The Status Report - Alexa Young

After a few weeks off, The Status Report is back.

For those not in the know, the idea of The Status Report is for YA authors to relay information on where they are at in this moment in time. It's also a way to keep track of the authors that aren't necessarily in the thick of the publicity merry-go-round. So far Melissa Walker and RJ Anderson have shared where they are at in their writing and this week the gloriously incandescent Alexa Young is stopping by.

Can I just say that the book she's just pitched sounds ridonkulously awesome and very much up my alley! Excited beyond words.

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Hi everyone! I’m so happy Adele asked me to do a guest blog about what I’ve been up to between projects because, as you may or may not realize, I’m *very* important and quite busy even in my downtime. You want specifics? I’ll give you specifics!

The most exciting recent news is that I just handed in the fourth and final book in the FRENEMIES series, FABOTAGE. (I’m really proud of the fact that I came up with the title myself.) Even though I’m awaiting revision notes from my editor, I feel like I can finally focus my energies on some new projects, which brings me to my next bit of news…

I just pitched some ideas to my agent, and we’re both pretty excited about one of them. The working title is LEARNING TO DIE, and it’s a sort of NO EXIT-meets-BREAKFAST CLUB premise, with lots of surprises along the way. Very dark and twisted and deep and stuff. Of course I still have to write it, but hey—at least the idea is there, right?

I’ve also been hard at work on a bunch of magazine articles, which I write under my maiden name. I mostly do stories about parenting and pregnancy—telling women how to be smart, savvy parents—and then completely ignore all the advice I offer. Fortunately, I’ve got a pretty awesome kid (Jack, age four) who seems to be turning out well in spite of all my screw-ups. I spend quite a lot of time with him, especially now that my husband is employed again (yay!). So, yeah, being a mom keeps me pretty busy too.

I’ve also been getting involved in animal rescue. A few weeks ago, I saved a dog from being euthanized, and we’ve been fostering her. She’s supposed to go to her new and loving forever home any minute now, at which point I’m hoping to take in one or two new fosters. This has been a really rewarding experience, and I encourage all the animal lovers out there to consider fostering or adopting pets.

Last, but not least, I’m going to be participating in the L.A. Times Festival of Books this weekend, with a bunch of other Los Angeles-based YA writers. We call ourselves the LAYAS, and we’ll be competing against each other in a teen fiction trivia game known as LAYAPALOOZA. It should be tons of fun, so if you’re in the area this weekend, you should come on by. I’ll be there on Saturday at 4pm.

See? I told you I’m very important and busy. I'm also not nearly as arrogant or self-congratulatory as this little post might seem. It's called sarcasm, people! :-)

Thanks for checking in on me, Adele, and for letting me share this status report with you and your lovely readers.

XO

Is it just me, or do they authors make you feel incredibly lazy too? The LAYAPALOOZA sounds incredibly fun - how I wish I were in California right now.

A big thank you to Alexa for sharing her progress with us all. There are more authors lined up and can I just say they are equally as fantastic as Alexa!

You can find Alexa's website here and her blog here.