I am so excited to post under EVENTS here the fabulous book tour for THE TREASURE CHEST, my new series for middle readers. I will be in Newport, RI; Tampa and Sarasota, FL; Chicago; Columbus, OH; and Providence, RI between January 28 - February 4, visiting schools and bookstores. This series is the culmination of a decades old dream of mine to bring to life historical characters for modern children. When I was a young girl, I loved to read but had no access to books--except the ones that teachers kept in the back of the classrooms. Those books were biographies of everyone from Amelia Earhart to Florence Nightingale, John Paul Jones to Frances Scott Key. They charmed me and inspired me. And now, with the help of my most wonderful editor, Francesco Sedita, and Penguin Books, that dream is a reality. The New York Times gave THE TREASURE CHEST, Book One, ANGEL OF THE BATTLEFIELD, a rave review on Sunday, January 14: Click here to read it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/books/review/angel-of-the-battlefield-the-treasure-chest-book-1-by-ann-hood-review.html

In the course of these eight books (Book One and Two will debut on January 24), my dynamic duo, twins Maisie and Felix Robbins, will travel back in time and meet Clara Barton, Alexander Hamilton, Pearl Buck, Harry Houdini, Crazy Horse, The Last Queen of Hawaii, Alexander Graham Bell, and the Romanov princesses.

I hope you read THE TREASURE CHEST, and enjoy its magic as much as I have loved writing them.

And I hope you can come to one of my events and say hello!

I also want to give a shout out to the ever fabulous Kevin Broccoli, who hosted me last week at the Mohr Library in Johnston, RI for a lovely afternoon. What a warm and welcoming audience!

From there, Cousin Gloria-Jean, Sam and his buddy and I drove down to NYC, arriving just in time for dinner at one of my new favorite restaurants there, Empillon on West 10th St. The next day, we went to see RELATIVELY SPEAKING, three one act plays by Ethan Coen, Elaine May, and Woody Allen. I cannot think of a better way to spend a Wednesday afternoon than in the company of such fine and funny writers and actors, with this company by my side. Sam and his friend then left us to meet up with friends from college to see Cynthia Nixon in WIT.

When we got home the next day, we went into high gear for Lorne's surprise birthday party. I served only his favorite food--rum and tonics, dirty martinis, malbec; artichoke dip, deviled eggs, crab cakes; sliders, hot weiners, lobster mac and cheese; almond joy cupcakes. His best friends all came, Sam decoyed successfully, and Lorne had the surprise and party of his life!

The next morning, Sam and I flew to St. Pete, FL (where I am writing this) for the Eckerd College Writers in Paradise Writers Conference. A week of stimulating lectures, panels and workshops with my always amazing students and friends like Dennis Lehane, Andre Dubus III, Stewart O'Nan, Elizabeth Berg, Laura Lippman, Elissa Schappell, David Yoo, and Debra Dean. We are working too hard and somehow eating too much while having way too much fun. This is always one of my favorite weeks of the year, a good way to start 2012.

Thank you for all your emails about my piece in Good Housekeeping about our trip back to China with Annabelle. It isn't yet online, but the one from Real Simple about holding grudges is and you can read it by clicking the below:

http://www.realsimple.com/magazine-more/inside-magazine/table-contents-more/table-of-contents-january-2012-00100000072628/index.html

I hope your new year is off to a wonderful start! And that I see you at one of my TREASURE CHEST events.