I have added more news. This is very current stuff.

My next middle-grade novel, Bessica Lefter Bites Back, will be released on March 13th, 2012. This is a sequel to The Reinvention of Bessica Lefter, which received a Parents' Choice Award. Yay! It's about navigating the dangerous waters of middle school.

My latest teen novel, Sharks & Boys, is about a group of teens adrift at sea in a life raft who get attacked by sharks. Chomp!

A Field Guide for Heartbreakers came out on June 1st, 2010. This book is set in Prague. Here's a funny YouTube clip some high school girls made for it.

I'm a teacher again. I've teamed up with Nina LaCour. Check out the full-page flyer. And visit here to learn more or register. http://www.writeteen.com

My first middle-grade novel, Camille McPhee Fell Under the Bus, was selected by School Library Journal as one of the Best Children's Books for 2009.

Here is a podcast I did with my friend Mark de la Vina. (I think I sound like I've eaten my entire weight in Sugar Babies. Nobody told me to talk slowly. Now I know.)

Check out the Camille McPhee podcast at Just One More Book. You can hear it at the site or click here to download the podcast.

I read for Writer's Block on KQED. There are a bunch of great people over there. You can access my reading through KQED or iTunes or NPR, or you may download it.

In addition to being a volunteer gardener on Alcatraz, I am also training to be a docent to lead the garden tours. It’s a lot of information to remember. Also, there is a very steep hill.

Tom Sleigh selected me as the poetry fellow for the Writers@Work Conference in Park City. Good times. Good times.

Ted Kooser, former US Poet Laureate 2004-2006, selected my poem "Rain at the Zoo" to be reprinted in American Life in Poetry - www.americanlifeinpoetry.org

I volunteer at 826 Valencia (it has a pirate supply store inside it) and I recently wrote the introduction to the 826 Quarterly (it has great stories and poems written by people age 12-18 inside it).

I bought rugs for the first time in my life. Big ones. And they are three-dimensional and have asymmetrical starburst patterns on them that project out of the rug. My cat is afraid to walk on them.

News is over. I want to say thanks to my readers. You send me the nicest letters and emails. I love them. Seriously. You are all wonderful. Thanks.