Ah, Montreal. You were a fabulous city to spend the New Year in. Wonderful people, clean street, and food that inspired me to purchase home workout equipment while on my Amtrak ride back.

I feel like the above picture pretty much sums up my entire writing experience while in Canada. I spent most mornings and afternoons in coffee shops and cute restaurants, where I would nurse my hangovers (the people in my hostel were a blast) while sipping coffee or eating poutine (thanks for showing me the best places Liz & Kim). Also the fireworks were pretty fantastic, and I was in seriously good company

And because the weather was so horribly frigid, I didn’t have much of a choice but to sit and write every day. Wandering the city was tough in the cold, so holing up in a cute cafe was the best way to spend the day. Night time I’d hit the clubs (ugh karaoke), sure. But during the day, I kept warm with my netbook.

When I left for the trip, the new book was a little over 40,000 words. Now? As of this posting, I’m at 62k. I’ve been working on it since I came back to Philly, yes, but a lot of that happened while abroad. Note, Textual Healing was a little over 60k, and I really only feel like I’m halfway through this story I’m working on. Kind of scary, very exciting.

Anyhow, I’ve pasted my favorite photos from the trip below,or you could just flip through them on my Flickr page for 200+ more. Trying to figure out where my next stop will be, other than Lobsterfest in Maine come August. Any recs?

Took this photo as soon as I got off the train.

Montreal had some really cool public art.

Seriously. So neat.

New Years Eve in Montreal = CRAZY.

Thousands of people.

Trying to walk back was impossible.

Nighttime wandering the city.

Wandering at night.

Best brunch of my life, thanks Kim!

A blogger friend (sup Kim!) and her pal.

Cool windows in downtown Montreal.

Kim approves.

Such a cool building.

Crazy guys in my hostel made their own cups… out of beer cans.

Never Have I Ever does not translate well into other languages. Played anyway.

This photo sums up my trip quite nicely. Spent a lot of time in that particular Starbucks.

Well, this is it.

Christmas is in a few days, the Quirk Books office is shutting down until January 2nd, Geekadelphia is finished posting until the New Year… at last, it is time to vacation it up.

After hanging out with family and friends for Christmas, I’m hopping an Amtrak to Montreal (an 11 hour train ride!) for about a week. While working on my new book in Puerto Rico I managed to bang out over 20,000 words, and hoping to have similar success while in Canada. Yeah, I’m psyched to see some museums, eat a lot of poutine, and party with random travelers… but writing is number one on the to-do list.

The new novel is currently a little over 40k, and it sure would be nice to have a finished draft early next year. I met a handful of writers from Montreal during Comic Con this year, and it’ll be nice to connect with them while I’m in town.

Anyhow, I’ll see you all in 2012, hopefully with a near-finished book. Be safe!

Well, I turned 29 this week. I celebrated appropriately. I spent a weekend in Atlantic City with my best friend, had a bros’ night at Gunners Run in Northern Liberties on my actual birthday (Tim and I are still haunted by the fllet mignon sandwich we had there), and I plan to spend this weekend partying Halloween style, thanks to the traditional Geekadelphia & Indy Hall bash at Tattooed Mom (over 120+ people are coming!) and my pal Jay with his annual costumed celebration at his apartment.

At work (where we had a fancy hat party), two of my coworkers asked me how I was planning to enjoy the last year of my 20′s. I hadn’t quite thought of it that way. I’d mostly been stressing about hitting 30, but not how I’d actually spend my final year.

So, here’s a little list I’ve made for myself. Hopefully I stick to it.

1. Make One More Epic Costume: I’m concerned that my obsession with awesome costumes (shared with Geekadelphia co-founder / eternal BFF Tim Quirino) may seem a little more ridiculous once I’m in my 30′s. When people find out that my biggest adult purchase was a full suit of Master Chief armor, I get laughs and nods of understanding, mostly due to the backstory of my heinous ex.

But what about when I’m 30? Admitting that my next biggest adult purchase is going to be a replica Rocketeer outfit, might not be met with the same sort of good humored approval.

Oh, and yeah. The next costume is going to be the Rocketeer. As a kid, I was obsessed with that movie. It’ll be expensive, but I’ll find a way to make it work.

This is a point of mockery in my circle of friends (Allie & Jay, I saw that), so I think I’ll try and work on that.

I’m going to try to make it a point to actually go to one of these shows with him, and tear it up in the pit, whether its a rock concert or a ska show. Most people would be worried, but luckily, Schmidt has arms the size of legs. I’ll be fine.

Note: Google searching for the term “skank” has unpleasant results.

3. Finish the New Book: Unfortunately I haven’t really touched my in-progress manuscript since my vacation. I had to spend a week playing catch up at work, and then spent almost a week at New York Comic Con, followed by another week of playing catch up… sigh. It’s been wonderfully busy. Thankfully, I adore my job and the books I’m working on, so really, it’s not a big deal.

Right now the manuscript is at 30,000 words, and I’m really thrilled with it. My peers seem to dig it as well, which is always nice. But why before 30? Not sure, really. It’d just be nice to say I finished my second book before I turned 30, is all. Plus, it’s nice to have goals set down. Puts the pressure on. You know?

4. Visit Three More Countries: Just so I can round it out to an even five. Already went to Ireland, and come New Years I’ll be staying in Montreal for a week. Though I’ve been to Canada before back in my touring days, I never stayed there for an extended period of time. I think I want to go someplace… old. Like Rome. And not just because I’m currently reading Eat Pray Love.

Now taking suggestions. And not for other books. I freaking like Eat Pray Love. Shut up.

Well, my trip to Puerto Rico was definitely an epic success, both creatively and personally. I relaxed, managed to not check my email every five seconds, got a ton of writing done, and had a lot of firsts.

Saw my first live hummingbird (which as a lot of you know, is a big deal for me), swam with manatees (what!), explored and hiked through a rain forest, saw bio luminescence up close and personal while kayaking… good times. I’ve uploaded all my favorite photos (and videos) to Flickr, so have a look. I also put my favorites below, showing off the highlights.

In terms of writing, well, when I left Philadelphia my new novel was just barely over 10k. Now I’m at over 30k, 100+ pages.

Crazy, right? It’s amazing what pulling yourself out of your element can do. Hoping to have a finished manuscript by the end of the year. Then, the agent search begins. Hooray.

First thing I took a photo of when I landed.

Language advice in the hostel.

Hallway in the hostel.

Out for a walk.

Old buildings in San Juan.

Gorgeous buildings in Old San Juan.

Rescued this hermit crab from the street. <3

Nice place to wait for a bus.

I want to marry the girl who wrote this. <3

Walking on the fort in San Juan.

It’s true. <3

Had to go into Burger King. Couldn’t resist.

Oh hai!

Waterfall in the rainforest

A tower in the rainforest

The rainforest!

Relaxing on Loquillo Beach.

The beach!

My bags are packed. The new netbook (not a crappy… whatever that monster laptop is pictured above) is loaded with my favorite music. It’s time to go.

As much as I like leaving work and heading straight to Rittenhouse Square to write, there are still an endless amount of distractions. Grabbing lemonade at Cosi. Playing with strangers’ puppies. People watching. Checking Facebook, Twitter, etc. on my iPhone. As for writing at home, I’ve got my Xbox, my Apple TV, the Internet, my freaking bunny… the distraction list is enormous, even if I use Freedom to turn off my Internet.

So starting tomorrow, I’m on a little writing vacation. No Internet and limited phone access for most of it. I’m off to Puerto Rico for a little under a week to sit in the sun and then to Boston to hang around various coffee shops. The plan? To finish banging out a rough manuscript I’ve been fiddling with all year. It’s a YA fantasy story that I’m really excited about. 50 pages in and the feedback I’ve received from friends (thank you Jess, Kishwer) has been fantastic. Time to make it happen.

It’s funny. I never gave YA much thought. It wasn’t until I found myself working on Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, that I fell in love with the genre. I read the book late last year, long before we put it into stores. Afterwards, in a matter of months, I tore through all the books in the Hunger Games, the Percy Jackson series, the Mortal Instruments series, and a number of other single titles (all soon to be trilogies) over the year, like Divergent and Ship Breaker. I also discovered Matched and Across the Universe while researching YA bloggers, and picked them up after reading the endless recommendations.

So thanks Ransom. This is all your fault.

Music for the trip includes the discography of Acceptance, Butch Walker, Gin Blossoms, Jimmy Eat World, Sherwood, Third Eye Blind, Vertical Horizon, and The Wallflowers… my favorite music to write to. Note: All those links lead to their respective Last.FM profiles. You’re welcome.

Don’t get me wrong, I fully intend on snorkeling, exploring, taking pictures… all that good stuff you’re supposed to do while on an island (unless that island is Ireland, of course). But I won’t let myself do any of those things until I meet my quota of 2 – 3k words a day.

All that being said… BRB! K? THNXBAI.

So that gigantic peach rose out of the sky like… like… well like a giant orange booty along the highway. To get a real sense of its size, you can see Kishwer and I waving our hands around in the lower left hand corner.

As fate would have it, we actually showed up on the very last day of peach picking season. With a storm on its way and the last of the season’s peaches currently ripe to the point of bursting, we were fortunate to show up when we did. We got “big reds” according to the sign in the stand.

I’m not sure what my favorite part of peach picking was. Climbing trees? Kicking rotten fruit at one another? Finding out that out baskets were made by prison inmates down the road? It’s a serious toss up.

You can check out all the snaps on my Flickr, but I’ve posted my favorite shots from the lovely afternoon in a South Carolina peach orchard below.

On our way to get peaches!

Jess holds her basket, made by prison inmates from down the street.

Our baskets sitting in the orchard.

Millions of peaches, peaches for me.

Plucking a peach.

Jess climbing a tree.

Kish believes she can fly.

Dan plucks a peach.

Michelangelo painted this at some point.

Oh hai!

Jess’ haul.

Trunk loaded up, ready to go!

So my pal Jessica Anne, Kishwer Vikaas and Dan Hafner hopped in a car early Saturday morning (4am!) and made our way down to South Caroline, 600+ miles away from Philadelphia.

We all spent most of the driving part of the trip listening to comedy in standup (I discovered the joys of Doug Benson), audiobook (thank you Neil Patrick Harris for reading The Bro Code), and musical (Flight of the Conchords!) form.

When we weren’t driving, we were exploring local bars, running around small towns (Greer, NC is wonderful!), and eventually, picking peaches. I’ll write a blip about that later.

All the pictures are up on my Flickr, but these are my favorites from the trip. I think I’m going to make it a point to travel someplace with Jess every single year. That gal rocks so hard.

REAVERS!!!

Cute park in Greer, SC.

Local brewery in SC. Amazing.

600+ miles away, can’t get away from Philly. Vintage shop in SC.

Tin ceiling in a cute diner outside Richmond, VA.

Safest place ever?

In late December, in the midst of one of the worst snowstorms EVER, I hopped on a plane to Ireland with one of my close Philly friends, Jessica Anne. The whole trip was a wild idea brought up by my old college friend (now celebrated actress) Jenelle Sosa. Try not to swoon at her headshots should you visit her website. I warned you.

I was hesitant at first. When I go someplace, there are things I want to do. I like to power walk everywhere. I don’t want to listen to tour guides yapping. I don’t want to spend a half hour looking at the same building. I want to meet people. Explore on my own. Not hit the tourist traps.

I’m a bit of a brat.

But traveling with Jess was amazing. We both love meeting new people and making immediate friends, visiting new places (for a few minutes!) before moving the hell on, etc. And somehow, after over a week together in another country, we still couldn’t get enough of each other. Two days after we came home, we were hanging out again. I think its a rare thing, finding a travel buddy you don’t get sick of. It was awesome.

So when she brought up the idea of taking a road trip to South Carolina to go peach picking, of course I said yes.

Photo by Marisa McClellan, who I will bring peaches back for

Sure, we’re driving over 600 miles. And I have to pick my own fruit and PAY for the privilege to do so. And then afterwards, I’m going to be eating fruit. FRUIT. But still. It’s going to be one hell of a fun trip, and a lovely way to spend Labor Day weekend.

Now accepting road trip music suggestions. I’m planning for lots of happy Summer pop punk. Number one on my list? Yellowcard’s latest, When You’re Through Thinking, Say Yes. Probably my favorite CD released this year. Sorry Jess. Prepare to hear that CD a lot.

Pictures next week. Later!

Okay, I have a few words. But not many.

How was your trip? How was Ireland? These two and dozens of other variations on these questions have plagued my week since my return from Ireland. The answers have frustrated my friends and family alike. Oh, it was nice. Um, quite lovely. Really cool. Wait until I post photos. Etc.

Because really, how do you begin to describe a week long adventure across a beautiful country? Especially when it happens to be your first time abroad? There aren’t any words. As much as I fancy myself a writer sometimes (remember this silly book?), proper words really don’t come to mind.

Sure, I had a blast.

I celebrated New Year’s in Dublin with one of my close Philly friends and a pal from college. I drank cider surrounded by Irishmen in pubs older than my country. I explored the West Coast, visiting burial grounds built before the discovery of North America. I went out dancing with new friends from New Zealand, France, & Brazil. I watched the sunset over Napoleon’s fortress, the sunrise over the city of Dublin, and caught my reflection in the breathtakingly beautiful icy lakes of Galway.

But such epic moments are left to be described by travel writers, not a humble soul like myself. So, I leave you with some photographs. Head on over to my Flickr page to experience my adventure.

Ireland Trip [ Flickr ]

When Glen Tickle and I met in the Fall of 2001, neither of us was fond of one another. I was dating his high school sweetheart, and a few months later, he’d go on to steal her back. Years later, he’d marry her. How could we possibly like each other? Well, the Universe is a funny place, and we opted to go against what normal men would do (fight, stab one another) and became close friends. I was even in their wedding. Life is strange and quirky sometimes.

And now, we’re taking our wonderful and unique friendship on the road. The Whiskey Road.

What is The Whiskey Road? It’s a project I’ve been talking about for the better part of two years. When I first discovered the American Whiskey Trail, I knew I wanted to write about it. I love history, I love people, I love traveling, and I was incredibly inspired by the works of Mary Roach (Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers) and Bill Bryson (The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America), authors who create fantastic, research-heavy travel writing with a powerful journalistic influence.

Glen and I will be traveling to all the important locations in American whiskey history from March 31st through April 13th; key locations in the Whiskey Rebellion, the distilleries in Kentucky and Tennessee, museums in Western Pennsylvania… all with the goal of writing a book together. We’ll be blogging, photographing, and vodcasting our adventure on The Whiskey Road’s official website. The results, I hope, will be hilarious. I love people, Glen hates them. I’m not terribly fond of whiskey, Glen knows everything about it.

Yeah, it sounds like our personalities are going to clash… and honestly, I hope they do, and often. I’m aiming for a Sideways-esque, Paul Giamatti (Glen) and Thomas Haden Church (Me) dynamic here, only Glen will be drinking whiskey instead of wine, and I won’t be sleeping with anyone. Sorry to disappoint you, ladies of Kentucky and Tennessee.

I’d like to take a minute to thank Laura from Where Magazine for her sage advice, Melissa and Tiffany from Quirk Books for their encouragement, Scott McNulty for the HD camcorder, Mikey Il for the digital SLR, Tattooed Mom for hosting the launch party, and my job for letting me leave for two weeks.

With Textual Healing set to drop in the Fall, it’s time for something new. A new adventure, a new book. Wish us luck on the road, check in on the blog, party with us at the kick off on Wednesday at Tattooed Mom (70+ RSVPs!), and see you all in the middle of April.

Update: I’ve already got a speaking engagement booked about this project. Philly friends, come by Studio 34 in West Philly on April 17th. I’ll be talking about the project at Pecha Kucha, joined by my favorite local crafter Sara Selepouchin and TommyUp of Philadelphia’s PYT. Chances are I’ll show photos, screen short video clips, and explain the book writing process. Should be fun.