He's Learning...

Today I'm going up to Portland to go to some open houses. I LOVE house hunting. It seriously makes me happy. Anyway, I have this thing where I don't want to look like some non-buyer when I go in. I want attention. I want to be taken seriously.

So I pulled out my professor sweater. Did my makeup. Then my husband came in and I asked, "How do I look?"

His response, "Very conservative."

I stared at him.

"What?" he asked.

I stared.

"Sorry," he said, throwing his hands in the air. "You look hot."

"Thank you."

See, he's learning.

-S

New Book... New Look

Hi! So I did the whole mini-makeover thing. Thought I could use some freshness! I don't know, I dig it. My son said it was cool. My husband said it was hot. And my daughter said, "Oh. I thought you were going to make it longer." Hm. I'll take that as she liked it anyway.





Also, visit some of my friends blogs over on my links! They're totally cool! Like Heather, Trish, Amanda, Tyler.... too many awesome ones. And I'll see some of you bloggers in Portland next month. With my new hair...
-S

Time to write!

Thirty days. Fifty thousand words. A kick-ass story.

I'm on it!

See you all when I come up for air! Have a good week!

By the way, I'm looking for some monkeys. I want three. I want a back-scratcher monkey(to give my husband a break). An editing monkey (he'd have little monkey glasses and I'd name him Shakespeare) And finally a cleaning/nanny monkey (I'm thinking the evil-closet monkey from The Family Guy)

Let me know if you see any of these fellas on ebay or something. :)

-S

Can't keep a good squirrel down...

So I've put my daughter to work on her zombie squirrel idea.

I asked her, "Sophia, what did the zombie squirrel look like?"

She giggled. "Like a squirrel."

It was then that I realized she had no idea what a zombie was. In her mind, it was perfectly normal for a regular looking squirrel to devour his girlfriend. But just to make sure, I asked her to draw me the zombie squirrel.

Take a look at this brilliance! She's five. And amazing. Oh, and the one in the middle is the zombie squirrel. The one on the left is his girlfriend(the one he later eats) and the one on the right is... the bully. Yeah. I guess there are bully squirrels that tease people. But then she assured me, "Bullies are just regular squirrels that are sad."

So proud.

Vlogging...

Hey! Well, if you haven't checked it out before, Amanda K. Morgan and I vlog over on Lip Gloss Lit. We're still looking for some guest vlogs so if anyone is feeling particularly... vloggy, let me know!

Here's this week's:



Everyone have a fantastic day!!!!

-S

Future Picture Book Writer

Not me! But I've decided that my daughter is going to become a picture book writer. How do I know this? Well, as she was sipping on her chocolate milk she pulled on my sleeve and pointed out the window.

"Look," she said. "A squirrel."

I laughed, thinking about her jar. "Cool."

"Last night I was dreaming about a cute pink squirrel and a boy squirrel. The boy squirrel found an acorn and he gave it to the pink squirrel because he was her boyfriend."

"Aw, that’s cute," I said. Boyfriend? Does she know about these things already?

"No, it’s not cute!"

"No?"

"No. Because then the boy squirrel turned into a zombie and he ated the pink squirrel."

"Dear God."

So tell me that ZOMBIE SQUIRREL GETS A DATE wouldn't be an AWESOME picture book! I'd totally buy it!

-S

GOING GREEN...

During lunch I went to Math tutoring. No way was I going in the cafeteria to let Trish give me dagger stares. I was done with all of it. I was done with Conner.

The final bell rang and I rushed toward the front doors. Spending a day in social isolation was enough to make me cry. Of course I would never do that. Not in front of people.

“Stella,” someone called as I hit the pavement to run toward my house. I spun around.

“Becker?” What the hell was he doing here?

He grinned and leaned against his car. His cheeks were a little pink and that made me feel a better. I hoped he was embarrassed. He should be! He got me beat up.

“Do…” He paused and pushed his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. “Do you want a ride home?”
Oh. Didn’t he know I was pissed at him? I thought I’d been pretty clear.

“I can’t,” I said. I could, but he didn’t deserve my butt in his passenger seat. Not after what he did.

I turned and started walking.

“Please?” And he said it so sweetly. Not desperate, just… really cute.

I looked over my shoulder at him.

He tilted his head. “I’ll buy you an ice cream.”

I laughed. “An ice cream?”

“Or a Frosty.”

“Hm. I do like Frostys.”

“Yeah? You should definitely come with me then,” he said, opening the car door and motioning for me to get in.

I stood a moment, thinking. Hell. Why start now?

“Fine,” I said. “But you might just have to buy me a cheeseburger, too.”

“If you’re nice.”

I paused in front of him before getting in and sighed. My life just got even more complicated.
.

Coasting....

I made it back. There was no writing, but lots of hiking. No squirrels caught in jars, but some weird crawly bug. And my dog nearly got swallowed by the ocean.

The best part? Historic Newport and their super awesome Wax Museum. Seriously. So fun! A few pics for you!

(But really. Writing ALL WEEK!)

Peace Out!

Camping!!!!

We're going camping this weekend up in Newport right on the beach. We picked up our super-sweet RV from storage and packed it with the essentials. Diet Pepsi, Beef Jerky, Twizzlers....

So I've decided that I'll leave all of my gadgets of distraction at home. I'll only allow a notebook and pencil. And I'm gonna finish one of my books in anticipation of my SMITTEN KITTENS revision.

Things I hope to accomplish while camping:
* Finish new book
* Collect seashells
* Get a butterfly in THE JAR
* Maybe get a tan
* Let go of stress

I'll settle for three out of five.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE!!!!
-Suz

The Olympics!

I’ve decided that I want to be in the Olympics.

Tonight my husband and I discussed which event I would be best suited for. His answer: Fencing.

Okay. I was a little offended.

“Swimming?” I asked.
“You’re afraid of water.”
“Good point. Track and Field?”
“You’re 5’2”.”
Hm. “Gymnastics,” I responded confidently.
“Well,” he said. “You’re the right height, but… what would you do? Floor exercise without the flips? Maybe you could have the ribbons!”
“Ribbons?”
“What about cycling?” he asked.
“Naw. I could never pedal that close to other people.”
“True.”
“Okay,” I finally agreed. “I would kick ass in fencing.”
“Yeah. You like to stab things.”

So it's settled. Next Olympics, look for Suzanne Young. Gold medallist in… fencing.
.

The Fair

So this weekend, I took the family to the county fair. I haven't been to a county fair in a while. Um... I sort of remember why now. lol.

Also, I'm working through my new book, and hopefully I'll have it done in the next couple of weeks. That is if I stop letting myself get distracted by the internet.

Oh! And the olympics ROCK!

GOING GREEN... (The continuing blog story)

Okay, so I was grounded for about two weeks. My dad’s willpower broke around then. And even though I wasn’t suspended from school anymore, I sort of wished I were. I was like a social leper. Completely ostracized. All because Becker thought it was his business to tell everyone about Conner and me. Jerk.

“Hey.”

I looked up from my lab table to see Conner leaning toward me, a smirk on stupid, hot face.

“Don’t talk to me,” I whispered and glanced toward my teacher. He was standing at the podium, flipping through a Science Digest.

“Stella,” Conner chuckled. “You might as well talk to me. It’s not like you have anyone else.”

Low blow. “I hate you.”

“No you don’t.”

“Do.”

“Don’t.”

Well this was fun. Finally I turned to him. “What do you want, Conner?”

“Let’s go out tonight,” he said. I stared at him.

Then, “Are you mental? Did you forget how your girlfriend attacked me?”

He laughed. “No. I didn’t forget. It was kinda funny.”

Ass. “No,” I said and shook my head. “Leave me alone. I don’t want to talk to you.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.” I glanced back down at my lab paper. My cell phone vibrated in my pocket and I slid it out to take a peek at my text.

lets go out 2night

I looked over at Conner and he smiled, his phone in his hand. Well, at least he wasn’t talking.
.

Sniffle... Last SCBWI Pictures Post

Man, I think we need a support group for attendees. And I'm glad we're all finding each other! We're soooo going to make out. hahahhaha

Last few pics. Email me for the scandalous ones. JUST KIDDING! There are no scandalous ones. (just email me. lol.)

I'll miss you SCBWI! It was very informative, fun, awesome, dope, breathtaking, Fan TAS tic, epic... and the staff was so darn friendly!

-S

SCBWI Conference...Take Three!

The Sunglasses....

SCBWI LA Conference...Take Two!

I wonder how many takes I should have??? Kidding. I'll stop at like 18. That's not overwhelming, right?

Here are a few of the more, um, casual moments. :)

SCBWI Conference... Take One!

WoW. I am beat. The conference is over and I did something crazy. I didn't blog the entire time!!! But I have sooo many pictures, I'll have to break them up. Otherwise it'll be TMI. Your head might explode.

Anyway, things were FAN-TAS-TIC. And I'll surely miss all my super cool summer camp friends. Especially the Disco Mermaids, Graeme, Tyler, Michael, Christy... oh, man. Just too many to name.

Here, let me break you off a little piece...

Me, Robin and Eve doing what we did best- Look professional! Oh, and look AWESOME. lol. Then the cool kids table at the Luncheon.

The Wine and Cheese Party. You know, a party where they literally ONLY serve Wine and Cheese. (I was starving) And of course, what else do you do at a Children's Book Writers Conference? We were read aloud to. Thanks, Uncle Tyler!