It’s Fantasy Fest Week here in Key West!
You think things get crazy in your town for Halloween? Where I live for the week leading up to Halloween, people come from all over the world to party, elect a King and Queen (the two people who raise the most money for AIDs Help), have a huge parade, and walk around buck naked.
Here is the winning float from last year’s parade
I’m not sure when or how the naked part became so socially acceptable (and technically, the police are supposed to arrest anyone not wearing “body paint”).
But I must say it’s a little disturbing when it’s six o’clock on a Monday night and all you want to do is go downtown to grab a burger, and there are seven or eight people crowding the sidewalk in front of you wearing nothing but dog collars and feather boas.
Another float from last year’s parade
Although I completely understand that some of these people are cancer survivors who are excited to have a chance to show off their new bosoms (which reminds me, I just saw on CNN that due to a combination of factors, though still rare, tweens and teens of all ages are beginning to get diagnosed with breast cancer. So get in touch with your body!)
Reader Brooke M really knows how to carve a pumpkin.
Fortunately it’s against the law for restaurant owners to let naked people dine in their facilities. Could you imagine? I mean, my having to eat my burger where someone with no pants was just sitting?
To be completely honest, I am not sure what is going on here, but I like it.
In other news:
The Runaway page is finally up! No excerpt yet (it’s too soon)…but you can check out a pretty detailed “what it’s all about” page!
And we finally have an excerpt up for Princess Diaries #1! Can you believe we never had one?
Now ALL my books (except, for some reason, Boy Meets Girl…and we’re working on that one) except the Patricia Cabots have excerpts…but we have a neat little explanation as to how the PC books came about.
And if you’re coming to see me at the Miami Book Fair on November 14, this is where you need to go at 11:30 (it’s free):
Miami Book Fair International * Miami Dade College 300 NE Second Ave., Miami, FL 33132 Batten (Building 2, 1st Floor, Room 2106)
And don’t forget to place bids on my Significant Object!
Remember, for every dollar you bid, I will MATCH it, and all those dollars will go to buy some lady who really needs one in order to escape poverty a COW (or other animal) in some foreign country somewhere!
If you don’t think buying a lady a cow (aka microfinancing) works, just read THIS AMAZING article from Oprah.com about one woman whose life was changed forever by Heifer International…Yes: by the cow people!
For every dollar you give, I will give a dollar. If you give ten dollars, I will give ten dollars. COME ON, PEOPLE. BREAK ME.
Otherwise, you know I will just spend the money on a new dress to wear in Miami.
(Well you can’t expect me to show up in body paint, now, can you?)
More later.
Much love,
Meg
PS Oh my God, how could I forget? Friday Night Lights premieres tonight for those of us with DirecTV. Thanks to Persnickety Snark and Sarah Dessen for reminding me!
I totally have it DVR’d and will try to Twitter about it but my fingers might be too covered in Cheeto dust to operate my keyboard.
