Fond Memories

So, I've been thinking a lot about high school lately. (Because who doesn't like to remember those years? ; ))
Here are some random moments--most embarrassing, but not all embarrassing to me.

1. Mr. Hazenthal blew his nose and left a snot hanging there for the rest of the class period. No one told him.
2. In Forensics I had to recite (with feeling) a poem by Sylvia Plath. My teacher wanted me to say the line "pushing the enemas out like ice cream" with a grunt. I couldn't do it, but that line has never left me.
3. I baked a pie for a boy I liked. I went to high school in the eighties for crying out loud, not the fifties. Baked a pie! What was I thinking?
4. I wore mainly skirts and dresses and really wild printed tights. Yeah, someone needed to give me a fashion clue.

And yet, even with all that, high school is still an age I love to write and read about. There is just something so powerful about that transistion time between childhood and adulthood.

And appropos of nothing...I joined the class of 2k8. Let me tell you, there are going to be some pretty amazing books out there in 2008. Get ready!

Jenny

I must say, I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on I go to the library and find myself a good book.--Groucho Marx.

I'm just kidding. I love TV.

But I love books more!
Some books I've read recently that I recommend:

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (great for kids 8-12!)

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud (funny and exciting!)

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (a grown-up book--sooo good!)

And a trio of books by Megan McCafferty, Sloppy Firsts, Second Helpings and Charmed Thirds. (these are published for adults, but are about a teenage girl--FUNNY!)

Okay, your turn. Give me somthing good to read. I'm getting close to the bottom of the pile on my nightstand.

This post has X-Ray vision!

Why aren't there any great shows about all-powerful supernatural women on TV right now? For me it all started with Wonder Woman, but more recently I got to watch Buffy and then Charmed. And now? Nothing. I really miss vicariously kicking bootie.

But while we are on the subject of amazing women, I went to go see Lois Lowry speak the other night. (She doesn't actually have super powers unless you count writing 34 books in 3o years including two Newbery award winners and the hysterical books about Anastasia Krupnik! Which I do.) She was funny and inspiring, and I hope I can be her when I grow up. Or at least some reasonable facsimile!

Right now my only superpower is bionic procrastination. I can make the whole day disappear in, like, the blink of an eye. Just call me Slacker Girl. I have a great idea for a costume too, I just don't think I'll ever get around to making it.
If you were a superhero, who would you be?

p.s. check out blogging for mom...a great new blog written by children's book author Brenda Ferber's kids

Gettin' down to business!

Quick book update:
I'm doing a minor revision of THIRD GRADE BABY, my chapter book. After that's finished, I think we move on to line editing.

I just learned that a class of 2k8, modeled after the class of 2k7 is forming. If you have no idea what this means, click here: http://classof2k7.com/
Basically, it's a group of authors whose debut books are all apearing in the same calendar year. By working together, these authors can do a lot more to market their books than each could do alone. The whole thing starts April 15th.

And apropos of nothing, a guy I know recently reminded me of a product i'd forgotten about. A shampoo called Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific. This got us thinking of other products whose names are actually phrases, like I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. Unfortunately, our list stopped there. But I'm sure there are more. Come on, help me, I'm wasting far too many brain cells trying to come up with them.

I hope this post doesn't make you hungry!

So there are some things in the world that have pretty much exhausted themselves.

For example, board games. I'm of the mind that all of the really good board games have already been invented. Scrabble, Boggle, Sorry, Monopoly, Yahtzee, Pass the Pigs (okay there are lots more but I can't think of them right now.) But my point is that most of the games that are classics, that really, really work and are fun to play, were invented a long time ago, and most of the new games that are coming out right now are just not that fun. All the good games have already been invented.

Here's another case in point. Candy bars. The classics: Reece's Reanut Butter Cups, Nestle Crunch, Snickers, Milky Way, Three Musketeers (okay, again the list could go on and on), have been around forever. New candy bars come out all the time, but do any of them really catch on? Not really.

There are probably other cagtegories of goods that fit this description, but I don't really feel like taxing my brain any more that I already have. So here's my pick for something that will never exhaust itself: books. Lots of people claim that there are only a fixed number of stories: 64; 20 or even only 2. But the amazing thing is that they can be retold in an infinite number of ways!

Yay books!

Okay, so now you probably have 5000 exceptions to my rule bouncing around in your head, so if you must, release them onto the comments page.

And THIRD GRADE BABY will be in bookstores Fall 2008!