In an effort to try to post (a bit) more regularly, I’ve decided to make use of my various obsessions, and instead of only unloading them on friends, I’ll post some of them here from time to time. This promises to be an incredibly random list, so don’t count on any level of continuity. I’ll try to group a few together at once — or maybe not.

Favorite Event I Attended Recently: A party for the Humane Society where Drew and I got to see the inside of East Hampton’s Grey Gardens, the house made famous by its inhabitants, the film about them, the musical based on the film, the fictional film that is soon to be released, and so on and so on… Yes, it was as magical as I had hoped.

Thing I’m Excited About: Seeing my friend David Levithan’s novel (written with Rachel Cohn) Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist in its film adaptation, being plugged at the local movie theater. Comes out October 3.

Book of the Moment: The 19th Wife, by David Ebershoff. I will read anything by David.

Other Book on My Nightstand: How Fiction Works, by James Wood. Brilliant criticism.

Book Series I Should Have Read A Long Time Ago: The Uglies trilogy, by Scott Westerfeld. Amazing: I tore through them in about a week.

Another Thing I’m Excited About: Yes, predictable, but the return of Gossip Girl. I love the bit in this article about how young girls burst into tears at the sight of Taylor Momsen. They were filming last week in my neighborhood, so I’m awaiting the new season — especially to look out for when they’re in the West Village one minute and magically end up on the Upper East Side the next. It’s like their world is so charmed, they never even have to deal with traffic.

Recent Re-discovery: This article about Simon Doonan’s gift picks last month reminded me of Pearl River Mart, which has come a long way since its days of cheap imported crap (I used to shop there when I was younger, looking for, well, cheap imported crap). I ordered two of these trays, which look just as good up close as Simon promises.

Be Prepared For: When it comes to interior design, I’m a total wallpaper freak. Kelly Wearstler’s Imperial Trellis was recently released in Raspberry, aka pink. Which basically means you’re going to see this already ubiquitous pattern in every design magazine, blog, and TV show from now ’til the year 2015. Don’t say I didn’t warn you…

I know I’ve been a bit lackadaisical about posting to the Dolblog ever since the book tour ended. But I’ve been busy, and I always want the postings actually to be, you know, good — or at the very least, informative. And since right now all my writing energy’s being poured into my latest project, the first installment of Secret Society, there’s not much left over at the end of the day. Excuses, excuses…

Anyway, the East Hampton Library benefit this past weekend was quite a scene, with nearly a hundred of us authors signing our titles that were for sale, with the proceeds going to the library. The novelist Melissa Bank joked to me that standing in front of her books as people perused them made her feel like an Amsterdam hooker, advertising her wares (I confided that I sort of felt the same way). My pal David Ebershoff was there with his acclaimed new novel, The 19th Wife, as was Philip Galanes with Emma’s Table. Afterwards, a smaller group of authors were hosted at private dinners by local library supporters. My hosts baked blueberry cobbler in honor of The Sixth Form’s Hannah, which was incredibly thoughtful, and I was touched to see how many of the dinner attendees had read the novel and had very specific questions.

And yes, in other news, I am engaged! Drew proposed to me on May 1 in Paris while we were spending a few weeks there, doing research and working on book projects. We’ve gotten a kick out of the reaction to it, from San Francisco to New York, and of course the wonderful news from California regarding the gay marriage decision made our own news even sweeter.

That’s about all for me for now…it’s back to teenagers, the Upper East Side, and secret societies…

-Tom will be appearing at the East Hampton Library Authors Night with authors E.L. Doctorow, A.M. Homes, David Ebershoff, Melissa Bank, and others. Go to the website for information on the cocktail party and private dinner.

-The Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys paperback will be available from Plume next week with a brand-new cover!

-Australia’s DNA Magazine ran a two page interview with Tom in its recent issue.

I’ve had the pleasure of discovering that I’ve been nominated for the (dubious?) distinction of “Author on the Brink of Fame” by Logo TV, which will be broadcasting its NewNowNext Awards on June 7. You can vote for me at Logo Online. My name is the last of five.

I’m in the company of authors Christopher Barzak, Perry Moore, Robert Leleux, and T. Cooper, as well as talents and shows like Ellen Page, Tina Fey, Matthew Rhys, Margaret Cho, Gossip Girl, Brothers & Sisters, Saturday Night Live, Greek, and The Sarah Silverman Program.

You can also add a link on your Facebook page. If you’d like to add me as a friend, just throw in a note saying, “Hey, your novels rock,” or something like that so I know you’re not a total stranger.

Okay, commercial break over.

Exciting news: my agent sold my first young adult series, Secret Society (aka The Secret Society Chronicles, at least according to the New York Post — we are still batting around titles) to editor Brenda Bowen’s new young adult imprint at HarperCollins, The Bowen Press. Page Six announced the deal yesterday.

The series centers around four teens who attend an elite Upper East Side prep school in Manhattan, The Mansfield School. Phoebe, Lauren, Nick, and Patch all find their lives intertwined when several of them are tapped to join an exclusive underground group called The Society that has secret outposts everywhere from the Meatpacking District to the Metropolitan Museum. It’s fun stuff, and I’ve been having a blast writing it ever since I started on the project last fall.

The first book is slated for summer 2009, so I’m going to be pretty busy for the next few months.

New York Social Diary is running an interview with Tom this week, as well as pictures from the San Francisco book party.

-April’s edition of CITY Magazine features a four page photo spread on Tom’s living room and an interview with Tom about The Sixth Form.

-Tom and David Levithan’s recent conversation is the latest Author2Author entry on the literary blog Beatrice.com.

-LA Confidential’s recent issue had a write-up on The Sixth Form, complete with suggestions for a film version of the novel.

-Curled Up With a Good Book featured an interview with Tom this month.

-The Hamptons publication Dan’s Papers reviewed The Sixth Form.

-More photos of the San Francisco book party are posted at SFLuxe.com.

It’s taken me more than a week to get back in the swing of things after the final leg of the tour: after the NY book party, I caught a flight the next morning to San Francisco to make it in time for the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library reading where I read with Andrew Sean Greer (The Confessions of Max Tivoli) and K.M. Soehnlein (The World of Normal Boys). We all presented new work, which is an experience both terrifying and thrilling for a writer, but I think it went well (it’s good when people laugh in all the right places). A terrific, well-read crowd showed up, and asked some great questions, particularly about research and historical fiction — not surprising at a library.

The next evening was my final reading, at the fabulous Rakestraw Books in Danville. I might not normally travel so far afield for one reading, but Rakestraw is an exception — it’s a bookstore with an amazingly loyal audience, and when the owner, Mike Barnard, tells his customers they should read a book, they read it. Mike served Cosmos and appetizers before the reading to a packed crowd — and all this on a Friday night in the suburbs! The audience was wonderful, and apart from my dad, who came with me, I didn’t know any of them, so it was a treat to meet an entirely new set of fans.

I had the weekend off, then on Monday headed to the very last event of the tour: a private book party at a stunning apartment owned by some family friends, Francoise and Andrew Skurman. The place is all white, from floor to ceiling, and is punctuated by artwork (among the paintings, a Damien Hirst), sculpture (some by Francoise herself), and silver and white furniture — it’s like being in a cloud. Check out the pictures from the evening, taken by photographer Drew Altizer, particularly a few of them that show off the 15th floor view of Nob Hill and the Bay.

The party was like icing on a perfect cake — and now, on to the next project it is…

Tom was featured on Rugby’s blog with “his favorite things” recently, and there’s another report on the NY launch party in New York Social Diary.

The book tour is ending with the busiest week yet: On Monday night, I read at McNally Robinson Bookstore in Soho with author Tod Harrison Williams. Once again, we had an SRO crowd at this wonderfully relaxed bookstore-cafe venue (packed readings have been a running theme this time around; I can’t complain). I went first, and then got to enjoy Tod’s hilarious excerpt from his novel, Knife Boy, about a college guy’s summer selling knives door-to-door, published by Simon & Schuster.

The next evening I appeared on Sirius Satellite Radio on the Derek & Romaine Show, where apparently I had been requested by a number of listeners, some of whom called in with questions.

On Wednesday night was the long-awaited official book launch party at the Ralph Lauren Rugby store on University Place. The party had been pushed back so as not to compete with fashion week, and it was well worth the wait. Gillian Hearst-Simonds and her husband Christian, who actually met at boarding school, hosted the event. DJ Johnny Dynell provided the music — I’m continually impressed by how much time and energy Johnny puts into his events: for this one, he actually researched prep school music, and played all the classics. Johnny, Gillian, Christian, and I were all dressed by Rugby’s stylists (and we got to keep the clothes!) so we pranced around for the evening in our pastel-colored finery. And even Drew, who doesn’t fancy himself a preppy, let me dress him in Rugby clothes for the evening.

The store was the perfect backdrop for the party with its prep-meets-rock-n-roll theme, as everyone enjoyed mini grilled cheese sandwiches, PB&J, and fresh popcorn served in Rugby cups. There were apparently 500 RSVPs for the party, which left Rugby’s management a bit panicked (the store holds about 200), but for an author, well, I was thrilled. The event was written up beforehand in the The New York Observer’s Eight Day Week (complete with snarky excerpt from the novel) and pictures and writeups can be found at PatrickMcMullan.com and GalleyCat (apparently I have a fan in Project Runway’s Daniel Vosovic — thanks, Daniel!). Gawker wanted to come and do a report, and I would have happily let them, but apparently that was a no-go for Rugby, because God forbid someone, you know, make fun of preppies.