I was in Ohio this past week visiting family and friends, but writerly type vacations look like this:

While I was gone, Evernight Teen marked down all of its Amazon Kindle editions to 99 cents, including SHRAPNEL. After an 18-hour drive with hubby and two small kiddos, I was pretty damn excited to see this!:

YEAH, BABY! The price has gone back up, but it was cool to see my little book go up the charts to #11.

Earlier in the day, I had been exploring the tiny village where hubby’s grandparents live on Beaver Creek. It’s the inspiration for the creek that runs through the Wilson farm in SHELF LIFE. Check it:

I was in heaven, and also managed to get a sunburn. Ignore the constipated look on my face. This is actually my “Can I stay here forever?” look:

Monday we took the kiddos to Pittsburgh to ride the Duquesne Incline. What’s an incline? It’s that red thing below that takes you up and down an incredibly steep hill, kinda like a vertical trolley:

BUT! The coolest part of the day was meeting fellow Inkspell Publishing author Stephanie Keyes for lunch at Station Square! And you know what? She’s even more awesome and sweet in person than she is online. She may also have spilled a little about her current WIP … (my lips are sealed!)

Look at those beautiful covers by Najla Qamber!

Thursday I did a book signing at the library in my hometown. It was great to reconnect with some friends and family, but I neglected to snap any pix. Oops. 😦

HOWEVER, while in northeast Ohio, I did talk to my dentist about how to hand-milk a cow (you read that correctly) and managed to snap some inspirational photos for SHELF LIFE.

Yes, these signs exist:

It looks like these chickens are doing the nasty, but I swear they weren’t:

This is a personal favorite. Don’t those clouds just scream, “FORESHADOWING!”?:

And one final photo that I *may* have staged, but it’s a tiny teaser for SHELF LIFE:

Awwww! If you’ve read the synopsis, you probably know that “PW” stands for Pete Wilson, the main character, and “LL” is Lindsey Linger. Young love is so sweet, and I SO enjoy torturing the hell out of them! 🙂

My kiddos go back to school this week, so I’ll be reentering the writing cave soon, but I’d love to know, where did you vacation this summer?