YA Prom

So I went to both my junior and senior proms alone. No. That's not right. Without a date. I went with a great group of friends who made both nights amazing. I have no regrets. However, that doesn't mean I'm not going to have a little fun picking my favorite YA boy as my date!

The Dress
Short, fun, and flirty because I did long dresses for both my real proms.

From IZIDRESSES

The Boy
Levi from Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl who looks like Hunter Parrish in my mind (no tux needed)

The Theme
By the Light of Fireflies - because who doesn't want to dance with a hot boy in the twinkling magic of fireflies.

Ok, that was way too fun.
I hope you'll all join in. Check out http://www.alexalovesbooks.com/ to get in on the party!

Laini Taylor is a Godstar and I don't care if you don't believe me.

A little over a year ago I read Daughter of Smoke and Bone and fell in love with the universe that Laini Taylor created. I read Days of Blood and Starlight in the fall and was heartbroken in so many ways. Then two weeks ago I saw Dreams of Gods and Monsters at the library and left it on the shelf. I was so worried that it would rip my heart out and thought maybe I was better off not knowing what happened to the characters I had grown to love.

On Monday, I went back and picked it up. AND I AM SO GLAD I DID. I believe the chat below pretty accurately sums things up.

So I was reduced to semi-incoherent babbling by this book which is a pretty awesome feat. The only issue is that I miss them. I miss them all. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it so  I guess I really can't say any more. Just know that these characters are awesome. The story is phenomenal. The world is rich. And it is perfect. So perfect that it will leave you begging for more.

Go read this trilogy, you will not regret it.

xoxox
L.S. Mooney

ALL THE IDEAS!

I am currently 47,000 words into my first draft of Goodbye, Good-Goody Girl. But, instead of wanting to write the last 13k in this story, I have three/four really good ideas for new stories.

At first I said " WTF brain?! This is so not cool!"

Then I saw Jenny's post on TGNA about working on two completely different novel projects right now. So I told her about my ideas. And we had a great writerly chat about ideas, and writing, and motivation. And making our ideas reality. It is starting to sink in how close to being done I am with G4 and that I will have written a whole book-shaped thing from a tiny idea. So I could do it again. I should do it again. I will do it again.

At the end of the day, if our ideas are going to matter we have to do something with them. I can talk talk talk about the two especially awesome ideas I have for NA books right now. But they won't matter. Not really. An idea can live forever but if it is never more than an idea do we care?

Anyway, so I have awesome ideas that I'm writing down and holding onto for a time when I can make something with them.

What do you do when a new idea strikes you?


xoxox
L.S. Mooney

carpe diem ain't got nothing on Just One Day by Gayle Forman

I was drawn to this book because (a BUNCH of people recommended it to me and) I have this constant feeling that these tiny brief encounters in my life have greater meaning even when no one else seems to give them value. Just the blurb for this book made me feel like I wasn't alone in that. Actually reading it was like making a new friend. C.S. Lewis is credited with the quote: Friendship is born at that moment when one man says to another: "What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . " and with every new emotion that Allyson shared, I had that feeling. Throughout the book, I connected with Allyson in profound ways. 

Goodreads calls this book sweepingly romantic and it is. I mean she has this fairytale day in Paris then spends a year recovering before deciding she has to go back and find that fairytale guy. But to me, this book was so much more than that. It was a novel about friendship - learning to grow with old ones and get close to new ones, family - finding the nuances of being an adult with your parents, responsibility - paying your own way to your dreams, and self-discovery - figuring out how the sometimes clashing part of your personality make you who you are. This book, for me, is about so much more than romance. 
Don't get me wrong, I was dying for her to find Willem. To know why he left her. To know anything more about him. To know if they still had a chance. 

But Gayle Forman did something amazing with my emotions in this book. I won't spoil the ending because you should ALL read it but it left me profoundly missing its entire cast of characters and thinking about my own life.

Go read it. NOW!


xoxoxL.S. Mooney

Cover Reveal: ONE OF THE GUYS by Lisa Aldin

Coming February 11, 2015 from Spencer Hill Contemporary

Tomboy to the core, Toni Valentine understands guys. She'll take horror movies, monster hunts and burping contests over manicures any day. So Toni is horrified when she's sent to the Winston Academy for Girls, where she has to wear a skirt and learn to be a "lady" while the guys move on without her.

Then Toni meets Emma Elizabeth, a girl at school with boy troubles, and she volunteers one of her friends as a pretend date to make Emma's ex jealous. Soon word spreads of Toni’s connections with boys, and she discovers that her new wealthy female classmates will pay big money for fake dates. Looking for a way to connect her old best friends with her new life at school, Toni and Emma start up Toni Valentine’s Rent-A-Gent Service. 

But the business meets a scandal when Toni falls for one of her friends—the same guy who happens to be the most sought-after date. With everything she's built on the line, Toni has to decide if she wants to save the business and her old life, or let go of being one of the guys for a chance at love.

Add it on Goodreads today!



About the Author: 

Lisa Aldin graduated from Purdue University with a B.A. in English Literature. She loves reading and monster movies. She lives in Indiana with two cats, two dogs, and her husband and daughter. 

Learn more about her at lisaaldin.wordpress.com

Find her on:

Goodreads | Twitter | Tumblr | Website

It's the freaking weekend, baby. I'm about to have me some fun.

I just finished my first week of full time summer employment and I am LE TIRED! It is on that basis that I am asking you to indulge my R.Kelly Next to Ignition reference as my blog title.

I am super excited for this weekend. My good friend is turning 25 tomorrow and having a big party to celebrate. I am really looking forward to it. My goal for this summer, despite my new job, is NEW ADVENTURES. They can be small and quotidienne but they will happen. I need to live my life. Even if it's only a little bit at a time.

Also, the person I have been continuously friends with the longest in my life is in town for the next few weeks and he normally lives on the other side of the country so I am incredibly excited to hang with him and catch up. He's known me through all my "phases" and it's really cool that he still loves me. Sometimes you just need that.

Finally, a fun share. Today, I made a wordle for what I have done so far on G4 (44451 and counting). Besides being graphically fun, it really opened my eyes to my use of language and which words I rely on in my writing. Take a look at mine - does it make you want to read my book? And make your own here: http://www.wordle.net/create



http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/7921563/Goodbye_Good-Goody_Girl1 (click here to see it full size)

Feast or Famine

Feast scene from the Lutrell Psalter. 

This past weekend, I wrote 3000 words in an afternoon. That was more than I had written in the previous three weeks. You want to know the best part?

It wasn't even hard. 

My brain was ready to write and it did. The story had been stewing in there just the right amount of time to flow freely onto the page. It was honestly one of the best writing days I've had in recent memory. 

I know you aren't supposed to look a gift horse in the mouth but I can't help asking WHY?

I mean why this weekend after weeks of wanting to write and no being able to? Why those chapters when there are others I really want to write as well? Why did my internal editor finally take a day off?

I don't know if anyone can honestly explain it. But I know I want to understand it better so I can have more feast days and less famine.

Anybody have any real tips? I don't mean those "make yourself do it" writer's block tips. I mean real ways to get words flowing instead of trickling.

Anybody?

A Family of Readers

I love libraries. I love the concept. I can borrow and read books for free. And not just me, anyone. It is like the single most awesome thing people have come up with. I'm sure I inherited my love of libraries from my mother who took my sister and I to our town library at least once a week. We had special canvas bags for library books so that we didn't lose them or mix them up with the books we owned. It was both a regular occurrence and big deal to go to the library. I can still remember the smell of my early childhood library.

Anyway, the library in my town now is still pretty cool. I spent a decent amount of there in my school-aged years.  While I was away at college I lost touch with my town library and definitely lost my old library card so a while back, I finally got a new card and starting going back. The librarian remembered me and the shelf dedicated in memory of my uncle was still there waiting for me. 

Last week, I was running errands with my mom and asked if we could stop at the library so I could return books (I compulsively return books as soon as I finish them so that I don't accidentally lose them). We pulled in and as I was getting out my mom asked me to grab her something that looked interesting. Because being around my mom brings out my teenage attitude I said she should get it herself. Her response shocked me. 

"I don't have a library card anymore."

It makes sense, when I stopped going to the library with her, she kind of stopped going, she didn't stop reading by any means but the ritual of going to the library faded. So I marched her right into the library and up to the counter to get her a new card. 

Then I went off in search of my books. I only take out 3-5 books at a time. It's my rule so that I 1) don't become entirely antisocial while binge reading 2) don't lose any of them. (I'm noticing a reoccurring theme with a fear of losing library books - I'll have to ask Mom if I have a lost library book childhood trauma.) I picked out a few:  

And then I went to find my mom. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the table I found her at because it was hilarious. She had two whole series laid out on the table and a stack of DIY books. If I ever had any doubt as to where my love reading came from, it disappeared in that moment. I talked her down to 10 books. Take that in, DOWN to TEN!

I made fun of my mom (who is already done with three of those ten books by the way) but I am incredibly thankful that I come from a family of readers, where it was ok to spend a day curled up in a chair with a blanket, a cup of tea, a cat, and a good book, where it was ok to miss a friend's birthday party because you're not done with the fifth Harry Potter book yet even though you've been reading since you got it at 12:01am, where no one even says anything when you come home with yet another thrift store copy of To Kill A Mockingbird. 

I wouldn't trade my family of readers for anything.

Do you come from a family of readers or are you the exception?