Tales from the Trail of a YA Author – School’s out!!

Wishing everyone the best summer ever in 2014!!  It’s been a very busy past few days, driving my kid around LA to various end-of-school beach parties, movies, sleepovers, theme parks  and all sorts of shenanigans. Good times! Congrats to all the LA Unified Students who completed the 2013/14 year!

I wish I could be on hand to honor another group of students that I hold dear, but I’m sorry to say  I will have to miss a very special event tomorrow, June 11,  when http://www.WriteGirl.org will hold it’s In-Schools Season-End Celebration.

 So I’ll take this opportunity to give a shout out to the male and female students at La Vida West. These kids, who are already parents or are expecting kids, are working hard to graduate high school. They also work hard to hone their writing skills with WriteGirl mentors. I’ve had the honor to be among these mentors this past year and have posted several blogs about it.

The In-Schools Program is an important component of WriteGirl, and the mentors also work with students at  Azusa Cal-Safe, Destiny Girls Academy, and Road to Success Academy throughout the school year. 

Each year, WriteGirl celebrates the literary achievements  of these kids who face some of the toughest roadblocks that teens can face. The organization encourages a big crowd of supporters to ensure they feel heard and accomplished. Tomorrow, the students will be reading pieces they have worked on throughout the season, as well as debuting their newly published works from WriteGirls’ latest In-Schools Anthology, This is My World.

This event will take place at Maker City LA. I can’t wait to hear about it and wish all the wonderful students that I’ve met the very best of luck!

 

In other news… I think I’ve got my first piano gig in years coming up… September 7.. stay tuned!

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Tales from the Trail of a YA Author – Lights, camera, action!

I’m writing here to spread the word about a cool upcoming http://www.WriteGirl.org show and fundraiser featuring performances, a red carpet, silent auction, photo booth, catered food and drink, and more.

IT will take place on Saturday, April 26 at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. During the day will be a regular writing workshop during which mentors & celebrity screenwriters will guide the girls in writing monologues and scenes. In the evening, celebrity actors including Troian Bellisario (Pretty Little Liars), Keiko Agena (Gilmore Girls), Aasha Davis (Friday Night Lights), Sprague Grayden (24), and Mike Rock (Chelsea Lately), and Trevor St. John (Bourne Ultimatum) will perform the scenes at a fundraiser event open to the general public!!.

For the evening event Lights, Camera, Writegirl : the girls, also known as the mentees,  will attend for free, but all parents, volunteers, & guests will be asked to purchase $100 tickets or $250 VIP tickets.

For more information please click on http://www.writegirl.org/lights-camera-writegirl

And this weekend,  WriteGirl mentees will be reading their works at LA Times Festival of Books. http://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks/ I will too!! I’ll be signing and reading my books on Sunday, APril 13 at the Independent Writers of Southern California (IWOSC) http://www.iwosc.org booth #131 from 10 am to noon! Stop by!
Just got the coolest Thank You poster from students at Baldwin Middle School in New York. Love getting fan mail !