Want to meet me or some other great new YA authors? This is your big chance; we’re taking the country by storm this holiday season! Check out the article written by Malinda Lo, one of my fellow Debs and book signing partner in crime.

The 2009 Debutantes, a group of 59 debut young adult authors, are pleased to announce Holidaze With the Debs, a series of author events in the U.S. and Canada this holiday season. At bookstores, libraries and schools in the New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Toronto areas, members of the 2009 Debutantes will talk about their own books and other 2009 favorites. A full list of events is available below.

“Publishers are working with shrinking promotional budgets in this economy,” notes Rhonda Stapleton, a member of the 2009 Debutantes and author of STUPID CUPID (Simon Pulse). “As first-time authors, we know that much of our promotion is going to have to come from us, and over the last year we’ve also learned how much fun it is to do events together. So we’re especially excited to be able to talk to readers directly this holiday season.”

Each region’s events will feature that region’s local authors. Six Debs will be featured at San Francisco Bay Area events. Sarah Quigley, who lives in San Francisco with her husband and young daughter, was discovered when a New York editor found her blog and asked her to write a YA novel, TMI. J.A. Yang, also of San Francisco, channeled his inner teen girl when writing EXCLUSIVELY CHLOE, about a Chinese girl who is adopted by celebrity parents.

Events around Lauren Bjorkman’s Palo Alto High School reunion inspired her to write MY INVENTED LIFE. C. Lee McKenzie is a California native who now lives in Los Gatos; her debut novel, SLIDING ON THE EDGE, was inspired by a news report of self-abuse in troubled teens. Cheryl Renee Herbsman, a San Rafael mom of two, set her novel, BREATHING, about young love, in the South where she grew up. Malinda Lo, author of ASH, a lesbian retelling of Cinderella, lives in Marin with her partner.

ABOUT THE 2009 DEBUTANTES: The 2009 Debutantes was founded in 2008 by Jackson Pearce, author of AS YOU WISH, as an online community for debut young adult authors to share their experiences. The 2009 Debs’ books include #1 New York Times bestseller WINGS by Aprilynne Pike; critically acclaimed novels THE DEMON’S LEXICON by Sarah Rees Brennan, PROPHECY OF THE SISTERS by Michelle Zink, EYES LIKE STARS by Lisa Mantchev, THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH by Carrie Ryan, FLASH BURNOUT by L.K. Madigan and TWENTY BOY SUMMER by Sarah Ockler; Scholastic Book Fair selection MODELS DON’T EAT CHOCOLATE COOKIES by Erin Dionne, Junior Library Guild Selection CANDOR by Pam Bachorz and SHADOWED SUMMER by Saundra Mitchell; and a host of other amazing novels that debuted in 2009.

To find out more about the 2009 Debutantes, visit www.feastofawesome.com.

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2009 DEBUTANTES’ HOLIDAZE TOUR

NEW YORK

Dec. 6, 1-3 p.m.
Books of Wonder
18 West 18th St.
New York, NY
Including: Megan Crewe, Sarah Cross, Deva Fagan, Neesha Meminger, Kate Messner, Shani Petroff, Jon Skovron, Michelle Zink

CHICAGO

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
I

Jobs I’ve Had

1. Weed whacker

2. Chicken fryer

3. Knot tyer

4. Convenience store clerk

5. Waitress

6. Book shelver

7. Note taker

8. Writing tutor

9. ESL Instructor

10. Russian interpreter

11. Secretary

12. Mail sorter

13. Temp

14. Mama*

15. Novelist*

*Best, most challenging, lowest-paying, and longest hours. But that’s often the way it is with worthwhile endeavors.

In fourth grade, a guest speaker came to school to talk to us about the dangers of strangers. We watched a video in which friendly, well-groomed adults tried to lure children into the backs of vans with candy and toys. The guest speaker led a discussion about the best thing to do if we were ever faced with that situation.

Next, there was a scene in which a man walked up to a child in a park and opened his trench coat. The speaker paused the video and asked us what he was doing. I volunteered, “Oh, maybe he had some candy in his pocket and was showing it to the little boy.”

Laughter erupted all around me. Apparently, I was the only kid in fourth grade who didn’t know what a flasher was.

No, I haven’t run out of books to read or awesome authors to gush about. But I do have a deadline for completing the first draft of my new novel, and something needs to give. Writer Wednesday will return as a regular feature in mid-December when my life is a little saner. I try to put special thought and care into my posts about authors, and I don’t feel I can do them the justice they deserve right now.

My Monday lists and Friday flashbacks will continue, though. Thank you for your patience, devotion, and general fabulousness.

While I agree that the best things in life aren’t things, I still like things. These in particular.

1. Really fresh baguette with unsalted butter

2. India.Arie’s Voyage to India album

3. The fall colors. San Francisco doesn’t have them, and I miss them.

4. My thermal nightgown

5. Chocolate chip cookies, a near-daily indulgence

6. Cook’s Illustrated magazine

7. Scrabble in front of the fireplace with my husband

8. Fairyland in Oakland

9. Black shirts–I have about twenty

10. The Sweetest Thing, a flick that never fails to pull me out of a foul mood

In seventh grade, my favorite outfit consisted of a black cropped t-shirt, orange and black plaid capri pants, and black loafers with no socks. I wore it proudly on the first day of school and at least once a week all fall.

I was sad when the weather turned cold. I still really wanted to wear the outfit, especially the pants, but I was freezing my little heinie off in them. (Do not ask me why I loved those pants so much; they were hideous.) I swapped out the t-shirt for a black sweater. To keep my legs warm, I donned black tights, but my feet were still cold in my loafers. I didn’t have any warm black socks, so I put on white cotton ones over the hose. And then my black loafers.

Black, white, black, orange, black. It was not a good look, and approximately half of my classmates informed me of this.

With a heavy heart, I retired the capris until spring.

Sarah Ockler’s debut novel, Twenty Boy Summer, is nothing short of stunning. It’s the story of Anna and Frankie, best friends who spend a summer vacationing in California with Frankie’s parents. It’s been a year since Frankie’s brother, Matt, died, and Anna still hasn’t told anyone that she and Matt were secretly in love. Anna’s own grief is palpable and overwhelming, but she swallows it because, in some ways, she doesn’t feel entitled to mourn the loss of a boy who was never officially her boyfriend. Meanwhile, Frankie is determined to help Anna lose her virginity, and the two stage a contest to see who can be the first to kiss twenty boys before the vacation’s end.

Ockler’s exploration of grief in this novel is thoughtful and touching without being heavy-handed. Themes of love and loss are intertwined with her gorgeous writing. Every sentence shimmers. As I was reading, I kept thinking to myself, “How does she do it? How does she make every single sentence so beautiful?” I haven’t encountered many authors who can pull that off, but Ockler is one of them.

Sit up and take notice. Sarah Ockler is a YA star on the rise.

Dumb Things I’ve Done*

1. Cut my own hair. More than once.

2. Called up a boy who already made it clear he wasn’t interested

3. Stapled my fingers together. On purpose. (Okay, I was seven, but still.)

4. Eaten gas station nachos

5. Tried (and failed) to sneak my friend in the college cafeteria because I was too cheap to buy her dinner

6. Worn acrylic nails

7. Briefly dated a guy who told me up front that he was a jerk, thinking he wasn’t serious. He was.

8. The Macarena. It was still fun, though.

9. Driven to North Beach in San Francisco on a Saturday evening and expected to finding a parking spot

10. Wagered on one of those Guess Your Weight things at the state fair. My height usually throws people off, and they think I weigh less than I actually do. The guy at the fair was only a pound off my real weight and announced it to the crowd. I was a little overweight at the time, and the whole thing was incredibly embarrassing.

*These were poor choices for me. If anything above has worked for you, I’m tickled pink. But seriously, don’t tell me you enjoyed stapling your fingers together. I won’t believe it.

I have issues with the word “just.” I tend to overuse it in my own writing, but that’s easily remedied with Find and Replace in Word. No, most of my problems with “just” stem from the way others hang on this word, minimizing problems and simplifying situations.

“Just” rears its ugly head in a lot of well-meaning, unsolicited advice. As a new mom, I hear it all the time. “Your daughter won’t cooperate at bedtime/mealtime/in the car/at the supermarket? Just do X! Everything will be fine.”

Most of the folks who say this don’t have children, or it’s been a very long time since they tried to just get a toddler get into her carseat or make her wear a bib. Dealing with little people is complicated, and if it were a matter of just doing what they’re suggesting, I would. I probably already did it, in fact.

It just didn’t work.

I find it’s best not to engage certain people in these topics if I don’t want their input, so I’ve learned to keep quiet. I have plenty of sympathetic mommy friends who are right there in the trenches with me, anyway.

Because I am currently a stay-at-home mom, people are curious about my work plans for the future. I taught ESL to college students up until my daughter was born, so I am sometimes asked, “Are you going to return to teaching, or do you want to just stay at home and write?”

Whoa there, pardner. Back up for a second.

Just stay at home and write.

This question pays no regard to the round-the-clock job of raising my child, which I enjoy tremendously and feel incredibly fortunate to be doing. Secondly, the “just” in the question implies that balancing writing with motherhood would be simpler than teaching.

Uh, yeah. Not so much.

While teaching is full of challenges and stresses, it is way, way easier (at least in my experience) than trying to make a career out of writing or caring for a child. Or doing both at the same time.

Like I said, I’m grateful for my situation and wouldn’t want to change it. I don’t have time or reason to feel sorry for myself. But anyone who thinks that what I’m doing now isn’t hard just needs to spend a day in my shoes.

I had a crush on a boy named Bobby in fourth grade. We had a class party the day before winter break, and our teacher made us popcorn and hot dogs and let us play board games. Bobby challenged me to a Battleship match and shared his popcorn with me.

I was pretty sure I was going to marry him, but things never progressed past that one date.

Oh, well.

I first heard about this amazing author when I was writing TMI. My editor sent me notes on the first draft, and she recommended I check out Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock. D.J. Schwenk lives on a dairy farm in Wisconsin and dreams of playing football with the boys. She is the polar opposite of Becca in TMI. D.J. is as quiet and emotionally guarded as everyone else in her family, and her story is driven by the fact that so little talking is going on.

My editor was right: Dairy Queen was a shining example of the opposite of what I was trying to do. I thought of it often as I worked on my next draft of TMI, making Becca chattier and more candid. Murdock’s novel also helped me think about how quiet, guarded people might react to Becca’s personality.

Thanks for the inspiration!

I gobbled up Dairy Queen’s sequel, The Off Season, within days of its release. I was impressed by Murdock’s fairy tale, Princess Ben, which came out last year and shows her versatility as a writer (P.B. has a formal, Olde English style, quite a departure from D.J.’s voice). Murdock just published a third installment about D.J.’s life called Front and Center. I can’t wait to read it!

Check out this overshare! This week’s contributor sure can write dialogue. Thanks, “Anna”!

Emily* and I are in yearbook; in fact, we’re partners for an art and music spread. So we wanted to take pictures of this one guy who is a digital photographer (since photography is an art, really), and we had to pull this guy Tim from his class and take a picture of him. We were using a yearbook camera and…well, anyway, you’ll see how significant this fact is later.

In yearbook, we were told to not do boring, wall-background mugshots of the students, so I tried to come up with poses that students could do…though maybe this was a little too much. “Hey, let’s take a picture at that tree over there!” I pointed to some tree in the middle of the campus. Emily agreed, so all three of us walked to the tree, which had a short wall surrounding it.

“Um…so how should we take the picture?” Emily asked.

I turned to Tim. “Why don’t you put you put your foot on the wall, and put your shoulder on your knee, then put your head on your hand–”

“Anna, we don’t want him to look like a gay male model here,” Emily broke in (cue, laughter from all).

“Fine, then just smile at the camera,” I said to Tim. Tim agreed, and I was just about to take the picture when…a teacher with his suitcase came walking by in the background.

SIGH. “I can’t take the picture. There’s a man in the background,” I said (cue, more laughter from all).

Again, delay. We waited until the guy very, very, very slowly made his way across the scene (a la the testudineous character from “The Tortoise and the Hare”).

“OK! Let’s take the photo, and let’s do it fast!” I said.

Snap! Photo shot.

“Great! Now let’s take a few more!” I said. I pressed down on the button. No snap. Nada. Nothing. “Er…Emily, this is the right button, right?”

“Yeah, it is,” Emily said, after brief inspection.

I pressed the button again. Zero, zip. SIGH, yet again. “It’s not working,” I announced.

Emily tried to take the photo, but to no avail. “It’s off, smart one!” she cried, and of course I started to crack up. “Gosh, I’m so ditzy! You know, I once broke three headphones in one month?” (true story, btw)

“I’m not surprised,” Emily answered (cue, even more laughter). So Emily tried to take the picture…it didn’t work. GREAT.

“Here, let me look at it,” Tim said.

“Yes, yes, please do! You’re the photographer, really,” Emily and I said. Later, Emily and I rolled our eyes about it, saying what technological idiots we looked like in front of Tim. Anyway, Tim thought he fixed it–emphasis on “thought.” Nope, camera didn’t work. So Emily instead snapped a picture with her iPhone; Tim then went back to class, and Emily and I returned to the yearbook room.

How does the story end? We ended up not even needing that one picture I took of Tim, or the photo Emily took. We still needed a new picture of Tim (which we did, fortunately, eventually get).

And the moral? Never look like a technological idiot in front of a technological pro, and don’t ask the latter to pose like a gay male model.

*Names have been changed to protect the innocent and technologically challenged.

Spill your TMIs to me: sarah (at) sarahquigley (dot) com. Guidelines can be found here.

The 2009 Debutantes (including me!) are giving away a set of 46 young adult and middle grade books (including TMI!) to one lucky library. If you aren’t a librarian, spread the word to your awesome librarian friends about this FAB contest. It’s open worldwide to public and school libraries until December 31. Check out the 2009 Debutantes site for a complete book list and details on how to enter.

Reasons I’m okay with not being famous

1. Every time I ate a pastry, pregnancy rumors would swirl.

2. Baseball caps look totally dorky on me.

3. It’s tough enough leaving the house with a toddler in tow; I’d can’t imagine what it would be like to wade through a swarm of paparazzi.

4. I refuse to schmooze, hobnob, or canoodle with anyone.

5. I do not need my own reality show.

6. I’ve worn my hair the same way for nearly twenty years, and no stylist to the stars is going to change that.

7. I enjoy going unrecognized at the grocery store and gas station, thankyouverymuch.

8. Look what happened to Britney and Lindsay.

9. I’m never going to fit into sample sizes.

10. My San Francisco friends would never forgive me for moving to L.A.

Jacqueline!

Congratulations, my dear, you will soon have all this in your possession:

Thanks to all who entered the contest and helped me spread the word. And if you didn’t win, don’t fret, my pets! The holidays are just around the corner…and so is another giveaway.

Stay tuned.

As I write this, y’all have exactly seven hours left to enter the Seriously Fun TMI Giveaway. What? You haven’t done that yet? What are you waiting for, a engraved invitation hand-delivered on a silver platter?

Sorry, I’m not that fancy.

And if you’re in the mood to win more fun stuff, I urge you to mosey over to the blog of Michelle Zink, author of Prophesy of the Sisters and all-around fabulous person. She’s giving away quite the impressive grab bag of goth goodies for Halloween.

I joined the swim team in ninth grade. I mostly hated it. Practices were grueling. Meets went on forever as I stood on the sidelines in a wet suit. We almost always lost. Worst of all, I didn’t have any friends on the team. Most of the girls were okay, but a few were pretty unpleasant.

One evening, we were coming home on the bus after another defeat. “More Than Words” by Extreme came on the radio, and within seconds, every girl on the bus was singing along. In harmony. And for a few minutes, I was happy to be part of the team.

Maybe I should have joined the choir instead.

C. Lee McKenzie leads a double life. In her long, successful career as a teacher and university program director, she’s been known as Cheryl. Now that she’s a young adult author, she’s Lee. Some people can’t figure out what to call her, but I call her talented.

And this is what a talented author looks like. It’s one example, anyway.

In her debut novel, Sliding on the Edge, McKenzie alternates between two voices: 16-year-old Shawna and her grandmother, Kay. The characters meet for the first time at the beginning of the book, and they have to figure out how to live with each other.

The book is much more than an examination of generational differences, though. McKenzie dives headfirst into some sticky issues, most notably self-mutilation. Sliding on the Edge is not for the faint of heart, but such is the case with many worthwhile books.

P.S. The Seriously Fun TMI Giveaway ends in four days. Have you entered yet?

Worst birthday gift ideas ever

1. Deodorant with a little Post-It attached that says, “Hint, hint!”

2. Any Christmas album put out by a boy band

3. Live squid

4. Frozen portion of cake served at recipient’s first birthday

5. Elocution lessons

6. Stirrup pants

7. Collection of punch cards from local businesses (”Buy ten pizzas, get the eleventh free!”), each with one punch on them

8. Can of beanie wienies

9. Flattened pennies left out on railroad tracks*

10. Quilted toilet brush cozy

*I used to send these to my pen pals in elementary school. No wonder so many of them never wrote back.

P.S. The Seriously Fun TMI Giveaway ends in six days. Have you entered yet?

I checked out a book from the library about how to make my own toys when I was in fourth grade. Most of the projects seemed like too much trouble, but I made stilts from two coffee cans. I punched holes in the top of the cans and strung big loops of twine through the holes, which I held to keep the stilts in place as I walked.

My interest in the stilts was short-lived, and I shoved them in the back of the garage and forgot about them.

One day when I was in seventh grade, I rediscovered the stilts and decided to try them out on the sidewalk in the front of my house.

The next day, one of the meanest and most popular girls at school said that she saw me on the stilts, and everyone had a good laugh at my expense.

Maybe if my stilts had looked like elephant feet, people would have thought I was cool.

It takes guts and some serious talent to successfully put a new spin on an old story, so it’s lucky that Malinda Lo has a lot of both. I just finished reading her first novel, Ash, a retelling of Cinderella. The book has been receiving a lot of attention because the main character, Ash, falls in love with a girl. However, Ash is more than a lesbian version of Cinderella.

It’s a fairy tale. It’s full of magic and gold dust and superstition and legends and mysterious pathways in the forest. Lo spins a masterful story about a girl who is grieving the loss of both her parents. Her realization that she loves Kaisa, the king’s huntress, comes late in the story. It’s important, of course, but Ash’s visions of seeing her mother again, the way she aches to be part of a family, is the heart of this novel.

I enthusiastically recommend Ash and look forward to the next novel from this amazing debut author.

P.S. The Seriously Fun TMI Giveaway ends in 11 days. Have you entered yet?

Neck Tattoo Designs I Would Consider

1. Jessica 4eva (in curly script)

2. Corvette with flamings shooting out of the tailpipe

3. Own birthdate and estimated date of death

4. Pirate

5. Mouth

6. Fake hickey

7. Chinese character for the word “neck”

8. Sponge Bob

9. Favorite Miley Cyrus lyric

10. Starbucks logo

P.S. The Seriously Fun TMI Giveaway ends in 13 days. Have you entered yet?

To celebrate TMI’s half birthday (it was released April 16), I’m offering an awesome goody bag. It includes:

• a signed copy of TMI
• a $10 gift certificate to Cold Stone Creamery
• ridiculously cute cupcake earrings
• strawberry cupcake-flavored lip balm
• a bag of Hershey’s kisses
• a journal for spilling all your best overshares (safer than blogging–just ask Becca!)
• an adorable brown and pink polka-dotted fruit_drop pen
• a matching fruit_drop pen case
• signed TMI bookmarks to give to your friends

I mean, come on. Who wouldn’t want all this?

There are several ways to enter to win:

• email me your juiciest overshares for TMI Tuesdays (2 entries per overshare)
• blog about the contest and email me the link (1 entry)
• become a fan of TMI on Facebook (1 entry)
• become my friend on Facebook or MySpace (1 entry)
• once we’re friends, link to the contest on your Facebook/MySpace page and let me know (1 entry)
• tweet about the contest on Twitter and email me the link (1 entry)
• email me and tell my why Hershey’s Kisses and cupcake items are included in the prize pack (1 entry)

How great is that? You can reach me at sarah (at) sarahquigley (dot) com. Contest closes at midnight (U.S. Pacific Standard Time), October 18, and is open to anyone anywhere in the world!

The first boy who ever asked me out stuck a note under my milk carton during lunch. There was none of that “check this box” business. He actually wrote some very sweet things about how much he liked me and how cute he thought I was.

I turned him down anyway.

I had the pleasure of meeting J.A. (Jon) Yang last month when we were part of a young adult author panel at the Kidlit Salon. I bummed a ride from him out to the ‘burbs, which gave us a chance to chat.

Jon’s a fascinating guy. He was born in Taiwan and came to the U.S. when he was six. He and his twin sister grew up watching the same movies and reading the same books and magazines. Jon’s keen insight into the minds of teenage girls led him to write Exclusively Chloe, a YA book about the adopted Chinese daughter of famous parents. The idea came to Jon after years of reading gossip rags (I myself am a recovering tabloid addict, so no judgments here). Inspired by families like the Jolie-Pitts, Jon wondered what happens to adopted children who are raised in the spotlight. Exclusively Chloe examines a possible outcome.

And it’s a super fun book, too. As I was reading, I kept going, “Uh, why didn’t I think of this?”

Although Jon enjoyed writing a girly book, he’s looking forward to writing from a guy’s perspective, too. I can’t wait for his next novel!

P.S. YA lit is not Jon’s only passion. He is also the author of The Rough Guide to Blogging. Check out his own awesome blog.