John Green did something I hope I never forget..

He spent 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, for a month signing pages to go into his new novel The Fault In Our Stars. I sort of wondered why he did this. I watched his progress through his vlogs, tweets, blogs, and other social media venues. John even got his brother Hank involved. Hank is basically as popular as John in the social media. Hank took some of the sheets John autographed and drew little angler fish on them and dubbed them Hanklerfish. I digress.

So recently I found out why John went to the trouble of pre-signing all these papers for so long. I mean seriously - imagine how many Sharpies he went through! How many hand cramps he had! How many times his eyes must have crossed. I am glad his name is short John Green and not long like Rumpleclothesfromnosleep Vegetabletsandwichdude.

Anyhow.. John Green did this because he knows he can't go on tour everywhere. He only tours to major cities usually. And even if he toured to small cities, he can't hit every single one. And John Green wanted people to have the chance to get an autographed copy. He wanted ~everyone~ to have a chance. That includes me, here, in my town that doesn't even have a book store.

Thank you John Green. I hope when I become famous like you that I will remember to give everyone a chance too. People in small towns don't get book tours. People in small towns without book stores are drowning in desperate need of connections to the world of literature.

Side note: I really would love to get a Hanklerfish. But if another Nerdfighter needs it more than I do, I'll sacrifice my fish.



Edit @ 7:02 p.m.: My book arrived! I did not get the Hanklerfish but I did John Greens signature in a green sharpie! Ya know what? That is a score! I am happy. I'm also putting my current read on hold so I can go through this book. I've been waiting a long time to read it! DFTBA!!

2012 is going to be amazing. I can feel it in my bones!

2011 was a year of transition for a lot of people I know. Professionally, emotionally, relationshipy. 2012 is the year things will happen. We (as a collective whole) will live up to the dreams we talk about. We will reach out for those goals. We will find peace in ourselves that nobody else can give us. We will connect as people and build each other up instead of tearing each other down. This is gonna happen in my world. I hope you'll be a part of it.

Lions and Turtles and kids books, oh my!

When I became a dedicated author I realized my love of sci-fi was not a blessing in my gift of writing. I let me fingers flow and discovered I was a Young Adult Lit writer. So I embraced it and my writing life has been so happy.

I really do adore turtles and lions. SO much so that I have an abundance of plushies, jewelry, etc (Turtle tattoo coming soon to an ankle near you!) Some of these have taken on “personalities”. My plushie High5 even has a facebook page because my friends like to see him “in action”. Seeing his personality unfold and the stories some friends and I make up for him, I thought “childrens book!” … well…. I have a whole new appreciation for authors of kid’s books. I thought to myself “I can write 250-300 page young adult novels. A 20 page children’s book should be a snap!” How very wrong I was. It seems much harder to convey a story in so few pages and such simple words. I admire those people in a way I never did before.

My turtle and lion love will live on in my fantasy YA novels as supporting characters, but Yoda knows making them a star in a kids book is one task I was not created for. It seems our genre’s truly do pick us. 

Passions vs Paychecks

I have come to enjoy the luxuries in life such as food, electricity, running water, the interwebz.. and of course I need a roof over my head to have these things. In order to have the roof over my head I need a paycheck. That means a job.

I love my job. Let’s be honest here – I have worked many many jobs in my life and this is really the only one where I didn’t dread dragging out of bed at 6:05 in the morning. I sometimes even look forward to going back to work after the weekend is over. I truly and honestly adore my job. It pays the bills so I try not to whine about salary. I come home happy at night and we have plenty to eat – a lot of people are not as lucky as I am.

Still, there is something else in me that itches to get out. My passion for writing. I AM a writer. I am constantly writing – even if it’s just in my head. See me staring out the window looking like Homer Simpson? I’m working on the novel right up there in the ole noggin. My mind is NEVER quiet. Well, it was quiet for about 20ish minutes on that cruise I took last week but that’s a teeny teeny part of a 4 day “relaxing” cruise. My mind is too loud for relaxing.

When I do have time to let my brain free onto paper I will find myself in any number of lands with any number of people. Basically, it’s write or die.

Being a full time student again (gotta get that Masters degree!) and a full time employee has really put a damper in my writing time. I still have some, but not nearly as much as I wish I did. I enjoy learning in these classes, and let’s be honest about me.. I just love learning. I would be a full time student if I could get paid for it. But it’s really cutting into my writing time. Most people whine about their social life suffering. Lucky for me my social life doesn’t exist. But my starving novelist life does.

Some people risk it all and run off to Hollywood with $28 and the clothes in their backpack hoping to make it. Some people do. Most of them don’t. I can’t run off to Scholastic Press and camp out hoping some agent will hear my thoughts and sign me up to write a novel.

So I plug along in the freetime I find. Write today, edit tomorrow, do nothing for 3 weeks because papers are due and an event is coming at work and whatever else life thing is happening – then I write again and don’t write again.. it’s a never ending cycle.

Some day I know I will finish an editing.. and then.. then I begin camping out and pimping my books all over town.