CAN YOU HEAR ME SCREAMING?

Just received my FINAL proofs, galleys, whatever you want to call them for HOW TO DATE DEAD GUYS!!!

Yes, this deserves three exclamation points. Be prepared for more of them, for I predict a liberal sprinkling of such punctuation tonight.

I'm even feeling so generous that I CARRIED a spider outside, instead of smushing its guts out in a Kleenex (but if it dares to come back inside, it's dead meat, man...). That's not my typical style. I may be a pick-up-worms-off-the-road-after-rainstorms kind of girl, but spiders don't usually see my gentle side.

Enough about spiders and worms. Let's talk about the book again.
All the edits look good.
We'll be sending out more ARCs (advanced reader copies) in the hopes of gathering more book reviews before the big day.

For me, this is big. Really BIG. (Not really about fish, but I love this movie and book, so I'm making this image work for me. And I hope you pick up this movie sometime--what a gem. Kind of a weird gem, but beautiful nonetheless.)

June 2nd is the book cover release date, but my son is more excited about the last day of school, a few days after that.

Sing with with me, Miss Piggy, "School's out for summer!"

July 15th is the date my words will be out there in the world, for all to see. I sure hope Emma makes some new friends. (She's going to need them, after what I put her through...)

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

RUNNING WITH DOGS

I have two lovely dogs, named Daphne and Daisy.

Daphne is two, hyper as a kid on sugar, and fit as an Olympic athlete.
Daisy is almost 10, mildly arthritic, and was just diagnosed with kidney disease.
I started running with Daphne to make her less annoying to Daisy. My attempt to burn off Daphne's excess energy is only slightly successful. My husband now claims that she's overly fit and impossible to wear out.

He might have a point.

Up until this fall, Daphne would play ball until your arm fell off, but only lasted 4 miles while running with me. I couldn't understand it.

But then her new best buddy, Ruby, came into the picture.

These two LOVE to go running!

Daphne and Ruby became running partners over the winter. Now Daphne can do 12 miles without breaking a sweat (literally, because dogs don't sweat like we do, which is why you have to watch out for overheating, which wasn't much of a threat this winter here in MN).

Isn't Daphne's snow beard beautiful?

For more safety tips for running with dogs, please check out this weekend's article in the Post Bulletin newspaper (which I also wrote):  http://www.postbulletin.com/life/lifestyles/pet-vet-a-dog-can-be-a-good-running-partner/article_789f1b8d-b1b5-5325-9789-16676634511a.html?mode=story

And I finally discovered that it IS possible to wear Daphne out running, but not until we hit 10-12 miles.

Here's photographic proof:

SO TIRED...

FIGHTING IT...

OUT FOR THE COUNT...

Daphne is a great running buddy. Her eyes light up as I tie on my running shoes. She's as happy as I am to hit the road or trails (and sweet, old Daisy is more than happy to nap in our absence).

MY PETITION TO GET A TIME-TURNER

SPRING CLEANING (a.k.a MY TO-DO LIST)

This is what I want to do...
1) Stop wearing flannel. (However, this is not up to me. March doesn't seem to want to act like spring this year. Just more winter. And more winter. And more winter...)
2) Get in enough running miles that when I run the 17-mile trail run in April that I foolishly signed up for last December, I won't want to roll over and die in the middle of the woods somewhere. (Again, a little warmer weather would help with this...)



3) Finish edits on the second book in my UNDER THE BLOOD MOON series, called HOW TO DITCH DEAD GUYS.
4) Finish a YA dystopian WIP I started last September, but haven't touched since December due to other writing commitments.
5) Tackle the mountains of books waiting in cupboards, stuffed on bookshelves, or stashed on tables that I need to start or finish reading.

Here goes the list (this is meant to embarrass me into action--feel free to criticize me for my slacking in this department and I apologize ahead of time if I spelled any of the author's names incorrectly, but this is a mega-long list, so the probability of that is high):

MY TBR (TO BY READ) PILE:




*** (# 1-7 are due to a book-to-movie reading and watching club I joined)

1) THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY by Richard C. Morais
2) THE GIVER by Lois Lowry
3) THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU by Jonathan Tropper
4) THE MAZE RUNNER by James Dashner
5) UNBROKEN by Laura Hillenbrand
6) WILD by Cheryl Strayed

Somehow I don't think this movie will be as funny as LEGALLY BLONDE...what do you think?

7) SERENA by Ron Rash

*** (the rest are either due to my obsessive book-collecting nature, or from clearing out my parents' house, or for research purposes)

8) SHARP OBJECTS by Gillian Flynn, because I must read everything this woman wrote

This author's mind is a thrilling place to be...and creepy...and terrifying...you get the idea

9) UNDER THE DOME by the one-and-only Stephen King, who freaked me out so much in highschool that I threw one of his books across the room (sorry) screaming because deep water is creepy enough as it is, and then he had to go and make it ten times worse
10) LIFE OF PI by Yann Martel, yes, it's taken me forever to pick this one up
11) BRIDGET JONES MAD ABOUT THE BOY by Helen Fielding, but I'm not sure I would've grabbed this if I had known ahead of time that DARCY IS DEAD---NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! (At least, that's what I heard in a review I read after I purchased it.)

Jane Austen would be so pissed the author killed Darcy.

12) THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS by Grahame, somehow I've never read this one or at least don't remember doing so
13) ONE OF THEM by Pavlik, this was a book from my parents' shelves
14) THE LILIES OF THE FIELD by Barrett, also from my parents' old house
15) ERAGON by Paolini
16) THE FLEDGLING by Langton
17) SURPRISED BY JOY by C.S. Lewis, also from my parents, and I don't think Aslan is in it much (sigh)
18) INKHEART by Funke
19) THE ENGLISH GOVERNESS AT THE SIAMESE COURT by Leonowens, actually I've tried this one before but have a hard time with it

The musical THE KING & I is based on this book,
which is why I want to read it.
However, Yul Brynner isn't even mentioned in the book...bummer

20) OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET by C.S. Lewis, from my dad's shelves
21) THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS by C.S. Lewis, also my dad's book--methinks we both loved this author a little too much
22) THE SILVER CHALICE by Costain, this was my mother's book but I'm not sure she ever read it
23) MAY BIRD AND THE EVER AFTER by Anderson
24) CITY OF ASHES by Cassandra Clare, of course, but it's been so long since I read the first one that I may have to do so (or cheat by Wikipedia-ing it...naughty, naughty)
25) WAR AND PEACE by Leo Tolstoy, another book I suspect my mother bought because it was pretty
26) TORN by Amanda Hocking
27) HAUNTED WISCONSIN by Norman
28) G-DOG AND THE HOMEBOYS by Fremon, I've been reading gang-related books as research for my writing and it's so sad
29) RUN BABY RUN by Nicky Cruz, more depressing, gang-related reading
30) DEVIL'S FLOWER by Lisa Collicutt, my first e-book ever

I've said it before, but this cover is beautiful.
I'm lucky enough to have the same cover artist for my book.

I'M NOT PROUD OF THE FOLLOWING LIST...
BOOKS I'VE STARTED BUT NOT FINISHED YET:




1) MONUMENTS MEN by Edsel
2) WINTER'S TALE by Helprin
3) THE CROSS AND THE SWITCHBLADE by Wilkerson. Ever since I read a scene where it's mentioned that these gang members viciously tortured cats I've had a hard time continuing my gang-related research, but it's something I'll have to do. Just because I don't read about it, doesn't mean it isn't happening.
4) CLOAK by Gough
5) FORGOTTEN GARDEN by Morton
6) RUN LIKE A MOTHER by McDowell and Bowen Shea, who both are much more obsessed about running than I am, which at times makes me think I'm not trying hard enough, but I guess I just have enough other things in my life now
7) FALL FOR ME by K.A. Last
8) BEAUTIFUL CHAOS by Garcia and Stohl
9) SPOOKY WISCONSIN by Schlosser
10) and numerous witchcraft books I've collected to use as resources, but never read from cover to cover



So...can I please get a time-turner now? I really need one.



How crowded are your bookshelves?

- Ann M. Noser

I HATE TO SAY IT, BUT I LIKED THE MOVIE BETTER

It's a horrible, terrible thing to say--but it's still true.
I just got done watching the Masterpiece Theater beautiful, magical version of:

This is the 2011 version. It's fanTABulous.

I loved it, loved it, loved it.
But I have to confess that I didn't even want to watch it at first.

Why? Not because I don't like Dickens. I think he's a genius. He does an amazing job of introducing so many memorable characters in a book, then twisting their lives upside down until they all have connections with each other, and then still surprising you with a remarkable ending.

Not because I don't like Masterpiece Theater, because I really, really do.
I love Downton Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, Bleak House, Daniel Deronda, Emma, and so on.

Wait a minute... This doesn't look like the X-files.

So why should Great Expectations be any different?
Why was I so reluctant to watch it?
I'll tell you--because back in high school and college, when I read a freak ton of classic novels, I couldn't stand Great Expectations. I felt it was Dickens slowest book. I didn't like any of the characters. They were either mean to Pip or else they did stupid things.
And by "they" I mean just Pip.
I'm really sorry to all you Pip fans. I know he's the hero, but he lived in a fantasy world and didn't pay attention when he should have.

No, I don't sparkle--even though I look a lot like Edward Cullen.

But this miniseries was wonderful. Every single minute of it. This time around I rooted for Pip, despite his stupidity (it doesn't hurt that the actor did such a fine job and was adorable). I admired Joe. Hated Pip's sister (I wanted to smack her until somebody else actually did. Then I felt bad. Whoops. Semi-spoiler. I'll say no more.) Jaggers was cool. Even Magwitch was cool, in sort of warped way at first and then... once you got to really know him, he was even better. (And kudos to Dickens. Gotta love his choices for character names: Pip, Jaggers, Magwitch, Miss Havisham--how did he ever think of these great, classic names?)

Forget the file. Just get me some more of that cake.

But as both a writer and a voracious reader, it just seems wrong to say... uh, sorry...
I like the movie better.
To redeem myself, watching this miniseries makes me want to reread the original book.

So well done I want to watch it all over again tonight.

Maybe I missed something the first time around.
Hmmmm. Come to think of it, I sort of felt the same way about E.M. Forster's Howard's End. Again when reading every classic novel I could get my hands on, I first devoured Room With a View and then got stalled on this one. Felt like it took 3 days to read a page, when normally I'm a speedster.

But consider the movie. Of course, pretty much any movie with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson is bound to be a winner, but...

Love, love, love you two together.

Maybe I should read both these books again.

Okay. This isn't true. I just wish I went to Hogwarts.