Love Triangles

My friend who shall remain nameless because I currently want to kill her (lack of sleep), introduced me to The Vampire Diaries last night. Holy mother of CW this show is amazing--- Kevin Williamson, how did I ever leave you? Oh right, because Dawson's ended up on Netflix.

I'm not far enough into season 1 to know this, yet, but I'm told this show features a true Love Triangle--- like legit, you guys. Which prompted me to start thinking about love triangles in general. It's a nifty trick, I will tell you--- one I employ in my books quite regularly. You set the tension spinning with one and then you up it with another--- it's a way to have anticipation and pay off at the same time-- and to always be building to something (with uncertainty). But is a love triangle ever ACTUALLY a love triangle?

Take the classic Kev example-- Dawson-Joey-Pacey. I don't want to offend people, but was anyone out there actually Team Dawson? Did such a thing exist? Similarly I look at Edward-Bella-Jacob. Team Jacob, can you hear me? Are you out there?

My point: love triangles seemed to weighted in one direction. Heavily. We know who we want, we know who SHE/HE wants, it just takes awhile to get there.

BUT-- glorious but! I have been told The Vampire Diaries is a real, legit, keep-surprising-you-you-have-no-idea-who-you-want love triangle. I am excited! This could be a first.

Tell me--- what is your favorite love triangle? And guys: NO VAMPIRE DIARIES SPOILERS!!!

XOXO,

R

BEA RECAP!!!

Hey guys! Well, BEA is officially over and it was one. awesome. week. So awesome, in fact, that I am spending today in bed sipping on Kombucha and promising my body I will not go to the cupcake place again! It was totally worth it, tho.

I thought I'd give you guys a little recap... in photos!

Okay, so, full confession: I slid into BEA week off a weekend in Miami with my girlfriends. See pics below:

and

It was super fun but I needed a lot of this when I returned:

Green juice!


Anyway... then it was BEA.

Tuesday was crazy busy and crazy fun. I woke up in the morning to do a radio interview--- I think it was, like, 6 am.

Then in the afternoon I had cocktails with the folks at my fabulous publisher, Simon and Schuster. It was fun but then I had to run to the Teen Author Carnival!

I did two panels--- one called "What's In A Name?" (Wonder where they got that title, huh?) and another on "keeping it realistic." It was super good times but alas, I have no pics!

Then it was off to my agency, Foundry's, party in Greenpoint--- and oh man, was that a par-tay. There were girls on roller skates and a huge projection screen with vintage Coppola. Here is a pic of me and my bestie Hannah:

WEDNESDAY was the AMAZING blogger event with The Reading Teen! I have never in my life seen such a magnificent view of Manhattan. Check it out, you guys:

New York was so sparkly!

I had an awesome time with my friends Jenny Han and Julia Devillers:

And my lovely Jess Rothenberg!

I signed all the giftbag books of When You Were Mine--- 60 total!

COOLEST THING EVER: I won these flowers that were HAND CRAFTED by Amy at Reading Teen and made completely out of Wuthering Heights and Harry Potter which you KNOW are my two lucky books! I nearly died and now they are in the most specialist spot in my apartment:

THURSDAY was a debut author event at the lovely Books of Wonder! I got to meet all kinds of fabulous new authors and readers. Here I am with the ever hilarious Meredith Zeitlin:

And here I am NOW. Friday am, sunglasses in bed, no plans on leaving:

Until TOMORROW-- SATURDAY--- When I am going to Books of Wonder with the wonderful Lauren Oliver and our other friends! Please, please come visit us. Here are the event details:

http://www.booksofwonder.com/events060912.asp


Hope you all had a great week and it was SO lovely to see so many of your smiling faces.

XOXOXO

R

Books of Wonder TONIGHT

Come see me TONIGHT at Books of Wonder at 6! Meet the class of 2012-- lots of awesome debut authors. It will be super fun, I promise.

Full details here: http://www.booksofwonder.com/events060712.asp

Total BEA report tomorrow! xoxoxoxo

R

Don't Go, Please Stay

This weekend my girlfriends and I took to Miami to celebrate our dear friend's engagement. The weekend was, ahem, fun-- I shall leave it at that. But it came with a bittersweet end. Another best friend has moved from New York, and while we traveled to Miami together, this morning we said goodbye at the airport--- she to LA, for good, and me back to ol' Manhattan.

My friends and I have a long-standing history of hysterical airport goodbyes (in college we nearly stopped traffic on the curb), and this morning was no exception. I love New York. I love that new people come into my life all the time-- but I also hate that many, inevitably, leave.

Melissa, my love, I wish you didn't have to go. The city already sparkless less without you here.

But next week is BEA (Yay!) and we soldier on. Stay tuned tomorrow for my panel list, and tell me--- who is in town and what are you all up to?!

XO,

R

Teaser...revealed!!!

Okay, you guys wanted something from the beginning of Book 2 and so I give you the FIRST official teaser. You ready?

I’ve lived at 65^th and Madison my whole life, but it doesn’t mean I fit in there. That’s the thing about the places we come from--- they probably say the least about who we really are than anything. 

I'm not telling you what the book is about, yet (you know I'm all about the mystery). But I want to know--- do you agree? Do you think, like our new narrator, that the places we come from say the least about who we really are? What do you think determines our character above all else? 

And also: What do you think this book is about?

Comment away! I'll post whoever gets the closest...

XO! Have a great weekend...I'm off to Miami to enjoy some BEACH. 

R

Teaser!

So, I'm feeling kind of fun-- being that it's summer, and all...did everyone have a good long weekend? The weather here in NY is AMAZING.

You guys have made the start of the summer so sunshiny (even when it was raining). You've all been so kind, and I am delighted and humbled by how much you have embraced Rosaline. You've also made it clear you want to know what's coming next and, while I can't tell you what Book 2 is about, just yet, I am going to give you a little sneak peek...and then let you guess.

So tell me: Where do you want a snippet from? The beginning? Middle? Or end? Let me know in the comments and I'll choose a little something to post later this week!

XO,

R

Back To The Beginning

How far we have come! Below is the original, first draft- oh my god what was I thinking--prologue for When You Were Mine-- then titled Rosaline. What do you think? A lot has changed, since this piece of writing (word vomit?) :) 

Have a great week! (And remember to revise!) 

R

What’s in a name?

I read the story and knew how it ended, it just never occurred to me that I’d be playing a different part. Sure, I realize that we can’t all be the heroines of other people’s stories, it just didn’t seem possible that I wouldn’t be the heroine of my own. I was pretty certain life was a lot more like the plays the theater kids put on than anyone imagined. I mean, this is high school, people have roles and they stick to them. You can’t just try on a bunch of different characters, be Sporty and Poetic at the same time because you feel like it. There are things that are permanent, unchangeable. People who are good at calc (not me) and the ones who can pull off white in the middle of winter (sure, but we live in California). Guys you are meant to love and who are meant to love you back (Rob Henly. Definitely). It’s life, it’s just the way it is. These stories don’t get re-written. They’ve been the same way for thousands of years. Who are we to change them?

Which is why it’s so infuriating that people are always going around telling teenagers that we don’t know who we are yet, that we still have to discover ourselves. I mean, I knew who I was:

Rosalind Kennedy. The most popular girl at San Bellaro, the daughter of a senator, best friend of Samantha Kessler, Olivia Diamond and Denine Goldman, and, most importantly, girlfriend of Rob Robert Henly.  I was the leading lady. Anyone would have said so.

Rob was mine. My best friend and the handsome neighbor next door. The one who first chased me around my backyard when I was five. Who sat with me, Saturday after Saturday, eating popcorn on my bedroom floor and watching old re-runs of Friends. We were always going to get together. It was just a matter of time. Rosalind Kennedy and Rob Henly. The perfect pair. The girl with the long, dark hair and the boy with the piercing brown-black eyes. Tall, dark and handsome. Rich and envied. We fit the part. So when he kissed me, three weeks before senior year began, my life, my identity, fell into place. In that moment, sitting on my parent’s back porch wearing his sweatshirt, the one with STANFORD stitched on the front, I knew, without a doubt, that there was no one I’d rather be with. Or be, for that matter.

But there was something I didn’t know. Something I hadn’t been paying attention to.

Rosalind had a different story, not at all like the one I remembered. This one had star crossed lovers and heartbreak and, yes, even death, but it wasn’t anything like the original. That’s the funny thing about shifting point of view, all of a sudden everything changes. Mrs. Grazinsky is always talking about this in English class, how a story told from a different character might as well be a different book. But Rob always looked so adorable in English that I never paid much attention. I should have. I should have listened when we read this one. I should have seen it coming. But I didn’t, of course. You never see anything coming when you’re in love. That’s the point. It’s blinding. Someone once said that love makes you forget the simplest things, like what color the sky is or whether it’s a Monday or a Tuesday. That love can even make you forget your own name.

They were right.