Wow, it's been over a month since I updated my blog, which is odd for me. I have a good excuse, I think--we just moved, and are still in the process of moving to some degree. Besides the Internet connectivity problems I've had, I've hardly had 5 minutes to think, much less blog! Anyway, there's much I could blog about but nothing that clearly begs ( Read more... )

For any writer who's ever wondered what your editor, agent, or critiquer was thinking... here's a (PG-rated) comedy sketch you might appreciate, from That Mitchell and Webb Look.

Click to view

A couple of years ago, my brother Gavin acted in a movie called A Plumm Summer, which won several awards, including Best Family Film at the Austin Film Festival. It's finally out on DVD, and it's also showing on Time Warner's On Demand cable right now.

The Time Warner site currently has the movie trailer online here (you can see the back of my ( Read more... )

1) Everyone in my family is healthy.

2) I got an agent this month!

3) She started sending my book out yesterday.

4) Isn't that enough? :)

I know it's been 23 days since I posted...things have just been hectic since my husband left town for his new job. He's been in the job for five weeks (and loves it, yay!), and it's six more weeks until the kids get out of school. But I can't imagine we'll be ready to move at that point! Not only are we nowhere close to getting out of here, but we ( Read more... )

I'm so exhausted, I don't have the energy to post much. But at least I did survive my first week handling the kids and everything else alone with my husband gone (to his new job in another city, until the rest of us can join him), and I'm more than halfway through the second.

He did get to come back on the weekend, so I got to go to Laurie Halse ( Read more... )

Have you seen today's Very Hungry Caterpillar-themed Google logo for the first day of spring? So cute!

(You can see all their 2009 holiday logos here, including one for Dr. Seuss's birthday earlier this month.)

Melissa Wyatt (melissawyatt ) is giving away a copy of of her brand new YA novel, Funny How Things Change, before you can buy a copy. Just leave a comment on her blog to be entered. You can also get an extra entry by blogging about it...like this! Although, this one's been calling out to me for a while, so I'm hoping this one is mine. :-)

Last month I was fortunate enough to win a copy of Judy Blundell's National Book Award-winning YA novel, What I Saw and How I Lied, from the Young Adult (& Kids) Books Central Blog. I received it this week and started reading it yesterday...and ended up staying up until 4 am today to finish it! Once I got about halfway through, I never found a ( Read more... )

One of the worst things about moving is that my life has to revolve around our move (and daily survival with 3 kids) for the next 12 weeks. And life after that will probably revolve around the other side of the move--unpacking, settling into a new place, developing new routines, etc.--for another few weeks. Which means, unfortunately, writing time ( Read more... )