I <3 NYC

OK, so I'm a little embarrassed to admit this on a public forum (but really when has that stopped me in the past? Just take a look at the other fascinating tidbits I've posted today), but this was my very first trip to New York City.


I've lived in Chicago, travelled throughout Europe, visited LA (and met Richard Simmons three times, well not in one trip, but still THREE TIMES, that's one time for each decade I've been alive for those of you who aren't that good at math), and yet this is my first actual visit to the Big Apple. This momentous occasion obviously calls for one of our patented Top 5 Lists. So....


THE TOP 5 MOMENTS of Lisa and Laura's Fabulous NYC Adventure!


5. Central Park. Ok, truth is we were really annoying tourists and forced our gracious host to cart us around to places like Central Park. It was so Gossip Girl and Sex in the City, I loved it. Oh and plus it's one of the very few pictures we took on the trip.

4. Meeting Lars. A little background for you. Laura's college roommate Sarah and her fabulous live-in-lover Lars (damn that's some killer alliteration!) graciously let us stay with them for a couple days. Sarah is one of the top 10 funniest people we know. Whether she's telling you about how she single-handedly destroyed a wedding or about how she met and got pictures with Bobby Zarin (and yes, he was wearing his patented shaded glasses), she's always entertaining. So when Laura told me that Lars was the perfect match for Sarah, I just knew I'd love him. Keep in mind that he's got two random girls plopped on the couch when he comes back from the gym and instead of being annoyed or awkward he shakes my hand, looks me right in the eye and said "So tell me about this book." Yeah, he had me at hello...er...book.

No picture of Lars, but we do have this fabulous picture of Sarah showing off her cube and we think Lars is probably ok with that.

3. Meeting Sam (and her sister!). Sam is the founder of our critique group and one of our very first beta readers for our book. When we first found out that she was going to be in NYC the exact same time that we were, we considered getting a restraining order, but it turns out she's not stalking us. We were actually kind of sad because everyone knows you haven't really arrived until you have an actual stalker, right? Oh well, maybe next year. As it turns out she was coincidentally going to be in the city to celebrate her sister's b-day, so we all met up for some Mojitos. So fun!

Please note we had been walking around the city all day in misty conditions, so we're all a bit of a mess.

2. Dinner with Emily. My roomie from college also lives in the city and she ended up meeting us for dinner. It was one of those great nights when we effortlessly killed a couple of bottles of wine and managed to cover everything from old friends with bad haircuts to the emaciated cast of 90210. My kind of dinner.

Again, we got a little tipsy and forgot to take a group pic. BUT I do have this fabulous picture of Emily from Luxembourg involving way too much cheap wine and Nutella. Damn, I wish I had a scanner.

1. Meeting our agent! I'll never forget when Laura and I were in the cab on the way to InkWell and we passed Trump Tower and Laura looked at me with tears in her eyes and said she just couldn't believe this was actually happening. It was completely surreal. If it's even possible, meeting Catherine has made us want to succeed even more. She's just one of those rare people who make you want to do your best work. Edits commence immediately, and we want them to be perfect, so wish us luck.