Posts for category ‘sweethearts’

The Salt Lake County Library asked me to start a story for their teen summer reading/writing program. So I did, and now it’s online awaiting continuation! You have to be between the ages of 13 and 18 to contribute, and I think you have to be from Salt Lake County. So that kind of narrows it down. The whole scoop is here: http://www.saltlakesummerreading.com/cfml/teenStory.cfm

Pass it on!

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Yesterday I forgot to add one of the most important links of all for the Sweethearts/Readergirlz June – the Readergirlz blog. That’s where everything happens, and where the discussion questions will be posted. Today’s question is:

One of the major themes of Cam and Jenna’s friendship in Sweethearts is loyalty, even in the face of change. What do you think makes a loyal friend? Should loyalty have limits?

Head over to the blog to answer.

Once again, the combo of too many hours in a convention center + airplanes + half my usual sleep has = head cold. Now with slight fever! (Yes, if my fever doesn’t go away shortly or I get more symptoms I will get checked for the big H1N1.) I majorly failed to take my camera but pictures should be cropping up here and there on other blogs—such as the fabulous Sarah Dessen’s! Notice how we accidentally coordinated our outfits. We are now ready to serve as your bridesmaids for a small fee and an engraved champagne flute.

If I were feeling better, I’d go into all the details of the trip, such as the Mysterious Benedict Society fun bus from Javits to Brooklyn (also known as the Decapitation Express), the exhausting but incredibly helpful Speed Dating event (if you don’t have your short pitch down after 22 tables in 90 minutes, you never will), bowling with the Geektastic crew (my team’s motto: “bowl as if your life depends on it”), and an amazing dinner with the Little, Brown Books for Young Readers family which really and truly does feel like family. They must have a special hiring policy that only allows for good and kind and funny people. I hope our guests had as much fun as I did. (With apologies again to Elise from WA for saying “butt” during dinner.)

And finally, what the trip was really all about for me, introducing Once Was Lost to the bookselling and bookreading world. As Sarah D. mentions in her blog post, you never know what to expect at these things as far as turnout, but my line stayed hopping the whole hour and it was so GREAT to meet some of you blog friends and fellow authors in person! Thank you so much for coming to see me. This is always a nervous time for writers. It’s too late to change your book, but it’s awhile before it’s really out and getting responses. With every book of mine so far there’s been a moment during this limbo time when I exhale and think, okay, I think it might be a little bit okay. When I got home last night there were already three emails from people who had picked up the ARC, read the book, and wanted to share a positive personal response. Say it with me now: PHEW! I’m proud of this book in a different way than I’ve been proud of the others and eagerly anticipate talking about it with you all in more detail when it’s closer to pub time.

It’s June now, and that means Sweethearts is claiming the book-of-the-month crown at Readergirlz. Here’s the page with the whole scoop, including fun facts about me, a Sweethearts playlist, discussion questions, ideas for Sweethearts-themed events, and more! There’s a live chat coming on June 17th. I’ll be blogging reminders all month.

Going back to bed now. Happy June!

I’m very excited to announce that in a few short days, it will be all Sweethearts, all the time over at Readergirlz, as it is the book of the month for June. (And you do know that Readergirlz was recently named a winner of the National Book Foundation’s Innovations in Reading Prize, right?) This is your chance to make your case as to why you think the ending was perfect, or why you thought it totally blew. Share your stores of your own personal Camerons or Jennas. Listen to my book soundtrack playlist, and suggest songs of your own. And, there will be a live chat on June 17! (Attn: high schoolers – this also might be a great opportunity to knock a summer reading project off your list rather than trying to do it all the week before school starts.) I’ll post reminders here throughout the month about what’s going on.

Haven’t read Sweethearts yet? find it at your local indie bookstore, download it for your Kindle, or get it from the public library!

Shop Indie Bookstores

- In the SLC: Ann Dee Ellis is launching her new book, Everything Is Fine, tonight at The King’s English. 7 p.m. I will be there. I will not be square.

- On the interwebs: Since I am in a self-Googling recovery program and have been abstinent nearly a year, sometimes I miss out on hearing cool stuff. Fortunately, there is my agent, who is like my sponsor, to filter results and send me links to stuff he thinks I should see. Like this. Which has given me my new favorite review quote:

“Usually, when a book is  OMG-I’ve-died-and-gone-to-Heaven-and Heaven-is Scotland-with-a-hundred-dancing-nude-Jamie-Frasers, I tend to become tongue tied. Sweethearts is such a book.”

Thank you, Lit Connection!

- Your daily diabetes tip: Okay, it won’t be daily, but since my post about that the other day, a couple of people have said yes, you should talk about it, because almost all of us know someone with diabetes and it can help us understand them better. So one thing that comes up is that people say, “But can’t type 2 diabetes be almost totally controlled with diet and exercise?” Sometimes. It’s true that you can do a A LOT with your lifestyle choices to stay in good control of your blood sugar.

However, it’s not easy, and there are no days off. For example, to stay in good control, I basically have to work out intensely an hour a day, poke my finger numerous times a day, and be very, very, very careful about the quantity and quality of carbs (and all foods, really) I eat. There’s no, “Oh, just this once, have a donut, it’ll be okay,” because every time your blood sugar spikes beyond normal ranges, IT KILLS IMPORTANT CELLS THAT THE BODY CAN’T REGENERATE! And that leads to long-term complications. Such as your feet falling off and you going blind and other fun stuff. Aiyyeeee!

So, know that your loved one with diabetes who is trying to stay in good control can’t ever just exhale and say, “Just for today I’m going to eat like everyone else/celebrate/be lazy/feel normal.” Well, I shouldn’t say “can’t” because we can all choose whatever it is we choose, but there are potential serious consequences. Even if 90% of the time, all this stuff is no problem and we just do it automatically, the other 10% of the time when you’re just so over it really, really, really sucks.

That’s one reason a lot of diabetics deal with depression or just generally being sad or angry. Sometimes you wake up and think, I just don’t want to deal with food today. I don’t want to get out of bed because that means I have to make choices and poke my finger and take my medicine and go to the f***king gym AGAIN and there’s no guarantee I still won’t get complications some day and I’d rather just skip it, thanks. And maybe if I were 78 instead of 38, I’d say screw it, but in the words of the kids from Bye Bye Birdie, I’ve gotta lotta livin’ left to do.

Before I forget, I found out yesterday that Sweethearts made it on the 2009 NYPL’s Stuff (formerly Books) for the Teen Age. Very pleased. Thank you, New York Public Library!

I’ve been catching up on a backlog of movie watching/going lately. Lots of good stuff…

Milk: Made me homesick, mostly for a place and time that no longer exists. I remember 1978 in San Francisco pretty vividly, and my best friend’s dad had a business in the Castro and lived in the Haight. Sean Penn, who I don’t usually love, disappeared into the part.

Flash of Genius: Greg Kinnear is an obsessive inventor who comes up with the first working intermittent windshield wiper. Corporate assholery ensues. Lorelei Gilmore is longsuffering but not that longsuffering. Greg goes nuts, Alan Alda tries to help. Will patience pay off? Watch and find out!

Frozen River:  Two fierce women (like truly fierce, not like Sasha Fierce or Goddess of Fierce) who don’t get along each have something the other wants. Through a lot of lovely and sometimes scary layers, you find out how far they’re willing to go. Good example of how to use conflicting desires in storytelling.

Old Acquaintance: Speaking of fierce women. Bette Davis is a writer and lives out pretty much every writer’s nightmare. Her best friend is all, “Hey, maybe I’ll write a book!” and then becomes kind of the Danielle Steele of the 1930s. Claws come out, but friendship trumps and spinsters unite!

Peyton Place: Small town gossip, questionable morals, and personal secrets collide. Russ Tamblyn is totally cute and you can see the resemblance between he and Amber. We learn not to go swimming at the lake when Marion Partridge might be watching, and also that Doc Swain is a good guy to have on your side.

What have you seen and liked lately?