Earlier this month I asked Twitter to choose a day for the next Day in the Life blog post, and you guys picked July 23, which happened to be a travel / event day. Let’s see what happened . . .

 6:00a.m.: My husband and I try to maintain some sort of normal routine even on days when we travel, so—wake up! Coffee! Check all the social networks and answer a bunch of emails. Schedule some tweets about tomorrow’s Comic-Con panel and signing.

I take a few extra minutes to read through the newest Publisher’s Weekly newsletter and am excited to see Becoming Jinn by Lori Goldstein mentioned in their Spring 2015 Children’s Sneak Previews column. I’m really looking forward to this book!

7:30: Get dressed and finish packing. Make sure the house is all in order for our house/cat-sitter.

8:30: What a laid-back morning! With 30 minutes to kill I think, I should probably start filling in some research holes in my historical anthology short story . . . but instead I end up reviewing my baby stuff shopping list and organizing the someday-nursery. Hashtag slacker.

9:00: To the airport!

9:40: We’re minutes away from the airport when it occurs to me that I packed the exact same outfit to wear to Comic-Con that I wore last year to Comic-Con. Well, drat. I do a quick search on our hotel and am relieved that it’s close to a huge shopping center—there goes my plan for a relaxing afternoon spent reading in the hotel!

11:30-2:00: Airports and planes. I’m FINALLY reading Laini Taylor’s Days of Blood and Starlight and wish the flight was a whole lot longer. So. Incredibly. Good.

2:15: Holy cow, L.A., why must you be so hot? Feel like I’m melting as soon as we step off the plane. We take a cab to the hotel.

3:00: I do my hair and make-up in preparation for tonight’s event: the epic Fierce Reads Summer Block Party!  I’m excited to see my tour buddies again.

4:00: Time to go find a new dress to wear tomorrow. We walk over to The Grove shopping center, and discover . . . police. And crowds. And the road is completely blocked off. Turns out Obama is in town! Unable to get to the shopping center even though it’s right there, we detour into a Ross instead. I find a couple of dresses and even my husband picks out some new shorts. Bargain shopping FTW.

5:30: The President and his entourage have come and gone, so we make our way into The Grove’s Barnes & Noble. Having only noshed on a couple of Kind bars on the flight, we grab a quick snack from the café.

6:15: All of the authors and publicists have arrived! We head to the back room to be interviewed by blogger Kate Bond of The Midnight Garden. Easily distracted, we also notice a bowl of star stickers sitting on the table. These quickly become facial decorations.

You’ll soon be able to read Kate’s interview here: http://www.themidnightgarden.net/.

7:00: The event begins, starring Fierce Reads authors Leigh Bardugo, Anna Banks, Ann Aguirre, and myself, moderated by Brutal Youth author Anthony Breznican. It’s a great panel with lots of laughter. I missed these girls!

We have an awesome crowd and the signing line goes on and on (a fantastic problem to have), and it’s great to see many familiar faces from previous SoCal events. Thanks so much to everyone who came out to see us!

With Shayla, an artistic fan who sewed her own Scarlet cloak!

One fan’s amazing Lunar Chronicles nails!

10:30: Whew, everyone has gone home! We gather up our stuff and laugh at the fact that we’re all still wearing our star stickers. We head next door to the Cheesecake Factory for a late dinner.

Just past midnight: Take a cab back to the hotel, wash off my makeup, and fall into a very fast sleep. Not looking forward to our 6:00 a.m. alarm, but definitely excited to head down to Comic-Con in the morning!

. . . zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz . . .