Posts for category ‘story of a girl’

1. The story of the Story of a Girl cover is now up on Melissa Walker’s blog for her Cover Story series. Witness the original photo and how it has been used since! Leave a comment and perhaps win a copy of Sweethearts!

2. Yesterday while driving my application for the screenwriting workshop over to the film society office, I realized that I really did not want to set up another deadline situation in my life right now, and as part of the workshop involves completing a screenplay that would be exactly what I was doing. So I drove back home and tossed the app. Maybe next year. I am, however, going to rock that clarinet like nobody’s business. Maybe I will even find the arrangement of Foreigner’s “Hot Blooded” that my sixth grade band teacher did…

3. How much did I love last night’s 30 Rock? This much. (I’m holding my arms far, far apart.) A Sims reference, a Johnny Ray reference, a Rob Base reference, a shout out to underappreciated writers, and Alan Alda, all rolled into one. For me, 30 Rock is the first and only comedy since the Simpsons that completely clicks with my sense of humor and the funny comes so fast that you hardly have time to appreciate each joke. Love.

4. I am also into Southland. Or I should say, we are into Southland, which makes me happy, because G. and I haven’t had a favorite show to watch together since losing interest in House awhile back, Hugh Laurie’s hotness notwithstanding.

5. Neither dark chocolate nor peanut M&Ms raise my blood sugar into bad ranges. Please join me in a chorus of hallelujahs, then go have yourself a good weekend!

This, believe it or not, is the Korean edition of Story of a Girl. Though Deanna Lambert in Pacifica would never wear that dress, the Korean Deanna very well might, and I love the hand gesture and expression on her face—I can see it pretty clearly, having a physical copy of the book in my hand right now, which is really great quality from Sallim Books in their Friends line. And, oopsie-doodle, it looks like they made it into a National Book Award winner instead of finalist. Who am I to complain? (Sorry, Sherman! Surely you will not begrudge me Korea.) Actually the hard copy of the book does not have the little medal decal on it like the electronic image does.

In case you’ve been away from the Interwebs all day, this is Buy Indie Day or Shop Indie Day or some such. I didn’t run out and buy anything today, but I try to shop and buy indie pretty much all the time. Here are some reasons why.

My favorite thing on the twitter today: Sara Ryan posted a link to this video of some guys in Mexico who have already written a Decemberists-esque folk song about the swine flu. For some reason I find it endlessly entertaining.

On that note, have a great weekend!

I saw 17 Again yesterday. I didn’t really get the Zac Efron hysteria before, but now I do. He is completely adorable, and actually a really good actor. I laughed, I cried, I admired his skin. But, if he wants to really transform his career from hearthtrob to actor with longevity, a la Johnny Depp, I have an idea: he should play Tommy in the Story of a Girl movie. We could de-cute him a little bit, add a scar, leave him unwashed for a couple of days. It would be brilliant. Zac! Have your people call my people!

Doesn’t he look a little Tommy-esque here?

Earth Day. I don’t know how I feel about it, as a day, which mostly feels like yet another opportunity for capitalism to taint what should be common sense. But, here are a few of the major though easy things I’ve done in the last couple of years. 1) I really, really, really try to avoid buying bottled water. For one thing, good, drinkable water should be free. Like air. For another thing, when I realized how many bottles I was tossing into recycling bins (when available, and they aren’t always), not to mention how much money I was spending, I felt lame. Recyclable doesn’t necessarily equate with desirable. All that recyclable stuff still has to be processed. 2) Re-usable cloth grocery shopping bags. They’re like 99 cents each. And who doesn’t want to stop the reproduction of plastic bags under the kitchen sink? I keep a couple in my car for spontaneous shopping trips, or in case I forget to take them from the house (happens all the time). 3) Flushing only when necessary. Enough said. 4) I air dry a lot of my laundry. I live in a very dry climate, so most articles of clothing that aren’t really heavy will dry in a day. 5) I’m obsessive about going around and turning off lights. Ask my husband. Next step: turning off the power strips when the things attached to it are not in use.

Someone on twitter posted the following from the Association of American Publishers: February publishing stats: adult hc down 0/9% in Feb, 17.7% YTD; adult pb down 38.8% for Feb, 29.5% YTD; mm down 18.3% for Feb, 14.7% YTD. Childrens/YA hc up 62.1% for Feb, 46.4% YTD; childrens/YA pb up 13.4% for Feb, 17.4% YTD. Ebooks up 131% for Feb and 177.2% for year ($6.7m) Very interesting. I certainly do not want to see any stats down, but jeez, seeing any segment of the economy grow at an over 50% rate right now is incredible, and makes me grateful I’m in the business I’m in. (That’s only one of the many things I’m grateful for lately.)

Everyone have a great day!

We had some incredibly gorgeous and life-giving spring weather last week. Windows were open. Porches were sat upon. Spring cleaning plans were made. And then…another dump of freezing cold and snow. Boo. I’m so over it. I have things to do, people! And I can’t possibly be expected to do them when it’s so gray. Bah.

On the up side, I just found out that Story of a Girl made the International Reading Association’s Young Adult Choices list, which is pretty great. Thank you, IRA! And I got my first fanmail for a foreign edition – a girl in Belgium wrote to me about the French translation. Between that and the IRA, I’m feeling very international today. If only I could be in a foreign country right now. A warm one.

Over at the Teen Fiction Cafe, we’re blogging about fashion this week. Today I posted about my love/hate relationship with What Not to Wear.

It is now time to curl up with some tea and a movie.

This is the Dutch cover for Story of a Girl – very different from the U.S., French, and Vietnamese covers, which are of course all different from each other, too, but consistent in a way. I like them all, and think this one is pretty striking, too. Thank you, Clavis Levensecht! And actually, the whole title is Mijn leven is een vraagteken, which translates to, “my life is a question mark” – a line from the book. So, the question mark on the cover is both punctuation and representative of a word. Like a rebus! Neato. The translation was done by Beatrijs Peeters. 

I’m back from my little break and catching up with everything. Can you believe I didn’t watch the Oscars? I feel like a failure, somehow. On the up side, the tulips are starting to come up and you know what that means. Spring is springing!

You know it better as Story of a Girl. Now, not only can you read it in English and French, you also read it in Vietnamese! Many thanks to Di Li, the translator of Sweethearts, for sending me the cover. I have to say that I really love this one. It keeps with the tradition of the English cover, but it also totally different and still captures the story. 

Saw Revolutionary Road last night. I don’t know. Leo was great, Kate was very good, but all in all the book is far better. Read it!

If you’re in Salt Lake, the Film Society is showing a slew of Oscar-related movies, so check that out.

Have a great weekend!