Sunday, October 31, 2010

A Day with Shay

The best things in life are often unexpected. 2010 will go down as my favorite Halloween weekend on record because I was surrounded by family and friends at the Nightshade release party. I'll do full-party blogging soon (I'm waiting on all the pictures to come in), but I wanted to do a Halloween post about joyful surprises.

I was shocked by the number of people who drove long distances to come to party. Dear, dear friends came to surprise me including my high school English teacher, Mrs. Heisler, who always encouraged my writing dreams.

One of the best surprises of this entire experience, however, have been the new and wonderful friendships I've made through Nightshade. My awesome teams at InkWell and Penguin - the amazing YA authors I've met at conferences. And then there's Shay.
Actually he's Will Browning - the actor who brought Shay to life in the Shadow Days webisodes. Getting to know Will has been awesome because not only is he incredibly talented, he's also one of the loveliest people I've ever met.

I was honored that he came all the way from Florida to attend the Nightshade party. And (bonus!) he spent the weekend hanging out with my family and friends.

We took a tour of Minneapolis and St. Paul highlights and he took lots of pictures.

We carved pumpkins
and named them Bateman and Sebastian.
And he stayed up until 3 a.m. with me watching Labyrinth.
As an author, I thought there could be nothing better than having a talented actor portray one of my characters. I was wrong. What's even better is meeting a kindred spirit and making a friend for life.

Thanks for everything, Will!

Wishing all of you a Happy Halloween full of more treats than tricks!

And a huge thanks to DJ for sending me a picture of his pumpkin! Yay!!!

10 comments:

  1. He sounds lovely, im glad you had a fantastic time, there's nothing more special than being surrounded by dear family and friends :)

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  2. Just one more reason to be Team Shay. ;)

    Sounds like such a fantastic time! :)

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  3. Oooooo, he's the perfect Shay. What an extra-super book launch this has been with the bonus of new friends. A very happy Halloween to you!

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  4. Sounds like a wonderful weekend! So glad I was able to make the release party. You're both lovely people!

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  5. Looks like you guys had a great time! :-) Can't wait to hear more about the party. Happy Halloween!

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  6. Congratulations on your release party! What an awesome weekend!!! Will did a brilliant job at bringing Shay to life! Have a wonderful Halloween!

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  7. that so cool , it's fun to make friends. and it's great to make lasting memories with them

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  8. That had to be so surreal! A character from your imagination materializing in real life? Shay AKA Will sounds totally awesome (not to mention cute). The perfect Shay =)

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