On May 11th I’ll be joining a group of awesome YA authors at a teen book festival in Ontario, CA. Joining me will be:

Jessica Brody, Morgan Matson, Lex Thomas, Marie Lu, Leigh Bardugo, Suzanne Lazear, Jennifer Bosworth, Gretchen McNeil, Andrew Smith, Gregg Olsen, Ann Stampler and Sara Wilson Etienne.

So from the line up, you can see there’ll be a little bit of something for everyone.

The fun begins with an author breakfast from 8-8:45am.

The official event is from 9-5pm.

Go to Teen Book Festival 2013to learn more details and sign up. Looking forward to seeing you there!

 

 

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I am so looking forward to going back to Disneyland on March 30th with 15 other YA authors. I am also secretly happy that it’s without my children. Yay! I get to enjoy Disney as an adult. Whoo hoo!

If you love Disney and YA, you should come join us for a fun day of talking books, characters, movies, all things YA. We’re on Facebook too.

We are meeting at 8am at Guest Services and from there will be going on rides and hanging at the park. There’s also going to be a signing at the Anabella Hotel from 5:30 to 7:30.

It’s an eclectic group if you look at the flyer to see who will all be there with something for everyone’s tastes.

I’d love to meet you.

 

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Doing a writer’s workshop with 400 HS students divided into 100 groups all packed into a gym might seem like a crazy idea. And when Charissa Zeko, a teacher at El Rancho High School first pitched the idea to me, I did wonder about the logistics.

But her confidence in the students, faculty and me is all I needed to say yes. It helped that for four weeks, the students read and studied my book, OUT OF REACH, so they were already familiar with each other and their group. I will admit, when I first walked into the gym and saw the empty desks and chairs, I got nervous. There were so many.

Check it out behind me in this pic:

I spoke a little about the inspiration behind the book and answered questions. Their questions were deep and so smart.

After that I lead them through a couple of exercises where they had to create a character, extended metaphor or controlling image, and a scene, as well as a little emotion improv thrown in there.

They were an amazing group of students and made me miss teaching! Thanks to Savannah Guerrero for all the pics.

At the end, I asked if we could take a big group photo. Here it is. Can you find me?

I also signed some books and answered some more questions, especially about Tyler. The girls all had a crush on him.

Thanks to El Rancho High School for such a wonderful visit. I’m humbled and grateful by your support for the book. Go Dons!!

 

 

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I am soo excited to return to a high school I used to teach at: El Rancho High School in Pico Rivera, CA. The amazing librarian and English department have invited me to launch their teen reading week on Monday, February 25th. I’ll be talking with students about OUT OF REACH, but I’ll also be leading a writing workshop for a couple of hours with around 350 students. So awesome!

I have so much gratitude for this school. First of all, I loved teaching there. It was the last high school I taught at before I left to have kids, get my MA and teach as an adjunct professor. I loved my students and have very vivid and fond memories of them.

Side Note: I was at a birthday party for my daughter’s best friend. It turns out one of her uncles went to The Ranch back in the day, so it was so fun to make that connection. Go Dons!

I am also so grateful to the school for purchasing OUT OF REACH and choosing to study it across all the grades: 9-12th. My book is being studied!? What? So great.

Here are some pics of students working through character analysis, theme, symbolism, role play, etc…

Oh and if anyone reading this would like me to visit your school, I’d love to talk about the possibilities. Please send me a line through the contact section of my website.

Love that I get to go back to high school in five days!

Look at all those students. Awesome!

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I have had a bit of tunnel vision the last month. First of all there has been a great deal of cray cray at the Arcos home. All three kids have been sick at least twice, and my youngest three times. I have been sick twice, the second time being that nasty flu thing. My husband was sick and had back surgery. And blah, blah, blah, blah.

The best advice I received during this time?

Quit whining.

I’ve been working on another novel that’ll be coming summer of 2014. It’s not a sequel to OUT OF REACH. It’s another standalone YA contemporary. And I’m in the thick of it, so I’m in the middle of loving and being anxious about it because I’m so close to it. I don’t really know if it’s good like I think it is or if it’s a pile of “shite.” That’s my new word after reading a book where the main character is from Scotland. She says it all the time, and I think about how if I were in HS I would love having a friend who said that. I would love having a friend now who says it.

So new novel is set in Los Angeles. I can tell a little bit about it. It’s about a teenage boy who has lost his twin sister and who is working through the grief of that tragedy. It sounds kind of heavy and I guess it is in the sense that it explores grief and death and forgiveness. I’m interested in those themes and how we deal with tragedy and how we find hope in the midst of it.

I’m in the Pasadena library right now, a favorite place to write. A mom just walked in pushing one of those double decker strollers with two small boys inside. A third walks alongside her. Three boys under 4 it looks like. Wow. A whole other type of crazy.

Back to my WIP, that’s writer slang for work in progress. It took me a little time to figure that out. I love Mark, my main character, and I’m trying to do his story justice so that you’ll love him too. He came to me one day as I looked out the window and watched this teenage, Filipino, skater  from my neighborhood fly past my house on a skateboard. No helmet. No pads. Just him on a board. I named him Mark.

Wish me luck!

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I was able to spend a great night at the Temecula B&N with a group of teens from the area high schools discussing OUT OF REACH as well as other books. We got to yell and squeal about books we love and books that made us cry. There’s nothing like a great book club.

My favorite moment was with a mom and her three daughters. All the girls are writers and she wanted them to meet me because they are like I was. I grew up in Temecula and went to the middle and high school, exactly the spot they are in. The mom said it was inspiring to meet an author who came from the area. Aww. So great.

Some take aways:

- There are voracious readers out there. The teens in the club go through a book in a day.

-They can’t get enough.

-They love the darkness.

-They love strong, complicated characters.

-They love messy.

-They can see if you’re lazy and uncreative a mile away.

-They crave authenticity.

-They are nervous about their futures.

-They don’t all want romance.

-They know when you’re faking it.

-They love contemporary, SF, fantasy, crime, mystery, graphic novels.

-Some are nerd fighters.

-They are looking to find themselves within the pages.

-They are looking to get lost.

-They are looking for inspiration and hope and to know that they are not alone.

This is the fun part guys. Here’s a pic with some of them afterwards:

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2012. I kind of loved you. You will go down as having a significant impact. Debut novel. National Book Awards. New Writer friends. Wonderful reviews. Book launches and signings. New fans. Horrible, painful reviews. Facing fears. Getting over myself. Creating something new. Family. Friends. New boots.

It was a year of new experiences. Travel. Orcas Islands. Texas. Santa Barbara.

It was a year we got older: Judah, 4. Matisse, 6. Aiden, 10. Carrie, 39. David, 43.

It was a year of loss. Brothers. The greatest heartbreak. We always miss you.

It was a year of joy. Friends with new babies. New marriages.

It was a year of great movies and books. Too many to try and pack into a list, but if there was one, Moonlight Kingdom, you’d be on it.

It was a year of discipline.

It was a year of sickness. Asthma. Back issues and physical therapy.

It was a year of some guilty pleasures. TVD.

It was a year of gratitude. Family. Publishing. Health. Home. Food. My coffee shop down the street.

It was a year of dreams coming true.

It was a year of faith.

It was a year of God meeting me in that space between risk and fear.

It was a good year.

2013 you will be just as good.

Maybe even better.

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