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Chris Lehmann Part 2

Hot off the send button: a new interview with moi has been posted at Lookbooks. She asked me some interesting questions - I just hope my answers were equally as interesting.

Meanwhile, I took a break from my dog-related woes and headed into the City for Teen Author Drinks Night. As always, it was great to drink, kvell and kvetch with other members of the New York kidlit posse.
I was very excited because my W-I-P involves bowling and I found out that fellow author Gabe Guarente LETTERED IN BOWLING on his high school team! I am SO going to pick his brain. Gabe, consider yourself warned :-)

I was also feeling good because when I explained to everyone at the table why I almost spilled my drink with excitement when I learned about Gabe's high school athletic endeavors, I got an "I wish I'd thought of that" and a "great title". So today I couldn't WAIT to get to work on the WIP but I had to write a column first, and that took longer than I thought it would. But even so, I blasted through my 350 word a day goal (I aim small so I can hit the target instead of fail) this evening. Part of it also has to do with the fact I realized in the shower the other day that I was starting the book in the wrong place and that was why I was having problems. Now it seems to be flowing nicely, so if I can manage to avoid any more dog or kid trauma, I'm hoping to really make some progress. Of course, this might not happen for the next four days because I'm babysitting my little nephews (ages 1 and 3) while my sister and hubby go to a wedding. It's been a while since I've been on 24/7 little one duty, so wish me luck!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention - I stopped in at Rich to Riches to get some Cheesecake Rice pudding in honor of Coe Booth (miss ya, Coe!) and also because my daughter would have murdered me if I'd returned home without it. Even if I *had* got her a signed copy of Sarah Mylanowski's Bras and Broomsticks.

Meanwhile on the Sandy front: I checked her into the vet this afternoon, because I can't have her around and being unpredictable while babies are around - they will do additional testing tomorrow...so fingers crossed.I've been prepping the kids - and myself, if I'm honest - for the fact that this might not have a great outcome. :-(

Once a month a bunch of New York area authors who write for teens getting together for Teen Author Drinks Night or TADN. People always look at me strangely when I say I'm going for Teen Author Drinks, until I explain that it's not about corrupting minors, it's about already corrupted authors who *write* for minors. Organized by the inestimable David Levithan, we meet at a Soho watering hole.

Last night I braved traffic and parking tickets. Silly me, thinking that the NYPD wouldn't ticket me with only 15 minutes before parking on the street was allowed and running to go buy the most recent issue of the New Yorker, which has a great article written by a man with Aspergers Syndrome - talk about an expensive magazine...$65 ticket plus $4.50 for the mag.

Anyway, it as still worth it to hang with these wonderful peeps:



Don't know her name, Leslie Margolis, Gordon Korman and Kate Morgenroth



Bennett Madison showing off that he can tie a knot in a cherry stem with his tongue :>)




Mary Rose Wood and Sarah Beth Durst



Natalie Standiford and Elise Broach

Afterwards a bunch of us decamped to a local eatery for pizza and conversation, then of course it was time for DESSERT.

Sarah Beth, Coe Booth, robbiewriter and I were all Pinkberry Virgins and we were led into temptation by Leslie Margolis.

Here we are looking innocent (or at least trying to) prior to popping our Pinkberries.



Although I think I look psychotic rather than innocent.

Pinkberry is awesome. I had a regular Pinkberry with toppings of raspberry and CAP’N CRUNCH!

I have a funny story about the CAP’N. When I was pregnant with Son I craved really healthy stuff like prunes and mangoes. But when I was pregnant with daughter I craved two things, both of which were impossible to find in rural England. 1) Cold Sesame noodles and 2) Cap’n Crunch.

I woke up one night drooling because I’d been dreaming of cold sesame noodles. I even had serious discussions about if a takeout order of cold sesame noodles would survive being DHL’d from New York to Dorset. Unfortunately the answer was no.

I also drove all over London looking for a store that supposedly sold American stuff, in search of a box of Cap’n Crunch. It had closed.

But when I was five months pregnant we took a trip to Kiawah Island and I bought a huge box of Cap’n Crunch and ate it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was fabulous, although probably not nutritious.

Anyway, after we finished our Pinkberry experience, Coe, Robyn and I headed over to Rice to Riches for our ritual purchase of delicious rice pudding. Daughter is in the dog house with me because she ate all the cheesecake rice pudding. Grr!