Some Random Odds & Ends

*Warning: today's blog is in no way cohesive!*

I've been having trouble keeping up with random things... I've been having trouble keeping up with everything in general. Honestly, I'm in a place where I just want to write and ignore the world, but unfortunately I can't. I'm probably the only person not thrilled about the holiday this week because it's cutting into my writing time, but anyway....

First of all, thank you so much for all the honeymoon suggestions last week. Our budget was really insanely limited, so Miami was definitely the way to go, but the other suggestions have been noted for the future... hopefully one day we will have money for travel. We couldn't even afford to get all the way to Key West (it's a four hour drive from Miami, so would necessitate flying back from Key West instead of spending so much of our time driving, and flights from Key West cost 100$ more than flights from Miami), but we are going to stay two nights in Key Largo as we found an insanely good deal on a four-star resort so that is our one splurge. Suggestions for beaches, bars, restaurants (with vegan options please), or other must-sees in the Miami and Key Largo area are definitely appreciated. Hubby is trying to convince me to go snorkeling, but I've had this fear of swimming with fish since I was 19 or 20 and drunkenly swam halfway across a lake in Wisconsin in the middle of the night only to become paralyzed with fear about very large fish lurking around my legs, perhaps ready to pull me under. (I think I blame Kevin for this. I'm guessing while we were swimming he mentioned the large fish in that lake. It just seems like a Kevin thing to do...) But I suppose if I can see the fish, I can swim away from them... Anyway, we leave on our honeymoon on January 10 and are in Miami on Sunday (very late), Monday, and Tuesday. Then drive to Key Largo on Wednesday, stay there Thursday and return home in the evening on Friday. So yeah, suggest away.

On to the other randomness. I did some cool interviews recently, so please check them out if you have time. I did an interview with Oak Park 365/the Oak Leaves about Ballads and my relationship with Oak Park, the town where I grew up and the novel is set. It has some cool pics of me in Scoville Park, so you can check it out here.

I also did an interview with Diana of Stop, Drop, and Read where I talk about the piercings I've always wanted to get among other things. That is here.

And last but certainly not least, yaReads.com is featuring me as their author of the month! This means two lucky people will win signed copies of Ballads and you can enter that contest here. You can also read their amazing review of Ballads here. It's a review I am super proud of. And they did an in depth interview with me about Ballads (but be warned there are some major spoiler questions, so do yourself a favor and skip those if you haven't read the book), which you can check out here. In it I also choose the ballad that best suits my life. I'll be posting a guest review later this week over there about a book that is coming out next year that I am so crazy excited for, Harmonic Feedback by Tara Kelly. If you are a fan of my work, you will definitely adore this book. I'll post a link when I get it, so you can learn more.

Oh and I do want to pimp the reading I'm doing on Friday. I really, really hope that if you are in the area, you can make it out. Hometown events are always kind of nerve wracking for me. And I'm extra anxious now because this past Friday I had my first author event where *absolutely no one* showed up. I felt like such a jackass because I'd arranged the event and invited four super cool YA writers (Jessica Hopper, James Kennedy, Daniel Kraus, and Adam Selzer), but I guess no one realized that it was on New Moon release weekend. Apparently there is no completing with Twilight. *sigh* I was majorly bummed.

So anyway, now I'm nervous as hell that I'll be 0 for 2. So please come see me read at Barbara's in Oak Park this Friday if you can. Here is the facebook invite and the sweet flyer they made for me is posted below. Feel free to share them.

Okay, off to get some writing done. Tomorrow's blog will be more cohesive and interesting. Though I'm not making big promises for the rest of the week. I'm starting to get cranky about my lack of time to write.