I am now doing a weekly writing residency at the local grade school with the Grade 6/7 class. At the end of every class, I give them a writing prompt and they can do it on their own time, or not. If they do participate, they get to share it at the beginning of the...

The blog Bookshop Talk very kindly had me over for an interview this week. And sometime in the next few weeks, I'll be interviewing Eileen Cook there too. Drop on by!

I haven't reviewed books on this site in quite a long time, and those of you who remember when I used to do them, they were usually more "lovefests" than reviews. And that's what you're going to get today. I just finished reading THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE by Jandy Nelson...

I'm very excited to share with you all a new piece I wrote for the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators 2010 bulletin - a new companion piece to Red Hair Is Not as Uncommon as You Think I've moved it to the top of my blog again because lately a lot of...

I really wanted to win this ARC of  DIVERGENT over at Janet Reid's blog, but I'm hopeless at the "use these five words in a one hundred word story" contests. Not to mention, I had to look up four of the five words to be sure I knew what they meant. So, in what can...

I'm over at The Novel Road today. Had lots of fun with that interview, so I hope you like it. Also, I'm posting a link to this teen reader's review of Restoring Harmony because...well...yeah, he loved it and so it makes me happy. I replaced the old blog tour links in...

For a while, you could find me feeling sorry for myself because my next book won't be out until 2012. But then I remembered that I have the best job in the world, I have one book out already, one that's almost done (the YA that comes out in 2012), something secret in...

Eileen Cook's wonderful husband, Bob, saves the day again. Not only does he keep my website running smoothly, just out of the goodness of his heart, but he provided me with this lovely audio file of my interview from the CBC. Hope you like it! And thanks, Bob! My...

Today I was a guest on Shelagh Rogers' fabulous show The Next Chapter on the CBC. It airs again on Saturday the 25th at 4pm, western time. Be careful though because this show is all about books and I bet you will end up with a bunch of stuff to add to your To Be Read...

Never fear, I am here to help you. Every year I do a list of my Fave 15 YAs and MG, but this year, because I was editing, and I find it hard to read within my genre when I edit, I read mostly adult stuff. So, instead of the traditional list, I thought I'd give you...

Remember the wonderful and talented Sarah Tradewell? You know her as the Canadian teen fiddler who stars in the Restoring Harmony book trailer and wrote the tune Brianna's Reel to go with the book. But not only is she an ace fiddler, she also plays classical viola....

As many of you know, I'm spending most of my waking hours editing, editing, and more editing my second novel, THE RIGHT & THE REAL. Yesterday, I finished the first slog through with my editor's fantastic notes. I still have a lot of polishing and probably some...

And the best part is, I don't have to leave the house. Which is doubly good because I really, really, really need to stay after those edits. To celebrate Restoring Harmony being out for 6 months (yes, 6 months already!), Kelsey over at The Teen Book Scene has...

This post was originally on The Debutante Ball last year. Every time someone asks me about the treadmill desk, I have to go search for that post to give them the link. I finally got the bright idea of putting it on my own site. Old, slow Joe.... About a 2 years ago,...

Have you ever been reading along in a book and read something that you think the author wrote specifically for you? Well, I just did, and I'm going to share it with you. But first, let me tell you about this book All Roads Lead Me Back to You by Kennedy Foster. I'm...

I just wanted to pop in to let you all know that to celebrate Restoring Harmony being out for six months (how can that be? Time does fly!), I am going on a blog tour. Later this month I will be hosted by a bunch of great bloggers and as we get closer to the dates,...

I live on an island that boasts a world famous wooden boat building school. A few weeks ago, they offered a two day workshop called Woodworking for Women. I was all about that. Power tools! Yay. Seriously, I have a degree in theatre, so I'm somewhat familiar with the...

As you check out the list of finalists for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, I hope you will remember that you heard about my friend Kathryn Erskine's wonderful book MOCKINGBIRD first here! Well, maybe you didn't hear about it first here, but I...