If you joined us for our YA Book Carnival contest, Denise Jaden, critique partner extroidinaire, and I are very excited to announce our winners of two books by Ally Carter! I've done another vlog to show the super-legit drawing of the winners. And I am slightly embarrassed by said vlog, but whatever.

So without further ado, the WINNERS!

( If you couldn't view the Vlog, the winners are listed under the cut! )</div>

I realize I have been slacking in my blog posting lately, but I have good reasons. I promise! Here they are as follows:

1. I got ENGAGED! If you're on twitter or facebook, you probably already know this, but it's the main reason why I've been MIA. Some of you have been emailing and asking for details.

( The engagement story behind the cut )

Anyway, I had picked out the ring and while we waited for it to arrive, we jumped the gun and started planning the wedding. The date is set for June 5, 2010. We already have a venue (by the Jersey shore), band, photographer, and videographer. Finding all that stuff took up a lot of my free time because I had to meet with all those people, plus the people we rejected! And there's a lot more where that came from. We still need to get a florist, officiant (it will be a non-denominational celebrant), save the dates, registry, and hotels. Plus, you know, the dress! So my free time won't be so free over the next few months. But it's all for a good reason! I am still new at this so if anyone has any advice, I'm all ears. Also would love recommendations for other vendors near the Jersey shore in Monmouth county, NJ. I know that's a long shot, but hey, can't hurt to ask!

2. Despite my lack of time advice post last week, I still have one more big scene to write in my retelling rewrite. I managed to write about 12k last week, but it wasn't enough to finish. (Remember, I am an overwriter so I prefer to write more than necessary which leads to tighter revisions where I get out my blade and hack away.) So whenever I got time on the computer, I chose to put it toward my WIP instead of my blog. I have to finish this plus do a rather extensive revision to my book on sub, so I may be continuing the writing vs blogging predicament over the next few weeks. But I will try to blog at least once per week. I have a LOT of reviews I want to do, but again, I have been choosing actual writing instead of writing the reviews. I plan to get some of these out on the blog as soon as I can.

3. Vacations. Or rather, mini-vacations. I have a lot of them coming up. Every weekend in fact. Last weekend I went to Baltimore for a baby shower and got to spend time with some high school friends. This weekend I am spending the holiday in Vermont with my...fiance's relatives (oooh that word is weird to say!). I'm going to the Hamptons in mid-July with my girlfriends. I'm visiting with two different sets of relatives next week. Basically--I usually have so much down time on the weekends, but now I won't even be in my apartment. Speaking of which, I am moving in the beginning of August and need to some how find time to pack! And then of course there's SCBWI LA, which I am super excited about!

4. And then I've been (thankfully!) working a lot in the last few weeks.

5. Also Big Brother starts up again next week. I am slightly addicted to this show. And by slightly I mean I will buy the internet feeds so I can watch stuff 24/7, then I will stalk message boards for recaps of what I missed while not hooked into the feeds. Clearly I am very cool.

So that's what's up with me lately. What are you up to?

(I haven't already done this topic, right? I hope not! I usually have a good memory but my brain is a little busy lately.)

This topic is very apropos to me lately because, as you can see by my lack of blogging, I've been struggling to find time to write. Or even sleep. Every time I think I may have a few minutes or an hour, something interrupts me. My writing has suffered in the last few weeks because of this, and so has my ability to timely respond to emails. And then today I was thinking back to nanowrimo 2007 and how I worked 12 hour days, commuted to and from the city (15 minute subway ride with 20 minute walk each way), managed to watch all my November sweeps with a day of each show airing, read 1-2 books a week, and still ended up writing 94k in 26 days.

And really all this means is I'm not trying hard enough right now. So how did I squeeze in the writing time back then? Well, I'm going to tell you! And then I'm going to take my own advice because I'm determined to finish the draft of the super secret retelling rewrite by Sunday since I now have some other revisions to get back to on my book on sub.

1. Squeeze in bursts whenever you can. If, like me, you're addicted to TV and can't miss sweeps (though not a problem for me in the summer), I write during commercials. For those 3 minutes, I'm completely focused. I bang out as much as I can without stopping, without thinking. Now, this may not work for everyone. I like to pour out my first drafts as fast as possible, pretty them up later, operating under the philosophy that you can't edit a blank page. So any time I can use for writing, I will. Other places I find time to squeeze in writing include: 12 minute subway commute. I sometimes bring my alphasmart with me, and if I can write without anyone interrupting to ask, "Is that a computer? What is that?" then I can usually bang out 750-1200 words on the commute alone. Oh, I should note that it helps if you type insanely fast. So fast that sometimes my fingers have to wait for my brain to catch up. So fast that anytime I freelance at a new place, someone comments on the speed. I do make typos, but I also don't worry about those in first draft. Clean up is for revisions! But then you may ask, what if you're lacking time for revisions, not first drafting? The same method applies. I can't edit on my alphasmart, but in those cases I've found uploading my book to my Kindle or maybe even iPhone and reading it like a book and scribbling notes will help me be productive on my commute. Then I try to tackle a chapter a day. Or a scene a day. Whether it's in short bursts or a long stretch. I can't focus on pacing during the short stretches, but there are other things I *can* do.

2. An alternative method to squeezing in bursts is to write a paragraph or 3 or so lines of dialogue every 15 minutes or so. And by this, I mean do it while you're at work. One paragraph is not that long. I can get that out quickly! Then I spend the next 15 minutes thinking over the next paragraph. You could probably squeeze in some actually work in there if you feel you must or if you want to keep your day job. (And if any of my bosses read this, I DO NOT DO THIS OR CONDONE THIS.) But if you write one or two sentences at a time throughout the day, I guarantee you'll end up with a productive day. Sometimes I get over 3k like this.

3. Lunch breaks are the perfect time to get some extra writing in. Eat a bite, write a sentence. Wash, rinse, repeat. I actually don't usually get a lunch break because I work on a live TV show and well, they need graphics constantly. But it does tend to slow down a little at lunch and so I do the bite/sentence thing when I can. But this is all about stealing time you might be using for other things. Multi-task!

4. Wake up a half hour earlier or go to bed a half hour later (or both if you choose). I'm not the kind of person who likes to sacrifice sleep, but I can justify losing a half hour since it doesn't seem too daunting. But if you take this half hour, you must actually use it. Surfing the internet would be a waste of your time.

5. Use the internet as a reward. What I like to do is say to myself, "You can't go back online until you write 500 words." Then I stick to it. I hit 500 words, I get my reward. Once my internet fix is sated, I do the 500 thing again. The key here is self discipline. You're only hurting yourself if you play around during your work time. There are other rewards too. Chocolate works. TV. A book you're itching to read. I personally don't like to deny myself of anything I enjoy, such as the TV or reading. If I can find a way to do everything, I will. Obviously if a deadline is pressing and I need to complete something, I will give up on everything else. I've done that in day jobs many many times (such as pulling all nighters and sleeping for an hour or two on a work couch before getting right back into it--several nights in a row.) But I'm pretty good about time management (usually, not in the last two weeks) so unless unforeseen circumstances get in the way, I can almost always schedule myself so I don't have to sacrifice anything. I think withholding something you enjoy might end up making you bitter about the project taking your time, and one thing I love more than anything is writing, so I don't want to be bitter about.

6. Set goals and stick to them. Say to yourself that you're going to write 3k today. Or an hour a day. Or whatever. Try your best to hit it. If circumstances beyond your control get in the way, then try to tack on the missed word count the next day on top of that day's goals. I do this during nano and it really works for me. I also try to write a lot more words at the beginning of the project so I don't lose steam on it. So on day one I might write 7k. Then by the end, I might only be writing 2k a day, but it still feels productive.

7. Have a writing buddy that holds you accountable. Tell her your progress each day. This is why I love nano so much, because everyone is encouraging everyone else. I tend to get competitive and that helps me. But when it's just myself, I like to tell my crit partner my goals so that if I don't hit them, I feel guilty about it. Because she KNOWS I failed! The last two weeks, I've been very bad at this step, but it stops today.

8. Plan your day's writin in advance. This is the one I find the most helpful, but what I like to do is leave myself a little bit of time--like 15 minutes, to mull over the next day's scenes while in bed. I play the scenes in my head like a movie, run through the dialogue, the blocking of the characters. I visualize it. If I fall asleep before I can do this, then I try to find some time to do it before I start writing. Maybe I think about it on my commute while walking to my office. Maybe I think about it in the elevator. But either way, I get the scene solidified in my head so by the time I actually need to write it, I feellike I'm transcribing it instead of floundering and trying to figure out what should happen in the scene.

9. If you're stuck, make a note about it and move on. My first drafts are riddled with things like WITTY DIALOGUE GOES HERE or SHE NEEDS BETTER MOTIVATION. If it takes me more than 3 seconds to think of, I move on and come back to it in revisions. I usually don't skip scenes unless I'm really stuck, but that's where #8 comes in.

10. I find to-do lists that I can check off each scene helpful. Not only does it act as a quick outline, but it keeps me focused and shows me how much I have left.

My current word count on the super secret retelling is 75k. I suspect I have approx 10-15k to go. Though this is a rewrite, I started from scratch so it's technically a first draft. My first drafts are always too long, and I always find at least 25-30k to cut in revisions, which leads to a much tighter 2nd draft. The goal is to finish these 10-15k by Sunday. Can I do it? We'll see. I do have a busy busy weekend. But I'm going to find a way to squeeze in as much time as possible. Anyone with me?

1. My round robin copy of SHIVER arrived a few days ago. I am halfway through and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. I am trying to finish reading so I can send it back out again on Monday, but I don't want to part with it! I will take a picture of me with it soon, I just haven't had a chance yet (mostly because it has been raining and my hair gets frizzy yucky in the rain.)

2. I have not written a word in over two weeks. I am also really behind on replying to emails, so if you are waiting to hear from me, I am not ignoring you, I promise. It took me over a week to respond to my own agent! The problem is I've had very little computer time over the last two weeks, sometimes less than 5 minutes a day. I've done most of my internet surfing on the iPhone, which is easy to read on, annoying to type on. It seems things may finally calm down next week so hopefully I'll catch up. I've set a goal to finish my rewrite of my retelling by father's day so I can set it aside and do some other revisions on another book I need to do. Hopefully those revisions won't take too long and I can come back and revise the retelling with fresh eyes.

3. This weekend the boy and I are going to the NYC BBQ festival in Madison Square Park! It's our favorite thing--he is a foody so this is like a dream for him. I don't eat all that much there because I don't eat pork and that limits things, but they have mint juleps at Tabla across the street and well, I like alcohol. If you live near NYC, you should definitely consider going! It's very fun! The lines are long though so keep that in mind. Earlier or later in the day is better. (We have a pass that lets us skip the lines, but to get it we had to guarantee that we would spend $100. Most of that $100 will be going into the bf's stomach.)

4. I am in TV withdrawal.

5. What are everyone's weekend plans?

Saw this on a few LJer blogs and I am short on time today so this is perfect to post.

This can be a quick one. Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.

1. TWILIGHT by Stephenie Meyer
2. THE HANDMAID'S TALE by Margaret Atwood
3. A WRINKLE IN TIME by Madeline L'engle
4. FIGHT CLUB by Chuck Palahniuk
5. VAMPIRE ACADEMY by Richelle Mead
6. THE END OF THE AFFAIR by Grahame Green
7. THE TRUTH ABOUT FOREVER by Sarah Dessen
8. HOMECOMING by Cynthia Voigt
9. VALLEY OF THE DOLLS by Jacqueline Susan
10. GUITAR GIRL by Sarra Manning
11. WINTERGIRLS by Laurie Halse Anderson
12. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen
13. RULES OF ATTRACTION by Bret Easton Ellis
14. LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
15. GULLIVER'S TRAVELS by Jonathan Swift


*Note, there is one that definitely should be on this list, but since I'm retelling it and my agent wants me to keep which book I'm retelling a secret until it's closer to submission, I can't actually name it.
**For some reason the Babysitter's Club book #8 BOY-CRAZY STACEY will always stick with me. I can recall the entire novel. But I felt stupid posting it so I put it as an amendment. (And btw, I did not have to look up which number the book was, that's how vividly I remember it.)

I'm about to head out to the Boston-area outlets and have lunch with YA blogger/book reviewer Laura of Laura's Book Review Shelf and also find something cute and "Blue Moon" themed to wear for the SCBWI LA conference, but my boyfriend showed me this yesterday and it blew my mind so I thought I'd pass it along. *I* know 3d animation. I have worked with motion capture before. And I cannot figure out how this is done. This is not something coming out in 20 years, it sounds like this attachment for the xbox will be out relatively soon. I am kind of in shock. We've come a long way technology wise!

I apologize for the delay of this recap. Work kicked my butt this week. Now I understand how editors and agents can let a week fly by and get almost nothing done! So I apologize for my #blogfail. I will try to be better next week.

THURSDAY

On Thursday I left work early because I had a "doctor's appointment" that could only be cured by attending the Teen Author Carnival. My friend Michelle came, and I also met up with Jen Hayley, who I know from Absolute Write and twitter, but we'd never met in person. So that was cool! We have a lot in common since we're the same age, live only a few minutes away from each other, and are both on sub for our YAs.

The carnival split all the authors into three teams. While one participated in the Q&A, another team signed books and a third team held a meet and greet. We mostly sat in the Q&A sessions because I wanted to hear what all the authors had to say. And secretly I like to figure out my own answers for, you know, when I sell a book and get to be on stage instead of in the audience. I can't quite remember anymore what kinds of questions were asked, but it was interesting to hear the variety of answers. Sarah Cross also signed my copy of Dull Boy! W00t!

The entire event was run by YA book bloggers/reviewers, sites I frequent often, so it was also cool to put some faces to the names. They did a fabulous job of running this event and deserve major accolades. They also gave away a ton of books, and hey, free books are always awesome. Though my boyfriend wasn't too happy since we're moving soon and I'm supposed to be getting rid of the books, not acquiring more (something I have MAJORLY failed at recently.)

Libba Bray and Maureen Johnson are HILARIOUS in real life. You can see where they get their humor from.

FRIDAY

I met Jen Hayley again on Friday and we went to see TIGER BEAT perform at Books of Wonder. I was really impressed with the turnout of the event. Tons of people showed up! I recognized a lot of the book bloggers from the night before and several other authors. Rachel Cohn and David Levithan performed the opening act with a hilariously dramatic reading of two Spice Girls songs. Man, the lyrics of WANNABE are so deep. "I wanna. I wanna. I wanna. Really really wanna zigga zag ha." They also read TWO BECOME ONE, which is also so metaphoric, I just can't figure out what it could possibly be about. I wish they were less cryptic with those lyrics. Haha. After that David Levithan performed an ode to Libba Bray where he rhymed her last name to a lot of funny phrases.

After that Tiger Beat performed, and I can't tell you how impressed I was. Libba Bray could sing and play the drums. Barnabas Miller could play the drums, the guitar, and sing! Most of the songs they sang were, um, before my time, so I didn't really recognize them. *hangs head* But still, this was awesome.

I found this on YouTube. It's from the March performance, not the one I went to, but it gives you a good idea. Courtesy of Melissa Walker:




Afterward, Jen and I tagged along with Michael Northrop--I am super excited to read his book and he is soooo nice!--and went to kidlit drinks at the Houndstooth pub. At first I was intimidated so I stood in a corner until the liquid courage--in the form of vanilla vodka and 7-up--kicked in.



marylovesya aka kidlit.com recognized me from my avatar! I chatted with a lot of authors. Let's see if I can remember. 2k9ers megancrewe , Anne Hayward Leal, franslayton , Ellen Jensen Abbot, Tenner Anna Jarzab, Micol and David Ostow. We also briefly met Barry Lyga. I know I am forgetting people so please forgive me! Blame the alcohol!

Because a little publicity never hurts, here are the book covers of the above:


We stayed until the room emptied. I didn't want to leave! Though I should have, since I got a little too tipsy. I paid for it the next day when the headache made me miss Melissa Marr's signing. Doh!

Both nights I wore my cutest dresses, so um, if you saw me here and you'll be at SCBWI LA, just forget I wore them. K thanks.

SATURDAY

I managed to pull myself together and despite the rain my hair managed to stay straight for the blueboarder dinner. I'm stealing this photo from Adrienne Kress's blog (thanks!) Dinner was so, so awesome. I loved putting faces to names and everyone is so cool and nice! It's great to discuss writing with people who actually care and understand. I was really nervous for dinner because I'd picked the place and I worried no one would like it. But it turned out to be a good place. We ate at THE HALF KING and I chose it because it has a private room and also because it's owned by the guy who wrote THE PERFECT STORM, so it has literary ties.



(left to right) Adrienne Kress, Shana Silver, Bettina Restrepo, Jenny Moss, Jean Regean, Megan Crewe, Ashley Formento, Aprilynne Pike, Laurie Crompton)

marylovesya also joined us for a short time before she had to head out.

(Didn't repeat book covers from those posted above)

After that Bettina, Megan, Fran, Fran's librarian friend, and I trekked across Manhattan via some very rude cab drivers (welcome to NY!) and went to a YA party thrown by Robyn Schneider, Julia DeVillers, and Bennett Madison. When I got there I spotted sarahcross and we chatted for awhile about Sailor Moon (my favorite subject, haha!) Sarah is seriously the coolest person. I got to meet Ally Carter and jenlyn_b (who I had briefly met on Thursday at the teen author carnival). I had such a great time!



I was really sad when the night had to end and I had to crawl home to my internet bubble. But I came home super motivated to work on my project, and I can't wait for SCBWI LA now.

BEA weekend recap coming soon.  I have it half way written up, but work keeps interrupting me. But since I want to win Catching Fire VERY badly, I am linking to Reviewer X's contest. It ends soon, so if you want to win, check it out.

http://reviewerx.blogspot.com/2009/05/contest-catching-fire.html

1. Last night I attended the Teen Author Carnival. I had a blast! The lovely sarahcross signed my copy of Dull Boy (200 pages in and loving it! Such unique characters! Full review next week) and I met jessicaburkhart who is adorable in person. I also snagged an ARC of Michelle Zink's Prophecy Of The Sisters, which I'm super excited to read. I'll post more details about it with a full recap of this weekend on Sunday or Monday (depending on time--something I am still lacking in).

2. Tonight I'm going to Books of Wonder to see Tiger Beat perform.

	May 29th Friday 6 - 8 pm	TIGER BEAT RETURNS! TEEN AUTHOR ROCK SHOW MAKING THEIR TRIUMPHANT RETURN! Libba bray barnabas miller daniel ehrenhaft natalie standiford And featuring an opening act by “THE INFINITE PLAYLISTS” rachel cohn and David levithan

3. Then later tonight I'm going to Cheryl Klein's and Elizabeth Bird's kidlit drinks night. I had such a blast last time so I'm really looking forward to tonight. I'm hoping my hair cooperates. It's nice and straight right now!

4. Saturday afternoon I'm going back to Books of Wonder for Melissa Marr's and Kristin Cashore's book reading/signing.

5. Then Saturday night I'm super excited for the blueboarder dinner meet up. That includes a lot of my LJ friends! And then some other fun stuff on Saturday! I can't wait to meet everyone.

Anyway, if you're at any of these events today or tomorrow and you see someone who is 5'0" tall with long hair and a big smile, come say hi!

I'll do a big recap about everything after all the events are finished. I hope everyone is having a great time today. And you know, if you scored an extra copy of CATCHING FIRE you need someone to take off your hands, I will gladly help you out with that. Just saying.

I am limited in time today, as usual. Seems to be a trend around here. So instead I'll direct you to some eye candy of the Volterra fountain scene shoot for New Moon. Edward...er...Rpattz is shirtless. And he seems to have worked out. The only thing that would make this photo better is if it came with a voice recording of him speaking in his sexy British accent. Or if he reenacted this scene for me live in the privacy of my apartment.

I love the CG dots he has painted on him. That makes me happy, since I am a CG artist. Guys look very hot with motion trackers. (In case you are wondering what the dots are for, they're used to track the contours of his body and the way it moves in 3D space so you can map stuff onto it, like say, sparkles. This is what I do in my day job when I composite.)

( Clicky for a picture of Robert acting like a chicken pox victim (i.e. the motion trackers) )

I haven't posted one of these in a while, especially not from my book on sub THE ART OF SELLING MY SISTER. So here's one of my favorite scenes from this novel.

The set-up: my characters are pretending to be newlyweds so they can pull a prank on the cruise ship's Newlywed game. They are trying to get "in character" here. Earlier in the novel Finn, my protagonist's love interest, caught her pigging out on the buffet selections and this scene recalls that. Kasey stole rings from her sister before this scene occurred.
( Excerpt under the cut )
I hope everyone had a great Memorial day!

1. Apologies for the lack of blogging/twittering this week. I've been abnormally busy and had barely any time to actually sit down at the computer and do anything productive. I'm also way behind on my emails, so if you sent me one and I haven't responded, that's why. I'm hoping to catch up this weekend.

2. Next week I'll have a lot of topics to discuss because of all the BEA events. I am going to the teenauthorcarnival, a Backspace drinks night, a blueboarder dinner, an event at Books of Wonder, Cheryl Klein's kidlit drinks night, and maybe a few other things. I'm very excited! I'm not actually going to BEA, but I'm thrilled it's in NYC again this year so I can take part in all the various events happening because of it. Last time it was NYC, I was too intimidated and too much of a newbie to venture out of my apartment and mingle.

3. I had a good week of winning things. I picked correctly that Kris would win American Idol. My mom runs an idol pool for about 100 people. There are two contests, one where we rank the top 13 before the final round, and another where we submit weekly picks. I came in 2nd in the top 13 contest and 1st in the weekly picks! So I win money in both. I am the ONLY ONE out of 100 people who had Kris in the finals. I took one look at him all those weeks ago and said, "he's hot. Those teens will vote for him. He's going all the way!" Ha! I was right. I also just saw on goadingthepen 's blog that I won a copy of Lament by m_stiefvater . I'm so excited to read this and the Shiver ARC we'll be passing around!

4. As much as I enjoy obsessing over TV, I also love summer because it frees up so much time in my schedule. Now, I do want to reiterate that I have no problem completing everything during the winter (see also last November when I kept up with TV sweeps, worked 12-14 hour days on a major deadline job, read 2-3 books a week, and still managed to write about 80k. It's the art of multi-tasking, at which I excel.) But anyway, it is nice to have less obligations taking up so many hours per week even if it's sad not to have anything to watch.

5. What is everyone doing for the three-day weekend (assuming everyone has one)? Going any place exciting? My boyfriend and I are going to hit up the beach Saturday, then go to my parents' house since they live close to the Jersey shore, then we'll spend Sunday sitting by my parents' pool. Josh really wants to go early to the Spotted Pig on Sunday night. We did this last year, same weekend, and it's one of the only times it's empty enough to get in! I love their deviled eggs. Monday is cleaning day since we have to get our apartment spic and span for prospective tenants to check it out. (We're not moving far, just a little further away from the city to get more for our money, trading our 12 minute commute with a 25 minute one.)

Happy Memorial Day!

I've been terribly busy the last few days and haven't had much time for blogging. I really am trying to get a bunch of reviews up from recent reads. Hopefully I can get that up tomorrow. Since I'm not ready for that yet and I'm low on writing topics (and haven't had a chance to prepare the next book trailer tutorial), I'm going to give some thoughts on season finales and endings since that does kind of pertain to writing, even if it is in a different medium.

Stories all have beginnings, middles, and endings. I usually rock beginnings and have no problem coming up with something hooky. And for some reason, I rarely suffer from the middle of the book sag. It's endings that are a pain. I usually rewrite mine several times from various angles until I get one that works. All this means that I pay very close attention to season finales, trying to study them and understand how they recap endings.

( Spoilers under the cut )

What finales did you like best? Worst? Which wrapped up the season long story arcs well and which were a let down?

1. I'm going to try to keep this Friday Five short. It'll be like opposite day. But I want to write a lot of words in my WIP and I can't do that if I put the words on the blog instead.

2. I had such a great time at Wednesday's event at the NYPL where Sarah Cross and other authors read from their books. I was so impressed! A lot of them did different voices for the characters like audiobook narrators. I laughed hard at several of the excerpts. Definitely my kind of books. Now I have a lot more on my TBR to get to!

3. Even though I'm not going to BEA, there are so many events going on that week, I feel like I'm getting ready for a conference. Several book readings. There's a dinner with blueboarders I'm seriously looking forward to (though I'm nervous no one will like the restaurant I picked!). I can't wait to meet up with everyone and put more faces to names. I'll give more details about the events I'm going to, but my Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are jam packed. Good thing I don't have a job. Ha.

4. My bf and I are going apartment hunting this weekend. We kind of hate the place we live now because it's cramped. Mostly, I need more closets and my boyfriend doesn't want to comply by getting rid of his wardrobe and giving me more space. If all goes well, we'll be trading in our view of NYC for a place with a pool, gym, sauna, and several other luxuries. It'll mean a slightly longer commute into NYC, but not too bad.

5. I just want to give a virtual hug to all my wonderful Live Journal friends. You guys rock, seriously. Thanks so much for everything!

1. I am about 45k into my super secret retelling rewrite. Wow that's a mouthful. My first drafts are usually way too long (I prefer this because cutting things and killing darlings gives me a serious high) so I estimate I'm a little more than halfway done. That seems to coincide with my trusty outline. I really really love this revision. It is much stronger than my last version.

2. I am extremely excited for the finale of Lost tonight. But that just means tomorrow will be the most disappointing day ever! I'll have soooo long to wait until the next episode! Still, it's better than next year at this time when there won't be another episode.

3. While I am crushing on Kris, I think my boyfriend might be crushing on Adam. He keeps making me rewatch Adam's performances. He sits at the edge of the seat, literally, and just stares in awe at the TV. Then he goes on long, passionate rants why Adam should win. I'm starting to get worried. But hey, I think I know what to get him for his birthday. A custom made Adam Lambert pin up poster!

4. I'm also looking forward to attending this tonight. I'll have a recap tomorrow:

May 13 -- Teen Author Reading Night
(6-7:30pm, Jefferson Market Branch of NYPL, 425 6th Ave, at 10th St.)

Nick Burd, The Vast Fields of Ordinary
Cecil Castellucci, Geektastic
Susane Colasanti, Waiting for You
Sarah Cross, Dull Boy
Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty
Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, The Real Real
Kieran Scott, Geek Magnet

5. The elevators in my apartment both stopped working at the same time. I think this is an evil conspiracy to get me to exercise by walking up eleven flights of stairs multiple times per day.

For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf--her wolf--is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human . . . until the cold makes him shift back again.

Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human--or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.

1. I've been really busy with a work deadline this week so I'll keep this short! Said work deadline has made it difficult to get much writing and critiquing done. I'm holding steady right now at 35k, with a scene I'm SUPER excited to write up next (it's a kissing scene in an unusual setting, w00t!). Writing this scene will be a reward for my forced slacking this week. However, I did write my favorite scene so far in the book this week (soon to be rivaled by the upcoming kiss).

2. One thing I'm surprised about this week is that Nikki Finke of Deadline Hollywood Daily is reporting that the Lily-centric 80s fab Gossip Girl spinoff is not dead. I bring this up because recently I eavesdropped on a few editors twitter-chatting about 80s-set novels and whether they would be successful. I'm not sure why the Gossip Girl spin off failed, there's a flashback episode airing Monday that was supposed to serve as a backdoor pilot (Private Practice style), so until I watch it, I can't come up with any theories other than the episode most likely didn't test well or the execs at the network had more promising series (like the vampire show based on YA novels). The thing that surprises me is Gossip Girl already has a built in audience that would follow the show...so what caused it to fail? Is it the setting? Not enough interest in the Lily character as a teen? I don't write historical (if the 80s could be considered that), but I thought I'd bring this question up to anyone who does because I'm curious about how this might be related to acquisitions in the pub industry.

3. Speaking of TV, can I just talk about how excited I am for finale week? LOST is the one I'm most looking forward to, though I've been disappointed (haven't felt we've really learned much we didn't already know about Dharma) as well as delighted (really love the time travel stuff and some of the changing character roles/relationships) with some things from this season. I love the Big Bang Theory, though I'm not expecting any major cliff hangers here. Gossip Girl should be fun as they try to debunk the mysterious blogger's identity (plus I'm hoping for some Blair/Chuck reuniting). Hopefully Izzie will die on Grey's Anatomy (I can't stand her, sorry fans of the character). I'm hoping Adam takes it all on American Idol, LOVE him. And though it has lukewarm ratings and a very slim chance of returning for a 2nd season, I've found myself completely hooked and looking forward to every episode of Dollhouse. So I'm super excited for tonight's (series?) finale.

What shows are you looking forward to?

4. I forgot to mention this, but a few weeks ago I lent my mom some YA books to take on vacation with her. I gave her two books in the Luxe series and Audrey Wait! She devoured the Luxe books and then brought Audrey Wait with her to the pool. She was laughing so hard, a woman actually came over to see what book she was reading because my mom was obviously enjoying it so much. Mom showed her, and the lady is excited to buy the book. My subtle ways of converting adults to YA are working better than expected. Two down, a lot more to go.

5. Happy mother's day to all the mother's out there! I'm going to my parents' house for the weekend to spend it with my mom.

I'm now all booked and registered for the Summer SCBWI conference in LA. This is my first BIG conference. I've gone to the Backspace conference in NYC the last few years, but only 150 people or so attend that one. I wanted to go to something more focused on YA (and other children's writing) this year. Plus I get to meet my critique partners! And lots of other people I've interacted with online. I LOVE putting faces and personalities to online names.

I'm going a day early so denisejaden and I can bond and do touristy things in LA. Like tour Dreamworks where my friend works. The last time I was in LA, I was 7 years-old, it was New Years Eve, and I fell asleep long before midnight. That's really all I remember about it.

I'm hoping to bring Robert Pattinson home with me unless he's out of town filming Eclipse, which is the only excuse I'll accept.

I'm also staying two days after the conference to visit with my cousin who now lives in LA. I never get to see her anymore. We'll hopefully have lots to discuss because we're both about to get engaged and will be in each other's wedding parties. (She's more due for it than me even though she's a year younger. I've been with my bf for 6 years. She's been with hers for almost 9!)

I've already started planning my outfits. Gotta figure out something to wear to the Blue Moon party!

So...who else is going to the conference? Let's plan a meet-up!

Thanks to the upfronts (my favorite time of the year), I'm working this week so I forgot to blog. Speaking of the upfronts, I'm super excited for Joel Mchale's new show! Of course, I would watch anything he's in. There's a preview of all the new NBC shows over at eonline.com

I've hit 30k on my rewrite of the retelling project, it's just flowing along! As I've mentioned before, I had to completely change the plot (for the better). Originally, my protagonist was supposed to be a digital artist who got reeled into making fake IDs. This plot is now completly gone, and that means some favorite scenes have had to go as well. I could mourn them...or I could celebrate them and post one here for Teaser Tuesday.

So this is a scene I have cut and won't be using again. My protagonist has a quirkier, more unique hobby now. She is no longer an artist of any kind. There are no fake IDs in the new version at all. Kayla, who seems like a bad girl here, has a very different role this time around. She's still my favorite character I've written though! And she has a much cooler classroom entrance in my new draft that puts this one to shame.

( Click for the excerpt )