Friday Four!

1. What am I reading? I think I have a little author-crush on Lisa McMann. I've been listening to the audiobook for CRASH, and I really love so much about this book. I think you may find it listed in my top twelve (blog sidebar) soon. I don't normally gravitate to books with paranormal elements, but Lisa McMann weaves that stuff in so well that I feel completely like I'm still in a real-world contemporary book. The only problem with CRASH is that it has a love interest named Sawyer, who has been the main character's crush since elementary school, and is forbidden to be with him due to family situations - all of this hits way too close to one my current books. So that's annoying, but, SIGH, I can't help but love this book anyway.
2. What ELSE am I reading? HOW I LOST YOU by Janet Gurtler. If you love YA contemporary and haven't read anything by Janet, you should definitely do it. She is an asset to the genre. This book was JUST released, and I should also mention that there were some pretty amazing books also just released this week. Like THE LUCY VARIATIONS by Sara Zarr (see sidebar top 12). If you love books about music prodigies, or just plain good writing, this (and VIRTUOSITY by Jessica Martinez) are great choices. Also, CRIMINAL by my author friend Terra Elan McVoy just came out this week, and I haven't read this one yet, but it sounds awesome and I can't wait to pick up a copy. I'm kind of on a book-buying ban at the moment, but I did suggest it as a purchase for my library, so hopefully it'll be in soon!

3. What am I writing? UGH. I don't want to talk about it.

But, okay, I will, because this is my blog and I'm supposed to be honest here, right? I've been plodding through a very tedious revision of a book that I have tentatively titled LIVING OUT LOUD. It's going so slowly and I'm finding lots of big issues that I have to somehow solve in the next draft. Trying to think about two revisions at once is overwhelming, so I'm trying to regularly remind myself not to do that. The tediousness is mostly in converting it from third person (Trev said...) to first person (I said...) and also half of it from past tense (he was) to present tense (he is). And did I also mention that I'm converting this book from adult to YA. It's a huge job, and to be completely honest, every morning I wake up hoping my agent or editor will send me something that is higher priority. Yeah, I'm not very proud of my attitude at the moment.

4. If you follow me on Facebook, you may already know about this (and find it incredibly annoying that I'm talking about it AGAIN). But this is one area I'm really proud of myself in. I did my first front handspring this week! I'm talking the first one in my LIFE. It wasn't great, but I did land on my feet. This is a big deal for me for several reasons which I'll go into detail about in another post. Also, I just got some breakdancing dvd's from the library, so this will be the next venture for my son and I.

The sun is shining, and every time I'm on my computer I find myself wishing there was a laptop that was as clear in the sun as indoors. Like my Kindle. This is what I want: a laptop with e-ink. Is there such a thing? Will there every be such a thing?

Anyway, hopefully you are having beautiful weather too wherever you are. Happy weekend to you!