ASK MY SISTER--(mostly) good advice for those who dare

I just posted my latest ASK MY SISTER entry on my website blog. ASK MY SISTER features advice from the zany Roz and her more sane sister, Eva. Check it out. laurenbjorkman.wordpress.com/

The letter was provided by Book Butterfly. Visit her charming blog. She did an awesome review of My Invented Life. butterflybookreviews.blogspot.com/2009/09/book-review-my-invented-life-by-lauren_19.html

If you want advice on life, love, or theater pranks, ASK MY SISTER is where it's at. Please email letters to lauren@laurenbjorkman.com

The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z

Kate Messner, the author of the poignant and thoroughly middle grade novel THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z has written to Ask My Sister on behalf of her adorable protagonist. Read on for a fun letter some most excellent advice.

Dear Eva,

I am locked up here in my bedroom because I only have a few days left to finish this ginormous leaf collection project. It's REQUIRED for 7th grade science, and if I don't pass it, I can't run at cross country sectionals and Bianca gets to go instead. (I know you don't know Bianca, but trust me, she does not belong there and is a pretty awful human being, too.)

The thing is...I sort of left this to the last minute, and things keep going wrong, and my Nonna's acting all weird and confused on top of everything else. Any tips for how I can get it done? Or do you maybe have one from when YOU were in 7th grade that I could borrow or something?

Desperately yours,

Gianna Z

P.S. There's also this guy...are you good with advice about guys? I'm not even sure I like him yet. I mean, LIKE him, like him, know what I mean? But I'm wondering how I should act around him since we've been friends forever and now I kind of like him. Well, I don't really LIKE him like that, but I might sort of like him. Oh nevermind...here comes my mom. I have to pretend I'm identifying leaves.

Dear Gianna,

Are you sure you didn’t mean to write Roz? She seems more like your type—scattered, disorganized, and ….a little boy crazy.

Scratch that. You sound adorable in a scattered, disorganized, not very boy crazy kind of way. What you need is a big sister to help straighten things out.

First of all never think about boys when you’re trying to identify leaves because you might incorrectly identify one as a Bryanus cutetushicus because your mind is on him and not on your work.

Do some stretches and crunches to help focus. Then set an alarm for a full hour from now. No daydreaming until it goes off. Make yourself some tea (more leaves) and get to work.

If that doesn’t work, give me your phone number, and I’ll call you every fifteen minutes to make sure you stay on track. Don’t give that awful Bianca (I know who she is) a chance for your spot on the team.

The boy problem is so much harder. If he likes you back, he’ll start acting funny, too. Then you’ll know, at least. Shakespeare said, “The course of true love never did run smoothe.”

Best of luck!

Eva

P.S. I’m so sorry to hear about your grandma.

About The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z
Gianna Zales has a lot on her plate this fall – a father who drives her to school in the family hearse, a mother who’s turned into the junk food police, a little brother who thinks he’s a member of the paparazzi, and a grandmother who leaves false teeth in the refrigerator. Worst of all, she’s left her 7th grade leaf collection to do at the last minute. It’s a monster project, and Gianna will miss cross-country sectionals if she doesn’t meet the deadline. She’ll need the help of her geeky friend, Zig, and some brilliant ideas of her own to pull it off.

About Kate Messner
Kate Messner grew up in Medina, New York and graduated from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Communication with a degree in Broadcast Journalism. She worked as a television news producer and reporter in Syracuse, NY and then Burlington, VT, before going back to school to get a teaching degree. These days, Kate is a National Board Certified middle school English teacher. She has helped hundreds of kids work on leaf collection projects and likes sugar maples and catalpa leaves the best. Kate lives on Lake Champlain with her husband and kids and loves spending time in the woods.

To learn more about Kate and her book, visit her website: http://katemessner.com/

Or buy her book:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Brilliant-Fall-Gianna-Z/dp/080279842X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251760751&sr=1-1
Indiebound: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780802798428

My author copies are here!

My books are here! And they are more lovely in person than I’d expected. I’m going to sign them and send them off to everyone I thanked in my acknowledgements. Yay!

HATE LIST by Jennifer Brown

Jennifer Brown is the author of HATE LIST, a YA novel coming out in September 2009. As a two-time winner of The Erma Bombeck Global Humor award and weekly columnist for The Kansas City Star, as well as Saturday Featured Blogger for Mom2MomKC.com, Jennifer spends a lot of time dressing up her dog for laughs and thinking of new ways to works words such as "Puh-lease" and "Ch-yeah!" into sentences. Jennifer grew up in the Kansas City, Missouri area, where she still lives with her husband, three kids, and whole herd of uncooperative pets.

Instead of an interview with Jennifer, I'm posting a letter from Jessica (main character in Hate List) to my teen advice column for the daring.

Dear Eva,
There's this girl, Valerie, at my school. We've always been enemies, but... well, something really awful happened at our school... and she sort of saved my life that day.

The problem is, I never liked Valerie before. We never got along. And now I kind of owe her. Plus, I have a feeling she's not as bad as everyone thinks she is. I've changed a lot since that day, and I think maybe she has, too.

Everyone pretty much hates Valerie now, and she knows it. She hangs around like a ghost at school, all by herself, never talking to anyone. I can tell she's really lonely and sad.

I think maybe we could be friends, if she'd just let me in. I'm trying to get through to her, but I'm having a really hard time getting her to trust me. How do I get her to see that I'm not out to hurt her? Should I just leave her alone?

Jessica

Dear Jessica,
Trust is a hard thing to give. I know because I totally didn’t trust my sister, Roz, until recently. She didn’t deserve it. She chased after every boy I ever broke up with. Plus she had/has a serious blabbing problem.

It sounds like Valerie could use a friend right now. Sometimes the best way to earn someone’s trust is to show that you’ve changed. That’s what Roz did. Actions speak louder than a whole bunch of hot air, if you know what I mean :D.

There are risks of reaching out to her, of course. Fwooosh! Yes, that’s the sound of your rep going down the toilet. But you said you owed her. The course of true friendship never did run smooth. *

Best of luck!

Eva

*Apologies to Shakespeare (who's dead yanno)

About Hate List
Five months ago, Valerie Leftman’s boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saves the life of a classmate, but is implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things they hated. The list her boyfriend used to pick his targets.

Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year. Haunted by the memory of the boyfriend she still loves and navigating rocky relationships with her family, former friends and the girl whose life she saved, Val must come to grips with the tragedy that took place and her role in it, in order to make amends and move on with her life.

Find out more about Jennifer and Hate List at her website: http://www.jenniferbrownYA.com

Or buy her book:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Hate-List-Jennifer-Brown/dp/0316041440/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251761088&sr=1-1

Indiebound: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780316041447

Website at last!

Creating a website turned out to be harder than I imagined. It doesn't help that I'm a cyber-doofus, with only the slimmest grasp of html. And it took me four months of hair-pulling type frustration before I involved a professional in the project.

But now (drum roll).........




Check it out. www.laurenbjorkman.com

Debness Giveaway

This is a monthly contest you don't want to miss--a bag of goodies from the 2009 Debutantes. There's something in the bag from me, too!

Go here to enter.

New literary agency

Recently, I featured Chris Richman of Firebrand as a talented new agent looking for your novel.

Today I saw a notice that Chris has left Firebrand and teamed up with Michael Stearns and another agent to form a new agency, Upstart Crow Literacy. Michael Stearns has worked in many capacities. I had a consultation with him ten years ago at a conference in Honolulu. He was an editor at Harcourt at the time. He impressed me with his editorial insights.

Here's a message from Michael Stearns:

The first week of August marks the debut of a new agency, Upstart Crow Literary. Joining me will be Chris Richman
and Danielle Chiotti, both of whom cut their teeth as agents at Firebrand. Chris and Danielle possess that mix of literary
savvy, good taste, and dedication to their authors and books that marks them as either potentially crazy or simply
crazily dedicated. I feel fortunate to embark on this new venture with the two of them, as well as with our talented list of authors, all of whom will be following us to our new home. These days you can find me at michael@upstartcrowliterary.com, or a michael@tinderbox-books.com.

We'll be making our first Upstart Crow submissions next week, and when the site goes live the week after that, I hope you'll stop by and take a look at what we've got in the works. And we all look forward to working with you from our new perch here at Upstart Crow.

Michael Stearns
Upstart Crow Literary, LLC
718-360-8809
michael@upstartcrowliterary.com
www.upstartcrowliterary.com

Go check out their site, and then polish up that manuscript.