Hannah Rae's Blog, page 17

Yesterday was full of great things.

My friend Annie hosted a party at her house yesterday to "Celebrate America's Freedom and Elana's." (Because Elana graduated from high school this year and it was actually a graduation party. Clever, right?)

These are the great things that happened:

I got to catch up with people I haven't seen in ages! Annie's friends are some of the coolest people on the planet... and I might someday have to write the women into a novel. I mean, Annie's friends are the artiest, kindest, most confident, gorgeous women you could ever meet. They have this inner strength that just shines in them and I legitimately love spending time with them. Such an amazing group of humans.

I got to catch up with my coworker Bob and his wife Gina and they are even more fascinating than I thought they were! Bob is this quiet guy who knows so much and is so kind and I've just always liked him. And his wife? Oh my gosh. Gina is like my animal soulmate: she'll do anything to save a creature!

There were bagpipes! Annie's family was there (I got to meet her dad and her brothers!) and they are incredibly musical and so there was a concert around the campfire and wouldn't you know one of the musicians plays the bagpipes? So in between songs, there was David standing on the third-floor balcony of the house, just belting out some bagpipe phenomena. It. Was. So. Cool.

Remember my friend Nicole who read my GIANT Running Through the Words and loved it? Well, I was talking to her and her daughter Charlotte about books. Charlotte just finished listening to Like A Flip Turn and she and her mom were talking about their favorite characters in the car one day. (Because they've read different books by the same author, right? And they're talking about them.) And Charlotte mentions that she really liked Petey, and Nicole was like, "Wait. Petey Goode? He's in your book too?" And then they started comparing notes about other crossover characters and that just made me really, REALLY happy because I get excited like that each time I put a crossover character in one of my books! It's like reuniting with an old friend!

That last one was my favorite thing that happened yesterday -- I'm still on a little bit of a compliment high from that one. ❤️

Trivia Recap: 6/29

The Players: Hannah (English teacher), Alex (coffee shop owner), Darren (math professor), Brock (much ado about marketing), Mary (English teacher), Victoria (veterinarian), Danielle (bartender)

Hint of the Day: Sander

Opening Category: Songs from 1999 (an audio clip!)

Before I begin this blog, I’d like to say that last night the wonderful folks at Fourscore created a meal for me that wasn’t on the menu! I really liked the hot honey chicken sandwich that I’d eaten last week, but that was a special… and I wanted another chicken sandwich, but last night’s special was a cheesesteak and I don’t eat red meat. But I asked if it was possible to have a CHICKEN cheesesteak created and it was and I ate it and it’s my favorite sandwich yet from Fourscore!

Here’s more exciting news: Fourscore’s menu changed TODAY and now there are all sorts of non-red-meat options available for non-red-meat-eaters like me! Woohoo!

Round One:

We obviously got the opening audio clue correct. I mean, we chose it. The answer was TLC, which is a band I’ve never cared for. We also conquered some trivia about technology by knowing that the iPhone was the answer to whatever the question was and that 14 (XIV?) is the most recent model. And speaking of iPhones… Mine has lately been less than stellar. It won’t hold a charge (I tend to plug it in three to four times every day) and it’s slow to do almost everything. I need a new one. Maybe a 14/XIV. Alex and Darren figured out Genghis Khan for Historical Figures but Welcome to “SUMMER” was an epic fail for us. We did not know what the summertime WWE thing was called (SummerSlam was the answer, I believe, but Alex suggested Summer Smashdown which actually should be the answer because it is a better answer). South American Countries was surprisingly fine because it had more to do with spelling and counting than geography. We just had to identify two countries with nine letters. (Argentina and Venezuela, in case you’re wondering.)

Round Two:

Weirdly, the audio clue for this round was Back to the 1990s and we got it right because, as stated above, we are quite knowledgeable about the 90s and the music that came out of that particular decade. Adam, our DJ, stated last night that he thinks the 90s had the best music.

Here’s a little side note: Mary doesn’t know a whole lot of music that’s not Taylor Swift or country. And I don’t know a whole lot of country. Therefore, Mary and I now do a thing where I send her one song per day and she sends me one song per day and we learn new music. This started yesterday. I chose “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana and she sent “Heads Carolina, Tails California” by Jo Dee Messina and now we both know something new.

Back to the second round of trivia… Victoria knew about Louis Pasteur, Darren and Brock knew that an astronaut played golf on the moon (but we weren’t sure of which one), Mary and I both knew Mel Gibson voiced John Smith in Pocahontas (even though I’ve never seen that film), and Darren knew the old ad slogan for FedEx.

Halftime:

On the top of the sheet, we had to identify black-and-white stills from films that could have been filmed in color. In other words, color film was an option when these films were made and they were all created in black and white. We got 11/12, missing a still from the film Roma—which we really struggled over. My favorite quote of the night occurred when Brock asked, “Does Adam have a color version?” Because Adam usually does have a color version of the halftime sheet… but not when the pictures are meant to be in black and white. Silly, Brock! The bottom of the sheet was matching mascots to NFL teams and that was easy for my team because they pay attention to football.

Round Three:

This round wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t great. We lost some points on a math question and a yoga question. There was also a question about Word Origins that we should have lost points on, but because Pour House can’t count and messed up the question, we actually got to keep those points. Needless to say, we weren’t in a great position after the third round though.

6-4-2:

Darren suspected the answer was Lincoln after the first clue, but we weren’t confident so we waited. The answer was Lincoln though and we got it for four points.

Side note: Abraham Lincoln was one of my original three crushes, the other two being Superman and a young Elvis Presley.

Round Four:

There was a good question about US State Capitals and Darren could likely tell you what it is, but I don’t remember its exact wording and we didn’t get it right. I knew a thing about Healthy Science (Probiotics!) which got us some points, as did Three Clues/One Name. I forget the question, but the answer was Troy, which made me recount a story about Harry Styles’s opinions regarding the name Troy. (He says it’s not a real name. I adore Harry Styles.) Children’s Books was easy enough—Choose Your Own Adventure—and Female Musicians wasn’t great because we went with Taylor Swift instead of Beyonce… even though Victoria and Alex and I all had Beyonce written down on our papers. Whatever.

Final Round:

Can I Have a Car, Please? was the category and we got it wrong. We didn’t place and next week’s opening category is Haulin’ Oats (another audio clue).

When even the "non-readers" love it...

I got a text from my friend Nicole a little while ago and it made me so happy because Nicole likes to read, but she doesn't always finish what she starts... and she's currently reading Running Through the Words, which is massive. She's over halfway through too! I'm so proud of her!

I love it when readers love my characters, and Nicole and I had an entire back and forth about my characters in Running. She loves all of them, but has a real soft spot for Lucy. And do you know why I especially love this? Because I've heard so many other readers comment on the fact that Lucy is very vanilla. But she's not! Lucy is such a strong, confident, self-assured person who knows what she wants her life to contain. She balances Sebastian with her stability; in a way, they're foils. And Bert balances Bas with his goofiness; they're foils too.

Speaking of people named Nicole...

There's a book blogger on Instagram whom I enjoy so much. Her name is Nikki and she's so far read Just Whistle and Running Through the Words. She writes really kind reviews for all my stuff and is going to listen to Like A Flip Turn next. Hopefully she likes that too!

Anyway, Nikki and I were corresponding a little while ago and she said, "I was so excited to see the timeline at the end of Running Through the Words because more books are coming! I can't wait to read them!" It just makes me so happy, you know? It makes me so happy to finally have a little following of readers who love my characters and look forward to spending more time with them. This is why I write.

Well... for that reason and because I can't imagine not writing. It's just something I have to do.

Road Trip to a Road Trip

Yesterday, my buddy (her name is Buddy) and I took a little road trip down to Merriweather Post Pavilion. This was fun for many reasons:

Buddy had never seen Weezer in concert before, and that's who we were seeing. Buddy had never been to Merriweather Post Pavilion before, and that's where we were going. I was going to get to see Weezer for the second time and we were right in front of the stage!

We started out doing what everyone is meant to do before a show: grabbing drinks and food before heading to the venue. Buddy got a sandwich of some sort and I had the fish 'n' chips. It was raining, so we took our time at the restaurant, not eager to walk through the rain to reach our destination.

Fortunately, the weather cleared up and we made our way to the venue.

The opening act was called Joyce Manor and they sounded a lot like Weezer. Needless to say, Buddy and I enjoyed them. If you're attending a Weezer show and the opening act sounds like Weezer, what's not to like?

The second opening act was called Future Islands and they did not sound like Weezer. Future Island sounded like German men who'd been possessed by demons and were in need of an exorcism. Buddy and I enjoyed the performance because it was uncomfortable to watch and made us laugh a lot. My friends Alex and Chad LOVE Future Island, though, so I sent them a video of a song and Alex wrote back and said it was a great song. She also wondered if I was enjoying the band. I said I was, but not as much as Weezer.

I enjoyed Weezer for very different reasons than I enjoyed Future Island. For one, I actually like Weezer's music. As I kid, Weezer's Blue Album was the first album I bought with my own money. (Technically, I bought Green Day's Dookie at the same time.) "Buddy Holly" will always be near and dear to my heart, as will just about every other song the band sings.

The guys in Weezer haven't aged at all! They look great, they sound great, they ARE great! And their stage setup was super fun! There was a giant, inflatable dashboard and different things were projected through the front window for each song. The images were mostly cartoons and whoever designed it did so with the band in mind. It was clever from a lot of different perspectives and I found myself constantly torn between watching the band and watching the cartoons because the art was so fun!

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/58cc22_90f1f48317a6477d966c2f336c89269d/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

While in the pit, Buddy and I almost got knocked down twice. It wasn't supposed to be a mosh pit, but this one guy wanted it to be a mosh pit and started shoving people. And then another guy got mad at him because the first guy put his hands on the second guy's girlfriend. And then security came down and the first guy got escorted out and everything was fine after that.

Weezer fans are apparently avid readers. I passed out quite a few business cards last night! A lot of the folks who were there were teachers like Buddy and I.

All in all, it was a very fun show and I hope to see Weezer at least another time or two in my life because they really are just so much fun!

Trivia Recap: 6/22

My apologies for not posting this sooner, but Phil sent it to my Gmail and I didn't check that today and when he wrote to me to find out if I'd gotten it, I was at a Weezer concert (future blog post, for sure!) and now it's 1:13 on Saturday morning and I'm just now posting Phil's recap from Thursday. So sorry! Enjoy! -Hannah

Have you ever arrived late but realized that you are actually early because the host of the party has less respect for adherence to a schedule than you expected?

Have you ever walked into a familiar place but all the faces have changed?

Have you just wanted a solid Hazy IPA but the menu is full of bullshit fruit experiments masquerading as the latest hotness?

All these experiences and more can be had when you show up 15 minutes late for trivia at FourScore Beer Company.

June 22, 2023, an evening like many, I arrived at a cramped table full of pent up trivia energy. I placed my number on a stick at my spot (this is how FourScore identifies where to deliver my DC-priced provisions) and slowly sipped on some Oh Jeeee.

The usuals were in attendance, DG, BK, HM, MMcD, and BS. I use their initials to protect their identities as most of them are involved in the heinous crimes that we all associate with “the trivia crowd.” On this evening I believe at least one of them was involved in what I will refer to as “polite arson” but that is just speculation.

As I prepared to listen to the host, Adam, read the categories, there was an odd lack of anticipation at the table. It felt like it was time to start but nobody was in the “let’s go!” mood. It was then it struck me, the question category is now pre-filled on the answer sheet. As science has shown, anticipation is often a greater joy than an actual event. In fact, anticipating a future event has been shown to have a positive effect on mental health. Based on the fruit beers, it is no surprise to me this establishment would shun mental health. Clearly depression and diabetes were on the menu this evening.

It was time for round one.

We were presented with a wonderful menagerie of categories. Frankly, when I think about the joy we could have shared had these been revealed one by one, it reminds me of other things that have been taken from me by this cold senseless world. For example, the ability to feed a group of 6 for less than $20 at Taco Bell, gone but not forgotten… While multiple categories brought forth conversations and discourse of interest, it is Toys & Games and Alice in Wonderland that brought us joy. All credit to BK with the clutch Wiffleball, a game named after a nickname some youths created for a strike. To a certain BS, with confidence! BS knew the croquet “mallet” was actually a flamingo (fun fact, their color is related to diet, their diet must be rich in carotenoid pigments otherwise they turn a shade of “sad grey”) in Alice in Wonderland. And just like that, round 1 was over and we had what is known only as a PERFECT SCORE.

Well… like most beautiful things in this world, it was time to destroy the perfect to create division so that the retirees have a reason to hate their neighbors and post it to facebook. That was round 2… We quickly picked up on “Tuesday” as the similar word in the song titles. A certain “me” not only had the assist there but also knew the next 2 questions. It was then we needed to reach into the depths of mathematical knowledge, Italian Poetry, for DG to pull out the clutch poet Dante. Finally, we were faced with the biggest fear known to all trivia groups, space exploration. While we can name all the Supreme Court Justices, the name of the various Mars Rovers evaded most of us. Those who knew, were wrong… And so, just like that, we lost a point. Goodbye perfect game… hello criticism from the retired neighbor.

Halftime happened, or maybe it didn’t. Frankly, at this point morale was so low I have no idea. Thankfully, an old friend HF showed up. HF was like the rest of us except completely worthless when it came to trivia. Like hardcore worthless. He didn’t even offer to buy me a beer. I saved him a seat. Seriously…

So after halftime comes the 3rd round. BORING! However, MMcD killed it by remembering Breaking Benjamin. I was impressed by BK and his knowledge of state nicknames. I did find it challenging to care at this point as perfection was already gone but admittedly these moments were still cheerful and the company was good.

There is this thing that happens between rounds 3 and 4 called 6-4-2. It happens after round 3 but before round 4. As I was accustomed to, it did happen at the appropriate time, immediately following round 3. It was refreshing to once again feel something familiar. I loved embracing the comfort of the known. Thankfully, some things are still sacred.

There was a fourth round and it was clear that most of the participants were extreme racists when the second question was answered. For the sake of protecting the identity of the most racist member of our group, I will not reveal how the fruits of his racism pretty much locked down this game as a winner for us. When the fourth round ended it was ours to lose.

We had a quick discussion about the final question. It was determined that although my answer was pure shit, nobody could come up with better shit to offset my shit suggestion. We turned our shit in and guess what, we were wrong. Guess who else was wrong? Everyone.

That’s how you do it kids. That’s how you win trivia.

Hits of the 1999s for the category start next week. I listened to a 1999 playlist on Spotify on my way home. Ouch… What a horrible year for music.

The Importance of Reviews

I feel confident that I've said this before, but today I'm writing a blog about it because it really is soooooo important.

"What's important?" you ask.

The answer: Reviews.

Allow me to give you an example. Here are my books:

Here are Sarah Addison Allen's (same genre, similar writing style) books:

Notice the difference in numbers of reviews? The more reviews, the more likely Amazon is to push a novel and the more likely others are to take a chance on it.

If you have read my stuff and liked it, the absolute KINDEST thing you can do for me is post a review on Goodreads, Amazon, and (now!) Audible. I get that many of you think it doesn't matter, and that it's a nuisance to do and that no one will read it, but the fact is, people do read reviews. And people do look to see if others are reading/listening to a particular novel. It's the bandwagon effect: "If others are doing it, I will too!"

I'm not asking for a five-star review every time.

I'm also not asking for paragraphs and paragraphs worth of text. A sentence or two is fine. Because... seriously? Reviews. They matter. And if you like me at all, I'd so appreciate it if you'd take two minutes and post a review for the books that you've read!

Thank you! ❤️

So mulch to do, so little time...

Because I'm a teacher, the second half of that title isn't entirely accurate. I have a lot of time at the moment, I'm just busy filling it with many different things: editing, writing, making art, gardening, cleaning... Today, I mulched.

This will be a short recounting of the experience because I am exhausted and I need to leave soon to pick up food from Food 101 to take to Kathy's house (we are each getting a tuna burger, rare, with truffle fries in case you were wondering) and I still have to feed my animals and corral Arlo.

Today I had TEN YARDS OF MULCH delivered to my house.

Ten yards is a lot of mulch. Even the guy who delivered it said, "You got a lot of mulch."

I had to get so much mulch, though, because I didn't mulch at all last year and I'm putting it on extra thick this year. Plus, I'm expanding this one spot in the back of my yard and planting more hostas there and that requires more mulch than usual.

So the nice guy from Nolt's delivered my mulch and we talked about dogs for a bit (mine were mulching) and then I got to work. With ten yards of mulch, it's obvious my Jeep is incapable of going into the carport. The entire driveway was blocked by a large pile of mulch, after all. But... I moved six yards of the mulch all by myself just today! I doubt very much that I'll be able to move anything tomorrow -- mulch, my arms, my legs, etc. -- but there's now a wide path that allows me to walk the length of the driveway. Assuming I can move tomorrow, and I decide to move more mulch, I think I can get the Jeep back into the carport.

All that being said... Amy, you should be able to come over for sushi and wine in the backyard in the very near future!

P.S. (I guess it's a P.S. in a blog? It doesn't matter.) When the above picture was taken, I had only moved about a third of the mulch. I just knew I was going to be too tired to orchestrate a photo opportunity when I was done, so I took the picture two hours into the moving of mulch.

Trivia Recap: 6/15

Dear Readers,

Today, I, Skoogmasta flex, am bringing to you a recap of the wonderous and infamous night that was Thursday night Trivia at Fourscore with Educated Friends. It was a day, like many days, but different because it’s kinda close to the summer solstice, so it’s really bright outside for The Night-time. Our mortal enemies, the Streetsharks, were there along with some other commoners, like the Railsplitters. Only five of us could make it that night- Dobie (Alex), The Artist (Hannah), Ping (Brock), and Samarah (Mary), and of course, me, Skoogmasta flex (Victoria). I can’t remember names, and so have created alternative names, much in the same vein as fake news.

Anyhue, the night started out dedicated to an adorable Black Lab mix named Forest who was a service dog at the table next to ours. The first question was luckily about a David Sedaris novel, Calypso, that both Hannah and I knew, as we had met the great David Sedaris in real life at a book signing. The second asked about a novel starring Artemis, Porthos, and Athos, and I whisper-shouted ‘THE THREE MUSKETEERS’ as these were the names of my previous chickens along with D’Artagnon. Dobie commented that she had named her finance’s truck Artemis, but concluded this was a girl’s name. Hannah said her finance must be happy to have a girl truck since he got to ‘ride her everyday’. We all laughed, except Ben, who didn’t show up. Hannah mentioned, “Ben never laughs at anything I say, and I’m hilarious.”

Moving on, the third category was called something in common, and involved the Declaration of Independence, Independence Hall, and Independence Day. Samarah took the win for the round by figuring out the name of a canal in Egypt called the Suez. We were going gangbusters by the time we reached the second round and were high on our own supply. Hannah looked at the next category, ‘Girls who Rock’ (AUDIO), and then let us know that she would not be able to help us. Alas, she knew every band. The next questions involved the brand Little Debbie, and Ping mentioned that he knew a kid in the third grade who had eaten three Swiss Rolls at once. He started laughing so hard that Swiss Roll actually came out his nose.

At this point, Dobie started laughing and spilled her drink. Danielle (the bartender) came to rescue her just in time, and a towel appeared before the rest of us had caught on to what had happened. It was magical, like a unicorn, or double rainbow. After this, we were hit with a hard blow. It was halftime, and we were handed a paper with 20 national flags. We struggled hard, but did our best, as the flags were in alphabetical order. The second part was match the Olympic field event with the distance of its current world record in meters. We decided the Javelin must be the furthest, and tried to work back from there.

We did terribly. Our lowest half time score, 8. Thanks for nothing Darren and Ben. Hannah left the table, and said she was ‘washing her hands of this’ (she really did need to wash her hands). The third round started with another swing and a miss. It was on movies starring painters, and although we came up with all the right painters, we messed up the order of the movies. We nailed the next two questions involving a Toyota name (the Tacoma), and the NATO alphabet + dances (Fox Trot and Tango). Category 4 was WWII history. For God’s Sake Ben.

Then began the debate of who had failed us the most, Ben (canceled last minute) or Darren (had a good excuse and told us in advance). Ping tried to be nice and said, “Maybe something came up” which was obviously wrong. Someone else stated that maybe he was depressed. I chimed in with, “No, he’s just being a Lamey-lame”. The history question involved the name of a God and D-day. We all went back and forth between Poseidon and Neptune (Hannah’s guess). We ultimately landed on Poseidon, the incorrect answer, thanks to Ben’s absence. Did I mention Ben bailed on us at the last minute?

The last question of the round was on Patron Saints, and the answer was St. Judes. The final round had the categories From Page to Small Screen, Kitchen Hodgepodge, Three Clues/One Word, Blues Musicians, and NHL teams. The first question involved a series with Southern Vampires, and both Samarah and I agreed it was True Blood. We were asked next about the French term for a helper of the chef and wrote ‘Sus’ then ‘Sous’. Still not sure how that’s spelled. The third question involved the four letter name of a golf club brand and a computer network utility. We were all stumped, except Brock, who came up with PING at the very last second. I ran it in as fast as I could and forgot to place a point bet.

The announcer yelled at us, “How many points?” and in true Educated Friends fashion, we all gave a slew of different answers. “ALL THE POINTS!” “NINE!” and finally “FIVE!” since this was the highest value we had left to wager. That is how Brock got his new name Ping. I should mention that Brock absolutely hates this name even though it is extremely cute. Hopefully he will get used to it since this will be his nickname forever. We got the Blues Musician, Robert Johnson, who was known for making a deal with the Devil to be a better Blues Singer. Solid choice. We magicked the last answer involving the sixth and seventh NFL teams to get 5 Stanley cups. The answer was the Oilers and the Penguins (we guessed Rangers and Penguins, but you only needed to get one right).

Going into the final question, we were still fourth with 134 points, but StreetSharks were first at 149. The question was on Gosh Darn U.S. History- BEN! Alex mentioned that sometimes Ben’s not here, but if Darren comes, we’re fine. I told Hannah I would write this in the blog since Darren would appreciate it. Then rolled out the final question: Which U.S. present was in office when Congress declared War for the first time? We guessed Woodrow Wilson (WWI), but the answer was James Madison. Only one team got it, the Einsteins, and we were not in the top three winners.

Even though Trivia was a bummer, and I agreed to burn our half time sheet, we all decided to go to the Mines for drinks afterwards. I ended up going home, though, so that I could thoroughly procrastinate on writing this blog. Like a true English teacher, Hannah gave me until midnight tonight to write this. With John Mulaney in the background for company and inspiration, I have finished my journey with you, my dear readers, at 11:19PM. I hope you have enjoyed this adventure with me.

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Readers, I leave you with this nugget of wisdom that I tell my dog every time I leave the house.

Don’t eat anything I wouldn’t eat,

~Skoogmasta flex

Big-Time Excitement Alert!

Today, my first novel Like A Flip Turn became available as an audiobook! How cool is that?! There have been so many people over the years who have said, "I'd read your books if they were available on Audible," so now one of them is available on Audible! (It will soon be available on iTunes as well.)

Now that I do have a book available as an audio, I still have some friends who say, "I'd listen to your book if you were the one who was reading it," but I'm NOT the one reading Like A Flip Turn. (I am hopeful those friends might give it a chance despite this because the woman who is reading Like A Flip Turn is AMAZING.)

I worked with a wonderful human named Cassandra Alling who does unique voices for each of my characters. It was so fun to hear how she brought to life this cast of characters who lives in my head! The entire process was so interesting. For example, there is one mention of Sebastian (Bas) in this novel and because his friend just refers to him as "Bas" and not "Sebastian," the pronunciation was slightly off when I listened to Cassandra's initial recording of that scene. I could have let it go -- it was only one syllable, after all -- but Bas Porter is the MOST important character in my life and he's the star of so many books that haven't been published yet. Four, in fact... with a fifth itching to be written. Running Through the Words is available, though, so you can meet him there in the meantime.

For those of you who have read Like A Flip Turn before, you probably remember that Jenny has a pretty unique ability... It involves animals and voices and the way Cassandra voices Fergus the dog is just the best! She absolutely nailed the Scottish accent! I love it so much!

Other things Cassandra does well:

Ruby Gallagher's voice. Right from the start, she knew that Ruby was spunky and strong. Cassandra never voiced her as weak and crotchety. Lydia's voice, because she sounds so incredibly young. It's wild to think that she can read entire chapters and make herself sound like a middle-school student. I'm still so impressed! Emotion. I kid you not, I listened to the last two chapters with tears streaming down my face. I'm not going to say why -- I don't want to give anything away -- but I knew what was coming (obviously) and that didn't matter. It. Was. So. Good.

I am really hoping she wants to work with me again because so many of the characters in this novel show up in other novels and I think it could be so fun for her to revisit them there! And see what she does with them at different stages of their lives.

Oh! And speaking of that... Mary and I have been busily editing Kick It One More Time (it's massive) because I'd like to get it to you this summer, and in editing it, there was an insane numbers of things that will be especially fun for readers if they've read Running Through the Words, Like A Flip Turn, Just Whistle, and/or The Way Back. It's just all so connected, you know? I told my mom the other day that (re)reading my stuff is like listening to her and her friends talk about the people of Adams County... because everyone's connected and everyone knows everyone else!

Alright. I need to advertise Like A Flip Turn's audio all over the internet before meeting my friend Erin for dinner, so I'm out. Thanks for reading!

If you'd like to buy Like A Flip Turn from Audible, here's the link: MUCH MUCH MUCH EXCITEMENT!

Got to meet my favorite author last night!

Last night I drove my mother and my other mother Amy and my other other mother Theresa to Westminster, MD, to hear Marisa de los Santos speak.

For those of you who may not know this already, Marisa de los Santos is my favorite author of all time. She has this rambling-but-spot-on way of describing a person, or a place, or a moment... and I love everything about it! She weaves her words together in these beautiful webs that rival anything Charlotte ever created, shimmering and glistening and perfectly articulated.

My very favorite part about last night was that Marisa recognized me when she was standing in front of her audience... and she waved! (That was my mom's favorite part too.)

My other favorite part was listening to her talk about her characters. It reminded me so much of my own characters, and at dinner afterward, Theresa commented on how listening to Marisa talk about her characters really helped her to understand the characters who live in my head... and how they actually live there.

There was another author leading the discussion with Marisa and his name was (still is, really) Matthew Norman. Funnily enough, the two have "known" each other for about a decade because they've been members of the same writers' group on Facebook, but last night was the first time they'd ever met. It sure didn't seem like it though! The two of them together was perfection. Matt is a riot. I mean, his delivery of just about every single line was laugh-out-loud funny and I am really looking forward to reading one (or all) of his books.

Here's my third favorite part of the evening: Someone in the audience asked about reading reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. Both Marisa and Matt expressed that Goodreads can be sort of cut-throat and that they used to be sort of addicted to looking at reviews when they were first starting out, but they've since realized that it's not necessarily healthy to look at them. Matt pointed out that he can read a few reviews about his writing being genius, and that he can craft his words better than anyone else on the planet, and then he can scroll down an inch on his screen and read that he has zero talent and needs to find a new career. And then Marisa pointed out that Goodreads reviews are very different from Amazon reviews because someone on Amazon might say, "The cover of this book was bent when it arrived, so one star." I thought that was pretty accurate and funny.

I got off track there... The paragraph above leads into my third favorite part of the evening, but my third favorite part of the evening was actually this: In talking about bad reviews, Marisa said that she accepts that everyone has his/her own opinion and that she won't always please everyone, but that if someone like her husband or her friend Susan (I think it was Susan) were to ever say they disliked her book, she'd never get over it. And I brought this up at dinner because TWO of the women I was with (and one of them was NOT Theresa) have said that they do not like my one book AT ALL. And they've said this more than once. They are, in fact, adamant about how much they dislike it. (They are also wrong; a lot of folks really like the book I'm talking about.) So I was like, "See? I'll never get over that and I will absolutely never forget it."

Overall, it was an absolutely fantastic evening. Also, there was something about Marisa de los Santos that made me remember the time Buddy and I went to see Adina Gewertz, who wrote Zebra Jungle. That was her first book, and I think it might have been also one of her first (if not her very first) author visits, and she was absolutely lovely! Afterward, I remember Buddy saying, "I could sit and listen to her speak all day" -- and that's how I felt about Marisa de los Santos! And Matthew Norman, too, because his voice is smooth and captivating and very enjoyable. And he's so funny! But Marisa and her glistening web of words? Her metaphors about sunsets and smears of jam? The fact that, as a kid, she kept journals of words that she liked and categorized them by "words that sound crunchy" and things of that nature? Yeah... I found her to be absolutely fascinating.

Oh! And I guess I should add that I got to meet her afterwards and she was sweet and kind and wonderful... but I wasn't expecting anything less!

Because Marisa's most recent book, Watch Us Shine, is pretty brand new, that was a focus of last night's discussion, and while I know many of you have not read it yet, here are some things that I loved about it for those of you who have read it. I'll try not to give away anything major, though, in case you wanna read this part of the blog and haven't finished the book yet:

"Telling hard stories doesn't make them more real because they're already real. Telling takes the power away from them. It makes them yours" (72). For whatever reason, that really resonated with me while reading this novel, and even though Theresa pointed out that I've said a similar thing to her before, because my therapist said a similar thing to me, seeing it in print was kind of huge. Pages 72-75, when Cornelia tells her big story in one huge, rambling paragraph? Stylistically, I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THAT. Piper's brief but necessary appearance. Because she is a shiny, pristine diamond in a tangled web of messy, messy characters... and I love her. I love that she is always right and she is always Piper and she always will be because she knows who she is. "I choose this one" (293). It made me miss my brother Pip so much because I'd give just about anything to play the choosing game with him again. I cried and cried and cried when I read that quote; I'm crying again now! In fact, I cried pretty much consistently from page 204 to the end of the book. I loved it. I loved this book so much. It is an absolute treasure.