2 short things, from the department of self-aggrandizement:

1. The Boyfriend List just got nominated for the Georgia Peach Book Award, together with a list of awesome titles, including books by my pals Cecil Castelluci and Scott Westerfeld. Yay.

2. Booklist has the first official review of How to Be Bad: "The authors' styles blend seamlessly, folding three characters' distinct voices into a funny, poignant story about facing your troubles with friends at your side."

Paula Chase, on the GCC with me, wrote So Not the Drama and now the sequel, Don't Get it Twisted, both novels about the Del Rio Bay clique.

In this one, Mina is scheming to go on a date with her crush, Craig, to a coveted party thrown by the school’s football team. As she draws her friends into the plans, a newcomer throws an unexpected monkey wrench into her blossoming relationship with Craig, and has JZ sweating his spot on the Varsity basketball team. Soon, both Mina and JZ are on the road to trouble....

Chase blogs here, and you can buy Don't Get it Twisted here from Powells.

Below, Paula tells me her disreputable history -- and wow. She is a prankster! And a sneakilicious person! Plus, she wants women to take over all the major companies, but doesn't consider herself a feminist, exactly.* And she loves Pee Wee's Playhouse!

Tell Me Your Disreputable History
In my new book, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, the heroine infiltrates an all-male secret society and stages ornate and controversial pranks on the campus of her boarding school.

1. Tell me the sneakiest thing you ever did.
My freshman year of college, my friend, Marci and I were about the only two who didn't go home during Easter Break. Big mistake. Campus was dead quiet and we were majorly bored. I'd called my parents to complain about the loneliness and they were all like - Well stick it out, you decided you didn't want to come home so...

On a whim, Marci and I decide to road trip home anyway (my home, two hours away). But we weren't trying to go home and have parental rules ruining the weekend. So we call my boyfriend and end up staying the weekend with him at another of my friend’s house, working to stay well-hidden so as not to bump into my parents. Well lo and behold, we get back to school, Sunday night, and my parents have left a message on my answering machine. Feeling guilty they'd decided to come down to the school and visit so I wouldn't be alone on Easter. Gah! Their message was like, Where are you? We stopped by your room and no one is there. I ended up calling and lying, saying we'd gone to Marci's house for Easter.

I didn't tell them until five years later that I'd been home all along.


2. Tell me the sneakiest thing that happens in your new book.
JZ, in a desperate attempt to keep his grades up so he doesn't get kicked off the basketball team, cheats on a test. Worse, he cheats off one of his good friends and it causes tension in the friend circle, plus actually ends up putting his spot on the basketball team at more risk.

3. Are you a prankster? Tell me a story.
Definitely. I come from a long line of pranksters, actually. My aunts used to always prank me and my cousins. So we learned at an early age to roll with it and prank back.

Once, when I was about nine years old, myself and three of my cousins stayed at our aunt's house for the weekend. My uncle worked at night, so it was just her and us five girls. She goes to take a shower and don't ask me why, but we concoct this story about this woman calling our uncle to set up some sort of rendez vous. I mean, this is way scandalous coming from a bunch of nine and ten year olds. We even got our youngest cousin - my aunt's daughter - who had to be only four or five at the time, in on it. We got her to go along and say the phone had rang and it was a woman asking for our uncle, etc..

My aunt went off. She was all ready to let my uncle have it when he came home. She was on the war path wanting to know who this woman was, why she was calling the house, how she'd gotten their number, what was going on?! We had a good laugh about her ranting then told her it was all a joke. She was pissed. But like I said - we come from a long line of pranksters, so she couldn't be too mad. I mean, we got it honestly. So we go to bed, thinking - yeah we got her good and woke up the next morning, each and every one of us, with an earful of lotion! She had the last laugh.

Yes, my family is very odd.

4. Were you in any clubs or societies in high school? Did any of those club activities make it into your novels?
Nope. I ran track, was a cheerleader and wrote for my school newspaper...which, ummm actually did make it into my novels.

5. Do you consider yourself a feminist? Why, or why not?
Hmm...wow, good question that I don't exactly know the answer to. My gut answer is no, I don't. But only because the term feels very extreme to me. I have visions of women with unshaved legs and armpits burning bras. When the reality is, I'm very very much about equality, to the point where I may sometimes male bash...just a little.

I come from a family of strong women. I've always been of the mind that women are actually the stronger sex, in fact. So in that regard, I guess I am.

6. How does your answer to question 5 show up in your new book?
My female characters are very much about independence and strength. Even through their weaknesses and doubts, in the end my female characters are always resilient and prone to finding a way out of no way.

7. The club in my book is called The Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds. If you were to found a secret society, what would it be called, and what would its mission be?
We'd be The Mecca-lecca-hi-mecca-highney-ho's. Remember that little saying from Pee Wee’s Playhouse? Our mission would be to infiltrate every single major corporation and organizational structure until women were the top dogs and running the economic behemoths that oil the wheels of our country. We'd make sure the men ended up running the non-profits of the world - let them deal with our social ills and nurture Mother Earth for awhile.

*Ahem. Paula! I think you are! We do too shave our legs! :)

Improve literature by adding zombies to it in Maureen Johnson's contest! Be judged by so-called celebrity judges me, John Green, Justine Larbalestier and Meg Cabot. (Meg is probably actually a celebrity) Win Suite Scarlett before it publishes.
First round deadline Feb 14. But other deadlines later so you still have time.

(Even if you're not entering, go read the contest rules because MJ's bios of the judges are so amusing.)

Read what Justine wrote, an improvement on Joyce.

Via Maryrose Wood, who has a memoir in the book Not Quite What I Was Planning, this is the best book trailer I've seen. Writers famous and un -- write their memoirs in 6 words only.

My own 6-word memoir, off the top of my head:
Being oversensitive? Turns out it pays.

What is yours? comments open.

Via Slayground, whose post links to her excellent booklist on the topic: The National Eating Disorder Association has named February as National Eating Disorder Awareness Month.

I wanted to post about it because
A. So many teens struggle with eating disorders and
B. Quite a number of people I love have been hurt by them, and some of them continue to be hurt. And it is truly heartbreaking to me.

In the United States, as many as 10 million females and 1 million males are fighting a life and death battle with an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia. Approximately 25 million more are struggling with binge eating disorder (NEDA, 2005). This is a disorder with life and death consequences.

Below are some of the symptoms of Eating Disorders identified by the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-IV-TR):
A person who refuses to maintain body weight that is at or above the normal weight for the age and height of the individual. This would be measured by weight loss leading to the maintenance of body weight less than 85% of the expected weight gain during the period of growth.
The person shows an intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, even if the person is under weight.
The person has a distorted outlook on their body image.

If you recognize these symptoms in yourself or someone you love, please, acknowledge them, confide in someone, and start striving for your best self and your best health. There are many people out there who will help you. If you are a teenager, please tell your parents or other adults that you trust. No matter where you are or how old you are, you may call the NEDA Toll-Free Information and Referral Helpline: (800) 931-2237

It's been a long time since I gave you a meaningless quiz!

You made it through the flick, but, um, it's not a pretty picture. You're the bloody heap in the corner who everyone thought was dead until you stumble into the hero's arms after the bad guy bites it (think Jamie Kennedy in Scream). You are a smart and fiesty person, but you're also a little reckless and you tend to put yourself in awkward positions -without a good weapon. But even though you get sliced up a bit, you get to survive and that's all that matters. Who needs all those toes, ears, and arms you'll be missing by the end of the flick anyway?
Would you survive a horror movie? Find out @ She's Crafty

When it's your chance, VOTE.
So many of us did not even have the right to vote for long periods in this country's history. Stand up and be heard, whatever your viewpoint.

Here, the Barack Obama music video.

Short list of semi-random things:

I voted today. Also scored brownies at the voting booth bake sale.

Also got my hands on The Sweet Far Thing by Ms. Libba Bray who is reading on Feb 12 at the Union Square B&N here in New York at 7 pm!
Why, oh local indie bookstore, did I have to ask for this NY Times bestseller from a BROOKLYN AUTHOR and have you dig the only copy from the back of some high shelf?
I want to love you, little store! But you make it hard sometimes!

Here's a nice link to Maureen Johnson on the subject of chick lit.

And on the self-aggrandizement front, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks got its third starred review today, from Kirkus. I haven't read it yet, but a star is a star so I am chuffed.

In my new book, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, the heroine infiltrates an all-male secret society and stages ornate and controversial pranks on the campus of her boarding school. So I'm now asking my blog visitors to tell me their own disreputable histories!

First up is Karen Neches, and her new book is Earthly Pleasures. It's a love story about a woman who lives in a distinctly modern version of heaven as a greeter -- and falls for a guy who turns out to be only temporarily dead. When he revives, will she follow him to earth? Especially when he's got a wife?

"What a treat! Earthly Pleasures more than lives up to its name. I was glued to the pages of this delightful little gem of a novel, and wish it could have been twice as long!"
-- Megan Crane, author of Frenemies

1. Tell me the sneakiest thing you ever did.

I read my son’s journal. (God strike me down now.) P.S. There was nothing very juicy in it.

2. Tell me the sneakiest thing that happens in your new book.

My character, a greeter in Heaven, watches a mortal on Earth, take a shower via the TV station Earthly Pleasures.

3. Are you a prankster? Tell me a story.

When I was a kid I used to torment the dog with a mechanized toy Godzilla.

4. Were you in any clubs or societies in high school? Did any of those club activities make it into your novels?

I was nominated for Whose Who in American High School Students. My character Skye is nominated for Whose Who in the Hereafter.

5. Do you consider yourself a feminist? Why, or why not?

Yes. I’m really excited that we finally have a female who may actually win the presidency.

6. How does your answer to question 5 show up in your new book?

In EARTHLY PLEASURES God is female and acts a lot like Bette Midler.

7. The club in my book is called The Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds. If you were to found a secret society, what would it be called, and what would its mission be?

Middle-Aged Woman Aging Gracefully. Our mission would be to look our age and be damn happy about it.

The Kirkus list of Best YA books of 2007, a PDR file. Dramarama is in there, plus a lotta other stuff you know you want to read.