Today is the official release day of Mandy Hubbard's first novel, Prada and Prejudice. She's worked so hard for this and everyone in the Livejournal and YA communities are so excited for her. Go Mandy!

Make sure you pick up a copy (like I'll be doing today), and read her road-to-publication post.

Courtney Sheinmel, author of My So-Called Family and a bona fide do-gooder, plus amazingly sweet so dang pretty!

Aimee Friedman, author of Sea Change, who is always so sunny and cheery that I can’t imagine what she’d be like in a raging bad mood

Shani Petroff, up-and-comer extraordinaire whose new series is going to be sooo good! Just wait!

Plus I got to see my fantizzle editor, Kate, who managed to find the perfect shade of red lipstick, expertly complementing her skin tone. Fabu for sure.

I also got to be in the presence of the greatest that is: Coe Booth (she sat next to me at our Q&A!), Elizabeth Scott (I was dying. I love her books so much), Susane Colasani (whose new book I’m beginning tonight, after I finish Elizabeth’s Stealing Heaven—still need to buy her newest), and David Levithan.

Even though I’m small-time and I felt like I snuck into the whole thing, at the end of the day it feels good to know that I really am a part of such a wonderful, supportive community of authors. I have a feeling adult fiction writers aren’t so lovey as these people are.

Saturday night I went to a post-BEA cocktail party in the East Village. I didn’t go to BEA but nothing could stop me from clinking glasses with author-y people! Even though I am massively socially awkward, and panicked for many moments when I walked into the space—even though my husband was with me, along with my partner in crime, author P.G. Kain, whose hip I stayed glued to at the carnival—I still got to chat with so many cool people. Silas was in rare form, and introduced himself to many people as the Official Censor for the Baptists Read Organization. I thought he was hilarious, but I’m not sure anyone else did. He introduced me to Jen Laughran, big-time agent and founder of Not Your Mother’s Book Club.

I got to talk to Jenny Han, who refused to give up any details about the sequel to The Summer I Turned Pretty (bah!), and to Lisa Greenwald, author of the adorable My Life in Pink and Green. (We assured Silas his censoring would find nothing objectionable in this book, not even an Oh my God. Not even an OMG.)

Lynn Weingarten (Wherever Nina Lies) shot the best look to a guy who bumped into her. I then proceeded to ask her the most annoying question I get as an author: “How’s your book doing?” And she answered, “Well, it’s out there. Sitting on bookshelves.” Ugh, it’s the worst question. There’s no interesting way to answer it and I felt like an idiot for asking.

I thought I spotted that dude from Twilight. Turns out it was Bennett Madison. He’s cuter anyway.

I ended my weekend by being taken out for a late birthday lunch with (warning: big-time name dropping ahead) Rachel Cohn. I adore this girl. I am a huge fan of Nick & Norah, and then we met on the mini-tour we did last year. Since September I’ve been steadily bumping into her at the Writers Room and now she’s officially a regular person who happens to write amazing books. A regular person who rocks, that is.

UPDATE: Ack! It's been brought to my attention that I forgot an author from the carnival--the lovely Jessica Burkhart! She, of course, writes the Canterwood Crest series, and it was great to finally meet her in person, especially since we share the same editor, Kate.

Oh, so many authors, so little time...

Our awesome hosts, the ones who put this whole thing together are:

Devyn Burton - Member of FiveAwesomeYAFans
Website / Twitter / FiveAwesomeYAFans

Mitali Dave - Teen Book Blogger
Website / Twitter

Korianne Wey - Teen Book Blogger
Website / Twitter

Because there are so many of us, we’ve been split into teams and will rotate doing Q&As, signings and even playing games! I hear that Barnes & Noble will be there selling books and there will most definitely be candy. Candy and books! What more do you want?!

Hope to see you there!

Team Funnel Cake

Cassandra Clare - Author of City Of Glass
Website / Twitter

PG Kain - Author of The Social Experiments of Dorie Dilts: Dumped by Popular Demand
Website

David Levithan - Author of Wide Awake
Website

ME! Taylor Morris - Author of Total Knockout: Tale of an Ex-Class President
Website

Linda Gerber - Author of Death by Denim
Website / Twitter

Elizabeth Scott - Author of Something, Maybe
Website

Claudia Gray - Author of Hourglass
Website / Twitter

Cinda Chima - Author of Demon King
Website

Michael Northrop – Author of Gentleman

Website

Aimee Friedman - Author of Sea Change
Website

Susane Colasanti - Author of Waiting For You
Website / Twitter

Coe Booth - Author of Tyrell
Website / Twitter

Team Cotton Candy

Maureen Johnson - Author of Scarlett Fever
Website / Twitter

Robin Wasserman - Author of Skinned
Website / Twitter

Melissa Anelli - Author of Harry, A History
Website / Twitter

Carolyn MacCullough - Author of Once a Witch
Website

Brian Sloan - A Really Nice Prom Mess
Website
Michelle Zink – Author of Prophecy of the Sisters

Website / Twitter

Emma McLaughlin

Nicole Wheir

Beckie Weinheimer - Author of Converting Kate
Website /Twitter

Lauren Barnholdt - Author of Two-way Street
Website / Twitter

Robyn Schneider - Author of Better Than Yesterday
 Website / Twitter

Jennifer Lynn Barnes - Author of Fate
Website / Twitter

Team Caramel Apple
Libba Bray - Author of Going Bovine
Website / Twitter

Jenny Han - Author of The Summer I Turned Pretty
Website / Twitter

Sarah MacLean - Author of The Season
Website / Twitter

Melissa Walker - Author of Lovestruck Summer
Website / Twitter

Sasha Watson - Author of Vidalia in Paris
Website / Twitter

Pam Bachorz - Author of Candor
Website / Twitter

Greg Neri - Author of Surf Mules
Website / Twitter

David Ostow - Illustrator of So Punk Rock
Twitter
Micol Ostow - Author of the Bradford Novels
Website / Twitter

Sarah Cross - Author of Dull Boy

Website / Twitter

Tish Cohen - Author of Little Black Lies
Website

Jessica Burkhart - Author of Canterwood Crest Series
Website / Twitter

Food

Our favourit food is Döner and Pizza.

What´s your favourit food?

Have you ever eaten “Döner”? Did you like it?

What´s special food of New York?

What´s your favourit restaurant in NYC?

What do you eat there? Where is it?

Our favourit restaurant is McDonalds

What kind of food do you eat at home with your family?

Is there any traditional food?

Feelings / Life-style

We want to ask you about what´s life in NYC is like.

How does it feel to stand on a skyscraper?

Do you enjoy life in New York City? Why?

Is it different than other big American cities?

Did you see how the Twin Towers were attacked?

Can you tell us more about it, please?

Stars

Do you know what stars American teenagers like?

We like Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz or Ashton Kutcher.

We like these stars because they are good actors.

Have you ever seen any of them?

Have you ever talked to a star?

Do you often see stars in NYC?

Immigrants and New Yorkers

At our school many kids are immigrants. They are from Turkey, Russia, Croatia and many other countries.

How do New Yorkers feel about immigrants in their city?

Are New Yorkers more openminded than other people?

Do many Germans live in New York City?

Crime

In Germany only police officers or people with a gun license are allowed to have a gun. If you have a gun without a license you get punished. In big cities like Berlin there is a lot of crime. But in a small town like Ettlingen, there´s just a little bit of crime.

Have you ever been attacked by a gang? Please tell us about it.

Do you feel safe in your house and on the streets?

What is your neighbourhood like?

Am I enjoying re-reading the freakiness that is Flowers in the Attic? So much so that I couldn’t put it down even to write on Saturday. I got almost no writing done, finished the book then left early to go buy Petals on the Wind, the second book in the series.

The rest of the weekend I sat around the apartment enthralled, disgusted, unable to turn away. I feel so dirty reading this book—it’s horrible, really, but I can’t turn away! Ol’ V.C. Andrews knew how to hook a reader. It’s one of those books you read and tell yourself you just want to finish this chapter, and when you do you peek to see how the next one starts and—ah! She’s talking about the mother, finally! Or we get to read more of poor little Carrie and how she’s been dealing. And then...sucked into another one.

I remember this book especially because of all the ballet, and I am a sucker for all things ballet. But I don’t remember it being this sexual. That Catherine! Can you blame a girl, though, who has mommy, daddy and brother issues? She’s a wreck.

The writing is fine, but the author never saw an exclamation point she wouldn’t use. And because these books are pretty old (written in the late 70s), you get some dialogue that’s a bit silly, but the story is so engrossing you kind of don’t care. Not even when she says, “Good golly day!” for the fifteen hundredth time.

Once I finish this second book, I plan to stop. I refuse to be sucked into the third book. I’m thinking next up I'll read something sweet and loving with a little angst thrown in. A little Peace, Love and Baby Ducks sounds just about right.

First off, last night—Paula Abdul, really? She’s a judge on a singing competition, and she lip synchs during her performance? How can you have respect for someone who does this? Singers who think dancing is more important than, you know, singing (and yes, I’m talking to you too) are as lame as people who eat basil. (Points for reference.)

And then No Doubt comes out and kills it. Gwen Stefani has a weird voice, and I kept feeling like she just needed to take a big breath, but I love her so much! She rocked it.

Now for the real point--book stuff, of the V.C. Andrews variety. Boothy is awesome and all-knowing. It was Steph’s blog that I read about re-reading the classic Flowers in the Attic. They’re having a whole reading challenge this year, and although I don’t think I’ll actually participate I do have to say thank you for bringing this one back! I start reading it this weekend. I’ll report back on Monday!

It's that time. I'm done. The proposals have been written, the pages submitted, the chapters completed, the edits done. And now...we wait.

Which gives me lots of time to catch up on my reading! Even though it’s not like I stop reading when I’m working on something.

I just finished reading Behind the Bit, which doesn’t come out for another couple of weeks. Ha! The joy of sharing an editor with other writers! This one ends on quite a cliffhanger, too. Recommended!

I’m now on Jenny Han’s new book The Summer I Turned Pretty. Loving it so far.

In April, I read several great books, but there was an underlying theme to three of them, causing my little brain to get confused as to which book I was reading.

In all three, the main character deals with a no-good, absent dad, which of course has adverse affects on her boy relationships. I like this theme, it’s fine, and I really enjoyed these books—especially Something, Maybe—but by the time I got to the third book with this theme (Breathing) I was thinking, Really? Her dad too?

Poor dads of the world! I know they’re not all bad. But reading SM and Prince Charming back-to-back is not recommended. Each book is wonderful in its own way (I love both authors), and I think they’d be better enjoyed spaced apart of bit.

The best bit of book news? This gem I got in the mail today.

Swine flu—er, I mean, H1N1 influenza A—is still hot, but as my husband pointed out, “there are 49 confirmed cases in NYC - all of them went to Mexico recently - and there are 18 million people here. So your chances of running into a person with swine flu are 3 in a million, assuming they aren't at home eating chicken soup.”

So, to be snarky about the whole thing, he used this as his profile pic:

Now, people are killing pigs all over the world, and it’s getting pretty bananas.

I think some fun things are in order. Like campy horror movies! Gives your anxiety somewhere to go.

Did you know there’s an entire network dedicated to all things scary? It’s called the Chiller Network and it’s one of the glories of having cable. Silas and I recently watched Chupacabra: Dark Sea. It was pretty much awesome. The trailer doesn’t do the campiness justice but I still highly recommend checking it out.

If you’re more of a documentary kind of person, and you hate(d) high school, then you must check this one out. This is for all you antis out there.

That’s all. Don’t forget to wash your hands!!
 

I won’t even begin to jump on the April blog bandwagon, even though the month is half over. I will, however, try to be around more. I want someone to remember me when I finally start sharing good news again. (How selfish!)

So, just a couple of things today. This makes me very happy, but not nearly as happy as this. I’ve watched it three times now and it still makes me happy-cry, and is totally worth getting that crappy song stuck in my head.

This, however, doesn’t make me happy. What do they have against us? Sheesh.

I’m going to Philadelphia this weekend for some baby christening thing. I love Philly but never seem to stay for long. Anyone want to recommend the one thing I have to see while there?

Now back to the very worst part of writing--chapter one.


Always makes me happy.

Silas and I just got back from our quick trip to Baltimore, to see my brother (actually step), who has been holed up in the city since early February while he had a kidney transplant. He's now doing very well and is scheduled to go home to Texas on Tuesday.

He told us that he got to be a part of this first-ever 12-way transplant by...asking. What do I always say? You never know what you can get unless you ask. That's how I got into Emerson! He heard that Johns Hopkins was planning to do this big transplant thing, and so he literally just called the switchboard at the hospital and through a series of transfers and an in-person interview, he was accepted.

He also stayed in a sweet pad right on the harbor. Silas and I took a walk this morning, after I went on the egg hunt he set up for me. Here are some pics from my loot, the eggs we dyed, and the walk along the harbor. Hope you had a great weekend!






 

My step-brother had a kidney transplant last weekend at Johns Hopkins--a first ever 12-way transplant. Incredible! And so simple.  It goes something like this:
 

My brother needs a kidney, and I'd like to give him mine, but we're not a match. A guy in Miami needs a kidney and his wife wants to give him hers, but they're not a match. However, I'm a match for the guy in Miami, and she's a match for a woman in Arkansas, who wants to donate her kidney to a friend but isn't a match...

And so on and so on. What a simple, brilliant idea that takes lots of coordination!

My brother is doing well but will be in the hospital for quite a while. Road trip to Baltimore!

Here's the video if you want to check it out (that's my stepmom at the end): http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?cl=12087225

First, Meg. She had an amazing event at the New York Public Library a couple of weeks ago, and I went. It was to celebrate the end of the Princess Diaries. I’d never seen her at an event before, so was really excited to go to this one.

My pictures suck, so if you want to see some good one from the event and read all about it, go to her Web site. (By the way, that's Austin Scarlett next to her.)

On the same day that Princess Diaries X: Princess Forever came out (which, by the way, the book is everything you’d hope it would be!), my friend Alexa had her new book come out: Faketastic, the second book in the Frenemies series. I meant to blog about it on that day, or at least get a copy, but I did neither. Why? See the title. (Because I suck.) Alexa is one of my favorite writers and people, because she’s just so dang cool. And honest. And nice—even when she’s being snarky. I totally heart her.

Her new book wasn’t at the bookstore I usually go to, I had them order me a copy. This is great because most bookstores will do this for you for free (no shipping!) and they get the books in just a couple of days. And, if you decide to buy it someplace else, they’ll just put it on the shelf for some other lucky person to buy. Fun! I will have my Faketastic copy by Wendesday, and I can’t wait.

The next reason why I suck is because I didn’t go to Micol Ostow’s reading earlier this month. This one really kills me because I think it’s so important to support writers at their readings, because there’s nothing worse than having one and wondering if anyone will show up. Her reading was with the David Levithan crew, and they always have a big turnout, but I didn’t go and so I suck. I also suck because I still haven’t bought Micol’s book, Popular Vote which came out in September. Argh! But, when I go to Barnes & Noble to pick up my copy of Faketastic I will get Micol’s book as well. Plus, her Bradford novels come out later this month, so I'll also get that book, Golden Girl.

I have one final reason why I suck, and that’s because ever since I finished the rough draft of my new book, I haven’t had the spark to edit it. I’ve been so lazy with my writing lately that it’s gone beyond taking a well-deserved break into the realm of No More Excuses! I should be working on it right now, but…um, it’s snowing. And I need a snack. And today is the gloomiest day of the year, so how can I possibly concentrate…?

Okay, no more sucking. Back to work. For real! After I go to the grocery store for dinner for tonight.

Oh, yesterday morning I took a walk through snowy Central Park and thought it was the prettiest thing I’d seen in a long time. It didn’t suck. Not at all.