P.J. Hoover's Blog, page 85

Five Reasons to bid in the Bridget Zinn Auction Today!

When you get a second, please head over to the TEXAS SWEETHEARTS blog to read about five reasons you should bid in the Bridget Zinn auction today!

Thanks!

Saturday Salon

One of my favorite weekend activities (besides Mario Kart)?
Hanging out with some writing pals, talking about everything from blogs to twitter and from agents to editors.

Me and fellow Texas Sweetheart Jessica Lee Anderson

The most awesome Liz Garton Scanlon (author of ALL THE WORLD, the picture book that's going to be distributed in Cheerios boxes in 2010, in case you forgot) hosted some authors from the Austin writing community at her home this past Saturday. Twenty-one authors, two cats, and...

Five on a Friday

They're calling for snow here in Austin.
I know. It's unbelievable. The kids are expecting a day out of school, but I'm guessing if it comes, it will be right when school gets out. Predictions say we'll get upwards of an inch.
:)

Okay, here's my five for the week:

1) A fun pic from the Reflections judging from the other night. Here I am with authors Donna Bowman Bratton, Carmen Oliver, Me, Debbie Gonzales (our new Austin SCBWI RA come January), and fellow Texas Sweetheart Jessica Lee Anderson.


2)...

Win lots of books, Revisions, and Sweethearts

I hope everyone is having a great week! I was honored to be a judge for the teen literature category for the school district's Reflections Program this evening (think of it as a science fair for liberal arts). I'll get some pics loaded before Friday. There were tons of fantastic entries, and you could really see how much some of the kids loved writing.

Anyway...

I have a funny post (as in I am able to laugh at myself) on my revisions for THE EMERALD TABLET over on The Spectacle, so if you have ...

THE TEXAS SWEETHEARTS!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We did plenty of relaxing and cleaning and decorating, and not a whole lot of blogging. Sometimes it's nice to get away from the Internet!

So maybe you've been curious about the icon in my upper right hand corner...

I wanted to let you guys know about a great groups of authors I'm part of, The Texas Sweethearts. The group is made up of three kids' authors from Austin: PJ Hoover (me), Jessica Lee Anderson, and Jo Whittemore. Our aim is to reach out to l...

Five on a Friday

Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a great week! The knee is recovering well. I'm not quite back to Kung Fu yet, but I can make it up the steps pretty easily. Baby steps.

1) On a reading front, I'm finishing up SAPPHIQUE by Catherine Fisher. It's the second in a series, a British import. The first book in the series, INCARCERON, will be out in January 2010. It's got me hooked, though I find the YA marketing of the series an interesting choice. Though it has an older teen as the main character, ...

Minimum number of brush strokes

Okay, maybe this is just an excuse to post my kid's artwork, but my 5yo daughter drew an amazing picture this past week. Here she is playing with her older brother's Legos. And, as you can see by the look on his face, he isn't the least bit happy*.


I put this up in my office to remind me that it doesn't take a lot of words to convey emotions in my writing. It just takes the right words. That's what counts.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

* Love the open mouth, the closed eyes, and the...

Pretty Books

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend!
I'm happy to report knee surgery went very well. I'm walking somewhat, though I have a bandage on my knee the size of a cantaloupe and I can't shower until Wednesday. Yikes! Yes, I'll be at home alone much of the time between now and then. My family has to love me no matter what I smell like.

So in my recovery time this weekend, I finished up THE MAZE RUNNER by James Dashner and read two more awesome books: BLUE PLATE SPECIAL by Michelle D. Kwa...

Five on a Friday

Hey! I hope everyone is ready for a great weekend!

This weekend I'm looking forward to:

1) Recovering from knee surgery. Yes, I have surgery on Friday the 13th. (torn meniscus...send me happy thoughts please!)

2) Finishing up THE MAZE RUNNER by James Dashner.
Reading BLUE PLATE SPECIAL by Michelle D. Kwasney.

BTW, over on THE SPECTACLE, we're going to do a book discussion on THE MAZE RUNNER next month in case you want to read it and join in.

3) Presenting at the Hill Country Book Festival on Saturd...

Feeling the Fear

Normally in my presentations to kids, I try to touch on the subject of fear.
Fear to try new things.
Fear to do things that make us nervous.
Fear of failure.

Fear is one of those things so many of us struggle with. But there is the thought that if we're scared to do something, that's all the more reason we should.

Last week during my presentation at the Red Dirt Book Festival, I touched on fear and put up one of my favorite fear slides, one of General Grievous holding four light sabers.

Have you...