Please take a look around, get acquainted with everything! I hope you love it as much as I do, because I absolutely love it. Once again the talent behind this hot new look was Dale Mugford and Duane Storey AKA the masterminds that run BraveNewCode. If you’ll remember, I’ve chronicled my experiences working with them in the past and basically everything I said there is still true but also they are even more awesome.

I KNOW.

I’ve been thinking a lot about job satisfaction lately because… uhm, I was goofing around on youtube and somehow stumbled upon Craig Ferguson’s really touching eulogy for his father, where he talks about how his dad emphasized the importance of job satisfaction all through his life (I know right now everyone is like wait what where did this blog entry just go BUT STAY WITH ME) and anyway, one of my favourite things about working with BraveNewCode is constantly getting the sense of two people who have real job satisfaction. They take their work seriously, they enjoy it, they are passionate about it, they believe in and take pride in what they do and what they put out there and all of this informs their approach to their clients, the way they communicate, the way they listen, they way they code and the way they design. And that truly makes all the difference. I cannot recommend them highly enough. THANK YOU, Dale and Duane!

In other news, last week totally got away from me, which is boo because last week was pretty awesome. Last week was pretty awesome, because, among other things, Some Girls Are got a starred review from Kirkus!!! Which–you know. I will probably die before that sinks in. They said it “will make readers cringe,” (best pull-quote ever!) and called it “powerful and compelling.” Kirkus, I am thrilled you think this of my book. Kirkus, I might have cried when I saw that you did. (I totally cried.)

Also, the Facebook Only Some Girls Are ARC giveaway is going on RIGHT NOW. Here is what you have to do if you’re not in on this yet and you want to be: 1) add my Facebook page (if you haven’t) 2) write ‘I want SGA!’ on its wall. Simple! Winners will be announced on Wednesday. As I’ve said before, this will be my only ARC giveaway that is open to international entries (sorry). And if Facebook Only contests are not your thing, stay tuned because I still have three more ARCs to give away.

MEANWHILE, here are some things that are making me QUITE HAPPY right now:

1) CK Kelly Martin released the first chapter of her forthcoming release, The Lighter Side of Life and Death. Oooh my God, I can’t wait. I am an unabashed CK Kelly Martin fangirl and One Lonely Degree was one of my favourite releases of 2009. You can read the first chapter here (the last paragraph and the last two sentences are just BAM–how am I expected to wait for this book? Random House, that is cruel!!!). And check out the trailer, it’s awesome:

3) Look at what Annika made! It is lovely.

4) I feel like a heel, but when I posted the second teaser videos for Some Girls Are, along with the second chapter, apparently the videos weren’t working for everyone, though they were working for me. Tye, from The Book Gryffin was one of those people and she PAINSTAKINGLY went to GREAT LENGTHS to explain to me ONE TWEET AT A TIME what problems she was having and then patiently waited while I fiddled with everything until it worked. I believe Jonathan Zittrain when he talks about how the web encourages random acts of kindness. Tye, I cringe to think of how much time of yours I took up, but I appreciate that you gave it to me and helped me solve that problem.

5) My friend Whitney started a photoblog with her brother, Josh, called Melvin. It is fantastic and makes me itch to pick my camera up again. You should follow it for a dose of visual inspiration.

6) AW YEAH

(Oh my God, I just imagined her saying that to me and got a little chill.)

While I revised, I turned another year older. That was gross and I don’t want to talk about it. I can’t wait until my anti-aging birthday killing invention is complete. In the mean time, I just stay out of the sun. Also, while I revised, an Exciting Thing happened but I cannot say what it is just yet.

I really HATE when people do stuff like that, so I generally try not to until I can just blurt the exciting thing out, but I can’t resist just this once. Feel free to slap me. It’s okay.

Speaking of Some Girls Are (uhm, x paragraphs ago), it now has its own page on this here website, which has undergone a bit of tweaking today! Check out the new novels page to get there, where you can read a teaser from SGA (check out my fierce bolding move). The photograph is a placeholder until I get the actual cover, which may or may not be something I dream about every single day.

The Cracked Up to Be page has also been updated to add more review and interview links. If you reviewed Cracked Up to Be for your blog and would like to see it on the list, let me know! I certainly don’t mean to leave anyone out, I am just woefully not as on top of things as I’d like to be, as evidenced by MY INCONSISTENT BLOG UPDATES. Seriously, do you guys forgive me? I’m totally back now, mostly, I swear.

And speaking of Cracked Up to Be, look at this insanely awesome vlog Steph (aka Reviewer X) did! My book makes a guest-appearance at the beginning and the end. It lives a story!

IT GETS MACKED ON BY A STUFFED TURKEY.

Finally, it has been brought to my attention that I take a long time to approve of comments. I know. People who have been reading for a while probably know the wait they’re getting into when they comment on my site, but I feel like it’s a good time to clarify my blog commenting “policy”:

I like to approve comments only when I can sit down and take the time to reply to them (I reply to every blog comment I get). Maybe it’s weird, but I HATE the idea of unreplied to comments languishing in my blog and so I don’t approve them until I can guarantee they don’t. At certain points–like during revisions, say–I have less time than others to do that. Sorry for the delay this time around, peoples, and rest assured, every comment made on this blog is approved.

And thank you, as always, for being fabulous patient ~*stars*~.

Pretty sexy, huh? It was designed and coded by the talented guys at BraveNewCode, whose work I’ve been a big fan of for some time now. They were nothing short of brilliant and a total pleasure to work with and I would highly, highly recommend them to anyone in the market for a (sexy) website. You can’t do better than BNC and I’ll tell you why in a second, but first, click around! See what’s new. There’s new stuff to click. I could walk you through it but that takes the fun out of it and also I’m lazy.

* Before I continue: if you have been so kind as to link me, please update your links from http://courtneysummers.ca/blog to http://courtneysummers.ca–the blog link is still active, but the front page is so sexy, I’d love to see it get its due. Thanks!

Okay, so I’ve been wanting a new website for ages. I’ve certainly had “fun” mucking around with the freely available WordPress themes out there, but I could never quite find that theme. You know. The theme. The theme that could marry the blog thing and the author thing and could look exactly the way I wanted it to at the same time. Also a theme that no one else had. Now, I’m not completely naive. I knew I wasn’t going to find that theme for free (duh), and so I began the process of looking for a webdesigner.

Which was an experience, let me tell you.

Warning: long entry ahead.

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll admit that BraveNewCode was always my top choice. But I DID make a point to solicit recommendations from people and look around myself because getting a website made is a big investment, and exploring your options is what you should do when you’re making a big investment (tip: research your options if you’re looking for a website redesign!).

So I did that, compiled many notes, and as it turns out, all of my notes lead me back to BraveNewCode, least of all because they were the only ones who understood minimalism and functionality in the ways I needed. I filled out the quote form and Dale scheduled me in and it was all very exciting. Phone calls were had! Many emails and many, many mock-ups were exchanged! And then they made the site! And it was magic! As you can plainly see!

Exclamation mark!

This whole process has taught me a lot and because my website is primarily educational (did you know the human head weighs thirty pounds?), I want to share my experience. So much of my own research lead me to vagueness; designers who preferred to cloak all aspects of their process in ~*mystery*~ and clients who didn’t really talk about what getting a website made for them was like. Maybe they think it’s boring? I don’t think it’s boring. I wanted to know because I like to know everything. If there’s a loop, I demand to be in it. And if you’re keeping me out of a loop, I resent you for it, just so you know.

These are the two most important things I learned when I was on the hunt for a webdesigner:

#1 Your site should never hold you hostage.
#2 Your webdesigner should never hold your site hostage

Regarding the first point: while I understand the necessity of having a webmaster for some, no one should be afraid to create, update and manage their own content. I was alarmed at how many webdesigners make content management sound incredibly intimidating (but don’t worry–they’d take care of it for you… for a fee), if they didn’t neglect to mention it at all.

Internet fear mongering, skirting around and trying to downplay or totally write off a potential client’s role in the management of their own website after it’s been made is a pretty glaring oversight, if you ask me. When I sent BNC pages and pages of notes about what I wanted in a site, I let them know it was important that the finished product be one that could evolve and one that I could manage on my own. If I hadn’t had the foresight to want that for myself, I know BraveNewCode would’ve wanted it for me. They did want that for me.

After I sent notes, the site was mocked-up in Photoshop and sent to me in .pngs for my approval. When we had the design down (read: after I was done round one of nitpicking), the coding happened. I got to see the site live and then I got to nitpick it some more. Can I just say I never realized I was such a nitpicker? People, I am a nitpicker.

Once my nitpicking was really done (tip: if you’re on the lookout for a webdesigner, maybe just ask them point blank if they’re as patient as the dudes at BNC and if they say “no,” RUN AWAY), Dale and Duane then uploaded a demo site and proceeded to make sure I knew how to get the most out of it now and in future. These guys are very committed to all aspects of their business. They don’t just make websites, they go to great lengths to make their websites understood.

Regarding the second point. A few designers I came across would only design sites that were hosted on their servers. The reasoning behind that usually touched on the unreliability and instability and scariness of every other server on the entire internet. If that didn’t immediately set off my ?! detectors, the huge price gap between their monthly hosting fees and mine did.

People’s needs will vary–as I said, some require webmasters and many people are happy with designers who create, host and manage their site for them. But what can I say. I’m a Wary Wanda when it comes to relinquishing control of the space on the net I’m carving out as uhm, MY OWN. I wanna be the master of my domain. A good webdesigner does not take a website OFF your hands, they put it INTO your hands, which is exactly what BraveNewCode did for me. It’s very simple, and blogging platforms like WordPress make it simpler every day.

BraveNewCode’s work process sheet speaks for itself. I personally had a great experience working with them for the relaunch of courtneysummers.ca and it’s going to make me feel warm and fuzzy inside to direct people who are looking for great designers their way. Dale and Duane are very meticulous and every last bit of code that shapes this site was typed by them. They don’t mess around with pre-existing WordPress templates or icky WYSIWYG editors and leave errant bits and invisible code gremlins to clutter up space and steal server resources. The work they do is specified, careful, clean, professional and, well, sexy (bringing the sexy back was very important to me).

Over time, people have commented on how much they’ve dug the minimalism of my site. I heart minimalism. BraveNewCode was able to retain that minimalim and step it up. In fact, one thing that really stood out for me was how they went through my blog so they could get a sense of my identity and bring me a new design that didn’t look like it was meant for someone else.

They involved me in every part of the process (tip: never expect less if you’re looking for a webdesigner!), left no question unanswered and there was seriously not one thing they COULDN’T do. Also, they are Canadian (Canada represent!) and also, they are PSYCHIC. Dale actually changed a link colour to the colour I wanted to change it to before I could even ask him to (seriously!).

Beyond this–and perhaps most importantly–in all of my communications with BNC, I got the sense of people who loved what they were doing. You know when you read a book or watch a movie and you can tell the people involved really dug what they were doing? And it makes a huge difference? That was definitely the case here.

So thanks, BraveNewCode.

Man. It’s gonna feel SO GOOD to not have to scrounge around for a WordPress Theme that is kinda sorta maybe what I want and won’t drive me freaking crazy in six months because I have this.

Hope you guys love it as much as I do.

Also, if I add people on MySpace and they add me back, shouldn’t I be the one thanking THEM for not leaving me hanging and feeling like a loser vs. THEM thanking ME for pestering them for the add? I’m not complaining or anything and I’m kind of happy it IS that way because it sort of saves me the time of having to go, ‘thanks for not leaving me hanging and feeling like a loser,’ but still, does this not strike anyone else as backwards? I think it’s backwards.

Or maybe I AM supposed to be thanking people for thanking me for adding them. If I am, I’ve really fallen down on the job. idk.

I just spent the last hour getting caught up on blogs so probably email will happen next but right now I’m tired. My iPod shuffle is determined to make me sad. Also, I stubbed my toe at my cleaning job the other day and it was pretty painful. Like, there was blood and everything! I’ve also decided to embrace the arms I’ve spent my entire life hiding from the general public because it is too hot out for sleeves. That Mother Nature, always forcing you to love yourself. Oh, and my new website will be relaunching sometime this week. So you should probably mark your calendar with stars, keep a browser of my site up, call in at work and sit at your computer clicking refresh over and over again until the change happens. But don’t eat or drink anything while you’re waiting because that will ruin the anticipation.

01. Copyedits for Cracked Up to Be are on their way! I’m looking forward to it but also I’m terrified. I have this irrational fear of copyedits because they seem so concise and mechanical and I don’t brush my hair if I can get away with it and wear Winnie the Pooh pajama pants outside and stuff so that’s probably a good indication of… something. I just basically feel like copyedits are the MATH of the publishing process. Math also terrified me. Once, in eighth grade, my teacher called on me to do a problem at my desk and I just couldn’t take it and I started freaking out and I was like, “I don’t know I can’t do it you can’t make me do it aaah!” It might even have been tearful. ANYWAY, my teacher was like, “Okay! Never mind! Next person!” And then I was like, “… Why didn’t I do that sooner?!” And then years later I looked it up and there IS such a thing as Mathematical Anxiety! The vindication! I can’t even tell you.

02. But for some reason I have become this huge Sudoku nut in the last few weeks, even though it has numbers in it. I’ve completed two (TWO!) puzzles… without cheating! This is huge, people! Even if the skill level was easy. I tried a medium puzzle tonight but it got difficult so I quit because those are the kind of principles I have. Also, Survivor was on.

03. Oh, Survivor. What a season. Jeff Probst wore shorts tonight! Has he ever worn shorts on Survivor before? And I swear they had stripes. I should be ashamed for noticing but I don’t think it’s every day Jeff Probsts wears shorts on television. Or maybe it is. Who knows. NICE LEGS, PROBST!

04. courtneysummers.ca is in the process of being redesigned by some talented guys who know their stuff (read: they are WordPress Masters). Now, yer not going to wake up and see a new site tomorrow or anything but I’m just giving you a head’s up so you can adjust your anticipation levels accordingly (tip: set them to high.).

If you don’t, I got nothing for you. Sorry, bbs.

So, for all you people with livejournals who want the ease of reading my blog on your friendspages, Tori–who has a great journal and has begun giving insightful, thoughtful interviews with authors and whatareyouwaitingforgocheckitoutnow!–has created an LJ feed of my blog. It’s here: http://syndicated.livejournal.com/courtneysummers/profile

All you gots to do is click ‘add this user to your friendslist’ and ta-da! There it is. Courtney blog on your LJ FL!

Thank you, Tori! It is muchly appreciated.

In other news, I am up to my elbows in a new book. That’s all I have to say about that.

My mom finished Cracked Up to Be! It was an agonizing experience, waiting for her to finish it and to share her thoughts. I am really happy with what she took away from it, though slightly skeptical of her accolades, because you know. She birthed me. I am pretty much flawless at everything in her eyes. In any case, here is the blurb she provided for me, for promotional purposes:

After I finished Courtney Summers’s debut novel, CRACKED UP TO BE, I gladly returned the bribe money she gave me and told her, “No, Courtney. It was MY pleasure.”

Love you, Mommy!

So that was really nice.

In other really nice news: I’m getting A NIKON D80!

This turn of events came as a bit of a surprise, which I’m sure no one will believe as I’ve wanted one for so long (even more when my D70 went to camera heaven). But I truly didn’t expect that I’d be capping my lovely Christmas by ordering a new digital SLR for myself. And then my mom was like, “Hey, Courtney! Check out Futureshop’s online holiday sales! Wow! Look at that D80!” And then I was like, “Really? Should I get it? *angsty back-and-forth*” And then she was like, “Oh look, they have a limited quantity! Oh look! Someone bought one while you were thinking about it! Oh look! There goes another one!”

I didn’t know it then, but Futureshop was giving my mother a commission.

In spite of her camera pushing, it took a couple of hours to take the plunge and order it. And then I felt terrible afterwards. As of today, I am at peace with the decision and I can’t wait to hold that sexy beast of a camera in my hands. I’m going to put it to good use and try things I haven’t tried before. I miss taking photographs so much.

And then I saw 28 Weeks Later!

< spoilers, blah, blah >

Before I start eviscerating it, I should say 28 Days Later is one of my favourite movies of all time. It is so impossibly good and effectively disturbing, that even now, I have a hard time finishing it. That is a mark of a good horror movie as far as I am concerned. Seriously. It is so perfectly tense and terrifying. The characters feel so real and honest, it gives an incredible emotional heft to a movie about a Rage Zombie Apocalypse (who would have thought?!). AND it was filmed digitally (I embrace teh digital technologies, obviously). The aesthetic was gorgeous and gritty. PERFECT. The whole movie just brought respect back to the horror genre. Where it belongs.

28 Weeks Later’s opening gave me a false sense of hope because WHAT AN OPENING. Really. So much tension you could snap in half. What a desperate chase and escape that opening was, seriously thrilling and brilliant and brilliantly filmed. Robert Carlyle leaving his wife behind to get eaten by The Infected because he had no other choice?

WOW.

Unfortunately, that opening made me get a little ahead of myself. As soon as I saw that, I started envisioning the course the movie would take. I thought, oh my gosh, this is going to be a movie about a man who made a hard, but ultimately right decision.

(Dear family and friends, if there comes a time when there are Rage Zombies between us and I’m by the nearest exit and you need saving, well… I love you enough to live for both of us. Love, Courtney)

So I thought, given the perfection of the first movie and forgetting the Sequels Generally Suck rule, the rest of the movie would be this fantastic survivalist tale about Robert Carlyle living with the decision he made until The Infected breached the parameters of the safe zone, and he was forced to make the same decision with the remaining members of his family–WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN AMAZING, Y?

Seriously! It would have made 28 Weeks Later a horror movie that’s fearless enough not to punish its lead character for being a a flawed human being and then the audience would have to struggle with the character’s choices but find it almost impossible to condemn him for them! No eye for an eye! No vigilante justice! Just flat out SURVIVALISM! ROBERT CARLYLE MAKES IT AND HAS TO LIVE WITH HIMSELF.

WHAT A CONCEPT! IT BLOWS MY MIND EVEN NOW.

But that was not what the movie was about. Instead, I get this:

Robert Carlyle has a useless (and boring) son and daughter.
Robert Carlyle’s wife lives.
And is an immune carrier of the Rage Virus
but doesn’t know it.
Robert Carlyle’s wife could provide a vaccine for the virus but–
oh wait.
That plot thread will be dropped mid-movie because
all we really need Robert Carlyle’s wife for is to infect Robert Carlyle.
And now that Robert Carlyle is infected, it’s SQUARE.
EVEN. JUSTICE.
Because anyone who doesn’t make a likeable choice
should be punished for it! Especially in movies and books!
Because GOD FORBID WE BE INTERESTING.
So now it’s just useless boring son and daughter.
Infection, infection, infection
run, run, run
escape, chase
blah, blah, blah.
Interesting adult characters gratuitously introduced
and gratuitously killed off.
Useless boring son and daughter live.
Except son is now an immune carrier of the Rage Virus
so now if he so much as sneezes on someone
Rage Zombies will take over Paris.
Which is exactly what happens.

Suck.

My level of annoyance and disappointment is probably unreasonable. I know this. But when you misuse Zombies and you misuse ROBERT CARLYLE (who is AMAZING)…

IT’S AWN.

I just think it would have been so much more interesting if Robert Carlyle’s character had carried the movie by making the same choices over and over again, until he was all alone and had to live with them for better and for worse. Surviving in every sense of the word!

WHY DIDN’T THEY MAKE THAT MOVIE? IT WOULD HAVE BEEN AWESOME.

Sigh.

And that is what is new with me.

I think I like it!

I’ve tested it in Firefox and IE6. If anyone sees any glaring errors on whatever they’re running, let me know. I’m confident I will have no idea how to fix them. Yay!

I hunched over the table today and sketched out a volcano so I could change up the aesthetic of the blog a little and ta-da! Here we are. Besides the addition of a hand-drawn volcano, the bio section has been slightly modified and the novels section will tell you everything you already know about Cracked Up to Be. I realise novels is actually a false plural at the moment but that’s okay! I also realise the new picture in the bio section might give people the false impression I’m from Australia but that’s okay too!

I feel it all adds an element of mystery.

So this layout change might have you questioning what volcanoes have to do with writing for young adults. The answer is EVERYTHING, duh. I am very pleased my site now reflects this. And before any know-it-alls email me about this: the volcano above IS an accurate depiction of an active volcano. It’s a widely known fact they spew lava and hearts, so there. If you’ve never seen this phenomenon, you’re probably not cool enough. Sorry to say.

sdfkljsdf, I want to watch Supervolcano so bad right now.

In other, more important news, as C.K. Kelly Martin pointed out, yesterday was International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Check out her thoughtful blog entry about it for some sobering statistics on and resources for this issue.

In other, less important news, I guess I am a big huge fan of Tegan & Sara now. It really is the most surprising personal musical development of the year.

THEY HAVE ENCHANTED ME WITH THEIR SIREN SONGS.

Dear amazon.ca,

Thank you for sending Hospital Music like, two seconds after I ordered it because it came on Friday and that was the highlight of what was otherwise a pretty grey week.

love,
courtney

I changed the layout. You know how it is–you blog about something sad and later the idea of writing anything new that will show up on the layout where you blogged about the sad thing is just too awful to entertain so you can’t and then four days later you haven’t written anything at all. Yes.

99% Of Us Is Failure is a fantastic song.

Did you know this photo is the only visual representation of the lowest I’ve ever felt about writing? It is true. It was taken in January 2007 after an excruciatingly heartbreakingly close call with a literary agent and I was crushed. There’s no worse feeling than getting so close to something and ending up farther back from where you started and then having to figure out where to go from there. I’m glad it happened now as it ultimately made me more determined and that determination helped me write a better novel which ended up leading me to my awesome literary agent, Amy (and I couldn’t ask for a better or more enthusiastic advocate of my work) but at the time, I walked around feeling like a deflated balloon for ages. Writing is not for sissies!

So I’m 5k words into my latest novel, which makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. This one has been an often frustrating and challenging lesson in book making! In the idea stages, it was a million different things. And then it became one thing. And then that one thing went in on itself and changed and then it went out on itself and changed again. And then it changed once more for good measure. All while it was changing, I was writing the same four pages. Over and over. For over a month. That was not fun at all. I’ve finally got the thing nailed down and am optimistic about it’s chances of becoming a fully realised novel. We’ll see where I am at in 50 pages and people who aren’t me have looked at it. I hope it works out. I’m really excited about it.

In other news, there is a HUGE WASP in my room! Agdfsaklfsdlkjsda!

edit: after ten minutes of terrorizing me, the wasp landed on the top of my water bottle and stayed there for ages. So I grabbed the water bottle–very carefully–and placed it in the hall outside my bedroom! Yes! Take that, wasp!

Except now there is a huge wasp on my water bottle directly outside of my bedroom and I am thirsty.

In hindsight, I did not handle that situation right at all.

edit 2: IT CAME BACK! It found its way back into my room through the closed door and landed on my laptop!! safkjssdfa!! I set it free. It was very harrowing. If it gets back into my room after this, I might have to join the Witness Protection Program.