Interview with Scholastic’s Book Talk in which I am asked if I have ever seen Elvis in a pizza…

Welcome to Day 65 of WILL WORK FOR PROM DRESS PROMAPALOOZA… THE AFTERPARTY!  

Today’s author decided the picture was worth a thousand words.* Words are her thing, so we’ll go with that.

A click-thru revealing the identity of the mystery prom-goer of the day will be activated at 5:00EST. Get in on the Will Work for Prom Dress Promapalooza Afterparty PRIZE action and send over your best guess (one per email) before 5:00EST to willworkforpromdress@gmail.com — I’ll collect from the correct answers to pull from for the Ultimate Afterparty Swag Bag. 

*Fantasizes about turning in 45 snapshots to agent in lieu of wip…

[Authors and kidlit folk, there’s still room in the limo for you — shoot those pics over to aimeeferris@gmail.com.]

Welcome to Day 64 of WILL WORK FOR PROM DRESS PROMAPALOOZA… THE AFTERPARTY!

From today’s mystery author:

Hello, Mirror Self.

Do you see what I’m wearing? It’s peach taffeta. Taffeta says, “Be gentle with me for I am sensitive to hand oils”; the peach says, “Let’s party.” Note the light spray of baby’s breath in my French-braid updo. It has a slight Stevie Nicks feel, n’est-ce pas—just like a white-winged dove sings a song sounds like she’s singing? No. Do not answer just yet, my Mirror Self. You cannot see, but my satin shoes have been dyed to match this dress. Typing that sentence has just cost me a part of my soul.

Tonight, I will meet my date, a boy who has been conscripted from a Catholic school in Dallas—drafted, generously, by a kind friend so that I will not have to spend prom night home alone watching a double feature of “Love Boat” and “Fantasy Island.” Thank you for taking that bullet, Chris Stewart, wherever you are. Later, in the bomb shelter-chic environs of the Denton Civic Center, we will pogo to “Rock Lobster,” which will contribute greatly to the demise of this dress. It will also freak out the Cotton-Eyed Joe crowd who will not know what to make of our frantic, New Wave gyrations and who probably experience PTSD to this day. Or maybe that was just from the unnatural shine on my Sheer Energy pantyhose.

There will be a post-prom breakfast at somebody’s house where we will watch that fascinating new invention, MTV, and I will see the Tom-Tom Club’s “Genius of Love” video for the first time. I will love it more than prom. There will be amazing biscuits. I’ll want more for later. No worries, for surely I could store them easily in my Sleeves! Of! Death! It’s only been a year since Lady Di was married, but her sartorial style lives on in this peach meringue, which could double as a parachute if I am ever dropped over enemy lines. No doubt, the enemy would see my shoes and run screaming. I suppose then that I am wearing this prom dress to inspire world peace, Mirror Self. You’re welcome.

A click-thru revealing the identity of the mystery prom-goer of the day will be activated at 5:00EST. Get in on the Will Work for Prom Dress Promapalooza Afterparty PRIZE action and send over your best guess (one per email) before 5:00EST to willworkforpromdress@gmail.com — I’ll collect from the correct answers to pull from for the Ultimate Afterparty Swag Bag. 

**Authors and kidlit folk, there’s still room in the limo for you — shoot those pics over to aimeeferris@gmail.com.

Welcome to Day 63 of WILL WORK FOR PROM DRESS PROMAPALOOZA… THE AFTERPARTY!

From today’s mystery author, “See that look on my face? Yeah, behind the sexy aviator glasses. The scowl? That’s because I was not in love with the sweet and lovely boy who was kind enough to ask me to the prom, but another boy who had asked somebody else. Grown up me would like to knock that scowl right off my own face every time I see this photo, then go fix that sweet boy up with someone more worthy. But we’ve since ‘spoken’ on facebook, and he says he forgives 13-year-old me and he is now the mayor of a local town. So, I guess it’s all good.”

A click-thru revealing the identity of the mystery prom-goer of the day will be activated at 5:00EST. Get in on the Will Work for Prom Dress Promapalooza Afterparty PRIZE action and send over your best guess (one per email) before 5:00EST to willworkforpromdress@gmail.com — I’ll collect from the correct answers to pull from for the Ultimate Afterparty Swag Bag. 

**Authors and kidlit folk, all the cool kids are doing it—  even the Horn Book Office flaunted their teen selves. You know the drill, shoot those pics over to aimeeferris@gmail.com.

In honor of a few talented bookish sorts coming out in their taffeta and cummerbunds*, I give you Don Johnson, before he joined ALAN. Okay, perhaps that’s not THE “Sonny”, but pretty sure if the shot were full length you’d see he’s wearing loafers with no socks…

The band was just on break, stay tuned for new pics from more seriously talented (at writing, no claims as to their flair for picking out formalwear) authors soon to join the party.

*At the risk of going all “Escher” — take a gander at the Horn Book office crew in their prom’ish best!

…re-blog reviews and whatnot (not quite sure if I even did that right, Tumblergods) — but that down there is Amanda, who is about the most adorable person I’ve ever met.

Maybe because she made an origami version of me. In my prom dress.

Or maybe just because she’s hilarious.

In any case, seeing her ‘flail’ over the boys in my book was like eating candy. The good kind, not the kind you pawn off to your little sis/bro at Halloween because they are too young to recognize a bad trade for what it is.

So please forgive the gratuitous re-bloggage. I won’t make a habit of it.

anoceanfullofbowlingballs:

 I want to tell you about this book that I’m sort of in love with. It’s called Will Work For Prom Dress, and it’s by Aimee Ferris, and it’s awesome.

            If you watch my vlogs (do it! http://www.youtube.com/skywriter11), you know about WWFPD already.  You know about the origami prom attire and the Pink Cummerbund Incident.  So I’m just going to launch into why I love this book, and assume you’ll fill in the details by yourselves.

1.     CLOTHES.  So many beautiful dress descriptions in one place.

2.     BOYS. Ohmygosh, the boys in this book are just. ~flail~ I want one for myself.  And they can make me beautiful clothes and be deep and soulful and ahhhhhhh.

3.     The story.  I mean, a lot of books have great stories, but this book… 

Welcome to Day 62 of WILL WORK FOR PROM DRESS PROMAPALOOZA… THE AFTERPARTY!

Although our mystery author refused to give up the goods on a green hose/white dress wearing bff by allowing me to run her group shot, we are getting a fair amount of satisfaction from this pic (that with a touch of colour-adjust photoshopping is a dead ringer for Alice, no?). “This picture was taken in June, 1988 - hence the poufy hair and oddly coloured nylons! Back then, we had ‘Grade 13’, which was mandatory for people who wanted to go to university. For reasons I don’t remember, I made the dress myself.  The next year, I altered it so it actually fit properly, and wore it to a university formal.  THAT date at least got me a corsage.” *Ooooh, hints aboownd!

A click-thru revealing the identity of the mystery prom-goer of the day will be activated at 5:00EST. Get in on the Will Work for Prom Dress Promapalooza Afterparty PRIZE action and send over your best guess (one per email) before 5:00EST to willworkforpromdress@gmail.com — I’ll collect from the correct answers to pull from for the Ultimate Afterparty Swag Bag. 

**Authors and kidlit folk, all the cool kids are doing it— even Roger Sutton’s talking about the Promapalooza. You know the drill, shoot those pics over to aimeeferris@gmail.com.

“While it touches on some serious issues, this is a fun, lighthearted read. Quigley’s various employment experiences are laugh-out-loud funny, and Ferris achieves just the right snarky tone with the protagonist’s descriptions of her misadventures.”

LOVE YOU SLJ!

For ease of finding your favorite authors to giggle at admire, I have compiled a Prom Court Directory tab to the right.

Welcome to Day 61 of WILL WORK FOR PROM DRESS PROMAPALOOZA… THE AFTERPARTY! 

From the author, “I’m not actually sure which is more embarrassing—the dress or the armchair. But there are a lot of pics of me in this chair on prom night because I can’t stand up, not with the weight of those…sleeves? Arm bands? What ARE they, exactly? Oh, what I wouldn’t do to be able to travel back in time and snip those arm boobs off this otherwise cute dress. I find it endearing that I saw fit to wear four rings and a casual wristwatch—with a lovely poo brown wristband—but that it never occurred to me to put on a necklace! All that neck! Ah well.”

A click-thru revealing the identity of the mystery prom-goer of the day will be activated at 5:00EST. Get in on the Will Work for Prom Dress Promapalooza Afterparty PRIZE action and send over your best guess (one per email) before 5:00EST to willworkforpromdress@gmail.com — I’ll collect from the correct answers to pull from for the Ultimate Afterparty Swag Bag. 

**Authors and kidlit folk— it’s fashionable to be late. You know the drill, shoot those pics over to aimeeferris@gmail.com.

I am very excited to be attending the Albany Children’s Book Festival tomorrow, Saturday April 9.

I will not be wearing my prom dress.

I am assuming neither will my co-panelists* for The Value of Contemporary YA Literature 2:30- 3:15 session…but I hate to assume. So to be safe, I’ve linked their names with their mystery author prom pics here, to ensure everyone is easily spotted should they arrive in tulle or cummerbund.

Jo Knowles

Micol Ostow

Melissa Walker

Aimee Ferris (duh, me above also)

Eric Luper

*I’m sure they will all appreciate my ensuring their fans could recognize them regardless of wardrobe choices.

**And that I didn’t make good on my threat to bring floor-to-ceiling blowups of these shots to hang in the panel room.

Welcome to Day 60 of WILL WORK FOR PROM DRESS PROMAPALOOZA… THE AFTERPARTY! 

From the author, “Several years before I became a senior — toward the tail end of hippie days — people decided it was uncool/too-establishment/or-something-hippie-ish to have proms. So they stopped. During my senior year, a small, not-my-group of people decided they wanted to revive the prom tradition, but it was really only their group holding a party at a country club. That’s the long way of saying I didn’t actually attend a prom because there wasn’t officially a prom when I was in high school. Therefore, no prom pix. Here, though, is a picture a year later from a college fraternity formal. The date was a keeper. He’s still around.”

A click-thru revealing the identity of the mystery prom-goer of the day will be activated at 5:00EST. Get in on the Will Work for Prom Dress Promapalooza Afterparty PRIZE action and send over your best guess (one per email) before 5:00EST to willworkforpromdress@gmail.com — I’ll collect from the correct answers to pull from for the Ultimate Afterparty Swag Bag. 

**Authors and kidlit folk— you know the drill. Shoot those pics over to aimeeferris@gmail.com.

Hey, all — two more days left to bid over at the Writers for Red Cross auction. I’ve put up a book basket with GIRL OVERBOARD, a marine animal giftie, WILL WORK FOR PROM DRESS, a pair of prom bling chandelier earrings and… naming a character in my next novel for your teen of choice. Or grown up of choice. Or pet of choice?

I mean, really, if I can manage to name a character after an article of clothing, bring it on, I can take it!

This is all to benefit The Red Cross — because they do good stuff.

So wanna be well read? Help out the, well, Red Cross.*

(*Okay, that one was a stretch. Jokes are better in the books. Promise.)

So fun — Will Work for Prom Dress was the reader-chosen “Fresh Pick” of the day, over at Fresh Fiction.  Thanks, guys!