The Massive To-Read List

The absolute coolest thing about attending the Book Expo last weekend was walking (crawling...) away with bags of free books!

The absolute worst thing about attending the Book Expo was...see above answer.

Why, you ask? That sounds ideal, like a dream come true. Free books. Advance reader copies.

Because I already have a HUGE stack of books at home that I still haven't tackled. You'd assume that since I write books, I would be reading them all the time. After all, I teach ballet, so I take a lot of ballet classes and when I wrote screenplays, I watched a lot of movies. The problem is that I try very, very hard not to read anything at all similar to what I write when I'm writing something new. When I'm editing or just in the thinking stage, then yes, I devour books both similar to and dissimilar from, my own.

As I mentioned last week, I finished a new draft of a book so now I'm in rewrite mode. Therefore, it's perfectly acceptable for me to read something that isn't mine. The question is what.

Here are some (just some) of the books on my pile...
--Janes in Love by Cecil Castellucci
--Sucks to be Me by Kimberly Pauley
--Bliss by Lauren Myracle
--The Ghosts of Kerfol by Deborah Noyes
--Philippa Fisher's Fairy Godsister by Liz Kessler
--Goth by Otsuichi
--Chasing the Jaguar by Michele Dominguez Greene
--The Lucky Ones by Stephanie Greene
--The Gravity Keeper by Michael Reisman
--Millicent Min by Lisa Yee

I also have some more adult books on my list...
--Crime by Irvine Welsh
--Atonement by Ian McEwan
--The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
--Babylon Rolling by Amanda Boyden
--I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass
--The Widows of Eastwick by John Updike
--Catch a Mate by Gena Showalter

I can start reading any one of these books or I can chuck all of 'em and start the Stephenie Meyers books. Opinions, anyone?

Soon, very soon, perhaps during my next trip to the east coast, I will devise a clever contest to give away some of these amazing books I have in my possession. I just have to figure out how to do it!

Celebrity Sighting Among the Books!

As much as I want to, I can't count Dean Koontz or John Hodgman as bona fide celebrity sightings. I was in line to meet them at BEA and get their autograph so they're not real "sightings."

But toward the end of the day, I did actually spot a celebrity wandering around the floor of the smaller exhibit hall by himself: Evan Handler, the actor who recently fought leukemia and wrote a book about it called "It's Only Temporary." He also spoke at the LA Times Festival of Books a few months ago and although I didn't have time to stop to listen, I did hear a LOT of laughs coming from his session. Most people know him as Charlotte's husband Harry from Sex and the City, but HH and I loved him as Hurley's invisible friend, Dave, from LOST (hope he makes another appearance!!). Check out his extremely cool website...Evan Handler dot com.

So okay, I'm gonna mention this one more time because I'm so excited and because I would love to have people come by...on Thursday, June 5th, which is tomorrow, I will be at ThePageFlipper to do a LIVE chat!! See her website for more details and times and so on...and come armed with questions! I love all sorts of topics, except math, which I have recounted many, many times as the only class I ever failed in college.

Oh, I didn't tell you that?

Yes, it's true. I had a horrible experience in Calculus during my freshman year of college. I started out the semester well (having remembered my calculus from high school) but then completely floundered as things got more complicated. A Big Fat F. So sad.

Try not to think less of me...

BEA is F-U-N!

If you think being surrounded by thousands of books, authors, publishers and small dogs in cute outfits is fun, then this was the funnest time ever!

Book Expo America (BEA) was held this weekend at the LA Convention Center in downtown LA and it was amazing! My friend and fellow writer Chandra and I became exhausted and our shoulders and neck throbbed from carrying so many pounds of brand new books from one side of the floor to the other - and back - and back - and back - and then out to my car. Thank goodness for coat check where we could store some books and then go back for more!

We were lucky enough to pick up some fantastic books (I'll be giving some away soon - not just YA but also some cool middle grade and adult books too!) and to get some autographs from our favorite authors.

Like Dean Koontz! Yes, THE Dean Koontz! He was so very cool and gracious. He was signing his late dog Trixie's book, "Bliss is Good." It is HIGH-larious! In fact, it was so funny, I laughed out loud many, many times while HH was watching "Into the Wild" last night. That is NOT a movie you laugh at. It is WAY serious. Anyway, I sort of expected Trixie's book to be one of those maudlin inspirational books people write about animals. Oh my, no. This was so very funny, I wish I had picked up several copies for friends who have dogs. Maybe I'll have to actually but it when it comes out.

So, reviews of the new books will come. As will some giveaways here and on the website. And to prove I was there and actually saw the hysterically funny John Hodgman, here are a couple of photos of Chandra getting her book signed by him. He too was gracious and kind and he has MUCH better hair in person than he does on television.




This week's fun includes a LIVE CHAT with ThePageFlipper!!! Thursday, June 5th at 7PM Eastern/4PM Pacific (I have to make a note of that because I am sooo bad at math.). She's got a MySpace page and brand new website, ThePageFlipper.com, that will probably tell you more than I can! Check it out...

Get this stuff out of my head!

You know when your brain is full of so many things all at once, some of which have nothing to do with each other, and you're afraid to stop and take a breather because you're afraid you'll fall behind?

Yeah, that's me. My brain is full. I need to clean house.

1. My WIP (work in progress) is done. Well, the first draft is done but it's wayyy too long. It's 96K which is about 30K too much so I will need to cut about a third of it. I almost didn't follow my own advice, which is to JUST FINISH IT! I was about to stop before the last few scenes were written (for a number of reasons but one of which was that I was just plain depressed about it) and then HH reminded me that I was not doing what I tell everyone else to do. So I plowed on through, knowing that I will have to make some major revisions before anyone can read page one, but that's okay because NOW IT'S DONE and I have something to revise.

2. ALL ABOUT VEE got an amazing review at Pajama Mommy! Oh, I was so thrilled when my Google alerts sent me the link. Please check it out when you can. I definitely have to link this one to my website. She called it a "must-read"! How much do I love that??

3. ALL ABOUT VEE also got an amazing review at Chandra Rooney's Good Karma Reviews! Thank you again, Google alerts! btw, I love her description of her blog: "making the internet a nicer place one week at a time." It so perfectly fits with her review of the book! Take a gander over there too. This one is another for the website! And can I also mention how I love that she takes VEE seriously, that she doesn't consider the book "lightweight" (no pun intended, I swear...)?

4. LOST is gone for another year. This makes me unreasonably sad. I swear the shortest hours of the day are the ones when LOST is on. HH and I are total freaks. Okay, that's enough. I'm sad again.

5. This weekend is Book Expo America (BEA) here in LA and every writer I know is attending. It's a huge show at the LA Convention Center. I'm very excited but a little nervous. There will be LOTS of authors (not just us YA writers), TONS of books, and MANY, MANY publishers and agents. This is a big show for booksellers and librarians to find out what's hot, what's new, and what books they should look out for. Hint: You can't go wrong with a book by C. Leigh Purtill. LOL!!

Okay, one more...

6. I still haven't seen "Indy 4" but I will very soon. I promise! Ninja Webmaster has been bugging me about this for weeks so I have to see it before everyone he knows has spoiled it for him.

All right, that's some of the stuff in my head. Now I have to tackle the emails...