Daemon Invasion Tour Recap

Wow. What a crazy and fun 14 days I just had! I wanted to do a blog post on BEA and the Daemon Invasion tour while it's still fresh in my mind, but where do I start? I guess at the beginning.

Keep in mind, I'm operating on very little sleep, so please ignore any whacked out typos.

My travels started off in New York City, where I did a signing for Obsidian and Cursed. I was blown away by the amount of people who came for a signing. 

Warm and fuzzy time! 

There are a few pics of me I've seen floating around where I'm signing Obsidian, but I can't find them now. Sad face.

I finally got to meet Kate, Emily, Dan, Kendra 1 and Kendra 2, Rick, Kim,  Trisha, Vicki, Marie and Patricia and Danielle and so many many more. 

It was so, so awesome getting to meet a lot of the bloggers I talk to on a regular basis. For example, I totally yelled at Yara as she walked out of a hotel (I was in the same hotel) and Damaris from GCR.  I also got to meet three of the awesome Greer family. They made me buttons! Meeting the bloggers were the highlight of my trip to the Big Apple. I also got to see Rachel Vincent and snagged an early copy of Before I Wake (which is awesome sauce).

I also met Marie Lu and Dan Wells. 

 She is so adorable.I want to put her in my pocket. That doesn't sound creepy or anything.

Then had breakfast with Jeri-Smith Ready, Mike Mullins, Lani Woodland and crew. Very, very fun times. And seriously, Jeri gives the best hugs ever.  

On the day I was leaving NYC for Atlanta, I learned that Half-Blood was nominated for an Excellence Award,so that was a great way to end the BEA experience. 

So onto the next part of my trip. THE DAEMON INVASION TOUR! Besides the scary arse landing at Atlanta (the pilot sped up instead of slowing down for the landing) the whole trip was just amazing.  Getting to see Vania and Liz again was great. We all live in totally different areas, so meeting up is rather difficult. And speaking of meeting people.... It took me about an hour to find Pepe Toth and Sztella Tziotzios in the ATL airport (totally my fault) and I'd been so worried that I'd somehow not recognize them or miss them in the crowds. Boy, what was I thinking? I was waiting for them in front of the air train and the doors slid open. Out stepped these two incredibly tall and incredibly good looking couple. 

 Yeah, they are kind of hard to miss.

I may have or may not fan girled for a few seconds before I pounced on them. Once we actually got out of the airport, we spent that Thursday night eating, shopping at Target and getting ready for the nonstop filming that would take place over the next two days. 

 Sztella, Pepe, and me in Atlanta 6/7/12

I'm short. Or they are just really tall.

Vania (VLC Productions) did a photo shoot early Friday morning and guys, GUYS I cannot wait for these photos to be shown. Pepe and Sztella cannot take a bad picture. I kid you not. No bad angle. No bad lighting. Le sigh. 

A tease from the photo shoot.

No words for this kind of hotness.

We took a break and hit our first signing at Foxtale in Woodstock. The staff there was super wonderful as was the readers that came to the signing. I signed my first shirt there. 

Pepe signing a shirt. 

 Got Daemon?

You can view some of the photos HERE from Foxtale

We had dinner with some of the fans from the signing, which was a great experience chatting with everyone outside of the whole signing environment. 

We returned to the house to start filming after the signing. Hours and hours of filming. Hours and hours of watching Pepe (Daemon) and Sztella (Katy) make out. Hours and hours of saying, "Pepe, take your shirt off."  Yeah, I know, hard job. Both of them did awesome through the filming, even when they were suffering through some wicked jet lag (six hour time difference plus a 16 hour flight).  Vania and crew: Stacey, Lauren, Jeffery and Jeremy West pretty much rocked it out.  Authors, you want an awesome team behind your book trailers? Call VLC. Seriously. Not only will these trailers be awesome (trust me, I saw them being filmed) I had the most fun during it. Keep an eye out for some little random things in the trailer. Giggle. Also, Peeping Stacey. You'll understand when you see the behind the scenes footage. 

Three trailers were filmed (Obsidian, Onyx, and Opal) plus a teaser trailer. Here are some pics from the filming. 

Don't ask what I'm doing. Just stare at Pepe.

o_o

They are both so, so gorgeous.

The infamous door opening scene

I'm taking a picture of Pepe taking a picture/filming the door. 

You know how Daemon loves the cover red. 

  I have no idea what I'm handing or taking from Pepe, but hey, red bikini!

 Sztella and Pepe were such troopers through this. Water was not warm.... and probably not the cleanest. 

Can't remember what we were saying to Pepe during this, but it probably went something like this.

Us: "You're going to need to take your shirt off."

Pepe: "Again?"

Us: "Again. And we're going to need you two to make out."

Pepe: "Again?"

Us: "Again."

Sztella: "Lots of kissing going on."

Wrap up dinner.

The first trailer is slated to arrive around July 1st, so keep an eye out for it! I can tell you that the laptop scene was filmed. And I think that's the one that all of us had the most fun with. Go. Figure.

From Atlanta, we headed down to Jacksonville, FL. Five hour drive. Maybe six hours? I'd asked Pepe and Sztella how long it was, but they slept most of the way (random #daemoninvasion fact: both of them can sleep in a car like no tomorrow).  We got into the house around midnight and the first thing I noticed was frogs. FROGS EVERYWHERE.  Thousands of frogs. And ants. Ants in the bed. 

Jacksonville B&N signing in front of the Obsidian Wall.

After the Jacksonville signing, we headed to Joe's Crab Shack, where we got probably the best service ever, and then took a stroll on the beach.

Serious face.

Sztella is so beautiful she floats. Proof.

While at Jacksonville, we did a couple of photo shoots for fun basically. I played assistant. Carried things. Watched pretty people. Watched pretty people become insanely hot. Hard time. 

One of my fav pictures of all time.

Heart.

Hello.

Hello again.

That is just a tiny portion of the photos. 

After Jacksonville, we packed up and made our way to Orlando. There we did visited Universal Studios. 

We went on some rides. Pepe played some B-ball outside of the... school. They almost got ate by a T-Rex and then we ate at Hard Rock Cafe.

Pepe and Sztella can eat. 

And they are adorable. 

And this is stage 1 of a massive sunburn for me. 

In Orlando, we did a signing at the B&N. This is the one where Pepe gets asked to say "Kitten" and he does. And yes, I may have done an internal squeal when I heard it.

You can view more Orlando signing pics HERE

From Orlando, we made our way to West Palm Beach, which is a beautiful place if you haven't visited.

I'm rocking a Sztella bun. 

Pepe is telling the audience how him and Sztella got together. Very cute story. 

The dream team.

You can view more West Palm Beach pics HERE

West Palm was our last signing, but we headed down to Miami to chill for a few days and hung out on the beach and went down to South Beach. And that is when I pretty much burned myself to death and Pepe showed off some mad soccer skills while at my sister's house down in Miami.

Videos of him playing. Shirt on: HERE 

And shirt off, cuz, you know... : HERE

He also played some soccer with my nephew, which was too cute. 

I had so, so much fun in NYC and on the #daemoninvasion tour. Pepe and Sztella are as kind and sweet as they are good looking and talented. They are two of the nicest and funniest people I've ever met and I can't wait to see them again (wink, wink).  I pretty much wanted to keep them. You know, do the whole feed and water thing. It was hard seeing them go on Sunday. I even got a little teary eyed. You can't help but miss them when you get to know them. 

And not only them, but all the wonderful people I met on the tour: those who helped out, the fans and bloggers, staff and all the behind the scenes peeps. I got so many delicious cupcakes (YUM!) and some really cool Lux related clothing and jewelry.

So as Happy as I am to be home, I am also a little sad to see this part of the #daemoninvasion tour come to an end. But it's not over--not really. Winners of the #daemoninvasion street team will be announced soon, more tasks will be handed out and of course, sneak peeks of the trailers and then the revealing of the trailers.

A huge thank you to Pepe and Sztella for being gracious, hard working, and all around fun to be around. And a gigantic shout out to Vania, Lauren, Stacey, Jeffery and Jeremy for working so hard during the shoot and the tour. They did an amazing job.

And thank you to Liz and Entangled Teen for helping pull it all together.

And Pepe and Sztella? We already miss you!