Monkey Madness Monday: Writerly Stuffs

Grumpy Monday Gorilla

I've been diligently typing up these changes for Lori, the gal doing my formatting. Okay, diligently may not be the right word, but I'm doing it where I can fit it in. I've been working a lot at my day job and taking that work home, and have the BF now and something is wrong with my body that makes me want to sleep too much, which feels like one step above narcolepsy, and for which I'm making an appointment today, and I've been to music gigs and soccer tournaments for Things One and Two, but I have been typing them up and the beginning of the book has way more mistakes then they taper off, but I'm getting closer toward the middle, so there you have it...

I got to meet my 2k11 friend Bettina Restrepo last week. She was in Seattle for one night only on her way to a cruise to Alaska. I drove up to Seattle (about a 40 minute drive, but it was rush hour and I don't know Seattle, so I'm sure I was in the busiest part so tack on another 20 minutes). We had dinner in a little cafe called 5 Points, which looks kind schmoozy, but I'd give the food 5 stars. Then we walked around, stared up at the Space Needle, went into the Chihuly store (I had to inform her that the REAL Chihuly Glass Museum, which she wanted to call chilupa, and I couldn't blame her, was in Tacoma, and that our store had things you could buy for $20 as opposed to the $5000 items in the Seattle store). I'd also brought my copy of Illegal for her to sign, so that was very exciting.

Last week I also found out that Jenny Milchman, who I met through ABNA, is going to be in town next week, so I get to go to a book club and meet her. I immediately bought her book, Cover of Snow and will start reading it and pray to god I can finish it by next Thursday.  A normal person can, but a person like me who has not committed to reading a book since, um...let me think...December (don't judge me, I've been busy) is worried, but I'm going to read it as much as I can because I want to read it for Jenny's visit. So super excited about that.

Also found out that a panel I'm to be on was accepted to the Association of Writers and Writing Programs 2014 Conference in February. My friend Gae suggested me to this lovely graduate student who was putting it together. The panel is, In Sickness and In Heath: Writing About Illness and Loss for Young Adults. I'll be on the panel with writers Selene Castrovilla (The Girl Next Door), Jolene Perry (The Next Door Boys), Katherine Ayres (Macaroni Boy) and graduate student Roberta Borger.

So, good times and good news for last week...and getting close to getting that book finished. Still shooting for end of October release date on Dissected. That means I need to get my ass in gear. I have a few free days this week, going to make it happen.

Happy Monday.