• At 6 p.m. tonight, I’ll be at the Cedar Hills location of Powell’s for the Smart Chicks Kick It Tour 2.0. Why? Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Ally Condie, Beth Revis, Margaret Stohl, and Sara Zarr, that’s why.

• Next weekend, I’ll be at Wordstock. On Sunday at 2 PM, I’ll moderate a panel about contemporary YA fiction with Lisa Schroeder, Lindsay Leavitt, and John Corey Whaley. When not empaneled I plan to generally lurk around.

• And in a few short weeks, on Monday, October 17th, I’ll be at Multnomah County Library’s tenth annual Teen Author Lecture with Matt de la Peña. It is FREE. You’ll be there too, right?

This amazing independent bookseller filled their store with twelve YA authors. They enlisted numerous zealously attentive teen volunteers to check in with us regularly to make sure we had everything we needed. The staff had read our books in advance. There was music by some of the authors, by a band fronted by a local librarian, by local kid and teen musicians. There were refreshments.

And did I mention we were on not one, but two marquees?

The readers came in droves. They bought books, yes. Some of them asked us about writing. Some of them told us what our books meant to them. Some of them read back covers, flipped through, looked up with shy smiles.

We smiled back.

Here’s all of us in front of the Granada marquee. (Names not in l-r order.) Me, Jesse Freels, Stephanie Bodeen, Kenny Knight, Rosanne Parry, Dave Anderson, R.A. McDonald, Inara Scott, Conrad Wesselhoeft, Anne Osterlund, Sherrida Woodley, and Neil Wolfson representing much-missed L.K. Madigan.

But as amazing as the day had been already, it got even better.

Some of us went out to the juvenile detention section of NORCOR. No photos from this part, obviously. We started with a panel discussion in front of the whole class, then broke into smaller groups.

Rosanne Parry and I were with three girls. I won’t tell you the stories they shared with us. I’ll tell you some authors they love.  Ellen Hopkins. Stephen King. Dean Koontz. They like drug books, to see characters struggling with addiction. They were smart and curious and funny, two of them starting to think about what they might do with their lives, the third not able, yet, to envision a future not dominated by the same issues that brought her inside. “But that’s kind of what I think can be great about books,” I said, trying not to be heavy-handed about it, but wanting to make the point — “It’s just, when you read, you can see more possibilities, right?”

She smiled.

As promised, here are my slides:

As I said during the presentation, the bullet points about each title I highlighted during the trend snapshot piece are absolutely not intended to cover all aspects of a book, simply the trend(s) it represents.

Questions, comments, passionate disagreement — all welcome!

2. I recorded another Rules for Hearts podcast! (Link is directly to the mp3.) See, people, when you bug me via the Formspring, it works! Because anonymous Internet questions are the new peer pressure. Or maybe they are actually the old peer pressure.

3. Saturday morning, May 22nd, 9 AM, on the Portland State University campus in the Smith Memorial Student Union on the third floor. I am going to talk about YA Trends. AND Audience. Not just trends, not just audience. BOTH. As part of the Ooligan Press Write to Publish conference. I will remind you about this again, I bet.

• The new What A Girl Wants post is up! (And I am blushing because Colleen says very kind things about my work in the introduction.) We wrote about the books we wished we’d read when we were sixteen.

• Portlanders! On Saturday, 5/22 I’ll be giving a talk at the Ooligan Press-sponsored Write to Publish conference on “YA Trends And Audience.” It’s at 9 AM, which is counter to the trend of when I like to wake up on the weekend, so I will make sure to be especially caffeinated! Y’all come!

You may have noticed, it is almost time for the Stumptown Comics Fest?

In mere hours, I’ll be headed over to Things From Another World for the party in celebration of Steve Lieber & Jeff Parker’s graphic novel UNDERGROUND, a crackerjack entrant in the crowded category of spelunking thrillers.

On Friday, I’m going to Drink & Draw Like A Lady, at the ever-swell Secret Society Lounge. I have every reason to suspect that my collaborator on the forthcoming Bad Houses graphic novel, Ms. Carla Speed McNeil, will also be among the ladies present.

And Saturday afternoon at 2 pm, I’ll be moderating a panel:

Comics for Young Readers Comics and graphic novels for kids, teens, and tweens are quickly gaining popularity among readers. Join creators Hope Larson (Chiggers, Mercury), Raina Telgemeier (Smile, Baby-sitters Club), and Alexis Fajardo (Kid Beowulf) for a discussion on their work, their audience, and their influences. All ages welcome!

Other Things Are Also Happening. I will tell you about them…soon.

Emily Whitman, author of Radiant Darkness, MJ Beaufrand, author of The River, Anne Osterlund, author of Academy Seven, and yours truly will converge upon A Children’s Place Bookstore on Saturday, 4/10, at 1 pm. We’ll all read briefly and then answer questions about writing.

But because, you know, I already posted that, here also is a picture of the cat:

(Why yes, he is inside a box that once contained copies of A Working Writer’s Daily Planner. Yay for Small Beer Press!)

I’ll have some of the Rules for Hearts stickers designed by the very talented Colleen Coover to give away, and maybe a couple of surprises, too.

Readers in and around Portland, hope to see you there!

Oh, here’s what I’m going to be doing; I suppose that would be useful to include:
“Join Sara as she reads from her work, leads the group through a few short writing exercises, and answers questions about writing and publishing.” It’s part of the library’s Third Tuesday Author Series.

In other news, Rich Johnston is the first person to publicly make the connection between my new project and my story for Significant Objects. Good catch!

This past weekend was the first time that I’ve had a being-an-author gig so close to a hosting-an-author gig, and the experience was exhausting but excellent. Thanks again to the Washington Library Media Association, specifically Elaine Harger, for inviting me to speak, and thanks to Mr. M.T. Anderson for being a delightful guest.

A few things about my two days in Yakima:

• Got a nice high-school era flashback crossing the street, when a carful of dudes yelled out: “HEY! WHAT’S UP WITH YOUR HAIR?”
• Found out that a long-dormant project may yet come back to life, hopefully not zombie-fashion.
• Marveled at the predominance of Spanish speakers in the airport, and eavesdropped to the best of my ability. Pretty sure I heard “No hay trabajo.”
• Learned about the existence of the Rainbow Girls, which are apparently sort of the Masonic equivalent of Girl Scouts.
• Was asked why I write about gay characters. I might have surprised the questioner when I responded matter-of-factly that I’m bisexual. I elaborated: of course I don’t think you have to self-identify as queer to write about queer characters, but I do think there’s an added incentive to write about a community when you’re in some way part of it.

And a tiny anecdote re: hosting M.T.A.:

• Had the bright idea to get the car seriously cleaned before picking him up at the airport. I am, to put it mildly, not assiduous about keeping a clean car interior, and between the bike grease and that one time the peanut sauce spilled, the cleaning was long overdue. Unfortunately I neglected to take into consideration the fact that when you get car seats shampooed, they stay damp for a long time. Days, even. So I greeted the illustrious Mr. Anderson with the reassurance that the car was not actually a crime scene, despite the sheets of plastic.

Tell me stories about being a guest, and/or a host?