Random Rants

    
     A publicist once said that authors should only blog positive things. Well, ok. Maybe. But can I just take a second to rant? I mean, everybody's got to do it sometime. It's not like life is always roses. So here are some of my random rants:

1- Why is it that tv shows like Vampire Diaries and Gossip Girl stop from november to late january, come back for a month, and then go away again until april? I don't get it. Is it because of march madness and the impending hockey playoffs? First off, the people who watch those shows are mostly teen and (ahem) slightly older girls who wouldn't be watching sports in the first place. And secondly, don't most people have PVR's these days?

2- It's been, what, six months or more since Mockingjay came out, so why hasn't Catching Fire come out in paperback yet? What is the deal?

3- Straightening my hair is such a pain. I mean, I know I don't HAVE to do it. But if I don't I'm left with this awful crinkly style that I loathe and despise, which means I have to spend fifteen or twenty minutes with my arm in the air holding the darn straightener.

4- I've read at least three blogs done by 'professionals' who have all called Stephenie Meyer- Stephenie Meyers. I don't know why this bugs me but it does. Um hello- if you're an agent or writer or writing teacher, you'd think you'd know how to spell Stephenie Meyer 's name. She's one of the most popular writers right now.

5- My two year old can't stop taking off her pants. Granted, she's so small that even belts hardly hold them up, but still. Leave your pants on already!

6- Why won't Crossiron Mills put in an Old Navy? It would make my life a lot easier. Seriously.

7- I'm thirty and I still get acne. My mom promised me it would go away after I had kids. But NO! Don't I deserve clear skin after fifteen years of dealing with zits???

8- I get my People StyleWatch in the mail more than a week after it's on stands. The anticipation does nothing for me, I'm just saying.

9- I've been trying over and over to find Faber Drive's "Can't Keep A Secret" to download onto my iPod. No luck. I'm really missing "You And I Tonight" and "Just What I Needed" in my daily music listening.

10- Why is it that just after I've finished vacuuming a room, the kids manage to mess it up again in less than ten seconds, or sometimes even while I'm in the process of doing the vacuuming? It's like, why do I even bother?

     Sheesh, I could go on. But I won't. I'm done ranting. At least for today.

Romance Novels

     Well, I read my first ever romance novel. Yep, I admit it. In the past, I would quickly walk past the aisles of novels whose covers had women with flowing hair and men with rippling muscles showing, avoiding even looking at them. I would mentally sneer at them in disdain and think, I'm above such nonsense.
     Then, while researching a certain agent, I found a list of books she likes. Since I couldn't get a hold of any she actually represents, I decided to read a couple of the ones she likes. The Duff was one. The romance novel- the other.

     Luckily the cover did not have half-clothed people on it or I probably would have cringed away and left it on the library shelf. Instead I checked it out, not embarrassed at all (ok maybe a little) and then read it through on Monday and Tuesday.
    So what did I think? Well... I loved it! I did! I actually loved it. It just goes to show you- don't judge, don't stereotype- not just people, but book genres as well.
    So okay, it did have one scene that I could have done without. I had almost made it to the end thinking, maybe I really judged romance too harshly, maybe not all of them have the "scene". Well, I was wrong. This one did. And I was disappointed. Really- it so wasn't necessary. The book, called What Happens In London by Julia Quinn, takes place in the 1800s where a woman's reputation is VERY important to her. So it just made no sense to me that the main character, a "lady", would sacrifice that, even if she did love the guy. Call me old-fashioned, but I'm used to Jane Austen where they have all the flirtations, the witty banter, the love, but not even one tiny bit of kissing. So for this girl to give it up just didn't make sense to me.
     Other than that, I loved the book. It was hilarious- and I mean freaking hilarious. Julia Quinn is expert at the witty banter. I pretty much giggled or laughed right out loud on almost every page. Not much action happened in the book, but the conversation was just awesome. And I loved how the main character- Lady Olivia- would make lists in her head. Like this one:

Unmarried Lady Sorts of Things

By Lady Olivia Bevelstoke, Unmarried Lady

Wear pastel colors (and be quite glad if you possess the correct complexion for such hues)

Smile and keep your opinions to yourself (with whatever success you are able)

Do what your parents tell you to do

Accept the consequences when you don't

Find a husband who won't bother to tell you what to do

     She does those lists a lot throughout the book and I thought they were so funny.

     Anyway, the moral of the story (or blog post) is... you never know if you'll like it unless you try it. Granted, I might try Julia Quinn again but I probably won't pick up any other romance authors unless they're recommended to me, for the simple fact that I don't want to be reading the ones that have "scenes" in every other chapter. But I definitely won't judge anymore. And I'll try not to be embarrassed the next time I check one out of the library...

Dear John, Beautiful Darkness, and The Duff

    
     I read some very different books this past week. It started with Nicholas Sparks' Dear John. It was a great book. But the funny thing about Nicholas Sparks is that I actually prefer the movies over the books. I'm not trying to knock Nicholas Sparks here, I think mainly it's because I've always seen the movie first, and then if I've liked it, I read the book later. So I get used to what I see on screen. I think the movies aren't quite so heart-wrenchingly sad too. Take Dear John. I knew the book wasn't going to end the same as the movie did. There's no way. I liked the bit of hope the movie ending gave. Jeff didn't like it though. He started watching the movie with me about a half hour in, but when the end rolled around, he was ticked. In fact I think his exact words were, "what kind of ending is that?" And so I said, "well what did you expect? It's Nicholas Sparks!" I went on to explain that you can expect three things from Nicholas Sparks: 1- romance, 2- a very serious medical condition, and 3- death (main character death usually). So Jeff asks me the million dollar question: "why would anyone wanna read him then?"
     Good question. I mean, why do I like that kind of stuff when I know I'm going to cry a whole lot and that someone's gonna die? I thought about it after he asked me and I came to this conclusion. First, Nicholas Sparks writes human stories well. Very well. He's excellent at suffering, sadness, sickness, death, and triumphing over all those things. He's also good at love and genuine feelings.
     I figured something else out too. In general I love a happy ending. But sometimes I love the heart-wrenchingly sad ones. Why? Well, to quote Becoming Jane, in real life good people don't always have happy endings. Bad people don't always come to bad ends. I think it's that realness, that truth, that draws me in. I don't want fluff all the time because it's not real. While I do like the fluff, and it provides a nice escape from the awfulness of this world, sometimes it's nice to read about more serious and true issues.

    
     After reading that I moved on to Beautiful Darkness, the sequel to Beautiful Creatures which I raved about a week or so ago. The sequel did not disappoint. I love these books. Garcia and Stohl do a great job of taking me into their southern/paranormal world. Excellent. If you like witch stories- read it!

    
     Yesterday I read The Duff by Kody Keplinger. I have a lot to say about this book so I'll try to keep it short. Duff stands for "Designated Ugly Fat Friend". The book is about this guy who calls the main character the duff. Aside from dealing with how that makes her feel, she has to deal with an ex, a divorce, and an alcoholic parent. So she turns to the jerk of a guy who calls her that, finding distraction from her troubles with him. What I liked: I think every girl has felt like the duff at one point in their lives- like out of their group of friends they are the ugly one or the fat one. I know I have. Not always, but there have been times. So it was very relate-able in that way. The voice was awesome- cynical, sarcastic, funny, honest. And at the end I liked how there's a subtle message about not judging others, not using labels like duff (or prude or slut or tease, etc.) What I didn't like: too many swear words. Some YA books have them, some don't. I prefer when they don't. It just takes me right out of the book when I'm trying to skip over the f-word. I also have to comment on the fact that though it's a YA book, I wouldn't want my girls to read it when they're teens. I don't want them to think that a guy (or sex) will be a good distraction from their problems like it is for the main character. Yikes. The thought just scares me so bad that I don't even want to think about it.
     So there you have it. Three very different books, all good for different reasons.

Finding The Time To Write

     
     I've been asked numerous times how I manage to write and be a mom at the same time. Well I can tell you, it ain't easy. But then nothing ever is. And nothing that's worth it ever is either.
      But to answer that question, first of all, you have to really want to. And I mean REALLY. I've always wanted to be a writer. Since grade two. But it wasn't until late 2009 when I started Jessica that it really happened. But why then, when I had four kids, the youngest not even a year old?
      Who knows. Well, ok, I can hazard a few guesses. Before Jessica I'd been working on a fantasy project that was destined to be a trilogy. And I use the word 'working' loosely, believe me. I was sixteen when I first got the idea, and although I tweaked it in my twenties, it was still a book idea that I'd been thinking about for more than ten years. So it was probably a good thing I moved on from it to try something new. I mean obviously that fantasy story just wasn't going to happen. Unfortunately, due to my huge failure at it, I was very scared of starting something new and failing massively at that as well, thus sealing my fate of never being a writer. But I tried something new anyway and it just worked. Jessica was new, fresh, and it made me very excited, fired up even, to write about her.
      Another reason I think it came so easily is that I wrote it in first person. Writing everything "I" this and "I" that, just seemed easier. It helped Jessica to come out on the page better, it made her thoughts clearer. Although I will admit that it made a lot of me come out in her. Yikes.
     People always tell writers- "write what you know". I remember thinking a lot about that phrase and thinking, Ha- I don't know anything! So what am I supposed to write about? But Jessica came about because of all these different daydreams I had in my own head and finally, on one brilliant day I thought to myself, why not mesh them all into one? Have one character experience all these stories? That thought never left. And when I finally decided to try it out, it just worked. It was almost easy to write. In fact most of it was easy to write. (It's the editing, and querying, and trying to get it published that's hard.)
     All those things helped Jessica's story to happen in my head, like a movie. Then it became a matter of just finding the time to sit at the computer and write it down.
     As to that- I started out by setting a goal- 50 pages by Christmas (that was obviously back before I realized that it's word count, not pages, that matter). I barely made that goal. I would write mostly in the early afternoons when my almost-one-year-old and almost-three-year-old were napping, my four-year-old was in preschool, and my six-year-old in grade one. It was the best time. My cleaning was done, the house was quiet, and I hadn't reached that I'm-too-tired-to-do-anything part of the day yet. Things changed after Christmas. It was like a fire got lit under my butt and I started writing a lot more. Sometimes I'd find some time in the morning. Sometimes that two-hour block of napping/preschool writing time extended all the way until the time when I knew I had to stop or else my kids wouldn't get dinner before bed. And yes, I felt immensely guilty for all those times. Sometimes I wrote at night, into the night, not stopping until 1, 2, even 3 am. And yes, I felt immensely guilty for how cranky I was with everyone on the days after those late nights. But it took me less than two months to finish the book. 
     The thing is, if you really want to write, you will. Even now, some days I really want to and others I spend my writing time researching agents or aspects of life in the late seventeen-hundreds (for book 2). Or blogging. (Which I'm doing now after I've already written more than a thousand words for today.) That's just the way it goes. If the story is in your head, you'll find the time to write it. You just will. So I guess the question shouldn't be, how do you find the time to write? The question is, how do you get that story in your head?
      At least that's what I would have wanted to ask my current self ten years ago. More on that another day...

Red Riding Hood and Heist Society

    
     I saw Red Riding Hood on the weekend. It was an ok movie. Not amazing, not terrible. Pros: Amanda Seyfried is a good actress, I loved the whole medieval thing (the village, the clothes, the armor), the visuals were amazing in certain scenes, and the biggest pro of all: you never know who the wolf is. They make you think it's this person, then another person, and then someone else entirely, and yet it was still a surprise at the end. I loved that. I liked guessing and I liked being surprised.
     Cons: it was cheesy at times, slow in moments, and the whole party/dance thing was almost laughable to me. And the ending was a little disappointing. I don't want to spoil it so all I'll say is I guess I'm just too much of a romantic.

     Another thing I did this weekend was read Ally Carter's "Heist Society". I've raved about Ally Carter before- she writes the Gallagher Girls series. I just love her. Her books are light, funny, and unpredictable. This one was about a girl whose family are all cons. She leaves the family business to go to regular high school but she gets drawn back into the life to save her father. She has to pull off this big heist with a bunch of teenagers for help. The book didn't disappoint. One of the things I like about her is that she writes things that I could never write. I'm not so good at the caper/mystery plot line, nor do I think I'm all that funny. And Ally Carter just gets teenage girls- she writes them really well. I think a lot of people would shy away from her books because they're targeted to a younger teen audience, but I'd recommend them to anyone.
  

Sixteen-year-old Me vs. Thirty-year-old Me

     I'd like to take a moment to defend myself. About what you ask? Well, the fact that I have on numerous occasions mentioned the hotness of this guy, or my crush on that guy, or anything else along those lines.

     Yes, I know I'm married, a mother, thirty (ow, that hurts to write that and sadly it's going to get worse in a month)... Some may think it wrong, inappropriate, silly, ridiculous, you get the point, that I mention things like that. I myself at different times have thought about how my sister-in-law blogs about these important and serious issues that are affecting her family while I'm blogging things like how Alex Pettyfer should be my movie Alric.

      Yes I am a happily married mother. But that is not all that I am. Being married, being single, a mother, a writer, a dentist, a lawyer, tall, short, fat, thin, white, black... one of those things does not make a person. Heck- three of those things does not make a person. Melanie Stanford is made up of zillions of different things- life experiences, interests, mind imaginings, etc. While wife and mother is my main role, writer is secondary. With writer (especially YA writer) comes the reemergence of my sixteen-year-old self.

     Actually, my sixteen-year-old self has never really gone away. It's embarrassing to admit this but I enjoy watching High School Musical with my seven-year-old daughter. I feel like a teenager again when I sing and dance around my room (or my whole house) to Taylor Swift or These Kids Wear Crowns. Most of the books I read are YA. And if I've got nothing to watch on tv, I'd much rather choose iCarly or Big Time Rush than some nasty, sex-and-violence-filled crime show or oh-so-boring discovery channel piece. True.
     My sixteen-year-old self is a very prevalent part of me. In reality, I still feel more like a silly teen than a mature and all-knowing mother (which is what mothers are supposed to be, right?). That's probably why writing YA came so naturally to me. And why, if I can get a little luck on my side, I might actually be successful at it (pleasepleaseplease). Sixteen-year-old me looks at life a lot differently than thirty-year-old-me. Sixteen-year-old me has innocence, big dreams, stupidity... and notices hot guys. Guys who all happen to be younger than thirty-year-old me (which is saying something, I think).
     The other side to this story is that I am a very private person and prefer not to blog about my children. My blog is dedicated to my writing, and everything that that entails. All the inspiration, motivation, things that make me want to write, people that I want to write about, etc. Sixteen-year-old me is a very big part of my writing. She's the one who comes up with everything teen- the dialogue, the emotions, the silliness, the guys-while thirty-year-old me is the one who tries to make the writing good, and who brings a broader experience of the world to the story.

     So there you have it. Read and feel free to sigh in exasperation, roll your eyes, or mock away when I comment on Alex Pettyfer's hotness. Because while thirty-year-old me flushes in embarrassment at my own comments (or at your eye-rolling), sixteen-year-old me flushes in embarrassment, giggles, and then just shrugs her shoulders. And neither of us can see you doing it anyway.

Sixteen-year-old me                                   vs.                                                       Thirty-year-old me

     Who do you think would win in fight? Personally I'm

       betting on thirty-year-old me- she's a lot scrappier.

Shyness

    
     First off, happy St. Patty's Day. I'm wearing my Lucky Charms shirt in honor.
     But onto something more serious.
     So, two this have happened in the past few days that have left some questions lingering in my mind. First off, at church on Sunday our relief society lesson was on service. One of the things our teacher said was that everyone has different talents and strengths and we should serve how we are best able. That got me thinking... what are my talents? Writer? Well, maybe, but how does that help with service?
     Then then missionaries came by last night to talk and issue us one of those very-scary challenges. When they asked if I had anyone in mind to bring into our home I said, um no. When they asked for the first person that popped into my head, I did think of someone, but it's someone I hardly know. And I laughed in utter embarrassment and then sheepishly explained that I'm kinda anti-social and therefore... sorry, I've got nothing.
     It got me to thinking... I've always been kinda shy. On the bachelor finale this past Monday, Emily described herself as "private, not shy". Well, I'm both. I'm not always shy, but I definitely don't put myself out there. I say hi to people, but I'm not much of a conversation starter. I've always been this way and I feel like I always will. I've been better at different times of my life (BYU), and I've been worse (like when I first started having kids). But this is who I am.
     So my question is- is this a bad thing? I mean, yes, I wish I was different. I wish I was a lot more outgoing and comfortable with people. And this shyness limits me- I could make more contacts, put myself out there more in the writing world, etc. But this is who I am. Should I change that? Sometimes I think- why bother? But then I think about service or missionary work or even what I would do if I go to a writer's conference and I think, I need to be better. I need to be unafraid of people, or looking stupid, or being rejected. Because I hardly ever serve. Because I have no one I could talk to about the church or invite to something. Because I'm terrified of even doing so. So then I think, I need to change. But will I...

A Great And Terrible Beauty

     First off... no, the title does not refer to me. Although my beauty is great, I would describe it more as sweet instead of terrible. What do you think? No, I really don't want to know. Just like I really don't think my beauty is 'Great'- just for anyone who thinks I have this huge head full of ego.

     Anyway... I mentioned reading Libba Bray's "A Great and Terrible Beauty" in a past post. This past weekend I read the second and third books of that trilogy- "Rebel Angels" and "The Sweet Far Thing". I didn't mention much about the first one, only that I felt the title was misleading. And by misleading I guess I should say that the books just weren't what I thought they'd be about. I picked them up mainly because of a review on Vickie Motter's blog (she's an agent I previously queried).

     So, getting down to it, the trilogy is about a girl- Gemma Doyle- whose mother dies, so she moves from India to a boarding school in England. Oh, and I should add that they take place in the 1890s. Right away that's brownie points for me since I love almost all things from the past. Gemma discovers she has this power to travel to "the realms", kind of a dream-like land. All three books are about her learning her power, fighting the evil Circe, and of course growing up. Gemma not only has to deal with her strange powers but the dissatisfaction of becoming a lady: corsets, being proper, balls, teas, getting married, etc. I think it's really well done just in the learning about what girls had to go through back then.

     My only gripes are, for one- I felt they were a bit long- the last one especially. I don't mind a long book, but with all the cutting of the unnecessary with my own book, I noticed things that could have been cut or meshed together in hers. My other gripe- the ending. It was a good ending. But in a way- sad. In some cases I love a sad ending- my heart thumps at the tragedy of it all. But in this case I didn't think it had to be that way. Of course it's not my book, so who am I to say what she should have done with her characters. But I felt the loss of one of them in particular. Which just goes to show you that the books were good because they had an impact on me. All in all, very good, and different from anything I've read before.

Hey There Delilah

     I found this fun game on a literary agency's blog (of all places) and it was totally my kind of thing since I love music and I've always been one of those suckers who fills out those email-personal-questionnaires. You know the ones with questions like, what time is it, what did you eat for breakfast, who will respond to this email...
     Anyway, this one is a bit different and pretty funny. Here's what you do:

My Life in iTunes

RULES:
1. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.

You're supposed to tag your friends and blah blah blah, but I'm just going to leave it here and if anyone else wants to play, they can just cut and paste to their hearts content.

IF SOMEONE SAYS 'ARE YOU OKAY' YOU SAY?

I Don't Wanna Wait (by the Veronicas)

Wow- good answer! So impatiently me.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF

Run (Leona Lewis)

Hmmm, is this game tyring to tell me something?

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?

Beside You (Marianas Trench)

Aw, how sweet! It is helpful if they are beside you.

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?

Some Kind of Wonderful (Michael Buble)

I swear I am not rigging this thing! And while I feel ok today, I wouldn't say wonderful.

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?

Enchanted (Taylor Swift)

As in, to be Enchanted, or to Enchant others??? Hmmm.

WHAT'S YOUR MOTTO?

Raise Me Up (Westlife, a cover version of Josh Groban's)

Good motto- maybe I should start living by it.

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?

Flying Without Wings (Westlife)

Aw, thanks guys.

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?

If I'm Not In Love (Faith Hill)

Um, I don't even know what to say about that.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?

Falling Away With You (Muse)

Huh. This game knows me better than I know myself.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?

Count On You (Big Time Rush ft. Jordin Sparks)

That's a good one. Perfect.


WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?

Meet You There (Simple Plan)

Okay, I'm a little freaked out since that song is about meeting someone in the afterlife.


WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?

Halfway There (Big Time Rush- and don't mock me for having them on my playlist!)

Haha, I want to be Halfway There? How about all the way there? And where is 'there' anyway???


WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?

Heartache Tonight (Michael Buble)

I swear I'm not rigging this!!! But that's a good one, I hope everyone has a party and dances along to that song at my funeral. Remember this- I want it played at my funeral.


WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?

Revolution (The Veronicas)


"I am temperamental, like a heart without a home/I am sentimental, but you don't know me at all.../Hold on Tight, I am, I'm a revolution/Close your eyes, I am I am I am/I'll blow your mind/I am, I'm a revolution"

Makes me sound more interesting than I actually am.


WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?

Real Thing (Boys Like Girls)

Okay, I'm confused. Or is this game trying to tell me something?


WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?

Swear It Again (Westlife, what's with all the Westlife songs?)

Oh no, now everyone knows... just kidding, this one makes no sense. And no, I'm not a closet potty-mouth or anything.


WHAT DO YOU WANT RIGHT NOW?

Everything I'm Not (The Veronicas)

Wow- okay nailed me on the head again!


WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?

On Top Of The World (Boys Like Girls)

Nice...


WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?

Hey There Delilah (The Plain White T's)

Beautiful Creatures

     I just finished an awesome book. And when I read an awesome book, I want everyone to know about it. This book: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.

     What was so great about this YA paranormal romance? It was different. I'm starting to understand what agents and publishers say about wanting something different from the rest. Of course every book is different. But a lot are the same- same plot points, same kind of characters, same kind of love story. You really have to work hard to make it different and stand out if you're writing paranormal YA these days since it's so popular.
      Some of the differences in this book? Well, for one, it was told from a boy's point of view. Most YA books written by females are told by the female lead. So that earned this book a point. Another thing, instead of leading you through the whole book until the very end with the big 'reveal'- they said it near the beginning. That wasn't the whole point of the book. No- they fall in love but can't be together because, surprise, at the end she turns out to be a witch. Instead we find out early on that she has powers but that's not the problem- or at least not the only problem. Another point.
      And a big hook for me- the book delves into the past, civil war era to be exact. I love that. I love to go back in time when I'm reading. And not only that, but I was reading about the South, somewhere I've only visited once but clearly don't get. The kind of place you have to live in to understand.
     Ok so I'm not very good at book reviews. But the book was awesome. I said that already but it's true. Awesome. One that will stick with me for the awhile- at least until I get pulled into the world of the next book I read.

Covers

     You know that saying, Don't Judge A Book By It's Cover? Well I totally do. And I'm not talking about people here (although I probably do that sometimes too). I'm talking about actual books.

     One of the things that attracts me to YA books is their awesome covers. Publishers have really figured that all out because there are some great and beautiful book covers out there. Some of my faves- Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series all have great covers, Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush Hush and Crescendo, and of course the Twilight covers are very unique but beautiful.

     One book that I'd been dying to read, based on its cover alone, was "Fallen" by Lauren Kate. I don't think I'd even read the blurb about it before I started reading it, that's how much the cover drew me. Who knows why exactly, but something about that cover alone made me want to read the book. And the book delivered. It was great and it kept me reading late into the night (which is probably why I'm sick now). I found the mystery surrounding Daniel easy to figure out, but I was surprised by the rest of the characters and the ending didn't go like I was expecting it to. That's always a good thing. And she left questions unanswered which some people find annoying but it makes me anxious for the next book. Definitely a book I'd recommend.

     Speaking of covers, not like I'll have any say if it ever comes to that, but I'm thinking of just a sword. Or a girl holding a sword. Or one side of the girls face showing with the sword blocking the other side (although Rampant kind of already did that one). Or a half of a man's face (Alric) and a half of a girls face (Jessica) with the sword in the middle separating the two faces. I tried to figure out how to make one myself but my talents definitely don't run in the computer/images/editing vein. Too bad.

New Alric

     Ok, I had my Alric already picked out. But sorry James Maslow, after seeing Beastly last night I think I've changed my mind.

     Um, Alex Pettyfer- will you PLEASE be my Alric. All I will say is whoo-eee mama! He's got the right build, the right lips, and exactly the right wavy, curls-around-his-ears hair- he's only got to dye it brown. I describe Alric as looking like a Calvin Klein model and I think Alex Pettyfer has that down no prob. He's even British. The only thing I don't know is his eye color, but if they're not green there's always color contacts. Can you not totally see this guy in armor, wielding a sword? (I can!)

     Funny thing is, as I was just looking him up (to see if he's British, not to ogle- I swear), I read that he might play the role of Jace Wayland in the movie version of Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments novels. He's also been offered the role of Daniel Grigori in the movie version of Lauren Kate's novel "Fallen" (what I'm reading right now and yes, he looks exactly the part for that book too). So obviously I'm not the only one who can see him as her novel's hero. By the time my book gets made into a movie (I know I know, don't laugh at my blind optimism), he'll probably be all character-from-a-novel-ed out. Ah well.

     In other news... I'm changing the music. As much as I love BLG, it's a new month which means new music and I think this time I'm going to pick my fave One Republic songs (including "All This Time" which is total inspiration for the very end of my very last Jessica book).
     So enjoy... the music and the beautiful Alex Pettyfer.

Head Explosion

     Well it's been an interesting week. Not that anything exciting has happened. Rather it's been interesting for me emotionally. I've talked before of ups and downs and I swear, my life is full of them (as I'm sure most people's lives are).

     Last week while at my parents house, I worked a bit on book 2 and then I had inspiration for a new chapter 1 for book 1 so I wrote that as well. Then when I got home, after a weekend of slacking off, I went back to book 1 to incorporate my new chapter 1. Let me tell you, it wasn't easy. In fact I remember on Tuesday, staring at the computer screen and thinking, I don't know if I can do this. I don't know if I SHOULD do this. Am I messing with an already good thing? Am I actually making it worse? Should I just leave it alone?

     In the past, my new beginnings haven't changed much past chapter one. This time though I had to change quite a bit in the next three chapters or so to make it work. That involved cutting things that I really liked. But I slogged on through and did it. Then on Wednesday I printed it off and edited it on paper (three chapters only). Today I fixed those edits on the computer and I'm about to go and edit it on paper again to see if I've managed to make it work.

     Through all this worry about my chapter one (something I worry about constantly), I've had inspiration for a completely different book. Not Jessica, not fantastical in any way, not YA even. I'm quite excited about it but of course I don't want to jump in on that until I've finished book 2 of Jessica. To add to all that my mind has been full of the book I finished yesterday, Libba Bray's A Great and Terrible Beauty. It was a good book, although the title is a bit misleading. It wasn't at all what I thought it would be about but it was very good and I'd recommend it.
     Plus my mind's been full of various period movies I've watched lately (hence all the pictures). It started with Wives and Daughters at my mom's house. And because that got me in the mood for period movies, I've since watched Becoming Jane (one of my all-time fave movies) and Persuasion (the one with oh-so-handsome Rupert Penry-Jones, see below).

     Of course that doesn't include all the things my mind is usually full of like my kids, my daily chores, trying to not eat like a cow, the three Gossip Girl episodes I watched this week, and so on and so on.
     It's a wonder my brain hasn't exploded. Actually, this is quite normal for me and I'm starting to think it's what makes me so exhausted all the time. It's not what my body is doing physically, but all the zillions of things that are constantly on my mind all at once. I think, in fact, that it's the plague that most women have to endure. Case in point: in Harry Potter 5 Hermione explains all the different emotions Cho Chang is going through when Harry kisses her, leaving Harry and Ron both speechless with incredulity (see movie clip below, it's right at the end of the clip after the harry/cho kiss).
     Anyway, to avoid head explosion, I have a blog. With long entries such as this that start somewhere but end in a completely different place. Already I can feel my head lightening...

Harry Potter - The Kiss

The zillions of things a girl can feel all at once and how boys just don't get it.