Susane Colasanti's Blog, page 66

collective mind

It looks like I have some more news about last week's NYC Teen Author Festival. La Femme Readers were in the house! Much footage was documented during the big symposium day. I was on a panel called The Boy You Can't Have with some other authors who have written about this conflict. It was a blast because Elizabeth Scott, Robin Palmer, Melissa Walker, Maryrose Wood, and Elizabeth Eulberg were on the panel, and they are all such amazing readers. The video footage is here, including clips f...

spring things

It's officially Spring! Oh, how I missed you, season of warmth and new life. There's just something so refreshing about officially putting my boots away and walking around in a tee and sneakers. Okay, so maybe I'm not walking around in a tee today - we were spoiled by some really warm weather last week - but I will be again soon enough. Emerging from beneath the layers is the best kind of spiritual renewal.

This year, I decided to celebrate the vernal equinox upscale style. First there wa...

signing of wonder, 2nd ed.

What an amazing week! The second annual NYC Teen Author Festival was a blast. I love events like this because I get to visit with my readers in person. You are why I write. You are who I want to see.

My first event was reading at the Seward Park NYPL with Gayle Forman, Daphne Grab, Matt De La Pena, and Cathleen Bell. But I was lame and did not take any photos. We found out some cool things, like that Gayle was motivated to write If I Stay by an accident that happened to a family in real ...

festival time

The party has started and it's a rager! That's right, the NYC Teen Author Festival is in full swing. As a bonus, the weather could not be more gorgeous - it's supposed to be in the 60s (70 on Friday!) and sunny all the way through Saturday. What a perfect way to welcome in spring.

Here's where you can find me this week:

Thursday, March 18, 2010, 10:00-11:30
Reading from Something Like Fate
New York Public Library, Seward Park branch
192 East Broadway (at Jefferson Street), New York, NY 10002

Fri...

next phase

Gearing up for the May 4 release of my fourth teen novel, Something Like Fate, while I was working on a revision of my fifth book was a bit strange. Sort of like I was straddling the Equator with my feet in different hemispheres. But now that I've submitted the revision to my editors, I can move into the next phase of Something Like Fate festivities. Right after I'm done with such glamourous tasks as laundry and dusting, that is. Whenever I'm close to a deadline, everything else just has ...

ramble on

The other day I was in the deli and this lady in front of me bought some gum. When the cashier asked if she wanted a bag, she said yes. I really wanted to inform that lady that the correct answer was, in fact, no. No, you do not need a bag. For a pack of gum. Especially when you're already carrying a bag. Oh, and also? You don't need a pile of napkins for a bagel, in case you were wondering. A hundred years from now, people will probably look back on our wasteful ridiculousness and sh...

the sky is everywhere

Which book am I kissing this week?

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The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson! This is one of the best teen novels I've ever read. It's such a beautiful, touching story. Jandy is immensely talented - she has a gift of making prose sound like poetry. Sky is her debut novel and it's in stores now. If you're looking for something fresh and true in YA lit, this is the book for you. Even the cover is the most gorgeous thing, like, ever.

I had the honor of blurbing Sky. My blurb:

"The Sky Is...

coffee talk

Although I love working at home, sometimes I miss going back to school on Mondays and hearing about how everyone's weekend was. Mondays were when I'd do my whole hyper TGIM thing and my students in first period would be like, "Um, are you sure you don't drink coffee?" It felt good to reconnect with my kids and friends, even when the weekend seemed more like five minutes than two days. Transitioning from a work environment where I was surrounded by people pretty much every second to being b...

john mayer, front row center 2.25.10

By now you all know that I scored a front row center seat to see John Mayer at Madison Square Garden. I blogged about it last week and have pretty much been renting a billboard about it ever since. I'd been hoping for that ultimate seat to see John for years, so this really was a dream come true.

A few months ago, I gave his manager a copy of Waiting for You, in which my girl Marisa believes that the answers to all of life's problems can be found in John Mayer's music. I was hoping that his...

shiny new winners

Your Shiny New Contest entries were really impressive! Picking a winner and runner-up was not an easy thing to do. I am proud to present you with these shiny new haiku. Even Chez has joined the party to present the prizes:

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That's Chez from When It Happens. Yes, he's real! And he wants the world to know it.

Now for some brilliance...

Kelly S. is my shiny new winner. She will receive shiny new editions of When It Happens and Take Me There. Her haiku:

Away

far apart
sleeping just for dreams