May 2010
My weekend bathroom adventures
2 May 2010
I’m not a fan of unpredictability. Especially when it comes to my bathrooms.
With my aversion to public bathrooms, I find it totally gross when I walk into a stall and discover there’s NO HOOK FOR MY PURSE. Because, no, I’m not setting it on the germ-infested floor. But … you know … what else do you do?
I originally hung my purse on the lock. I have a Mom Purse (read: big) and I barely caught it before it tumbled to the germy ground. My solution was finally to balance it on top of the toilet paper dispenser. Though watching my stuff shift and slide while I rushed to finish did not make for a relaxing bathroom experience.
Then, a few hours later when I was in need of yet another bathroom, my husband stopped at a gas station. While I get the practicality of using a gas station bathroom, I’m not a fan of the varying states of cleanliness. I joked about running over to the middle school and trading a copy of my book for use of their bathroom, but instead I sucked it up and marched into the bathroom.
In a so-so gas station, someone took the time and energy to stencil flowers on the walls, hang up stuff that I think was supposed to be art, and had even decorated with a few vases.
You just never know. Which I really hate.
Pillow Impressions
3 May 2010
About a year ago, my husband and I bought new pillows. I hate buying new pillows. There’s a thousand options, you can spend basically however much you want, and there’s no real good way to try it out. Oh, and I always choose wrong.
Early in my pregnancy, I kept having headaches. I complained to my husband about my pillow being flat, and—nice guy that he is—he said, “Why don’t you try mine?” My headaches stopped, and five months later, the pillow still resides on my side of the bed.
We travelled this weekend and stayed at a pretty basic hotel. The no-frills-but-clean-with-a-free-breakfast type. When I got in bed, I said to Ben, “This pillow’s pretty comfy.” But then I kept waking up throughout the night all achy from my very flat, very uncomfortable pillow.
It’s become increasingly clear to me, both in pillow shopping and in general life, that my first impressions are often incorrect. Fortunately, Ben is much better at these kinds of things. And shares without ever saying, “I told you so.”
A good idea, but...
4 May 2010
Do you ever read something and think, “That’s a good idea. I should really do that…” all the while knowing it’s not going to happen? One of my author friends, Erica Vetsch, posted yesterday about goal setting. I’m a big fan of goals myself. (If it’s a form of organizing, I’m usually way into it.) In the old days, pre-McKenna and Connor, I rarely set goals that I didn’t achieve.
Erica has a novel she’s wanting to get written by July 4th. Because she’s a smart cookie, she’s busted out her calendar and figured out that she needs to write 1500 words a day between now and then to allow herself time to do edits and get it to writing partners. This is brilliant. I should totally do this.
After I Twitter and update my Facebook status. And send a follow-up e-mail to my marketing gal about something we discussed last week. And get those reviews posted that I’ve been promising for, oh, a month now…
How do you keep all those little things from taking over your big goals?
A Verbose Thursday
5 May 2010
So I had one of those moments this week where I did something, and afterward had the immediate reaction of, “WHY did I do that????”
I would blame the fact that the doorbell rang while I was putting McKenna down for her nap, which irritated me enough to open the door in the first place. Or have I mentioned I’m 30 weeks pregnant? Can I blame that?
Whatever the reason for my sheer stupidity, this is what happened—a guy came to my door selling magazines to earn points that earned him money for college, and I actually bought something. I’ve never done that before. Normally it rather amuses me to see them being all charming and sales-y until I say, “No thanks,” and then they morph into normal people and stomp away.
But I said, “Sure, I’ll subscribe to Rachael Ray,” which I love, but my subscription ran out, and I didn’t renew because I still have issues stacked up that I haven’t read.
He wrote down my order, then handed me a receipt that says 2 years of Rachael Ray, plus “processing and handling” is going to cost me $63. $63!!!!!!
A normal person—a person with a fully operating brain—would say, “Uh, no, that’s ridiculous. Especially since I can pay a 1/3 of that to renew my subscription.”
Rather, I wrote the check.
Then I mentally kicked my own butt the whole time I got McKenna settled back into bed.
There was a phone number on the receipt, which I called practically as soon as I got back to my desk. I thought it was going to take forever to get the order cancelled. Instead my conversation went like this:
“Hello, Yoli and Associates.”
(Insert me hesitating because I didn’t expect a living, breathing human being.) “Uh, yeah. I need to cancel an order.”
“When did you place it?”
“Like 20 minutes ago.”
“Okay. Flip over your receipt. Fill that out. Mail it to us.”
“Okay, thanks.”
“Bye.”
Which is good, because being pushy and demanding my money back are not strengths of mine.
Apparently, neither is using my brain. Next time, I’ll just pretend to not be home.
Book Friday – Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
6 May 2010
I’m laughing that Uglies took me basically a month to read, and I’ve blown through (most of) Pretties this week.
Pretties is a fabulous follow-up. I actually like it better than Uglies, which you might guess from how quickly I’ve read it. The story seems to be moving faster, but maybe it’s just because I’m already in the story world?
The plot follows the same main character as Uglies, which I’m a big fan of. It frustrates me to get attached to the voice of a character, only to have to get used to a different one in the next book. In Pretties, we get an inside look at New Pretty Town, which is such a fun and creative setting. The kind of thing where you keep thinking, “How on earth did someone come up with this?”
Okay, I’m afraid to say much more because I don’t want to give away Uglies stuff for those who still plan on reading it. If you read Uglies beware that Pretties is basically mandatory follow-up reading. Westerfeld doesn’t give you much of a choice. Fortunately, it’s a great sequel.
And that’s all the brilliance I have for you today. Have a great weekend everybody! Don’t forget to say something nice to your mom on Sunday!
Dude, Where’s my Thank You?
9 May 2010
I love almost everything about Starbucks.
The coffee.
The coffee gift thingies they carry. (When I’m in there, somehow it seems like I need another travel mug. I mean, this one’s all green and spring-looking … I don’t have a green, spring-looking one…)
How even after I leave, my hair and clothes smell like coffee for hours afterward. (My husband, a non-coffee drinker, is definitely not a fan of this.)
But there are two things I strongly dislike. One is being corrected when I order a medium sized coffee. “Oh, a grande dark cherry mocha?” Excuse me, but I think spending $4 on my coffee grants me the right to order in English.
Then on Friday, I was reminded of something else I dislike about Starbucks—the people who are there to just grab their coffee and go. And don’t you dare get in their way.
I’m guessing they favor the drive thru, but my Starbucks doesn’t have one, forcing those who are there simply to “caf-up” to mingle with the rest of us.
It was about 10am when I pulled into the parking lot. I opened the back door to get my 2-year-old, McKenna, out of her car seat when in my peripheral I noticed a guy blazing our direction. He had on what I would describe as a power suit and carried a very large—er, venti —coffee. My guess was he drove the snazzy SUV parked beside us.
As he approached, I stepped aside and closed McKenna’s door so he could get by. I even said to him, “Excuse me, sir,” so he’d realize I was intentionally moving out of his way.
He barely glanced at me before getting in his car and buzzing out of there.
Now, I don’t think my actions deserved a medal or anything, but I did stop what I was doing rather than forcing him to wait for me to unbuckle McKenna. A grunt of acknowledgement would have been nice.
Fortunately, my dark cherry mocha lived up to the hype. Otherwise dealing with rude coffee drinkers and being corrected during the ordering process would have left a serious black mark on my visit.
Yes, we’re back to 5 days…
10 May 2010
To those who have asked, um, yes, I’m back to blogging here 5 days a week.
There’s a variety of reasons behind this. One is that I was having a tough time fitting everything in to three days. Like if something happened on 24, I always had to wait until Wednesday to talk about it. (That’s not really an issue anymore since I wound up cutting 24 when Renee died. I said it as a joke, but when the following Monday rolled around, I discovered I really didn’t have any interest in watching how everything else played out.)
Now, according to my doctor’s calculations, I’ll be having a baby mid-July. Whenever Connor does decide to come, I’m guessing my 5-posts-a-week will slip for a period of time. But there will be pictures involving adorable things like hooded towels, so it won’t be all bad. And who knows what kind of crazy stuff I’ll say when sleep-deprived…
And for those who’d like to meet the little guy and see what I look like when I’m running on espresso, I’ll be signing copies of So Over It (and the other Skylar books) on July 31st from 1-3pm at the Barnes and Noble at Oak Park Mall.
The legendary Debbie Macomber is signing there this Saturday. I’m hoping management sets aside her chair until July so I’m the next one to use it. Maybe some of her brilliance and success will rub off on me…
See you back here tomorrow!
Tweeting for Target
11 May 2010
My husband and I finally made it over to Target to register. With McKenna, we registered practically the day we found out we were having a girl. With baby number two, it’s been on our to-do list since February and just now happened.
So we fill out all our information at Target, head up to the counter to get our fun scanner thingy, and the lady hands us a gift bag with coupons and stuff in it. Back when we registered for McKenna, that bag was plastic. Now it’s cloth, billed as a “reusable” shopping bag, although the “usable” part is debatable unless I’m buying a couple books or a t-shirt.
At home Ben discovered that the bag folds down into a wallet size, then Velcros shut. Target suggests on there that we should Tweet about how cool their bag is, but I have more than 140 characters worth of stuff to say, so instead I’m blogging.
Um, what exactly do they expect me to say? Because it’s not like you can run over to your local Target and buy one for yourself. Or is my tweeting about the bag supposed to be directed just at those who might be registering in the near future. Like if they were torn between Target and another place, they now might choose Target since they know they get a free bag in the deal. I’m guessing they don’t want me to Tweet my real feeling about the bag, which is, “What am I supposed to do with this?” (Ben’s response was, “Put it in your gigantic purse with everything else you own.”)
Hopefully Target feels any press is good press.
Have a great Wednesday, everyone. If you’re planning to register in the near future, consider Target where they’ll give you a semi-useable bag that folds down small enough to fit in a big purse.
Potty or Candy?
12 May 2010
Today I’m blogging over at Girls, God, and the Good Life about McKenna and what she’s taught me about motivations. The potty story will be familiar (I shared it on here a couple weeks ago when it happened):
My 2-year-old, McKenna, is not only a constant source of entertainment and joy, she’s also a vessel God uses for teaching me.
We’re working on potty training at the moment. When she goes, we typically reward her with a piece of candy. (Like a single jelly bean, an M&M, that kind of thing.) A week or two ago, McKenna made a very important discovery – if she was in bed at night and called out that she needed to go potty, I would come and get her.
To read the rest, click here.
The Sad Thing Is I’m Allowed to Vote
13 May 2010
This week, I’ve made efforts to watch the news more often.
I’m not sure exactly when I stopped watching. It wasn’t intentional, it just sorta happened. But then last week I was out to lunch with my friend Debbie, and I said something about how my in-laws used to live in Memphis. She said, “I bet they’re glad they’re not there now.” To which I said, “Yeah,” before it occurred to me that I should ask why she said that. That night, my husband explained about all the flooding happening in Tennessee.
On Sunday, our pastor briefly mentioned three current events from the stage—the oil spill, Greece, and terrorism in Times Square. I had no idea what had happened in Greece or Times Square, and the only reason I knew about the oil spill was we’d watched The Daily Show once last week.
Ben, again, explained what was going on. Then he suggested that I might want to flip on NPR every once in awhile. Every smart person I know listens to NPR, but I must catch it during off times. Whenever I flip it on, they’re airing weird folk music.
But I have flipped the TV over to the news a couple times this week. I can tell you who Elena Kagan is and that President Karzai is visiting. I don’t have much more information than that, but it’s a start.
A rare sports post
16 May 2010
Here’s my problem with sports. I get attached to people and then they leave.
This is particularly a problem if you’re a Royals fan, since we often acquire young talent (Johnny Damon, Carlos Beltran, Jermaine Dye, etc.) but we have problems hanging onto them. Talent expects money, which we appear to be kinda limited on. Usually I’m understanding of this, that it’s not really the player’s fault. Occasionally, like with Johnny Damon, I hold a grudge. I continue to boo him when he comes to the plate even though it’s been nearly 10 years since he left us.
But mostly I understand, I just don’t like it. The Royals just fired their head coach, Trey Hillman. I get that we weren’t winning. I get that it didn’t look like we’d be winning much anytime soon. But there’s still that part of me that’s like, “But I liked Hillman.” I liked how casual his conversations always looked when he was arguing a call with the umpires. I was amused by how quickly his facial hair changed – from clean-shaven to a full mustache in about 24 hours. And I loved how he seemed like a nice, almost fatherly kind of guy.
Our new coach seems nice too. But it’s going to take me awhile to adjust.
So long as the Royals don’t trade away Billy Butler, I should be fine. Losing him might be a deal breaker, though.
Debbie Macomber, one classy lady
17 May 2010
First, a quick shout out to my padre. Happy birthday, Dad!
Over the weekend, my mom and I went to a book signing for Debbie Macomber. We arrived 15 minutes after the signing was supposed to start, and already the line for Debbie was enormous. As in, we waited for two hours to get books signed, and there were still plenty of people behind us.
Here’s a couple things I observed during our lengthy amount of time there:
1. Readers are very patient waiters. Many of the people around us simply pulled out books and read. The woman behind us read 6 chapters of Debbie’s latest.
2. There are lots of books in the world. Lots and lots and lots of them. There were a couple endcaps (or however you spell that) next to us with Sparknotes on them. I’m ashamed to say that there are Sparknotes available for books I’ve never even heard of.
3. Dark Cherry Mochas are good stuff, though better over ice. And I tried some of my mom’s Java Chip Frappuccino. Quite good as well.
4. Debbie Macomber is one classy lady, as was her assistant. Both of them were excellent with names, and always clarified what books were being given as gifts, and what books were being signed for the person standing right there.
5. Having a positive interaction with an author makes you want to read more of their stuff. And buy it new so they actually make something off it. I think all writers would be wise to study Debbie. She worked hard for her success. And even though she’s seen the top of sales charts numerous times, she expressed appreciation to every single person who came out to see her. Classy.
Lost Thoughts
18 May 2010
So last night was the first time I’ve watched Lost as it aired since … since McKenna was a newborn, maybe? It was at least the first time this season.
Yesterday, the Kansas City Star posted a hilarious list of questions that have yet to be answered on the show. They’re posted below for your enjoyment. You can read the full article, which also talks about the departure of 24 and Law & Order, here.
Either we’re dense or just too into “Lost,” but we’re hoping some of these questions get cleared up in the final two episodes:
•What the heck was the Dharma Initiative anyway?
•How did Dharma leaders choose the island?
•Or did the island find them?
•So … is the island a cork to keep evil out of the world or a source of goodness to be kept from evil people?
•How does the island move?
•Is it moving through time … or space?
•How did Jacob leave and return to the island?
•Why were the Dharma people making food drops after Dharma was wiped out?
•Why was Walt so special?
•What did Juliet mean when she said, “It worked”?
•Will the island universe and the sideways universe merge?
•Will Kate choose Sawyer or Jack?
•How does Kate always end up wet in each episode?
•Will Claire wash her ridiculous hair?
•Who built the temple?
•Who built the four-toed statue?
•Who has four toes?
•Why are Ben Linus and Charles Widmore warring against one another?
•Why can’t most women make babies on the island?
•Who was Henry Gale?
•Why is Desmond trying to get the gang back together in the sideways universe?
•Where’s Jack’s dad’s coffin in the sideways universe?
•Why does ash stop the Smoke Monster?
•Why is Desmond immune to electromagnetic bursts?
•Who are the good guys?
•Or, for that matter, the bad guys?
•And, most important, where is Vincent?
That last one totally cracked me up, because … yeah … where’d he go?
Trash Day Guilt
19 May 2010
I feel insanely guilty on trash days.
No matter how many times I tell myself that garbage collection is a service we pay for, that the guys who dump the contents of my trash can into the truck get paid for their work, I’m still left feeling like someone else is having to clean up my mess.
This is made worse by the fact that our house is surrounded by single women (seriously – one across the street, and one on either side of us) and empty nesters. They usually have, like, a grocery bag of Kleenex sitting at the end of their driveway. Ours, however, is a full trash can of heavy, stinky diapers.
If we’re outside when the garbage trucks turn down the street, McKenna always wants to watch and tell them hi. I, on the other hand, would rather tape a thank you note to the top of our trashcan, then dash inside before they can match my face with the House of Nasty Trash.
My neighbor is always out there chatting with the guys. (About what, I have no idea.) If I wandered out there, I would probably wind up apologizing. And hoofing my own trash into the truck.
Muse and Book Friday
20 May 2010
Anne Shirley, the delightfully dramatic narrator in the Anne of Green Gables books, uses the expression “depths of despair” when something tragic happens to her. Like when a church picnic gets cancelled or her best friend can’t come over. This morning I’m writing from the depths of despair.
Yesterday, Muse cancelled 2 concert dates in their massive US tour. Of course, one happened to be their KC concert. To which we had floor seats. And while I appreciate their assurances that they care about me (and agree that their bassist should be home for the birth of his child), I’m massively disappointed.
Retail therapy helped. But still. Sniff, sniff.
On with Book Friday.
I finished Specials this week, the last installment in The Uglies Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld. While I didn’t like Specials as well as Uglies or Pretties, it was still a good read and a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy.
Something I found interesting about these books is that Tally, the main character, is only correctly motivated in one of the books (Pretties). In the other two, she’s misguided, which is an interesting choice.
Aside from a few comments that struck me as being anti-God (or anti-religion, maybe), I felt like these books had some wonderful messages in them. I can definitely see why they’ve been such a raging success. And if you pick up Uglies, be prepared for reading Pretties and Specials as well, because the cliffhanger endings leave you little choice.
Hope everyone has a wonderfully relaxing weekend. Our forecast says sunny and warm, which should help pull me out of my Muse-induced funk.
See you back here on Monday!
Some final thoughts on Lost
23 May 2010
If you haven’t watched the last episode yet, hold off on reading this.
Lost is the only show I’ve ever watched from the day the first episode aired to the finale. Ben and I watched the pilot in our shoebox of an apartment the first fall we were married, so it seemed strangely important to watch the last episode as it happened. Neither of us wanted to make it this far only to have the conclusion ruined for us by some random tweet.
Yeah, good call on our part. The show had been over about 5 minutes when I received the following text from a friend of mine:
“Well, Lost is over and they were all dead … just like we said after the pilot.”
First of all, that’s not really accurate. Since the original theory was that they were dead from the plane crash, and that’s not what I understood from last night’s episode.
Secondly, man I would have been ticked if I’d read that before watching…
There are tons of opinions flying around about the conclusion of Lost. My voice hardly needs to be added to the mix, so I’ll keep it brief. To me, all the last episode really answered was 1. Where Vincent was (which is smart – you never want to leave the audience dangling when it comes to a dog plotline) and 2. What was up with the non-island storyline this season.
I still don’t really get what happened when that bomb went off. Or why falling down into the light turned Samuel into the black smoke. Or what ever came of Ben’s crush on Juliette. I could list about 50 more similar questions, but I won’t.
Last night’s episode left a lot of, “But what about…?” and “So, when this happened, what…?” but that’s fine with me. I’ve enjoyed the last six years of mystery, creativity, and just plain weirdness. I still say this show had the best opening moment I’ve ever seen, and the best twist when we received our first flash forward (flash present?) when we were still in the flashback mindset.
That’ll have to be satisfaction enough.
Real World Blues
24 May 2010
I’m slowly working my way back to the real world after being out of town this weekend.
You know you’re pregnant when you bawl three times about being back. Normally, I’m a little blue about having to return to “real life,” but I don’t think I’ve ever actually cried about it. This time I sobbed. Once in front of McKenna, who heard me sniffle and said she would go get me a Kleenex, which only made me cry harder. Again after she went down for her nap, then once late Sunday night as I contemplated going back to work. Strange, since I love my job.
There are always good things about coming back from vacation. Like your own bed. And your own coffee. But, you know, I was a big fan of breakfast magically appearing on the table in front of me. And lunch, and dinner. And it’s nice to not feel guilty when you pick up a book to read rather than doing dishes or sweeping the kitchen floor.
I guess if you were always on vacation, it wouldn’t feel like the luxury it should.
Still. Another day or two wouldn’t have hurt…
My (somewhat delayed) thoughts on 24
25 May 2010
While I’m breaking the rules of blogging by not being particularly “timely” with my post about 24, I’ve got something to get off my chest.
Until Renee died a few “hours” ago, I’d watched every single episode of 24. Personally – and maybe this is just a chick thing – I’ve spent the last 7 (8? 9?) seasons watching Jack get tortured, screwed over, and abandoned with the hope that everything would work out fine for him. And at the start of the season, I really thought that was a possibility. I thought he’d get Renee (and Jack definitely needs the type of girl who knows how to shoot a gun), and he could move to L.A. with his daughter and watch his granddaughter grow up. When Renee died, I felt like the writers essentially snuffed out the possibility for a happy ending.
Ben kept me apprised of the last few episodes, however, and it sounds like I would have been hiding my eyes during most of them anyway. (Stephanie doesn’t do violence. Watching Jack slice open a guy’s stomach to fetch a Sim card does nothing to enhance my life.) But I wanted to watch last night. I wanted to see if the writers could pull some kind of happiness after all the blood and guts we’ve been forced to endure in the last weeks. (And when I say “we,” I mean those who actually tuned in.)
Ben felt like the end of 24 was more satisfying than the end of Lost. But to me, the end of 24 didn’t really feel like we’d closed anything. Jack’s on the run—again. He’s alone—again. He has no hope for a relationship with any of his family—again. At least not if he wants to keep them safe. Where’s the satisfaction in that?
Maybe I’m totally off about this. That’s happened before. Like how everybody around me hated the last episode of Gilmore Girls, but I felt it was great. Or as great as it could be with Luke and Lorelai still not back together and no Jess coming in to sweep Rory off her feet. But I digress.
Finales are just plain tough to write. Like the last book in a series, where you know you’re going to tick off somebody who wanted things to go a different way.
Okay, enough griping. It’s done and over with. I will move on.
Research day at Barnes and Noble
26 May 2010
I’m a sucker for books, as are most writers I meet.
Last week, I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t it be great to go to Barnes and Noble, buy coffee, and browse the teen section all morning long?” I wouldn’t buy anything of course—other than coffee. This would be strictly research.
Um, yeah right.
I walked out with three books. They were narrowed down from a very large stack that I desperately wanted to buy.
Here are the winners and why I chose them:
The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler
I’ve wanted to read this book for a couple years now, and there it was sitting on the shelf, baiting me with it’s $8.99 price tag. You know it’s a fabulous title because I’ve never once repeated it to someone without them smiling. The cashier at B&N said she wants a blow-up of the cover to put in her bathroom as a joke.
Ophelia by Lisa Klein
This is, as you might guess from the title, is a YA retelling of Hamlet from Ophelia’s point of view. I’ve always felt really bad for Ophelia, so I’m interested to see the author’s take on this. Also, the cover is beautiful.
Evermore by Alyson Noёl
This book reached #1 on the NY Times Bestseller list. And I don’t know if it was #1 at the time, but I know it was on the list before it even released. Not to brag, but I know Alyson.
Okay, so I don’t know her, but we’re on a young adult writers loop together. Anyway. Lots of good buzz about this book, and I’m eager to read it.
My husband is awesome
27 May 2010
Tomorrow, Ben and I will have been married for 6 years. I’m blogging on Girls, God, and the Good Life today about why my husband is awesome.
One reason that I neglect to mention on there is that Ben keeps me up to date with the world outside McKenna and my office. Especially if it involves Twilight or Muse. In this case, the e-mail I received from him yesterday involved both. He sent me this music video for Muse’s Neutron Star Collision which is featured on the Eclipse soundtrack. There’s clips from the movie mixed in with Muse doing their thing. (I like to think that Ben also sent it to me because the song makes him think about us … although I already chose him, so that doesn’t really apply, but the other stuff could.)
So, if you’re not in the mood to read about how much I adore my husband, you can check out the music video and this post won’t be a total loss.
From Girls, God, and the Good Life:
Simply put, my husband is the most amazing man I’ve ever known.
Tomorrow (Saturday) is our 6-year anniversary, and it’s left me contemplating how important it is to marry right.
Ben and I met on a church retreat during the first week of high school. While we’ve had our fair share of problems – including a breakup that lasted our entire junior year – for the last 13 years we’ve been there for each other. Sometimes Ben was there for me when I didn’t even deserve it.
This is likely why all my books have a strong romance thread, because that was my high school experience. We were engaged at 17, married at 20, and pregnant with our daughter at 23. The marriage and the pregnancy didn’t seem to bother anybody, but the “engaged at 17” part freaked out a number of people.
After six years of happy, healthy marriage, strangers are always like, “Oh, that’s so romantic to have gotten engaged so young!” At the time, however, hardly anybody viewed it that way.
Here are 3 reasons why I think Ben and I work:
(Click here to read the rest)
A Chance to win So Over It
30 May 2010
Today’s post will be self-serving. Just saying.
When a publishing house is promoting a new book, one of the big things they do is a blog tour. Every house has a network of bloggers who agree to write up a review of a book in exchange for a free copy. They hope, of course, these reviews will be positive, but the understanding is that the blogger will be honest.
And here’s where we move into the totally self-serving part of the post.
My third book, So Over It, releases July 1st. Revell, my publishing house, asked if I wanted to organize a “teen” blog tour. Here’s how it looks:
1. If you’re a teen or young adult, you send me an e-mail and say “Sign me up.”
2. In June or early July, my publishing house sends you a free copy of any of the three Reinvention of Skylar Hoyt books. Your choice.
3. You read the book. Preferably this summer.
4. You do something that in the biz we call “influencing.” If you have a blog, you write an honest review and post it. If you don’t have a blog, you can post a little something on your Facebook page. You could also write a review on Amazon.com, share your copy with friends, or put in a request for your public library to order a copy. You can do as much or as little as you like.
5. You send me an e-mail telling me what you did. I then enter you to win a free copy of one of the other Skylar books (if you don’t already have them all), or we work out something else of equal value.
And, big apologies to my darling readers in New Zealand and Australia, but this is only open to US residents. I know. I’m sorry.
Um, and since I’m already doing a little commercial for myself, I’ll go ahead and mention another way to win a free copy of So Over It, which is to sign up for my newsletter. Receiving my newsletter automatically enters you to win one of five free signed copies every time I release a book. And it’s not limited to US residents.
Okay, Skylar Hoyt and Stephanie Morrill plug officially over.
Hope everyone has a fabulous Memorial Day. And a safe one. (I’m a mom – it’s mandatory that I tack that on.)
See you all back here on Tuesday!