I am so very happy to be a special guest for the month of July over at the Readergirlz. I'm there for THE PLAIN JANES and JANES IN LOVE and I'll be joined by my partner in art crime Jim Rugg. (jimrugg)

You can come and talk to me, I'll be around commenting and answering questions on the blogs. And you can do your very own (legal) art attack. there's a handy template to download and readergirlz will be posting your results! Send your piece to artsaves@slayground.net by July 20th, 2009.

On July 22nd, Jim Rugg and I will be doing a live chat.



Also, (insider information alert!) if you have a quick keen eye, if you look closely at the great sample pages that Jim sent to the Readergirlz, there are a few pages of the never before seen and now dead in the water JANES GO SUMMER. It's a scene where Brain Jane was at Space Camp.

Here's the playlist I made for the Janes.

This Saturday at Vromans Bookstore in Pasadena, there will be a LAYAPALOOZA!

edited to add: Open to all ages!

Vromans
Saturday June, 20th
2- 4 pm
695 E. Colorado Blvd
Pasadena, CA 91101
Tel: 626-449-5320

That's right! There will be 16 amazing YA authors, free pizza (from Garlic Jims) ! books! games! and FUN!

We've gathered together to celbrate YA in LA. Won't you come join me and
Lisa Yee
Kerry Madden
Cecil Castellucci
Jonathan Bernstein
Michael Reisman
Amy Goldman Koss
Mark London Williams
Sonya Sones
Ben Esch
Heather Tomlinson
Cherry Cheeva
Sally Nemeth
Alexa Young
Anna Hays
Sasha Watson
Blake Nelson
Cylin Busby

I am such a big supporter of the mission of the Interstitial Arts Foundation and I even have a story in Interfictions 2 along with a slew of other amazing writers. If you have the spare loot, why not donate to support this brave beautiful artistic foundation by sponsoring the Interfictions 2 anthology.

Even just little can go a long way.

Here are some ways you can help.

SUPPORT AN INTERFICTIONS 2 STORY

* $500 pays one author for a 10,000 word short story
* $375 pays one author for a 7,500 word short story

SUPPORT THE INTERFICTIONS ONLINE ANNEX
8 stories will be available only online, with one appearing every week from August until November 2009.

* $400 covers author honoraria for the entire Annex
* $50 pays one author for an Annex story

SUPPORT THE NUTS & BOLTS OF ACTUAL BOOK PRODUCTION & PROMOTION

* $400 covers typesetting fees
* $200 buys Interfictions 2 a magazine ad
* $100 prints up promotional postcards
* $25 sends out five copies to reviewers
* Your Choice: Gift amount of your choosing supports the IAF’s General Fund


Handy link to the donation page.

Cats and Kittens!

While circumstances have forced me to be unable to attend BEA this year, I am there with you through my many short stories!

This year I have 4 short stories coming out! All of them genre stories! And, happily, the ARCs of the anthologies containing said short stories are all availabe at BEA. So if you are there, you should go and get them, if you so desire. Check out my new literary voice. (And if you are not at BEA, may I suggest reading my first short story of this year, Baby in The Basket available to you to read on the awesome Strange Horizons)

First up, why not go to Little, Brown for the ARC of GEEKTASTIC which I co-edited with blackholly. We also co-wrote a Jedi/Klingon story and the book is chock full of your fave authors. Like MT Anderson, libba_bray, John Green, lisayee, sarazarr to name a very few. (they may even have the real book there!)

Then over at Candlewick, you can pick up a copy of the excellent SIDESHOW anthology, edited by Deb Noyes. My story is called "The Bread Box", it's about a freaky thing/ family legacy. This anthology is great and has, amongst others, Aimee Bender, Margo Lanagan, & cynleitichsmith

Thirdly you can go to Running Press (Perseus Booth?) and check out my very first Vampire short story, "Wet Teeth" in the Eternal Kiss anthology. Other writers include cassandraclare and Melissa de la Cruz.

And then head over to the Small Beer Press booth where rumor has it there will be ARCs of the new Interfictions 2 book which sports my story "The Long and the Short of Long Term Memory." Other authors include David Schwartz (snurri ) and Alan Deniro and Theodora Goss to name a very few of the rad authors in it. It is edited by the always lovely deliasherman and ready to Kareoke czakbar

Both Geektastic and Eternal Kisswere listed as Children's Galleys to Grab by PW. You should probably grab everything they suggest because I want one of each. Yet instead, I will have to hope that some of those rad books will find their way to me on their own.

Tonight I joined my fabulous friend Jill Murray, at Studio Sweatshop for a breakdancing class. Jill wrote the YA book , Break on Through, which is about a b-girl crew. It's a great novel. I loved it. Imagine everything you love about watching a dance movie, like Bring it On or Save the Last Dance, but in a novel. Delicious.

Anyway, she was in a crew back in the day, and still keeps up by taking classes with delightful JoDee (aka Feisty) who is in Solid State Breakdace and was my patient teacher.

I must admit that I am not the best b-girl. But who cares! It was totally fun! I was dancing! And dancing is totally fun! I learned a lot. Like, now, I can Drop the Needle (very gawkily) and do one freeze well.

Here's me doing my freeze with Jill cheering me on!

Jill aka "404 Not Found" Murray and Cecil aka "Lil Skull" Castellucci

My dear and gentle readers! I have some fun news! The first of my short stories this year where I am dipping my toe into new literary worlds begins!

My very first Sci Fi / Non-YA story has been published by the very fine people at Strange Horizons (you should subscribe to them, they have great stories, reviews and stuff you will like for reals.)

My story is called Baby in the Basket.


Enjoy!

I love comics. Here is a picture of me as Tin Tin on my May Adventures!


First up, I'll be at TCAF (Toronto Comics Arts Festival) this weekend with a slew of amazingly awesome comic peeps, including my cohort in Jane-ness the fabulous Jim Rugg! (we'll be in Pittsburgh together next weekend, too)

You can read my National Post Q&A here. (Read the other TCAF guests fun Q&A's, too!)

TCAF is at The Toronto Reference Library
789 Yonge St.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M4W 2G8

on Saturday May 9th and Sunday May 10th.

My panesl are both on :

Sunday May 10th

12:30pm-1:30pm: Graphic Novels for Young Adults
Creators of young adult comics and graphic novels discuss what it’s like to write, illustrate and create for teen readers. Panelists include Nate Powell (Swallow Me Whole), Cecil Castellucci (The Plain Janes), Derek Kirk Kim (Eternal Sunshine), Jeff Lemire (The Essex County Trilogy) and Mariko Tamaki (Skim). Moderated by Stacy King, middle grade author and Marketing Manager of UDON Kids.
Learning Centre 2

1:30pm-2:30pm: Reading: Cecil Castellucci
Cecil Castellucci is the author of the young adult graphic novels The P.L.A.I.N Janes and Janes In Love, and a plethora of great YA Novels! Join Cecil as she reads from her works in this special presentation for the Toronto Comic Arts Festival!
Toronto Star Presentation Area, Lower Level

Oh, The LA Times Festival of Books. It's one of my favorite book festivals ever. The panels are great. The authors are awesome. The green room is overflowing with the coolest authors and sparkliest conversations. As an Angeleno, it was always a goal of mine to be a part of it, and so every year that I am I pinch myself with glee. (thanks LA Times and Maret Orliss for making a little lady's dream come true!)

It began on Friday night at the LA Times building for the awards ceremony. The LA Times building is a bit like going to the Daily Planet. It's gorgeous and there is a big globe on the floor of the front lobby. Prizes were won, but nothing beat Terry Pratchett's video acceptace speech for Best YA Book. Not because of what he said. I have no idea what he said. But because of his awesomely huge cat who stole the show. Oh cats. You are such funny creatures.

Afterwards there was a fine shindig. One of the most exciting things was getting to meet almost all of the other contributers to the LA Times serial novel experimet in storytelling that I was a part of "Money Walks." My chapter was near the beginning (no. 5) and I created a character called Bunny Hortense from the baton that Tod Goldberg threw me and it was so cool to watch the great authors who went after me take Bunny and run with her. I learned so much about story telling from what they did. I loved the whole story, but I really loved Jerry Stahl's chapter with Bunny because it was so pervy. You can read the whole story here.

I hung out with Carolyn Kellogg. When she wasn't working to get a Jacket Copy blog post up, I scouted the soiree with James Ellroy. At the party it was the gliterati of the LA literati. And as usual, James Ellroy makes me laugh and laugh. He always tells me to clean up my language from "likes" and "yeahs" and "wows." Friday he told me to stop using the word awesome all the time. But I couldn't help it. Everything was so AWESOME!!!

Saturday I carpooled with Chris Daley who was covering some of the panels. We headed to the green room for much need coffee and nosh and there I ran into my fellow panelists, including the I'm-always-up-for-trouble Lauren Myracle.

True to form, we got into trouble for putting pineapples on our heads.
(photo by Julie Devilliers)

The panel she was on was the one thatl I moderated on YA and it was also with Robin Benway, Lisa Yee and Deb Caletti. The panel was just like eavesdropping on us all talking over chai lattes or high tea and what made the panel even more fun was that I knew all the panelists, except for Deb. But Deb's editor was one of my BFF's in Jr. High School, so I just knew she was going to be kindred. She was! I loved her newest book Secret Life of Prince Charming which is about a girl trying to grapple with her dad (who very obviously has Narcissitic Personality Disorder) while also trying to make good choices in relationships with boys. It was heartbreaking, beautiful and informative. I highly recommend it. I recommend the other panelists books as well, Peace, Love and Baby Ducks. Absolutely, Maybe and Audrey, Wait! Get reading!

Then I signed at Book Soup. Which was great enough, but what was more awesome (sorry, James Ellroy! I can't help myself!) was that I signed after Kristin Chenoweth. You know. GALINDA! She has a new book out called A Little Wicked. So since she was signing I got to meet her and tell her how I just wrote my latest novel (That's Rose Sees Red coming out 2010. I'm in revisions right now!) with the soundtrack to Wicked on repeat. (no lie) Also, we are exactly the same height. We both have unique speaking voices. But while she may be more gilttery, I have more purple.

Then it was my delight to meet up with David J. Schwartz who was in town for the Nebulas. We hightailed it to the author green room for some nosh and talk and then I walked him to his Mysterious Galaxy signing. He drew me a wonder woman stick figure in my copy of Superpowers. Yay! (so great meeting you for reals snurri)

And the evening did not stop there! No! Carolyn and I headed over to Venice to the beautiful books for the Granta party. It was another glitterati litterati evening. But pretty swell. I had a great time talking with Denise Hamilton, Cara Black, and Richard Nash to name a very few. I also bought a book, as was our duty at the party. It seemed that every book I wanted to buy was over $100, curse my excellent taste. But i finally settled on a book called The Adventures of Remi (or Sans Famille by Hector Malot) which starts with the best line ever. "I was born a foundling." I am now going to insert that into my next YA novel. The one after Rose Sees Red. Mark my words.

Then it was Sunday. I went to Carolyn's excellent humor panel, which literally was the funniest panel I have ever been to. It was Tod Goldberg, Ben Greenman, Seth Greenberg. Every single thing about it was hysterical. Carolyn's next panel with Jerry Stahl, Patrick Dewitt (such a cool guy, cant wait to read Abulations") and Wells Towers was perhaps not as hysterical, but it was just as great. Chris summed it up here. But i liked it when Wells Towers, in talking about revision said: that some people say that revision is cleaning up after the party; some say it is the party. He then said he had realized that, in fact, there is no party.

I then caught the SE Hinton panel. Which was a little bit of a let down. But boy, I sure did love those books when I was growing up. I wrote about the panel for Jacket Copy.

Then it was kir royales with friends as we toasted to another fantastic festival of books. I can't wait for next year!

Why not come and say hello!

April 25th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

UCLA Campus

Moderating
"Growing Up: Young Adult Fiction" panel at 10:30 a.m.
with authors Lauren Myracle, Lisa Yee, Robin Benway and Deb Caletti

Fowler Museum's Lenart Auditorium

Book Soup Booth 1:30 PM -signing

May 9th, 10th TCAF (Toronto Comics Arts Festival)

The Toronto Reference Library
789 Yonge St.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M4W 2G8



May 13th Teen Author Reading (New York City, NY)


Jefferson Market Branch of NYPL,

425 6th Ave, at 10th St.

NY, NY

6-7:30

with /Nick Burd, The Vast Fields of Ordinary
Cecil Castelucci, Geektastic
Susane Colasanti, Waiting for You
Sarah Cross, Dull Boy
Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty
Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, The Real Real
Kieran Scott, Geek Magnet


May 14th PLAIN Janes discussion

with Jim Rugg

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh 7 PM

Pittsburgh, PA

May 22nd performance "Too Much Show"

Montreal, PQ

May 30th Book Expo America

Signing at Little, Brown booth for Geektastic

June 20th, Vromans 2pm

LAYAPALOOZA teen author pizza party
Vroman's Bookstore
695 E. Colorado Blvd
Pasadena, California 91101

Maybe you want to read YA and don't know where to start. Or maybe you are a teen and you want your mom or dad to just get over it and pick up a YA book already. Maybe you're a parent and want to read a book with your teen. Or Maybe YA is all you read anyway.



In the spirit of sharing the love of YA literature to those who do not know of its glory, I have joined with Skylight Books to start a book club!

Yes! It's true! Come on down and join in the conversation!

Beginning April 19th (and then the third Sunday of every month thereafter) come join us at Skylight Books (1818 N Vermont Blvd. Los Angeles, CA) @ 2 PM for our Pardon My Youth bookclub for a discussion of some of the best YA books the genre has to offer. Each discussion will have a real! live! YA author! there to partake in the discussion.


And please, pardon our youth.


April 19th discussing I AM THE MESSENGER by Markus Zusak, with YA author Ben Esch (and me!)
May 20th discussing WHAT I SAW AND HOW I LIED by Judith Blundell, with YA author Sasha Watson
June 21st discussing RATS SAW GOD by Rob Thomas, with YA author TBD

Ladies. Gentlemen.


(photo by lisayee )

This Saturday at 5 PM at SKYLIGHT BOOKS I'll be hosting an event.  Why  not come down and listen to some writers of the genre wax poetic!  

YA AUTHORS IN CONVERSATION
Skylight Books 
1818 N vermont
5 PM 

it's with (me) Cecil Castellucci, Ron Koertge, Lisa Yee and Cylin Busby

These Young Adult fiction authors will share their latest works and discuss what it's like writing fiction, nonfiction and graphic novels for teens.

Cecil Castellucci is the author of Boy Proof, The Queen of Cool and Beige as well as the graphic novel series The Plain Janes.

Ron Koertge is the author of Stoner and Spaz, Shakespeare Bats Cleans Up, Margaux with an X. His latest novel is Deadville.

Lisa Yee is te author of Millicent Min, Girl Genius; Stanford Wong Flunks Big Time; and So Totally Emily Ebers as well as the American Girl book Good Luck Ivy. Her latest novel is the YA novel Absolutely Maybe.

Cylin Busby was the editor at Teen Magazine and is the author of the middle grade series Date Him or Dump Him. Her latest book is the nonfiction memoir, The Year We Disappeared.

Did you know that rock and roll is good for the soul?



Oh what a treat to go to Austin, Texas to the annual rock blow out SXSW. I was there accompanying one of my BFF's the divine Miss Melissa Auf der Maur.



She played four shows and just blew everyone away. Her rock is heavy, heartwrenching and delightful. Don't take my word for it. Billboard rounds up her show nicely as "Best Performance I Don't Have Another Reason to Write About: Melissa Auf der Maur. No one could tell me if she's on a label, but she played some really great new material: huge riffs, angry in a good way. "

You can download some of Melissa's new songs here.



I hung out with a lot of Canadians. Aren't Canadians the best? Yep. Pretty much. Take Nardwuar the Human Serviette and Dave from The Evaporators and Gavin from The Wooden Sky. They rule pretty hard. And so does my old Teenage USA label guy Mark DiPietro.

me and mark


Rumor is that I have an unreleased album called For Lovers and Rats that has been collecting cobwebs in my sock drawer. Another rumour is that it is going to be available on iTunes and emusic very soon. I'll keep you posted on that. If it's true...

Most fun night, hanging with Adam and Josh from Tinted Windows. We weaved and wandered around 6th street. We ended up seeing way crappy bands, only because we chose our destinations by crazy weird band names and not anyone we really wanted to see, but who cares, it was more about the company and that was fantastic. One band we saw, I'll call them Hot Potato Band to protect their identity, were writhing and jumping on stage so crazily that I could not process what I was seeing. I suspect their crazy jumping ways contributed largely to how awful they sounded.

"Why are they doing that?" I asked. "It's bothering me and my eyeballs, not to mention my ears."

"Cecil, I think that the stage must be very hot," Adam said. "Clearly it is too hot to stand on. That is why they must jump."

After that, their performance seemed kind of magnificent because the fact that they could even play on such a devil red hot stage meant they must be triumphant...

See, rock and roll, good for the soul, but perhaps bad for the soles.

One of our avatar winners, Julian reviews Geektastic (and is reading Octavian Nothing!) Yay! Thanks, Julian!

Hope Larson, whose art and books I adore (Gray Horses, Chiggers) didn't send me a punk list. She sent me fan art. My heart squeals with joy!

So in celebration of Beige's paperback release today! , I give you the gorgeous drawing that she did of Beige and Lake.



thank you to all of my pals who did new punk lists to countdown to today's paperback release.

Here's the round up, in case you missed any: Mariko Tamaki, Chris Pramas, Sara Ryan, Jill Murray, The Secret Headquarters, Carolyn Kellogg, Libba Bray, Abby Denson, Greg Miller, Stephanie Kuehnert

Your punk lists were awesome!



Shop Indie Bookstores

Hello, awesome.

The divine Ms. Kara Lareau, the fantabulous editor of my first three novels, has started a new creative consulting service called bluebird works and she has a blog which i've syndicated. Why not add her as a friend! bluebirdworks

My funny friend, comedian Ryan Flynn launches his website.

And my buddy, my Tron, author Andrew Aueson's new novel JoJo and the Fiendish Lot is now out!

Something has been on my mind. It being the 2000's and all, it is clearly the FUTURE!!! I have often wondered when we would begin wearing silver. You know, all of us, as a society. Somehow I felt that we were promised that in the future there would be alot of wearing of silver and jumpsuits or unitards or tunics. i09 thankfully points to a london fashion show that kind of fits my fantasy futuristic fashion bill


You know who would't be afraid to wear all silver all the time? The fabulous Jill Murray who is visiting me right now. As you can imagine, her and I are causing trouble and drinking champagne while doing it. Jill not only did a punk list of classical music but she spearheads the Canadian YA (Y-eh) community blog. ( y_ehblog )

Speaking of punk lists, I have just a few more coming up before Beige's paperback realease on March 10th. Check them out at Is Beige Punk?

Did you know that my neighborhood in LA is the cradle of the Silent Movie Era? That's right. Silent film stars were all over these here hills making their movies and doing their magic. So much so that they haunt the streets here. I swear I saw Fatty just the other day! Lately, I've been reading a bunch of essay's on Charlie Chaplin. And while I like Charlie, the truth is, my heart belongs to Buster Keaton. Happily, for the next 6 weeks Cinefamily's Silent Wednesday's is all Buster all the time! I went and saw Three Ages the other night, and oh, the hilarity!

Speaking of Movies. My friend Tony Stone's Viking Film SEVERED WAYS: The Norse Discovery of America is playing in NYC at the Angelika Film Center starting March 13th. Please go. It is fantastic.


That's it for now my lovelies.

This year I forge new ground. This year is no novels and all short stories for me. And more interestingly, all genre short stories! It's pretty exciting for a contemporary YA gal like me. It's like I am reavealing a new voice, singing with it, and showing a secret part of my heart that I have been longing to share. Wonderous!

But one story that I am especially proud of my first non-YA short story (that means it's just a short story!) The Long and Short of Long Term Memory which I am so happy to announce will be included in the fabulous Interstitial Arts Interfictions II anthology.

The anthology was put together by Delia Sherman and Chris Barzak and you can see the whole TOC is on Delia's journal. And it is an amazing list. I am so excited and it floors me to be in the mix with them. *pinches self*

I can't wait to read all their stories.

And if you are artistically inclined, they are looking for cover art. You can find info on submitting here. Deadline is Monday, February 16th. .

My dear gentle friends. Do you know what is true? Beige is coming out in paperback March 10th with a sweet new cover!

Behold!




In honor of that event, for the next month I am resurrecting the IsBeigePunk blog which already boasts essential punk rock lists from some of my fantastic pals by getting new awesome peeps to do new essential punk lists!

First up is Stephanie Kuehnert - I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone and her top 17!

I am pleased to announce the winners for the Geektastic Arcs. Holly and I loved all of the entries. They were totally awesome.

If you are a winner please email me your snail mail addy at misscecil (at) gmail (dot) com


In the UNDER 18 category:

Julian ittakesii.wordpress.com for

liv livbookreviews.blogspot.com   for

OVER 18
comicbookgreek

humglum for (girlscout badge) (photobucket is down right now and I've been waiting an hour, so I will post this last pic tomorrow)

Cograts to the winners!
And to check out the other winners and their winning icons go over to blackholly's site.

But in case you missed it those winners are

Under 18

freneticreader.blogspot.com for
breakinginmusic
zanisha

in the over 18

inbedwithbooks.blogspot.com
laughingmagpe
marykuna

You six should go and get your address to Holly!

thanks all for participating.

Thursday, January 29th Los Angeles, CA

UnCab Lab Show
M-bar 8 PM
1853 Vine

In which I will bring it by standing up and telling all with the funny and the sad along with other loud mouthed peeps.



Tuesday, February 3rd Portland, Oregon

Writing Workshop 6 - 7:30 PM
Sign up here!
Portland Central Library
801 S.W. 10th Ave.
Portland, OR 97205



Thursday, February 5th 7 PM Burlingame, CA

Cecil Castelluci and Dana Reinhardt in Conversation
Burlingame Public Library
480 Primrose Road
Burlingame, CA 94010

The divine Miss Holly Black and I have been editing an anthology with some secrecy and silence--and a lot of enthusiasm--an anthology called GEEKTASTIC. It grew out of a joke at ComicCon into one of the things I think we are both proud of having done. It was both me and Holly's first time editing an anthology and boy, did I learn a lot from the experience.

It has stories from all our favorite geeks: Kelly Link, MT Anderson, Garth Nix, Liz Brazwell, John Green, Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, Scott Westerfeld, Cynthia and Greg Leitich-Smith, David Levithan, Lisa Yee, Barry Lyga and Sara Zarr with comics written by us and illustrated by Hope Larson and Bryan Lee O'Malley.

It comes out in August 2009, but guess what! We have ARCs! And we want to give some away!

So, here's the deal: Make us a geeky icon that screams geektastic! Or an icon for any one of the authors in the anthology. Or for me or Holly.

The icon can be whatever you want: either pictures and text or even just a picture or just text since a very funny line can make a great icon, too. You can post them (or a link to them) right here or in blackholly.

A stellar (yet, anonymous) jury will judge your dork-a-licious efforts and Cecil and I will give away 4 arcs each. There are two categories (over 18 and under 18), so make sure to let us know which category you're in. We will announce winners on February 1st.

We can't wait to see what you come up with.