Today was my first TV interview–*live*. I have to say, it was fun to do. KUSI’s “Inside San Diego” hosts Sandra Maas and Joe Lizura are just as friendly and easy-going offscreen as they are on. In fact, everyone I met at KUSI today was incredibly nice and welcoming. It really was a great experience. […]
Will My REAL “Debut†Novel Please Stand Up?
I confess: I’m lying when I call HONK IF YOU HATE ME my “debut” novel. It’s not. My first novel actually flowed from my pen a while back . . . twenty-six years ago, to be exact. When I was ten.
Another Manuscript Bleeds?
I did it again. More than halfway into writing a novel, I knifed it. This time, I lopped off the entire first chapter of my Teen Novel #3. Ahh!
“Inside San Diego” TV interview Aug 23, 2007
I’ve just been scheduled for a live interview on San Diego’s KUSI News program “Inside San Diego.” What fun! The TV interview will be on Thursday, August 23, 2007, in the 10:00-11:00 morning hour. We’ll be discussing Honk If You Hate Me and the challenges of writing with young triplets running about. Hope you can […]
Writing without Training Wheels
It’s 4:57 a.m., and I just pressed “Send” on an e-mail. My revision of BIG MOUTH is zipping through cyberspace at this very moment, headed for my editor’s computer. Wait, no, a few seconds have passed. It’s probably already there. And I can’t get it back.
Honk If You Love Otter Pops
There’s a ton of food in HONK IF YOU HATE ME. The story is, after all, set in a town that owes its existence to the fast food industry, every other building has a drive-thru, the air reeks of French fry grease, and a mysterious, decade-long heat wave broils the town like a hamburger patty […]
8.3 million bookbuyers can’t be blind
8.3 million people bought Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last Friday night. . . and they had to walk by my book to get to it. “Halverson” comes before “Rowling”, right? Now that’s exposure. Surely a few of their roaming eyes must’ve noticed Honk If You Hate Me‘s bright pink cover. . . .
66 hot dogs in 12 minutes?
Can you eat 66 hot dogs (and buns!) in 12 minutes? Of course not. You’re human. And 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes is not humanly possible. Or is it? That’s the very question I pondered on the Fourth of July as I perched atop a police barricade
HONK IF YOU HATE ME wins Gayle McCandliss Literary Award
My debut novel Honk If You Hate Me (Delacorte/Random House, ages 12 and up) has been honored with the Gayle McCandliss Literary Award by the City of Chula Vista’s Cultural Arts Commission as part of their Gayle McCandliss Art Awards program. The award, named in memory of the late Chula Vista mayor, was presented at […]
HONK IF YOU HATE ME released!
Honk If You Hate Me hit bookstores on July 10! This is my debut novel, so perhaps you’ll indulge me by pulling on some hip boots and wading through my sappiness. You see, I thought I was going to be Ms. Cool about the release of the book. I’d had the cover displayed in my […]