My Summer Odyssey and some books I found along the way!

I got extraordinarily lazy and took the summer off, but I'm back now. Thought I'd share my summer odyssey with y'all, because it was WILD.

We took the fam to Europe and Turkey and saw some amazing things. Despite the fact that American Airlines lost my luggage and I had to wear the same clothes for four days, it was fabulous! I have to admit, the funnest part for me was signing books in Milan and Barcelona.

And I got to meet an awesome blogger Jess and her sister in Venice!

That's in St. Mark's square. (And, yes, day three with no luggage I bought a T-shirt, but those are the same jeans O_O)

Then it was on to Athens,

(Yes, that's my geeky husband in the hat :p)

and Istanbul, where, unfortunately, PD hasn't published yet. (Hurry up, Turkey!)

This is in a very cool underground cistern.

Then we played on the beach in Mikonos before heading to Pompeii and climbing Mt. Vesuvius.

Next was Rome, where there are too many amazing things to see and you aren't allowed to photograph most of them. Here's the Colosseum.

And then we were off to Florence and Pisa. My very favorite things in Italy are the sculptures. Especially Michelangelo's Pieta in St. Peter's Basilica and The David in Florence's Academia. Since they won't let you photograph The David, I'll show you something you'll all probably recognize. (We climbed it!)

And then there was France. We spent the day in a cute fishing village, Cassis, where, apparently, we didn't take a single picture. Instead, here's the view of Toulon off the back of our cruise ship.

After a few days in Barcelona, we headed home via NYC, where I got to retrace some of my characters' steps from my current WIP and have dinner with my truly fabulous agent. Here's were my WIP wraps up in a Big Twist.

It's Bethesda Terrace in Central Park. Here are my daughters enjoying the nice day there:

But now I'm home and the kids are starting school next week, so it's time to start acting like a responsible adult again. Though, my next odyssey starts on Wednesday!

In case you hadn't heard, Kendare Blake, Marta Acosta and I are will be out on the Girls' Nightmare Out tour! It all kicks off with #Torchat on Twitter on Wednesday, Aug. 15, then we take off for eight days of craziness we hope you'll all join in on! For the full tour schedule, go here! We hope to see you on the road! :p