Jay Asher

The Slovenian Edition!

2012-01-30T06:00:00.000-08:00

2012 Tour: TX (Part 2) & CA

2012-01-26T14:20:00.000-08:00

When we got to Austin in the evening, I took a cab downtown to meet up with a high school friend, and Carolyn went to bed. The next day, with a couple hours to act like tourists, Carolyn and I went out to lunch and browsed a few funky stores (Austin has a lot of funky stores). Then she returned to the hotel to take a quick nap and I took a tour of the Capitol.

Have you figured out which one of us values sleep more?

Austin has an amazing group of local writers and illustrators, many of whom I've met at various SCBWI conferences. It was wonderful to see Jessica Lee Anderson, Varian Johnson, Jeanette Larson, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Greg Leitich Smith, and Don Tate at BookPeople that evening.

We were even given a Texas-sized donut (which I ate after Carolyn went to sleep)!

Early the next morning, we finally flew to my side of the United States, driving straight to a speaking engagement at Chino Hills High School.

That was followed by a presentation at Ayala High School.

Then Carolyn took a quick nap (who would've thought!) while I watched TV and drank coffee. Yes, we each have our own ways of making sure we're sharp for evening bookstore events. Even though Carolyn and I have both been published for several years, we still get goosebumps when we walk into a store and see a nice display of our books, like the one at Mrs. Nelson's Toy & Book Shop.

On our last day, Carolyn and I had brunch in Pasadena and reminisced about the past eight days. For two people who barely knew each other when we began writing The Future of Us, and had only hung out four times before this tour, we somehow managed to travel across the country for nine days without annoying each other once.

And then we both quickly knocked on wood because we still had a full day ahead of us.

First we spoke at Mayfield School.

Then Burbank High School. When we were driving to B.H.S., we were told not to have any expectations. The school librarian had never brought an author to the school before, and the event was after school, so no one was required to be there. We could be speaking to just three people.

But the place was packed!

When Carolyn and I arrived at Once Upon A Time that evening, it was a mix of emotions. It was our last stop on the tour, and we were both ready to go home, but we were also feeling sad about parting, and sad that we won't be chatting with so many readers every day.

When I walked into the store, I immediately recognized my friend Danielle, even though I haven't seen her since...seventh grade!

The audience included some of my favorite authors. Lisa Yee is circled in yellow, Ned Vizzini in blue, and that's either Ben Esch or Greg Pincus in green (they're both rather fuzzy).

With the final speech given, and the final book signed, Carolyn and I wilted. But someone wanted us to pose for one final end-of-tour photo.

Cheese.

2012 Tour: FL & TX (Part 1)

2012-01-22T23:10:00.000-08:00

I don't think I've ever flown into and out of a state in the same day, but that's what Carolyn Mackler and I did in Florida.

But between flights, we had an amazing time. The weather in Coral Gables was perfect, so we took a stroll through downtown. Instead of shopping, we chatted about the books we're each working on. We may not be co-writing these books, but we're still bouncing ideas off each other.

And then we relaxed for a few minutes before our presentation by hanging out with Judy Blume. (I told you we had a great time in Florida, right?)

The moment we announced our tour dates, other authors began telling us how much they love Books & Books. And it is a wonderful store, with an amazing cafe.

And once again, a lovely reader made my tummy very happy by bringing me donuts. They were, without any exaggerating, the best donuts I've ever had. The photo I took of them was blurry, and they didn't last long enough to take another photo, but I need to say a very special Thank You to Crissa for the delicious gift.

Crissa also posted this photo from the event:

While Carolyn and I were speaking, I didn't notice the photography books with partially nekkid ladies over my shoulder. No wonder the audience was paying such close attention!

After that event, Carolyn and I hopped on a late flight to Houston, Texas.

In the morning, we drove to every bookstore we could find, hunted around for our books, and signed them. On one hunting expedition, I heard Carolyn calling for help. She had coffee in one hand, and a stack of slowly sliding books in the other.

But before I came to her aid, I took a photo.

In the afternoon, we spoke at Blue Willow Bookshop. Every time we enter a store and see a nice display of our books, we both tilt our heads and sigh.

Ahh...

And then people show up, and we tell them about how we wrote The Future of Us, and we answer questions, and we autograph books, and Carolyn and I look at each other, feeling so thankful for all of our readers.

Ahh...

And then, at the bookstore we found on the way to the airport, she got me back.

On to Austin!

2012 Tour: MD & GA

2012-01-20T20:55:00.000-08:00

On our third stop as we move across the country to talk about The Future of Us, Carolyn Mackler and I spoke at the Bethesda Library in Maryland. Politics & Prose supplied the books, which is the coolest name for a bookstore based in Washington D.C.

When we weren't at the library, Carolyn and I were driving from bookstore to bookstore, signing whatever they had in stock. So if you live in a city we're visiting on this tour, but you can't make it out to see us, there's a good chance several places in the area have signed copies of our books.

The next morning, Carolyn and I were up at 4am to fly to Georgia. There, we spoke at The Galloway School. It was our first time speaking at a school together, so we had to take a photo by their marquee.

And then Carolyn had to pull out a plastic spoon to scoop some Georgia soil into a baggie. She's collecting soil from each state we visit for her son's school project.

She's such a good mommy!

Even though I've enjoyed every school visit I've ever done, I still get nervous before I speak. Really nervous. Why-do-I-do-this-to-myself nervous. Thankfully, so does Carolyn! (Nervousness loves company.)

But we had a wonderful time!

A student named Amanda showed me a Thirteen Reasons Why trailer she'd made, which includes some of the best acting I've seen in a fan-made trailer. (The scene on her computer is of Amanda/Hannah sitting on a swingset.)

In one part of our presentation, Carolyn and I talk about editing The Future of Us, and we share four versions of the opening sentences to our book. When we read the final version, the students began to laugh. But we didn't understand what was so funny about "I can’t break up with Graham today, even though I told my friends I’d do it the next time I saw him. So instead, I’m hiding in my bedroom, setting up my new computer while he plays Ultimate Frisbee in the park across the street."

And then they pointed out a student named Graham who plays Ultimate Frisbee.

In the evening, we spoke in the loft at Little Shop of Stories, a beautiful store in Decatur.

They had the best wall art!

In attendance, we were lucky enough to have Jessica Khoury, who has a book coming out with Razorbill this October. So she's basically our sister!

Next up...Florida!

2012 Tour: NJ & NY

2012-01-18T21:23:00.000-08:00

Our first stop on the book tour for The Future of Us was at Barnes & Noble in Princeton, NJ.

On the long drive to the event, Carolyn and I went over what we wanted to talk about with the attendees. We realized, even though we spent a solid year writing and rewriting that book, we still love thinking about the characters. (Which is good, because we're going to be talking about them a lot over the next week.)

The next day, I took a quick trip to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. I only had about two hours, so I rushed through the new exhibit of American art, which prominently featured Washington Crossing the Delaware. That thing was huge! And I'm still a little disbelieving whenever I stand before a piece of art that almost everyone knows about.

This can't be the real painting. It must be a copy!

Before I rushed back to my hotel, I took a close-up photo of one soldier from On the Southern Plains, by Frederic Remington. For some reason, I was mesmerized by his expression. At first, it made me laugh. Then it freaked me out!

Even though the tour's barely begun, I miss Isaiah tremendously. And apparently he's been missing our reading time, so we scheduled a Skype chat. I read him Nina Laden's Grow Up! while he flipped the pages.

And then he hit a couple of buttons and the screen went blank.

For our next stop on the tour, Carolyn and I went to WORD in Brooklyn.

They have a great downstairs room for author events, so Carolyn and I were able to debut our funky/cheesy/cool Powerpoint presentation, which includes photos of what we each looked like in high school, and what we both look like in heart-covered tights.

Of course, the best part of speaking at bookstores is meeting readers. Some readers I've known through the blog/Facebook/Twitter for years and it's great to finally meet face-to-face. For example, in Brooklyn, I met Nicole. She created one of the first mock Thirteen Reasons Why movie posters that appeared online after the movie deal was announced. She printed out a small version, hoping that maybe I'd remember. I did, of course! And she was kind enough to autograph it for me.

Jay Asher Jay

2012-01-17T05:00:00.000-08:00

Carolyn Mackler and I will be visiting 9 cities over the next 9 days to talk about The Future of Us. Hopefully you can make it to one of these stops!

Since we're starting on the East Coast, I caught a flight out of California Monday morning and arrived in New York in the evening. With only enough time for a late dinner, I went out for pizza with local designer, artist, writer, and activist, Asher Jay.

Yes, you read that right. Her name is Asher Jay!

Asher Jay first heard about Jay Asher (that's me!) while shopping at a Duane Reade Drugstore. They weren't selling Thirteen Reasons Why at the store, but someone who'd just been there accidentally left his/her copy of the book on the counter, which is where Asher Jay noticed it.

And two years later, we're sharing a pizza!

My fingers are crossed that we'll run into some guy named Mackler Carolyn in California. That would bookend this tour beautifully!

Honored to be Honored

2012-01-15T13:55:00.000-08:00

On Friday, I attended the opening day ceremonies at Cuesta College, where I was given one of four Honored Alum awards.

Not only was it wonderful to be recognized, but it felt so beautifully significant because, if not for attending Cuesta, I may have never decided to become an author.

If you look on the acknowledgements page of Thirteen Reasons Why (13 Inspirations), you'll notice the thirteenth mention says "Nancy Hurd - the reason I wrote my first book...thirteen years ago." Ms. Hurd was my Children's Literature Appreciation teacher, and it was in her class that I wrote two picture books for my final project.

That's where it all began.

Ms. Hurd nominated me for this award, and sat in the front row as I received it. So once again...Thank you!

Here I am with the other honorees during our tour of the campus. From left to right are the parents of Marin Pilloud, me, Dee Torres, and Michael Thibodeaux.

Congrats, everyone!

Feed Me!

2012-01-10T11:20:00.000-08:00

Beginning next week, Carolyn Mackler and I will travel to 9 cities across the country in 9 days to talk about The Future of Us. Most days will be filled with travel, speaking, and signing books, but there will be a few hours here and there to check out the sites.

If you currently live, have ever lived, or spent some time in these cities, I want to know what you think is a can't-miss. Since time will be limited, I'm mostly interested in two things: food & art.

Are there nice restaurants where the food will make my eyes roll back? Or cheap and delicious spots where a dollar will go a long way toward filling my tummy? Either way, I'm already getting hungry!

Are there museums I can pop into for a quick stroll that'll make my eyes and brain dance for joy? Or maybe make me smarter?

As a reminder, here's the map of our tour (which you can click on to make larger), with the cities listed at the bottom:

Thanks for your help!

Top 9 Author-Related Moments of 2011

2012-01-01T15:00:00.000-08:00

I waited until it was officially 2012 to write this post, just in case something amazing happened in the final moments of 2011.

Instead, I got the flu.

So here are some good moments from last year...

Doing a photoshoot for Entertainment Weekly.

Opening a box to find copies of my second book.

Taking my niece and nephew backstage at a Selena Gomez concert.

With some of my SCBWI friends, surviving one of the most terrifying nights of my life. What happened? Hmm... Maybe one day you'll read all about it!

Having lunch with some of the Penguin people most responsible for bringing The Future of Us into the world. And during lunch, getting a call that Warner Bros. made an offer on the movie rights.

My family having dinner with Carolyn Mackler's family, and seeing our three boys sitting on the couch together. Truly, the future of us.

With Carolyn Mackler, walking onto the convention floor at ALA for our first signing of The Future of Us, and seeing a massive line waiting for us. (We both giggled at the same time.)

Getting to drink a rootbeer in the spot where Charles Schulz (creator of Peanuts...duh!) spent much of his childhood. His dad owned a barbershop downstairs and the family lived upstairs. Sparky (his nickname...duh!) was a huge creative influence on me.

Traveling to speak in cities that allow me to reconnect with friends.

THE FUTURE OF US Book Tour

2011-12-29T02:00:00.000-08:00

By plane, train, and automobile, Carolyn Mackler and I will travel from the East Coast to the West Coast in January to meet our readers and talk about The Future of Us. We'll visit 9 great bookstores across the country, and if we're anywhere near you, we'd love it if you came by to get a book signed, or just to say hi!

January 17 - Barnes & Noble; Princeton, NJ; 7pm
January 18 - WORD; Brooklyn, NY; 7pm
January 19 - Politics and Prose; Washington D.C. (held offsite at Bethesda Public Library); 5pm
January 20 - Little Shop of Stories; Decatur, GA; 7pm
January 21 - Books & Books; Coral Gables, FL; 5:30pm
January 22 - Blue Willow Bookshop; Houston, TX; 2pm
January 23 - Book People; Austin, TX; 7pm
January 24 - Mrs. Nelson’s Toy and Book Shop; La Verne, CA; 7pm
January 25 - Once Upon a Time; Montrose, CA; 7pm

Bring a friend. Bring all your friends. And we'll see ya soon!

Fisher-Face Toys

2011-12-26T13:05:00.000-08:00

Slightly lopsided toothless grins are cute. Add a dimple, and it's adorable!

Am I talking about a certain one-year-old boy in my life? No. (But yes, his smiles are very adorable!) I'm talking about a few of that one-year-old's toys. Fisher-Price must've poured a lot of time and money into identifying the most inviting and playful smile, because that smile is plastered on all of their plastic faces.

This discovery was made by my wife while helping Isaiah open his second Fisher-Price Christmas gift.

Since these toys are for newborns and toddlers, I'm assuming that red dot on the cheek is a dimple and not a pimple. (For any of you reading this who have dimples, do you ever get pimples inside your dimples? If so, does it pinch when you smile? Just curious.)

Whether it's a caterpillar, a dog, the sun, or a music note, they all have the same smile.

It's cute. It's charming. And it's also a little creepy.

So now, whenever I see a person with a slightly lopsided toothless grin, I'm going to say, "Ah... Look at that Fisher-Face!"

Repeat the Sounding Joy

2011-12-25T00:01:00.000-08:00

I recently asked my friends and followers (that sounds so cultish) on Facebook and Twitter to tell me their favorite versions of Christmas carols. Although I didn't reveal my own selections, the two songs they chose most often also happen to be my two favorites: Little Drummer Boy and O Holy Night.

Good job, friends and followers!

The most commonly selected version of Little Drummer Boy was sung by Bing Crosby and David Bowie in the 1977 TV special, Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas.

My personal favorite Little Drummer Boy was recorded by Bob Seger in 1987. Here's a live performance from just last month.

Six different versions of O Holy Night were mentioned. Since I couldn't choose a favorite among those, I went with another great version, sung by Josh Groban.

Finally, who doesn't love Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer! (Notice, there's no question mark at the end of that sentence. If you don't love Rudolph, I don't want to know about it.) My favorite rendition is a cover of The Temptations' version, which was animated for Will Vinton's 1987 special, A Claymation Christmas Celebration. Sing it, California Raisins!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

A Very Bookish Christmas

2011-12-21T14:00:00.000-08:00

My favorite section of the house to decorate for Christmas is the bookcase in our dining room. One shelf, each December, holds nothing but Christmas books. It's not a large shelf (a half-box of these books remains in the garage), so it doesn't take long to decorate, but it is essential.

(Also included: a chunk from the first Christmas tree of our marriage,
and a photo from Isaiah's first Christmas)

This year, we added two books to the shelf. Voices of Christmas by Nikki Grimes and Eric Velasquez, which beautifully and powerfully tells the Nativity story from the perspectives of those who were there. And A Christmas Goodnight by Nola Buck and Sarah Jane Wright, which I got activities for online and printed out for Isaiah.

Sometimes it's a good thing that I try new toddler-activities on mornings when JoanMarie sleeps in. It's not that I thought Isaiah would color inside the lines, but I thought the crayons would spend more time on the paper than in his mouth.

Maybe next year!

When we decorated the tree, I wrapped the lights around the trunk, as opposed to setting them out on the branches. Isaiah's a teething-aholic (obviously), and I didn't want to tempt him. The few ornaments on this year's tree were also chosen with his curious fingers and teeth in mind.

I tried to get him to sit for a photo with his favorite book (How the Grinch Stole Christmas), but the moment I sat him down, he picked up the book and brought it over to me...for its fifth reading of the day.

Thankfully, reading to him is often my favorite part of each day.

Every Who
Down in Who-ville
Liked Christmas a lot...

Paparazzi

2011-12-13T07:00:00.000-08:00

A couple days ago, Isaiah celebrated his first birthday.

We put a bounce house in our backyard, and it often looked like every kid in the neighborhood was jumping around in there (I'm pretty sure a few were party crashers). And yes, after everyone left, I crawled in to get a few bounces of my own!

Taking after his mommy, this was the gift Isaiah played with the rest of the night.

The idea of a Smash Cake must be something new. Back when I turned one (Oh no! I'm starting to sound old!), we were given a small slice of the main birthday cake. Now, a lot of bakeries make seperate mini-cakes for the baby to smash into. And everyone looks forward to that! So I was a little suprised that Isaiah was being so cautious with his cake. It's like he knew people were watching him eat, documenting his every move.

Today (but in 2010)

2011-12-09T11:10:00.000-08:00

Here is the beginning and ending of an exciting email that Carolyn Mackler sent to our agents at 9:24am(PST) exactly one year ago today. The title of the manuscript mentioned was later changed to The Future of Us (available now!).

Jodi and Laura -

We are thrilled to hand you the manuscript for our next YA novel, IT'S ABOUT TIME.

[Blah, blah, blah. Business stuff, business stuff, business stuff. Blah, blah, blah.]

Happy reading!

- Carolyn & Jay

PS Speaking of babies going out into the world, as we were doing our final tweaks this morning, Jay's wife went into labor!!

If you've seen me give my Powerpoint presentation at a school or library, you know that I waste a lot of time creating mock covers for my books. Here are two that I created for It's About Time.

Santa's On His Way

2011-12-03T22:35:00.000-08:00

Today was a day of firsts for Isaiah.

Of course, when you're still not a year old, I suppose most days can be described that way.

We took him to see his first reindeer at the Hopper Bros. Christmas tree lot in Arroyo Grande. They weren't Santa's reindeer (cuz those guys are probably in hardcore last-minute training right now), but it's my understanding that Yukon and Windsong are second-cousins to Blitzen...or maybe Dasher. One of those! Either way, since this is 2011, they even have their own Facebook page.

Then we took Isaiah to his first book signing. Oddly enough, his first book signing was his dad's book signing! He was a bit confused when people started handing me books to scribble in because he's not allowed to do that at home.

Most people were getting books signed for themselves, but a lot were getting them signed as Christmas gifts for friends, girlfriends, or sons and daughters. It's so cool to know my books will be someone's gift!

Here's my view of the front of the signing line...

And my gift to the first 13 people in line was a donut from SLO Donut Co., which is where I stayed up late editing The Future of Us. And yes, within that box was the near-legendary bacon donut.

Thank you to everyone who came out to my first hometown book signing for my latest book. And thank you to the SLO Barnes & Noble booksellers for putting on this event. I'm sure I'll see you in a couple days!

If you weren't able to make it, or you're driving through San Luis Obispo in the near future, I signed plenty of copies of Thirteen Reasons Why and The Future of Us before I left. So grab one for yourself! Or better yet, grab both! Or even better yet, don't just think about your own enjoyment, also grab a few as gifts for others!

If you missed my hour-long November 30th interview with Dave Congalton (local radio dude and fellow-author), you can listen to the podcast here.

Good Morning, December

2011-12-01T15:05:00.000-08:00

I woke up feeling very excited this morning. I love December! I love Christmas! And I love JoanMarie & Isaiah (JoanMarie's birthday is December 25th, and Isaiah's is the 11th)!

Growing up, the first thing I did every December morning was mark the day with my Advent calendar. Usually, there was a small toy or piece of chocolate waiting for me. Maybe next year we'll go that route with Isaiah, but right now we're limiting his access to sugar-rushes and choking hazards.

But the traditions begin immediately!

One Big Family Circle

2011-11-28T14:10:00.000-08:00

I walked into a supermarket today and bought the December issue of Family Circle magazine. I also bought a quart of milk and a Heath bar, but I've purchased those items many times without telling you, so why Family Circle?

Because they have great taste in literature!

(photo courtesy of my smartphone)

If that review has anything to do with my mom subscribing to Family Circle for many years, then thank you, Mom!

For those of you who live locally, Dave Congalton will interview me from 5-6pm on KVEC 920 this Wednesday, November 30. If you live out-of-range, you can still listen online and call in to ask me a question. For a short time in high school, I interned at KVEC, even delivering one on-air news report (thankfully, lost forever).

And if you live nearby, or happen to be traveling nearby this weekend, I'll be signing copies of The Future of Us and Thirteen Reasons Why at the San Luis Obispo Barnes & Noble this Saturday, December 3, beginning at 4pm. I worked at this B&N for a bit while writing Thirteen Reasons Why, but I mostly worked in the cafe where I messed up many drink orders. If you remember me messing up your mocha, latte, or iced coffee (I still blush over that one), stop by and I'll buy you another one.

And I promise to let the professionals make it.

NCTE/ALAN 2011

2011-11-22T15:20:00.000-08:00

If you've seen my last two posts, you know that Carolyn Mackler and I were in Chicago for a conference. This was the National Council of Teachers of English/Assembly on Literature for Adolescents conference, which means there were a whole lot of teachers who know their grammar. Which means I was constantly saying, "Sorry! That's why I have an editor!"

It was the first time we signed hardcovers of The Future of Us together, which was a moment we'd been waiting for! Our genius publicist (I don't think she sleeps), Elyse, is standing between us in this photo.

In terms of excitement, a close second to signing books and meeting readers is getting to meet authors for the first time. And NCTE/ALAN was great for meeting authors!

Ned Vizzini

Sarah Zarr

Michelle Hodkin

Megan McCafferty

That evening, Penguin held a delicious (delicious!) dinner, with even more authors.

Jacqueline Woodson

Stephanie Perkins

The next day, Carolyn and I attended a great YA author booksigning at Anderson's Bookshop. I think we should come up with a word to describe a group of authors. Something like a gaggle or a pride of authors. Not those, but something! Any ideas?

This signing featured the two of us, Coe Booth, Jeff Hirsch, Heather Brewer, A.S. King, C.J. Hill, Stephanie Perkins, Jackie Kessler, and David Levithan. David moderated the evening, asking each author very insightful questions. I would've attended this event even if I wasn't speaking/signing (thankfully, I was!). In a beautiful moment, after several authors expressed how difficult their time in high school was, David mentioned how supportive and warm the feeling is when YA authors get together at events like these. He commented on how wonderful it would've been to attend high school with each other, and all of us immediately realized the truth in that statement. Even if I only see these authors once every few years, they are my friends.

On our final day in Chicago, Carolyn and I spoke in front of a huge roomful of people about how we wrote The Future of Us and why we decided to work together. One day, hopefully soon, we'll speak in a town near you!

And now, I'm on my way to the airport to spend Thanksgiving with my family.

Hopefully my seatmate lets me sleep!

Sweet Satisfaction!

2011-11-21T12:20:00.000-08:00

Carolyn Mackler and I wanted to physically see The Future of Us on bookstore shelves the first day of its release (which, y'know, is today!). Since we're both in Chicago for a conference, our lovely editor (and fellow author), Jocelyn Davies, found a store only a few blocks from our hotel.

Because we also wanted to sign whatever books they had in stock, we first made sure they had copies so we didn't embarrass ourselves. ("We're here to sign copies of The Future of Us. Oh, you don't? Oh...okay...so... Have a nice day!")

But they did have copies. Lots of copies! Actual books. In an actual store! We flipped them open to also see the actual words. And then, much like how we wrote the book, we both wanted to monitor what the other one was doing.

Then we got down to business. Along with signing the new book, we also signed copies of Thirteen Reasons Why and The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things.

But then I decided, even though I already had several free copies of The Future of Us at home, I wanted the joy of buying a copy.

Shortly after purchase, I flipped it open and told the very sweet person on the other side of the counter (Remember us, Christine?), that the dialogue sounded awfully familiar. I felt like I'd read the book before.

Christine said that was probably unlikely. "The book just came out today." But I was sure I'd read it, so I wanted to return the book. Although a bit confused, Christine returned it and gave me back my cash.

And Carolyn hid her face in her hands.

The real reason I did this is because I didn't want anyone else to have the sick satisfaction of being the first person to return a copy of the book. I wanted that person to be me!

Carolyn and Jocelyn left for previously scheduled meetings, and I stayed to browse. Within five minutes, a woman approached me. She was a teacher visiting from Minnesota, had just purchased a copy of The Future of Us, and was told I might still be in the store.

So thank you, Jennifer, for balancing out the first day sales!

HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY!!!

2011-11-21T00:01:00.000-08:00

I live in California. Carolyn Mackler lives in New York. By some perfect alignment of the stars, we're both speaking at a conference in Chicago on the same day that the The Future of Us is released.

And that day is...

TODAY!!!

A few minutes before midnight, I was almost ready for bed, wearing my pajamas and the cheetah robe that had been hanging in the closet. Carolyn called me down to join her outside the hotel where all of the Penguin authors are staying. It was time for the big countdown! Our editor, Jocelyn Davies, was there to capture the moment.

We're going to spend the morning hopping in and out of bookstores, signing any copies they have in stock. In the evening, we'll join some of our favorite authors at Anderson's Bookshop for a massive YA signing.

And throughout the entire day, I'm sure I'll have a giddy energy making me extremely hyper and happy. I know it'll be annoying to anyone within fifty feet of me, but...oh well!

MY NEXT BOOK IS OUT TODAY!!!

Future Friday #13: Winner

2011-11-19T00:01:00.000-08:00

Before I announce the winner, I want to thank all of you who entered any of the thirteen contests in our countdown to The Future of Us. Carolyn Mackler and I enjoyed reading every one of your comments. You've given us great suggestions for things to read and watch and listen to, made us laugh a lot, and brought tears to our eyes much more often than we expected.

Thank you so much for sharing with us.

And now...

Congratulations to Sabrina for being randomly selected to win the thirteenth and final round of Future Friday giveaways! To claim your goodies, send your mailing address to EmmaNelson4Ever@aol.com. If you don't know who Emma Nelson is, you will when you start reading The Future of Us!

Heading into Thanksgiving, Sabrina is thankful for "all of the writing I've been able to do (and have published) this past year and all of the wonderful people I've been able to meet and network with."

For those of you didn't win, you'll get your chance to find out who Emma Nelson is (as well as her next door neighbor, Josh Templeton) when our book is released this Monday, November 21st!

Carolyn and I barely knew each other when we began working on this book, but we became great friends during the process. It was the best writing experience either of us have ever had, and we can't wait for you to read the story that came out of that experience.

When you do read it, please let us know what you think!

Future Friday #13: Thankful

2011-11-18T00:01:00.000-08:00

To countdown the release of The Future of Us (November 21st...this coming Monday!), Carolyn Mackler and I have been giving away one autographed Advance Reader’s Copy every week. Along with that autographed copy (signed by both of us), we’ve been tossing in another goodie that's book-related.

For our thirteenth and final giveaway, we're tossing in six bonus items. Along with the signed ARC of The Future of Us, you'll receive signed paperback editions of all six of our previous books. (Yes, Carolyn's published a lot more books than I have. Lay off!)

That's seven books and eight autographs for the price of...nothing!

We'll randomly select one person who comments on this Future Friday post to receive all of those books. There’s no need to leave your email address, but do check back on Saturday to see if you’ve won.

Since our book comes out on Monday, and Thursday is Thanksgiving, we decided to break from what we've traditionaly done in these contests. We're not going to ask you about the past or the future, we simply want to know about the present. Right now, which is the most important time of your time, what are you most thankful for?

Here are our answers:

JAY: I'm thankful for my wife, who knows all of my dreams and refuses to let me think they're anything but possible realities. I'm thankful for my son, who has no idea how beautiful he makes my world. I'm thankful for my family and friends who know the complete me, including the not-so-fun stuff that I don't blog about, and still provide me with all the support and love I need. And finally, I'm thankful to any scientist currently working to prove that onions are the source of all evil and, therefore, should be wiped out of existence.

CAROLYN: I'm thankful for my family. Simple as that. I'm thankful that I have a wonderful husband who loves me, who supports me through tough times and cheers my successes. I'm thankful for my two beautiful boys who are, every day, miracles to me. I'm thankful for my parents, who love me fiercely. I'm thankful for my friends, who are family to me. I feel very lucky in my life to be surrounded by so much love.

JAY & CAROLYN: We're thankful for our readers!

While you wait to see if you've won, check out some of the cool press The Future of Us has been getting recently:
Los Angeles Times - review
New York Times - review
Entertainment Weekly - interview
Publishers Weekly - interview
MTV Hollywood Crush - blog post

Facematch

2011-11-16T08:48:00.000-08:00

When Carolyn Mackler and I had one week left to edit The Future of Us, we began to get a bit loopy. Too many late nights, too many donuts (for me), and too much staring at the computer screen was a little...too much!

One evening, during a late night barrage of back-n-forth emails with my cross-country co-writer, one of us had a fascinating realization. Our book is set in 1996. Our characters initially have no idea what Facebook is, though it magically appears on one of their computers. So, when they search for their friends and family members in the future, the profile pictures they see then would be the same pictures we'd see if we searched those names today.

Thus began an absolutely hilarious (especially when you're tired) email exchange, linking to the various Facebook profiles our characters would find. And sometimes, the pictures they'd find, which just might be their friends/family, would have freaked them out!

But you know what's making me loopy right now? Knowing that my next book comes out in just a few days!!!

Speaking of... If you haven't seen the EW.com exclusive yet, here's the official book trailer for The Future of Us.

Did you notice that little stuffed animal next to Emma's computer? That's Snort, a Beanie Baby that Emma could've actually owned. And how do I know its name? Because my parents still own it!

The U.K. Edition!

2011-11-14T11:11:00.001-08:00

(Reminder: The American edition debuts next week. Make sure you've got your copy pre-ordered today!)

My Last School Visit as a Debut Author

2011-11-12T13:50:00.000-08:00

This is my favorite time to speak at schools around the country. I get to see something that doesn't happen much where I live. The trees change colors and a whole bunch of leaves fall to the ground. It's crazy! It's beautiful! And for some ridiculous reason, I forgot to take any photos of it.

But you know what else is crazy and beautiful? A hotel decorated by the guy who created the Precious Moments figurines.

The hotel has a Precious Moments gift shop, and two Precious Moments paintings in every room. And while I do think those big-eyed toddlers are...well...precious, their images can be kind of scary to wake up to in the middle of the night. It felt like the beginning of a Precious Final Moments horror movie.

But when the lights were on, yes, it was a very nice hotel.

Carthage High School (in Missouri) was also very nice. And whenever I get to a school and see my name on the marquee, I get both nervous and excited.

My teenage self would freak out to know I fly around the country to speak at high schools about being an author. He'd think it was both cool and scary.

And it is!

But mostly just cool.

On my first full day in Carthage, I spoke four times at the high school. Here, you can see my first Powerpoint slide, which is the cover of Thirteen Reasons Why.

That evening, I gave a presentation open to the public, attended by students and book club members from private schools and surrounding cities. The next day, I was back at Carthage High School for four more presentations.

At some point, I realized that this was my last school visit as a debut author. The next time I give a school presentation, my second book will be out. And here you can see me telling the students about that book, The Future of Us.

And when I came home, after being gone only three days, Isaiah showed me a new skill his mommy had taught him.

Future Friday #12: Winner

2011-11-12T00:18:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Selenia for being randomly selected to win the twelfth round of Future Friday giveaways! To claim your goodies, send your mailing address to EmmaNelson4Ever@aol.com. If you don't know who Emma Nelson is, you will when you start reading The Future of Us.

Selenia's favorite romantic comedy movie is Kate & Leopold. I've been meaning to watch this movie for a while, so now I'll bump it up to the top of my list.

See ya next Friday for your very last chance to win a signed Advanced Reader's Copy of The Future of Us!

Future Friday #12: Romantic Comedy Movies

2011-11-11T00:01:00.000-08:00

Playing...I Mean, Working...In Las Vegas

2011-11-06T01:00:00.000-07:00

The past few days, I've been at the Vegas Valley Book Festival. I know most of the following pictures look like I was running around Vegas having a lot of fun. And yes, that is absolutely correct. But I was also there to work.

My first night in town, I attended the opening keynote by Max Brooks. He's the author of World War Z and is extremely funny. The entire time he spoke, I kept thinking, this guy should be a comedian. It wasn't until I got back to my hotel and did my research that I found out Max is the son of Mel Brooks.

Then I checked into my hotel, which had a shark tank!

Obviously, there are more than just card sharks in Vegas. (HA! HA! HA! HA! *ahem*) And that tube running down the middle? It's part of the waterslide! I so wanted to go down the slide, but like I said, I was there to work.

Of course, right outside my hotel was Fremont Street, which had some really cool coverbands playing. This one, called Arena, played the best hard rock songs from the 80s. Pour Some Sugar On Me. Bad Medicine. Runnin' With the Devil. Awesome!

And then there was an 80s pop coverband. Great songs and cheesy dancing!

And yes, I also worked. I spoke at two high schools. First, I spoke in an auditorium at Chaparral High School with a few hundred students, then a smaller room at Rancho High School where almost everyone in the room had read my book. Both visits were very fun...but they're still considered work!

That night, a flock/herd/pack of YA authors who were speaking at the festival were given complimentary tickets to see Blue Man Group. If you've never seen them, it is such an energetic, hilarious, insanely weird show (including Twinkie spewage)!

Here I am post-show with...um...Blue Man Solo?

Here's a long-shot of Fremont Street later that evening. See those people hanging on wires? They're actually sailing overhead on ziplines. And yes, I did rock that zipline!

Okay, back to work. Saturday moring, I walked down to the festival hub, where I spoke on two YA panels. But first, I chatted with the amazing people representing the It Gets Better Project. I purchased a shirt from Ross and Stephanie, and then they threw in a smaller shirt for Isaiah.

On the first panel, we discussed writing realistic fiction for teens. From left to right are moderator Lindsey Leavitt, Emily Wing Smith, Daisy Whitney, Lisa Schroeder, Liz Gallagher, and me.

The second panel discussed fiction that included a paranormal twist. Since The Future of Us fits nicely into this category, I got to speak again! But I jumped off the stage near the end of the panel to take this photo of Crystal Perkins (who coordinated the YA author events), moderator Daisey Whitney, Cat Patrick, Suzanne Young, Lindsey Leavitt, and Heather Davis.

There were even more great authors at this event that I had the opportunity to hang out with, but I'm going to have to end the post here. Las Vegas wore me out. So now I'm going to get some shut-eye in the airport. Since I missed my connection due to weather, this place is my new hotel.

And while I am tired, if they had a waterslide that went through a shark tank, I would definitely ride it before bed!

Future Friday #11: Winner

2011-11-05T02:00:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Love Between Pages for being randomly selected to win the eleventh round of Future Friday giveaways! To claim your goodies, send your mailing address (and t-shirt size) to EmmaNelson4Ever@aol.com. If you don't know who Emma Nelson is, you will when you start reading The Future of Us!

L.B.P. wants to read Timepiece by Richard Paul Evans (published in 1996), recently read Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins, and is "counting down the days until the release of The Future of Us."

To help L.B.P. out, you only need to keep counting down for another sixteen days!

See ya next Friday for your second-to-last chance to win an Advanced Reader's Copy of The Future of Us.

Future Friday #11: Past/Present/Future Reading

2011-11-04T00:01:00.000-07:00

To countdown the release of The Future of Us (November 21st!), Carolyn Mackler and I will give away one autographed Advance Reader’s Copy every week. Along with the autographed copy (signed by both of us), we’ll toss in another goodie that's book-related.

For our eleventh giveaway, the bonus item is a bookface t-shirt, as seen in the video below. The winner will get to choose the t-shirt size, so you can win it for yourself or use it as a gift. And I suppose if you really want the actual t-shirt that I'm wearing in the video (filmed last summer in the humid heat of New Orleans), that can be arranged. But...ewwww!

We'll randomly select one person who comments on this Future Friday post to receive both prizes. There’s no need to leave your email address, but do check back on Saturday to see if you’ve won.

This week's contest has three parts.

PAST: In Future Friday #3, we asked you to name your favorite book that was published in 1996 (it had to be a book you've read). Now, we want to know which book published in 1996 you want to read, but haven't. To help you along, here's a fairly good list of titles.

PRESENT: Tell us a book you're currently reading, or the last book you've read.

FUTURE: Let us know which book you're most excited about reading that hasn't been released yet, but will be released in 17 days, and was co-written by a woman in New York and a man in California.

Here are our answers:

JAY:
PAST - Religious secrets and historical fiction? I have no idea why I haven't already read POPE JOAN by Donna Woolfolk Cross.
PRESENT - I was never into role-playing games, but have always been fascinated by them...and the people who play them. FANTASY FREAKS AND GAMING GEEKS by Ethan Gilsdorf explores both.
FUTURE - I've already pre-ordered my e-book of THE FUTURE OF US, but I can't wait to buy a hardcopy the day it comes out, too!!!

CAROLYN:
PAST - I never read THE NOTEBOOK by Nicholas Sparks, and was just recently thinking that I should.
PRESENT - I just finished an advance copy of REVIVED by Cat Patrick and really liked it.
FUTURE - I am most looking forward to seeing THE FUTURE OF US hit the bookstores!!!

Isaiah's First Halloween

2011-11-01T09:42:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wonder, as babies go through the seasons for the first time, if it's just one confusing moment after another. Just when they think they've got things figured out, here comes Halloween!

We decided to start things off slowly. A lot of people don't celebrate Halloween (cuz dressing up like Muppets is evil, or something), and we wanted to incorporate a harvest celebration, so we picked the very first veggie out of our garden.

I swear, I did not slowly tweak this cucumber in an attempt to get the garden to spell my name.

And if I did, I quickly realized how hard it would be to get an A or a Y.

Years ago, JoanMarie and I dressed up as Kermit and Miss Piggy for Halloween. This year, we added their offspring.

Then we were out the door. The reason for the season. Candy!!!

Isaiah caught on quickly.

After collecting a massive eight pieces of candy, he was satisfied and ready for bed.

Thankfully, eight pieces is easy to divide between Big Kermit and Miss Piggy.

Happy Halloween!!!

2011-10-31T00:01:00.000-07:00

Twenty years ago in October (exactly twenty days after I got my driver's license), I went to see one of my literary idols. Ray Bradbury was beyond an author to me. He felt like more of a mystical travel agent. He was the first author to make me feel like I was within the story, and not just hearing about it.

When I showed up at Earthling Books, I bought six of his novels to get signed. Most of them, I'd already checked out at the library and read, but now I was going to own autographed copies!

The one I was most excited to see Mr. Bradbury sign his name in, and the one I still need to pull off the shelf every October, was The Halloween Tree. The first several chapters in that novel are Halloween.

Like most holidays, Halloween hasn't felt nearly as magical as an adult as it did when I was a child.

But this year, I'm seeing the excitement and mystery through my son's eyes!

Isaiah's Uncle Nate & Aunt Sarah came over on Halloween Eve to carve pumpkins. Isaiah chose his pumpkin, JoanMarie drew a face on it to resemble his smile, then Isaiah helped clean it out.

I did the cutting, added the candle, then we lined up the jack-o-lanterns on our porch.

(The pumpkins of Sarah, Nate, and Isaiah.)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Future Friday #10: Winner

2011-10-29T00:15:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Jennie Englund for being randomly selected to win the tenth round of Future Friday giveaways! To claim your goodies, send your mailing address to EmmaNelson4Ever@aol.com. If you don't know who Emma Nelson is, you will when you start reading The Future of Us!

Jennie's favorite Halloween costume was that of a co-op shopper. "I bought knitted, cut-off rainbow gloves and a beanie from our co-op, and I carried around a hemp shopping bag with carrots in it."

While I love my local co-op, I hope no one gave you co-op candy while you were trick-or-treating, Jennie. Halloween candy is supposed to be full of sugar and artificial yumminess.

See ya next Friday for another chance to win an Advanced Reader's Copy of The Future of Us!

Future Friday #10: Halloween

2011-10-28T00:01:00.000-07:00

To countdown the release of The Future of Us (November 21st!), Carolyn Mackler and I will give away one autographed Advance Reader’s Copy every week. Along with the autographed copy (signed by both of us), we’ll toss in another goodie that's book-related.

For our tenth giveaway, the bonus item is Betty and Veronica #252 ("face-off!"). Yes, Future Friday #5 also featured an Archie Comics Facebook-themed giveaway. When we wrote a few lines about Archie Comics into The Future of Us, we had no idea their writers were about to weave Facebook into the Riverdale High storylines.

Great minds think alike!

We'll randomly select one person who comments on this Future Friday post to receive both prizes. There’s no need to leave your email address, but do check back on Saturday to see if you’ve won.

This week, we wanted to do something with a Halloween theme. While we couldn't think of a book-related Halloween question, we both realized...we don't care! So tell us, what was your favorite Halloween costume that you wore trick-or-treating?

Here are our answers:

CAROLYN:
My mom used to make our Halloween costumes, or we did it with her. One year - and this is bizarre because Jay's favorite costume also involved facial hair - I was an old man. Yep. I was in fifth grade then. I dressed in worn out dungarees, a faded plain shirt, and I put on a long gray beard. I even walked with a cane, all stooped over. I won a prize in the kiddie parade that year! And you're wondering why I wasn't popular?

JAY:
This was the Halloween after the movie Teen Wolf came out. I bought patches of fake fur and easy-to-remove costume glue, then attached the fur to my face, arms, and legs. I looked so good! But the glue did not come off easily. I went to sleep with most of the fur still on, then woke up for more painful peeling. Just like in Teen Wolf, I played basketball, and I had a game the day after Halloween. So I kept my socks pulled up real high because most of the ankle-fur remained.

I Will Not Mention Dorothy or Toto (Other Than Here)

2011-10-27T14:45:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, I arrived in Wichita for the Kansas Association of Teachers of English (KATE) conference. While saying "Kansas Association of Teachers of English" may sound awkard, I'll assume it's grammatically correct.

When John and Bryan picked me up (they're both English teachers...I mean, teachers of English), they took me straight to the Cosmosphere.

All three of us are space nerds, and when they found this out about me, they made sure to include this in my visit. And it was, for lack of a better English word, awesome! First of all, the museum has a moon rock. This little lunar nugget was protected by several sensors and flashing lights, so I even felt a bit nervous getting this close to photograph it.

Something I had never heard about, or just don't remember being taught in American History, are USSR pennants that reached the moon a decade before we stepped on it. When one of these hit the moon, it scattered the tiny metal plates all over the surface.

Maybe you've heard of something called Apollo XIII. But have you ever wondered where you could see the Command Module Odyssey for yourself? Well, it's in Kansas, of course!

And now, here's a picture of the Spacenutz.

The hotel where we stayed, and the location of the conference, was having a pumpkin contest between the different staff groups. This is only a sampling of their very creative pieces...

But I wasn't here for Kansas'/Kansas's (whatever!) spacepumpkin goodness. I was here for the conference, which involved meeting the 2011 Newbery Medal winner, Clare Vanderpool, a native Kansan, Kansian...person from Kansas. (These people who teach English make me nervous.) And I got my copy of Moon Over Manifest signed!

After lunch, it was my turn to speak...

...and sign books.

Well, I'm heading downstairs for KATE's Centennial Celebration Reception, and then a few teachers promised to take me out for some great local ice cream.

Oh, but guess what else I saw in Kansas. An actual NASA disposable absorption containment trunk.

But I like to call them astroboxers!

Book Tour 2011: Austin

2011-10-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

The Texas Book Festival was a great way to end my weeklong tour. Even though I've been averaging 4.5 hours of sleep per night since last Sunday, being surrounded by both readers and other authors gave me plenty of energy to sprint through the day.

On the stage of a church, I was a part of panel titled To Ban or Not to Ban: What Is the Question?

Here I am with moderator Judith Platt, and co-panelists David Levithan, Ellen Hopkins, and Jessica Lee Anderson.

We each wore those pink microphones that clip around the ear, run down the cheek, and point to the mouth. For a couple questions, Ellen's microphone didn't work, so I leaned my head next to hers so everyone could hear her. We share an agent, so watching each other's back is much more important than personal space!

Then Ellen and I hopped onto the back of a golfcart (always wanted to do that!) and headed to the hotel where a lot of authors were staying.

There, we bumped into Sarah Dessen.

Do you see why I love literature festivals?

In the evening, teen authors at the conference came together at the beautiful Texas State Cemetery for an event called A Convergence of Souls.

(The cemetery isn't actually painted purple, but I thought this looked creeper!)

It was there that I finally met James Dashner. When Carolyn Mackler and I recorded our videos in Seattle (was that really just last Monday?), Mr. Dashner recorded right after us. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay until he was done. But our paths crossed in a different state only five days later. Crazy!

While I have waited in line to get a couple of books autographed by Louis Sachar, it would've brought up a lot of questions to know that the first time I actually got to talk to him, we'd be standing in a dimly lit cemeterey.

A whole bunch of teens and parents listened to the authors play a couple rounds of story-building, where we were given a genre and the first sentence, then we each went to the microphone and added a sentence. The stories we came up with will never be published, which is a very good thing! A librarian also played a round of Mad Libs using audience suggestions, and another librarian read a story she wrote using titles of books from every author there.

Then I went to one final afterhours bash with several people from Penguin and Joe Schreiber.

In the morning, after another 4.5 hour sleep, I'm finally heading home.

Book Tour 2011: Colorado

2011-10-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

For the past two days, I've been running around Colorado. It's my first time in this state, other than a quick layover, and it's absolutely beautiful. Next time, I hope to get more time to stare at those mountains (several hours a day would be nice).

My first stop was Fossil Ridge High School in Fort Collins, which was a very impressive campus to explore.

That night, I spoke at Council Tree Library, with Old Firehouse Books selling the books.

After my presentation, I headed to Old Chicago with my longtime pals, Eric and Anna.

Knowing people around the country means I get taken to the yummiest spots where the locals eat. Check out these nachos!

The next day, I spoke at two schools in Loveland. Loveland High School (with books provided by Anthology Book Company)...

...and Mountain View High School.

I rounded out my trip to Colorado with a signing at Barnes & Noble in Boulder. Upcoming YA author (and sister-in-agency), Emily Hainsworth is seated on the far right.

Today, I'll be in Austin for the Texas Book Festival, which is the last stop on my book tour. It looks like it should be a very fun day.

And then, I'm heading home!

Future Friday #9: Winner

2011-10-22T00:01:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to YA Reader for being randomly selected to win the ninth round of Future Friday giveaways! To claim your goodies, send your mailing address to EmmaNelson4Ever@aol.com. If you don't know who Emma Nelson is, you will when you start reading The Future of Us!

If she could experience any week in history, she would go all the way back...to Thursday.

Yes, of this week.

That way, she could let her St. Louis Cardinals know that the 9th inning is going to be rough.

See ya next Friday for another chance to win an Advanced Reader's Copy of The Future of Us!

Future Friday #9: One Week

2011-10-21T00:01:00.000-07:00

[To keep the Future Fridays rolling on schedule, I'll highlight both of my Colorado book tour stops (Fort Collins & Boulder) in one post on Saturday.]

To countdown the release of The Future of Us (November 21st!), Carolyn Mackler and I will give away one autographed Advance Reader’s Copy every week. Along with the autographed copy (signed by both of us), we’ll toss in another goodie that's book-related.

For our ninth giveaway, the bonus item is a box of 28 wooden dominoes. Metaphorically, our book is very much domino-related. One character even mentions The Domino Theory while sitting in a pizza restaurant (but not Domino's Pizza, cuz that'd be taking the domino-thing too far). Do you remember the last time you set up a line of dominoes and then watched them all fall? Don't you think it's about time to do it again?

We'll randomly select one person who comments on this Future Friday post to receive both prizes. There’s no need to leave your email address, but do check back on Saturday to see if you’ve won.

This week, we want to take you time traveling. In our book, over one week, Josh and Emma glimpse their lives fifteen years in the future. But we want to know, rather than glimpse your future (which you've already told us about), if you could physically spend one week at any time in history, when and where would it be?

Here are our answers:

JAY:
In the mid-80s, a lot of bands I later worshiped in high school were relatively unknown, playing small clubs in L.A. I'd love to find one week packed with their shows and live out my teen fantasy of seeing them before they got big. But I'd feel so cheesy wasting a time travel opportunity on that. Instead, I'd travel to Philadelphia, beginning on July 2, 1776, and finishing on July 8 when the Declaration of Independence was first read aloud to the public, with bells ringing across the city all day.

CAROLYN:
I would say it's a toss up between a week with Laura Ingalls and her family on the prairie, the summer of 1969 (during the moon landing or Woodstock), and a week of myself in junior high. I would pull myself aside and tell myself who to ignore, what to actually care about, and - for the love of god - scrounge together your allowance and buy real estate in Manhattan!

Book Tour 2011: Minnetonka

2011-10-19T23:25:00.000-07:00

In most cities on this tour, the person driving me from event to event is a 'media escort' who's driven a whole bunch of authors/actors/singers around when they're in town. It's fun to hear about the people who once sat in the very same passenger seat as me. But on this stop, I was lucky enough to have my good friend Jessica driving me around. Between events, she took me to all the cool spots in the Twin Cities. (At least, they're the coolest spots to me!)

For example, the Mall of America. That place is huge! If you've never heard of it, check out these facts. Yes, they have an amusement park in the mall.

The highlight for me was a place I've been reading about since I was a kid. Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts, used to live in an apartment above his dad's barbershop. There's a bar there now, but I've wanted to visit this spot for years...and I finally got the chance!

My inner-child did The Snoopy Dance as I toasted the comics on the wall with a glass of Snoopy's favorite drink. Root beer!

So far on this tour, the Minnetonka public library brought out the biggest crowd, which always translates into more energy (making it harder to fall asleep when I get back to the hotel).

And a big thanks to Wild Rumpus for handling the book sales.

Well, now it's finally time to force myself to get some sleep. Tomorrow is my stop in Fort Collins, where I'm hoping to have dinner with one of my favorite people (who just happens to be an author).

Book Tour 2011: Cincinnati

2011-10-18T18:20:00.000-07:00

I've never had this much fun on so little sleep. Last night, I took a red-eye flight from Seattle (11:40pm) to Cincinnati (8:50am) with a brief layover in Chicago. With the three hour time difference, that meant I began the very full day with very little sleep. But the adrenaline kept me movin'!

First stop, Gamble Montessori High School. That place had some of the coolest teachers I've seen, and the students asked some of the best questions. I started by speaking to a group of 7th graders...

...and then a class of seniors.

At the main branch of the Cincinnati & Hamilton County library, which has an awesome waterfall out front...

...I attended a pizza party with members of their reading group. It's not a book club where everyone reads the same book, but everyone talks about their favorite latest reads. And I came away with a few great titles to check out.

Based on consistent recommendations by my Facebook friends, I grabbed a second bite to eat at Skyline Cafe. Chili-covered spaghetti is so yummy!

While my hotel didn't have signed books by authors who've stayed there (like the past two) or funky robes (like the last one), it did have Tent City from the local Occupy Movement (Occupy Cincy) right outside.

Then it was back to the library for the main event.

Joseph-Beth Booksellers handled the book sales, and here I am with Annette from JBB.

Once again, I had a great time speaking to and speaking with everyone who showed up.

And now it's off to bed, because I have to get up a little before 5am.

You're up next, Minnetonka!

Book Tour 2011: Seattle

2011-10-17T21:45:00.000-07:00

On the way to catch my flight in the Portland airport, I noticed a great display of original Looney Tunes art. One drawing in particular caught my attention because of its relation to Josh's character in The Future of Us, which (in case I haven't told you lately) I can't wait for you to read!

My hotel room in Seattle, similar to yesterday's hotel, was full of books autographed by authors who had previously stayed there. But this hotel, unlike the other one, also had very funky robes in the closet.

There was a special guest on this leg of the tour, and while she apparently had the same robes in her room, she (for some reason) didn't think of photographing herself in one. Carolyn Mackler flew out from NYC so we could visit the Amazon headquarters...

...and film a video that should be posted on their website soon (I'm sure you all know the address).

After grabbing lunch with local author Kristin Halbrook and coffee with Cat Patrick (where I got an advance copy of her next awesome book!), it was off to the Greenwood Public Library for the main event! (Thanks, University Book Store, for handling the book sales.)

Kristin and Cat were both in the audience, along with my very special co-author. But few people knew Carolyn was also in the audience until near the end of my presentation when I began speaking about our book and introduced her. Then she walked up front (to great applause) to continue the presentation with me, and we each finished about a dozen of the other person's sentences.

Next stop (by myself)...Cincinnati!

Book Tour 2011: Portland

2011-10-16T21:40:00.000-07:00

My flight up to Portland was a bit rocky, but it's hard to mind (too much) with views like this...

When I got to my hotel room, there was a copy of Thirteen Reasons Why on the table for me to sign. The Heathman Hotel has a library of books signed by authors who've stayed there. With over 2,000 autographed books that guests can check out during their stay, I added one more.

I went out to brunch with my niece, nephew, and sissy-in-law (Genevieve, Ellory, and Gypsy), then chilled out at the hotel for a few minutes before my first stop on the book tour, Powell's in Beaverton. If you weren't able to make it, shame on you! But...I did sign a bunch of books before I left, so go grab one.

It was a very fun crowd, and they asked great questions (a couple questioners even got an advance reading copy of The Future of Us), which made it a perfect event for my family to attend. Every time the audience laughed, I wanted to turn to my family and say, "Did you see that? They think I'm funny!"

But I played it cool.

As a special bonus, though I was far away from home, one of my friends from high school came out to the event. Great seeing you again, Ron!

This was a wonderful way to kick-off the tour.

You're next, Seattle!

Book Tour Reminder

2011-10-16T09:29:00.000-07:00

The first stop on my weeklong book tour is today!

I'll be speaking/signing in 7 cities around the country over the next week, with a few more stops in the weeks to come. So click the Speaking Schedule tab beneath the blogheader to see if I'll be near you. If so, you'd better come and say hi!

And I'll be posting pics throughout the tour, so stay tuned...

Future Friday #8: Winner

2011-10-15T00:40:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to YA Book Queen for being randomly selected to win the eighth round of Future Friday giveaways! To claim your goodies, send your mailing address to EmmaNelson4Ever@aol.com. If you don't know who Emma Nelson is, you will when you start reading The Future of Us!

Here are the songs from 1996 that most stand out to Ms. Queen, along with her excellent commentary:

One Headlight by The Wallflowers – I love the lyrics for this one, they always seem to evoke different possible meanings.

Any of Sublime’s songs – always somewhat twisted, but intriguing.

California Love by Tupac – It’s pretty much a law for all Californian’s to love this ;)

King Nothing by Metlallica – the music in this is awesome! :D

And the song that stands out to the most number of commenters is...

See ya next Friday for another chance to win an Advanced Reader's Copy of The Future of Us!

Future Friday #8: Songs

2011-10-14T00:01:00.000-07:00

The Danish Edition!

2011-10-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

The Indonesian Edition!

2011-10-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

Future Friday #7: Winner

2011-10-08T00:30:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Grace Amanda for being randomly selected to win the seventh round of Future Friday giveaways! To claim your goodies, send your mailing address to EmmaNelson4Ever@aol.com. If you don't know who Emma Nelson is, you will when you start reading The Future of Us!

Grace's favorite movie featuring time travel is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

And the movie chosen by the most number of commenters (as it should've been!)...

Wouldn't you know it, both Back to the Future and Harry Potter get referenced in The Future of Us. Speaking of which, we'll see ya next Friday for another chance to win your own Advanced Reader's Copy!

Future Friday #7: Time Travel Movies

2011-10-07T00:01:00.000-07:00

To countdown the release of The Future of Us (November 21st!), Carolyn Mackler and I will give away one autographed Advance Reader’s Copy every week. Along with the autographed copy (signed by both of us), we’ll toss in another goodie that's book-related.

For our seventh giveaway, the bonus items are Bigfoot and Penguin breathmints. No, none of our characters have bad breath. In fact, our fictional world is full of minty fresh mouths. But there is a passing Bigfoot comment in the book, and Penguin is a very cool (pepperminty cool!) publishing house.

We'll randomly select one person who comments on this Future Friday post to receive both prizes. There’s no need to leave your email address, but do check back on Saturday to see if you’ve won.

This week, we want to know your favorite time travel movies. Here's a fairly thorough sampling of those movies from the past. Of course, there will be more great titles added to that list...in the future.

Here are our answers:

JAY:
Back to the Future: Heck, my first skateboard was a Valterra splatterboard, just like the one Marty McFly rolled around on. That's how much I love this movie! Groundhog Day: Everytime I see it, I'm shocked at how perfectly it blends sweet and funny. A Christmas Carol: I can watch and love almost any version of this timeless (HA!) story at any time of the year.

CAROLYN:
Back to the Future because it was completely awesome and we discussed it practically daily while writing The Future of Us. Peggy Sue Got Married because the Nicholas Cage character was such a freakin' mess as an adult, and yet so endearingly cute as a teen. Midnight in Paris, which I haven't seen, but I've been going crazy all summer and fall because I haven't seen it and I know I'll love it. Does that make sense? It doesn't to me either. I should go see it tonight. Unless it's left the theaters.

Backstage to the Future: The Codename

2011-10-04T18:20:00.000-07:00

[First in a series of posts about collaborating on The Future of Us with Carolyn Mackler.]

Last year, on April 5, Carolyn sent me a very simple email:

I have a semi-crazy idea to run by you. Now a good time?

I’d given a quote for Carolyn’s latest novel, Tangled, but other than that, we didn’t know each other. Still, she was one of my favorite authors, so of course I wanted to hear her crazy idea. Even though neither of us had ever tried writing a novel with someone else, that was her crazy idea. And since I love crazy ideas, I thought we should give it a shot!

We both knew the collaboration could fall apart. Just because we were fans of each other’s books didn’t mean we could write well together. We wanted to come up with a premise and write a few chapters before letting anyone know what we were up to. If we couldn’t agree upon a premise, or didn’t mesh well creatively, no one would have to know we’d even tried.

To go along with the clandestine feel of the operation, we needed a codename. So we jumbled up the combined letters of JAY ASHER and CAROLYN MACKLER and began referring to this as a project of the…

Carolyn’s Two Cents: My first cent is a question, Jay. Should I read into it that in your first paragraph you wrote Carolyn once followed by crazy three times? Three times! And hey, you have to admit it wasn’t such a crazy idea after all. We had a blast (but more on that later). My second cent is the whole Harmony Alley Carjackers thing. Remember how I originally thought that you scrambled the letters of our names by yourself and I chocked you up as some kind of genius? But then you told me you used a web program to do it. Not that you’re not a genius, of course.

Future Friday #6: Winner

2011-10-01T00:15:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Jasmine for being randomly selected to win the sixth round of Future Friday giveaways! To claim your goodies, send your mailing address to EmmaNelson4Ever@aol.com. If you don't know who Emma Nelson is, you will when you start reading The Future of Us!

If she could re-experience any birthday, Jasmine would go back to her 13th. That year, she got an electric guitar and her parents took her to Radio City Music Hall to see Alicia Keyes and John Legend as a surprise.

And now, for my birthday, you won this contest. Surprise!!!

See ya next Friday for another chance to win an Advanced Reader's Copy of The Future of Us!

Future Friday #6: Birthday

2011-09-30T00:01:00.000-07:00

To countdown the release of The Future of Us (November 21st!), Carolyn Mackler and I will give away one autographed Advance Reader’s Copy every week. Along with the autographed copy (signed by both of us), we’ll toss in another goodie that's book-related.

For our sixth giveaway, the bonus item is Tuck Everlasting. Not only is Ms. Babbitt's novel one of our favorites, it even gets mentioned within our own novel.

We'll randomly select one person who comments on this Future Friday post to receive both prizes. There’s no need to leave your email address, but do check back on Saturday to see if you’ve won.

This week, because today is my 36th birthday (Oh, thank you!), we want to know which birthday you'd like to re-experience or pre-experience (yes, pre-experience). If you had a memorable birthday in the past and want another go at it, let us know how old you were and why you want go back. If you're curious about a birthday in the future, let us know how old you'll be and what you hope to learn.

Here are our answers:

CAROLYN: I would time-travel back to my 16th birthday. And not because it was perfect. No, it was anything but. On my 16th birthday, I was in the Bahamas with my dear friend and her mom. Her family had a time-share condo that we were staying in for the week. The night before my birthday, we went out to dinner and I ate something completely non-memorable. But when I woke up in the morning - the morning I turned 16 - I was puking. I puked and puked and puked for my entire 16th birthday. When I wasn't puking I was laying in a dark room with a cool washcloth on my head. At some point, my friend's mom brought out a chocolate cake and maybe put candles in it, but I couldn't even look at it. And that was that. I went to bed for the night. Basically I want to go back to the night before my 16th birthday and not eat that meal and not get food poisoning and then have, yes, my non-puking sweet sixteen.

JAY: I'd love to look fourteen years into the future. I assume my 50th b-day bash will be a biggie, so it'd be nice to see who shows up for the party...and see if I recognize them. (But if someone isn't there, what does that mean?) I'd also like to get a sense of what's going on career-wise at 50. Unfortunately, having spent so much time discussing the issue of future-peeking with Carolyn to write our book, I know the repercussions can totally backfire. But I still want to know!

October Tour Dates

2011-09-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

During the 2011 Teen Read Week, I'll be speaking and signing books across the country, flying to six different states. If you live anywhere near one of my stops, I would love to meet you!Location and time specifics are posted at the Thirteen Reasons Why Facebook page, so be sure to Like it to receive all updates. And you can always learn about my upcoming events by clicking the Speaking Schedule tab near the top of my blog.

(If one of you can see an image in the constellation above and give it a good name, I'll use that as the nickname for this tour and send you a signed paperback of Thirteen Reasons Why.)

On Your Mark, Get Set...

2011-09-26T09:31:00.000-07:00

Isaiah's 9.5 months old today. Last night he took three steps toward a footstool, which made me about the proudest I've ever been of anyone (after the whole JoanMarie-giving-birth thing).

But then I grabbed the camera and he suddenly felt the pressure because he knew you'd all be watching.

So for now, there's this...

Future Friday #5: Winner

2011-09-24T00:30:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Kendall Johnson for being randomly selected to win the fifth round of Future Friday giveaways! To claim your goodies, send your mailing address to EmmaNelson4Ever@aol.com. If you don't know who Emma Nelson is, you will when you start reading The Future of Us!

In this contest, the most frequently mentioned favorite show from 1996 was Boy Meets World. But Kendall's favorite shows, as seen in reruns, have two of the most memorable theme songs of the decade. (Cool Fact: both of these shows are mentioned in our book!)

See ya next Friday for another chance to win an Advanced Reader's Copy of The Future of Us!

Future Friday #5: TV

2011-09-23T10:50:00.000-07:00

To countdown the release of The Future of Us (November 21st!), Carolyn Mackler and I will give away one autographed Advance Reader’s Copy every week. Along with the autographed copy (signed by both of us), we’ll toss in another goodie that's book-related.

For our fifth giveaway, the bonus item is Archie #624 ("Geek Face-off!" Dilton vs. Mark Zuckerberg!). Can I assume you know our book's Zuckerberg/Facebook connection? Well, there's an Archie connection, too!

We'll randomly select one person who comments on this Future Friday post to receive both prizes. There’s no need to leave your email address, but do check back on Saturday to see if you’ve won.

This week, we want to know your favorite TV show that originally aired in 1996. If you were old enough to watch TV back then, what show did you never miss? If you were too young in the mid-90s, what show would you watch if you stumbled upon a rerun today? Here's a sample prime-time TV schedule for the 1995-96 season. The sample doesn't include cable, so if your favorite show aired on cable in 1996, we still want to know!

Here are our answers:

JAY:
I'm not embarrassed to admit my answer. I'm not! (So why am I defending it before I even tell you what it is?) I never missed an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210. I made fun of my friends in high school for watching it, but when they're all watching, I had to watch just to join their conversations. Within a couple episodes, I was hooked! Brandon, Brenda, and the crew were in the Class of 93 just like me. But while Steve drove a Corvette, I drove a Camaro. And I stayed a faithful viewer through their (and my) college years. Not ashamed!

CAROLYN:
1996 was a nomadic year for me. It was the year after college and I lived in a few different cities, couch-surfing much of the time. I didn't have a TV that year. If I was fortunate to crash a home with a TV I'd watch Seinfeld and Friends. It felt like such a treat!

Contests Goin' On!

2011-09-21T15:50:00.000-07:00

Attention teens, teachers, and librarians!

Here's a quick reminder about a couple of awesome contests still going on:

Picture It @ your library
sponsored by: Young Adult Library Services Association (Teen Read Week)
object of contest: create a visual version of your favorite book's title
grand prize: e-reader pre-loaded with great teen titles
for more info: click here
to see my sample entry: click here

STAND UP instead of standing by!
sponsored by: Booksourse
object of contest: choose a character from select books and respond to either the victim or the bully in a poem, a song, or an essay
grand prize: a school or library visit from...me!
for more info: click here

And now for some quick links to other things you may be interested in and not yet know about:

Thirteen Reasons Why Project
My Facebook fan page
Thirteen Reasons Why Facebook fan page
The Future of Us Facebook fan page

You Say Aloha & I Say Aloha

2011-09-19T20:45:00.000-07:00

JoanMarie, Isaiah, and I recently returned from a place where it's not too difficult to find Spam-flavored macadamia nuts.

Unless you know of another Spam obsessed location, I'm obviously talking about Hawaii! It was the first time there for all three of us. Here's the airplane view of our first stop: Maui.

The five-hour flight from California required distracting Isaiah with lots of toys and plenty of walks down the aisle. Every couple of rows, someone would stick out their hand to tickle his belly and tell him how adorable he is, which made him ask for more and more walks.

The place we stayed had several pools very close to the beach. Something I found interesting were the reading preferences of the people relaxing at both bodies of water. About 80% of the pool crowd preferred ereaders. 100% of the beach crowd preferred books.

While I didn't get much reading done in Hawaii, I did spend much more time in water than I usually do. The ocean water felt nearly as perfect tempurature-wise as the pool water.

The reason we were in Hawaii, the country's 50th state and birthplace of President Obama (oh, please don't start that again), was for the beachside wedding of our good friends, Aaron and Mindy.

Also in attendance, Mindy's brother, Tyson. He loosely inspired one of my favorite characters in the much-anticipated upcoming novel, The Future of Us by What's-his-name and What's-her-name. The character he inspired, in case you've already read the book, is...um...oh, right...Tyson!

After the wedding, we went to a very fun luau.

The food was amazing and the dancing coconuts were stunning.

At the end of our trip to Maui, we took a short hike to Twin Falls. The water here was a little bit colder, and since I'm a water weenie, I held Isaiah while JoanMarie went for a swim out to the falling water. (No, that's not her topless behind me. That's a dude.)

Then we went to the airport and island-hopped over to Kona on the big island to visit some family. Here's my Aunt Ikumi, Uncle Kevin, and cousins Tai and Tomi.

Aunt Ikumi handmade JoanMarie and I a couple of absolutely beautiful leis, which we had to take off when Isaiah mistook them for teething-necklaces.

Uncle Kevin gave me my very first guitar when I was younger, a Fender Stratocaster, and his home is full of guitars and drums. My li'l drummer boy loved it!

When we went out to dinner, Isaiah could be occupied (for a little while) by handing him his latest favorite book, Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes.

We spent several hours at a little cove, either snorkeling or relaxing in the shade of trees. We don't have many trees on our California beaches. And the water here was even warmer than on Maui.

Isaiah even took his first boogie board lesson.

Fully adjusted to the new time zone, on our way back home, Isaiah was still full of energy late at night during our layover in San Francisco.

Aloha!

Future Friday #4: Winner

2011-09-17T00:10:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Emily for being randomly selected to win the fourth round of Future Friday giveaways! To claim your goodies, send your mailing address to EmmaNelson4Ever@aol.com. If you don't know who Emma Nelson is, you will when you start reading The Future of Us!

In 15 years, Emily would like to see "bicycles as plentiful as cars in the cities and green roofs on every house or building." She also wants her books to get great reviews.

We'd like to see those things come true, too!

See ya next Friday for another chance to win an Advanced Reader's Copy of The Future of Us!

Future Friday #4: Issues

2011-09-16T03:30:00.000-07:00

To countdown the release of The Future of Us (November 21st!), Carolyn Mackler and I will give away one autographed Advance Reader’s Copy every week. Along with the autographed copy (signed by both of us), we’ll toss in another goodie that's book-related.

For our fourth giveaway, the bonus item is a DVD of The Social Network. Whereas the movie was about the founding of Facebook, our novel is about the Facebook of today, as viewed by teens before it was founded. (Confused? You won't be when you read the book!)

We'll randomly select one person who comments on this Future Friday post to receive both prizes. There’s no need to leave your email address, but do check back on Saturday to see if you’ve won.

This week, we're not asking you about the past, we want you to think about the future. At one point in The Future of Us, a character says she wouldn't want to see into the future because it might be depressing if certain things haven't changed. But let's be positive! If you could see fifteen years into the future, what issues do you hope won't be issues anymore?

Here are our answers:

CAROLYN: I'd love to see global warming being addressed more thoroughly, and a less polarized government. I'd like to see the threat of terrorism gone, and for gay marriage to be just as accepted as straight marriage. I'd like bullying to be eradicated, and the economy to be hopping and people to stop texting during conversations and - yes, I have to say it! - I'd love the real story on Brad and Angelina and that brood of kids. Who is raising them? And how do they always look so good after getting off a 10-hour flight?

JAY: In my fantasy future, the commitment to pursuing cleaner forms of energy is not an issue. We're doing it! People are healthier, the environment is safer, and we've created a ton of new jobs. I've gotta say, it's pretty nice.

A Publishers Weekly Starred Review!

2011-09-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

Carolyn Mackler and I had a very fun phone conversation the other day. I hadn't checked my email in a while, so she broke the news of our first major review by reading it to me. At the conclusion of Carolyn's wonderful read-aloud from Publishers Weekly, we both finally admitted how nervously we'd been anticipating this moment.

And for the rest of the day, we kept sending each other electronic high-fives!

(Starred Review) The Future of Us
Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler. Razorbill, $18.99 (368p) ISBN 978-1-59514-491-1

With collaborators like these, readers expect an ingenious hook, compelling characters, and thought-provoking content, and these two top-of-their-game authors don't disappoint. It's 1996, and high school junior Emma and her neighbor Josh are BFFs until an awkward, romantic moment creates tension. Then Emma gets a new computer and an AOL CD-ROM, which somehow allow her to access her future Facebook page when she goes online. She and Josh are able to read about what their lives will be like in 15 years, but what's more, they discover that they can affect those future lives by their thoughts and actions in the present, a sobering realization with far-reaching consequences for the teenagers. Asher and Mackler's concept is fascinating--how closely today is tied to tomorrow--and the alternating voices of the two main characters keep each chapter fresh and provide distinct perspectives on the events of the story. Though readers will not necessarily be surprised by how things turn out, the enjoyment--and the underlying message--is in simply allowing the journey to unfold. Ages 12-up. (Nov.)

Future Friday #3: Winner

2011-09-10T01:01:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Small Town Shelly Brown for being randomly selected to win the third round of Future Friday giveaways! To claim your goodies, send your mailing address to EmmaNelson4Ever@aol.com. If you don't know who Emma Nelson is, you will when you start reading The Future of Us!

Ms. Small Town's personal faves published in 1996 were Junie B. Jones Loves Handsome Warren and Junie B. Jones and That Meanie Jim's Birthday. And because she's a great older sister, she also enjoyed reading Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse to her little sister.

See ya next Friday for another chance to win an Advanced Reader's Copy of The Future of Us!

Future Friday #3: Books

2011-09-09T00:01:00.000-07:00

To countdown the release of The Future of Us (November 21st!), Carolyn Mackler and I will give away one autographed Advance Reader’s Copy every week. Along with the autographed copy (signed by both of us), we’ll toss in another goodie that's book-related.

For our third giveaway, the bonus item is a two-pack of disposable cameras. How are disposable cameras related to the book? I guess you'll have to read it to find out!

We'll randomly select one person who comments on this Future Friday post to receive both prizes. There’s no need to leave your email address, but do check back on Saturday to see if you’ve won.

This week, we want to know your favorite books that came out in 1996. Don't tell us the books you want to read because it'll spoil a future Future Friday. Tell us about the books (up to three) that you did read. If for some odd reason you don't remember which books came out in 1996, here's a good reminder.

And here are our answers:

JAY:
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. I read this at a time when I was uncertain of what I wanted to do with my life. After finishing the book, I still had no idea, but I knew I didn't want to hitchhike to Alaska and live off the land (even if Eddie Vedder would compose the soundtrack of my life).
Frindle by Andrew Clements. Such a basic idea taken to extremes. At the time, I was trying to write manuscripts for this age group, and this book made me very jealous.

CAROLYN:
Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding because I was single and living in a city and feeling like a big screw-up half the time. I totally identified with Bridget!
Loose Change by Sara Davidson. This didn't come out until 1997, but I was working as an intern at a magazine in the summer of 1996 and the advance copy came in the mail. It's about three young women in the 1960s - couldn't put it down.

Fall 2011 Children's Books

2011-09-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

The Fall 2011 Children’s Books issue of Publishers Weekly is out! Based on the very brief descriptions given for each title, here are some upcoming (or recently released) mid-grade and teen novels that made me say, “Hmm... Interesting.”

A Beautiful Dark by Jocelyn Davies. Two angels vie for the heart of a girl who may hold the power to save – or destroy – the universe. [Full Disclosure: Jocelyn Davies edited The Future of Us. But even if she didn't, I’d still want to read this!]

Blood Wounds by Susan Beth Pfeffer. A teen is haunted by murders committed by her estranged father.

Brooklyn Burning by Steve Brezenoff. In this love story, the genders of the two main characters are never revealed.

Burnout by Adrienne Maria Vrettos. Nan suspects she’s a ghost after waking up the day after Halloween in a subway car with no idea how she got there.

Cold Kiss by Amy Garvey. A teen raises her boyfriend from the dead, only to discover that he’s nothing like the boy she loved.

Don’t Expect Magic by Kathy McCullough. Delaney learns that her father is a fairy godmother and the gene is hereditary.

Faking Faith by Josie Bloss centers on a girl who fakes her religion to get to the boy she has a crush on.

Falling for Henry by Beverley Brenna. A teen is transported back to the days of Henry VIII’s teenage years, where she inhabits the body of Katherine of Aragon.

The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler. In 1996, two teens who go online find themselves on Facebook in 2011. [Full Disclosure: I am Jay Asher.]

Gossip Girl, Psycho Killer by Cecily von Ziegesar is a slasher-themed retelling of the first Gossip Girl novel.

Guantanamo Boy by Anna Perera imagines 15-year-old Khalid, a boy who is being held without charge at Guantanamo Bay.

Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay. In this paranormal tale, Romeo and Juliet meet again – as enemies.

The Last Musketeer by Stuart Gibbs launches a series featuring a 21st-century American boy who travels to 17th-century France, where he becomes one of the Three Musketeers.

Little Women and Me by Lauren Baratz-Logsted. A twist in time gives Emily the power to change Little Women.

Morning Star by Judith Plaxton tells of a runaway slave escaping to freedom and a contemporary girl in a town that was a terminus for the Underground Railroad.

The Probability of Miracles by Wendy Wunder. Campbell learns to believe in herself when she moves to a town known for its mystical healing powers.

The Shattering by Karen Healey. Can three teens save the next victim of a serial killer in their town?

Slayers by C.J. Hill. When dragon eggs fall into the wrong hands, the Slayers must keep them from hatching.

Sparks: The Epic, Completely True Blue, (Almost) Holy Quest of Debbie by S.J. Adams. Two teen outcasts at school create their own religion.

Unforgettable by Loretta Ellsworth centers on a boy who is unable to forget anything.

Unison Spark by Andy Marino involves an all-knowing social network.

Villain School: Good Curses Evil by Stephanie S. Sanders. Kids whose parents are famous villains just want to be good.

You Have Seven Messages by Stewart Lewis. Luna listens to messages on her mother’s phone and begins to question her death.

You Will Call Me Drog by Sue Cowing. A boy gets a sarcastic talking puppet stuck on his hand.

Future Friday #2: Winner

2011-09-03T00:25:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Lori M. Lee for being randomly selected to win the second round of Future Friday giveaways! To claim your goodies, send your mailing address to EmmaNelson4Ever@aol.com. If you don't know who Emma Nelson is, you will when you start reading The Future of Us!

Lori, we truly hope your internet experiences have improved beyond the "AOL and the HORRIBLE HORRIBLE chatrooms" days.

See ya next Friday for another chance to win an Advanced Reader's Copy of The Future of Us!

Future Friday #2: First Time Online

2011-09-02T00:01:00.000-07:00

To countdown the release of The Future of Us (November 21st!), Carolyn Mackler and I will give away one autographed Advance Reader’s Copy every week. Along with the autographed copy (signed by both of us), we’ll toss in another goodie that's book-related.

For our second giveaway, the bonus item is the June 2011 issue of MAD Magazine, featuring "The 50 Worst Things About Facebook". (#12: The charming way your boyfriend changed his status from "in a relationship" to "single" a full three hours before calling to inform you of this development.)

We'll randomly select one person who comments on this Future Friday post to receive both prizes. There’s no need to leave your email address, but do check back on Saturday to see if you’ve won.

This week, we want to know about your first online experience. When was it? What did you search for? If you can't recall those details (maybe it was too long ago, or maybe you grew up with the internet so it didn't feel significant), then we'd love to know your first favorite website.

Here are our answers:

CAROLYN: It was 1997, and I was at the public library in Ithaca, NY. My then-boyfriend's identical twin brother took me there to teach me about this thing called the Internet and how to use it. I was just attempting to write my first YA novel, so the first thing I searched for was, naturally, Judy Blume. I was amazed to discover she had a great site (still does!) with a wealth of information. I was sold. This Internet thing was amazing.

JAY: It was 1996 (oddly enough), and I was in the library at my community college. I was embarrassed that I had never been online and didn't want anyone watching me fumble around, so I sat at the most isolated computer. The first search I did was for Def Leppard, my favorite band. Pre-Google, I don't remember if I found their official site (here it is now!), but I did find an abundance of fansites. My people!

Isaiah in His Crib

2011-08-31T10:50:00.000-07:00

Babies are cute no matter what they do. Whether they're burping...

...attempting to walk...

...or eating a camera...

...they're just so cute!

(Especially mine.)

Storytime and Movietime

2011-08-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

Last week was one of the most significant weeks of my life because...

I took Isaiah to his very first storytime!

I remember attending storytime at the library when I was young, and it felt wonderful to continue the tradition. Kristen Barnhart (children's librarian / friend / former co-worker) led the storytime, and I can't wait to go back later this week. Hopefully Isaiah will come with me!

In the photo below, Isaiah's staring at an older boy who was holding several books. And for some reason, the boy wasn't trying to eat them. Weird!

Even though he was one of the youngest children there, Isaiah watched and listened so intently. Unlike some of the other children, he never once interrupted Kristen while she was reading. No, he has way too much respect for books and librarians to do that. Of course, he also doesn't know how to speak yet.

Because Isaiah behaved so well in the library, a few days later we took him to an outdoor movie. Over three Saturdays this month, the Parks & Rec department showed children's movies in an amphitheather across from the mission. When Over the Hedge came out in 2006, JoanMarie and I went on a date-night to see it with some friends. We both loved it!

On family-night, we loved it even more.

Future Friday #1: Winner

2011-08-27T00:25:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Bwyatt (a.k.a. Britney Wyatt) for being randomly selected to win the first round of Future Friday giveaways! To claim your goodies, send your mailing address to EmmaNelson4Ever@aol.com. If you don't know who Emma Nelson is, you will when you start reading The Future of Us!

Britney's favorite movie from 1996, also the favorite of three other participants, is...

The movie most often mentioned as a favorite by Future Friday participants was...

See ya next Friday for another chance to win an Advanced Reader's Copy of The Future of Us!

Future Friday #1: Movies

2011-08-26T00:01:00.000-07:00

May the Fold be with You

2011-08-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

As a child, I loved Star Wars. I also loved origami, though I couldn’t do it well (I still can’t even fold a decent paper airplane). So when I first heard about Tom Angleberger’s The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, I was intrigued.

Tom and I exchanged a few emails, I read his book, and not only is he a great guy, he’s an author who makes me a bit jealous. I spent so many years trying to write funny books for children, but when I devour a book like his, I realize why none of mine sold. (I do study those books, because maybe one day…)

Then I heard Tom was working on another Origami Yoda book, Darth Paper Strikes Back. “Cool,” I thought. “I hope he writes even more.” One day, a funny idea popped into my head. I sent Tom an email, partly as a joke, thinking maybe he could use the idea if he ever wanted to write another Origami Yoda book after Darth Paper.

Here's where it gets fun! This week, Darth Paper Strikes Back is finally available for you to buy. Like, right now!

Why are you still reading this blog? Go…get…Tom’s…book!

Okay, now flip to the Acknowledgments page and you’ll see:

Do you have any idea how cool and exciting that is for me? No, you don’t. It is very cool and exciting for me. Very, very, VERY cool and exciting!

In fact, it has inspired me to try folding my own Darth Paper (the book includes instructions right before the amazing Acknowledgments page). Paper cuts, here I come!

3 Months Until THE FUTURE OF US

2011-08-21T02:00:00.000-07:00

On November 21st, The Future of Us will be released into the wild!

Since Carolyn Mackler and I can’t wait for you to read our book, we’ll be giving away one Advance Reader’s Copy each week until the release date. All you need to do is return to this blog every Friday and leave a comment for your chance to win. And if you do win, we hope you don’t mind if we both sign the book before mailing it to you.

Because we love alliteration (doesn’t everyone?), we’re calling these giveaways Future Fridays. The first one will take place this week.

So come back soon!

SCBWI 2011

2011-08-12T21:20:00.000-07:00

The annual Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators summer conference has been over for several days, and I've finally recovered enough to post about it. This year's conference ties with my first conference in 2000 for memorable moments. So let's begin!

Over 1,300 people attended this conference, and here's a portion of them as seen from the stage.

When I introduced myself into the microphone, I told the attendees who pre-ordered one of these delicious donuts from me where they could get them. The first one was scooped up by Dan Santat, seen here nervously inspecting his bacon donut. Within seconds of this photo, that baby was gone!

I critiqued ten manuscripts at the conference, sitting down with each author for twenty minutes. While I love speaking at conferences, doing critiques is almost as enjoyable...which, apparently, makes me very weird (something I've never denied!).

Because I critiqued manuscripts, I was officially a faculty member. So I got to do something else I love...signing books! For some reason, there are a lot of great authors with last names beginning with A. Every time we sign books according to last names, I get to sit beside some of my favorite people. This time, I shared a table with Jim Averbeck.

Like most years, I had several books with me that I wanted other people to sign. Unlike previous years, most of them were signed for Isaiah. The one I meant to get signed a few months ago while visiting the illustrator's hometown is The Lord's Prayer. It's a beautiful picture book illustrated by Richard Jesse Watson, and written by...well...God. (Authors don't usually get to handpick their illustrators, and while I never asked Richard about it, it's obvious that was the case this time.)

Celebrating their 40th anniversary, SCBWI definitely brought out the biggies for this conference. Here's Mary Pope Osborne (Isaiah now owns a couple books signed by her)...

...and Gary Paulsen. This guy can probably get away with calling himself The Most Interesting and Funny Dude On the Planet.

Being in Los Angeles, there were movie people everywhere. But there was only one movie person I was excited to meet, Alison Greenspan from Di Novi Pictures (the producer of one of the two movies I'm most excited about seeing on the big screen...The Future of Us).

We went to an amazing restaurant called Rock Sugar and I heard all about what's going on with "the next great Facebook movie." And yes, it does sound like it's going to be great! That night I emailed Carolyn Mackler all the details. I was still so excited over what I heard, I don't think I used paragraph breaks in that email, I just typed as fast as my brain let me.

Being the 40th anniversary, the theme for this year's afterhours party was 40 Winks, so people dressed in all sorts of pajamas and sleep-related attire. My sister-in-agent, Shannon Messenger, had a t-shirt made up for the occasion. On the front it read "My agent can beat up your agent..." And on the back...

For my costume, I dressed in Ralphie's least favorite pjs from A Christmas Story. Not everyone knew why I was dressed like this, but the cool people did! One of those very cool people was Stephanie Roth Sisson, a local illustrator and good friend.

Someone who's felt like a friend for years, though this was the first time we've met in person, was Alan Silberberg. Alan was the well-deserved recipient of this year's Sid Fleishman Humor Award.

At the faculty afterparty, I finally had the chance to speak one-on-one with one of my (and probably your) literary heroes. My friend Jolie Stekly saw this conversation occurring and decided to take a paparazzi-style photo.

So who was I eating peach cobbler with? Oh, just someone named Judy Blume.

Book Title Photo CONTEST!!!

2011-08-11T05:00:00.000-07:00

Click.

Take a picture and you could win an e-reader pre-loaded with some of the best teen novels!

The theme for this year’s TRW (Teen Read Week, not Thirteen Reasons Why) is Picture It @ your library. As part of the celebration, YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) wants to see your interpretation of a teen book title. Not your favorite character or scene. Not an abstract thematic analysis no one can figure out. The title! You can be serious or silly, but you must use creativity and you’re required to have fun.

More info on the contest can be found by clicking here. And the entry form can be found by clicking here.

Five finalists will win bookbags stuffed with teen novels from Penguin, including signed copies of Thirteen Reasons Why and The Future of Us. (You’ll also win a bit of fame and glory.) One grand prize winner will get that e-reader! (You’ll also win a little more fame and glory than the finalists.) As the 2011 TRW spokesmodel...I mean, spokesperson...I'll be judging the contest. You have from now until the end of October to enter, so click away!

I'm not eligible (that whole judge-n-jury thing...plus, I'm just over the age limit), but if I did enter, this would be my submission:

Any guesses?

Drive-In Movie & Selena Gomez Concert

2011-07-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

Every summer, JoanMarie and I get to have our niece and nephew stay with us for a week. It rains a lot where they live, so we pack the week with activities designed to ensure they'll want to return to The Golden State year after year. We always take a trip to the waterslides and camp for a few days, but we also like to mix things up. This year, Isaiah was a big addition to the mix. Seeing him play with his cousins has been so much fun!

On their first night in town, we saw Zoo Keeper at Sunset Drive-In.

I don't know who came to the movie in a limo, but that's not a bad idea for next year!

Not to brag, but I think I'm a fairly cool uncle. Still, it's nice to impress my niece and nephew every so often. For that reason, it would've been awesome had they been in the snackbar when three readers who love Thirteen Reasons Why recognized me. Thankfully, Hannah Lee, Cassie Roach, and Kristina Roach wanted a photo. So I had proof!

Then came Day Two. We all went to the MidState Fair, where it's scorching hot every year. Isaiah even learned to use a straw for the first time to keep cool.

Why did we brave the heat? Because that night's main grandstand performer was Selena Gomez & The Scene. And this time, before the show began, Fairly Cool Uncle Jay showed off a bit and introduced Genevieve and Ellory to Ms. Gomez!

I've seen Selena several times, and JoanMarie met her last summer, but this was Isaiah's first time meeting her.

When people find out I know Selena (in case you're new here, she's playing Hannah in the Thirteen Reasons Why movie), the most common question I get asked is whether she's as sweet as she seems. And yes, she is. Her whole family is! When we found out JoanMarie was pregnant, the first bouquet of flowers we received was from them. So it was nice to finally introduce her family to the newest member of our family.

We brought even more family and friends backstage with us to meet Selena. My brother pulled out his camera and recorded Selena and me discussing Thirteen Reasons Why. Thankfully, the audio's not great, which is probably good. Universal Pictures would've been so upset because we accidentally slipped and revealed the actor who'll be playing Clay, which we're not allowed to talk about yet. So try not to listen too closely.

Just kidding! That's not the kind of info we'd divulge, not even accidentally.

Before we headed out to our seats, Ellory asked Selena for her autograph. And he wanted it in a place where everyone sitting around us would know he'd just met her.

The concert was packed, which always makes for a more enjoyable (and loud!) show.

My camera took horrible pictures of the concert itself. The clearest shot I got was of a big screen to the right of the stage. (For better pics, check our local newspaper's gallery.)

My favorite song on Selena's new CD is We Own the Night.

They also played her huge recent hit, Who Says.

And now, we're heading into the second half of the week. First up: waterslides!

Movie Talk

2011-07-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I drove down to L.A., braving what had been termed Carmageddon. A 10-mile stretch of the busiest highway in the U.S. was being temporarily closed. There were signs up and down California warning drivers to stay away from L.A. (I suppose Carmageddon is much less offensive than Stay Away From L.A.) Because so many people were afraid of the potential traffic nightmare, it turns out there wasn't one. So my drive was rather pleasent.

But even if I knew the traffic would be horrendous, I would've made the trip. I was going out to breakfast with Jennifer O'Kieffe, the screenwriter for Thirteen Reasons Why.

The first time I met Jen, she was interviewing for this screenwriting job. A bunch of us were sitting around a large table in a fancy L.A. office. Selena Gomez was seated to my left, and Jen was on my right, telling us her ideas for adapting the book.

And now she's in the middle of writing that adaptation. Our breakfast was basically a low-key opportunity for us to chat and get to know each other better. We talked about our families, movies, books, and our shared excitement for this particular project.

After breakfast, since we were so close to the park that inspired some scenes in Thirteen Reasons Why, I took Jen to Eisenhower Memorial Park. (No, I wasn't very creative in renaming that park in my book.)

There, we talked a bit about some specific scenes in the screenplay. Mostly, it was me saying things like, "That's genius," and, "I am seriously getting goosebumps now." It's odd to think that my book gave Jen goosebumps when she first read it, and now that she's in charge of Hannah and Clay, her ideas are giving me goosebumps.

Of course, that's why we wanted her!

And when the movie comes out, I thought of something that'd be fun to see at the very beginning. Have you noticed that some studios tweak their logos for certain movies? I love it when they do that!

So here's my idea...

Cool, right?

THE FUTURE OF US Cover Reveal

2011-07-06T09:15:00.000-07:00

In May, Carolyn Mackler and I were shown several cover proposals for The Future of Us. It was fun to see the different interpretations different designers had for this book. But one cover immediately stood out as the favorite for everyone involved. With the binary code overlay, the coloring, the font, and character-specific details, we love it!

Thank you, Emily Osborne, for a great cover!

A Very Yummy Book

2011-07-03T14:00:00.000-07:00

When Carolyn Mackler and I first began writing The Future of Us, not even our agents knew about it. We didn't tell anyone until we were certain the collaboration was going to work. When we finished writing the book and began editing it, we still told very few people. It was our fun little secret! But since I live in California and Carolyn lives in New York (and since I focus best at night), I often pulled all-nighters to get my chunk o' writing emailed to Carolyn before she woke up. Sometimes I would work until 3:30 in the morning, send it off, and then Carolyn would wake up and begin working on it within 30 minutes, just as I went to bed.

When I write that late at night (or early in the morning), I can't work at home or I'll fall asleep. The only places still open at those hours, though, were either Denny's or SLO Donut Company. That donut shop has some very creative and yummy donuts, and I often posted photos of them to my Facebook page moments before devouring them. Not being able to talk about what I was working on, most of my friends thought I simply got unhealthy cravings in the middle of the night.

Well, now you know the truth. I was working! (And I was using the excuse of working to satisfy my unhealthy middle-of-the-night cravings.)

For those of you not on Facebook, here's a sampling of what got me through writing and editing this book:

Oreo donuts, Cap'n Crunch donuts (with Crunch Berries)...

...s'mores donuts...

...Cocoa Puffs donuts...

...jelly donuts...

...Fruity Pebbles donuts...

...peanutbutter donuts...

Lucky Charms donuts (usually with many more marshmallows than this)...

and one bacon donut (could never bring myself to sample more than one of these).

And after downing all those donuts, that is when I found out Entertainment Weekly wanted to do a photoshoot.

Of course!

But the book is all done now and the donuts have become a rarity again. And now, finally, Carolyn and I can talk about it!

The Russian Edition!

2011-07-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

ALA 2011

2011-06-28T02:35:00.000-07:00

I've wanted to visit New Orleans ever since I tried fried green tomatoes at my local cajun restaurant. When I found out I'd be attending the American Library Association's 2011 convention, which happened to be in The Big Easy, my stomach growled its approval. While I did indulge my tastebuds (many, many times), I was there to work. So here's a rundown of the highlights:

After arriving at the New Orleans airport, I got at the end of a huge line to grab a taxi. Finally third from the front, I noticed someone exit the baggage claim area and look at the taxi line with probably the same exhausted look I gave it. But this wasn't just any exhausted passenger. This was Sarah Dessen! Although I'd never met her in person, I recognized her from the cover of this month's Writer's Digest magazine. Since she's also a Penguin author, I assumed we were heading to the same place. She began walking toward the back of the ever-growing line, and after asking the guy behind me to hold my place ("Dude, I don't even know you"), I ran after Sarah. It was a scene right out of a very cheesy 80s movie. Guy runs through airport after girl, shouting "Sarah! Wait, Saraaaaaah!"

The entire ride to the hotel, I kept thinking, "I'm sharing a taxi with Sarah Dessen. And she seems so...normal. Doesn't she realize she's Sarah Dessen?"

Although I did get a couple of hours here and there to check out the city (a ghost tour, lots of eating, and trying to get people to throw beads at me), most of my time was spent at ALA-related events.

While Carolyn Mackler and I were there mostly to promote The Future of Us, we both had autograph times scheduled for our last books. When Carolyn signed Tangled, I just had to stop by. It's weird to think that less than a year-and-a-half ago, we hardly knew each other.

When Carolyn finished signing, David Levithan and Sarah Dessen came over and the four of us began chatting. After several minutes lost in our own conversation, we realized that we were being watched.

For the reverse view of the photo above, check out this post at Nori's Closet.

Between my signings and speaking engagements, I stumbled upon a few brilliant authors and added to my collection of books.

Tomie dePaola

Ruta Sepetys

Nikki Grimes

Random House held a party at a wax museum where they had someone reading tarot cards and another person drawing caricatures of attendees. Thanks to Phil Bildner (organizer of the recent author/illustrator It Gets Better video), I was able to attend this event and schmooze until way past my bedtime.

The next day, during lunch with Tom Angleberger, I got a sneak peek at the premise of the third Origami Yoda book. Trust me, you're gonna love it!

Penguin held a cocktail party that evening and each Penguin author sat or stood at a table, signing books for the librarians in attendance. One table was occupied by two authors who were making their first public appearance as collaborative writers. Don't they look happy?

Early the following morning (and, again, I'd stayed up way past my bedtime), around 40 YA authors met at a nearby hotel for the Coffee Klatch. It's basically speed-dating with authors. A table full of librarians gets to speak with one author (or two authors if they happened to write a book together), for five minutes. Then someone blew a whistle and the authors moved to the next table. This event was also my introduction as the spokesperson for this October's Teen Read Week. So before the rest of the authors came in and sat down, I gave a little speech about being selected as spokesmodel...I mean, spokesperson...and gave the rules for the Coffee Klatch. For example, when I read through the names of the 40 authors as the authors walked in, the librarians were supposed to hold their applause until the end. Somehow I forgot my own rule as I read Carolyn's name, and soon the entire room was applauding for her.

Tee-hee.

Carolyn and I had a lot of fun talking about our book in less than five minutes at a time.

At the end of the Klatch, the authors gathered for a group photo. Unfortunately, Carolyn and I had to skip out early in order to make our next signing. As we waited on the side of the street for a taxi, I was about to change from my "spokesperson shirt" into something funny for our signing. I'd bought a t-shirt with the Facebook logo printed on the front, but the syllables were reversed to say BOOKFACE. As I was about to pull off my shirt to do a quick change, Carolyn suggested that I turn around first. Standing on the sidewalk were two librarians about to snap my photo.

Since when did librarians become paparazzi?

When we finally got to the convention (I changed inside the taxi), our mouths dropped open. People had been waiting in line for over an hour to get signed copies of The Future of Us!

Then Carolyn and I did a video interview for BookPage, which I'll link to when they post it. That was followed by a pizza lunch with a room full of teens and librarians. We spoke for a half hour about writing our book, and then another half hour answering questions. Unfortunately, I forgot to grab my camera for that event.

Even more unfortunately, Carolyn then had to leave for the airport to fly home. It'll probably be another five months before we're in the same place again, around the time our book comes out. Until then, I'll be having contests on my blog so you can win signed advance copies of The Future of Us.

Before I also left for the airport, I did a bookstore signing with Maureen Johnson and Ingrid Law. By the end of that signing, I really started to feel the effects of missing my bedtime several nights in a row.

I was also really missing my family back in California. Thankfully, the night before I left home, I'd installed Skype onto JoanMarie's computer. This is from my very first night in New Orleans.

Books picked up at ALA (unsigned)
The Poisoned House by Michael Ford
Why We Broke Up written by Daniel Handler, art by Maira Kalman
David by Mary Hoffman
Guantanamo Boy by Anna Perera

Books picked up at ALA (signed)
The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger
Let the Whole Earth Sing by Tomie dePaola
A Girl Named Mister by Nikki Grimes
The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
The Girl's Guide to Homelessness by Brianna Karp
Tangled by Carolyn Mackler (have the hardcover signed...needed the paperback!)
The Qwikpick Adventure Society by Sam Riddleburger
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
The Space Between by Brenna Yovanoff

1 and 9

2011-06-24T00:25:00.000-07:00

I'm in New Orleans right now for the American Library Association's annual convention. The convention hasn't started yet, but I'm already starstruck by all the amazing authors I've been running into. I'll post a summary of ALA (with pics) when I get back, but I can't wait to tell you about a couple of very cool things I learned right before I got here.

On Wednesday afternoon, I received an extremely exciting phone call from my publisher. As you may know, Thirteen Reasons Why finally came out in paperback last week. Apparently a whole bunch of you ran out and bought it (and told your friends to buy it), because it debuted on the New York Times bestsellers list at...

NUMBER ONE!!!

Thank you all so much for continuing to feel like this is a story you want other people to know about.

After I calmed down from that news (just kidding...I haven't calmed at all!), I heard from a 24-year-old reader in Pennsylvania, Kerianne, who had this tattooed above her ankle.

It's the Stop, Rewind, and Play icons, to remind her that you can't change the past, you can only press Play. And the blue number 9 is a reminder of reason number nine. It's a reminder to not believe rumors, to have empathy, and to care for others.

Those are definitely great ideas to remember forever, which is a great thing because...it's a tattoo.

I love my readers!

It Gets Better and ALA

2011-06-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

Later this week, I'm heading to New Orleans for the American Library Association's huge annual conference. I'm a Cajun food nut, so I plan on spending a whole lot of my free time sampling fried green tomatoes, blackened chicken, cornbread, and beignets all over town.

Of course, I'm not going there just for the food (in case anyone associated with my publisher is reading). I'm also going on a ghost tour!

And I'm also going to meet a whole bunch of very cool librarians from around the country to talk about, and sign copies of, my books. In fact, that is what I'm most excited about. But before I list my signing schedule, I want to share a video with you.

A few weeks ago, Phil Bildner asked if I would contribute a short clip for a group author/illustrator video he was putting together. The It Gets Better Project is one of the most beautiful uses of the internet, providing desperately needed hope and understanding to so many teens and adults. I am honored to be included in this video.

If you're attending ALA, here are my two autographing times:

SATURDAY, JUNE 25
2:00-3:00pm
autographing Thirteen Reasons Why
booth #1150

SUNDAY, JUNE 26
10:00-11:00am
autographing The Future of Us with Carolyn Mackler
booth #1415/1416

If you're not a librarian, yet you happen to be in New Orleans, you can find me here:

SUNDAY, JUNE 26
3:00-3:30pm
autographing Thirteen Reasons Why
Octavia Books
with Ingrid Law & Maureen Johnson

Happy Half-Birthday

2011-06-18T01:10:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was Isaiah's 6-month birthday. We spent the day at the beach with family and friends, and are still scraping sand out of his cute-n-pudgy skinfolds.

The next day, JoanMarie and I took him on his first camping trip. Watching him contemplate his first campfire, sleep in a tent, and wake up to the sound of a nearby river made camping seem more magical than ever.

Then we took him to his first ghost town. Most ghost towns have a long and haunted history where the buildings are located. This ghost town is different. The old wooden buildings were brought in from all over in the middle of the last century, so any ghosts who came with them suddenly had new ghosty neighbors.

Our friends Mary and Peter Weber pulled some strings to get us into this private ghost town, and our families spent several hours playing Ghostbusters.

There were even haunted firetrucks.

Though it was Isaiah's half-birthday, JoanMarie and I were excited when a package was delivered for us. The diapers we ordered finally arrived!

Isaiah was just happy when we finally emptied the box.

But Isaiah's half-birthday is over now. It's time to make room for Father's Day!!!

EW!

2011-06-13T05:30:00.000-07:00

I read a lot of magazines and have 2 or 3 subscriptions at a time, but the one I've subscribed to the longest is Entertainment Weekly. I love that magazine! In my recent post about my family's trip to New York City, I mentioned an interview and photoshoot that I couldn't tell you about at the time.

Well, go out and buy the latest issue of EW!

My favorite magazine includes a feature article on Thirteen Reasons Why and me!

I found out EW wanted to interview me shortly before we left for New York. But I didn't know I'd be doing a photoshoot until after we landed. In a way, that was probably good because I would've stressed too much about what clothes to bring. Instead, I showed up with what I had. The hair and make-up artist said my hair looked fine. When I told her that's because I go to Supercuts, she gave me a high-five. She also loved my shoes, which I told her I got at Ross (Dress for Less), which earned me another high-five!

Two men moved around lights and all sorts of other fancy equipment, the photographer snapped hundreds of photos, and Radiohead blasted through the loft. Here are a few shots taken by my Penguin publicist, Elyse, on her phone:

The session started by taking some photos with a window-view of NYC over my shoulder.

Then they took some shots of me sitting on a desk in front of a chalkboard. At one point, I wrote "Everything affects everything" on the board.

Then I noticed a swing attached to the ceiling that had been pulled out of view. That seemed like an obvious prop, so they took a few photos of me sitting, standing, and swinging on that.

When I left the photoshoot and headed back to meet JoanMarie and Isaiah, only one thought played over and over in my mind. "Dude, I'm going to be in Entertainment Weekly!"

Thank you, Rob Brunner. You somehow boiled down two hours of my rambling into a great article, getting me to talk about aspects of writing I've never opened up about before. Thank you, John Huba. You and your crew were so much fun to talk to and laugh with, keeping me from feeling too nervous about...y'know...having my picture taken for my favorite magazine! And thank you, Elyse Marshall. You always handle everything related to Thirteen Reasons Why with so much care.

(If you've already read the magazine article, you know that Thirteen Reasons Why finally comes out in paperback this Tuesday - June 14. And if you didn't know, now you know! Along with a slightly altered and very cool cover, it includes an excerpt from this November's The Future of Us.)

An Evening With...

2011-06-10T00:01:00.000-07:00

Librarians allow authors to feel like rock stars. And since I used to want to be a rock star, Thursday let me live that dream a bit.

But I almost didn't make it to my own show!

Back in California, I was supposed to wake up at 5:45am to catch the first of three flights to get into Laredo, Texas the day before my event. My phone rang at 5:15am and I was told that one of my flights was cancelled. So the airline took the liberty of rebooking me to arrive the next day...90 minutes after the event started (and since I'm not an actual rock star, that just wasn't okay). I stayed on the phone until we figured out a plan to get me there on time. I arrived much later the night before my event than I planned, especially since I had a TV interview scheduled for 6:30am (or 4:30am California time).

(My voice isn't usually that deep, but that's what I sound like with three hours of sleep. And boy, I look so energetic!)

Few things make me happier than when communities use my book to start discussions on issues that are otherwise difficult to bring up. In preparation for my visit, not only did Laredo have a discussion about Thirteen Reasons Why, they also held an anti-bully & suicide awareness rally. Students who attended both events got that ticket above for a meet-n-greet right before my public presentation.

Then the chairs started filling and it was on with the show!

This was my last school or library visit for a few months, and things definitely ended on a high note. Thank you, Laredo. You rock!

Coming up next:
Behind-the-scenes photos from my Entertainment Weekly photoshoot. On stands now! (I've always wanted to say that.)

I've Got Mail

2011-06-07T17:30:00.000-07:00

I love going to my mailbox! Once a day, I get to slowly open the metal door and peek inside, filled with the hope that the Mail Carrier brought me something good. Unlike Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, the Mail Carrier visits me six days every week. On days that I've been bad, she stuffs my box with bills. But every Friday, whether I deserve it or not, she brings me Entertainment Weekly. And on days when I've been really good, she brings me something extra special.

Recently, the Mail Carrier delivered a shiny gold medallion because Thirteen Reasons Why won the Young Adult Book Award given by the South Carolina Association of School Librarians. I wasn't able to accept the award in person, but the librarians knew the Mail Carrier would deliver this beautiful award safely and soundly.

Also in the mail recently, SLO Life Magazine, which had interviewed me for their cover story (which you can read here). I'll admit, it's been fun to walk around town and have people recognize me and come up to chat. Because of one answer I gave in the interview, a guy at the gym admitted that he has Vanilla Ice on his iPod. Very few people will admit that!

Doesn't Isaiah look proud of his daddy?

Finally, last month I did a blog interview with Naomi Canale. In that interview, I use the first line from the first Peanuts comic strip as an answer. Later, on Facebook or Twitter or somewhere, I mentioned that I would love to have that strip on a t-shirt. Well, Ms. Canale remembered a photo I shared of Isaiah in a Charlie Brown onesie, and made me a shirt that included more than just that comic strip.

Don't I look like a very proud daddy?

(Just to let you know, yesterday and today, all I got were bills.)

You Didn't Forget!

2011-06-07T00:35:00.000-07:00

In my Don't Forget This Contest post, celebrating the release of Cat Patrick's Forgotten (which I blurbed!), I asked you to tell me two things you're always forgetting.

Using random.org to select a winner, a whole pack of goodies is going to someone who always forgets to knock on the door before she walks in, and forgets to take off her slippers when she goes to the car before school.

Congratulations
Jessica JM Richards!!!

To claim your prize, send your mailing address to EmmaNelson4Ever[at]aol.com (but use @ insteadl of [at]). In case you're wondering, that's not my email address, but the email address for one of the main characters in The Future of Us.

And Jessica, here are a couple of suggestions to help you with the things you keep forgetting:

you won't need to remember to knock as long as the people in the room hear you approaching, so wear these slippers around the house
if you wear those slippers, I'm fairly sure you'll remember to take them off before ou get to school

Coming up soon...more contests!!!

Don't Forget This Contest

2011-06-02T14:15:00.000-07:00

The official release date of Forgotten by Cat Patrick is June 7th, but it's already popping up around the country. I guess booksellers can't wait for you to read this story! A quote on the back cover says "Forgotten is a mind-bending experience that I devoured in one sitting. Cat Patrick's exciting and impressive debut still haunts me." Even though whoever said that (okay, it was me) probably wrote those words months ago, I bet the book still haunts him (it does).

Here's the premise of the book:

Every night, while sixteen-year-old London Lane is asleep, her memory of that day is erased. In the morning, all she can "remember" are events from her future. London is used to relying on reminder notes and a trusted friend to get through the day, but things get complicated when a new boy at school enters the picture. Luke Henry is not someone you'd easily forget, yet try as she might, London can't find him in her memories of things to come.

When London starts experiencing disturbing flashbacks, or flash-forwards, as the case may be, she realizes it's time to learn about the past she keeps forgetting—before it destroys her future.

To celebrate the release of Forgotten, I'm giving away a copy of Cat's book, along with:

an autographed paperback edition of Thirteen Reasons Why (which comes out June 20th, and includes an excerpt from The Future of Us)
a Ramona and Beezus display autographed by Selena Gomez (connections, baby!)
a c.d. of Crash by Dave Matthews Band (which is mentioned in The Future of Us)
an autographed c.d. of JoanMarie's In This World (JoanMarie is my wife and I play guitar on most of the songs...so again, connections!)
a Butterfinger bar and Mild Duds (because no movie is complete without Milk Duds...and the film rights to Forgotten have already sold to Paramount, with True Grit star Hailee Steinfeld set to play London!)

To enter, all you need to do is leave some info in the comments section of this post by midnight (PST) on Monday, June 6. Simply tell me your name and two things you always seem to forget. For example:

JAY ASHER
to check the oil level in my car
to take out the trash before I get into bed

After entering, check back on Tuesday to see if you've won. There's no need to leave your email because I'll tell you how to send me your mailing address when I announce the winner.

Good luck...and don't forget to check back!

(THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED)

Somewhat Cheesy

2011-06-01T14:45:00.000-07:00

Before The Future of Us is released, Carolyn Mackler and I plan to tell you a bit about how we wrote the book. It was definitely a fun and interesting experience! But in this post, I want to show you how we edited it.

One goal of editing is to make the story smoother and smoother. Of course, focusing so intensely on anything for so long will make you a little loopy!

(That's me on the right. Carolyn doesn't have facial hair.)

The Opposite of Sienna

2011-05-31T01:23:00.000-07:00

In my The Tension of Contests post, celebrating the paperback release of Kristina McBride's The Tension of Opposites (which I blurbed!), I asked you to tell me three things that desribed the opposite of who you are.

Using random.org to select a winner, a whole pack of goodies is going to someone who is not athletic, not a brilliant cook, and not male.

Congratulations Sienna!!!

To get your prize, send your mailing address to EmmaNelson4Ever[at]aol.com (but use @ insteadl of [at]). In case you're wondering, that's the email address for one of the main characters in The Future of Us.

And Sienna, here are a few links to get your started if you ever decide to take baby steps toward becoming your opposite:

Next week...another contest for another book I blurbed!

The Tension of Contests

2011-05-26T14:15:00.000-07:00

This week, the paperback edition of The Tension of Opposites by Kristina McBride was released. The quote on the cover calls it "Tense! The constant push and pull of friendship, pain, love, and jealousy is beautifully drawn. A definite must read." If I were you, I'd listen to the guy who said that (okay, it was me) because he only has your best interest in mind.

Here's the premise of the book:

It's been two years since Noelle disappeared. Two years since her bike was discovered, sprawled on a sidewalk. Two years of silence, of worry, of fear.

For those two long years, her best friend Tessa has waited, living her own life in a state of suspended animation. Because how can she allow herself to enjoy a normal high school life if Noelle can't? How dare she have other friends, go to dances, date boys, without knowing what happened to the girl she thought she would share everything with?

And then one day, someone calls Noelle's house. She's alive.

A haunting psychological thriller taken straight from the headlines, The Tension of Opposites is a striking debut that explores the emotional aftermath of a kidnapping on the victim, and on the people she left behind.

To celebrate the paperback release, I'm giving away a copy of Kristina's book, along with:

an autographed paperback edition of Thirteen Reasons Why (which doesn't come out until late June, and includes an excerpt from The Future of Us)
a Beezus and Ramona display autographed by Selena Gomez (I've got connections!)
a c.d. of Green Day's Dookie (which is mentioned in The Future of Us)
an autographed c.d. of JoanMarie's In This World (JoanMarie is my wife and I play guitar on most of the songs...so again, I've got connections!)
cherry Pop-Tarts and a Skor candy bar (cuz they're delicious)

To enter, all you need to do is leave a little info in the comments section of this post by midnight (PST) on Monday, May 30. Tell me your name and three things no one would say when describing you. In other words, because this is a thematic contest, how would someone describe the opposite of you. For example:

JAY ASHER
clean freak
mathematician
onion-lover

After entering, check back on Tuesday to see if you've won. There's no need to leave your email because I'll tell you how to send me your mailing address when I announce the winner.

Good luck!

(THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED)

I also love movies that begin with...

2011-05-23T10:31:00.001-07:00

In my last post (which only went up a few hours ago), I mentioned a phone call I just had to answer. Even though I couldn't tell you what it was about, I couldn't wait to tell you.

Well, I didn't have to wait very long!

Click here for a bit more info on...

THE FUTURE OF US
movie!!!

Pluto Saves the Day

2011-05-23T07:25:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had your carry-on luggage taken from the overhead bin? One that contained all of your clothes, other than what you were wearing, for a very important trip? Because, y'know, a purple suitcase looks just like a green suitcase!

Let me back up a bit...

Last week, my whole family spent several days in NYC. It was my fifth time visiting that quaint little town, JoanMarie's second, and Isaiah's first. It was also his first time on a plane, and I was hoping he would enjoy his first flying experience. Thankfully, he loves words. All we had to do was pull out a book, and he was fine. In fact, any words would do!

Our plane landed at 11:30pm, and I hoped to get straight to the hotel because I had a breakfast with some booksellers first thing in the morning. Then I noticed that a green (not purple!) suitcase was the only one left in the overhead bin. Even in NYC, the cab driver and hotel staff couldn't think of any clothing stores still open. And they wouldn't be open until after my 8am meeting. Thankfully, my breakfast-mates love a good "Guess what happened to my luggage" story. Immediately after the breakfast, with no time to shop, it was off to the Penguin offices.

The main reason we went to NYC was so Carolyn Mackler and I could film videos talking about our upcoming novel, The Future of Us. Thankfully, Carolyn's husband and I wear the same size shirts, and he loaned me a few. But the ladies at Penguin thought the t-shirt I'd been wearing since I left California the previous morning worked best. Plus, the design happened to include a little joke from our book. (You can get your own Pluto R.I.P. shirt by clicking here.)

After Carolyn and I laughed our way through the video shoot, we headed to lunch with some of the amazing Penguin peeps who've been working so hard on our book since we turned it in last December. And we're excited to work with them even more...in the future!

(Ahem.)

Me (in a t-shirt), Carolyn, Jen Loja, Jocelyn Davies, Elyse Marshall, Ben Schrank

The fun lunch conversation was interrupted by a phone call I had to answer. While I can't tell you what that phone call was about, I will tell you that I can't wait to tell you about it!

After lunch, JoanMarie and Isaiah met us back at the Penguin offices. Even though I write from home (or a coffee shop...or a donut shop), it felt like I was introducing them to my co-workers and friends. It was a wonderful meeting of my two worlds.

Then Isaiah experienced his first stroll through Times Square. And if you look over JoanMarie's hat, you'll see the white cowboy hat and tighty-whities of the Naked Cowboy.

Because my Pluto shirt was getting a little too "well-worn", I bought a NYC t-shirt from the hotel (still no luggage), then train-hopped my way to Brooklyn to attend a bookstore event with my friend, and world traveller extraordinaire, Jodi Kendall. It was only a week ago that I discovered The Wilder Life: My adventures in the lost world of Little House on the Prairie. While researching its author, Wendy McClure, I noticed she was doing a signing my first night in New York. I love non-fiction books by authors who explore one specific topic and write about their amusing/hilarious journeys/discoveries. So I had to go! Now I'm determined to read more than just the first book in the Little House series.

The next morning, my family went out to breakfast with my film agent, Sean Daily. I'd never met Sean before, though we've talked on the phone many times over the past couple years. Not only is he a great agent, but he's also a great guy.

He's also a very tall guy. And as you'll notice in the above photo, I'm wearing something other than a t-shirt! That's because my luggage was finally delivered the night before (to the wrong hotel, but I don't want to get into that). I'm also wearing a very dorky smile, and that's because Sean's holding the Thirteen Reasons Why film contract, which was finally ready to sign!

Breakfast was followed by an interview at the Museum of Modern Art, which I can't wait to tell you about later (maybe next month?). Then the three of us jumped on the subway for Isaiah's first subway ride.

We exited the subway station and walked to Carolyn's house for dinner. In my five visits to NYC, it was the first time I'd eaten a meal somewhere other than a restaurant or hotel room. It was nice! And it was weird to think that our families, after all the time Carolyn and I worked on our book, had never met. But finally, we were all together. As we sat our children on the couch to take a picture, Carolyn made a very touching comment as we looked at the three boys. "They're the future of us."

Yes, that comment sounds cheesy now, but it was very touching in the moment!

If you squint and tilt your head to the right, you can see the galley of our book in the lower-left corner. And if you happen to be attending BookExpo America this week, check your program to find out when Penguin will be giving copies away.

On Wednesday, I had a photoshoot for the interview I did the day before. And it was a full-on photoshoot with a make-up artist, lighting dudes, and everything! I brought my suitcase full of clothes with me so the photographer could choose whichever shirt he wanted me to wear. Mixed in with all my nice shirts was also my "well-worn" Pluto shirt.

Guess which one he chose. (Again, you can buy it for yourself by clicking here.)

Then we walked with one of JoanMarie's college friends, Tami Reichert, through Bryant Park. Even though NYC feels like it's all buildings, streets, and taxis, there are a lot of beautiful parks scattered throughout.

Yes, that's one of my favorite Isaiah "figuring out the world" expressions!

Tami helped us find Macaron Cafe, which is where we were meeting my friend (and editor of Thirteen Reasons Why) Kristen Pettit. The guy in this photo was making a really weird face, so I plopped a macaroon on his head.

Tami and Kristen are both beautifully pregnant, so I will never eat a macaroon again without thinking of third-trimesters.

Finally, the morning we were set to fly back to California, there was one more thing to take care of. I met Carolyn and her agent, Jodi Reamer, in my hotel lobby and we walked to a restaurant to have coffee. There, we signed Jodi's galley of The Future of Us.

And then, we signed the contract for our book. Yes, it sounds odd to finally sign a contract for a book we've already edited and is now in galley-form. But that's what I love about this business. It's so wonderfully odd!

April 5, 2010

2011-05-13T13:45:00.000-07:00

(Before we get into this post, I invite you to check out the new 13RWproject website. Courtney Wood, the web designer, is a genius!)

Yes, I’m aware that today is not April 5, 2010. But I want to tell you about something exciting that happened on that date. I know you’re thinking, “Wasn’t April 5, 2010 when the White House Easter Egg Roll was attended by J.K. Rowling and Justin Bieber?” Yes. True. Good memory! But that’s also when I got an email from Carolyn Mackler saying she had a crazy idea to run by me.

She wanted to know if I’d be interested in writing a book with her!

Soon, Carolyn will tell you about what prompted that email (it’s a cool story!), but I thought you might be interested to know what my relationship with Carolyn looked like before I opened that email.

At the time, we’d only met once. It was at the 2005 Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators conference in Los Angeles. I was a huge fan of Carolyn’s, but she had no idea who I was, and I was still several months away from finishing a manuscript called Baker's Dozen (turns out, Thirteen Reasons Why was a much better title). After she concluded her conference speech, I waited impatiently at the side of the stage for the other unpublished writers to finish pestering her with questions and gushing over how much they loved her. Finally, they all moved away and it was my turn! I told her how much her books meant to me, that I was in the middle of writing my first teen novel, and that the honesty in her stories was something I strived for. We had a nice conversation about Vegan Virgin Valentine, which was my favorite Carolyn Mackler book, and then I asked her to sign my copy of her Printz Honor winning novel.

(In elementary school, I did a report on handwriting analysis. Notice the way her lowercase K and H look identical, and the way the second peak in her capital M is a loop? Carolyn is subconsciously wondering whether or not she should one day write a book with this nervous and awkward writer. Isn’t that weird?)

Fast forward a few years. I’m published, and now Carolyn’s a huge fan of mine. She’s never said that in those specific words, but this is my blog, so I feel okay putting words into her mouth (which is something we both got used to doing over the past year). Her next book, Tangled, was coming out and she wanted to know if I would read it and maybe offer a quote for the cover.

Here are two of the biggest honors I’ve felt as a writer:

Chris Crutcher, who wrote the first teen novel I ever read, gave me a quote for Thirteen Reasons Why
I was asked to give a quote for a Carolyn Mackler book

A few months after Tangled came out (with my name in tiny letters on the cover), Carolyn asked if I wanted to write a book with her. In the time it took us to write and edit The Future of Us, which included hundreds of hours on the phone and thousands of emails exchanged, Carolyn and I became good friends.

This is such a cool business!

Port Townsend, WA

2011-05-08T00:45:00.000-07:00

On the way to my latest speaking gig, I happened to be passing through the town of one of my favorite new authors. Her book doesn't come out until next month, and I'll tell you more about Forgotten then, but getting to sneak in some coffee time with Cat Patrick was a great way to begin my visit to Washington.

Port Townsend chose Thirteen Reasons Why as its first Teen Community Read novel, and I hope they continue this event for years into the future. This wasn't just about reading and discussing my book. They also created poetry, visual art, and performance pieces inspired by it. It'ill be fascinating to see what the students create for other books.

First, I gave two presentations at Port Townsend High School. Some authors don't like speaking in auditoriums full of teens, but I'd do it every day if I could! Not only do I have fun speaking, but the more quiet one-on-one conversations afterward are made up of so many special moments.

Then I went to Jefferson Community School, where I shared a nice lunch with the students. And the students made the lunch! This was an amazing school, and if you check out their website, you'll see what I'm talking about.

Lunch was followed by a radio interview. After that, my voice was beginning to fade, so I retreated back to my cottage...which included its own dry sauna! (Anyone want to volunteer to be next year's Teen Community Read author???)

Next came a pizza dinner with high school book club members, followed immediately by a poetry reading in the public library. It was a beautiful end to the day.

But there was still more to come!

I gave a community presentation at the library the next day, and I was so happy to see local illustrators Jesse Watson and Richard Jesse Watson in attendance. (Yes, they're related!) Jesse helped local students create visual artwork inspired by 13RW before I arrived. Here's a photo of me and Jesse on either side of Jody Glaubman, the librarian responsible for organizing this wonderful event.

And here are a couple of the art pieces the students created, which were hung in various galleries around town.

The next morning, I got in my rental car, drove it onto a ferry to carry us off the island...

...then drove to the airport, hopped on a plane, and made it home in time to spend a few quality Mother's Day hours with JoanMarie and Isaiah.

ANNOUNCING...BOOK TWO!!!

2011-05-05T08:31:00.000-07:00

From the beginning, this book has been a crazy and wonderful experience. Stay tuned for more info!

(Once you're done watching the video, click here.)

The Taiwanese Edition!

2011-04-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

Afterbirthers

2011-04-27T17:58:00.000-07:00

Movie theatre marquee, or political commentary?