For the last two years, since I started work on a new book, I've been told by lots of people, over and over again, "don't worry about it, the book is great, just finish it and send it in!" Meanwhile, I went into comatose states working on it and trying to rework and fix it and etc. etc. until I finally sent it in to my agent a month ago. (Well, I sent in the 400-page version a month ago....

I am doing a new speaking program at the Queens Public Library this summer: "From Private to Published" . It is, as you might imagine, a presentation (in two sessions) that shows anyone interested in writing how they can take their work from something they do for fun to something they do in public (and get paid for). In the talk, I present a number of resources/tips, and I wanted to post them here...

I don't do blog analytics. If I had a program that let me see exactly how many people were looking at my website at any given time, I would be catatonically depressed. I can just see myself, refreshing the screen, tracking a puny visit... no thanks. My version of blog analytics is posting a giveaway, as I did the other day, and seeing who responds. Thank you everyone for making me feel good! I found...

[jump to giveaways] Petronius, author of one of my favorite books, had an official position within the Roman court circa AD 50. As elegantiae arbiter , or "judge of elegance," it was his job to find the best things in Roman culture and serve them up to the emperor. This would be my dream job, without an emperor. Here are the things I find most elegant. Get a look at these Chinese...

First off, for anybody who's interested, I am doing a workshop on Wed., April 22nd in Mohegan Lake, NY, about 1.5 hours north of NYC. Writer's Workshop with Author Ned Vizzini Wednesday, April 22, 2009 -- 5pm Barnes and Noble Mohegan Lake 3089 E Main St, Mohegan Lake, NY 10547 [directions from NY] It's in conjunction with two things: my visit to Garrison Union Free School ( details...

Angstpiration speaking engagements continue to go well! Just recently went to Kennesaw, GA for the Kennesaw State University Annual Conference on Literature for Children and Young Adults. I spoke to education and media specialist students, as well as to the students at Cherokee HS in nearby Canton. This was fantastic. You'll notice that one of...

I have been holding off on a post on ANGSTPIRATION because I wanted to wait until it really got going. It has. This entry is going to focus on it. By the time you're done reading, you'll be able to: understand what what the program is recognize its success through the events that have already happened see what's coming next save a whole lot of money by learning concepts of public...

Last year, in Brooklyn, a 49-year-old woman named Esmin Green died on the floor of the waiting room at Kings County Hospital. She had been lying on the floor for an hour after suffering complications related to blood clots. It was all caught on video and the family sued for $25 million--exactly half of the monkey-face-eating lawsuit . What many people don't know is that Esmin was in the...

Last year, one of my favorite news stories was the Saga of the Somali Pirates. [ready for Hollywood] The pirates, as I hope we all know, terrorized (and continue to menace) ships in the Gulf of Aden , where they go out to sea in tugboat "mother ships," deploy speedboats, use rocket launchers and machine guns to subdue crews of large ocean-going vessels, and hold their cargoes for ransom...

[file under miscellaneous] Here's how my email works: I use Gmail, and I label all the incoming mail. Some of my labels are, for example, "to print", "by end of Feb", and "update mailing list." But the three big categories are: "!! CODE RED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" "* code orange" "*code yellow" I think the codes are self-explanatory. But I'm not great answering my mail; currently...