Since Laurie is running around like a Mad Woman, and being true to her inner Mad Woman in the Forest, I thought I would share, once again, her bookstore schedule for this weekend! Yes, it is time for her to travel to Philly for NCTE (no, she is NOT packed yet!). Besides the wonderful conference, she is scheduled to appear tomorrow (Friday) night at a Public Event at Doylestown Bookshop from 7PM until 9PM!! Can you be there? If you are in the area, please stop in and say hello! She would LOVE to see all her friends!

On Saturday, Laurie will be doing conference book signings and an Author Blog Panel: Please see her post here.

On Sunday, Laurie will be at an author breakfast with Sarah Dessen held at Chester County Book & Music Company beginning at 9AM until 12PM. If you plan on attending, please RSVP to their Children's Department. Come on, admit it, you always wanted to know what Laurie has for breakfast, check it out!!!

Also on Sunday, Laurie will be one author out of NINE at a super event at Children's Book World from 1PM until 3PM. The event is called "A Novel Idea", a Teen Event/Benefit for Philadelphia Free Library's Summer Reading Program. Philadelphia Free Library is faced with the possibility of NOT having it's book budget restored next year, so Children's Book World has teamed up with them to raise money for books! Go here, and scroll down to read more on the event. Seeing your favorite author and helping a local library, two great reasons to stop in to Children's Book World.

We received some awesome book award news in the Forest recently: WINTERGIRLS and CHAINS were both named to the 2010 Tayshas High School Reading List in Texas!! We send a TEXAS sized Thank You to the Tayshas Committee and the teachers and librarians of Texas!! ::Whoop, Whoop::

Believe me, Laurie would absolutely L O V E to see You at her events. Just tell her the Queen sent you! Ta Ta....

I am going to try and write the Mother-Of-All-ALA reports tomorrow. Yes, with pictures. I have a particularly fine one of Neil Gaiman taken from approximately 400 miles away.

First up: thank you for all the kind wishes about the death of my father-in-law. BH and I appreciate each and every one. With the deaths of his father and my mother coming so close together, we're both a little off-kilter right now, kind of like the earth has become sea and the deck of our ship tilts in unpredictable ways. But between the two of us, and with the love of our kids and friends, we lean on each other and stay upright most of the time.

The Horn Book has many great articles online this month. I strongly encourage you to read and discuss Nikki Grimes important essay, "Speaking Out" about the inexcusable fact that no African-American illustrator has yet won the Caldecott. (Leo Dillon won as a team with his wife... Grimes focuses on singular winners.)

(For the record, I agree with her.)

Love books? Love basketball? Then read this article about the literary basketball league my daughter Stef started across from Word, the bookstore she manages in Brooklyn. She has also started a literary matchmaking service. Yep, you better believe I'm proud. Yay Bookavore!!!

And from the Change Topics Completely File, I wanted to share the cover art for the British paperback version of CHAINS:



What do you think?

WINTERGIRLS comes out in 10 days!!!!

::pauses to breathe into paper bag::

To celebrate, we've decided to have a contest. A simple contest. A fast contest.

The prize is a laptop skin with the WINTERGIRLS cover image on it. Don't know what a laptop skin is? We're ordering them from Skinit - their website explains everything. If you win, you'll tell us what kind of laptop or phone you want the skin for. We'll take care of the ordering and have the skin shipped to you.

Contest Rules: All you have to do is send an email to laurie AT writerlady DOT com. Put “WINTERGIRLS Contest” in the subject line. Only one entry per person, please!

Contest starts at noon (EST) today, 3/9/09, and runs until noon (EST) one week from today. At the close of the contest, we’ll put all of the entries in a bowl and pull out four winners. Winners will be notified using the email account they entered with, so please use a valid account.

Feel free to pass on news of this contest and post it to your own blog.

Last week Joe Hill declared that March is Love-Your-Small-Bookstore Month and I seconded the motion. To show my love to my local independent bookstore I went there Saturday night and bought a book for BH.



A couple of people wrote to me over the weekend bemoaning the fact that they don’t have a local indie bookstore. Never fear, good friends!! You can locate the closest store to you using Indiebound’s store locator.

Still can’t find one that is close-by? You probably didn’t know this, but most locals will ship your book to you, just as easily as A****n will. When you support small businesses this way, your dollar helps the community much more.

So… today’s marching orders:

1. Enter WINTERGIRLS contest.
2. Buy a book (or 5 or 20) from an independent bookstore.

Any questions?

WINTERGIRLS comes out in 10 days!!!!

::reaches for paper bag again::

Joe Hill is the spectacularly-talented author of Heart-shaped Box. This is not the kind of book I normally read or recommend, because it's considered "horror" and I am a weenie. But Toddly liked it so much, I had to give it a whirl. To my shock (not my horror) I loved it. Trying new things can be a little scary, but that's the only way to grow.

Anyway, Joe and me have more in common than you might think. We are both rabid supporters of independent bookstores. We proudly shout our indie support from the tops of the barricades.

Joe has declared March to be "Love-Your-Small-Bookstore Month". I second that motion.

Will you please join us?

Visit the closest indie bookstore to you this weekend. (Don't know where it is? Indiebound will find it for you.) BUY A BOOK THERE. Buy a cookbook, or a book that gives spring cleaning tips. Buy a book for a child. Don't know a child? Buy a book that explains how to make one. Buy something off the IndieNext list, ask the booksellers what their new favorite is. (Booksellers are wicked smart, you know.) Buy a book to help you understand the economic crisis, or cats, or the history of cod. (Yes, I've read that one, too. Fascinating.)

Indiebound makes many convincing arguments why we should be buying local. "Spend $100 at a local and $68 of that stays in your community. Spend the same $100 at a national chain, and your community only sees $43. Local businesses create higher-paying jobs for our neighbors... Buying local means less packaging, less transportation, and a smaller carbon footprint....More independents means more choice, more diversity, and a truly unique community."

Here at the Forest, we've had our eyes opened to the importance of shopping local. Because of that, we're in the process of changing all the bookselling links on my website. Here's a sneak preview, from the WINTERGIRLS section of the site, still under construction. What do you think?

A Saturday morning in March is the perfect time to join the revolution. Give a shout-out to your favorite independent bookstore in the Comments section!

13 days til WINTERGIRLS comes out...

First - I am blushing and squirming profusely as I do this, but Betsy Bird posted an incredibly detailed and generous review of CHAINS. Thank you, Betsy!

The weekend sort of didn't exist for me because I spent most of it rushing hither and yon. Saturday morning I flew to Detroit and then took a cab to Dearborn for the Great Lakes Bookseller's Association annual tradeshow. I hung out with Sarah Miller and ran into Jaime Adoff, who has produced both a new book and (with considerable help from his wife) a new baby this year.

Early galleys of David Macinnis Gill's Soul Enchilada were there! (Click on the link to see the real cover, which is v. cool.) I toured the floor, signed a couple hundred copies of CHAINS, soaked my hand in ice-cold water, then spent a looooong time on the treadmill so my legs would be as tired as my signing hand.

The big event was Sunday - the booksellers gathered for one of the nicest conference breakfasts I've ever eaten, thanks to the generosity of Bookazine. While the booksellers enjoyed their sausage, eggs, and way too many pastries, I grabbed the microphone and talked about the reasons I wrote CHAINS, then Suzanne Collins talked about the writing of HUNGER GAMES, and Jerry Pinkney showed us his process and motivation for his new book, THE MOON OVER STAR.

We were all very happy when the speaking part was over.

I also got to meet Kathe Koja, seen here between Sarah Miller and me.

Two weeks from today I leave on the CHAINS book tour! Yikes! I need to write many, many pages before then. I also need to find the appropriate tour sneakers. Anyone know where I can find a pair of sizzling, baby-blue high-tops, women's size 10 or men's 8? Oh, and I need a couple of shirts that won't wrinkle. But mostly I have to write oodles of pages.

Many, many thanks to everyone for the kind notes and condolences for my sister and her family. They are muddling through the best they can, and the love of others sure makes a big difference.

It was actually very nice to have work as a distraction. So I am drawing the curtain across the lingering grief, and running forward.

Well, shuffling forward.

I flew to Boston late last week to be one of the dinner speakers at the New England Children's Bookseller Advisory Council (as part of the New England Independent Bookseller's Association conference). I had a lot of fun giving the speech, but the best part for me was listening to my co-presenters, Jeanne Birdsall and Norton Juster. I was thrilled to meet PW ShelfTalker blogger and Wellesley Booksmith buyer Alison Morris, and reconnected with Elizabeth Bluemle of The Flying Pig Bookstore in Shelburne, VT. (Thank you for the wonderful introduction, Elizabeth!)

That is Jeanne, me with the goofy grin, and Rebecca from Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley, MA (where I'll be speaking on November 7th). I am wearing an IndieBound shirt. You would look good in one, too.

After a busy Boston day, I flew to my adopted hometown, Philadelphia. Can I just say again for the record how much I love this city? Got off the plane, walked through the terminal, hopped a SEPTA train and was in Center City in a flash. BH drove down from the tundra and met me there.

( Eating and playing Philly-style... )

It is Friday, so I will list Five Beautiful and Unexpected Things. As an added bonus, two come with pictures.

1. Meredith the Office Mouse spent part of yesterday weeding through a mountain of books so that BH can build some bookshelves. By the end of the day, she made an amazing discovery. She found the floor!

I had forgotten it was there.

2. Heidi Sheffield's English classes at Oswego High School sent me flowers.

I did a drop-in surprise visit on them a couple of weeks ago. Thank you, everyone! (Notice the stacks and stacks of books in the background.)

3. The final, final, final CHAINS galleys should be arriving any minute now.

4. My research plans for the summer are suddenly falling into place, after much anxiety.

5. If you want to read about the BEA conference from a booksellers POV, Bookavore is blogging from LA a couple times a day.

Thank you very much for all the comments yesterday. I fasted, I slept, I looked to the stars for guidance and I have decided to support....

Davidson College: "Where Hoops and Books Coexist". Even though they are located in you-know-where.

And if, by some strange chance, they get beat, I'll support whoever beats them, and whoever beats them, etc.

(Really I just want to make muffins for my Hoyas. Maybe some chicken soup, too.)

One question: the Davidson mascot is a guy named Mr. Cat. (I did not make that up.) So am I supposed to yell "Go, you Mr. Cats!"? Are they Hep Cats? Ferocious Felines? They sure as heck beat the tar out of the Georgetown bulldog. Here is my first official taunt as a Davidson Cat: Hey, Barry! Your Jayhawks? Going down, man! Kitties rule over birdies every time!

(OK, that was a little lame, but I'm new at this.)

Wait - we have to get past Wisconsin before we sink our fangs into Kansas. Do kitties rule over badgers?

Tab closing time: check out author Anne Bustard's Anneographies blog which highlights picture book biographies by the birthday of the central character. My hero, Sarah Josepha Hale is there on October 24th - so is the book I wrote about her! (I'm pretty sure I got the link from Cynthia Leitich Smith, another great Austinite.)

Want to know why people go into the high-paying, glamorous world of bookselling? Check out the ABA's March Carnival of Bookselling.

I am officially back in the Cave of Revision (have been all week), so pardon me if the posts for the next couple of weeks get a little weird.

I know I am a little tardypants with this announcement, but I will be speaking at the Barnes & Noble in Clay, (just north of Syracuse)TODAY AT 2PM.

Come hang out with me. We'll drink coffee. We'll talk amongst ourselves. It will be great.

One more thing - please wish Ellen Wittlinger a happy birthday!

My run along the Willamette River yesterday was gorgeous. I didn't look at the clock when I left so I don't know how fast I ran. This allows me to fantasize that I was churning out 8-minute miles; a total fabrication, of course, but one I am sticking to.

On my lunch break I walked a couple of blocks to the one of the greatest bookstores in the world: Powell's. I was a good girl. I did not drool on any of the books. I did pet a couple of the shelves, but it was a restrained display of affection, nothing vulgar. If this store held sleepovers, it would become a serious place of pilgrimage for book lovers from all over. Be sure to check out their online author interviews.

Meet Adam who was manning the kids & teens section when I visited. Adam helped me find all of the copies of my books they had in stock so I could sign them. He was wicked sweet. He's holding his favorite book of mine, CATALYST. He said he really liked all of the science and math references. He also liked all the math in John Green's ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES. Has anyone put together a list of YA fiction with strong math and science elements?

I spent the afternoon revising and talking to my editor Kevin about potential directions for the cover design of my historical. Super-librarian and author Sara Ryan, author of EMPRESS OF THE WORLD and THE RULES FOR HEARTS, picked me up at the hotel. We got silly in the lobby before we left.

My presentation was held in the Old Church in Portland. (These picture show only part of the audience.) I was stoked about the number of teens in the audience. A couple of teachers brought groups of students and lots more kids came with a parent or two. I was very excited and honored to see a group of teachers from a Washington state high school that successfuly fought a challenge to remove SPEAK from their curriculum. They are my heroes.

People had to buy tickets to hear me speak which had me convinced no one would come, but I was delightfully wrong. More than 250 people came out on a blustery night. Thank you very, very much for a great time.

After the speech I signed books, programs, journals, scraps of paper and I wrote a half dozen notes to English teachers begging them to give extra credit to the students who came to hear me speak. Best item signed was this shoe, which belonged to a lovely future author named Fatema.

Today is a visit to Parkrose High School. Today is more revision. Today might be another run on the river if I am a very, very good girl.

So yeah, by the end of the dinner where I met (brace yourself, more sqweeing ahead) KATHERINE PATERSON, I was whooped. There were a couple of other parties to go to, but I had to speak early Friday morning, so I was a good girl and went to bed.

Woke up at an obscenely early hour on Friday and dressed with fear and trepidation. This was the day I had been dreading since December. I put on my magic bracelets and grabbed my speech.

See, I had been invited by the kind people at the Children's Booksellers and Publishers Committee to be one of the speakers at the opening Children's Breakfast. This was a huge honor and a big challenge. Would you want to speak to 850 tired, hungry, undercaffinated booksellers at the crack of dawn? Well, yes, if you're an author, of course you would. But what if they put you in the line-up with Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, and Marc Brown?

gulp.

It helped that I was able to meet "the boys" before the event started. They were all very, very kind, and they signed all of the books that I had lugged with me. We trooped backstage and made our way to the breakfast (shades of that scene from Spinal Tap where the band gets lost behind the stage in Cleveland). The next few hours passed in a blur. I remember being on stage. I remember making the decision to skip page 3 of my speech (sure hope that worked out.)

But the best part was being able to share with booksellers the feedback that I get from my readers (some of it filters in here on the LJ). I told them that you guys love great books. I told them that books make a positive difference in your lives.... that is the interesting books; the ones you like and you actually read. Yes, I said that teaching the classics in high school is turning kids off to books. I imagine I will be yelled at for that, but so what? It's the truth.

Here is a much better summary of the whole morning.

And then it was over. I had a meeting with my agent, and not nearly enough time to walk the convention floor before I had to catch a cab to the airport and then the plane home. And who did I wind up sitting next to on the plane? That's right, the Ambassador to El Salvador. Turns out he knew my mother-in-law in Pulaski. Small world, eh?

Today I am writing with the music cranked loud. I also have to get to the email I just unearthed in my Junk mailbox. Spammers are evil.

( The rest of the photos )

(Pardon the crumbs, but I am inhaling a sandwich as I type this.)

From the glorious (and rather flat) state of Indiana, I flew into Washington, DC. Got in so early that my hotel room wasn't ready, which was fine with me because I needed a belt and (gasp!) stockings. Our hotel was at 23rd and M, which meant that Georgetown was a short walk away, so off I went.

(Nostalgia interlude: I graduated from Georgetown University, so the area was very familiar...but not. They have turned M Street into an upscale mall complete with Pottery Barn and overpriced EVERYTHING. Ack. I could only find one old stomping ground (i.e. bar): Mr. Smith's. Oh, Georgetown, what hath they done to thee? End of interlude.)

I finally stumbled into Urban Outfitters and then had to start muttering "belt, belt, belt, you can only buy a belt" under my breath because I wanted to buy much, much more. Bracelets, in particular, were calling my name. In fact, several of them had leapt onto my wrist when I looked up and saw Sarah Dessen, aka writergrl. That was a blast. We caught up with each other (hadn't seen each other since TLA in Austin the year before), and coordinated our dinner outfits.

OK - "coordinated our dinner outfits" is a phrase I never, ever thought I would type, unless someone was holding a gun to my head. This is the Power of Sarah - she makes females like me (i.e. rowdy tom-boy types) coordinate. And, heaven help me, I liked it. Amazing. (Here is Sarah's BEA entry).

I did buy a belt. I also bought a pair of kick-butt studded leather bracelets which sdn said reminded her of Wonder Woman. This thrilled me because I had a life-size poster of Wonder Woman on my closet door when I was a kid. Which completely explains why I adore Xena so.

Then I had to buy stockings, because I had to go to an auction and a dinner and I had to wear (sigh) a dress.

The silent auction was a fundraiser for the Association of Booksellers for Children, one the coolest groups on the planet. It was wicked, wicked crowded and LOUD, but I ran into all kinds of friends and made some new ones. (See photos.) ABC sponsored the dinners, too, where I was fortunate to be seated between two of my favorite booksellers in the country, Jewel Stoddard and Elizabeth Bluemle (who is also an author!). Jerry Pinckney and Eoin Colfer both spoke, but the highlight of the night for me was being present for the awards given to Anne Irish and Katherine Paterson (she won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award).

But it got better.

Elizabeth was gracious enough to introduce me to Katherine Paterson. Katerine Paterson touched my hand. She smiled at me. She was the definition of graciousness. She had never heard of me, of course, but it didn't matter. IT WAS KATHERINE PATERSON. SQWEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

Honest, I did not make that noise in front of her. But I was making it in my head. I GOT TO TOUCH HER HAND!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!! drooldroolgrovelgrovel

::composes self:: Enough fangrlling.

( Let's see the photos )