Susane Colasanti's Blog, page 71

These three darkest months of the year are hard times for me. I miss the sunlight. I'm not a fan of sunset being at 4:35. So I'm looking for light within the darkness. Some of you mentioned tricks you use to get happy on my Facebook, like music and cake and friends. All of these are good. There's much to be said for indoor entertainment.

Like how in recent Netflix adventures I've been watching last season of Private Practice. I never hear people talking about this show so I don't know h...

Recently, I posted my new paperback cover designs. Now I can share the spine art with you, which I'm really excited about. By the time Something Like Fate is released on May 18, all four of my books will have a matching look on the shelves. Each spine has pretty watercolor stripes that reflect the color scheme of the covers:



The new editions of When It Happens and Take Me There should be out around March. I can't wait to see them in bookstores!

Some shout-outs are in order. Let's get to it.

Shout-out to the Manhattan Village Academy Book Club! These kids are amazing. I visited them on Monday as part of the Adopt-A-School program. Lots of positive energy and thoughtful questions were in the house. Thanks to Ms. Daehler and everyone for making me feel so welcome.

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One friendly neighbor from the book club had this photo of a squirrel snarfing down a McFlurry on her Facebook page, so of course I had to swipe it.

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Shout-out to Jona...

Forty years ago today, the first episode of Sesame Street was born. It was sponsored by the letters W, S and E and the numbers 2 and 3. Since that day, the show has done a brilliant job of evolving with the times. It is still relevant. It is still teaching in a way that speaks to us. And it is still freaking awesome.

I've posted some clips of the Yip-Yip Aliens already, so here's one with Kermit, Cookie, and the Mystery Box. I love that Cookie has recently explained how cookies are "some...

Last week kind of sucked. On Monday and Tuesday, I felt like I was coming down with a cold, but it didn't really materialize into anything serious. Then on Wednesday it was like, Wham! What I thought was a cold revealed itself to be a nasty stomach virus. Not cool. It was disgusting. Fortunately, it was not as disgusting as that crazy food poisoning thing a bunch of us had a while back. Which was caused by E. coli from tomato plants, by the way. Judy Blume had it. She posted a photo ...

In a negative situation, I always try to find something positive. Something positive about not having dental insurance is that I can go to any dentist I want. True, I might have to take out a small loan to pay for my visits. But I have finally found an Awesome Dentist! I always hoped that the Awesome Dentist existed, despite worrying that he was merely a mythical entity, rather like unicorns or zero-calorie cupcakes that taste like real cupcakes and not some sugar-free, low-fat variety wh...

Spotted: One rad poster.

I don't know where this is or where it came from. All I know is that it's freaking awesome:



Sources say it may be located in Germany. Jack Bauer is on a mission to identify its coordinates.

Over.

Over the weekend, I finished the first draft of book five. My goal was to finish this draft by the end of October. For a while there, I wasn't sure I'd make it. But when failure is not an option, magic happens. There's still a ton of work to do. My first drafts are never pretty. I have to do a second draft and then a third before I can submit the manuscript to my editors. Hopefully, I'm in for a fun ride.

Then there was the big Village Halloween Parade. Even though it passes by right ar...

1. Yay for Laurie Halse Anderson! She rocked the house yesterday on Penguin's Point of View website. Her reading/Q&A event streamed live for all to see. You could even submit questions online. I was stoked when my question was selected! I asked, "What's the one thing you hope that your books can do most for teens?" And guess what? Laurie and I have the same exact answer! Which is to help teens feel less alone. I was a bit verklempt to be connecting with one of my role models in this...

Guess who's getting braces?

That would be me.

I probably should have gotten braces, like, 20 years ago. As a neglected teen, I usually didn't have even the basic things I needed, much less some expensive braces. My Gram did intervene in her classic superhero ways and managed to set me up with a retainer. But the retainer hurt. It kept scraping my gums. It was anchored around my bottom wisdom teeth, which hurt all the time. And I kept throwing it out with my lunch. So now I need to fix th...