Happy Things

Firstly, OMGLOOK. No seriously. Click it. You know you want to. CLICK IT. Okay. Aren't you glad you did?

I'd like to extend one big warmhearted WELCOME to Jill Wheeler as she enters the Realm of the Agented Authors. Welcome, Jill!! SO glad to have ya! Always room for one more :)

Secondly, I'm going to be AWOL 'til about next Saturday whilst I take some much needed time to recharge after these two hellish quarters. My to-do list:

1) Nothing
2) Nothing
3) REALLY nothing
4) Read

As for #4, my stack now looks like this:

I plan on adding THE TENSION OF OPPOSITES once I get my hands on a copy. My B&N's order got delayed. Blast the delivery service.

Any other books I should add to the stack this summer? This is just my next-week-doing-nothing-but-reading stack. Feel free to leave suggestions for the rest of the summer. I gotta get me caught up on stuff.

So til next Saturday, I bid thee all a happy week. Remember: next Saturday begins my summer-long, self-inflicted challenge. Don't let me forget, Evil Overlords Bloggers. I'm counting on you.

My Evil Overlords

I hath appeased him.

Within the week, many papers were paid unto him. A few tests, a few speeches, a few last minute assignments. At long last, I rid myself of the chains of his imprisonment and step forth into the daylight. With a very proper, well-educated tone, of course.

To celebrate my victory, I shall tell you of my plan. Here it is, laid out before all ya'll so I shall have some accountability.

So, summer. I have from next Saturday, the 12th, until September 7th all to my little self to do with as I please. And I please to use that time to write my little self's heart out.

June 12th to September 7th = Roughly 12 weeks.

12 weeks. Three-ish months. Sounds like I need a goal. Which means I need all ya'll to GET ON ME for keeping said goal. Yay? Yay. All righty. Here is my goal.

12 weeks = 50,000 words

approx. 4,200 words/week

approx. 600 words/day

(I will be working a lot and having some semblance of a life. So this is assuming I write around 1k every 2 days. Which is reasonable, no?)

Okay. So this is it. I hereby trade my Evil Overlord Homework for my Evil Overlords Bloggers. Keep that whip a-cracking on me, folks. Seriously. Yell at me if I don't have updates. Berate me harshly if I don't reach my goals. And by the time fall quarter starts and Evil Overlord Homework reappears, I should have a complete first draft of a novel.

If you're in, let me hear ya say WRITE!

OMGLOOK

So there I was. Minding my own business on an average Sunday morning. Munching on some Rice Krispies. When I opened the newspaper and saw an article in the Life section (because, really, who reads the rest of the paper?) for local up-and-coming YA author Kristina McBride.

Wait, wait, WAIT.

Kristina McBride is repped by ALYSSA EISNER HENKIN. Her debut novel, The Tension of Opposites, came out on May 25 from EGMONT USA.

HOW HAVE I NOT HEARD ABOUT HER UNTIL NOW?! SERIOUSLY, guys. She graduated from my college, for goodness' sake. She stomps around my stomping ground. And she was published by EGMONT, is represented by TRIDENT, and I have MASSIVELY FAILED as a supportive author of local, fellow supportive authors.

To make up for my shameful ignorance, OMGLOOK at these super cool things:

Firstly, her pretty pretty website: http://www.kristinamcbride.com/home.php

Secondly, her pretty pretty blog: http://kristinamcbride.livejournal.com/

Thirdly, her OMGAMAZING book trailer, created by Rocky Smith of ROCK IV Productions, LLC (who, by the by, is ALSO a graduate of my university AND ALSO stomps around my stomping ground. Who knew, right?).



Excuse me whilst I peruse her blog for a bit.

WAR

SETTING -- An abandoned parking lot at midnight with a lone security light flickering in the encroaching fog.

A girl, early twenties, pauses at the edge of the lot. She considers returning to the building she has just left but presses onward when a wolf howls from the distance. The girl's gait quickens and as she digs frantically for her keys, the wolf's howl bites off. The girl stops and turns in a slow circle. She is certain she is no longer alone.

Girl: H-hello? Is someone there?

The security light blinks once, twice, before shutting off completely. The girl is left in darkness.

Girl: Show yourself!

Two bright lights break the night, casting columnar beams of light through the now-heavy fog. The girl spins toward them, shielding her eyes.

Girl: *voice trembling* Who are you? What do you want?

Disembodied Voice: Yyyyoooouuuuu

Girl: Me?

An engine flares to life, and with it a static radio. The girl recognizes the station as the one her car's radio always plays...

Girl: No. No. It can't be!

Disembodied Voice: Yyyyyooouuuu mmmuuuusssstttt ppppaaaayyyy!

Tires squeal, the headlights swerve. The girl screams and sprints for the sidewalk, calling for help from anyone who can hear.

But then the girl stops. The tires continue to squeal towards her, but with a slowly-growing grin she turns to face her attacker.

Girl: You're forgetting one thing.

Disembodied Voice: Wwwwhhhaatttt isssss ttthhhaaatttt?

Girl: *chuckles* You were running on empty when I parked you this morning.

As if by the power of her words, a guttural, sputtering sound crackles across the air. The headlights swerve, the breaks squeal, and with one final, shuddering groan, the car grumbles to a halt merely three feet from the girl.

Disembodied Voice: Ddddaaaammmmnnnn yyyyoooouuuu.

Girl: No matter how many times you try to kill me, my neglectful gasoline-filling habits will ALWAYS have one-up over you.

Disembodied Voice: Tttthhhhiiirrrrsssstttyyyy

Girl: Shut it. I'm getting a Volkswagen*.

And so the Sara vs. Vehicle War continues.

*Author does not claim support to one car manufacturer over another, unless one car manufacturer promises vehicles that do not try to kill her on a bimonthly basis. Because that'd be kind of nice. The not-being-killed part.

Let's Talk V

OMG I HAVE TIME TO BLOG.

*gasp*

Must make it quick before my evil overlord Homework finds out I have escaped my box. *dims Laptop's screen* There, that should help.

So what shall I use this precious time to blog about? Something inspiring. Something ground-breaking. Something awe-inducing.

ALIENS.

For those of you who have the misfortune of following me on Twitter, you know that every Tuesday at 10PM your Twitter feed is clogged with play-by-play tweets from me about a little show called V (Just V. It's far too cool for a fullfledged name). For those of you who don't, well, you're seriously missing out. Because my #thoughtswhilewatchingV tweets are hysterical. Sometimes.

The season finale was on last night (but not the series finale! One more season! *fist pump*), and I got chills on the last scene. Partly because of the music (which was AWESOME -- but I cannot find a clip of it ANYWHERE online. Unless you watch the season finale episode.) and partly because it was one of those finales that makes you want to DO something. It shows everything (in this case, humanity) hovering, waiting on the edge, with everyone on both sides holding their breath.

I love stories like this. I'm constantly drawn to the epic, world-changing, apocalyptic stories where everyone is parted, "good" and "bad." Where people have a visible (though not always clear-cut) enemy to fight. I know, for me at least, that's why I love those stories. Because they give us an enemy we can SEE, an enemy we know is wrong (even if the characters don't know it), and an enemy we know can be defeated. And this knowledge swells up in the final scene, with everyone looking at the camera with this the-end-is-near-but-so-is-the-beginning look. And you KNOW they will succeed.

Because sometimes technologically advanced aliens with impenetrable ships the size of football stadiums and creepy hypnosis-type powers seem far, far more beatable than our own everyday enemies. Enemies like doubt, self-esteem, and depression. One thing doubt, self-esteem, and depression have in common though: they originate in us, and turn ourselves into enemies, which is an ironically detrimental enemy to fight. Which is why, I think, it seems so much easier to defeat an entire alien race. They are them and we are us, and the sides are drawn clearly.

If only life could be as clear-cut as stories. But sometimes it is. Sometimes, when the story ends with an overwhelming victory and the "good guys" smile that smile of "We did it. It's over," we get this sense of "Yeah. It CAN be over." Because if they can save the world from emotionless aliens with magic blue energy grenades and really, really form-fitting dresses, then we can certainly save ourselves from ourselves.

Hey, look! That did turn inspiring. Oh, crap! *dodges flying pencil*

What are you doing out of your box?!

I-- missed human contact.

You'll get contact when you SUBMIT YOUR PAPERS.

*mumbling* I'll submit my papers somewhere.

Excuse me?

Nothing. See ya'll in about a month. *returns to box*

Pearce FTW

This plus Maggie Stiefvater's trailer for LINGER have created this twisted bombardment of writers who are FREAKISHLY TALENTED in other areas.

*cowers under their glow of awesome*

Rock on, freakishly talented authors. Rock on.

Storm

While I was working tonight, a storm rolled in.

Well, "rolled in" is an understatement. It more like surged in. Great masses of roiling gray-white clouds that barreled ahead of a darkness darker than night. And suddenly everything was black and cold and waiting, waiting, waiting. No rain. No noise. Just waiting.

It was amazing.

I started thinking about why it was amazing. Why I just stood at the door and watched the wind throw dust around the parking lot and shove shopping carts into trees. Storms are so untameable. Uncontrollable. One of the few things left in this world that man hasn't found a way to manipulate. It just IS, and it doesn't apologize, and it doesn't bow to man's great demands. It IS when it wants to be, and not a moment sooner or later. No one has found a way to stop it.

Can we be like that?

Can we be so determined, so here, so utterly ALIVE that people don't even try to control us? So MUCH that people can't force their manipulations on us? They can try. Pollution and all that sure does affect the weather patterns, and then there's that whole ozone thing, and melting ice caps, etc etc. People can inadvertently affect weather, as they can inadvertently affect us. Destroy us. But can we have the determination to surge through anyway?

I was in complete awe of it. That storm. Any storm, really. They always take my breath away. So much anger and power and beauty, and it doesn't apologize. I think we all want that. To live unapologetically. To exist. Period.