Fun Fan Artwork . . .

One of my favorite parts of writing for tweens are the fun letters, e-mails, etc. they send. 

Most of these letters contain hopes that HOW TO SURVIVE MIDDLE SCHOOL will be made into a movie.  Are you listening Judd Apatow and Rob Reiner?

Some of the letters ask if HOW TO SURVIVE MIDDLE SCHOOL will be a series.  Are you listening, Random House?

And some letters come with art.  Today, I wanted to share the cool artwork a young fan sent (with her permission, of course). 

Elliott and David, from How to Survive Middle School

Is that cool or what?  To see a clearer version along with her review, click here.

Thanks so much, Tengku Hana!

DOING THE HAPPY WRITER DANCE!

I just finished revisions on my new middle grade novel!

Can you hear my sigh of relief from there? I’ll be doing the Happy Writer Dance as soon as I do the following:

1) Introduce myself to my children. “Hi, boys! Remember me? I’m your mom.”

2) Catch up on the 500 plus e-mails I need to delete, er, um, answer.

3) Play outside. “Oh, look, it’s March already!”

4) Enjoy a long overdue game of Scrabble with hubby. (Yes, he’ll probably win. Again!)

5) Return phone calls, especially that one from Oprah. Don’t I wish?!

6) And most importantly . . . clean the house. Yeah, right!

Although I can’t show you my happy dance, I’ll share these smile-inspiring happy dances, courtesy of John and Hank Green, Nerdfighters extraordinaire.

I know someone else who should be doing the Happy Writer Dance: E. M. Crane. Her young adult novel, SKIN DEEP, came out yesterday. I read an advance reader copy and loved it so much I cried. No wonder it won the Delacorte Press Contest for a First Young Adult Novel, No wonder the only revisions she needed to make were changing a character’s name! And the people who populate her wonderful novel stayed with me loooong after I closed the book.

A big THANK YOU to Jean Westmoore, who wrote a nice review of my book in the Buffalo News. Here’s the last line of the review: “This entertaining novel offers believable middle school situations, a rip roaring finale and a funny, memorable heroine.”

Ah, more happy dancing.

Do you have something to Happy Dance about? A bit of good news? A recent accomplishment? Someone else’s accomplishment? If so, post a comment on this blog and YOU might be chosen to be a GUEST BLOGGER. Won’t that be fun?

Looking forward to reading your Happy Dance moments. For now, though, I’m going to celebrate finishing my new novel, E.M. Crane’s exciting novel release and my book’s review in the Buffalo News . . . by cleaning the house, um, taking a nap!

Keep those pages turning,

Donna