From the Associated Press via the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

Calif. high school band girl beats off muggers with marching baton

A 17-year-old high school marching band student beat up two assailants who tried to mug her as she walked to school in this high desert community about 40 miles north of Los Angeles, sheriff’s officials said Tuesday.

The girl punched one of the men in the nose, kicked the other in the groin and beat both with her large baton before she ran away on Friday morning, officials said.

“The moral to this story is don’t mess with the marching band girls, or you just might get what you deserve,” said Los Angeles County sheriff’s Deputy Michael Rust.

A couple of people sent me this link and were all “This is TOTALLY Ellie”.  Just substitute a trumpet for the baton, and I think they’re right.

Second, check out this cool mention of Band Geeked Out on Meg Cabot’s blog!

And third, a  little late to the party, but my awesome agent Kate gave away copies of Band Geeked Out to whomever could write the worst query letter.  The contest is over, but you can see the finalists right here and boy howdy they are hilariously bad.  Check it out!

This story isn’t a fairytale story about how wonderful high school is—the characters have legitimate problems, nothing works out according to plan, and some relationships don’t work out. In other words, it’s like real life, and that’s a perfect reason to read it.

I would recommend it to all of my girlfriends, even if they weren’t band geeks. It’s a very realistic depiction of the college search process, parental pressures, and dating issues. I found it very easy to relate to Ellie and the struggles she was going through. Her thoughts, ideas, interactions, and reactions to situations were all very realistic, making her even more likeable and drawing me more into the book.

Now THAT is a happy-making review.  Read the whole thing over here (though beware of a MAJOR spoiler in the last paragraph)!

Also, I’m taking part in Kay Cassidy’s Great Scavenger Hunt, which you can learn about right here.  The questionnaire for Band Geek Love is already up on the site, and Band Geeked Out should be there soon!  (If you’re a teen reader and want to become a “hunter”, you’ll have to ask your librarian to enroll in the program).  It looks like a whole lot of fun and a great excuse to devour a pile of books, plus who can argue with a $50 B&N card?  Happy hunting!

I am very excited.  Today will involve lots of exclamation points.  Even more exclamation points than I used last night at this etiquette dinner I attended when I learned how to hold an appetizer plate, wine glass and napkin all in my left hand, leaving my right hand free for introductions (a trick which I have to admit I found rather magical.  I’ll totally show you how to do it sometime).

I’ve been listening to the below song obsessively for the past few weeks, and the video just seems so appropriate for this occasion…I think I might feel exactly like this dude with his beloved “Condos Now Selling” sign.

It’s lookin’ like a beautiful day…

I’m so happy Ellie Snow is out there in the world again!!

So I figured I need to express gratitude toward the computer programs that made this possible…(sadly, all for only for Macs).

1.) Scrivener.  I heard about it first on Justine Larbalestier’s excellent blog and, I’m not gonna lie, it helped tipped the scale toward switching over to a Mac last summer.  I wrote almost all of Albatross on Scrivener and cannot fathom how I lived without it.  It just made organizing my brain and formulating plots about a hundred time easier, and an organized brain is kind of nice for novel writing.  Seriously, enthusiastically and highly recommended.

2.) Freedom.  This program, quite simply, breaks the internet on your computer for as long as you ask that it be broken (I can usually only stand an hour at a time or else I get twitchy).  For people like me who have, um, a kind of hard time not being distracted by the internet (IT’S SO SHINY) Freedom could not be more aptly named.  I don’t think I could have finished Albatross in a timely manner if it weren’t for all the internet breaking that I did in those last few weeks.  Recommended!

Oh, one more!

3.) MacJournal.  One of my oldest friends (from elementary school on) began working on this program when we were in college and won some big student design award for it and now he’s like computer software hotshot out in California but he totally deserves it because this journaling program rocks.  I’ve found it incredibly handy for keeping a writer’s journal, jotting down ideas, doing free-writing, further brain organization, etc.  And it has a ton of other features, too…so very, very recommended.

Freedom is free, and Scrivener and MacJournal are both under $40.  Worthy investments, all.

(Seabirds don’t come in flavors.)

(Neither does the book.)

Feeling lighter is good, because it gives me energy to freak out over the fact Band Geeked Out will be on shelves in ONE WEEK on APRIL FOOL’S DAY.  Hurray!

2.) I am almost done drafting my next book (currently called Albatross because the title fits and I also adore how it works my last name) and I am kind of in love with it.  Which is great because I was a little worried regarding how I’d feel when I was finished…it’s a considerably darker story than the Band Geek books.

Writing it has been kind of a stretch for me, in sometimes unpleasant ways…I guess maybe because it’s kind of hard going from a brash and bold character like Ellie Snow to writing the main character of Albatross, Tess, who is much less sure of herself and what she wants and is conflicted about how she thinks people should be allowed treat her. And I suppose I’ve sort of felt like I’ve been living through the story with Tess…suffering alongside her as she battles it all out and takes charge of her life.

But stretching has been great, I think, and I’m pretty pleased with the results.  I think both Tess and I will come out stronger for the experience.

I danced around my apartment, slobbered on them for a bit, and then spent 10 minutes posing this picture:

(My Great Aunt Dora in the background obviously approves.)

It’s coming out on April 1st!  So stoked!

How am I supposed to calm myself down and write Albatross?  HOW?!

Okay, okay.  Back to work.

Except, you know, with less run-on sentences.

The whole book with all the chapters will be out April 1st!

I am still wrestling with Albatross (the working title just seems SO fitting right now), and am also still buried in about five feet of theater stuff (writing for a workshop and acting in a bunch of super-short plays…in one piece I get to wear crazy silver platform boots and in another I play Sarah Palin [heh]).  It’s a busy, crazy, fun time and it’s making February seem like an eye-blink…which in my opinion is the very best way for February to be.

Band Geeked Out is officially off to the printer (huzzah!) so I’ve been chin-deep in Albatross for the past few weeks. It’s going pretty well, except the story is RUDELY INSISTING on taking off in directions I had previously not considered.  And I sat the story down, and calmly explained this concept of a synopsis, and then it got all hostile and defensive like a guest on Jerry Springer “You don’t know me!  You don’t know my life!” and I said, “Well, actually, yes I do.  I brought you into this world, story.  I CAN TAKE YOU OUT” and then there was hair pulling and someone had to call in security before it got too ugly.

But later we were able to talk out our differences, and I’ll grudgingly admit that the story is probably right about some things.  Albatross needs to be a bit…lighter.  A tad less mopey and a touch more snarky sweet.  So I’m giving the story a chance to wander and I’ll see where it takes me. Hopefully not to stupid places.

Writing!  It’s always an adventure.

But, exciting news!  Band Geeked Out is DONE.  From acknowledgments to the back cover copy (which is adorable).  I’m very happy with the book, and was super stoked to see it on Little Willow’s list of notable advance reads in teen fiction.  It’s officially out on April 1st, which seems weirdly both far away and very, very soon.

So when I was hanging out with the family over the holidays, I heard some interesting news.  My eight year-old cousin has started playing trumpet.  And apparently he’s really into it!  This is cool because it makes him the fourth person in my family to play trumpet…my grandpa and my dad played, so did I, and now my little cousin.

And since my grandpa, dad and I all played on the same cornet (which is basically the same thing as a trumpet, just a little smaller and more mellow), the same unused cornet that is currently inhabiting a cobwebby corner of my closet, I did what any good older cousin would do.  I offered to send him the instrument.

Even though I haven’t played my cornet since high school (I switched to euphonium in college marching band), and even though I still have my fancy silver trumpet to get out when I’m feeling sentimental, I’m still kind of sad about passing on the cornet.  I played it for seven years, carried it back and forth to school, played solos on it for my senior year show, thought about throwing it at people’s heads on occasion…it holds a lot of memories.

So I took some pictures:

Oh, wait.  THAT’S not right.

(It’s a Christmas decoration my mom gave me.  I tried to play it, but it is not a real trumpet.)

Okay, much better.  Isn’t it pretty?  I mean, in a brassy and practical sort of way.

I also had to clean out the case, which was a very interesting archaeological dig through my past.  Like I said, I haven’t played this cornet since high school, so the case contained many fascinating artifacts of 17 year-old me.

Contents:

(1) Order form for band polo shirt

(1) Brass polishing cloth (lightly-used)

(1) Note from high school bff bad-mouthing other high school bff (names redacted to protect the innocent)

(1) Sunblock

(1) Gently-used lyre, taped-together

(1) Name badge from music camp

(1) Empty bottle of valve oil

(1) Pixie stick wrapper

(1) Mechanical Pencil

(1) Container of slide grease

Closer examination of my cornet revealed the following:

I believe this very well could be a dent from throwing the cornet at someone’s head.

So that’s that, I suppose.  Use it well, cousin, but you better believe I want it back when my (hypothetical) child is ready to play!