I'm speaking this Friday Aug. 1st at 5 p.m. at the annual national Society for Children Book Writers & Illustrators conference in Beverly Hills, CA. Stay tuned for daily blogs and... (keep reading)...

... possibly incriminating photos of children's book authors and YA novelists behaving badly... MMMMWHAHAHAH!

Anyway, I'm speaking at this panel called "SCBWI Success Stories" with Jay Asher, John Rocco, Yuyi Morales, and Lisa Yee on Friday August 1st at 5 p.m. Hope to see you there! 

In the meantime, a couple quick updates below...

-- My TWO COREYS experience: Did you see the show where I am sitting right behind Corey Feldman, playing the violin while he serenades his wife with a pop love ballad he wrote for her? If not, check out this lovely youtube clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmJE2UsuN0M

-- Interview with InnovativeTeen: I recently did an interview with the lovely Gabrielle who runs this awesome blog/website for aspiring teen writers. Check it out at this link:

http://innovativeteen.blogspot.com/2008/07/bookshelf-meet-paula-yoo.html

Thanks Gabrielle! You rock!

-- Robin Benway, author of AUDREY, WAIT: I recently got a chance to see my friend Robin Benway read from her YA novel Audrey, Wait (Razorbill, 2008). It was part of the Vroman's annual Author & Music Summer Series, the same one myself and Listing Ship played in early July (see this blog link for my event here). Robin did a fantastic job - her book is hilarious and witty and very sharply written (and was just added to the list of nominations for Best Books for Young Adults by the ALA!). The band My Name Is Guy performed a set after her reading. I wrote an email detailing the event for a group we belong to called The LAYAS, a loose collective of YA novelists based in Los Angeles. She then posted it on her website. You can see it here at:

http://www.robinbenway.com/my_weblog/2008/07/let-fall-the-flowers-from-your-hair.html

-- Another shameless self promotional plug about me me me: I'm really excited for the Olympics (I'm an Olympic fanatic), so stay tuned for a blog about my first picture book that came out in 2005 which was about Dr. Sammy Lee, two-time gold medalist in diving at the 1948 and 1952 Olympics! For more info, go here:

http://www.leeandlow.com/books/109/hc/sixteen_years_in_sixteen_seconds_the_sammy_lee_story

Well, I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff because it has been one HECK of a summer, guys... not to mention yesterday's earthquake! Where was I? At home, writing. I felt my chair move, thought it was my cat Oreo bumping against it, and then our entire house starting swaying back and forth for about 10 to 15 seconds. It was not. pleasant. And slightly scary. But we all survived and you can bet I'm gonna stop procrastinating and get that three-day emergency earthquake kit ready!

Anyway, stay tuned for daily blogging about the upcoming Society for Children Book Writers & Illustrators annual national conference starting July 31-August 4.

For more info, check out: http://scbwi.org/

I'll be hanging out with a lot of friends, including these writers: the gang of authors belonging to The LAYAS, picture book authors Carolyn Crimi, Kelly DiPucchio, Lisa Wheeler, Erin Eitter Kono and YA novelist April Young Fritz and Joyce Lee Wong among many, many other book authors whose books you should check out! Stay tuned for lots of fun gossip!