F³A: Why I like school visits

School visits for me is one of the most rewarding things about being an author, and right now, I don't even get paid for it. Then why you ask? Why do I love school visits so much?
(to the left, Danny Marks, me, Marissa Meyer, J Anderson Coats, and Jennifer Shaw Wolf at North Thurston High School)

• I like to connect with teens. They are who I write for. I like to know what they're reading, what kind of books they'd like to see on the shelves in the future.
• I like to make teens laugh. I sometimes worry that they won't laugh in the right places of my presentation, but they always do.
• I like to shoot SWAG at them. They love SWAG and it engages them and gets them to ask question they may be timid to ask if they know they'll get something for it. Yes, I'm bribing them, sue me.
• I enjoy telling them that in this age of technology, word of mouth is still the best form of publicity for an author, and if they like a book, they should tell someone. This always surprises them.
• Mostly, I like to encourage and inspire kids to pick up a book and read, whether it's my book or one of the books I mention in my presentation (I mention a lot of books, it's not just me me me). I feel like when I leave, kids are excited about reading. Even if just one more kid picks up a book that normally wouldn't I've done my job.

If you know of a school that would like a guest speaker, doesn't matter where it is, Skype is a beautiful thing, I love talking to the students about reading.

I encourage all authors to do school visits. If you're nervous, climb out of your comfort zone. I was terrified at my first visit, but once I started talking, I was fine. And I feel that I get better and better with each one. Or, if you have other authors in your area, do a group presentation, I've done that too and it's great fun!

Okay, time for the Friday Scribbles.

Random Pandora Song (Nirvana Radio):

Book of the Week: May B. by Caroline Starr Rose. Terrifying and wonderful. A story about a young pioneer girl with dyslexia trapped in a cabin alone for months, including during a winter storm.

Redbox of the Week: The Vow. One of those heartrending movies. I love Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum, swoon.

Quote of the Week: “I bet if you look at the average teenager and the average adult, the average teenager has read more books in the last year than the average adult. Now of course the adult would be all like, 'I'm busy, I got a job, I got stuff to do.' WHATEVER! READ! I mean, you're watching CSI: Miami. Why would you be watching CSI: Miami, when you could be READING CSI: Miami, the novelization?”
― John Green

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Right?

Did you miss me?

Did you even notice I've been absent for a few days?

Megan who you ask?

I swear, I've been a scattered mess lately. I had a four school visit yesterday with some of my fellow Harbingers of Doom, Danny Marks, Jennifer Shaw Wolf, Marissa Meyer, and Jillian Anderson Coats. It was great fun, completely exhausting, and I had no idea what I was doing all day. I just let Danny drive me around and followed everyone.

I've got BEA coming up and feel so lost. Thank god I'm not planning it and double thank god for Lynda Mulally Hunt who is.

I'm doing a complete rewrite for Cheesy, aka An Unbalanced Line, some of you may remember this as my girl-who-wants-to-play-high-school-football boot from a few years ago. Yeah, well my editor likes the idea, but it needs a lot of work, like not even revisions, it needs to be rewritten. So I've been trying to do that.

One top add: two teenage girls with music, soccer, social events, a day job, continuing marketing on Never Eighteen, yard work, house work, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Okay, maybe not that last one.

I'd also like to get back to my vlog and doing video reviews.  (I miss my vlog and I'm sure my vlog fan, no that's not a typo, misses me)

What I need: I new driver, mine quit (college girl, internship, NY). Seriously, you may think I'm silly for having hired one, but she took a lot of pressure off of me. Well worth the money. I also could use a cleaning person, yard person, and personal assistant.

What I don't have: $ for all the above.

I could also use a deadline so I'm more motivated to finish rewrites.

Oh, and an agent. Did I mention I'm without one now?

This is what my life has become in the last couple of weeks. A ball of chaotic mess, which it normally is, but the ball got wound a little tighter and became a little bigger.

Maybe during the long weekend I can sort things out and get to fresh start number 7,948,849, but who's counting?

For the Love of Reading

In my busy world of working, marketing, writing, rewriting, Things One and Two, etc, etc, the one thing I abandoned was a good book.  Every year I tell myself, I'll read more, and I really don't. I think I read about 5-7 books last year. I'd like to read at least one a month, and that's pathetic I know, two a month would be better.

This year I'm up to four, which I suppose, isn't too far behind my goal, but still feels like it's not enough. I miss getting lost in a good book. I love the feeling of not wanting to put the book down, of can't waiting to pick it back up.

I finished a book Monday night, Velveteen by my friend Danny Marks. It felt so good to finish a book again. I picked another one up last night, Love and Leftovers by Sarah Tregay. I devoured that one in one sitting. I forgot how much I love to read, and of all things in my life to push aside in favor of others, reading should not be one of them. It's one of the only things I do for me.

Lately, I've been feeling the need for a little escape--to forget about where I am, who I am. To forget or not care what time it is. To travel to a place outside my own reality, be it Purgatory, New Hampshire, or Vietnam (one of the books I read this year was Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhaa Lai).

I am going to read more this year. I'm up to four books. I'm starting another one today. I'm not going to push aside my means of escape, my free therapy, my only thing for me, anymore.

Little Irritations

I'm really trying not to focus on the little irritations in life, but sometimes, you just gotta vent you know? So, here's a list of little irritations:

Toilets in which you have to hold the handle down for a long time to flush and the people who don't take the time to do it.  I mean, the toilet is annoying enough, but you, the person that doesn't flush it all the way, I mean, ew.

Too big lettuce.  I hate when restaurants feed you salad with huge pieces of lettuce that you have to cram in your mouth and you get dressing all around your face and then you look like a slob with ranch at the corners of your mouth, even though you try to hide it until you can bring your napkin up to your face.  Can't you cut it up a little bit more?

People who drive too slow. And yes, I drive fast, but I'm talking about people who don't even drive the speed limit. I have encountered this so much this last week. I don't know if the sun makes people stupid or just slower, but I mean, 20 in a 35? Come on!

Bicyclists who now longer tell you when they're coming up behind you. When I was cycling a lot, there used to be a polite phrase we used to warn walkers up ahead with their back to us. "On your left" or "On your right". I walk the Narrows Bridge a lot, and these cyclists, you can't hear them coming, and they zoom by you without warning. I mean, what if I happened to move an inch to my left at the exact moment they went whizzing by? Them: up over the top of their handlebars. Me: face down on the pavement. Lawsuit: Megan 1, Cyclist 0. I actually did have two very polite ones yesterday, one with a bell, and one who warned us and then even said thank you when we moved aside. Unfortunately, that is not the norm.

That's it for today. Got any irritations you'd like to get off your chest this morning?

Monkey Madness Monday: Mother's Day Weekend

Um, I couldn't decide. They were all too cute, the baby monkeys with their moms. I had a really great Mother's Day weekend. I took off to Portland, OR for the weekend with my boyfriend, Mike (he doesn't like to be called boyfriend, but the only other name I can think to call him is Jerk and that just doesn't seem nice. {disclaimer: I'm kidding} ) We got there late Friday afternoon. Traffic wasn't bad at all. Our hotel was nice, they gave us free drinks at happy hour, two each, plus soup and salad (salad left a lot to be desired). Then we went out on the town for a bit.

Saturday, Holly Cupala happened to be in Portland for a book signing, so Mike and I arrived early to see if there was anything to do in the area. Unless we wanted to load up on coffee, food and beer, there was nothing to do.

So we hopped back in the car and headed to the waterfront where there was some kind of Doggie Run (um, yeah, those of you who know me probably know this was no thrill). Saturday Market was also taking place, so we shopped around a bit until it was time to go back to the book signing.  The weather was gorgeous, so the walk was really nice.

Back to Holly. She read from her book, Don't Breathe a Word, which sounded fantastic, she gave away prizes (one was Never Eighteen, she's so sweet), I bought her book, got it signed, she gave me some swag for Things One and Two, and we headed back to our hotel. (BTW, Holly just recently had a baby boy and he is adorable and she looks great)

Then came the reason we were in Portland to begin with, Cirque de Soleil's show, Ovo. I'd never been to a Cirque show, Mike had been to at least four (I think, don't quote me). It was amazing, colorful and funny. And oh my god, the acrobatics. GASP! People were spinning things...and people...and doing things the human body has no reason doing. There was jumping and flipping and people flying in the air. And there was beauty and sitting on the edge of your seat and clapping and did I mention the gasping? There was one part in which there was a spider, which I don't like anyway, but she was so flexible I almost wanted to puke. It was kind of gross and I was pretty sure she was going to break her neck or some other important body part.

Then we came home early Sunday, I grabbed my Things (One and Two) and went to my parents house and sat in the sun, swam, read, and barbecued burgers and zucchini and made caprese salad. The weather was perfect, the company was perfect (aside from my girls, my sister, niece and nephew came down, and Mike came down after spending time with his mom).

So, all in all a beautiful, sunny, wonderful weekend. What did you do?