Clearing out e-mail and found this, which I forgot to post ages ago:

Stella Madison has food in her blood. She simply does want to admit it. Her father is an internationally known chef and her mother owns a restaurant in town, and although Stella wants no part of the food industry, she is offered a summer internship at the local newspaper—writing about food. The other characters are fresh, and each adds a rich presence. With her too-good-to-be-true boyfriend Max; her wild-and-crazy friends, Kat and Livvy; Jeremy, the hot new intern at her mother's restaurant; a levelheaded mother; and a globe-trotting father, Stella sometimes loses center stage. What gives the book an edge on most pink-lit books is what happens to Stella as she writes her weekly food column. After the usually shaky beginning, she discovers that she knows more about food than she ever wanted to admit, and realizes why her journalism teacher recommended her for the internship— her writing is humorous, edgy, and honest. Her columns and this book make a fun anytime read. Reviewer: C. J. Bott

I heart VOYA, and I especially appreciate this reviewer's line about having "an edge on most pink-lit books." The idea that pink books do not equal fluff was central to the breakout session Liz Gallagher and I presented at ALAN last Monday. Our session was titled "Shine a Light on Gutsy Girls," and while our handout contained recommendations for books that feature typical gutsy girls (like, those who perform heroic acts), what Liz and I both wanted to highlight was our definition of gutsy, which boils down to something like this: ordinary girls dealing with ordinary problems in extraordinary ways. Translation: the kind of female characters we both like to write. The premise of the session was to not only highlight less-typical "gutsy girls," but also to give educators an idea of how to get non-traditional classroom books into the hands of their female students, who could then read these books and see different models of behavior. To us, these books are every bit as important as the novels that you see again and again in middle and high school curriculum.

BTW, for the breakout, our team - which also included educator Rachel Kizer and her daughter, fellow YA authoress Amber Kizer, both of whom couldn't make it due to swine flu - prepared an amazing, resource-rich packet. In addition to selected book recommendations, we included movie and web site tie-ins, handouts emphasizing curriculum connections, a list of our favorite book review sites/blogs, and more. Any educators who read this blog and are interested in receiving a copy of the packet, please leave a comment with your contact info and I'll see what I can do about getting you the materials electronically!

Sunday, 11/23

Boarded an early flight to Atlanta, where I caught another flight to San Antonio, for the ALAN conference. Checked into my hotel around 1:30 p.m. local time, took a 15-minute stroll around the Riverwalk, and then back to my room for a hot shower, a little relaxing, and then some major primping. Met my speaking agent, Catherine Balkin of Balkin Buddies, for drinks in the hotel's lobby at 4 p.m. Then met up with the Random House crew and walked over to the Marriott for the ALAN cocktail reception. Spoke to two very nice, bubbly teachers from a Catholic school and discussed how to get an institution with a very strict moral doctrine to accept books into the curriculum that went against that doctrine. (My answer: if parents pay all of this money to go to a school that will instill strong moral values into them, then why do they thing reading a book that goes against those values will immediately strip said children of all morals?) Got to meet some friends I've known online for a while, like the lovely and fabulous Jennifer Lynn Barnes (aka jenlyn_b), as well as catch up briefly with old friends like David Lubar (aka davidlubar) and E. Lockhart (aka e_lockhart). Eventually was shuttled off with the Random House crew to a dinner in a wine cellar, where I got to meet with several spunky teachers and a newish RH editor who looks half my age but was so smart and fun and really made dinner a delight. Had to leave the dinner early due to a disagreement my stomach had with the salmon and ended up missing this kick-ass authors-only party. At hotel, tried to watch WILDCATS on TV but passed out at 10:30 p.m. Ah, the glamorous life!

Monday, 11/24

Woke up around 7 due to fiance calling and forgetting that I didn't have to be up until 8. Got a few more minutes of shut-eye before hauling self up and getting ready for the day's activities, which included speaking on a panel with David Levithan, Laura Ruby (aka lauraruby), and Tanya Lee Stone (aka tanyaleestone). The panel was called "I Feel Good: Positive Portrayals of Sex in YA Novels," and it was wonderful except for the fact that we all felt like we were preaching to the converted (we were a breakout session instead of a general session). The highlight of the panel: when David Levithan suggested we break the last tabu of sex in the YA novel - the orgy - and write the book as a "group project." I laughed so hard he thought he was giving me a heart attack. Oh, my goodness! Got to meet (and hug) Coe Booth (aka coebooth), spent 20 seconds telling Virginia Euwer Wolf how she inspired me at the beginning of my love affair with YA, and signed some books. Throughout the day I got to spend chunks of time with Jen and her good friend, Ally Carter, who's absolutely delightful. I also got to have a few short conversations with John Green, who I'd somehow never met in person, and was shocked to find out that he gets nervous before speaking in public. Jen, Ally, and I had all bonded over our collective fear of the cocktail party. Put me on a stage and I can talk like nobody's business, but stick me in a social setting and I want to blend into the walls. Got to hear maybe five minutes of John's speech before rushing out to meet my ride to the airport. Flew back on a direct flight and got home a full forty minutes before expected. Crashed hard.

Tuesday, 11/25

Decompressed from trip. Unpacked, did laundry, caught up on some DVR'd TV, rebonded with dog. Was fortunate to have finished 98% of all holiday cooking supplies prior to leaving, but that night had to hit two grocery stores to find suitable stuffing mushrooms and two liquor stores to find a small bottle of Frangelica (a vital ingredient in my mother's semi-famous pumpkin and sausage soup). Picked up Chinese takeout and then spent the rest of the evening just hanging with Joe.

Wednesday, 11/26
Was supposed to spend the whole day cooking, but spent most of the morning answering e-mail and catching up on online business. Worked on a freelance project and got the call that Joe was getting off at 3 p.m. This made me post-pone cooking even later, because we like to cook together, but I totally misjudged the time. On our list to prepare: sausage-stuffed mushrooms, the aforementioned pumpkin and sausage soup, coconut buttermilk pie, and Southern pecan pie. Stayed up until 2 a.m. cooking/baking/cooling pies. Joe crashed around 1 a.m. but I prevailed to the bitter end.

Thursday, 11/27 (aka Thanksgiving)

Up at 8 a.m. to shower, get the dog groomed/ready, pack the car, and drive to Bethlehem for Joe's family's Thanksgiving. Was nervous as meeting several new-to-me family members. Also nervous that pies looked over-baked or that the mushrooms (new recipe) would suck or that I'd somehow managed to screw up a soup we've made every Thanksgiving for the past seven years. Fortunately, the new-to-me family members were awesome, all of my dishes turned out perfectly and got major kudos, and I was introduced to Joe's family's tradition of watching NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACATION immediately after dinner (my family's traditional post-dinner viewing = RUDOLPH). Had an awesome time and drove home happy, happy, happy.

Friday, 11/28 (aka Thanksgiving Part Deux)

Joe worked from home while I prepped two more dishes for our second Thanksgiving dinner, this one with my parents. Made another batch of sausage-stuffed mushrooms and another coconut buttermilk pie. Scouty was in heaven, as he spent Thanksgiving with his boyfriend Terry and the next day with his aunt Daphne and uncle Jake. Dinner was awesome; my mom had made her sausage and cornbread stuffing, sweet potato casserole, and pumpkin and sausage soup - great because we didn't take any leftovers from Joe's family's dinner, but Mom loaded us up big time. Watched some of the Christmas classic cartoons, including SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN, before catching the tail end of BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE on TV. Once again, I was exhausted and crashed by 10:30. I am getting old.

Saturday, 11/29

Worked on the craft room with Joe. This is the project we started August 2007. Now we're very close to completion. Most of the day was spent sanding trim, if you can believe it. At night, after we lost the natural light, we watched some more FREAKS & GEEKS on DVD. Another early night.

Sunday, 11/30

Second day of work on the craft room. My main job was brushing away sanding dust, tack clothing everything, taping off trim, and cutting in on the walls/trim. Joe repainted the ceiling and then finished up my trim work. Still need to put a final coat on the walls and repaint the trim, but the floor needs to be masked off because neither of us are precise or neat painters. Why do these jobs seem to go so quickly on TV? Are there secret crews they don't film who come in and do all of the work? Throughout the day we'd take quick breaks to watch more FREAKS & GEEKS. Only two episodes left; I've already added UNDECLARED to our Netflix queue.

Monday, 12/1

Today is the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day, and to commemmorate the occasion, Joe and I are attending a vigil tonight sponsored by AIDS Delaware, where my friend Ebbie works. Still reeling from the impossible feat of losing four pounds over Thanksgiving weekend. Who does that?

Tomorrow I'm starting a new feature on this blog: recipe of the week. This is in part a nod to THE SWEET LIFE OF STELLA MADISON, my next book for Random House, which comes out in July. There's a lot of food and cooking in that book, and since I like food and I like to cook, I thought I'd share some of my favorite recipes and cooking sites/blogs with you. First up: the recipe to my mom's pumpkin and sausage soup, which everyone should experience at least once.

So, you may have noticed that I've been largely MIA for about six weeks. There are perfectly respectable reasons for this, but they'd most likely bore the hell out of anyone who's still reading this sag-adelic blog. In order to give "girl uninterrupted" a bit of a boost, I've pledged to myself that I will begin posting at least a little something-something five days a week, starting right this very second.

May I present to you the super adorable cover for my next book, THE SWEET LIFE OF STELLA MADISON!





STELLA won't be out until July 2009, but I've been told that galleys will be available at this year's NCTE/ALAN conference in San Antonio. Know what else will be at that conference? ME! I'm speaking on a panel with Tanya Lee Stone, Laura Ruby, and David Levithan that's titled, "I Feel Good: Positive Portrayals of Sex in YA Literature." And on top of it all, my awesome publisher, Random House, has generously donated 400 paperback copies of ANYONE BUT YOU to be distributed during my signing later that same day!

Back to STELLA: I recently finished proofing the galley pages, and I have to confess, I am SO GLAD I had the opportunity to go over the manuscript one last time. Why? Because I discovered some serious authorial offenses. Like, how did we all miss the fact that I used the word "involuntarily" eight times? Literally, EIGHT TIMES. It's too bad that anyone receiving an ARC will have to be subjected to "involuntarily" seven times more than those who buy a copy in the store or check it out from the library, but hey - at least this wrong has been righted in time for publication.

P.S. Kudos to those who noticed the new journal design - and yes, it's in honor of STELLA!