I'm back!

Did you miss me? I missed you. Yes, especially you - the guy in the back row with the Buddy Holly glasses and the fake vampire teeth.

Those are fake, right?

We got home about 8-ish last night, there's no food in the house, and I'm feeling the very special lethargy that accompanies an 8-hour car trip home from a week's vacation and the desire to sleep in when you know Real Life awaits. There is unpacking, laundry, groceries - oh, yeah, and book "stuff" to do.

So here's a quick snapshot before I start separating the whites from the colors:

1. New column - if you want to know more about the book launch party, check out my column in the Placentia News-Times. The fun thing about being a columnist is that, if you're any good, you get a following. The bad thing is that, when I asked my editor for press coverage, she sent... me. "Since you're already going to be there, can you just cover it in your column?" Sure.

2. Guest blogging - Please do check out the I Love Dino Martin blog today. Mr. Dino Martin Peters (may I call you Pallie, DMP?) allowed me to blather on about why my character, Benny Needles, loves Dean Martin so much. Mr. Peters is being an absolute darling about promoting Freezer Burn on his site, and I'm insanely happy that he loved the book. He even reviewed it on his blog here.

3. Vacation ops - while I was up in the mountains, I wasn't just resting on my laurels. I contacted three bookstores about ordering my book and having me come back to do a meet 'n' greet. High Sierra Books bought three copies I had with me, and I gave Epilog Books and The Book Haven complimentary copies for their review. I figure, if the store owner reads it and likes it, she'll want to stock it, yes? All three stores were very positive and I now have to plan a trip back for early fall. Yes, they are small stores, but I'm going to try for the larger cities in the (Sacramento) area as well.

4. Reviews - In addition to Mr. Peters' lovely review, I actually have a (positive) review on Amazon, which is good to see. I've also had two reviews by local Placentia residents, who had this to say:

"Watch out Travis McGee and Kinsey Millhone, Peri Minneopa of Placentia is about to knock your socks off with her gum shoe skills. She may be 50, but it is a young 50, thank you. Her latest adventure was a fast, fun read. The reader picked it up at 11am today and only put it down when interrupted to take care of visitors and do the manly Sunday meat preparation thing. He finished at the sound of D-Land fireworks at 9:30. He normally watches the PBS mystery at 9:00 with his wife, but tonight it was pre-empted by a do-wop program, allowing him to finish before bed. He is anxiously awaiting the next adventure. He did make the mistake of telling his lovely wife that Peri was having lunch at Zov's. Ooo, we haven't been there in a while, she cooed. Thanks Peri, that'll cost you.
"I really enjoyed Freezer Burn. I really felt you did a fine job of developing the characters. I liked the character Benny, a kind of creepy Peter Lorie type as I visualized him. Peri seemed a stretch at first - a 50 something in a new career, but I see a character similar to Ambulance Girl, a book made into a movie. Kathy Bates played a true to life character who becomes an EMT. Skip gets a little too close, but manages to keep his distance and maintain most of his professional distance, sometimes. It was fun to read and identify Placentia places and streets."

-Warren and Claudine Emens

"I took Freezer Burn over to my Dad last Saturday at 8:30am since he's a faster reader than I am and has no problem foregoing laundry and dishes to sit and read -- I think I need to be more like him. Anyway, he called me at 1:30pm on Saturday and said he finished your book and really liked it. He wants to know when your next book is coming out!"

-Colleen Neidiger

Okay, peeps, I got so much stuff to do and so little energy to do it, I'm off to find my motivation. Is there such a thing as a vacation hangover?