The New Jersey Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators will be holding their annual conference from June 3 through June 5 in Princeton, NJ. On Friday, June 3 I’ll join fellow young adult authors Keri Mikulski and Ellen Jensen Abbott in presenting an in-depth characterization workshop. As if that wasn’t exciting enough, literary agent Mary Kole of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency will be joining us as well. I’m really happy to be working with all these talented women, and I know we’ll have a great time!

Of course there are tons of other cool things going on throughout the weekend including  the chance to listen to other writers and illustrators and meet some literary agents and editors.

Visit Kathy Temean’s Writing and Illustrating blog for more details about this event and the conference.

For those of you who live in more traditional loon locations, a pair of loons may not be all that exciting, but loons are not a common sight in New Jersey. What’s even more surprising is that these loons have chosen such a tiny, little pond that is literally right next to a major interstate highway.

Anyway, that’s why on my dog walk the other day I made sure to bring my pathetic digital camera along, and made a valiant attempt to capture a picture of these loons for your viewing pleasure. The loons were a bit camera shy, the light was too low, and my camera was just not up to the task. So these dark photos with their miniscule black and white loon specks are all I have to show for my efforts. The whole time I was trying to snap a loon photo I had my dog Jack on a leash and he was convinced I was finally going to let him go swimming in the pond. So, that didn’t make my photo taking attempts any easier. (In case you are wondering, my not letting Jack swim in the pond is not an act of cruelty on my part as he presumes. The pond is also home to some mighty big snapping turtles, and I’d just as soon Jack didn’t tangle with any of them.)

I do think it is interesting that I have traveled to Maine some gazillion or so times, and the only time I’ve ever seen a loon in the wild is down here in New Jersey.

I saw this interesting looking fruit the other day, and had to use my excellent research skills (honed while working the children’s reference desk where kids often asked questions like the title of that book about that kid who lived in that house and the book cover was red or maybe blue and there was a dog in it) to find out its proper name.

Here’s a closer picture with my very professional looking camera shadow in there:

For those who are thinking this is some sort of weird mutant fruit that is the product of contaminated New Jersey soil, my research tells me this is a naturally growing fruit.

Anyway my original name for this was Green Wrinkly Apple Thing, while my boyfriend came up with the more poetic and more appropriate Brain Apple. Neither one of which is the actual name of this fruit. If any of you can guess it’s name I will be very impressed.

Map found via Driko Land

A friend of mine alerted me to a book review in this past Sunday’s New York Times of Beth Ann Bauman’s YA novel Rosie and Skate. The novel sounds good, but that’s not why the review was pointed out to me. It’s because it opened with this line:

New Jersey is a teenage state: it looks awkward in places, has questionable ethics from time to time and plays perennial underdog to New York. Perhaps this is why it’s home to so much good young adult literature.

All along I thought that the reason I was drawn to writing and reading books for teenagers was because I was immature and really just a kid at heart, but perhaps it’s because like Beth Ann, I am a Jersey girl. These days, I am back in the garden state after living in Pennsylvania for the past seven or so years, excepting a six month stretch spent in Maine. It’s a weird and wonderful state in many ways, and although there may be nicer places to live there are few that are quite as colorful as New Jersey.