Ankle update: The bruise has now turned yellow and green which I think is an improvement however it has expanded around my entire ankle which is a bit disturbing. (How did I manage to sprain myself in a circle?) Still swollen; I walk and it hurts. This might be the gods telling me that the insane Crunch Bootcamp DVD was too extreme for cardio last week. (Four different types of push-ups!) (No, I could not do them all.) In the midst of all this snow/wind/rain and freaking cold I am not interested in running however, so cardio DVDs to the rescue. (Call me wimpy, I've served my time outdoors in the cold and I don't need to prove anything on the front) (Plus running on ice seems.....well, stupid.)

The new issue of Bookslut is up with my column on teens "in the aftermath". Books about teens who lost a friend, sibling or parent and the adjustments that follow. (In some cases the story follows the period immediately after, in others it is more than a decade.) These are NOT a bunch of downer books and all, as usual, come highly recommended. Don't miss Kathe Koja's Headlong for sure - it has an excellent surprising ending. (Not a big fat happy ending, but a nice twist from you would expect.) Simmone Howell's romance, Everything Beautiful is also quite good.

Just got the new Flux catalog and Micol Ostow has a new book due out this summer, illustrated by her brother, David, So Punk Rock (And Other Ways to Disappoint Your Mother). It looks very funny. (The official description is "hybrid graphic novel" whatever that means.)

For those of you wondering just what the hell is going on between the Palestinians and Israelis, I strongly recommend reading Marc Aronson's Unsettled: the problem of loving Israel. I just finished this one for my March column it is very well written, easy to understand and organized beautifully. He takes you through settlement of Israel, the wars, the Intifadas and deeply into the complexities of Israeli society (where everyone is most certainly not in agreement when it comes to the Palestinians). I'm so looking forward to writing about this book and it most certainly should be read by all teens and adults who seek basic information on the long conflict between these people.

Cool author news: Lauren Groff, whose Monsters of Templeton I loved, has a blog. Huzzah! She also got a great review for her short story collection Delicate Edible birds & Other Stories from Booklist which includes this teaser for one story, "L. DeBard and the Aliette" a "reimaginging of the love story of Abelard and Heloise that sees the couple recast as an Olympic swimmer and his pupil, both whom suffer through the flue epidemic of 1918." The story is available online at The Atlantic.

Matt Beynon Rees has a new entry out in his outstanding Omar Yussef series, The Samaritan's Secret. I have enjoyed these books for some time and as the latest got a starred review from Booklist, I'm looking forward to it as well.

Want to be completely freaked out by how our country has been run for the last eight years? Read the oral history collection from insiders in the current issue of Vanity Fair. All I'm all saying is that Richard Clarke (former WH counter terrorism expert) really really really did not like Dick Cheney. Or Donald Rumsfeld. Whoa.

And in wonderful news, Gwenda got an agent! Yea! And Leila is starting up a zine for MG and YA short stories. Double Yea!

Two bits of advice to the ladies: Savor these moments; these bright and shiny moments. The biggest mistake I have made in the past couple of years is looking past my current accomplishments and bemoaning the lack of the next great thing. I should have been happy for awhile with the wonderfulness of what I had before worrying about what I didn't. Signing with an agent is a great thing; being brave enough to start a literary magazine is a great thing. Let's all celebrate what 2009 has already brought some very cool people.