In my wrapping paper (and in other places)

My husband reeked of awesomeness this Christmas. Don't believe me? Here's what he got me (granted, I gave him a wishlist with all of the books in it, but still!):

Willow by Julia Hoban
The Hourglass Door by Lisa Mangum
Need by Carrie Jones
Before I Die by Jenny Downham
Secrets, Lies, and My Sister Kate by Belinda Hollyer
David Inside Out by Lee Bantle
Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
The Missing Girl by Norma Fox Mazer
The Devouring by Simon Holt
Cracked up to Be by Courtney Summers
Wake by Lisa McMann
Sweethearts by Sara Zarr
In Your Room by Jordanna Fraiberg
Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott
The Maze Runner by James Dashner (Okay, so I bought this one for him, but my reasons were at least half selfish, so I'm adding it to the list.)

And then, when my mother-in-law asked what she should get me, he told her about these:
Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
The Dark Divine by Bree Despain

AND ... if that wasn't enough, I ordered a few from Amazon (I know, I know, I definitely already had enough, but I realllly wanted Beautiful Creatures, and it was half off at Amazon at the time. Half. Off! I couldn't resist. Of course, I couldn't just get that one, because I needed to qualify for free super saver shipping. You understand. Right?):

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
The Midnight Twins by Jacquelyn Mitchard
If I Stay by Gayle Forman

And, pre-Christmas, I bought a few from Borders (their coupons always get me!):
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (got tired of waiting and waiting for the paperback and finally decided to bite the bullet)
The Everafter by Amy Huntley
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (may be the coolest title ever, and the first page is hilarious)
Paper Towns by John Green
Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles

ANDDDD ... if all that wasn't good enough, I won a signed copy of:
Boy Toy by Barry Lyga

And that's about it! Well okay, not really. Not even close, actually. In truth, I have several more on my bookshelf upstairs that I haven't had the chance to read yet, but if I add those, I'll just look like some book buying crazy that needs an intervention.

I must warn you all: if you come to my house and try to take my books away and say that you're doing it because you love me, expect retaliation.

Happy New Years to all!

To all you honest scraps

Today (or technically, Saturday, when I was out procrastination-shopping and trying my best not to kill people), I became a recipient of the Honest Scrap award. (Thanks, Weronika!) I've seen it floating around for awhile now, and I must say, I've been a little green behind the ears (figuratively only, I hope).

So anywho. Rules are, I have to share 10 honest things about myself and then pass the Honest Scrap award on to 10 other "Scraptastic" (best word ever, I think) bloggers. Without further ado:

1) I have had a horrible, no good, very bad month. Okay, it wasn't that bad, but it went something like this: (a) fell down in front of court house in the rain and sprained foot--too embarrassed to say anything, so ran away really quickly; (b) one week later to the day, fell down half of my stairs at home and REALLLLLY sprained same foot, plus hurt lots of other things and maybe hit my head on a porcelain dog bowl; (c) spent week on crutches and in foot brace thing; (d) finally got into shoes again (flats only--no heels yet!), and then picked up some sickness; (e) kept sickness for so long that throat closed up and had to get on steroids just to get food down; (f) worked late pretty much every day and spent no time writing; (g) realized about 3 weeks too late that I should start holiday shopping. But I'm better now, so it's all good. Here's to 2010--you can't get here soon enough.

2) Sometimes, I can be long winded. If you made it through number 1, you probably realize this already. I'll attempt the brevity approach for 3-11.

3) I'm a firm believer in a few, quality friends over a large quantity of acquaintances.

4) I haven't had any time to write lately, but it's all I can think about doing. In fact, I get kind of pissy when I haven't met with my characters in awhile. I feel like I'm missing out on something super important.

5) I used to be really good at forging signatures. I did it for all my friends in high school. Which made me totally cool. No, really. It did. (Okay, I was a total nerd. Let it go already.)

6) I ask my husband a lot of weird questions that I know he has no idea how to answer--almost always related to something crazy I'm writing and don't feel like researching--because it amuses me almost as much as it amuses him.

7) I try to like things that are cool, like foreign films and sushi, but I just don't like subtitles, and uncooked fish isn't my thing, no matter how much cream cheese you stuff in with it.

8) I do, however, love middle eastern food. I could live off of gyros, kabobs, shish tawook, pita, hummus, and cucumber feta chicken. Heaven on a plate and in my mouth.

9) If I could have any job in the world, I'd either be an author or that person who picks out music for television shows. Ideally, I'd be both.

10) If my reading, writing, television, movie, and music selections are any indications, I don't think I'll ever grow up. Bring on the YA reads, the CW network, the Bring it On's and the Jimmy Eat World/Dashboard Confessionals of the world. Forever teen at heart, here I come.

__________________________________________________

Now, this is typically the time when I'd pass this award along to 10 other Scraptastic bloggers. But the thing is ... SO many of my scrappy friends have received this award already, and I'm just not good at choosing! So what's a girl to do?

I can either shriek and hide under the covers and pretend like I can't follow directions, or I can break the rules and ask you all:

TELL ME SOMETHING HONEST ABOUT YOURSELF. ONE THING. 2 THINGS. TEN. WE ALL HAVE A LITTLE SCRAPPINESS IN US. AND IF YOU HAVEN'T SHARED IT YET, I'M DYING TO HEAR IT.

Happy, Happy Holidays to all!

Are you a writer?

Words of inspiration from someone* who is:

" ... I didn't become a writer the first time I put pen to paper or when I finished my first book (easy) or my second one (hard). You see, in my view a writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, because everything she does is golden. In my view a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway. Wasn't until that night when I was faced with all those lousy pages that I realized, really realized, what it was exactly that I am."

You can find the full article here. It's definitely worth a read.

*Junot Díaz's novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2008.

Bored now ...

If you're freaked about whether your first 250 words are good enough, do yourself a favor and read this post.

That is all. Short and sweet.

Happy Monday-is-almost-over to all!

If I were an agent, I'd need more meds.

Have you ever heard of the Secret Agent contest? It's held once a month at this amazing blog, and if you haven't checked it out before, you must. Basically, you enter the first 250 words of your completed work, and that month's Secret Agent reads the entries and picks one or more winners. These winners get really cool prizes, usually in the form of submitting a partial or (eek!) a full to the agent in question.

Since my MS is nowhere near ready for public critique, I didn't submit this time. I did, however, attempt to comment on as many of the entries as possible. Here's what I learned this go-around:

1) Being an agent must be tough. Agents are attentive, persistent, and patient. Really, really patient. In fact, they may be gods.

2) I'm not crazy about people starting their stories with things like, "My momma always warned me not to play near rose bushes," or "My best friend, Roberta, always said that life is like a box of crayons." This kind of beginning sets itself up for an internal monologue or, worse, an info dump. And dumps aren't pretty, no matter what color you paint them.

3) Typos are killer. Proofread, proofread, proofread. And, for the love of all things holy, proofread!

4) Prologues: I could leave 'em or take 'em, so long as they don't read like backstory. Backstory makes me a little drowsy. And it kind of makes me cringe.

5) And here's the real kicker: If you don't pull me in within the first 2 or 3 lines, you've lost me. I don't need you to start the story off with a literal BANG! (in fact, that's normally too much for me to handle); I just need you to start the story off where the story actually starts. Granted, my limited attention span has probably caused me to miss out on a few slow-building gems over the years, but it's also opened my eyes to the works of authors I'd never heard of before and just-so-happened to pick up one day, whilst wandering aimlessly through the bookstore (one of my favorite activities, by the way).

Moral of the story? I may not be an agent, but I AM a reader, and an avid one at that. So, if you want me to read your stuff (and you might not; that's your perogative), then write something true (or truly fantastical), something honest (or honestly deceptive). Write something that is worth being said. And make sure you are able, from the beginning, to get a reader to care. Because if you can't do that, then the incredible world you've spent months (or even years) building may never make it any further than a word doc on your computer.

If you want people to compliment your baby, wash its face first.

If you're like me, your MS is your baby. You change it. You clean it. You feed it. You watch it stumble and tumble and crawl and fall, and you try not to cry when it skins a knee. Like any other mother I know, you also have a difficult time seeing its flaws. You block out the unruly hair, the pudding-stained chin, the (gasp!) smelly diaper. Your baby is your life, and it is perfect, by God. Every last inch of it.

So what do you do? You enter your baby in a beauty pageant, of course! Because your baby is the cutest baby alive, and you're sure all the judges will see it, too. You fluff your baby's hair. You pile on the makeup. You wrap your baby up in a big, sparkly dress. And then you sit on the front row, video camera in hand, and wait for the victory you know will come.

Except, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes, the judges don't see what you see. Sometimes, your baby gets rejected.

It's cruel and it sucks, and you find yourself getting a little bitter about it. "That judge didn't know what she was talking about," you tell your friends. "My baby is perfect," you repeat ad nauseum. And you ignore the looks on your friends' faces, because if you really pay attention, you'll realize that maybe, just maybe, those judges weren't so wrong after all.

Beauty is subjective. We all know this. But that doesn't mean we can throw a tiara on a dirty, smelly kid and pretend everything's A-OK. Judges are harsh. They have to be, what with the upteen bazillion Pageant Queen wannabes they see every week. If we want our babies to win, we have to make them shiny and pretty and sparkly and genuine, before we send them onto the stage. Anything less and we're not only wasting the judges' time, we're also wasting ours.

Tuesday Newsday: early signs that November will rock.

Last night, I was all mopey and tired and hating work, so I logged on for a blogger high (um, I mean pick-me-up. like coffee. totally legal.). And what did I find? Only the best news I've heard so far for November:

The lovely sister-sister writing team of Lisa and Laura Roecker (a.k.a. "LiLa") is going to be published!! Can I get a woot woot?

*The crowd says, "Woot Woot!"

Here's their Publisher's Marketplace blurb (which I totally stole from their blog; don't tell): From Publisher's Marketplace: Lisa Roecker and Laura Roecker's A Kate Lowry Mystery: THE HAUNTING OF PEMBERLY BROWN, a quick-witted mystery starring a private-school sleuth with attitude and pearls, who receives an email from her dead best friend, to Daniel Ehrenhaft at Sourcebooks, for publication in Spring 2011, by Catherine Drayton at Inkwell Management (NA).


Congrats, girls! Try to remember the little people. Or, at least don't have us arrested for stalking if we show up in your backyard in Team LiLa t-shirts, bearing Twizzlers and "Vote 4 LiLa" bumper stickers. (Um, I mean at your front door. With like, a card or something. Whoa. Creepy moment there.)

Hip,

Hip,

Hooray!!