New covers, BEA, and other random thoughts

I'm taking my maiden voyage on our grads blog today. I owe a big "thanks" to all my 2k9 classmates who've kept this going since the calendar rolled on into 2010. I've mostly been keeping my nose to the grindstone on several writing and nonwriting related tasks and slacking in the virtual community-love department. Consequently, I missed my first post and was determined to get this one in and on time.

So, my editor's been gracing my in-box with a couple of surprises and an invitation. Surprise 1: B&N decided to carry The Secrets of the Cheese Syndicate in select stores. YAY! I was thrilled because my tiny, independent publisher doesn't have the marketing resources of the big boys and my distribution has been somewhat limited.

Invitation: Would I come to BEA and sign books at the distributor's booth? YOU BET! I've never been to the big apple and how could I possibly say no? Most of my 2k9 classmates went to BEA last year but my book was coming out in the latter portion of the calendar year, with the small publisher, so I passed.

A few weeks passed and VOILA! surprise #2 makes its way to my in-box: my editor has an illustrator redesigning my cover in anticipation of the sequel, so we can get a more uniform look to what will (hopefully) be a series. I've got three good stories with these characters, at least. I can't say much past that. So now I'm pumped to get the revision work finished on the sequel, which we're currently calling The Manticore's Revenge.

Currently, however, I'm being distracted by making a top ten list of things to do in NYC and at BEA. Help me out here, guys. If you've been to either of these strings of letters, tell me what I must ABSOLUTELY do. This wide-eyed southern girl wants to pack in as much as possible while she's there!

Peace
Donna St. Cyr