Picture Post- Books, A Cat, and Melted Candles!

Quick News- I was interviewed over at Peace, Love, Vote Books! Go check it out here!

Yes, I'm back with another Picture Post!! I took these pics in two bookstores last week- both Barnes and Noble, I think.



Photographic proof of Project Sweet Life by Brent Hartinger and Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell are both on bookstore shelves!! I loved Shadowed Summer- check out my review last Friday on the myspace blog and enter the contest- and am in the middle of reading Project Sweet Life right now! You can also see Envy by Anna Godberson and Kisses and Lies by Lauren Henderson.



TONS of books here. Was just trying to get the bottom two shelves, but that wasn't working out so I just did a faraway shot. This was to mainly capture Miss Match by Wendy Toliver (bottom right) and Geek Charming by Robin Palmer. But there's also lots of other amazing books on display!!



This was the first time I'd ever seen this book before in person- Sophomore Undercover by Ben Esch. I'm supposed to get a review copy, but none has arrived yet sadly. But here it is in the bookstore! I really love the cover and the book sounds amazing. I hope I get to read it soon! :) By the way, this was taken in the second bookstore as is this next one.



Yes, yes, another picture of Bound South by Susan Rebecca White (Lauren Myracle's sister). They had FIVE copies of this on their shelves, which were originally spine-out with the three books next to it face-out. Well, I remedied that problem, lol. Now, Bound South is in its rightful place, facing out into the store so that people will walk by and be sucked in by the awesome cover and then buy it. :)

And now, the final pic, which has a bit of story behind it. Our heat doesn't work properly. You turn it on and then it keeps going and doesn't stop, so the temperature keeps getting higher and higher. You can't keep it at a set temperature. With the AC, you can though, so I don't understand that, but whatever.

ANYWAY, I was out of town and coming back Wednesday evening. Wednesday morning, my roomie leaves the house and accidentally kept the heat on while she was at work. As you know, we have two cats. My roomie is at work until 5pm and she leaves at like 7:30am. So the heat was on that entire time with no respite for the cats, so she comes home to find them PARCHED and DYING (not really, as they're sturdy creatures, but that's what my roomie said, lol). So she refills their water dishes with cold water and ice cubes, and also puts them in cool areas. Maya happens to be in my bathroom, as there's no vent there so it stayed pretty cool since the door was shut. And Samson was just in the living room with my roomie over near the porch door which was open to let the cool air in.

I arrive home shortly after. I also have to pee. So after my roomie tells me the whole story, I go to my bathroom, knowing that Maya is in there. But I wasn't expecting this:



Isn't that just ADORABLE?!?! Although she did kinda look at me with a "I'M using the bathroom now." expression, lol.

Actually, I have two more pics. We have candles on our dining room table and this is what the heat did to them:






So there you have it! Next week, I'll be posting pics of my bookshelves and piles of books! :)

In My Mailbox- Week of Feb. 16

Here is my vlog for this week's In My Mailbox. I didn't get very many books, yet I ramble on for like 7 or 8 minutes. You'd think less books = shorter run time but no, it's actually less time = more time for me to ramble on. So I hope you all enjoy rambling!



By the way, I forgot to mention that I have a contest going on over at the Myspace blog! Here's the link to it- it features reviews of Shadowed Summer and September Sisters, and you can enter for the chance to win one of them! :)

Fresh New Voice of YA- Saundra Mitchell guest blog!

A short story is like a kiss in the dark from a stranger. -Stephen King, Skeleton Crew (Introduction)

If it weren't for Stephen King, an overdue vacation, and a movie gone wrong, I never would have written a novel.

For fifteen years, I've been a screenwriter. It's been my pleasure and privilege to write- and see produced- nearly four hundred short films. But film is the ultimate collaborative medium. I finish a script, and hand it off-- six months later, the historical drama I wrote may show up on the screen as a futuristic comedy.

Hundreds of hands touch a film before it's finished. Sometimes, this creates a transcendent film that's better than the one you wrote. But sometimes, it creates a terrible film that you wish you could pretend never happened at all. No, no, I realize the credits claim I wrote this, but I swear to you- I wrote a historical drama. There were no giant clown feet from Mars in the movie I wrote!

And it happened that I wrote one script that meant so, so much to me. It was deeply personal- so personal that I made a rare call to the producer to beg a promise he wouldn't change the ending. He promised. Then he changed the ending anyway. I was devastated.

Ordinarily, I would have cried to my best friend Wendi for a couple of days, and then gotten over it. But it happened that for the first time in years, Wendi had decided to take a vacation with her family. A long vacation. Without Internet access.

Left alone, I picked up Stephen King's "On Writing." I've always loved King- though always his short stories better than his novels. And what I especially loved were the author's notes to readers that came with his anthologies. The way he talked about writing- as if telling a story were something intimate- resonated with me. I picked up "On Writing" because I hoped it would be an entire book of those personal, murmured author's notes.

And it was.

I spent three days of my best friend's vacation reading "On Writing" again and again. I spent the rest of it working on my first novel. Then my second- which at the time was called "The Incident with the Landry Boy."

The first novel is in my dresser drawer, an ugly child never meant to be seen by the world. But the second, you know now as "Shadowed Summer." And it never would have been, if not for a bad movie, an overdue vacation and Stephen King.

Thanks, Steve-o.

Fresh New Voice of YA- Interview with Jillian Cantor

News
Go check out the guest blog from Jillian over on the myspace blog that I posted yesterday!!

And also, thanks to everyone who participated in the Eyes Like Stars scavenger hunt! I'm glad you all had a fun time and I wish you the best of luck in winning! :) Thanks also to my 5 new followers, and to everyone for leaving comments!


Interview
1) How did you get the idea for The September Sisters?

Once I got into my twenties, and my sister and I actually became friends, I started to think a lot about what our relationship was like growing up. (We hated each other when we were younger!) At the time I wrote the book, there were also a lot of stories in the news about missing children, and it occurred to me to think about what might happen to the sister of a child who disappeared. How would my life have been different without my sister?


2) What are you working on now? Can you tell us anything about it?

My second book for teens, THE LIFE OF GLASS, will be out from HarperCollins in Winter 2010. It’s the story of a girl who learns about loss, life, love, and beauty during her Freshman year of high school. I’m going through the copy-edits now, and I’m super-excited about it! I can’t wait to be able to share more about it!!


3) Are you anything like your main character Abby? Or more like another character in the book? How much of yourself do you put into your characters, particularly the main ones?

I am a little like Abby in that I am also quiet, serious and love to read and write. I’m also the older sister in a family of two sisters, like Abby, and I played a similar role in the relationship with my sister growing up. I was always the one who lost at fights (like the inner tube in the beginning) and shied away from attention.

I always feel like I put my emotions into my main characters more than anything – the events aren’t true, but the feelings are, if that makes any sense. All of the conflicting emotions Abby feels about her sister – I felt that growing up (only much less heightened since my sister didn’t disappear). But also, whatever emotion I’m feeling as I’m writing seems to seep its way in. Just before writing The September Sisters, I got to visit with a close dying relative for the last time, and that emotion of loss is something I couldn’t help but write into the story


4) What brought you to write for the YA genre? Had you been a fan before writing your novel, or are you still new to it all?

I’m very new to YA, and I fell into it by accident. The September Sisters was, at first, an adult novel, and my agent tried to sell it that way for a few months. When it wasn’t selling, my agent suggested that maybe it was really a YA novel, and she also suggested ways to tweak it to make it feel more YA (which I did). When I originally wrote the book, I never thought about the difference between YA and adult or writing for one or the other. I just had a story to tell, and it happened to be about a teenager.

When The September Sisters sold in a two-book deal, I realized I was going to get the chance to write another YA book, and I had no idea what that really meant. So I started reading -- I read about 20 YA books just to get a sense of the genre and what was out there. And now I’m still trying to catch up reading YA books – which, by the way, I’ve discovered that I really, really love!


5) What is a typical day like for you? What's your writing process like?

On a typical day, I spend the day with my kids (I have two young sons.), just doing normal mom stuff, play dates and story hour, making lunch, playing games, changing diapers, etc. After the kids go to bed, at night, I write. I usually write or do something writing related (like interviews!) every week night for two or three hours.

My writing process is to try and set goals for myself and keep them. I’m a big fan of self-imposed deadlines! When I’m working on a draft, I write five pages each day, and I make myself write them even if I know they’re not perfect or I know I’ll erase them later. I’m also a big reviser, and I will put my draft through many, many revisions on my own before I show it to my agent or editor.


6) What's your favorite jelly bean flavor?

Cinnamon. I love the sweet and spicy taste together!


7) What book(s) are you reading now, or are about to start?

I’m in the middle of working on two new projects right now, and when I write, I can’t usually read at the same time (I need to concentrate totally on my own characters). So I’m sorry to give a boring answer and say I’m actually not reading anything right at the moment. I recently read Sweethearts by Sara Zarr and One True Theory of Love by Laura Fitzgerald, both of which I really enjoyed.

Soon I’m going to start A Taste of Magic by Tracy Madison. It comes out on Feb. 24th just like mine, and Tracy and I blog together at The Novel Girls (www.thenovelgirls.blogspot.com).

Thanks for stopping by, Jillian!!

Thanks so much for the awesome interview, Book Chic!

Waiting on Wednesday (10)

Waiting For You by Susane Colasanti
Derek
Friendly and popular
Style: Cali surfer boy
Awesome at flirting
Future career: landscape architect
Boyfriend potential: high

Nash
Shy but sweet
Style: totally geeked out
Only talks to girls when absolutely necessary
Future career: robotics engineer
Boyfriend potential: none

Derek is clearly the boy Marisa's been waiting for, but there's just one problem. He has a girlfriend. Nash is wrong for Marisa, but he wants to take care of her. As if life wasn't complicated enough, Marisa's also dealing with overcoming a major problem from her past, a family that's acting totally bizarre, and a secret crush on a guy whose identity is a mystery - even to her. The course of true love never did run smooth...

Sophomore year is going to be intense.

My Thoughts: I really enjoyed Susane's previous novel Take Me There and I really need to read her first one When It Happens, but I'm looking forward to her upcoming novel, Waiting for You. It sounds like it'll be a fantastic book and I can't wait to read it! :)

Eyes Like Stars Scavenger Hunt!

So, in a convergence of awesomeness, at least 10 different book bloggers who have received extra copies of Eyes Like Stars will be participating in a "Collect the Shakespeare Quotes" scavenger hunt giveaway. This will occur tomorrow, Wednesday, February 18.

Rules for that:

The Rules:
1) Contest limited to those in the USA. Apologies to our friends abroad, but these ARCs are being mailed out by the generous souls on the blogroll, and there will be other contests which will be eligible to readers overseas.
2) All entrants must be the age of 13 or older. Entrants 12 and under (if any) can be entered by their parents.
3) No family members of anyone connected with the Scavenger Hunt, please.

How To Play:
1) Players should start at Lisa's Blog (lisamantchev.livejournal.com) to get the Official Blogroll and List of Clues
2) Players then need to visit the blogs, collect the quotes, AND leave a comment (like a trail of bread crumbs... we want to know you actually did the leg work!)
3) E-mail Lisa with your list of quotes: lisa@lisamantchev.com
4) Prizes will awarded thusly: to those who collect the most quotes. Should more people remit the complete quote list than we have ARCs to give away, Lisa shall award the prizes by lottery/random drawing. She shall also retain the right to add extra ARCs to the prize pool at her discretion.


So I hope you all participate and I wish you the best of luck with it! :) And even though I'm posting this tonight, check out the entry below this for vlogs of me reading excerpts from The September Sisters by Jillian Cantor and Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell! And leave comments- otherwise, I get self-conscious and think I suck at reading excerpts (ok, I may think this anyway, comments or not, but it's good to at least try). :)

Excerpt Vlogs!

Hey everyone! Here are the excerpt vlogs for this month's Fresh New Voice of YA! Hope you like them, though they seem to be a bit grainy... prolly cuz of lack of light. Ah well, lol.

(Side note: You may either have to wear headphones or turn your volume all the way up since I'm talking kinda low in these videos)

September Sisters by Jillian Cantor excerpt


Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell excerpt



Also, check out the interview with Saundra that I posted on the myspace blog yesterday!

In My Mailbox- Week of Feb. 9

Here's my In My Mailbox this week! Hope you all enjoy!!



And coming up this week is Fresh New Voice of YA, which will feature interviews and guest blogs with Jillian Cantor (The September Sisters) and Saundra Mitchell (Shadowed Summer), as well as my excerpt vlogs and reviews of their books!

Picture Post + B&N Sucks!

Here are the latest pictures (not many) and also a vlog on my experience today.



This is of Golden Girl by Micol Ostow and Geek Charming by Robin Palmer. Yay!



Copies of Would-Be Witch by Kimberly Frost and Bound South by Susan Rebecca White (who, by the way, is Lauren Myracle's sister) in the New Paperbacks section.



The Wake and Fade by Lisa McMann display- I took it very stealthily. I was quite proud of myself. I felt like James Bond.

And now, the vlog on my experience today:

OMFG GUESS WHAT?!?!?!

So I was in the bookstore today and saw a display of Wake and Fade by Lisa McMann, and I moseyed on over to take a look at the Fade hardcover since I just have the advanced copy. I flipped through it and looked at the acknowledgements, and GUESS WHAT?!

I'M IN THERE!!!!

My whole name too, so if anyone has bought a Fade hardcover, I'm about 3/4 down the page in the section starting with "My invisible friends..." I'm the last name mentioned in the list of names.

I'm going back tomorrow with friends to take pictures of it (along with other books too).

YAY!!! :D

Waiting on Wednesday (9)

Prada and Prejudice by Mandy Hubbard
To impress the popular girls on a high school trip to London, klutzy Callie buys real Prada heels. But trying them on, she trips…conks her head…and wakes up in the year 1815! There Callie meets Emily, who takes her in, mistaking her for a long-lost friend. As she spends time with Emily’s family, Callie warms to them—particularly to Emily’s cousin Alex, a hottie and a duke, if a tad arrogant. But can Callie save Emily from a dire engagement, and win Alex’s heart, before her time in the past is up? More Cabot than Ibbotson, Prada and Prejudice is a high-concept romantic comedy about finding friendship and love in the past in order to have happiness in the present.


My Thoughts: I have been wanting this book for so long, ever since Mandy first emailed me back in November probably and it could've been even earlier just from seeing it around the blogosphere. I've been waiting for a copy for a while and I'm so envious seeing other bloggers getting their copy and mine not showing up. :( Hopefully it'll come soon from Penguin. But anyway, this sounds like such a fantabulous book and I can't wait to read it!! YAY! This book will be released in June!

Boyfriend Pics

So here they are, at long last! I ended up going to visit Davin this past weekend since my original plans of visiting a mutual friend fell through since he was sick. Davin and I had a great time, and I so enjoy being with him. I'll edit this later tonight with more details (cuz it's almost dinnertime!) but for right now, here are pics!







PS I'm very scruffy in these pics cuz since I was in a rush, I didn't have time to shave. Next time I visit, I'll be shaven and will take another cute pic then, lol.

ETA: I am back from dinner and will talk about what happened this weekend.

Saturday- As mentioned above, I was supposed to visit a mutual friend of Davin and I's, but he was sick, and I had planned on spending the night somewhere so that my roomie and her bf had some privacy. No one in Lynchburg would let me crash at their places since they were all busy with stuff, so I thought "Hey, why not ask Davin?" I had been missing him a lot, so I thought it'd be a perfect chance to see him again. I texted him to see if he would mind me coming over for the night and he said "sure." So I went home, packed up stuff, and then left. It was a little over a 3 hour trip there, so not too bad. I listened to the radio and Britney's CD "Circus". I had also brought PD3 and Georgia Nicolson 6 audio books, but never got around to listening to either one. Davin called when I was halfway there and asked what Chinese food I wanted- I got chicken with broccoli. He and his roommate ordered and had it waiting for me when I got there. We went to CVS shortly after I arrived to get sodas, among other things, which Davin paid for. He and I watched one of the DVDs I'd brought, Cybill (sitcom running from 1995-1998, starring Cybill Shepherd and Christine Baranski, who was recently Tanya in Mamma Mia!), while I ate. Then he put on the movie In the Name of the King, during which I simultaneously watched and also did stuff on my computer. Yes, I'm very good at multi-tasking. Then it was bedtime when the movie was over at almost 3am.

Oh, and I almost forgot- I made VERY good time getting up there. It's supposed to be a 3hr48min trip, and it was like half an hour shorter when I arrived in his area. I was literally two minutes away from his place and just had to make a few turns and I GOT LOST. FOR 40 MINS. My empty gas light came on too; luckily, that was like 5 minutes before I finally found my way back to his place. Maryland roads and streetlights and all that SUCK. I hate them. The streetlights are on the SIDE OF THE ROAD, like you know, where the SIDEWALKS are. WHO DOES THAT??!! And since the streetlights are on the side, they don't hang the street name signs in front of you, but on the street corners. I can't see those when I'm driving in an unfamiliar(ish) place in the dark!

But whatever.

Sunday- Woke up, lots of cuddles, showertime, then we went to the mall to have lunch and wander around. Went to this Texas BBQ place, which was ok, but the burger was too well-done and all charcoal-y, which I didn't like. But I did enjoy the Tex-Mex flavor on it- very sweet. Stopped by Borders Express where I looked at the teen section and was basically a dork in front of Davin, showing off random books and all that. After the mall, we went to Best Buy where I got this free Buffy DVD of this reunion panel they did around this time last year. I can't wait to watch it. Once we got home, I called my roomie and told her I had decided to stay an extra night, so after that, Davin and I snuggled lots and watched the season finale of Top Chef. Then we went to KFC/Taco Bell to get dinner; I had planned on getting Taco Bell, cuz I hate KFC, but then my eyes started to wander over to the KFC menu and the popcorn chicken was looking VERY good. So I ended up getting it, on recommendation from Davin, and it was actually VERY good. So I think it's either just the KFC near my parents' place or just the chicken tenders (it could be this since Davin said he doesn't like the tenders either). We watched a few episodes of Charmed while we ate and then when we were done, snuggled up and watched. Then his roomie took pictures of him and I and then we went to bed.

Monday- Woke up at 6:30am cuz Davin had to be at work at 8, so I stayed in bed while he got ready. He kissed me before leaving and told me to text him when I was heading out from his place. After he left, I got up and did some stuff online, then left a little before 11am.

And there you have it. My weekend. :)

In My Mailbox- Week of Feb. 2

This is two parts because my camera decided that it was low on batteries and needed to turn off. But it would be able to be turned on again and it let me do the last minute. Part 1 has all the Mailbox stuff, and Part 2 has some extra stuff.





That's all for this week! :) Oh and be sure to check out A.S. King's guest blog on myspace!

The Picture Post Part 3

I may stop doing the whole "Parts" thing at least if I continue doing this on a regular basis. Otherwise, it'll get to be like Part 437 eventually and that's just plain silly. Perhaps I'll do it whenever new books come out or something and just put the week or month or something. You all do seem to enjoy seeing these.

First off though, two pics from the Ann Brashares signing I went to!



Here's the one and only pic I took of Ann talking, lol. I feel weird taking pictures of authors while they're talking but a couple of other people were doing it, so I figured hey, why not, and did it. But I felt weird, so I didn't do it again, lol. She came in around 7, went over some FAQs that she had, read a bit from the book (she had an ARC with her), answered some questions from the audience, and then she signed books (which I'll attempt to show off in this week's In My Mailbox vlog).



This is me with Ann Brashares. I am surprised at how well this picture turned out considering at the time it was taken, I thought I was in a very awkward position and smiling like a maniac and looked just all around weird. But never underestimate the powers of a potential bf- he took a WONDERFUL picture. It takes a lot for me to actually like a picture of myself and show it off, so this is quite the feat. Another thing I will admit is that I was WAY shy even for me. I basically just said my name when she asked for it, stood there like a looning loon while she signed the books (Forever in Blue and 3 Willows), then asked for a picture and said thank you and moved on.

*sigh* I am hopeless.

Also, I just saw that it looks like I have a hump. I swear I don't!! I'm not Quasimodo- any author (or regular person) who's met me can tell you that.



Now it may be a bit hard to see, but here is the only copy of Dust of 100 Dogs by A.S. King in the Borders where the signing took place. I went back the next day since Ann's signing was set up in the YA section (which was AWESOME- it like snaked around a structural block thing on the second floor) and therefore lots of people around which means embarassment factor = high, esp. since my date would prolly pretend he didn't know me if I was caught, lol. Also, it would really increase my nerd factor if not only I took him to a book signing, but then also took PICTURES of books too.



Here are 5 copies of Evermore by Alyson Noel which I faced outward because well, why not, lol. I hope to review this book soon. It looks AMAZING! I'm happy they had a lot of copies.



Now the only reason I take a photo of this is because the night of the signing, that copy wasn't there and then the next morning, it was there facing outward next to all the Stephenie Meyer books. Freaky, huh? Or maybe not, lol. Just thought it was interesting.



Here, you can see lots of awesome books like:

Top Row- Violet in Private by Melissa Walker, Amor and Summer Secrets and Adios to All the Drama by Diana Rodriguez Wallach as well as a copy of Thirteen Reasons Why- why does it always end up near the end of the alphabet? I moved it back to its rightful place after taking the photo.

Middle Row- Robin Wasserman books, Wherever Nina Lies by Lynn Weingarten, and The Debutante by Kathryn Williams

Bottom Row- Absolutely Maybe by Lisa Yee, Frenemies by Alexa Young, and Sweethearts by Sara Zarr



This photo was mainly taken to capture Beautiful Americans by Lucy Silag, which not only is facing out but also has copies to the side of it!! But you can also see in this photo some of the Pretty Little Liars series by Sara Shepard, TTYL and L8R G8R by Lauren Myracle, Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott, The God Box by Alex Sanchez, La Petite Four by Regina Scott (the last three are on the top shelf next to PLL), and The Comeback Season by Jennifer E. Smith.



On the middle shelf are copies of Cindy Ella and Geek Charming by Robin Palmer, with the latter facing outward!! I have an ARC of this and can't wait to read it. I hope to get a review up soon of this too! To the left of it, you can see copies of Golden Girl and Popular Vote by Micol Ostow, and to the right of it, you can see a lone copy of Graffiti Girl by Kelly Parra.

And before I show the last bookstore photo, I also want to say that at the Borders, I faced out copies of To Be Mona by Kelly Easton, Total Knockout by Taylor Morris, and What Would Emma Do? by Eileen Cook. Now, the final bookstore photo, in which I moved to a Barnes and Noble after having breakfast with my friend:



Yes, that's right!! Copies of The Season! There were four at this B&N, already facing outward. The reason the photo is at an odd angle was because there was a guy reading nearby and I didn't want him hearing the sound my camera makes when it takes a photo. It's very embarassing, so I kinda hid it from his view and snapped a picture quickly while pretending to look at books (well, not really pretending, lol). On the shelf above, you can see the spine for Gothic Lolita by Dakota Lane, which has one of the most AWESOME covers ever!! I just wish it weren't hardcover and so short.

And another cat pic! This one is so adorable!



Maya's in heat right now, so it was awesome that she was just lounging around. She climbed up to the top of my TV (which is on my dresser), and just sat there for a while. She unfortunately had to be moved from my TV when Samson came running in with a mission to have sex with her while my roomie was leaving my roomie after I showed her how cute Maya was being. But the crisis was averted and everything was fine. :)

I also just noticed you can see a little bit of the pile of books I have in the corner there, lol. Have fun looking to see what's there. My room is getting a bit cleaner, so maybe I'll take pics of my bookshelves and piles of books and post them in the coming weeks since Taren (among others) seems to want to see bloggers' bookshelves, which I'm all too happy to help with! :)

That's all for now! See you guys on Sunday for In My Mailbox!

Good + Bad News and Blog News

Good News: I had a fantastic date the other day. I went to the Ann Brashares signing and met up with someone. He was a bit out of place (well, so was I, I guess) with all the pre-teen girls around, but he took it all in stride. His name's Davin and he is so adorable and quite the hottie. He took a picture of me with Ann Brashares, which I'll be posting tomorrow or Saturday. Anyway, we went to Red Robin afterward for dinner, which was SO GOOD. I'd never been there before and it was great. I then followed him back to his place, did some stuff online, watched Mythbusters and spent the night. He had to leave for work early in the morning, but he let me sleep in as long as I wanted. Had IHOP for breakfast with a friend and then drove all the way back to my apartment. Hopefully, this will turn into something more. I really like him a lot.

Bad News: I got a call today from my temp agency. There's no more data entry jobs, but I am now on the list for a 3rd shift position doing document prep for the same company. However, it doesn't start until February 23. So now, I'm looking for a more steady job. But at least I've got a job lined up now. This sucks.

Although, on the plus side, I can get lots of reading done. I just won't have any income coming in.

Ugh.

Blog News: Over at the Myspace blog, I've got A.S. King there as part of a Feature Week. Check out the interview with her and my review of Dust of 100 Dogs. The guest blog will be up Saturday.

I also have a vlog up on Jocelyn's Teen Book Review site. Go check it out here! It's all about how I got into blogging.

And check out my review of The Navigator and City of Time by Eoin McNamee over on GuysLitWire!

As for this blog, another picture post will be up either tomorrow or Saturday. In My Mailbox vlog will be up on Sunday. Still no idea when the final part of the VCA Vlog Trilogy will be up- I still need to figure out how to split the video into two parts. Does anyone know how to do that?

Waiting on Wednesday (8)

Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater
In this sequel to Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception, faeries follow James and Dee to Thornking-Ash Conservatory, where James struggles with his feelings for Dee and with the dangerous faerie muse, Nuala. When Halloween plunges both Dee and Nuala into danger, James finds he can only choose one.

My Thoughts: OK, so no, I haven't yet read Lament, but I will soon, and that doesn't keep me from wanting to read and own this book. I mean, who wouldn't want to read this book with an OMFG AMAZING cover like that?! It's awesome. Maggie just revealed it the other day, and I can't wait to get a copy (hopefully along with her other upcoming book Shiver).

Anyway, no link for pre-ordering here because it hasn't been put up on Amazon yet, but it will be out in October, I believe. And Shiver is out in August.

The Pictures Post Part 2!

So yesterday I stopped by the B&N near me to take a few pictures of books there. Unfortunately, I didn't get too many because there were more people around. I really need another book reviewer person with me so I don't seem like such a weird psycho taking pictures of books. (On a sorta related note, is anyone going to the Ann Brashares signing in Annapolis, MD tomorrow? Because I totally am- I'm so excited!! I also hope to take a few book pics there of new releases and of course of me with Ann!)

But I am excited about the ones I did get. After the pictures, I'll mention the stuff I wasn't able to get- it was really only like two things, so actually, I'll mention them now, lol. There were 4 copies of Golden Girl by Micol Ostow and ... I can't remember the other one, but I was excited about it when I saw it, lol.

So here we go:



As you know from this week's Mailbox vlog, I got a copy of Here Today, Gone to Maui by Carol Snow. I found two copies of it on the shelves, and one up on the New Releases table. Here they are on the shelves with two other Snow books- Getting Warmer and Been There, Done That!



Of course I just had to find Jessica Burkhart's book Take the Reins! It was also on the Young Reader Series shelves. Yay that there were copies!! :)



This was a hard photo to take because a) there was a girl in the Teen section browsing and she wouldn't go away, b) the Teen section is right next to the B&N cafe so all the coffee drinkers are nearby and in seeing distance, and c) again, TOO MANY PEOPLE IN THE STORE. So yeah... oh, and also after the photo was taken, my camera makes this clicking noise and the girl looked up to see me holding a camera kinda pointed in her direction and I'm pretty much looking very shady and sketchy. But she didn't do anything, which was good. I stuck around for a couple more minutes but she didn't leave so I just left.

Anyway, in this photo, you can see copies of North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley, which I was REALLY surprised to see because I haven't seen many Justina books in my local bookstore. Or even at the one back home, which is why I was surprised to see North of Beautiful on the shelves before the release date. You can also see You Are So Undead to Me by Stacey Jay as well as a lot of other books, like Bliss by Lauren Myracle (and others by her) down in the bottom right, and 3 Willows by Ann Brashares in the top left with some Meg Cabot titles below it. There's also Maureen Johnson just a bit down from Stacey's book, as well as the Wall of Stephenie Meyer where each book of the Twilight series gets their own shelf.



I moved to Target after the B&N fiasco, and decided to take a pic of Alexa Young's book Frenemies and its sequel Faketastic, both right next to Meg Cabot's books, and below Clique novels and above the PLL series! Great placement right there. :)

And finally, just for Justina,



Yes, it's ME holding my advance copy of North of Beautiful in my kitchen area, and also sporting a double chin! How classy!

See, Justina, this is why I don't include myself in photos of books, lol.

But if I'm in Seattle again, we can go to a bookstore and take photos of each other holding random books. Actually, there's a photo I've been wanting to do for a while- I want to hold a copy of Girl Overboard by Justina behind my back (with my back facing the camera obviously) and holding the book just like the girl on the cover is holding her snowboard.

Wouldn't that be an AWESOME photo!? But I need someone else with me to take the photo. Maybe we'll do it when Justina and I meet up in Seattle in the future. :)

That is all for now.

Happy Meme

So I'm finally getting around to this, like... apparently, it's only been like 4 days. It feels like it's been two weeks, lol. Anyway, here's the Happy Meme, which Just Blinded Book Reviews tagged me for. Here are the instructions followed by the 6 things that make me happy.

Rules of the tag:

Link to the person who tagged you
List 6 things that make you happy
Post the rules, tag six others and let them know you did so
Then tell the person who tagged you your entry is finished!


Six things that make me happy:

1) Books obviously. I love getting them, reading them, finishing them, admiring their covers, putting them on my shelves, etc. I LOVE BOOKS! And they make me quite happy. I don't think I could live without books.

2) DVDs, preferably of TV shows. I love buying TV on DVD, especially when there are special features. I'm a special features WHORE- sometimes I buy a DVD of a TV show that I may not have seen just because the special features look really good. It doesn't happen often, but it has happened before. Recent purchases: Pushing Daisies Season 1 and Sex and the City Season 1

3) Like Just Blinded, I am also a fan of getting emails. I check my two email accounts (personal and book review) at least 50 times a day because I LOVE getting emails. So please feed this obsession of mine and send me more emails as they make me happy.

4) Theatre. All throughout high school, I worked on stage crew for our productions and loved it. I love working on shows and I love seeing them, though it is more fun seeing them, lol. I also had a one-act play of mine performed during my high school's annual one-act festival during my junior year. That was awesome. I hope to see some shows this semester at my alma mater with my friend Becca who's taking a theatre course and has to go see a show for 5% of her grade.

5) The entire YA community- authors, bloggers, readers, publicists, etc. All of you make me so happy to be a part of this community. I love the camaradie and I really enjoy making new friends and chatting books with everyone. You all rock!

6) Last, but not least, my cats make me happy. They're so cute!!! I love them. :)


And now I tag:

Harmony Book Reviews
Hope's Bookshelf
Amanda Ashby
Melissa Walker
Bookluver Carol
Sarah MacLean

In My Mailbox- Week of Jan. 26!

Hey everyone!! Here's my In My Mailbox post for this week!

Stuff I talk about in the vlog:

1) Jewel: The Essential Live Songbook DVD
2) The Season by Sarah MacLean
3) Here Today, Gone to Maui by Carol Snow
4) Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell
5) Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev
6) Peace, Love, and Baby Ducks by Lauren Myracle
7) Something, Maybe by Elizabeth Scott



Here's the link to Saundra Mitchell's contest: http://sweeps.shadowedsummer.com/

And here are the cat pics:


This is Maya (the female) in my dresser before I put the top drawer back in. I had to take out the top drawer to make it easier to carry and hold on to, and before I was able to put the drawer in, Maya jumped up into the dresser and was roaming around in it.



Here's Samson (aka the stray; he's the male) lounging in our living room last night while my roomie and her bf played Wii. He's so cute, except when he meows loudly and keeps me up at night. Not so cute then, but he's been getting better. And a final pic of him, but he got too close to the camera when I hit the button, lol.