California Dreamin'

Encinitas, CA. In January (which isn't even fair).

No matter how long I've been away from California, whenever I go back I feel like I've gone home. So what if I've now lived half my life in Utah? Nope, California feels like home. To the point that I teared up while driving on the freeway, just because the trees looked right and all the license plates said California. I didn't even grow up in Southern CA—I lived in the Bay Area—and still. Nostalgia is a powerful thing.

So many of my stories have taken place in California, probably because I can never seem to get the state off my mind. Writing about it only makes me more connected to it, since as I create characters that live there I make more ties in my mind to the place. More meaningful connections, as fictional as they may be.

Two of my favorite people, being all adorable and stuff.

Then there's the problem of having so many dang friends who live in the state. Every day of my vacation/work tip I got to see people who mean a lot to me (And they kept feeding me yummy things!). Signing with Kiersten and Shannon was kind of a dream come true and all that—it was the first time I got to sit on the same side of the author table with two of my friends who have helped me wade through tough publishing waters.

Cindy Pon and me, eating some awesome Japanese ice cream.
After she'd fed me an incredible Chinese beef soup with hand pulled noodles.

One of my oldest friends (from Jr. High!) and now
librarian, Lynn, who took us out to
Korean BBQ at the Honey Pig in LA. Yum.

 With so many wonderful people to see, it really felt like I was at home. I wanted to hang out for another week because it felt too short. And then there was the food, but I'll spare you more pictures of that. You can see my Instagram for all my food pics.

The best part of all? I got to spend the entire time with this awesome guy. I took him all around Southern California (from San Diego to Newport Beach to LA to Encinitas), and he was there to support me through my work events and was happy to meet all my friends. Marrying him nine years ago was probably one of my best decisions.

And I think I've convinced him that if we ever get rich enough, we should totally move to California. Mwahaha.