Who Is Romania Brown?
I have been asked this question a LOT over the last several months. I’ve received more fan mail for Romania Brown’s quotes in the book CROSS MY HEART than I have for the actual book.
People have Googled her, quoted her, and laughed out loud at her. And they want to know who she is. So I’m telling all. I will meta-tag this post so it comes up in a Google search. I want the world to know.
She’s my grandma.
Her full name is Julia Romania Brown Peterson. She is the person who I was named for. She was my very best friend growing up. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but it bears mentioning again–she was everything awesome in my life. I miss her sometimes more than I can stand. I hide bits and pieces of her in pretty much everything I write. It’s my way of keeping her with me. It takes away some of the ache, and I know she’d love the joke of it all. Grandma loved a good joke.
Now, the confession part is that Grandma didn’t write all those quotes. A couple of them are things she told me, but most of them are things I made up. I couldn’t credit myself because . . . well, it looks tacky to credit a quote to yourself. I tried using quotes from real people, but had to rely on things my friends would let me quote them in a book saying, or things that are over a hundred (or whatever) years old so I didn’t accidentally break any copyright laws. After using up my friends and classic works, I still needed a few quotes. It was then that I turned to my journal–my memories of grandma and my snarky personal commentary on love in general while I was in my dating years. I drew from that to come up with the quotes and the poem about love at the beginning of the book CROSS MY HEART.
So now you know.
Julia Romania Brown Peterson was hilarious. She loved to laugh. She was brilliant. Even without formal higher education, she never ceased to learn, to expand her mind, to grow her knowledge. She loved archaeology, which might be the reason I had such a fixation with Indiana Jones and that blasted hat of his. She planted all the seeds that created the person I am today.
And I do miss her . . . every day. But every day, I am also filled with gratitude that she existed, and she was *my* grandma. I am grateful that she was such a huge part of my life, and glad to share her with all of you even in this small part.
So now you know. Isn’t she wonderful?
Julia Romania Brown Peterson as a Baby
Wow, What a Night and Winners!
So the launch party was awesome. And by awesome I mean humbling and exhausting and thrilling, and amazing. Barnes and Noble was very gracious as hosts and the manager told me it was the biggest event they’d had in three years. They were very pleased with the sales. 
YAY for pleased bookstore managers!
What was really awesome was the amount of support from friends and family. It’s really humbling to have the people you love stand behind you and support you when you have a reason to celebrate. It’s fantastic to know they’re celebrating with you and they’re happy for your accomplishments. It was a great night. We talked, laughed, signed books, and had cheesecake.
THANK YOU everyone for your support in this new series. My goal is to make Hazzardous Universe shine like a star going supernova!
AND I was peer pressured into sushi with Howard Tayler because Kevin insists that sushi is best when eaten with Howard. Because of my negative notions of sushi, I strong-armed Jessica Day George into coming with. I don’t want to be the only sushi novice in the group. Dan Willis joined us as well. I can honestly report it wasn’t that bad (aside from the “dessert” that looked like a ripped out spinal cord). I think I’ll even do it again sometime.
The winner of the blog, tweet, facebook mentions is . . .
PK HREZO!
Congratulations! You are the owner of a shiny MP3 Player and an even shinier, and much cooler, copy of Hazzardous Universe!
Here are some pictures from the launch party:
Tyler Whitesides, Josi Kilpack Annette Lyon, Shanda Cottam, Jeff Savage, Luann Staheli, and Nancy Allen
Shanda, Julie, Sheila, Kevin
Hazzardous Universe
A new book *and* a contest! (read to the end to get contest details)
Yesterday, I held my newest book in my hands for the first time. I should say our newest book because it belongs to Kevin Wasden and me together. I love the art inside the book. Love it, love it, love it. And the cover is so awesome, I can’t even count all the shades of awesomeness!
There is really nothing like seeing your novel in its finished form–all that research, writing, cursing, creating, deleting, adding, deleting again, rewriting finally shows up in your hands–bound and clean and satisfying.
It’s strange that as I finish writing HU2, Hu1 is barely making an entrance. It feels good to be here with a book that holds such limitless potential, and with a partner who is as committed to the series as I am, and with a publisher who wants the success of this book as much as I do. It seems lame that even as I am giggling with glee over this shiny new book, I also feel humbled and grateful.
It fits in with a question I got at a school visit I did recently. A kid asked me, “Do you know any crazy authors?”
My answer?
“Oh, honey . . . we’re ALL crazy.”
Please come join Kevin and me for our launch party for Hazzardous Universe! It’s on March 9th at the Murray Utah Barnes and Noble (5300 south and State Street) We’ll be there from 6-8 pm and we would love to see everyone there.
And this is where the contest comes in! If you blog or tweet or facebook about the Hazzardous Universe Launch Party with its location and time, leave a message in the comments letting me know you’ve done it and you will be entered into a drawing. If you do all three, you get three entries (make sure to leave three comments so I don’t accidentally miss anything). The prize is: a copy of Hazzardous Universe signed by both the author and artist AND a 4 gig Digi-star MP3 shuffle.
Come celebrate with us!
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