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New York Day-By-Day Diary

Jenna Petersen

 

Thursday, October 6, 2005:  Scandalous hits the road

After a whirlwind week when I learned of two bestseller showings for Scandalous, I was ready to hit the New Jersey conference and then the city that doesn’t sleep. Luckily, my flights were uneventful and I arrived in Newark, NJ with no trouble. I even figured out the airtran system to take me to the actual train station and managed to make it onto a train going to Metropark Station, which is right by the hotel where NJRW was having their conference. Go me! Public transportation RULES. I wish we had it better here… or at least had sidewalks that went all the way to where I actually wanted to go. Tomorrow is conference time!

 

Friday, October 7, 2005: The rumors are not true! I never put Kathryn Smith’s eye out!!

Friday morning the hotel starts to buzz with conference attendees. After breakfast with lovely fellow Avon Author and NJRW Prez Debra Mullins, we head BACK to Newark to pick up Kathryn Smith, who I adore. We register for the conference and Kathryn and I have lunch. Then she asks if I want to spend some of the time before my 3pm speech by heading to the mall to shop. Of course I say yes! We hit the local Borders Express and find our books on the shelf (just one copy of Scandalous, hopefully that has to do with massive SALES). Then we do crazy fun punk clothes and makeup before we go back to the hotel where I start my speech on websites.

 

The room is a little weird. No podium so I end up sitting with my speech in my lap, praying not to flip over my water. I’m not sure if I was particularly helpful. One woman in the back kept rolling her eyes. Maybe she was having a seizure and I never knew? But it was well-attended and I hope if you came that you got something from it.

 

Afterward, I go up for a wonderfully informative PAN session on numbers moderated by the incomparable Eloisa James and Madeline Hunter. Very interesting, terrifying and illuminating info.

 

Then it’s dinner on your own and I meet with fellow Romance Divas authors Liddy Midnight and JAC. I also discover that the hotel has FREE high speed internet access in the business center so I, being addicted to email, do some email checking before going toward the Heart in a Book Award Ceremony. Before I go in, though, I run into Eloisa again and she introduces me to MARY JO PUTNEY!!!!!!!!!! And Mary Jo Putney shakes my hand and congratulates me on my book being out with Avon and I swoon and black out for a minute only to find myself seated in the ballroom for the ceremony. J

 

It’s actually a very cool deal. They announce the finalists for each category, then someone… I wish I remember who… reads an excerpt from the winner’s book. I was torn between thinking how awesome that would be (these are published books) and how horrifying. Would I cover my ears and say, “Lalalala” while she read if I won or just sit in awe that someone was reciting my words to 400+ people?? Anyway, afterward is the dessert extravaganza which was very fun. Earlier in the day I’d met Santa from the Avon Authors message board and I was very pleased to get to talk to her a bit more. It was a really fun night!

 


Jenna signs Scandalous at the New Jersey Conference. Photo courtesy of Lina!

Saturday, October 8, 2005: Why the hell were you checking Amazon?

Saturday starts with breakfast and Mary Jo Putney’s speech. I ended up at the President’s table (ohlala) and we had a very nice time chit chatting and then listening to Mary Jo talk about her experiences as an author. Afterward, I have a little free time so I duck in to check email. But somehow, like an idiot, I decide I should also check Amazon and find three new reviews of my book.

 

Two are not particularly kind.

 

So I feel bad. Yeah, I admit it, I feel bad. I call my sweetie, mope a little and desperately want my agent (who is now in the building). And I find her on the way to the luncheon, as well as Kelly Harms (who was once with Avon and now works for the Jane Rotrosen Literary Agency) and Erika Tsang, who is Senior Editor with Avon and super cool. So after I say my hellos to them, I go inside with Miriam and whisper my news about the reviews. My agent looks me in the eye and asks me why I was checking Amazon in the first place.

How can you not love her, people??


Luncheon speaker Lisa Kleypas (who I met for the first time earlier in the day and even managed not to drool all over myself like the fangirl I am) only reinforces my agent’s take with her luncheon speech. The famous Armadillo speech. Apparently you cannot kill an armadillo unless you run it down with a car. Lisa recommends we learn from this and whisper, “Armadillo” to ourselves whenever we get rejected, reviewed poorly, feel jealous or any other number of things bound to happen in a career. Armadillo. I whisper it at least ten times and feel decidedly better.

 

After lunch, I head to the editor panel. I still go because occasionally I hear something I want to share hear at Passionate Pen. Did you know Harlequin just bought BET Books? Probably you already know that, but there you go. I stay very briefly for the beginning of the agent panel to wave my pompoms for my agent (she waved them back by pointing out my appearances on Waldens and Bookscan), then I slip off for my first booksigning for Scandalous.

 

When I first find myself in the line, I see they’ve ordered 20 books. I think, “No way am I selling 20 books!!”. But I settle in, put on my game face and prepare my purple pens. And then they open the doors. For fifty solid minutes I sign. And sign. And sign. And then… I sell out. With over half an hour to go.

 

It was awesome.

 

I did feel badly though, because I guess people stopped by looking for me and were disappointed that there was no me and no books, only my scrawled note explaining the situation. Afterward, I slip out and find my agent again and she invites me to go to dinner with her, new client Joanna Novins and one of my favorite people, Liz Maverick. How can you turn that down? Well, you don’t. J

 

Sunday, October 9, 2005: Start Spreading the NEWWWWWWWWWS

I wake up… early. I check out… early. I get on the shuttle… early. The train… early. And then I’m in New York City… early. And I immediately fall in love. Was I scared of this place? How could I be?? It is… wonderful. What energy, what sights, what sounds, what smells. Even in the rain, it is glorious and I’m itching to get started exploring it.

 

Luckily I get started by meeting up with Miriam for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There is nothing cooler than tooling around a city with someone who knows it. And when you go to the Met with someone who was an art history major… you’re going to learn some massively cool stuff. It was loads of fun and I love the Met because I am a museum geek through and through. Then to a Scottish pub for dinner. Note to self, do not have cider on an empty stomach when reasonably cute boys are wearing kilts and have legitimate Scottish accents. Makes me want to write Scottish and I would be no good at it. But haggis isn’t as bad as Mike Meyers says. I promise.

 

Monday, October 10, 2005: Do you call a Cardinal “Your Eminence”? And What About the Chick in the Dress?


The ice rink at Rockefeller Center, NYC		 So now that I’ve roamed the city with a resident I’m feeling quite cocky, so I go exploring. I walk up and down Broadway… and then I get brave. Rockefeller Center? Ha! I found it. I saw the ice rink, I looked in on FOXNews (which isn’t in the Center, but whatever). I sat in the little garden thingy behind the ice rink and watched the people for a while. Then I began to meander my way to Fifth Avenue where I planned to window shop.
 

Until I found the parade. Columbus Day, as you may or may not know, is a really big holiday in NYC because of the large Italian American presence. I happened to stumble upon the parade route right across the street from beautiful St. Patrick’s Cathedral. I was standing up against the barricades between two lovely sets of mother-daughter tourists, one from Oxford, England. The other from Australia. At St. Patrick’s they were setting up an awning and some very snazzy looking chairs. We were speculating as to who might be sitting there. I had just joked that clearly it was the Pope when a man in a red hat and red sash began to cross the street. And I realized he was a Cardinal. A CARDINAL. Like, the guys who pick the pope… Um. Yeah. And he’s coming right for me and then he starts talking to our little group. He shook my hand (and I immediately felt like I should go to

church) and when I told him I was from Illinois, he said he was born in Illinois. It was His Eminence (seriously!!), Edward Cardinal Egan. So that was my brush with something akin to fame.
 

The parade finally started and it was really mostly people I didn’t know walking, but it included a couple of parade queens. The mother and daughter from Australia wanted to know who she was (this woman’s crown put the Miss Universe crown to shame). So they started calling out to the cop near us. Finally, he came over. This huge man with the most New York of New York accents. When asked who the woman was, he replied, “I dunno… some chick in a dress, hang on.”
 

We were getting a truly New York experience. So he finds another cop, this one much smaller. “Who’s the chick in the dress?” The other man didn’t know. So the first cop turns to us, motions to the second and says, “It’s his girlfriend.”

 
But we never saw the mayor, despite the fact that every time someone who looked like he was important came by, my parade-mates asked if that was him. Darn. Maybe next time…

 

So later on, shopping is finally in order. I see the famous Macy’s, ride the old fashion wooden escalator and get to see Union Square Park before heading to my promised sushi, which is divine. Then it’s back to my hotel because tomorrow I am off to meetings where I’m going to pretend I’m a


Italian police car featured in the Columbus Day parade. 10/10/05

real life writer!
 

 Tuesday, October 11, 2005: Look Ma, I’m a writer!


The HarperCollins Publishers building, NYC		 So Tuesday morning I wake up determined to do some exploring before I hit my meetings. While having breakfast, I look over this little tour brochure that the double decker bus tour people hand out (more on that later) and realize I am right near Madame Toussand’s Wax Museum. So I grab so tickets from the hotel concierge (always utilize your concierge, people, they always have better deals) and take a stroll down to the museum. It is really, really cool. First, the wax statues are incredibly life like due to the painstaking process the museum artists go to. AND you can touch them and take pictures with them. Only I didn’t since I was by myself and it isn’t as funny when it’s just a picture of wax Usher, rather than a picture of me dancing with wax Usher.
 

Afterward, I take a leisurely stroll up to Fifth Avenue again and meander my way up to the restaurant we’re meeting at (it’s in the basement of this really cool Japanese department store called Takashimaya). I’m early. Of course, I’m early. So I walk a little further and pick up a souvenir for thecats at the Disney store. Whatever. So I’m a geek. And a cat lady. When I return, I only have to wait a couple minutes when the lovely May Chen arrives shortly followed by Miriam and we go in.

 

It’s very interesting to have lunch with your editor and your agent. It was really fun and we had a great time, but here are these two women, both incredibly business savvy, both incredibly smart and they both handle very different aspects of my career. After saying goodbye to Miriam (she had meetings), May and I went up the street to the HarperCollins building and I got to see her office. And low and behold, there was even fan mail waiting for me! Afterward, I went back to the hotel to decompress for a while and then I decided to do one final walk around New York City.

 

I walked all the way down to around 33rd, then up to 5th and back to Broadway. I just watched people and looked at buildings and generally enjoyed the atmosphere. I even stopped for pizza before I dropped off my stuff at the hotel and jumped on one of the double-decker buses for a night tour of New York.

 

Let me just say… um, my tour bus was WEIRD. Here we are in one of the greatest cities on the world and she keeps pointing out things like, “And there is where I met my husband. We’re divorced.” “This is the church where Liza Minelli and David Guest were married. She’s crazy. No, she’s not.” And then the questions! She kept asking questions of the tourists… except only about 5 of us actually spoke English! By the time we were back on Broadway in Times Square, I was laughing so hard I thought I might hurt myself. I stopped by for a piece of famous New York Cheesecake (YUM) and then went to bed.

 

Wednesday, October 12, 2005: You’ll have to build the Arc without me.

I had these great plans to wake up early, walk down to the Empire State Building and spend my last morning in New York staring down through the haze at the city. Except it was pouring rain. Sheets of rain. Buckets of rain. So instead, I sleep in, pack up and have breakfast in the hotel restaurant because I just can’t face getting drenched. Then I check out and head to Newark Airport. I’m glad I get there early, too, because with all the rain they have decided to delay all out going flights by four hours, so they put me on an earlier connection to St. Louis so that I’ll make my connection home.

 

And so I take off from Newark, bidding New York a fond farewell.

 

The Jerry Springer Final Thought.

So before I left, I was worried I’d get to the city and be too timid to venture out. Now I was lucky that I had an awesome tour guide J, but the fact is I didn’t cower too much. I did check out the sights. I didn’t do everything I could have done, but next year I’m bringing my husband with me and I think it will be more fun to stare out over the city from the Empire State building with him by my side, or take in Spamalot with a person who can whisper the next lines to me.

 

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