June 18th, 2007

Thanks to all of you who emailed me re: the notebooks.

Because of your enthusiastic response (and the fact that I’m running out of entries from my youthful diaries worth posting) the (retro)blog will soon be changing over to an all new/old Pages-From-My-Writing Notebooks format, starting with pages from the notebooks I kept while writing, re-writing and revising Sloppy Firsts. How soon? Just as soon as The World’s Best Webmaster and I set it all up.

This weekend I met with authors Eireann Corrigan, Robin Friedman, Thu-Huong Ha, Robert Krech, Wendy Mass, and Kieran (Scott) Viola to discuss the formation of an online and real community of New Jersey writers for teens. This as-of-yet-unnamed group (the best I could come up with NJYA! which, when shouted, sounds just like “NINJA!” It delighted my son but is truly awful name for a group unless you’ve all got mad butterfly knife-throwing skills.) aims to connect Garden State-based children’s, middle grade and teen writers for social and professional networking purposes. Beyond that, my goal is to develop a traveling reading series for New Jersey libraries, and other age-appropriate programming for public and private schools throughout the state.

So.

Are you a published (or soon-to-be) NJ author for children, middle grade or teens? Are you interested in joining us? Email me.

Are you a librarian or educator? Are you interested in having one or more authors appear at your school or library? Email me.