Conference Mania!

Why, oh why, does my voice go all squeaky when I meet my rock star heroes of authors? All I can say is that SCBWI Washington can put on a fantastic conference, gathering together some of the very best of our industry! My head is still whirling with everybody I met and everything I learned. This past weekend, luminaries including my own agent (Steven Malk), Jon Scieszka--our U.S. Ambassador for Children's Lit, Adam Rex and my buddy Grace Lin descended onto Redmond.

Here we are at the Kid Lit Drink Night with our incomparable fleet of indie booksellers, Sue at Mockingbird and Rene at Third Place Books. And at the far right, meet Emily Whitman, a debut novelist.

Connie Hsu, the assistant editor who has worked on my books alongside Alvina Ling, and I popped out to the Borders where we stalked my books. I don't think we were technically supposed to take pictures inside the store, but when Connie found my books both on the main floor and up in the YA section, what could we do? YAY!

And then here are my girls: Sue, MaryJane Beaufrand (novelist AND bookseller and my running buddy), Rene, Janet Lee Carey (whose upcoming STEALING DEATH is going to be hot hot hot), Holly Cupala (ditto with her forthcoming WHAT WOULD XANDA DO) and Peggy King Anderson (my lovebug of a writer buddy whose faith and goodness have saved me these last few months).

I wish I had been able to get pix of everyone else: Laini Taylor and Jim Di Bartola, Katherine Grace Bond, Michael Stearns, Martha Brockenbrough, the entire Ad Com Committee that put on the conference, Nina Laden, Deb Lund, George Shannon, Kirby Larson... SEE? It was a fantastically wonderful and inspirational weekend filled with geniuses!

Find Beauty Challenge: Another Beautiful Video!

Judging begins soon for the Find Beauty Challenge where one lucky winner will take home an iPod touch!


Declaring a winner is going to be so tough when all these testimonials on true beauty are so incredibly touching! So get in there and rate your favorite videos at the North of Beautiful YouTube channel here or http://www.youtube.com/northofbeautiful.

In the meantime, check this video essay out by our own readergirlz diva, Holly Cupala:

Awww...a love letter...to me!

People are uploading their Find Beauty videos! It's so exciting...and here's one from the readergirlz divas:



Awwww... I beg to differ. But what are you waiting for? Make your voice heard! Tell the world what True Beauty really means. You've got 90 seconds. And for every video that's uploaded, I'm donating $10 (up to $1,000) to fund cleft lip surgeries in the third world. Help a kid, make a statement. Do it now!

Valentine's Everyday!

My girlfriends and family were buzzing around me on Valentine's Day, making sure that I felt beloved. Like my writer-buddy, Holly Cupala who read an early version of North of Beautiful. And Girl Overboard. AND my WIP. Anyway, Holly took me out for tea where she and her daughter gave me the most divine pair of coral-red gloves. And then she walked me over to Sephora and personally picked out a lipstick color for me (horrified, no doubt, by my blog post when I admitted I was down to two lipstick tubes. TWO.).

Today I am grateful for friends and family who have made me see that everyday is Valentine's Day.

By the way, NARS Flamenco? The lip shade rocks! Highly recommended.

Giving Thanks: A Week In Review

Thanks to countless wonderful people, all throughout this week I've been reminded of two of my favorite poems / quotes:

As earth stirs in her winter sleep
And puts out grass and flowers
Despite the snow,
Despite the falling snow.
--Robert Graves

Look. There's hope.
--Lorie Ann Grover

Despite the snow, the falling snow that's been upheaving my life, there's so much hope and so much to be thankful for. Here, then, are the grass and flowers that earth has given me so plentifully:

1. Holly Cupala who so generously created the much-talked about, much-forwarded beautiful Book Launch announcement. She is a dear and loyal friend.

2. Martha Brockenbrough who is single-handedly overseeing the North of Beautiful: Find Beauty Challenge. She is truly one of the most generous (and funny) people I know. Michael Sterns, you got yourself a treasure. So did you, Adam.

3. My son and his best friend, Gaby, who gave up their entire day AND the Super Bowl to be videographers, shooting video essays on beauty at my party. You both are becoming incredible young men.

4. Mitali Perkins who spearheaded the incredibly fun Book Blog Tour with luminaries like Shelf Elf, Sarah Rettger, Bibliophile, and Teen Book Review. We dished on everything from characters to bubble tea. Now, tell me, are these soul sisters or what?

5. Brenda Gurung, the world's best Community Relations Manager at my local Barnes & Noble, who said: Justina, let me host your Book Launch Party; you just show up. So the woman created a map collage as a backdrop.

Then she kicked off a virtual geocaching scavenger hunt around the store, arranged a collage station, gave away prizes, publicized the event all over town... Brenda, you are a gift.

6. My daughter who is the best meeter-and-greeter. Ever. And best daughter ever.

7. Miss Erin whose mom drove her 5.5 hours to surprise me at the party! I cried when I saw her!


8. All my friends who turned out for the party despite the Super Bowl--from Anita at the post office whose lips have kissed every manuscript that I've mailed (good luck lips, I'm telling you!) to my StrataGem pals to my sister who tore herself away from studying for finals. And especially my Diviners critique group, readergirlz, and Kim Swift (the famous gamer girl!) who baked and baked and baked to feed everyone at the party. A special thanks to Jackie Parker whose amazing cinnamon rolls save me after a dire energy lull.

9. Barnes & Noble for putting North of Beautiful in its coveted real estate: the home page scroll on its website. It was thrilling to see my book alongside President Obama, Bruce Springsteen, and James Patterson. And then merchandised my book prominently on the Teen Page. Thank you. I am so humbled by the company Terra got to keep this week. And I am absolutely humbled that in this economy, readers are spending their precious dollars on my words. Thank you so much.

10. And all the unexpected gifts that this week held for me: a starred review from Booklist, freshly baked bread from Barbara Stolzenburg (one of the first librarians to get behind my first novel), a collage and serenade from Miss Erin... These are just a few of the ways you have made one author feel nurtured and beloved. I thank you all.


Despite the snow, despite the falling snow, hope is waiting to bloom.

LOVE,
Justina

North of Beautiful: Book Party!

Look at what my dear friend, Holly Cupala (A Light that Never Goes Out, 2010), created as a gift for me: a beautiful invitation for my upcoming Book Party!

Today I am thankful for friends who share their talents so graciously with me.

Home Again, Home Again!

Home again! Home again! Jiggity Jig!



And trust me, I've been doing a little jig since stepping off the airplane on Friday morning. There, meeting me at the airport, were a few of the readergirlz divas: Lorie Ann Grover, Holly Cupala, and Janet Lee Carey. I was so touched! And felt so loved!!! And my kiddos' best buddies met us at our house, carrying balloons and signs.

My Strata-sisters descended on Saturday to paint my house and unpack for me. They're part of my pro bono consulting group, StrataGem, which is on hiatus indefinitely. For about 7 years, we helped non-profit groups that helped women and children solve tough business problems...totally for free. And now these amazing, amazing women are helping me. They brought cake! They brought coffee! They brought love! This is probably the one and only time my closet will look like a boutique--my clothes are folded so meticulously.



As thrilled as I am to be home, I think so fondly of my friends back in Shanghai, like Richard and Stacey, and Meg and John. Here we are at my send-off at Sun with Aqua on the Bund...a fantastic restaurant...before we hit my first and only jazz club in Shanghai. The best sushi I have ever had. Check out the sharks swimming in the background. (And you must go to the Cotton Club if you visit Shanghai! Must! A total boozy, smoky scene with fantastic live music.)

In my packing haze, I misplaced my camera so I couldn't photograph the wonderosity that is my traditional Chinese chopping block. It's about 50 pounds--I'm not joking. A single slab of wood, a veritable tree trunk. John had remembered me talking on and on about them while we were in Dunhuang since I had just read Nicole Mones' fantastic THE LAST CHINESE CHEF. These chopping blocks are extremely difficult to source...but John found one for me! I can't wait until it arrives, making its way across the Pacific Ocean to me.

More than that, I can't wait for my Shanghai friends to visit me in Seattle. Make your way across the Pacific to me, my pengyous. Missing you!

I Love Your Blog, Too!

Greetings from Dunhuang--the upper northern reaches of China. I'll be posting soon about the truth about camel rides and sunrises in the desert. But first...this...

After bad times (read: evil taxi driver from hell) and hard times (read: melamine scare in milk), you know who your reals friends are. Thanks to everyone for emailing me about my Kidnapping Crisis 2008 and sharing your own harrowing stories of life on the road. I'm not sure if those anecdotes were supposed to comfort me or SCARE me more (thank you, Nicole, for sharing with me your boat hijacking on the Mekong story). But in all seriousness, the support was amazing.


And thanks to friends like Janet Wong and Molly Goudy who have emailed me, asking if I want a food shipment from the U.S. (We are okay...although my sweet tooth husband is seriously missing chocolate. I have found sources here though. So Chocolate Crisis 2008 has also been averted!)


And special thanks to the Blue Rose Girls and Mrs. F-B's Book Blog for nominating my blog for the I Love Your Blog award during this tiny little rough patch!



So here's how the award works, taken straight from Mrs. F-B herself:





1. Add the logo of your award to your blog. (Check)


2. Add a link to the person who awarded it to you. (Done! Please check these blogs out)


3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs. (See below!)


4. Add links to those blogs on your blog. (Yup! Done!)


5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs. (About to do this!)





Here are my nominations for great, wonderful blogs with an emphasis on the women who co-founded and run readergirlz, the world's foremost online book community for teens! (I've omitted some of other favorite blog reads--such as Little Willow, Miss Erin, Jen Robinson, Kelly Herold, BookSlut, etc--since I know that everyone already knows about them.)





1. readergirlz: check out the website and blog to catch the latest and greatest about books and authors who are empowering teen girls through literature. Dia Calhoun has been blogging on our behalf and has done a wonderful job!


2. On Point by Lorie Ann Grover: this blog gives mucho insight into the world of Lorie Ann who is a brilliant verse novelist and board book author.


3. Dreamwalks by Janet Lee Carey: Janet is one of my mentors and best writer-buddies. Her very soulful blog is filled with insights into the creative process.


4. Mitali's Fire Escape by Mitali Perkins: Well, everyone knows Mitali! And I love her blog which focuses on multicultural literature. Her books, Rickshaw Girl, happens to be on of this year's Jane Addams Honor books. Go, Mitali!


5. Brimstone Soup by Holly Cupala: Watch out, world! Holly's debut novel, A Light that Never Goes Out, is set to be published in 2010, and I think it's going to rock the world.


6. Design Sponge: My very dear friend, Janet Wong (she of the food-to-the-rescue email above), turned me on to Design Sponge. This is my guilty and not-so-guilty read on all things design related. I love this blog!


7. Moo by...moo! I love, love, love Moo.com. It's where I print my business cards and gift enclosure cards for my books. So, of course, I'm crazy about the moo.com blog, too. I just wish they would blog more frequently with more case studies of how other people are using their products. That, however, might be dangerous for my credit card.

readergirlz around the world!

Other than writing and procrastinating (I mean, researching) in Shanghai, I also happen to be one of the co-founders of readergirlz, the leading online book community for teens! Along with my divas divine--Lorie Ann Grover, Dia Calhoun, and Mitali Perkins (all fellow award-winning YA authors)--we've spent the last 18 months or so creating fun literacy programs to promote more teen reading!

Here's what we've cooked up next:

READERGIRLZ PRESENTS “NIGHT BITES” ONLINE AUTHOR CHATS
More than a dozen authors to converge on rgz forum to chat with ravenous teen readers

Sept. 18, 2008 (Seattle, Wash.) – In celebration of Young Adult Library Services Association’s (YALSA’s) Teen Reed Week™, readergirlz (rgz) is excited to present Night Bites, a series of online live chats with an epic lineup of published authors. The chats will take place at the rgz forum, Oct. 13-17, 2008.

Playing off of YALSA’s theme of “Books with Bite,” Night Bites will feature five themed chats designed to appeal to an array of literary tastes. Sure to suck in even the most reluctant teen readers, the complete Night Bites schedule is as follows:

Monday, Oct. 13: Multicultural Bites with authors Coe Booth (TYRELL), An Na (THE FOLD), and rgz diva Mitali Perkins (SECRET KEEPER)

Tuesday, Oct. 14: Verse Bites with rgz diva Lorie Ann Grover (ON POINTE), Stephanie Hemphill (YOUR OWN SYLVIA), and Lisa Ann Sandell (SONG OF THE SPARROW)

Wednesday, Oct. 15: Contemporary Bites with Ally Carter (CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO SPY), rgz diva Justina Chen Headley (NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL), and Maureen Johnson (SUITE SCARLETT)

Thursday, Oct. 16: Fantasy Bites with Holly Black and Ted Naifeh (THE GOOD NEIGHBORS), rgz diva Dia Calhoun (AVIELLE OF RHIA), and Tamora Pierce (MELTING STONES)

Friday, Oct. 17: Gothic Bites with Holly Cupala (A LIGHT THAT NEVER GOES OUT), Christopher Golden (SOULLESS), Annette Curtis Klause (BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE), and Mari Mancusi (BOYS THAT BITE).

It all happens at the rgz forum (http://groups.myspace.com/readergirlz) beginning at 6 p.m. Pacific Time (9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, 9 a.m. Justina in China Time!), Oct. 13-17.

Watch the Night Bites video at

Click on: www.youtube.com/readergirlz or watch it here (with a huge shout out to Holly Cupala for her brilliant cinematographic skills):



About readergirlz
readergirlz is the foremost online book community for teen girls, led by five critically acclaimed YA authors—Dia Calhoun (Avielle of Rhia), Lorie Ann Grover (On Pointe), Justina Chen Headley (Girl Overboard), and Mitali Perkins (First Daughter: White House Rules). readergirlz is the recipient of a 2007 James Patterson PageTurner Award.

To promote teen literacy and leadership in girls, readergirlz features a different YA novel and corresponding community service project every month. For more information about readergirlz, please visit www.readergirlz.com and www.myspace.com/readergirlz, or contact divas@readergirlz.com.



About YALSA
For more than 50 years, YALSA has been the world leader in selecting books, films and audiobooks for teens. For more information about YALSA or for lists of recommended reading, viewing and listening, go to www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists.

Charmed, I'm Sure!

When I wrote the Mama Lecture Series in Nothing but the Truth (and a few white lies), I never really thought I'd be scripting my own lectures. But here I am, telling (lecturing) my kids that nothing really matters in life except for friends and family. (This, I'm sure, will come back to haunt me when it's back to school time and the kiddos are slacking off: But, Mom, you said nothing mattered more than friends. I want to hang out with my new ones in China!)

How important friends are has become so clear now that we're down to our last week in the U.S. LAST WEEK! LAST 7 DAYS!!

In between getting our final shots--who knew that there'd be a run on the rabies vaccinations in the U.S.?--we've been saying our last goodbyes to dear friends.

(Note: The Japanese encephalitis shot hurts.)

Readergirlz diva Lorie Ann Grover has been a great sport, going geocaching with me in the HOT, DRY heat in Winthrop where I love to write.

Then, she and Dia Calhoun sent me off with the most gorgeous readergirlz yearbook, filled with photos of everything our group did in the last 18 months! 31 Flavorite Authors! Operation Teen Book Drop! Books for Your BFF! And all the authors we've brought to teen readers over the year.

Dia also created a geocache in honor of North of Beautiful!

Here we are, sneakily hiding the cache together in a super secret location for other treasure hunters to find.




Two nights ago, my StrataGem group--the fabulous women who worked with me to help women and children--threw a party for me. It was the first time in 2 years when all of us were able to get together on the same night (except for Birgit who lives in Vienna). It was a miracle, I tell you. They created a charm bracelet for me with each of the charms symbolizing a special moment together. Like the Christmas box for the boxes we created for kids in third world countries. And the snowflake for our retreat at the Sleeping Lady Lodge where we figured out how to fix the world! (Of course, fixing our own worlds--how on earth do you balance family with career with philanthropy?!--was and is a conundrum.)

And then the readergirlz of Seattle went (what else?) geocaching with me for one final time as we filmed footage for a future North of Beautiful video.



Pictured here: Dia Calhoun, Jackie Parker (Interactive Reader & postergirlz), Holly Cupala, Sara Easterly (rgz publicist), me, Lorie Ann Grover, Janet Lee Carey, and Nancy Pearl (honorary readergirlz).

Friends, I tell you. They make up a charmed life.

Hanging with the (Book) Stars in La La Land

The stars aligned in Los Angeles this weekend--combining my wedding anniversary with meeting the newest nephew (just 3 weeks old!) in the Headley clan and hanging out with countless fabulous YA luminaries.

First stop: Anniversary

As one last gift before we move to China, my parents sent my hubby and I BY OURSELVES to LA for our wee-bit-early 15th anniversary. There, we finally visited the Getty Center and the Getty Villa, which we'd been wanting to see for years.

Now, as some of you know, I've been angsting / whining / bemoaning about the 50-BOOK LIMIT imposed on us for our move. I mean, really! 50 books! When I visited my public library last week, I actually teared up, already missing my access to every book I could possibly want. So what did my thoughtful hubster do? He bought me a Kindle as an anniversary present! Now, I can download books and audiobooks to my heart's content in our year away. Yahoo!

Second stop: rgz TV
While I opted not to attend this year's SCBWI conference, I met live and in-person my book hero and blog superstar, Little Willow! She is as bubbly and adorable AND articulate as I had imagined her to be.

Look at that mischievous smile! A casting director would be an idiot not to include her in any film or play!

Together, Little Willow and I interviewed a bunch of YA authors for our new readergirlz initiative: rgz TV...coming soon on YouTube! Watch out, Oprah! Little Willow really needs to start her own book TV show. She is THAT spectacular as a talkshow host.

Paula Yoo wowed us with her rocking (seriously) violin concerto. Her playing literally elicited spontaneous applause from people in the outdoor bar! And then we were joined by the immensely talented and warm-hearted Sonya Sones who shares the same hat fetish as me. Lisa Yee & her peep graced the couch--and I have to admit, my FlipCam shook since I was laughing (silently, I hope) at her jokes. Joyce Lee Wong and Tina Ferraro joined in the fun, too. (May I tell you how much I appreciated Joyce's heartfelt thank you to readergirlz for taking our free time to promote YA literature? That was very, very sweet.)

Holly Cupala (pictured in apple green), another readergirlz denizen, just sold her first YA novel in a two-book deal! Can you tell from her wide smile? Okay, part of the smile can be attributed to meeting Jay Asher in person after featuring his 13 Reasons Why all July at readergirlz.

Ellen Hopkins shared her wisdom and heart with us...all in three minutes of footage. And finally, after we wrangled all the details out of Rachel Cohn about her latest book and upcoming Nick & Norah movie, she demanded to interview me about NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL. I learned that the woman does not take NO for an answer--no matter how much I protested. Which was a lot. Honestly, I was sweating so profusely, I could have been an ad for why deodorant is a good thing. Let's just say that I very much prefer to be on the other side of the camera.

And let it be known: the Pacific Northwest SCBWI has it going on! Jolie Stekley (in the geometric dress) and Sara Easterly (unpictured since she's imminently going into labor with baby #1) rock the children's book world with the way they run our local SCBWI. We were chatting when Melissa--the famous book reviewer from MySpace--recognized us from all of our photographs. Tucked between her and Holly is Martha Brockenbrough (that's Miss Cinemama to you!). Make sure to check out her TWILIGHT article.

Fourth stop: friends & family
Hubster and I had brunch at the Hotel Bel Air with our very dear friends, Chris and June Peters. They are fabulous and creative--one's an artist, the other a screenwriter. They've moved from down the street to LA. Boo! After snuggling with my newest nephew, I dragged my hubster to Venice Beach for my agent's annual Writers House book bash, famous for its desserts. This year did not disappoint with the micro-milkshakes. YUM.

Fun times in La La Land!