Did anyone see yesterday’s USA Today? It had a big spread in the entertainment section on Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi’s The Spiderwick Chronicles movie. It sounds so, so good!! 🙂 Plus, it stars the adorabale Freddie Highmore.

I’ve only read the first Spiderwick book, but I want to read more. I can’t wait for the movie in February.

My mom got that “zombie” out of a Halloween craft book. She made it this weekend and it’s super spooky! There are Christmas tree lights stuffed inside the head and when you plug it in at night, it look so cool!

I edited most of the weekend and am doing so now. Anyone do anything exciting this weekend? What are you currently working on?

It’s so dreary here today! It’s 89 degrees (yuck!) and stormy. It should not be this hot in October.

However, I’m inside doing edits and watching American Idol: Rewind. Why? Because football is on every other channel. AI is much better than that.

I’ve been doing lots of creative work this weekend. Editing, working on outlines for the next HJ books (yay!) and working on 2k8 work. By the way, the class of 2k8’s Website launches in mid-November. Plan to come check out the 28 freshest voices in children’s lit for 2008. 🙂

November’s going to be busy, that’s for sure. Lots of stuff happening with 2k8, HJ and NaNoWriMo. Anyone participating? If so, share your buddy name. 🙂

How’s everyone’s weekend so far?

This week, from September 29-October 6 is Banned Books Week. Can anyone guess the most challenged books from 2006? Think hard. They’re in white below so you can guess first. Just highlight the text to see.

And Tango Makes Three, Gossip Girls and The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things.

Seriously?! Check out the rest of the top ten here. This is such an important issue and we MUST, as readers, writers and lovers of books, stand up and say we’re not going to support censorship. Readers lose. Authors lose. It’s loss all around.

Just a few months ago, you probably remember that the lovely Maureen Johnson’s The Bermudez Triangle went through a fight to stay in an OK library. Petitions were circulated and strong feelings were heard on each side. Anyone read the book? I did. And it’s incredibly sad that such a beautiful, realistic book would face such opposition.

Another book on the ALA list of frequently challenged? Beloved. I’ve read it for two different classes at Florida State University. Was anyone in my classes offended? I think not.

Join the American Library Association’s fight to keep censorship out of our libraries, schools and bookstores.

Who’s with me? 🙂

Cross your fingers that Dracula doesn’t scare me too much….

Got any fav Halloween movies? My top favorite is… It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. Love it. 🙂

I blogged over at Teen Fiction Cafe today, so please come join us and add to the conversation! 🙂

As per Burkhart family tradition (or because I bugged my mom endlessly!) we got out our Halloween decorations today and decorated! 🙂 It’s sort of a decoration war in my neighborhood and once our neighbor put up his scarecrow yesterday, I knew we were late. Yep, late. In September. Yes, I know it’s only September, but I reaaaally love our pumpkins and witches. So, we got out the decorations and when I needed a break from editing, I put up our spooky Halloween collection. I can’t stand scary movies, but I adore Halloween!

Every year, we buy one new item for our holiday decorations. This year, I found the most adorable (you’ll see a pic) wreath at Wal-Mart. I had to by pass the Christmas section (talk about way too early!), but I found it.

I’m taking pictures tonight of everything and will post the best ones next week.

Anyone else decorate for Halloween?

So, here are the pics of the mini horses! 🙂 These little guys are foals from a local miniature horse farm. Aren’t they adorable? That’s my brother, Jason, with a colt who loved attention. That’s the family’s dog and it shows just how small the horses really are. Unlike regular horses, these hardy guys can have a 30 year life span. They were so sweet and they had the most even temper of any horse I’d been around.

Now I want one. 🙂

A few weeks ago I was supposed to visit a local horse farm, but I had to cancel. Today’s the day! I’ll be meeting M, a local horse farm owner, and spending a bit of time with her horses. I’m so excited! I haven’t been around horses much since my spinal fusion in 2000. But being around horses is like riding a bike–even if you haven’t done it in a while, you don’t forget how.

Pictures will be up tomorrow. Check back. 🙂

Today is a double-post day! So, I mentioned in my first post that I had great news to share. Well, after waiting for confirmation, I can indeed say that…. I’ll be the Breakthrough columnist for the March 2008 issue of The Writer Magazine!!! Woo hoo!! I’ve been trying to break into The Writer for years with no luck. Persistence definitely paid off and I’ll be writing the article over the next few weeks.

Off to celebrate! 🙂