The Storybook Girl, Live

E. Lockhart's visit on Random Buzz, both as herself and as Ruby Oliver!!! Thanks for the heads up, Jess!

Susan Beth Pfeffer's blog about This World We Live In. She gives so much insight into her process. It's really generous.

Obits for PinaBausch. Such a gorgeous and influential lady in dance and theater! Here's a very Pina moment from a show I did with Sprung Theatre several years ago.

After a long stretch of distraction, I posted about writing on my bloggity blog. I'm craving livejournal lately, so I thought I'd post here as well.

I've been deadlining for a while now -- to my last packet date, to the end of semester. My next deadline involves my lecture, and now that the others are out of the way I'm actually excited to work on it.

But. The lecture will not satisfy . . . the need to write.

I don't know if I've mentioned it here or not, but I was using a working title for my novel -- Touch. Before I submitted it in my thesis, I checked Amazon to see if the title was taken. It was. By Francine Prose, in a book coming out, I kid you not, the DAY AFTER I CHECKED. If I wasn't such a fan of her Reading Like a Writer, I would have some serious jealousy-vibes swimming her way. But whatever. It just means I've got to get creative. I can do that.

So the novel formerly known as Touch is resting. It's part of my creative thesis. I'll be reading from it at my residency, which will be surreal. But I don't think it's quite, quite finished. I'm putting it aside for a month or more, writing some poetry, doing some research, and shaking up my brain with a project I started between my third and fourth semesters.

It is . . . a middle grade urban fantasy. Working title: My Dead Friend. It's really different from Touch, so that's fun, and I tried something I've never really done before -- outlining before plunging in. It's a loose outline, open to change, but so far it's making the first drafting fun because I definitely have a sense of where I'm going with it.

I have a couple of thrilling performances coming up with my children's theater company in Chicago. We teach writing workshops, do comedic and musical adaptations of children's writing, and perform them for audiences of all ages.

If you're very lucky, you might see me wearing a boa . . .



First, Barrel of Monkeys performs the annual Celebration of Authors. This year, we'll be in the gorgeous and huge mainstage theater at the Athenaeum. As always, this will be the public premiere of some of our favorite adaptations from the past school year, roughly two from each school. And the show is FREE!


Athenaeum Mainstage
2936 N. Southport Ave.
Call 312-409-1954, or reserve online

After that, I'll be in Barrel of Monkeys' performance on Arts Across Illinois, CenterStage on WTTW, Thursday, June 12th, at 8pm. You can be in the studio audience by calling 773-509-5614, or you can watch us on TV, channel 11! See "The Biggest Fight Ever" and find out what you get when you mix beautiful birds and explosives . . . "Tragic Fireworks."

. . . but until I do, this is mostly a holding page.

I'm a graduate student in the Vermont College program in Writing for Children and Young Adults, at work on a young adult novel, writing and performing in Chicago, IL.

I keep a blog at The Storybook Girl.

I also blog for my theater company, Barrel of Monkeys. Written by children. Performed by grown-ups. Enjoyed by everyone.