Last Call!

See you there??

Freebies!

Okay, I admit, I LOVE free stuff!  Anyone who saw me in action at BEA or ALA knows this to be true.  So imagine how happy I was when I was tooling around on iTunes yesterday, not even looking for freebies when I came across a free download of one of my all time favorite books, THE ALCHEMIST by Paul Coelho-- as read by Jeremy Irons!  To get yours, just visit the iTunes store and click on audiobooks-- but hurry, the offer ends July 15!

And then today, I came across THIS. 

For those of you not wanting to click, it's a free download of Sherrilyn Kenyon's SEIZE THE NIGHT, in celebration of her upcoming release, ACHERON, the latest in her dark-hunter series. It's a new marketing tool a lot of publisher's are employing-- giving away free downloads of an earlier book (for a limited time) to gain interest in a new one-- and I think it's a great idea!

And if you're interested in winning an entire grab bag of free books, then just click HERE.

Oh, and if you're looking to visit a cafe where you can hang out for free for as long as you like, then head on over to the Teen Fiction Cafe. We're talking about friendships this week, and we're delighted that two new friends have joined us: the amazing Sara Zarr and Stephanie Kuehnert, so please stop by and say hi!

And of course, for free entertainment this weekend, stop by ROCK 'N' READ for a rockin' good time.  All of the details are HERE!

Have a good day everyone!

Rock 'n' Out!

Today's post is dedicated to Rock. Partly because my husband came home last night with a wii and the Rock Band game to go with it. And since my niece and nephew are in town for their annual surf camp visit, we all stayed up past midnight totally rockin' out--and we had so much fun this is now, officially, my favorite thing to do. It fulfills my greatest rock star fantasy and after getting a perfect score singing Bon Jovi's WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE-now all I have to do is work on my scissor kicks and I am so totally there!

Also, in the spirit of rock-- Rock 'n' Read is happening this Sunday, July 13, at 3:00 pm at the Virgin Megastore on Hollywood & Highland- and it promises to be, well, a rockin' good time!  There will be bands, authors, raffles, etc. I'm really looking forward to it and I hope to see you there too! For more information click HERE

Rock on everyone!

Independence Day!

That's what's on the menu today! My husband (the chef in this family) started cooking yesterday, and the scents and smells drifting down the hallway and into my office are temp-ting-- to say the least! (And it's ALL from scratch-- he even makes his own ice-cream!)

I'm looking forward to a relaxing day of friends, food, the beach, and, of course fireworks! (Oh, and a couple of hours of writing as well)!

Hope your 4th is wonderful too!

Tales From ALA

This photo was taken at last year's ALA conference in Washington D.C. during a panel I was on with (from L to R) our moderator, Sherman Alexie, Cecily Von Ziegesar, me, and Laurie Halse Anderson.

Why am I showing you a photo from last year? Partly because I never got around to actually posting it last year, but mostly because I forgot to bring my camera to this year's ALA conference, which just so happened to take place in my hometown of Orange County, CA. And after navigating the freeways, finding a parking space, and then walking (in 4" wedges) all the way to Hall A, only to discover I'd left my camera behind, I was not about to go back and get it.

And even though I didn't get to document it, I had an absolute blast signing a ton of books- copies of both CRUEL SUMMER and SAVING ZOE-- so many copies I even ran out of the bookmarks I'd brought (and nope, I wasn't going home for those either!). I met a ton of awesome librarians, as well as the daughters and granddaughters of librarians. I even met the librarian at my old high school who brought me a picture of a display that they made in my honor--including my yearbook photo! See below:


And, of course, no ALA is complete without carting away a couple bags of free books. But unlike BEA where I went a little overboard, (um, 82 books anyone?), this time I kept it reasonable (17). And I even managed to snag a few ARCS I've been really wanting to read, including Brooke Taylor's UNDONE, and Stephanie Kuehnert's I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE. Now all I need is some quiet time so I can actually sit down and read them!

Oh, and the awesome Robin over at FOLUSA made me a copy of my READ poster (shown here with my my collection of ALA ARCs). Please ignore messy office credenza it's propped on!


A mess that probably won't get cleaned up anytime soon as July promises to be extremely busy, what with my niece and a nephew's annual surf camp visit, my 4th of July beach and fireworks party, Rock 'N' Read on July 13 (save the date!), the RWA conference in San Fran (my first ever, can't wait!), oh, and did I mention I'm on deadline????

Back to work for me--- Happy July 1st everyone!