Book Expo America in NYC '09--anyone?

Everyone online is chattering excitedly about BEA in LA and damn, I want to go! :) It sounds like soo much fun and since I've never been, I'm dying to see what it's like. I keep hearing the words free books and that just grabs my attention. :)

So, I'm marking my calendar for BEA in NYC in 2009. The dates are from May 28-May 31 at the Jacob K. Javits Center.

Is anyone else looking ahead and planning to go? I hope nothing pops up for me between now and then, but I'm definitely looking at booking it as soon as tickets are available. If you're going or thinking about it, let me know! It would be so much fun to meet people from the online writer communities.

It would be a great time for me since it would be right before the release of Chasing Blue.

Weekend reads--share yours!

So, I've got a dilemma. My pile of weekend must reads is very large. My weekend reading time? Slim for the next couple of months. But on writing breaks, I've got what sound like fantastic reads.

My choices?

THE SCHOOL FOR COOL (The Social Experiments of Dorie Dilts) by PG Kain
THE HOST--the second weekend in a row...
HOME by Julie Andrews (I could just break into song right now)
PRINCE CASPIAN (I haven't seen the movie yet)

and

RIDING LESSONS by Sara Gruen (I read this book once and had a rare WOW reaction, so I want to read it again.

That's my weekend book pile that I'll be shuffling around and trying to read as much as I can before next week's pile pops up.

What's on your weekend reading list?

Happy Sex and the City Day!! (I wanted pink, but alas, there is none.)

Officially Obsessed with Twilight...again

Okay, am I the only one who has become re-obsessed (not a word, I know) with Twilight? I started rereading it on Friday and am in full-blown "I <3 style="font-style: italic;">Twilight wallpaper on my laptop...yikes. I spend waaaay too much time here when I should be, you know, working.

Back to reading, erm, I mean working!

PS--There is no author interview scheduled for this Friday, but on June 6, I've got author Daphne Grab and she's giving away a signed copy of ALIVE AND WELL IN PRAGUE, NEW YORK. Be sure to stop by and try to win!

Working on a new Diary of a Debut Author Video

I'm working on a new video that I'll post within a couple of weeks. I've been getting a few e-mails and MySpace messages from people wanting to know how to break into magazines, read mastheads, write a query, etc. So, the video that I'm working on will tell you how to do all of that. If anyone else has freelance questions they want answered, let me know and hopefully I'll know the answer!

I've realized, too, that I love making videos! They're a break from writing and it's fun, creative and a new medium to reach people. In November, for NaNoWriMo, I'll be doing a weekly video to share my progress each week and give myself a video pep talk. 'Cause you know, it would be embarrassing not to hit 50k after vlogging about doing so. I'd toyed with the idea of doing a daily video in November, but I think that's too much.

It's a busy time for freelancers to get winter queries in, so I've been doing a little of that and getting ready to dive back into writing a new Canterwoood Crest book. There's something...warming, I guess you could say, about writing a sequel. I already adored my characters, but now I love them even more! Sasha, my MC, is spunkier, funnier and smarter than she was in Take the Reins and it's an interesting process to grow along with her and the rest of my CC gang. I can't wait for you guys to meet them! :) These characters have been with me since November 2006 and it will be a blast to share them with others when 1/09 rolls around.

I thought the summer and fall would trickle by and time would just stall before Jan. But nope! What happened to May? It's almost gone. June's going to be a month of intense writing, as is July. Not to mention on July 27...six months away from publication. Six. Months. OMG. Yeah. That'll be the start of the PR plan and all of the crazy/exciting/busy stuff that goes along with it.

Okay, back to writing.

(I'm also testing out the Blogspot feature of having this post when I tell it to in advance, so apologies if it doesn't work. It might post twice for today (5-27).

Chasing Harry Winston and holiday

The holiday weekend was great! I got a lot of little things done such as updating my Website that I’m building and writing an essay. We were hoping to go to the beach, but our beach was closed when 40 people got caught in rip tides and one guy died. Scary.

Instead, I tore through my TBR pile and finished an outline. I'm STILL working my way through THE HOST. I put it down for a couple of days and hope to resume reading it today. I started rereading Twilight for the first time yesterday. It's fun now that I know what to expect!

We also finished painting, yay! I would insert pics here except, well, I accidentally deleted them when I was taking video for a new Diary of a Debut Author Segment for next month. Urg.

I’m also verrrry excited because Lauren Weisberger’s new book CHASING HARRY WINSTON comes out today. Eee! Lauren did a video for S&S and you can check it out here: http://www.bookvideos.tv/videoid/1145.

Note to self: try to look as chic on camera as Lauren in my next Diary of a Debut Author vid…and damn, the Tallahassee skyline won’t look near as cool at the NYC shot in this video. :)

How was everyone's holiday weekend?

Thanks and Happy Weekend!

Just a quick post on this holiday weekend, but I wanted to thank everyone over at SCWC blog for commenting on my video. Y'all are so sweet and I'm definitely going to keep making Diary of a Debut Author videos. :)

Everyone have a safe and happy weekend! My book bag is full and I'm ready to hit my porch with a Diet Coke and a cup full of watermelon and read:

BRALESS IN WONDERLAND -- Debbie Reed Fischer
HOW TO HOOK A HOTTIE -- Tina Ferraro
THE HOST (still plugging away) --you know, Stephenie Meyer
FOREVER IN BLUE -- Ann Brashares

PS- Check out Julie Prince's article in this month's SCBWI newsletter! Yay, Julie!

Author Visit: Jennifer Bradbury

Please welcome SHIFT author Jennifer Bradbury!

Book: When Chris Collins and Winston Coggans take off on a

post-graduation cross-country bike trek, Chris's hopes are high. He's

looking forward to seeing the country, dodging a dull summer at a

minimum wage job, and having one final adventure with his oldest

friend. The journey from Hurricane, West Virginia to the coast of

Washington state delivers all those things... and more.

So much more that when Chris returns home without Win at the end of

the summer, he's certain their 10 year friendship is all but over. But

when an FBI agent begins asking questions—and raising suspicions about

Chris—he learns that saying goodbye to a friend like Win is never as

simple as riding away. Shift offers an adventure story and a missing

persons tale spinning around a single question: What happens when you

outgrow your best friend?

Here we go...

What was the "oooh, I must write this book!" moment for you?

Honestly? I was just looking for something to keep me busy. I'd thought for years about building a story around a bike trip, but had trouble finding the plot and characters. Finally I decided to just sit down and force myself to plot it out, and characters and conflict emerged. There wasn't really a moment like the one you describe, but there was a moment after I had an outline and started a chapter that I sort of had a flash of insight knowing that it was going to work in a way that my earlier attempts at a novel had not.

What do you hope readers get out of Shift?

I hope they get a great story most of all. Beyond that, it would be cool to learn that some readers identify with the friendship dynamics between Chris and Win, and even better to learn that somebody gets inspired to bike cross-country or have an adventure that stretches and grows them in some other way.

Did you tell anyone when you were writing Shift?

Yes. My husband was actually with me in India where the first draft took shape, and I'd come home from the school where I was teaching each day with a new chapter. He sometimes forgot to greet me in his grab for the flash drive I kept it stored on. :) And I sent the first third or so out to some trusted readers back home before the book was even done, and most of them emailed back quickly to ask for more. I find that kind of encouragement invaluable when I'm drafting.

Your agent, Robin Rue, sold your book three DAYS after agreeing to represent you. Is that some kind of record? :)

It certainly is a record for me! I had no idea what I was doing (and mostly still don't) but Robin is amazing, so I bet she's gone faster. And she was quick to warn me the day before she sent it out that it might be a while, and that we might even have to revise after the first round before resubmitting. But she had a good feeling about the manuscript and my editor, whom she'd recently met and talked with. And she found the perfect fit for both of us.

Did your teaching exchange in India make a lasting impression on you?

Absolutely. I was teaching 11th grade while I was there, so it was amazing to see firsthand how similar kids are all over the world. Even though the educational systems are different and culture is different, there's something fundamental about being a kid that transcends all of that. We're planning to go back this winter to spend some time with friends we made while there. Travel of any kind has the power to alter who we are and how we see things. The fact that I was writing a novel about that while I was living it myself was sort of a way for me to process those changes.

You were a one-day winner on Jeopardy! That's so cool! Do you think that experience will ever pop up in one of your novels?

Thanks! It was a lot of fun. And it was one of those things that I kind of fell into (a bit like writing), but worked out really well. I don't know if I'll ever work it into a novel, but I'm not ruling it out. :)

Do you still bicycle?

Yes! In fact, to celebrate the release of Shift and the sale of my next book, my husband took me out and bought me a new Trek. Its blue and very fast and the shifters work perfectly! Probably most of my rides this summer will be with my daughter to the library or Fred Meyer, but we are planning a family trip up and down the Columbia River Gorge for July. We're trying to do a small bicycle trip every year to get her acclimated, and hope to take off on tandems with her and any other kids we eventually have to knock around other parts of the world. We've some good friends who have taken their 11 and 9 year old kids touring in Europe, and are planning to ride to Mexico this summer. We hope to be as cool as them! :)

What's next for you? What are you most looking forward to this summer?

I'll be revising my next novel for Atheneum this summer. Its tentatively titled APART, and I'm excited to start working on it. And I've got two other stories that I'm hoping we might submit soon, but they're very different from what I've written for Atheneum so far. We'll see. Mostly I'm looking forward to being outside in Washington--summers here are fantastic. So I'll have to tear myself away from the laptop as much as possible.

Bio: Jennifer Bradbury is a former high school English teacher,

cross-country cyclist, Fulbright exchange teacher, and one day

Jeopardy! champion. Currently, she spends her days seeking balance

between her roles of stay at home mom to a lovely, demanding two-year

old and a writer of often incorrigible first drafts. So far, her own

manuscripts are more prone to tantrums than her daughter.

Website: www.jennifer-bradbury.com

Link: http://www.amazon.com/Shift-Jennifer-Bradbury/dp/1416947329/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210179056&sr=8-1

JB: Thank you, Jen! SHIFT sounds like a great book and I can't wait to read it! :)