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: The Janet + Molly Show!

Check out what two of my critique group partners have to say about True Beauty: Janet Carey and Molly Blaisdell. I love these women. I love what they have to say.



Pull your video essay together for the Find Beauty Challenge. Your 90 seconds can change a kid's life! I'm donating $10 (up to $1,000) for every uploaded video to fund reconstructive work on kids with cleft palates in third world countries.

Celebrating Mitali & Secret Keeper!

Mitali Perkins--author, blogger, readergirlz scout, and all-around wondrous woman--swung through Seattle on her book tour for SECRET KEEPER. She wasn't able to make it to our photo shoot for the readergirlz READ poster masterminded by YA librarian Darcy Brixey of KCLS. So we made up for it this weekend.

Kicking off The Day of Mitali, Brenda Gurung at Barnes & Noble greeted the standing room only crowd.

People lined up eagerly to get their hands on Mitali's many novels. I just love the Secret Keeper cover (and I'm not-so-secretly coveting the cover model's eyelashes.)

It seemed like the entire world of writers turned out to laud Mitali, including readergirlz postergirl, Jackie Parker, as well as diva emeritus, Janet Lee Carey. Is it just me or do they look like sisters of the heart?

And here's me with my Jackie girl. I've decided that I want Jackie to dress me and that I would follow her wherever she goes, GPS or no GPS. She is THAT smart.

Holly Cupala--she of the talent behind the North of Beautiful invite--is giggling because we are all salivating for the Indian dessert she made in honor of Mitali.

Today I am grateful for writers like Mitali who bring so much meaning to the world.

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!

Parting Thoughts

Here I am, on the eve of leaving America to move to China for our year abroad. It's been a lovely whirlwind of family and friends that's often felt like my own Olympic of goodbyes.

My emotions by Wordle:



The week started with a last goodbye with the readergirlz divas where we toasted each other for our great year and conspired on new literacy programs. And then my mentor, Janet Wong, who refused to let me take her picture. She didn't say anything about me blogging about her though.

Then it was on to the annual Meat-and-Corn Fest at our friends Bill & Kristin's home. If there are any people who can make miracles happen, it's these two.



Yes, yes, Kristin is a genius and bestselling author (The Motherhood Manifesto) and political activist (Moms Rising). But Bill? He can preside over Congress. He can start businesses. And most importantly, he can bake! Here it is, my very own China pie a la Bill.


Then my sister and kids ventured to the Puget Sound Blood Center with me. There, we met some of the crew who, after hearing about Girl Overboard, thought we might have some mutual interest in getting more minorities to give blood and register for the National Bone Marrow registry.

Not only is my sister gorgeous, but she'll be attending nursing school in a few weeks. She was fascinated with our tour: from the blood extraction to the bones warehoused at the center for surgeries. I was...faint. Who knew that bones and heart valves could be...freeze dried. (Fine, fine, there's some scientific term for this procedure, but look at this ankle bone for yourself. Freeze dried, yes?)

And then! At last! My buttons from the wonderful Kyle at Button Arcade arrived just in time. (Love Button Arcade.)

As a present for all the wonderful authors who have blurbed my previous novels and my readergirlz crew, I had their book covers turned into buttons.

Shhhh...it's supposed to be a surprise. But I just had to share since there buttons are so darn cute! Can you name all the books and authors? (Major shout out to Lorie Ann Grover who coordinated this project for me as a PRESENT to me! I love that woman.)

And then...the goodbyes. To my mom and sister. (I can't even begin to express how much I will miss them.) To my kids' track team. To my writing mentor, Janet Lee Carey and Janet Wong. To my readergirlz buddies, Lorie Ann, Dia Calhoun, and Holly Cupala.

And one last goodbye to my local library. I love libraries, and I especially love my local one. Let me ask you this: how many librarians come to your house to say goodbye? How many librarians email you to assure you that they will help you research WHATEVER YOU NEED?!


It's a good thing they offered. Because I need a lot. (Of books, that is. And friends. And family.)

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.