PW's Children's Bookshelf BEA Picutres

See them all here. The one below is just one of many awesome ones. This kind of makes me sad that I didn't use my camera, well, at all. And damn I'm pissed that I missed Neil Gaiman! I had no idea he was even there! Bah! I so would have been all over that. I actually wanted to go up and see Kaleb Nation but I lost track of time and completely missed his signing. Dammit! And what I wouldn't give to run into that giant pig on the escalator!

If I'm not signing at BEA next year (please, Dog, grant my dreams), and even if I am, I'm going for the entire weekend. I missed so much going for just the day. Damn and blast!

Interview with Lisa Yee

Publisher's Weekly has an interview with Lisa Yee, author of Absolutely Maybe.

How is writing for teens different from writing for middle-schoolers?

I got so immersed in writing the book that I didn’t even think of the audience. It was kind of liberating being a teen for a while, though. I went through a period of swearing a lot. My husband finally asked what was going on, and I told him, “I’m a teenage runaway right now.” As it turned out, I cut out a lot of the swearing. It wasn’t true to Maybelline’s character.

Where did you get the idea of Maybelline being a runaway?

At first the book was mostly going to be about beauty pageants, but when I started researching them, I didn’t find much that I liked. I didn’t think I could give a fair picture of pageants in the book, so I decided I had to get Maybelline out of that scene and out of Florida.

To read the rest of the interview, go here. Lisa is such an interesting person and I can't wait to read her book!