Kick Bridget's cancer!

Young adult writer and librarian Bridget Zinn has been battling Stage IV colon cancer for two years. Cancer is expensive. Last year, there was an online auction to raise money to help Bridget and her husband Barrett* with their medical expenses. Right now, there's a second auction, “Bridget Kicks Cancer: Season of Love and Hope,” running from November 22nd to December 4th.

*Bridget and Barrett got married in a hospital bed, two days after the proposal. They had three celebrations last summer! I love this picture.

There are tons of items available in the auction, including lots of books! I've donated a signed hardcover of Anna and the French Kiss. You can find it here.

The full auction is here. Winners will be notified on Sunday, December 5th, which means items will arrive with plenty of time for the holidays. If you reach a page that says you need a password, here it is:

ID: bridgetkicks
Password: cancer

There are so many cool things to bid on. Like this chance to get the first signed ARC of Kiersten White's Supernaturally! And Jim Di Bartolo's goooorgeous original cover to Laini Taylor's Lips Touch!

* * * * *

On an unrelated note . . .

Please, please, please, universe: If you love me, you'll let me get photobombed by Thom Yorke the next time I'm at the Louvre.

CoffeeCoffeeDanceCoffeeDance

HELLO, YOU.

Everything in my head SOUNDS LIKE THIS right now. MY APOLOGIES. But I've been drinking A LOT OF COFFEE and I'm listening to the NEW GIRL TALK (download here) ALBUM and I'M SLAM-DANCING THROUGH A MARATHON OF AWESOME.

WOOOOO!!!

(Calm down. Calm down. Calm down.)

WOOOOO!!!

I'm gonna throw out some bits and pieces of newsy things, because that's ALL I CAN MANAGE:

• I was just in NYC for a week! I did work stuff! I hung out with friends! I forgot to take pictures! Except for this one! You're welcome!

MERRY EARLY CHRISTMAS

I actually did take one more picture with my agency sister Erin Danehy, who I'd never met before and who I LOVED. But the proof is still on my camera. And my camera is downstairs!

Which means it'll have to wait.

And it's lame that I didn't get any pictures of Manning and Marjorie, since I was staying in their apartment, which, by the way, was DECORATED LIKE A SPOOKY FOREST. Instead, here's a picture of them dressed like evil mechanical dolls that Heather (who makes EXCELLENT MACARONI AND CHEESE, IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING) took a few weeks ago:

HAPPY LATE HALLOWEEN

• While talking to someone on my trip, it became apparent that I've been slack in reporting the foreign sales of Anna and the French Kiss. So far, Anna will also be published in: Germany, Australia/New Zealand, Taiwan, Hungary, and Brazil.

HURRAH! I LOVE YOU, WORLD! THANK YOU!!

• If you're doing NaNoWriMo, GOOD LUCK. And KEEP GOING. I didn't have time in my schedule this year to participate, and I'm bummed. But I hope you're kicking word-count butt without me! If you need a pick-me-up, I've written a bit about NaNo in this post (scroll halfway down) and in this interview.


• I've been doing a lot of interviews, but those of you who read this blog already know most of my answers, so that's why I haven't been linking to them. But this interview has some new/different stuff in it. Also, if you're waiting for my interview response (or email), you haven't been forgotten! I'm just a bit backlogged.


• In my last post about the fantasy dinner party, I mentioned a recent dream that featured John Waters. In the comments, Tone mentioned her own film director dream:

"I once dreamt I was at a dinner party with George Lucas. My chair was too low, so I sat on my legs to reach the table, the way kids do. George Lucas frowned at me, then ducked under the table, then reappeared with the comment 'Resourceful.'

See? Mr. Lucas though I was resourceful. That has to count for something."

It TOTALLY counts for something. And it's adorable!


• A handful random things I've starred on my Google Reader in the last few months:

—"Sense and Swoon-ability": Lilie watched and ranked eleven period romances. Fun!

—"I Dream of Houses": Connie finds a website that specializes in photos of gorgeous movie homes. LOVE.

—"An Interesting Experiment": Shelley Moore Thomas reads aloud the beginning of several books and asks her after-school writing club if they'd keep reading them. The result? Pretty great.

—"Squares and Triangles Agree": Kristin Cashore talks about how hard writing her new book is, and it makes me feel (a little) better about Lola. I also love this subtle but oh-so-insightful writing lesson.

—And while I'm thinking of Kristin Cashore, she wrote a brilliant article for The Horn Book about fantasy world-building. I don't remember if I've linked to it before, so here it is, just in case. I also love this Horn Book interview with Sarah Dessen.


Hmm. There has been a steady decline of ALL CAPS and exclamation points. (!!!) You know what that means . . .

COFFEE TIME!

Dinner Party Guest List

With my first hardcover! Five minutes later, as my husband and I were lovingly cradling it beside the street, someone leaned out their car window and yelled at me, "FREEEEAK!"

So I'm staring at that little countdown clock on the side of my blog, and it says there are twenty-three days until the release of my first novel. Twenty-three days until everything and nothing changes.

I will still be me. I will still have the same worries and obsessions and passions and neuroses. Not THAT many new people will learn who I am, and the few who do discover me will not appear in my inbox on December 2, 2010. They'll trickle in slowly over the years.

But. I will also have a book out, on the shelves, that anyone can read. It will (hopefully) make some of those readers happy.

And that's pretty cool.

Still pre-"FREEEEAK!" (No worries, I laughed. It seemed like an oddly appropriate ego check.)

I'm not quite sure what to say today. I had a very nice email request to blog about my revision process, which is perfect timing because I'm deep in Lola edits, but I don't feel like I have the mind to discuss it right now. Hopefully soon. These days, my brain is more concerned about . . .

. . . the dinner party problem.

I've grown increasingly worried about the five guests that I'll invite to my fantasy dinner party. You know the question I'm referring to. Out of all of the interview questions that I've recently been asked, surprisingly, I have yet to receive this one! But I know it's coming. And who WOULD I invite to a dinner party?

I need to prepare my answer.

If this is a "living or dead" question, I've already decided that I'll stick to the living. Even if a person came back as their younger, more beautiful, non-decomposed self, and even if potential language barriers had been removed . . . if you pick someone from history, face it: they'll be just as interested in your modern life as you are about the Big Questions. They'd be fiddling with your cell phone and TiVo and their Wikipedia entry the whole time!

Plus, think about how hard it is to describe YouTube to your grandparents. Now think about how hard it would be to describe YouTube to Henry VIII.

And if you invited someone who passed away in recent years, I doubt it would be much different. You'd probably have to explain what happened to Michael Jackson or who won the World Series. And if you invited someone you loved who passed away? You'd have to say goodbye to them all over again. I can't even begin to fathom how terrible that would be.

No. Only the living would be invited to my dinner party.

I'd like to invite them on Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday. That way, there would be plenty of courses (and plenty of wine) to help persuade them to stay longer. The lazy-inducing tryptophan in the turkey might help, too! And I'd want it to be a dinner party, not some kind of serious philosophical discussion, so it's important to me that my guests get along. There are plenty of celebrities that I'd like to meet, but do I really want to invite someone who might be so important, so in-demand that they'd sit awkwardly in their chair, too uncomfortable or "too good" to speak to the rest of us?

No way!

I want guests who will make me laugh. I want charismatic people with stories to tell—the more outrageous, the better. My favorite people are those who tell me something surprising. Whenever someone starts a conversation with, "I saw the most disgusting/horrifying/obscene/terrifying thing . . ." I get excited! In fact, I'm the person at YOUR dinner party who you have to STOP from telling those stories.

("I'm eating," my mother often complained.)

I want guests who will replenish my supply of juicy stories! So who would I invite?

My first guest would be a man I've admired for years, whom I even saw speak in 2007, but whom I've only become obsessed with in the last few months: the self-proclaimed "Filth Elder," John Waters.

For my younger blog readers—or my readers who lead healthier lives than myself—John Waters is a cult filmmaker. His most popular film is Hairspray, which even more people are familiar with now, thanks to the Travolta remake. (Fun fact: Waters is in the new Hairspray, too! He plays the flasher in the opening sequence. In the original, he plays the creepy psychiatrist.) He's also known for launching Johnny Depp into his weirdo career with Cry-Baby.

And, of course, he's known for his trademark pencil-thin mustache.

But in other crowds, Pink Flamingos is his masterpiece, a film about two families competing for the title of "the filthiest people alive." Waters is famous for casting both the infamous (like Traci Lords) and the convicted (like Patricia Hearst). He's also known for putting together the best cult Christmas album ever, which features such deliriously tasteless songs as "Here Comes Fatty Claus" and "Happy Birthday Jesus."

Yes. You have to be a certain type of person to love John Waters. I hate to break it to you, but I am that type of person.

But . . . he's also wonderfully well-spoken and a truly charming and kindhearted writer. I enjoyed his latest book of essays, Role Models (the most obscene book I will ever recommend on this blog, and I DO recommend it, but definitely not to everyone), so much that the night I finished it, I downloaded the audio version, which he narrates, and listened to it twice, back-to-back! I'm listening to it for a third time now. His piece about Leslie Van Houten, ex-Manson girl, is the most thought-provoking essay that I've read in years.

Just last night, I dreamed I was hanging out with Mr. Waters in some greasy city diner, and we were getting along really well! But I knew we'd stumbled upon genuine friendship when we held up a doughnut together and posed for a Polaroid picture.

Truth: I woke up more relaxed and happy than I have in years.

But enough about my current obsession. ("Sure," my husband snorts.) My second guest runs in a similar, though less creepy, vein: David Sedaris.

Now here's a guy who can tell a good story. I also saw him speak in person a few years ago, and he made me laugh so hard that I cried. I worry that he might be shy or quiet for the first half hour of my party, but with the proper nudging, he'll shine. I don't even mind if he tells a story that I already know, a classic from any of his books (Naked is my favorite; it's probably still the craziest), because any Sedaris fan knows that the real charm is in how he delivers his stories aloud.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, try this one that he did about the "Stadium Pal" on Letterman. It's much easier to give you an example than to explain it myself. And, yes, it's exactly the type of story I want to hear at my dinner table!

My third invited guest would be Jack White.

If you've ever seen an interview with him, you'll understand why he made my list. Charismatic? Check! Weird? Check! Storyteller? Check! Hilarious? Check! I think he'd get along with my other guests, and I think they'd be interested in him, too.

I find him endlessly inspiring. The man is a creative machine. Whenever I consider the amount of work he's done in just a few years, I am astounded. How does he do it? Maybe he'd have some secrets to share!

[Fun fact: I recently wrote a Gothic short story about Jack White, reinvented as a rocker/orchid collector/ghost hunter. Maybe someday I'll share it with you. I call it "The Story That Doesn't Exist." But it does. I assure you, it does.]


Other potential dinner guests:

The remainder of my dinner party seats are still up for grabs. Ira Glass would have incredible stories to share from his years of hosting This American Life, but I worry that the connection between him and David Sedaris (who is a frequent guest on his show) might alter our table's dynamic! I'd also love to invite Neil Gaiman. He seems down-to-Earth for a writer superstar, and I think he'd appreciate my assembled oddballs. Plus, he's got a great voice. Hearing him speak would be enough.

But this leaves me with another problem . . .

I haven't invited any women! Frankly, I'm embarrassed about this. I'm proud to be a feminist, so I'm not sure what this unintentional exclusion reveals about me. And I can't even blame the boy-crazy thing, because half of my guests are gay! Maybe Meg Cabot? I adore Meg, and I'd bet everything I own that she'd come prepared to laugh.

Also, I'd be willing to bump someone if you'd enlighten me about some cool, fun historian who specializes in the weird and twisted. If you've heard of one, let me know! The additional historical perspective would be welcome. ("People have ALWAYS been nuts! Listen to this . . .")

So who would you invite to a dinner party? And would you attend mine?

My Happily Ever After (HUZZAH!)

This is me, last January inside the Centre Pompidou in Paris, listening to Future Stephanie on the phone. Future Stephanie is telling Past Stephanie that the research trip she's currently taking will totally be worth it!

Present Stephanie is very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, VERY EXCITED to announce . . . .

. . . the sale of Third Novel!

Isla and the Happily Ever After will be published by Dutton in late 2012. Isla is the final companion to Anna and the French Kiss (2010) and Lola and the Boy Next Door (2011).

I am UNBELIEVABLY THRILLED OUT OF MY MIND to be working with Julie Strauss-Gabel again and to have this opportunity to finish my "Girls with Four-Letter Names Ending in A" series.*

*Not official series title.

You already know that I'm secretive about plots, but here's what I can tell you:

—Yes, it takes place in Paris.
—Yes, there will be familiar faces.
—Yes, I've already started writing it.

And for the tiny handful of you who are looking at the title and thinking, Waaaait a second. Is that . . .?, the only thing I'll say is: Yes, whatever you're thinking is probably correct!

I'd love to take this chance to thank the people who have made this possible:

Thank you to superagent Kate Schafer Testerman, supereditor Julie Strauss-Gabel, and everyone else at Dutton and the Penguin Young Readers Group who has supported Anna and Lola and put their trust in me that I can do it again.

Thanks to Natalie Whipple, Jim Di Bartolo, Manning Krull, and Marjorie Mesnis who have provided me with invaluable research for this project (and will continue to do so for the next year, sorry about that). Thank you to Laini and Kiersten, because I always need to thank Laini and Kiersten. And thank you to Jarrod, my favorite of all, who picks out my characters from large crowds of real people and is always correct.

Finally, my biggest thanks to YOU for spreading the buzz about Anna. I know that it's because of your excitement that I've been given this opportunity. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for your support.

Oh! And it's pronounced "Eye-la," like "island" without the "nd." ;)


[EDITED TO ADD: Holy smokes, you guys are fast! Isla and the Happily Ever After is already on Goodreads. Thank you! Mark it to-read here.]

Jarrod & Steph, Halloween 2009

Sometimes pictures are better than words.

And then we stole our friend Jeff's Anton Chigurh wig:

And Anton's compressed-air cannon:

And then Jarrod stole MY wig:

And that is why my husband is my favorite. Of all my favorites. And you know I have a lot of favorites.

We don't have costumes planned for this year, but we ARE seeing Jónsi twice this weekend! One acoustic show inside Harvest Records, one all-out show for MoogFest. (Update: The acoustic show was canceled! Bummer, but I understand.) You may recall me gushing about Jónsi last winter.

I saw his all-out show last April in Minneapolis, and it was like NOTHING I've seen before. Feathers! Animals! Thunderstorms! I'm so excited to see it again. You can kinda sorta get an idea in this cool tour trailer, but it still doesn't capture the ecstatic magic of the real thing:

jónsi tour trailer from Jónsi on Vimeo.

What are your plans this Halloween? Are you dressing up? Going out? Both?

Starred Review for Anna + Gushing Review for Sherlock

I've received the a-okay to share this news. Kirkus gave Anna and the French Kiss a starred review!


"Perkins’s debut surpasses the usual chick-lit fare with smart dialogue, fresh characters and plenty of tingly interactions, all set amid pastries, parks and walks along the Seine in arguably the most romantic city in the world. Sarah Dessen fans will welcome another author who gracefully combines love and realism, as Anna’s story is as much about finding and accepting herself as it is about finding love. Très charmante."


HURRAH!! This was very, very unexpected and very, very exciting! I will happily accept the positive review, but the star? That belongs to my brilliant, instinctive editor. Thank you for making my book worthy, Julie. It's such an honor to work with you.

The full review is available here.

I haven't linked to many blogger reviews, because they tend to be spoiler-y, plus you'd grow tired of me! But since I'm on the subject, I'd like to share three favorites:


• Persnickity Snark: "I was losing hope that a contemporary romance could be authentic and deep, self-aware (but not bloated) and fun (without trying too hard) would show its face this year. Perkins threw me a life raft in a sea of bitterness and allowed me to ride the swell of her fantastic debut . . . Full of yearning, laughter and a touch of discord, Perkins has made her mark with great character beats, a genuine friendship and the minutiae that make overseas travel such a unique experience."


• Beth Revis: "What ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS has that most other contemporary love stories don't:

• A very hot boy
• Who also has flaws and is no where near perfect
• A very nice girl
• Who isn't a push-over and is willing to stand up for herself
• A very beautiful city
• That's so realistic, it's practically a third main character
• A plot
• Yes, really! There's a plot! An actual, interesting plot!"

• Lisa Schroeder at YA Bliss: "There were places I laughed out loud, and places I teared up because my heart hurt for the characters. I've always said—my favorite books are the ones that are able to bring that full range of emotions. ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS is *definitely* one of my favorite books."


Thank you to everyone—listed here and not—for giving me such a bounty of wonderful, thoughtful reviews. I feel unworthy.

But ecstatic!

In non-me news (because seriously), did you guys watch Sherlock last night on PBS?

OHMYSTARS, SO GOOD.

The new-to-America series consists of three 90-minute episodes. The characters have been shifted into the twenty-first century, and Holmes has become a text-messaging "highly functioning sociopath" and Watson is a blogging Afghanistan war veteran. The show's appearance is cool and stylized, and the writing is intelligent and hilarious (hugely, unexpectedly so).

"Oh, look at you lot. You're all so vacant. Is it nice not being me? It must be so relaxing." —Holmes

There is simply nothing not to like about it.

Of course, there's also much to admire HBM-wise about the new Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Watson (Martin Freeman, aka the new Bilbo Baggins). Holmes is equipped with a killer wardrobe, and the rapport between the actors is so tight that it elevates the entire production into something far beyond the usual television fare. It's impossible to imagine one actor without the other.

They're so fantastic that . . . I'm beginning to wish they were a romantic couple. Their chemistry could be as legendary as Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. Imagine Watson gazing coyly at Holmes over a piano! Holmes BURSTING from a lake in wet undergarments!! And then, of course, there would be this scene, shot in the rain as a sexy, sexy nod to Macfadyen and Knightley:

HOLMES: You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.
WATSON: Um . . . what did you just say?
HOLMES: Nothing. Shut up. You're annoying.

WOULD YOU NOT DIE???

If you missed it, here's the trailer:

You can catch the entire show here on the PBS website now through December 7th.

New Facebook Page

Matthew Goode. Because why not?

Hi, everyone! A quickie to let you know that I'll be deleting my personal Facebook account soon. I've replaced it with an official page. Please "like" me here (if you do):

http://www.facebook.com/stephanieperkinsbooks

Merci beaucoup!

Eleven Days Later

This is my favorite picture of my favorite band. Don't know what that says about me. But it always feels appropriate.

Eleven days since my last post. It's been a . . . busy month. I have so much to say that apparently I've nothing to say at all!

Here's what I did today:

• YouTubed videos of cute boys under the guise of "research."
• Chewed the same piece of gum from 11 pm until now (5:27 am).
• Wrote 3,000 words. Deleted 2,500 of them.

I feel the unmistakable twinges and tics of madness coming on. I owe emails to so many people, and I am so, so sorry! I will explain my absence soon.


[Speaking of Radiohead—juuuuuust in case another fan reads this—I recently ran across this AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING live From The Basement show. I'd seen parts of it before, but never the whole thing. OHMYSTARS, SO GOOD. Cannot stop watching it. Hypnotized by it. Want to make sweet, sweet love to it. Except it's a video, so that'd be weird. Plus, even if it were possible, I'm married. To a person. Not a YouTube video. But if I could be married to a YouTube video, it would be this one. You get the idea.]

Your First Chapter

Wisdom from a favorite blog, the notebook doodles.

This one is for writers.

Please read this fantastic post about first chapters by Valerie Kemp at agent Nathan Bransford's blog. Really, REALLY sage advice in there. Valerie says everything I've been thinking about lately in regards to this subject . . . but in a much clearer and more articulate manner! Her post is appropriate for writers both new and seasoned.

Seriously. Read it.

A related follow-up, also about first chapters—"What DON'T You Want To See?"—appropriate for any writer close to querying, can be found at my own agent's blog. Yes, yes, yes. Read her list. Follow her advice. Even if you think your novel is the exception to one of those rules (and it might be!), you do NOT want to risk a cliché sneaking in to your first chapter. Not at this early of a stage in your career.

[Don't feel bad if you find something from your first chapter on her list! All writers do it in the beginning. And then, inevitably, a teacher or critique partner will say, "Hey, um, that's a cliché." And we go, "OH. You're right." And that's how we learn.]

Your first chapter is the most important chapter of your novel. If your reader grows bored and sets your book down, they aren't coming back. Which means they'll never see the cool stuff you have planned for them later!

Make your first chapter reflect everything that's special about the rest of your novel. Make it so your reader HAS to read the second.

~~~

Edited to add: This doesn't have anything to do with first chapters, but it is writer-related, and it made me fall even deeper in love with Sarah Dessen. From her blog today:


"I think I should be learning something from this. Like to never talk about writing with anyone, ever. Or maybe to take longer between books so I'm rested and ready. But the truth is, I realized a long time ago that I have absolutely NO control over my writing, how it goes any given day, or week, or in any given book. I can follow the same schedule, sit at the same computer, eat the same two chocolates, every single day, with wildly varying results. And that, my friends, makes me NUTS. It's why I spend so much of the rest of my day organizing drawers, separating my daughter's toys into neatly ordered bins, and obsessively updating my calendar. I need to feel like I'm doing something right, when such a big part of what I do and love is always the big question mark."


The whole post is so yes! that my heart is exploding with gratitude. If Sarah (freaking!) Dessen feels this way, too, there's hope for me yet . . .

"I am in love with Saskia Hamilton!"

I'm so in love with "Saskia Hamilton," the new collaborative song from Ben Folds (music and vocals) and Nick Hornby (lyrics), and the corresponding official video made by Charlie McDonnell.

Ben Folds is, of course, Ben Folds. Nick Hornby is the author of oodles of great things including the novel High Fidelity (love the movie, love the book even more), and he was the screenwriter of last year's outstanding An Education. Saskia Hamilton is an American poet, and now I'm excited to check out her work!

[I wonder how many book sales she'll get from this song? I hope a lot! I found three poems here, if you're curious like I was.]

And Charlie McDonnell . . .

I know that MANY of you already know Charlie, because I received several pictures of him when I asked for images of Hot British People in August. Here is one of them:

If you know Charlie, you've probably already seen the above video. But if you don't know Charlie, he's internet-famous for his YouTube channel, charlieissocoollike, where over half a million subscribers watch him do interesting things like paint his entire body purple, teach his viewers about teenage boys, eat baby food, sing with himself, and sing about acne.

It's pretty much the most addictive YouTube channel for females between the ages of thirteen and . . . I am not finishing that sentence, but I will say at least twenty-eight. No particular reason.

Charlie also gets to do awesome things like visit the set of Dr. Who and meet Neil Gaiman.

AT THE SAME TIME.

Did you hear that? Two thousand nerds just exploded from excitement. I was one of them.

Anyway, if you're not already familiar with Charlie, you will thank me. Either that or you'll be super-annoyed, because seriously, there goes your afternoon.

You're welcome.

And thank you, for all of your comments on my last post. There were so many wonderful dog stories in there! Even one about one of my other childhood dogs. (Thank you, Jennifer!) Here's my favorite. It's from my agency sister Trish Doller, WHO TOTALLY JUST SOLD HER BOOK, BY THE WAY:


"One winter day, I let this particular dog—Sonic was his name—outside to do his business. But Sonic decided he wanted to go wandering, instead. I was in my pajamas so I slid my feet into my husband's big clunky work boots, threw on a coat, and went after him. He had a good lead, but there was lots of snow on the ground so I could follow his footprints. Shivering in my thin pajamas and unlaced boots with no socks, I followed his trail all the way around the block—and found him sitting on the back porch steps, waiting to be let back in.

There might be some writing advice in that story, too. Not necessarily for you, but maybe. Or me. Or anyone: Sometimes it's easier to let the idea come to you than to chase it all the way around the block? Hehe!"


Love it.

Do you have a favorite Charlie McDonnell video? Ben Folds song? Nick Hornby novel? Neil Gaiman story? Dr. Who episode? Or, dare I say it, Saskia Hamilton poem? Tell me in the comments!

Autumnal Beginnings and Endings

Thank you so much to all of the teachers and librarians who entered The Mockingbirds giveaway, and congratulations to the winner, Beth S.! Please send me your mailing address: steph AT stephanieperkins.com

I've been having some quiet days. Thank goodness. It's rainy here in the mountains, and the weather is finally cooling. Today I spotted my first pumpkins and mums of the season—on my next-door neighbor's porch!—and the air was chilly enough to require a sweater.

Happy sigh. I love autumn.

I'm dreaming of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup . . . even pumpkin-scented candles. Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow. Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Hand-knitted scarves and woolen tights. Red leaves, yellow leaves, orange leaves.

Brown leaves crunching underneath my boots.

(My boots!)

I'm also dreaming about falling in love with writing again. Rediscovering the magic, rolling around in the words, the scenes, the atmosphere. I've been switching back and forth between projects for the last month, and even though everything is interesting, nothing is—to borrow a favorite phrase from Laini—lighting my mind on fire.

So I'm trying something new this week. Or, rather, something old.

Instead of running out to buy a NEW fix, I pulled something off my preexisting writing shelf, Naomi Epel's The Observation Deck. It's a deck of creative prompts for writers along the lines of Brian Eno's famous-ish Oblique Strategies (designed for musicians, but useful in other artistic endeavors). I'm lazy and don't feel like talking about either, but if you're searching for your own inspiration, both are worth looking into.

But with beginnings, come endings.

Today I learned that my parents' golden retriever Maggie—Doesn't everyone know a golden retriever named Maggie?—passed away. She had a happy, long life, and she was the best dog I've ever known. Intelligent, loving, hilarious. In my last post, I mentioned that high school was difficult for me. I confess, this means I cried often. And every single time, Maggie would come running for me. She wouldn't leave my side until I was calm again.

THAT is a good dog. And a great friend.

The last time I saw her, about a year and a half ago, I had one of those deep, twinge-y feelings that it would probably be the last. I decided to take a picture of us together. It's certainly not an attractive picture! But it makes me smile, because you can tell we are friends.

Please leave a funny dog story in my comments, in her honor. Or tell me what you're looking forward to this autumn. Or both!

IT GETS BETTER

I didn't intend for this to become PSA week, but there's one more news story that caught my eye, and . . . I can't NOT talk about it. I promise that I'll return to posting pictures of attractive people with foreign accents soon.

Last night, Robin Benway (Yay, Robin!) tweeted this:

(Why, yes, I do get all of my news from Twitter.)

While this specific sentence was not news to me—Dan Savage is one of my heroes, too*—I was curious as to why he was making headlines again. When I clicked on the link, I was taken to a NYT article called "Showing Gay Teenagers a Happy Future."

It's about a YouTube project called "It Gets Better" that was created by Savage in response to the recent suicide of Billy Lucas, a fifteen-year-old who was bullied by his classmates for being gay. The project is aimed toward LGBT teens in middle school and high school who are suffering from bullying and depression, and it's a collection of videos made by LGBT adults.

Their message is simple: Life gets better after high school.

Now, I was not a happy teenager. In fact, I was a deeply unhappy teenager. And though my problems were minuscule compared to what gay teenagers face, they were still problems. Real, legitimate problems. And the ONE PIECE OF ADVICE that made a difference was when an adult who was not one of my parents** took the time to pull me aside and told me those exact same words:

It gets better.

She told me a story about a girl she knew who was a lot like me, who felt no connection with her peers, who was miserable in high school, and how the MOMENT she left . . . her life got better.

I never forgot it. Those words pulled me through some incredibly difficult years. And you know what? That adult was right. The moment I was out of high school—the day after graduation!—I was a happier person.

"It gets better" is a message I want to shout from the rooftops.

Middle school and high school flat-out suck, for a lot of people. And when you're trapped in it, day in and day out, it's impossible to see your own future clearly. This message, as hard as it is—tough it out, it'll be better later—is crucial. It saves lives.

Did you know that nine out of ten gay teens are bullied? That they're four times more likely to commit suicide?***

Please please please, I am begging you. If you know any LGBT teenagers, send them to Dan Savage's YouTube page and have them listen to Dan and Terry's (his partner of sixteen years) message. Show them the links in the sidebar.

And if YOU are a gay teenager, or if you're ANY teenager suffering from depression, I want to assure you with all of my heart—with every fiber of my whole entire being—that it does get better. I promise. You will have an AMAZING life. I know how horrible school is, how endless it feels, but I assure you . . . it does end. You can move anywhere you want. You'll find friends like yourself, people who understand you, people who will love and support you.

It gets better.

Hang in there.


*Dan Savage is a sex-advice columnist for Seattle's The Stranger. His column Savage Love runs in alternative papers across the country. He provides frank, honest advice for people who can't get it anywhere else. (It's also very, very, very NSFW—not safe for work!) He's the author of several hilarious and inspiring books, and his story about the death of his mother on This American Life (episode: "Return to the Scene of the Crime") is one of the most powerful narratives I've ever heard on radio. I like him. A lot.

**Parents, of course you should also be telling this to your children. And, for the record, my wonderful parents assured me of it frequently! But it makes a difference—A BIG GIGANTIC HUGE DIFFERENCE—to hear this kind of support from someone who (you don't feel) has to say it to you. You know?

***Linkage

Honest-to-Goodness Titles of My First Drafts

Anna and the French Kiss = Really Awesome Novel

Lola and the Boy Next Door = Totally Brilliant Novel

(Third Novel) = Super Best Novel Ever


I have upgraded. Obviously.

Speak Loudly + The Mockingbirds Giveaway

I wasn't going to blog about this, because so many authors much more eloquent than myself have already written about it, but . . . I have a handful of readers who are NOT in the YA community who might not have heard, so this post is for them.

It's also for every single one of my friends who has been raped.

Here's the story: Two days ago, in an opinion piece in a Missouri newspaper, a university associate professor named Wesley Scroggins challenged three books, one of which was Laurie Halse Anderson's groundbreaking novel Speak. In the most simple terms possible, the story is about a girl who is raped and loses her voice.

And the guy who wrote the opinion piece has the nerve to compare the rape scenes in Speak to "soft pornography."

@#$#*@)()@*$()#@*$)(#*@#@$*#@)$&#*@^#%$!!!

Here is Anderson's response:


"The fact that he sees rape as sexually exciting (pornographic) is disturbing, if not horrifying. It gets worse, if that’s possible, when he goes on to completely mischaracterize the book.

Some people say that I shouldn’t make a big deal about this. That I am giving him more attention than he deserves. But this guy lives about an hour and half from the school district that banned Sherman Alexie’s THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN this month.

My fear is that good-hearted people in Scroggins’ community will read his piece and believe what he says. And then they will complain to the school board. And then the book will be pulled and then all those kids who might have found truth and support in the book will be denied that. In addition, all the kids who have healthy emotional lives but who hate reading, will miss the chance to enjoy a book that might change their opinion."


Not only is his comparison despicably vile, but HE'S COMPLETELY MISSING THE POINT OF THE BOOK. That we need to SPEAK UP about rape. If this book goes on to be officially challenged or banned, it sends a message of silence to rape victims. Which to that I say:

OH HELLS NO.

Here are some actions suggested by Anderson that we can do to help:


"Please share your experiences with SPEAK; your own response to the book, or the way you’ve seen it work in a school setting . . . please share links to your blog in [Anderson's] Comments. But then, please speak up to the people who can make a real difference in Republic, MO.

You can submit a letter to the editor of the News-Leader.

You can write to the superintendent of the Republic School District, Dr. Vern Minor, or to the high school principal, Daren Harris.

You can comment directly to Scroggins’ opinion piece."


I'm also buying a copy of Speak for every public library in my county that did not already own one. (Five new copies on the way!) AND this whole thing is making me think of another brilliant, compassionately written novel about rape, The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney.

"Themis Academy is a quiet boarding school with an exceptional student body that the administration trusts to always behave the honorable way—the Themis Way. So when Alex is date raped during her junior year, she has two options: stay silent and hope someone helps her, or enlist the Mockingbirds—a secret society of students dedicated to righting the wrongs of their fellow peers.

In this honest, page-turning account of a teen girl's struggle to stand up for herself, debut author Daisy Whitney reminds readers that if you love something or someone—especially yourself—you fight for it."


Here's an actual quote from an email I sent to a friend just last night: "I love Daisy's book. It's about rape, but it's NOT depressing. It's a story about healing, about regaining power and being happy and comfortable with relationships and sex again. And . . . there's a seeeeriously cute boy in it!"

(Ha ha! I can never resist mentioning a cute boy. And, yes, as you can guess by the title and cover, it has an awesome connection with To Kill a Mockingbird.)

It's my favorite YA contemporary debut of the year. By far. Unfortunately, The Mockingbirds won't be released until November 2nd, but:

If you are either: (A) a librarian or (B) a teacher with a library in your classroom, please leave a comment on this post to enter to win a pre-order of The Mockingbirds for your public collection.

Make sure to mention that you're a librarian or teacher in your comment, so I'll know you're officially entering. I'll draw a winner at the end of the week.

And finally, here's a video of Laurie Halse Anderson reading a poem called "Listen" based on the letters she's received about Speak:

Have a great week, my friends. Speak loudly.


[THIS GIVEAWAY HAS CLOSED.]

Three Things I've Been Doing This Month

(1) Watching Gilmore Girls and Friday Night Lights.

Last week, ABC Family started airing them back-to-back from their first episodes. I've seen several episodes of GG at random, and I've always enjoyed it, but I've never found the time to make the full seven-season commitment.

I AM SO GLAD I'M DOING IT NOW.

And FNL is one of those shows that writers always love (even writers who hate football!), so I felt like I should try it. And . . . yeah. It's as fantastic as everyone says it is. And every episode has made me cry at least once.

I'm loving them both, but I love Gilmore Girls a *little* more, because it's a world I actually want to live in. My favorite TV shows and movies and novels are always the ones that I wish were my own life! And come on, coffee at Luke's? Sookie's magic cooking? The Gilmore house? The twinkle lights downtown? I'm experiencing serious lifestyle lust.

If you're like me, and you're late to the game, I give both shows my highest recommendation. But I give Gilmore Girls, like, my highest recommendation plus.

P.S. Please don't put any spoilers in my comments. I only know a teeny handful of things that happen in later seasons on these shows, and I'd rather things stay a surprise. Thanks!

(2) Turning my upstairs hallway into a library.

It's beauuutiful and a longtime dream fulfilled. Guys, I have an entire bookcase JUST for young adult literature now! Pictures forthcoming, once Jarrod and I have accessorized the space a bit more.


(3) Pacing the black and white tiles of my kitchen at 3:30 a.m. and obsessing over writers who are smarter and/or more productive than me, which seems to be pretty much everyone these days, but especially one writer who shall remain nameless, who if I could write ONE SENTENCE like Nameless Writer, I'd never want for anything again, except that's a total lie, because I want to write ENTIRE BOOKS filled with these sentences, because if I just wrote one sentence, it'd probably be cut, because my critique partners would be like, "What's this brilliant sentence doing in your novel? It doesn't sound like you. You should cut it," and then I'd never even see the sentence go to print, so basically I am screwed, and why is everyone so much better than me???

This also accounts for the lack of blogging.

Outbox Confessions

Email I sent to a friend at midnight:

Writing is THE WORST.


Email I sent to her an hour later:

Actually . . . it's not . . . too bad.

BEDITSHOA: And the winner is . . .

. . . Jessica at Forever Young: A YA Lit Blog! Congratulations!! I've emailed you, but if for some reason email monkeys have snatched my message out of cyberspace, please contact me at: steph AT stephanieperkins.com

So. I just spent eighty minutes copying and pasting your names into name-picker. Eighty minutes! Copying and pasting!

Thank you all SO MUCH for entering—for sending me hundreds of pictures of Hot British People, for putting the Anna countdown widget on your blogs, and for spreading the word about my novel.

♥ THANK YOU! ♥

I'm running out of time before midnight, so this last part will be muchmuchmuch shorter than I intended. But I just want to say publicly one more time today how unbelievably, extraordinarily, overwhelmingly happy and proud of Kiersten White I am. As of TODAY her debut novel Paranormalcy is available in stores EVERYWHERE!!!

I met Kiersten right around the time she finished her first draft of this book, and I consider myself fortunate to have been one of its earliest readers. I am very attached to it. (GIANT UNDERSTATEMENT.) I say with all of my heart that I love this novel like it's one of my own.

I love Kiersten, and I love Paranormalcy, and I really really really really REALLY hope you'll all read it! TIMES A BAJILLION!!!

Thus marks the end of Blog Every Day in the Second Half of August. Phew! I'll talk to you again soon, but . . . not tomorrow. Ha.

BEDITSHOA: There's still time . . .

. . . to enter my Anna and the French Kiss advanced copy giveaway.

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY HERE.

It's the last day! Do it, do it!

The novel is funny and romantic and smart. (Says the author.) The heroine is BFF-worthy, and the hero is crush-worthy: French name, English accent, spectacular hair. And look what Gayle Forman—Gayle! Forman!—said on her blog this weekend:


"It somehow managed to be the perfect romantic comedy, lovingly and excruciatingly (in the best of ways) drawing out the realistic relationship between St. Clair and Anna over a year at a boarding school for Americans in Paris. But it’s also more."


If you want to know what the "more" is, check out her blog. P.S. You'll also find another opportunity to win an advanced copy.

In honor of the best book written by myself set in France that's being published in 2010, here's one of my favorite French bands, Phoenix, doing a "Tiny Desk Concert" for NPR:

I love them.

FUN FACT #1: Phoenix's vocalist Thomas Mars is in a long-term relationship with film director Sofia Coppola. They have two children together. Anna Oliphant—heroine of Anna and the French Kiss—named her car Sofia in her honor.

FUN FACT #2: Sofia has a goooorgeous-looking new film called Somewhere. Phoenix is on the soundtrack. Phoenix's song "Love Like a Sunset" plays in the beginning of the trailer. That song is on my Anna playlist! I'll release Anna's complete playlist this December, but here's Sofia's trailer now:

Good luck, everyone! I'll announce the winner tomorrow night.

BEDITSHOA: North of Beautiful

In July, Anna received a fantastic blurb from novelist and Readergirlz diva Justina Chen. But I confess, it came with some guilt attached. I'd heard nothing but amazing things about her books, but . . . I hadn't read any of them yet! I felt ashamed that she read my book first.

I immediately went out and purchased North of Beautiful, her latest, which received *THREE* starred reviews! Here's the description:


It's hard not to notice Terra Cooper.

She's tall, blond, and has an enviable body. But with one turn of her cheek, all people notice is her unmistakably "flawed" face. Terra secretly plans to leave her small, stifling town in the Northwest and escape to an East Coast college, but gets pushed off-course by her controlling father. When an unexpected collision puts Terra directly in Jacob's path, the handsome but quirky Goth boy immediately challenges her assumptions about herself and her life, and she is forced in yet another direction. With her carefully laid plans disrupted, will Terra be able to find her true path?


Guys. This book was perfect. My kind of novel.

It's fun and romantic, with depth and themes and complications and darkness. The characters are many-faceted and real—they make mistakes!—and because of it, I cared deeply for them. And the story is PACKED with interesting things like mapmaking, geocaching, collaging, wish-making, and exploring.

I love novels with a genuine sense of place. This story was split between a tiny Northwestern town and China, and they were both richly drawn. I read the chapters set in China especially slowly, savoring the flavors and sights and sounds. It made me ache to see the skyline of Shanghai!

And Jacob, the "handsome but quirky Goth boy"?

HOT.

So hot that I've switched from Team Edward to Team Jacob. Team Jacob the Goth. I don't want to spoil anything, but I know I'm reading a successful love story when I find myself cheering every time The Boy steps onto the page. Terra and Jacob's relationship was made up of tons of those delicious little moments that make the delicious big moments in the end that much better.

The novel is about the meaning of beauty, and appropriately, the prose is beautiful, the story is beautiful, and the romance is beautiful. I loved it. L-O-V-E-D loved it. I'm so excited to read Justina's first two novels Nothing But the Truth (and a few white lies) and Girl Overboard.

I give this book my HIGHEST GLOWING RECOMMENDATION to fans of contemporary fiction, as well as to readers who enjoy romance and to anyone who loves a story that takes them around the world.


[Also, may I add how flattered I am that not only did my editor think to send my book to Justina, but that Justina actually liked it? When hers is the kind of novel that I wish I could write?? Thank you again to my editor Julie and Justina!]

[Also, may I add how thrilled I am that Blog Every Day in the Second Half of August is almost over? Daily bloggers, you have my endless respect and admiration. OMG, THIS IS HARD.]

BEDITSHOA: It's real!

KA-BAM

Look what Jarrod and I found today! Paranormalcy's official release isn't until Tuesday, but we'd heard a rumor that Books-A-Million was stocking it early, and *POOF*. There it was.

YOU DID IT, KIERSTEN!!!

I am so, so, so proud of you!