Jen Gennari, author

Candy hearts, cards, chocolates -- this day can be pretty miserable, especially for anyone in middle school. I can remember being relieved that I wasn't forced to send a card to every classmate as I was in elementary school. But the relief of not doing 24 homemade cards was overshadowed by receiving only one or two from friends.

Valentine's Day gets better, really, when you are older.

Especially when you realize it's OK to celebrate the love you feel for your friends, your dog, and your sister or brother.

This Valentine's Day, I'm thinking about the people in Washington State. They just voted to approve marriage for all. Now, it doesn't matter if two men or two women want to marry. You can marry who you love. That makes seven states, including Vermont, that have legalized gay marriage.

I think that's great. June would, too. In MY MIXED-UP BERRY BLUE SUMMER, June encounters some grownups who don't think her mom should be allowed to marry her girlfriend. June struggles to make sense of her new family, and how to stand on the side of love.

You'll have to wait until May to see how the pie gets mixed in.

As you get older, birthdays are smaller affairs and mostly a chance to be with the people you love. This year, my daughters made me an amazing cheesecake (wrong time of year for pie!).

I know what I like for my birthday. How do I get ready for my book's birthday? I'm overwhelmed as I learn how to celebrate the publication of MY MIXED UP BERRY BLUE SUMMER. The big day is 99 days away!

So that means build the buzz, and build it now. So I've revived my twitter account (follow me @JenGenn), I'm blogging more, and joining the conversation more. And I'm inspired by AC Gaughen, and cheering for writer friends, including Kekla Magoon, and supporting independent booksellers.

The good news is people are helping. The sales team is talking about my book this weekend to librarians at ALA midwinter in Dallas. I wish I could see the banner over the table!

The best for me, though, is that soon June's story of pie and courage will be out. Here's hoping readers of all ages enjoy MY MIXED UP BERRY BLUE SUMMER.

Thanksgiving is around the corner, and I bet everyone is telling you to be thankful for something. At my house, we're giving thanks for... pies!

Yes, this is the season when you can make pies with abandon. Chocolate-pecan, Apple-blackberry, cherry-pear, pumpkin whatever!

I'm looking forward to making pies with my daughters. But I'm also thankful for sales representatives. The good folks at Houghton Mifflin are traveling around to bookstores, talking about books and about My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer. And I'm grateful, I really am.

If you've been keeping up with the news, Lake Champlain has risen higher than ever--three feet above flood level, all due to snow melt and unusually heavy spring rains. I've been worried about friends, and thinking about the lake I love.

It's not the lake but politics that gets things riled up in My Mixed Up Berry Blue Summer, and as I reviewed first pages, this month I thought about the seed that started me writing June's story. The emotional core of this story comes from a young teenager in San Francisco, who was bullied by grownups -- something that should never happen. I was outraged then, and it fueled my desire to write an answer to "What if..." (The scene that recalls that moment is on page 54.)

One step of first pages -- when your story is typeset, and you get a chance to fix bad line breaks and sentences you hate now -- is to think about the dedication. So I reached out to a friend, who gave me the name of that young teen who I witnessed encountering prejudice.

I'm emailing one of her two dads, but I'm a little nervous. What will she say? Will she want to erase the memory, have nothing to do with me? Or will she be excited that June's story may help some other kid like her?

Whatever happens, June is more real then ever, thanks to Julia Denos. I'm loving the cover.

Exciting news! Julia Denos is illustrating the cover of My Mixed-Up, Berry Blue Summer. Her style reminds me of my younger self -- free-spirited, climbing trees, bicycling to Crystal Lake.

I heard the news when I was at a novel-writing retreat at Vermont College. It was great to be back in New England, tramping briskly across campus. What a joy to share stories and book suggestions. When you are with other writers, the ideas just flow and the inspiration seeps in, just like snowflakes melting on my hands.

The harbor seals are acting up, and I think it has to do with the season. Instead of lolling around on the log breakers, they are swimming in pairs, splashing each other, and showing off with dolphin-like dives. Sometimes, they follow my kayak, to see who I am.