Category: random

Timing…so weird

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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?

Random things on a Friday

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I’m so excited (read: nervous) about Book Expo America! But first, I’m doing the NYC Teen Author Carnival next Thursday from 4-6 pm with awesome authors including Lauren Barnholdt, Taylor Morris, PG Kain and more! Lauren and I, dubbed “Barnhart” by Editor K, are going to be veeery scandalous. We invite you to come join us! 🙂 I’ll be giving away: two copies of TAKE THE REINS, two copies of CHASING BLUE and two copies of BEHIND THE BIT. Plus, there will be signed postcards.

Back to BEA. There are so, so many people I finally get to meet! I’m trading numbers with people so we can text if things get crazy and we don’t end up running into each other. So, if I’m supposed to meet up with you at BEA and you want to trade cell numbers, shoot me yours. I think the convention center is going to be huge and the odds of just running into people seems slim. Meg Cabot already sent me her number so we can meet. 🙂 Kidding.

I’m going on Friday to pick up my badge and to track down Kaleb Nation at the Sourcebooks booth. I will attempt to ask for (read: steal) a copy of Kaleb’s Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse.

My panel with Robyn Schneider, Maureen Johnson, Julia DeVillers and Sarah Mlynowski is on Saturday morning and so many of my friends have said they’re coming. Thanks, guys! 🙂 It’ll make me less nervous to have friends in the audience in case I start to babble and/or embarrass myself during the panel. (Um, did you see the big names on my panel? Eeep…very intimidated!) The friends can then cause a disturbance so I can slink away in shame.

I’m going into Manhattan today to get a sparkly haircut for BEA. Going to the place of awesome–Soon Beauty Lab West. Love it there. I really want hot pink streaks for the summer, but…I won’t. Yet.

Keep fingers crossed that I do not get into any sort of trouble on this trip. It would be a first. I really can make it from home to the city and back without incident–I *know* I can! I’m still so jealous of the people who can listen to music and read or sleep (!) on the subway. I’m the girl clutching her HopStop instructions and checking off every stop like a total dork. The one time I tried to listen to music on my iPod on the subway? I almost ended up in Queens!!

Happy Friday!

I heart Pink

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Yesterday, I went shopping at Victoria’s Secret for PINK shirts with friends. I found *the* most awesome shirt (couldn’t find a pic on VS’s Website, but trust me) and it’s super sparkly. It’s light blue with a blinged-out rocket Popsicle with a bite missing on the front. On the back it says something like, “I will make you melt Pink.”

It’s gorg.

So, anyway. It was warm yesterday and I couldn’t resist wearing this awesome shirt under a light wrap sweater to run a few errands. I met up with my friend and we’re walking down the street when a guy starts pointing at my shirt. I’m like, “OMG!” but we keep walking.

And then, he steps closer while still pointing at my shirt and reaches toward me as if he’s going to touch the Popsicle. He does.

O.
M.
G.

I was in total shock. Lucky for me, my friend gave the guy a look that meant she’d break his fingers if he touched my shirt again (she would have taken him down, for real!) and told him that wasn’t cool. I mean, I know the shirt was awesome, dude, but don’t touch it.

And that’s my story for the day.

Now back to editing.

Finally Friday

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The weekend’s almost here. Yay! I’m super excited about it. I’m nearing the finish line on BEST ENEMIES and it would be great if I could type the final words by early next week. I’ve also got a stack of books that I want to read and I really need to start editing the first half of BEST ENEMIES. It’s in scary shape. It feels like so long ago since I started it. I, erm, kind of forgot what happened in some places.

Shout outs (sorry if I’m forgetting anyone!) to Carrie Ryan, Amanda Ashby and Alyson Noel for some awesome news this week. Woo hoo!

Anyone have weekend plans?

P.S. I will have official super sparkly news of my own to share soon–hopefully next week! 😀

Plot hole = evil

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I’ve been project juggling lately. That’s unusual for me because I usually start an idea and stick with it till it’s finished. But not now. A month or so ago, I started Dark YA and got 5k in before chatting with People and deciding to drop it. For now.

Then, I shifted over to Secret Sparkly Tween Book (thinking of it as one of three) and have wiped out the 10 page outline five times. Five. Of course, that then makes the outlines for Two and Three useless.

Grrr. *headdesk*

I have all of the plot lines for One, Two and Three, but One is missing something pretty big. What? The reason WHY my characters do what they do that kicks off One, Two and Three. Very vague, I know. Been pondering this for weeks and have no answer.

*thinks*

Math + Jess = ??

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On Saturday, awesome blogger Tara Lazar is posting a super special Canterwood Crest video! There are three people in the vid and it’s so fun! I filmed my bit on Wednesday and am sooo excited to see it spliced together. I’ll put a reminder here on Sat, so definitely check that out.

Big thanks in advance to Tara and Roshni! You both rock.

I took a bit of a writing break this week and have been in cleaning out mode. Yeah. First tackled the closet. Boxes of clothes and shoes went to charity. Next? Books. Ah, but don’t sob yet. They were textbooks that I couldn’t sell back to FSU ’cause they were too old and/or worn. Seriously. I kept my math textbooks (Why?! Wasn’t I tortured enough?), my G-I-A-N-T humanities book, a Spanish textbook that had notes in it and a falling apart communications book. Goodbye!

In the back of my math book, I found a piece of paper that I used to average my grade after every quiz or homework assignment. And, um, that grade kept going doooowwwwn with every quiz. *blush* And the SUPER sad part? I had a freaking calculator, but I *still* messed up numbers when averaging my OWN grade. Nooo! But it’s true. I must be smarter now (ha!) and I noticed a few mistakes when I looked at the paper yesterday. I actually made my grade higher than it was. But even my poor averaging skills didn’t raise the grade enough to keep it from being embarrassing. 🙂

The worst thing was that I was sixteen when I took that math class and I spent 3 hours a day in class, five days a week during the summer. It was one of those six week classes so the schedule was super condensed. I came home and did 3+ hours of homework to keep up and still didn’t get the material. The poor math teacher tried to help me, but it just didn’t work. I failed for weeks even after extra credit.

Near the end of the class, my prof handed me back a math quiz with a C+ on it. OMG! Yes! I grabbed the paper and said, “Thanks, man!”

Thanks, man. To a professor. Niiice. 😀 But, hey. I was excited.

And, when going through my boxes of books, I discovered a few things:

* I read a lot in college. A. Lot. And yet, I don’t remember plots for several of the books. Hmm.

* I have an abundance of Shakespeare volumes. Seriously. And he’s not even my fave guy.

* The gorgeous Norton anthologies (I have, like, 4.) deserve their own shelf. They’re pretty.

* Ditto the essay anthologies.

* And, no matter how many times I had to read it in college (twice, I believe), I will never like Beloved. I know, I know. Toni Morrison. Oprah. But it’s not for me.

That concludes this super-weird ramble about math and old books. Carry on.

Free holiday tunes from Oprah

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Oprah’s giving away eight holiday songs from artists such as Josh Groban and Faith Hill on her site. They’re available for the next 48 hours, so if you want to download (it’s legal!) them check here. (I’m watching her “Favorite Things” show and am thinking how it’s just not as much fun without people screaming, crying and fainting over flatscreens!)

(You probably want to have high-speed Internet access since the songs are over 5MB each.)

Happy Thanksgiving! 🙂

So…this was my day

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Today was not the BEST day for being on a deadline.

(Stop reading now Editor K and anyone else waiting for the BTB manuscript…) 😉

I got nothing done. Well, okay, I read manuscript pages when I wasn’t stalking Facebook, watching election TV coverage, calling friends to remind/pester them to vote, checking out the maps on CNN, going back to Facebook, selecting a new Incredimail notifier (an adorable turkey!), watching Oprah’s election special, debating whether or not I need a winter background for MySpace, obsessing about my PR plan, muttering to myself about my ridiculous attempts not to edit and trying to convince myself that I really don’t have enough pens in my favorite colors (pink, purple and green) and should go buy some.

Yes. There is no logic to any of that. Don’t try to figure it out. This is my brain on too much coffee.

I’m ready to be up all night until we have a winner.

Breathe. Whew. 🙂