~~~Lara Zielin~~~

FAVE LINKEY-POO RIGHT THIS SECOND: A failed book banning from Wisconsin. And it’s not even anything crazy — just Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Despite the cheese, my home state can really make me mad sometimes. But thank goodness this story has a happy ending.

So, remember how I said all us writer folk need each other? Well, to underscore that just a bit more, I’d like to announce the wonderful, fabulous and hilarious Rhonda Stapleton will be road tripping to Ohio (glamorous Ohio!) with me in March for a writers’ retreat.

Because sometimes, when your creative juices aren’t flowing, all it takes is getting in the same room with a like-minded writer and daring the muses to come find you both. But the best part about this trip? I mean, obviously it’s being with Rhonda, but other than that is the fact the place where we’re staying … has its own railroad.

Its own railroad!!! Look!

I even asked them if the train would be up and running when we went there and they said yes. OMG, OMG, OMG. So. Excited.

In May, I am also going on a writers’ retreat with my awesome writer-lady friend Ellen Baker. We do more of a subdued Northwoods thing in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. But man, are we productive.

So whether you have trains or woods, the point is to partner with people who can help you through the creative process. Writers rock! And we all need each other so we can rock harder. So our books can go to 11, as it were.

FAVE LINKEY-POO RIGHT THIS SECOND: If your Bluggie is just too flashy for Valentine’s Day, then please let me recommend the Hoodie-Footie. This genius product combines your three favorite things — your fave sweatshirt, your fave blanket, and your fave slippers — and uses the magic of marshmallow-soft fleece to fold them into one.

I have talked a little about how lucky I am to be part of the 2009 Debutantes, a group of writers who all had their debut novels come out in 2009, and who banded together online to support each other. Well, one of the practices of the Debs is that we all mail ARCs of our books to each other, and then we read them and leave comments on the pages and stuff.

I just got back the ARC of DONUT DAYS and, people, I have to say, it totally made me cry! The support and comments were awesome, and it truly made me realize how fortunate I am to belong to a group like this. I mean, look — the whole inside cover is packed with notes!

And the back cover as well!

And even the inside is riddled with little notes where people liked the writing!

Writers, we need each other. If you are trying to do this whole publishing thing solo, let me tell you — it’s way more fun to do it in a group!

FAVE LINKEY-POO RIGHT THIS SECOND: Another exciting episode of “Guy From Nickelback, Private Eye.”

Recently, I had the great honor of being asked to interview Cynthia Leitich Smith for a freelance story. She proved to be a force of nature — as a writer, a professor, a community-builder in the literary world, and more. If you haven’t checked out her books TANTALIZE or ETERNAL, you totally should. Amazing stuff.

Of course, Cynthia being Cynthia, she turned the tables during our talk and started interviewing me. You see, this is why I love her. She’s genuinely interested in people — and especially writers.

Anyway, girlfriend was gracious enough to host me on her blog and put our interview out there for all to see. She also gives “Editing Letter” a shout-out, which is so awesome. Stop by and read the interview if you have the chance but, if not, no worries — go to the bookstore instead and get TANTALIZE or ETERNAL.

It’s not too late to pick up books by all the fab authors who were in Chicago this weekend for the Debs Holidaze Tour! Here are some pics of the fun we had in the Windy City, and a list of all the books by the women I was honored to be with on Saturday:

Cynthea Liu, PARIS PAN TAKES THE DARE and THE GREAT CALL OF CHINA

Saundra Mitchell, SHADOWED SUMMER

Aprilynne Pike, WINGS

Kristina Springer, THE ESPRESSOLOGIST

Darcy Vance and Charity Tahmaseb, THE GEEK GIRLS GUIDE TO CHEERLEADING

Look! All our covers!

Here we are at Borders in Bolingbrook.

Thanks, Borders, for carrying my book! For five seconds.

Here we are signing our books. Aren’t we all so adorable?

Our next stop was the Book Cellar.

Kristina and I are enamored of signing!

FAVE LINKEY-POO RIGHT THIS SECOND: The Taiwanese made a CGI reenactment of how events went down with Tiger Woods and his wife on Thanksgiving. Surreal doesn’t even begin to describe.

This weekend, I have the great honor of appearing at not one but *two* events in the Chicago area with some amazing writers.  If you’re in the Windy City, or you know someone who might like to come, please pass along the information. The great news is, there will be TONS of free stuff, and all the writers will be recommending some awesome books that they themselves love.

Pictured here are the donut seeds that are just one of a few cute freebies I’ll be passing out to peeps. Hope to see you there!

Dec. 5, 1-3 p.m.
Borders
161 N. Weber Road
Bolingbrook, IL
Including: Cynthea Liu, Saundra Mitchell, Aprilynne Pike, Kristina Springer, Darcy Vance, Lara Zielin

Dec. 5, 7-9 p.m.
The Book Cellar, Inc.
4736-38 North Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, IL
Including: Cynthea Liu, Saundra Mitchell, Aprilynne Pike, Kristina Springer, Darcy Vance, Lara Zielin

FAVE LINKEY-POO RIGHT THIS SECOND: This kitteh sure is surprised. And cute.

My friend Dan started up a website called Litsnack, the goal of which is to provide short works fiction and poetry to people living busy lives who, as Dan says, might not have time for War and Peace. But they might have time for 500 words.

I submitted a story to the site and Dan graciously accepted it. Short fiction is not my strong suit, but I welcome you to read the story, titled Penmanship, and see what you think. It won’t take long and, as the tagline to Litsnack says, “easy in, easy out, no one gets hurt.”

FAVE LINKEY-POO RIGHT THIS SECOND: This clip reminds us all that David Hasselhoff almost solely ended communism and brought down the Berlin Wall. Watch for the firework circa 3:20.

Sarah Quigley and I were in our alumni magazine, the Carleton College Voice! Granted, it wasn’t the feature we were hoping for, but we were in it. In the back. Next to academic publications. But still. Lookey!

FAVE LINKEY-POO RIGHT THIS SECOND: For those of us sick to death of Twilight, the Harvard Lampoon has given us Nightlight, an awesome parody. I’m not sure it can match Secrets of the Sparkle (what can?), but I’m willing to give it a try.

This month is National Novel Writing Month (affectionately known as NaNoWriMo) and somehow I neglected to realize this at the beginning of November.

Every year, NaNoWriMo inspires writers to pen a 175-word novel (50,000 words) by November 30. And I’m kicking myself that I wasn’t on top of things enough to participate.

See, I’m the kind of writer who sits down at the computer in fits and starts. Some writers write every day. Me, not so much. I’ll go weeks without penning anything, then I’ll write for days on end. Then stop. It works to a degree, but an event like NaNoWriMo encourages day-to-day consistency. It’s something a person like me can really benefit from.

I’m definitely going to do it next year. And for all you writers out there who want to write a novel but are afraid to start, here’s a little encouragement straight from the NaNoWriMo website: By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

I think that sounds flat-out awesome. Who’s with me next year??

FAVE LINKEY-POO RIGHT THIS SECOND: If you can get through the preview to the actual dancing (which starts at about 1:20), this clip of Aaron Carter’s quick-step performance on Dancing With the Stars is pure magic. I had it on the DVR and watched it, like, five times back to back.

This past weekend I was in Cleveland (Cleveland rocks!) for the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association conference to sign books and, I gotta say, it was pretty cool. One of the highlights totally had to be meeting Lauren Myracle who has written a host of famous books like the “Internet Girls” series that includes TTFN and BFF, and other books like PEACE, LOVE, AND BABY DUCKS. I am super excited to be the proud owner of her newest book, LUV YA BUNCHES, which I can’t wait to read.

Lauren and I pretty much hit it off, and I’d be surprised if she doesn’t ask me to be the godmother of her next child. Well, okay, maybe we’re not that close. Yet. Here’s me and Lauren, clearly making a BFF pact.

One of the stories Lauren  told when we were sharing promise rings was how she’d been invited to speak at an Ohio high school and how she’d just found out that the principal had disinvited her. Yup. Turns out her books aren’t what the high school is looking for. Um, hello? How crazy is that.

Well, no worries, Lauren. We still love you, even if that principal doesn’t. Also, that blue book you’re holding looks AWESOME.

TTYL!

Okay, it’s pretty much official: author Eileen Cook and I share a brain.

I just got done reading her adorable book, WHAT WOULD EMMA DO?, and I have to say, it has a lot in common with DONUT DAYS. Like, you remember how I wrote that author Sarah Quigley and I had a bunch of crazy coincidences happen to us? Well, this might just put that to shame.

Here are some of the scary-cool ties our books share:

1.) Both our main characters are named Emma.

2.) Both our Emmas are struggling to figure out what they believe, all while being in the center of a very religious environment.

3.) Both our Emmas are in a fight with their best friends.

4.) Both our Emmas are also fighting with their parents (or in the case of Eileen’s book, that would be parent, singular) about where they should go to college.

5.) Both our Emmas are trying to make their college education happen on their own, through a scholarship.

Those are just a few of the main similarities, but there are other more subtle ones. Like, I felt Eileen’s writing was a lot like mine, and her pacing and dialogue was similar to DONUT DAYS. At one point, I think we both used a metaphor for a book that involved a tree’s falling leaves. She pointed out the hypocrisies of the church in her text, and I tried to do that in DD as well.

I thought her book was funny, clever, and charming. Does that mean I think DD is funny, clever and charming? Hmmm … I guess all I can say is that you should read both books and look for the similarities yourself!