Audiobooks, Copyedits, and the Cutest Hippo EVER!

1. I've been listening to audiobooks lately. I'm currently listening to The Giver by Lois Lowry read by Ron Rifkin (from Alias!). It's taken some work to train myself to pay attention because I'm more of a visual, but if the narrator is good, they really bring a story to life. I find myself enjoying stories I may not have taken the time to read, and if I listen while on a walk, sometimes it makes me want to walk farther!

2. Copyediting is DONE! What a weird feeling to see your book marked up in such a critical way. Missed punctuation, alternate spellings, words missing entirely. It was quite the experience, but I'm glad the book is once again out of my hands!

3. My WIP is now over 69,000 words! I'm so at that point where things need to be wrapped up and I'm increasingly intimidated by everything left to do. *collapses*

4. The Civil Wars has a new album coming out soon (which I've already pre-ordered) and it saddens me that I'll probably never get the chance to see them perform live as they are currently not on speaking terms. But man can they make some amazing music in the midst of all the not getting along.

5. A year or so ago, Catherine introduced me to artist Cori Dantini's work, and I've been obsessed ever since. I mean, LOOK HOW CUTE!

A lot of her pieces include birds, which I have a hard time resisting! I've purchased two prints so far, and I've marked so many more as favorites. So. Hard. To. Pick. Check out her Etsy store HERE.

Summertime and the Reading is Easy

It's hard to believe that this time next year, people will be able to buy a physical copy (or ebook) of my book, stick it in their beach bags, lay it on their towels, and, yannow, read it. I've had some time to get used to the idea. Over the past few months, I've done the revisions and I'm working on the copyedits right now. But most days I'm just like, IS THIS REALLY HAPPENING?

That's one of the reasons I haven't posted anything lately. I've been so confused about what to do with this space. I'm really paranoid about coming across as a braggy-bragster-bragpants about the whole publishing thing, and lately it's pretty much all my brain has room for.

But today, my brain is also pondering summer books!

Last year, I read Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard, which I really enjoyed and felt it an appropriate beach read for the travel-y aspect, as I was, in fact, also traveling. And soon I plan to read How Zoe Made Her Dreams (Mostly) Come True by Sarah Strohmeyer. It sounds absolutely adorable, and it has one of the funniest openers I've seen. A summer internship at a Disney-like theme park? YES PLEASE.   

What's on your reading list this summer? What are some past favorites?

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!*** 

Lo Lo Lo Lo LOOOLA! (And the Boy Next Door, of course)

GUESS WHAT I GOT TO READ!!!

That's right! My most anticipated release for 2011, LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR!!

The sweet and amazing Sarah from Sarah's Books & Life let me borrow the ARC that she won! (FOLLOW HER!!) So I flew through it, then I read it again... out loud! Yep! This past week, I've been reading Lola over the phone to my mom! Fun times!

Here's the summary from Goodreads:

Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion . . . she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit -- more sparkly, more fun, more wild -- the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood. 
When Cricket -- a gifted inventor -- steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door. 

My thoughts: Stephanie Perkins made me fall in love with YA Contemporary with her debut, Anna and the French Kiss. She has a way about her storytelling that SUCKS ME IN! I'm completely addicted to everything about this book. The characters and all their delicious quirks. Lola and her insane outfits! Cricket and his... Cricket-ness... sigh. Anna and St. Clair (YES, YOU READ ME!). The bits about figure skating (former figure skating coach here, so I'm very partial). The PIES (MUST bake a pie, like, now). 


Stephanie is especially gifted at DRAWING OUT the SUSPENSE in the ROMANCE department! OMG it makes you want to yell JUST KISS ALREADY! But it had me turning those pages and falling in love right along with these characters. Characters that I know, personally. Because they're totally real. My new best friends. They can be yours too! You just have to wait until September 29th.


Looking forward to meeting Stephanie again in October at the Austin Teen Book Festival, where I will probably get another picture that looks like this one,

and which also has the POSSIBILITY of hosting the FIRST MEETING OF THE BOOKRUSHERS! I'm most definitely going, Kim Franklin is PROBABLY going, and Kristi Chestnutt is BEING HARASSED to make the trip to Texas so we can have a Kritique Group Weekend Getaway! I can't even tell you how excited I am about the possibility of meeting two of my best friends (sounds weird, I know, but you blogging peeps totally get me) for the first time ever!

Are you going?!

Have you ever noticed...

• It seems to be trendy in books these days to describe a character with gray eyes.  I don't really think I've ever seen a person with gray eyes.  A cat, yes.  Person... don't think I have.

• Last night I was working on my WIP and just knew I'd worked on the same part before, so I dug through my notes and found that part.  I hardly even remembered writing these specific changes several weeks before, and they were so much better than anything I was coming up with last night.  Isn't it crazy how game changing it is--the WHEN we write?  If I hadn't written those notes a couple weeks ago, what I would have done to it last night wouldn't have been nearly as cool.  So much depends on our mood, our location, our schedule... access to chocolate. 

• Doesn't it seem like the really neat parts of your story (the twisty parts that tie the WHOLE thing together in a really neat OMG THAT'S SO FREAKY sort of way) come together as you're writing it?  There are new little twists to my WIP that I didn't even see coming.  I almost think this is one of the greatest rewards to being a writer... it's definitely fuel to the motivation flame.