Laurel Snyder

Thinks I’m delicious.

HURRAH!

Proving once again that DIY efforts can make things happen in the blogosphere.

… when you remember something from long ago?

I had totally forgotten about this song, from my childhood.  Until tonight, poking around online for clips of my awesome friend Lucy, I stumbled on it by accident.

It’s AMAZING!

I feel like I might almost be catching up.  The SLIDY DINER party was great, and the Gwinnet Reading Festival was great, and then  this afternoon I straightened my desk and the house, and  ran laundry.  And tonight I will pay bills, and then there won’t be anything I’m too massively behind on.

Wow.

We even had an hour today of lounging on the couch, just reading the Times, while the baby slept.

Of course, now that I’m “caught up” I have to get in gear.

I mean, I REALLY need to get in gear.

I’m writing Penny Dreadful. Twenty pages in so far, and I think its going well. But I need to keep at it.  Twenty pages a week. MUST STICK TO THE SCHEDULE!

And I’m putting together my very first power point, full of incriminating photos from my “career”.  This  includes shots of my fourth grade poetry, middle school journals, high school lit mags, college workshop sheets, as well as rejection letters, ARCs and galleys with rough sketches of art.

Because next weekend I’m off to NC, to do my first school visits!  And I find that kids are really amazed when I prove to them that my writing career really DID begin when I was nine!!!!

It was so much fun!  Pictures TK, but we had a wonderful crowd, and the kids hunted mice, and bobbed for spider-filled apples. I read and signed, and we all ate “pumpkin asparagus pie with crunchy bit topping” and sipped a little vino.  And of course there was a revolting amount of candy. Gummi eyeballs and lots of “chocolate” too.

Which has mysteriously vanished tonight.

Munch. Munch.

Thanks so much to Little Shop of Stories, and to Daily Candy, for helping get the word out. And to all my friends who came.

And most especially, thanks to Gareth, who does a remarkable impression of a wigglepede.

In other news, tomorrow I’m off to the Gwinnet Reading Festival, where I plan to stalk Alan Gratz.

YAY STALKING!

Come to Little Shop of Stories, here in Decatur, GA! Tonight!  At 7 pm!  For yummy food (I’ve been baking) and wine and cider, plus storytime and bobbing for apples.

Please help me celebrate the release of INSIDE THE SLIDY DINER!!!!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

My writing tip for young writers during NaNoWriMo! You have  to sign up if you want the full-on pep talk.

Speaking of NaNoWriMo, I’m getting a jump start. I began this week, trying to average 1500 words a day.I’d love to think I’ll have a draft by Dec 1, though I’m a slow writer.

My first line?

“Penny Dreadful was almost certain she had wonderful friends…”

What do you think?

Major thanks to Lisa Chellman, for her terrific  post about Scratchy Mountains!

She’s dead-on in her association of my book with The Ordinary Princess.  I had completely forgotten Kaye’s novel, until my friend Tamar mentioned it after reading Scratchy Mountains.

Though of course I loved it as a kid!!!

And when Tamar pointed out the relationship,  I actually had to go re-read it, just in case I’d stolen anything accidentally.  I do that sometime, because so many of the books I loved as a kid are buried so deep in my brain.  Sometimes I  have to edit my plagiaristic tendancies out at the end.  Of course,  I live in constant fear I’m missing an allusion I need to attribute.

But that’s preferable (I suppose) to living in fear of germs or ghosts or murderous ex-boyfriends.

While the rest of the kidlitosphere is buzzing about the National Book Award for young adult writing, I’m freaking out that Salvatore has been nominated for fiction!!!!! Not shocking, since he’s a genius and all, but dude… it’s his FIRST NOVEL!

Congrats, Salvatore. I always thought you were hunky, in a cap-wearing kinda way.

Tell me these are not the coolest temporary tattoos in the history of the universe.  Jaime designed them for Slidy Diner events and school visits!

Want a lemondrop?

The Slidy Diner is one big health code violation: the proprietress wears a fly-covered sweater and “smells like rotten grill grease,” the toilet is a cesspool, “someone is usually running with scissors” and the sticky buns are scraped up off the floor. Even the people are ghoulish, with their flattened, oversize heads, blank eyes and doll-like bodies. Snyder, a debut picture book author and PW reviewer, and Zollars (Not in Room 204) serve up a wealth of Grand Guignol detail, beginning with the creepy premise: Edie, the narrator, claims she is held captive at the diner for stealing a lemon drop, and she gives a young patron the insider’s tour of the joint. Most of the best jokes are visual: the poison label stuck onto a countertop; pet food tins stashed amid the staples; a slice of pie garnished as if with eyeballs. The gross-out crowd will eat this up. Ages 5–8. (Oct.)