It was the week, without a blog

This week (last few really) has been crazy, busy, weird and reminiscent, to say the
least. Read through, the important stuff is at the end.

This is the busy...

1. Trying to promote my new book, which I've really done none of, so I've finally contacted bloggers and sent some books out. (If you're a blogger, and want to read Dissected, I'd love to send you a book, either paperback or digital).
2. Monday got together with my dad and sisters.
3. Tuesday had a bowling date with friends.
4. Wednesday promised a date to my daughters we'd see Catching Fire.
5. Thursday choir concert for my daughter and niece and nephew. Mine is in concert choir, the other two in show choir.
6. While doing all of this, every day I've been working on planning our office Christmas party which is no small matter. We do it up big at a hotel, this year we decided to do a theme and I'm also in change of the PowerPoint presentation of awards this year which I'd never done. I've worked on this at work and in my own time, probably 10-15 hours of my own time between all this other stuff. There used to be 5 on what we call the "fun committee" but now we're down to 3, making more work for us.
7. Aside from planning the Christmas party, I'm also in charge of putting together gift baskets and delivering them for our office, so this week I also had to take work and my time for 2 days to put together 54 wine baskets which I will be delivering next week throughout the greater Pierce County area.
8. We finally decorated our Christmas tree and took our Christmas card pics Thursday night after the choir concert.
9. Last night I start trying to design my Christmas cards.
10. Tonight is our office Christmas party.

I've had a blogger friend going through some stuff that is reminiscent of things I went through just a few years back. Things that eventually left me broken in the form of a nervous breakdown and marriage destroyed. Not that it is the sole thing that caused my divorce or that what I was going through at time wasn't probably building for years, but everyone has a breaking point and I met mine.

This made me look up an old blog of mine, when I was at my darkest and reread it. Not pretty stuff. This is one thing I wrote, I shared on my FB yesterday, "In darkness I shall roam until blindly, I feel around and find my way home."

That  is not the only thing that has been reminding me of the past lately. Some friends have been going down memory lane on Twitter. 

And I kid you not, I was on Facebook last night and it started spinning out of control and landed on 2008 and a post of mine that said, "Megan Messina Bostic is no longer contemplating the rest of her life, she's just contemplating tomorrow."

I've been a little down lately. Not just down, but I've been feeling lonely, anxious, angry and a bit out of control and my emotions are really getting the best of me. As with others, this is a hard time of year for me and not just because of the holidays, but I have my own personal demons to fight this time of year. 

I think the Ghost of Christmas Past is working in a strange way this year. He's using the power of the internet to remind me that no matter how bad things seem, there is light at the end. There is hope. There is a way out and just have to see it, to find it, but it's there.

He's even trying to tell me with the release of my new book, because the quote I found to write in people's books is this,  "...but without the dark, we'd never see the stars."

It's a good reminder to not lose hope when we are at our lowest. I also try to remember that no matter my problems, there are people worse off than me. I have a home, a job, food on my table and beautiful children who are part of that light that help me through my days.

Hope is a powerful thing. Never lose sight of it.

30 days of thanks: day 22

I'm thankful for sleep.

When I get it that is, which seems like a while now. A good night's sleep anyway.

I can't remember the last night I had a good night's sleep. Every night for the last few weeks I've been waking at 2 or 3 in the morning. Some nights I get back to sleep, some I don't. Like last night I didn't. I've been up since approximately 2:30.

And no, I did not take the opportunity to write. My brain is too mushy to do that.

I could blame the Mexican food last night, but then what is the reasoning for the last 90 days?

I long for a night where I fall asleep at a reasonable hour and don't wake until the next morning. Sleep in, even.

Until then...insomnia and I will be buddies I guess.

I want to mention one other thing, I'm in our local paper today with 3 other authors gone indie. Love if you'd take a read.

Okay, it's Friday, small miracles. Here are the Scribbles...

Pandora Queue song: a shuffle station with Mumford and Sons, Imagine Dragons, Black Keys, and more...Stone Temple Pilots, Big Empty.

Book of the Week: I've not started reading anything yet, been too busy, but going with Catching Fire in conjunction with the movie release. If you've not read the book, you should. You should read all the books. I truly loved all three of them.

Netflix of the Week: I started watching Orange is the New Black. LOVE!

Quote of the Week:

I hate John Green

Did that get your attention? 

I don't really hate him of course, I don't even know him. In fact, he seems like a really amazing guy and I have a pile of his books on my shelf, signed to me, I might add, waiting to be read (after I finish Divergent and read Catching Fire, yeah, I'm a little behind in my reading. Bite me)

So why do I mention John Green? Well, I was on Goodreads the other day *dun duh dun dun*, yeah, yeah, Goodreads doesn't bother me as much as it bothers other writers. Bad reviews don't make a dent in my skin anymore. They make me learn, laugh or say "Dafuq?"  I hardly go to Goodreads any more, only about once a week maybe, just to accept friend requests, check on my little book.

Anyway...

With many of my reviews, there seems to be a reoccurring theme: John Green's, The Fault in our Stars. I've not read it. It's one of the books that sits on my shelf, signed, waiting to be read. Yeah,I know they're all signed, but I bet yours doesn't say, Dear Megan, blah blah blah, Love, John Green. 

Why you ask does TFIOS pop up so frequently in my reviews? If you know anything about young adult literature, you know that his book is about teenagers with cancer. And if you read my blog, you've heard a million times that my book, Never Eighteen is about a teenager with cancer.

I don't mind being lumped into the same breath (sentence, keyboard stroke, whatever) as John Green, whether the review is flattering or not. Mostly, they are just stating that they like these kind of weepie books (sick lit as they're called now), and since they came out at the same time, many of the bloggers read them about the same time. 

I even had some bloggers say they liked mine better than Greens. Okay, one. Maybe it was one.

It was the last bad review I got that had me thinking (I really don't normally like to talk about my bad reviews, but I have a point here I think is interesting). "I’m sorry, but I think it was an awful version of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars. I didn’t find anything different in its plot."
  
So, with that said, this is my train of thought. Number one, it's obviously not a "version" of Green's book because I've never read it. Which is really not my main point at all, here's my main point.

My publisher HAD to have known Green was coming out with a cancer book, right? Same time, right? Would it not have made more sense to put mine out BEFORE his than after? It's been a little over a year since NE has come out and this has never really crossed my mind. But all these book releases are announced in Publisher's Marketplace. If a big name is releasing, wouldn't you want your title to come out first if it's on the same subject matter?

I don't know. My mind was just wandering since reading that review.

Anyway, on to more important things. Which Green book should I read first?

Looking for Alaska
An Overabundance of Katherines
The Fault in our Stars
Will Grayson Will Grayon or
Paper Towns

What do you think?

Okay happy Friday here are my scribbles!!

Next Pandora Song: Born to Die by Lana del Rey

 
Book of the Week: Since we're talking about it. The Fault in our Stars, John Green

Netflix of the Week: A friend told me about a movie called The Horseman yesterday, and though I've not watched it yet, I trust his judgement and it's on my cue.

Quote of the Week: "You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty." ~ Gandhi 

F³A: Thank you my readers across the country

I was checking out my sales on Amazon today. They're not astounding of course, but I am appreciative of those who have purchased and read my book.

So I'm here to thank the State of Washington, which of course is where I've sold the most books.

I'd also like to thank Virginia who also sports one of the top sales areas of Never Eighteen, crazily enough.

Then there's New York, which I'm sure my friend, Gae Polisner had a hand in.

New England has supported me a lot, I'm sure with help from fellow 2k12er Gina Rosati and her amazing librarian friend, Laura.

I'd also like to thank parts of Michigan, Florida, Kansas, California and Mobile, Alabama.

I'd also like to thank those who have purchased or taken my book overseas. I know it's roaming around in the U.K. China, Croatia, and Australia

And thank you everyone else who has purchased the book, borrowed it from the library, read an ARC, however you got your hands, I thank you for taking the time to read it. I especially thank you if you liked it. :)

If you haven't read it, well, you better hurry and get on Amazon, they only have three left in stock!!! lol. But seriously...you know. :)

Now for the Friday Scribbles. Right after I make a tuna sandwich. BRB.

Next Random Pandora  Song: Yellow, Coldplay (From Blue October channel)

Book of the Week: For the first time in probably my life I'm reading two books at a time. One is Catching Fire, the 2nd in the Hunger Games Series, the other is a so far, very good middle grade book called the Mapmaker and the Ghost, by Sarv Tash.

Movie of the Week: Definitely Hunger Games. LOVE!! Almost as good as the book.

Quote of the Week: "Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone."  ~G.B. Stern

Have a great weekend. See you next week.