Most people know Chris Crutcher and I are close friends and have been for more than 15 years now.  I am his "right-hand-gal" aka assistant, and we live in the same town -- Spokane, WA.   So we hang out quite a bit.  But I've been lucky enough to build a lot of writing friendships over the years.  I'll post "moments" about those friendships here. 

BTW, I'm not this tall.  I'm 5'1" and he's 6'1".  Obviously, Chris is bending his knees to make me seem taller, bless him.

How did we meet?  I'd taken a job as the executive editor of Kids Reads at the Book Report Network.  At the time, Kids Reads included YA book reviews and features.  YA later broke off to become Teen Reads.  I had a 14 year old daughter (Kerry) who said she couldn't find "real" books to read.  So I was on the lookout, believe me.  When I found STAYING FAT FOR SARAH BYRNES (and TENDERNESS by Robert Cormier), it was like hitting solid gold.  I knew I had to feature this author at Kids Reads, so I asked his publicist at the time -- Tracy Van Straaten -- for an interview. 

We talked on the phone for more than an hour and really hit it off.  And we've been friends ever since.  When I moved my daughters from Longmont, Colorado to Spokane, Washington I felt so lucky to have one great friend I could count on.  Three years later, I kept telling Chris he needed an assistant, and he finally said, "Okay, but only if you'll do it."   How could I refuse?

Great boss.  Great friend.  Lucky me.

It's rare, but every once in a while, Chris and I get invited to speak at the same conferences.  Here he is signing his books at the University of Kentucky's McConnell Conference in 2009.  The lady in pink behind him, that's me.  He flew to Shanghai, China from Lexington, KY the next day.

I met Terry at Chris's WHALE TALK reading two years after I moved to Spokane in 1999.  His first book, STUCK IN NEUTRAL had just been released and Chris told me about it.  I read the book and celebrated when it won a Printz Honor, then wrote about the win in the Children's Writers and Illustrators Market Guide.  We've been good friends ever since.  I even helped write a tiny piece of INSIDE OUT -- the newspaper article at the end.  . 

Because we all live in Spokane, we meet at Subway for lunch whenever we're all in town.  I took this shot of Chris giving Trueman a hard time about something.  Good day.

In 2000, Chris won the Margaret L. Edwards Award from the ALA and Booklist.  Our local paper, the Spokesman Review asked me to write about Chris and the award.  I hadn't met Terry Davis, but I wanted to interview him for the article, since he wrote the first biography about Chris.  I called him in Mankato, Minnesota where he was teaching for their MFA program, and we had a great conversation.  We became friends and I consider him a really good one.  Chris learned how to structure fiction watching Davis write his most famous novel, VISION QUEST when they were both living in Northern California.  Terry is a good, good soul and I'm glad he's my movie friend when he's in town.

I took this picture of Davis with his beloved dog, Snickers before Snickers passed away.  Love this picture.

Auntie's is our local independent bookseller.  We gave a panel on writing for kids and young adults, and it was a great experience.  Chris on the left, Claire Rudolf Murphy, Terry Davis and me.

Jill is a wonderful writer and has been for many years.  But she is also my world class agent at the Herman Agency.  Her boss, Ronnie Herman also represents some of my work, which leaves me doubly lucky!  So I have to include her in this gathering.

I met Jill when we both spoke at an SCBWI regional conference in Boise, Idaho (Chris spoke there, too).  The featured writers were all signing our books at a lovely store called Rediscovered Bookshop when Jill walked in and started thumbing through my books and watching me talk to the kids buying my books.  She said she didn't represent nonfiction, which I already knew, so we just talked about how much kids, especially boys, love my books.  As we walked out, she said, "I want to represent you."

I assumed she was being friendly, not serious until I found the contract in my email box a couple of days later.  But I knew she was something special after we hung out the whole weekend.  As we sat in the airport waiting for our departing flights, Jill asked what else I had to shop, and I mentioned GIRL MEETS BOY.  She sold it just a few weeks later.  Amazing. 

Jill is a writer and an agent.  But Jill is also my good, good friend. 

I'd seen Kenn present here and there, but I didn't really know him until we joined forces to bring an SCBWI Network to the Inland Empire.  There was only a Seattle branch, but Seattle is a five hour drive from Spokane over two snowy mountain passes in the winter.  Not so easy to participate.  So Kenn and I co-advised the new Network to try and prove we could sustain an actual region.  We had such great response, they decided to make it a real region.  We passed it on to Verla Kay, who did a great job.  She passed it on to Deby Frederick.  She passed it on to Mary Cronk Farrell, who is the RA today. 

Something about sharing that commitment, and a passion for doing fun school visits just helped our friendship to click.  He and another poet are writing a companion book for TALES OF THE CRYPTIDS, and I couldn't be more delighted.  Kenn's one of the good guys, and I'm glad we're friends.

Kenn Nesbitt and I at an SCBWI workshop -- Kenn was teaching us all about technology.  As a former Microsoft guy, he was really well qualified. 

When I first moved to Spokane, Claire, Mary and Meghan invited me to share an afternoon with their writing group.  It was very kind of them, but I didn't write fiction, so things didn't go much further. 

It wasn't until they got more involved with SCBWI that we became friends rather than acquaintances. I'm not a typical kind of female.  I grew up with boys, as an athlete, and I'm more at ease with guys as a result.  But these women are terrific people, so I'm glad they gave me a chance -- glad I didn't let being secretly shy (I know, hard to believe) stand in the way.

We've become closer as we've communed about great YA fiction, the writing industry and crafting nonfiction.  Claire also teaches for the MFA program at Hamline.  She's a very generous pro! 

Mary came to my SASQUATCH release party at the Tinman, Too bookstore.  So did Trent Reedy (left -- Words in the Dust) and John Bladek (center -- Roll Up the Streets).  I missed going out for a beer with Chris and Trent and John the same day, but I'm hoping they'll be writing friends of mine, too.  They are such talented YA and Middle Grade authors.  Mary is too. 

A few years ago, I caught up with my old high school friend Andrew Smith.  We worked on the high school newspaper together more than 30 years ago, so one of the first questions I asked him was, "Where is your novel?" 

"What novel?" he said.  He was teaching in a California high school, not writing.  So I asked again.  He confessed, it was in his desk drawer.  So I told him to get it out, we were going to get him published.   We worked together on a synopsis and a query letter for an agent and he submitted to several.  Then we worked on how he should respond.  In very little time, he had an agent, and before we knew it, that first book was sold.  I helped jump start his writing engine, but the talent and hard work was all his. 

Even so, he was kind enough to mention me in this interview.  Thanks Andrew.  Glad you finally took the leap.   The interview question and response:

How long after deciding to pursue writing professionally did you manage to become published?

Well… it was a first-out-of-the-gate thing. But it’s a long story, too. I have a dear friend I went to high school with, Kelly Milner Halls, who is quite a successful author of nonfiction for young readers. Anyway, I think it was around 2004 or so, and Kelly was bugging me, saying, “Why haven’t you ever tried to publish a novel? You’re such a talented writer…” and blah, blah, blah…

So I told her, fine, that I actually was working on a novel (and I was… it was called Ghost Medicine), and that when I finished it, I’d try to get an agent and see what happens. So, I think around 2006 I started looking for an agent, and I was signed by the most incredible Laura Rennert of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. She sold the manuscript at auction, and it was published in 2008.

And if it wasn’t for Kelly, I’d still be writing, but only for myself and my hard drive. I honestly never once thought about getting published or being a “professional” until Kelly dared me into it.

Here's a picture of the journalism crew at Newbury Park High School including me (standing, second from the left) and Andrew (fourth from the left).  We'd been at a "write-off" competition. 

I met Larry Dane Brimner when I staffed the Highlights Foundations Writers Workshop known as Chautauqua in New York State in 2007. 

They piled a bunch of us in a limo from the Buffalo Airport to drive to Chautauqua, NY but there wasn't room for the luggage in the trunk, so they stacked the luggage on our laps.  Larry and I got the lion's share. 

I was nervous, so I started rubbing my knee with the open palm of my hand.  It's what I do -- or DID -- when I'm a little bit scared and I don't want anyone to know it.  Strange thing was, I could feel my knee against my hand, but I couldn't feel my hand against my knee.  I thought, "Wow, this luggage has totally cut the circulation off in my leg.  I can't feel a thing." 

Just as I thought that, Larry lifted my hand -- not from my knee, but from HIS -- and said, with a puzzled smile, "I don't think we know each other that well." 

To say I was mortified is putting it MILDLY.  Here's this brilliant nonfiction writer, an honored, long term teacher at Chautauqua (it was my first and only time), and I'd just groped his knee by accident.  But after I explained, we became fast friends.   I've seen him a couple of times since, including in New Orleans where the picture above was taken.  Larry's the BEST.