i had a fabulous time with my

brush artist friends on tuesday night.

ate great food, then proceeded to paint.

our teacher had been encouraging us

to paint rocks (which can also turn into

mountains for landscape paintings) and

i finally tackled the subject.

the hardest component in this painting
for me was the rock. it's definitely more
challenging as i love painting flowers
and using color. rocks, when done wrong,
turn into lumps of dough. i think what is
so essential about g...

About Struts & Frets

More than anything, Sammy wants to play guitar in
a famous indie rock band. The problem is that his
front man is a jerk who can't sing, his bassist is a burn-out
who can't remember the songs, and his drummer is just out
to lunch. But Sammy needs this band because it's the only
good thing he's got going. His father skipped out before he
was born, his mother is an overworked therapist with a
drinking problem, his grandfather is slowly losing his mind to
Alzheimer's, and the...

my mom is making a trek back to her

village in the province of guangxi next spring–

her first time back since leaving china at age five

or so. she's been back to china since, but never

to her home village.

guangxi is where the famous and gorgeous

guilin mountains are located, immortalized by

brush painters, then tourists and their fotographs.

how i wish i can make this trek with
my mom in the spring! but it's just not my
time yet to visit china. it's certainly something
i'm looking forward...

*especially low tide this past sunday.

so much so that the mossy green rocks

furthest out were revealed along with its

tidepools. munchkin is clinging to the love

like a rabid monkey and the sweet pea is a

smudge of red. i feel much blessed to live so

close to this beauty.

i haven't seen my wild canyon bunny for near
two months. =( i still throw out my carrot each
day and in the mornings, they are gone. i'm hoping
that the bunny is still coming to nibble and it's not
a skunk or possum or giant...

the place was nearly full at 6pm!

i was glad we made a reservation. also

love sitting at the bar–near the food. ha!

burdock (sort of like bamboo but tougher?
we still don't know what it is!), japanese seaweed
(which i liked. and i don't usually like seaweed much),
cold...

About The Espressologist

What's your drink of choice? Is it a small pumpkin
spice latte? Then you're lots of fun and a bit sassy.
Or a medium americano? You prefer simplicity in life.
Or perhaps it's a small decaf soy sugar-free hazelnut
caffe latte? Some might call you a yuppie.
Seventeen-year-old barista Jane Turner has this theory
that you can tell a lot about a person by their regular
coffee drink. She scribbles it all down in a notebook
and calls it Espressology. So it's not a totally crazy idea

my sweet pea is six years old today!

i sent her to school with some brownie bites

and mini chocolate chip cookies (purchased)

and she got to open her pressies this morning.

she chose both, one a sort of bejeweled sticker

by numbers and another paper beading bracelets

or some such. i also bought her a nice stack of

books–which she always loves. =D

i bought a carvel ice cream cake for the family
and she chose THAI food...

i'm so thrilled to have hannah here with me today.

her debut, BREAK, was just released in september :

Jonah is on a mission to break every bone in his

body. Everyone knows that broken bones grow back

stronger than they were before. And Jonah wants to

be stronger—needs to be stronger—because everything

around him is falling apart. Breaking, and then healing,

is Jonah's only way to cope with the stresses of home,

girls, and the world on his shoulders.

When Jonah's self-destructive spiral...

it's top model wednesday!

i'm thrilled to share the newest

ALAN Review cover which features

several YA novel covers including many

debs such as :

ASH by malinda lo

HATE LIST by jennifer brown

STRUTS and FRETS by jon skovron

other covers also featured :

AMERICAN BORN CHINESE by gene luen yang

FIRE by kristin cashore

but there are three images i can't suss

out–assuming they are book covers? does

anyone else have a clue?

also check out my interview with debra

on Old People Writing for Teens. =D

another crazy full very social weekend
seeing my old uni friends. d and n are
ex-roomies and were in town with their
three adorable children. they rented a fantastic
tudor cottage steps from the beach and we had an
all day halloween bbq extravaganza. it was
wonderful hanging out ...