Austin Teen Book Fest 2013 #ATBF13

I have wanted to attend the Austin Teen Book Festival for 3 years and could never make it happen. When this year's line up was released, I nearly fell out of my chair in excitement - Rae Carson, Marissa Meyer, Holly Black, MAGGIE STIEFVATER! - and I was determined to be there.

Thankfully, I was able to make it happen and it was an almost perfect day.

via ATBF

Maggie opened the festival up with a poignant and hilarious speech. She made some really great points about how creative types typically have equal stores of fear and imagination, and how we need to be able to balance the two somehow. She said that, as a writer, a person plays the "what if" game - what if someone could physically manifest their dreams? What if shapeshifters were real? - and that that game says that all the dreadful possibilities are just as important as the magical ones.  She spoke briefly about her novels, including the beautiful, perfect creation that is Sam Roth and then The Raven Cycle books, and she ended it by saying that "we are all Dream Thieves because we can choose to manifest our dreams or our nightmares."

It was a really great way to open up the day, and once Maggie spoke, my friend and I headed up to our first panel of the day - Into Hearts of Darkness, which featured Jon Scovron, Mari Mancusi, Robin Wasserman, April Tucholke, Victoria Scott and the fantastic Holly Black.

There were several great questions posed to the authors here, but my favorite tidbits were uttered by Robin and Holly, both in response to the query: Where do your ideas come from?

Robin quoted the amazing Patrick Ness and said that, "One idea is never enough for a book." She talked about how he says he usually gets The Idea, and then other Ideas appear and they all sync and congeal and suddenly, this mass of ideas is a Living, Breathing, Thing, and then there's enough to be a book. I thought that was a really fantastic statement. Holly said the best advice regarding ideas she ever got was to "Honor your obsessions." That's a pretty cool idea, too - the thought that if you love something, you should probably write about it.

It was a great start to the day, and then we went back to the main hall to watch the Fierce Reads ladies face off against the Dark Days gals in a silly set of games. The best part of this, for me, was when David Tennant appeared on the screen and everybody went nuts. O DOCTOR, MY DOCTOR, I LOVE YOU SO!

(Obligatory side note: There were SO. MANY. WHOVIANS THERE. I was basically like, "Hello, you are my PEOPLE!") 

Then, we grabbed some lunch and bought a few books - I got ASYLUM by Madeleine Roux and THIS SONG WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE by Leila Sales - and headed upstairs to try to snag a good couple of seats in the Dark Days panel room. (We ended up on the 2nd row - SWEET.)

Madeleine Roux, via my OG iPhone

The Dark Days panel was, by far, my favorite of the entire day. It included Madeleine Roux, Sherry Thomas, Mindy McGinness, Michelle Gagnon, Amy Tintera, and Rae Carson.

These ladies are clearly all friends, and they all played off of one another so well - and they're all hilarious, so that definitely helped. A couple of observations here: Michelle Gagnon is so cool, I want to read all of her books, ever, now. DON'T TURN AROUND and DON'T LOOK NOW have been on my radar, but she's so fantastic, I kind of want them in my grabby little hands right now. She and Rae both had this really calm, approach and it was just super cool. Mindy is hilarious - and I mean, snarky and smart, and I never would have guessed that she spends her days as a high school librarian. Biggest surprise of the day? Sherry Thomas, who's glasses and general look do sort of speak quiet librarian but is smart and genuinely a riot who had a snarky remark to almost every question, including how, sometimes, ideas are on sale at Costco, and how hers was a free sample.

Favorite moment, though?

Madeleine Roux's answer to "Where do your ideas come from?" The answer involved blood sacrifice by the light of the full moon, a spirit named Dave, and naked dancing.

Like you do.

via my OG iPhone

After Dark Days was Fierce Reads, which was in the same room, so we were able to settle in and really enjoy it.  The authors here were Leila Sales, Marissa Meyer, S.A. Bodeen, and Alexandra Coutts. The tone of this panel was a lot less snark and a bit quieter, but the result was the same - these ladies love to write and they loved interacting with their readres. Having already read Meyer's works, the other three authors were virtually unknown to me, but now I can say that I need to pick up TUMBLE
& FALL by Alexandra, STAT. The idea of a novel that focuses on the time spent waiting for a natural disaster to strike is scary in the best, most real way, and I really have to find myself a copy of that book soon.

Our last panel of the day was Powers Strange and Perilous, which included Robin LaFevers, Lisa McMann, Cinda Williams Chima, Rosemary Clement-Moore, Melissa de la Cruz and her husband Michael Johnston, and the awesome Maggie Stiefvater. (FLAILY FLAIL FLAIL.) I've read something by everyone on this panel with the exception of Lisa and Cinda, so this was a fun one for me. It was interesting to hear how everyone thinks of the supernatural abilities that they've given their characters, and I especially liked how Robin spoke about the extraneous abilities she gave the ladies in her His Fair Assassins series - I love that she correlates them to the ways the infants struggled at birth (which sounds morbid, I know... because it is). Maggie was, as usual, hilarious and awesome but still made a lot of interesting points, and then it was off to the closing speech with the wonderful Holly Black.

Holly spoke of fear, too, and how one of her lifelong obsessions (vampires) manifested from her childhood fears. We really enjoyed her speech, but I'm not going to lie - the lines for autographs were becoming a bit intimidating, so we hopped in line a few minutes before she finished up so we could be sure to have a couple minutes with each author for whom we had a book to be signed.

All in all, I got Leila to sign my copy of THIS SONG WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE, Marissa to sign my copy of CINDER (I already have a signed copy of SCARLET), and Maggie signed my copies of both THE RAVEN BOYS and THE DREAM THIEVES. My little exchange which her while she was signing my books is also one of my favorite things of the whole day.

via my OG iPhone

Actual conversation:

Me: Hi! Thanks so much for coming today!
Maggie: No problem; I love it. <begins signing>
Me: Also, thanks for creating Sam Roth. He remains my favorite YA Boy ever.
Maggie: Well, he's a good book boyfriend to have.
Me: Right? I figure he'll sing me a song and then turn into a wolf with gorgeous amber eyes. What could be bad about that?
Maggie, as she finishes signing, with a grin: Shedding.

HA. And now you know why I say she's 100% awesome. ;)

Anyway, the ATBF was really great. I am thoroughly impressed with how smoothly it ran, how easy the schedule seemed to flow, and how genuinely kind all of the authors seemed. Will definitely try to attend next year's event! 

Thanks to Book People and all the volunteers for making it so great! And a huge thanks to the authors for being generous with their time.

Summer Reading Plans

Hey there.

So, this thing has been circulating around the interwebz : clicky click.

Aside from the fact that, for about a thousand reasons, I won't touch 50 Shades of Shite with a ten foot pole, I've made myself go through this flow chart a couple different times with different answers, and every time, I've ended up with a book that's been on my to-be-read list for quite some time, which is pretty cool.

That got me thinking - what are my summer reading plans? Last year, I decided to read some kidlit between whatever I happened to pick up from my shelves. In some instances, I reread old favorites; in others, it was the first time I'd gotten around to it. Some examples of what I read last summer are:

• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (one of my favorite books)
• Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
• Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
• Wonder by RJ Palacio (FEELS ALL OVER)

An approximation of my tbr pile. No, really.

I think that, this summer, I'll finish up my reread of the Harry Potter books. I just started a slow read of Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone, and I'm really enjoying reading the books with the knowledge of everything that's to come. I'll also continue to be part of a book club. But, I'm not sure that that's really enough to constitute Summer Reading Plans! Maybe I should set a numerical goal - "I'll read x books by the last day of August."

Are you a reader? What are you going to be reading this summer?

:)

In Which There is an Apple

Hey guys.

This is going to be a sort of "update" blog. I guess they all sort of are, aren't they? But I wanted to give anyone who's interested an update on all the goings on in my life at present.

First up: I've made a good dent in my 101/1001 list, but not as much as I'd like at this point. That said, I've made progress on a few of the items that will take the longest to complete, which is nothing to shake a stick at.

Some notable accomlishments (in my opinion, anyway): 

1. I've read six of the twenty recommendations I requested.
2. I've kept record of one of six months in "My Day in Six Words" journal.
3. I've written a short story to begin my Short Story Project.
4. We have plans with regard to savings/paying off various debts in mind.

For my comprehensive 101/1001 list, you can click here.

Second, I have read 31 of my intended 85 books this year. Thus far, this equates to 11688 pages.  Cray cray!

Third, I started at what is essentially my Favorite Day Job Ever on Monday. Working at this company was always the game changer for me, and I'm hoping to be able to move from contract to permanent employee in a hot second. Good thoughts appreciated. :)

And lastly, I've decided to be more comment-y in my blog reading. I very rarely get comments on this thing, and I know how much it means to me when I actually do get one, so I want to be sure to pay that forward a bit. :)

I'll leave off with this, just for some TRUFAX:

via

How are you? What's new? Are you working steadily toward any of your own goals?

PS HOMG THE WALKING DEAD AUGH.

4 Simple Goals

a friend of mine follows the blog A Beautiful Mess, which i, myself, have recently started following as well. in a post there, they spoke of coming up with four action-oriented goals for the remainder of the year - they should be things you actively do regularly before 2013 is upon us.

as i read my friend's goals, as well as those listed on A Beautiful Mess, i was struck with the simplicity of them, and how ingenious it is to think of 4 items that are easy to do but also improve your quality of life with minimal effort.

and how that minimal required effort is often why those things get pushed to the side or even off the to-do list entirely.

life's about to change in a big way for my family and me, and after spending the afternoon thinking about this simple idea, i've come up with my own four simple goals. (i'm a bit wordy here. sorry.)

via

one: go outside. 

on november 17th, we're moving back to texas. this isn't news, not really, and we're excited about it, but here's the deal: tennessee is gorgeous. i mean, like, jaw-droppingly gorgeous, and in a way that texas is not. texas is all rolling hills and pale green and brown with lovely blue skies. tennessee is mountains topped with treelines and deep greens and grays. 

i need to get out in it more while it's available to me. and so i shall. perhaps i'll snap some photos to blog as documentation of said gorgeousness.

two: spend my morning commute in quiet. 

several years ago, i was an active churchgoer. for reasons i won't list out here, i am not any longer. but at one point in my history, a leader challenged me to spend time in what he called silence and solitude, and the mental clarity that i was able to garner as a result of spending intentional time alone and in my own kind of quiet was impressive.

my morning commute isn't terribly long, but it is arguably the only me-time i get every day where i am absolutely alone; therefore, it will do. so now, more often than not, i hope my mornings are just me, some good tunes, and perhaps a bit more mental clarity.

three: have quality time with both my husband and daughter every day. 

i know that this seems like a no brainer, but frankly, life is busy and it's easy to let this slide.

but i shouldn't.

so, let me clarify a couple things, because for me, there are two different meanings at play here:

for time spent with my daughter, quality time means letting go of being mama for a minute and playing and engaging her without any real direction. just be with her, love on her, and enjoy every second, because she's growing up too damn fast. for my husband, it means actively devoting time to him. whether that's reading together or watching some documentary with him because it's suddenly struck his interest, or debating (ok, usually agreeing 100%) about politics, i don't care, i just don't want us to be in our own little worlds every night after spending all day apart, and it's easy to let that happen. after all, he's incredibly intelligent and i think he's pretty cute. time spent in his company is never wasted.

quality time. the end.

four: watch doctor who. 

i am sure someone somewhere is laughing at me for this, but the thing is? the happiness that doctor who brings me is deliciously nerdy and i've never experienced such deep-seated love for a fictional character as i have for the doctor. so, despite the fact that the show has also (recently) proven that it can rip my heart into shreds, i adore it.

i really do.

and i have 4 seasons left, and a pretty epic crush on david tennant. so, yay for nerdy british television. best.

-

i'm hoping that next time i blog about this subject, i've actually acted on this list. outlook is good, i'd say. :)

do you have any simple goals you'd like to reach by year end?

a new start

over the last ten years or so, i've probably had twenty different blogs. it all started with livejournal (i'm old, apparently) and continued to build from there. it's been a long, twisty road, and i was never able to keep up any real sort of commitment to any of the blogs i've had, whether they were a real, official blog  or something as simple as tumblr.

perhaps i'm a bit slow, but i've just realized that the reason for this - the reason i could never stay motivated to post regularly - is because i always, always, always shoved myself into a corner, content-wise. all of the blogs have had themes instead of just being a place where i can deposit my mind's meandering thoughts whenever i see fit.

novel idea, i know.

so that's the goal here.

(side note: if you read any of the other 8 bajillion blogs i've been a part of, please note that they are all closed. another side note: an additional goal for this blog is to use it before, during, and after i (hopefully) attain a publishing deal, so i'm doing the initial thing for now, as i intend to use a pen name if i ever get a book deal.)

a few more impacting things you should know, in no particular order:

i've acquired a recent affinity for typing in all lowercase letters. perhaps this has something to with my daughter (who is 4) preferring them to capitals. or maybe my pinkies are tired of hitting the shift button, and we all know caps locking all the time is just plain rude.

i'm an aspiring YA author. my current project is fantasy, the first book in a trilogy, and i'll be querying for agent representation soon. (i do not, however, type my books in all lowercase letters. in case you were wondering. (although that really worked for david levithan and john green in WG,WG.)

i am a wife, a mother, a big sister, a friend, and a foodie. also, i'm somewhat obsessed with coffee in varying forms, but i'm convinced that once one declares oneself a writer, that comes with the territory.

i read obsessively. my to-be-read pile is currently over 120 books, and still growing.

i currently live in nashville, tennessee, but will soon be relocating back to my hometown of austin, texas, and i'm pretty excited about it.

i feel compelled to say that i'm not entirely sold on this blog background, and i may have a friend create one for me.

topics on this blog will likely range from books to writing to pop culture to genuinely nerdy, flaily posts about whatever may happen to come up. i'm contemplating a few different sort of theme post things, and will start posting soon. there will definitely be updates as i go through the querying process, and if you'd like me to talk about anything specific, feel free to ask.

also, this is one of the (very few) television shows that can keep my interest:

via

also-also, this blog url was taken from the song "in my eyes" by robyn.

if you're still here, i'd like you to know that there is fresh lemonade and a pile of homemade cookies just down the hall.

thanks for stopping by. won't you stay a while?

hearts,
b