What I Did On My Summer Vacation

My bloggy buddy Michael over at In Time... is hosting a blogfest!  He wants us to write about what we did on our summer vacation- much like those groan-inducing essays we had to write EVERY.SINGLE.FIRST.DAY.OF.SCHOOL for 12 years.  What's one more in the grand scheme of things?  Besides, I was so holed up at my house editing, I'm practically a vampire.  I want to see what my chaps have been up to!

I've decided to write my essay from the point of view of my 1st Grader.  Except with correct spelling and grammar (because I'm sure you don't want to read 300 words of "I ouent to the prk wif my Mommy and Dady and rid my bic and ouent swmmmmg."

Actually I must say, her spelling has improved dramatically in just the first few weeks of school.  I'm one proud mama!

What I Did on My Summer Vacation
By Little Monster
Mr. DiGesu   Homeroom

My Summer Vacation was so awesome, except I really really missed school.  I told my mom this every day.  In fact, I asked her every single day when I was going to go back.  I think she even may have mentioned how excited she was for me to go back.  I'm glad she loves school as much as I do.


I've decided this year that I'm terrified of bugs.  Doesn't matter what kind, really.  I will run and scream as if I'm being chased by an axe murderer.  Silly me. I can't wait for the snow to come.

I was asked to join the competitive gymnastics team in June.  I had to practice 12 hours a week!  I loved every minute of it and I could tell my mom did too.  When she heard my practice was 3 hours a day her eyes lit up. She even dropped me off early and practically sped off while I was halfway out the door. I'm so glad she's so happy for me.

I turned 6 in July this year, which is SO much better than 5.  When you're 6, your teeth start falling out and you get money from the tooth fairy. I'm happy I got enough money to buy my own diary!  No one knows where my diary is except all the kids in my class, my teacher, my best friend, and my whole neighborhood. Good thing I hid it in my mom and dad's closet so they won't find it.

We went to Chicago on a train for my birthday and it was WONDERFUL!  We saw all sorts of things including a HUGE crab, jellyfish and dinosaur bones. My Gamma and Pop-pop came too.  They stayed in the same huge hotel, ate out at all the cool restaurants and went to all the museums with us.  But I don't know why they didn't get me very many presents...now that I think about it, Mommy and Daddy didn't really get me anything either. 

I had a blast with my mom and dad and my friends this summer.  I am glad to be back in school and am very excited for the snow to come.  In fact, I ask my mom every day when it will come.  She's so sweet, she just pats my head and leaves the room for a while.  She wants me to have some peace and quiet to help center my chi.  She loves me so much.




Welp, that was Little Monster's summer in an nutshell!  How was yours?  Did you do anything fun?

Sabriel Kicks Ass

One of my favorite authors, Garth Nix, is having a contest.  I kind of almost didn't want to tell you guys because naturally I want to win it and I don't want you all running to enter.  But the only way to win is to write a review/musing of one of his books online.  Plus if I could enlighten you all about this book and how completely and totally awesome it is, I'll jump at the chance!

If you have ever been a 14 year old girl, you know how awesome it is to read books with strong female characters.  If you have never been a 14 year old girl...just pretend.  Besides I'm pretty sure 14 year old boys love kick-ass male characters so you know what it's like.  And if you are a 14 year old boy and you love kick-ass female characters?  You are going to go far in life, my friend.

Anyway, when I was in Junior High I was at a point in my life where I devoured books with independent, kick butt female characters (side note: I'm 30 and I STILL devour YA books with independent, kick butt female characters).  She had to be strong, witty, smart, (and beautiful of course).  I loved to get lost in a completely different world, leave my worries behind and pretend I was that girl in which there was always a romance and always some kind of epic battle.

Photo Credit - Garth Nix

I picked up Sabriel by Garth Nix around that time.  It had all the elements I wanted in a fantasy.  A main character, Sabriel, that was smart, had magical abilities (she could walk in death- how cool is that??), she was independent and actually rescued the love interest (not once, but twice!), Touchstone, whom annoyed her at first but she soon grew fond of.  I mean, how awesome is that?  Now this was a character I wanted to be like!  She wasn't a snively little whiny-butt who could do nothing without a man.  She took matters into her own hands and controlled the dead with the ring of a bell.

After reading this book, I knew some day I wanted to be a fantasy writer.  It changed my life because of how vivid his storytelling and characters are.  How it made me feel after reading it.  How I kept thinking about it after putting it down.  How I devoured any little anthology with stories taking place in that world after the trilogy had come out.  I wanted to make readers feel the same way I felt after reading that book. I wanted my main characters to be like Sabriel.

Garth Nix was one of the first pioneers of strong YA female protagonists.  I will be forever thankful to him for inspiring me to make up fantastical worlds with girls who kick some serious booty.  The time of the Damsel in Distress is long gone.  In her place is the girl who saves the Prince in Distress.

How to Avoid Eating a Bogey Flavored Bertie Bott Bean Whilst Looking Like Jo Calderone

Okay guys, calm down, I'm not officially back yet.  I've still got some edits to work on so my attendance will be sporadic (ha, my favorite word).

Anyway, my alter ego, Abby Gabby is posting over at the Thestral Gazette today.  She's got some great advice for students of Hogwarts including how to avoid getting those nasty bogey flavored Bertie Bott's beans.

So hipppity hop on over there - I'd greatly appreciate it!

Also, I think my alter ego needs a picture/personality.

What do you think of this?

Photo Credit

Too Rough?

Okay, how about this one?

Photo Credit

Too Nymphy?

Aha!  Here it is:

Photo Credit

Yep, this one totally adds class with a touch of Avant-garde.  Plus it keeps my identity hidden with the big glasses and hat.  But I'm still all proper and Jackie-O stylish.  Love it!  

P.S. I miss you guys so much!  Just a little more time for edits and I'll be back!  Toodles!

#Speakloudly: Two Books Have Been Banned.

I'm sorry, I know I said I was going on a blogging hiatus but I had to blog about this.  If you see a flaming ball of fire somewhere in southwest Missouri, that would be me.

Remember the #Speakloudly campaign? (you can find my original post here.)  Mr. Scroggins tried to get three books banned from the Republic MO school district: Speak, Twenty Boy Summer, and Slaughterhouse Five.  He succeeded in getting two of the three banned.  Republic schools will no longer keep Twenty Boy Summer or Slaughterhouse Five on their shelves.  And get this: only 1 out of the 4 board members who voted read the books.

He managed to get two books banned from a school district in which he has no children attending at the moment.  I'm at a loss for words so I will let Sarah Ockler take over:

Banned, but never ashamed (she references the article and has a link for it on her blog you can get to from there.)

The superintendent is basically calling his students immature.  He believes they aren't old enough to handle the very things they witness in their own lives.

Please never give up the fight to keep books on the shelves.  Our world isn't some sparkly wonderful fairytale full of rainbows and unicorns.  These problems do exist and if these brave authors that write about them are silenced, our teens who need help the most will be silenced.

Bright and Shiny and New

So you know how while you're in the middle of one manuscript, a new idea for another pops into your head?  So you frantically open a new document and furiously type out your idea to make sure it doesn't float away.  Then you close it and continue on your trusty manuscript in front of you because even though your heart is screaming "WRITE THE NEW ONE! WRITE THE NEW ONE!" your brain is screaming "DON'T GIVE IN! THIS IS WHAT SEPARATES REAL AUTHORS FROM THOSE WHO DON'T EVER FINISH MANUSCRIPTS!"  So you listen to your brain (hopefully...if not, you'll get there) and finish your current WIP.  Ahhhhhhh.

Now.

It's time.

In the midst of those edits of your trusty current WIP (c'mon, we all need a little break from mind numbing edits) you open that word document you so frantically typed up 6 months ago.

And there it is.

Your bright and shiny new idea.

Your heart beats faster, your fingers itch to start typing.  Your characters are screaming in your head to be let out and the story is bursting at the seams ready to be told.  Every day as you edit your current love, the new love calls your name.

Your mind churns while at work and you have to grab any piece of scrap paper to jot down the ideas that are rolling around.  You come to revelations while in the middle of a playdate.  So you try to type up some kind of cryptic notes on your phone praying you'll remember what they mean (and praying the other moms don't think you're a crappy mom for seemingly texting on your phone all day) (and praying that your child doesn't fall on her face while you aren't watching...oh wait, mine already did that).

That's where I'm at right now.  I have that old feeling I got when I started writing my first novel.  That feeling that made my hands twitch all day, itching to write it all down.  For now, I'm satisfied with beefing up my notes and fleshing out the plot.  I've written the first chapter.  Now it is waiting patiently for me to finish my edits.

Because I have to balance myself.  I still have to reign myself in and truly finish this first ms so I can start querying.  And once the querying starts, I can pour myself into my bright and shiny new novel.  Because if my current WIP doesn't cut it, I have to have this one ready to try.

And if this new one doesn't work, I have tons of other bright and shiny new ideas waiting their turn.

That's what makes writing exciting for me.  That is what keeps me coming back.

P.S. I know I've been pretty nonexistent anyway, but I will be taking August off of blogging to finish up my editing.  Hope you all have a fantastic end to your summer and are ready to face all the fun things that come with Fall!

Chi Town!

Okay so I think only people who DON'T live in Chicago call it Chi Town to feel like we're cool and in-the-know.  So I'm convincing myself that since I've now been to Chicago 3 times I am a total expert and can pretty much be considered a local.

Anywho, we took Little Monster to Chicago for her birthday.  Yes, LM is 6.  I can't believe the day has come.  She is 6, missing two teeth, and starting 1st grade in a MONTH.  Omg.  I think I'm hyperventilating.  Oh, and to top it all off, she was asked to join the competitive gymnastics team.  She practices 12 hours a week.  Yeah, she's hardcore.

So we took the train up to Chi Town (see? It just flows out of my mouth so naturally) with my parents to stay for a couple days.

The plight of the short person.  My feet don't reach the foot rest (sigh....):

Guess who I met while up there???

Yep!  It's Michael De Gesu from In Time...!  He heard we were coming up and we decided we just HAD to meet.  I'm so glad I did because he's so much fun!  And a sweetheart to top it all off!  Of course we had a little mishap with meeting and it was like some kind of comedy show where we kept showing up where the other had just been, texting each other and going "I'm at this place" "Oh, I was just there, I'm coming to you" "Oh, I just left to come to you" "Meet me at this place" "Where is that?"  "Dude, just stay put. I'm coming to you".  This went on for like, a half an hour.  Seriously.

The next day we went to the Shedd Aquarium and Little Monster simply LOVED it.  We saw the dolphin show and spent like, 7 HOURS there.  Her favorite was the Sea Horses.

This was my favorite:

Tee hee.  Had to do it.

No, actually my favorite were the jellyfish.

No, the dolphins.  Or the seahorses.  No, wait, the spider crab.  Look how freaking huge this guy was:

This next guy kept staring Little Monster down.  Every time she'd move away, he'd kinda drift off.  But as soon as she came close he'd go up to the glass and get all moody with her.  Hilarious.

Then we ate some classic Chicago style pizza at Ginos.  Yum!  The 2 hour wait was totally worth it (but will probably never be done again.  Good thing I don't have a toddler.  Yeesh.)

Next up: The Field Museum! My absolute favorite (as was LM's) was the evolution exhibit with the dinosaurs.  I'm a huge sucker for evolution and dinosaur bones.  I was going to be a paleontologist (as well as an astronaut, archaeologist, zoologist and a dolphin trainer) when I was young.

I also loved the Egyptian exhibit.  Especially now that I know the aliens helped them build the pyramids.  I mean seriously, what human could pull a gajillion ton brick without some kind of machinery?

And we topped off the trip with dinner at the Rainforest Cafe with the poor little crazy fish next to us (he kept swimming back and forth, back and forth...reminded me of the fish in the tank from Nemo) and the volcano dessert!

We had a lovely trip and I'm so glad we took the train and didn't have to walk like these people did.  They walked all the way from Poland and had to eat their torsos to stay alive.  That may or may not be speculation on my part.

And that concludes the slide presentation of my trip to Chicago.  Ha, aren't you glad this isn't the 70's and you have to come over and sit in my dark basement feeling all awkward and look at all 200 slides of my trip?

A Ravenclaw at Platform 9 3/4

My sis and I at Platform 9/34 at
Kings Cross Station in London in 2007

Apparently I'm a full-blooded muggle because I smashed into the wall face first.  Either that or Dobby REALLY didn't want us to come to Hogwarts.  Most likely because he heard I had devoured Twilight in one sitting.  (I swear, Dobby, even though I'm just slightly team Edward, I am Team Harry ALL THE WAY! I PROMISE!)  Bella's incessant whining and stuttering, Edward's weird displays of affections (i.e. staring creepily at her while she slept) and Jacob's excessive shirt-ripping have NOTHING on the courageous Harry, Ron, and Hermione!

Tell me friends, have you ever wanted to know what house you'd be in if you went to Hogwarts?  This quiz has been around for a while, and if you haven't taken it yet, you probably a) live in a cave or b) hate HP.  In which case, if you chose b, you can just leave.  Now.  Buh-bye.

Okay, now that we have the TRUE fans (and those of you who live in caves)... take the quiz!  I just love this one.  It is pretty much spot on, in my opinion.

The sorting hat says that I belong in Ravenclaw!


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Said Ravenclaw, "We'll teach those whose intelligence is surest."

Ravenclaw students tend to be clever, witty, intelligent, and knowledgeable.
Notable residents include Cho Chang and Padma Patil (objects of Harry and Ron's affections), and Luna Lovegood (daughter of The Quibbler magazine's editor).

Tell me what your house would be and if you think it fits you!

**click HERE to get sorted!!**

And now for the sad news:  I won't be seeing the midnight showing :(  In fact, I won't be seeing it until sometime next week when the stars align and hubs and I actually have a consecutive 4 hours off together AND a babysitter can be found.  So those of you going tonight- I am SO jealous!  I can't wait to see what everyone thinks on Friday!

Excuse me while I go and cry into my pillow because it all ends tonight!!

Don't forget to visit my Pottermania friends to see what they have to say today!

Jen Daiker

Michael DiGesu

Laurel Garver

Lisa Galek

Renae Mercado

Colene Murphy

Melissa Sarno