Radiohead & a new critter in the forest

Eight Days until WINTERGIRLS comes out…

Today is a radio day. I’ve already taped an interview with Dr. Alvin Jones of WCBQ-WHNC-AM in North Carolina. In a little bit, I’ll be chatting with a radio host out in Napa, CA, Jeff Schectman of KVON. BH has taken the Creature With Fangs out on his errands so my interviews are not compromised by 95-snarling pounds of German Shepherd.

This afternoon I’m headed down to Syracuse to tape an interview for the NPR show, “Here and Now.” When I get air dates, I’ll let you know.

In between the interviews, I’m working on my presentation for the book tour. I bring a digital projector with me, and I’ll be showing a Keynote (Apple presentation software, much better than Powerpoint) show in many of the schools and libraries I’ll be visiting.

We’ve had a new person working here in the Forest for a couple of weeks. Her name is Queen Louise and I can’t figure out how I got along without her. Queen Louise is in charge of keeping me organized and helping me juggle. For example, she went in and created the Author Page on Goodreads for me. She coordinated with Theo the Web God to update my website. And she’ll make sure I am ready on time for this afternoon’s trip down to the radio station. With the Queen by my side, I’ll have more time to write. After the tour.

All Hail Queen Louise!!

Can you come and see me when I’m on tour?

Have you entered the WINTERGIRLS contest yet?

Eight Days until WINTERGIRLS comes out…

Where’s Laurie? WINTERGIRLS book tour schedule

Nine days until WINTERGIRLS is released…

We have the final tour schedule: I start on the West Coast, head South and loop around up to North Carolina. I apologize to the Mid-west! I spent a lot of time there on the CHAINS tour and suspect that my publisher didn’t want me to revisit the area again so soon.

What you see below are only the public events. During the day, I’ll be visiting schools and signing stock at bookstores. A bunch of nice people have written to me asking if I have time for a cup of coffee or dinner or a walk. I feel like a jerk turning down these kind offers, but I don’t have a choice. Every day is jam-packed and I don’t have any extra time, sadly.

If you work for a bookstore in one of the regions that I’m visiting and want us to try and schedule a stock signing when I’m in your neck of the woods, please send an email to Allison DOT Verost AT us DOT penguingroup DOT com.

Get out your notebooks, open your planners, fire up your email and spread the news far and wide!

THE LHA 2009 WINTERGIRLS TOUR

Friday, March 20, 2009
4:30PM Santa Monica, CA
Santa Monica Public Library (hosted by Children’s Book World)

7 PM Santa Monica, CA
Barnes & Noble, 3rd Street Promenade

Saturday, March 21, 2009
12 PM Pasadena, CA
Vroman’s Bookstore

4PM LaVerne, CA
Mrs. Nelson’s Book Shop

Sunday, March 22, 2009
3 PM San Francisco, CA
Books Inc. Not Your Mother’s Book Club Ticketed Event! You must purchase your ticket ahead of time for this one. All of the details about ticketing are here.

6 PM Menlo Park, CA
Kepler’s (scroll down the page for event details)

Monday, March 23, 2009
7 PM Petaluma, CA
Copperfields

Tuesday, March 24, 2009
6:30 PM Seattle, WA
Seattle Public Library, Ballard Branch. Hosted by Secret Garden Bookshop

Wednesday, March 25, 2009
6 PM Tempe, AZ
Changing Hands Bookstore

Thursday, March 26, 2009
7 PM Salt Lake City, UT
The King’s English Bookshop

Friday, March 27, 2009
4:30 PM Houston, TX
Blue Willow Bookshop

Saturday, March 28, 2009
5 PM Austin, TX
SCBWI Members only event

7 PM Austin, TX
Book People

Sunday, March 29, 2009
3 PM Oxford, MS
Square Books

Monday, March 30, 2009
3:15 PM Brentwood, MO (outside St. Louis)
Border’s

Tuesday, March 31, 2009
During the day Kennesaw, GA
Kennesaw State Children’s Literature Conference

7 PM Decatur, GA (outside Atlanta)
Decatur Public Library hosted by Little Shop of Stories (scroll down for details)

Wednesday, April 1, 2009
During the day Kennesaw, GA
Kennesaw State Children’s Literature Conference

6:15 PM Alpharetta, GA (outside Atlanta)
Barnes & Noble, Mansell Crossings

Thursday, April 2, 2009
6 PM Coral Gables, FL
Books & Books

Friday, April 3, 2009
7:30 PM Raleigh, NC
Quail Ridge Books

And, several weeks later…

Sat & Sun, April 25 & 26, 2009
Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Details to come.

Sunday May 3 – Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Minneapolis, MN
International Reading Association Conference. Details to come.

Friday, May 15, 2009
6 PM Oswego, NY
the river’s end bookstore (scroll down for details)

Don’t forget to enter the contest.

Nine days until WINTERGIRLS is released…

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.