Thursday, March 18, 2010

DTW tour: day ? - I'm still here.... somewhere

They drove from IN to Schuler Books!
Hey y'all!  I'm writing from Detroit mere hours before getting ready for a Zombie Prom tonight.  Yes, that's right -- ZOMBIE PROM!!!!  I can't tell you just how thrilled I am about this event and I promise to take pictures.  Yesterday I had a fantastic time up in Lansing at Schuler Books.  Krys and Whitney put on an amazing event (complete with pizza) and the crowd was just so great.  Earlier in the day I had a fun time at Haslett High School where the students grilled me on surviving the zombie apocalypse.  Perhaps it makes me a very strange person, but I always love debating various survival techniques.

Let me tell you, Lansing goes all out for St. Patty's Day.  Michelle (media escort) and I drove through Michigan State and there were green-clad students EVERYWHERE -- dangling from roofs, sprawled on lawns, furniture on sidewalks and lots and lots of green beer.  It was a gorgeous day so I totally understood the urge to be outside -- the entire place had such a festive feel to it.

Backing up a bit... Last week I was in NYC and apparently, it got quite windy.  So windy, in fact, that all modes of transportation were rendered inoperable.  I was supposed to fly out to Chicago on Saturday night and all was going according to plan when someone careened into the airport restaurant (I'd just ordered dinner) to say basically all flights were cancelled.  Yup, it was true.

Amazing publicists Kelly and Jessica totally kicked in and went above and beyond trying to reroute me (there was an event scheduled for early afternoon in Chicago I really REALLY wanted to make it to).  Of course, NYC had been canceling flights to Chicago all day so the earliest I could get there was Monday afternoon (just in time to fly to Detroit). So we decided I'd hop a train to Philly and catch a flight there.  I book it to Penn Station incidentally ending up with tickets on two different trains.  And then I wait.  With everyone else.

note the Eat, Prey Love sticker
I love this picture of us all staring up at the boards cause the girl in front of me is crossing her fingers so hard, clearly hoping the DC train boards.  When the board listed a track for us to board there was a quick cheer by the crowd and then crazy stampeding to the tracks (I'm surprised no one was crushed).  I made it to my seat and settled in.  And waited.  And waited.  For five hours.

Turns out, power was down on the tracks.  We were lucky to be in the station -- there were trains stuck out on the tracks with no power (which means no bathrooms - ick!).  After a while I realized how surreal it is to be an author who writes about post-apocalypse worlds to suddenly be in a situation where there was no escape.  Sure we were allowed to leave or go up to Penn Station, but there were definitely moments when I thought "there could be zombies up on the street and I'd have no idea."

There were plenty of people trying to find cars or flights or any other way out of the city who couldn't (rumor was the NJ turnpike was shut down).  Makes you realize how fragile our infrastructure is and next time a readers asks "would everything really fall apart that fast?" I can say "well, wind make it impossible to escape NYC!"

Also, I'd forgotten that when you throw strangers into a situation where things go wrong, they often become friends.  I ended up selling a copy of FHT to an Australian on the train :)
Me and adam talking zombies

Finally, we gave up and I stayed at a hotel and took a flight out the next morning.  When I landed in Chicago I went straight to my event with Adam Selzer, author of I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It.  Totally awesome book which I loved.

After that was dinner with a few very awesome and funny folks (and yummy food).  Yeah, I totally dug out my phone and shared pictures of my dog and cats.  I'm that kind of person, apparently.

On that note... it's time for me to prepare for the zombie prom.  You know you totally want to go!!  I promise to recap more soon!  Thanks to everyone who has come out to see me -- I've had so much fun meeting fans and chatting!  Y'all rock!

7 comments:

InspiredM said...

I do totally want to go! I can't wait to hear about it!

Heather said...

And don't forget... we expect a gnome cameo in the next installment... XD

Unknown said...

Oh, give ALL the credit to Whitney. She's the one who dealt with the headaches and the insomnia. I just sling books.

Nevertheless, we were thrilled to have you. Enjoy the rest of your tour and I can't wait for the next book.

-Krys

Chris {frecklemama} said...

That pic of you on the train is like the mirror image of MOM. Complete with stranger/friend. HA!

BTW, in the top pic you look, like, totally famous. Double HA!

Seriously, you look fabulous and HAPPY. I am so excited for you!

Allie said...

Hi Carrie!
I met you tonight at the Zombie Prom and mentioned I was doing a giveaway on my blog. The post is already up, so here is the URL so you can see!

http://aliteraryodyssey.blogspot.com/2010/03/autographed-carrie-ryan-giveaway.html

Thank you so much and good luck on the rest of your book tour! I cannot wait to get my hands and teeth into "The Dead-Tossed Waves!"

Anonymous said...

Wow, Carrie, imagine my surprise when I saw our picture from Schuler's posted on your blog! Pat and I so enjoyed meeting you. I wore one of the 'Eat.Prey.Love' stickers today at school, and students and staff alike were constantly stopping me in the hallways, asking what the sticker was about. I thoroughly enjoyed telling all about you and your novels. Due to my overly-curious 8-year-old daughter messing with my digital camera recently, I took a lovely zombie-like photo of you during the Q&A last night. I'll try to forward it to you as soon as I can along with a link to my blog when I get a post put together.

I began reading The Dead-Tossed Waves today, and plan to use snippets here and there in my Creative Writing class. I love to pull examples from recently published YA novels for my students. I've found that they relate better to the material than a boring textbook and become better writers through relevant texts that they themselves have read.

Again, thank you for a wonderful evening at Schuler's in Lansing. Getting home around midnight was definitely worth it! We ate dinner at the Italian restaurant that was close to Schuler's and we saw you and your escort walk by. Pat loved your red backpack. :)

Enjoy the rest of your tour and congrats on your upcoming nuptials in two weeks!

Kel

Abby O! said...

Hi Carrie! I'm a high school librarian and my assistant and I LOVE your books. They are SERIOUSLY our favorites right now (that's saying something considering how much we read!). Thanks for creating such a wonderful story! We about died when we found out that book 3 isn't coming out until 2011! I don't know how we'll make it... oh wait... we'll just read something else. ;) You need to add a tour stop in Utah!! Thanks!

Abby & Gina (The best librarian folk ever!)

http://fourredchairs.blogspot.com