See?

Blogger bonding! We met a pub called the Angelic.

Cutting a Torment cake at the Random House offices. And yes, those are a thousand signed Torments behind me.

Taking question at a Bury high school.

When in England, one must visit Selfridges

A few days holiday in Aberdeen was the perfect end to the tour.

Thanks to everyone who came out to see me on the road. It was wonderful to meet you, to hear what you love about the books, and please know I’ll keep your questions and comments in mind as I get to work revising Passion.

Stay tuned for more details about my upcoming trip to the Philippines, So Cal tour dates, and future stops across the south!

‘

Great crowd at B&N in Portland

Living it up in Memphis

Such a thrill to meet fav author Louis Sachar in Nashville

Posing with the wonderful staff at Chicago's Schaumburg Borders on the last night of the tour.

At the end of it all, I still have to wonder: Team Cam or Team Daniel?

Nine cities, three weeks, hundreds and hundreds of signed books, and way too many incredible connections with readers to even try to count. Coming home from my tour across the US, I’m grateful, humbled, thrilled, and excited about how many people I got to meet who have been touched in some way by the Fallen books. Huge thanks to everyone who turned out to spend an evening with me (and Luce! and Daniel!) These pictures are a glimpse but they cover only about 1% of the incredible time I had on the Torment Tour.

Happily, it isn’t over yet. Tomorrow I leave for the UK and am so excited to meet readers all over Great Britain. To prepare for the journey across the pond, Jason and I are going to see the Merry Wives of Windsor tonight, performed by a traveling company from London’s Globe Theatre. More pics, stories, and (jet-lagged) reflections soon!

TORMENT TOUR:

San Francisco:

Tuesday, September 28th–Barnes & Noble, El Cerrito, CA at 6:30 PM

(6050 El Cerrito Place)

Wednesday, September 29th–Kepler’s, 7pm

(1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, CA)

Seattle:
Thursday, September 30th–University Bookstore in Mill Creek at 6:30 PM

(15311 Main Street, Mill Creek, WA)
Friday, October 1st–Borders in Redmond, WA at 7pm

(16549 N.E. 74^th St. Redmond, WA)

Portland:
Saturday, October 2nd–Powell’s in Cedar Hills at 2:00 PM

(3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd, Beaverton OR)

AND Barnes & Noble in Clackamas, OR at 7:00 PM

(12000 SE 82^nd Avenue, Portland, OR)

Orange County, CA:

Sunday, October 3rd–Orange County Book Festival at 11:00 AM

(2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa, CA)

Atlanta:

Monday, October 4th–Barnes & Noble in Alpharetta, GA at 7:00 PM

(Mansell Crossings Shopping Center)

Tuesday, October 5th–Books-A-Million in Discover Mills at 7:00 PM

(5900 Sugarloaf Pkwy #321, Lawrenceville, GA)

Memphis:

Wednesday, October 6th–Davis-Kidd at 6:00 PM

(387 Perkins Road Ext, Memphis, TN)

Thursday, October 7th–Barnes and Noble at 7:00 PM

(2774 N Germantown Pkwy, Memphis, TN)

Nashville:

Friday, October 8th–Davis-Kidd at 4:00 PM

(212 Green Hills Village Drive, Nashville, TN)

Saturday, October 9th–Southern Festival of Books

(War Memorial Plaza, Nashville, TN)

New York:

Monday, October 11th–Barnes & Noble in Carle Place, NY at 7:00 PM

(91 Old Country Road, Carle Place, NY)

Tuesday, October 12th–Borders in Westbury, NY at 7:00 PM

(1260 Old Country Road, Westbury, NY)

Chicago:

Wednesday, October 13th–Anderson’s in Naperville, IL at 7:00 PM

(123 West Jefferson Avenue, Naperville IL)

Thursday, October 14th–Borders in Schaumburg, IL at 7:00 PM

(1540 Golf Road Schaumburg, IL 60173)

I’ve been hard at work on the first draft of Passion. It’s third book in the Fallen series, and a prequel to everything that occurs in Fallen and in Torment. In its conception, this book felt like an impossible project to me: It covers a span of 5000 plus years, dips into a new setting, a new country, and usually, a new century with each new chapter. And it aims to explain just about every important moment that ever passed between Luce and Daniel. Definitely the biggest narrative challenge I’ve ever given myself.

I was nervous before I started writing it. I’d had such a great, fun, charmed experience writing Torment, but I know this book was going to be much more complicated, much more taxing. Just as I did when I started writing Fallen, I turned to books for help. Only this time, in addition to the theological research books I used for Fallen, I also got to look at some of my favorite novels for help with period and setting. Recognize any of these?

Everything a writer reads, loves, and is inspired by eventually sneaks its way into his or her own work, but it isn’t so often that a writer gets to say the books truly become a part of the story. I turned to North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, and A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway. I read books about horse racing, books about the Globe Theater in London, books about the Mayan ball court at Chitzen Itza. If this sounds crazy and disjointed, believe me, there were moments when I felt precisely the same way. But the cool thing about this book, I think, is that Luce and Daniel’s story stays clear and solid across time, place, and history. It’s a survivor.

I still have a long way to go with this book. The first draft is a skeleton compared to all that will be fleshed out by the time the second and third and, cringe, sometimes even fourth drafts are completed. But the book has a shape and a backbone now, thanks in big part to all these texts I had so much fun weaving in.

My computer and I are going to take a break from each other. Just for a little while. This weekend, I’m running a half-marathon in memory of my grandfather. I’m running with a group called Team in Training to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. (To those of you who took part in my auction: you helped raise over $2300!)

After that, I’m heading to Berlin for a week for my publisher’s 175th Anniversary Gala. And then—the moment we’ve all been waiting for—Torment comes out on 9/28!!! And I start touring across the US and the UK. Those of you who live near one of the cities I’ll be visiting, I hope you’ll come out and say hello!

Check out the newly revamped website.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Part Two:

Part Three:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Courtesy of Random House Australia

For the past three months I have been training for a half-marathon with a group called Team in Training. Team in Training is a philanthropic organization that raises funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Leukemia causes more deaths than any other cancer among children and young adults under the age of 20 and is the number 1 cancer in senior citizens.

I was personally touched by the disease last year, when my grandfather lost his battle with leukemia. So now, along with my Team in Training running group, I am racing to raise money to help battle blood cancers.

By September 5th, the day of the half marathon (in Disneyland!), my goal is to raise over $2000 to go toward finding new treatments and eventually a cure for this devastating disease.

So what does this have to do with you, you ask? I have forty copies of my books (including some various fun editions, like a lush mass market paperback of Fallen from the UK, the audio book, a couple Spanish and Italian versions, and even a few advance copies of Torment!) that I will be auctioning off to the first forty people who make a donation (of $10 or more) through my Team in Training website. I will sign, personalize, and send a special thank you note with the book to anyone who helps me support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

You can visit my fundraising website here and make a secure online donation on the right hand side of the page. I’ll get an email notification when you do, and as long as you include your email and mailing address when you fill out the donation, I’ll have all the information I need to send you your personalized book. I will email you before I send your book to check whether you have special dedication wishes, or if you can read, say, Chinese and want that edition! I have no idea how many of you will be interested in this, but if we exceed the forty books I’m starting with, I’ll update my blog and maybe increase the quantity. (That would be incredible!)

These can be yours!

I know that many of you and the people you love have also been touched by some form of cancer, and it feels wonderful to know there are great organizations out there like Team in Training and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society that allow all of us to get involved–even in a small way–to save lives.

Do I look like a girl who is about to run 13.1 miles?

I had a really nice signing after the panel:

I saw some amazing costumes, including a few that I was too stunned by to even photograph. One was made of only a strap of red patent leather fabric about an inch thick.

And after the con, we had a great time in San Diego. We stayed near Ocean Beach and walked all around the neighborhood, eating many fish tacos and watching Milo take his first brave dip in the ocean.

Great weekend! Now it’s back to writing PASSION….

At my signing. Thanks, Lacey, for the pic.

This year, being on the author side was so much fun. I loved spending time with my team at Delacorte and loooved hearing all about their brilliant plans for Torment’s release in a few months. I got to meet my British, Australian, and even Croatian publishers and talk about plans to visit both the UK and Australia/New Zealand over the next year. I got to see Susanne Collins accept an award from the American Booksellers Association—and had to hold myself back from tackling her and telling her how much I love her books. I sat down with my agents to talk about plans for the next book after Torment (hard to believe I’ll start writing that in a few weeks!).

I even did a literary “speed-dating” event. Now, I’ve proctored speed-dating events during my days as a waitress and, at least at the restaurant where I worked, speed-dating usually shook out to be a bunch of pretty ladies showing up to meet a bunch of not so pretty dudes and everyone went home looking lonely. Not the case at BEA! Our speed-dating meant that I sat at a table with my lovely editor, Wendy, and every three minutes, a new group of independent booksellers and librarians would come over for a chat. In an hour and a half, I got the chance to talk to about a hundred and fifty people. My head was sort of spinning and my jaw hurt from smiling, but it was an incredible feeling. I reconnected with a few booksellers that I met on tour for Fallen last year, but I also got to chat with so many booksellers from places I have never been—and now hope to be able to visit their stores.

The trip was as rejuvenating as it was exhausting. I’m back home now feeling ready to write and even more excited to hit the road in September for the Torment tour. Details to come on dates and places for that tour, so check back in a few weeks.

And, oh yeah, I won an award! (Hard to photograph, but very exciting.)