, I’ll see you in LA. Who am I kidding? Chores not withstanding, see you in LA. 😛
Someone asked in the AMA about the possibility of a short story about Catalina and Arabella going back to school after being becoming a house and recognized as primes. That would be nice, but honestly, I would buy any collection of short stories about the Baylor family. 🙂 Personally though, ever since the Wildfire snippets, I can’t help but imagine how Arabella’s magic manifested. With all the description/hints regarding her magic we’ve got so far, plus her personality, I can’t help but think this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZZflAEkba0
Or that moment in the Incredibles where Jack Jack was kidnapped by Syndrome and they were in flight and baby was so stressed he suddenly turned to Baby Torch, Baby Colossus, and then morphed into a monster in diapers! 🙂
Safe trip and have fun at SDCC dear AuthorLords!
Wildfire arrived here today in australia from UK 🙂 🙂 I love it 🙂 But there are surely more books to come 🙂
what??? – how???
I’m pea green right now. Have fun reading! Tuesday can’t come fast enough. 😀
While I was out this morning I went to my local Barnes and Noble store just to see what they had new out. They had White Hot facing out so anyone walking by would see the cover with Rogan and Nevada. I smiled when I saw While Hot. However, my eyes went right next to While Hot, and saw Wildfire. I couldn’t believe my eyes since I knew I wouldn’t get my Nook copy until Tuesday. The store had 3 copies, so I picked one copy up to make sure. Yep, it’s Wildfire! I was doing a happy dance on the inside while I looked around. I won’t spoil it for everyone. Squee!!!!!!!
I still have my Nook pre-order for Tuesday which I will not cancel. I, along with the rest of the BDH, want to make sure this series continues. Ilona mentioned that is due to how well the book sells. 😀
Your restraint on doing the happy dance on the inside is commendable. I wouldn’t have had the discipline. I already know I have nnooooo poker face. Happy reading!!!
What?! What happened to Earth that Australia is now several days ahead of the world? 🙂
An unexpected side effect of climate change?
Safe travels!!