Riding the Unicorn

by Kirsten Scott (and her mysterious friend Inara)

My secret identity recently did a blog post entitled "Riding the Unicorn" in which she told all about her recent book tour. Because there is a small chance you aren't all following Inara Scott's blog, and because I wanted an excuse to GIVEAWAY some of the adorable Delcroix Academy notebooks I got while on tour, I decided to post a little about the tour here.

First, let me explain the phrase "Riding the Unicorn." Because this is an adult blog, those of you with dirty minds (Tawny) may find yourself thinking this means something it does not. Riding the unicorn is a phrase coined by my sister, and it means doing something extraordinary -- something so wonderful and unexpected that you never need for it to happen again. If you ride the unicorn once in your life, you can die happy. You don't complain and say, "Man, I can't believe the unicorn only showed up at my window ONCE! What a rip-off!" Instead, you say, "Wow, I can't believe I got to ride a UNICORN!"

That, dear readers, is how it feels to go on a book tour. My tour was relatively short (four cities, six days) and because I'm an unknown debut author, they weren't packing in the aisles to see me at Borders. Nope, for this tour they needed ready-made audiences.

They found them at schools.

Yes, most of my book tour consisted of me showing up at a school, where an assembly of students (mostly eighth grades, but some as young as sixth grade and some as old as seniors) was corralled for me to entertain. I did this primarily by showing them pictures of me as a walrus in the high school musical, and images of the many (many many) rejection letters I received along my path to publication. Oh yeah, and talking about writing and the path to becoming an author. I gave lots of advice about staying in school, persevering, and the need for making your own luck.

The tour also consisted of me being treated like royalty -- or at least like a debut author in a strange city. I was picked up by black town cars and taken to hotels, most of which did not have mice in the restaurant (note I said MOST! eek!). I had a "media escort" in each city to take me from school to school (where I did up to three school visits a day!), and incredible kids made me billboards, bought my books, and generally acted as though I knew something special about writing

(Ha! Did I ever fool them!)

It was incredible. I'd never experienced anything like it before, and I doubt I ever will again. I adored talking to the kids, not to mention the amazing independent booksellers who helped organize the tour, the media specialists and librarians at the schools who had to give time out of their busy day to deal with me, and the teachers who love reading and literature enough to expose their kids to an author who is hardly the next Mark Twain (but sure hopes to entertain along the way).

At each stop along the way, we had these adorable little Delcroix Academy notebooks to hand out.














I have a few notebooks left over, and I'd love to give them away! So tell me about a time you rode the unicorn, OR about a humiliating incident from high school (a la my experience as the Walrus). Five awesome comments win a notebook!