As several dear friends have duly noted lately, yes I have been MIA from the blogging world. Let's be honest -- my life isn't blog-worthy. Honestly, all I do lately is work, work, work.
I love it, but it doesn't give me much blog fodder.
The past month and half has gone by in a whirlwind. In about one week, we launched the final book in the Fablehaven series, opened up our flagship store, survived conference weekend and the many, many book signings, and a flood at our new flagship store. We were able to nab a lot of great media coverage on all of our events, and it was a lot of fun.
In one word, it's been chaos. OK, organized chaos, and I've loved every minute of it.
The best part of it all was working with this little boy from Texas named Chase.
Chase has cystic fibrosis. Back in December he really wasn't doing well. A group called A Wish With Wings called us and asked us to help grant his wish of hearing how book 5 of the Fablehaven series ends.
We had the author, Brandon Mull, call him and he revealed all of the books secrets, in addition to sending him several Fablehaven goodies. Both the TV stations in Texas and Utah did stories (check out the Utah story here).
A week or so later, I told his mother that if Chase was well enough to travel in March, we'd love to fly him to Salt Lake to attend the launch party for book 5.
We didn't find out until about two weeks before the party whether he'd be able to attend or not. In the end, his mother said there was no stopping Chase from coming to the party. Mother and son traveled all the way from Plano, Texas to join the party.
I was in charge of helping him throughout the night. We arranged a reserved parking spot and the best seats in the house. Then, we surprised him and Brandon Mull brought him on stage and made him an honorary Knight of the Dawn. Check out the local news story here.
Chase is one tough kid. I'm just grateful he let me be part of his life for one small moment.
(Here are some other photos from the Fablehaven party)
