So after I stripped the answers of all identifiers, I emailed them to my mom and asked her to pick her favourite. She spent a good amount of time poring over them and chose…

Khy’s answer! And what would Rita Hayworth do, according to Khy?

Anyway, with Mom’s winner selected, I plugged all of the entrants into a random number generator, held my breath and the winner of the random draw is…

In other, semi-related news, my Lady Gaga glasses came in the mail last week! If you follow my Twitter, this is not really news to you. If you’ve added me on Facebook, this is also not really news to you. If you follow my Twitter and added me on Facebook you can even SEE ME IN THE SUNGLASSES but reposting that picture here seems excessive somehow. I will just say I love knowing that when I am wearing my Lady Gaga glasses I never have to look anyone directly in the eye.

That’s a liberating feeling.

By the way, did I tell you I scrapped all 100 pages of my new novel? Aye, I did. It just goes to show you no matter how much you prepare sometimes your novel will tell you to go STRAIGHT TO HELL TO RETHINK IT. I’m cool with that, though. Now I’m 14 pages into this new thing and I like it a whole lot better. I think it will be a good book. Or maybe it won’t. Because every time I say something about writing, it turns out to be a lie!

I guess I will just have to write it and see.

You know what makes it hard to write it and see?

Lamebook. My good friend Lori introduced me to Lamebook. I don’t know whether to thank her or shake my fist at her for this, but either way, Lamebook is my new favourite thing on the internet. Probably I am the last person in the world to be introduced to it.

But just in case I’m not: what is Lamebook? Lamebook is “The Lamest and Funniest of Facebook.” I love it. It is hilarious and disturbing. It is also a great etiquette guide for Facebook. As in: don’t be like the Facebook users featured on this page.

Anyway, here is one of my favourite submissions:

image from Lamebook

That’s awful.

Anyways, have you opened it up yet? You have? Good! Now we can all look at Lamebook for hours when we should be doing more important things for the rest of the day TOGETHER!

YAY.

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.

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!

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:

WHOOO TOTO’S AFRICA BEST SONG EVAAAAAH.

I took this photograph yesterday (the white space is a part of the photo):

I think God would not have invented Hello Kitty pajama pants if he did not want me to live in them.

Also, I think if you had sex with a zombie, you would probably become one.

I think a lot of things.

I’ve had a twitter account since June 10th and have decided the internet is much richer for having a place where I can tell you exactly when I am eating skittles and how much I’m enjoying them. I’ve discovered most of the social networking sites I belong to give me a heightened sense of self-importance, except for MySpace, which does a pretty good job of keeping it in line.

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.

Okay, this is pretty hot:

That is my FriendFeed. Unless you are reading this off of your livejournal friendlist and then it is nothing but a big blank space, so click the entry link and behold its sexiness, livejournallers! Anyway, if you want to keep track of me in one easy place (and why WOULDN’T you? I routinely set the internet on fire with amazingness, I do not understand why anyone would not want to follow me), bookmark this page:

OR get a FriendFeed account and subscribe to it yerself (*peer pressure*). I am trying to convince author people to get in on this action in other forums because a) not only is it smart, b) a streamlined internet is generally a sexier one and c) anything that abets my lazy webviewing habits is pretty okay with me.

So right now my friendfeed will let you know (& provide the links, obv): when I update this blog, when I update my tumblr, when I add photographs to flickr, when I favourite–and eventually add–videos to youtube and also when I add books to goodreads (proof that I read!).

I unplugged this blog from my tumblr since it would’ve shown on my FriendFeed twice (eww). My only complaint is that I wish the widget was sexier so I could put it in my sidebar and not feel like it was uglying the place up, but I guess we can’t have everything. Maybe I should stop being so looks shallow.

Anyway. I like FriendFeed better than myspace too. Speaking of myspace, all these random indie musicians are friending me. What is that about? Do I look like a groupie? Probably I look like a groupie.

So, yeah. FriendFeed. I am giving it a decided ‘Whoo!’

Credit where credit’s due: thanks for the heads-up, Brad!

I like it better than myspace but I like most things better than myspace. If you have a tumblr, you can follow me on it. You can follow my tumblr even if you don’t have one yourself! You know you want to. I’ve plugged my blog into it, so if you want the quick and dirty all in one place PLUS extras, my tumblr will be where it’s at henceforth.

Megan, I kind of broke tumblr in with a conversation we had a long time ago that I always treasured just like I treasure you, dear sister. <3




*KELVIN & TRISTAN & MARCIA, TUMBLR WAS MADE FOR YOU. DO ITTTT. <3

Anyway. When I was doing last minute edits on Cracked Up to Be over the weekend, I found all these little typos that escaped my notice and I killed them and I was pleased. Earlier today, I was going through the manuscript just because and found sixty million new ones and HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN, I ask you.

The latest entry on What Claudia Wore made me laugh and laugh and laugh. You should probably read it because I am not going to make you laugh and laugh and laugh today. At least not in comparison to that entry, which is hilarious.

I am watching Trailer Park Boys, the 1998 TV movie that launched the series, for the second time in two days. On youtube. 1998! 2008! Ten years! I have been watching it for so long. And then one of the youtube comments said that the eighth season would be the last and wikipedia confirmed it and I was like Noooo and I have basically been walking around with a heavy heart ever since. I feel so empty inside. Trailer Park Boys was not supposed to end before I could guest-star on it as Ricky’s long lost daugher.

SO NOW I HAVE TO CROSS THAT OFF MY LIFE’S TO-DO LIST.

It was right under ‘see Pompeii’ too.

:(

Thanks a lot, Showcase.

I should probably work on that.

So how about them YA novels, huh?

I’ve been trying to start a chapter for the last four days. It’s been the most amazingly tedious non-writing writing I have ever done. The perfect sentence and then I can just go from there. That’s all I need, but my mind is completely blank. It is too full of David Hasselhoff, I guess. Meanwhile, I have discovered the music of Ingrid Michaelson. Maybe that will push The Hoff out a little, even though I will honestly be sad to see him go.

Anyway, I think Ingrid is just a little too precious as a singer but I am only basing this on two songs, one of which I listened to 93 times yesterday. I suspect her cloying voice and syrupy lyrics are partly preventing me from figuring out my opening sentence. I need to be listening to something a million more times unhappy than a song about a woman who buys their balding lover hair-growing shampoo in a gesture of love. Which I don’t really find romantic or loving, to be quite honest with you. And how does a romantic gesture like that go down, really? Like, HERE HONEY, FOR YOUR BALDNESS. DID YOU KNOW YOU ARE BALD? I CAN’T STAND IT. And then what would he say? THANKS FOR NOTICING, BABY. THAT’S SO ROMANTIC.

Then probably they’d have a fun time.

You know.

In the bedroom.

WATCH THIS. YOU WILL LAUGH. IT IS AMAZING.

Evgeni Plushenko skates to Tom Jones’s Sex Bomb:

I am so sad that I missed this when it happened. It must’ve been magic for all the people in that arena and all the people watching at home. Just magic.

~*Pure figure skating magic.*~

What! It’s Saturday.

Whatevah. Don’t judge me.

Your mom.