summer bliss

Can you believe the perfect week we’re about to have?

TGIM indeed. Of course, the forecast has changed a bit since I captured this blissful image last night. But we’re still supposed to have a cooler, sunnier week. Can’t freaking wait.

It’s feeling a lot more like summertime should now that the nasty heat wave is over. An ideal summer is all about enjoying the sunshine without being drenched in sweat the second you walk out the door. Lazy days chilling at the pool or beach with a good book. Late nights going out with friends, buzzing with excitement and endless possibilities.

And summer fruit, of course. Watch out if you have summer fruit and you invite me over. You can’t expect me to be in a room with blackberries or raspberries and have any berries left three minutes later. It just doesn’t work that way.

Only a serious summer fruit addict could tell you that one of the most thrilling things to happen this summer was making a pitcher of fresh watermelon juice. I love love LOVE fresh watermelon juice. My BF/soul mate took me to a grocery store in his car (which is how people get around in America) for melons. Riding around in his car is a new experience for me. Last time I rode in a car like this was before I left for college. New Yorkers walk everywhere. When I go to Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods, I lug one huge bag of groceries back to my place. There’s no way I’m adding a ginormous watermelon to the haul. That would be the only thing in my bag.

So Matt took charge. I now have a massive watermelon, honeydew, and sharlyn melon (because the cantaloupes were lacking) in my kitchen. Well, I did before I attacked the melons with my melon baller. I cut the watermelon in half, scooped out the melon with an ice cream scoop, cut those fun triangle edges along the rim, then filled it with melon balls of the three melons. Then I added blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries on top. A colorful tri-melon tri-berry fruit salad. Hello, summer!

A side effect of gorging yourself on juicy melon? Is apparently having to pee every hour. Which will make tonight’s mini golf excursion challenging. But summer fruit bliss is worth it.

If you need me during the rest of July, I’ll be laying out on the sundeck all this perfect week. Enjoy the summer breeze 🙂

summertime twitter giveaway

Why am I giving away a signed copy of All I Need on Twitter this week?

Because I can. And I don’t need all these copies. And it’s summertime, which is the perfect time to read a sparkly summer teen romance. Yay 🙂

How to enter:

1. Follow me on Twitter.

2. Tweet this:

Win a shiny new signed copy of #allineed! Follow @susanecolasanti and RT to enter. Giveaway info: https://susanecolasanti.wordpress.com/

Giveaway rules:

1. All entries must be tweeted by Sunday, July 28 at 11:11 pm.

2. Only one tweet per entrant will be counted.

3. I will announce and contact the winner on Twitter.

4. The winning mailing address must be located in the United States.

Happy summer reading!

they are real

Hot enough for you? There’s nothing like a sustained heat wave to make even the smallest errand horrific. Was that me drenched in sweat after walking around the corner for an Italian ice? Then coping with a completely melted Italian ice before I could take three bites? Sure was.

But this weekend was actually cool. I was visiting some old friends in Philly. Getting caught in a downpour followed by hours in air conditioning with wet clothes does wonders to cool you off. Something else cool? Was reuniting with this building on South Street:

Those of you who’ve read All I Need may recall the scene where Skye is visiting Seth at Penn and they’re walking around Center City and he shows her this building covered with tiles. Those tiles are real. They extend all the way into the courtyard:

Are there other actual places in All I Need? Of course. I love including real locations in my books. I’m all about realistic fiction. Including real places helps to make my stories feel more authentic. A few of the Philly places mentioned no longer exist, though. But I adored them when I lived in Philly while I was at Penn.

There was this place called Phantom Fountain on 21st and Pine that was magnificent. It was an old-school soda fountain with a preserved counter and original stools and those vintage blenders and milkshake cups. That’s where Seth works in the book. Diner on the Square will also live on in my heart. My friend Jim and I had brunch there almost every Sunday. We called it sun brun. We invented abbreve. You know how everything is all fro-yo and apps and vacays now? Yeah. We invented that language. We talked in abbreve every sun brun way before abbreve was a thing. Jim is convinced that there were spies at Diner on the Square who blew up abbreve into standard hipster speak. Guess I missed the part where they gave us credit.

A visit to Philly wouldn’t be complete without stopping by the Rittenhouse Square Barnes & Noble. I used to go there all the time in college back when it was a different bookstore. So finding some of my books to sign was another full-circle moment:

There have been a lot of full-circle moments lately. Mainly because of my BF/soul mate. We’re connected in tons of non-coincidental ways. Like how we grew up 10 miles from each other in Middle of Nowhere, New Jersey. We didn’t meet as teens. He’s two years older than me and we went to different high schools. The Universe brought us together when it was time. I’ll be telling you more about him soon. For now, just know how thankful I am that Matt makes everything in my life better. He’s my #1 fan. He even stickered the books after I signed them:

How cute is he? When readers tell me that All I Need made them believe in the possibility of true love, I let them know that soul mates are real. And just like those tiles, they can be found around any corner. Keep your heart open. And keep looking up.

Stay cool, friendly neighbors.

on the news

TGIM! There’s nothing like a shiny new week for a fresh start. I hope you’re having a spectacular summer so far.

Just wanted to share this clip from when Keep Holding On was featured on the PIX 11 morning news. We recently had the clip retrieved from oblivion. Shout-out to reader Emilie Woda for making this segment so special.

Stay strong and never give up ❤