Megan McCafferty's Blog, page 16

Q&A About the Author! Author! Book Festival

Answers to questions about my appearance at the Author! Author! Book Festival on Saturday:

1. What the heck is Barry-oke?

Barry-oke is this, this, this and this. I ask audience members to write their names and requests for  Barry Manilow songs on slips of paper, which are then placed in The Official Barry-oke Bag (left). Then I choose one request at random. That person gets a prize AND everyone then gets to enjoy my rendition of the Barry Manilow song he/she requested. Everyone wins.

2. Why...

An Open Letter to Barry Manilow

Dear Mr. Manilow:

I am a huge fan. HUGE. I've seen you in concert six times. The cover of your Greatest Hits (1978) is on the wall of my office. I've coined the term Barry-oke and have performed it often. When it came time to choose an musical artist to provide the soundtrack for the on-again, off-again lovers  in my bestselling novels, SLOPPY FIRSTS, SECOND HELPINGS, CHARMED THIRDS, FOURTH COMINGS and PERFECT FIFTHS there was no question. It had to be you.

So. I read in today's Variety that...

'Cause There Can Never Be Too Much Jersey

In addition to my appearance at the Author! Author! Book Festival on September 19th, I've added two more events in New Jersey this fall. And if you love books and love kids, you don't want to miss the Princeton Public Library's Children's Book Festival this Saturday, September 12th from 11AM-4PM. I'll be there (not as a participant) buying up armloads of autographed books for my son and nieces.

Book Festival Update: Barry-oke…It's so on.

My schedule for the Author! Author! Book Festival in Princeton, NJ on September 19th is as follows:

12:45-1:15 PM: Reading, answering questions and performing Barry-oke

2-4PM Signing copies of PERFECT FIFTHS and the rest of the Jessica Darling series

This might be my last event for a while. Please come and experience the magic of Barry-oke in person.

1st Author! Author! Book Festival

Just when I had committed myself to a few seasons of hermetic solitude so I could work on my next novel, along comes an event I just couldn't resist. If you live in Jersey (or want to take a roadtrip) come get PERFECT FIFTHS and the rest of the Jessica Darling novels signed at the Author! Author! Book Festival hosted by Chicklet Books at the Princeton Shopping Center in Princeton, NJ on Saturday, September 19th. Logistical complications may make Barry-oke an impossiblity. However, I will surroun

A belated thank you, John Hughes

I love books. Reading and writing are the only hobbies I've ever stuck with.

That said, John Hughes was a bigger influence on Sloppy Firsts than all the other authors I've ever read. Combined.

That is all.

Perfect Fifths is "a gem"

"Even though Perfect Fifths is the fifth book in the Jessica Darling series, author Megan McCafferty captures first-time readers and Jessica Darling veterans from Page One. In this book, readers get a chance to know Marcus Flutie intimately as sections of the book are written from his unique perspective. The twisting plot keeps the reader fully engaged and entertained, but it is McCafferty's writing that makes Perfect Fifths a gem. She writes without fear of pop culture and in doing so, is able

I'm still here. You just need to know where to look.

Perfect Fifths came out three months ago. Now I've got a new book to write. This requires more time than I seem to have. I honestly don't know how so many authors I admire manage to write great books and blog regularly. I cannot. Actually, I probably could if I wanted to, but as I've said before I don't have much interest in writing about myself every day because my every day life is boring. Really boring. So boring that I would have to summon all my creative energy just to keep things interesti

(retro)blog: resurrected!

So many of you expressed sadness after last week’s demise of the (retro)blog that I’ve decided to bring it back in a new and kind of crazy way:

via Twitter.

Starting today (and ending um, whenever I get bored or realize that it just isn’t working out) I’ll post random excerpts from the journals I kept between 1983-1999 (ages 10 to 26) 140 characters at a time. (retro)Tweeting, if you will. To me, this could turn out to be the best of all worlds. I can:

1. Embrace new technology and convince myself

"That's all I have to say." (1979)

Before I begin writing a novel, I need to know how it ends. Perhaps this method grew out of the creative frustrations I felt during my earliest years as a fiction writer. When I was in first grade I would often start a short story without any idea as to how I would finish it. When the plot reached a dead end, I would conclude the story thusly:

I started the (retro)blog in 2005 as a way of blogging without really blogging about myself (because I don't enjoy blogging about myself). For four years,