Port-LAND HO! That’s right, keep it weird.

4,700 miles, 4 flights, 3 awesome authors, 2 concerts, 1 panhandling canine, the mecca of all bookstores, an abundance of neon spandex, an unexplained affinity of furry legs warmers, fish hat wearing bicyclists and perhaps what amounts to my new favorite book boyfriend of all time all in just under 36 hours. PHEW!

It all began at the butt crack of dawn when Julie and I arrived at IAH-in the wrong terminal. Those signs that clearly indicate that your particular flight can be found in terminal B, not A, who knew they were accurate!? Changing terminals wasn’t too difficult and we reached our gate just as boarding began. Julie and I sat next to each other with the third seat NOT going to hot Australian accent guy. Bummer. That should totally be a seat option at the ticketing counter. I’d upgrade for sure! Upgrades could be as follows: Extra leg room? $25. Upgrade to first class? $75. Hot Australian accent guy as seat companion? $a bajillion dollars. Sigh. I could never afford $a bajillion dollars. Perhaps there could be an economy priced upgrade. Ugly Australian accent guy (do they even make those over there???) $20. I’d pay. So yeah, no upgrade for us. (Hot Australian accent guy sat one row back. Sad face. Still could hear his sexy accent. Happy face) We arrived in Portland pumped and ready to cram as many things as possible into our short stay. Julie picked out our rental car (based on color, not comfort) so we rolled away in our severely underpowered two door matchbox of a car one Hyundai Veloster, which I quickly dubbed “The Velociraptor”. We checked in at our hotel which was AMAZEBALLS!  Seriously, this suite made me not want to leave the hotel. Next we wandered around town, walking (as everyone walks or bikes in Portland) in search of food. We chose a burger place for the pure and simple pleasure of reading this welcoming sign: We then went to Powell’s City of Books. This store is HUGE! For those who do not know, Powell’s is the largest independent book store in the United States. It is takes up an entire city block and has over one million titles on the shelves. There are 9 different color coded rooms, including my personal favorite: The Rose Room.   It was at Powell’s that we finally met musician Isaac Turner, that we featured a little while back. (click here for link on backstory) We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the uncharacteristically sunny day down on the waterfront. Apparently Portland is super overcast and rainy, except for the ONE day we were there, so yay for that! That is when this happened:   That’s right. This single pic summarizes the weirdness that is Portland. Look closely. Let’s make this a game… can you spot all the weirdness that is Portland? (In the above pic you should be able to spot one fish hat wearing cyclist, a panhandling dog, 2 banjos and probably a lot more weirdness that even we could identify.)   After the park, the three of us hopped in The Velociraptor to head across the Williamette (rhymes with dammit!) River to where Isaac was playing at the Beaterville Cafe. Upon arrive at Beaterville, Isaac was gracious enough to point out that The Velociraptor was actually not a coup. It had a super tiny third door in the back seat on the passenger side. WHO KNEW!? I felt bad for making Isaac climb over the seat to get in the Velociraptor but at least he was clever enough to discover the extra door before exiting. Isaac-one, Rose-zero, Julie-negative one (hey she picked out the car) and The Velociraptor-two (it outsmarted all of us for a while there). Definitely the highlight of the performance was getting to listen and watch Isaac perform the song he wrote for me (based on an idea I gave him).

I LOVED IT! It was different than any version I had heard him do before. I loved it. I said that already. And YAY! Julie recorded it for me! I was happy to see Julie enjoying herself, too. She even bought a copy of his EP! I know that this wasn’t her style of music, but watching him perform live was amazing! It was sooooo good. I can’t wait until he puts out a new cd. Hear that Isaac? Record more songs already! You can check him out here. My favorite song for purchase right now? Speak Less.

We had to leave Isaac’s performance before it ended in order to make the Maybe Someday release party. Wait, did I just now mention that!?  Yes, we travelled all this way to attend Colleen Hoover’s release party for Maybe Someday. The release party was nice and surprisingly intimate feeling. It felt more like you were hanging out with a large group of friends. There was cake and wine and Surprise Surprise! Both Tarryn Fisher (Mud Vein) and Rebecca Donovan (Reason to Breathe) were in attendance! Griffin Peterson and his band performed all 8 songs from the Maybe Someday soundtrack. There was a Q&A with both CoHo and Griff.

Q&A with Colleen Hoover and Griffin Peterson:

What is the next book in this series? This is a trick question because CoHo never said it would be a series. But she would like to have some novellas.

If Griffin is Holder, who is Ridge? Why can’t he be them all? Actually, Griffin is Griffin.

If you could tell aspiring authors one thing you wish you had known, what would it be? Be adaptable. Things change on a daily basis. Go with the flow. Write from your heart – do not look at what is selling well, but write what makes you happy.

Prior to Slammed, was CoHo creative? She said she was, in social media posts and she shared stories with her sisters and mother.

This question was to Griffin – is his band his profession? He lives in Nashville, and graduated from music school. His band members have not graduated yet so for now he is playing music and seeing where it leads. But he is all in on music.

Did Griffin read the book? Well he got synopses of each section that he was writing the songs for, so he got the book piecemeal.

Which one of her characters is CoHo most like or most relates to? She said Sky because she is a smartass.

Who do both look up to the most? CoHo said 50 Shades of Grey author E.L. James because she is humble and level-headed despite her success. Griffin said Andrew Ripp, a song writer in Nashville.

After the concert, we had our books signed by both Colleen and Griffin. While Griffin was signing Maybe Someday for me, I told him that I had met him before. He of course nodded politely, but when I told him I was the weird chick that felt him up at the very end of the Austin Author Event last October, he suddenly looked up and I am not sure if it was a look of recognition or fear that dawned in his face. Either way it was recognition and I was pleased. He is such a nice guy! He was all like, “No, no, that is not weird at all. Not weird at all.” It was completely weird. Sigh. Colleen’s sister, Murphy, ruined every girl’s fantasy there by pointing out Griff’s girlfriend. Yes, he has one and no, it is not you. Sad face. It’s not me either. Double sad face. But Murphy did say that if we knew them personally and saw them together, we would not even be sad because they are literally that cute of a couple. Like fluffy kittens and bouncy puppies cute. Gag. (yes, that is jealously thinly veiled as sarcasm.) Oh well, I still felt him up that once. Yes, my friends, that moment will always be mine, so there is that. Anyways, if you ever get the chance to hear Griffin Peterson sing, or visit Portland, or check out a live performance of Isaac Turner, do it! Highly recommend!!!! Also if you haven’t read Maybe Someday yet, do yourself a favor and enter our giveaway here! We are giving away 2 copies of Maybe Someday. One is even signed by Colleen Hoover and Griffin Peterson.

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