Yesterday, it got scary black outside, hailed, rained like it was going to flood and then stopped. The sky was pink and pretty ten minutes later as if it never happened. It was the perfect way to cap off the week.
I just couldn’t stop myself from taking pics.
I started writing LITTLE WHITE LIES (Canterwood Crest #6 (SIX! *falls over*) yesterday. I Tweeted (stupidly, LOL) that I was going to stay up all night writing and hit 5k before I went to sleep.
Didn’t happen. I wrote 500 words and stopped for the night. I needed a few hours to absorb outline changes and just think about where I needed to go with the book.
Today, I got started late and hit my stride. I had one of those rare “OMG” writer moments where I sat back and actually said, “Oh. Whoa. Wow. Um.” out loud. One of those crazy-talking-to-yourself writer moments where you actually start to cry like an idiot for no reason.
But a few things hit me full force:
* I’m writing book freaking six. S-I-X. There was a time when I thought I wouldn’t be able to write one book. Not one. Just short articles, nothing book length. And I’m not saying this to be like, “Oh, wow. Look. You’ve written five books.” I’m saying this because so many writers e-mail me and say they’re sure they can’t write a book but so want to. That they can’t write past a few pages. I used to think that too.
* I’m in love with a character. A character that I didn’t fall for until twenty minutes ago. And I’m hard core crushing. (And man, I’m sooo gonna regret posting this part ’cause EK will read it and never let me forget it when I tell her my new love interest. As if she needs another thing to hold over me, LOL.)
* This is the first book I’ve ever written in New York and it’ll be my only first book in NYC. It feels sparkly just for that reason.
* I’m not the writer I was when I wrote BEST ENEMIES. Not better, not worse (I hope!). Just not the same.
* Everything and nothing has changed. Everything in my life has changed. Nothing in my character’s lives has. They were all there–waiting for me to come and move things for them. I’m almost annoyingly giddy to be back to Canterwood (I sound like a student, LOL) and into writing.
And not just writing.
Writing that I love.
There’s a difference.
And it took a while for me to find it again. But I have.
Okay! Sappy much? Seriously. 🙂 As you were.
On a whim, I read that Robert Pattinson was filming REMEMBER ME on 8th Street and University in NYC. I was like, “Do I go, or not?!” I wasn’t going to go and then everyone was telling me, “Go! It’s R Pattz!”
I hopped on the F and forty minutes later, I was walking around looking for Rob. I walked for about twenty minutes and didn’t find him. I was getting discouraged and then I decided to walk a different way.
And then…there was a MASSIVE crowd of girls (and some guys) and I KNEW I’d found the right place.
So, enjoy the pics and video of Rob’s latest project. Yay!
The video’s still processing, so the quality’s a little wonky. It shall improve once it’s fully processed!
Yesterday, I got stuck on my YA WIP and needed a break, so I headed to the park. I’ve only ever been on the edge of it and who knew there were MILES of trails–like, shaded trails with signs so you don’t get lost–for exploring and walking. I looove it there! It’s rained so much that some of the trails were flooded, so I hopped around puddles (read: lakes) and enjoyed the squirrels, grass and trees. Very pretty.
I love that I can either walk down my fave streets in town or head out to the park if I want to be alone and need quiet. It’s cool. I love, love the streetlamps. I wouldn’t walk around the park alone at night, but I’ll prob try to talk Roy and Kassie into walking around with me one night ’cause I really want to see the street lamps on and it would be fun.
I went to the Flatiron Lounge yesterday to meet the lovely and awesome Taylor Morris and PG Kain. While I was waiting…
I watched two guys set up a camera and then those two people (newscasters) showed up minutes later. They got directions from the camera guy, “Just walk straight, talk to each other and smile! But start over if someone walks in front of you.”
Newsguy and Newsgirl walked a few yards away, then walked back doing their thing. I, of course, took a cell phone pic. They did this four times before they got it and left.
I wonder what THAT segment is going to be about…?
Taylor, PG and I had so much fun and it’s so cool to be able to go out with other authors and not talk about writing or books. Oh, no! We had topics of utmost importance to cover, including but not limited to reality TV and Speidi.
Happy weekend!
**Warning: People who heart me and worry about my survival should stop reading now. You’ve been warned!**
Last night, around 8:30ish, I looked up at my ceiling fan (see below) and realized, “Oh. Hey. I never cleaned that!” So, I got out that step ladder and cleaned the fan blades and then the glass shade things. They were pretty dirty and def needed to come off and be washed. There were three screws per shade and I was all, “Yay!” when I got them off. I washed the shades and started to screw them back on.
I got this far and was screwing in the third shade when ZAP!
Shocked. I was turning the screw and got shocked. Not strong enough to knock me off the ladder, but strong enough to make me sit on the floor for half an hour, stare up at the fan and mutter awful things about it. I was scared to finish putting up the rest of the shades! I waited for a while and finally tried again. I got all of the shades on and I’m never touching them again. No matter how dirty they may get. 🙂
All about Libba Bray’s B&N event and how I back up danced for her. Yes, I did. *blushes* In front of Holly Black, Cassie Clare, Robin Wasserman and Barry Goldblatt.
O
M
G
Thankfully, none of my friends were there to capture the video on camera though other people were….
June 5, 2007 was the day my first book deal was announced in PubLunch.
April 5, 2009 was the day I moved to NYC.
June 5, 2009 is the one-month mark that I’ve had my own apt.
Guess 5 is my lucky number, huh?
A pic snapped by Lauren Barnholdt’s Boy of LB taking pics of us on the BEA panel. (I shamelessly stole this pic and a couple more (noted below) from L’s Twitter.) Left to right: Robyn, me, Julia DeVillers, Maureen Johnson, Sarah Mlynowski.
Another pic taken by Lauren of the BEA panel. The woman on my left is the technician who saved us all with a super important power cord for Robyn’s Power Point.
I almost died when I saw the cover of BEST ENEMIES at the S&S booth on this board. So cool! 🙂
Editor Kate and me at drinks with Lauren Barnholdt (Team Barnhart!) and her Boy. So fun! Much to EK’s dismay, after Lauren snapped that pic with her iPhone she Tweeted it. EK is kinda anti-Twitter. Just kind of. 😉
A blurry pic of a board at BEA that announces the panel line ups. Driving Success with Teens and Tweens: Authors Share Online Success Stories was my panel.
Well, look who it is! THE Kaleb Nation signing copies of his book and chatting with David Levithan and Maureen Johnson.
Almost to the Simon & Schuster booth. The crowd was insane.
I’ve barely been home since Thursday and have had nooo time to blog. A quick run down of Book Expo America 2009 and the NYC Teen Author Carnival *needs* telling. So…
Thursday–NYC Teen Author Carnival
This was hosted by three superawesome teens–Devyn, Mitali and Korianne. It was a fun, crazy two hours of Q&A, meeting readers, signing books and mingling with authors. It was my first NYC author event, so I was nervous before I got there. But everyone was relaxed and there to have fun. It *was* a carnival theme, after all.
I spent time chatting with Melissa Walker, Sarah MacLean, Pam Bachorz, Libba Bray, Micol and David Ostow, Aimee Friedman, Sarah Cross, Jenny Han, PG Kain, Taylor Morris, Carolyn MacCollough, Robyn Schneider, Michelle Zink, Beckie Weinheimer and Lauren Barnholdt. Almost all of them were Internet friends or people I “knew” through some various online channel. So cool to meet them in person.
After the carnival, Lauren and her Boy, EK and I went out for drinks. We had so much fun and I already knew from emailing and texting that I’d like Lauren in person, but she was even cooler–if that’s possible! There will most def be future Barnhart events, so stay tuned. 🙂
Friday–Book Expo America, day one
The Javits Center is HUGE. It has to be said right away. I thought the crowd would be scary and overwhelming, but it was actually the opposite. It was fun to be around so many people who were there with a love for books. I met up with Robyn in the morning and we hurried to get in line for signings for Ally Carter and Sarah MacLean. We got our books, then ran into Lauren and her Boy.
We spent a couple of minutes chatting with Kaleb and wished we had more time, but Kaleb was super busy (he had a signing line, hello) and everyone’s schedules were a mess. (But Kaleb, it was so great to finally meet and come back to NYC soon so we can hang out for real!)
Robyn had a meeting, so LB, her Boy and I wandered the floor for a while and checked out the various booths.
Lauren and I went to the S&S booth to check it out and ran into a lot of our S&S friends. Lauren had to run off to a business lunch, so I spent the rest of the day hanging out with the super fab LA. I loved that we both had enough of the BEA noise/crazy atmosphere at the exact same time and were like, “let’s go hijack an empty meeting room and chill for a while!”
After being at BEA from 9-5, I was exhausted. I got home, ate, looked over notes for my panel and crashed by 8:30.
Saturday–Book Expo America, day two
My panel started at 9:30 and it was exciting to be sitting with Maureen Johnson, Julia DeVillers, Sarah Mlynowski and Robyn Schneider. EK, Nova, LB and a few other people I knew came to the panel, which was super sweet for them to get up early on a Sat and come. I also got to meet LiveJournal friend Jenny Moss. So cool! Lauren took more pics of the panel with Robyn’s camera, so I’ll post when R puts those online.
After the panel, I left BEA to work for a while and then headed off to the S&S party. It was amazing! I got to meet a couple of editors at Pulse that I hadn’t met before and chatted with other S&S authors. Plus, I got to see publishing friends I hadn’t seen since January and it was so good to say hi and see them again. S&S picked a great place for the party and I think everyone was having fun. Perfect way to end my BEA experience.
I probably forgot a lot, since the days were packed, but those are definitely some of the highlights. I’ll keep posting about it next week if/when I think of things.
I’m forcing myself to ignore the shiny books from BEA until I have at least a few pages of the chapter by chapter outline of LITTLE WHITE LIES down. Will not stare longingly at book pile… 🙂
I spent the afternoon here. Here being Harold’s Square in Manhattan. I thought I had my BEA clothes set. But no. No. It required trips to: Macy’s, Forever 21, H&M and a 3.1 second visit in the Gap before I was like, umm, sorry but no. Just not my style. FINALLY found what I wanted at the very last store, Forever 21, (thank you, Aly!!) and now have clothes. Still deciding how to pair them. Being a girl is hard sometimes, LOL. Am hauling said clothes over to Kassie’s in the morning to be like, “Help. Me. Pick.”
I’m working on getting my thoughts/general notes together for the BEA panel on Saturday. Am also working on sending a few emails here and there to New York and New Jersey schools about visits for the fall. If you know of any schools who are looking, please send them my way!
My list of authors to stalk is growing by the hour. Plus, um, I heard that a certain superfavoriteOMGIhearther author is attending a party that I’m going to. What if I fan girl out and squee or fall at her feet? Seriously. I have to be cool. Ahem.
Tomorrow, I’ve got the carnival (sooo packed with big authors that it’s making me super nervous!) and a quick trip to pick up my BEA badge. Friday, it’s BEA all day. Or until my arms fall off from too many books. There’s also a Friday night party, but I’m not sure if I’m going. Saturday is my panel and two parties. Very exciting!
Off to bed to read NIGHT WORLD.
Jessica Burkhart 