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I don’t usually get too excited about signings in book stores. Aside from when I did a signing in my hometown a few years back (I signed books from 7:00 p.m. until 11:30 p.m. nonstop that night!), I’ve never done

So, we all survived Teen’s first experience driving his brother (or ANY passenger other than his parents, for that matter). I was probably the one who was least likely to survive the experience…I was the one waiting at home. Teen

…during Preteen’s graduation from elementary school on Tuesday. I couldn’t help it…it’s been such a nice school. There’s been such a sense of community there (and I’m glad they keep kids in elementary school through sixth grade here). Preteen has

My book discussion group met last night. I really enjoy this group of women, and I especially like that they’re all interested in reading/discussing middle grade and YA novels! Our book this month was Gennifer Choldenko’s Al Capone Does My

I’m having a very quiet afternoon. That’s because Preteen has been SLEEPING ever since he came home from the birthday-party-that-turned-into-a-sleepover this morning, the party was great since we had food, music and we even set a playground from the Orcacoast

Well, the radio interview wasn’t too bad. In fact, it was kind of fun to meet Dennis Green in person. He was shorter than I pictured (grayer, too). But his voice was just as big in real life as it

I’m up to page 20 on The Truth About T.M.S. And since this is still just a proposal, I’m at a good point in the story to stop and see what my editor has to say about what I’ve done

So I didn’t actually work on my proposal for that hour before dinner yesterday…I was cleaning off my desk and came across the contract for one of the Reader’s Theatre scripts I’m contracted to do this summer. I knew the

It’s like 95 degrees out today, so we’re not doing any typical 3-day weekend outdoorsy kinds of things. No picnic. No bike ride (well, my husband might be willing to go…but it’s too hot for me). No hiking. No fishing/boating…

Well, I’m up to page 10 on the Albert Whitman book, so I think this beginning is going to stand. At least for this draft. It’s usually around page 5 that I conk out if I’m going to. But I’m

Trading Places with Tank Talbott is a 2006-07 nominee for Maryland’s Black-Eyed Susan Award! That’s the fourth state award nomination for that book, so I’m thrilled.

I went in to Preteen’s school to talk to the 4th graders today. One of the 4th grade teachers had e-mailed me because she’d heard I’d been reading my work-in-progress to Preteen’s class and having them fill out these questionnaires

The third time’s the charm, right? I realized that what was happening at the beginning of my new book for Albert Whitman really isn’t part of the story. It’s background info. So it had to go. I also realized that

So, I was in the book store this afternoon. I’m a writers reference book junkie, so I bought a copy of Victoria Lynn Schmidt’s Story Structure Architect. It looks like a combination of Tobias’ 20 Master Plots and Vogler’s The

(I don’t think he reads this, so it’s okay to say that.) And we survived the birthday party…we took eight twelve-year-olds (both boys and girls) to see Hoot (which was better than I thought it would be, but I still

…is then they actually go and post comments on those blogs (which is great!), but then they (probably rightly so) want your characters to respond to their comments right away! And that just hasn’t been happening. (I created blogs for

I was planning on driving partway home tonight…in fact, I even considered driving all the way home. I knew I had a few books left to sign after all my presentations (I hadn’t quite gotten through the entire stack during

So, here I am in Columbia, MO. It looks like a nice town. I did some driving around last night (mostly shopping for Preteen’s birthday, which is on Friday). The University of Missouri is here (that’s where I’m speaking today),

Today is a good day to reflect on what’s really important. No matter what I accomplish as a writer, being a mother will always be my greatest accomplishment.

So I got my copies of the Scholastic book order version of Do You Know the Monkey Man. Their version has a different cover, and at first glance, I really LIKED their cover (what can I say? I like blue!).

Have any of you ever spoken at FAME (which is the Florida conference for librarians) or any other librarian conference? WHAT DO YOU TALK ABOUT??? Apparently I’ve been invited to speak there through Peachtree (which is interesting since it’s my

So, I heard back from the agent I just e-mailed a few days ago. Yes, already! Well, I didn’t hear back from HER…but I heard back from another agent in the same office. (For some reason her e-mail was in

But this is the one that’s writing related…I got a review from School Library Journal on Tank Talbott’s Guide to Girls. It’s not a star, but it’s another good one! No zingers at all. Thank you Quinby Frank (or is

So, the UPS Store now has an “unsatisfactory” rating with the Better Business Bureau (http://www.desmoines.bbb.org/commonreport.html?bid=32008589), which does give me some satisfaction. The Iowa Attorney General also has a complaint on file for them and so does Consumer Affairs. But I

I’ve still only been out on my bike four times this season (60 miles), but I can feel myself getting stronger. Not so strong that I’m ready to tackle Karen’s Hill…Yes, I think the city of Coralville should name that

I started the Albert Whitman book yesterday…actually, I started on it a couple weeks ago, but I started over yesterday. I started in the same place when I started over…but I captured the voice much better the second time around.

Well…since everyone else is doing this, here’s my girl (assuming I do this right): At one time I had a moon in the upper left hand corner that showed E.T. and Elliot biking in front of it…but somehow I lost

Some Do’s and Don’ts When Dealing with UPS and the UPS Store (PLEASE…learn from my mistakes!):   DO assume that your package is going to sustain a huge blow and pack your shipment accordingly… DON’T assume that purchasing insurance on

So after e-mailing with another LJer (You know who you are! Thanks again…), I decided I liked what she had to say about her agent. So now I have queried a THIRD agent. I have never in my life had

I get to hire a cleaning lady!!! I’m so excited! So I accepted the two classroom play assignments to pay for it (which is hardly anything to complain about…I LIKE that work…but, in theory, these two proposals I’m working on

I have always wanted to do a sequel to Do You Know the Monkey Man. And I’ve been getting a lot of letters and e-mails from kids wanting to know if there was going to be a sequel to Do

Even though I finished the last three chapters of ANNA WINKLER, and this is my usual day to go to school to read, I didn’t go today. That’s because a third of the class is gone today and tomorrow for

Okay, I’m not REALLY done with I Am Anna Winkler (far from it!)…but I’m done with the first draft! And I know that I have a pretty solid beginning (which can still be tightened some), a sagging middle, and an

So, I finally got my bike tuned up last week. It stopped raining. And I didn’t have a walking partner this morning, so I got out on my bike this morning (I did actually list “biking” as one of my

susanwrites and I have never met in person, but we’ve crossed paths online many times. She wrote in her blog today about what she was like in middle school and she sounded just like me at that age. If we’d

susanwrites wrote last week about her struggle to turn down work-for-hire projects. I SO related to everything she said. I’ve been very fortunate to have a lot of work-for-hire work come my way recently (and these are, for the most

So, I can’t get my 16-year-old to BRING HIS CLEAN LAUNDRY UP TO HIS ROOM!!!! But he is very good at helping me talk through plot holes and inconsistencies in my science fiction mystery. Especially for a 16-year-old (but, then

I just got my first review of Tank Talbott’s Guide to Girls. It’s from Booklist. I like Booklist…they’ve been kind to me. They even gave me a starred review for My Mom’s Having a Baby, and made it an Editor’s

“I just finished reading Do You Know the Monkey Man? It was the best book I have ever read! It is so wonderful! You never know what will happen next. You must have a wonderful imagination! I love the idea

I had an agent about 15 years ago…back before I really needed an agent. I hadn’t sold any books yet…and she didn’t sell anything for me, either. So we parted amicably after a couple of years. But a couple years

Jackie Briggs Martin and I have a book review column in the local newspaper. It’s hard to believe, but we’ve been doing it for NINE years already! We take turns every other month…and we’ve sort of fallen into a pattern

The best thing about being a children’s book author is getting mail from kids who have read one of my books! The majority of it comes via e-mail, but sometimes I get actual letters in that big, black mailbox out

…And apparently “Zoe is scary, too!” (So claims my almost-12-year-old son) Who are Zack and Zoe? you ask. Well, they are the stars of these two…(what would you call them? Novelty books?) that I did for Running Press a couple

Since I got my chapters done yesterday, I allowed myself to watch Lost last night…except it wasn’t actually on. So we watched an old episode of Alias instead (we’re just finishing the fourth season). And then today I went to

I was at the most amazing dinner party last night. And I am not normally a “dinner party” kind of person. Fortunately, I knew enough to dress up a little bit. Unfortunately, I had planned to bring a bottle of

My book group met again last night. We’re a new group, but I think we’re off to a good start. There were six of us last night, and there are two others who plan to come, so that’s a nice

I can’t take credit for finding this link on my own…http://mewing.net/badbook.shtml I found it on another children’s writer’s blog: http://kelcrocker.livejournal.com/ There was a link that said, “take the WHAT BAD BOOK ARE YOU test.” I clicked on the link and

My boys are 11 and 16. I knew the 11-year-old would still want to hunt for eggs today, but I wasn’t sure about the 16-year-old. I knew he’d still WANT the candy, but would he want to work for it?

The teens writers group met at the Coralville Public library again last night. Karen was out of town yesterday, so I had them all to myself. Fortunately, they’re not too scary. These kids seem to be torn between wanting more

I just finished Dan Gutman’s latest middle grade novel, The Homework Machine. What an excellent example of multiple viewpoints, not to mention just an all-around fun read. My kids both read it, too (yes, even the 16-year-old). I expected the

If you’re looking for a great YA read, check out D.L. Garfinkel’s Storky: How I Lost my Nickname and Won the Girl (yes, the whole book is really as good as the title!). I read it last summer, reviewed it

I’m back from Muscoda (which I learned is actually pronounced “Musk-uh-day,” (emphasis on “day”) rather than “Mus-coda,” which is how I’d been pronouncing it). What a neat little town! It’s right on the Wisconsin River, surrounded by trees…VERY small…It’s exactly

I’m off to Muscoda, Wisconsin for an author visit. I’ve never done an author visit in Wisconsin before. When I first started doing author visits I talked a lot about my state ABC books (because I didn’t have much else

I got an e-mail from the publicity person at Albert Whitman. Apparently a Cedar Rapids radio station is interested in having me as a guest for an “in-studio interview.” I know this is a great opportunity for publicity, but I

I had lunch with my friend Katherine today. It’s funny…I have a place I go with just about every friend I go out to lunch with. And it isn’t the same place with any of them. With Katherine, “our place”

I just realized that I’ve had more comments on the blogs I’ve been writing for Tank and Mollie (located at www.tanktalbottsguidetogirls.com and www.molliesguidetoboys.com), who are fictional characters, than I’ve had on my own blog. In fact, last night I got

I got two rejection letters this week. First, Chronicle Books rejected my nonfiction book on world records. That was disappointing. When I saw their book, The Kid Who Named Pluto, I was convinced they were the perfect publisher for this

Last night, the teen writer’s group met at the Coralville Public Library. The group began two years ago when I taught a summer writing class at the library to teens who were into writing. They didn’t want to quit meeting

And apparently I have portrayed my younger son as some “virtuous, health conscious kid who’s out to improve himself,” while at the same time I have portrayed my older son as some “obsessed computer/video game junkie.” So, to set the

What a great day! And on so little sleep, too. I had my writer’s group last night. And for the first time since I joined that group, I had nothing to share. I’m the only one who didn’t have anything

I’m back to work on I Am Anna Winkler (my work-in-progress) again. I haven’t been doing much work on it in the last month or so because I wrote myself into a corner and don’t know how to get out.

So, our “vacation at home” is coming to an end. If you’ve never had a vacation at home before, I would strongly recommend you try it at least once. It seemed a little decadent to eat out so much, but

As part of our “vacation at home” experience, we are taking turns choosing games to play as a family. I, of course, chose Scrabble! My kids will willingly spend the afternoon playing Scrabble with me, but very few others (including

So, I’m teaching a two-week writing course at the Belin-Blank Center this summer. (http://www.education.uiowa.edu/belinblank/summer/programs/3-6/chess/ic_session_2/author_author.asp) My students will be 3rd-6th grade gifted kids who like to write. I can’t think of a more enjoyable group to teach. I just received a

I can’t take credit for that subject header. Those are Stephanie Tolan’s words, not mine. I was fortunate enough to finally meet Stephanie in Warrensburg last week. I say “finally” because I’ve known OF her since I was a kid.

I should have started this last week instead of today because last week I actually had something interesting to write about. But I’ll just go ahead and write about last week anyway, since that’s probably the highlight of my last