I got some new tour dates in my schedule - August 17 at Queen Anne Books in Seattle and July 16 at Books, Inc. in Mountain View.

I’m especially excited about the Mountain View gig since I grew up in the south Bay Area, and this makes it easy for people there to come see me. The Queen Anne event will be fun too since it’s in my neighborhood and is attached to the coffeeshop that I hang out at all the time, called El Diablo. Who knows if anyone will come, since most of my friends have been out to see me already, but even if a few people show up, it’s worth it to me.

The small readings are actually very intimate and relaxed. At least I’m more relaxed. I started to hyperventilate at my U. Bookstore appearance (perhaps because my therapist was in attendance and was sitting next to my boyfriend ex-boyfriend, who was drinking tequila out of a juice bottle, but anyway, I got through it and even appeared to be in control (except that I was talking too fast).

In general, I love doing readings. Live TV is fairly nervewracking, although I aced my three-minutes of fame in Portland, on Fox’ “More Good Day Oregon.” The news directory came up to me afterwards and said, “That was good TV!” I was so proud. Plus, for the teaser, they kept showing my author photo over and over so I guess I can die happy now.

Actually I’m lucky to be alive at this very moment because as of 10:30 p.m. last night, I was wandering around lost with a bunch of people in the forest at the base of Mt. Adams (one of Washington’s biggest volcanoes), without much food, very little water. Thanks to my friend Josh, however, who is a rock star with his altimeter and map reading skills, we got out without having to make an emergency camp - in fact, we came out a few hundred yards from the car after bushwacking through the forest for an hour! - I might live to write another novel one day.

So my novel is out there in the big, wide world. It is unbearably exciting. (At least when I’ve gotten enough sleep. When I haven’t, I’m grumpy and tense and certain that everything is about to go horribly awry.) This last couple weeks have been great because readers who’ve gotten early copies of the book have written to tell me how much they love it.

These are people who’ve been reading my blog and have been waiting a long time for this book, and I am so GLAD that they like it. It’s for them I wrote it, really.

I’ve been posting a lot over at Breakup Babe, so there is a little more excitement to be had there right now.