Radio Interview, Top 100 YA Novels, and other interesting links

Hello all, I am back from Madison, Wisconsin and in a mad dash to get some writing done before I leave on my Seattle trip on April 1, so the blogs may be brief until then but for good reason.

Still some interesting things to share. Before I left to Madison, I wrote a blog entry at MTV Books about my experience living in Madison. I graduated high school early and moved there with a friend when I was seventeen. It was an experience that really shaped who I would become and how I would get lost along the way before becoming the writer that you know now through this blog. So please check it out here!

Also a Madison radio station 92.1 did a great interview with me. Stu Levitan who interviewed me probably did the most research about me and my books than anyone who has ever interviewed me so the result were some seriously interesting and different that the usual questions. You can listen to part one of the interview here, part two is here. And Stu also interviewed me when I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE came out so you can listen to part one and part two of that too if you want. If for some reason these links prove problematic the whole list of them is here and you can actually download them as podcasts.

Speaking of interviews, I cannot recall if I blogged about this one, but it was an interesting one too. I did an interview here about my Chicago connections, why I write about Chicago, etc. and I talk about the earliest work of fiction I ever wrote.

Here is something all YA fans should be interested in. Adele Walsh AKA Persnickety Snark is doing a poll of the 100 Best YA books. Her explanation of the project is here and you can vote for your favorites here. I'm not posting this to tell you to vote for my books as I kind of doubt they would wind up on there (though if they are in your top ten best list that really really means the world to me), but because I think it is a very cool project and intend to get around to voting myself as soon as I have time and have thoroughly thought my choices through (you write in your top ten, in order) since you have until April 30 to vote. Please tell me about some of your choices. It will add to my to-be-read list!!!

Oh and if you want a chance to win Ballads and some other great books that you might like to vote for on that list, Kate C of Read That Book! is running a contest for it that you can enter here until April 20.

Last but not least, are you in Chicago and would you like to take a writing class with me??? Well, there are two opportunities. One, if you are attending Columbia College Chicago next fall, I'm on the docket to teach Fiction 1, so you can have a whole semester of me. But if you don't attend Columbia or aren't prepared for that (I'm not sure I am either!), I am teaching a one-off class on Tuesday Maay 18 at Story Studio Chicago about character development. I did this in the fall/winter and I *loved* the environment at Story Studio and I'm feeling confident about the course since I already taught it once ;) You can read all about it and sign up here.

Okay that is all the excitement I have to share for now. I need to get to this morning's writing (yes nearly noon = morning for me)! But tomorrow I will be over at the Teen Fiction Cafe talking more about my Seattle trip!