Doing the Jammie Shuffle in LA

Hi guys,

I have to say, it has been once crazy summer. Unfortunately I don't mean I got to spend it with the always lovely 80's John Cusack and Demi Moore in beautiful Nantucket.

What I mean is that it has been one BUSY summer. The release date for THE SAVAGE GRACE is getting closer and I've been buried in writing and revisions. I apologize for not being as active on the blog as of late. But don't worry, there are lots of fun and exciting things to come. Speaking of which, the book cover for THE SAVAGE GRACE is really close to being released and I can't tell you how excited I am to share it. Patience. (That was as much for me as anyone else).

So I've just returned from the fabulous SCBWI LA conference with my lovely critique partners and best friends Brodi Ashton (EVERNEATH, Harper Collins Spring 2012) and Emily Wing Smith (BACK WHEN YOU WERE EASIER TO LOVE, Dutton - Available Now). It was an awesome trip full of fun, laughs, and surprises.

TOP TEN THINGS I learned from SCBWI LA:

1.) Lindsey Leavitt is a riot. Many of you may already know who Lindsey Leavitt is (author of THE PRINCESS FOR HIRE series and her latest book SEAN GRISWALD'S HEAD), but you may not know that she is exactly the kind of person you want to hang out with at a conference like this. She almost literally bounces of the walls with energy, and pushes you to make sure you are actually having a blast. Of course that also means when it is 3 am and your about to pass out from exhaustion and she's trying to order a pizza and chocolate cake from room service, it can be difficult to turn her off. GO TO BED LINDSEY!

2.) Guilt Tweeting works. Emily wasn't going to go with us this year for various reasons, but as soon as Brodi and I arrived at the airport without her, we both immediately missed her presence. In an effort to express our sadness at her not being there, both Brodi and I tweeted about how forlorn and despondent we were that she would not be attending with us. Next thing we know, we get a text from Emily, saying she'd booked a flight and was going to meet us in LA the next day. Woohoo!

3.) Gary Paulsen is crazy. . . but in an extremely entertaining way. Between his stories of being in a Mexican prison, dog sledding, and his *honest* opinions about publishing, this became very very clear.

4.) I GOT TO STAND THREE FEET AWAY FROM JUDY BLUME! Ok, I didn't actually learn anything from that, it was just really cool.


5.) If you put a whole bunch of writers in their pajamas, they turn it into a party! At first I was a little bummed that this year's ball was going to be a PJ party. Basically, that's what I wear to work nearly every day, and the ball at SCBWI is one of the few occasions that gives me an excuse to get a bit dressy. In the end, however, I think the pajamas made everyone a bit more relaxed and there was actually more people dancing. Lindsey can certainly bust a move in those PJs. The party went something like this...



6.) Brodi believes I must eat beef constantly, and insists this should be announced at regular intervals to everybody within a thirty foot radius.

7.) Apparently the only things I managed to take pictures of were Judy Blume and a book made out of chocolate. Obviously you can see where my priorities lie.


8.) I reaffirmed that I love Richard Peck. Seriously. What an awesome, sweet, and commanding speaker/writer/person.

9.) Gluten, dairy, egg free breakfast is nearly impossible to find in LA when you are in a hurry. I don't get it. I thought LA was all about catering to insane diet restrictions?

10.) On a related note, trail mix and water purchased from a hotel convenience store is as expensive as funding the next shuttle mission to Mars. But when you're allergic to everything else in the building and about to have a hypoglycemic attack… it'll do.

That's all for now. As I said, I've got a lot to share in the coming weeks and months as we get closer to THE LOST SAINT being released in paperback (this November) and THE SAVAGE GRACE in December.

SCBWI Contest Winners and Tenner Top Ten!

So the winners for the SCBWI Favorite Moments contest are as follows:

ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART TIME INDIAN: Windy Aphayrath

BREATHING: Bianca

KING DORK: Dani

Winners, please email me at readbree(at)gmail(dot)come with your mailing address, and I'll get your prize in the mail.


Also, I just posted my Tenner Top Ten over on The Tenners site. It's all about the top ten things I learned at my first author event. I'd love it if you'd pop over there and check it out! Be sure to leave a comment there so I know you stopped by.

Final Favorite SCBWI L.A. Moments--Finally! Also, Win Free Autographed Books!!

So I've been promising to finish up sharing my final favorite moments from the national SCBWI conference in L.A. for quite some time now--and give away the signed books I picked up while I was there. And, YAY, I'm finally gonna do it!

For a refresher of my first 6 favorite moments from SCBWI L.A. click here. Seriously, click there if you haven't read it. The "belly boobs" story is totally worth it.

So on with the favorite moments:

7. Getting to meet up with other Utah writers and authors at the conference. The Utah/Southern Idaho region really represented this year with 16 participants. We even got to get together in the hospitality room for a little social (but for some reason we were relegated to sitting on the floor).

Some Utah writing peeps . . . with "air quotes"

Me and Matt Kirby (THE CLOCKWORK THREE coming Fall 2010 from Scholastic)

Okay, so the last three moments are dedicated to the awesomeness that is Emily Wing Smith: BFF and cohort in crime. Here's the deal, I met Em a little about 9 years ago in a Y.A. writing class at BYU, then we met again at a writing conference at BYU about 5 years ago and decided to form a critique group. Our friendship has grown over the last few years, and we all championed Emily when she became the first in our little group to publish a book (THE WAY HE LIVED) and over the last couple of years, I think we've become pretty close friends . . . but I think I learned more about Emily Wing Smith in the few days we spent together in L.A. than I have in the almost decade since I met her. And let me tell you, that girl is one hilarious and amazing person with some serious cojones.

8. First of all: Emily is the queen of the "sidle." That girl has more guts and charisma than I could ever have when it came to sidling up to famous people at the Blue Moon Ball (of Belly Boobs fame) and striking up conversations. Thanks to Emily, we got to talk to Richard Peck (RICHARD PECK!!) for a good 30 minutes (30 MINUTES!!). Richard was so kind and wonderful and genuinely nice to us, and I would have never have had the guts to talk to him with Emily's sidling skillz.

Emily Wing Smith and Richard Peck (sporting a blue satin track suit)

Brodi Ashton, Richard Peck, and me

She also got us a picture with Jay Asher.

(Yes, that is Jay in the Austin Powers costume)

And here's a couple of us at the ball with other author friends that we love.

Brodi, Me, Emily, and Sydney Salter (MY BIG NOSE AND OTHER NATURAL DISASTERS)

Sydney, Matt Kirby, Brodi, Me, Emily

9. This might sound a bit insensitive but my next favorite moment was when Emily Wing Smith almost lost an eye . . .

Yeah, so we woke up Monday morning to discover that the TV show LIE TO ME was being filmed right outside our hotel room window. Brodi, Emily, and I stood out on the balcony and watched the hubbub for a few minutes. Then Emily went into the bathroom to clean her contacts so she could see better, and just as Brodi and I were calling to her to see if we could use her camera to take a few pics on the film crew . . . we heard Emily shriek in pain.

Brodi and I went running to the bathroom to see what was the matter and found Emily cupping her eye and trying not to scream. Apparently, she had grabbed Brodi's contact solution instead of her's, only Brodi's is the kind that you have to soak your contacts in for 6 HOURS! before you can put them back in your eyes. So basically, Emily had just put ACID in her eye. . . and she was so embarrassed about having used Brodi's contact solution without asking, she wouldn't tell us what had happened.

Luckily, Brodi and I figured it out . . . and I basically had to sit on top of Emily on the bed while Brodi sprayed a pint of saline solution directly into Emily's eye. But here's the truly funny part, the whole time Brodi and I were scrambling to save Emily's eye . . . she was more concerned about trying to tell us where her camera was so we could get a picture of the film set.

The whole situation is really quite funny in retrospect . . . but I'm sure Emily's eyeball would disagree.

10. When Emily Wing Smith tried to con her way onto a television show.

So Emily has always (okay for like 2 months now) had the dream of being an extra on a TV show, and is writing a novel about a girl who gets to be one. She even researched how to be an extra (become hot) and contemplated trying to find a show to be an extra on while we were in L.A.. Unfortunately, she realized the idea wouldn't realistically pan out . . . until we woke up to the TV show being filmed right outside our hotel. This is when Emily hatched her brilliant plan: she going to be an extra on that film set! At first Brodi and I thought she was kidding. I mean, nobody really has the guts to walk right onto a film set and try to be one of the actors, right?

Yeah, you don't know Emily.

We studied the background actors for a bit from our balcony: hot women in swanky dresses. Unfortunately, because Emily had FRIED one of her eyes, she had to wear her glasses, so we decided to go with the "sexy librarian" look. We got Em all dressed up, reapplied the makeup on the right side of her face that had gotten washed off when we doused her with saline solution, and Brodi pulled Em's hair into a cute little chignon. And them Brodi and I watched in utter amazement as Emily sidled her way past security and straight on to the film set as if she were one of the hired background actors. Seriously, I was freaking out the entire time!!

Hard to see, but that's Emily past security. When I started taking pictures of her, other people came rushing up to see if she was a famous person. Which she totally should be . . .

Emily was *this close* to convincing a head honcho (by bribing him with a sandwich) to let her be on the set, before someone else kicked her out. But did that deter our Emily? No. She turned around and tried again at a different entrance to the set. Alas, ultimately she didn't make it in as an extra, but we did get to watch for a bit while they filmed. And I didn't mind one teensy bit about missing the morning sessions of the conference in order to watch Emily try to fulfill a dream.

Perhaps someday we'll be able to go back to L.A. with her and really participate in a shoot. I wouldn't miss that for all the world!

Okay, that's it. All my fave moments from the conference. Like I've said before, I'm giving away the books I picked up while I was there. All you have to do if leave a comment on this post (or one of the other L.A. posts) in order to be entered into a drawing to win 1 of the following signed books:

THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART TIME INDIAN by Sherman Alexie

BREATHING by Cheryl Renee Herbsman

KING DORK by Frank Portman

The contest ends Monday, September 7th at noon. I'll post winners later that day.

Thanks for reading!!

A chance to win an ARC, a chance to help kids, and favorites from SCBWI L.A. Part 2

So let's put business first.

My blogger friend Taschima is having a mega-palooza on her blog and is giving away a ton of cool books--including a signed ARC of THE DARK DIVINE. So if you want a chance to win the book, head over there (after you read this post, of course) and check it out. She's also giving away an ARC of my Tenners pal Becca Fitzpatrick's HUSH HUSH. Which I would pretty much give my left arm for. (Anyone out there with an ARC of HUSH HUSH who's in need of an extra left arm?)

Secondly, if you're in Utah, you should definitely come to the 2nd Annual Writing for Charity event on August 29th. Spend a full day learning more about the craft of writing, how to get published, and even get the first page (the most important page) of your manuscript critiqued by a published author. The cost is only $45 if you preregister ($50 at the door), and all the proceeds go to helping low income kids. Over 20 authors are donating their time to the event, including Shannon Hale, Sara Zarr, Brandon Mull, and James Dashner. (And me--but those other authors are cooler.) Click here to check it out.

Okay, on to the fun stuff. More SCBWI L.A. favorite moments:

4. Getting to meet my publisher, Elizabeth Law . . . who mistook me for a 12 year old. Nice, huh? But I guess it's better to be mistaken for being almost 2 decades younger than 2 decades older. Elizabeth also gave my book a couple of big shout outs during both her keynote address and one of her breakout sessions. It was interesting to hear that she was dead-set against acquiring my book (without having read it) because she didn't want any paranormal romance on her list--that is until Greg and Regina MADE her agree to read the first 50 pages over a weekend. When she came into work the next Monday, the first thing she said was, "Daniel is SO hot! We have to buy this book." That made me smile for like an hour straight.

5. The Belly Boobs incident. Really, Brodi tells this story better than I ever could . . . so I'm totally copying and pasting the following from her blog (Hope you don't mind Bro, but um, you DID eat all my brownies.) :

Saturday night of the conference was the Blue Moon Ball in the courtyard of the hotel.
There was a shortage of elevators in the hotel, and so the wait to get one was always long, and once it arrived, it may or may not be too full.

Brodi and Bree were waiting for an elevator to take us down to the Ball, and Brodi was explaining to Bree why she couldn't possibly get away with not wearing a bra.

Below is the recap, in extra slow motion so you can benefit from the timing of it all.

*Brodi and Bree, waiting to see which of the four elevators will ding*

Brodi: "I really can't go anywhere without a bra."

Bree: "Why not?" *Elevator Dings*

Brodi: "Because I end up looking like Kathy Lee Gifford." *Arrow Lights Up*
*It happens to be the elevator in front of Brodi, and toward which she is now facing, two feet away*

Bree: "What's wrong with looking like Kathy Lee Gifford?"

me: "Seriously? I have two words for you." *Doors Open to a packed elevator car, all of whom are staring at Brodi, who is also staring back*

me: "Belly Boobs!"

Awkward silence as we all just stand there, looking at each other. Bree and Brodi can't fit on, and Bree's across the room anyway, so it's just Brodi still staring. Doors close.

Bree starts laughing hysterically.

Brodi (turning reluctantly to Bree): "Did I really just shout 'belly boobs' to an elevator full of people?"

Bree: nods, still laughing.

So, their doors opened, and there was this girl, just waiting to say 'belly boobs'. Almost like it was some sort of password to get on the elevator or something.

And why is it that people in an elevator have absolutely no sense of humor? The inside of a packed elevator is more somber than a freakin' funeral home. Nobody even cracked a smile. It was like I had said 'belly boobs' and everyone inside the car was thinking, ah, belly boobs. Yes. Interesting point.

And yes, this is pretty much exactly what happened. Except that there was a HUGE dog in the elevator too--which just made the whole incident even more surreal. For more of Brodi's hilarious stories, be sure to check out her blog here.

Okay, this post is getting really long . . . and I have at least 2 or 3 more favorite moments to share, so we'll have to adjourn until a "Part 3" post. Be sure to comment so you'll be entered into my drawing for books I picked up at the conference. (Including an autographed copy of ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART TIME INDIAN!!!) And even if you commented on the last post, you can get a second entry into the drawing by commenting again.

And to make Brodi feel better, you can always share an embarrassing moment of your own with the group :)

Favorite Moments from SCBWI L.A.: Part One

So I think the maniacal bunny men are sufficiently subdued enough (and the kids are finally asleep!) for me to blog about my many adventures from SCBWI L.A.!! There's so much to tell, I think I'll have to sift it down to my favorite moments--and probably break it into more than one post. So here we go:

1. Almost missing the plane to L.A.--and no, I didn't sleep in and get to the airport late. In fact, I got up at 3:30 in the morning and got to the airport by 5:00 am for my 6:00 flight. My BFFs, and conference buddies, Brodi Ashton and Emily Wing Smith got there shortly after me. We sat there waiting for our flight to be called . . . and waited and waited and waited some more . . . until the guy with the little microphone suddenly called out in a very snippy voice, "Passengers Ashton, Despain, and Smith, this is your final call. Are you planning on joining us this morning?!"

The snippy man with the microphone claims that he called our flight several times, and called our names individually several times. But I still think he was lying. I mean, we were staring right at him the whole time . . . But anyway, we made it onto the already filled plane just in time, and apart from poor Brodi's eardrum almost bursting mid-flight, we made it to the conference without a hitch.

2.The Tenners Meet The Bloggers Lunch: One of the best things I did while in L.A. was to get to meet some of my fellow tenners, and some of the awesome YA bloggers I've made friends with on twitter. Fellow Tenners were Kim Derting, Lindsey Leavitt, Christy Raedeke, Jennifer Cervantes, Suzanne Young, Denise Jaden, and Matthew Kirby. And a few other authors showed up, too. Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (Beautiful Creatures), along with Jay Asher (Thirteen Reasons Why) and even Holly Black (Spiderwick Chronicles) was there for a bit.

The bloggers included Catt from The Dreamer Reader, Alicia from Shooting Stars Mag, Vania from Reverie Book Reviews, and Khy from Frenetic Reader. Some of the bloggers came with their moms--who I think are some of the coolest moms I've ever met!! I mean, any mom who would drive their teenage daughters out to meet a bunch of authors are totally awesome in my book.

(Khy, Catt, and Alicia--3 of my favorite bloggers! Too bad I can't get the picture bigger.)

Khy and her Mom made each of authors a cool gift bag full of specific presents based on our blog posts and our books.

My bag included:

A purple matchbox Mustang . . . Because I LOVE Mustangs and will eventually buy myself one someday.

Purple duct tape, so hubby can make me something cool to wear out of it.

A box of pastels . . .Because the MC in my book is an artists and needs a new box of pastels.

And a box of Ghiredelli Brownie Mix bigger than my head! (Because I'm a chocoholic.) The box was so big I couldn't fit it into my suitcase so Brodi offered to carry it home for me . . .Hey, wait a second, I haven't gotten those back yet!!

(Me with the brownie box bigger than my head. Seriously, Bro, where are my brownie?!)

The other cool thing about lunch is that I got to share chips and salsa with the awesome Jay Asher.

(This is Jay sitting across from me at the restaurant wearing an Egyptian hat given to him by Khy. I know the picture is really fuzzy, but I put it in here to prove that I really did eat lunch with JAY ASHER!!)

3. Meeting Sherman Alexie . . .and he LOVED our shirts. At the beginning of the conference, each member of the faculty was forced to share one word with the nearly 1000 conference goers in the audience. After many got up to share inspirational words like hope, listen, acceptance, Sherman Alexie got up and said, "Inappropriate." Well, we were all already crushing on Sherman's brilliance and plotting a way to get to meet him, so hearing that gave us the perfect plan. You see, Brodi, Emily, and I all made "bad review" shirts in order to "wear" the things people had said about our books. Well, Emily's shirt just happened to say "inappropriate" because of a ridiculous B&N review of her book . . . So we knew we HAD to show our shirts to Sherman. So anyway, Sherman LOVED out shirts and was happy to take a picture with us.

Me: Blasphemous (and looking very shiny), Sherman the Awesome, Emily: Inappropriate, and Brodi: Violent

Okay, wow, this post is getting long . . .and we're only 24 hours into the conference. Let's adjourn for now, but be sure to leave a comment. For everyone who comments on this (and future) SCBWI L.A. posts will be entered into a drawing to win one of three awesome AUTOGRAPHED books I picked up at the conference.