Usually, on New Year's Eve, I write a journal entry chronicling my year and making resolutions for the new year to come. I didn't do that last night. But I was thinking about it ( Read more... )

I realized it's been a bazillion years (okay, not really) since I posted last. The good news is, while I wasn't blogging, I was writing an AMAZING novel. The novel, DYING TO LIVE, is about a teenage hypochondriac named Sara who is in love with a boy, Allan, who has leukemia. I finished the novel a couple of weeks ago and am very happy with the ( Read more... )

This morning, a student I had last semester came to my classroom to give me news of her classmate, in case I hadn't heard (I hadn't). Apparently, yesterday morning, on campus, right in front of the main office, a student attempted suicide by drinking a bottle of bleach ( Read more... )

Today we had a presenter from Rachel's Challenge at our school. For anyone who doesn't know, Rachel Joy Scott was the first victim of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold nine years ago at Columbine High. Her legacy is a foundation that encourages students all over the globe to accept the challenge to change the world, one kindness at a time. It left ( Read more... )

I was starting to get a little down on sending out agent queries for DTM, since all of them have been coming back as nos on either a query or query plus first chapter. I had two agents on my list that I hadn't heard back from, and it had been over a month, so I followed up on Friday. One agent e-mailed a form back that said if I don't hear from ( Read more... )

I got a new workout program last week - the FIRM's new toy, the WAVE. It's kind of like a step except it's an arc, and one side is "stable" but if you turn it over, you rock on it. It looked like fun, so I ordered it and started working out with it this week ( Read more... )

I should be working on my NaNo book. I am on task to complete on November 30. I've been writing my 1667 words a day (actually, I screwed up a couple of days ago and only wrote 1640 - not sure how that happened). But I keep making the mistake of comparing this year to last year. Last year I finished my 50K novel in a little over two weeks ( Read more... )

I feel completely unprepared for NaNo this year. I mean, I know it's all about the word vomit - get it down. But I have two unrelated characters vying for spaces in my head. They're both issue-driven novels, and I'm not 100% sure I want to do an angsty issue novel again this year. I loved writing Don't Touch Me last year and think it's one of ( Read more... )

Last Sunday night, my modem decided it didn't want to work anymore. I called AT&T and they expedited a new one, which arrived on Wednesday. However, it wasn't until this afternoon that I was FINALLY able to reconnect to my virtual world. FOUR WHOLE DAYS without my Internet connection ( Read more... )

or at least, at this moment, the San Fernando Valley. Day three of the conference is done. I've been enjoying it for the most part - the speakers are WONDERFUL (I have a literary crush on the amazing Bruce Coville -thank you Mindy) and it's fun to find the people I've met at the SCBWI LA conference over the past two years. However, my cousin ( Read more... )