The thumbnail images of books and albums on this site connect you to Amazon.com -- but that's because Amazon and my web service provider have a partnership, so it's extremely easy to put images on my site. However, I don't get any kind of kickback if you buy any of these items and I don't endorse any particular bookstore over any other.
If you really want to know what I'm up to on a regular basis, come follow me on Twitter. I like it over there.
That said, here's a blog post! I was a judge lately in two book battles. One was The Morning News, a fancy dancy grown-up literary type battle. You can read my judgement here -- of The Sisters Brothers vs. Lightening Rods. But be warned, you teenagers. These are EXTREMELY ADULT BOOKS about extremely adult stuff that might kinda turn your stomachs, plus I use so-called bad words. So, ya know. Proceed with caution.
I am reading or have just read: The Unseen Guest by Maryrose Wood Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler Black Heart by Holly Black The Book of Blood & Shadow by Robin Wasserman The Secret History by Donna Tartt (re-reading)
I am a bit obsessed with Black's Curseworkers series. It is really super awesome.
Last thing: for booksellers. I am going to be at BEA in the autographing area on Wed. June 9th at 1:30. For Invisible Inkling, my middle grade series of fun. Please come say hello and get a book!
The 2012 NYC Teen Author Festival is coming up at the end of March! Woot! The schedule and locales are below, with my small bit in bold if you want to come see me. Here is a clip from last year's Sex Panel, me reading and gabbing. Look! Sarah Mlynowski is wearing the pajants!
The previous year, David Levithan, Libba Bray, John Green and I ACTED OUT scenes from each other's books. (This is Not up on YouTube, and I might be thankful! :) I got to play Maura from Will Grayson Will Grayson, though, which was VERY FUN. So you can see, it gets very exciting at this festival and you MUST SHOW UP TO IT and support YA books, teen literacy, and general awesomeness.
Monday, March 26 (Mulberry Street Branch of the NYPL, 10 Jersey Street b/w Mulberry and Lafayette, 6-8):
Plotting Dangerously: Doing What it Takes to Find the Story
Coe Booth Jen Calonita Paul Griffin Deborah Heiligman Melissa Kantor Morgan Matson Kieran Scott Melissa Walker
moderator: David Levithan
Tuesday, March 27 (McNally Jackson Bookstore, 52 Prince Street, 7-8:30): The Mutual Admiration Society Reading
Madeleine George Ellen Hopkins David Levithan Jennifer Smith John Corey Whaley
Wednesday. March 28 (42nd St NYPL, Bergen Forum, 6-8): Things Fall Apart: World Building and World Destroying in YA
Anna Carey Sarah Beth Durst Anne Heltzel Jeff Hirsch Andy Marino Lauren McLaughlin Lissa Price Jon Skovron
moderator: Chris Shoemaker
Thursday, March 29: The NYC Big Read
NOTE: SPECIFIC MANHATTAN LIBRARY LOCATIONS TO COME
Queens – Long Island City branch of the Queens Public Library (37-44 21 Street?Long Island City, NY 11101)
Tara Altebrando Brent Crawford Gina Damico Jeff Hirsch Andy Marino Jon Skovron Alecia Whitaker
Manhattan – Locations to come
Jen Calonita Anna Carey Matthew Cody Jocelyn Davies Melissa De La Cruz Hilary Graham Christopher Grant Leanna Renee Hieber Anne Heltzel Gwendolyn Heasley PG Kain Kody Keplinger Lauren McLaughlin Sarah Mlynowski Eugene Myers Micol Ostow Stephanie Perkins Jessica Rotherberg Lena Roy Erin Saldin Leila Sales Eliot Schrefer Samantha Schutz Mark Shulman Arlaina Tibensky
Brooklyn – Brooklyn Public Library, central branch, Grand Army Plaza Kate Ellison Gayle Forman Melissa Kantor Barry Lyga Michael Northrop Matthue Roth Victoria Schwab Melissa Walker
Bronx -- Bronx Library Center - 310 East Kingsbridge Road, Bronx Elizabeth Eulberg Paul Griffin Alissa Grosso David Levithan Sarah Darer Littman Kieran Scott John Corey Whaley
Friday, March 30, morning (Scholastic, 557 Broadway), 10am Scholastic In-House Event (not open to the public)
Reading/Signing: Eireann Corrigan Elizabeth Eulberg Kim Harrington Jeff Hirsch Erin Saldin Eliot Schrefer Siobhan Vivian Suzanne Weyn
Signing only: Coe Booth Sarah Darer Littman Barry Lyga Sarah Mlynowski Michael Northrop Samantha Schutz
Friday March 30, Symposium (42nd Street NYPL, 2-6)
2:00 – Introduction
2:10-3:00: Being Friends With Boys
Elizabeth Eulberg Jenny Han Terra Elan McVoy Stephanie Perkins
moderator: Sarah Mlynowski
3:00-3:50: The Writer as Time Traveler: Writing the Past While Sitting in the Present
Judy Blundell Matthew Cody Jennifer Donnelly Leanna Renee Hieber Suzanne Weyn
moderator: David Levithan
3:50-4:40: No Ordinary Love: How to Create a Satisfying Love Story and a Satisfying Supernatural World at the Same Time
Andrea Cremer Melissa de la Cruz Jeri Smith-Ready Victoria Schwab Margaret Stohl
moderator: Barry Lyga
4:40-5:30: New Voices Spotlight
Emily Danforth Kate Ellison Lucas Klauss Carley Moore Aleica Whittaker
Friday March 30, Barnes & Noble Reader’s Theater/Signing (Union Square B&N, 33 E 17th St, 7-8:30)
Andrea Cremer Emily Danforth Lucas Klauss Stephanie Perkins Siobhan Vivian John Corey Whaley
moderator: David Levithan
Saturday March 31, Symposium (42nd Street NYPL, 1-5)
1:00 – Introduction
1:10-2:00 – Rising to the Challenge: YA Characters Facing Down What Life Throws Them
2:00-2:50 -- Killer Instincts: Death, Murder, and the YA Novel
Jennifer Lynn Barnes Gina Damico Kim Harrington Barry Lyga
moderator: Marie Rutkoski
2:50-4:00 -- Moments of Truth: Characters at a Crossroads
Natasha Friend Margie Gelbwasser Jennifer Hubbard Stewart Lewis Sarah Darer Littman Jess Rothenberg Daisy Whitney
moderator: E. Lockhart
4:00-5:00 – Looking Forward to Fall
David Levithan Marie Rutkoski Eliot Schrefer …and more authors reading from their upcoming books
Sunday April 1: Our No-Foolin’ Mega-Signing at Books of Wonder (Books of Wonder, 1-4):
1-1:45: Jennifer Barnes (Every Other Day, Egmont) Matt Blackstone (A Scary Scene in a Scary Movie, FSG) Caroline Bock (LIE, St. Martin’s) Jen Calonita (Belles, Little Brown) Anna Carey (Eve, Harper) Susane Colasanti (So Much Closer, Penguin) Andrea Cremer (Bloodrose, Penguin) Gina Damico (Croak, HMH) Emily Danforth (The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Harper) Jocelyn Davies (A Beautiful Dark, Harper) Sarah Beth Durst (Drink, Slay, Love, S&S) Elizabeth Eulberg (Take a Bow, Scholastic) Gayle Forman (Where She Went, Penguin) Natasha Friend (For Keeps, Penguin) Kim Harrington (Perception, Scholastic) Barry Lyga (I Hunt Killers, Little Brown) Daisy Whitney (The Rivals, Little Brown)
1:45-2:30 Margie Gelbwasser (Pieces of Us, Flux) Alissa Grosso (Popular, Flux) Jenny Han (We’ll Always Have Summer, S&S) Leanna Renee Hieber (Darker Still, Sourcebooks) Anne Heltzel (Circle Nine, Candlewick) Jeff Hirsch (The Eleventh Plague, Scholastic) Jennifer Hubbard (Try Not to Breathe, Penguin) Melissa Jensen (The Fine Art of True or Dare, Penguin) PG Kain (Famous for Thirty Seconds, S&S) Melissa Kantor (The Darlings in Love, Hyperion) Kody Keplinger (Shut Out, Little Brown) Lucas Klauss (Everything You Need to Survive the Apocalypse, S&S) David Levithan (Every You, Every Me, RH) Stewart Lewis (You Have Seven Messages, RH) Sarah Darer Littman (Want to Go Private?, Scholastic) Elisa Ludwig (Pretty Crooked, S&S)
2:30-3:15 Carolyn Mackler (The Future of Us, Penguin) Andy Marino (Unison Spark, FSG) Wendy Mass (13 Gifts, Scholastic) Terra Elan McVoy (The Summer of Firsts and Lasts, S&S) Lauren McLaughlin (Scored, RH) Sarah Mlynowski (Ten Things We Did, RH) Carley Moore (The Stalker Chronicles, FSG) E. C. Myers (Fair Coin, Pyr) Michael Northrop (Plunked, Scholastic) Micol Ostow (What Would My Cell Phone Do?, Penguin) Stephanie Perkins (Lola and the Boy Next Door, Penguin) Jessica Rotherberg (The Catastrophic History of You and Me, Penguin) Marie Rutkoski (The Jewel of the Kalderash, FSG) Erin Saldin (The Girls of No Return, Scholastic) Leila Sales (Past Perfect, S&S) Kieran Scott (He’s So Not Worth It, S&S)
3:15-4:00 Melissa De La Cruz (Lost in Time, Hyperion) Alyssa Sheinmel, (The Lucky Kind, RH) Jennifer Smith (The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, Little Brown) Jeri Smith-Ready (Shift, S&S) Jon Skovron (Misfit, Abrams) Victoria Schwab (The Near Witch, Hyperion) Mark Shulman (Are You Normal?, National Geographic) Margaret Stohl (Beautiful Chaos, Little Brown) Arlaina Tibensky (And Then Things Fell Apart, S&S) Siobhan Vivian (The List, Scholastic) Melissa Walker (Small Town Sinners, Bloomsbury) K.M. Walton (Cracked, S&S) John Corey Whaley (Where Things Come Back, S&S) Alecia Whitaker (The Queen of Kentucky, Little Brown) Maryrose Wood (The Unseen Guest, Harper) Natalie Zaman and Charlotte Bennardo (Sirenz, Flux)
Monday at 8pm EST, Shannon Hale (Newbery winner and author of the adult novels Austenland and the new Midnight in Austenland), Elizabeth Eulberg (Prom & Prejudice and the new Take a Bow, which is a complete SQUEE book for all you Dramarama type readers out there) and E. Lockhart (that's me!) are doing a live panel/Q&A thing on Figment.It is all about Jane Austen: why people still read her, why everyone keeps rewriting her, what is the MEANING OF JANE?
I don't know you if you know this, but I have a Ph.D in 19th century British novel and sometimes I really get my OPINION on. So I love Shannon and Elizabeth's work, and you know I ran right out and bought both Austenland and Prom & Prejudice as soon as they came out! True. But I also think there's some validity to what I said (though goodness knows I didn't need to keep calling books failures, that is pretty snarky expecially given that I had only written half a novel myself at that stage of the game) -- --so maybe we will have a good old-fashioned literary BRAWL? Or will we cuddle?
Will you ask questions? Pretty please?
(And what will Jennifer Weiner think?)
In any case, I think it should be a really fun an interesting discussion and I hope you'll join.Here is the chat window! You can just click on it (I think) and be there. xoE
And this excellent list of YA books for the theater lover -- which includes Dramarama. I want to read them all! (Well, I have read half of them already -- but I want to read the rest.) Jazz hands!
When I am not cleaning up cat barf and over-caffeinating and sweating through power yoga class that is really freaking hard -- I occasionally put on an outfit and go somewhere glam. Last week I went to Maureen Johnson's book launch party for The Name of the Star, which I am so psyched to read. More about the event on the Figment blog.
Anyway, I went with Sarah Mlynowski and David Levithan. It was author-packed, but also reader and librarian packed as well. We lost David pretty quickly to a hoard of nerdfighter Will Grayson Will Grayson fans, but Sarah and I tried to get snacks before they were permitted, and the nice Books of Wonder staff let us have wine. But NOT cupcakes. There were juiceboxes, too, natch.
Maureen looked beautiful (picture snagged from here) and was extremely funny. What's more she gave out YA Saves T-shirts (which you can buy here at my web-designer's awesome site -- and 100% of MJ's proceeds, about $8 a shirt, go to Reading is Fundamental) and you got MJ fridge magnets with every book purchase. The best kind of swag.
At one point, Maureen called out to me and said, "E. Lockhart, how bad was your writing when you first started?" -- apropos of her advice to writers, which is essentially "Dare to SUCK" -- watch the video here.
Anyway, I was taken aback and just yelled "Really really bad" -- which is true. I agree with Maureen's advice about suckage, completely.
Anyway, it was a really fun night. Now back to, you know, cat barf and writing.
At the Baltimore Book Festival (thanks to Susane for the photo!) -- here in order of height (shorter to taller) you see:
Maryrose Wood, Sarah Mlynowski, me, Susane Colasanti and Joanna Pearson.
You can't tell, but Joanna and I are wearing the SAME SKIRT, hers in brown, mine in gray. We had fun. It was pouring rain. I revealed myself to be bitter, sarcastic and full of bile -- but possibly in a good way. Thanks to everyone who came out, and to these women of YA for being such fun conversationalists.
October through December, I am doing eventsfor Toys Come Home (written as Emily Jenkins) -- plus a few teen events. (Real LIve Boyfriends comes out in PB Dec 28). Here are the events, as I know them now. Most of them are with my illustrator, Caldecott-winner Paul O. Zelinsky. A lot of my events are school visits, but below I'm listing the PUBLIC EVENTS. Please come out and see me! Bring the kids.
Wednesday, October 19: Madison, WI
Wisconsin Book Festival with Paul O. Zelinsky
Thursday, October 20: Naperville, IL 7:00 pm: Anderson's Bookstore with Paul O. Zelinsky
Saturday, October 22: Austin, TX Texas Book Festival Texas State Capitol, room E2.016 with Paul O. Zelinsky, 1:00 PM (Paul is also on at 10 with Marla Frazee and other artists!)
Monday, October 24: Petaluma, CA Copperfield's bookstore: 3 PM with Paul O. Zelinsky
Tuesday, October 25: Menlo Park, CA Kepler's Books: 7 PM with Paul O. Zelinsky
Wednesday, Oct 26: Seattle, Washington Secret Garden Bookstore 6:30 PM Teen Book Club (but all ages welcome)
(Note: this is an E. Lockhart event!)
Thursday, Oct 27th: Seattle, Washington Village Books: 5pm in-store event
November 5: NYC
Bank Street Bookstore, 11 AM
November 12: Shelburne, VT Flying Pig Bookstore, daytime in-store event with Paul O. Zelinsky
Nov 19: NYC
Books of Wonder, noon, with Paul O. Zelinsky
Dec 3:NYC
Books of Wonder, 2pm The Pajants Extravaganza! An E. Lockhart event. If you don't know about the Twitterhood of the Butt-lifting Pajants and why all the cool authors are wearing them, click here. This is a star-studded, bedazzled, fabric-paint event at BOW.
Dec 4: Brooklyn
Powerhouse Books in Dumbo, holiday party!
December 10: Brooklyn Boulevard Books, 11 AM with Paul O. Zelinsky
Booksellers! This post is for you, if you are going to Book Expo. Especially if you are a bookseller interested in my books for elementary schoolers, but also if you just want to come say hi at BEA!
I have two Fall books -- Toys Come Home (sequel to Toys Go Out and Toy Dance Party -- now a trilogy!) is published by Random House with illustrations by Caldecott-medalist Paul O. Zelinsky. More info at the RH booth and here.
Small Medium Large is a picture book from Star Bright full of amusing vocabulary that's all about relative sizes -- good especially for the school market that has embraced Five Creatures. Pictures by Tomek Bogacki. If you're a bookseller who wants to see the book at BEA, ring Star Bright and ask for Kathy O'Heir.
If you want to jump on the Invisible Inkling bandwagon, go see the folks at Harper/Balzer+Bray. (Inkling came out in late April -- and the sequel is July 2012.)
Also -- I am not signing, but I am cavorting around the Javitz center, so please come say hello! I love to meet booksellers. I really do. I'll be at the Children's Book Breakfast and the Auction, and milling around getting up to hijinks.
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Now, back to Lockhart stuff -- This article about Frankie Landau-Banks on the YALSA Hub blog is interesting and fun to read. "Frankie Landau-Banks could go toe-to-toe with Katniss and who the victor would be, I leave that up to you."
Okay, sorry about all that practical stuff. Here, now, as a reward for slogging through it, pygmy hedgehogs! (I know! I know!)
I am in Seattle. It is strange. I grew up here but don't go back very often. The Ruby Oliver books are all set here. It's like driving through Roo's life. In a town car, though. And also driving through my childhood, which was not really like Roo's, but which has some of the same settings.
I drank two lattes, both made as if a latte is just what you are offering when you say "you want a cup of coffee?" -- whereas where I live, it's a pot you probably made an hour ago, and that's fine. But the lattes were really good. I was hyper!
I went to Mockingbird Bookstore, a charming children's shop in my old home neighborhood of Greenlake; Third Place Books in Lake Forest, which is huge and has extremely knowledgeable kids book staff, Elliott Bay, which wins the beauty pageant, it is so gorgeous and I shopped there all the time as a kid and they still have the castle you can play in! and Secret Garden, which is really charming and I had so much fun there I had to leave before I'd properly inspected the children's area.
All these stores have SIGNED copies of Invisible Inkling, yes, early! I also signed most Lockhart titles, some picture books and Toys books at all places. Thank you to all the great booksellers I met.
Thursday, Seattle Public Library downtown! Teen event, 4:30 pm. Librarians and other adult-type peeps, 7 pm. Please come. They promise cupcakes, in celebration of Treasure Map of Boys.
Friday thru Saturday I'm at the (all sold-out) awesome SCBWI Western Washington conference, along with Joe Monti, Holly Black, Dan Santat and a host of other interesting writers and editors. Looking forward to it.
Reminder/Repeat: Seattelites, I am rocking the downtown Seattle Public Library on April 14th and there will be cupcakes.
Teens, your event is at 4:30. Librarians, you're at 7:00. Please come out and see me in my home town, where all the Ruby Oliver books are set! Also, I will sign books, courtesy of University Bookstore, one of my fave bookstores ever, where I spent hours and hours of my otherwise misspent youth.
So if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you've probably heard all about the Twitterhood of the Butt-Lifting Pajants. I was supposed to get them on Tuesday, but Sarah Mlynowski washed the sparkle unicorn off them by accident and she has to buy fabric paint and resurrect it.
Honestly, I don't really know how this got started. I do know that the awesome Julia DeVillers, author of the LIberty Porter books and lots of other stuff, owns pajama jeans. She claims they were a gag gift, and yet, she wore them in public anyhow! They were so comfy!
(I can not explain the existence of pajama jeans.)
Somehow, on Twitter, Lauren Myracle signed me, David Mcinnis Gill, Courtney Sheinmel and LOTS of other people -- Lauren signed us up to do like the girls in Ann Brashares' novel, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. We are to get hold of the pajama jeans (aka the pajants) and wear them, photograph it -- then decorate them, then send them on.
Why?
(I can not explain why, exactly.)
Julia, who is living in Georgia (the country!) wore them to an embassy ball. Lauren wore them to pilates. Sarah wore them to the NYC Teen Author Festival sex panel. Everyone is leaving little gifties in the pockets, too.
More authors have signed on. I don't even know all who. For sure Elizabeth Eulberg and Susane Colasanti, Katie Alender, E. Kristin Anderson. Maybe Maureen Johnson. Maybe Ally Carter. (I am too beat to make links to everyone. But you can google these people. However, you SHOULD know who they are already.)
Then we hope we can auction them off for charity.
Will any men besides Gill have the chutzpah to wear the pajants? Will they really butt-lift? Will they fit us all? Stay tuned to the facebook page.
EVENTS:
Friday at 6 pm I'll be at Voracious Reader (scroll to bottom of link for details) in Larchmont, NY. Please come see me!
It's the last of my open-to-the-public tour dates until Seattle Public Library on April 14th:
Hey teens! Come meet E. Lockhart (author of The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, the Ruby Oliver series, and many other awesome books), enter a raffle, and eat cupcakes.
emilylockhart.com The official E. Lockhart website includes videos, games, book excerpts, teacher and book club resources, a little-read Ruby Oliver short story, and more.
All the songs from Dramarama are here, on an iMix. You click on the link above and iTunes will open straight to the mix. Listen before you read Dramarama to make sure you get every little musical reference. Listen afterwards to get a sense of Sadye and Demi's musical world. In any case, these are some of my favorite showtunes of all time. Songs from Rent, Wicked, Guys & Dolls, Cabaret, Chicago, Bye Bye Birdie, Oliver!, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Jersey Boys, Grease, Fame, Sweet Charity, Little Shop of Horrors, and more.
True and Embarassing Things about E.
I had a frizzy perm for several years.
I was voted worst driver in my senior class.
I wore light blue eyeshadow in high school.
Like Roo, I once let a boy feel my boob in a movie theater for the duration of an entire movie. The movie was "Tarzan: The Legend of Greystoke."
I went to two different high schools; at one I was unpopular and friendless; at the other, just the opposite.
I have two cats and one of them is a big barfer.
Orthodonture history includes three years of braces, headgear, rubber bands. And I've still got an overbite.
My first kiss was at the age of sixteen.
The first record I bought was a 45 of AC/DC singing "You Shook Me All Night Long"
Alan Gratz Gratz wrote Samurai Shortstop, The Brooklyn Nine, Something Wicked. He has a video blog!
Ally Carter Author of the Gallagher Series. A very fun blog.
Bennett Madison Madison wrote Lulu Dark Can See Through Walls and I promise you his blog is very very amusing.
Holly Black Black wrote Tithe and the Spiderwick Chronicles. She updates her journal pretty regularly.
Jaclyn Moriarty Moriarty wrote Feeling Sorry for Celia, The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie, The Spell Book of Listen Taylor and The Year of Secret Assignments.
Jennifer Anne Kogler Ruby Tuesday's author, on what she ate for breakfast and writing updates.
Jody Gehrman She wrote Confessions of a Triple-shot Betty.
John Green Green wrote Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns etc. and blogs about his life and updates with questionable regularity and considerable humor. Also an extensive videoblog together with his brother Hank -- worth checking out.
Julie Anne Peters The author of Luna and other books blogs every few days about current events and her life.
Justine Larbalastier Justine wrote Magic or Madness and How to Ditch Your Fairy. Her blog's about publishing and Australia and fiction and fantasy.
Lara M. Zeises The author of Contents Under Pressure and Bringing Up the Bones has a live journal, updated all the time, mainly about YA literature and the publishing biz.
Lauren Myracle Myracle wrote TTYL, TTFN etc, plus Bliss, Rhymes with Witches... blog is very funny and she is one of the most banned writers in America.
Laurie Halse Anderson She wrote Prom and Speak, among others. Her blog includes tour pictures and stuff about her personal life. Updated nearly every day.
Libba Bray Bray wrote Rebel Angels and A Great and Terrible Beauty. She writes every now and then about her writing process and daily life.
Mary E. Pearson Pearson wrote A Room on Lorelei Street, Scribbler of Dreams and David V. God. The blog covers teen books and publishing.
Maureen Johnson Johnson wrote Suite Scarlett, Devilish, Girl at Sea, etc. A most hilarious blog.
Megan McCafferty McCafferty wrote Sloppy Firsts, Second Helpings etc. She has a "retroblog" of journal entries from long ago.
Mitali Perkins Perkins, who wrote Monsoon Summer etc., talks about books and life between cultures.
Sarah Dessen The author of That Summer, Someone Like You, Dreamland, etc. keeps a constantly updated web journal with a huge following.
Sarah Mlynowski Bras & Broomsticks author updates every now and then with photos, publishing news and other fun stuff.
Scott Westerfeld The man wrote Peeps, Midnighters, Pretties, and other stuff. His blog gets a million comments and it's always thought-provoking.
Suzanne Young Author of The Naughty List and So Many Boys.
Tanya Lee Stone Stone wrote A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl and lots of other books, too.
Tracy Lynn, also known as Celia Thompson Lynn (author of Snow), aka Thompson (author of the Chloe King series), aka Liz Braswell, blogs about gaming, her family, the writing process, and more.
Zoe Trope The author of Please Don't Kill The Freshman puts up pictures of her laundry and details her doctor's visits. Not for the faint of heart.
