The YA Authors Cafe chats are held Tuesday evenings at 8:30 p.m. EST. Please join in at www.yaauthorscafe.com. Click the cafe chatroom icon to enter the chat.

Mark the following on your calendar:

May 10 – Boys & Girls, Men & Women, Authors & Heroes: how gender affects how we write, who we write for, and what happens next. Cynthia Leitich Smith explores gender writing issues with panelists Nancy Werlin, D.L. Garfinkle, and Brian Yansky.

May 24 – Debby Garfinkle interviews award winning YA Author Gordon Korman, author of Son of the Mob and No More Dead Dogs. Note: Son of the Mob is one of my fave YAs.

Cynsational News & Links

I had the pleasure of brunching yesterday with Austin writer/illustrator Don Tate at Magnolia Cafe on Lake Austin Boulevard (review is for South Congress, but it’s basically the same). Good luck to Don on his upcoming Florida gig!

It appears that the Pecan Street Emporium, a gift shop on Sixth Street, has gone out of business. Where will I buy things like fiberoptic Dracula heads?

Where Is Walter This Week?: the journal of the wonderous Walter the Giant. He blogged about me and Greg the last time he was in Austin.

Out of My Mind: the journal of Shari Lyle-Soffe. In particular, check out “Don’t Believe Everything You Hear” and “Don’t Knuckle Under to Naysayers.”