I'm excited to say I'll be at the 2nd Annual Chicago Young Adult Festival with some fun folks I can't wait to meet. I'll be on the following panels:

Sex in YA Literature at 11:10am
Moderator:  Susane Colasanti
Panelists:  Christa Desir, Stephanie Strohm, 
Rachel Wilson, Emery Lord

Trials and Tribulations of a First Time Author at 12pm
Moderator:  Pete Kujawinski
Panelists:  Melissa Gorzelancyk, Rachel Wilson,
Brittany Cavallaro, Michelle Falkoff, Kim Savage


Saturday, April 23, 2016
2nd Annual Chicago Young Adult Festival
Panels at Everybody's Coffee
10am-5pm
935 W. Wilson Ave.
Chicago, IL

Reception at The Book Cellar
5-6:30pm
4736-38 N. Lincoln Ave.
Chicago, IL

#ChiYAFEST2016!!!

For those of you in Chicago, my theater company Barrel of Monkeys--an arts organization that teaches writing workshops in Chicago Public Schools and adapts the students' stories for the stage, thus saving the world--is having our annual company fundraiser September 17th. It's truly a fun time like no other and for a great cause. 

To buy tickets, go here and tell them I sentcha. As an added bonus if you follow that link, you get to see Nick Hart and Zoe Schwartz singing Taylor Swift's "Mean" as Batman and Catwoman, so ...

Here you can see me and Mrs. Rawson from the classic "How to Get to School in a Fast, Safe Way." Mrs. Rawson has a lot to say about Monkey-O-Kee.

If you're in the mood to see a show, please check out all the info on the Monkeys' Summer Tour! You will like it!

Beach bumming with my sis (@shyviolence). I could live here. 

Pictured here clockwise are myself, Meredith Ibey-Milliron as Elaine May, Roger Payton as Andrew Duncan, Chris Rathjen as David Shepherd, Sean Kelley as Roger Bowen, Paul Durica as Fred Wranovic, Joseph Schupbach as himself, and in the middle, Nick Wagner rocking out as Severn Darden. 

I enjoy nothing more than recreations and excuses to make hair art, so thanks, friends!

As I expected, the campers were fantastic. What's not to love about preteens who choose to spend summer at a literature camp talking about YA books? We did some writing exercises, and the author potential ... Let's just say I should have been collecting autographs. 

While I do love talking to young people, like most writers I'm a bit of an introvert, and it takes a lot of energy. So I made sure to refuel immediately. 

My friend Zoe Schwartz invited me to present at Camp CEO, a program for Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and NW Indiana. This amazing sign greeted me at the lodge where I'd be speaking. As a kid, I participated in Brownies, but my troupe broke apart before we had the chance to cross that bridge to become Girl Scouts, so I jumped at the chance to pretend for a day! 

Each of the girls was assigned a female CEO as a mentor for the week, and they received talks on all aspects of career goals and development. We enjoyed some writing exercises and a great talk about publishing. 

After the talk, I took a stroll down to the lake to soak up some atmosphere because I just so happen to be writing scenes set at a summer camp at the moment. 

These posters were designed (aka defiled) and posted by Kassi Bleifuss on her Instagram (@kbleifuss). InGen Productions is almost ready to scare your pants off at DIE YOUNG, June 25-28th at The Charnel House.

Please enjoy this pic of blood guy, Adam McAleavy, and violence guy, Scott Wagner, doing a blood test. YESSSSSSSSSS.

I got in Thursday night, just in time for a reception in honor of opening speaker B.J. Novak. I took no good pictures, but the official festival page has some great ones. I did take some good writing advice. Novak says, "Write for the kid sitting next to you," meaning, write what's going to be fun for the kid who sits next to you in class to read. 

Friday, I teamed up with Maurene Goo, author of Since You Asked ... for a visit to the Nevada dessert and Indian Springs School. We were apparently very close to AREA 51! Probably we've been replaced by aliens!

We were given amazing armchairs to sit in for our presentation . . .

Maurene and I were both really enamored of the school mascot, the Thunderbirds! 

Friday night, we had a YA author hangout at the pool at the Golden Nugget, where there is a literal shark tank. Luckily YA authors are way nicer than sharks, and I got to meet many of my fellow 2014 debuting authors face to face for the first time. 

On Saturday, the Festival proper took place with author panels and signings all day. I was on the "More Than a Love Story" panel with Kelly Fiore, Carrie Mesrobian, Lisa Schroeder, Angie Stanton, and Sarah Tregay.

Then we had a signing in the bright, bright sun. 

This pic was taken by Stacee, aka @book_junkee, who wrote a great roundup of the festival. The day ended with a great talk from Aimee Bender and an actual rainbow at the historic 5th Street School. 

I did not gamble, but I did walk all over Vegas taking in the craziness of Fremont Street and the Strip, and checking out the interiors of the Bellagio, Caesar's Palace, The Paris, The Venetian ... basically all the Europey ones. 

Want to get authors into your schools? SCBWI-IL has a lot of great advice. 

Illinois is a talented state. Among the books displayed, I spied Sarah Aronson's BELIEVE and BEYOND LUCKY, Carol Brendler's RADIO GIRL, M. Molly Backes's THE PRINCESSES OF IOWA, and so many more! 

Join me and four more amazing debut authors tomorrow on this live online author interview show with Jessica Porter of Crossroads Reviews. 

The Google Hangout goes live at 4pm EST/3pm CT tomorrow, November 8th!