Nobody reads these blog post titles anyway, right?

So, as Carrie rightfully pointed out in her last post, things have been a bit...shall we say quiet around here as of late? And the funny thing is I think we actually posted more when there weren't a ton of things going on in our lives. Navel gazing is funny like that.

Anyway, big things have been afoot! I was just glancing at my goals list, that "25 things to do before I turn 25" thing, and I've actually managed to complete some of them, especially the big ones. Observe:

1. Read 80 books (I'm at 51 right now; I don't know how many I'll actually get to, it being October, but, well, we'll see.)
2. Redesign my blog (Eric is "working" on this, and when I say "working" I mean "not working on it at all because Jenny is visiting")
3. Get an agent
4. Get a book deal (ha!)
5. Finish my next book
6. Go on a date
7. Go to California
8. Go on an interview
9. Get a review published in Contrary (I'm pretty sure this is never going to happen, because the editor of Contrary blew me off months ago.)
10. Go to Chicago (Sadly, this will not happen before my birthday, but it will happen right afterwards if I have my way.)
11. Save $300 (The advance will pretty much make me go way beyond this.)
12. Pay off half my credit card debt (I'm planning on paying off all of it with my advance money.)
13. Send birthday cards to all my close friends before their birthdays! (fugged this up, maybe next year)
14. Write 1 letter a month and actually send it (again, maybe next year)
15. Get a raise (I'm hoping this will happen on my jobiversary in November)
16. Volunteer for Seeds of Peace (I just submitted a volunteer form online today)
17. Go to Boston (I guess not this year, no time)
18. Attend a concert
19. Attend a Broadway musical
20. Do at least one thing in each of the boroughs (Well, I've done this if you don't count Staten Island. If you do, I probably won't make it this year)
21. Lose 10 pounds (to start!) (YAR! 13 pounds and counting!)
22. Go to Atlantic City (did you know all the properties in Monopoly are named after Atlantic City streets?) (I, uh, don't even really want to do this anymore. AC is expensive!)
23. Cook real meals (I do this sometimes)
24. Go to a book signing for an author I really love (I'm going to give this to myself right now, since I'm planning on going to John Green's October 16 signing in New York)
25. Um, I guess this one's for me? Because I'm a lemming? (To tell you the truth, I have no idea what this one is. Whoops!)

Now, perhaps I should back-back-back it up a little. Book deal? "Ha!" as I said. Except that actually happened a few weeks ago. My lovely agent was able to sell my graduate school thesis (a young adult novel) in a two-book deal to Delacorte, an imprint of Random House. Very exciting, I know. I've already got a second book done, but now I have to edit it so my editor can see it and make a decision of which book to debut with (I'm going to take bets right now, and my money's on the first book, AUT). So I'm hoping to finish that this weekend and then send it to my agent on Monday so that she can read and comment so that I can incorporate her changes and then send it off to my editor in a few weeks. I'll probably get my editorial letter from my editor on the first book by Thanksgiving, so I'll probably be really frantic and ridiculous at Thanksgiving. Get excited!

So that's my news. Anyone else have any? MAGGIE PERHAPS?!

Sick day

Kim was complaining on the phone about how nobody posts to this anymore, so I thought I'd give a stab at it, although I don't really have a whole lot to say, really. I took a sick day today, because I had a really annoying sinus headache, which only got worse in the morning after I called out and went back to bed. I got up at noon and took the bus about 20 blocks in a complete fog and went to the grocery store to get some cheese and a green pepper, then went back up to my apartment, took some Excedrin, ate a quesadilla and started to feel better. I watched some X-Files and read some of the new David Sedaris book and watched my favorite scene of Penelope about a frillion times.

I also got an email from my agent, who said that she's gearing up to send out my manuscript after Labor Day, because that's when all the publishers will be settling back into their routines after all the conferences and vacations during the summer. So I'm impatient, but I also know this is the best idea, so that the book doesn't fall through the cracks. I'm so lucky to have somebody behind me that believes in the project so much--I only hope that it all lives up to our expectations.

That's really all that's going on in my life. Sorry to be so boring, but oh well. My life is boring. Oh, also I saw Wanted, which stars the amazing James McAvoy, who was typically wonderful. The movie was violent, but for an action film it had quite a quirky, ridiculous personality--only a crazy person could've made it, but a brilliant crazy person. I highly recommend.

Define "not"

Hey Harry Potter fan(atics), guess what? J.K. Rowling's NOT working on a prequel to the series. Big news, right? Well...except she posted an 800 word excerpt of this prequel on the Waterstone's website. It involves James Potter, Sirius Black, and that famous flying motorcycle, JIC you can't read it (her handwriting is a bit diff). Just wait for the Flash to load, go to "Read our author's stories" on the bottom right of the page, click on J.K. Rowling's name, and read both sides of the "paper". And there, at the bottom, the venerable lady writes "From the sequel I'm not working on--but that was fun!"

What a booktease.

Lust, caution

In other news, I am very disappointed in MoCa--what's everybody been doing as of late? I know Bri's been working with ties for the past few days--maybe update us on that, Briz, and also tell everyone your amazing tie joke? Although I will agree it loses something without the in-person delivery. But come on! Doesn't anyone have any life news? Carrie--when do you move back to SD?

My life remains pretty boring, just work and book stuff. My agent Joanna and I have been working on editing my manuscript, but I don't think I'll be able to do something substantial until this weekend. It is overwhelming, I will admit, to finally have to please someone other than myself with my writing, but...I guess that's the price you pay to have other people read it. I hope we sell it! It's getting better by the minute. My roommate and I might be getting a couch off Craigslist, though, so that's exciting. Oh, and I'm really lusting after that dishwasher you see in the photo above, but of course I can't afford it--maybe I'll ask for it for a combined X-Mas/birthday gift this year. I don't even know where we'd put it--we have zero counter space, and all the room on our kitchen cart is being taken up by the microwave and toaster oven, but if I could get a dishwasher I would FIND ROOM.

Update! That is all, you hot tranny messes. Stay fierce.

Everything's just incredibly fierce (when it's not being a hot tranny mess up in here)

Item A:



You are ayza in or you ah outz...vis ze sparklink.

Item B:

So as many of you may know, I wrote a book. Um, so I got an agent yesterday. Woohoo! We're doing edits on the book and then maybe we'll get to sell it to a publisher! That's all.

Hmm, interesting

Take the Quiz here!

You are Emma Woodhouse of Emma! You like being the queen of your social circle (small and provincial as it may be), and feel it's your duty to help those less influential than you. You often meddle in the affairs of others, though you do it with a pure heart. You are often deluded in your flights of fancy, but your good intentions and creative spirit make you someone anyone could like.

Which Jane Austen heroine are you?

Take the Quiz here!

You are Elizabeth Bennet of Pride & Prejudice! You are intelligent, witty, and tremendously attractive. You have a good head on your shoulders, and oftentimes find yourself the lone beacon of reason in a sea of ridiculousness. You take great pleasure in many things. You are proficient in nearly all of them, though you will never own it. Lest you seem too perfect, you have a tendency toward prejudgement that serves you very ill indeed.

P.S. I know this is girly, but does Scott even read this thing anymore?
P.P.S. Carrie, post yours!

Fairly odd tales

J.K. Rowling hand-wrote and illustrated The Tales of Beedle the Bard, that book Dumbledore gives Hermione in Deathly Hallows which...I don't actually remember what it does for them, actually. They've printed only seven copies (IN THE WHOLE WORLD! I KNOW!), six of which went to people closely related with the franchise (I'm thinking Rowling's agent, her American publisher Arthur Levine, her British publisher, her...kids? I'm tapped), and one of which they're auctioning off for charity. [Guardian]