In Which I Win The Arcade And Cross An Item Off The Bucket List

Remember when you were a kid and you'd go to the arcade? (and, I guess this is assuming you're roughly the same age as me, but regardless, if you can't rely on your memories, then use your imagination)

And so you'd play games and some of those games would reward you with tickets when you played well (or maybe not so well). And you'd be so excited and you'd go up to the counter to see what you could get for your tickets?

And it was always something disappointing. Like some taffy. Or a plastic ring, or, like, maybe a slinky if you were real lucky. And behind the counter they would have the high value prize, that would take thousands of tickets. And you'd look at them and wonder what it would take to get one of those most awesome prizes.

Well, I have the answer. It takes you being an adult, your two siblings, a bit of disposable income and about a month of Saturdays.

And if you do that, you too, my friends, can finally cash in enough tickets (though it's all digital now) and get yourself one of those super prizes.

Like a PS4, worth 52,000 tickets.

BLAMMO!

 

In Which I'm At AWP This Week

Hey pals!

I'll be at AWP for most of this week, which means no real blog posts (outside of this one) just because I won't be around to check it and stuff.

I'm super excited for AWP, but also already overwhelmed just because it's SO BIG. We're talking like 10 panels every hour for three days big. I don't even know how I'll go about picking what I want to see.

Anyway, I hope you have a great week!

Friday Fun

Woo!! First Friday Fun in April, Ape-friends!

I know we were already technically in spring, but it never really feels like spring until we reach April.
I mean, I know we could still get snow, or even a snow storm up here. But that doesn't matter. It's April, which means the warm weather is likely to stay.

Hello Sun. Let's get reacquainted

Onto the fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Insecure Writer's Support Group

First Wednesday of the month means it's IWSG.

Co-hosts for the April 1 posting of the IWSG will be Suzanne Furness, Tonja Drecker, Toi Thomas, Rachna Chhabria, Fundy Blue, and Donna Hole!
And because this is the first day of April, it means a ton of people are taking their first steps on the A to Z blogging challenge. Not me, though. I'm way too busy right now to deal with that. But good luck to everyone jumping in. The month will be over before you know it.

Things have been pretty much same 'ole same 'ole for me lately. Just tying to keep my head down and get as much writing and work done as possible.

It's been really hard trying to juggle writing two books at once, Book 2 for ASSASSIN'S HEART and my MG fantasy for school. I thought I'd be able to work on one in the morning, and one in the afternoon, but that only worked once.

The problem with switching between stories is, it gives me an opportunity to stop writing for the day, which I almost always take. And then throw in other work that needs to be done (revising my critical thesis, revising my picture book) and it's just too easy for me to say "well, I'll work on that story tomorrow because right now I'll revise stuff because that needs to be done too"

Things went a lot better for me when I hit my page goal for the MG fantasy and then was able to completely set it aside and work on Book 2 alone for a week.

So I don't quite know what the solution is yet. I'm hoping things will go better once the thesis is officially done, but I guess we'll see.

How about you? Ever write two novels at the same time, both with deadlines? Have any tips for me?

Friday Fun

And we've made it through winter, ape-friends, and come through the other side into spring.

And I am delighted!

Yes, I DO have a necklace of flowers. Jealous?

Which means time to spread that delight to you with some things to make you laugh.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Which I Read BONE GAP And I Think Maybe You Should Too

So, we're half way into March and I'm fairly certain I just read the best book I'm going to read all year.

Yeah. BONE GAP by Laura Ruby* is just that good. You know how you can tell I really mean it? Because I never review books. If you look through my five years of blogging, you'll find maybe one or two book reviews. If you check my Goodreads page, you'll find the same.

Mostly that's because I'm not really good at reviewing books. I'm not good at critical reading, and I'm also not really good at expressing why I like certain things (you can take a look at my end of year best books I read posts and see this is true. They're mostly paragraphs of "this book was great and I lurved it!" without much else).

But I loved BONE GAP so much, that I knew I needed to try to do a review justice. Because I think so many of you would love it too.

When beautiful Roza goes missing, no one believes Finn when he says a man took her, because Finn can't remember what the man looked like.

Roza is beautiful, a fact she's lived with all her life. And she's well aware of how some men treat beautiful women. So when a man takes her and gives her everything she could want as long as she loves him, she tells him no. And continues to tell him no.

But Roza's disappearance haunts Finn, and since he's the only one who believes she's been taken, it's up to him to find her.

BONE GAP was one of those books where I stayed up late reading it, because I couldn't put it down. Finally though, finally, I had to go to bed (you know, because stupid adulthood means responsibilities and junk. That's one thing they never tell you as a kid, that as an adult, you feel like you get even less sleep and you want it even more).

So I went to bed, and I couldn't stop thinking about it. So I woke up early, sat in my living room with my dogs, and finished it that morning. I read it in one day, guys. And, I mean, I do that pretty regularly because if you set aside 4-5 hours a day to read, you can read a whole book. But this wasn't even that. This was taking away from precious sleep because I needed to know what was going to happen. I was that invested in the book.

BONE GAP has so many wonderful things. It has corn that's kind of creepy. It has a man that's more than just kind of creepy. It has cats and kittens, giant dogs and black horses, bees and goats and lambs. And some of these animals are magical, and some of them aren't.

It has beautiful girls and boys and ugly girls and boys. It has girls and boys that need rescuing and girls and boys who rescue themselves.

And, finally it has magic and mystery and people broken by love and people saved by love.

I wish it had been 1,000 pages. I was super sad when it was done. I didn't want to even pick up another book (even though I have a full TBR pile which I'm excited to dive into).

I honestly can't wait until I can read it again.


*Full disclosure - Laura Ruby was my second semester advisor for my MFA. She's just as awesome as her books.

Friday Fun

Friday, Friday, Friday!

We've made it through another week, and the weather keeps getting warmer and soon the grass will be greener which is exactly what my delicate dog feet are looking forward to.

Grass is always better than snow and ice

Let's get this weekend started!