The trip in greater detail ...

A bit of exciting news that some of you may or may not know about:

My Mum (Mom) and I are heading to Canada and the USA from November 8 to December 21. We were last there the same time in 2010, visiting friends, family, and some awesomely groovy places (Yosemite, Islands of Adventure and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Hearst Castle, Death Valley, and lots more.) We LOVE the USA ... Americans are so friendly and outgoing, and always delighted to meet Kiwis *grins*.

This year we are flying in to Vancouver (via a six hour tranist in San Francisco to catch up with my cousin). From Vancouver we'll catch the bus (Greyhound!) to Seattle to see my Aunt and another cousin, then we fly to Toronto and drive on down to Niagara Falls. We'll stay overnight there, do one of those tour thingies, and then we head to St Thomas to stay and visit with another Aunt, two cousins, and meet all the extended family we've never met at a big family dinner.

From there we drive to Peterborough where, after all these years, I will finally get to meet the awesomely wonderful editor of The Atlas Chronicles, Holly Bennett, for the first time. I'm very excited about this! And on our second night we're going to see Holly's sister in a local community performance of Les Miserables. That will be way cool.

Flying from Canada to Bangor, we'll drive on for three nights R n R in Bar Harbor, where I also have another "FINALLY" meeting ... this time with Carrie Jones, the NYT best-selling author who had supported and endorsed my novels for several years now. We arrive in Bar Harbor on day 10 of our trip so opted for three nights to have some chill out time. We learnt from our last big trip that that is kind of essential!

Leaving Bar Harbor we'll drive to Portland (MN not OR), have an overnight sleep, and then fly to New York. This city was the most problematic in finding accommodation when we have NOT won the lottery. Owing to a combination of snorer and light sleeper, Mum and I need seperate rooms. The cheapest I could find for two rooms for four nights in NY was around $2000. Well, to be fair, I did find some for $700-$1000, but they were all rated one star on TripAdvisor, with warnings that ranged from "strip join next door", to "gangs hung around the front door", to "gunshots kept us awake all night". The I stumbled onto Housestay.com, and for $500 we have two rooms with a nice looking couple in their home in Brooklyn.

After NY we catch the train to Greensboro in NC - first class! First class is only $50 more than cattle class, and for a 12 hour train trip it's a no-brainer. The last time we were in the US we spent 4 nights with a family in NC, including Thanksgiving, and this time around we're having Thanksgiving with the same family. They have been some of the longest-term and most ardent supporters of my novels, so it is wonderful to be seeing them again after so long.

Flying to Tampa Bay, we'll be spending time with a couple who were passengers when I was working on the R7 cruise ship back in 1999. We've stayed in touch ever since, and saw them last time we were in the USA. On the second night we're there we'll go and see their sons' band playing live - we caught one of their gigs in 2010, and they are awesome.

From Tampa we'll visit Big Cat Rescue before heading on to Orlando and, sadly, limiting ourselves to three theme parks: Islands of Adventure (again), Disney's Animal Kingdom, and The Holy Land Experience. Plus I want to have lunch at the Portofino Bay Hotel, since I can't see me getting back to the real Portofino any time soon.

Leaving Orlando we fly to Denver, and hope to catch up in Vail with two young lads I met in New Zealand last year through Xavier Rudd. From there it's a nine day trip to Vegas via Moab, monument Valley, Bryce Canyon, and Zion National Park, hopefully catching up with friends from Utah at some point. Driving on to LA we'll catch up with friends in Acton, before spending our last three nights in Glendale, catching up with yet another cousin, and also meeting Robert Florczak, the writer and performer of my all time favourite ever song, N'Chi Ya Nani, from the movie Roar. VERY EXCITED.

Along the way I'll be promoting my novels to everyone I meet, and interviewing as many people as I can for my Little Peppe & Friends website. If it all goes well, I hope to return in 2015 for a more intensive author-talk tour of schools, but for now, the focus is on the 2014 trip.

38 SLEEPS TO GO!!!