Birthday Girl

Happy birthday to my daughter, Melissa.

To celebrate, I'm taking her to see the movie, Princess Diaries #2. When I was at Book Expo in June, I got to meet Meg Cabot and have her sign the latest Princess Diaries book. She wore a sparkling pink gown and glittering tiara.

Tonight we're all going out to dinner for Melissa's birthday. So I'm not writing much today.

Good and Bad List for Today

Good things that happened today:

* I wrote a new chapter on SEA SWITCH
* My writer friend Verla is visiting
* I'm reading a fun book, HATCHING MAGIC
* I got flyers for MISTLETOE MADNESS by Miriam Hees
in the mail -- I have a story called
STALKING SNOWMAN in this anthology.
More on this as: www.bloomingtreepress.com

Bad things that happened today:

* I ate too much chocolate
* I lost at Up & Down card Game ...
not that I care, but I needed
something else for this list.
* It was very hot -- almost 100 degrees...
which would have been good news if
I'd been near a lake or pool.
But I wasn't.

Good things that I'm looking forward to:

* I'll write more and finish SEA SWITCH.
* My best frriend's daughter Nicole is
going to have a baby girl anyday now.
* I can't wait to get copies of my next
book, DON'T DIE, DRAGONFLY in the mail.
* Getting fan letters for my two new series.

PROCRASTINATION

I've been up for two hours already and haven't written yet. Instead I've been procrastinating.

My hands-down obsessively favorite procrastination is...EMAIL! And I get a lot of email since I belong to a bunch of writing listservs. And I also post a lot on Verla Kay's bulletin board and hang out in her chatroom with other writers.

Procrastination should be a FOUR-LETTER word...instead it has so many letters than I can procrastinate just by writing "procrastinate" -- playing with the letters to make words like satin, stain and opera. Ah--a
new form of procrastination! Wonder how many words I can make....

Hey, I did do something constructive this morning. I mentally worked on my book while in the shower. I came up with an idea for a buck-tooth mermaid who has a pet sea dragon. I get lots of ideas while in the shower.

Well I should be writing on #3 STRANGE ENCOUNTERS, SEA SWITCH right now...got to stop procrastinating and write....

Mermaid's Spell

I've been writing on the third STRANGE ENCOUNTERS book, tenatively titled SEA SWITCH. I've learned to discipline myself and write almost every weekday. A few pages add up to a few chapters, which eventually adds up to a finished book. It takes me 3-6 months to complete a book.

Today I'm making up a spell for the wicked mermaid to say when she transforms my character Cassie into a mermaid. This is what I have so far, but it will probably change in the final rewrite:

Mystic spirits of the deep,
bound forever secrets keep.
Burning fire under sea,
summon magick destiny.
Stormy tides of moon and night,
bid my call, let dark ignite
Powers old, from depths that dwell,
let souls exchange -- cast sea switch spell.

My picture book author friend, Verla Kay, helped me with the last lines.

I still may need to rewrite...but then I totally believe the famous saying about good books not being written, but REwritten. (Sigh...I do a lot of rewriting.)

Back to work...

AUTHOR QUOTES

Just back from a conference with over 1,000 childrens' writers. It was amazing and we even had celebrity author Henry Winkler (The Fonz) at our BIG booksigning.

Here are some quotes from some of the wonderful authors I heard speak in Los Angeles:

* "God made man because he loves stories." KAREN CUSHMAN (author of Midwive's Apprentice)
* "Follow the feeling." LIBBA BRAY (author of GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY)
* "We are in an age where teen lit is being embraced." DAVID LEVITHAN (author of BOY MEETS BOY)
* "I am not in the mob." GORDON KORMAN (author of SON OF THE MOB)
* "Take someone you like and get them in trouble." Fantasy-author BRUCE COVILLE's recipe for a great story.
* "Let the crud come together." Stinky Cheese Man Author Jon Scheszka on thinking up stories.
* "Reading is eavesdropping on more interesting lives." RICHARD PECK (Newbery winning author)

CLONE ZONE

While on the plane to Los Angeles to attend the 33rd SCBWI (Society of Children's Writers and Illustrators) Conference, I read a really fascinating YA novel that involved cloning. It's called TAYLOR FIVE.

I researched cloning when I wrote five YA mysteries for my REGENERATION series. So the topic is one I continue to find fascinating. And TAYLOR FIVE handled it in a very different way; a girl discovering herself while surviving war with the help of a gorilla. When I reached the end, I literally had goosebumps ... it was THAT good.

So here's a list of three favorite, fantastic, suspenseful cloning novels:
1. TAYLOR FIVE by Ann Halam
2. DOUBLE HELIX by Nancy Werlin
3. THE HOUSE OF SCORPIO by Nancy Farmer

CONFERENCE BOUND

Yoo hoo! I'm packed and almost ready to Los Angeles for the SCBWI National Conference.

Last Day Schedule:
7-9AM - Work on SEA SWITCH my new book. I'm up to page 36 and Cassie has just met a mermaid.
9AM - Exercise at Curves
9:45 - Get fingernails done, pedicure and eyebrows waxed (the whole works!)
Noon - Drive to my parents' house in Sacramento
2PM - Mom and I will turn in some books for credit at Bookworm .
Evening -- Stay night so my parents can drop me off at the Sacramento Airport early Thursday.
8AM -- In the air and on the way to LA!

Now to go write on my WIP (work in progress)....

Good Fortune in the Mail

One of the cool things about being an author is getting to know other authors. And today I received a signed book in the mail from my friend, Dotti Enderle, author of THE FORTUNE TELLER'S CLUB mysteries. Her new book, MIRROR MIRROR, looks great! Dotti and I have the same publisher, but we haven't met in person yet since she lives in Texas and I'm in CA.

Countdown: Two days till I leave for on a trip to Los Angeles to attend the Society of Children's Writers & Illustrators National conference. SCBWI is a great group for anyone interesting in writing for kids www.scbwi.org/ and usually about a thousand writers attend this conference. One of my roommates will be Verla Kay, who writes really fun historial rhyming picture books.

I have to finish packing....

Welcome to Linda Joy Singleton's Blog!

This is my first time to do a blog and I'm not really sure what to say. I used to keep diaries as a kid, which I still have, and back then they were pretty boring. Here's a sample from November 1971: Went to school. Did tumbling and beam. Played with Lori. Watched TV. Not too exciting, huh? Lori is still my best friend, by the way.

I think I'll start off this by talking about books since I love reading, writing and collecting them.

I just finished reading a really great kid's book by Cornelia Funke called DRAGON RIDER. I've already read her THIEF LORD and INKHEART, so knew I'd love this book, too. I liked that it ended with a hint of more adventure to come, so I bet there's a sequel.

I love series and sequels because when you read about characters you enjoy it's fun to see what happens next. That's why I write series books, too. I just got a great evaluation today from a 15 year old reviewer who said the first book in my THE SEER series was exciting and a page-turner. I sure hope other readers feel that way, too.

Well that's all for today. It's late and I have to decide what book to read next.....