Break night

(Or, a totally random post on how I'm relaxing tonight . . .)

Watching New Moon

Doing my nails in Essie's "Bachelorette Party"

Then, reading Shadow Kissed

After that, I've got a list to make of things that need to be done before my Utah trip with K. Lots of things on the list. Starting with, obvi, writing. But tonight's for taking a break.

Although . . .

I'm getting superexcited about next month's release of City Secrets. It's crazy to think that it'll be my *ninth* book on shelves. It'll definitely be time for book-stalking when CS releases.

Happy Tuesday!

Saturday randomness

So glad it's finally Saturday!

Thanks so much to everyone who ReTweeted about Operation Teen Book Drop and participated. I left 10 signed copies of Canterwood books around my neighborhood with supercute Aladdin postcards inside. It would be sooo cool if someone reading my blog was someone who found a copy! :)

My to-do list was waaay out of control and I'm tackling it bit by bit today. I've got a ton of writing to do and my apartment is kind of (read: REALLY) a disaster. Plus, Fresh Direct is coming today which means I'll have part of my usual order--3 cases (24 cans each!) of Diet Coke. Y-U-M. Plus, I got a 12 pack of Diet Coke with lime. Felt like mixing it up a bit.

I've got a full week left at home before heading to Oklahoma with Kate for a conference the week after. Soo. . . that means I need to do laundry next week. Or tomorrow. Yeah, ASAP. :)

Also, waiting on something superfun in the mail. I saw these shirts at Target online and got Kate to agree to wear the Team Jacob shirt when we go see ECLIPSE. There will be photographic proof of us in our shirts. I heart them!





So, I'm going to try opening the comments again with the rule that there CANNOT be any HOME SWEET DRAMA spoilers or I'll have to delete your comment. Tell me what you're doing this weekend! :)

a random mess

Been soo busy writing ELITE AMBITION and doing other things, BUT a new vlog will be coming soon. Hopefully, from a supercool location. I'll also be vlogging from the Tallahassee Writers Conference and will encourage (read: force) Kate on camera with me. :)

It's warming up to the fifties this week and I am INSANELY excited. I know that weather talk is, like, boring but a little warmer will be awesome. It also, you know, means shopping for those in between weather clothes...

Got dinner with friends tomorrow night and then Friday is Kate's version of TWILIGHT. ALICE IN WONDERLAND hits the big screen and we're SO going to see it. She's very fangirly and cute about it and it's like me with my RPattz obsession. I can't wait!

And now to wrap up my random two and a half hour cleaning/rearranging apt spree. Really? Was that necessary? (No.)

Happy Friday!

Last night was awesome! Went to Madison Square Garden with Editor K and J.R. Angelella to see Kathy Griffin. I totally heart her show and it was the coolest thing to see her in person. Pics are on my Twitter feed and Facebook.

Back to writing now and prepping for a day-long writing marathon tomorrow. I'm superexcited about this book--it'll be the introduction of a new character, Brit, and there will be DRAMA! :)

Turned in one of my two articles, so I've got to finish the second one soonish and hand that in. The next few months are going to be a blur--going to Florida, Oklahoma and Utah for conferences. I'm not speaking in Utah--it'll actually be like a vacay! *gasp* Do not want to think about the last time I took an actual vacation. Ummm...? No clue. But the Florida trip gives me an excuse to shop--I need a swim suit as the fab hotel has an outdoor pool (likely going to be too cold), BUT there's also a whirlpool. Love.

Back to writing! Happy Friday everyone!

Random updates

Busy isn't really a strong enough word to describe what's been going on over the weekend/early this week.

I've been working out details on two upcoming conferences, sending Canterwood Crest updates to my Web designer (Check out the new info!), working on a panel, agreeing to do a NJ panel, corresponding about a book club I'm doing in February, etc, etc, etc!

Oh, and writing the draft of CITY SECRETS. I'm thisclose to finishing and it Will. Be. Done. this weekend. Yes. But, I'm kind of distracted because my birthday's on Friday and I'm superexcited about it. Hello, 23! :D

Hopefully, I'll have time to make a new vlog very soon from the awesome list of suggestions from my reader girlies.

Opening this post to questions!

Got something to ask about the books, writing, etc? You can do it here since I'm veeeeeerrrrry backed up on e-mail. I'll do my best to check throughout the weekend and answer as I can. If the question's already been answered, I'll try to point you to the link. :) Check my FAQ at the Canterwood Website or my Website and see if anything there's already answered. If not, ask away!

I'll take questions till Sunday at midnight EST.

Hope you reader girlies are having a fab Black Friday and aren't getting run over by crazy crowds! :)

To clear up a little confusion

Hi, guys!

There have been a couple of e-mails and I wanted to address them here since I can't respond to every e-mail right away and write the Canterwood books. You guys wouldn't want them to come out, like, once a year would you? ;)

Anyway:

* Canterwood isn't a real school. It's completely made up.

* No news yet on the TV option for the books. I PROMISE that I'll post it here the second I know something.

* Yes! There are going to be 12 books and Little White Lies comes out on December 22, 2009. It'll prob start showing up a week or so early in stores. Rival Revenge comes out the very next month--January 26--just a few days before my birthday. :)

* I can't show the cover for City Secrets yet, but the second Editor K says I can, I'll post it here.

And, finally, Burkhart is not my real last name. It's a pen name that I'm using for the Canterwood series. If you e-mail and ask for my real name, I won't give it out (sorry!) for privacy reasons. You totally get that, right? :)

But know that it's ALWAYS me e-mailing you, Tweeting, blogging, etc. I'm working hard to e-mail as many of you back today as I can. Thank you sooo much for being on Team Canterwood and it means more than you know.

xx

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.

A brief interruption :)

Just a quick announcement--tomorrow's giveaway will be the last! But remember to go back and enter any you've missed since the deadlines are all varied. There's still plenty of time to enter. A sincere thank you to all of our sponsors who provided amazing, fun products. Yay!

There's sooo much to blog about that I've left out because I've been super busy and I wanted the focus to stay on the give aways.

But next week, look for posts (with some pics!) of my first Knicks game at Madison Square Garden. Plus, a post about my hilarious (oh, snap) dress shopping experience with Aly. But we DID end up finding gorgeous dresses, so it was totally worth it.

I'm off to Baltimore tomorrow for a wedding. Going to try and get editing done on the way there, but we'll see how that goes...

How I wrote ALL day--not!

Last night I decided that today I'd get up super early, write a lot and then keep writing. Umm...yeah. Didn't happen today. Instead, it went something like this:

6am: Evil alarm on Blackberry. I snooze it for 5 mins.

6:05am. Evil alarm on Blackberry. Snooze for 5 more mins.

The next time? Reset for an hour. Will try again at just after 7am.

7am still a no-go.

I finally start moving around 8-something, only to fall back asleep until 9:40. Twenty minutes before an interview with Taylor at Girlz Like Me.

I wake up, panic and try not to sound as if I'd been sleeping when I called her at 10am. Of course, I totally did.

The rest of the day? I grabbed the R to Target and spent waaay too much time in the Halloween aisle. Plus, I needed winter clothes 'cause I've been borrowing hoodies from BFF and I found some awesome stuff including 2 pairs of boots. One for dressy stuff (with heels) and the other for walking to the subway. The subway steps are crazy icy in the winter (I was in NYC for a few days in Jan) and slipping is not an option.

I somehow ended up with enough stuff that I couldn't take the train back. Hello, taxis waiting outside of Target. Love them.

I got back and it was just after 2. Spent the rest of the day trying on clothes and, um, hanging the twinkly Halloween lights I got. I meant to go to the post office to mail books, postcards, etc to winners, but I missed them. They're closed tomorrow, so you guys will get your stuff put in the mail on Monday.

Tomorrow is hard core lock down day. It's supposed to pour/storm all day and to prevent myself from being distracted in my own apt, I'm going to my friends' apt and am planning to shut myself inside and write, only stopping for an occasional Red Bull or meal. The plan is to be out the door at six or earlier if I can be super-awesome. *wills self to make it happen* :)

How's everyone's weekend?

Timing...so weird

June 5, 2007 was the day my first book deal was announced in PubLunch.

April 5, 2009 was the day I moved to NYC.

June 5, 2009 is the one-month mark that I've had my own apt.

Guess 5 is my lucky number, huh?

Random things on a Friday

I'm so excited (read: nervous) about Book Expo America! But first, I'm doing the NYC Teen Author Carnival next Thursday from 4-6 pm with awesome authors including Lauren Barnholdt, Taylor Morris, PG Kain and more! Lauren and I, dubbed "Barnhart" by Editor K, are going to be veeery scandalous. We invite you to come join us! :) I'll be giving away: two copies of TAKE THE REINS, two copies of CHASING BLUE and two copies of BEHIND THE BIT. Plus, there will be signed postcards.

Back to BEA. There are so, so many people I finally get to meet! I'm trading numbers with people so we can text if things get crazy and we don't end up running into each other. So, if I'm supposed to meet up with you at BEA and you want to trade cell numbers, shoot me yours. I think the convention center is going to be huge and the odds of just running into people seems slim. Meg Cabot already sent me her number so we can meet. :) Kidding.

I'm going on Friday to pick up my badge and to track down Kaleb Nation at the Sourcebooks booth. I will attempt to ask for (read: steal) a copy of Kaleb's Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse.

My panel with Robyn Schneider, Maureen Johnson, Julia DeVillers and Sarah Mlynowski is on Saturday morning and so many of my friends have said they're coming. Thanks, guys! :) It'll make me less nervous to have friends in the audience in case I start to babble and/or embarrass myself during the panel. (Um, did you see the big names on my panel? Eeep...very intimidated!) The friends can then cause a disturbance so I can slink away in shame.

I'm going into Manhattan today to get a sparkly haircut for BEA. Going to the place of awesome--Soon Beauty Lab West. Love it there. I really want hot pink streaks for the summer, but...I won't. Yet.

Keep fingers crossed that I do not get into any sort of trouble on this trip. It would be a first. I really can make it from home to the city and back without incident--I *know* I can! I'm still so jealous of the people who can listen to music and read or sleep (!) on the subway. I'm the girl clutching her HopStop instructions and checking off every stop like a total dork. The one time I tried to listen to music on my iPod on the subway? I almost ended up in Queens!!

Happy Friday!

I heart Pink

Yesterday, I went shopping at Victoria's Secret for PINK shirts with friends. I found *the* most awesome shirt (couldn't find a pic on VS's Website, but trust me) and it's super sparkly. It's light blue with a blinged-out rocket Popsicle with a bite missing on the front. On the back it says something like, "I will make you melt Pink."

It's gorg.

So, anyway. It was warm yesterday and I couldn't resist wearing this awesome shirt under a light wrap sweater to run a few errands. I met up with my friend and we're walking down the street when a guy starts pointing at my shirt. I'm like, "OMG!" but we keep walking.

And then, he steps closer while still pointing at my shirt and reaches toward me as if he's going to touch the Popsicle. He does.

O.
M.
G.

I was in total shock. Lucky for me, my friend gave the guy a look that meant she'd break his fingers if he touched my shirt again (she would have taken him down, for real!) and told him that wasn't cool. I mean, I know the shirt was awesome, dude, but don't touch it.

And that's my story for the day.

Now back to editing.

Finally Friday

The weekend's almost here. Yay! I'm super excited about it. I'm nearing the finish line on BEST ENEMIES and it would be great if I could type the final words by early next week. I've also got a stack of books that I want to read and I really need to start editing the first half of BEST ENEMIES. It's in scary shape. It feels like so long ago since I started it. I, erm, kind of forgot what happened in some places.

Shout outs (sorry if I'm forgetting anyone!) to Carrie Ryan, Amanda Ashby and Alyson Noel for some awesome news this week. Woo hoo!

Anyone have weekend plans?

P.S. I will have official super sparkly news of my own to share soon--hopefully next week! :D

Plot hole = evil

I've been project juggling lately. That's unusual for me because I usually start an idea and stick with it till it's finished. But not now. A month or so ago, I started Dark YA and got 5k in before chatting with People and deciding to drop it. For now.

Then, I shifted over to Secret Sparkly Tween Book (thinking of it as one of three) and have wiped out the 10 page outline five times. Five. Of course, that then makes the outlines for Two and Three useless.

Grrr. *headdesk*

I have all of the plot lines for One, Two and Three, but One is missing something pretty big. What? The reason WHY my characters do what they do that kicks off One, Two and Three. Very vague, I know. Been pondering this for weeks and have no answer.

*thinks*

Math + Jess = ??

On Saturday, awesome blogger Tara Lazar is posting a super special Canterwood Crest video! There are three people in the vid and it's so fun! I filmed my bit on Wednesday and am sooo excited to see it spliced together. I'll put a reminder here on Sat, so definitely check that out.

Big thanks in advance to Tara and Roshni! You both rock.

I took a bit of a writing break this week and have been in cleaning out mode. Yeah. First tackled the closet. Boxes of clothes and shoes went to charity. Next? Books. Ah, but don't sob yet. They were textbooks that I couldn't sell back to FSU 'cause they were too old and/or worn. Seriously. I kept my math textbooks (Why?! Wasn't I tortured enough?), my G-I-A-N-T humanities book, a Spanish textbook that had notes in it and a falling apart communications book. Goodbye!

In the back of my math book, I found a piece of paper that I used to average my grade after every quiz or homework assignment. And, um, that grade kept going doooowwwwn with every quiz. *blush* And the SUPER sad part? I had a freaking calculator, but I *still* messed up numbers when averaging my OWN grade. Nooo! But it's true. I must be smarter now (ha!) and I noticed a few mistakes when I looked at the paper yesterday. I actually made my grade higher than it was. But even my poor averaging skills didn't raise the grade enough to keep it from being embarrassing. :)

The worst thing was that I was sixteen when I took that math class and I spent 3 hours a day in class, five days a week during the summer. It was one of those six week classes so the schedule was super condensed. I came home and did 3+ hours of homework to keep up and still didn't get the material. The poor math teacher tried to help me, but it just didn't work. I failed for weeks even after extra credit.

Near the end of the class, my prof handed me back a math quiz with a C+ on it. OMG! Yes! I grabbed the paper and said, "Thanks, man!"

Thanks, man. To a professor. Niiice. :D But, hey. I was excited.

And, when going through my boxes of books, I discovered a few things:

* I read a lot in college. A. Lot. And yet, I don't remember plots for several of the books. Hmm.

* I have an abundance of Shakespeare volumes. Seriously. And he's not even my fave guy.

* The gorgeous Norton anthologies (I have, like, 4.) deserve their own shelf. They're pretty.

* Ditto the essay anthologies.

* And, no matter how many times I had to read it in college (twice, I believe), I will never like Beloved. I know, I know. Toni Morrison. Oprah. But it's not for me.

That concludes this super-weird ramble about math and old books. Carry on.

*I'm* on Wikipedia? Really?

So, I looked at my SiteMeter and saw I was getting a lot of traffic from Wikipedia. Hmmm! Wikipedia? I clicked over and someone made me a page. But who?! If you did, I've love to know! Thank you! :)

Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles rap video book trailer

Wanna see something SERIOUSLY awesome? Check out Simone Elkeles' rap video book trailer for her upcoming YA release. You MUST watch the unrated version! It's soooo freaking good!

I've never seen anything like this and I'm SO ordering PERFECT CHEMISTRY.

Yay, Simone! :)

Free holiday tunes from Oprah

Oprah's giving away eight holiday songs from artists such as Josh Groban and Faith Hill on her site. They're available for the next 48 hours, so if you want to download (it's legal!) them check here. (I'm watching her "Favorite Things" show and am thinking how it's just not as much fun without people screaming, crying and fainting over flatscreens!)

(You probably want to have high-speed Internet access since the songs are over 5MB each.)

Happy Thanksgiving! :)

So...this was my day

Today was not the BEST day for being on a deadline.

(Stop reading now Editor K and anyone else waiting for the BTB manuscript...) ;)

I got nothing done. Well, okay, I read manuscript pages when I wasn't stalking Facebook, watching election TV coverage, calling friends to remind/pester them to vote, checking out the maps on CNN, going back to Facebook, selecting a new Incredimail notifier (an adorable turkey!), watching Oprah's election special, debating whether or not I need a winter background for MySpace, obsessing about my PR plan, muttering to myself about my ridiculous attempts not to edit and trying to convince myself that I really don't have enough pens in my favorite colors (pink, purple and green) and should go buy some.

Yes. There is no logic to any of that. Don't try to figure it out. This is my brain on too much coffee.

I'm ready to be up all night until we have a winner.

Breathe. Whew. :)