Hello and Happy New Year!

I truly hate New Year's resolutions.  My only annual New Year's resolution is not to make resolutions...and there, I've already broken that resolution, which is why I don't bother with them in the first place.  But in the spirit of all things New, I thought I'd post about some upcoming things in the works.

The first exciting arrival for 2009 will be the Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist DVD!

It comes out on February 3, 2009 and includes these special features:
· Digital Copy of the film for playback on PSP™ and iTunes
· Deleted scenes
· Outtakes
· Music Video: "Middle Management" by Bishop Allen
· Storyboard Animations with optional filmmakers' commentary
· A Nick & Norah Puppet Show by Kat Dennings
· Ari Graynor's Video Diary: A Look Behind-the-Scenes
· Faux interview with Michael Cera, Kat Dennings and Eddie Kaye Thomas
· Photo Gallery
· Commentary with director Peter Sollett, actors Michael Cera, Kat Dennings and Ari Graynor
· Commentary with Peter Sollett, authors Rachel Cohn and David Levithan and screenwriter Lorene Scafaria

Yes, you read right.  David and I got to record commentary for the DVD, and yes, it did make us feel spectacularly important and cool to do so.  I say this not having heard the commentary played back.  I'm sure once I have heard all the dumb things I said on it, I'll be feeling less special and more afflicted with a case of Shut-Up-Rachelitis.
Yes, you also read right, a Nick & Norah puppet show by the glorious Kat Dennings.  I can't wait to see it!  Though I'll note that David and I performed a Nick & Norah puppet show at the book's launch party many moons ago...and I personally am very grateful there's no recorded video of that.  May 2006:


Next, on February 24, 2009, the paperback edition of my most recent book, You Know Where to Find Me, will be available.  The book was an Oprah's Book Club pick for teens on Oprah.com, and comes out in paperback with this pretty new cover:


Beyond that, no big news to report for the time being, but stay tuned!  I'm going to try to be a better blogger this year.  That's not a resolution, of course.  Just a general goal.  Meantime, here are answers to YOUR questions -- thanks for sending 'em in!

Q:  When is your next book coming out? Where there be a sequel to Cupcake?
A:  After about a two-year break from writing, I've finally completed a new novel which I'm really excited about.  It's tentatively entitled Very LeFreak (do you like that title?  what does it make you think the book will be about?) and the new book will be coming out in early 2010.  I'll post more details, along with a cover, fairly soon.  As for Cupcake, sorry, no sequel.  I loved writing the Cyd Charisse character, but she and I are both ready for my writing brain to move on to new worlds.  However, the books have recently been re-packaged with new covers which I madly love -- what do you think?


Q:  Are any of your characters modeled after anyone special?:) Love you.
A:  Not really.  Some of them have characteristics shared by people I know and love, but the fictional characters are essentially all their own people, just like the real ones.  ;>  The Norah character in N&N, though, was a little bit inspired by my younger sister Martha (now 21), who was a straight edge punk girl in her teens.  Norah and Martha aren't very much alike otherwise, but that one characteristic was very intentionally shared.
Love you, too, 'course.

Q:  Are any of your other books going to be movies?
A:  Naomi & Ely's No Kiss List is in development as a possible starring vehicle for Hayden Panetierre, but there's nothing going into production as of now -- just a nice possibility.  A lot of people have also asked about the CC/Gingerbread books.  The update on that is Amy Sherman-Palladino is no longer attached to the project (she's way busy with other stuff), and I am trying to decide if and how I could get those books brewing on the film/TV front again.  So the answer on that front is really:  no news.

Q:  What's your absolute favorite sugar and coffee combo?
A:  I love a coffee from Sant Ambroeus in the West Village/NYC and a cupcake from Cake and Art in West Hollywood, CA.  Unfortunately, logistically, they're hard to have at the same time on the same day.  What are your favorite sugar/coffee combos, dear readers?

Q:  What about a novel where the characters from Twilight and the Characters from Nick and Norah face off in a gang war?
A:  I like it!  I see a lot of sparkly F-bombs and West Side Story meets Sid and Nancy meets The Thin Man musical interludes.  Dear readers, I entreat you, write this fan fiction -- I'd love to read it!  And I know the Edward love is mad crazy in this particular time and space, but my heart belongs first and foremost to Nick -- and I hope the fan fiction will also!  (Pretty please?)

Okay, and finally, I have a question for you. 

Rachel:  If I move my blog so it's based somewhere other than MySpace, what do you recommend?  No LJ for me, though, thx.  ;>
You:  ?!?!?

Happy New Year to you all!  Wishing you lotsa lattes and great books to read!

Much love,
Rachel

Greetings,
I'm thrilled beyond belief that the Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist movie arrives in theatres this weekend.  David and I love the movie madly and really really really (REALLY!) hope you will see the movie and love it as much as we do.  If I could, I'd buy you all popcorn and M&Ms for the show.  (Mix them together sometime.  Kinda gross, but also major yummy.) And if you look closely, you'll see David and I making cameos in the movie -- we're the couple sitting behind Michael Cera and Kat Dennings in the Veselka scene.
If you're interested in these kinds of things, here are links for some fab reviews of the movie:  Entertainment Weekly, LA Times, NY Times, Time, Newsweek, USA Today.
The Nick & Norah book has also landed on the NY Times Bestseller list -- thank you, readers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'll be answering questions about the book and movie and Whatever Else Interests You this month online via the Readergirlz group forum (you can also check them via their link on my Top Friends), as well as doing a live chat there on October 23, 2008 at 9PM Eastern/6PM Pacific.  I hope you'll join in on the forum -- I'd love to hear from you.
Meantime, drop some comments here or on on my page and let me know what you think about the movie!  The filmmakers worked so hard to capture the feel of the book and to create a movie experience that was true to teen life today, and everyone involved truly hopes you have a great time at the show.  Me, especially.
Love and happy movie-watching!!!!!!!!!!,
:)Rachel

Some of my favorite movie clips:
Last Night

Don't Do It

Is That A Turkey Sandwitch

Greetings,
Set your DVRs -- David appears on a VH1 special "10 Most Excellent Things" about Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist airing tonight at 2AM.  (Yeah, it aired earlier before...just didn't know about it in time to tell you...sorry!)  I'm not on the show -- I was in Australia at the time they taped (that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it), but way better, you can watch the special to see David along with the amazing cast, director, screenwriter and producers talk about the movie.  Which is opening this Friday!!!!!!!!  Eeek!!!!  I hope you go and love and it as much as we do.
David and I will also be talking about the book/movie on opening day on NPR's "Day to Day" program this Friday.  You can check your local listings here or listen to it online afterward.
What are your 10 Most Excellent Things -- Nick & Norah, or otherwise?
Cheers and lots of love,
Rachel

Hello,
So this past weekend David and I got to experience a real dream come true -- we got to attend the world premiere for the Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist movie at the Toronto Film Festival!  The city was crawling with movie stars and glamour for so many exciting movie events going on at once, but of course, we cared most about our little slice of it...
Luckily, we had seen the movie a few weeks ahead of the official premiere, by which I mean lucky for the people sitting ahead of us in the theater at the premiere, because I think I would have thrown up from anxiety on them if I hadn't known what to expect.  Luckily even more, we LOVE this movie.  Honestly, seeing it was one of the highlights of my professional career.  I felt so proud to be associated with this movie in any small way.  Because, setting aside our link to it and having everything to do with the great director and cast, it's just a real "feel good" movie in the best sense.  It's funny, sweet, romantic, real and yet dreamy -- exactly the reasons we go to the movies in the first place.  You leave it with a smile on your face and a song in your heart.
Is the movie different from the book?  Of course it is.  But I was surprised myself to discover I wouldn't want it any other way.  Plot-wise the movie is different from the book (Nick & Norah's friends have bigger story lines), but the spirit of the book is intact, and that, for real, was most important to us.  I think that's the single hardest aspect to capture in an adaptation, but this movie pulled it off beautifully.  (I admit to not just being thrilled about this, but relieved!)  Why I like the differences from the book to the movie are that they allow the book to always remain the book.  Sometimes I think when adaptations are produced too literally, they can have a sterile quality, but this movie felt very alive and real -- completely recognizable to the book, and yet its own independent being (and if you know how I feel about the cupcake vs. cake issue from the CC books, you understand why this matters a lot to me).
The actors, of course, are all way better-looking than I imagined the characters in the book, but they all suit the roles beautifully in personality and make each character their own.  I love that Michael Cera's Nick is a bit darker than earlier characters he's played, and that he's not the lovable dork who doesn't think he can get the girl -- he's a guy that's obsessing over the wrong ex-girlfriend, maybe, but he's already loved and lost the hot girl, and now can move on to trying a more mature relationship with a new girl, Norah.  Which brings me to Kat Dennings.  If you don't completely fall in love with her as Norah, I kind of want to start a fight with you.  Check out this link to see a great tribute to her that no less than the New York Times said about her portrayal of Norah.  The supporting actors -- Ari Graynor as Caroline, Jay Baruchel as Tal, Alexis Dziena as Tris, Rafi Gavron as Dev, Aaron Yoo as Thom, and Jonathan B. Wright as "Lethario" -- are all terrific, very fun and endearing (well, maybe Tal isn't endearing, but he's certainly funny to watch).  They're the kinds of friends you'd want to spend your Manhattan all-nighter with, for sure.  Even one traipsing after a drunk girl.
I know a lot of you have seen the trailers and commercials for the movie, and have spoken up (quite vocally!) to me and David about the fact that in the movie version it's Norah who asks Nick to be her 5-minute boyfriend and not the other way around.  But you know what?  It works.  Totally.  I seriously have no problem with that change -- I actually like it.  (Go, Norah!)  And it's one of those changes that speaks to what I said earlier -- it allows the movie to breathe on its own outside of the book, and keeps the book always ours (meaning yours, mine and David's).  As a movie moment, it works beautifully.  It's almost as cool as the YUGO.  ;>
The movie premiere itself was great fun, seeing as how I managed not to throw up on anyone during it.  People had told me the movie would be a different experience watching it with a live audience (the first time we saw it was in a small screening room) and that was really true.  It was so thrilling to hear all the laughter and sighing and happy reactions from the crowd.  Probably you'd like to see my photos from the event, but guess who was dumb enough not to bring a camera with a flash?  Um, yeah, that would be me.  So meantime, here's a photo borrowed from David of us dressed up all fancy at the premiere.

If you want to see better, actually professional photos of the Beautiful Actor People from the premiere events, check out this link from gettyimages.com (if the link doesn't work, go to that site and do a search on the movie or actors' names).  The Los Angeles Times also ran a lovely piece about Michael and Kat and their wonderful chemistry -- you can read it here.
I think that's all I have to say about the movie for now.  It arrives in theaters on October 3, and I can't wait to hear what you think about it!  There are also lots of cool cameos in there, and, okay, this is actually the most important part:  The music is awesome.  I hope you enjoy the Nick & Norah movie experience as much as we did!
Til opening day...
Cheers and lots of love,
Rachel

P.S.!  Updated to add:  New trailer (includes one of my favorite bits, Norah's "I am not jealous!" rant).
 

Greetings and salutations,
So I managed to score a trip to Australia for the month of August, which was an entirely made-of-awesome and sneaky way to avoid NYC in the summertime (humidity -- not so much for me).  It's winter where I am in Sydney right now, but I'm staying at the beach in a place called Manly, and so far the weather and sun have been glorious -- exactly perfect.  So happy to be here, relaxing and visiting with great friends.  Here's some views from the bedroom window where I'm staying:


I know.
The only downside is that I missing the first launch of marketing for the Nick & Norah movie, which means I am not home to see the trailer playing in a theater, or to see the posters starting to crop up, or the cardboard cut-outs on display in some theaters.  So may I ask you a favor?  If you see any of these, will you take a photo and post it on my page?  I'd love to experience the vicarious thrill from thousands of miles below the equator.  Thaaaaaaaaaaaank you!!!!!!!!
Meantime, the official Nick & Norah website has been updated pretty magnificently for the movie, and now includes some great contests (with some sweet prizes!), an online book club, and an amazing widget-maker through which you can build your own infinite playlist, among any other cool features.
Exhibit A:
 

Wanna know more about the movie's actual soundtrack?  Check this out.
More soon!
Cheers and g'day and  happy reading (and widget-making),
:)))Rachel

Hey there,
There's now an official and very cool online Nick & Norah virtual book club set up as part of the movie website.  You can check it out here.  Enjoy!
Read on,
:)Rachel

Here it is!
Hope you enjoy and are as excited as we are!

:)))Rachel

Greetings,
I want to recommend a terrific and hilarious new book to you.  Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway is the story of a 16-year-old Southern California girl named Audrey, who in a fickle moment breaks up with her musician boyfriend, Evan.  He writes a song about the break-up, called "Audrey, Wait" which becomes a pop music sensation.  Audrey, Wait! is Audrey's version of the pop song story, as she's suddenly catapulted to unwanted fame and tabloid-stalking, but retains her own sense of self, surrounded by a great cast of friends and family.  What I love most about Audrey is she's an awesome Every Girl -- sort of the coolest girl you wish you could be, but also the coolest girl you already are.
I first met Robin Benway, the author of Audrey, Wait!, when she was a student of mine in a creative writing class I taught at UCLA Extension a few years ago.  Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist was about to be published, and I saw in Audrey a kindred spirit -- I feel like Audrey could be Norah's SoCal gentile cousin-in-spirit, or something.  And Audrey's author Robin is as cool and funny as you'd imagine -- go on and friend her already!  She's on my Top Friends page, and you couldn't ask for a nicer person to add to your friends list.
In other news, I'm back to writing again after about a year and a half immersed in the slacker lifestyle.  I'm perched in the Writers Room again (mentioned in Page Six yesterday! but I swear it wasn't me who blabbed...and my cell phone etiquette is impeccable, for the record), procrastinating again, trying to remember how to write a book.  In Hollywood news, Hayden Panettiere has signed on for a potential adaption of Naomi & Ely's No Kiss List!  This doesn't mean an actual movie is going into production (a script still needs to be written, etc.) yet, but it's an exciting development.  Here's hoping.
I really really have to stop procrastinating now.  I hope you'll check out Audrey, Wait!, and if you have any tips for me about how one goes about writing a novel, I'm listening!
Cheers and happy reading,
Rachel

You asked, I answered.  Here's the latest Q&A installment.  Thanks to everyone who sent in Qs!
Wishing you all a happy and healthy New Year, filled with great books, great music and great friends.  (Great cupcakes, too -- duh.)
Cheers and lots of love,
Rachel

--------

Q:  How did you feel when you were told that they were turning N&N into a movie?
Is the plot changing a lot?
Who the hell is Lethario on IMDB?
Can we know some of the songs on the soundtrack? I know Bishop Allen and Project Jenny/Project Jan.
A:  ECSTATIC!  But I didn't really believe it, until the first day we visited a shoot on Ludlow Street (see:  David's awesome "On Ludlow" lyrics on pg. 113 of N&N) on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and we saw all the trucks, trailers, seemingly gazillion production crew running around coordinating Yugos and vans and taxis and actors, and freaking lights being brought down from a CRANE.  Then, I started to go, WHOA, this is actually happening!  Also, meeting supernice Superbad star Michael Cera, and seeing him in the "Salvatore" jacket, in a Yugo, also made clear this dream was real!
The plot is essentially the same as the book (two broken-hearted, straight edge bridge-and-tunnel teens meet at a punk show in Manhattan, and fall in and out of love throughout that same night wandering the city), but the main difference is probably that Nick and Norah's friends have bigger, broader and very, very funny stories in the movie, and the places Nick & Norah go change somewhat (although they did film a scene at the restaurant Veselka – same as the book! – and guess who got to extras sitting at a table behind Michael Cera and Kat Dennings?  David and me!)
"Lethario" is not someone from the book.  He's in the music club scene that opens the movie, and he becomes part of the group's adventures throughout the night.  He's played by the very cool Jonathan B. Wright, one of the stars of one of my personal favorite shows on Broadway, Spring Awakening.  (insert fangirl *squee*)
I don't know about the soundtrack!  I do know it's something all the filmmakers care very much about, so I'm betting it's going to be just as good as all the amazing people working on it.

Q:  What will the Nick & Norah movie be rated? Do we know?
A:  They're aiming for PG-13.  Which seems hard to believe if you remember the language (and certain, ahem, scenes in the book), but I do think the filmmakers have very creatively and subversively figured out how to get that rating without sacrificing the spirit of the book.  And I say this as the person who maybe most wanted all those F-bombs to stay in the movie.  But they've made it work!  No f*!$ing kidding!

Q:  Why Kat Dennings?
A:  Having met her and watched her film scenes as Norah, I can only answer back with another Q:  How could Norah be played by anyone but Kat Dennings?
I seriously, honestly, truly couldn't be happier that she was cast as Norah.  If anything, her only "flaw" is that she's too beautiful!  I imagined the Norah in the book to be not so glamorous looking, but hey, this is the movie version we're talking about.  And the coolest thing about Kat is that even if she doesn't look exactly the way we imagined Norah in the book, I am telling you for sure for sure that in personality, she is PERFECT.  She's got exactly the right attitude, humor and vulnerability.  I couldn't love her more as movie Norah.  And I feel that way about all the cast; while not all of them looked the way I pictured them in the book, in personality, they were all so well-chosen, but also, each actor made the characters their own.  The movie is the movie and the book is the book...and I think each character/actor does and should stand independently on their own in each separate version.

Q:  i was looking at the cast list for the N&NIF movie, and they didnt list who was playing tal, is tal in the movie??
A:  This guy.  He's awesome!

Q:  If you could wake up tomorrow with the ability to play any musical instrument... what instrument would it be? Why?
A:  This is such a great question, but I have to answer honestly that the real ability I'd want, rather than being able to play a musical instrument, would be to have any singing ability whatsoever.  Those who've seen me karaoke can attest to my enthusiasm, but any actual singing talent?  Um, hells no, unless singing way way wayyyyy off key counts.
I don't know much about the instrumental aspect of music, but certainly the kind of music I'm drawn to most involves exceptional vocalizing; my favorite music to listen to usually involves musicians who are also incredible singers, like Aretha Franklin, Donny Hathaway, Dusty Springfield, Cat Power, Cesaria Evora.  So if I imagine myself as a "musician," I'd say my fantasy would be as the smoky chanteuse in a beautiful red dress and burgundy lips belting out sad songs of woe and heartache.  Yep, I'd love that.

Q:  Do you know when they're releasing the movie? Will it be in selected theatres or all of them?
A:  As of now, the release date for the movie is set for October 3, 2008, and it should be a movie in wide release.

Q:  What's your new book "you know where to find me" about??
A:  I have to admit that I am the worst person at describing my own books.  (I'm also crap at Scrabble and verbal portions of standardized tests, for the record.)  When I try to explain my books, I feel like I either make them sound stupid, or I sound stupid for trying to make them sound better than a reader might find them to be.
That being said…
You Know Where to Find Me is a sad but tender story about a lonely girl named Miles.  When her cousin, the closest person to her, commits suicide, Miles' life spirals into grief and depression.  It's a book about surviving and growing through very painful circumstances.  While the subject is dark, Miles has a very dark sense of humor to go along with it.  She's funny – but in a very different way from previous books that I've written.  This is definitely the most personal book I've ever written.  The book is not based on my own experiences, but its voice is a perspective of looking at the world that's closest to my own.  Maybe that's why it was the hardest book I ever wrote.  It took me two years to write this book – usually a book takes me about 4-6 months for a first draft.
The book will be released on March 4, 2008, and I really really hope you all like it.
Here is the first review that I've seen for the book.  (I generally try not to post reviews because I know from experience that one reviewer's positive perspective on a book can quickly be undone by the next reviewer's negative take on the same book.  But because this book was so challenging to write, I'll admit it was a relief to see that the first review for the book was positive.)
From Publishers Weekly:
You Know Where to Find Me (starred)
Rachel Cohn. Simon & Schuster, $15.99 (208p) ISBN 978-0-689-87859-6
Cohn (Gingerbread) delves into her darker side as she probes a teen's suicide and the painful repercussions for her loved ones. After her best friend and first cousin, Laura, kills herself with an overdose of prescription drugs, 17-year-old Miles is shattered: the person Miles believed would always be there for her has left without even saying goodbye. And when her flaky mother flees town to mourn with her boyfriend in London, Miles is left alone with Laura's father to endure a summer of grief at his D.C. estate. A prescription-drug addict herself, Miles must embark upon a journey of self-discovery if she is to survive. Cohn once again excels at crafting a multidimensional, in-the-moment teenage world, this time without recourse to her usual witty style. There is a bleakness to her language that superbly suits this sad, somber tale. Her work is heartbreaking, at times excruciating to read, but it rings with authenticity. In pursuing Miles's responses, she spares few details, neither the methods via which Miles and Laura procure their pills nor the actual medical causes of Laura's supposedly peaceful death. The tragedy of teen suicide has been the subject of countless novels, yet rarely has it been discussed with such gritty realism. Ages 12-up. (Mar.)

Q:  how come you rock so much?
A:  A steady diet of sugar, caffeine and chasing pigeons in Central Park.  How come you all rock so much?

Q:  What advice would you give to an aspiring writer?
A:  Since I get asked this question so frequently, I hope you won't mind if I direct you to this blog entry I posted last year that includes answers to some questions about the writing process and the business of publishing.

Q:  Are you planning on using all or most of the music from Nick and Norah's Playlist in the movie?
A:  I'm pretty sure some of David's great Nick song lyrics make it into the movie. 
And just a reminder that I have playlists for Nick & Norah and Naomi & Ely posted on iTunes.  To find them, go to the iTunes Music Store, choose the Music section, then go to the "iMix" link on the side, and type in my name, David's name, or either of the books' titles to find the playlists.  Hope you enjoy them!

Q:  You've already collaborated with David Levithan, but if you could choose another author to work with, who would you choose and what kind of novel would you want to write?
A:  I couldn't predict exactly what type of novel I'd want to write, and I'm not anticipating writing another novel collaboration, but if I had to choose, I'd probably go with two of my favorite friends who are also two of my literary idols -- Patricia McCormick or Jaclyn Moriarty.