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The Class of 2k7 is pleased to welcome two new members with debut books scheduled for 2007.

Connie Leeds' book, THE SILVER CUP, will debut in April from Viking.

Karen Day's middle grade novel, TALL TALES, is set to launch in May from Wendy Lamb Books.

The Class will be closing to new members after October 15th.

ALA announced that author Meg Cabot has recorded public service announcements for Teen Read Week.  The announcements are available in mp3 format and are for libraries to use to promote Teen Read Week locally.  You can find the PSAs at the Teen Read Week site. 

Congratulations to Class of 2k7 member Sara Zarr for being interviewed on Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations blog. The interview is here and Sara is taking comments and follow-up questions on her 2k7 discussion board here. She is eager to talk to you!

Congratulations to Class of 2k7 member Paula Chase for getting mentioned in Romantic Times Bookclub Magazine. (As reported by Class of 2k7 member Stephanie Hale--since my copy this month seems to have gotten lost in the mail. :D)

Congratulations to Class of 2k7 member Melissa Marr for finalizing the title of her upcoming debut book. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present... WICKED LOVELY! Like I told Melissa, that wicked awesome title is going to play well here in Boston.

Greg R. Fishbone is Class President of the Class of 2k7 and a lifelong Bostonian. His wicked pissa book, THE PENGUINS OF DOOM, is coming to a clambake near you in July 2007.

Please welcome Paula Jolin, Ann Dee Ellis, and Rosemary Clement-Moore as the 26th, 27th, and 28th members of the Class of 2k7! We now collectively represent a quite impressive list of publishers, genres, and states--with more to come!

Paula's first book, IN THE NAME OF GOD, is an edgy, upper-YA about a Syrian Muslim girl who decides to become a suicide bomber. The book is scheduled for publication in April 2007 by Roaring Brook Press.

Ann Dee's first book, THIS IS WHAT I DID, is about a thirteen year old boy who can't talk, isn't cool, hates sports and misses his best friend who is gone--completely gone! The book is scheduled for release in July 2007 from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Rosemary's first book, PROM DATES FROM HELL, is about an honors student and school newspaper reporter who must use her wits and intuition to stop an ancient evil before all Hell breaks looks at the Senior Prom. The book is scheduled for a May 2007 release from the Delacorte Press imprint of Random House, and will be the first in a series.

Why not say hi to Paula, Ann Dee, and Rosemary on their discussion boards at the new Class of 2k7 Forum?

Greg R. Fishbone is Class President and master of endless web updates for the Class of 2k7. His humorous epistolary middle grade adventure novel, THE PENGUINS OF DOOM, will hit rock your world in July 2007.

b_bentley asks: How did you know you were "done" and ready to submit it to an agent?

All I can say is, I finally reached a point where I felt there was not one more thing I would or could do to the manuscript--I was proud of it and my character's story felt "complete." Naturally this was after thousands of rewrites, but still--I finally made it.

Like everyone else, I think I'm done, and then there's something else. "Done" for me usually means that I've reached the point that I'm satisfied with the structure; satisfied with my characters; satisfied with the language, the flow and the rhythm; and my tweaks consist of changing words and then changing them back. Wait a few months however, and all bets are off.

An agent asked to see ELLIE McDOODLE before it was finished, and told me she'd be out of town for two weeks. I sent whatever I had, when she came back. I think it was about 54 pages of graphic novel-ish manuscript and art, posted to a secret website. I didn't even have an ending yet, just a rough outline of where the book was going.

She loved it and emailed it out to a publisher before even formally signing with me. As she was sending it, I was frantically finishing the book and uploading new pages so that when an editor finally had time to look at it, the book was done.

I expected to be told to make revisions, but that came much later.

The way I know a manuscript is "done" is when nothing bothers me about it anymore. All the niggling little issues are handled, and it's the best I can do.

My books are never done, ever, ever, ever. THE PENGUINS OF DOOM was written and rewritten over a period of years, accepted for publication, edited, edited again, extensively copyedited, and it's still not done. Just today I came up with an idea that absolutely has to be put into the book. It's the curse of being a perfectionist.

I've had to learn how to submit books knowing that they're not yet done, and that I'll probably think up a dozen small changes five minutes after I've closed the mailbox flap. That's just the way it is.

This is what happens to me when I write a book:

1. Finish the first draft of book and then revise it.
2. Put book away for AT LEAST one week.
3. I look at the book. I revise it again.
4. I revise it again.
5. I think, "Oh, this is done."
6. I realize it will never be done.

With TIPS ON HAVING A GAY (ex) BOYFRIEND, I skipped steps four and five. I just sent it out. I thought, "Hhmmm. Let's just see what happens." Andrew Karre picked it up, asked me to add about 10,000 words. I added about 30,000 by the time I was completely through with it.

Now, like Greg, I feel it will never be done. Not really. Not in the sense of the book's universe. The book, is basically done, but the scenes beyond it, the themes behind it, the emotions within it, they still rotate around, waiting for readers to take that extra step beyond the book.

jenlibrarian asks:  "Do your parents (children/spouses/household members) finally appreciate you/your work?

PART 3 OF 3

Stephanie Hale (REVENGE OF THE HOMECOMING QUEEN, Berkley Jam)

Absolutely! NOT!

Don't get me wrong, my family is my world. But they are very "in the box" job kind of people. Pretty much the only writing time I have is when my kids sleep so nobody ever sees me working so it's still like I don't. I suppose maybe when I get my cover they might realize what's happening, but I'm not holding my breath!

It was funny how no one had a problem asking me how much money I was going to make though! I just told them it depended on how many copies they bought

Marlane Kennedy (ME AND THE PUMPKIN QUEEN, Greenwillow/HarperCollins)

My family has always been great, even though it took me fourteen years to be published.  My father has been bragging to people for years that he had a daughter that was a children's book author.  Pre-contract I found that pretty embarrassing, but I appreciated the fact he thought what I was doing was worthwhile.  And now that I will actually have a book in print you can imagine how much more bragging he is doing.  My husband has always made time for me to write.  I can't even begin to count the number of times he has taken our kids places or entertained them so I coud have some quiet time to write without the usual interruptions.  Never once has he grumbled--even when it seemed like my writing was destined to be a hobby only.  He certainly was happy though, when the first advance check came in! 

Marissa Doyle (BEWITCHING SEASON, Henry Holt)

My family has always been very supportive, especially my uber-god of a husband who has, at times, been more sure of my selling than I have.  My children have slowly been trained not to go chat with Mommy while the door to her writing room is closed and have finally come to accept that this is my "job".  My 15 yr old son is one of my draft readers, and one of the first things one of the girls asked me was, "So we'll be able to go into Barnes & Noble and see your book there?  Wow!"

My one sadness connected with writing and family has to do with my father-in-law.  Although I don't think he's picked up a book since graduating from Marlborough College in VT after WWII, he himself wrote poetry and had an enormous respect for the written word.  When I first started writing about three years ago I found out that he was bragging to everyone about his daughter-in-law who was a writer, and how many manuscripts I'd completed, and so on...however, at about the same time (though we didn't know it) he was in the early stages of Lewy Body Disease, an Alzheimer's-like illness.  He still recognizes me about half the time when I stop in to see him, but as for being able to understand that I actually sold...no, not really.  I know how pleased and proud he would have been, and I'm very sad that I haven't been able to share the whole publishing process with him.

Sara Zarr (STORY OF A GIRL, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

My husband has always been supportive and has taken me seriously ever since I took myself seriously, and I think my extended family has always been hopeful even when they didn't fully understand what I was doing. What a contract has done for me is make me more secure in how I talk about my writing and in my own identity. Those things were always bigger issues for me than what my friends and family thought.

Sarah Aronson (HEAD CASE, Roaring Brook Press)

My kids have been great.  We like to joke that while I've been writing and working toward an MFA, they've been raised by wolves.

Wolves make very good parents!!

Got a question for the Debut Authors? Leave us a comment and let us know!

The results are in….

And the prize of an autographed copy of an advanced reader copy of PRINCESS ON THE BRINK (she promised not to post spoilers) goes to Corinna of Austin, TX, who correctly named the author and title of the mystery book. Which is:

THE SABLE MOON

by the fantastically talented fantasy author Nancy Springer.

Here's a quick synopsis I cobbled together from reader reviews online:

The Sable Moon is a "coming of age" story, an ?adult fairy tale,' a tapestry of mystery, magic, and romance. The main character, Trevyn, starts out a self-absorbed teenage prince (the kind you wouldn't mind strangling). Unfortunately, that makes him the perfect target for old enemies. When Trevyn's selfishness causes him to run away, he turns up in a village just in time to save Megan, a village girl, from an attack. From there, Prince Trevyn must embark on a quest to free his homeland from evil's grip and realize his own legendary destiny....

Oh, yeah. Nancy Springer gives good book (cue: Peaches' “You Love It”).

I ordered my own copy here! I highly recommend you get one for yourself, as well. You won't regret it. Sadly the book is out of print, but maybe if enough of us demand a reprint, Nancy's publisher will pony up!

Thanks to all the many many helpful readers who wrote in with their tips and guesses. You totally saved me! And if you are ever looking for a book and can't remember the title or author, numerous librarians wrote to me to advise going here (they have a different search engine for each genre). I tried it, and it TOTALLY worked. Thanks, librarians, Allreaders, and the Gordonator! (cue: Peaches' “Boys Wanna Be Her”)

While I was ordering The Sable Moon, I started feeling all nostalgic for other books I'd read and love in the past (as one does), so I bought this, too:


Why, yes, that IS a copy of my favorite book of all time, COLD COMFORT FARM, with a new cover by my favorite cartoonist of all time, Roz Chast. How stoked am I? (cue: Peaches' “Rock the Shocker”)

Oh, and then I bought this:

Because nothing rules (when you're a little depressed because you have so little time and SO MUCH TO DO) more than re-reading the witty banter between Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane.

For those of you unfamiliar with Lord Peter and Harriet, start with the above, then go on to:

then dive into

and finish up with a delicious dose of

(cue: Peaches' “Stick It”)

You won't regret it. Just get a bilingual friend to translate the naughty parts, which are all in French.

And then, since I was having such a good time ordering stuff, my finger slipped or something, and I ended up ordering this:

YEAH! GAMEBOY! IN PINK!!!!
And also some old school

to play on it. Because some addictions you just never get over, no matter how long it's been.
(cue: Peaches' “Get It”)

Oh, and, obviously, I ordered this:

She's NAUGHTY. In a good way.

Anyway, for those of you who tried to sign up for the AvonFanLit and couldn't because it's for people over 18, fear not: Harper Teen will be having a similar contest soon. I will keep you posted when I know more. DON'T TELL ANYONE I GAVE YOU A HEAD'S UP!!! But if I were you, I'd start brainstorming ideas now. Because I might be one of the judges.

Lastly, if you like celebrity gossip, and you haven't been going here, don't worry, I won't tell anyone.

Thanks again to Corinna and EVERYONE who wrote in to help with my Book Mystery. I owe you one..

I have to go read now. I mean, write my book. Bye!

More later.

Much love,

Meg

It's here! Your big chance at publishing stardom! Also, your big chance at winning a free autographed book of your choice from me!

In one of the many magazines I have read recently (I retain what's in them but not which magazine I got the information from, sorry), they did a poll to find out what their readers' dream job was, and the # 1 most popular dream job?

Romance writer.

Which I fully understand because--not to brag--we do get to work in our pajamas.

Well, now's your big chance to join us:

HarperCollins editors and Avon Romance authors invite you to join thousands of fans online to collectively create an original e-book — one chapter at a time.

Log on now through October 27th for a unique online writing event where Avon Romance authors, editors, and readers team up to create an original e-book novella. Each week, you, the fans, will submit your own chapters based on a predetermined story line.

Then fans and authors will vote for their favorite chapter. The one with the highest vote total will win the week.

Yes. It will be like the American Idol of writing. Only without Simon Cowell.

The event will continue for six weeks and in the end the novella will be published as an e-book. Throughout the event, prizes will be awarded, including grand prizes of an in-person session with an Avon editor and a $5,000 development deal with Fox TV!

See you online at AvonFanLit.com



So, get writing.

And here is ANOTHER contest--though of a different kind:

--Help Meg Figure Out Which Book This Is--

Okay, this is driving me cRaZy. I can't remember the title or author of this book I read as a teen, and I am appealing to you, my readers, for help. Because I HATE not remembering where I read something (magazines aside).

The first person who emails me with the title and author of the book I'm about to describe will receive a free autographed copy of whichever one of my books (currently on bookstore shelves in the U.S.) he or she chooses (overseas readers, this contest is open to you as well). Just please be sure to include a mailing address AND BOOK CHOICE in your reply so that I can send you your prize.

Okay, so here is all I remember about the book:

It's fantasy (or possibly sci-fi), and I read it in the early 1980s. There was a prince in it (I think he was a prince, he might not have been), and also a girl. I think there was also some Evil that had to be defeated. The girl's name was Megan (thus my interest). Possibly her full name was Megan By-the-Woods. I don't remember the plot or even what planet it takes place on, but I do remember that at one point the prince or whoever asks Megan to go to some dance or function (but at that point in the book he doesn't really think of her romantically, and she knows it) and she has to get a dress for it, and the dress she ends up having made totally rocks (although I don't remember if they end up getting together, or if they defeat the Evil...if there IS any evil).

Okay, that's all I got. Except that as a tween or teen or however old I was when I read this book, I LOVED it. Sometimes it's dangerous as an adult to go back and read books you loved as a kid because often they do not stand the test of time (case in point: Flambards). However, I am willing to risk it, if any of you can help.

Remember, if you think you know the title and author of the above book, please be sure to include a mailing address AND BOOK CHOICE in your reply so that I can send you your prize. Please email mewith your answer here.

That's it for now. Many thanks in advance.

Oh, and sign up for the Avon thingie. I mean, a development deal with Fox TV? Hello.

More later.

Much love,

Meg

In all my perterbations about Pluto, I almost forgot about an appearance I’m doing tomorrow night as part of The Last Days month!

Here’s the scoop about the event, a night of strange and varied entertainments celebrating the release of Jeff VanderMeer’s new novel Shriek: An Afterword.

It’s a big multimedia extravaganza that includes my pals Ellen Kusher and Delia Sherman. But the big event is a screening of “Shriek: The Movie,” a short film based on the novel, directed by Juha Lindroos and with an original soundtrack by legendary art-rock band The Church.

I’ll be reading from The Last Days for the first time ever.

Here’s an important note for young fans: Galapagos is a bar, and you have to be 21 to get in. (Sorry.)

It’s $7, and here’s where it is.

The Last Days is a sequel to Peeps, comes out September 7, and can be pre-ordered now.

After much debate, the new title and cover for the sequel to SIZE 12 IS NOT FAT is...


Personally, I like it. Hope you do, too.

More later.

Much love,

Meg

It's that time again:

Time for me to give you my reviews of all the TV shows and movies I've seen lately, in my continuing effort to help you make informed choice with your hard-earned entertainment dollars (and time).

I suffer so you don't have to, people. That's what it's all about.

First up:

TV:

Summer is a tough time for TV lovers like myself because everything good is on hiatus based on the (erroneous) assumption that we viewers are too busy at our beach houses to watch TV (as if).

But there are a few good new shows out there (and some not good ones), so here goes:

--HEX--
I don't know if any you have been following the BBC America television show HEX—touted as the UK version of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER—but I gave it a full season's try, and I have to say…it's no Buffy. If you are a fan of Libba Bray's GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY, you might like this show, because it too is set at an English boarding school with weird witchy goings-on. But be aware that the show got cancelled in England after the second season so I'm not sure any of the storylines ever get resolved.

--RESCUE ME--
I haven't watched this season yet because I've been on the road, so I missed a bunch of episodes. I want to watch them all in order because I hear it's great. So as soon as I catch up I'll let you know.

--WEEDS--
The new season starts on Showtime Aug. 14! You'd have to be HIGH to miss it.

--SAVED--
No, not the movie with Mandy Moore (which was awesome), but the TV show. I tried to watch this on TNT. Twice. If it were just about Tom Everett Scott I would be all over it. But there are all these other characters, and we have to see things from their point of view sometimes. I just want T.E.S. all the time. Preferably with his shirt off. Why will no network give me this?

--THE CLOSER--
Perfection. Sure, I can usually figure out Who-Done-It midway through. But like the show BONES, that is not the point. Watching Kyra Sedgewick and the rest of the quirky cast on this TNT mystery series is.

--LUCKY LOUIE--
This half hour sitcom on Showtime is worth watching because it's cute, and the actors and actresses in it are great. Especially the ones who play Louie's daughter and wife. Also, anything with Laura Kightlinger in it is an automatic must-see.

--THE MINOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF JACKIE WOODMAN--
See above. This new series on the Independent Film Channel stars Laura Kightlinger as an actress/screenwriter. It's got a very So NoTORIous flavor, only dirtier and without the rich people. More than decent so far.

--ANTHONY BOURDAIN: NO RESERVATIONS--
I like this series, because it shows exotic places I would never go to and food I would never eat in real life, so I get to feel like I've been to those places and eaten that food without actually having to do either. Special note: Tony got caught up in Beirut when the bombing started. The episode about this airs August 21 on the Travel Channel.

--ENTOURAGE--
He Who Shall Not Be Named In This Blog hates this show. I like it. So there are fights when it comes on. I always win. The end. (PS I want to see AQUAMAN so bad. I mean, if it existed.)

--BIG LOVE--
I didn't expect to get sucked into a show about a polygamist and his three wives and their children…but I did. It makes me laugh. Polygamy is heinous and wrong. But the polygamy Bill Paxton's character practices isn't like the kind you see on the news. The women involved signed up for it of their own free will, and are of age. I am not saying it's the best show ever, but I'll be tuning in next season.

--MADE--
Have you been watching the new season of Made on MTV? There was a GREAT one recently about a girl who never finishes what she sets out to do, but wants to be a boxer. The best part of that episode is when the coach tells the girl, Yazmin, that she's going to go up against another girl in an amateur boxing match, and the first thing Yazmin asks, in all seriousness, is “Is she pretty?” Oh my God, I could not stop laughing. So awesome.


--WHAT NOT TO WEAR--
Where would we be without Stacy and Clinton on TLC's What Not to Wear? I don't know. And I don't want to know. All I know is that they, Nick, and Carmindy make the world a better place and I love them for it.


--FLIP THIS HOUSE—
I used to love this show on A&E because it featured Ginger, a sassy real estate developer who got her dog from a shelter, and her psychotic boss, Richard. But now there are all these new people on it, some of whom are actually unpleasant. So I can't be bothered to watch it anymore. Bring back Ginger, and this viewer will come back.


MOVIES:

--LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE--
Oh my God, this movie rocks. It is so quirky—but in a good way. Like, it's mainly about a child, and yet it is NOT for children. Steve Carrell stars as a gay suicidal Proust scholar…which doesn't sound funny, and yet it is. Actually the whole cast is great. I was especially impressed by the teenaged son. This film has a Napoleon Dynamite-esque scene at the end that had me almost choking with laughter. I mean, if Napoleon Dynamite had been totally dirty.

--JOHN TUCKER MUST DIE--
I had to go see this movie because the title reminded me of my upcoming book, TOMMY SULLIVAN IS A FREAK (now renamed PANTS ON FIRE). JTMD is a total teen movie, and for that reason, I loved it. One review compared it to John Hughes. It is no John Hughes. But it's cute, and I had a blast at it.

--SNAKES ON A PLANE—
Just admit that there's this tiny part of you that wants to see this movie, solely because of this amateur trailer. It's okay. I'll be there opening day, August 18, too.

MUSIC:

For those of you with iTunes who've been asking about the music Jason listens to in The B in HOW TO BE POPULAR (#2 on this week's New York Times' Children's Chapter Books bestseller list!), I have a surprise for you here!

BOOKS:

I haven't been able to read a book in forever because I'm busy writing them, and when I'm writing a book I can't read other people's books. All I've been reading lately are magazines and newspapers. So you are on your own for the book thing. Good luck!

I hope you found this guide helpful. Now go forth and spend your leisure dollars/time wisely!

More later.

Much love,

Meg

Some people think that publishing is one big mystery. Well, I'm here it tell you, it's not. It's OODLES of Big Mysteries, all over the place. Everywhere. It's so mysterious that if you go to Scholastic HQ (that's detective talk for "headquarters") they even have secret messages written into their carpet. I swear!

Speaking of HEADquarters, have you seen the Target bags where they list what you can do with the bags once you take your stuff out? My favorite one is "Put ice in it for head lumps." Head lumps? HEAD LUMPS!!! I love it. Head lumps. Teen and I made "head lumps" our word(s) of the day and tried to work it into our conversations whenever we could. (It was funny at first, but then got sort of annoying.)

Oh rats. I did it again. That rambling thing. Okay, back to unspooling the mysteries of publishing . . . one topic at a time. In a past blog, Becky asked me if I thought that copyediting was going by the wayside in big publishing houses. Before I go into that, let me tell you what exactly copyediting is. At least, as far as I can figure.

I just got my copyedited SO TOTALLY EMILY EBERS manuscript back on Monday. (Due back to NYC on Friday.) There are two sets of colored pencil marks all over it.

One is from the Susan (blue pencil), the amazing copyeditor. She makes sure that things like names are spelled consistently throughout. She corrects grammar, and checks facts ("Is the Castellucci Collection a real clothing line?" Nope, it's a homage to Cecil Castellucci, my fashionista pal.) She asks great Millicent Min-esque questions like, "If Emily lived in New Jersey, wouldn't she go to Walt Disney World instead of Disneyland?"

The editor, Cheryl Klein (red pencil, but sometimes gray pencil) who I will see on Sunday when she talks Harry Potter at the trendy Grove in Los Angeles, then writes her notes stating if she agrees with copyeditor, and sometimes asks even more questions.

Then I (green pencil) go over it all and erase what I don't want changed, or use my pencil to make changes. Anything I agree with, I leave as is. It is THAT technical. Ha! And you thought we used computers for everything?

So, Becky, I queried a bunch of author friends and they all said that their pub houses still have copyediting as a step. But that some places use freelance copyeditors. Next stage . . . proofreading!

And now, random stuff . . .

1. EEeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkk . . . I'm going to be interviewed by MiHi Ahn for NPR (KQED, the San Francisco affiliate) in 3-1/2 hours. Am I worried? YES. What will I do with Puppy? Whenever I am on the phone she thinks it's her cue to bark. Hmmmm, I think doggie treats/bribes are in order.

I'll let you know more about the interview, and when it will air, once I find out.

2. I have been busy running uphill and listening to audiobooks on my new iPod. Only, I don't know how to shut it off, and Teen's not around to help. Oh well.

3. I ordered a projector and it arrived today. It arrived today. It arrived today. Yup. They sent me THREE of them. I called and am shipping two back. I was told I was a "very honest person." I like that.

And now, photos of the weak . . . er, week . . .

Urg. I have been trying for the last HOUR to post a really nice photo of a shoe tree. But I can't seem to paste the jrjtrbbrsecretcodehgrbfsbf in. Therefore, imagine this . . . a tree. A tree full of shoes. It's something I took a photo of while in the desert.

I'm sure this all has to do with the computer upgrade I got recently so I could download stuff to my iPod. Sigh.

The really sad part is that I was also going to upload/download a photo of Colin Firth, Johnny Depp, and Brad Pitt fighting over me while I was buying plums at the supermarket. They all ended up with head lumps.


LOOK! LOOK! LOOK!!! It worked. Here's the shoe tree. I called Hubby about the non-pasting and he said, "Have you tried restarting?" Well. No. That would be like reading the directions. So then I did restart. And look!

Okay. SO TOTALLY EMILY EBERS is being copyedited WHILE YOU ARE READING THIS. Whoo hoo! And now, you ask, what does a writer do while she waits to get the manuscript back? Here's what (in no particular order):

1. She goes running. But since she likes to run uphill in the shade, she DRIVES to the hill.

2. She works on her interview for the AFTER WORDS paperback of STANFORD WONG FLUNKS BIG-TIME.

3. She loses her pork.

4. She sees WORDPLAY, a fabulous film about crossword puzzles, and tells EVERYONE to go see it. (One person does.)

5. She works on "Why Bother to Blog?" the workshop she's teaching at the SCBWI Nationals in Los Angeles. Special guest bloggers are Authors on the Verge, the Disco Mermaids, and Gregory K., who got a BOOK DEAL with Arthur Levine because of his blog.

6. She tells Brad Pitt, "Leave me alone and go back to Angelina. I'm married, and so are you, almost."

7. She communicates with the aforementioned Arthur Levine about their upcoming "He Said/She Said: And Editor and Author Tell All" workshop at the aforementioned conference. (See photo below for likeness of the two of them. Hint: They are not pastel colored.)

8. She finds the pork, with the bread and the blueberries, on the back porch.

9. She reads MY SISTER'S KEEPER and yelps twice at pivital scenes.

10. She decides to make won tons tomorrow (with the pork). Good idea since the recipe will be in the paperback STANFORD. Only, she never really measures anything when she cooks, so now she will have to or else people end up with three tons and not won tons. And she remembers when she wrote a (fake) recipe for Disney and the newspapers published it and she hadn't measured anything, but no one got sick so she got to keep her job.

11. She buys an iPod and a projector for author visits and FREEEAAAKS OUT because technical things are scary to her.

12. She tells Johnny Depp, "Leave me alone and go back to Vanessa. I'm married, and so are you, almost."

13. She bribes Teen to help her with the iPod and projector because technical things are scary to her.

14. She works on her "Finding Humor in Heartbreak and Humiliation" workshop for aforementioned-ed SCBWI conference.

15. She realizes that two things she listed are not true, at least not yet.

16. She ends this blog with delightful photos that will take her three hours to upload/download.





Arthur Levine and Lisa will be together again by popular demand (and because they asked if it would be okay) at the SCBWI Conference.




Deflatated Peeps after battle.

I'm baaaack.

In the last installment of this blog, I had a final draft due. Between then and now I took puppy to day care one day so I could really get to work. However, the idea of her not in the house was so liberating that I dust busted EVERYWHERE. (Puppy hates the dust buster, so I can never do it with her around.)

I would have vacuumed, but that signals more of a commitment to housekeeping, whereas a dust buster says, "Just this one area, and then back to writing."

After a series of up-until-4 a.m.-ish writing/rewriting/writing/whining/writing/editing/editing sessions, I proudly e-mailed SO TOTALLY EMILY EBERS to Cheryl Klein at 3:37 a.m. on Friday morning. Then I crashed. Then I went to Target for FOUR HOURS (my equivalent of a spa treatment). When I got home, there was a message from Cheryl saying the manuscript never arrived. It was after hours in NYC so I couldn't get a hold of her.

Panic. Fear. Shame. Befuddlement. Perplexamentos.

I prayed I hadn't sent it to the wrong person. Like maybe the IRS man who's mad at me because I made a lame joke on the phone. ("Maybe the check wasn't credited to my account because someone had a nice lunch on me!" Silence from him. Then I got a lecture about how that did not happen. Would not happen. And was not funny.)

So I resent the manuscript to everyone I've ever met at Scholastic, hoping one would find its way to Cheryl. Luckily, it did. But I didn't find this out until Monday because, because it's been really hot here in Southern California.

It's been so hot that I . . . packed up the family and we went to the DESERT where it was 108 DEGREES!!!

Had a great time. We went rock climbing and, and various intervals, Teen, Hubby, Son and Moi were each stranded on a different VERY HIGH BOULDER with no way down. We went exploring caverns and learned that Oliver Stone filmed a dream sequence from THE DOORS there and defaced National Park property and is now banned from the park. Forever. We went to Amboy, the town someone bought on eBay. We took pictures of the shoe tree. (A tree with about a hundred shoes hanging from it.) And we ate a lot of French fries.

On Monday I was able to check e-mail and learned that EMILY had been caught in Cheryl's spam filter. While I was relieved, I was also concerned that the computer was making an editorial judgment about the quality of my writing, thereby deeming it spam-ish, and therefore ucky. This still vexes me.

Well, it's Tuesday. And we're back from the desert. It's 90 degrees today and that's nothing compared to where we were! Tomorrow I write my speech for the ALA/Booklist "What's So Funny" forum in New Orleans. davidlubar, Mo Willems, Jack Gantos and I are speaking. (Note that I am the only chick.) I really, really, really hope that the IRS guy is not in the audience. I'll let you know if he is.

I am working on SO TOTALLY EMILY EBERS. Making sure the transitions flow. That everything makes sense, and that there is a natural rhythm to the words. I am tweaking and rewriting and moving great chunks of words around. I am adding new scenes and deleting old ones. In the end, I am hoping that it all works well together.

However, for this blog, I have no such goals. My blog is more of a whatever whatever. A place for me to write without foreshadowing, allusions or worry about making any sense. Which is a good thing, since I sometimes get kind of random here. Like this . . .

I predict that the guy with gray hair will win American Idol tonight. I can say this without ever having seen the show, since I am something of a music expert. Just the other day Teen lent me her Jack Johnson Curious George CD.

I listened to the music as I wrote. Though I enjoyed Jack's singing, all the songs sounded the same to me. Sad, I thought. The man doesn't have much of a range. It was then that I discovered that I had listened to the SAME song for an hour-and-a-half.

When I was at a booksigning an older gentleman ran up to me and grabbed STANFORD WONG FLUNKS BIG-TIME. "I've been wanting to read this!" he boomed. He didn't look like my demographic, still I was quite pleased at the thought of my broadening audience. Then we got to talking. It seems that the OTHER Stanford Wong is a professional card player and the man thought I had written his biography.

Because Puppy got it in her head that she's a great writer, she kept pawing the keyboard and rewriting my work. So hubby got pegboard and blocked off my desk. Now I am in pen while Puppy gets the rest of the house.

Spoke at Career Day at Teen's middle school. "All my friends said you were the best," Teen told me. "Everyone was really boring."

Went to the Los Angeles Public Library on Wednesday to hear my pal, the very Newbery-esque Cynthia Kadohata (KIRA-KIRA) and uber author Cornelia Funke (INKHEART and THE THIEF LORD) speak. I gave myself plenty of time to get there, so of course I was late. While lost in the parking lot (Yes! I can get lost anywhere!), the attendant pointed and said, "That car wants you to follow it."

A car wants me to follow it?

So I did. (Luckily the attendant didn't say, "Smash your car into the wall," because I probably would have.) The car ended up being driven by Stan (DO NOT CALL HIM KEN), Cindy's brother, and Cindy was inside. Woo hoo! I figured, "you're not late if you walk in with a guest speaker!"

Cindy did a MARVELOUS speech about WEEDFLOWER, her brilliant book about the Japanese internment at Poston. She was witty and funny and genuine. Cornelia talked about her journey from social worker to illustrator to international bestselling author. I was in heaven.

Afterwords, a small group of us, including Susan Patron children's-librarian-extraordinaire-and-who's-first-novel-will-be-out-next-year and author Eileen Rosenbloom, went to lunch nearby. Cornelia told us that just that morning her movie (she's producing) INKHEART got the green light! It will star Brendan Fraser and they will cast for Meggie in Europe. I felt so Hollywood hearing the inside scoop.

Speaking of librarians (fifth paragraph down, 10th word across), I was doing my obsessive Googling thing and discovered that NANCY PEARL likes MILLICENT MIN, GIRL GENIUS. (Proof) Oooooooh, that is soooooo coooooool (I just like doing all those oooooo's) to discover, because Lisa Yee likes Nancy Pearl. I even own her plastic action figure!!!

Well, I guess I'd better get back to writing. Deadlines and all that. (Although I spent yesterday working on the Humor Workshops I'm teaching in Florida next month.) Oh, and I meant to tell you, the other day Puppy hijacked the keyboard and started typing in the middle of my manuscript. She's not a bad writer, really. Although she tends to use a lot of consonants and everything was in lower case, so she's not as good an author as she thinks she is. Oops. I'm digressing. And procrastinating. Again. Bye!!!

(Can someone tell me why, on my computer, my LJ is like five feet wide and I have to use the horizontal scroll to read it. It didn't used to be this way. Wait! Puppy . . . ????)