Friday Five

1. I just dropped off my Tahoe to get looked at/worked on. She's been running funny for a while and the brakes are squeaky. I probably won't get her back until MONDAY which means I'll be wheel dependent all weekend. Odd feeling.

2. YA author Joy Preble interviewed me for her blog (along with some other fab Texas bloggers), so if you haven't seen it, check it out HERE!

3. My WIP is finally approaching the end of that tunnel... you know, where the light is coming from? I hit 72,000 words yesterday (EEEEK!!!) with at least five known chapters left to go, so it's safe to say I'm going to be quite scissor happy during revisions. Easier to cut than to add though!

4.  I was hoping for a winter this year, but it's been warm the past month and I'm sneezing like it's allergy season. The wildflowers are already popping up all over town too. It's FEBRUARY, WHAT THE WHAT?

5. I have The Hunger Games fever. The new trailer has reminded me I want to read the first book again before the movie comes out NEXT MONTH!! It's getting closer! Who's ready?! The first trailer had a ROCKING song which you can listen to HERE. It only took me forever to track it down. haha. Too bad those people aren't doing the music for the movie. I lurve it.

Fabulous in February

Hard to believe we've finished an entire month in 2012 already. It flew by quicker than expected for me, as evidenced by my still incomplete first draft of my WIP. BUT, it's getting super close!! It's safe to say it will definitely be done by the end of February. It's the research that's bogging me down the most. 

I've read some great books the past month. 

• Finally dove into The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare, and finished the first book, City of Bones. It took me a little while to get into it, but once the action really got going, I couldn't put it down. I look forward to the next one, and her other series, The Infernal Devices. 
• I've already gushed about Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles. Can't wait to start book two! 
• Tangled Tides by Karen Amanda Hooper was fantastic! If you're even remotely interested in mermaids, READ IT! You won't be disappointed. 
• The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson was quite different from anything else I've read. I can't even explain it to you. Just read it. It's remarkable. 

Lined up for February:

• I'm currently reading Unearthly by Cynthia Hand and I'm completely sucked in. I'm skeptical where angel books are concerned, but I'm trying to treat it like any other paranormal story I'd read, and it's quite good. 
• The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney for book club. I won this book over a year ago in a blog contest and have yet to read it! Looking forward to discussing it at the end of the month with the girls. 
• Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles. Hola Fuentes número dos! This counts toward my Multi-Cultural book challenge too!
• I also plan to start Nightshade City by Hilary Wagner. It sounds great!

Besides reading fabulous books this February, I've decided to look more fabulous too. Most days, I dress like a slob in my yoga pants and sweatshirt, hair in a big knotted mess piled on top of my head. I want to make a better effort to look presentable, fix my hair more. Accessorize! My birthday is this month, so it's a reminder that I'm not getting any younger. The time to feel good about myself is NOW. 

How was your January? Read anything fab you'd like to gush about? Anything exciting planned for February?

***Be sure to stop by YA author Joy Preble's blog. I'm being interviewed!*** 

Meeting John Green

John Green and his brother Hank have turned themselves into rockstars. I'm sure most of that has to do with their vlogs (if you haven't heard of the vlogbrothers, check out their videos. They're insane, yet hilarious), but then there's John's actual books. I've only read Looking for Alaska, and while it's not necessarily a style I read often (or really want to write necessarily), the dude's so smart. His smartness just oozes off the pages of his books. It's really quite frustrating. It makes you want to quit writing. It makes you want to read everything he's written. It makes you want to get out your dictionary and write a list of all the awesome new words he's introducing you to so you can incorporate them in your own writing and appear, with intense effort, half as intelligent as he is without trying.

His book tour is just that: A TOUR. It has a program and everything. It's a SHOW. His brother Hank starts off with a sock puppet routine, informing us of the death of his sock brother by dog and then he marvels at how the audience could possibly think such a tragedy is humorous.

Then the sock introduces John, NYT #1 best-selling author, of course, and he reads the second chapter from his new book, The Fault in Our Stars. (I notice how many authors do readings from the second chapter of their stories.... interesting)

We laughed, we were touched, we were forced to contemplate LIFE. All in one chapter. The dude's that good. Then Hank came back out with his guitar and sang a few songs, one of which details his desire for JK Rowling to write an 8th Harry Potter book. In his chorus: "I wan't JK Rowling to say that the epilogue was crap, cause we all know it was crap." Now... personally I needed that epilogue. I wanted to know what happened 19 years later. You can't keep dragging out a perfect series just because you like it, because then it really will turn into crap. SUCK IT UP, HANK! ;)

They ended the show with a Q&A, and when the timer runs out, whichever of the brothers is caught talking gets SHOCKED as punishment. Yep, SHOCKED. John was the unlucky one this time, and he was angry about it. I managed to snap a picture just as he was in full pain, and when it was my turn to meet him, I told him about it. What else did I have to say? I was determined not to be a gushy fan girl and blabber on, and I also didn't want to just stand there and say nothing. So I said, "I caught a picture of your face just as you were shocked." John: "That sounds horrifying." Me: "Oh... it is." John: "I must see this. Send it to me."

So I tweeted it to him the next day, and he RETWEETED it. Now, for those of you on Twitter, you understand that this tweet of mine just went out to over a million followers, including Maureen Johnson, who also retweeted it and tweeted to me: "NEW SCREENSAVER!" My Saturday was full of retweets and funny responses and a handful of new followers. My 15 minutes of fame. *dies*

Did you make it out to see John and Hank Green on their tour? Do you read his books?

Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles

I'm only doing one reading challenge this year, hosted by Truly Bookish and One Page at a Time.

My first book for this challenge is Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles.

I'd heard chatter about this series for a while now, but hadn't picked it up... until now.

Here's the blurb from Goodreads:

When Brittany Ellis walks into chemistry class on the first day of senior year, she has no clue that her carefully created “perfect” life is about to unravel before her eyes. She’s forced to be lab partners with Alex Fuentes, a gang member from the other side of town, and he is about to threaten everything she's worked so hard for—her flawless reputation, her relationship with her boyfriend, and the secret that her home life is anything but perfect. Alex is a bad boy and he knows it. So when he makes a bet with his friends to lure Brittany into his life, he thinks nothing of it. But soon Alex realizes Brittany is a real person with real problems, and suddenly the bet he made in arrogance turns into something much more.  In a passionate story about looking beneath the surface, Simone Elkeles breaks through the stereotypes and barriers that threaten to keep Brittany and Alex apart.

Holy schnikies this book was fantastic. I had no idea what I was missing. Why on EARTH did I wait so long to read it? The fast-paced writing had me flipping page after page. I liked how both Brittany and Alex were pretending to be someone they weren't, and managed to reveal this secret only to each other. I loved how Brittany was with her sister, and how Brittany felt such intense pressure from her mother. How Alex struggled with his place in the gang (yes an actual gang) and his devotion to his family. These characters all felt so real. I loved them and rooted for them the whole way. And the romance... hot. Sure, there's some cheesy dialogue, but it's worth it.

I snatched book two the other day and I can't wait to see what the next Fuentes brother is up to!

Heightened Reality Trickery

HRT: 
A curious type of deception that presents symptoms when exposed to larger than life scenarios such as written works of fiction, television shows (see also Hallmark, Lifetime, ABC Family, Korean Dramas, Scripted Reality, et al.), movies and stage productions. Symptoms include: brighter colors, selective hearing, rapid pulse. Prolonged exposure may be hazardous.  

In books, we're perfectly okay with the flowery things the hot guy says because, well, he's hot and the whole story has set us up to root for him to say these flowery things so when he finally does we CHEER! We swoon! We melt! But if someone said similar things to us in person, we'd probably roll our eyes and walk swiftly the other direction, mumbling something that sounds like What a pansy.

Then there's TV. Take this season of The Bachelor, for example. Bachelor Ben, very normal looking to the eye, the California-wine-maker-next-door type. He's gone YEARS being a regular guy, grocery shopping and pumping gas in his car just like the rest of us. Suddenly he's on television and thousands of women who now think he's the most beautiful thing that ever walked the planet claw over each other just to get to him. Did that happen to him every time he went to the grocery store before he was on TV? No. The reality has been heightened and the minds of the people have been TRICKED. (I'm not speaking out against him as a person, just demonstrating what HRT does)

These things are all constructed to bring out our emotions, to get us addicted, to make us feel like it's love. The build up of tension and tingly words in the stories we read. The driving music during that scene where the forbidden lovers are shouting at each other in the pouring rain. The guy you wouldn't look at twice out in public that's now on stage with his guitar and suddenly your legs are jelly.

Handy often (lovingly and jokingly) says, "You live your life in the movies, don't you?" or "You live inside your books." *snicker*giggle*snicker* I like to escape to my gushy heightened reality as much as the next person (okay, maybe more). It's not that I'm running from anything, but it's like having the best of a million worlds. In my heightened reality I've survived The Hunger Games! I've gone to school at Hogwarts! I've been a freaking PRINCESS! In my actual reality... I'm the wife to the sweetest guy in the world, I'm a daughter, a dog mom, daughter- and sister-in-law, aunt, friend, a writer who writes her own heightened realities, photographer, crafter, and pizza eater. Who says I can't have it all?  

How about you? Do you let yourself get swept away?

I Have Confidence (not)

This has come up several times over the past week and I'm a bit surprised. I struggle with confidence. That's not the surprise. The surprise is that some people I know were surprised to learn that about me. Apparently I hide it well (I can only hope it doesn't come across as arrogance or something unsightly like that).

The truth is, I don't know if I've ever felt fully confident about anything. Even things I enjoy, or things I might do relatively well, I'm so hard on myself, I see the flaws and tear it to shreds (sometimes literally). With any job I've ever had, I get so nervous that they'll find out I actually don't know what I'm doing, that they'll give me duties that don't click in my brain. I'm not the only one that does this right?

I met with an old boss yesterday, and he asked me to come back. He kept talking me up, about how no one who came after me could compare, blah blah blah. I finally said, "You're making me nervous, because I feel like you got the wrong impression of the quality of my work..." Like I fooled him somehow. He laughed but I was serious.

Lately on my blog here, I've tried to have a positive outlook for this new year, and that's hidden my fear that I will fail, that I'm not good enough. It takes great effort to be positive, but I want to encourage all of you, and in the process, I need to keep talking myself into being more confident. Because I want to believe that I can do things I set my mind to. I want us all to believe it.

Anyone else struggle with confidence? What do you do to overcome doubts in your abilities?

Friday Five

1. I'M MEETING JOHN GREEN TONIGHT!!! YES! THAT John Green! I've only read one of his books, but it was brilly and I'm anxious to hear what he has to say in person. Apparently his brother will be there too, and they're hilarious together as those of you that watch their vlogs know. Anyone else in Houston that's NOT going to ALA in Dallas going tonight??

2. I stayed up until 1:30 in the morning reading Simone Elkeles' Perfect Chemistry. So what if some of it was total cheese, I was ADDICTED. SO GOOD!!

3. Tomorrow is the Montgomery County Teen Book Festival, which is pretty smallish, but it's maybe 5 minutes from my house at the local high school, so that's exciting! Gayle Forman will be there and the keynote speaker is Kristin Cast.

4. I was taking January off of photography, but I got sucked into a 1-year cake smash session this morning. I'm actually nervous about it. Total jitters. o_O

5. I'm getting SO close to finishing my first draft of my WIP it's making me even MORE nervous than photography. I'm so worried about tying up all the loose ends that I keep putting off writing. AHHHHH!!! It will get done by January 31, I'm just making myself sick over it even though I KNOW HOW GOOD IT WILL FEEL to be done!!

Happy Weekend!! Anything fun planned?