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general

i haz no words…

abby mumford

…so here, read theirs:

WRITING ADVICE by janice hardy. seriously, everything she says is this “AHA! LIGHTBULB! IS THAT YOU, OPRAH?” moment. the only downside is that she posts so frequently, i find it hard to find the time to read every post because each one deserves to be read with a fine tooth comb. or with a pen and paper for notes. or with a glass of wine. you know, how ever you roll. (also? her books are so so fun. THE SHIFTER and BLUE FIRE.)

HILARITY by allie. this is seriously funny business.

THE SPACE BETWEEN by lauren miller. a post i’ve linked to before but i’m linking to it again because i can’t stop thinking about it. it usually crosses my mind as i glance at the clock which reads 2:15am, 3:27am, 4:12am, 5:34am, etc.

CONVERSATIONS WITH STRANGERS. i came across this blog from her other tumblr site: HGRB. that is a lighthearted blog and perhaps this one started as one too, but it’s evolved into something more. she says this started as a way to combat her shyness and i must say, it’s working. she comes across as confident, witty, and interesting. plus, she always manages to say so much more than just what she writes in each short post. this is a read between the lines keeper!

READING RECOMMENDATIONS by michelle hodkin. a lot of buzz is swirling about michelle’s upcoming novel THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER and while i’ve read the first chapter (and sufficiently scared myself), but aside from all that, i’ve had a few interactions with her on twitter and she is awesome. not to mention yesterday she was giving away free book recommendations (based on the last 3 books you’ve read) in the comments section of the post. her point was that we should all break out of our reading habits. re-reading the comments section is a great way to add to your own TBR list.

this is what my life feels like right now.

anything else YOU’D like to add?

feelings

from their head to the silver screen + a winner

abby mumford

firstly, because i hate waiting, i’m going to announce the winner of the WHERE SHE WENT contest right now. yup, right here at the top of the post. you’re welcome.

congratulations, KELLY B, for this comment:

“She went for a ride
With her guy by her side
They stopped for a pop
And put down the top
He leaned in for a kiss
And trust me, didn’t miss
After, she floated home
Where was she…I say Rome”

because, poetry. enough said. (KB, email me your mailing address and i’ll get the book right out to you!)

and now onto other news. as you know, HUNGER GAMES by suzanne collins is one of my most favoritest books ever and if you didn’t know, it’s being turned into a movie. suzanne collins herself wrote the screenplay, so i’m feeling like this has a shot at reaching a level of awesomesauce that most books turned into movies don’t reach.

and then this week, the castings for the boys in the movie stopped being rumors and  started being confirmed. so now, the main three actors have been finalized. the ladies over at forever YA do a good job of breaking down their (and consequently, my) thoughts, so i won’t ramble on about that when you can just read it here.

it got me thinking though about why fans are so passionate about the actors chosen to portray their favorite literary characters when a book goes to the silver screen. it may seem like a silly thing to get riled up about, but really, it’s not because it goes a little something like this:

author writes book. it belongs to the author.

agent and editor read book. it belongs to author, agent, and editor, as they’ve all made their editorial suggestions, etc.

book is released into the wild where boys and girls and lads and lasses and men and women pick it up, read it, and it suddenly belongs to THEM. they read the author’s words, but they have to use their imagination to picture the characters and places and plots and you bring your own life experience to the page, so the author’s words may direct you here or there, but it feels like YOUR book, YOUR characters, YOUR friend and that is why we so desperately wish our voices could be heard in the casting room. we want to make sure the characters look on screen like they do in our brains.

i know movies and books have different limitations and strengths and weaknesses, so there is a reason most authors have no say in the movie making part of their book, but i can’t help but wish the author, the person who originally dreamt up the story, could have more input. as if movies don’t take long enough to produce, adding that step would probably muck things up even more, so that’s why they let the professionals decide and not the author or the public, but still, HUNGER GAMES is an important movie (to me) and i want it to be right. i don’t know much about the boys they picked, but sister E claims they are good choices, so i’m going to put aside my initial disappointment and hope their acting chops and hair dye match the characters in my head.

plus, THIS ARTICLE makes some valid points and will help me to trust in the professionals who are putting this movie together. and now, we wait until march 23, 2012.

are you excited about the HG cast? don’t care? have you had a book hit the big screen which made you fall in love with the story all over again? saw the movie and held an impromptu wake for the book that died on screen?

book club

WHERE SHE WENT (to japan)

abby mumford

first, there was THIS. and i was blown away.

next, THIS was written. and i couldn’t wait.

then the earthquake and tsunami happened and we all joined together for japan. including this contest by @gayleforman:

RT @gayleforman 10 signed #WhereSheWent. I give $1 to Japan Red Cross for every tweet. You tell me what selflessness is.

for those who don’t speak twitter-ese, let me decode for you. there are two parts. (1) gayle had 10 signed copies of the sequel WHERE SHE WENT and she was going to give them away to those who told her what selflessness was. (2) for every tweet TO her and ABOUT the contest, she would donate $1 to the red cross to help the japanese relief efforts.

the tweets were flying! it was quite cool to read all the other entries. some were serious. some were funny. ALL were helping the red cross. i did my part to spread the word about the contest and then i entered. twice. because selflessness is such a big word, it needed two entries. here were my entries:

@gayleforman selflessness is you donating to the red cross just because we pushed a RT button. #whereshewent

@gayleforman selflessness is my mom. any mom. all moms. well, most moms. #whereshewent

then, i went back to work because well, that’s what i do. plus, they say the good stuff happens when  you least expect it/you aren’t looking. i  checked back into twitter around 5 and found out this:

RT@gayleforman: @abbymumford You get one. For general awesomeness. And specific. [and then she put in some technical information.]

did one of my favorite authors really just pick me? AND call me generally and specifically awesome? heck yeah she did. my winning streak sure is thriving! and NOW, i’m forwarding on the good will and good cheer in two different ways.

(1) gayle has inspired me not only to be a better writer, but to be better, in general, in life, so i’ve donated to shelterbox, the harvard square bake sale, and to the american red cross to benefit japan. it wasn’t much, but i’m happy to add what little i can.

(2) by staging my own contest. that’s right. i’m giving away a brand new (not signed, sorry) copy of WHERE SHE WENT. all YOU have to do, dear readers, is comment below and tell me WHERE SHE WENT.

(you can answer any way BUT seriously because i do not approve of spoilers. the book was just released today, so if you have finished it already, power to you!)

and, GO.

oh wait, i should mention you have until THURSDAY APRIL 7 at 5pm EST to enter. the winner will be announced during my next post on FRIDAY APRIL 8.

now, GO.

feelings

scary 101

abby mumford

it’s a well known fact i’m a wuss. i blame it on my overactive imagination that takes a tiny seed of truth (a pineapple, a monster in the closet, a murderer upstairs while i’m babysitting, an alien, a man hiding in the dark corner, a ghost) and expands it until i am shaking and crying and LIVING MY WORST NIGHTMARE. knowing this about myself has helped me to be proactive about this over the years. i’ve stopped watching scary movies. heck, i’ve even stopped watching scary movie previews. when commercials come on (yes, i know. i watch commercials. i don’t have a DVR. i’m so ancient), i can hit the mute button faster than the first note of the scary music can finish.

i don’t have a finely tuned response towards scary books, though. sure,  i know not to read anything with stephen king on the title, but what about one that says susan beth pfeffer?

LIFE AS WE KNEW IT is easily one of the scariest things i’ve ever read because IT COULD HAPPEN. (it could totally occur within the next ten years. or fifteen. or two.  even with all the technology available today, weathermen are still wrong A LOT, so what’s to say an astronomer or NASA expert couldn’t be way off as well?) this book is also one of the most mesmerizing things  i’ve ever read. i couldn’t stop reading, couldn’t put it down, actually, wait, i did put it down once when i went to check the pantry to make sure there were enough canned goods in there. (read it, you’ll see.) i read this two christmases ago and i STILL think about this book on a weekly basis, which means it should be on my top ten list of great books, but for some reason, i never consider it. probably because it scares the bejeezus out of me and i do my best to forget it, but IT WON’T LET ME. just when i think i’m over it, something like the supermoon happens and i’m right back in the trenches with miranda. this doesn’t make it a bad book. it just makes it a bad book for those that are wusses like me.

although, honestly, even that’s a lie. (see what scary books do to me? they make me lie!) because as a “writer”, this is the kind of book i want to write. no, no, not a scary one, but rather one that drapes itself over your shoulders and covers you from head to toe and wriggles into your brain so you can NEVER FORGET. NEVER. EVER. EVER. NEVER. NOPE.

in fact, i think it makes it my next recommendation of what YOU should read.

note: there are two other companion novels in this series: THE DEAD AND THE GONE (book 2) and THE WORLD WE LIVE IN (book 3), but  i didn’t realize that at the time, so i read book 3 before book 2 and was a bit confused at some of the missing details. i actually haven’t even read book 2 yet. hmm, while you read book 1, i’ll read book 2. deal?

feelings

pressure

abby mumford

i am one of the few people i know who does NOT work well under pressure. the few times i’ve procrastinated, something has come up at the last minute and i’ve had to choose — finish the model of Westminster Abbey/pass the class or skip school for a day/with mother’s help in both skipping school and with model building (hey, i was in the 4th grade). that was a tragic day because i had to SKIP SCHOOL and ask my mom for help. sure, some kids would be cheering, but i was just worried about all the work i’d have to make up.

another time, i choose to wait to fill up my car’s tank of gas until the day of departure which resulted in having to wait 45 minutes at the gas station (long story) plus, that 45 minutes allowed all the other cars to leave work and hit the road which added up to two more hours on the highways.

the reason why i have pressure on the brain (other than this cold i developed on friday) is that i witnessed two of the best procrastinators i know at work. one being brother G and the other being my uncle T. and they pulled off the best videos/presentations of the night (i’ll tell you about the party at a later date). i don’t know about uncle T, but i know brother G has my mother’s ability to stay up until the wee hours of the night, which helps when your deadline is only hours away. me? i’m a sleeper. a napper. a go to bed early-er. a wake up later. i’m pretty much always tired which severely hinders things when a deadline is only hours away and which is a driving factor of why i don’t adhere to the “why do something today when it can wait until tomorrow” but rather to the “why do something today when i could have been done yesterday.” (i wonder if being a night owl (or a really early bird) helps with this procrastination thing…?)

yes, i’m the girl who, when applying to undergraduate colleges, told my mother that if she didn’t read my essays by week’s end, i was going to mail them in without her comments. she’d had them for two weeks, but yes, i gave my mother a deadline, which was still weeks ahead of when the actual applications were due. me, who had lacrosse practice and games six days a week plus all sorts of school work plus friends to see plus books to read for fun on top of all that.  my mom still laughs about it to this day mainly because she was the one nagging my other siblings about writing their essays whereas i was the one nagging her. (oh man, how early are the signs? i am becoming my mother!)

this is the only “good” way i differ from my siblings: i stay on top of things (tee hee). i blame G and J because they are both so naturally smart, i had to study extra hard to be able to match the grades they brought home. and then there’s the whole blushing thing. it’s bad. still is. but i figured if i was prepared with the answers (well, except for math class), perhaps i wouldn’t blush when the teacher called on me. didn’t work, but i didn’t stop trying. some call this tenacious or ambitious. others call it stubborn. it depends on if your glass if half full or half empty.

what’s the point of all this? there isn’t one, really, but everyone either is a procrastinator or knows one and in my cold medicine ravaged brain, this is the post you’re getting. talk to me about your procrastination efforts. ever get into a jam you couldn’t get out of or are you the type who spins gold out of dust?

(seriously, talk to me here. i want loads of comments. this is a general topic, so i KNOW YOU CAN RELATE TO IT. speak up. your voice is important! *offers cookies*)

p.s. speaking of pressure, i don’t recommend flying when you have a cold. the part where the plane descends for its landing? yeah, the pain will radiate downwards from your ears to your jaw to your teeth and back up to your sinuses until you’re forced to check your ear to make sure it’s not dripping blood from a ruptured ear drum.