Happy Halloween!

On Thursday we had our company Halloween party. Here are pics from throughout the day:

we sure have a weird cast of characters at our editorial meetings.

Adriana as Arthur

Deirdre as the Substitute Creature (by Chris Gall)

Mara as THE CURIOUS GARDEN by Peter Brown

Pam and I are Rachel and Tina from GLEE

Emma as Squeaker, Leslie as Lucy from Peter Brown's CHILDREN MAKE TERRIBLE PETS

Yes, Julie and Emma Andrews's THE VERY FAIRY PRINCESS (aka Allison) has an office job.

Connie as a crying baby from YOU ARE MY LITTLE CUPCAKE

Julie as Homer Pudding from Suzanne Selfor's SMELLS LIKE DOG

Kate as a DUFF (by Kody Keplinger)

Adam as TWILIGHT!

Ian as a squirrel from David Sedaris's SQUIRREL SEEKS CHIPMUNK

Victoria as a Lee Harvey from the upcoming YOU KILLED WESLEY PAYNE by Sean Beaudoin

Happy Halloween!

See pics from previous years here and here and here.

Furball Friday

Serena. I love the little tucked leg.

Reflections on YA

I was on the panel "Reflections on YA" this past Tuesday at the NYPL. The audio of the panel is up on the NYPL website. We talked about digital publishing, paranormal romance, diversity in publishing, and more. It was a great conversation. If you missed it, you can hear what went on here.

Contest and redesign!

Head over to see what's new at the Blue Rose Girls--we've just give the blog a brand-new look, and are running a contest right now. You can win cookies! And books!

Furball Friday

Still chillin' together.

Furball Friday

Now that I'm the proud co-owner of two cats, Venus and Serena, and am constantly taking pictures of them and showing them off to people like a crazy cat lady, I thought I'd follow fellow Blue Rose Girl Anna Alter's lead and start a Furball Friday post.

Here's the first one!

Serena and Venus napping

But hey, it's Brooklyn, not Ohio

About a month ago on a Saturday night, G and I were kept awake by a large party our downstairs neighbors were throwing. The music caused our entire apartment to vibrate. It was unbearable. I hadn't been feeling great that day and was hoping to get to sleep early. I turned on the TV to mask the sound, put my pillow over my ears. Sleep wasn't happening. Finally, at about a quarter past one, G decided to go downstairs to ask them to turn the music down.

As if the shaking apartment was not provocative enough, above is a photo of the note G encountered when he reached their apartment door. As you can imagine, this note did not improve his mood. After a lengthy discussion with the neighbors about "rights" (their right to throw a party in the U.S. of A, our right to sleep and live in peace in our own apt), they turned the music down.

To their credit, they've been quiet neighbors ever since (a talking-to by our landlord probably helped, too). To our credit, the phone number above is blocked out.

Yes, I have officially turned into the cranky old neighbor. Kids these days. Sheesh.

Newbery red carpet videos

Grace Lin had really wanted to do the red carpet video at ALA, because she wanted to tell the story of how she picked and eventually found her dress, but because we were in the receiving line for so long after the banquet, we didn't have a chance to do it until close to midnight when we were both exhausted. Grace made me do it first, and although I had hoped that the video would end up being lost somewhere, I just discovered that they've edited my video with Grace's, asking us about "the call." Please excuse us in advance for our babbling, and I also want to apologize for getting our School and Marketing Associate Director's title wrong (I called her Manager). Sorry, Victoria! You can also view the video on YouTube here.



Grace had posted back in January details about the call here.

And, of course, she also got to tell the story about her dress!


Check out all of the red carpet interviews here. They really did a wonderful job! And, of course, it's fun for me to relive it all. :)

Brooklyn in the House! Or, er, apartment in Brooklyn!

I've been feeling a little guilty about neglecting this blog. Poor blog. Every year I'm determined to post more often, every year that resolution goes by the wayside. At any rate, I thought I'd just mention that after 8 years of living in New York City, specifically in Manhattan on the Upper East Side (in two different apartments), about six weeks ago I made a big move to Brooklyn. I was a little apprehensive about leaving my huge triplex with a beautiful roof terrace (here's a picture of me on one of my last times on the terrace. Boo hoo.):

I have so many great memories from that apartment. I moved in five years ago during a real transitional period of my life. I met several whole new groups of friends during my time there. I ran a marathon while living there. I had several different relationships, friendships that came and went. I moved in as an Associate Editor, moved out as a Senior Editor. I walked to work in the sun, in the rain, in the snow, in the cold. Many parties, many guests, many roommates, good times, great times, happy times, sad times. But now onto a new chapter of my life!

I've always liked Brooklyn, and have hung out there a bunch, a lot of my friends live in Brooklyn, and overall I was excited the make the change and explore a new neighborhood. To make new memories.

So far so good! I'm loving it. The commute isn't bad--I miss the walk, but it's the same amount of time, I have a lot of different subway options and routes to choose from, and more importantly I'm finding that I have more reading time. I've been running in Prospect Park most mornings. I've been meeting friends in the neighborhood for brunch and dinner and drinks and trying out local places. So many great restaurants to try! And this past Friday I celebrated my birthday in a Brooklyn bar a few blocks away from my apartment.

(I'm holding the youngest party guest!)


I heart Brooklyn! This picture is from today, on a block near my apt:

More soon. I promise.

SHARK VS TRAIN and HAPPYFACE book trailers

Yes, we're silly. During our office Halloween party last year, I decided we should take advantage of our costumes and film a few impromptu book trailers. First, here's one for SHARK VS. TRAIN by Chris Barton and Tom Lichtenheld.



voiceover: Connie Hsu
Shark: Alvina Ling (aka, the editor of the book)
Train: Maria Mercado (aka the designer of the book)

And here's one for HAPPYFACE by Stephen Emond




Singer: Alvina Ling
Happyface: Connie Hsu (aka, the editor of the book)

And here are our costumes:

 (2nd Happyface is the designer of the book, Ben Mautner)