4 Days of Lip-Gloss

While I freely admit that just about every week feels as though it's somehow slipped past me--this week in particular seemed to contain a few less hours than any week that ever came before.

Maybe it's because EVERMORE comes out in less than a handful of days--next Tuesday in fact! Squeeeee!! A moment I've anticipated for a very long time!

Or maybe it's because it was a week that required me to actually get dressed and put on lip-gloss, when I'm much more used to staying inside, hunched over my computer, clad in one of three rotating sets of sweats and slippers, with no hint of make-up anywhere on my face.

It all started on Monday, when I met the amazingly talented Jen Rosenstein for a photo shoot. The Orange County glossy, Orange Coast magazine, is featuring a small piece on me in the March issue, in the Trade Secrets section, and they hired Jen for the shoot. If you didn't click through on the orange link provided above, you might want to do so now. If for no other reason than to see that I did not exaggerate when I referred to her as "amazingly talented." Seriously. Jen's the real deal. A true artist who's used to shooting rock stars, celebrities, and her own, uber cool, still lifes. She has gallery shows, does a ton of advertising/editorial work, even has a book on her work, and yet she was so nice, so cool, so down to earth, and so fun to be with, I had a complete and total blast!  We met at Laguna Beach High School and set up shop in the girl's locker room, and when the Freshman girls soccer team stopped in, we included them as well!  And to say they were adorable, cute and nice, is putting it mildly. They were so awesome that the moment we were done I gave them each a signed copy of one of my books!

And then when I returned home, (back to my normal life where no one ever takes the time to properly light and/or pose me), I saw that the new EVERMORE/BLUE MOON bookmarks had arrived and they're bee-yu-ti-ful if I do say so myself!! I would totally take a picture to prove it, but since I'm nowhere as talented as Jen Rosenstein, and since I'm also in an undisclosed location with no camera on hand, you'll just have to take my word for it! But if you'd like your own bookmarks, along with a signed bookplate or two, you know the drill, just send an SASE to:

Alyson Noel

14 Monarch Bay Plaza, #186

Monarch Beach, CA 92629

And I'll get them right out to you (while supplies last of course!)

Which brings me to Tuesday, when I  picked up hubby from airport--an errand that definitely requires lip-gloss--and proceeded to go out to dinner where I ran into an old high school friend, which only made me doubly glad I'd worn it--if not for my hubby, then for the old friend!

Then on Wednesday, more clothes and lip-gloss were required when I was interviewed for my local Laguna Beach paper, THE LAGUNA BEACH INDEPENDENT, for a piece that will run very soon. Well, the interviewer, Dinah, was so nice, and so interesting, (yes, I snuck in a little interviewing of my own!), we actually sat there, talking on a couch in my local Starbucks, for 5 hours. Yes. You read that right. FIVE. That's what happens when I'm face to face with a true book lover! Just ask poor Jessica Brody about her first lunch with me! (Though the food poisoning that ensued was so not my fault--I only chose the restaurant--I didn't prepare the meals!)

And Thursday? More lip-gloss. Because even though you'd think that picking up my poor car from the body shop wouldn't necessarily require any lip-gloss wearing, this time it did. I wanted to look good for my car, pay it the proper respect so to speak. Since, apparently, what I had earlier brushed off as a minor fender bender, turned out to be not quite so minor after all. So after many days of fixing, buffing, and whatever else they do to make serious dents disappear, and after many $$$$ paid by my insurance company, it's now sporting a shiny new bumper and grill, and looks and runs like brand new!

And then, once I returned home and got my car safely ensconced in my garage, I learned that the foreign rights to my YA titles--FAKING 19, ART GEEKS AND PROM QUEENS, and KISS & BLOG have sold to Hungary, Romania, and Vietnam!!  How cool is that?  I can't wait to check out the covers!

And speaking of EVERMORE, (okay, I realize we weren't but that's the best I could do on the whole segue thing), it's spent the last week in the top 100 YA Sci-fi books on Amazon.com!! Oh, and some really great reviews are starting to roll in (you can see them all by scrolling down on the right) including these most recent ones:

“Lots of people seem to be comparing this book with Twilight* and the House of Night series. In terms of quality, I have to agree. The first person storytelling in Evermore, is intimate and emotional. Ever's voice is realistic; all of her reactions as a grieving teenager make sense. Many times, in YA novels, authors make little blunders portraying teenagers. I have to say that Alyson Noel manages to do it pretty darn well, if not perfectly. . .
And I definitely can't wait till the second book in the Immortals series comes out...
Anyways, this is a book that deserves to be added to your bookshelf. So go on your favorite book purchasing site and add this one to your shopping cart now. You won't regret it.” - Reader Rabbit


“Evermore was a great way to lighten my reading load this winter and provided me with a creative, magical story that I really enjoyed. This is the first in a series for Noel and I think she may have a hit on her hands . . . Evermore has good and evil, likable characters, vivid descriptions and a good story.”- Planet Books

And for those of you who pick up your copies next week when it comes out, you'll be among the first to see the cover for the next book in the series, BLUE MOON!  You'll also get to read an excerpt of chapter one, since the good people at St. Martin's Press kindly included that in the back of the book!!

And speaking of BLUE MOON, (and that is how a true segue works!) the final copy-edits are here, and they're due next week!  (gasp!) Which means my busy glamorous lip-glossing wearing week has officially come to an end. I've even moved myself to a remote location where I can get some work done!

But before I hunker down, I want to urge you all to head over to TeensRead to vote for your top five YA books of the year!  And while I'm completely honored that CRUEL SUMMER was nominated for BEST BOOKS OF 2008, this is so not a shameless plug for your vote!  Though I am urging you to take part--there's a lot of great titles on the list--and I'm sure you've read your share of them! But hurry, tomorrow is the very last day! All you have to do is click HERE!

Okay, that's it for me! 

So now it's your turn to tell me which activities you deem lip-gloss worthy???