Somehow I forgot to send this one:

I'm sitting here watching the Grammys and Pink was absolutely incredible!! I would have been tossing my cookies rather than belting out a ballad like she did. Lady Gaga and Sir Elton John was pretty cool too. Have a bit of a headache from trying to watch Michael Jackson's 3D video but what a beautiful song. Lots of music I don't care for at all but seeing Taylor Swift's delight and awe to be singing with Stevie Nix was very touching.



Before I forget about it - YA lit is now making its way into our TV series! On Bones last week Booth distracted a "bad guy" on a plane by talking about Twilight and said he is in Team Edward. I'm not a big fan of the vampire series but I am delighted to see references to youth literature in venues that adults watch and the reference may pique their interest in checking out the other cool YA titles.



Read an interesting cover story in The New York Times Magazine last Sunday about James Patterson. He markets himself better than his publisher does! He told Little Brown he wanted to advertise on TV. They balked so he wrote and paid for the ad himself for Along Came A Spider. Of course, he had to add young adult author to his list and immediately Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Maximum-Ride/James-Patterson/e/9780316067959/?itm=1&USRI=maximum+ride+angel, published in 2005. There are at least 4 books in the series. Fun reading that should interest resistant readers - bird kids being chased by other DNA adapted youth and hiding from the scientist who wants to keep experimenting on them. The young teens and children have bird DNA and can fly away from most of the danger. His newest tween series, Witch and Wizard http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Witch-and-Wizard/James-Patterson/e/9780316072205/?itm=1 is Patterson's newest serries that will help the tweens who are having Harry Potter withdrawal



Reading about how he writes the outlines and gives it to other authors to flesh out reminds me of the Stratemeyer Syndicate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratemeyer_Syndicate Edward Stratemeyer would be considered the first book series packager. I was devastated as a child to realize my beloved Laura Lee Hope - author of the Bobbysey Twins series - did not exist. Don't go to the wikipedia site if you are worried about having childhood delight in Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series. At least Patterson is giving his co-authors credit, even putting their names on the books. That was/is not the way many packagers do things. There are ghost writers who don't get the credit they should such as the authors who fleshed out Ann Martin's Babysitter Club titles.