BASK! BASK IN THE GLOW OF MY SENSE OF ACCOMPLISHMENT!

Like so:

me: *glows*
you: *basks*

And for those keeping track at home:

YOUR MOM REFERENCES CHECKLIST

Pierre Trudeau
Discovery Channel, The
ghost hunting
Macbook Air
zombies
Tegan & Sara
Reggie Mantle
Hoff, The
volcanoes
your mom

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.

TEGAN & SARA, I GUESS YER MUSICS HAS BECOME RELEVANT TO MAH LIFES.

It’s also really great to write to.

And at least I know these purchases won’t turn out like The Invisible, which is sitting on my television right now, mocking me.

In other news, I finished revisions for Cracked Up to Be for my rockstar editor, which was a really neat and fun experience. Now I need to figure out how to distract the part of my brain that is perpetually wondering what my cover will look like when that part happens. I’ve already got one plan of attack: I’m printing off my book and letting my parents read it for the first time. As soon as I know they are reading it I will stop cover-obsessing and start obsessing about whether or not they’ll love it. If they don’t love it, that is okay, just so long as they lie to my face and tell me that they do. I’m all growed up. I can handle it.

Tonight, on TVO, they had on a special about volcanoes and the magic of magma and lava and how much life it sustains and it was beautiful. I bet you didn’t know this, but I love volcanoes.

So I put it in my DVD player, wrote maybe two sentences and promptly got swept up in the sexy world of Michael Riley playing Rick Lieberman explaining what would happen if Yellowstone exploded. And then dealing with it when it did. It was 1 hour and 40-odd minutes of awesome.

Anyway, I think I need to meet a volcanologist so I can make them talk shop and ascertain whether or not volcano talk actually IS sexy or if it it’s all The Discovery Channel’s ~*magic*~. I will make a thesis out of it. I will call it Proposed Sexy Volcano Theory in the Noughties or some such. I bet if I met a volcanologist, they’d be all, “My God, I hate you Discovery Channel volcano docudrama watching people.” And I’d be like, “My God, you are as sexy as I imagined.” Because while The Discovery Channel is magic, I highly suspect they are working with the already existing sexiness of volcanoes and the people who study them.

Okay, back to watching Sexyvolcano again. I mean Supervolcano.

And of course, by that I totally mean writing.

I’ve been reading up on volcanic winters! They are fascinating things. Did you know that 1816 was a volcanic winter and they called it the Year Without a Summer and the Year Without a Summer was when Mary Shelley had the inspiration for Frankenstein? That means volcanoes are indirectly responsible for great literature.

I would be surprised if I hadn’t suspected it all along.

“Death for the people of Pompeii was not instantaneous. The first breath inhales hot gas, and ash causes the lungs to fill with fluid. It’s like swallowing fire. The second breath mixes the ash with the fluid, creating a wet cement in the lungs and windpipe. The third breath thickens the cement, causing the victims to gasp for breath and suffocate. Would they have known they were dying? From their death throes, it seems almost certain.”

Can you imagine? I can’t.

But I couldn’t let the day pass without taking note–on August 24th AD 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried Pompeii.


Links:

Wiki: Mount Vesuvius
Wiki: Pompeii
Pliny the Younger’s account of the eruption
Buy Pompeii: The Last Day*

* seriously, you should. It is amazing.

(Truthfully, I’m vaguely annoyed but that doesn’t sound quite as awesome.)

And it’s too bad too, because August seems like the perfect kind of month to watch a movie about the hypothetical explosion of Yellowstone Park.

September is less about that and more about apple pies.

I’m writing this entry while looking up Stratovolcanoes on Wikipedia.

Look at this! Why don’t I have that!!

But who doesn’t, really, besides weirdos.

Actually, I’ve been trying to trace back my love of volcanoes. It’s been interesting. I think it must have started about 16 years ago, when I used to play that STAY OFF THE FLOOR IT’S MADE OF LAVA game with my friends. Clearly I respected, revered and feared volcanoes from an early age. Also that game was crazy awesome, admit it. Talk about breathing life into that soft living room carpet.

(I used to think that game was unique to my growing up but then I saw this and we all know that once aspects of your life have been lolcatted, well.)

So no one tell my sister but I’ve spent several nights being very sadface about her imminent departure. Tomorrow I’m going to latch onto her ankles and beg her to stay. My reasoning will be that her leaving threatens my emotional stability, which is obviously more important than her travelling around the world and doing awesome things. The logic, it is unfailing! I will let you all know how it goes but I don’t see how anyone, least of all my sister, could refuse my face. Especially now that my haircut looks more like something I did on purpose and less like something I did while I was sleepwalking.

I am still waiting for Supervolcano to arrive. And my passport. It’s all sisters and volcanoes and passports with me lately. And Super Mario Bros! I just killed Bowser good in Super Mario Bros. 3 and saved the Princess today! Add that to my list of fantastical accomplishments, please. Also, the Princess totally tried to pull a fast one on me. She was all, “I’m sorry, the princess is in another castle! Just joking! Ha ha! Goodbye!” Seriously! Not even a thank you. And I just realised I don’t know if I mentioned that I unearthed our old SNES and hooked it up to my TV so I could enjoy Mario’s World between writing? I don’t think I did. Probably because that’s really the kind of thing that makes you proud one day and ashamed the next.

In other news, writing keeps me busy and Awesome Agent Amy is awesome. I’m still dabbling in that new novel that has since gone from four pages to two–headdesk–and am going to attempt another crazy fast draft for August. Which is… now?!

Where is the summer going, I ask you.

Yeah, that’s right. New layout. But this one is for keeps.

(Ladies and gentlemen, place yer bets!)

So I went to the mall the other day, determined to spend some money. By ‘mall’ I mean the music and book stores, because all the others are boring minus the food court, which is tasty. There were no books to be had, so I went to Sam’s and got me some music instead. The buyer’s remorse took a while to fade–I hate being so involved in the exchanging of my money for goods! Internet shopping wins. It feels like nothing and arrives in the mail. Beautiful system.

On that note, I got my Pompeii DVD in the mail earlier this week and I LOVE it. I love volcanoes. They are such magnificent, wonderful things. I’ll have to write about them in some capacity eventually, because volcano survival stories are always in vogue as far as I am concerned. And if not a volcano survival novel, then a novel about teenagers living by a volcano where the volcano is actually a metaphor for coming-of-age that eventually manifests itself in a hot lava/pyroclastic flow pursuit.

I think we can all agree that is the best unwritten novel ever.

I can’t wait until Supervolcano gets here.

I’ve been re-starting (nggh) and contemplating my next novel. Muchly. It is difficult as it heavily involves something about the internet that will require some minimal explaining at most, but where to start? I have never written about the internet before, even though I love it. How much do I have to assume no one knows in this day and age? How do I not make what I have to say look like an infodump? How much more research can I pretend to do to keep from seeking out the answers to these questions and where will the volcanoes fit in?

Eee!

I’m especially excited about Supervolcano because in the event that Yellowstone explodes, I’d like to know what to do. And because Michael Riley is SUPER HOT in it. Okay, especially because Michael Riley is super hot in it. LAVA hot, if you will.

Yeah, I went there.

And I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Michael Riley should totally play Isaac Brock in the CBC mini-series of The War of 1812. Also, and perhaps most importantly, the CBC should make a mini-series of The War of 1812. Every day where a mini-series about The War of 1812 is not in pre-production with the CBC is a constant source of disappointment for me. Step up, CBC! And give me a ghost hunting show while you’re at it. The Discovery Channel has stopped returning my calls about this (but I am still happy to support them financially).

Related: the BBC’s Supervolcano site has this game where “as the newly appointed chief of Emergency Management Agency for Bluebear County, it’s your job to handle an eruption of the fictional Mount Spur” and it is awesome and addictive. So many people die on my volcano watch but whatevers, no one asked me if I had any credentials when I took the job. Also, it’s a game.

In other news, I have become more seriously invested in the writing of my next book. Which means it’s now four pages. Four pages about volcanoes. Okay, not really (well, it IS four pages), but I think now I might have to eventually write a YA novel where a volcano is either a) key to a character’s self discovery or B) mentioned in passing.

I’ll just sneak it in there like a testicle biscuit.