*Call for participants!*

I’m on assignment for a national magazine and am writing an article about teen driving. If you’re a teen who has: not taken a driver’s education course, or has taken one and has been involved in a car accident, or knows another teen who has been in an accident, please e-mail me ASAP. Don’t worry, your quotes will be on a first name basis only.

I’ve been sitting on this for a few days while working hard at updating my Website, but I had my first request for an author visit to a library in my state. 🙂 Over the summer, I had been contacted about middle school and college campus visits, but this is my first request for a library visit. I. Am. So. Excited. I love, love libraries!!

The library is one that I friended through MySpace and they asked for my information. So, on my Website, I now have a shiny, new “schools and libraries” page that I’ll be discussing tomorrow at Teen Fiction Cafe. (Yes, I thought I was blogging there yesterday and got confused.)

When I firm up the details, I’ll share them, but for now I’m expecting things to slow down for the holidays.

Has anyone been to an author visit at a library? What did you think?

Burkhart family (12-1-07) J, C, J and J




Last night, my family and I went to downtown’s winter festival. It was a “frigid” 65 degrees and we watched the Jingle Bell run and the parade. This year, we stood at the start of the parade and ended up right where the police horses gathered. I was in heaven! I took a dozen pictures of the horses and loved being close to them.

Yesterday, I was combing through my bookmarks when I found one for BookTour. I had bookmarked the site months ago because I hadn’t been able to sign up. You need an ISBN to register as an author. Since I’ve got that now, I got an account and love it! It even has a very cool graphic for your Website that shows all of your school, library, bookstore, etc visits when you add them to BookTour’s Website. Plus, I love the fact that if you put in your zipcode, BookTour will tell you when authors are X amount of miles away from you. Neat!

Anyone else have this or heard about it?

A few weeks ago, I read Mistletoe (a collection of holiday YA short stories) and really enjoyed it. Anyone else read it?

I’m looking for more holiday fiction. Any recommendations?

Tonight, I’ll wave goodbye to November! 🙂 I think The Polar Express is on ABC, so I might give that a shot. Or curl up with a new book– The Luxe by Anna Godbersen. If the book is as good as the cover, it’s sure to be fantastic!

PS- I got a very cool e-mail yesterday that I’ll share with you guys next week.

It’s amazing how fast this month has flown by! It seems as if the publishing world is starting to slow and with that comes time to rest and prep for next year. Instead of setting New Year’s goals now, I’m deciding on goals for winter/Christmas break. Does anyone else do that?

So far, my list looks something like this:

* Finish writing book two

* Send out at least 10 magazine queries (2 at least to new magazines I’ve never queried or haven’t broken into)

* Organize my mountain of papers on book publicity

* Watch season 7 of Gilmore Girls on DVD

* Read! Lots!

That’s what I’ve got so far. I might be traveling a bit, but I’ll still be able to write in the car and get those queries out. I won’t send them over Christmas break, though. Just prep them and have a batch ready to go next year. I’ve been having more time to do that recently since I’ve been foregoing regularly scheduled TV to watch the Christmas specials. Last night it was Charlie Brown and tonight it’s Shrek the Halls and the Grinch–my favorite.

And did anyone see Dancing with the Stars last night? I love Helio, but I was SO sad about Mel B! I voted for her all season. It’s only the second time I’ve voted during a Dancing season. In season one, I backed Kelly Monaco since I’m a big General Hospital fan. I was completely addicted to the Spice Girls when I was a kid, so it felt very nostalgic to see Mel B on TV. (PS- could Maks be any more adorable?!) 🙂

As an interruption to regularly scheduled blogging, I wanted to post a link to UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women) and offer blog readers a chance to add their name to a growing petition to help end violence against women.

Nicole Kidman, a Goodwill Ambassador for the cause, has several messages on the Website and adds nice celebrity strength to the cause. I signed the petition last night at number 99 and now there are over 2000 signatures.

Here’s the link if you’d like to take a look: http://www.saynotoviolence.org/.

This is an important cause! If you saw Sunday’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, the family EMHE helped was of a woman who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend. First she was stalked, he threatened her with knives, she filed a restraining order and then the man killed the woman and her boyfriend. This is still an active problem and I hope you’ll take a couple of minutes to look at the link.

Muchas gracias. 🙂

I blogged about my favorite book series over at Teen Fiction Cafe. C’mon over and share yours! 🙂

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! I took Thursday and Friday off and did nothing but eat, watch movies and play card games with my family. We had a blast! 🙂

Did anyone else see this http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071123/ap_en_mo/people_entertainers_of_year? Entertainment Weekly named JK Rowling as entertainer of the year. Wow! Congratulations to her! Very well deserved.

Also, if you’re looking for a cool, new anthology, check out The World of the Golden Compass. It’s edited by Scott Westerfield and has essays by several amazing YA authors including Diana Peterfruend.

Remember to watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on Sunday! 🙂

First, I’m so happy to annouce that I’ll be speaking to a graduate class at FSU next Tuesday. I’ll be sharing my story of freelancing and novel writing with the students and hopefully can answer a few questions about what I’ve experienced. I’m nervous, but excited! 🙂

I can’t believe it’s almost Thanksgiving! I have a lot to be thankful for this year.

The Serious

Parents: My parents have been amazing throughout this entire ordeal. When I told them in April that I was going to put off grad school to seriously pursue writing they were right behind me.

Friends: I’ve lost and gained friends this year. I’ve let go of friends who dragged me down. I lost touch with a few friends and reconnected with others. MySpace connected me to a friend I hadn’t talked to in 5+ years and it’s wonderful to have her back in my life. I’ve also made many new friends and I’m glad to have you all in my life!

Health: I went through rough patches years ago, as did others in my family, and I’m glad everyone is doing well this year.

Direction & drive: I’m not afraid to stand up and say, “yes, I’m a writer!” Before, it felt like a cartoon I saw in The Writer. The person tells a stranger he’s a writer and the stranger says, “Okay, but what do you do for money.” No, the starving artist philosophy is gone. I’m happily working my a** off and can’t wait to make writing goals for next year.

Happiness: Confession: I never wanted to work in an office. Ever. I love making my own schedules, being my own boss and making decisions for myself. Being a freelancer and an author gives me the room to do all of that. I’m grateful.

Supporters: Past professors, local librarians, my agent and editor have been all amazing sources of knowledge and support.

Knowledge: I’ve dubbed this year “Novel Writing Bootcamp” because I’ve learned more this year about writing, publishing and editing than I ever thought I could learn. And there’s still so much more!

The Silly

“Ugly Betty.” With lines such as, “Oh my God, it’s Perfect Spice!” It doesn’t get much better than that.

Craig Wilson’s column in The USA Today. Funny, heartfelt and always entertaining.

The movie Mean Girls which I’ve watched at least a dozen times to channel my inner brat when writing evil girl scenes.

My cat, Jazz, for serving as a lap warmer when I’m typing away at 6am.

Coffee Mate. Seriously, yum.

My pink Motorola. When I didn’t have a case for it, I kept it in a sock. Don’t laugh–it’s too cute to get scratched.

Meg Cabot’s Diary. For making me laugh and inspire me to keep working hard.

IncrediMail notifiers. I get waaay too excited when I see a kangaroo with mail bouncing onto my screen.

So, what are you thankful for?

PS- This Sunday, November 25, is Extreme Home Makeover’s 100th makeover in MN. The company my dad works for participated and it should be a fantastic show! Look for people in Eniva gear. I’ll be posting pics of my family and me in our EMHE get up either tomorrow or Friday.