Dude, I am so remiss in the blog posting. I'm getting ready to leave for Paris—yes WHERE SHE WENT came out there this week. Yes, it's not fair. It's an incentive to learn French. I plan to blog from Paris with lots of pictures of pretty French things.

But in the mean time. An update. A buffet. A Saturday Six.

#1) The kitchen-sink apology excuse where have I been. Well, the reason I have not been blogging much is that I'm totally obsessed with my new novel and no, I'm not talking about it yet but not because I don't want to, not because I'm not dying to SHARE with you but because I'm superstitious and think I will curse it if I talk about it too much. I just sent the first 100 pages to my agent who will send it to my editor. So fingers crossed. I will say the new book is DIFFERENT. No guitar players. Four character POVs. Set very solidly in a high school.

#2) In addition to all that, I was traveling earlier in the week. I was at the awesome FAME conference in Florida for a few days where I met authors like Susan Kulkin (NO CHOIRBOY) and Christina Diaz Gonzalez (THE RED UMBRELLA) , who took this cute Twitpic of the two of us, which you can see here. Anyhow, between writing, traveling, child-rearing, housewifery and the various doctors and acupuncture appointments (yes, I'm STILL kind of sick), time has been short. Also, I've been sticking to my guns on the no Internet after school rule (though I'm breaking it right now, though it's Saturday so doesn't really count).

#3) My best friend in the universe, Marjorie Ingall, has her first review in the New York Times Book Review this week. This is exciting for several reasons: Marjorie is OBSESSED with children's books. As a reader, not so much as a writer so reviewing, which she does extensively on her blog and for her column in Tablet is a natural move for her. So, Times, YAY. Also, YAY for Times to have someone as smart and funny as Marjorie writing reviews. Also, one of the books in the review, Adam Gidwitz's A TALE DARK & GRIMM is my editor's book. Marjorie loved it. Actually, her daughter, who stole my ARC, loved it first. I loved it. The book is AWESOME.

#4) I am trying hard to tune out the election results. Americans, we are SHORTSIGHTED people with little understanding of economics. Look, a faltering economy is like a malnourished child with bronchitis. You treat the bronchitis but nobody's getting better while malnourished. Why people think the way to cure the economy is to take away stimulus money. Yes deficit is big and bad and scary. BUT THAT'S BECAUSE OF THE TWO WARS THAT WEREN'T ON THE BOOKS AND BECAUSE OF THE DEFICIT THE CURRENT PRESIDENT INHERITED AND BECAUSE WHEN THE ECONOMY SUCKS THE TAX REVENUE PLUMMETS. HEALTHY ECONOMY AND DEFICITS GO DOWN. I always think people will not repeat past mistakes. But we are Americans. We want quick fixes. Which never work. Okay, I stop now.

#5) Sarah Dessen has been Tweeting about Friday Night Lights, which again brings home the inequity of Those With DirecTV and Those Without. I don't even have cable so you know where I fall. I must wait until NEXT SPRING for my dose of Dillon. And on top of that, this is the last season. I sad. At least we still have Mad Men!

#6) Many people asking me many things about the If I Stay movie. I basically know what you know. Dakota is in talks to play Mia but nothing is finalized as far as I know. There is a new director named Heitor Dhalia who is from Brazil and who made this INCREDIBLE movie you can't get here called Adrift. I know lots of people are worried that Dakota has blonde hair and Mia is a brunette to which I say that if Dakota does wind up being Mia (and I think she'd knock it out of the park), to chillax: HAIR DYE!

#61/2 I have to give congratulations to two books that I love that just got big honors. Jandy Nelson's THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE was longlisted for the UK's Carnegie Medal and US the Association of Booksellers for Children named SKY one of their New Voice Picks for outstanding debuts in 2010! And John Green and David Levithan's WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON was Amazon.com's #1 Teen Book for 2010 and #12 pick overall! Double Yay!