Nanowrimo word count: 19,857. Good Enough blog interviews: 2. Friends who had book readings this week: 2. Queso cooking attempts this week: 1. Keep reading for more details!

(L-R: Jay Asher, me, Jordanna Fraiberg)

Hello from the writing batcave! Just a quick update before I bury myself in Microsoft Word again...

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BOOK READINGS: Above is a pic of myself with YA authors JAY ASHER and JORDANNA FRAIBERG. Jordanna's debut YA novel "In Your Room" from Razorbill came out this fall. She did a reading at Vroman's Books in Pasadena last night. She had pal JAY ASHER as her opening act. 

There were many people at this book event, as pictured below, including YA authors LISA YEE and BEN ESCH. Ben, by the way, has his YA debut from Disney/Hyperion called "Sophomore Undercover" coming out in February 2009. In fact, Ben took the picture posted above of me, Jay, and Jordanna! Nice camera work, Mr. Esch! Check out his hilarious website here, and look for more details on Ben and his book as we approach the launch date! http://www.dixienguyen.com/

JAY ASHER kicked off the event by reading the opening pages of his debut YA novel "13 Reasons Why" which recently was re-released in hardcover to celebrate his debut on the New York Times bestseller list. He had a lovely teen volunteer to read the part of Hannah while he read the part of Clay. The book is about a teen girl who commits suicide but leaves behind several cassette tapes giving hints as to what led to her death. Kirkus praised the book as "a brilliant and mesmerizing debut from a gifted new author."

Jay then talked about how he became a writer - it all started in high school when he worked as a journalist for his high school newspaper. He wrote a positive review of Vanilla Ice's album which made  him the laughingstock of the school... until his journalism teacher read a letter from a student who said that Jay's review convinced him to pick up the Vanilla Ice album and that he too was now a fan. But the letter was signed by an anonymous "New Vanilla Ice Fan" so the newspaper couldn't publish the letter. But Jay's teacher read the letter to his class to show them the power of the written word.

Jay then sheepishly admitted that he himself had written the letter. And that was his moment of epiphany - that he would make for a much better fiction writer than journalist!

On a more serious note, Jay discussed the theme of his book, which was that we should all be aware of the often powerful influence we can have on each other. In otherwords, everyone affects everyone... He talked about how some teens who have felt suicidal wrote to him to say how his book helped them overcome their depression and seek professional therapy. Bravo, Jay! 

For more information on Jay, check out these links:

http://www.thirteenreasonswhy.com/index.php

http://www.myspace.com/jay_asher

And yes, he  has his own Wikipedia page already! Wow!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Asher

JORDANNA FRAIBERG then read from her debut novel, "In Your Room," which is a charming and sweet story about two teens who fall in love... even though they've never met. Molly and Charlie's families have agreed to swap houses for the summer, and Molly and Charlie are stuck in each other's rooms. The two couldn't be more different - Molly is an LA fashionista who's coming to terms with the death of her father and her mom's new marriage, and Charlie is a Boulder granola mountain biker. But their emails and texts soon reveal their innermost personalities and secrets, leading to the both of them falling in love, even though they are 1000 miles apart and have never met in person. Her book has been praised as "MTV’s Room Raiders meets You’ve Got Mail in this sweet, old-fashioned love story for the digital age."

Jordanna and I have become friends recently via meeting each other through the LAYAS (the Los Angeles YA Authors collective started by Cool Cecil Castellucci) and by bonding over our Nanowrimo buddy system (we are participating in the National Novel Writing Month contest). She's a fantastic writer and a super cool person. Anyway, she read excerpts from her novel and then discussed how it was written and how she researched Boulder via youtube in order to make the setting as realistic as possible. (She received praise for her authentic descriptions from native Boulderites, too!) I found it fascinating that one of her challenges from her editor was to show how two people could fall in love just from an email and texting conversation - talk about challenging! 

Plus, Jordanna offered yummy cupcakes for the book signing! Best. Booksigning. Ever! 

Afterwards, we went out for a late dinner at a sushi place across the street. It was fun!

For more info on Jordanna, check out her website here:

http://jordannafraiberg.com/

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GOOD ENOUGH BLOG SIGHTINGS!

Below are two interviews I did recently with two wonderful writers/bloggers.

The latest interview was with the beautiful and talented Jodi Kendall. We had met at SCBWI earlier this year, and she asked me some great questions. Here's a pic of us plus the link to her website and interview:

The interview link is here:

http://www.jodikendall.com/Jodi_Kendall/Blog/Entries/2008/11/24_Author_Interview%3A_Paula_Yoo.html

Jodi's website is here:

http://www.jodikendall.com/Jodi_Kendall/Blog/Blog.html

Thanks again Jodi, and hope to see you at a future SCBWI conference again!

And here is an interview I did with the lovely Tarie, a graduate student, blogger, teacher, and writer from Quezon City, Philippines. She asked some really cool questions and it was a pleasure to "meet" Tarie online. One day I hope to meet you Tarie in person, too! (And one day I hope to visit the Philippines, how cool would that be?!)

http://peteredmundlucy7.blogspot.com/2008/11/author-interview-paula-yoo.html

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Finally, what I think is the last in the queso saga. I found a recipe from Emeril on how to make queso. My husband actually made it while I was stuck in the writing batcave. It was very tasty but we agreed that he didn't chop the onions up enough, so it still looks kind of gross but it did taste good!

The recipe can be found here:

http://www.recipezaar.com/Emerils-Con-Queso-144887

Well, I think that's enough blogging for today. I'll blog some more again, soon, and in fact, I almost wanted to write a rant-y blog about my icky Monday dealing with the phone company (grrrrr) but I'll save that for another day... Meanwhile, Oreo my cat just jumped up in front of my computer again... someone clearly wants to play...