Rita Arens's Blog, page 14

Happy Easter!

Results for my Rafflecopter giveaway should be available tomorrow. Thanks for playing the YA Scavenger Hunt!

YA Scavenger Hunt Orange Team: THE OBVIOUS GAME

Are you here for the Young Adult Scavenger Hunt? If so, welcome!

This tri-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors ... and a chance to win some awesome prizes! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize -- one lucky winner will receive o...

So Now I Get to Be This Kind of Mother

Two years ago, I sold all my gold jewelry to buy my daughter an iPod Touch for her birthday.

It was nicer than my first iPhone, but she wanted to say she had a phone, anyway, even though she admitted the Touch is shinier and faster and yes, better. It didn't matter: Semantics are what they are.

Six months ago, my husband told me even phones not connected to a plan can call 911. That night, I cleared out my old phone and handed it to her.

*crickets*

I have worked in online publishing in one...

Get Ready for the Spring 2015 YA Scavenger Hunt!

It's nearly time again for the Young Adult Scavenger Hunt. (woot)

We have eight outstanding teams this season. I am going to be a part of #TeamOrange. The Scavenger Hunt runs from April 2nd through April 5th beginning and ending at noon Pacific time on those days.

If you've never been a part of the hunt before, you should give it a try. It runs like a giant blog hop, introducing you to new YA authors and books along the way. There are tons of prizes including a grand prize for each team.

If y...

The Unbearable Cuteness of Clydesdale Foals

After our family visited Grant's Farm last summer, we fell in love with the Budweiser Clydesdales. My husband tried to surprise us with a stop at Warm Springs Ranch one weekend as we puttered east back to Kansas City after a writing conference in St. Louis, but alas, it was a no-go.

Warm Springs Ranch is where the magic begins: Clydesdale foals. Unfortunately for us that day, the gates were locked. You have to make an appointment to get a tour, which we didn't know. But now we do, and so do y...

This Is What You Have to Look Forward to, Kid

The little angel is on spring break this week. Yesterday, we packed up our laptops and headed over to the library for a change of scenery. She had to make an ABC book, which is a document with a fact about the American Revolution for every letter of the alphabet and an accompanying picture.

There was a lot of typing and formatting and then I crashed her buzz by explaining image copyright as she pulled willy-nilly from Google Images. This led to some frustration and a discussion of Wikimedia C...

Little Black Cat Update

Yesterday, Kizzy took the last of his Prednizone. It's been almost a month since he almost died again, and it seems like we got another reprieve.

He's on a new kind of even more ridiculously expensive prescription cat food. This one is supposed to also help with stress, as stress apparently increases the chance he'll get blocked. Beloved and I avoid talking about a relapse even as we watch his litter box like parents of a newborn watch diapers.

We made a barely spoken agreement that if the l...

It's Time to #RockTheRedPump for HIV/AIDS Awareness

Hi everyone - it's time again to pull out your red shoes (or, if you're like me, share the news about rocking red shoes because you don't own any) and use fashion to raise awareness for how much HIV/AIDS is still disproportionately affecting women of color. (And women in general, but really, really affecting women of color.)

Some Facts

There are approximately 1.1 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the U.S. and almost 280,000 are women.
1 in 139 women will be diagnosed with HIV/AIDS at so...

OMG, The Unraveling of Mercy Louis Is Good

Sometimes the setting in a book becomes a character, and that's something I tried very hard to do with my fictional small town of Snowden, Iowa, in my young adult novel THE OBVIOUS GAME. Recently I received an advanced copy of Keija Parssinen's THE UNRAVELING OF MERCY LOUIS, which is set in the tiny Southern oil town of Port Sabine, Texas. Even though it was below zero when I read this book, I could feel the thick, reeking air of this refinery town on the back of my neck.

There is so much go...

I Forgot

My girl will be eleven in a month. She's all fashion and interior design and smelly markers and starlight.

We walked through a toy store today, and I realized she's outgrown all but two of the aisles.

As I explained to Steph how I taught my girl to roller skate when she was the wee one's age, I could hardly believe my own daughter leaving me behind on the ice. I remember wanting to teach her all the things so she wouldn't be as hesitant as I was to take risks as a child. I didn't grow into my...