More links

I've rounded up a few more guest blogs and interviews that have popped up recently.  Enjoy! Guest Blogs

LITFEST Magazine - The craziness of vegetarians (yes, I am one). Melissa Walker's blog - Cover Stories: Freefall (where I share some inside scoop about my book's cover)

Interviews Book Chic - Fresh New Voice of YA (find out my favorite TV show, Jelly Belly jelly bean flavor, and job that I've had. Through the Looking Glass - Inside the Writer's Studio (what am I working on now and what turns me on and off?) Wastepaper Prose - Author Insight (This is actually a weekly feature where several authors each answer the same question. You can click the Author Insight Series label at the bottom of the post to read many more questions and answers.) Jen Nadol's Blog - Book Briefs (Brief questions, brief answers, all about books!) Number One Novels - Interview (Includes a very detailed description of what inspired me to write Freefall.)

Blog: A memory of a dysfunctional friendship

When I was fifteen, I was friends with a girl who decided that to "strenghten our friendship" we should each tell one thing we didn't like about the other's appearance. 

I wasn't really sure how that was going be a good thing, but she went first and said, "I don't like it when you wear combs in your hair.  Everytime you show up for school like that I'm like, 'No!  Not the combs!'  I just thought you should know."

By the way, they were this kind:                                                                       Not this kind:

                                       

I blinked at her, feeling a bit like I'd been slapped and said, "Oh."

She got all smiley and said, "Your turn! What don't you like about me sometimes?"

Honestly, there wasn't really anything that made me look at her and think,"No!  How could she humiliate me by looking like THAT?!"  I had enough insecurities about my own appearance to worry about what my friends looked like. 

I didn't particularly care for her haircut, but I knew that she liked it a lot.  And saying, "I think your hair would look better longer" wasn't as easy a fix for her as me not wearing the combs.  But she was waiting for an answer so I said the first thing that came to my mind, "Sometimes I wish you wouldn't wear so much eyeshadow."

The thing is, it wasn't even true! 

Afterward, she talked about how this had made us better friends because we knew we could always be honest with each other.  Secretly, I didn't agree because I hadn't been honest at all. I felt like she'd attacked me and that she'd goaded me into attacking her back.  It made me feel kind of awful at the time.  It made me feel kind of awful today--eighteen years later--when I remembered that it happened.
 
(And I know she'll never read this, but if somehow she does: I never thought your eyeshadow looked bad. You always did a great job with your makeup.)

LITFEST Magazine blogs

I'm writing guest blogs on Mondays for LITFEST magazine during the month of November.  So far, I've written about Life Above the Basement and How an Opening Band Stole she Show... and My Heart. If you check out the blogs and then send a quick email to editor [at] litfestmagazine [dot] com, you'll be entered to win a copy of Freefall.  It sounds like there will be a new winner each week, so there are still three chances at this time.  :-)

I added a new diary entry.

I let this feature slide for a few weeks, but I've now typed up more diary entries from when I was a teen. One new entry will be posting every Monday moving forward.  (I have them in the queue until mid-January,  so that gives me time to add even more in the coming months.) Now that my diary from age 13 is finished, everything I post now will be chronological from age 14 on.

In this week's installment, 14-year-old Mindi ponders her feelings for a certain boy named "Curt."  This is going to be a recurring theme for quite a while!  :-)

Blog: Photos and more of Five Tenners on October 30th!

On the day before Halloween, Chelsea Campbell (THE RISE OF RENEGADE X), Denise Jaden (LOSING FAITH), Karen Kincy (OTHER), me, and Kimberly Derting (THE BODY FINDER) all got together to talk about writing and books at Uppercase Books in Snohomish, Washington. 

Look!  Here's proof!

It was fun to get to see all of these ladies again! We first met up almost a year ago for lunch in Bellingham (along with Caitlin Kittredge and Phoebe Kitanidis). At that time, we were a month from the start of our debut year.  Since then, I feel like we've all bonded a lot.  Some of us have been able to make it out for each other launch parties and we've had endless contact online through the Tenners.  Denise and I, especially, have had a lot to talk about in the past year since we're both Pulse authors with the same publicist and release dates that happened to be only one month apart! 

Karen set this event up for us, and I am very appreciative!  We each spoke a little about our books, and then the rest of the time was spent taking LOTS of great questions from the audience.  We kind of got a rhythm going where we'd start at one end and then work out way across so that everyone could hear from each of us on the topics at hand.  I, personally, found it really interesting getting to hear about the similarities and differences in each of the publication journeys and creative processes. I think we probably gave the audience a pretty good variety of answers to mull over.

Since it was the day before Halloween, we all decided to be a little bit festive and decorate our heads.  Here's a more close-up group picture so you can see:

Chelsea is wearing a pumpkin hat that she knitted (or crocheted?),  Karen has a witch hat, Denise has a fluffy halo, I'm in black cat ears, and Kim has little bats above her head!

Thank you again, to Karen, for organizing and to Uppercase Books for having us!  And thank you to the people who came to see us and chat with us.   I hope we can all do it again soon!