My Town Monday: Supporting the Locals in San Diego, CA

What does San Diego have in common with Seattle and Portland?

We have a bunch of microbreweries!

And what does Via Moto, the new Italian restaurant that opened June 15 in my neck of the woods, have in common with Seattle and Portland?

They serve a bunch of microbrewed beers!

SEVEN of the beers on tap at Via Moto are brewed locally. And the restaurant offers samples. So, if you don't know if you want a beer from Mira Mesa versus a beer from Escondido, well, you can take them both for a test drive (taste drive :) ).

The food was yummy, and the prices are good. I had a roasted-veggie salad. But next time I'm going for the thin-crust Marguerite Pizza. I'll be choosing the whole-wheat option. Also, it's a casual restaurant and kid friendly. You can dine inside or on the patio. You can order at the counter or sit at a table for full service. Rumor has it live music on the patio is in the future.


Here's a bench (one of several areas) studded with tiles decorated by students at local schools. Too cute!

Via Moto is at 9331 Mission Gorge Road, Santee, CA; (619) 328-0434. No one paid me to write this post. I was just impressed with the restaurant and figured I'd use the blog for good instead of evil on this glorious July 4th. :)

AND SPEAKING OF SUPPORTING LOCALS...I'll be at the Santee Public Library, my home library (9225 Carlton Hills Blvd, Santee, CA 92071, 619-448-1863) tomorrow July 5th from noon to 1pm. There'll be an entertaining authors' panel with yours truly and Cindy Pon (and you know how much I love that Young Adult author!), fellow Delacorte Press author Kirsten Hubbard (whom I'm dying to meet), Adult and Middle Grade author Greg van Eekhout (whom I've "author-paneled" with before. He's hilarious.) On top of all this, the library is providing a FREE lunch! And, yes, books will be for sale.

Please click here for links to more My Town Monday posts! It's always fun to see what's going on in other corners of the world. Happy Fourth!

Guess who I've been hanging out with!

Last Saturday, I was on a very fun Young-Adult panel with (left to right) Laura Preble, Debra Garfinkle, and Cindy Pon. It was at Romance Writers of America--San Diego chapter.

Our topic: Writing Young Adult. It's like writing for adults. Only different.

Catchy title, eh?

I had a great time. I loved being on a panel with three brilliant YA authors! I loved the RWA audience! I loved having lunch served to me!

And now I'm over guest blogging at Eileen Cook's blog. Eileen Cook is hilarious, asks fun interview questions, and is a little lax about getting dressed in the morning! (Sorry, Eileen, I couldn't resist!)

Tomorrow is the last day of school for my children! Yippee!

I've always been a bit surprised that I didn't grow up to be a librarian.

I'm very comfortable in a library. Which makes total sense because I've spent a lot of time in them. We went very regularly when I was a child. And I was allowed to ride my bike or walk to the bookmobile which parked in the elementary school parking lot once a week (on Saturdays, I think.) I loved the stacks and studying in a carrel when I was in college. I still go to the library to borrow books and sometimes to write. In fact, I'd write there more often if it weren't for that pesky no-eating-and-no-drinking rule.

Anyway, I don't remember even considering librarian as a career option. Possibly a mistake. I think I would've made a decent librarian. Once I managed to control my chattiness.

All this lead-in to say that I do love a library author visit. Last week, I was at the Santee Public Library, which is my home library. So, I feel particularly at ease here. I've brought kids to this branch for storytime, done research, talked lots with the librarians, paid a small fortune in overdue fines.

I had a great time on a panel with three Young Adult authors: Cindy Pon, Megan Whalen Turner and
Laura Preble. Actually, I had a REALLY great time. I think I was the last to leave.

(left to right) Cindy Pon, Megan Whalen Turner, me, Laura Preble

The visit was set up to honor the library's volunteers. Here's a blog post by one of the honoree's, Roseann.

My next big library visit is June 28 at the Rancho Santa Fe branch, promoting I So Don't Do Makeup. The library is bringing in a makeup artist for the event!!! Should be another fun visit.

Anyone else out there who's surprised they didn't wind up in a particular profession?

My Town Monday: Library Panels, San Diego

(L to R) The suspects: me, Cindy Pon, Laura Preble, Marlene Perez, Mary Pearson. This is pretty much a local yokel panel, although Marlene actually lives a little north of here, in Orange County. Oh, and, thank you, Mary, for the photo. I remembered to charge my camera, but then forgot to put the battery back in. This is only one of many reasons why I'm not a professional photographer.


As previously mentioned, last Friday, I was on an authors' panel at the extremely cute, has-an-ocean-view Encinitas Library. It was part of the San Diego County Library's Book Festival. Very fun! And Marisa Lowe, the teen librarian from my very own branch, did a super job moderating.

There were several things I liked about this event. I think we did a good job answering the questions. We were having fun, and I think that made the experience fun for the audience as well. I'm not particularly talented at speaking off the cuff, so I'm glad I had a chance to practice this. In terms of writing, it was interesting to see what we had in common and how we differed.

And I LOVED the little personal connections I made with the other panel members. Laura Preble and I have 16 year old sons who were in the SAME class from fourth through eighth grade! Marlene Perez and I both have four kids, are at least slightly sleep-deprived and like Thai food. I'm aiming to be as thoughtful and professional and put-together as Mary Pearson. Also, I want a skirt like hers. Oh, and Mary can drink a lot of iced tea. Cindy Pon? Well, she has a wicked sense of humor, is refreshingly honest and has no sense of direction.

Andrew Smith, Cindy Pon, Laura Preble, me

This is Saturday's author panel at the Poway Library. Also a very fun time and I enjoyed meeting Andrew Smith. As the only male around, he kept us on our toes. Plus, he had some GREAT one-liners. Which I will probably steal.

I'll be at the Santee Library (9225 Carlton Hills Blvd, Santee, CA 92071, (619) 448-1863) with Cindy and Laura for a discussion on writing (informal and fun, I hope) and book signing this coming Friday, Oct. 23 @ 5:30. In fact, I have a little surprise gift for each of them.

Click here for links to more My Town Monday posts

Thank you, Cassandra!

Today I met Cassandra. That's her in the photo above. And that's me next to her in my new orange sweater.

Cassandra came to an authors' panel held today in Encinitas.

The panel consisted of Mary Pearson, Marlene Perez, Laura Preble, Cindy Pon and myself. On Monday, I'll write more about the panel and about tomorrow's panel at the Poway Library. I'll probably reveal a few of the panelists' deep, dark secrets (not any of mine; my life's an open book!). But that Cindy Pon...

Meeting Cassandra was a wonderful opportunity for me.

Because she is an expert on Sherry and company, having read I So Don't Do Mysteries five times. And, yes, my heart did speed up just typing that.

Here's the deal. I did something very mean to Sherry at the beginning of I So Don't Do Famous, the book I'm working on. Very mean. Editor Wendy doesn't know about it. Nobody knows about it. Except for me and Sherry. And now Cassandra.

I was thrilled to be able to confide in Cassandra, a real live avid reader, and to hear how she felt about it. Cassandra said it was okay to be that mean on one condition... No problem. I'm on it.

Cassandra, it was a pleasure meeting you, and thank you for being there for Sherry and me!