Author: claudia

Packed clothes: check
Packed incredibly bulky hiking gear: check
Packed books: check
Packed iPod: check
Packed recharger for iPod … Uhoh.
Arranged only flights that were not insanely expensive, even though they were at crazy times: check
Arranged to stay at airport hotels night before and night after, because still cheaper than other flights or cabs: check
Hauled heavy bags on subway to go to work in pouring rain: check
Found out that hike is off and bulky hiking gear is in suitcase to no purpose: check
Hoping against hope that flights will go smoothly tomorrow: check

Everybody send good vibes for the voyage, okay? And have a great Thanksgiving!

The single greatest element of Twilight‘s box office success this weekend:

“Teen girls rule the earth,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers. “If you look back at the `Hannah Montana’ movie, how well that did, and now this movie, the teen girl audience will never be ignored again or underestimated. It was always teen boys who were the coveted ones, but someone finally caught on to the idea that girls love movies, too, and if you create something that they’re into, that they’re passionate about, they will come out in big numbers and drive the box office.”

This was the biggest opening weekend ever for a female director, for an adaptation of a book written by a woman, for young women, with a young woman as the main character. Here’s hoping the teen girl audience — and the whole female audience — really will never be ignored again.

Thanks to counteragent for the links!

.. though you could be forgiven for thinking so, after the incredibly long time I’ve gone without blogging. I got so incredibly behind on answering my reader mail that I kept thinking, Right, I’ve got to get all that done FIRST THING, and I’d get part of the way there and then get busy again, and .. well, you know the drill. And I am still not caught up on the reader mail! Though I am much closer. And will get done this weekend. Or else.

Anyway, things have been predictably mad on this front, but I do have a few goodies to offer: if you check out the website‘s main page, you’ll see that (a) there is an excerpt from Stargazer now available for your reading pleasure, and (b) a link to the Pitch Black tour website! The tour is over, but the website fun remains, including a quiz that will tell you which Evernight character you are.

This weekend, it is going to be cold and rainy. Perfect excuse to spend the whole time inside writing and drinking cocoa, right?

We are home at last from the Pitch Black tour, which was an exhausting and wonderful experience. Every single event went just wonderfully, and it was so much fun meeting so many of you! I now think I can recite my chosen reading from Evernight (i.e., the sequence where Erich is after Raquel in the woods) by heart, or close to it. As much fun as I had, though, I am tremendously happy to be home at last.

It’s Halloween, which means it’s time to announce the winner of the Immortal contest! This contest’s winner came from MySpace: Congrats to Patricia! I chose the winner at random from all the entries, but her answer amused me, so I am reproducing it here: When little kids dress like old ladies, heh. Because, you know, that IS fun.

I hope I get to see some costumes when I head out of here in about half an hour; I am too pooped for serious Halloween partying, but a friend and I are hosting some scary-movie-watching and wig-wearing hijinks at her place downtown. So I am about to get my Sydney Bristow on and hit the subway. I think I remember how to use the subway. Or have I gotten used to cars again? Will report.

We’re in Southern California in a beachside hotel, with a balcony and a view and everything. I could almost believe that being an author is glamorous — if I hadn’t been lumping my bags through the Boston airport at OMGearly this morning. However, I am having a lot of fun on the tour, especially getting to meet so many of you. And I haven’t dropped dead of fright during even one of the readings so far! (You might well ask how I could possibly do this more than once, but given that these are vampire books we’re talking about, and it is the week of Halloween, let’s not make any rash assumptions about death being a one-time thing.)

It’s time for me to get ready for the Huntington Beach reading tonight, and then Redmond is tomorrow. It’s all rushing by so quickly! But I hope I get to meet more of you soon.

\

OK, I’m mostly packed and sort of ready to go — no, not back to South America, though you know I’m already dreaming about that. What I mean is that tomorrow is the first day of the PITCH BLACK TOUR! I will be hitting the road with fellow vamp scribes Nancy Collins (Vamps) and Ellen Schreiber (Vampire Kisses) for a whirlwind five-city, six-day tour.

Just to refresh y’all’s memories about the dates, places and times:

Pitch Black Tour Dates

Saturday, Oct. 25: 2 p.m. at Anderson’s Bookshop in NAPERVILLE, IL

Wednesday, Oct. 29: 6:30 p.m. at Borders in REDMOND, WA

Please come out if you can! I would love to meet any and all of you. We’ll have trivia contests, readings, Q&A time and goody bags.

Should I survive to the end of the tour, I’ll return to New York City just in time for Halloween. This, plus the discovery of one last copy of Immortal: Love Stories With Bite, has inspired me to hold another contest.

Tell me your favorite Halloween costume!

Yep, that’s it. You can comment here or at my MySpace page, or email me through the website. (Please include your name and a contact email when you do so!) One winner will be chosen at random on Halloween, and that lucky person will win this very last copy of Immortal, the romantic vampire anthology so awesome NO ONE could find it in stores.

ETA: I knew I was forgetting something! Check out the claudiagray.com website, in particular the extras page; there you will find new wallpapers and icons, some of which are ever-so-slightly spoilery for Stargazer. For fans who have read the book in Spanish or Catalan, you’ll see a few downloads with some slightly more familiar cover art. Hope you guys like!

Sorry this has taken me so long to post — I returned last week, but was promptly felled by an after-vacation cold, and then Flickr behaved very oddly the first, oh, five or six times I tried to upload photos. But they’re uploaded now (mostly — I’m at the monthly limit) and the post can begin!

Hi, guys! I am sitting in an internet cafe in Buenos Aires, killing a few minutes until the restaurants open (they start late here!) I am having the most wonderful time in South America. You are not going to believe the massive picspam you´ll see once I get back next week. My internet time is limited and brief, so there are a number of you who have written or friended me or something — I apologize for responding late and will see to everything when I return.

One bit of good news: We have sold the French rights to EVERNIGHT! I´ll let you guys know more about French-language publication plans before too long.

I haven’t blogged in a while now, mostly due to extreme naughtiness — not of the “Girls Gone Wild” variety, but more like “OMG, I am so busy, and how am I ever going to leave for vacation at this rate?”

Well, I’m still insanely busy, but I am still leaving for vacation today, so let me just hit the highlights:

* My hiking guide has had some surgery but is apparently okay and hopes to be leading hikes again in November. Yay!

* I have turned the final-final revisions of HOURGLASS in to my editor. Yay!

* I forgot my luggage locks at home! Boo.

* Otherwise, I appear to be compactly and completely packed for my South American trip, which begins tonight. Yay!

* The very cool people at TeachingBooks.net have a feature about author name pronunciation, and they invited me to take part. Now, I figure most of you understand how to pronounce “Claudia Gray,” which isn’t exactly a tongue-twister. But if you are curious to hear me chatting about the name for a while, you can check out the link here.

OK, I think that’s about it. I’m flying out this evening, so wish me luck with flights, transfers, all of that. Pictures when I return!

Sorry I’m posting this later today, guys — I had a big project to work on this morning, but I’ve finally got a couple of seconds to announce that the winners of the Immortal anthology giveaway are: Amy K., Lauren T. and the enigmatic speed reader! Congratulations, guys! I will be e-mailing all of you today to find out where to send your signed copies.

Thanks to absolutely everyone who entered. Seeing which Evernight lines were your favorites taught me a lot — plus, it was a lot of fun.

Still no word on Fearless Leader after yesterday’s hiking drama; I hope our club will receive an e-mail update before too much longer.