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!

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!

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!

Sweethearts made the American Library Association list of Best Books for Young Adults list.

The Story of a Girl audiobook made the ALA’s Amazing Audio list – I’m doubly proud of that, as it marked my voice acting debut.

Congrats to all ALA winners, honorees, and listers! And if you didn’t make a list, you are still awesome. You wrote a book and got it published!

Thank you for all your pictures and descriptions of your work spaces. My inner nerd is deeply satisfied…

Okay, I owe a blog to the Teen Fiction Cafe this week and the topic is anything goes. ANYthing. As my brain is currently still in reboot process after many many intense weeks of work, I’m coming up empty, and taking your suggestions. Help me pick a topic! What do you want to hear?

[Edited to add: great suggestions, thank you! I went with self-doubt, since it's a topic near and dear to me. You can read it here.]

…have in common with this?

Find out from this superbrainytastic anaysis by blogger Mike Martin! (Possible spoilers, FYI.)

And that’s a good note to go out on for my early retirement.  I mean early retirement into non-bloggy weekend. I know it’s only Thursday and stuff, but I have gigantic mountains of work falling on top of me so I’m pretending I’m going on a vacation—a work vacation! Not a vacation from work, but a vacation to work. Yes, vacations for the purpose of working are the new thing, I promise you. Forget the U.S. Virgin Islands or Montreal. The hot destination is YOUR JOB. Kiss kiss – see you next week!

Also happy about: Little Willow picked up my last post about the Donors Choose project, re-blogged, and in just a day or so the project went from having $10 to getting almost a third of what they need. Awesome! Thank you so much. And I’m sure there are lots and lots of similar projects on Donors Choose. I think we should all make it a resolution to poke around there more often, because even in a bad economy it’s important to keep giving some of what you have away, you know? For most of us, even when the budget gets very tight, there’s still five dollars that you can give to a DC project, or to the food bank, or a pet shelter, or any other cause of your choosing. Something about giving money away makes you feel a little less broke, and connects you to the world Out There.

My resolutions and goals are simple. Work harder (meaning: try different things, say yes to opportunities, stuff like that), relax better, pare down spending and accumulating and existing belongings, face the challenges of adulthood instead of being afraid (I get better and better at that every year!), keep taking good care of myself, and spend more time on my friendships and family relationships. Easy!

Are you going to see a movie today? I blogged about movies yesterday at Teen Fiction Cafe. Tell me what you’re going to see or saw.

Happy new year everyone, and thank you all so much for helping make every year a good one. I love engaging with you all here on the blog, and reading yours, and supporting each other. It means so much and makes my life all the richer!

In other news, I’m thinking about 2009. Like, what I have to accomplish, what I want to accomplish, things I want to do differently. I’m looking forward to being inspired by all the new year’s blog posts y’all will be doing later this week!