When Life Gives you Lemons, Have a Blizzard
So we were supposed to get about three inches of snow over night. The town twenty minutes down the road has 25 inches as of 9:30 a.m. Much of our snow from last week hadn't melted, and if I went out on my back deck right now, it would be to my knees. If I let Miller out, I'd never see his fuzzy face again. (This is probably why he has ceased his endless meowing and barfing. Fear of being turned out.)
The pictures don't really do it justice. We got a foot of snow over the course of 2 days last week and that snow had barely melted off. And now today's blizzard. The top pic is my friend Kim's backyard where she's going to have a BBQ any moment, and the second pic is from my back deck, where I plan to have a hot tub party. At least we were going to until the news started using words like, “roof collapse” and “National Guard.” Sigh. Never mind.
My mind is just buzzing with this crazy unexpected gift. I just love moments like this. It's like God says, “I am still in charge. Three inches of snow? Try twenty.” And you know how much I love my weather mens, but this…is just cool. (Cool as long as the electricity stays on…)
If you haven't checked out the Southern Belle View blog, this is a great week to peek in over there.
Authors Lisa Wingate, Beth Webb Hart, Marybeth Whalen, Rachel Hauck and I are writing a story, each of us taking a day. It's been a lot of fun, so we'd love to have you join us.
Okay, I've been working on this blog for a few hours, and I keep getting distracted. The news has been on since about seven hours straight, and I can't turn away. So distracted…. I'm amazed at people who have the gift of random talking, of chatter. These news people are just speaking off the cuff and filling in space as news comes in, and it's just an enviable gift. If I have ten minutes to prepare, I can sound like I'm speaking off the top of my head, but I do not have the gift of conversation. For the same reason, I can watch home shopping networks and just be totally sucked in by their amazing talent to…just talk. I mean, how do you think of intelligent things to say about a shirt? Or a vacuum cleaner? And yet they do. And do it well.
Maybe not as well as MadTV like this.
What did you guys think of the Super Bowl? I was so disappointed in the ads. I love the E*Trade babies, but the rest of it was lame. I liked the VW ad of course, but they'd been running that the week before, so it wasn't new. But it's darn clever.
The February issue of Christian Fiction Online magazine is up. I have an article in there talking about the realities of working that day job and writing.
If you're interested in writing, the New York Times has had some interesting things lately. I was surprised to see the big gains in e-readers for teens. I'm not seeing it yet in my students, but it makes sense. Especially with so many of them having iPhones and e-reader apps. We're definitely headed toward e-readers for text books. New York mag had a disturbing article about James Frey and some desperate (or brilliant?) college students. (warning, bad language) (Thanks to Deborah of Books, Movies, and Chinese Food for bringing this to my attention.)
Also a great article on PW about reasons a kid picks up a book. Probably reasons a lot of us pick up a book. According to the article, librarians affect up to 24 percent of a teen's book choosing decisions. Those librarians are so important. Some really interesting info on how we can get the attention of kid and teen readers, how we need that approach to be different for the younger generation vs. our own. Now if I can just find that celebrity endorser…. Must call my assistant and tell her to get Lady GaGa, the last two presidents, and Justin Bieber on the line.
I hope you have a great rest of the week. I'm working on edits for my next YA, There You'll Find Me, a spin-off of Save the Date. Friday I'll be on Southern Belle View, providing the big finale of our story, Whirlaway. See you there!
