I haven’t even been back a week yet, and already I miss Vegas.

This picture, taken outside the lovely Mandalay Bay, was one of the last ones I managed to squeeze out of my camera before the battery died.  I have nary a photo of the chocolate desserts I ate on this trip.  And believe me:  I ate MANY  a chocolate dessert.

For anyone who wants to read a great synopsis of the trip from the POVs of three pretty darn funny writers, check out these entries by  Brodi, Sara B., and Valynne .

I’d offer a synopsis of my own, but I have a grand total of three pictures from the trip, and one is just of Brodi’s hand.   Now, I did ask my friends to take pictures in my stead.  And they did, because they rock like that.  But then they didn’t send them to me.  How can this be?  I know when I get home from a trip the first thing I want to do is email my friend approximately 3 gillion gigabytes of chocolate cake photos.

Now, a word about Barry Manilow:

For those who might not know, my dream is to see Barry Manilow perform before I turn 30, on October 14 of this year.  And it turns out there are more people than I though who actually would want to go see Barry, too.  Thus the Barry Committee, headed by me, is making plans for a Barry Pilgrimage, of sorts, in which we all convene at his new showroom in the Paris, Las Vegas.   Time and dates are TBA, but chime in here in the comments if you’d like to join us.  It will be a rollicking good time, I guarantee it.  Even if nobody plays a single penny slot.   But I probably will.

Thanks to all those who came to Authorpalooza on Saturday!  It was great to see old friends, meet new ones, and see the amazing amount of literature coming out of Utah.  This is the place, dawgs.

I’m so excited to announce that yesterday I guest posted on Throwing Up Words, the excellent new blog by by writer BFFs Ann Dee Ellis and Carol Lynch Williams.  This week they’re discussing my alma mater Vermont College, home of the Fighting Pens (Just kidding.  I don’t even think we have a mascot.  But it’s [...]

In case you haven’t heard yet (because you’re one of my rare followers who doesn’t also follow my much more entertaining and blogosphere-savvy friends)  brace yourselves:

The Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers Workshop is now open for registration!  For those not familiar with this workshop, click the link, of course, but here’s the shorthand:  This [...]

First off, a big wahoo to the award winners in yesterday’s announcement by the American Library Association.  For those who don’t know, the ALA choose the Newbery Award winners as well as the Printz Award winners (like a Newbery–but for young adult books) and a bunch of other award winners.
I am delighted that Rebecca Stead’s [...]

Now, for the post that I planned to post last week, wherein I discuss the debut of my friend and fellow Sixer Bree Despain’s YA paranormal romance THE DARK DIVINE. The book is doing so well it’s already in its second printing! Check out the book, and check out Bree’s blog. If [...]