I am a new man. I faced my largest fear in the world last night, and only my dad was there to watch me. I am going to be an anesthesiologist when I am older so I figured, I should be able to reach inside a body... so last night as I was putting my plate in the sink I eyed possibly the most horrifying thing in the world lying in my sink. Granted, it has been there before, but it was equally traumatizing. It was a large bowl full of water, smoothy, pasta, seasoned fries, and nachos. I know. It was dirty dish water. And as I stood over that cesspool of infamy, I imagined I was back in Grey's Anatomy, and I thought, is this really more disgusting than reaching into someone? And I said, YES!!!!, and so I HAD TO DO IT! because then I would have absolutely no fears!!! And so I did it. And after I took a few personal hours after that to talk to a counselor, break things, and convulse in private, but after that, I am a new, strong, brilliant, charming, charismatic, handsome, attractive, daring, debonair, and all around fearless man!
And I'm still waiting for glorious iprodegy....
Another thing I might want to look into: reinventing the scrubs....or body building....
This week I also discovered my future car. The Bugatti 16.4 Can you say HOLY CRAP?!?!
That car is freakin amazing. Not only is she a speed daemon, but she is sleek enough make me wonder if she came out of a gun. And the black model is pretty much a new and improved bat mobile.
Should Batmobile be capitalized? hmmm....
I also saw Seven Pounds last night. I have to say that it was an awesome movie, but I think they hyped it up so much that people (me) were expecting the movie of a life time and when it didn't deliver....it was a leetle disappointing. But it was fabu, no doubt. I mean what cooler person in the world is there, than that that owns a box jellyfish?
But aside from the jellyfish I also thought that, maybe he was just trying to downplay it, and it DID fit the character nicely, but Will Smith seemed just a little bit blah in the movie. The other characters were awesome, and so awesome that Will got a little dull....to me....
But you can't argue with the man's taste in cars.
Anyhew. I am off to the glorious land of book borrowing.
The end.
P.S.
The authress Carolyn Turgeon invented the 'The end.' tag and I mercilessly stole it from her without even realizing it. I apologize. No copyright violated.... hopefully.
I think she also invented the word authress...

I have decided that life is rigged. I have also decided that Bill Gates sucks. What kind of fourteen year old is making 20,000 at 14?!?
But I have decided that being a doctor will best suit my purposes. Aside from entering the workforce at thirty, I am in charge (mostly), things are clean, organized, I like pressure, and it is a constantly expanding science, meaning that I will always be learning.
Just kidding. I just want the money.
I am constantly amazed at my fabu bff Carolyn Turgeon, or C-Ditty, as she likes me to call her. The further I read in her fabu new book Godmother, the better it gets. It is full of ununderstandable darkness, which I personally think is quite fabu.
You know, I was thinking that when my kids are adults, you won't EVER know when to use which fork, but there will be advanced Facebook etiquette. It's already developing. Ettiquete are just fancy rules that people agree on to say that this situation isn't awkward because there is a generally accepted solution. Like when you are friends with as many people as I am, it is very time consuming to write on every persons walls (advanced apologies if I have not written on your wall yet :S) So the question is. Who's job is it to write on the other party's wall first? Who's obligation is it? The person who invited, or accepted. It's the awkward telephone call
Hey.
Hello.
.....
Hello?
Yep. Still here.
Oh. Good...
Suddenly you wonder if someone has replaced your best friend with your annoying coworker you thought you dun in with a quart of Maalox and half a bottle of sarsaparilla.
Speaking of iPods, mine is still not here.....
But I DID order a fabulously fabu bottle of mah favorite cologne which Wal-Mart rudely refuses to carry any longer.
In other news, I am on the forth chapter of my revisions in my book, Juno. They are coming along nicely, until I discovered that Juno is a girl's name.... history must be mistaken.
Anyway. Random House called me and told me that their CEO has retired and they were wondering if I wanted to do it as a little side thing, on the side. I'm not sure. I don't know if I want to settle for a seven figure income just yet.
But I SHALL consider.
Au revoir, mes amis.
Terminar.

can we just take a moment and not capitalize anything or punctuate or gramarate like that gold ole' poet of old this is a question mark

soooo many things have happened since i havnt posted since march twenty sixth exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point

first of all coma my amazing and awesome and friend meredith started her swing scene in idaho falls which is coma yeah coma awesome exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point stop she is pretty much an amazing teacher coma as is her awesome and equally amazing friend guy rick stop

meanwhile at max planet coma i have been working on the revisions on my second book and they are coming along mui fabuloso stop

any way coma back to me stop i purchased my tickets for capitalize camp jitterbug uncapitalize exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point

enough about that though coma my mui fabuloso cousen hunter has been tearing it up youtube style stop

meanwhile coma carolyn turgeon and i have recently purchased out tickets to the bahamas stop after three weeks of organic spas coma three hour massages coma and camel riding coma we will leave the drab bahamas and travel to fiji coma oahu coma the caribean coma and rhode island stop it will pretty much be an all around awesome book tour for moi stop

meanwhile easter was fabu and i received a great many jelly bellies and other wondrous gifts stop

rant time coma i ordered a fabulous itouch via the ebay and it has taken a month and it is not stop even stop here stop exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point

anyway coma i am off to save some whales coma tata stop

the end stop

iPods are funny\amazing things. Aside from their breach in the most rudimentary grammar law, I've always viewed Apple as a world that is... difficult. As my mom always says, Apple is 'like the mafia, easy to get into, but virtually impossible to get out of.' It's funny, but it is also true. iPods are the only real option in the mp3\mp4 business that stays below the four hundred dollar limit, while still delivering the amount of quality that (I) want.
I remember the first time I saw an iPod. It was the shuffle. I remember looking at that stick of gum and I heard a distant voice moaning that I could listen to hours of music\books on this little chip off the old apple. It was fascinating. Yet my ten year old wallet-pocket was not exactly busting at the seams.
However my day to own an mp3 player did come. It was a nice thing but still didn't have the features I wanted (video, LED screen, and INTERNET).
But eventually (like five years later) my dreams did come true. I own an iPod Touch and (I hate to say it) they are truly amazing. The weird thing about it is that it's hardly believable as an mp3 player- A small, portable, touch screen computer however, yeah. That might be it. I really love it and the possibilities are pretty much endless. The hard thing is that when so many features are available via wifi and they are mostly all under 99 cents.... Temptation becomes quite spankin'.
Apple is a constantly expanding company. It does have strange features though. Where most companies try to go forward with their companies, it's like Apple has a little mini company coming out it's backside. At the head of Apple it has constantly improving iTouches coming out it's nostrils, but on the tail end of things it's like they are disassembling the shuffle bit by bit.
First they took off the handle to it. Instead of fitting into the palm of your hand it now fits comfortably pinched between your fingers. And yet they weren't happy with the lunatic size. "No. Just because it can be lost in the washer doesn't mean it's finished. I want it to be able to get lost in lint trap too!"
I really start to wonder. What are the cases going to look like for this thing? And with apple prices... scary. 1\2 milimeter silicone case... just 14.99. Pretty soon people are going to be cutting off the ends of straws and shovin it on there. Bam. Instant protection.
As Orson Scott Card puts it, "It's as if they were trying to build the world's smallest car, and they did it, but then they kept on going and now the car is so small that you can't actually fit the steering wheel or pedals inside -- or a person, either, for that matter -- so now you have to stand on the rear bumper and control it with a remote.

So you haven't invented the world's smallest car, you've invented the world's most cumbersome scooter.

Likewise, the new iPod Shuffle isn't the world's smallest mp3 player, it's the world's most overdesigned 4gig flash drive, because that's all it's good for. Unless you have prehensile ears that can grip the earbuds and hold them in place."
I have to agree. Not only do they have the gall to make the earphones in such crappish style, but then they build the controls into them to cut off any line of escape...
You made the iTouch. Be happy. Always check your lint trap first thing.

*

Bajio does most everything right. They call you 'Princess', stuff everything to the max, and make absolutely amazing spicy dressing. I was out on a absolutely amazing spicy dressing spree, we can just call it AASDS, I waited in line, smelled the crunchy-to-perfection chips, heard the mariachis, and ordered the dressing.
The grand total was 4.22. That was fine. The most gracious thing that Bajio did for me was ring up my change due as 420.50. This was quickly becoming the most amazing AASDS I had EVER been on. Suddenly the kind lady behind the desk turned as red as a chili pepper and, though she didn't speak much English, managed to spit out a 'Sorry...'
But HEY. What does SHE have to be sorry about? I'm not the one who just lost her paycheck. I am FINE with my change due. I might even fill up the change bowl while.I.am.at.it.
Suddenly I've got about three other associates pushing about every button on the cash register. I am starting to think that this AASDS should be aborted...
But my praise quickly turned to complaint as amazing customer service turned to 3 cents back. The least they could do was give me some Bajio bucks. I mean, come on, I was almost holding a new iPhone.
However, all in all it was a good salad so I guess I should not be complaining.....





What am I talking about. That is MAH JOB! And I even made you up an awesome letter-name...

*


In other news I am starting script frenzy next month and I must say, my ideas are flourishing quite nicely. My idea for an emotional, literary, librarian vigilante are coming along quite.nicely.
The.end.

Wow. It has been so freaken long since I have posted. Many great and wonderful things have happened since I last checked in. For one amazing thing, I GOT AN Itouch!!! An or A?... Oh well. (which is why my spelling/grammar is so positively atrocious right now.
Another positively amazing thing is I got Ender In Exile. Ok. So that might not be positively amazing but you have to admit it is at leat a little mazing.)
I don't know if I already posted About this , but CAROLYN TURGEON sent me her new book Godmother and many other fancy things from Three Rivers Press. I have to admit she is one of the coolest people I know...
In other news...Happy birthday ¡Audra! I painted my chest purple for you and you didn't even show up. But tis ok. Pictures have been taken and facebook will soon be bombarded with portriates of my fiendish abs/pecs. I know. I do not dissapoint.
Fare thee well frow potatoes. My neck aches ok staring at dad poccito ventana.
The end.
P.S.
Isn't it weird when you are not famous so it is ok to steal a gag. Then all the sudden all of your friend's friends are viewing said copie gags.... Ironic really.

Hola potatitos. How have you managed to limp along without the music of my words for so long? For the lack of jazz in your life obviously because of my lack of posting, I apologize.
First thing first. I am reading this AMAZING book. It is called My Sister's Keeper. I have seen it probably a hundred times at the library, B&N, or in my friend's hand. I have always ignored it because the cover (in my opinion) says 'Read me! I will PMS until you want to puke and then I will tell you about man problems.' But it doesn't. It is about a girl who's sister has leukemia. She was born so that her sister could have an exact match for blood transfusions and bone marrow transplants ect. The problem is that no one has ever asked Anna (the main character)for the right to her body. She finally gets enough and contacts a lawyer for the rights to her body. It is a touching book (thus far). It also has a dark undertone because if she wins her lawsuit and quits giving her valuable body to her sister her sister will die.
What I mainly wanted to talk about is music today. I really love music. Once someone asked me if music was important to me. By the way he said it I could tell that he wasn't asking me if I like music. Everyone likes music. He was wondering if music spoke to me it did to him. I guess I hadn't really noticed it before then, how important music was to me.
(Unfortunately for most of you) I enjoy my own company more than anyone else. I like to be alone for the majority of my time. I spend most of my time wooing over Hayley Williams\writing\listening to music. There is just certain things that no other things can do to speak to my soul like music can.
Most of you know that I am in love with Hayley Williams. Y'all probably know her better by the name Paramore, the band she sings in. Yeah they are the best band ever so obviously they are one of my favorites, if not my favorite.
I have compiled a oh so helpful list for you to gaze into my soul. My kind of music needs to be thoughtful but it also has a lot of jazz? in it. Enjoy. I think my favorites are Paramore, Panic at the Disco, Fallout Boy, Switchfoot, Regina Spektor, Jason Mraz, Relient K (I know, but they aren't as shallow as they seem), Sia, Amy Whinehouse, M.I.A., to name a few. One artist that has yet to breach the gap of the tube is Kina Grannis. Listen to her originals, especially Strong Enough. I really like her music.
I didn't want this to be an informative blog but I guess that's kind of what it was. I just want to encourage everyone to find what they love. 'People like people who know what kind of music they like'. I guess I am just sick of people who like what's played on the radio. If the two circles overlap than that is ok, but if you only listen to what Z103 feeds you than you will never have much substance when it comes to music or... life.
So in closing, don't scoff at Paramore, don't laugh at Panic at the Disco, don't get high to Fallout Boy, don't think Switchfoot is just another Hinder, look through the nonsense of Regina Spektor's lyrics, no Amy Whinehouse is not just a drug addict, Jason Mraz has much more insight than surfing, Relient K is not just some boy band, Sia is not as frightening as her videos, an M.I.A is not just chick rap. ENJOY
fin.

I must say that a cafe is quite an interesting place to hang out, especially if you have a nifty book from whence to hide behind whilst spying.
I recently spent an hour or so in an unnamed Starbuckish coffee shop, sipping glamorous Hazelnut soda because they were all out of ma favorite TOFFEE NUT! Anyhew.
Whilst spying I noticed several interesting person(s) which I quite correctly assumed y'all would be inoxerably interested in.
Interesting Person(s) #1
I spied a lovely Italian family doing homework together and it reminded me of my homeland. Sort of. Homeland of the heart! There was the bookish granddaughter, the officish father, and the oh-so-you-just-want-to-fish-with-even-though-your-a-vegetarian-because-you-know-he-will-be-full-of-good-and-insightful-conversation-and-old-Englandish-childhood-stories-grandfather. And I thought how have we become so busy that looking at this happy family of three generations, that doing homework in a coffee shop seams so alien to me? And they didn't act as if it wasn't a duty. They laughed through the algebra like it was leisure time, which indeed they made it to be. So I decided, I am going to value myself and time more and love every moment, even my stupid and pointless math homework.
Interesting Person(s) #2
I also spied some ladies that were... southern? Anyhew, one of them had white hair, black lipstick, smoke wrinkles and long, manicured, black nails and she had such an air of glamor. She must have had surgery or been hurt because she walked awkwardly, but she had such a presence, and she didn't even try. It was as if she was brought into the world with glamor and she simply couldn't help it. So I decided that I want to simply be debonair without even trying.
Interesting Person(s) #3
I also spied this one youngster (about my age) and he was talking politics and debate like it was going out of style and he was also the only one talking in a three person conversation and I realized that there is to much fear in the world that to spend every three way person conversation filling people's ears with fear is simply a waste of time. So I decided that I will focus only on lovely things and not horribly terrifying world affairs.
I know. It is simply exhausting being my glamorous and perceptive self.
The end.

Yes. Consider my blog REVAMPED!
It's probably about time. My oh so glamorous readers have probably become bored with me so why not zazzle their eyes with some sufficiently sweet eye candy.
I am returned from the ever so swingishly fancy Harlem Nights. I swung the night away (or so it might seem to the outward eye) but in reality I was quite nervous (I know, how could it be possible?).
We danced at many a place but I must say that my favorite was an awesome little hot spot called Club New York. (Yes I do know the black guy. He hung out on the side lines and gave me de eye and I thought I would get shot) It had LEVELS and NEON LIGHTS. And was pretty much all together awesome.
Also I discovered that I am in Love with Orson Scott Card's new book Ender in Exile, as I am sure that all of you are.
In other news, I am working on my second draft of the second chapter of my second novel, which I must say is coming out quite nicely.
It always strikes me as a funny thing when money comes my way. I am quite a selfish person. (This is the part where you comment and say that I am not) and as such I spend most of my time doing fun stuff in stead of pulling in a great sum of money. So when I do I have a troublesome time spending it on the right thing. After to long in the state of wealth my mind begins to wander on thoughts of purchasing expensive chocolates, expensive hair gels, and expensive space pens. Of coarse I always stay my hand at these troublesome thoughts. Some day Mrs. Perfect Gift will come along and by then I'll have a whole heap'a money to spend on her.
Another troublesome thing in my life. Every re fried time I go out of town, I miss my writer's group's meeting! It is really starting to tick my clock off. But alas I have sent in a petition to the esteemed members and we might start meeting twice a month.
Also I have decided to learn sign language and already know approximately six signs, OH YEAH!
Until again, good night sweet princess, may Hayley William's voice sing thee to thy rest.
The end.
P.S.
This is the first time I've done a P.S. It's quite exciting.
P.P.S.
I wrote this whole post with a guitar in my lap. SWUISAM!

I have hardly no time to write this morning because I am being limo'd off to another, incredibly glamorous swing exchange!
Wish me happy dancing and love at first sight... or just happy dancing.
I must now go pack my glamorous bag.
The end.

Fun blogs have been few and far between. Hopefully I haven't shed a fun part of my DNA. Hopefully not. Oh well.
Why must we take ourselves so seriously. I wish to make no examples or personal references. So I guess this will have to be a self assessed test. Why do you take yourself so seriously. Just because I couldn't come to your birthday party doesn't mean that shirt you wore totally clashed with my shoes. (even though it did).
Just because I stopped doing this unnamed activity with you doesn't mean that I hate everything we ever did and stood for when doing it.
That's as deep as I can go into those waters without becoming personal.
I have found that math is the key to my plot. All I have to do is sit down at late hours with a mound of math in front of my and I feel this tiny flame turn on and my literary juices start to heat up and though it's not quite fully formed yet, I feel tiny connections begin to collect inside of my plot cell walls like bubbles clinging to the side of a pan. And before you know it my mind is filled with a rolling boil and I haven't gotten any math done but I have filled up a whole note book filled with plot.
Which brings me to notebooks. I like to be Eco friendly. Not because I feel if I don't buy shoes which are made out of something out of a koala the earth will be in tumult. But why not be as Eco friendly as possible. If I were huge and round and in places covered in water, wouldn't I want to be friendly to the tiny things crawling all over my body?... Ok. Maybe not.
Anyway! One dark and stormy night, I was in need of a note book so I shimmied my way on over to Staples and looked for first, bound paper without a spirally ring down the spine (which is quite painful if you are left handed, second, no stupid subject dividers (which I simply don't like), and third, Eco chic if possible. So I found a note book with considerable chic and pizazz and also Eco friendly, but upon further inspection I found no proof that it was actually recycled. At first I thought it was a gimmick. But upon further further inspection, I found out that it was actually bagasse paper. No I did not just go there. I did however go to a sugarcane processing institution, gather fiber wasted in the process, and make it into an environmentally friendly notebook.
How's that for an Absolut world?

"What are friends for, to slam your finger in the door?
To hit you with a bat and ball, no they are not for that at all.
Friends are to care, to love, and depend, Friends are to be there till the end."
9 Year old Mother.


Friends are a tricky subject. Friendship is terrific when in the slammer, awkward when the relationship goes Titanic, cute when it ranges on the gender scale, and sucky when you realize that you are the friend... The only friend...
Never the less. We always make more friends. No many how many you have you always crave more. And if your lucky, other people crave your friendship.
And even if we're totally destroyed by one we are always stupid enough to make more eventually, even if we never actually let them in.
And then I feel bad for feeling like a phony for being people's friends but never investing myself and withdrawing every vulnerable part of me from danger.
So how long can a heart be broken before it just don't snap back together anymore?

There are not enough (clean) words on the planet to describe my excitement\happiness right now. So, in the event that you know there aren't enough (clean) words, I am so freaken, totally and completely, utterly, solely, wholly, and absolutely flying on euphoria!!!!!
CAROLYN TURGEON YOU BEAUTIFUL POTATOES...pantpant...ON HER BLOG...ME!...SIGNED COPIES...NEW BOOK....WONDERFUL.
Whatever this feeling is I sure as heck hope it doesn't have a hangover. I mean how many times do you get to be called kick-@$$? Well in my case, once in a life time.
THE END!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(This is a school project and I find I write better as a blog so... YAY!)

Throughout history man, collectively as a species has striven to clarify and shed light where ever ignorance is found. Perhaps it is the defining factor that sets apart our species as the dominant one of the planet: our constant quest for greater knowledge. So why would we ever try to keep a dark blanket of ignorance over our own eyes? I think it is that we don't want to face the consequences of our own actions.
Meat is murder. If you say otherwise it is only because you haven't taken the time to research that what happens to those animals in the slaughter houses is a direct result of the market for meat. You are the market. Don't ever say that just because one person stops buying meat doesn't mean the production of meat will slow any. Never say that all those animals will be slaughtered anyway. I ask you how is it not going to change anything. Would you say the same thing about a drug dealer? If there was no market for baby wipes than there would be no baby wipe companies.
But the hard truth that I and so many others have to come face to face with is not that people don't care, it's that they won't care. They refuse to be educated. They refuse to think about what they have done because reality is too horrifying to even think about on a full stomach. Doesn't this tell you anything? It's not that you don't care! You keep yourself so high on ignorance that you can't see past your own hands into the slaughter houses where you may as well swinging the final swipe with your own hand. The responsibility would be equally as great.
So why do we constantly renew our peachy reality with cartoon characters advertising a half off sale of their hind quarters? Something tells me those cows advertising Chick-fil-A don't want you to eat-mor-chikin. I think they would feel more sympathy than that.
So if truth is to horrifying to even think about on a full stomach, change your reality. But unless you are willing to know exactly what you are doing on a full stomach then reassess the situation. Be intelligent. Change one reality until they all change, because the truth is not that you won't make a difference, it's that you make all the difference.

I haven't posted for so long and I need to so here it is.
Much has happened. Much fun mostly.
Fun #1 A week ago my brother, my mother, and myself went to Salt Lake to attend a swing exchange in Utah. It was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much fun and we danced almost eternally. I think our hours added up to about twenty something a day. We danced from noon to five and then from five to eight and then from eight to midnight and then from midnight to four thirty in the morning!!!!
Yes. Pretty much incredible, and we don new incredible shirts advertising our lavish lifestyle.
Fun #2 My dad got me a guitar!!!! YAY!!!! I absolutely love it and she has been crowned Susan by my brother. Even though I don't really know how to play yet, her strings still sound beautiful.
Fun #3 Maybe this should be in FUn #2 but oh well...
I got a guitar DVD and it is awesome and the tutor is even AUSTRALIAN. What more could a guitarist ask for?
Fun #4 I discovered this new... sport? No. Game? No. Art form? YES! Anyweigh, it is called Parkour and it was started by David Belle and yeah. Look it up.
That's about it for now. TTLY!!!!
The end.

OH my GOODNESS! So muy has happened.This is all going to be a blur so gurt your loins or whatever.
1. I have become a VEGAN! yay! Again... It has happened before but it is pretty much... yeah. It is permanent. All I have to do is think about a pussy, cancerous utter and my hand practically jumps off the cheese. It feels really good too. I have much more energy and it is nice.
2. I discovered (OK, I didn't DISCOVER it but I do think it is awesome) the most awesome sport. IT is called Parkour. That is a link to some guys free running and it is just amazing. It's like being a ninja as a hobby.
3. I bought pineapple at the store and the lady had to look up the number... Yeah. Our nation is not very healthy.
4. CAROLYN TURGEON!!!!!!!!!!!! What? You haven't HEARD OF HER?!?! Well then you idiots. She wrote Rain Village and is all around awesome and guess what? She talks to me! YAY!
I did a little mini interview and she answered them and here they are the end.


1. When did you first know you were a writer?
I always knew I was a writer, I think, or at least I always wanted to be one. I loved books and libraries as far back as I can remember, and I was a super dreamy kid who liked to lock herself away in her room and read. Plus I read the Betsy-Tacy books and Betsy was always dreaming of being a writer and scribbling in her notebook and I thought it was incredibly, devastatingly romantic.

2. What were the most important steps in becoming a writer for you?
I guess it would be figuring out how to write a novel. It takes incredible willpower and discipline, and you can't be intimidated by it. Rain Village took me 10 years and that's because I wrote it in fits and starts and when I got stumped I'd stop for like two years.

3. What was the first story you ever wrote?
I wrote my first book when I was 8, "Mystery at the Dallas Zoo," about a bunch of kid sleuths trying to solve the mystery of the stolen tapir!

4. Where do you write?
Anywhere, really, with a laptop, but I prefer writing in cafes or at home at a desk in front of a big window.

5. What are your hobbies when you are not writing?
I play accordion, I do photography (just started dark room), I travel and read... I bellydance and work out with a trainer. I love film and theater and bands and old swanky bars.

6. What is your favorite book?
One Hundred Years of Solitude, definitely. It's sweeping and grand and beautiful and Gabriel Garcia Marquez is like an old time storyteller who'd weave tales around a fire.

7. What is the best story you ever wrote?
I haven't written a ton of stories. I started Rain Village in college and just focused on it for years. I'd say my second novel, Godmother, which comes out in March, is the best thing I've written. It's more structured than Rain Village, more tight. You'll see!

8. Where was Rain Village first conceived?
I started Rain Village for a college course with Paul West. It was just a short story about a place called Rain Village. At the same time I was writing a paper for an Italian class about the three rings story cycle -- three versions of this old tale about a father of three sons who has a very valuable ring and ends up having two copies made and giving rings to each son... but only the father knows which is the real one, as with the world's religions -- and was basing my original story on that tale... But as I developed this world I just felt like there was a bigger story to be told, and I plucked out a minor character, Tessa, and the whole thing ended up being her story, and Rain Village ended up being the place her mentor Mary comes from and tells her so many stories about.

9. Do you write about how you wish the world was, full of love and glamour like in Rain Village?
Maybe, but I think the world IS full of love and glamour, too. Amongst every other thing. Sometimes you do have to take special note of it, however.


10. Did you ever have a mentor like Mary?
No, but I have had various people in my life who served Mary-like functions. Friends, teachers, family members. Mary's just a combination of all of them, as well as my version of the most kick-@*$ female who ever lived

Finding things out about yourself is just as hard as solving a mystery or trying to set the clock on a VCR. When you do put things together I just have to post about them.
Yeah, I know. Most of my posts lately are self realizations. If you don't like it then don't read any further.
Betrayal is bitter. Just a short time ago I had never felt it and now that I have it's taken me almost two weeks to just figure out what I am feeling, let alone sort them all out into specific categories.
At first I was sure I could never trust, let alone look at this person again. No matter how much I felt sorry for this person I could not find a place inside of me where I would ever let them inside my soul. I was a completely new person after this, living on new levels and looking at everything with new perspective.
Betrayal is something strange. Part of the reason I couldn't work through my feelings is that this betrayal was so big that I couldn't see both ends of it at the same time and so I would work through my feelings one at a time but even after doing that I would look back at the whole ugly thing and not accept it.
So I gave up. I figured it would be years before I would feel the same about this person, if that.
Isn't it weird that music is truly for the emotionally gifted. Music is all good but then you have a crush on someone and all of these love songs make sense and touch you. And then you get your heart bruised and all the bitterness in those notes you can sympathize with. And when anything breaks your heart, truly breaks it, opens you up so wide there all the bitterness falls out, music is something that reaches inside of you and pulls you apart on the inside. Whether it's just sitting on the couch, in the hair cutting salon, or in the car, all the sudden I'm far away in music where all I have are these feelings and there is no escape. So I figured that I could only really sympathize with this kind of music, a feeling that felt so fulfilling to me, as long as these feelings were in my heart. After I had forgiven this person all this clarity would be gone. It didn't feel like bitterness holding on to these feelings, because I wasn't holding on. I just wasn't letting go. They weren't pulling so I wasn't giving.
But then I realized, I can forgive this person and still feel these feelings, where before I thought that if I had forgiven this person than I wouldn't be entitled to feel this way, it wouldn't be fair. And, in truth, I'll never feel the same way about that person, but also I realized that I can still feel this way and forgive because it's not temporary sadness and bitterness that brings me into focus. I am so irreversibly changed that these things are written in my soul. No matter how many years I go after forgiveness I can still feel these feelings because I am changed. I can always go back and be in that music and feel sadness in it's rawest form but not be bitter because I am better and clearer because of it.
Sorry, kind of a lot of raving today but I had to get that out of my system.
The end.

Hi yall. Yeah. I'm blogging. It's probably against the doctors orders, but what the doctor doesn't know can't hurt him. Alas, living without depth perception is no fun.
Wait a minute. You don't know what happened. How rood of me.
Here's how it went. I was sledding in some icy gravel pits in Ucon, being pulled up the hill by a faithful friend, and then I don't know what happened, BECAUSE I was hit in the face with another sledder. I WOULD have remembered had I not been glamorously knocked out on the ice. Well I woke up and drug myself up the hill and then on the way home received a bloody nose. When I got home I figured out I have a concussion. As of today my eye is a dark, dark purple, swollen shut, and my head throbs, I have no depth perception, but aside from that I am doing all right. That's about all for today because it hurts to read\look at the screen. Just thought I would keep you updated.
The end.

Oh, man. So many things, some good and some... not so good, have happened over Christmas break. A good thing is that I got the most wicked awesome, cheap, mp3 player. The not so good. Ah, I won't say. Where will revenge get me?
Another good thing. I have been taking so many awesome pictures because my camera is working! Yay!
I ate sooo much chocolate and listened to meh favorite music. It was good.
Speaking of music, all of my loyal potatoes, you must check out Regina Spektor. She moved to New York when she was nine, from Moscow (Russia), and oh my goodness, her music is phenomenal. I don't know what it is about her lyrics I just can not get enough of it.
Anyhew. I have learned so much about myself lately. Like I thought I was perfectly content without friends, and now I realize, I'm not as content as I thought I was. Sigh...
Another thing. I do not write happy books. I look at their endings and realize that the main character is always paralyzed\obliterated\or has his time traveling atoms re aligned.
What is the point of Eco friendly shirts that were made in a factory? How can any piece of clothing truly be Eco friendly unless you raised the sheep your self and spun the wool on a man powered spindle\ grew the cotton without fertilizer and then never ironed it\machine washed it?
Tata for now my potatoes. Freezing my bippies off in here.
The end.

It's Christmas Eve. Adrenaline is high, family is here, presents are under the tree. As I look around and see the expensive things I've received this Christmas, and then at the friends who will wake up on Christmas and find only each other to look forward to, I'd like to take time to thank the people in my life that would make this holiday season a bright place to be even without the gifts.
Although my friends help me through the hard times and are the people that you can talk to things about, when it comes to crunch time than the people that you can always count on are your family. (Friends, just email me and I will tell you how much I adore you.)
I'd like to thank my mom, I love you. It's been an interesting year. Maturity is not fun some times and you have helped me deal with things that I never could have dealt with on my own. I can talk to you about everything, I probably talk to much most of the time.
I am sorry for turning my music up to loud, fighting with siblings, and completely ignoring orders when you tell me.
Thanks for driving me at absurd hours to coffee shops, stake dances, and early morning seminary. Thanks for being normal when every one else failed to be. Thanks for enduring a month of torture with me. Thanks for not telling me I was an idiot when I was. Thanks for pulling my hair through endless holes and then spreading toxic chemicals on my head and then waiting to wash it out again, you're the best.
Thank you Dad. I love you. Even though I was never much of one, you maintained man hood through shopping trips and endured a son who knew what he wanted in the clothes department.
Sorry for making you freeze at father and sons camp. Sorry for going fast on the four wheeler. Sorry for staying up and getting up late. Sorry for not being a better student. Sorry for being a slob. Sorry for abusing your DVD collection. Sorry for doing that gay voice, it really is annoying.
Thanks for doing what you loved even when every one else doubted you. Thank you for abandoning your dreams when it became an ultimatum. Thanks for buying me way more gum than I should ever have chewed. Thanks for not laughing when I asked you if any combination of absurd letters were actual words.
It wouldn't have been much of a year without you guys and I'd just like to say thanks. Thanks to both of you for being there and (hopefully) for being there in the future. Here's looking forward to another year of adventure\scares\presents.
The end.

Ah. The sweetness of ward parties. All scorn is left at the door and all the lameness is welcomed with open arms. It's like everyone gets a pass to be as stupid and corny as they want without having to have a special badge.
And then there is always the one person in the ward that has talent, usually only one though. And the talent is magnified by the contrast of the lack there of surrounding it.
Our Christmas ward party was a few days ago and it was a doosy in the lameness department, but it also has a strange, familiar property to it also. It's as if everybody understands what the other person was trying to do even if they didn't do what they intended.
Wouldn't it be impressive if I could express an Australian accent through this blog?
Our Christmas gift from an anonymous friend was soap. Do not laugh, or cough, for this was signature, designer, lusty soap. Maybe minus the lusty. You will have to ask Jackie. But there were so many different fantastic scents and they were all hand made by friends, what more could a recipient ask for? Ah the sweet smell of fat scrapped from bovine underparts....
The end.