Nocturnal Animals, Hubby Watches New Moon, and I Need YOUR Help

1. So KidA (my 3 year old who just turned 4) said to me the other day: "Mom, I wish we were nocturnal." And ever since then, he's been determined to make this happen. His brilliant plan: "I'm gunna sleep all morning, so then I can stay up all night. And then I can use my eye-shine to see other animals in the dark."

So far he's holding true on the trying to stay up all night part. Don't know how many times I'll have to tell him to go to sleep tonight. The only problem is, the kid still gets up at 6:30 and wakes me up to feed him breakfast. I. Am. Not. A. Fan. Of. This.

2. After months of refusing to be in the same room as me and Taylor Lautner (after the incident in which he caught me grinning like a school girl while watching Taycob on SNL) Hubby finally agreed to watch NEW MOON with me. (And when I say agreed, I mean that he's the one who actually suggested that we rent the movie.) Anyway, hubs and I snuggled up on the couch for a night of Twilightly fun (and I managed to keep my drooling to a minimum) and the best part of the evening was listening to hubby's many observations about the movie.

Here are a few of my favorite:

A) Okay, seriously, how did they get that kid so buff? Cuz I want whatever they gave him.

B) How come the other werewolves don't have rock hard abs, too? Isn't supposed to be part of the whole werewolf package?

C) Tell me again why does Bella likes Edward?

D) Whoa, they actually made that wolf look pensive.

E) Okay, so I kind of get why you have a crush on that Jacob guy.

F) Eew. Does Edward have a third nipple?

G) What was with Bella and Edward wearing those 1920s clothes while running through the forest?

H) So I'm pretty sure the wolf was the best actor in that movie.

Needless to say, it was a very entertaining evening.


3. Calling all Book Bloggers, Authors, Industry Professionals, and Readers: I need your help, peeps!

I'm teaching a class this Friday about paranormal fiction, and I'd love to get a wide range of opinions and input from all of you to put into my speech. I have a series of questions for y'all, and I'm kind of hoping to spark a bit of debate.

In exchange for your help, I'm having a contest.
For each of the questions you answer below, you'll get an entry into a drawing for a $25 Amazon gift certificate (or to your favorite book retailer). And, as always, promoting the contest will get you more entries to the contest.

Here are the questions:

A. What is the difference between Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy?

B. Why do you think YA Paranormal Romance is so popular?

C. What trends are do see as being hot right now (or in the near future) in the YA paranormal romance genre?

D. What trends seem overdone? Any clichés writers may want to avoid?

E. What makes a favorite YA paranormal romance novel really stand out from the pack?

I need to put my class together, so this contest is a short one. You have until Wednesday, April 21st at Noon MST to get your answers in.

Can't wait to read what y'all have to say!

Lots O' Stuff Happening

Hey all-

Sorry for the blog silence. I turned in TLS and pretty much ran out of words for a couple of weeks. And now my wonderful, glorious, revision letter is here from Editor Greg, so I'm psyching myself up for a few more weeks of crazy busy writing and Thai take-out. If you want to know how most authors feel about revision letters, CLICK HERE.

In the meantime, I'm going to be up to all sorts of shenanigans during the next little while. And I think you guys should join me!! Here's the rundown so you'll know when and where:

1. I'm participating in the YAlitchat Made from Awesome Mega Chat that will be taking place today (April 14th) and Thursday (April 15th) on Twitter. There will be some super awesome YA authors participating in the chat both nights, so all you have to do is go onto twitter and search for #YAlitchat. You can ask authors questions, or just follow along. And there's even an after-party over at the MundieMoms site.

Schedule and authors participating:

Night I April 14 @ 9-11PM EST
Melissa Marr, A.S. King, Becca Fitzpatrick, Lisa McMann, Ellen Hopkins, Margaret Stohl, Carrie Ryan, Alyson Noel

Night II April 15 @ 9-11PM EST
Holly Black, Michelle Zink, Scott Westerfeld, Kami Garcia, Cassandra Clare, Bree Despain, James Dashner, Sarah Rees Brennan

Sounds awesome, right? I'm totally fangirling over some of those names myself.

2. Utah peeps: I will be at the WHAT A WOMAN WANTS SHOW this Friday and Saturday (April 16th &17th). If you are going to be there, be sure to stop by a say hello. I'll be handing out free TDD nail polish and bookmarks, and will be signing and selling books. I'll be there periodically on Friday, but I will for sure be signing from 11:00am to 1:00pm on Saturday. I'll be at booth 229 with the Little Stinker crew.
(Want free tickets to the show? Email me and I'll send you some.)

3. I'm teaching at the LDStorymakers Conference in Provo, Utah on April 24th! If you haven't registered for the conference yet, you can do so up through April 15th. (Um, I guess that's tomorrow.)

4. I'm going to be at BEA in May and ALA in June!! If you're going to be at either event, be sure to come say hello to me.

5. I'll be at the Writing For Young Readers Conference in June. This is honestly one of the best conferences in the country. This will be my 8th year in attendance!! It used to be held at BYU, but this year it's at a new venue in Sandy, Utah. For more info, CLICK HERE. (Note: I am not teaching at this conference, but I will be participating as a student.)

6. I'll be at my friend Sarah DeFord Williams' book launch party this Saturday at The King's English at 2:00 for her debut MG novel, PALACE BEAUTIFUL. Can't wait!

7. Not an event, but just wanted to say that good things are happening for TDD. Sales are steady and strong, and according to this press release from Egmont, THE DARK DIVINE is in its 3RD PRINTING!!!

Okay, that's all for now. Sorry to be one of those authors who only blogs about announcements (Don't you hate those authors?!) but I promise I'll get back to more interesting posts once things calm down with TLS a bit. I have all sorts of pictures and fun tidbits to share with y'all.