Whew!
Spent the weekend in New York, courtesy of Dial books, who flew me up to do a little media training in prep for a book tour later in the year. (I am apparently doing a book tour this fall!) I’ve never been to NYC before, and brought Kevin along to keep me from getting lost or being eaten by wolves. (He used to live in Queens.)
It was pretty awesome. I don’t think I could live there, but still some amazing stuff to see. We went to the natural history museum (greatest thing ever!) and then the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Probably we shouldn’t have tried to do both of those in one day, as I spent the rest of the weekend with feet like hamburger, but it was still worth it!
Our hotel room was approximately the size of a shoe box and it was WHITE. White walls, white marble, white furniture, white curtains. And blue carpet, which only made everything whiter. It was a sort of 70′s vision of the future, ala Sleeper. Great bathtub, though.
The food was amazing. (The cost of drinks was…equally amazing, although not in a good way.) We hit a couple of the required tourist spots. We went on the subway and were smooshed in crowds. Crazy people yelled obscenities at us. (I am told that this is all part of the authentic NYC experience.) We did some recreational shopping. I bought a beaver skull.
It was particularly awesome to meet my editor at long last–eight years we’ve been working together!–and my art director, who does all the Dragonbreath layouts, and the whole crew at Dial who make it all happen. (The number of people required to make a children’s book as absurdly successful as Dragonbreath will fit into a conference room with free muffins, but only barely!) I got to meet all the people in marketing who handle the Dragonbreath account and the salespeople who sell to Barnes & Noble and Amazon and the indie bookstores. A couple of Penguin VIPs even showed up to say hello and to get books signed, so that was pretty awesome too.
All in all, great trip. I’d love to go back, since there’s so much more in NYC to see, but I was glad to get home to Ben and the beagle (one of whom is sleeping and one of whom is currently clawing at a plastic bag to try and get my attention.)
Originally published at Tea with the Squash God. You can comment here or there.
And this is why I love your posts. You always bring the whimsy and I am damn glad of it!
Thank you.
the mind boggles.
I almost blew the bank on a cave bear skull.
Fall will be a perfectly fine time to be back! Long Island seafood will be doing great, and the farmer's markets will still be in force at Union Square (if you have time for such things).
And do birds in zoos count for life lists? Because, dude, Bronx Zoo. (Yes this may constitute an all-day affair, but you can totally get two of the smaller zoos [NY Aquarium, Central Park Zoo, Prospect Park/Brooklyn Zoo, and Queens Zoo] knocked out in a day with time to spare. :D )
Any projected dates for the tour yet?
Somewhat off-topic
Re: Somewhat off-topic
A couple of VIP penguins ...
Thing is, in one of your posts, this would be *normal*.
See any interesting birds?
If I can steal 15 minutes away, I hope to see Colleen AF Venable at First Second Press.
Of course, it's cheaper to rent by the month... http://theworstroom.tumblr.com/
Shakatany
Plenty of fine museums in Boston and environs to see. Not to mention all the tourist traps. If you are into machinery, the transportation museum is worth it. Art has the Isabella Stuart Gardner museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, conveniently located across the street from each other. The glass flowers exhibit at harvard University is mind-bogglingly amazing. At harvard medical school, in the library is the medical oddities exhibit. Not a museum per say, but it has the skull of a man who had a iron bar blown through his brain, and survived many years to tell the story. (the iron bar is there too. )
For arms and armor, the Higgens Armory Museum in Worcester has the best collection of medieval arms and armor in north america. (It is closing in december, worth the trip. ) While in Worcester, the Worcester Art Museum is also worth a visit. There is harvard Square, which is an experience by itself. A summer weekend when the weather is nice will show you all kinds of odd street performers doing, umm.. stuff. ranting street preachers, the player piano folks, jugglers, beggars and more. The oddball little shops that gave harvard square a lot of it's personality are being priced out by national chain stores with deeper pockets, but many are still around.
The MIT museum is full of techy goodness. The masonic museum is in lexington, about half an hours drive out, and has an interesting interpretation of american history.
-- Tennessee Williams