ooh, my big old head is on galley cat talking about teen read week and the 31 FLavorites thing at Readergirlz on myspace

A translator working on The Boy Book recently emailed me to ask:
What are fruit roll-ups and and what do they have to do with boobs?

:)

This goes out to my favorite penguin appreciator. She knows who she is.

It's almost October so I'm reminding you guys about the 31 Flavorite Teen Author chats at Readergirlz, happening ALL THE MONTH OF OCTOBER, every night, someone new. Chat yourself silly!
(Librarians and teachers! Get the word out to teens in your libraries!)

Here's what I have to say: Meg Cabot. Chris Crutcher. Stephenie Meyer. Holly Black. Ann Brashares.

Oh, and um. Me.
I'll be chatting on October 24th at the readergirlz group forum about Dramarama, The Boyfriend List, whatever else you care to ask me. Everything is at 8PM eastern -- except me. I am at 8:30 eastern. Just 'cause I like to shake stuff up that way :)

It's all on MySpace. Just friend ReaderGirlz and their group forum (you have to do both) -- and then every SINGLE NIGHT IN OCTOBER, you can chat with a different teen author. It's a celebration of
YALSA's Teen Read Week.

Here are the dates for the first week, everything at 8 PM Eastern, 5 pm Pacific.

Week One
October 1. Meg Cabot
2. Tiffany Trent
3. Brent Hartinger
4. Lorie Ann Grover
5. K.L. Going
6. Nikki Grimes

It is GLBT month at YA Books Central. There are 5 different contests with awesome book prizes. Librarians, tell your teens!

On the YA Books Central blog, there are features and reviews and all kinds of stuff. Sadly, also, there has been some nasty feedback from TEACHERS of all people, and a very intelligent and evenhanded response is posted on the blog, plus a link to the posts.

If you're new to this blog or have only read my Ruby Oliver books, read Dramarama or FLy on the Wall to understand why this issue is important to me.

Dress a Day, once again with the wisdom and a gorgeous dress, too. She writes:

"There is more to life than the bogus imperative to minimize your apparent body weight at all times. Just for a minute, put down that burden, okay? Think about how that gorgeous fabric would FEEL. Think about how it would SOUND. Think about how you would MOVE in it, where you would GO in it, what you would put in the POCKETS, even, and not on some imagined optical illusion of a few more inches here or there. Now imagine feeling like that all the time -- imagine the question "Does this make me look fat?" didn't exist."

If you love clothes and you love the way your body is, just the way it is, check out Dress a Day.

Ellen Wittlinger's novel Sandpiper is under attack in Alabama. Read the story here.

Bev Katz Rosenbaum is on the GCC with me and she's written two books about Floe Ryan -- who was frozen for ten years. Crazy, but true. She was vitrified at sixteen because of a rare disease. Now she’s been thawed back to her normal self, but absolutely everything else has changed. The first book is I WAS A TEENAGE POPSICLE, and the second is BEYOND COOL, just out -- and Floe has boyfriend trouble, immune system trouble, and a search for a missing doctor on her hands. Plus she's driving a hovercar. Buy it here from Flying Pig, one of my favorite indie bookshops.

Her group blog is here, Teen Fiction Cafe, and her myspace blog here. And she is a Dramarama woman, I tell you. Check out the lyric she quotes about acting class. Plus she loves Idina (we ALL love Idina, don't we?) and she knows the Drowsy Chaperone dude!

THE DRAMARAMA MUSICAL THEATER INTERVIEW with Bev Katz Rosenbaum

1. You were in a play in high school, weren't you? Tell me all about it.

Was I in a play? WAS I IN A PLAY? I was the star of Sir Sandford Fleming Secondary School, baby. The only problem was that we were a tiny, completely inconsequential school that only ever performed obscure, artsy, non-musical plays, like The Royal Hunt of the Sun (in which I was the elderly, male narrator...sigh). So of course, when, in my graduating year, we finally persuaded the Theatre Arts teacher to do Guys and Dolls and I won the role of Adelaide, the teachers promptly went on a lengthy work-to-rule (no extra-curricular activities) campaign. Yes, I'm still bitter. (As anyone can tell from my YA novels.)

2. Give me a song lyric that makes you laugh. Preferably from a show.

And everybody's goin' "Whooosh, whooosh...
I feel the snow...I feel the cold...I feel the air."
And Mr. Karp turns to me and he says,
"Okay, Morales. What did you feel?"

And I said..."Nothing.
I'm feeling nothing."
And he says "Nothing
Could get a girl transferred."

They all felt something.
But I felt nothing
Except the feeling
That this bullshit was absurd!

-From "Nothing", A Chorus Line

3. If you've seen a show on Broadway, what was your first one? Whom did you go with, who was the star, what did you think of it?

I'm going to cheat a bit and talk about the touring version of A Chorus Line that came to Toronto when I was in seventh grade. I and two of my friends saved up our money for weeks for tickets, dressed up, went downtown together alone for the first time, had a fancy dinner...the whole bit. It was magical. I'd never been to a big live musical before and I was an aspiring actress/dancer, so it was the perfect show to see. Can't remember who starred in that production, but I do remember the whole cast was fabulous. It's still one of my favorite shows. (See above lyric.)

4. What's your showbiz fantasy?

To write a broadway show and have the directors pressure me to star in it. Recently I have become even more dangerously delusional, as a guy who went to my high school (Bob Martin) penned A Drowsy Chaperone and won a gazillion Tonys for it--including one for Best Actor!

5. Which Broadway diva are you, deep inside? And why?

Idina Menzel. Loved her in Wicked (as a former high school nerd, I could relate), and also love that she sings jazz, which I love to do, too (but only in the shower, these days).

6. Write me a nice little song lyric for the book you're promoting right now. Please.

Ha! Okay, to the tune of "Happiness", from You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (please excuse the messed up meter):

Happiness
Is a purple hovercar
A yellow unitard
Learning to fly
Happiness
Is a robotic Swiffer
A virtual dinner
Learning to hoverdrive
For the very first time
Happiness is watching a smashball game
In your own school yard
And happiness is
Not smashing your hovercar...

Maureen Johnson tells all about the dance video, although the fate of Westerfeld's footage remains unclear.

Why am I happy?
I have got hold of
Startled by his Furry Shorts
and
Love is a Many Trousered Thing
both by Louise Rennison, books 7 and 8 in the series.

So I have a fun day or two ahead of me.
(What? You say I am supposed to be writing the third Ruby Oliver novel and not making dance videos and reading and whatever else? La la al al alalllallallalallallla I can't hear you!)