Bloggers are dope!

So, my camera doesn't take great photos. Especially when it's a really fancy phone that I still haven't figured out how to use. I got three photos of our Portland Kidlit Blogger dinner and they're all pretty bad quality, but hey! It was a blast anyway! (Thanks Laini and Jim!)

The best part about moving up to Portland? Getting to hang out with my friends!!! YAY!

Like in these pictures, Laini Taylor, Matt Holm and super awesome Cyndi!

It was great to see everyone!! Can't wait until next week!

Meow!

Yes. I just meowed. Can you tell I've been immersing myself in the Kitten world?

So yesterday I moved furniture all day. Oh, my aching back! And tonight I shall move furniture again. My knees! And tomorrow I drive back to Eugene to clean the vacant house. My hands!

When can I write? I just completed several days of total isolation and was productive as all heck. I'm not sure I'll ever get that chance again. Instead, I get to live regular life.

Anyone else ever feel like their real life is the lackluster one? That living inside the book is so much more exciting? Maybe it's because my characters are teens and I feel young. Maybe it's because they have hot boyfriends that I get to pretend are mine.(sorry hub) Or maybe it's because they don't have to pay bills or scoop up their dog's poop.

Sigh. Yeah, even my blog posts have lost their excitement. lol. More good stuff when I get unpacked!

PS. Going to visit with some Portland Kidlit Bloggers tonight! Pics to follow!
-Suz

New Favorite

Okay, so I'm revising.... Like, 12 hours a day, revising. No joke.

But I also just found my new fave manuscript line... wait for it....

"Not possible. This plan was totally toolproof!"

Seeing that tool is my all time favorite word, I was so happy to use it! Then, I saw the commercial for that new show on VHI, the Tool Academy. And I thought,DANG IT! I could have written that book!

Have a great day!

Cool people with Cool stuff!

I got something cool for my apartment! My first official purchase for the place... and it kind of rocks. My new rug! Check it!

You know who else rocks? Holly Cupala. She was at the KidLitBlogger Conference in Portland and she did a cute little interview with me. And she just posted it again! Thanks, girl! You can watch it here at the Readergirlz site! I'm very honored! Thanks!

Okay, off to finish my revisons! Writing is awesome!

-Suz

Author photos!

Yay. Okay, first I'd like to thank Claudia who is awesome. You can visit her here!

So I narrowed it down to three. Care to vote? I have my fave. Which one's yours? I'm feeling overly critical and have decided to shave my head and never eat again. You know, the usual after pictures feeling. lol. Luckily they'll be in black and white and everyone looks better in black and white.

ACCESS DENIED

Hey! Thanks for all the great comments everyone!!

And I would have responded earlier but I don't have internet. Is that how people lived in the olden days???? It's hard!!!

I just moved and I don't have internet connected yet, so I'll be back tomorrow with a radical new post!

Again, THANK YOU.

Suz

A BOOK DEAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi. What? Oh! You mean the subject line?

Well… Razorbill/Penguin just bought two more books from me. The SMITTEN KITTENS are a series!!!!! I have four books coming out. Deep breath. The first in Spring of 2010.

Honestly, I am without words. I’d love to be funny. I’d love to be cute. But truly, I’m so flipping grateful, that I think I’ll just cry instead.

I had just finished my first book when my grandmother got sick. When I told everyone about the book, they thought it was neat. But my gram, she said, “Hey. Make sure you dedicate it to me.” As if she never doubted I would sell it. As if she always knew this would happen.

So just like always, this is for her.

I am so humbled by Razorbill’s belief in me. I am so grateful for my friends who believe in me. And I am so very, very proud of my husband and family. Because if they hadn’t let me disappear into my books for weeks at a time, I may have never finished them.

And now, in my continuing quest to completely humiliate myself: THE BOOK DEAL DANCE: Part II. (Part I was in July. It was also humiliating).

Have a great day everyone!
-Suzanne

Author photos coming soon!

Yay. It was so exciting. The photographer was ultra cool and funny. I took all sorts of shots and I should get them next week. And get this, apparantly I squint when I smile! I've never heard that before! (kidding)

Since I can't show you the actual photo yet, here's the picture of me GOING to the photo shoot.

Now imagine that on the back cover of SMITTEN KITTENS! YAY!

Have a great day everyone!

GOING GREEN (the story blog)

To catch up on the story, check the side links. :)

GOING GREEN

Becker was sweet on the way home from the bowling alley. He even bought me a chocolate milkshake because he felt so bad that I was shirtless. Right. I’m sure he felt awful.

When he pulled up at the curb in front of my house, I sipped from my drink, wanting to keep my lips occupied.

“I hope you had fun,” he said with a grin. I nodded.

It wasn’t that I hadn’t had fun. It wasn’t even that I didn’t want to kiss him. It was just that… I didn’t feel like kissing him now. Right now all I wanted was to get into my pajamas and think. Think about how I was going to go to prom with a cute guy that I wasn't sure I liked. And how I was going to spend the night staring at Conner and his stupid adorable face.

“Call me later,” I said quickly and got out. It may have been a little rude, but honestly, the longer I sat there, the more trapped I felt.

I couldn’t go to prom. I couldn’t do this to myself.

As I climbed on the porch, my cell phone rang. I pulled it out and put it to my ear. “Hello?”

“Hey.” It was Becker. “You’re not going to back out of the prom, are you?”

I spun around to look at him, still sitting in his car and talking to me on the phone. He waved.

“Not sure." I waved back. Really, there was no reason to lie to him. He knew about Conner.

“I hope you’ll go.” His voice was soft. “And I promise, I’ll wear leopard print boxers and show everyone, just so we’re even.”

I laughed and turned back to my door to go inside my house. “You are an idiot.”

“Yeah. I heard you like those.”

“Oh,” I said. “You have no idea.”

We both hung up and as I got in the house my dad popped up from the sofa. “Hey, kid.”

“Hi.”

Then he looked me over and noticed that I was holding my shirt closed.

“Um… Do I need to go grab the bat?” He pointed to the garage.

“Naw. It was a bowling accident.”

My father touched at his chest in shock. “You… went bowling?” He could barely contain his laughter.

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever, Dad. I’m sure you were oh-so-cool when you were in high school.”

“I was totally groovy.”

“Wow.” I walked toward the stairs when my father called after me.

“Hey,” he said. “This was on the porch for you when I got home.” He reached over to the entry table and handed me a sealed envelope with my name on it. I stared at it and then at my father.

“You didn’t open it?” I asked.

“You’re proud, huh?”

“Definitely.”

With him still standing there, I tore open the seal and pulled out a folded piece of paper. Carefully, I straightened it out and read the handwriting in the middle.

Call me. I miss you.
-Conner

My eyes immediately began to tear and I crumpled up the paper and shoved it into my pocket. I sniffled and looked up at my dad. He pointed toward the garage.

“Bat?”

I shook my head. “Maybe later.”
.

Tag, not it!

Okay, okay. Dearest Robin tagged me. Easy.

Five things that make me happy. (Luckily I evaluate my happiness daily)

1.) Hot dogs
2.) Febreeze
3.) Camping
4.) Watching Sports
5.) WRITING, WRITING, WRITING!!!!!!!!!

Wow, that was almost boring!!

Have a great day everyone!

-Suz

...of the world!

GO CARDINALS!!! We may not live in AZ anymore, but we still support our teams!!!

ARIZONA CARDINALS to the SUPERBOWL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fun will be had tonight!!!!!

Two-Faced

Clouds. Fog. Cold. Welcome to Eugene!

The author photos were postponed until Wednesday, but that's okay. I'm way sick and I still haven't decided what to wear!

Instead we went up to Beaverton and it happened! I found the PERFECT place to live. I love love love it. I wanted to move in... like today, but my husband told me we had to wait. You know, for things like money. So boring.

Anyway, has anyone else ever noticed that they look totally different depending on which side their picture is taken on? I am a total left-facer. Right-face is scary. You don't want to meet her in a dark alley.

For practice, I took some photos of myself and then I discovered the two-face. Don't believe me? Check her out!!! (P.S. Have I mentioned that I'm sick?) THE LEFT-FACE

THE RIGHT-FACE

Which one are you?
-Suz

Kitten Overload

Ever google "cat phrases"? For hours!!!!

Sigh. Truth is, I have two dogs. I'm not really into cats. But I'm working on my second book and to be honest, there are only so many ways to be clever! Between that and watching The PowerPuff Girls ON REPEAT, my cuteness tolerance is overloaded!

But in random news, I'm going to get my hair done today (see ya, bad hair day!) because tomorrow... I'm getting my author photo taken! Isn't that exciting?? I don't think I've had a professional photo of myself since high school. And we all remember how those turned out!

Well, I'll be sure to post them when I get them back. Oh, and some other awesome news....

Have a great day!
-Suz

Horoscopes and vlogs

Stealing this from over at lipgloss lit. And yes, bad hair day. :-)

Disaster!

A natural disaster that is. My son is OBSESSED with them.

Every five minutes it's another comment about floods, hurricanes, or tornados. Non-stop facts. Finally I said, "How do you know all this stuff?"

He said, "Well, I've read the flood book in my class five times. The hurricane book three times. And the tornado book like five hundred times!"

"Five hundred is a lot," my husband mumbled.

My son then went on to ask us if those things would happen here. When we assured him that they wouldn't, he sighed.

"Man," he said. "I really wanted to see a tornado."

"Oh, no!" my daughter yelled running into the room. "If there was a tornado our house would fly away to a place where we didn't know anybody!"

"What?" my husband asked.

She looked between us all, then she narrowed her eyes. "But I get the red shoes!"
.

GOING GREEN (the story blog)

To catch up on the story, click on the side links for GOING GREEN.

GOING GREEN...

“What size?” the man behind the rental counter asked.

“Seven.” I was easily an eight, but with Becker standing next to me, I didn’t feel like broadcasting my shoe size.

The attendant pushed a pair of maroon and gray shoes toward me and I picked them up and held them out. Becker laughed.

“Aw, come on, Stella. They’re not that bad.”

“Easy for you to say.” If I had known that Becker was going to take me to a bowling alley, I might have stayed in and let Conner harass me.

I followed Becker to lane eleven and shoved my feet into the too small shoes. Once securely laced, I went over to pick out a ball. There was a purple one. It was said twelve on it, but I grabbed it anyway.

Holy crap. It was heavy.

“You sure you want that one?” Becker asked, coming over to take it from my hands.

“It’s the cutest one.”

Becker shook his head. “Are you always this high maintenance?”

I stared at him. “You know… I’m actually not.” I realized for the first time, that I was kind of being a bitch.

Becker shrugged. “Is it because of what’s-his-face?”

I swallowed hard. I knew if I let myself think about it, the fact that I was going to prom with Becker instead of Conner might make me sad. It might hurt. But it didn’t change anything.

Conner wasn’t with me. He never would be.

“Hey.” I pushed Becker’s shoulder. “Are we going to bowl or what?”

He smiled and grabbed me an awful orange ball with an eight on it and handed it to me. “You go first,” he said, pointing at the lane.

“Such a gentleman.”

“Right?”

Okay. I could do this. The rental shoes were already crushing my pinky toes and my thumb was jammed into the ball hole. But all I had to do was aim and release. Wait? When was the last time I bowled?

“Can we get those bumpers?” I asked Becker.

“Shut up and go,” he called from the stool at the table.

I made a face and lined up my shot. Then I began to stride, aiming right for the middle pin. With all of my strength, I released the ball…

But my right foot slid out from under me and I did a half split while the ball jumped lanes and I landed with a thud followed by a series of snaps.

“Oh my God,” Becker yelled.

It took a second, but when I tried to get up, I realized something was wrong. It was cold in here.

I looked down to see that the cute button up shirt that I threw on before leaving the house was gaping open. My leopard print bra (nothing else was clean) was in full view of the entire bowling alley.

I wrapped my arms around myself just as Becker got to me, staring down, halfway between shock and hysterical laughter.

“Don’t say a word,” I mumbled, holding my shirt together as I got to my feet.

“I wasn’t going to.” He held his palms up in the air and backed away.

That did not just happen. My face was hot with embarrassment. Why couldn't I have done laundry? Why?

Marching toward the rental desk, I glanced over to see Becker grinning.

“Oh,” he called after me. “By the way, I’ve always been more of a zebra print sort of guy.”

Man. Bowling sucked.
.

An Honest Answer

My daughter talks. And I mean TALKS. It's like a non-stop radio playing really loudly.

Sometimes when she's singing at the top of her lungs, it's cute. For about an hour. Or she may be yelling in the back seat when she gets off the bus that she's hungry. Or just yelling in general.

Honestly, it never stops. From the minute she wakes up, to the minute she goes to bed. Constant noise.

Finally yesterday, as I was trying to watch the end of Mystery Diagnosis, I nearly snapped. She was playing with the puppy, yelling at it to sit, roll over, give it her paw, play barbies, bark, go to school.... (Never stops) I said, "Sophia! Why do you make so much noise?"

And she looked up innocently and said, "I just want your attention."

Yeah. That was about the sweetest, most honest answer she could have ever given.
.

Biography of a Dork!

I need your help! Does anyone know me better than I do? I'm trying to write a bio for my publisher. It also asks why I wrote SMITTEN KITTENS. Anyone? Heather?

Okay, here's what I've come up with. Any advice????

Suzanne Young is an author, wife and mother of two. Originally from Utica, NY, Suzanne moved to Arizona to pursue her dream of not freezing to death. After nearly eight years in the desert, she and her family moved to Oregon where she continues to live a completely random life.

Suzanne writes novels for teens and earned a BA in Creative Writing before becoming a middle school Language Arts teacher. Visit her blog at www.suzanne-young.blogspot.com to learn more about her daily life as a hyperactive YA author.

SMITTEN KITTENS is not based on any of Suzanne’s life. Although she was a cheerleader for a short season in eighth grade, she wasn’t very good. Suzanne’s main goal in her novel was to break stereotypes and bring depth to an otherwise light-hearted tale.

SMITTEN KITTENS is her debut novel.

Puppy Dog Idol

Well, Sophie wanted to play school. I was writing, so the task fell to my poor, defenseless husband. My daughter got all eight million of her stuffed animals and put them in class (my kitchen.)

So as I was upstairs, trying to write, I could hear their conversation. Suddenly school had turned into Puppy Dog Idol. Complete with Ms. Tuffsy, Poodle Girl and Murray.

I tiptoed down to find my husband and son judging my daughter performances with these animals. The top song? "SO DANG CUTE" by Poodle Girl.

I should have guessed!

One Thing:

Razorbill Rocks!

GOING GREEN (the story blog)

(Check the side links to catch up on the story)

GOING GREEN


“Cool place,” I said as we pulled into the mall. Becker looked sideways at me.

“Be quiet. I wouldn’t take you to the mall for a date.”

“But I thought it was so romantic.” I laughed. Hell, the first ten minutes of this date were better than some entire dates I’d been on with Conner. At least here I didn’t have to duck down so people wouldn’t see me.

Becker drove behind the mall and parked. I raised my eyebrow. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Oh, no.”

“You’re serious?”

“Completely.”

We were parked in front of Pin-O-Rama. A bowling alley!

“So,” I said slowly, looking over the concrete building with lit up dancing bowling pins. “You want me to wear rented shoes and throw heavy balls around?”

“Don’t be stuck up. Come on.” And he got out.

It wasn’t that I minded bowling. I’d done it once or twice in Arizona. It was just that I hadn’t expected a guy to take me bowling. On a date. When he was in college. I thought I’d end up at a keg party or something.

I got out in time to see Becker close his car trunk. He was carrying a bag.

“What’s in there?” I asked.

“Bowling shoes. You think I’m gonna stick my feet in those disgusting rented shoes?” He grinned.

“Mean.”

“You love it.”

And I kind of did.
.

A Child's Wisdom

My five-year-old Sophie has been dispelling some wisdom around here lately. In fact, it got to the point where I started writing them down. Here are my favorites:

"Mom, did you know that barf is the same thing as puke?"

"Mom, bottom is the nice word for butt."

"Wow, Mom. I want to get a picture of Basil and draw a moustache and glasses on her. Then we can put it on OUR blog. " (Yes. She thinks of this as her blog too. Yes. She knows what a blog is now. )

"Mom, what are you looking at?"

"Horoscopes."

"What do horosgoats do? Are they half horse and half goat?"

Well, those are just a few. The laughs never stop around here. haha. Okay, back to writing....

Books I won't write...

Oh, man. I often wander through the book store, dreaming of the day that SMITTEN KITTENS will be on the shelf. Closely followed by like nine of my other books. And I wondered, am I jealous of the books already there? Answer-No. I don't want anyone else's career, I'm just anxious for mine to start!

But I have standards! Here are five books that I will NOT be writing any time soon:
1.) A WRITER'S GUIDE TO BEING PATIENT
2.) STREET SMARTS
3.) I WAS ON THE MONTEL WILLIAMS SHOW
4.) NEVER ENOUGH RAIN
5.) RULES TO DATING A TEENAGE ZOMBIE (kidding. I actually wrote that one)
5.) KETCHUP SANDWICH

What book will you NOT be writing this year???

-Suz

Rock, paper, crayon????

Happy New Year. So the fam and I decided to go spend a couple of days up in Portland. We used our reward points (thank you, Sheraton!) and booked this wicked cool hotel, ALoft.

I swear, I feel like I'm straight out of Total Recall. haha Here are some pics!!!

We played a lively game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. And after losing three straight times, Sophie pulled out. "Oh, I'm crayon. So I draw on paper and rock. You lose."

I thought it was pretty clever. haha

3...2...1

Which is about all I have the strength to say today.... ;-)

-Suz