First NYC school visit

I just finished my first NYC school visit. I spoke to a group of sixth graders at Pershing IS-220 and we had a fun visit. They even gave me flowers--so sweet! I ran through my Power Point and the kids asked great, engaging questions.

The best part? I didn't spill coffee on my skirt (and I mean a LOT of coffee) until I was heading down the stairs to leave. Win!

Thanks so much to Lucia Greenberg for being a fantastic host. She took photos of the event and got releases from the students' parents, so I'll be able to post pics to my blog soon.

Gotta do some writing before heading into Manhattan for an appt. Happy Monday!

Two bits of press

First, I wanted to say THANK YOU so much to everyone who has been emailing, Facebooking, Tweeting, etc at me about BEST ENEMIES. You guys absolutely rock and I've been reading every message, but am this close to finishing HOME SWEET DRAMA, so I can't reply to email right now. I will when I turn in the final draft and have a couple of days to reply.

There were two pieces of press that ran last week about my involvement in NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month. First, I was interviewed for Media Bistro and my article is part of a toolkit for people participating in this month's contest. You can see some of the article here and thanks to GalleyCat for featuring it.

Then, the SFist picked up the article and a columnist wrote about it. The article made me laugh because he said my NaNo tale was "inspiring/annoying." LOL. I can see that...

Back to revising!

And the title for book 9 is...

I didn't even know that the 9th Canterwood book was up on Amazon (no cover yet), but a supercool reader just sent me an e-mail saying it was there and she was excited. So, the ninth book is called CITY SECRETS and it comes out on July 10, 2010. Yay!

Also, the blog template is the process of getting a makeover. I love it!

Happy weekend!

back to blogging

I think (hopefully!) I'm back to regular blogging. I was really sick for 3 days or so and am finally back on my feet and feeling like normal. I was going stir-crazy after forcing myself *not* to do work after the 2nd day of being sick. But I think it was good to take a break. I'm only going to work for a couple of hours today, then I'm done. Got a sparkly event on Friday that I have to be in perfect shape for, so I'm okay with taking a slow week and then working like a crazy person over the weekend.

I hope everyone had a great Halloween! If you dressed as a Canterwood character, please email me a pic! I'd love to see. I've already seen a photo of a reader as Heather Fox and it was soooo cool. :)

And, um, the countdown to NEW MOON is drawing closer! How exciting is that?! I. Am. Ready. Now.

Oops!

Missed one of the contest prize winners! For the RIDE LIKE A GIRL bag and stickers, the winner is...E! E, please email me (jess_burkhart [at] hotmail [dot] com with your address so I can mail your prize. :)

Contest winners

It's time to announce the winners of our giveaways! Again, thanks so much to the awesome sponsors. (All winners were randomly drawn from Blogger and LiveJournal.)

Girls Horse Clothes gift certificate:

Tiana S.

The I Love Horses bag:

Adina

English princess T-shirt:

Zoe

Charm clip:

Emily B.


Winners, please email me (jess_burkhart [at] hotmail [dot] com--with your parents' permission) your name and an address you can receive your prize. Congratulations!

First Knicks game

Since the blog was taken over by awesome giveaways (winners will be announced after the final deadline for entering has passed), I haven't been able to blog about personal stuff for a while. For example...last Tuesday, I went to my first ever Knicks game at Madison Square Garden! It was a pre-season game against the Celtics and it was sooo much fun. The crowd was excited and the entire atmosphere was energized. The entire experience of hot dogs and nachos only added to the awesomeness. Plus, we won! :) I've seen MSG on TV before and it's sooo much better in person. It's just insane. I kept saying, "OMG! I'm at MSG!" like a total dork. :)


These are the sparkly cups that you get when you order drinks. Love. Them. Was jealous of BFF's sparkly cup and wanted my own. Now I've got some! They're actually glittery, which is hard to see in the pic.

Going to see another Knicks game this Saturday on Halloween! BFF and I are coordinating our outfits. She's wearing blue tights and I've got orange ones. Knicks colors and also very Halloween appropriate. I can't wait for the train ride home because (or so I've heard) there will be a zillion people in costume on the train. Can't. Wait.