Jube Jels Where are You???

First off, I must apologize for not posting the Proust Questionnaire yesterday on Cynthia Omololu. Being out of the groove with that for a month made me forget. So I'll just wait to post it until next Thursday. Speaking of next Thursday, if I forget to post the Questionnaire (oy, Julie! You're already thinking you'll forget??), the reason is that I will be speaking that morning at a high school to about 500 students about writing. Dang. I have nothing prepared as of yet. I am much better at speaking to middle schoolers. Or at least, I think I am. I have never actually spoken to a theater filled with high school students. What the frig am I going to say? I have 45 minutes! I'll let you know how it goes.

On to what's truly important: jube jels. Why has Brach's tortured me by not producing enough of their delicious Jube Jel Hearts? I found a bag at Target about a month ago, ate too much of it, threw it out so I wouldn't keep eating, and then, when I went back the next weekend to buy another bag (because that's how I do) they were gone. And they've been gone ever since. From EVERYWHERE. Seriously. If you can find me a bag of Jube Jel Hearts, I will send you a copy of one of my books. Really. So, go forth and find me some Jube Jels! My success next Thursday depends on it (um, not really, but I sure am jonezing for them. Damn you, Brach's!).

Super Bowl of Bedbugs

The only time I have ever watched the Super Bowl is when the '85 Bears were doing the Super Bowl Shuffle. I still know most of the words. If other football teams would make hilariously bad songs and videos, perhaps I would be more interested. Not really. I'm too busy watching "Hoarders" to watch the Super Bowl. Man this show is jacked up. One episode I watched had a house filled with bedbugs. So disgusting. I was itchy for days. Matt can't watch the show anymore. He's in the shower now, though, so I can enjoy. Or whatever it is that one does when they watch "Hoarders." I think it would be sick to enjoy it. I read an article about the show where they said they once found 34 dead cats underneath a pile of junk. Say what? How can I not be fascinated by this?

In non-hoarding news, I received the best email from my editor. She said she thought my third novel was brilliant [when you send a manuscript off to your editor, you then have to wait around with fingers crossed that they will say they like it. And eventually you receive a puffy envelope with some typed suggestions for the overall book, as well as the entire manuscript with little changes throughout]), and that I would receive one of the lightest edits from her ever (except for my lamely rushed ending, which I totally know I have to fix). I forwarded the email to my agent, and she said she hasn't seen a letter like that from my editor in a long time. I still kind of don't believe both of them, like they are just trying to be overly nice, but maybe not? Sure made me feel good! The more positive feedback I receive on my writing, the more confident I am about it. Isn't that pathetic? I know I should just be proud of my art, or whatever, but I have never been one to enjoy a "critique." I want people to like my work. So nyah.

Excuse me, I think I see a cat sticking out of my pile of manuscripts over there... [Lamest blog ending ever.]

Proust Questionnaire Thursday! Today's Special Guest: Amy Brecount White!

Amy Brecount White's debut novel, Forget-Her-Nots, drops (ha! I sound like such a tool when I use that word. So I shall use it as oft as possible) March 2. Her website has a very handy list of the meanings of flowers from the book. I give you basil! Figure it out!

The following questions are based on James Lipton's questions from Inside the Actors Studio, which, in turn, are based on the Proust Questionnaire. One of the questions is about swearing, so please excuse our French.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present Amy Brecount White!

1. What is your favorite word? serendipity
2. What is your least favorite word? sucks
3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? The scent of flowers. Muffins baking. Cool mountain air.
4. What turns you off creatively, spiritually or emotionally? Loud noises. Discord. Icky smells.
5. What sound or noise do you love? A silvery flute.
6. What sound or noise do you hate? My kids fighting.
7. What is your favorite curse word? Merde.
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? I'd love to run a flower conservatory with a bookstore and coffee shop!
9. What profession would you not like to do? Politician. I need my down time.
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? I just want a smile.

Next week's author: Cynthia Omololu!

Books and Boobs

I know I have been an irresponsible blogger once again. It’s just that my brain is JAM PACKED with stuff right now, and I am almost overwhelmed with thoughts. My future holds many possibilities, and it’s been hard to wrap my head around one single thought for too long. To those authors who filled out the Proust Questionnaires: I promise to start them up again next Thursday. None of my possibilities are bad, just so you know, but there are a lot of ducks to wrestle into a row, and I don’t exactly know which ducks I’m wrestling yet. Does anyone know what I’m talking about?

In book news: I sent off the manuscript to my editor and agent for novel #3 last week, and now I have the Julie pain of wondering and wondering when when when I will hear anything. I also proposed novel #5 last week, too, and am waiting to hear back about that. I am not a good waiter. At all. And I think I’d be a bad waiter of tables, as well. Cause I’m kind of clumsy. And my wrists are bad. The real question I am sure you’re all asking is: what happened to novel #4??? Well, I can’t tell you much about that one, but what I can tell you is that it is going to be AWESOME and HILARIOUS and DIFFERENT. More on that some day. But I can’t wait to tell you all!

In non-important news: I am seriously disturbed by plastic surgery. I always knew it was disturbing that people are so blasted with incorrect and improbable body images from the media that they feel that they have to have ELECTIVE SURGERY to change things. That is so jacked up, says the person who is needle phobic. But lately, I just feel really really really grossed by it, mostly thanks to Heidi Montag. I have never even seen this person on anything except TMZ and in magazines, so I don’t get her deal, but how could someone so young be such a plastic surgery freak? She’s on the cover of People, and inside, her tool of a husband (I can only assume he’s a tool for even allowing his wife to be so delusional that she not only spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on surgery, but she feels bad enough about herself to do so) said something about how no one should ever have to see someone they love in so much pain. You think? SO WHY DO IT?!?!?!?! I can’t stop thinking about it. Can you?

The Book Stall Adventure!

Thank you so much to everyone who came out to The Book Stall in Winnetka this past Saturday to see Beverly Patt and Kristina Springer, and I chat about our books and writing for teens! The audience was a neat mix of my family (always), my amazing friends, some of my sweet students, and I think some members of a writing group. I actually preferred speaking on a panel to doing my own reading. It was fun answering the same questions and hearing everyone's different answers. I think the only people who bought books were me and the authors buying each others books. Maybe not. It was still fun! Here are the glamorous pictures (note my hair. I had it cut that morning, and I think the blow dry and straightening make me look a little like Mary Tyler Moore).

Chatting before the big event.













Beverly reading from her book, HAVEN.













Kristina, THE ESPRESSOLOGIST!














Me, looking weird. But whatever.













Me and Kristina with her GIANT coffee mug.

35

This Thursday, I turn 35. I don't know if it's a big deal yet. My friends, all older than me (I skipped kindergarten, so everyone I grew up with was always older), said it was a hard one. Half way. I thought they meant half way to 70, which seemed funny to think about, but what they meant was that it's half way to FORTY. I guess that's getting somewhere. Maybe I don't mind because I have already lived a very fulfilling life? Not that my friends haven't, but maybe that's what we're supposed to freak out about? Like we're supposed to feel fat if we're size 10s and we're supposed to feel awful when we see an age-appropriate laugh line and we're supposed to feel old when we're forty? The more I say it, the more I am a little worried that I will be upset. I think it's less about looking and feeling older than it is about the passage of time. Because that scares me, and always has. The inevitable. Ig. I'm freaking myself out. So what do I want for my birthday? I want a super long day, where I can spend a million hours with my husband and daughter, no stress about going to work the next day, where I can eat all I want and not get too full or too guilty or too fat, and where the day ends with an amazingly huge book/movie deal that means I won't have to go to work for a few years, at least until Romy is in school, and then I can settle back in at my awesome middle school library job. If I don't tell anyone these wishes, maybe they'll come true? Um, if that's the case, I hope you didn't read this post.

2010!

Good morning, and a Happy New Year to one and all! It's frakking cold out (no, I don't watch "Battlestar Galactica." I probably would like it, but I am not committed to starting a new show right now. However, I am dorkish enough that I know of "frak." So that's the story on that.), and I am getting the blues about going back to work. I love having every day to wake up and play with my daughter. Sigh. Being a working mom kind of sucks.

In the good (no-- great!) news area, I just saw that INTO THE WILD NERD YONDER has made the list of 2009 Cybils Finalists for Young Adult Fiction! How cool is that? Only seven books made the list! And they are all books on my "to read" list. I'm not just saying that. A middle school librarian does have a "to read" list. The winner will be announced on Valentine's Day (also the 10th anniversary of my first date with my husband!). Thank you, Cybils!

In more bookly news, the new novel is coming together. I finished typing it up, so it is technically ready to send to my editor. HOWEVER, I am going to experiment with something, which hopefully won't bomb and be a huge waste of my time. I'll start that after my winter break.

So what have I been doing over break? Let's see: We went to visit the in-laws in South Carolina (I look forward to not being on an airplane or in a hotel room with Romy for a while. Unless, of course, we decide to head to Disney World. I'm always up for that.). I've read a few books: The wonderful, upcoming sequel to LIFE AS WE KNEW IT, THIS WORLD WE LIVE IN (I don't know how Susan Beth Pfeffer spent three books in that scary, depressing, foodless world! I get anxiety just thinking about it); The Duggars' book, 20 and Counting! (I am learning a lot about raising a gigantic family. Which I will never have.), and the book of short stories, SIDESHOW (with a long subtitle that I do not feel like typing). My favorite story was by Cecil Castellucci about, well, something that has always grossed me out: yeast. The whole book got me thinking that it might be time for me to write my circus book. I am somewhat of a circus history buff, and with the horrible news that the Circus World Museum has closed (I still have to call to confirm), it looks like a sign. Stay tuned.

Going out to breakfast now. I have eaten my way through this vacation. I even pulled a box of Swedish Fish out of the garbage yesterday that I originally threw out to stop myself from eating. That worked.

Happy new year! I think it's going to be a really great one.