coffeecoffeecoffee!

I'm crazy busy this week! Thurs-Sun, I'll be in Missouri for a conference, so I'm gearing up for that. I'm doing two presentations and a panel. I'm glad to be going to St. Louis for something OTHER than surgery or doctor appointments. I had my spinal fusion in St. Louis, so I have a bad association with the city. But this visit is actually for something fun. I think, after this trip, my opinion of St. Louis will change. Fingers crossed.

I'm also writing BEST ENEMIES (CC #5) and am attempting not to keep watching the Twilight DVD. 'Cause, you know, that would be uncool. :) Do not ask me how many times I've watched it. Seriously.

Also, just FYI, I've had waaaay too much coffee. This has been a habit over the past couple of days. My friends are suffering from my "OMG! I've had eighty cups of coffee! Can you tell?! Can you?!" state. I'm like Elf and coffee is the new syrup. LOL.

It's a bad sign when you're so jittery that your fingers keep hitting the wrong keys. My poor manuscript is soo full of typos. It's sad. And those are in addition to the regular ones. *grins*

And this was the most random post ever. Ignore me. :)

Charm gets fan art

Isn't that gorgeous? Salina aka I'maCowgirl at Girls Horse Club drew Charm. It's Charm's first piece of fan art and I'm in love with it. Look at the detail on the bridle and the relaxed expression on Charm's face.

Hugs to Salina for creating such beautiful art. Salina, you're super talented and I hope you keep drawing. Thank you so much for this--it means a lot! <3

My visit to Roberts Elementary School

Today, I visited Roberts Elementary School. I did my Power Point presentation for grades 3, 4 and 5. We had so much fun and it was great despite the threatening weather.

At my last presentation, the WCTV news crew showed up. They filmed my talk and interviewed me after it was over. Thanks to WCTV for stopping by! The funniest line of the day came when they showed up with a camera.

When a girl in the front row saw the news crew, her eyes got wide and she looked at me. She said, "Oh my gosh. You even have paparazzi following you!" I explained who they were and that didn't make her any less excited, LOL.

The kids asked a zillion smart questions and I enjoyed visiting the school. Thanks again to Bill and Erma for all of their hard work.

As I was getting ready to leave, Erma (the media center specialist) handed me an envelope. Inside, were letters that some of the kids had written to me after the presentation. So. Cute. Some of the letters encouraged me to keep buying cotton candy Lip Smackers, which I'd told them was my fave. Others had phone numbers and email addresses for me to say hi. One told me to only eat cereal from now on after I told the "I set my microwave on fire before" story. :)

Thank you ALL for the amazing letters and drawings. You guys rock!

WCTV video! :)

I have video! :) I watched it this morning with one eye covered...I hate watching myself on TV, LOL. It's weird.



I'm off to my school visit at Roberts in a little while. We're under a tornado watch because there's a tornado on the ground not far from here. So, I might be doing the tornado drill in the hallway with the kids. Eek! :) The sky's that gross yellowish gray. And that's why I'll be leaving early.

Hope you all enjoy the video! I'll have pics to share when I get back from today's visit.

Visit to Roberts Elementary School tomorrow

Tomorrow, I'm visiting Roberts Elementary School here in Tallahassee. I'll be in their media center doing three presentations.

For local parents interested in attending:

11:30-12:15--5th grade

12:25-1:10--3rd grade

1:15-2:00--4th grade

I'm excited to visit and can't wait. Thanks so much to Erma Sever for hosting me. See you all tomorrow!

WCTV 6 taping--so fun!

(This is the dress I wore to my WCTV taping. BC, you like? It was early and I was just like, "Take the picture, already!")

I wanted a pic of the dress since I think the cameras were aimed at the waist up.

Anyway, the taping for The Good Morning Show was so much fun! Three minutes goes by super fast especially considering how long my last TV appearance lasted. The segment will air on channel 6.2 on Friday morning at 7am. It was also be online. I'll get a link posted on Friday. Yay!

Thank you, Shonda Knight! :)

Going to tape WCTV's (CBS 6) The Good Morning Show

The sign! Obvi...

The Tallahassee studio for WCTV CBS channel 6.

70 copies of TTR that I signed for Roberts Elementary School.

First, those are the books I was given to sign for my next school visit on Friday. Thanks so much to Erma for helping me set this up. I had a blast signing the books and I will bring them to school on Friday, even though I'm tempted to fill up my bookcase with those copies. Hee.

Tomorrow, I'm going to my local CBS station to tape The Good Morning Show. It will air Friday morning at 7am. I'm a little nervous, but I looove doing TV stuff. I've been watching the DVD back of my appearance on Perspectives and I picked out my favorite words ("absolutely" and "so") and made notes of gestures, expressions, etc that were weird and/or distracting. It's pretty cool, actually, to have that 30 min appearance on DVD 'cause it's like a demo reel.


She (Shonda Knight) is supposed to conduct the interview. Kind of exciting to meet someone you see on TV almost every day. :)

I already chose my outfit. I'll take a pic of it tomorrow. It was easy to choose because of the no red, green, white or pattern rule. My taping is at 9am. Fingers crossed!

Book Chic and Chasing Blue

Book Chic shows off Chasing Blue, the note I wrote to him in sparkly blue AND talks about our summer plans to stalk our author friend Maggie Stiefvater. Maggie has likely already hired security to thwart our plans.

Check out the first two a half minutes of the video to catch that. Thanks, BC! :) YOU ROCK!

Chasing Blue's first reader review

The awesome Mara at Whitebrook Farm posted her thoughts on Chasing Blue. Thanks so much for reading and reviewing, Mara. I appreciate it!

And Tallahassee people--there are signed copies of Take the Reins and Chasing Blue at Barnes & Noble.

Back to writing Best Enemies...

OMG, tomorrow!! (!!)

So, I *might* be taking a 122 minute break early tomorrow morning. By early, I mean that I'm running to Blockbuster when they open to get Twilight. Or...I could grab the DVD at midnight tonight. Hmm...

There's even, ahem, a viewing checklist. I really don't think I'm in any danger of bothering my neighbors with my Twilight fan-girl screams, but you never know...it's Edward. And he does sparkle. :D And everyone knows how I feel about The Sparkle.

Thanks, Horse Capital Digest and Lake City Reporter

Thanks so much to Summer Best and Shanna Bellingham at Horse Capital Digest for running an article about Canterwood Crest. I appreciate it! :) If you live in Ocala, the article is the February 27th issue.

Also, thanks to Jeff Hardison for writing an article about my visit to LCCC in today's Lake City Reporter. Thanks to Jason Matthew Walker for coming to take photos.

Visit to Lake City Community College--pics! :)

Sign on the Learning Resource Center door

The crowd! Yay! :)

Dr. Charles Hall (Lake City Community College president) and his wife, Robin.

Jim Morris, the LCCC librarian who set up my visit.

The Timberwolves! Woo!

Dr. Hurner (my Freshman Comp I) prof. I referenced him in my speech and talked about how he gave me an F on my first essay at LCCC. *grins*

Magic! She came over with Debbie and George from Gentle Carousel.

This morning, I did a school visit at Richardson Middle School in Lake City, Florida. I had a fantastic time visting Dr. Summers' class and I'll be getting those photos soon. I'll share all of the details about the school visit after I get the pics.

At 10am, I appeared on LCCC's campus show--Perspectives. Thanks to Mike McKee for interviewing me on the show. I got a DVD of the show and I have a new favorite word. I said it a lot. "Absolutely." :) But I didn't say "so!"

Then, at 2pm, I signed books and made a speech in the library. It was so much fun!

Thank you to everyone at LCCC, especially:

Jim Morris
Sonja Yarborough
Charles Hall
Mike McKee
Audrey Hulen

Also, my past professors who stopped by--Harriet Poole, Larry Gunter and David Hurner--it was great to see you!

When I had a break, I met with Debbie and Jorge Garcia-Bengochea. Debbie and Jorge run an amazing organization called Gentle Carousel. The program uses mini horses for therapy to visit sick and abused children. Debbie, Jorge and Magic met me at LCCC. I took a photo with Magic for their Website and signed books for them to use in their program. You can view the info they posted about Canterwood here on their Website. Just scroll about halfway down the page. I'm
right above Joe Camp, the man behind Benji. :)

I'm here

This is my hotel room for tonight. Love. It. I'm staying over in Lake City since I have to be at the college at 8:15ish tomorrow morning. I'll be doing a quick meet and greet at LCCC before heading over to Richardson Middle School to present to a pre-AP class. Then, I go back to LCCC to film their campus TV show, Perspectives. I have a couple of hours free after that and I'm hoping to meet with a director of a mini horse therapy program.

After my free period, I'm reading and signing books in the library at 2pm. Fingers crossed that all goes well! :)

If you're in Lake City, hope to see you tomorrow!

PS- That's my *third* Diet Coke of the night. Yeeaaaah.

Canterwood Crest Power Point from a super cool fan

Caitlin, a fan of Canterwood Crest, made me this *awesome* Power Point. She said I could share it, so here it is. Thanks sooo much, Caitlin! :) I love it.

Canterwood Crest--made by Caitlin

View more presentations from jessicaburkhart.

Rival Revenge and Home Sweet Drama cover reveals!

Sooo exciting! EK gave me the go ahead to reveal the seventh and eighth covers for Canterwood Crest!

We've got Rival Revenge (CC #7) with Julia and Alison on the cover.

Covers copyright © 2009 Simon & Schuster. Photos © Monica Stevenson.

Then, for Home Sweet Drama (CC #8), Heather, Sasha and Callie are up to something...

Again, I'm so grateful to our photographer and the S&S art dept. They're the absolute best.

Yay for covers! :)

Contest winner!

All right! I put the number of comments into a random number generator and we have a winner for a signed copy of Chasing Blue.

The winner is...Miss Erin! Erin, I'm sending you an e-mail right now. :)

Thanks so much to everyone who entered!

Also, if you'd like a signed postcard, take a pic of yourself with Take the Reins or Chasing Blue and e-mail it to me. I'll post your pic and send you a pretty personalized Canterwood Crest postcard.

Oh! And the sweetest girl e-mailed me a Canterwood Crest Power Point that she made. It's the COOLEST thing. I asked her if I could share it, so we'll see what she says. *If* I can figure out how to post the slide show. Hmm...

Chasing Blue is out early! :)

Well, it appears that Barnes & Noble is the first to release CHASING BLUE. Yep! I haven't actually seen it Out There, but their site says it's shipping.

Amazon is also in stock! That means I'll resume my book stalking ways. I'd just stopped doing that, too. :)

Yaaay! As always, thanks to AA, EK and S&S. <3


About the book:

Home (Bitter) Sweet Home

Now that Sasha Silver and her horse, Charm, have proven that they're worthy competitors for the Canterwood Crest equestrian team, Sasha's psyched to get back to school...until self-proclaimed It girl, queen bee, and owner of the I'm-so-way-better-than-you-are attitude, Heather Fox, is assigned as Sasha's riding partner.

Not. Good.

And when Heather starts spending a little too much QT with Sasha's almost-boyfriend, Jacob, their partnership is put to the ultimate test.

Win a signed copy of Chasing Blue

All right! I just got my author copies of CHASING BLUE! Guess what? I'm giving away a signed copy. Yay! The book officially comes out on March 24.

To enter, leave a comment here or on my post on LiveJournal. You have until Saturday at midnight to enter. If you want an extra entry, blog about the contest and then post the link in your comments.

(I'll mail only to US addresses only, sorry!)

Good luck! :)

Two cover reveals! Best Enemies and Little White Lies! :)

Cover copyright © 2009 Simon & Schuster. Photo © Monica Stevenson.

It's Heather vs. Jasmine in Best Enemies!
(October 20, 2009)

Cover copyright © 2009 Simon & Schuster. Photo © Monica Stevenson.

And Callie and Sasha drama in Little White Lies.
(December 22, 2009)

I just (and by just, I mean five seconds ago) got the okay from EK to post covers for books five and six! Aren't they gorgeous?! I've been dying to share! And wait till you see the backs. Oooh, pretty!

We took these during the second photo shoot in December. Monica Stevenson took the shots and I'm absolutely in love with them. Thank you, Monica!

Giant, sparkly hugs to:

Monica Stevenson & crew
Jessica Handelman
Kate Angelella
Russell Gordon
Our wonderful, fab models and their parents
hair and make up people
wardrobe team
the horses

If I'm forgetting anyone-sorry! I'm super excited.

What do you guys think?

Call for author quotes for mag article

Hey, author friends!

I'm on assignment for LISTEN MAGAZINE (reaches 100,000 teens) and I'm writing an article for their October issue that'll advise teens about how to get published.

I'd love to get a few quotes from my pubbed author friends. If you're interested, leave a comment here to say that you are and I'll email a few of you to get quotes. I'll just ask 3 or 4 questions about how you got published, what your journey was, etc.

If you agree to give me quotes, I'll need 'em ASAP because the article is due in early April.

Thanks!! :)

Visit to Lake City Community College and Richardson Middle School

On March 18, I'm visiting Lake City Community College (Lake City, FL) to read, sign books and appear on the college's TV show--Perspectives.

Before my signing, I'll be visiting Richardson Middle School in Lake City. I get to meet with a pre-AP class and I can't wait. Should be fun.

I'll be signing books at 2pm in the learning resource center at LCCC's campus. This is super special to me because I started taking classes at LCCC when I was sixteen. I graduated from LCCC in fall 2005 and then transferred to FSU. I had an amazing time at LCCC and I'm excited to go back. The campus is amazing and I had the best experience there.

A very special thanks to Jim Morris and Sonja Yarborough for setting this up. I appreciate it! Gooo, Timberwolves! :D

Canterwood Crest Academy fan site--no way

OMG.

There's a Canterwood Crest Academy fan site. *dies*

Someone actually set up pages about admissions, dorm rooms, stables and classes. So. Cool.

Thank you, HorseGirlMishi! :)

First school visit to William J. Montford III Middle School

Setting up my Power Point. That's the awesome Kathy Drake--the media specialist.

Signing outside. It was a balmy 75 degrees. Lovely!

Signing books in the media center.

A display in the media center. I got to share the board and table with friend and author Sarah Prineas! Sarah's visiting Montford next. I freaked out when I saw Take the Reins next to The Magic Thief. :)

Chatting with horse-crazy girls.

I signed that shirt. Yes, I did!

The group of kids. They were the best audience!

I just got back from my first talk/signing at William J. Montford III Middle School in Tallahassee. The coolest part? It was the school's first author visit!

I was I'm-going-to-faint nervous before I went. But the second I got inside, it felt amazing. I asked the kids not to throw anything at me because I was nervous and we all laughed. It broke the ice and once I got started, I could have talked for hours. We talked about publishing, writing, editors, agents and sticking with it no matter how many rejections come.

One of the highlights was showing pics of my trip to S&S. I likened the board room to something out of The Apprentice, but noted that no one at S&S (thankfully) resembled Donald. I told them my editor is not a man, did not fire me (yet! ;)) and has waaay better hair than Mr. Trump.

I talked (a lot) about lip gloss and my love of pink pens. By the end, girls were showing me their fave pens and glosses. I even got invited to a spring break sleepover. So. Cute. They thought I was in high school, LOL. When I told them I was 22, they still wanted me to come. And to bring my lip gloss collection. :)

The excitement was insane and I almost died when kids started offering me arms and hands to sign. I felt like a rockstar! A sweet girl asked me to sign her t-shirt and I signed a hoodie for another. I asked several times if their parents were going to freak that I took a Sharpie to their clothes. They said no, but I'm worried about getting angry emails. Eeep.

I had sooo much fun at Montford. They're a lucky school since they get to have Sarah next and I told them so.

Thanks so much to Lisa, Kathy, Bill, Mary and everyone at Montford for hosting me. Yay!

First school visit tomorrow

Tomorrow, I've got my first school visit at William J. Montford III Middle School. I'll be presenting to the school's book club and then we'll move outside to sign books. My friend Mary is bringing a mini horse and we'll get to introduce the kids to the horse. It should be fun! Thanks so much to Kathy Drake for working with me.

I present at 12:30, so wish me luck. :)

Editseditseditsedits

I'm totally engaged in edits right now for TRIPLE FAULT (CC #4). Yes, book four. I almost can't comprehend that sentence.

Interesting things I've noticed about this round of edits:

I manage to eliminate favorite words from my writing. Then, I come up with new ones. :) In CHASING BLUE, I was obsessed with "grinned." It was everywhere. In TRIPLE FAULT, I'd finally manged to ditch "grinned," but I tossed in two new words--"so" and "sooo." They *might* appear thousands of times. Okay, okay, not thousands, but enough to cause me to smack myself in the forehead when I reread my edited manuscript.

Chapter titles are so (Ack! The "s" word again!) one of the most difficult and most fun things to write. I heart them.

I might have to go back and read my own books to refresh my memory on certain events. Is that lame? I feel as if I should remember the things that happen in my own books! :D

Writing mean girl lines is my fave part and it's easy. That might say something about me...

And, finally, never stuff your edit letter with your precious handwritten notes to self in a cabinet and forget where it is. You might panic, tear up the house and then want to stab yourself in the eye with a pink pen when you recover the letter hours later.

Canterwood Crest #6 title reveal and photo shoot fun

Tallahassee Magazine just left a short while ago. They came and took pics for an upcoming article in the mag. Scott and Monica were wonderful and I had so much fun. Thanks for coming, guys. I appreciate it! :) I can't wait to see the pics. Scott showed me a few on his camera and I thought the background looked great.

Also, I can reveal the title for Canterwood Crest #6! Little White Lies comes out on December 22, 2009. It's now up on Amazon. Cool.

Back to editseditsedits.

A sweet review

Melissa at Kidliterate reviewed Take the Reins. Thank you, Melissa! Check out her thoughts here.

:)