1. We moved back to Colorado! After 2 years back east, we realized how much we love the mountains and sunshine of the Centennial State. Yes, it really is sunny here. Mad sunny. The whole snowstorm thing is kind of an urban legend perpetuated by native Coloradans to keep people from moving here, but we’re totally onto those tricksters now. I mean, it’s so sunny here that even when it rains, we get rainbows.

2. Speaking of rainbows, did you see the Double Rainbow Guy video? If you have a few minutes, watch the whole thing.

I seriously got choked up watching this. How many people (especially adult people) do you see getting so emotional over anything, let alone a rainbow? Whenever I see a rainbow or some other really cool natural phenomena, I think about how fortunate I am to be able to witness such things, and “Bear” reminded me of that. Plus, I have a special affection for double rainbows, because they seem to appear in my life an special occasions, marking big and wonderful changes. The first was on our wedding day here:

The next was 2 years later on the day I accepted my first book deal, just after I left work for the day, wondering where this new path would take me. And three years after that, on the day we moved back to Colorado, we had a flash rainstorm followed by… yep, another double rainbow — the perfect welcome home sign. I didn’t even take a picture because I knew I’d always remember it.

3. FIXING DELILAH HANNAFORD news: The book is now called FIXING DELILAH, and the new cover is coming soon. Those of you who’ve scored ARCs have seen one cover, but it’s changing, so hold on! FIXING DELILAH officially hits the shelves, new title and new cover and all, on November 2.

4. Facebook freedom rocks! Hi. My name is Sarah. And I’ve been Facebook free for many blissful days. By “free” I mean “profile-less.” I still have a fan page for book updates and contests, but I don’t have the whole ball of big brotherly wax following me around to different web sites and collecting my personal information for some yet-to-be-revealed plot of global domination. Or something. Wait, I think my tinfoil hat is getting hot under all this sun…

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer filled with happy sunshine, double rainbows, and lots of great books!

I need more space.

No, it’s not you. I don’t need space from you. I just need more space in my life. Physical space in my living area. Space between buildings. Creative space in my head and heart. Space between all of the online interactions and social networks into which I dove headfirst throughout 2009.

Technology and social networking have allowed me to connect with writers and readers in a way that just wasn’t possible when I was a teen reader. It’s been one of the most rewarding aspects of becoming a published author, and it’s something I look forward to continuing throughout my writing career. But I need to figure out how to do it better. Right now, I’m feeling a little one-night-standish with the Web, when I’m really looking for a committed relationship.

I love connecting with readers, but is clicking the “I like this” button on someone’s Facebook status lauding the wonder of guacamole really connecting? Is joining the group “I bet we can get one million people to hop on one foot and sing the national anthem while wearing a red sweater” really connecting? Is telling people what I ate for lunch really connecting? No, no, and no.

For me, connecting as an author is personally responding to reader emails. Participating in online discussions about writing. Discovering new books and recommending them to others. Meeting bloggers and librarians in person at conferences. Visiting schools and chatting with students who love to read and write. Going on a writers’ retreat with fellow authors. That’s the kind of connecting I want to do.

I’m also trying to figure out how to get more out of blogging. It’s the primary reason (second only to laziness, procrastination, and genuine writerly busy-ness) that I haven’t been posting much in 2010. Not that I don’t want to — I really enjoy blogging as much as I enjoy reading other people’s blogs because it’s another way to connect with readers, writers, and book people. I just want to make my posts more informative and fun and not too overwhelming (for me or for my 3 readers)! So there might be more space between entries this year, but hopefully, the quality of those entries will be better.

By freeing up some space between online interactions, I’m also hoping to free up some space inside from which I can draw more creative energy. More book writing. New story ideas. Photography. Tree hugging. All of the things I need to do to keep being me. To be happy and content. Do you feel a song coming on?

Here’s the scariest part. Now that I’m making an effort to put more space in my life online and on the inside, I’m seeking more space offline and on the outside, too. I’m… wow, this is so crazy… I’m getting rid of books. Yes. Books. Whole boxes of them. As much as I love books, I’ve finally accepted that unless they’re classics, stranded-on-a-desert-island favorites, written by author friends, or certain fantasy series’ that I love revisiting, I don’t re-read books. I don’t even refer to them again. I simply collect them on my bookshelf like little trophies, because I’ve always loved being surrounded by books and because that’s just what authors do. But with so many amazing new books published each year, and still hundreds if not thousands of classic adult and YA titles I’ve yet to read, I’m just not going to re-read most of the titles on my shelves, no matter how much I enjoyed them the first time. Instead, I’ve decided to donate them to local libraries and high schools, and to keep donating, as long as I keep reading.

And reading? That’s something I’ll never give up.

All I need to do now is get back to those Colorado open skies…

What about you? Is space important to you? How do you make room in your life, online and off?

It started quite accidentally, way back in the eighties…

Read the whole tale at Reading is Bliss, complete with photographic evidence and a contest to win a hardcover copy of Twenty Boy Summer!

Looking for sea glass requires patience and skill — it’s generally quite small and can be hard to spot among similarly colored rocks, shells, leaves, things that crawl, and other lakeside debris. No matter how many times Mom and I walked back and forth over the same stretch of beach, heads down, eyes trained on the thin spread of rocks where the water meets the sand, we continued to find pieces that we’d overlooked just moments earlier. Often, we’d catch a shimmer in the wet sand as the tide pulled back the lake like a skirt, only to lose sight of it as the water again rushed forward. Other times, we’d spot a brightly colored blue or red square a few paces ahead only to scoop up a piece of old plastic. There’s also the tricky matter of avoiding fish bones and litter and separating genuine lake-aged glass from the just-broken bottle shards of last night’s party crowd. Dangerous work, for sure.

Despite the obstacles, the long search is always worth the effort. Genuine beach glass uncovered as easily as something plucked form a store shelf wouldn’t hold such mystery, like the rare red glass in TWENTY BOY SUMMER, or the amber glass largely created not by our modern beer bottles as I once thought, but by Prohibition-era rumrunners who smuggled cases of booze from Canada into Buffalo, dumping bottles in the lake whenever the police got too close.

As we continued our treasure hunt, girls chatted on blankets in the sand despite the post-storm chill and thrillseekers braved the choppy, muddy water to windsurf and kiteboard. On one beach, a bulldozer beeped and roared along the waterfront, clearing tree branches and other debris that washed ashore in Sunday’s rain. Not far from where the waves nipped at our toes, the windmills from Lackawana’s urban wind farm towered in the sky, shooting up like trees from the industrial remnants of the Bethlehem Steel plant.

Here in the southtowns of Buffalo, despite greening efforts like the Lackawanna wind farm, a storm like Sunday’s is enough to flood area waterways and contaminate the lake, and swimming is still forbidden on certain beaches for the entire season due to pollution.

Still, for our walk up and down the shore, the sun shone warm on our backs and the rush of the wind-tossed waves dulled the sounds of civilization. As we combed the sand for hidden gems, it was enough just to be there, to hear the seagulls call to one another across the sky as we dropped tiny bits of amber and kelly green and aqua and white into our bags and wandered along the beach in search of more, a never-ending quest to unearth the buried treasures of the lake.

6. I’ve missed 2 fLiP iT fRiDaYs in a row. 1 for being on an all-day Amtrak ride from NYC to Buffalo. And 1 because I don’t remember why — I only remember the aching guilt. Guilt guilt guilt. Grounded!

5. I haven’t updated this blog in, like, forever. Lazy. Busy. Grounded!

4. I keep staying up way past my bedtime. So far past, in fact, that I’m now sleeping in the future, waiting for everyone else to catch up. Exhausted. Cranky. Grounded.

3. I was visiting my parents tonight and my Dad asked if there was anything sweet in the house, and Mom and I said no, which was a total lie considering the box of Dolci Bakery’s chocolate covered macaroons hidden beside me. And by macaroons I really mean macaroon — just the one — because I ate all the others. I was entering a Great Moral Dilemma (silently amongst myself) about whether to confess and pass over the last one, but by then, Dad was already in the kitchen digging out some cookies Mom remembered were in the freezer. There were 4. Cookies, not freezers. He offered to defrost and share 2 with me, completely oblivious to the macaroon non-admission. I would have eaten them, too, but then Mom found some more sweets. OMG I’m a horrible daughter! Ga-rounded.

2. There’s this crazy lightening storm going on at my parents’ house, the likes of which I haven’t seen since this one night in Denver where it was so intense, the midnight sky looked like daylight and Alex and I debated sleeping in the car in the garage. So what do I do? Go outside with my parents and the dog and stand in the driveway to watch. Um, what does it mean when your nose hair suddenly tingles and your mouth tastes like copper? It means you are dumb. Grounded.

And the number 1 reason I need to be grounded…

1. When I picked up my Mac laptop tonight, there was a rattling inside. Not like a light, tappy, Smart Food White Cheddar Popcorn kernel-rattling, which would be somewhat unsurprising given my propensity toward the cheesy treat as writing brainfood, but like a something-is-definitely-effed-up-in-this-piece rattling. Frantic, I opened it and booted up, but everything looked okay — no cracked screen or missing keys or buttons, and all the sounds and icons came on. Still, each time I tipped the computer, something obviously loose and foreign clunked around inside. I watched a bunch of movies last night so I thought maybe it was a loose DVD or DVD drive component, but nothing would eject (and I was certain I’d already ejected the last movie earlier today). I closed it up again, tipped and gently shook and shook and tipped and shook, and finally, out popped…. a quarter. A quarter! WTF!?! Note to self: Mac laptop is not a piggy bank. Or a slot machine. I don’t even know how it got in there or where it came from. The DVD drive isn’t even an open slot. God, the whole thing was very grilled-cheese-in-the-VCR, you know? How did I not blow myself up? How do I function? Idiot on parade. Grounded!

Devoted readers (and those whom my mother pays to pretend), will someone please volunteer to banish me to a place — a place that’s heavily padded — before I actually hurt myself?

And then you hide behind a lamp post on Elmwood Ave. in Buffalo just so you can video-stalk the most adorable kid in the universe without getting dirty looks from her dad. Or the police. But I just had to share this with you! Not the best quality video but it zooms in after a minute or so. Check it out.

I really admire her. I hope she stays like that forever.

“The sun! The sun!”

It’s been in the high 60s and 70s for almost a month, and recently my husband Alex has taken to motivating us (read: standing at the end of the bed and pulling on my feet, bribing me with coffee and sweet-talk, and generally cajoling me in the nicest way as he can manage) to get up and walk every morning, right after coffee and a light breakfast (that was my rule) but before diving into work.

I’ve got to hand it to him. He’s persistent. He doesn’t cave in to my irrationality. And I can be quite a challenge *cough* stubborn pig-headed pain in the ass who would have been the last one standing on the Titanic deck just to prove a point if someone told me to jump before I felt like it *cough*, especially pre-coffee. Seriously, I pretty much whine about it every time. I’ve got work to do! I’m tired! I’m dizzy with starvation! My knee hurts! My eyebrows have bedhead!

But he persists, and I go along with it. Partly because I’m afraid one morning he really will get the ice water. Mostly because I don’t want to cause him any more stress than living with me already causes *grin*… but the funny thing is, as soon as I get outside, I STFU, because I realize I’m super glad to be there. Yep. It’s all very “Sunshine! Oh how I’ve missed you!”

So I’ve been appreciating these little walking tours for exposing me to sunshine and *gasp* exercise and allowing us to more fully explore the neighborhood we inhabited just before winter set in last year. After spending like 6 months under a blanket of snow and slush and ice, shut in with the rest of the crazies in this city, I was beginning to question our judgment (hey, it happens, okay?). But now that it’s spring, it’s like someone has breathed a whole new life into Buffalo — and into me!

*Runs barefoot through the meadow for effect*

Elmwood Village Fangirling

Can I just take a moment to give a huge shout out to our neighborhood? Specifically:

• Delaware Park, with its green grass and weeping willows and rose garden and lake! Next up: touring Forest Lawn cemetery, which is part of the park.
• Dolci, a sweets and bakery place I almost wish I hadn’t discovered. Try the fudge covered macaroons or the Mexican wedding cakes. *Drools*
• Victorians. The homes around here are old (like over 100-120 years old) and beautiful, with crazy features and windows and woodwork and probably secret passageways. Some are even bright pink or purple, because when you have an amazing old Victorian, you can get away with stuff like that. I love walking up and down random streets and checking them out.
• Gardens. Many people around here participate in Garden Walk Buffalo at the end of July, so we get to see all of the colorful gardens coming to life around us, right in front of those big old Victorains. <3 Flowers! *Must remember camera on tomorrow’s walk*
• Trees. In October of 2006, Buffalo was hit with a freak snowstorm before most of the leaves had fallen from the trees. Snow and ice coated the trees, and the leaves got soaked and made it all much heavier, causing many limbs to snap under the weight. The city, including Delaware Park and the streets of our neighborhood, suffered loss or damage of 90% of its trees. You can still see the broken tree limbs on the survivors, but the good thing is, there were survivors, and new trees have also been planted along many of the sidewalks. So I love seeing the trees in spring, all of the new growth, and the pink and white blooms on all of the flowering trees around here. <3 Trees!
• Ethnic food. I love India Gate, Saigon Cafe, Mythos — and they’re all just a few minutes’ walk. We haven’t tried Wasabi yet, and I’m still on the lookout for a great Italian place close by, but we’ve got our faves covered for now. And yeah, don’t even get me started on those bakeries and coffee shops and other dangerous dens of food iniquity!
• Puppies and babies. Altogether now… “Awwwwww!” Yep, wherever we walk, puppies and babies abound, both equally happy to be out in the sun. They’re all so cute, so adorable, so much fun to ogle from a safe and non-responsible distance.
• The farmer’s market. The Elmwood-Bidwell Farmer’s Market starts up again soon. I can’t wait to check it out. I could never seem to wake up in time to catch it last year. Now that Alex has appointed himself commander of Operation Get Wife’s Ass Out of Bed Before Sundown and Make Her Walk, we might actually stand a chance at scoping out the zucchini and blueberries before the farmers pack them up for the day.

Yeah, I think we’re going to be okay up here in Buffalo, now that things are thawing out. I’ll bring the camera out next time so I can show you what I’m talking about. I know, I know… without photographic evidence, all you non-Buffalonians totally don’t believe me when I tell you we really do have nice weather here. But we do! Just not from October to April. Other than that, it’s perfect!

So tell me… what’s spring like where you live? What do you love most about it?

As many of you know, I don’t have a television. This is actually a good thing, though most people give me the does not compute stare when they hear it. Despite the pull of the blue glow, giving it up isn’t as hard as it sounds. Think you could tune out? Visit me at AuthorsNow to see why books better than TV, and to see if you’re up for a fun challenge!

Top 10 Reasons Books are Better than TV

There’s always something magical about the first snow of the season — something that makes me nostalgic for winters passed. Something that makes me long for pink cheeks and sledding and hot chocolate with little marshmallows.

Something that makes it okay to go outside on the front porch in the middle of the night with my husband in fuzzy pink snowflake and blue polar bear pajama pants (mine, his, respectively) to take pictures.

The snow crept up on me this year. I’d been expecting it since September — this is Buffalo, after all, home of the Lake Effect and the Blizzard of ’77. But the weather has been relatively calm since our early October arrival. Balmy, even. Last week we were still in the 70s, sunny, happy, nary a cloud in sight. So I found myself both surprised and delighted when Alex (yes, Alex of the polar bear pants) interrupted my evening procrastination to tell me about the first snow. And it’s a good one, too — perfect crystal snowflakes floating and twirling to the ground like a thousand tiny ballerinas.

Frozen ballerinas with chapped lips and runny noses whose mothers should have made them wear pants under their pink tutus like mine would have done, but ballerinas nevertheless.

Winter is coming — my first in Buffalo in 11 years. And I can’t wait!

Top 10 Things I’m Most Excited About for Winter in Buffalo, 2008 Version

1. The annual driving ban when we can enjoy the neighborhood on foot (snowshoes optional) as all traffic is suspended due to 4 feet of snow with nowhere to go.
2. Aforementioned hot chocolate, now with ginger, spicy hot pepper, and other secret ingredients for an added kick. Bailey’s may or may not be one of the secret ingredients, but since it’s a secret, I can’t tell you! Shhh! *hiccup*
3. Our first ever family Thanksgiving hosted in our home. By us. With family members attending. Extra Bailey’s — check.
4. Annual Thanksgiving weekend Lord of the Rings trilogy extended version movie marathon, in which Alex (yes, Alex of the polar bear pants) and I watch all three films back to back, eating nachos and drinking wine the entire twelve or so hours.
5. Watching kids in the neighborhood fall down in their puffy, immovable snowsuits, which I’m pretty sure Buffalo invented. The snowsuits, not the falling down. Speaking of falling down, bartender, more Bailey’s?
6. Silk Soy Holiday Nog.
7. Christmas carolers — a singer I am not, but I do hope we get some. Do people still carol? If not, could someone please come to our house, ring the doorbell, and sing?
8. Starbucks Caramel Apple Cider. In New York State, they use real apple cider and not just apple juice that they heat up and call cider.
9. Saving a snowball or two in the freezer and not looking at it again until summer, and of course —
10. Christmas music! I loves my Christmas music! It drives Alex (yes, Alex of the polar bear pants) crazy, but not me. I love it. You haven’t lived until you’ve heard Etta James do Silent Night.

What are you guys looking forward to this winter?