Today's blog will highlight my upcoming East Coast mini book tour, a LAYAS authors update plus a special guest, middle grade novelist EMILY ECTON! (Here's a photo of us and the cover of her latest book below!) Keep reading for more details...

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER8, 2008 (1:30 to 3:00 PM) - NEW ENGLAND CONFERENCE ON MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION

I'll be speaking along with several authors from FUSION STORIES at the 13th annual New England Conference on Multicultural Education at the Connecticut Convention Center. The conference will focus on multiculturalism and diversity issues in education. Our panel, "Best Teaching Practices - Fusion Stories: Next-Gen Asian American Books for Young Readers," will feature myself along with authors MITALI PERKINS (First Daughter: White House Rules/ Dutton '08), JANET WONG (Minn and Jake's Almost Terrible Summer/Farrar, Straus & Giroux '08), AN NA (The Fold/Putnam '09), DAVID YOO (Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before/Hyperion '08). The description of this panel from the NECME brochure says: "Without a doubt, an Asian American vision has moved into the mainstream of the children’s literary world. Five authors discuss why a new generation of readers need stories featuring Asian American characters who are 100% American." For more info, go to http://www.fusionstories.com/ and http://www.necme.org/

THURSDAY OCTOBER 9, 2008 (7 PM) - "SIBLINGS UNITE! DAVID YOO AND PAULA YOO" PANEL AT THE ASIAN AMERICAN WRITERS WORKSHOP

On Thursday, October 9th, my brother DAVID YOO and I will speak at a panel hosted by the Asian American Writers Workshop in New York. The panel description says:  "In Stop Me If You Have Heard This One Before, Yoo humorously captures that special mania that only your high-school crushes can induce. Yoo's debut Good Enough chronicles the journey of Patti, an over achieving Ivy-bound teen itching to rebel. After the reading, this young adult duo will discuss creativity among siblings and confess who hogged the bathroom the longest."

My brother and I would love to meet you, so all you New Yorkers, stop on by! The Asian American Writers Workshop is located at  16 West 32nd Street, 10th Floor
(btwn Broadway & 5th Avenue). There is a $5 suggested donation and it's open to the public. For more info, please go here: http://aaww.org/

LAYAS UPDATE!

What are the LAYAS? It's a collective of Los Angeles-based Young Adult authors. It's a fun group of wacky authors who all support each other's writing careers. (We also read each other's books!) We often hang out together, attend each other's book signings, and promote fellow LAYAS when we can on our websites and blogs. For more info, check out our myspace site at: http://www.myspace.com/loslayas

For October, the latest LAYAS updates are listed below:

C. LEIGH PURTILL: C. Leigh Purtill (author of ALL ABOUT VEE/Razorbill '08 and a previous guest blogger) was in charge of gathering some cool authors together for recent book festivals, including the West Hollywood Book Festival. Check out her blog http://cleighpurtill.blogspot.com/ for more details! Below is a picture of Leigh from her LA Times Festival of Books signing:

SASHA WATSON: Sasha Watson's much anticipated debut YA novel, VIDALIA IN PARIS (Viking '08) launched on Oct. 2, 2008. Go to your indie bookstore now and check it out! For more info, check out: http://www.myspace.com/sashabeewatson Below is a picture of Sasha from last April at the LA Times Book Festival, excited to receive the pre-publication galley of her book! (Remember that picture gallery entry? If not, go here: http://paulayoo.com/content/la-times-festival-books-adventures-santa-ana-0)

JORDANNA FRAILBERG: Jordanna's debut novel, IN YOUR ROOM (Razorbill '08) hits stores this Oct. 16th! Go, go and order it now! (Jordanna and her galley are pictured below). For more info and to find out about her "blog tour," check out her adorable website (cutest. design. ever!) at: http://jordannafraiberg.com/

AMY KOSS: The paperback edition of her acclaimed YA novel, POISON IVY, is out this Oct. 28th in stores! Check it out - the cover is especially awesome! (Amy and her latest book pictured below) For more info, check out: http://www.amygoldmankoss.net/

DAN SANTAT: Children's picture book author/illustrator and graphic novelist Dan Santat posted a birthday blog this past week that made me smile. Not only because he posted a photo of him reading my novel, but because he came to peace with his "old age." It's a lovely, wonderfully positive blog about growing old gracefully (even though Dan is barely in his 30s, LOL! ). Check out the Oct. 2nd entry at his blog here (and don't forget to turn on the music as per his blog instructions because it makes for a lovely read): http://dantat.typepad.com/

SPECIAL GUEST EMILY ECTON!

Before I leave this blog to pack for my East Coast trip, I wanted to introduce you again to the lovely EMILY ECTON. I met her in August at the annual Society for Childrens' Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) national conference. She and I clicked instantly because we have the same geeky sense of humor.

Emily has been touring the country to promote her book trilogy as well as working on her latest project with NPR, a comedy news quiz show called Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! She stopped by Los Angeles this week, so we had a chance to have dinner and hang out and people watch. 

Emily's debut  novel,  BOOTS AND PIECES (Aladdin '08) came out this past September. Here's the book description: "Her big sister bosses her around; her mom makes her dog-sit Mr. Boots, the family's well-dressed Chihuahua; and she's convinced a strange and squishy swamp creature that lives down at the lake is eating high school kids. When no one believes her, Arlie and her best friend, Ty (yes, he's a boy, and no, he's not her boyfriend), set out with Mr. Boots to stop the creature themselves -- because if they don't, half the school is going to end up as lakeside hors d'oeuvres!"

It's a delightful, wacky, irreverent and extremely fun book series. Emily Ecton has a sharp, funny, and original writing style and is a fresh voice in kid lit! For more info on Emily, check out her myspace page here: http://www.myspace.com/emilyecton

Emily's latest book, THE CURSE OF CUDDLES MCGEE, just came out and is the sequel to BOOTS AND PIECES. Her third book in the series, NIGHT OF THE LIVING LAWN ORNAMENTS, will hit stores March 10, 2009, so put in your book orders now! 

Emily and I met for dinner on Saturday night. I decided to treat Emily to the "tacky tourist" night and took her to Hollywood & Highland, a mall filled with shops and restaurants right on Hollywood Blvd. across from the famous El Capitan Theatre and just a block away from the iconic Grauman's Chinese Mann theatre. After dinner, we walked along Hollywood Blvd. so Emily could ooh and awe at the stars on the sidewalk. Then we went to the Chinese Mann theatre to see the famous cement squares filled with handprints and footprints of all the famous Hollywood stars. Emily and I were amazed by how small women's feet were back in the 1930s and 40s as we tried to match our feet to that of such tiny feet as Joan Crawford!

Here's Emily at the Grauman's Chinese Mann:

Afterwards, we stopped by this store called Beard Papa's to try out their apparently world-famous cream puffs and cheese cake sticks! The cheese cake sticks were so-so but the cream puffs were to DIE for. Wow.

I had no shame and licked my pastry plate clean. Seriously. I have no manners. Fortunately, Emily was tactful and did not scold me for my bad table manners.

We sat and gossiped and had a blast people watching as the late night Saturday club-hopping crowd headed for the nearby dance nightclub. Emily and I felt very "plain" compared to the extremely fancy and trendy outfits (and dangerously super high heels) we saw parade past us. So we did an impromptu makeover - here is Emily BEFORE in her straightforward sweater-and-jean combo:

And here is Emily afterwards, wearing my big star necklace. I've learned that all you need is a giant clunky cheap necklace to accessorize and turn any plain sweater-jean outfit into a rocker chic look:

See, doesn't Emily now look like she's the lead singer for an alt folk rock coffeehouse band?

Well, I must begin packing for my trip. Thanks Emily for being my blog "special guest" and hope you had fun in LA! I'll post some live blogs while on the road to Hartford and New York... stay tuned!