Reading Ravenously

I want to thank Tara Hudson for turning my daughter into a reader. In early June, Tara came to our local SCBWI group and gave a talk about how she became an author. I bought the first book in her trilogy--Hereafter. Simply put, it's a YA ghost story.

 

 

I came home from the meeting and handed the book to my 12-year old daughter and said, "I thought you might enjoy this." Never expecting her to read it because she has never enjoyed reading the books that I enjoy--the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson books leap to mind.

 

She started reading it that night.

 

Within days, we were at the local Barnes & Noble trying to find Arise and Elegy. Only after asking a clerk for help were we able to find both books. (B & N's setup for YA is TOTALLY WHACK-A-DOODLE! Books aren't jus separated as New and old YA, but by subgenre, too. Very difficult to figure out where a book is located!)

 

And then, she went to a couple of camps, and stopped reading Arise.

 

I was slightly miffed, considering the hassle and money I spent on the two books (Elegy is hardbound). And told her three days ago, "No TV. I want you to read for an hour."

 

Two hours later, she was still reading.

 

She went to swim practice for almost two hours, came home, got in her jammies and started reading again.

 

We made her turn out the light at 10 PM.

 

The next morning, she told me she wanted to finish Arise . . . she was up reading until 2 AM.

 

Then she started reading Elegy . . . same thing happened . . . she kept reading and reading, and reading. Last night she was still reading at 10:30 when I went to sleep. She wanted to finish the book.

 

I think I might have created a reading monster.

 

I'm okay with that.

 

But that means I better finish City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, because I have a feeling the book will be swiped from my hands sometime today!

 

There might be another Sam's Club run this weekend to by the other books in the series. Can't beat a price of $ 8.99.

 

Well, I better finish reading because I still have the last 1/4 of the book to read.

 

Later, Peeps! 

What to do, What to Do?

 Yesterday we took the kidlet to Girl Scout camp. The set up was totally different than in previous years as a new camp director was making a few changes to how they checked everyone in.

Some ideas were good and successful. Some were not.

After all the girls headed to their cabins. and my hubby helped the kidlet make her bed--on the top bunk--we were 'dismissed' by the kidlet. Like any other parent we. . . well, okay, ME. . . are embarrassing to have around, plus we tend to cramp the kid's style, so we were 'dismissed' with a kiss and a hug.

She should have a good camp. The title of it is 'Wet & Wild'. They should be in the water numerous times a day, along with going to a local water park in the middle of the week. And it's a good thing she's doing a water camp, because the heat is ON! This week the expected highs are in the low 90s with no rain.

--Hey, it's better than tornadoes, right?

As soon as we got home and fed the dog, we hightailed (Did you know this term is a reference to white-tailed deer? When they scamper away, their tail is up high showing the underside, which is white. Well, this might not be the only reference, but it was how it was told to me. . . . hmm, one of my brothers told me this many, many years ago, so it could be a lie. A good lie, but a lie none-the-less) it to the movie theater and saw STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS.

We saw the 2-D version, simply because of the time we could see the movie. Excellent, of course. I cried. I'm not a big crier in real life, but put me in front of  a Disney movie or another touching scene and I turn on the water works. If you have seen any of the Star Trek movies or watched any of the shows, you will find references to some of them.

There. That's all you get. No teasers. No review. No nothing.

Sometime this week, we want to see Ironman 3.

And no, we aren't being mean and dissing the kidlet. She said she wasn't interested in those two movies.

Besides, last week I attended a local SCBWI meeting and bought her a book by Tara Hudson, titled HEREAFTER.

I will say right now that she really isn't much of a reader. Oh, she'll read a book here or there, but I have yet to figure out her reading preferences, and they certainly don't mirror mine. And though I had the author sign the book with the kidlet's name, I honestly didn't think she'd read it.

She finished it in less than a day.

On Saturday, we had to make a mad dash to Barnes & Noble to find the next two books in the trilogy, ARISE and ELEGY. When we couldn't find the books, I suggested the kidlet find another book to take to camp. No, she didn't want to look at any other books, she wanted those books.

Okay.

Which we did find after we found a clerk to help us.

An aside to B & N: Look, you're starting to get a little too sub-categorized on your books. Having New Teen, Teen, New Paranormal Teen, and Paranormal Teen, etc. is a bit much. That makes the reader have to look in numerous places for one book. I had a title and I had an author, you would have thought it would be easy to find the book--not any more. We almost gave up in frustration. And that would have been a $33 sale (the 3rd book just came out in hardback, of course) lost to AMAZON.

Just saying.

I know publishers want writers to be able to categorize their books, but as a reader sometimes it's very confusing when some books are faced out as "new", but then the rest of the books seem to be jumbled in a not so orderly fashion with gaping holes. Plus in the Romance section, the category romances are totally in a different row.

Your shelving system leaves a lot to be desired.

So with the kidlet safely at camp, I am at a loss with what to do with my time.

Should I write?

I do need to write PIPER AND THE EVERBERRY SOCCER GAME. Plus I need to get back into DRAGON DAYS OF SUMMER and finish that book.

Or should I work on my garden beds?

With my husband's help, I finished one bed . . . ONE. We ended up with two large bags of plant material. I need to finish the beds before he mows on Wednesday.

Maybe I'll find a way to do both.

Later, Peeps!

Bits and Pieces

With all this rain, I had forgotten how quickly black spot spreads. *Remember the last two years have been droughty. No rain, thus no black spot.* And I didn't spray AT ALL. Some of my roses are denuded of leaves. I need to deadhead and spray this weekend. Poor babies.


Last night I made my spaghetti meat sauce and had to open a bottle of red wine.  I searched in my cabinet and found a 2005 Mount Pleasant Norton. We probably did buy this wine about 6-8 years ago, but the last time I opened the bottle it was so tannic that it was undrinkable. Now, it's finally ready. Making the spaghetti sauce was quick and easy because of another little trick--pre-cook your meat. The last time I went to Sam's Club I purchased six pounds of ground beef and about the same amount of hot Italian sausage, in casings. I spent all morning cooking the meat, dividing it and sealing it into vacuum bags. It was definitely worth the hassle when all I had to do was pull the meat out of the freezer, defrost it a little and dump it into the sauce to finish up.


The kidlet goes to Girl Scout camp next week. They are not allowed to take electronics, and the one paperback book I bought her when I met Tara Hudson--Hereafter-- has been read. Guess I'll need to stop at Barnes and Noble or Books-A-Million to find books two and three, Arise and Elegy.


Speaking of YA, Ally Carter keeps tweeting that she has finished the very last Gallagher Girls books. So sad. This was a nice series, but characters do tend to grow up. And the Gallagher Girls are finishing up at SPY high school.


I thought I'd be able to putz around the house today, do laundry, spray my roses, weed my garden, but nope, I had promised to take my hubs to have his windshield fixed. *sigh* Which means another trip around lunch to take him back to the aforementioned car. With new tires and a new windshield, its almost as if he has a brand new Corvette. Right?


With the kidlet at camp next week, maybe, just maybe, I'll actually be able to sit down and write. Man, it's been tough this summer. I did make a few corrections on DRAGON DAYS OF SUMMER as I reread the first 50 pages to get back into writing that story, but that was weeks ago! I'll have to do it all over again. Plus I want to get a rough draft down of my next picture book, PIPER AND THE EVERBERRY SOCCER GAME, tentative title.


I think temps will be going back to normal for the summer--90's and dry--so we might actually be able to swim in the pool. . . .along with starting to plan a few pool parties. YAY!

Later, Peeps!