Happy Halloween!

We spent last week chatting about my favorite holiday of the year: Halloween. And I'm not sure about where you live, but here in Utah, we pretty much celebrated it yesterday since it fell on a Sunday this year. Here's how I celebrated Halloween.

On Thursday our local elementary school had their parade and class parties, and since two of my kids are in school, I helped out with both of their parties. For my fifth grader's class, I got to dress up like a witch (above) and tell a spooky story about Boo Hags while making a brew (which was more like a trail mix). It was a blast and I have a feeling some of those kiddies had a nightmare or two! (The true sign of success, eh?)

On Saturday, I was honored to be part of Provo City Library's 1st Annual Teen Read Fest. I'm always excited to receive an invitation there because that library is, in a word, amazing. They totally know how to fill their beautiful historical building with readers and authors and proud parents. I got to do a reading, speed dating Q&A sessions, book signings, and hang out in the green room with my new BFF (though he might not know this yet) YA author extraordinaire Scott Westerfeld. Then, I came home in a rainstorm to homemade chili a la my husband and spent the night handing out Halloween candy to goblins.

By the way, can you guess what I dressed up as???

And if you dressed up, what did you go as this year?

Teen Read Week!

It's mid-October and just week and a half from Halloween. Yay! But an even cooler celebration happens this time of year --ALA's Teen Read Week. To celebrate we're posting about it all week long on BBB.

Today, I'm remembering my early teens, when books were the salvation and the escape from the horrible world of school life. My dad was a teacher at the local high school, which was only three blocks from my middle school. So, I would ride into work with him and then trek over to my m.s. on foot. I was often early, so I hid out in the library, working my way through a ton of mysteries and spy books. In the afternoon, I'd be subjected to riding home on the bus with the gross boys, bullies, mean girls, etc. But those mornings, when it was just me, the librarian, and a written world of escape, were precious.

I recently got a reader letter from a girl who'd enjoyed Never Cry Werewolf. She said that she loved the book because it helped her escape from the awful world of middle school. Isn't that cool and funny? That what I once treasured about others' books, this girl treasured about mine? I wrote back that my respite used to be reading in middle school, too - but now I used writing to find that same escape.

Reading is unlike any other activity I know. Readers and writers escape together in some way. We're both invested in the worlds we're creating in our minds and on the pages. I think that's a beautiful thing and it changed my life, starting in my teen years.

So how did you come to reading as a teen? What was or is your favorite place to escape with a book?

Happy Teen Read Week!

Heather
www.heatherdavisbooks.com
Never Cry Werewolf - HarperTeen
The Clearing - Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Wherever You Go - Harcourt, Fall 2011

We Got the Beat

As Wendy introduced on Sunday, this week is the fabulous Teen Read Week™ sponsored by the ALA (American Library Association) and YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) and the theme for this year's week is...

Books with Beat @ your library®

As the Teen Read Week Wiki says, this theme is open to lots of interpretations. And, being a child of the 80s, my first thought is the Go-Go's (as interpreted by Kids Incorporated):

Now beats can mean a lot of different things. Heart beats. Music beats. Hoof beats. Bad beats (in poker). Beat downs (not such a good thing). Getting beaten (as in a race). Beat feet (to run away). Beat an egg (which I don't do anymore, since I'm vegan). And those are just the one that I can come up with. There are even more great theme ideas on the Teen Read Week Wiki.

Your turn. How would you interpret the 2010 Teen Read Week theme?

Hugs,
TLC

Gearing Up for Teen Read Week

I love Teen Read Week! This year, I'm getting a head start by visiting 5 middle schools in my neighboring state of Idaho.
Then, on Friday, Oct. 30, I'll be joining a group of fabulous YA authors (Scott Westerfeld, Brandon Mull, Brandon Sanderson, Sara Zarr, James Dashner, Bree Despain, Jessica Day George, Kristin Chandler, Carol Lynch Williams, Ally Condie, Ann Dee Ellis, Lisa Magnum, Sydney Saltar, Nathan Hale, Ann Cannon, Dene Lowe, Sheila Nielsen, J. Scott Savage, and Chris Crowe) at Provo City Library for Teen Book Fest. Click HERE for mo' info. If there's any way you can make it to Provo, Utah, you won't want to miss it.
What are YOU doing to celebrate Teen Read Week? And remember to stop by the blog all week to see what the other Bees are up to. :)

Please excuse the late posting!

Sorry to be posting late! We went up to Salem, Mass this weekend to participate in some activities surrounding the Festival of the Dead. Our hotel was so overrun (as you can imagine Salem would be in the month of October) and too many users crashed their free Internet connection. So, my post yesterday was long somewhere in the midst of blogger.com.

I hope everyone's had a chance to VOTE for Simone Elkeles' YA debut novel that is up for the American Library Associations Top Ten Young Adult book. It's one of the best YA's I've read...just zipped right through it. Loved everything about it. There's still time to drop in and vote! I know I did!

We're so proud of Simone here. She's one of the hardest working writers out there. Not only is she kind, caring and supportive to her fellow authors, but she speaks to many schools and is out there getting young people to read! She deserves all the success in the world and I'm happy to call her my friend. We're liquid eyeliner buddies, right Simone?

And for those of you who post a comment today, you'll be eligile to win a copy of Diana Peterfreund's awesome Under the Rose, the second book of the Secret Society Girl series. And just wait until the third book, Rites of Spring (Break) is out next year!



Please leave your comment to enter to win Diana's book. Since I posted late, I'll let you comment here over the next couple of days and we'll announce the winner on Wednesday.

Hugs,
Marley = )

SORORITY 101: ZETA OR OMEGA?
SORORITY 101: THE NEW SISTERS
writing as Kate Harmon
May 2008, Puffin Books

Where I Went On My Summer Vacation

In HOW TO RUIN A SUMMER VACATION, Amy Nelson gets dragged to Israel against her will, to spend summer vacation with her extended family. At first, she is certain she's going to hate it. She's miles away from her friends, boyfriend, cell phone, and shopping mall. But by the end of the book, she's having the time of her life. She's learned to appreciate the oh-so-foreign culture--and the people!

Travel is always a bit of a risk. Will you like where you're going? Will it be better than you expect? Worse? Will you have fun? Will you learn something? Will you be bored? Excited? Moved to tears? The thing is, you never know until you go. And you'll almost always be surprised.

That happened to me in a trip just after I finished graduate school. My program sponsored a travel fellowship for a class trip, and our class chose to visit Prague. A friend and I flew out early so we had two glorious weeks. But the truly magical part of the trip was one the way home. Through lucky happenstance, our return flight came with an "overnight" layover in Paris. And by "overnight" I mean 8 hours. Arrive at midnight. Depart at eight in the morning. Not enough time to do much, right? Wrong.

My mom's friend who lives in Paris and her daughter, Laura, met us at the airport. After dropping our luggage at their apartment, the daughter's boyfriend--a professional chauffeur--picks us up in a luxury sedan. For the next two hours he and Laura gave us a whirlwind tour of the city of lights. We flew down the Champs Elysee, past the Louvre and the Ritz-Carlton, the couture shops, the Hotel des Invalides, Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, and made it to the Eiffel Tower just in time to see the twinkling light show. Then we topped off the night with champagne at the Buddha Bar--favorite haunt of Madonna and the like.

Could I have planned this? Not on your life. The moral of the story is that you should never write off an experience, because it might turn out to be the most magical one of all.

Now it's your turn to share. Have you ever been surprised (either good or bad) on a vacation? Post your story in the comments and enter to win a copy of Buzz girl book, TOP TEN USES FOR AN UNWORN PROM DRESS.

Hugs,
TLC

OH. MY. GODS. -- May 2008 from Dutton Children's Books
teralynnchilds.com