Wednesday night I got home around 8:30 to find Cory, my younger son, the one who usually is so buried in a book that he barely acknowledges my arrival home, standing by the door saying, "I need to make homemade chocolate chip cookies for school tomorrow and we have no butter." Well there went my plan to sit on the couch and eat some dinner, read and relax. In his defense, he had mentioned this and the lack of butter the evening before, but all three people who could hit the store blanked on remembering to get there.

I love to take pictures when I travel, and I am noted for shooting a lot of photos when I am on the road. What's interesting about my literary travel is that I rarely shoot an author photo or anything at book festivals and events. I bring back a hundred anecdotes, but rarely do I snap a picture. I had a friend who told me he never shot pictures of mountains, because they never looked as special when you got home and looked at them. The memory was dwarfed once you looked at it. I think these experiences are the same way for me. It's not about how the author looks, but rather about what they said. I find myself running their conversations like film in my head.

My last month was a whirlwind of bookish travel. I spent 11 days at various book conventions which I am calling: 11 Days, 3 Cities, Dozens of Authors. It truly was a wonderful experience for a booklover. Some women love spas; I love book-related travel. Along the way at the Los Angeles Times Book Festival I had the pleasure of catching up with Lisa See, an author who I know is a favorite of many of yours. She wrote Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and her new book Peony in Love will be in stores next month. It was great to share my early excitement for the book with her. I will be writing more about my adventures in my blog on Bookreporter.com later this week.