Soooo… hi, people.

It has been A Time. In two words. Handed in round two of revisions for Some Girls Are last Monday, and now I’m very slowly working on catching up on like, everything, while I anticipate round three. Please be patient with me while I do this (but since when have you lovelies not been patient with me?)! March is mostly a blur of re-writing and coffee, but I will try to think of some things that happened and then proceed to share them with you in a hopefully entertaining way before I kill my web presence completely. Because THAT IS WHAT BLOGGING IS ABOUT.

First: I got the Twilight DVD on Saturday. The 3-DISC HMV EXCLUSIVE, which I guess has some extra-special features on it that I will probably never watch, though I did watch the movie itself.

And that is all that I will say about that.

Lest I OD on Emo Edward Cullen, I’m putting the Twilight Saga aside for a little bit and got some new books to read: The Season by Sarah MacLean (finally!), The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp (for some reason I keep calling it The Impossible Now even when I am looking at the cover and it’s going THAT IS NOT MY TITLE, COURTNEY), and Wake by Lisa McMann. Has anyone read any of these? Let us talk about them! Here are my initial thoughts on all three:

1) I am strangely attracted to Sutter in The Spectacular Now and kind of want to date him even though I wouldn’t want to touch his emotional baggage with a ten foot pole. If he gets rid of the later, we can TOTALLY do the former, but I have this sneaking suspicion that ain’t gonna happen.

2) The Season is super-charming and Lord Blackmoor is hot. I have a feeling he’s-a-gonna end up with another character, so I’m trying to mentally prepare myself not to be super jealous when that happens. If I am wrong though, I will be thrilled because that means if I ever acquire the ability to become a fictional character that can visit the pages of any books I would so TOTALLY have a chance with him. Incidentally, Sarah agreed to an interview on my blog (eee!!) and that’s my first question: “If I acquired the ability to become fictional etc…” Let’s anticipate her answer now.

3) The possibility of a Janie actually ever existing is precisely the reason why I will never fall asleep in public anywhere. I look at Wake as less of a story, and more of a warning. NOBODY FALL ASLEEP IN PUBLIC. ODDS ARE GOOD SOMEONE WILL HAVE THE FREAKY ABILITY TO SEE YOUR DREAMS, OKAY. God, imagine if someone found out about my dream where I wash RPATTZ’s hair while he’s sleeping. That would be absolutely mortifying.

In other news, the lovely Adele over at Persnickety Snark (a book blog you guys need to watch), sent me some photos of Cracked Up to Be in Australia! So cool, you guys. I have some very close and dear friends in Australia and I get such a thrill thinking of my book being where they are. And then I get super jealous of my book for getting to Australia before me. Unfair!

Please note that these photos were taken in the same bookstore. Yes, that’s right. Adele totally took them OFF the shelf and put them ON the table!!! She is a BOOKSTORE EMPLOYEE’S NIGHTMARE! A REBEL WITH A CAUSE! And I am INDIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE!

I have no regrets.

Adele also interviewed me, which was super fun. Check out the first part here!

ALSO (you guys still with me?): a shameful amount of time ago, I asked Steph aka The Awesome Reviewer X about her thoughts on online marketing based on a post by Author Extraordinaire, Sarah Prineas. So Steph totally made a great blog entry about it and I was like !!! THANKS STEPH and then I was like I WILL COMMENT SOON and then my revisions became Tremors and ATE ME… so I never commented. :( And it was a GREAT discussion. And I still feel bad–like I am so ashamed I can barely @reply Steph on Twitter, actually–so I’m hoping talking about it in my blog will redeem me a little (will it Steph, will it?!).

Anyway, Steph’s post is fabulous and I thank her for addressing a hot-button topic among authors in the fantastically candid way she addresses, well, everything, and for hosting such a great discussion in the comments. I have lots of strong feelings about online marketing and summed up, they are basically: I LOVE IT.

Although online marketing efforts can not necessarily be quantified in sales, the opportunity to connect and reach people and let them know HEY I’M OVER HERE is one I really can’t pass up (as M.J. Rose often says, “No one will buy a book they don’t know exists.”). If only one person looked at Cracked Up to Be’s book trailer and made a mental note that the book is exists, I’m very satisfied with that. I’ve really enjoyed the online promotion thing, and I think I’ve made some really strong and lasting connections and friendships and that’s worth its weight in gold to me.

Incidentally, along with my amazing publisher’s efforts to get word out about Cracked Up to Be, and my signing at OLA earlier this year, all of my promotional efforts have been focused online. ALL of them (seriously, I’m a hermit). I’d say most of the buzz Cracked Up to Be has received has been created online by you wonderful book bloggers and online friends, who took the time to get excited about it and say you were looking forward to it, to reading it, to reviewing it, to inviting me into your space to be interviewed. I got word not too long ago that the book went into it’s third printing, and while I can’t say this definitively, I have gut feeling that you wonderful people on your computers that were hooked up to the internets played a large part in making that happen. Thank you for that.

So yes. Online marketing! Whooo!!!

Finally, this is the best song in the world:

I’m pretty free and easy with my blog commenting policies, so now I am going to introduce my one rule: anyone who bashes Toto’s Africa is totally banned from my blog! This is a NO TOTO BASHING ALLOWED zone. It is a TOTO PRAISING ZONE. Please participate! I will get the ball rolling:

WHOOO TOTO’S AFRICA BEST SONG EVAAAAAH.