I'm emerging briefly from the Cave of Revision (where I had a very nice epiphany yesterday, thank you, and now I'm pretty sure I know how to fix the part that wasn't working in this story) to check the calendar.

Note: there is a chance to win free books ahead, including a collectible first edition. Keep reading!

Gasp. We only have 61 days until the half-marathon in Lake Placid.

::reaches for running shoes::
::slaps self and points to massive manuscript and mountain of notes::

Truth be told I ran yesterday, so today is a cross-training day (w00t). So far this year, I've done pretty good sticking to my goal of running 20 miles a week. As of yesterday, when I staggered up the driveway, I have run 303 miles since January 1st. The snow is finally gone up here on the tundra, so I've abandoned the treadmill in favor of hilly country roads well-stocked with rotting roadkill.

New readers of the blog might be wondering why on earth I'm doing all this running. My husband and I have vowed to raise $5,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training fund. The money goes for research into the causes of and treatments for blood cancers, which kills an American every ten minutes. My cousin is fighting this disease right now so it is a cause that means a great deal to our family.

Note: You're almost to the part where you get to win the free stuff! Keep reading!

Because I know a million, bazillion people, I was able to meet my fundraising goal last month. My studly, adorable, patient, quick-witted husband (yeah, that's him in the photo) is not far behind, but he could use a little help. He is 60% of the way to his goal. All he needs is another $1,000. But he needs it soon. (Photo by Sonya Sones, BTW.)

Here's where the bribery begins... I mean, here's the free stuff!!!!


If you donate $50 toward Scot's goal, I will send you a free audiobook of TWISTED (seen here hanging out with the revisions of my WIP).

If you donate $100, I'll send the audiobook and a special surprise.

If you donate $500, I will send you a very rare, first edition, first printing copy of SPEAK. No one had high hopes for the book when it was published, so the first print run was limited. Here is your chance to snag a collectible.

Or you can donate what you can afford and receive our everlasting gratitude and a really good feeling in your heart. Come on. You're about to get a check from the government. Here's a way to put it to good use.

Please help us. It's for a good cause.

OMG, I am so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is better than oatmeal.
This is better than an armful of library books.
This is better than finishing a draft.

My Beloved Husband and I are going to make a difference.

We've joined the Team in Training, a kick-butt group that raises money for cancer research for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. BH and I will be running the Lake Placid Half Marathon (yep, 13.1 glorious miles) on June 15, 2008. We are trying to raise $5000 in support of this run.

Why should you give a hoot about this? Because we need your help.

Please go to the Laurie Halse Anderson Team Website and make a donation there.

If you want to support the guy-side of this effort, go to BH's site and give money there..

Between the two of us, we're trying to raise $5,000. If you help, we can achieve the goal.

After you donate (and I thank you loudly), please ask someone else to help. TEACHERS - this is a great classroom project - a way to show how adults incorporate physical fitness in their lives as well as a chance for your students to give back. LIBRARIANS - ditto. What about your book club? Your critique group? Your kidlit buddies who get together for drinks on Friday nights? If everybody tosses a couple of dollars into the pot, we can change lives and change the world.

What? You still have questions? Let them fly.

Hey, Writerlady! I thought you were really busy with writing. How are you going to make time for this, too?
We already run four times a week. Last month I did two 10-milers, so covering the distances won't be a problem (though it won't be pretty, either). It won't take any extra time and I promise the new books will be done on schedule.

But, wait. You've had melanoma. Your mom, aunt, and cousin had breast cancer. Why aren't you raising money for those cancers?
Because another cousin of mine, Darcy Skinner, is fighting non-Hodgkins lymphoma today and I want to help him.

Are you going to send me annoying emails about this?
If I have corresponded with you by email, then yes. So why not give a little right now and save yourself the trouble? If you are a new friend, or someone I only know through KW or SCBWI, you won't be getting an email. It would be unethical to use the private contact information from those groups for this. So I hope you read my blog and will take it from there.

OK, OK, my wallet is open and I'm making a donation. What else can I do to help?
Spread the word. Feel free to post about this on your blog, to email friends, to bring it up at faculty meetings and at the coffee pot.

Any other questions?

Thank you so much!!!

It really was a loverly day yesterday, even after it turned a little sad in the evening. Thank you so much to all of youse guys for the birthday wishes. It was fun reading through them. BH gave me the best birthday present ever: he made us a bed (we've been doing the grad student sleep-on-mattress-and-boxspring-on-the-floor since we were married) - and he made it for free, using old doors and wood he had laying around. He even made matching night tables. It is gorgeous. If I wasn't already married to him, I'd be dragging him to the justice of the peace right now.

This birthday was better than most; I finally have a sense of who I am, I am surrounded by people I love, and I have the chance to do good work. Except for when I become a stupidhead and whine about the trivial stuff, life is amazing.

Life is also balanced by death. When we got in with the sushi last night, we had a phone call from the nursing home which sent us right back to the car. My 86-year-old father-in-law was in the ER. He made it through the night, and given that he is as tough as nails, he might well come through this crisis, too, but it's looking like he's going to be in the hospital for a while. This might sound weird, but it was really nice to have the chance to hold his hand and talk quietly to him for the hours until they admitted him. So even though you don't want to be in an emergency room on your birthday, it was all good.

Sara Ryan sent along a link to an article about one of the reasons why teenagers have such a hard time getting through the day. It reminded her of Kate in CATALYST.

And Sharyn November gave me the heads-up on a fabulous shirts-off combo of social protest and performance art. When we were doing some school shopping with Number One Son in September, we both remarked on how A&F was beating males up with unattainable body images to make them feel bad and buy more. It's nice to see somebody fight back.

Chris Crutcher was wonderful last night, so inspiring when talking about his commitment to writing realistic stories of courage for teens, funny, and passionate about our freedom of expression. I took pictures, but the Internet and computer problems continue here at the Forest, so I can't post them yet.

Chris also read from DEADLINE, which sounds like a book I should go buy in hardback today. Watch Crutcher reading from his new book, courtesy of professornana.

Am happy to report I got a clean bill of health from the doc. Some of you know this, but for those who don't here's the story. In the summer of 2002, I was diagnosed with two spots of malignant melanoma, the often fatal form of skin cancer. Thankfully, it was caught early. The docs cut away the offending spots and left me with a couple of long scars that cry out to be decorated with tattoos.

I have since had a dozen other lesions removed - none of them were cancerous. I avoid the sun like a vampire. That's why I am so pale. I am proudly, purposely pale. I was never a sun worshiper, other than summer afternoons by Green Lakes as a teenager. I did have a couple of horrific sunburns as a kid. After 18, I pretty much stopped laying out for a tan. But I developed cancer.

Yes, my ancestors came from Ireland and England, but anybody can get melanoma. African-Americans die from melanoma. It killed Bob Marley. Just because your family came from Italy or China, or Nigeria does not mean you are safe. Now that summer is over, this is the perfect time to check your body for spots. Skin cancer is highly curable if caught early, so go look in the mirror.

Two questions: why is Jan Brett having her Syracuse signing in a Wegman's? We have wonderful bookstores here, what are they - chopped liver?

And what do you think of depressing reading lists?

Back to writing.....

The subject line comes from an awesome PR campaign by the public libraries of Wyoming. It is the perfect kick-off for this week because......

HAPPY BANNED BOOKS WEEK!!! Celebrate that most treasured of our freedoms - the freedom to think and read what you want - by reading a banned book. Choose one of mine. Or one of Chris Crutcher's or one that made the Top Ten List last year.

Do you think we have come so far in America we don't have to worry about banned books? Then read this gay-bashing, librarian loathing, freedom crushing article.

Speaking of Crutcher..... we have an Amazing Author Alert: Chris Crutcher is coming to Syracuse. THIS WEEK! Come out on Wednesday night to hear Crutcher talk about "Turning Real Life into Fiction" at the Onondaga County Public Library. BH and I will be there. If you see us, please say hello. Chris is one of the most important YA writers of our generation and a great speaker - this is a terrific opportunity. He will also be signing books and reading from his newest book, Deadline, at the Dewitt Barnes & Noble on Tuesday night at 7:30pm (thanks for the heads-up, ShelfLife.)

Many thanks to all the conference-goers who came out to the SCBWI Fall Philly on Saturday. Special thanks to kellyrfineman for driving me to and fro (w/ great tunes playing) and former regional RA Laurie Krause Kiernan for passing on five boxes of unloved canning jars that I will now attempt to fill with applesauce. I really appreciated all of the kind things and the stories that people told me over the course of the day. Allow me to reiterate what I said in my speech - turn off the Internet and go work on your book now. Then go for a walk or a run!

Had a great time with two of our daughters, their beloveds, and various friends at the PA Renaissance Festival on Sunday. We got to hear the Tartan Terrors again. I think I might have to become a groupie. Photos of all the festivities as soon as we get our Internet and server problems solved. At the rate it's going, it may be a month or so.

I have SO MUCH WRITING to do it isn't even funny, but it doesn't matter because it is October and October is the best month.

I keep waking up really early. Part of it is the story in my head, my new WIP. I don't know what else to blame it on. I have been a perky early riser for decades. My normal alarm was set for 6am and I could get up with no problems. But since I've been working on the new draft? I wake up several times in the night and then I get up for good way before the alarm. This morning, it was 4am. Go figure. Maybe I will wind up hibernating and sleeping through the winter. This puzzles me.

Spent the day running errands and putting the finishing touches on my keynote speech for the SCBWI Fall Philly conference this weekend. Must remember to adjust my fantasy football team before I leave.

There are still ghosts and gremlins in our Internet, but I hope the hotel I'm staying at this weekend has wifi. I have a bunch of stuff to send to Theo and it has been pretty much impossible with our cobbled system.

Are you brave enough to love your body? Let's all get ready to celebrate on October 18th.

I want a magazine that refuses advertisements that use these deceptive dollbaby images.
I want models who don't look like lollipops.
I want Hannah Montana to stop grinding her hips when she dances in front of an audience of 9-year-olds.

What do you want from the worlds of fashion and entertainment?

To balance out my anger, I went in search of goodness and found it: read about today's hero, Karen Gaffney, who swam across Lake Tahoe yesterday. Read the article. I guarantee you'll feel better. Then check out Karen's website.

Our Internet has been taken over by poltergeists, so I have limited email and web time this week. I am deep, deep in my rough draft, walking around in a fog. It's a good thing that BH is a patient man. Daughter Meredith sent me a giant vat of popcorn to feed the muse. If this keeps up, I might even meet my deadline!

Please watch this - Mayor Jerry Sanders (Republican) of San Diego.




It takes a lot of guts to admit that you have learned something, and grown, and changed your mind. It takes even more guts to stand up for the rights of gay people, especially if you are a conservative politician.

Mayor Jerry Sanders of San Diego gets my hero of the week award. If you agree and you have a minute, please drop him a line and say thank you for being that rare, precious thing: a leader. His email is: JerrySanders@sandiego.gov . If you disagree with him, email him, too. That freedom of expression is what our country is all about.

Thanks to Deb and Aaron for the heads-up about this.

What do you think?

Wednesday is a half-day at the American School in Warsaw. My morning was filled with 7th graders and my afternoon with rain and history.

( What an amazing day! )

This is the start of National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Week. Anything that hurts teens makes me want to scream. Nobody deserves to be hurt. Period.

What can you do?

Learn about the problem.

Study the numbers.

Review the research.

Know the signs.

"Break the silence, make the call."

Read Lynn Evarts' article, "The School Library as Sanctuary" (VOYA, Dec, 2006 - thanks YALSA blog for the tip).

Please pass on these links to anyone you know who is caught in an emotionally or physically violent relationship.

::totally changes topic::

The best part of yesterday (aside from walking around in a daze and muttering "I turned it in... I turned it in...) was going to the gym for the first time in two weeks. Aaaaahhhhh, sweat!

We got LOTS of snow overnight, so I will spend the day watching the wind blow it around.

I've been meaning to post a link to this for months.

Agnes Irwin, one of my favorite schools in the country, started the Dream Flags Project in 2003. It has blossomed and grown.

Teachers who are looking for an excellent project next year that revolves around themes of peace, poetry, art, and ways to connect with other schools - this is what you're looking for.

But really, everyone should take a peek. It will make you smile.

Big kudos to teachers Jeff Harlan and Sandy Crow who are the godparents of this special project!

The Dewey Donation System might be my favorite Internet concept of the year. It is a website that coordinates donations to libraries in the Gulf Coast region hard-hit by Katrina. They've set up wish lists on Amazon so you can order books that will be shipped directly to the libraries. Simple, fast, and elegant.

Our family just gave them American Gods, by Neil Gaiman, Parable of the Talents, by Octavia Butler, and Jimmy Zangwow's Out-of-This-World Moon-Pie Adventure, by Toni DiTerlizzi. The first two are because I love fantasy & sci/fi (and Gaiman is in my Top 5 list), the last one because my S&S editor Kevin worked on it, and it is a fantastic book.

I challenge thee, LJ-reader. Check it out. Tell all your friends. Give if you can.

Make the world a better place!

(If you donate, let us know here - it would be cool to kep a running tally!)

Many thanks to melange428 for telling me about this. Say hi to Hannah and the AI girls for me!

The American Library Association's annual conference is going on in New Orleans right now. (No, I'm not there. But I wish that I were.)

This is the first major convention to be held in New Orleans since hurricane Katrina devastated the city. I am not exactly what you call an insider, but from what I've heard the last few months, the leadership of ALA has been firm and committed about holding the convention there as a way to help the people of the region get back on there feet.

But that's not all.

Librarians are volunteering their time and energy while in New Orleans to help with the reconstruction. More info.

Librarians have demanding, underpaid jobs. They provide access to information, education, and opportunities for enlightenment for all Americans. And they catch a lot of flack for it from people who do not understand the principles of the Constitution. But you know what? Most of them see that as an opportunity to educate people and encourage more discussion. Librarians make this country a great place.

Is anyone blogging from the conference besides professornana andhornbookfeed, and this guy ?

EDITED TO ADD - thanks for the feedback - here is what you told me:
Sara Ryan sararyan
Nielsen Hayden
Sarah Dessen writergrl
The YALSA blog!
Librarian.Net

In other librarian news, would somebody who has a myspace account, please send a note to this wonderful librarian and tell her I say thanks for doing a great job with her book club? Thanks.

Let's say it all together: librarians rock!

Days like yesterday give me faith in the American High School. Yeah, I really just wrote that. I can't believe it, either. I have lots of faith in teenagers and good teachers, but I have been in way too many schools where administration was a weak link, and the kids suffered from a lack of vision and compassionate adults who were willing to fight for them.

Let me tell you about Timken High School in Canton, OH.

If you look at the statistics, you'd sigh. Many of the kids in this school come from what is politely called "underserved" areas, meaning their families struggle with poverty, unemployment, and a host of other concerns. These are the kids that are usually forced to accept the bottom of the barrel. Not at Timken. It has brilliant administrators (yes, I put those two words next to each other!) who have crafted a high school that offers all kinds of academic and vocational programs for their students. The school is divided into academies: a Technology Academy, an Arts Academy, and a Service Academy. Along with the elements of a traditional secondary curriculum, kids are given loads of opportunities for real-world education, and can take classes that will feed directly into post-secondary training to prepare them for jobs. I really hope some smart reporter looks into the innovative and practical things that are going on there.

My presentations were unique, thanks to the handiwork of Lynn Rudd, who coordinated my visit. Speak was chosen as an "all-school reads" book. Yep - everybody read it, including the guys in the auto body classes. Students made magnificent artwork based on the book and discussed it all over the place. Instead of just having me blather on in the auditorium, Lynn set up an extravaganza. The jazz band played while students took their seats. A beloved principal and one of their top seniors (who will study broadcasting) interviewed me on stage. And when the show was over, a punk/rock band played as students left. If any of you teachers out there are looking for information about this innovative format, or how to pull off a whole school reading the same book, please give Lynn a call.

Yes, like many schools in America, Timken is struggling. They have received a lot of attention because of the number of pregnant students at the school, an issue which they are addressing head-on. (Many of the administrative and curricular changes are recent.) Resources are stretched. But the faculty there is committed to their students in a degree which I rarely see. The kids are fantastic. People there are all working hard so that every student has the chance to grow, strive, and become the best person they can be - regardless of income or background. I left there feeling energized and uplifted by the people I met. So thank you, Timken!!! Thank you very, very much!

Oh, and when I was in the Canton/Akron area, I got to drive past the NFL Football Hall of Fame. It does not look as imposing as the photos make it look. In fact, it looks rather like the kitchen tool you use to squeeze lemon juice from a lemon, or maybe a painful medical device. I was amused.

Now I am in Columbus for a couple more days. I think I'm going to get to see the house where they filmed the Speak movie tonight. Will take photos.

(Note to a couple friends of mine who are trying to reach me by email - these hotel internet services are weird and I can't send email out, plus I am really busy. Call me at home on Friday afternoon, or I will email you back then.)