House Cleaning

I'm cleaning out my inbox.  It's amazing just how many emails can lurk below what I can see on my computer screen.  I think they hide there, hoping I'd forget about them ;>  I've long since given up my goal of being "caught up" with all my email replies.  Now, if I'm only a week or two behind, I'm feeling pretty good.

As with all house cleaning, I've been finding a few items of interest that I've posted below.

Links:

I'm participating in Brenda Novak's Annual Online Auction for Diabetes Research - I've donated a set of Australian Study books that you can bid on and raise money for diabetes (I'll personalize them and sign them for the winning bidder :). Here's a link to the auction (lots of goodies to bid on): http://brendanovak.auctionanything.com/ and a link to my books: http://brendanovak.auctionanything.com/Bidding.taf?_function=detail&Auction_uid1=2132967

INSIDE OUT was mentioned in The Independent on Sunday in the United Kingdom in an article about the trend in dystopian teen fiction.  Click here to see the article: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/doomed-the-new-teen-book-genre-2265785.html 


And an Interview on Larissa's Life blog here: http://www.larissaslife.com/2011/04/author-interview-signed-outside-out.html


Fan Club in Brunei:

Seems some of my books found their way to the STPRI school for girls in Brunei and they were...er...well received :)  One of the teachers, Mr. Jason decided to do my referral program so he could get a signed copy of one of my books for the girls.  When I learned of Mr. Jason's efforts to introduce reading as a past time rather than for pure education to his students in Brunei, I sent a signed copy of all my books to the girls and signed bookmarks for them as well.  Here's a picture they sent along with Mr. Jason's comments about the arrival :)

To celebrate the arrival of the books, I announced over the PA system something like, "Sorry for the interruption. Best-selling writer Maria V. Snyder has donated a collection of autographed books to the girls of STPRI. All upper secondary students are invited to visit the Reading Room to view the new books during break-time today. Thank you."

Before I could even get to the reading room there was a long line of students waiting to get in. It was really amazing to see all their smiling faces. There was an incredible amount of anticipation and the girls were so giddy. I'm not sure if you've ever experienced that wild sort of fan enthusiasm or not - you would have thought that Justin Bieber were signing autographs inside!

...Never forget that on this jungle island half way around the world, you've got a big group of fans cheering you on!

That was so sweet - and for the curious STPRI stands for:
Sekolah (School)
Tinggi (high)
Perempuan (Girl)
Raja ("Queen")
Isteri (The Queen's Name)


And the bonus is that I've learned a lot about Brunei from my email exchanges with Mr. Jason :)

That's all for now.  I was thinking of making this a monthly post - what do you think?  Do you like this type of information?  Let me know!