HERO by Perry Moore

By Rachel | Published: 21 October 2011

Hero
Written by: Perry Moore
Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Hyperion
August 2007 (PB reprint May 2009)
Genre: Young Adult
How I Got the Book: Bought

The last thing in the world Thom Creed wants is to add to his father’s pain, so he keeps secrets. Like that he has special powers. And that he’s been asked to join the League – the very organization of superheroes that spurned his dad. But the most painful secret of all is one Thom can barely face himself: he’s gay.

But becoming a member of the League opens up a new world to Thom. There, he connects with a misfit group of aspiring heroes, including Scarlett, who can control fire but not her anger; Typhoid Larry, who can make anyone sick with his touch; and Ruth, a wise old broad who can see the future. Like Thom, these heroes have things to hide; but they will have to learn to trust one another when they uncover a deadly conspiracy within the League. To survive, Thom will face challenges he never imagined. To find happiness, he’ll have to come to terms with his father’s past and discover the kind of hero he really wants to be.

The Cover: This is actually not the same cover the hardback edition of this book had. The hardback features a simple white cover with a nondescript black eye mask and the word HERO in multicolored lettering. But, the hardcover is not the one I read, so I’m going to take a look at the paperback.

I am pretty indifferent about this cover. The image portrays the right idea – he’s a hero underneath, but needs to cover that up with his normal day-to-day life. Plus, it’s a good tribute to the Superman change.

The one thing I question with the cover is: what race is Thom? It doesn’t really matter, to be honest, but I still wonder. It is never explicitly stated in the book but there are a few instances that make me believe he is black. But on this cover he is definitely white. Not glaring Montana-girl white like I am, but a nice California surf-god I-let-the-glorious-sun-caress-my-skin-daily kind of white. Not that the cover model HAS to be Thom, but we all know that’s who it is. Just something to consider.

The Book: Two words: Gay. Superhero. What a great concept. But this book is so much more than a gay-kid-coming-out book or a superhero book, even though it is also those things.

Thom Creed is afraid to tell his dad he’s gay. But even more than that, he’s afraid to tell his dad he has powers. Wonderful, amazing powers that allow him to heal people. And trigger seizures, but whatever. See, Thom’s dad used to be the Number One Hero in town. Then something happened, and he was completely shunned by the League. There is nothing in this world worse to Hal Creed than having superpowers. Not even being gay, though that’s a close second.

So Thom pushes those parts of himself to the side and lives in a silent misery trying to please his father. Life gets harder for him when he ends up in the wrong place at the right time and is both the victim and the helper-hero of a super-villain attack. Now the league wants him to join. For the first time, he feels like he belongs, sort of. At least he is grouped up with three heroes who are also misfits.

What I Loved: Thom’s relationship with his father is pitch-perfect. It was almost painful reading their interactions; Moore did such a great job showing where the strains are. Each has misconceptions about the other and they are both doing their best to work with the situation they have. The scenes between Thom and Hal were perfect.

I love how multi-dimensional this book is. There is so much more going on besides Thom’s struggle with his identity. Without giving away too much, I will say: don’t dismiss this as your typical coming-of-age novel or just a superhero action novel. Peel back the layers, people, there is so much more there.

I love that Thom had no confusion about his sexuality. Yes, he was scared of what people would say when they found out, but he was not confused at all. He knew he was gay, and, aside from his fear of others’ reactions, he is totally comfortable with that. He daydreams about a certain superhero becoming his boyfriend. He looks at porn. He hangs out outside of the local gay bar, working up the courage to go in. He doesn’t question his sexuality; he doesn’t think maybe he should give it a try with girls. He just knows he’s gay, and that’s that.

The superhero homages are everywhere and they are super fun. Perry has done his hero reading and it was fun trying to see which heroes he was incorporating into his characters.

What needed work: Perry Moore’s writing is not bad. Not at all. But it also isn’t anything special. Hero is a readable book, but it doesn’t have that special, undefinable something that makes the words sing and the prose dance off the page. The action scenes needed to be tightened up – I found myself having to reread quite often to keep track of what was going on. Despite those things, though, Hero is a really fun, great read.

Recommended for: Superhero fans, natch. Also, fans of David Levithan should definitely pick this one up.

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On chasing the dream

By Rachel | Published: 20 October 2011

This morning, I had a long-overdue email conversation with a bloggy friend. We talked about life and good times and writing and publishing. It really got me thinking…and then this post was born:

On Chasing the Dream

You start with a little inkling of a dream. I want to write a book, you tell yourself. That little dream plants itself at the base of your mind and begs for attention. You nourish it and it grows. Pretty soon you are consumed by this idea. You want to write a book.

How do you even start? Writing a novel is a huge, daunting task. It scares you. But you still have the dream, so nervously you sit in front of your computer and you start writing. At first it is hard. Every word seems like a chore. You are terrified you won’t make it. How will this ever be long enough to be called a novel?

You keep at it. Letter by letter, you write words; word by word, you write sentences; sentences pile up into paragraphs, then chapters. And suddenly you realize: I can do this!  Before long, you are looking at a finished draft of your very own novel.

Take a minute to pause and let that sink in: you wrote a book!

It might not be pretty, that’s true. So you head back to work. You pull it apart, edit it, rewrite parts, change things up, improve, improve, improve. Will you ever be done? Every time you think you are close, you find something else to fix. You keep at it, doing the work.

Then that magical day comes. You have a real, honest-to-goodness novel. A book you are proud of .

Congratulations! You reached your dream!

You ride on that high for a few days, but then that little voice creeps into your mind. Well, it says, maybe you did write a novel, but what good is that if you can’t get it published?

So you jump on to your next dream. You query agents, and get a handful of full requests. YES! You ride along, your head in the clouds, and send the manuscript off. You wait, sure that your book will be the next big thing. Then the rejections roll in. And then some more. Your book isn’t marketable, they tell you. I like it, but it’s just not right for my list. I’m sorry, better luck elsewhere.

You try not to take it personally, but this book is like your baby. How could you not? The rejections start to wear you down. Suddenly you find yourself bitter…

A bloggy friend announces the she got an agent! Another just signed a contract on her three-book deal! You want to be happy; you should feel elated for them. But you can’t help but wonder: why not me? What is wrong with my book, and why can’t I get those things? Try as you might, you can’t help but to feel a little hostility toward those other writers.

STOP! BACK UP!

Remember your dream. Your dream was to write a novel. And you DID IT. Celebrate. Praise yourself. Let the rest be a bonus, not what makes it worthwhile.

Don’t let your dream of publishing a book overshadow your accomplishment of writing one. And never forget that original dream; it is the most important one.

Now go write another book. You’ve done it before, and you know you can do it again.

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100 Best YA Books?

By Rachel | Published: 18 October 2011

Rumor has it this list originated in Sweden and is the 100 most popular YA Books of 2011. The list is obviously subjective, but the idea is still fun…so, since I am super busy plotting my NaNoNovel, and need to focus on that, not on what to blog about, I am playing along by noting which of these books I’ve read. (one more comma: ,  Because that sentence didn’t have enough.)

Books I’ve read are bold.

Books I own are italicized.

Here we go:

  1. Alex Finn – Beastly
  2. Alice Sebold – The Lovely Bones
  3. Ally Carter – Gallagher Girls (1, 2, 3, 4)
  4. Ally Condie – Matched
  5. Alyson Noel – The Immortals (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ,6)
  6. Anastasia Hopcus –  Shadow Hills
  7. Angie Sage – Septimus Heap (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
  8. Ann Brashares – Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (1, 2, 3, 4)
  9. Anna Godberson – Luxe (1, 2, 3, 4)
  10. Anthony Horowitz – Alex Rider (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
  11. Aprilynne Pike – Wings (1, 2, 3)
  12. Becca Fitzpatrick – hush, hush (1, 2)
  13. Brandon Mull – Fablehaven (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
  14. Brian Selznik – The Invention of Hugo Cabret
  15. Cassandra Clare – The Mortal Instruments (1, 2, 3, 4)
  16. Carrie Jones – Need (1, 2, 3)
  17. Carrie Ryan – The Forest of Hands and Teeth (1, 2, 3)
  18. Christopher Paolini – Inheritance (1, 2, 3, 4)
  19. Cinda Williams Chima – The Heir Chronicles (1, 2, 3)
  20. Colleen Houck – Tigers Saga (1, 2, 3)
  21. Cornelia Funke – Inkheart (1, 2, 3)
  22. Ellen Hopkins – Impulse
  23. Eoin Colfer – Artemis Fowl (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
  24. Faraaz Kazi – Truly, Madly, Deeply
  25. Frank Beddor – The Looking Glass Wars (1, 2, 3)
  26. Gabrielle Zevin – Elsewhere
  27. Gail Carson Levine – Fairest
  28. Holly Black – Tithe (1, 2, 3)
  29. JK Rowling – Harry Potter (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
  30. James Dashner – The Maze Runner (1, 2, 3)
  31. James Patterson – Maximum Ride (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
  32. Jay Asher – Thirteen Reasons Why
  33. Jeanne DuPrau – The Books of Ember (1, 2, 3, 4)
  34. Jeff Kinney – Diary of a Wimpy Kid (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
  35. John Boyne – The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
  36. John Green – An Abundance of Katherines
  37. John Green – Looking for Alaska
  38. John Green – Paper Towns
  39. Jonathan Stroud – Bartimaeus (1, 2, 3, 4)
  40. Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl – Caster Chronicles (1, 2)
  41. Kelley Armstrong – Darkest Powers (1, 2, 3)
  42. Kristin Cashore – The Seven Kingdoms (1, 2)
  43. Lauren Kate – Fallen (1, 2, 3)
  44. Lemony Snicket – Series of Unfortunate Events (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
  45. Libba Bray – Gemma Doyle (1, 2, 3)
  46. Lisa McMann – Dream Catcher (1, 2, 3)
  47. Louise Rennison – Confessions of Georgia Nicolson (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
  48. MT Anderson – Feed
  49. Maggie Stiefvater – The Wolves of Mercy Falls (1, 2, 3)
  50. Margaret Peterson Haddix – Shadow Children (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
  51. Maria V Snyder – Study (1, 2, 3)
  52. Markus Zusak – The Book Thief
  53. Markus Zusak – I Am the Messenger
  54. Mark Haddon – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
  55. Mary Ting – Crossroads
  56. Maureen Johnson – Little Blue Envelopes (1, 2)
  57. Meg Cabot – All-American Girl (1, 2)
  58. Meg Cabot – The Mediator (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
  59. Meg Cabot – The Princess Diaries (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
  60. Meg Rosof – How I Live Now
  61. Megan McCafferty – Jessica Darling (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
  62. Megan Whalen Turner – The Queen’s Thief (1, 2, 3, 4)
  63. Melina Marchetta – On The Jellicoe Road
  64. Melissa de la Cruz – Blue Bloods (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
  65. Melissa Marr – Wicked Lovely (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
  66. Michael Grant – Gone (1, 2, 3, 4)
  67. Nancy Farmer – The House of the Scorpion
  68. Neal Shusterman – Unwind
  69. Neil Gaiman – Coraline
  70. Neil Gaiman – Stardust
  71. Neil Gaiman – The Graveyard Book
  72. PC  Cast & Kristin Cast – House of Night (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
  73. Phillip Pullman – His Dark Materials (1, 2, 3)
  74. Rachel Caine – The Morganville Vampires (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
  75. Rachel Cohn & David Levithan – Nick & Nora’s Infinite Playlist
  76. Richelle Mead – Vampire Academy (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
  77. Rick Riordan – Percy Jackson & the Olympians (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
  78. Rom LcO’Feer – Somewhere Carnal Over  40 Winks
  79. SL Naeole – Grace (1, 2, 3, 4)
  80. Sabrina Bryan & JuliaDeVillers – Princess of Gossip
  81. Sarah Dessen – Along for the Ride
  82. Sarah Dessen – Lock and Key
  83. Sarah Dessen – The Truth About Forever
  84. Sarah Shepard – Pretty Little Liars (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
  85. Scott Westerfeld – Leviathan (1, 2)
  86. Scott Westerfeld – Uglies (1, 2, 3, 4)
  87. Shannon Hale – Books of a Thousand Days
  88. Shannon Hale – Princess Academy
  89. Shannon Hale – The Books of Bayern (1, 2, 3, 4)
  90. Sherman Alexie – The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
  91. Simone Elkeles – Perfect Chemistry (1, 2, 3)
  92. Stephenie Meyer – The Host
  93. Stephenie Meyer – The Twilight Saga (1, 2, 3, 4)
  94. Sue Monk Kidd – The Secret Life of Bees
  95. Susan Beth Pfeffer – Last Survivors (1, 2, 3)
  96. Suzanne Collins – The Hunger Games (1, 2, 3)
  97. Suzanne Collins – Underland Chronicles (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
  98. Terry Pratchett – Tiffany Aching (1, 2, 3, 4)
  99. Tonya Hurley – Ghost Girl (1, 2, 3)
  100. Wendelin Van Draanen – Flipped 
Which means I’ve read…

33 of the top 100 (63 if you count individual books in the series)

 

What about you? Have you read many on this list? What are your favorites of the ones listed above? Anything I haven’t read but really should? Let me know in the comments. 

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Countdown to NaNo2011 – 2 weeks!

By Rachel | Published: 17 October 2011

Two weeks from tomorrow, thousands of crazy totally sane, for sure, writers will start a month-long quest to write the next great frantic novel. (For the uninitiated, check out NaNoWriMo.org to learn what the heck I’m talking about.)

What are you doing to prepare for this year’s Month of Literary Abandon? From now until the end of November, I will be posting productivity tips every Monday to help you successfully complete your novel (or at least the first 50k words of it) this November.

(Full disclosure: I have never actually “won” NaNoWriMo. I have written a novel in a month though. More than once. Just not during November so it wasn’t all official and stuff.)

Now, on to this week’s tip:

NaNo Productivity Tip #1: Make a Plan

Maybe you’ve never used an outline before, you think all that planning ahead of time will kill your creativity when it comes to actually writing; that’s fine.

But.

If you want to write a novel in a month, unless you are superhuman, you will need to have some kind of plan. 50,000 words is a lot for 30 days of writing, and chances are, without a plan, you will end up with about 30,000 of those words being worthless. Okay, let’s be honest – even with a plan, that’s very possible, but alas, that is the nature of first drafts.

What kind of outline do you need? That’s completely up to you, but you know that old saying, “less is more”? In this case it’s completely wrong. You can’t over-plan for NaNoWriMo. At the very least, I suggest you know your basic plot, with a definite beginning, ending, and climax solidly in line.

You know what? Let’s take this one step further:

Get out a piece of paper and a pen. (Side note…I have this purple pen. I call it my Perfect Purple Plotting Pen. And now it’s time to plot out my NaNoNovel and I can’t find the pen. The horror!) Anyway, have your pen? Your paper? Good.

At the top of your paper, write a brief sentence about how your book starts. Then, at the bottom of the page, write a sentence about how it ends. Finally, pick a spot 2/3-3/4 of the way down the page and write down, briefly, what your climactic scene will look like.

This is your basic framework. Take some time and fill in the gaps, focusing on big-picture stuff only at this point. Try to fill every single line on the page with information. Unless, of course, you are using unlined paper. But you get the point.

What’s that you say? You filled all your lines but still have ideas?! That will happen once you get your creative juices flowing. What once seemed a daunting task is now behind you and you still have more to write. That’s fine – get another piece of paper and keep working. Before you know it, you will have a pretty detailed plan of action for your book. (Then, if you’re like me, you will write it all out again because you can’t stand the unorganized mess before you, but that’s not a necessary step.)

There you have it! A road-map to NaNoWriMo success. Keep your outline right next to your computer (or whatever you use to write) for the entire month of November, so it’s easy to reference if you feel like you get stuck. Can you get by without it? Sure. People do it all the time. But I promise it will be easier to get to that magical 50,000 words if you know where you are going.

SPECIAL OFFER FOR NANOWRIMO PARTICIPANTS!

Anyone who completes NaNoWriMo this November (and validates the word count) can get up to 50% off editing services. You can claim the coupon until the end of the year, and the discount will be valid through October 31, 2012, giving you plenty of time to revise and edit the novel on your own before using my services.

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Dear Ones,

By Rachel | Published: 14 October 2011

I decided last night that I need to read more Middle Grade books.

What MG books should I absolutely not miss?

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Fast Five…

By Rachel | Published: 10 October 2011

I know, I know. I usually do Fast Five posts on Fridays, but I figure since I haven’t blogged in, like, for-ever, I can get away with doing one on this lovely Monday as well.

1. New!

If you’re reading this via email or an RSS feed, you can’t see it, but say hello to my shiny new website design! Actually, this is just a temporary design until I can get the real new design up but I like the nice autumn colors and clean look. Plus, the real new design depends on a friend doing me a favor, and since this friend is a busy, busy, buuusy man, I don’ t know when that is going to be. But I felt like I needed a change NOW, so I did a little tinkering. Also, for the first time ever, my Twitter page matches my website.

If you look around, you’ll notice I also put my writing page back up (with a NEW BOOK), added a review policy, changed my bio, and am now offering editing services. (Actually, I always was offering editing services-seeking out freelance clients the old-fashioned way…I just now decided to link it to my personal website is all.)

2. New-ish!

Meet my friend Kelli:

Kelli’s pretty darn amazing. Also, she’s a cosmetologist. So a few weeks ago when we were in Twin Falls for a few days, we decided I needed a haircut. Bad.

Let me back up.

A few YEARS ago, Kelli was thinking about maybe going to cosmetology school. Then we spent the week in Billings, MT for a series of concerts. Our first night there, she took this:

and turned it into this:

and then decided she really, really wanted to go to cosmetology school. So she did. And the next time we were in a hotel together (three weeks ago) she took this:

and turned it into this, much-much-improved version:

Did I mention Kelli rocks?

3. Needs-to-be-new

Sigh. I adore my teeny-tiny netbook. It is super portable and the small keyboard is just perfect for my tiny hands. Unfortunately, there was a major design flaw when they built these bad boys, and when you open the screen, it tweaks the cords that run through the hinges. Which means that after opening it enough times the screen starts to flicker. It gets worse and worse and worse until it is darn near unusable. Geek Husband has taken the machine apart twice to fix this problem for me, but the wires are just too far gone now for him to fix it a third time. Sigh.

4. big NEWs

After months of looking for a job that would allow Geek Husband, Baby Caveman, and me to move closer to the Geek inlaws, we have made a big decision: Geek Husband and I are starting our own business. GH will be doing freelance programming, and I will be taking care of the business and financial aspects (and some design if needed). We will start out by finding some projects that GH can moonlight with his current job, then stepping down the hours at his job, and finally branching out completely on our own.

Geek Husband is great with back-end web developing, as well as non-web software development. If you happen to know of anyone who needs a project done, send them our way!

5. Still sort-of-new Baby Caveman! 

See, I told you I have a baby:

L-R: Christa, Nate, Quinn, Me & Baby Caveman, Nic, Kelli, Jordon, Morgan

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Really Loves and Kinda Bugs

By Rachel | Published: 20 September 2011

Really Loves…

~I really, really love that I have the best husband ever. Last Thursday, Baby Caveman and I abandoned him to go to Twin Falls, Idaho for four days to party it up with my buddies.  While I was gone, instead of sulking cause we left him or playing video games or whatever, Geek Husband cleaned the house. The. Entire. House. And trust me, it wasn’t a small task. I’d been sick for two weeks before leaving so I pretty much left the place a disaster. And then it was all pretty and sparkly when I got home.

And then, to make him even more awesome, when I mentioned that I wanted to go again in two weeks because half my buddies were sick and couldn’t hang for long, he didn’t even hesitate before saying, “yeah, we’ll work something out.”

Seriously, best. husband. EVER.

~I love THIS. So, so, so ridiculously proud of these boys. I was sitting at their show this past weekend thinking of how proud I am of them and their success. They’ve been working a LONG time for this. They are an inspiration.

Then, I looked down a few rows and saw their mom and dad. And I thought to myself, if I am this proud after having been a fan and friend for fourteen years, I can’t even fathom how Val and Spence must feel seeing their boys reach their dreams. It’s amazing and overwhelming.

~I love that I FINISHED THE FIRST DRAFT OF MY WORK-IN-PROGRESS LAST NIGHT!!!!

I have to admit, I was beginning to think I’d lost it. It’d been so long since I’d finished anything that I was letting the doubt creep in and convince me that I just couldn’t do it anymore. Well, take that, doubt. Because I finished!

It’s short. Like, really short. But it’s my first contemporary, which tend to run shorter, and I am one of those writers who has a tendency to write short and then add on during edits. I already have quite the list of things to work on; there’s still a long road before its really done, but for now: I FINISHED. Time to celebrate.

I don’t have a title yet, but for now, its working title is The Particular Sadness of Squirrels. That’s the second working title. You might be more familiar with its first: So97.

Kinda Bugs…

~I ordered some books from Barnes & Noble a couple weeks ago. They got lost in transit. I am still waiting for B&N/UPS/USPS to figure things out and get them to me. It’s not like I don’t have things to read, but I’d still like them to get here.

~Fall is here and the nights are getting cold. Now don’t get me wrong, I actually LOVE fall. I’m just kinda bugged because, well, TOO SHORT SUMMER!

~My mama had to have her golden retriever put down this weekend. Lucky was such a big lover of a dog. It was time and he was ready to go, but it was still really sad.

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Because children are the future…you can WIN!

By Rachel | Published: 19 September 2011

America has the largest obesity problem in the world. We have the highest percentage of overweight and obese people out there (more than 60% of us fall into that category). Sadly, nearly half a million people in the US die every year due to illness that can be connected of obesity and poor nutrition.

Childhood obesity is a serious problem and it is on the rise.

The issue here isn’t laziness, but education. Many parents were not given the proper education and tools to make good decisions when it comes to their kids’ food.  We need to educate our children early to help them make good choices when it comes to food.

As teachers out there can attest, it isn’t easy to teach children something they find boring. A subject needs to be exciting enough for them to want to know more.  That’s where The Standards come in.

Meet The Standards: 

From left to right: Nic, (me), Jordon, (Kelli), Nathan, (Christa), Quinn, Morgan

The Standards are a critically-acclaimed vocal group made up of five brothers who know firsthand how proper nutrition affects us. This is Nicholas:

just ignore Jordon's creepy floating head

When he was ten years old, Nic was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor. On top of the medical attention he was getting, his parents turned their attention to what the family was eating. They really focused on changing their lifestyle and making sure they were making healthy choices. The doctors did great, but Nic is alive and well today largely due to the nutrition choices he and his parents have made.

The Standards have inspired thousands of children back east with their Music with a Message program, and now they want to take that message to the west! Schools want them to come teach and entertain their students, but budgets are tight. Schools are having budget cuts left and right, and they just can’t afford to bring the program to their students.

That’s where we come in.

The Standards have partnered with Kickstarter.com to bring their Inside Out Nutrition Tour to schools in the west at no charge to them. But they need our help! So please, listen to their message below, and then head to their project page and make a pledge. Our children thank you!

And now for the part where you can WIN!

Want the signed CD and DVD but can’t swing the full $75 pledge? How about I give them away instead? Here’s how this will work:

  1. Make a pledge.
  2. Come back here and tell me about your pledge.
  3. For every $10 you pledge, I will enter you in a drawing to win a signed, personalized copy of their new CD and DVD.
  4. If we reach our goal in time, I will pick a winner!
  5. When I see the boys again in two weeks, I will have the CD and DVD signed for our luck winner. Horray!
I know times are tight for a lot of people, but there is nothing more important than our kids, so please do what you can to help them get the information they need in a way they like.

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Really Loves and Kinda Bugs

By Rachel | Published: 13 September 2011

Really Loves: 

Read For Relief, a literary-based auction set up to benefit those who have been so affected by Hurricane Irene. There’s a LOT of great stuff up there, people, so head on over and bid on some wonderful items. I’m talking signed ARCs and hardcovers, agent and editor critiques, author critiques.

And, well, if you want to win something donated by Yours Truly, you can find it here.

Pinterest

I love having a nice little go-to place to pin all the things I like and find inspiring. It’s like bookmarking, but much, much better!

The Country Bookshelf, my local independent bookstore (and the largest one in Montana to boot), where you will find this awesome anti-censorship display:

Kinda Bugs: 

*It is still fire season in Montana. There is still smoke in the air. It was so thick yesterday while I was out and about that I could barely see the Bridger Mountains (and the Bridger Mountains are practically on top of us here in Bozeman, people). I know I mentioned this one last week, but my sinuses still hate life, and therefore it still applies.

*We have a new downstairs neighbor. Surely he is a nice man, and he is quiet and all, BUT…he smokes a lot of pot. And his vents pretty much dump right into our house. It got so bad today that I actually had to take Baby Caveman outside because I was a little scared for his health.

*I went to Payless today hoping beyond hope that they would still have these cute little grey flats in stock. They don’t. Sigh.

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Monday Inspiration

By Rachel | Published: 12 September 2011

I am ridiculously out of shape. Like, really ridiculously, y’all. I would like to say it’s because I just had a baby, but let’s face it: Baby Caveman is almost eight months old. And the problem didn’t start then anyway.

As a former athlete*, it’s really tough to be this out of shape. I am used to fitness and physique coming easily to me, and it’s daunting to think of the work that needs to go into getting myself back on track. Part of me is still struggling with the fact that I’m 27 years old, not 16, so my metabolism might work a little differently these days.

Anyway, Geek Husband and I have been trying to run regularly. We were actually doing quite well when the Bateman Plague hit our household and knocked me flat on my back for two weeks (somehow both Geek Husband and Baby Caveman bounced back way faster than me…might have something to do with that whole terribly-out-of-shape thing I’ve been talking about). But today I feel better, and darnit, we are doing this for REAL. We are starting an official Couch to 5K program just as soon as Jeopardy is over.

It is intimidating, but I can do it. And if ever I think I can’t, I need to just think about this quote I happened across today:

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them. ~Walt Disney

*Anyone who says drill team (the high-kick and baton variety) is not athletic is welcome to come to my house, where I will promptly high-kick them in the face.

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