I have the plague. It’s awful. Mostly all I have done these past few days is wander around with Kleenex shoved up my nostrils and you totally needed that mental picture, yes you did!

In spite of my plague, it has been a really happy-making week and this is why: my good friend, Daisy Whitney, just landed a two-book deal with Little, Brown for her YA novel, The Mockingbirds! Yay, Daisy!!!

Anddd what’s The Mockingbirds? To steal the description from Daisy’s blog entry announcing her sale (stop by and offer your congrats!), it’s about “a student-run underground justice league at a prestigious boarding school and the complications that ensue during a date rape case.” Also (and this is so cool): “The [justice league] takes its name and inspiration from Harper Lee’s TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.”

Doesn’t that sound freaking amazing and intriguing?! I KNOW!!! How am I supposed to wait to read that? How are you?! I will have to think of things to do to occupy my time until its release or else I will go CRAZY.

Anyway, Daisy’s a multi-talented dynamo and when I’m not marvelling over the fact that she actually found the time to write amidst all the other awesome things she does, I am totally over the moon for her about this. Her generosity and joie de vivre make it an honour to be her friend and her wonderful voice is going to make an incredible and essential addition to YA shelves.

CONGRATULATIONS, DAISY!!!


In other news, I did a really fun interview over at the awesome Teens Writing for Teens. This is the one where I said I was giving up on my third book and it turned out to be a lie. Luckily, the amazing Emilia, my interviewer, totally added an addendum to my answer about how I reconciled with my book and my reputation as a truth-teller remains intact. Thanks, Emilia!

I also answered Seven Questions at Robert Kent’s site. The questions were thoughtful and fun. Rob also wrote an extraordinarily kind review of Cracked Up to Be. Thanks, Rob!

I’ve also contributed a guest blog at Hope’s Bookshelf in celebration of her birthday and blog anniversary. I wrote about things I wish I’d known when I was a teenager and you can read the entry here. She’s doing lots of giveaways and there’s a signed copy of Cracked Up to Be up for grabs! All you have to do is comment here for a chance to win.

… And those are all the places on the internet I have infiltrated as of late.

Even more happy news concerning talented people I adore: Simon & Schuster posted an excerpt of Dani Noir by Nova Ren Suma on their website! Remember Dani Noir? That book I was raving about recently and still rave about to people whenever I get the chance because dammit it is just that good? Man, I LOVE that book. Check out the first chapter here.

Finally, I don’t know if I should admit this on my blog, but I now own The Sims 2. I hemmed and hawed about getting it for ages (aka two weeks) and then I bought it because I need an excuse to work less or whatever don’t judge me:

That’s my sim on the right. She just graduated college with a degree in drama or something. She made the Dean’s List in her last year. IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO HAVE A SOCIAL LIFE AND MAKE THE DEAN’S LIST. And there was this girl that I wanted my sim to be friends with but they just hated each other and got into a huge fight instead. So college sucked. Now she lives in Strangetown. I used cheats to get endless amounts of simoleons so I could build my sim the house of my dreams. I mean her dreams.

Anyway, that guy on the left is not good enough for her (he doesn’t even wear a shirt to the dinner table!), but despite this they seem to be in love. His name is Brian, but I call him Shirtless Sam. I am debating whether or not to have them get married or if she should just string him along and pursue other people while he thinks he’s The One. Poor Stupid Shirtless Sam. Or maybe I will have them get married and then have Shirtless Sam die in a tragic swimming pool accident. Decisions, decisions!

I also have a sim family in Veronaville, but I gave up on them because RAISING SIM CHILDREN INTO ADULTS THAT CAN LOOK AFTER THEMSELVES TAKES FOREVER and apparently all the simoleons in the world can’t buy you a live-in Nanny.

Sigh.