Briefly looking up from page to enlist your help & tour schedule

Loooong day yesterday, loooonger day ahead today so I can turn in some overdue work. I had to bow out of my writer’s group meeting today to get everything done and that has me very cranky and peevish.

Sidebar. Peevish. Has a good ring to it. Could almost be a faux-curse word, don’t you think?

Not much blogging time today, but I wanted to share a couple of quick things.

A teacher named Heather and her colleagues are looking for ideas and advice from other teachers about using TWISTED in the classroom. She has the discussion questions from my web site, but wondered if any of you have other ideas. Any suggestions?

Speaking of the website, Theo the Web God is finishing the last touches on a map for CHAINS and is putting together the WINTERGIRLS pages. In my spare time (peevishpeevishpeevish) I’ve been combing through the site to find the inconsistencies between the flash version and the lo-resolution version, and updating the content. I still need to work on the biography.

What else would you like to see on my website?

I do have a quick and dirty version of the rest of this year’s schedule, including the cities I’ll be hitting for the WINTERGIRLS book tour that starts in …… dear God, that starts in six weeks (peeveeveeveeish!!!!!).

NOTE – on weekdays, I am generally visiting schools and/or libraries during the day, then doing a public bookstore or library appearance at night. The school and library visits are coordinated by the independent bookstores indicated in this calendar. If you want more information, please contact the store, not me, because this is all the information I have so far.

As soon as I have the firm and complete schedule with times and addresses, I will post it here and to the website.

Friday March 20: Los Angeles CA, courtesy of Children’s Book World.

Saturday March 21: Los Angeles CA, courtesy of Vromans & Mrs. Nelsons

Sunday March 22: San Francisco CA, courtesy of Books Inc. & Kepler’s

Monday March 23: San Francisco CA, courtesy of Rakestraw & Copperfields

Tuesday March 24: Seattle WA, courtesy of Third Place Books & Secret Garden

Wednesday March 25: Phoenix AZ, courtesy of Phoenix Book Company & Changing Hands

Thursday March 26: Salt Lake City UT, courtesy of King’s English

Friday March 27: Houston TX, courtesy of Blue Willow

Saturday March 28: Austin TX, courtesy of Book People

Sunday March 29: Oxford MS, courtesy of Square Books

Monday March 30: St. Louis MO, courtesy of Booksource

Tuesday March 31: Atlanta GA, courtesy of Little Shop of Stories

Wednesday April 1: Atlanta GA, coutesy of the B&N in Alpharetta

NOTE: On both 3/31 and 4/1 I will be speaking at the Kennesaw State Literature Conference

Thursday April 2: Vero Beach FL/Miami FL, courtesy of Books & Books

Friday April 3: Raleigh NC, courtesy of Quail Ridge

Other Travel Dates

4/10 – 4/18 Colegio Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Lima, Peru

4/24 – 4/26 Los Angeles Times Book Festival Los Angeles CA

5/3 – 5/6 International Reading Association Conference, Minneapolis, MN

5/15 River’s End Bookstore, Oswego, NY

7/10 – 7/14 American Library Association Annual Convention, Chicago IL

8/3 Summer Writing Institute at SUNY Oswego (Oswego, NY), through the Reading and Writing Project of Teachers College, Columbia University

9/13 Brooklyn Book Festival, Brooklyn NY

11/6 – 11/8 American Association of School Librarians Conference, Charlotte NC

11/20 – 11/24 National Council of Teachers of English Conference & ALAN Workshop, Philadelphia PA

For the record, 2009 is officially packed full and there is no way I can consider any new engagements. If you have something you’d like me to consider for 2010, 2011, or 2012, you need to talk to the publishers’ contacts on this page (scroll down a bit).

Tomorrow: A few WINTERGIRLS tidbits and news of SPEAK’s 10th anniversary edition
Friday: I do the 25 Random things that I am, apparently, the very last person on the planet to do.

And something nice to soothe my peevishness.

This is the gas station we stopped at in Vermont.

32 Replies to “Briefly looking up from page to enlist your help & tour schedule”

  1. Peeved is a great term, in any form: thank you for using it!

    I can’t access your website by the link up there, but I can by clicking on it from your profile. I do rather like the tree on it though. Will have a look around more fully after I’ve had some lunch!

  2. “Friday April 3: Raleigh NC, courtesy of Quail Ridge” Wah! The bookstore gods do not like us. The youngest teen has been waiting and waiting for you to travel close-by, but she has for a tournament that weekend. Peeve it!

  3. I haven’t read Twisted yet so this isn’t necessarily specific to that book at all but I find doing various not-essay book reports in the middle of a novel a great way to really get talking about a particular character. The teachers could have their students make a playlist about or for Tyler. I have had some students come up with some interesting discussion based on a room design they created for a character. One time a student, kind of unknowingly, explained a character’s motivations throughout an entire novel by creating voicemail messages left by that character and playing them for the class. That kind of idea isn’t revolutionary or anything, but I think if the students have a decent list of possible choices and are willing to explain decisions they made those kinds of projects can lead really interesting places. Especially since Tyler seems like the kind of character that students could talk about quite a bit.

    Your picture makes me feel peevish about the fact that we have absolutely nothing like that in my neck of the woods.

  4. hey πŸ™‚
    found you through the LJ spotlight.. i’m adding you πŸ˜€

    and do you think i can buy your book from here?? (im indian)

    didn’t read much of your LJ, but i will, later. and i’ll comment πŸ™‚ bye for now! hav fun!

  5. website additions

    I think it would be nice if you put deleted scenes or additional character info from each of the books on the website. πŸ™‚

  6. Wondering whether I can steal away during my maternity leave for the event in St. Louis. Baby will be, oh, three or four weeks old. Perhaps not quite old enough for a five-hour roadtrip. πŸ™‚ I will look forward to reading “Wintergirls” during my leave instead!

  7. OH! I had no idea you had a LJ! This is *exciting*. Now I need to find a way to sneak into the ALA thing in July. I’m a student, this is not an unfeasible thing.

    And congratulations (belatedly)! I actually wept a few tears of joy when I read you won – what a wonderful list of names this year.

  8. I am disappointed you’re not heading closer to where I am, but if I make it to the ALA conference (my first!) I’ll be able to see you there. πŸ™‚

    My side note on creative cursing: I love the former governor of Illinois because his name sounds either like a very violent curse or an equally violent sneeze. *blaGOYJEvich!*

  9. yay! 9/13 Brooklyn Book Festival, Brooklyn NY

    My children’s librarian and I (YA librarian) are so looking forward to seeing you there! The Brooklyn Book Festival is always so much fun!

  10. I hope you get to Macchu Picchu when you’re in Peru. I’ve got friends and relatives who’ve been, and they all say it’s magical. And gorgeous. And their photos seem to support both contentions.

  11. I might not live in Salt Lake City anymore, but I’m glad to see you are stopping by the King’s Enlish. That has to be my favorite bookstore ever. Say hi to Jen for me!

  12. Thanks for the add! I’m sorry I can’t help you with buying a book, however. I’ll ask around and see if I can come up with some suggestions for you.

  13. I can’t even tell you how massively excited I am that you are coming to Seattle! I’ll have to switch my work schedule to make sure I’m off Tuesday night to get my copies signed! Yay!

  14. I just started visiting your page, but I have to say that as an aspiring novelist it’s inspiring to read your posts. I hope that one day I can gather the acclaim and admiration that you have gained and deserve!
    Thank you for opening up your life like this!

  15. I wish I could take some of my students on a field trip to the Vero/Miami thing (though, I’m not sure exactly what that means since Vero and Miami are at about 80 miles apart). Many of them have read and reread Speak so many times the class copy is falling apart. Of course, they’re locked up so this isn’t feasible, but… have fun!

  16. atlanta! darn me for being away at school right now =( i am FORCING my sister to go for me. lucky KSU. my exact words to her via google chat:

    how unfair
    kennesaw state gets laurie halse anderson
    cornell gets ludacris

    (ludacris is coming to my school… … …)

    i hope your oswego visit will be at night! i have my final exam that day and um it would be splendid if i could somehow make it there. :0)

  17. “Thursday April 2: Vero Beach FL/Miami FL, courtesy of Books & Books”
    Soo..does that mean your going to Vero Beach and Miami on the same day?? Or is it one of those i’m-not-sure-which-yet things?
    Because I would sooooo convine my mom to take me to Vero that day(if your going to be there)

  18. So I’m really late on posting this but yay! You are going to be at the Rivers end bookstore again! I’m a dork, and have been there twice to see you but of course I will be there this time, I cant wait to have you sign the new book for me! πŸ™‚ PS…Its nice and warm in Oswego county today, it feels like spring is coming soon!

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