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... Kelly Quinones Miller!

Kelly, wrote: "The only way I can achieve balance (on any day) is to delegate. I used to feel that something was wrong with me if I couldn't, literally, do it all. But I've come to realize there's strength (and necessity) in sharing the burdens. I decide what I really need/want to do myself, and I ask others to help me with the rest. It's changed my life!"

Kelly wins an autographed copy of JUST ADD MAGIC, lots of JUST ADD MAGIC goodies (including bookmarks, recipe cards, and wooden spoons), and an autographed PB of THE SWEET LIFE OF STELLA MADISON.*

Thanks, Kelly, and for everyone who entered!


*Full disclosure: Kelly and I went to grad school together at Emerson. But CINDY picked the winner, and she didn't know that about Kelly until AFTER she picked her.

All week, my friend and debut author Cindy Callaghan has been blogging here at "Girl Uninterrupted" to celebrate the release of her new book, JUST ADD MAGIC.

Originally, Cindy and I had talked about Friday's post being a sort of run-down of a "Day in the Life" of a busy working mom/author. But alas, Cindy got snowed under with non-author-y job stuff and didn't have the time to work in an extra post.

This got me thinking about balance, and how bad I am at achieving it. I marvel at how adept Cindy is at juggling all of her various commitments: she has husband and three kids, a full-time non-writing job, volunteer work, AND she coaches soccer for her daughter's team. Plus, Cindy is one of the most prolific writers I know; she writes constantly and is already doing a polish edit on her second book.

So, the prize pack part:

Leave a comment either on LiveJournal or Facebook with your best tip for achieving balance in a busy day. Enter by 11:59 p.m. this Saturday, October 16th for your chance to win:

• Autographed copy of JUST ADD MAGIC


• Lots of JUST ADD MAGIC goodies, including bookmarks, recipe cards, and wooden spoons


• Autographed paperback of THE SWEET LIFE OF STELLA MADISON

Clearing out e-mail and found this, which I forgot to post ages ago:

Stella Madison has food in her blood. She simply does want to admit it. Her father is an internationally known chef and her mother owns a restaurant in town, and although Stella wants no part of the food industry, she is offered a summer internship at the local newspaper—writing about food. The other characters are fresh, and each adds a rich presence. With her too-good-to-be-true boyfriend Max; her wild-and-crazy friends, Kat and Livvy; Jeremy, the hot new intern at her mother's restaurant; a levelheaded mother; and a globe-trotting father, Stella sometimes loses center stage. What gives the book an edge on most pink-lit books is what happens to Stella as she writes her weekly food column. After the usually shaky beginning, she discovers that she knows more about food than she ever wanted to admit, and realizes why her journalism teacher recommended her for the internship— her writing is humorous, edgy, and honest. Her columns and this book make a fun anytime read. Reviewer: C. J. Bott

I heart VOYA, and I especially appreciate this reviewer's line about having "an edge on most pink-lit books." The idea that pink books do not equal fluff was central to the breakout session Liz Gallagher and I presented at ALAN last Monday. Our session was titled "Shine a Light on Gutsy Girls," and while our handout contained recommendations for books that feature typical gutsy girls (like, those who perform heroic acts), what Liz and I both wanted to highlight was our definition of gutsy, which boils down to something like this: ordinary girls dealing with ordinary problems in extraordinary ways. Translation: the kind of female characters we both like to write. The premise of the session was to not only highlight less-typical "gutsy girls," but also to give educators an idea of how to get non-traditional classroom books into the hands of their female students, who could then read these books and see different models of behavior. To us, these books are every bit as important as the novels that you see again and again in middle and high school curriculum.

BTW, for the breakout, our team - which also included educator Rachel Kizer and her daughter, fellow YA authoress Amber Kizer, both of whom couldn't make it due to swine flu - prepared an amazing, resource-rich packet. In addition to selected book recommendations, we included movie and web site tie-ins, handouts emphasizing curriculum connections, a list of our favorite book review sites/blogs, and more. Any educators who read this blog and are interested in receiving a copy of the packet, please leave a comment with your contact info and I'll see what I can do about getting you the materials electronically!

From Booklist:

Even though her father is a famous French chef and her mother runs a demonstration kitchen, where chefs cook for an audience, Stella is insistent that she “never will be a foodie.” Then she lands an internship at Baltimore’s Daily Journal. Her beat? Restaurant reviews. Luckily, her mother’s gorgeous new assistant, Jeremy, seems willing to help guide her through her first assignments, and soon Stella is trying to reconcile her huge crush on Jeremy with her growing ambivalence about Max, her adoring boyfriend. Adding to Stella’s confusion, her parents, still married but long separated, begin new romances of their own. With the exception of a few implausible points (Would a newspaper really give a high-school intern so much responsibility?), this novel, both poignant and funny, offers plenty of rich substance beneath the surface froth of summer romance. The specifics of foodie culture add satisfying texture, but it’s Zeises’ precise grasp of everyday teen concerns, from the headaches of negotiating rides to the excitement of discovering one’s talents, that young readers will appreciate most. - Gillian Engberg

Yay for Booklist liking the novel, even if there was a small, mostly inconsequential error (no Baltimore paper for Stella, though I once interned at the Baltimore Sun). Also found it interesting that this is the first review to question Stella's role at her internship, which is something my editor and I grappled with a couple of times. In an earlier draft, she actually had even more responsibility, which was based on my own experience at the Wilmington News Journal, where I filled in for a style beat reporter out on maternity leave. However, I was a recent college graduate at the time, and had a few years of experience under my belt. Even so, Jodi and I felt like the fact that Stella's editor was capitalizing on her name and the local celebrity of her parents meant that they would give her a little more to do than the average high school intern. Something to chew over (no pun intended).

Lastly: was in the middle of notifying the winners of the 50 Book Giveaway last Saturday when I got dragged away by Major Life Stuff - and never had a chance to finish up over the course of the weekend. It's on the docket for tomorrow, as is prepping packages to send, answering blog interviews (sorry Sara!), and attending my friend Emmett's first-ever Comic Book House Party (Joe sweetly keeps referring to it as ComicCon, because he doesn't actually know what that is). At any rate, if you submitted an entry for the giveaway but didn't hear back from me, you will in a few days.

Now, off to finish paying this month's bills, clean the bathroom, and (ahem) pull together the last of the receipts for my 2008 taxes. (I know, I know. Procrastication is my middle name.)

Yesterday started out bad, bad, bad - but by sundown, I'd found out that SWEET LIFE will represent at this year's National Book Festival, that Celebrity Kitchens is planning on hosting a special SWEET LIFE-themed dinner using ONE OF MY MENUS FROM THE BOOK, and that they're also offering a very generous $15 off coupon to readers at tomorrow's launch party.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

So, the first thing: there's this Pavillion of the States at the National Book Festival, which last year saw 150,000 people attend. Representives from each state are in this pavillion (hence the name), promoting literacy projects and the like. But there's also this really cool feature that's meant for kids/teens, but supposedly gets adults just as amped, called "Discover Great Places Through Reading." There's a map that lists book recommendations - one from each state - and people who take the map to each state's booth receive a sticker or a stamp to mark that they've been there. Long story short: every state picks ONE title each year, either set in that state or by an author from their state, to represent that state in the pavillion. This year? The Delaware Center for the Book has chosen THE SWEET LIFE OF STELLA MADISON. It gets its own little display and everything. And, as Joe pointed out, this is the first year the Obama/Biden administration has been in place during the Nat'l Book Festival - so my book is representing the HOME STATE of our VERY ESTEEMED V.P. on Saturday, September 26th!

Woot!

The Celebrity Kitchens thing: those of you who've read SWEET LIFE (which I normally refer to as STELLA in short hand - but since everyone else calls it SWEET LIFE I figure I better start doing it, too) know that each of the chapters begins with a menu, either from Stella's mom's business, which is modeled after Celebrity Kitchens, or from some other dining establishment (including the cafeteria of the fictionalized Daily Journal, based on Delaware's own News Journal, in which every selection has chicken. Because, you know, Delaware is the only state that, per capita, has more chickens than people. Or at least it did the year I graduated from college, when Tom Carper gave a speach that was a thousand times better than the journalist who gave the keynote, and who rambled on for forty minutes about some green sweater she either wore or lost when she visited Paris a zillion years before that). ANYWAY, the Open Kitchen's menus are so totally inspired by the menus the chefs at CK offer up every month, and now, at a soon-to-be-determined date in October, CK will host this SWEET LIFE dinner using one of my menus. Which is, like, crazy cool. Even better? I get to be there, talking about things like writing about food and using Delaware as my setting. Which means that I GET TO EAT THIS FANTASY MENU I CREATED. Seriously - how freaking cool is that? (I promise to post more details as they become available!)

Cindy and Angela, the women who own CK, are also offering launch party attendees a $15 off coupon for a future reservation (fine print: cannot be combined with any other offers, cannot be used for kids events or private parties). This in addition to incredibly delectable and COMPLETELY FREE cupcakes from Cupcake Heaven. Sa-woon!

And now, because it's sunny and not humid and everything that I do not hate about summer, I have to go and do my chores and stuff because I'm determined to hit the pool this morning. Joe and I went last night and there's this crazy fun water slide that makes me want to run away to Wild Water Kingdom, like, STAT. Plus, it's been rainy and hot and thickly muggy here for the past two weeks, but last night we were able to sleep with the A/C off and the windows wide open. Ahh, bliss!

Hope to see a lot of you locals at Saturday's party! Which brings me to ....

Obligatory reading reminder: this Saturday, 2 p.m., Borders in Newark (not the one at the mall, but the one near Toys R Us), launch party for THE SWEET LIFE OF STELLA MADISON with FREE CUPCAKES by Cupcake Heaven and a special appearance by Cindy Weiner, co-owner of Celebrity Kitchens (the real-life inspiration behind Stella's mom's Open Kitchen), who'll be offering a discount coupon for readers of the book!

Obligatory contest reminder:LAST FOUR DAYS to enter the 50-BOOK GIVEAWAY.:

I was exceedingly happy to receive so many responses to my query about writing schedules (keep 'em coming in, please!). A couple of friends suggested that one way to stay the course was to form a group of accountability - kind of like people often do when they start a new health plan together. Only, this is for writing health. Or something.

Then I got this link through a SparkPeople.com e-mail alert to a great article about the Do's and Don'ts of Goal Setting. SparkPeople is a great site that I started using heavily as I was preparing for my gastric bypass surgery last summer. You can do all sorts of things there, like track your daily calories, water intake, and exercise; chart your weight loss progress; and read tons of great info about everything from healthy eats for cheap to the perfect squat routine to give you a bikini butt.

Anyway, even though the article was about setting goals for improved health, I was thinking that this sound a lot like the kind of advice I've given my students about setting effective writing goals. For instance, one tip encourages you to start small - that by focusing on one thing at a time, you won't get overwhelmed by longer-reaching goals. Another says to "write it down" with a deadline in place. I think my favorite tip, though is the one about being specific. Instead of saying things like, "I will get SOME exercise" (or, in this case, "I will write MORE each day"), you should make your target clearer, as in, "I will write 1,000 words a day." Also stressed? Cutting back on using absolute words like "never" or "always," which can lead to setbacks and/or feelings of failure.

So: my goal for the weekend? Set writing goals for the week of August 10th. (Liz, Susan - are you with me?)

Obligatory reading reminder: this Saturday, 2 p.m., Borders in Newark (not the one at the mall, but the one near Toys R Us), launch party for THE SWEET LIFE OF STELLA MADISON with FREE CUPCAKES by Cupcake Heaven!

THIS JUST IN: Celebrity Kitchens, the real-life inspiration for Stella's mom's business, will be providing discount coupons at the event! (More info on that - and a super-special event - to come ...)

Obligatory contest reminder: you still have five days to enter the 50-BOOK GIVEAWAY.

So, remember how I said that there was going to be a really fun reading/signing for THE SWEET LIFE OF STELLA MADISON at the Borders in Christiana (DE) on Saturday, August 8, at 2 p.m.? And remember how I said there were going to be cupcakes? Well, not only are there going to be cupcakes at the celebration, there are going to be the BEST CUPCAKES IN DELAWARE.

That's right - Concord Pike's own Cupcake Heaven is providing 120 of their delectable goodies in an assortment of flavors. Have you DE locals visited Cupcake Heaven yet? If not, you need to get your butt over there STAT. When I say they have the best cupcakes in Delaware, I mean they have the BEST cupcakes in Delaware. You may have heard me rant about icing in posts past; I tend to be super picky about it because most buttercreams taste like Crisco to me. But their icing - oh my WORD. Not too sweet, not too fatty, just the right amount of deliciousness.

The perfect way to celebrate a book with the word SWEET in the title, yes?

Speaking of "sweet" - don't forget that about the 50 BOOK GIVEAWAY I'm running through midnight, August 8th!

In other, more random news: I've been getting a lot of fan e-mail from readers abroad. Seems the Dutch translation of TRUE CONFESSIONS OF A HOLLYWOOD STARLET - or, DESIGNERJURKJE VS SPIJKERBROEK as it's known in the Netherlands (Babelfish seemed to think this mean "Designerjurke the US Nail Trousers," but a loyal Dutch reader informed me that it really means "Designer Dress vs. Jeans") - anyway, apparently the Dutch LOVE Morgan Carter, which I find both fascinating and really, really cool. A French translation of STARLET is due out soon - I'm going to be posting the covers of all of the foreign translations on my site at some point in the near future, because they're adorable and I still think it's hysterical that teens can read my words in other languages.

Another fun STARLET factoid: earlier this summer, when I was working on content for the new web site, I came across a Wikipedia entry for the Lifetime adaptation of STARLET that claimed mysterious "sources" had "confirmed" that a sequel to the movie was in production, and that JoJo was set to star. I e-mailed the Jody, the film agent for the project, and he directed me to Barbara Lieberman, the original movie's producer. She confirmed that there wasn't a sequel in the works (though she said she wished there was, which was nice of her to say). So, I made my first-ever edit to a Wikipedia page, under the section titled "Sequel," which you can read here. (The plot synopsis is NOT my handiwork, and I'm embarassed to say it's riddled with spelling errors and just plain bad writing. Of course, this is coming from a girl who barely remembers to spell-check her own blog, so ... take my criticism with a grain of salt.)

ANYWAY, I must return my full attention to STELLA. And here's where I pose a question: for those of you who have already read the book, do you have any thoughts on which scenes I should do at the reading? I'm thinking part of the first chapter, part of the party scene, and definitely the gnocchi scene (because seriously? I know I shouldn't say this about my own book but I think the gnocchi scene is HOTT).

Up tomorrow: a very special episode of RECIPE OF THE WEEK! (Hint: it may have something to do with gnocchi ...)

Since today is the Day of Many Appointments (count: 3 doctors, 1 dog groomer, 1 Mom visit, 1 trip to Trader Joe's - and all by 7:10 p.m.), I only have a few seconds for today's post. So, I'm hereby linking to a section on my new website, in which I explain the inspiration behind THE SWEET LIFE OF STELLA MADISON, as well as how writing the book re-inspired me.

ALSO: Want to remind you all to check out the 50 BOOK GIVEAWAY I've got going from now through 12 a.m. August 8th.

Finally, I have to link to Liz B.'s review of STELLA, posted on her awesome-sauce blog, "A Chair, A Fireplace, & a Tea Cozy," which has been one of my favorites thus far. And it's not because I know Liz, even though I do. It's because whenever Liz reviews something I've written, I get that flush of warmth authors tend to feel when they encounter someone who fully "gets" what they were going for in a given book. Nearly every point Liz makes in her review is something that was super important to me in the writing process. So, yeah. Liz, if you're reading this - you freaking ROCK.

Off to Doctor #1!

In honor of my new release, THE SWEET LIFE OF STELLA MADISON, my publisher, Delacorte Press, donated 10 leftover galley copies to give away through some sort of blog contest. To sweeten the pot, I'm adding in 15 of my backlist titles, and 25 random titles by other authors (some classic, some new, some not yet released). If you're keeping count, that's a 50-book giveaway!

Let's get to it, shall we?

CONTEST #1: STELLA GIVEAWAY

From now until midnight, August 8, 2009, send me an e-mail to zeisgeist (at) aol (dot) com. In the subject line, type STELLA GIVEAWAY.

In the body of the e-mail, type your name, age, location, occupation (if you have one - student is fine), and a few fun facts about youself.

Also in the body of the e-mail, or attached as a Word doc, I need one of your favorite family recipes, with a paragraph or two about how or why this recipe has become a family favorite. If you have a picture of the dish, send that along to. [NOTE: if this is not an original dish - say, something you've borrowed from Paula Deen but adapted to make you own - make sure you give credit where credit is due. In this case, credit would be, "adapted from Paula Deen, NAME OF BOOK OR SHOW, 2006."

Ten winners will receive personally autographed copies of STELLA, but the top five will also have their culinary contributions posted on my "Recipe of the Week" feature in the near future!

CONTEST #2: BACKLIST GIVEAWAY

If you've already purchased STELLA, but still want in on the fun, here's what you do:

Write an original review of STELLA - something comprehensive, more than just "oh hey i liked it" - and post that review through outlets like IndieBook.org, Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, your personal blog, Facebook, GoodReads.com, a message board system, etc., etc. For every five outlets you hit, you are elligible to win one personally autographed copy of any of my backlist titles - BRINGING UP THE BONES, CONTENTS UNDER PRESSURE, and ANYONE BUT YOU.

Then, from now until midnight, August 8, 2009, send me an e-mail to zeisgeist (at) aol (dot) com. In the subject line, type BACKLIST GIVEAWAY.

In the body of the e-mail, type your name, age, location, occupation (if you have one - student is fine), and a few fun facts about youself.

Also in the body of the e-mail, include links to the online reviews that you've posted. That's all there is to it!

This contest will remain open until I've given away five copies of each of those three (BONES, CONTENTS, ANYONE) titles (that's 15 books total).

CONTEST #3: BIG MAMA GIVEAWAY

If you've already added all of my Lara titles to your personal library, and are looking to expand a bit, then this last contest is for you. From now until midnight, August 8, 2009, send me an e-mail to zeisgeist (at) aol (dot) com. In the subject line, type BIG MAMA GIVEAWAY.

In the body of the e-mail, type your name, age, location, occupation (if you have one - student is fine), and a few fun facts about youself.

Next, e-mail me a picture or scan of the receipt that shows you purchased STELLA recently. This will become your entry into a drawing to win 25 YA titles from MY personal library - as in, by authors other than me. The one caveat? If you receive a book in this grab bag that you've already read or own, or have no interest in reading/owning, you must promise to either a) donate it to your local library or b) pass it on to a friend who will appreciate it.

Please feel free to repost to your blogs, Facebook pages, etc., etc. to get the word out.

Enjoy!

[Here's where I need to add a little fine print: all three contests are open to readers 12 and up, but all must be residents of the United States - a shipping clause my publisher asked me to include. Also, Contest #3 was inspired by something my friend Elizabeth Scott recently ran on her web site. And oh! And I have to point out that my friend Laurie Faria Stolarz is running her own contest to give away an ARC of her hotly anticipated prequel to the Blue is for Nightmares series, BLACK IS FOR BEGINNINGS. It's a graphic novel! And looks really freaking awesome!]

So you may have heard me talking about this little book I wrote called THE SWEET LIFE OF STELLA MADISON. It actually came out about nine days ago, on July 14th, but my Internetz went on the fritz and my laptop was all messed up and life generally Got In The Way.

But.

STELLA is finally out, yay! Feedback thus far has been the kind to put a smile on my face; Kirkus and SLJ loved it, and most of the buzz from the blogosphere has been positive. I'll post a roundup next week, and ...

Tune in tomorrow, when I announce a Very Big Contest that involves food, family, and FREE BOOKS. Yum, yay, and double yay!

Also: if you haven't had a chance to check out my lovely new web site, please do so. It was designed/executed by Little Willow of Rock the Rock, and I'm so in love with it. My last site had too many bells and whistles - this one is going to be all about content, delivered cleanly and in a nice, easy-to-read fonty fashion. There are some special features to come - you didn't think I'd forget about my soundtracks, did you? - but because of that whole life-getting-in-the-way thing, content will be rolled out slowly over the next couple of months. (And yes, I'm aware of the typos. They will be corrected, I assure you.)

FINALLY: for you local Delawareans, I'll be doing a reading/signing/Q&A/cupcake-tastic launch party for STELLA on Saturday, August 8, at 2 p.m., at the Borders in Christiana (the one by Toys R Us, not the one in the mall).  I haven't done a local bookstore reading since my first novel, BRINGING UP THE BONES, was published in 2002 (how did THAT happen?  Not the book, but the whole not-doing-a-DE-bookstore-reading-in-six-and-a-half-years thing), so I'd love to really pack the place.  (Are the cupcakes any enticement?  Because there will be, as I mentioned, cupcakes.  Hopefully in many fun, exotic flavors.)

More tomorrow .... Read the rest of this post

Oh, what's that, you say? You didn't notice I was MIA? Can't say I blame you.

Here's the deal: 2009? Hasn't been exactly kind to me and my family. I'm not complaining here; I'm just explaining why I kept disappearing for long chunks of time.

THE SHORT VERSION (no, really - this IS the short version):

January - Went back to teaching at UD for the first time in a year, and more importantly, the first time since my gastric bypass surgery in Sept. 1998. It was winter session, which at the University of Delaware means cramming an entire semester's worth of work into literally five weeks. It was also E110, which is what we call the freshman comp class, and every year I can't understand what possesses a kid to take E110 over winter session. It's kind of a suicide mission, because department guidelines dictate that you have to write a certain number of pages in essay form. Plus, this winter I had a group of largely apathetic kids who took the class because someone told them it was a cake walk. Me: "They lied." Fortunately, I had a couple of really awesome students in the mix, who helped remind me of why I love to teach (thanks, Erin & Kelsey!). Plus, I started teaching adult creative writing classes at the YMCA on Monday nights. So, I went from zero to 99 in like six seconds, and by the end, I was exhausted. Oh, and somewhere in the middle of the month, my dog broke his junk from humping a new stuffed animal my mom had gotten him for Christmas. The running joke was that the bear gave him an STD. The non-joke? The cost of the vet bill and the meds he had to take as a result. One of them was a steroid, which left Scouty eating everything that wasn't nailed down. He also put on two pounds, which for a little guy like him, is a lot. Oy.

February - One of the drawbacks to teaching winter session is that spring semester starts literally right after winter ends. I think I had three days between my last winter class and my first spring one. The good news: I got to teach a fiction writing class for the first time at UD. I wasn't sure what kind of writers I'd end up with, but I have to say - some of the talent in that class really blew me away. There will be published authors (in fact, there already is one - but more on that later). AND my freshmen? So good. Every class discussion was lively, and that makes teaching fun. Plus there were some real characters, like a computer hacker who was super pissed off about the marketing of the "green" movement. So in that way, the semester got off to a great start. On a personal level? My car broked down right before Joe and my mom were going to look at a venue for the wedding reception, and we had to have it towed to the shop. Then, after getting my car back (with a hefty bill), we had to put Joe's car in the shop (another hefty bill). Then, two weeks after we got his car back, it broke down AGAIN, this time requiring a tow (and an even heftier bill). Oh, and our heating oil ran out. So the shortest month of the year ended up being one of our most expensive. Go figure.

March - This was when I really went missing, and here's why: early in March I started to get sick. I'm on a medicine for my psoriasis that lowers my immune system, so sniffles turn into major colds quite quickly. Only, I didn't think to stop taking my psoriasis meds (an injection I give myself every other week). So the cold hung on. Then, the third week in March, I flew to St. Pete's Beach with my friend Wendy, where I was her plus-one for the wedding of her friends Amir and Pepper (her husband hates to fly - as in, even heavily medicated, he can't do it). The beach was awesome, the wedding was beautiful, and I never wanted our mini-break to end. I came home happy, relaxed, sunburned ... and just a wee bit behind on my grading, because I'd been sick the two weeks before we left. Then, to add insult to injury, I got sick AGAIN. Literally, the day after I got back. This time it was flu-like (the non-swine variety, even though I'd gotten my flu shot and even a pneumonia shot like a good girl in the fall). As it got progressively worse, we realized that I had to stop taking the psoriasis meds so I could get better. But by this time, I had a head full of snot and a crazy-high fever of like 102 - so bad that Joe wanted me to go to the hospital. Fun!

April - The cold/flu wore on, and by this time, I'd managed to give it to Joe, who's a typical guy in that he's a pain in the butt when he's sick - a total whining baby. Plus, he refused to take any real time off from work to recover and kept working crazy hours from home. Meanwhile, I'm getting my freshmen prepped for their research papers while still grading their second essays that they turned in while I was in Florida. I had to skip another psoriasis shot, so my feet were cracking like crazy and I was back to the gel bandages to keep my feet workable. I had a couple of speaking gigs at the beginning of the month, while I was still grappling with the flu, one of which was for the Eastern PA's SCBWI mid-winter retreat (an awesome conference - we had such a great time!). But overall, April was NOT a good month at Casa Zeises/de Loza.

May - Things took a turn for the worse. I'd just gotten caught up on my grading and made it through two Mother's Day celebrations - Joe's grandmother on Saturday, where we made a huge brunch for the family, and my mom on Sunday, where we got to see a private screening of the new STAR TREK (thanks, Em!) and had Chinese food. The Monday after, I had a sore knot on the bottom left quadrant of my back, so I thought I'd go to the gym and workout, thinking that would loosen my muscles up. BIG MISTAKE. Afterward, as I got back into the car, I knew something was wrong, because it hurt. Like, bad. I won't go into major detail, but let's just say that by mid-week, I was crying every time I had to put on pants or go to the bathroom. Meanwhile, the dog somehow broke his junk AGAIN (this time, we're not sure how, because we'd confiscated all humpable toys), and that ran us another $200. This in the middle of the back injury pain, which by the end of the week was so excruciating that our doctor sent us to the ER. And because Christiana Hospital was still reeling from the swine flu epidemic, we actually got chastised for going to the ER. So the next day we ended up in St. Francis's ER, where we actually got some care. Within a couple of days, I was back to walking again. Which was great. But of course, that's when we found out about Pop.

Pop is Joe's grandfather, who along with his grandmother, helped raise him after his mom passed away when Joe was 12. So he was more like a dad to Joe than anything. And we'd just seen him Mother's Day weekend, and he was making all of these plans with us, like to go see the new Harry Potter movie, and to go to the Poconos over 4th of July weekend, and to go to the shore with them in early September. When we said goodbye, we didn't realize it would be the last time we'd see him. Pop passed away rather unexpectedly - we're pretty sure it was a heart attack - the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend. Needless to say, this was a very devastating time, and not just for Joe. I'd only known Pop for a couple of years, but his death hit me hard. Plus, watching Joe and his family grieve was excruciating. It's always hard to see the ones you love in so much pain. We spent the next 10 days shuttling around to Bethlehem and back. In the middle of this, my stepfather's uncle lost his long battle with cancer. My semester at UD was wrapping up, and through all of this I was trying to grade research papers and magazine projects and writing portfolios. The Sunday after Pop's memorial service, I pulled two 14-hour marathon grading sessions, so by Tuesday (this would be last Tuesday, the beginning of June) I was crispy fried.

June - Both Joe and I were struggling to find normalcy in our lives, and in doing so, we completely forgot our two-year anniversary. What a wake up call. I spent all of last week running expensive errands, like the three-hour trip to the Saturn dealership that cost $420. Joe was pulling some marathon work sessions of his own, so that he could take a much-needed vacation. Between last Thursday and Friday he worked 36 hours straight, with no sleep, and finally started his vacation around 8 p.m. Friday night.

So, there you have it. Now Joe's on vacay - our "staycation," I keep calling it, because I often like trendy buzz words and am still annoyed that we can't find a Brangelina type nickname for ourselves (Loe? Jara?). But it's hard. Between my back injury and losing Pop and both of us overdoing it on the work front, we're barely treading water. Joe spent the weekend writing a computer program for himself, and I spent it glued to HARVEST MOON on the Wii. There was a short stint Saturday night where the two of us performed surgery through TRAUMA CENTER: NEW BLOOD, but for the most part, we've been trying to process on our own.

And now, because I can't stand to end this post on a sad note, I figured I'd recap some of the good stuff that's happened:

• Joe made my January birthday super special this year, and without spending much money;


• We had the awesomest Valentine's Day ever, starting with getting a family portrait with Scout at Petco, followed by Scrabble in front of the fireplace at Panera, and finishing with an entire weekend of gourmet cooking;


• In March, the Lifetime adaptation of TRUE CONFESSIONS OF A HOLLYWOOD STARLET came out on DVD;


• We booked the Fair Hill Inn for our wedding reception, which is a dream come true AND will cost several thousand less than what the wedding factories wanted to charge us;


• There was that whole trip to Florida thing, which was so so so so so much fun, and the great SCBWI conference experience;


• My best friend gave birth to a healthy baby boy at the beginning of April, and he's not only adorable, but he's given us MAJOR baby fever;


• When I was recovering from the flu, I watched the entire third season of FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS on DVR, and it was so good it warrants its own line here;


• Six words: PRIVATE VIEWING OF STAR TREK ROCKED. (Did I mention that Emmett's wife made cupcakes frosted in the colors of the original TV show's uniforms, with flavored cake to match? She's so freaking cool.);


• My friend Cindy sold her first book (we met during the very first round of adult creative writing classes I taught at the Y), and Cassie, from my fiction writing class at UD, just had one of her workshopped stories accepted into an anthology;


• I've lost a total of 145 pounds (and no, I don't have new progress pictures, because we took the last round when I got back from aerobics and I'm all red and sweaty and ugly, but we're planning on doing more soon);


• and finally, I got my first review for THE SWEET LIFE OF STELLA MADISON, which I posted last week, and it was good and gives me hope that this book - the first book I've published under my own name in almost four years - will do well.

T-minus ONE DAY until the premiere of the Lifetime Original Movie, TRUE CONFESSIONS OF A HOLLYWOOD STARLET! (Saturday, August 9th @ 9PM, with encores on Sunday at 7 PM and Monday at 9 PM, in case you don't have a DVR and won't be home on Saturday.)

MORE PRESS:

The Hollywood Reporter calls TRUE CONFESSIONS "a little gem of a movie," and advises viewers to pay attention to "the funny dialogue." Those of you who've read the book will recognize that a nice chunk of that dialogue came DIRECTLY FROM THE NOVEL ITSELF. This is not to discredit the screenplay's awesome writer, Elisa Bell, who came up with some seriously funny bits that I never would have thought of in a million years.

Another profile - this time from the New York Daily News - about how JoJo would never end up like Morgan Carter.

MORE GCC STOPS:

The inimitable E. Lockhart asks me about my prankster past.

And today's birthday girl Shanna Swendson asks me about the process of seeing my book turned into a movie.

THE LOLA STORY

So, the story of how I became Lola isn't as sexy as you might think. In fact, it's a little embarrassing. See, I never set out to be Lola. What happened was this:

When I moved back to Delaware in Dec. 2001, I couldn't find a full-time job. But I was offered a part-time teaching gig at UD. That first semester I had exactly one class and was doing a lot of freelance work for Allyn & Bacon, the company I'd worked for in Boston before I moved home. Then I sold a couple more books (under my name) and got a few more teaching gigs, and suddenly going back to work full time didn't seem like the best idea. After all, I teaching left me with summers off and a few days each week free to do school visits and stuff.

But as any author knows, contract advances can only be stretched so far. And adjunct teaching gigs are unpredictable; some semesters I'd have three classes, and others I'd only have one again. I remembered reading this article about how Rob Thomas, he of VERONICA MARS fame, used to support himself by ghostwriting crappy series fiction. You bust out a novel that's already been meticulously outlined in a handful of weeks, and voila! Five grand easy. So I talked to my agent and asked him if it was possible for me to do this, so that I'd have more money in the bank and less fiscal worry.

Long story short: he introduced me to the editor at a book packaging company, who pitched me one idea that I had absolutely no idea how to write. (It was a very New York City kind of book, and I'm allergic to NYC and wouldn't know how to write about it like an insider even if I spent a year reading up on it.) So then she asked me what kind of book I wanted to write, and I told her that I was dying to do a diary format novel. She asked me whose diary I'd like to read, and I didn't know what hadn't been done already. She told me to think about it and get back to her.

On the ride home from New Jersey (I'd taken the train in from Princeton), I was trying to answer that very question. Drew Barrymore came to mind. Very quickly, I had this idea of a Drew Barrymore-esque young actress getting out of rehab and being sent to Fort Wayne, Indiana to continue her recovery incognito. Then I said, "God, that's such a far-fetched, movie-of-the-week plot." Then I thought, "Well, what if I acknowledge that the plot sounds like it comes from a bad movie-of-the-week? Could I make it work well enough for readers to suspend disbelief?" (Nowadays we call this the "Hannah Montana Effect.") At home, I titled the proposal "Diary of a Teenaged Has-Been" and sent it off to my agent soon after. Two editors were interested in the project; we went with the one whose vision more closely matched my own.

So why didn't I write this under my own name? Well, I already owed my primary publisher, Random House, another book. Contractually I wasn't allowed to write YA for any other publisher except for them. So when we accepted the offer on the proposal, one of the stipulations was that the book would have to be published under a pseudonym. As for the name itself: Lola was a nickname a friend of mine had given me in college. When it came to her last name, I told my new editor I just wanted to move up in the alphabet. I gave her an A name, a B name, a C name, and a D name. She chose the D name, which also happens to be the first name of Douglas Coupland, whose early fiction made me want to be a writer to begin with.

As much fun as I have being Lola, I am still very much me. As in, Lara-me. And I'm so super-psyched about my next project for Random House, which used to be called WHAT'S COOKING WITH STELLA MADISON? and was recently renamed THE SWEET LIFE OF STELLA MADISON. Here's the jacket copy for it:

It’s not easy being the daughter of a famous chef and a restaurant owner when your idea of a great meal is the kind served via a drive-through window. Harder still when your food-loving parents, who have been separated for years, are still as sweet to each other as can be. When their connections help seventeen year old Stella Madison land a summer job at the local newspaper, the salary is hard to resist. There’s only one catch: she’s expected to write about food.

Now Stella needs all the advice she can get to complete her assignments. Luckily she has Jeremy, the hot new intern at her mom’s restaurant, who’s more than happy to help. Soon Stella can’t stop thinking about Jeremy--but where does that leave Stella’s boyfriend, Max, who recently dropped the L-word? If that’s not confusing enough, her dad’s interest in the pretentious programming director for the Food Network seems to go beyond the culinary, and now it looks like her mother might be cooking up a romance of her own …

The Sweet Life of Stella Madison is a warmhearted, delectable novel about what it means to love and be loved, especially when there are a few too many cooks in the kitchen.

It's got an absolutely adorable cover, too - but that's for another post entirely.

Thanks for tuning in during Lola Week! Hope you guys watch (and enjoy) the movie ... and don't forget to check my blog during the Saturday premiere to find out all sorts of juicy tidbits!