Out of Hibernation

The last few months have been a bit of a blur, as I've been trying to make progress on a new book at the same time as I'm welcoming a new human into our house. My daughter--second child, first little girl--was born three months ago, and that definitely added some spice into the "will he or won't he make his deadline" debate, the results of which are still not known. Nevertheless, it looks like I'll be able to get the new novel out the door on time. It's tentatively called "The Artist," kind of a satire that takes place in a hard-charging prep school in Northern California.

Go Panthers!

Thanks to everyone at Pinewood for making my visit so fantastic. From the students who still laugh at my dumb jokes, to Mr. Eivers, who graciously agreed to let me use his theater, to Mr. Morrill, who had to pick me up from the airport at midnight because I couldn't rent a car after losing my ID. It was nice to be back on campus. At one point I was hanging out in the faculty lounge, preparing for the presentation, when I looked around; Burnside to my left, Eivers and Cristiani to my right, Ms. Wilson yelling at Mr. Gardner in the other room. It was as though I'd never left. The best part, of course, was reading the book to the students I taught while I was writing it. And finally, I want to wish the girl's varsity basketball team good luck in the State Finals tomorrow in Sacramento. GO PANTHERS!

Best Venn Diagram Ever

This comes from Ms. Holt's class at California Middle School, where they're doing a unit on the themes of honor, loyalty, and betrayal using Julius Caesar and The Brothers Torres. I'll write more about my visit as soon as I get some other pictures, but suffice it to say that reading the final chapters to her classes, and listening in on the discussion afterward, was one of the high points of this whole journey. Below are more pictures from the trip:

California, Here I Come

I'm taking a trip to California next week for a few events.
Monday, March 16: I'm going back to Pinewood School, where I taught for 6 years. I'm excited to read and talk about the book with all the students, but especially the sophomores, juniors, and seniors I taught when they were in 7th grade- when In fact, I was in the middle of class back in December of 2005 when I received a text message from my agent that the book had sold. (Texting being, of course, forbidden in class. Oops).
Tuesday, March 17 I'll be presenting to seventh and eighth graders at the “reading lounge" of Sacramento's California Middle School. I will also be signing students’ books at the school, where the GATE students are reading “The Brothers Torres” as part of a comparison/contrast unit with Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” on the theme of betrayal vs. loyalty.
Also, I'll be reading at the Avid Reader at the Tower, on 1600 Broadway in Sacramento, at 7:00pm. If you know anybody from Sacramento, please encourage them to come on down!

Reading at Brazos Bookstore 2/6

I'm looking forward to reading at Brazos in Houston this Friday. It will be my third and final time reading as part of the Gulf Coast Reading Series, and I'm psyched that my friend, neighbor, and fellow writer Irene Keliher is going to be the MC for the evening. If you're in Houston, come on down to Brazos Bookstore at 7pm. The fiction writer Maranatha Bivens and the poet Laura Eve Engel will also be reading.

Best Books for Young Adults

TBT has been selected as an American Library Association 2009 Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults. I'm thrilled and honored to be on the list with so many other fantastic books!

Career Day, again

Here I am doing my part to encourage these smart kids not to pursue a steady job with insurance and benefits. I'm here to help! I love how my page-a-day calendar is featured so prominently in this picture, but TBT is nowhere to be found. I also want to thank Mr. Brown (who was my eighth grade teacher) Ms. Dolan, and Ms. Elliston for letting me talk to their eighth grade classes. It was awesome.

Career Day!

I'll be back in the Q this week for my high school's Career Day, which sounds even more absurd to me than it possibly could to anyone else. How could I have said no? I'll also be visiting classrooms on Thursday and Friday. Oh, and don't think I won't be taking down a stuffed sopaipilla or two while I'm home.

Some housekeeping

Call it a resolution--and we all know how those tend to go--but I'm hoping to do a better job with the blog this year. Here's a link to an essay I wrote about some of the ways I use research. The book I'm working on now features a handful of scenes in a chicken processing plant, so the essay focuses on my experience conning my way onto a tour of a local plant. Needless to say, there are just some things you have to see with your own eyes (to say nothing of the other senses) if you're going to write about them. Thanks to David Yoo for sending this photo of the Young Adult shelf in the Border's in the Boston Airport. It's hard to see because the bookstore was closed when he took the picture. But seriously, if you squint just right, you might be able to make out The Brothers Torres down near the bottom left. An airport bookstore appearing to carry the book is good enough for me.

Thank you, West Mesa Mustangs

I've been a bit slow in posting these pictures (Slow is an understatement, I know. At least I got them up within a calendar year). This was my first school visit, with about 150 of Mrs. Sanchez's ESL students at West Mesa. I read for about fifteen minutes, then answered questions for another thirty. One of my favorite parts of the visit was the sound of pages turning as the students followed along with what I read. I was impressed by how closely the students had read the book and how emotionally invested they seemed to be in the outcome. After the Q & A, we hung out a bit, and I found myself engaging in a bit of smack talk about el fútbol mexicano. Despite Daniel's best efforts, I remain unconvinced about the virtues of switching my alliegances to Cruz Azul. Thanks again to Mrs. Sanchez and all her fantastic students!

ALAN Pick for October

The Assembly for Literature on Adolescents (ALAN) has released it's October 2008 picks, and The Brothers Torres is one of them. Highlights from the accompanying review: "Voorhees’s first novel is an extremely well-written page turner that is appropriate for middle school readers and beyond. The writing is humorous even as it tackles serious issues. Voorhees provides rich descriptions of the Latino culture and its influences, achieving an authentic feel by peppering the text with Spanish words and phrases... this book transcends classification as a young adult novel and promises to satisfy even the most refined of readers." Congratulations to the other writers on the list.

A Contest Sponsored by The Book Muncher

The Book Muncher and I are having a contest this month. The winner receives a lovely gift pack that includes an Amazon gift certificate and some other fabulous prizes. All you have to do is read the book and answer five simple questions. Details for the contest can be found here. The Book Muncher's review of The Brothers Torres can be found here.

Genre of the Month - Male Protagonists

Genre of the Month has designated August as Male Protagonist Month, which seems to fit perfectly with TBT. They've posted a interview I did with Bookluver Carol. (Click here for her review of the book) It's my first blogger interview, and while I'm never as articulate or interesting in real life as I am in my head, I think it went pretty well. Thanks Carol!

Sadie's Stuffed Sopaipillas

What happened last night ranked right up there with the best parts of this whole publishing experience. We stopped at Sadie's for an early dinner on the way to the airport, and I brought a copy of TBT along with me--signed it to Sadie's thanking them for the inspiration for the food at Los Torres, Frankie's family's place. I thought that might get me a handshake and a smile, but the manager, Jerry, went way beyond that. He and his crew totally took care of my family and me. I had a tasty margarita and (of course) a chicken stuffed sopaipilla with red and green. Then Jerry had me sign in the guest book--now I'm in there along with the likes of Kenny Chesney, Doc Severinsen, and "Tower" from the original American Gladiators. Thanks again to everyone at Sadie's for the food and the inspiration. I can't wait to get back there.

Thank You Bookworks!

The reading yesterday at Bookworks had a little bit of a "Coert Voorhees, this is your life" feel to it. I saw some people I hadn't seen since high school, which was fantastic. I'm bad at coming up with names for my characters, so when I was writing the book, I thought back to kids I grew up with and used some names that I liked. Little did I know that I would eventually read the book to two of them. Zach was there, as was Cheo. Even though the characters have very little in common with their namesakes, it was still pretty sweet to have them in the audience. Thanks so much to Cein and Nancy and the rest of the Bookworks staff!

Three Generations on TV

Here's a four minute clip of me, my mother (author of The Lumiere Affair), and my grandmother (author of Shut Up and Live) on the Albuquerque NBC affiliate morning show, Good Day New Mexico. I have to say that my grandmother stole the show.

My First Interview!

Let's hear it for School Library Journal. Not only did they call Frankie "as memorable a character as Sherman Alexie’s Junior Spirit in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," but they saw fit to do an interview with me.

Going Back Home to New Mexico

I just found out that I'll be reading at Bookworks, one of Albuquerque's best independent bookstores, on June 22 at 3pm. I can't wait to get back home, eat some stuffed sopaipillas from Sadie's, and read some fiction. If you're in the area, I hope to see you there.

Writers love free stuff

Just a quick story. Last night after the conference, I went out to dinner with four of my best and closest friends at Hyperion and two other authors: Kelly DiPucchio and Sara Pennypacker. We had a tasty meal, (I even had a Pisco Sour, in Atlanta of all places, que viva la bebida nacional!) and as we were leaving, I noticed a large box of matches, about the size of a deck of cards, with the restaurant's name on it. I commented to the hostess on how fancy that huge box of restaurant matches and she asked if I wanted one. Sara and Kelly and I all jumped at the chance to walk out of the restaurant with a FREE box of matches. As I pushed through the door with my very own box in my hot little hands, I caught a glimpse of the smile on my editor's face, which seemed to say, "Ahh, writers."

IRA Conference

I just got back from Atlanta (that's my book in Hyperion's booth!) where I had a ridiculous time talking about the book and meeting other authors and being impressed once again by how much teachers and librarians care about their students. I spoke on a panel with Jerry Spinelli (who was both legendary and gracious) Gail Giles (whose books pretty much scare the hell out of me) and E Lockhart (whose new book The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks is great stuff, and not just because the narrator is named Frankie). I spent most of my time at the conference trying not to look over my shoulder for the reality police, who I was sure were going to jump from behind one of the booths to give me the old heave-ho.
At the panel, E (do I just call you E?) gave a fantastic response when we were asked what we'd say to parents who refuse to let their children read books because they object to the content, even if the books are within the publisher's suggested age range. Essentially, she said that the minute a parent refuses to talk to his or her child about the "mature" content of a certain book, that ensures that the child will never again bring up that "mature" content, even if it's something in the child's real life. Telling a kid he can't read something because of content effectively closes off the topic of conversation.
Not that I was able to recreate her eloquence, but the point is that I was on a fantastic panel with some incredibly smart writers and I couldn't believe it. Hyperion, if you're reading this, I'd be happy to go to more of those.