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Just a quick post for now because I'm getting SO excited for RWA this year! I've printed out my workshop schedule...and downloaded my workshop handouts...and am getting SO SO excited to hang out with a whole community of people who are as geeked-out about romance as I am! Yay!

I'll be twittering like mad from the conference all next week...and will most certainly blog from DC...but for now, an announcement!

For those of you who are around on Wednesday afternoon (July 15th), swing on over to the Marriott Wardman Park exhibit hall for the 2009 "Readers for Life" Literacy Autographing! More than 500 romance authors are scheduled to participate in this two-hour autographing event--raising thousands of dollars to donate to ProLiteracy Worldwide (FYI...I'll be the one freaking out about signing in the same room as Elizabeth Hoyt. And Julia Quinn. And Nora Roberts. And Eloisa James. And...OMG. I can't think anymore about it).

So, yeah...bring your cash and buy signed books for a great cause. And if you have time...come hang out by me so I look less like a squawking fangirl and more like a bona-fide author (even though we all know the truth).

Ok, y'all. Seriously?

How am I supposed to be articulate in the face of this yumminess?

Dominic West reads from Pride & Prejudice.

In the immortal words of well bred ladies everywhere: Hubba Hubba.

Give it up for Dara Cohen, the star of Megan Frazer's Secrets of Truth & Beauty, on Inside the Character's Studio!

Secrets of Truth & Beauty -- When Dara Cohen was little, she was crowned Little Miss Maine. That was then. Now Dara's seventeen and she's not so little anymore. That's just one of her many problems. Another is that her control-freak mom won't get off her case about anything. Yet the one that hurts the most is the family secret: Dara has an older sister her parents tried to erase from their lives.

Welcome, Dara!

What is your favorite word?
Encore

What is your least favorite word?
Ridiculous

What turns you on, creatively, spiritually?
Honesty

What turns you off?
Ignorance

What is your favorite curse word?
I don't swear much, and when I do, it's mostly muttering under my breath. I haven't settled on a favorite, though.

What sound or noise do you love?
A really strong voice, like Cass Elliot or Christina Aguillera.

What sound or noise do you hate?
Glop.

What profession would you like to attempt?
Night club singer. Just for a little while, not like as an actual profession. (Let's hope my mom doesn't see this.)

What profession would you not like to do?
Before this summer, I might have said goat farmer -- if it had ever even occurred to me -- but now I see it's not so bad.

I didn't answer the question, did I?

All right then, I have no interest in even trying to be a deep sea fisherman. Or a taxidermist. Yeah, let's go with taxidermy as the profession I don't want to attempt.

If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
Um, I'm Jewish so I haven't really given this much thought. Does G-d really greet you? It seems like he would have better things to do than play Welcome Wagon to the new recruits. But, okay, buying into this whole hypothetical situation, I hope he'd say, "Welcome," of course, and point me in the direction of my family -- my real family.

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Check out other interviews from Inside the Characters' Studio here.

As many of you know from reading my bio, when I was in college I learned a little rhyme that lists the Kings & Queens of England in order. Useless to some. Not at all useless to a romance novelist who might, at any moment, in the absence of Wikipedia, be required to call on such vast historical knowledge.

And so...today...I give you the poem that will impress your friends, send your enemies cowering in the corner, and quite possibly win you a friendly game of Trivial Pursuit.

Willy, Willy, Harry, Stee,
Harry, Dick, John, Harry three.
One, two, three Ned, Richard two,
Harrys four, five, six.
Then who?

Edwards four and five, Dick the bad,
Harry's twain, Ned six, the lad.
Mary, Bessie, James you ken,
then Charlie, Charlie, James again.

Will & Mary, Anna Gloria,
Georges four, Will four, Victoria.
Edward seven next, and then
came George the Fifth in 1910.

Ned the eighth soon abdicated,
then George the sixth was coronated,
After which, Elizabeth!

and 'that's all folks'until her death!

Join us next week, on Randomness from Sarah's Brain!

Presidential Burgers...


Want.

Michael & Janet...cute as buttons.

So, I had kind of a blah week. But the weekend is going to ROCK. How do I know this? Because no weekend that begins with this post at Gawker can't rock. It's cosmically impossible.

The lesson here?

Emo Hawk + Jerk Chicken = Greatest New York Moment of All Time.

Thanks to Ken Stirling for the awesome...

Just a quick one today...as I'm in and out of the apartment...but I just had to share this!

At 10:45 this morning, my phone rings...it's a friend from work. Not exactly the phone call one expects to receive on Saturday morning. (I *expected* to receive a call from my sister, who seems to have gone AWOL and never answers her phone...but that's another story altogether)

The call goes something like this:

SARAH: Hello?
SARAH'S FRIEND: Ohmigod. You're in the NEW YORK POST!
SARAH: Wha?!
SARAH'S FRIEND: THE NEW YORK POST!!!
SARAH: What? Why?
SARAH'S FRIEND: You seem less intelligent than usual.

**cue hanging up, grabbing 75 cents in nickels from my money jar and running downstairs in my pajamas to the deli to buy the paper.

And lo and behold, I am, indeed, in the New York Post! Right there, under the lovely headline: Hot New Titles for Tweens & Teens!

Bless Rupert Murdoch and his big, conservative head!

Rules: List the fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. Choose the first fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.

Ok...aside from my own:

1. James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl
2. The Babysitters Club series, by Anne M. Martin
3. Pride & Prejudice, by Jane Austen
4. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
5. The Other Boleyn Girl, by Philippa Gregory
6. Just Listen, by Sarah Dessen
7. Devil in Winter, by Lisa Kleypas
8. The Black Lyon, by Jude Deveraux
9. The Crimson Petal and the White, by Michael Faber
10. The Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
11. The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien
12. Skinny Legs & All, by Tom Robbins
13. The Cider House Rules, by John Irving
14. Look Homeward Angel, by Thomas Wolfe
15. The Six Wives of Henry VIII, by Alison Weir

ok...now you!

Some people like gadgets, others like first edition books...me? I'm a paper and pencil gal. And O. M. G. I want these. BAD.

Twelve years ago, the Colleen Pencil Company recognized that pencil slats could be made from any wood that the machinery could cut, and created a varied set as an artistic exploration....Twelve pencils are presented - each marked with the number in the series, the HB grade, the bilingual (English and Japanese) wood species and country/area of origin, and a most unusual number - the specific gravity of the pencil’s wood. Some species are familiar, and some are more exotic.

Colleen, unfortunately, is now out of business. And all we can do is stare longingly at pictures.

Covet with me, will you?

I am a sucker for superheroes. It's true. Batman, Spiderman, Wolverine, heck...I even like Aquaman...and all he can do is talk to fish. So, it should come as no surprise that I am 100% in love with Avery Pirzwick, the star of Sarah Cross's Dull Boy. And I'm SUPER excited to host Avery here on the blog today.

What do you do if you can deadlift a car, and you spend your nights flying to get away from it all? If youare fifteen-year-old Avery Pirzwick, you keep that information to yourself. When youare a former jock turned freak, you canat afford to let the secret slip.

But then Avery makes some friends who are as extraordinary as he is. He realizes theyare more than just freaksatogether, maybe they have a chance to be heroes. First, though, they have to decide whether to trust the mysterious Cherchette, a powerful wouldbe mentor whose remarkable generosity may come at a terrible price.

Welcome, Avery!

What is your favorite word?
badass

What is your least favorite word?
dissection

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
This is a really awkward question ...

What turns you off?
Anything that almost kills me.

What is your favorite curse word?
idk, the best ones got edited out. ;)

What sound or noise do you love?
Silence. It means no one is yelling at me.

What sound or noise do you hate?
The sound of something really expensive breaking. *cringes*

What profession would you like to attempt?
Superhero is sort of a profession, right?

What profession would you not like to do?
Dentist. Anything on Dirty Jobs.

If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
"Go back, you're not done yet!" Or: *as God strokes his lustrous beard thoughtfully* "Hmm ... you really *are* more awesome than Wolverine."
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Check out other interviews from Inside the Characters' Studio here.

Ok, y'all...back in February when The Season began to appear in the wild, dozens of you guys started sending in photos of the book in its natural habitat...bookstores, libraries, chillin' with cats...

and i LOVED it.

Loved it loved it loved it! I started putting all those photos on a map...which lives in my sidebar, and I would go home everyday and irritate my husband by showing him the newest awesome photos of the day!

But then...you stopped sending them. so...suffice to say...i got sad. :(

And YOU--yes, you in the middle--Kansas? Nebraska? Wyoming? Montana? What happened to you? My map is so sad and pathetic in the middle! Come on! Alaska delivered! And Alaska is FAR!

But then...a bright spot.

This week, Molly & Clare (a mother/daughter team who sound AWESOME) and the incredible Carrie Ryan (yes...THE...FAMOUS...CARRIE RYAN)...sent me new photos out of the blue! YAY!

Don't you want to be as awesome as Molly & Clare & Carrie? Send me your photos!

Need me to sweeten the deal? Well...ok. If you insist. I just so happen to have awesome bookmarks that have special commissioned art of The Season girls on them! I offer you this awesome trade -- your photos of The Season in the wild for a bookmark!

Shall I sweeten the deal even more? The best, most creative photo of The Season in the wild (indoors or outdoors, with people or without) will receive a SIGNED POSTER of The Season! Isn't that worth it?

The contest is now, officially open! I'll put all the photos on my map...and choose the winning photo on June 19th. That gives you two weeks to be as creative as possible!

Yay! I'm so excited!

Ok...it's no secret that I have a major friend crush on the fabulous Sarah Ockler. We've got some weird cosmic similarities that are seriously freaky-deaky. First, we're both named Sarah. Second, Sarah's husband grew up literally across the street from where my parents lived when they first moved to the US in Flushing, Queens, NYC. How did we discover this? Sarah actually *recognized* the spot where this photo was taken. While she was reading my blog. Which brings me eerie similarity #3--we're both awesome.

So...I am SO SO SO excited to host Anna Reiley, the star of Sarah's Twenty Boy Summer on the blog today.

While on vacation in California, sixteen-year-old best girlfriends Anna and Frankie conspire to find a boy for Anna’s first summer romance, but Anna harbors a painful secret that threatens their lighthearted plan and their friendship.

TWENTY BOY SUMMER is a debut YA novel that explores what it truly means to love someone, what it means to grieve, and ultimately, how to make the most of every single moment this world has to offer.

Welcome, Anna!

What is your favorite word?
Love.

What is your least favorite word?
Lost.

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Being outdoors and connecting with the universe through nature. Traveling also does it for me, now that I finally get to go somewhere interesting! But mostly, I just like to be outside in the sun, no matter where I am.

What turns you off?
When people apologize for something they didn't do simply because they don't know what else to say, or when they try to force conversation just to fill the space so they don't have to feel awkward around you. I wish they would just be quiet, because sometimes there just aren't any words for something.

What is your favorite curse word?
I don't curse that much, so I save it all up for the big one. ;-)

What sound or noise do you love?
The sound of Matt's voice reading to me. Some days I wake up and think of him and his voice goes hazy in my memory. I'm so scared of forgetting the sound of it.

What sound or noise do you hate?
Tires screeching, and the song that was playing that day... Casey Jones.

What profession would you like to attempt?
I think I'd like to work with other teens and kids who just need someone to talk to and listen to them, especially if they've gone through something traumatic. Maybe a counselor or social worker.

What profession would you not like to do?
Hair stylist or makeup artist. I leave all things glamorous in Frankie's capable hands.

If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
"Matt! She's here!"

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Check out other interviews from Inside the Characters' Studio here.

Ok, I lie. I don't have a turntable. Eric does, but I am not allowed to use it. Ok, that's a lie, too. I'm sure that if I wanted to play a record he would allow me access to the little black square that sits in his office...assuming it's not a Barenaked Ladies record. That's where he draws the line.

But admit, you liked the idea that I had a turntable. And then you liked the idea that Eric holds sway over the use of vinyl in my house.

I digress. This is a post about the music that I am in love with today. I know that wasn't very clear. I hope it is now, though.

I'm totally obsessed with Ani DiFranco's Red Letter Year these days. I love it. Love it. LOVE IT. Now, as I've mentioned before, I'm a huge Ani fan. For a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that I can map much of my adult life (including my relationship with Eric) to Ani concerts: the first time Eric came to visit me in NYC, we saw her play acoustic at Carnegie Hall; the day I moved into my first NYC apt without a roommate, Eric and I lay on my bed and listened to Reveling/Reckoning while the summer breeze blew the curtains over our heads; Little Plastic Castle is the second song on the mix cd Eric made in honor of our wedding; and the day I sold my first adult romance to Avon, November 21st 2008, we saw Ani play at Town Hall.

One might say that if my life were a Paul Thomas Anderson film, she would be my Aimee Mann.

Red Letter Year is one of her more recent albums...and when you listen to it, you can't help but notice an new, wonderful, loving, happy Ani. And perhaps it's because she played so many of these beautiful, lyric, happy songs at the Town Hall concert on a day when I was so very very happy myself that I think this album (of all of them) speaks to me the most.

You can listen to it for free over at Ani's website. And if you only listen to one song on it...listen to Landing Gear. or The Atom. or Present/Infant. *sigh* you see my problem?

All i want for Christmas is Robert Downey Jr. in period costume. And...oh look! Santa is bringing him!

Are you kidding me? I cannot WAIT!!!
What are the odds my parents would forgive me for leaving the house on Christmas Day to see this?

Today, I'm happy to announce that Wrenn Scott, the star of Leigh Brescia's's One Wish. Ok, let's start with how much I judge this book by its cover. And I judge it as AWESOME. But then I met Wrenn (and Leigh) and I judge it also by its author and main character. That's acceptable, right?

Overweight Wrenn Scott desperately wants to be popular and snag a hot boyfriend. Her amazing voice (for once) overshadows her weight when she lands a lead role in the high school musical. Pushing to get thinner by opening night, Wrenn's waistline shrinks as she learns all the wrong ways to lose weight from a new "it-girl" friend in the show. By opening night, the old Wrenn has almost disappeared. After a crisis reveals her weight-loss tricks, Wrenn realizes there are much more important things than being thin, popular, or even dating a hunk.

Welcome, Wrenn!

What is your favorite word?
Popularity (and everything that comes with it)

What is your least favorite word?
Terrific! Ugh! It’s so overused. I hate it!

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Music

What turns you off?
Phil in his boxers. I’m serious. I’m actually throwing up a little bit in my mouth like, right this moment.

What is your favorite curse word?
I don’t really curse. My mom used to (enough for all of us), but ever since Phil came along she’s choosing her words more wisely. It’s annoying, actually.

What sound or noise do you love?
The click of the “on” button of my electric piano

What sound or noise do you hate?

Mr. Pike when he yells: “No! No! No! Cut!”

What profession would you like to attempt?
I might like to be a Broadway singer, but I have to get over the stage fright first.

What profession would you not like to do?
Work for Mitzi Monroe at Channel 8. She’s wicked.

If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
We’re needing a lead soprano for the angelic choir. You interested?

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Check out other interviews from Inside the Characters' Studio here.

Get over there and win!

Today is a very special day. Very. Special. No, dear readers...not because it is the 134th day of the year. No, not because, on this day in 1804, Lewis and Clark began their expedition. No, not even because it's the feast day of St. Boniface of Tarsus. (Although I know we're all putting our party hats on for that last one)

Today is special because it is the launch date of Sarah Cross's DULL BOY--which I have been rather vocally in love with for a while.

"Who is this DULL BOY of which you speak, Sarah?" you ask.

Well, let's just say this boy is not at all dull, and the veriest of awesome. One might say he is a modern day superman. Imagine, if you will, a book that includes both superheroes and awesome, witty characters and a story that has you cheering straight to the end and desperate for a sequel. That is the DULL BOY of which I speak.

Order your copy now. It's as awesome as its cover. I swear.

Have I ever steered you wrong? Well...aside from hyping the feast of St. Boniface of Tarsus?

I'll have more info on my Book Expo shenanigans next week, I hope, but I just wanted to put myself on your calendars!

I'll be signing at Table #2 at the BEA Autographing Area on Friday, May 29 from 10 - 10:30am! This is during the "Romance Salute," which sounds awesome...I'm not a little bit sorry that I can't go stalk the other Romance Authors on the list!

But I shall persevere...and hopefully see you all there!