Posts for category ‘day in the life’

Me: (putting a box of books in the trunk of my car, in the parking lot at my office)

Him: (older, 60 maybe, dressed in very nice, very European-looking attire, carrying briefcase) (noting my Obama bumper sticker) How’s that hope and change working out for ya?

Me: (smiling) What?

Him: I said how’s that hope and change working out for you.

Me: (laughing) Are you really asking, or just trying to pick a…conversation?

Him: No, I’m really asking. How’s everything? How’s business?

Me: Business is good. I’m self employed, so…

Him: So am I.

Me: (laughing) Hey, what was the alternative? Sarah Palin?

Him: (laughing) She wasn’t even running for president.

Me: (laughing) But John McCain, you know, not in the best of health…

Him: (no longer laughing) I’d rather have a dead president than the one we have now.

Me: (smiling)(thinking: oh no)(starting to walk away)

Him: He’s just not the leader he was cracked up to be.

Me: (turning) Yeah, there have been disappointments. But there have been disappointments with every president.

Him: He’s bankrupting the country.

Me: (smiling) (thinking: up to you to finish this conversation, dude)

Him: (turning to his car) Well, it’ll all work out.

Me: (ten minutes later, thinking….) Yes, it will. It always does. One way or another. And I don’t put my faith in the government, so nothing is really a surprise or a letdown. He works in my building; I should have asked him his name, told him mine. Made a connection with someone who seemed to be trying to antagonize me. That’s what hope and change would have looked like.

So, as I mentioned, I am a judge for the 2010 National Book Awards. I’ve got a lot of reading to do. Also? I went and wrote another book, and this is the year of editing, revising, and fun excitement like that. I might even write another one after that. Also Part II: I am going away for awhile to places with unknown Internet access. Later there is a screenwriting workshop with Bradford Winters (super excited about that) and more reading. Lots more. (Evelyn Wood, call me!)

I’ll be on blog break until nearly September, I think.

I’ll be around some—checking my email when I can, on Twitter now and then, and over at the Teen Fiction Cafe periodically. I will use this space if I have any exciting news or important info. But mostly I’ll be away.

In case you missed the news earlier, I deleted my Facebook account back in April, so don’t look for me there. I’m not available for appearances (including Skype visits) until mid-August.

If you miss your weekly dose of Zarr, there are always my books! If you haven’t yet read Once Was Lost, summer is a good time to take care of that. Okay, so it’s not exactly a beach read, but it is a summer story. The paperback will be out in January, but then it will be cold and you’ll have lots of homework. Brrr. Also, Geektastic is now in paperback.

Have a wonderful summer and I’ll see you back here before you know it!

Guy’s Lit Wire & Operation Book Drop Event for Navajo & Apache Teens

What could be more satisfying than ordering a whole bunch of books for school libraries that really need them? Not much. Check it out, give if you can, and spread the word.

For someone who used to be out like a light by ten, I’ve had a heck of a time getting to sleep lately. Like, all of March. Melatonin? Tylenol P.M.? Warm milk? Big pharma?* Tell me your favorite potions and methods.

Meanwhile…

- The Katherine Paterson Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing is on at Hunger Mountain:

Bestselling author Holly Black will be the 2010 judge of the Katherine Paterson Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing at Hunger Mountain: the VCFA Journal of the Arts.

The Katherine Paterson prize was launched last year to honor writers of young adult and children’s literature. Writers may enter young adult and middle grade writing and writing for young children. Entries may be short stories or novel excerpts.

There is a $20 entry fee, and the postmark deadline is June 30, 2010. There is a $1000 prize for the winning entry, and three runners-up receive $100. The winner and the runners-up are all published on Hunger Mountain online.

Complete guidelines may be found here.

- The Morning News Tournament of Books has some fun with Nicholas Sparks. (There is also some good stuff about commercial vs. noncommercial fiction.)

- You know how I had that Facebook meltdown back during Advent? And you talked me into keeping my account? I did. But yesterday I finally got around to using lists to set it so that it’s basically only family that can interact with me there. I disabled my wall and most commenting, though everyone should still be able to see my posts. If you suddenly can’t interact with me there the way you used to, don’t feel bad. It’s not you, it’s me.

- I’ve had my MacBook a little over a year. It seems like I’m only getting about 2.5 hours out of my fully-charged battery these days. Or less. If you have a MacBook, please report on your battery life. Mine is the aluminum unibody, now sold as the 13″ MacBook Pro. Tell me what to do.

*I have none of these on hand, but My Three Sons seems to be doing the trick…

- How not to win new fans or the admiration of your peers. It’s one thing to talk like this if you are indisputably awesome. But if you are not, you should probably dial it down a bit.

- How to let your agent earn his or her money. I already knew this. I’ve found that taking every single career question or publishing issue to my agent, first, has not failed me.

- It’s not only YA writers who are addicted to the Twitter. Some stuff other author tweeters are up to: Susan Orlean is tired of her Sirius station, Tayari Jones lost a pair of shoes in her apartment, and Colson Whitehead is busy revising but not so busy that he can’t find time to tweet about Lost. That gives me a strange sense of hope concerning my revision and America’s Next Top Model.

- Considering our reputation as a pasty people who spend every moment with our noses in books, a looootttt of writers are really into college basketball.

- Blogging is not, as I wondered, dead. It’s just different, and based on the number of responses and RTs on Twitter, I wasn’t the only one wondering. Thanks for all your comments here, there, everywhere. I’m glad I mentioned it, because now I don’t feel quite so Major Tom-y about it…floating in a most peculiar way, with my protein pills and helmet, etc.

Twitter is Educational.

Be fruitful and multiply. See you back here next week.