Author of award-winning, adventurous realistic and historical fiction

I talk about food too much

Texas Bound!

Aug 10, 2014 | , , , , , , , ,

I’m heading to Texas this weekend for some great book events! (And some great BBQ, of course.)

On Saturday, August 16th, I’ll be at the Fort Worth library for the Worth Reading Author Roundup from 1:00-5:00 p.m.

On Sunday, August 17th, I’ll be at the Fort Worth Barnes & Noble with Tara Dairman, Kari Anne Holt, and Polly Holyoke for a MG panel at 4:00 p.m. 

And on Monday, August 18th, at 6:30 p.m., I’ll be in the Austin area at The Book Spot for a fun-filled panel with Tara Dairman, Nikki Loftin, and Jennifer Ziegler!

Hope to see you there!

Research Trip

May 13, 2014 | , , , , , , , , ,

Last week I hopped on a train and in a car to make my way to coastal North Carolina for a research trip. Here’s some of what I saw and did:

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I went belowdecks in a 16th-century ship!

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I hiked in historic woods!

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I wandered a shoreline!

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I stood inside an excavated fort–and got chills!

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I checked out an ancient live oak!

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I visited a charming town–including its awesome indie bookstore!

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And I climbed the tallest lighthouse in the nation! Take THAT, fear of heights.

I didn’t think I could get more excited about working on this story, but I did. There’s nothing quite like writing about a fantastic, historic, mysterious, beautiful setting–and then getting a chance to see it in person.

Oh, and I can’t not mention the most incredible donuts I ate.

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I had one every single day. Because DELICIOUS.

I can’t wait to go back.

What’s Up Wednesday, 1/15

Jan 15, 2014 | , , , , , , , , ,

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What’s Up Wednesday is a weekly meme that helps readers and writers touch base with blog friends. You can find the link widget (and cute buttons!) on Jaime’s and Erin’s blog posts.

What I’m Reading 
I finished Hostage Three, which was smart, tense, and moving, and now I’m finally reading Tiger Lily. I’ve always been into the Peter Pan story, and I love this retelling so far. The writing is captivating, miss-your-subway-stop good.

What I’m Writing   
I haven’t gotten as much revising done as I’d hoped this week, mostly because I’ve been working hard on some publicity-related writing, like interviews and guest posts. It’s making me look at my story in different ways, and that’s kind of fun. I think I’m caught up for now, so I hope to get back to revising over the long weekend.

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What Inspires Me Right Now

Last week, the first two books in my friend Michelle’s debut series, I Heart Band, pubbed. It’s so exciting to think about readers discovering her delightful characters! A group of friends met up the night before her pub date for wine and a book-cover cake. It was a great way to kick off a new year of writing.

What Else I’ve Been Up To 
Yeah, about that “lots of yoga” from last week . . . I was a little too much of a weekend warrior this past one, and long story short, I did something very bad to my hip while in class. It’s never good when your body makes Rice Krispie noises (Snap! Crackle! POP!) while you’re moving out of a pose. So I’m heading to the doctor today to figure out exactly what I did. It’s a bummer, but hopefully I’ll be back to bending soon. And in the meantime, I will be eating my first-ever homemade doughnuts. photo-1

Homemade = healthy, right? Right.

So what have you been up to lately?

What’s Up Wednesday 10/16

Oct 16, 2013 | , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 

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What’s Up Wednesday is a weekly meme that helps readers and writers touch base with blog friends. If you’d like to join in, you can find the link widget on Jaime’s and Erin’s blog posts. I love this idea because it gives a structured, easy way for me to keep up with blogging. Also, the buttons are cute. Thanks for the idea, Jaime and Erin!

What I’m Reading 
Last week I read Just One Year in just one day. I loved getting to see the other side of the story; I’ll say nothing else because I don’t want to spoil anything. Then I lucked into an ARC of Nikki Loftin’s Nightingale’s Nest. It’s beautiful and unique and haunting, and I’m savoring every word.

What I’m Writing   
Still doing odds and ends for the business side of writing. When I’m not doing that, I am playing around with a new idea. This is a project I’d maybe like to work on for NaNo in some form. I guess for now I’m treating it more like a writing exercise and less like a WIP, if that makes sense. Sometimes you need space to play with words in order to work with them.

What Inspires Me Right Now   
I had the day off on Monday, so I went up to the Bronx Zoo. A lot of little kids were running around in their adorable Halloween costumes.  Dime-store capes and some face paint are all it takes to let them create adventures for themselves.  It’s always fun to see children being imaginative and playful, and I find the creativity surrounding Halloween really inspiring–that’s probably why it’s one of my favorite holidays. (Also the candy. Mmm, candy. I think I might actually get trick-or-treaters this year, so I have an excuse to stock up.)

What Else I’ve Been Up To
Last Friday I went to Alison Cherry’s launch party for her debut, Red! It was at the lovely BookCourt in Brooklyn, and it was a fabulous time.

And in other news, there’s a Goodreads ARC giveaway for When Audrey Met Alice going on right now. You can sign up here!

So what have you been up to lately?

 

Hello, hello!

Oct 3, 2013 | , , , , , , , , ,


Hi! You made it over here to my blog’s new home.

I figured now would be a great time to mention how wonderful working with Biondo Studio has been. I was pretty scared about leaving my comfortable Blogger home and venturing into the world of WordPress and a static website. For a while, I researched web designers and drooled over other authors’ websites. It didn’t take that long of a while before I realized that my favorite sites were always created by–you guessed it–Biondo Studio. So I sent them an email, and here we are now, at my shiny new website, which I love.

Denise and John at Biondo Studio are awesome. When we first started discussing what I wanted my site to look like, I think it sounded like I was creating some kind of bizarre word-association poem: “Doughnuts. I love the beach. Orange cats are my favorite. I write historical and contemporary fiction. I live in NYC. Did I mention that I love doughnuts?” If had made a homepage from that, it would look like this:

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But Denise and John took that jumble and made something perfect (and coherent) (and really cute). I hadn’t really known how to communicate what I wanted, but it didn’t matter: Biondo Studio has design ESP.

From there, it was smooth sailing. Denise and John were patient when it took me approximately twenty-seven tries to figure out a) who I had registered by domain with, and b) how to access it.  And they didn’t bat an eye when in true production-editor form, I kept finding the tiniest things to tweak, and tweak, and tweak.

So if you find yourself wanting a new website or a blog tuneup, I can’t recommend them highly enough. I’m grateful and happy that they created such a nice home for me online, and that they made the process so easy for someone as scattered and web-designophobic as me!

 

Miss Teen Dream Fun Facts Page!

Sep 12, 2011 | , , , ,

I had so much fun reading Libba Bray’s Beauty Queens. So much fun that I didn’t want to write a review or even sum up my thoughts on the madcap, hilarious satire. Instead, here’s my homage to that perfect end-of-summer read: my own contestant fun facts page, if as a Wisconsin teen I hadn’t been more Daria-like than a Teen Dreamer.

Name: Rebecca Behrens
State: Miss Wisconsin
Age: 16
Height: almost 5′ 3”
Weight: Depends on how many dairy products I have sampled
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Green
Best feature: Arm muscles from frozen-custard scooping

Fun Facts About Me:
I secretly love to sing along to my Boyz Will B Boyz CD while dancing around my room. But in public, I tell everyone I only listen to alternative and folk rock.*
My favorite show is NOVA Captains Bodacious.
The thing that scares me most is Ladybird Hope the swimsuit competition running out of the Corporation’s 100 Lashes mascara.
I love watching old movies, and I like to make Hitchcock blonde Halloween costumes.
My dream is to run the Corporation’s doughnut production business unit. Or to be an investigative journalist who exposes crooks with hidden cameras. I love me some hidden cameras.

*The Corporation suggested that I do not mention Ani DiFranco by name.

For those of you who’ve read Beauty Queens: what would your fun facts be?

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