Pajamas and Horror Movies

Happy Halloween, everyone! Here are five things that make me happy about this awesome holiday:

1. Candy. Definitely number one. Especially the candy I get half-off at the store the next day.

2. Costumes. I don’t tend to dress up (in college, I mainly viewed Halloween as an excuse to wear pajamas to class and tell people “I’m asleep” when they asked what I was dressed as), but I love seeing the things people come up with. Literary costumes are the best.

3. Horror movies. I occasionally like being scared out of my wits, I guess. The scariest movies to me are the ones where humans are the villains, because I can more easily convince myself that it could happen to me. Have you seen The Strangers? DON’T.

4. The whole concept of trick-or-treat. Whoever came up with the idea that you can just go to someone’s house and demand candy is genius.

5. The fact that it’s the start of the whole holiday season. My season lasts from Halloween until the first week of January, and it’s the best time of year. Filled with baking and holiday shopping and pumpkin spice lattes and birthdays and all good things.

Have a great holiday, everyone!

A/N: I'm over at E.R. King's awesome Get Busy Writing blog talking about my blog process and why I want to be Anne Shirley today! CLICK HERE to see it!

Five Random Thoughts on a Friday

1. I’ve become obsessed with The Big Bang Theory. Smart comedy with unapologetic nerds? Perfection. I may even have a crush on Sheldon. :)

2. Is it just me, or is Vampire Diaries getting better and better? Team Damon FTW!

3. Has anyone else read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern? It was not at all what I was expecting, but it enthralled me. It’s such a mysterious, captivating read.

4. I keep wishing they would make Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins into a movie. I think Darren Criss would make an awesome Etienne if he were British—thoughts?

5. I decided to make red velvet cupcakes this week, and though they turned out amazing, it took me two hours to make 24 of them. Mainly because the red food dye freaked me out and I was being so careful to try not to get it everywhere. Yeah. I might stick to pumpkin bread from now on.

Happy weekend, everyone! Anyone have any fun weekend plans?

Back from New England

Hi, everyone! Sorry it’s been such a long blog break. I was chasing fall in New England towns and visiting friends in New York. And now I’m back in Texas, where it’s flirting with 90 degrees and has been overtaken by mosquitoes (seriously, you can’t go outside without performing some version of an awkward chicken dance trying to get the bugs off of you). So I’m staying inside and visiting all of your blogs to see how you’re doing! Anything new going on? Anyone have any awesome Halloween costume ideas? I’m drawing a blank.

For now, I’ll leave you with some photos of the fall color and small towns I found. Happy Wednesday!

New Orleans and The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Since I didn't do happy things on Monday, I thought I'd do them today. So here goes:

1. New Orleans! I went there this weekend for another wedding—a beautiful outdoor ceremony under an enormous oak tree with chandeliers hanging from the branches. Just breathtaking. And I got to explore the city a bit (and eat beignets!):


2. Pottery Barn catalogues! I got the holiday one, and oh my goodness, can my apartment look like that for Christmas? Okay, thanks. :)

3. Blue Bell ice cream. I’ve got a half gallon of Mint Chocolate Chip, and boy, is it making me happy. (For those who don’t know, Blue Bell is a Texas ice cream, and it’s AMAZING).

4. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin. I just started this one, and I could only put it down last night because I was exhausted. I may have to blow off some writing today and finish it.

5. Postcards. I tend to buy postcards wherever I go and just keep a pile of them. Looking through them always makes me nostalgic for trips I’ve been on.

Happy Wednesday, everyone! Anything making you happy this week? I'll be gone for the blog for a bit (yay for a fall vacation!) but I'll be back by the end of the month. Happy writing!

Kick A** 2011 Debut Author Spotlight: Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

Okay, so first off, I know Laini Taylor is not a 2011 debut author. She’s written several books (CLICK HERE to see her website). But I loved this book so much, and it was the first one of hers that I had read, so it’s sort of like a debut, right? Right.

Let me just say, I’m not a big fan of angel books. I’ve just never really gotten the appeal. But this one was far from a typical angel book. It’s a world—one that appears to be our world—where angels and monsters fight for reasons they can no longer remember. Karou, a human taken in by the monsters, collects teeth for them and tries to live as normal a life as she can. When she begins feeling an undeniable attraction to a murderous angel, though, all bets are off.

I haven’t fallen so completely into a world like this since Hogwarts and The Hunger Games world. All the details are richly imagined, and Karou’s personality and story hooked me right from the beginning. Plus, with settings from Prague to Morocco to another world entirely, this book fulfilled my wanderlust perfectly. I absolutely adored it, and I can’t wait for a sequel!

If you want to hear more people gushing about awesome books, visit Christina Lee's website for a list.

Five Random Thoughts on a Friday

1. I’m loving the new show Hart of Dixie. Summer from The OC, Jason Street from Friday Night Lights, and a soundtrack of country music? I’m sold.

2. I adore when I start a book and know that I’m going to love it after only a few pages. This happened when I started reading Mary E. Pearson’s The Adoration of Jenna Fox this week. The story just wouldn’t let me go—I couldn’t put it down at all.

3. So sad about Steve Jobs. He was such a visionary, and much too young. Have you seen his Stanford commencement address from 2005? If not, CLICK HERE. It’s more than worth your time, I promise.

4. On Monday, I’ll be participating in Christina Lee’s Kick A** Debut Author Spotlight. With an author who is not a debut author. But is still awesome. I know you’re excited!

5. I’ve bought a spiced pumpkin candle so that even if it doesn’t feel like fall outside, at least it can smell like it in my apartment! Baby steps.

Happy weekend, everyone! Anyone have any fun weekend plans?

Writing a Fall Book

Yay for October! It’s my second favorite month (after December), mainly because it signals the start of fall. The (slightly) cooler weather and abundance of pumpkins everywhere has me thinking about the settings of my stories.

The WiP that I have been working on is firmly a summer book. Summer road trip, actually. That critical summer between high school and college. It’s filled with sunshine and the beach and heat and laughter. But I’m transitioning back to an old WiP, one that needs significant revisions. And it’s very much a fall book. A little darker, a little colder. A world on the edge, falling into a dark winter.

I’m loving it. I love imagining the leaves changing color, falling from the trees. The cool, crisp air swirling past my characters, raising shivers on their skin. The smell and sound of a crackling fire. As I watch my own world shift into fall, I feel like I’m adding more sensory description to my story, drawing from everything I observe. It’s just the perfect time to working on this WiP.

Do the seasons affect your writing? Do you have a favorite writing season?

Exploring Chicago and Lola

Things that make me happy, even on a Monday:

1. Chicago! I went there this weekend for a wedding, and it was such a cool city. I have to go back and explore more of it.


2. This Marilyn Monroe statue in Chicago. Pretty awesome.

3. The waves on Lake Michigan. They were going crazy this weekend, washing way up onto the shore, and I felt like I was at the ocean.

4. Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins. Oh my goodness, so much love for this book. You MUST read it.

5. Waking up to sunshine filling the room never fails to make me happy in the morning. Even before I’ve had my coffee.

Happy Monday, everyone! Anything making you happy this week?