Friday Five

1. This has been an odd week. I was kind of down and unproductive the first few days, and I imagine it had something to do with the emotional rollercoaster of last week. I'm mostly recovered from it now, plowing along on my current WIP and query for Ghost Light.

2. I read David Levithan's Every Day last weekend, which is a novel about a character who wakes up in a different body everyday. A exists an independent self, without gender or physical form. The book was fascinating, particularly because it was a quiet book with a loud premise, at its core it's about self-discovery and romance, and yet it touches on so many other things. The one issue I had with it was a personal one--because A begins the novel as a male, in a heteronormative relationship, I had a harder time not thinking of zir as male later on. I'm wondering if it would have changed if ze had started the novel female and then met the love interest. The audiobook is narrated by a female, so I'm going to check that out and see if it changes my perspective. Also, Levithan didn't take the chance to explore gender-neutral language, and I wish he had.

3. In my sci-fi fantasy class, we've been encountering a lot of diaster novels, be it aliens landing or dystopian societies that are recognizable deteriorations of our society. These freak me out. Not just because with my disability I'd pretty much be dead the second running became the only way to survive. No, I'm just a total princess. If there's a world that doesn't have running water, or books, or buses.... Forget it. I'd be miserable on top of screwed. Do not want.

4. Speaking of dystopians, I also read the final book in the Giver quartet. I didn't hate it the way I did the third book, but it doesn't have the power of The Giver or Gathering Blue. Both of those have standalone power. They don't HAVE to be considered as part of the same story, and they have their own themes and ideas. I don't think Son managed that in quite the same way.

5. This has spoilers for the end of Doctor Who Season Seven. It will make you cry. But it is beautiful.

 

Friday Five

1. I have one paper standing between me and summer. Well, and the whole packing thing that has to happen. I'm going down south for two weeks before coming back up here to move into the pretty, pretty apartment. I'll keep you all updated though. Suffice it to say, writing this paper is really hard, guys.

2. Last night my MFA classmates and I had our final mentorship readings. I read from Ghost Light, the manuscript I worked on with my mentor this semester. It went really well. Interestingly, trends don't just happen in publishing. They happen in confined spaces. We didn't have classes together this year, and yet there was a definite pattern of ghost stories in our works. Also foxes.

3. A week ago, I volunteered at the Federation for Children with Special Needs annual gala. I've done various things for the Federation over the two years I've been in Boston--mostly social media--but I came in helping to organize the silent auction for the gala. One thing I thought about this year while I was there, was the way in which advocating for someone (a child) is different than advocating for yourself. Not only is the terminology different. The way of seeing the world. When you've grown up with a disability, you don't have anything to compare it to, and that's different from the narrative one usually hears from parents. Not good-or-bad, just different.

4. Tuesday, I signed the papers for my summer job. I'm super oh-my-goodness excited about it, and about working in downtown Boston. Some of it can be sketchy at times (where isn't?) but the office is a block from the Common, which is lovely in summer time!

5. A piece of my childhood. I got introduced to The Brady Bunch during this summer of Brady, and occasionally still get this song stuck in my cerebral jukebox (it's a scary place)

Friday Five!

1. There are flowers outside, and birds chirping.

Also it's supposed to snow tomorrow.

I know that's how Boston does things, but it makes me miss my Georgia days. It's pollen-central there this time of year, and already on the crux of way-too-hot, but I miss days of lying on the grass, feeling the gentle breeze and smelling the azaleas. I wish I could live somewhere with a Boston autumn and an Atlanta spring.

2. Due to a change in course schedules, I'm probably going to do my independent study in disability and children's fiction in the fall. Expect a lot of posts about books that are inappropriately titled by modern sensibilities. (I cannot wait to sink my teeth into "Retarded Isn't Stupid, Mom!"

3. My friend Kendra visited all of last week, and we watched approximately umpteen episodes of Gilmore girls. I forgot how much I love that show. I have now made it a goal to finally go through and watch the whole thing--including season six *shudder*.

4. Because it worked to find a roommate: my roommate and I are looking for a third person to sign onto the lease for this AMAZING Cambridge apartment. If you know anyone in Boston/Cambridge/Massachusetts who needs a room, hit us up. In-unit laundry! AC! Dishwasher! Deck!

5. Two of my favorite TV shows (Grey's and Buffy) recently had anniversaries. I only started watching Buffy last year, but it struck me that two of my favorite shows were mid-season replacements. Now I almost never watch those, and it made me think I should be giving more a chance. I just don't have the time to reconfigure my TV schedules come spring....

Friday Five

1. My query is up for discussion over at The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment. Go play!

2. I am in unabashedly love with the Grey's Anatomy musical event. I understand all possible objections, but see, Shonda and I are quite similar in our love for all things nerdalicious and musical. I am her target audience for the event. Me. Just sayin'.

3. I've been waiting on an email for a week and a half. My mother says my freaking out about this means I will be impossible to live with if/when I'm ever on submission. She doesn't live with me, so the point is moot.

4. I've transfered my domain off of GoDaddy. If you haven't heard about the kerfuffle, their CEO filmed himself killing and elephant and put it on the internet. When I called support last night, the girl sounded like she'd fielded about a million calls to cancel already. Jump ship. (More about that here) Namecheap is doing a deal where you can transfer for $5.

5. This is my friend Shelby. I've known her since we were about nine, and she and her dad have always been up on the latest in accessibility tech. I think the coolest thing about the video, though, is that her Personal Care Attendant isn't some old woman getting paid by an agency. It's her friend. I think that's what comes out of inclusion these days. The people who care enough to do things like that are your friends. The way it should be.

Friday Five

1. There's a comedian named Boston named Mehran, and if you've never seen him perform you're missing out. I met him through the Late Night Fucking Cabarets that Amanda Palmer performed in the autumn. Every third Thursday he puts together a show at Motley's comedy club, and my friend Trish and I went last night. It was a ton of fun, particularly the part where he kissed me and told me I have nice lips. Mehran is a self-declared "Iranian homo". :)

2. I'm really getting comfortable with my friends here, which is wonderful. I'm actually going to go out for my birthday Monday, which I wasn't going to because I didn't think people would want to. I'm slightly ridiculous, I know.

3. Apparently the new Radiohead CD is out. Haven't gotten it yet, but I'll get on that. I'm way late to the game with Radiohead, but "Creep" and the rest of OK Computer are great.

4. Four used to be about the weather, but then I decided that I refused to be that boring. I don't have much. This week went by really fast.

Here, have some YouTube
5. And some Amanda Palmer

Friday Five

1. My dislike of Boston  is not the hatred my friend Sam has, a hatred sparking the fire for her drive to finish the program in three years. It's not the loathing I had for Atlanta, with its lack of public transport and its hills. It's not the love of Oxford's spires, or  the longing for London's busy thoroughfares. It's just a knowledge that I don't belong here. Yet some evenings when I walk home and the tops of buildings are the fiery orange of sunset clouds, I know my city is beautiful.

2. I haven't been sleeping well this week. Uncertainties have rooted themselves in my brain. Big decisions. Not of the kind I made last year, but life-altering in their potential. During the interminable wait for the bus at Panera today, I realized my uncertainties are fear. I do not let fear stop me, so hopefully a decision will be made.

3. Speaking of which, my decision to Not Grow Up and Run Away to Europe has been thwarted by the Simmons Financial Aid office. Owing the school $96 does not a Eurotrip make. It may a trip to SCBWI-LA make, since my Euro-Buddy has family outside LA. All of these things contribute to the possible decisions in numero dos.

4. For all that I dislike Boston, my happiness here far surpasses last year. I miss my friends daily, but I do not foresee my life falling apart in the near future, the way it did last year. I am not reliant on the sight of a doctor for cheer, or so delicate that censure from one authority figure will send me spiraling downward. Progress.

5. My new favorite swear is monkey balls.

Friday Five

1. I go back to Boston on Sunday. I'm ready to get back in the game, but at the same time I've enjoyed being home. I am not looking forward to the snow. In fact, I am terrified of it. However, I will have to learn to deal with it eventually, may as well be now.

2. It's interesting how learning can change your perspective on things. For Writing ii this week we are reading Tuck Everlasting. I loved this book when my mother and I listened to it on audio some time in the early 2000s. Now...? The beginning is slow, parts that could be very dramatic aren't, and it's seeped in description. The concept is fabulous, but I wonder if it would be published today.

3. I love it when writing books convince me to take a jump I've been considering to make my novel better. Going to start some restructuring tonight, that I hope will really strengthen it.

4. I'm going to my first wedding of my 20s tomorrow. High school sweethearts from the year above me. My sorority sister gets married in September. iT'S STARTING! And me with no prospects. Whatever is an old maid (of 21)  to do? Potentially this:



5. How do I get all this stuff into two suitcases???

Friday Five

1. Starting off on a downer. A boy from my undergrad Erik Downes has been missing for three days. He was on a study abroad trip to Costa Rica with two professors and several other students. Four of them got caught in a riptide. Erik hasn't made it back to shore. Please include him, his family and my uni in your thoughts and prayers. The Oglethorpe community is such a small one. I don't know Erik well, but I know other students on the trip, and the professors involved. He's on student government and in the fraternity I knew best, so our paths did cross. It's so jarring to realize these things happen to people whose face you once saw almost daily.

2. Doing line-edits on current manuscript to make it presentable for class and SCBWI means paying close attention to words and description. I spend hours on paragraphs and decide it all sucks. So that's fun.

Except it is. I love it when WIPs eat my brain.

3. Speaking of which, I have a new one in mind. I don't know when I'll start it. I need to learn to shift gears and let WIP 1 go. The plot and structure seem pretty solid now, so maybe soon I'll be able to.

4. I commented on Gayle Foreman's blog yesterday about my desire for a new band in 2011. Someone willing to sing about how desperate our current situation is. She agreed, we need a new Nirvana. Last night at dinner "Smells Like Teen Spirit" came on between "Life after Love" and "Truly Madly Deeply". If we've started forgetting the meaning behind the words like that, we do need a new force and in a hurry. Nirvana is not, and will never be, a soft-rock radio overplayed song. At least not if we remember the reasons they were so popular.

5. I tried this last year. By tried I mean we bought it for $13 and it sat in my fridge for nearly six months before it disappeared at a party. It is as disgusting as it looks.

Christmas Eve Five

1. I think I'm appreciating things so much more this Christmas. I'm home with my incredibly loving family. My best friend is in the other room playing the piano. Little Brother is beyond excited about what Santa is bringing him. I know I'll get things I need, my mom is good at that. Things are looking up for the new year, and visions of stories are dancing in my head. It's an exciting time.

2. I've got a handle on things I want to do in the future, where I want to be. I may not know exactly how to get there, but I'll figure it out. Things look sweet, whatever the trail that gets me there. I imagine there will be hardships. You don't have years worth of student loans without them, but at least I'm not an unemployed attorney like the guy I read about in the Huffington Post. Someone always has it worse.

3. We're going to church tonight. I wasn't sure that I was going to go, because my legs are still recovering, but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get shoes on for a few hours. Christmas Eve candlelight at my church is my favorite part of the day. It's an older church, with gorgeous stained glass, and singing Silent Night with the candles lit is magical. I would have regretted missing it. I hate regrets.

4. Exposing Marla to The Dresden Dolls at the moment, with "Delilah", but for you all I have this that she put up last night, featuring the gorgeous Cassandra Long

5. Okay, really, know what? Since when is it Christmas Eve? Where did the time go? I sat in front of the tree last night, on my own in the dark. It was the last time I'll be able to do that, with all the presents piled under. I love capturing those little moments in this season. I'm not ready to give them up. Maybe that's why we write, to keep grasping those little moments.

Merry Christmas to all.