ciao!

Hey friends! I hope you're warm and happy and eating lots of cookies on this snowy day. Speaking of the sparkly stuff, it finally snowed a bit in my neck of the woods. I finally feel LEGIT as far as 2014's beastly weather is concerned. (Even though, ahem, it's not quite as deep as what many of you are experiencing.)

I'm about to hide myself away in the Cave of Solicitude for a few weeks to write my brains out (...does that sound gross?). I'm definitely going to blog more about some of the booksellers and librarians I met last week, because they were so fun and inspiring.

(I'm here to tell you, folks, ain't nobody knows how to party like book people do.)

But just in case I'm MIA for a bit, I wanted to share this lovely cover with you.

While I was in Seattle, Kathleen Ortiz was kind enough to push her busy agent-ly duties aside and meet me for brunch. She's lovely and fun and made me laugh heaps.

My smile is darn near goofy in this picture, but I'd just eaten a hazelnut waffle that was heavenly. And I  got to meet Kathleen. And I was about to visit swank bookstores and see THE Freemont Troll. I couldn't control my happy.

(I would like to point out that the lady at the front desk who took our picture said, "Turn this way so I can get the word 'concierge' in the photo." Mmmkay.)

Kathleen and I decided, over breakfast, that my next novel should be about magical bacon. Or waffles, maybe. I think Suzie's down with that.

Suzie Townsend, the avenger in high heels, is my agent, btw. Kathleen is an agent at New Leaf as well, and she handles all the foreign rights there. She's the reason A Snicker of Magic will be available in Italy, Germany and France soon. She showed me the Italian cover while I was in Seattle, and gave me the green light to share it. Behold the adorableness:

I'm so blessed to work with such wonderful people, and grateful to Kathleen, her co-agent, and the publishing team at Sperling & Kupfer for giving Felicity and Jonah an adventure in Italy. As I've said before, I think the Pickles will dig it there. (Magical gelato, perhaps? ... ;)

Let me know what you're reading during these dark and snowy winter days! Once I'm through this draft, I plan to joyously devour my lovely, leaning tower of TBR ...