FAME - I'm Gonna Live Forever

On Tuesday I arrived in Orlando for the Florida Association for Media in Education (FAME) conference. Over the next two days, I'll be giving a presentation to a room full of educators, sitting on a panel with several amazing authors, and most exciting of all...accepting an award!

Thirteen Reasons Why won the 2009 Florida Teens Read Award. This is an exceptionally cool award because it was voted on by teens. (In case you didn't know, teens are pretty much who I wrote the book for.) Unfortunately, I was in Peru when my book was given a similar award in Kentucky. But I'll be in Kansas in a couple of weeks to accept their award.

Here's how I see things shaping up: In three more years, many of the teen voters mentioned above will be eligible to vote for President. By then, I'll also be old enough to run for President. If I can keep those three states happy, I've already got myself 41 electoral college votes.

Only 229 to go!!!

Of course, you need to be 35 to run for President. Well, today I got another step closer to that requirement. Today is my 34th birthday!


I blew out my first b-day candle a few hours early last night, but I was with a bunch of authors who'd been flying all day, and one of them flew in from London where it actually was September 30th already...so I think it counts.


That's me with my very entertaining dinner buddies: Leslie Helakoski, Marie Smith, Roland Smith, Peg Kehret, and Stephanie Tolan.

And no, I will not tell you what I wished for!