THE CATASTROPHIC HISTORY OF YOU AND ME was a catastrophe for my feelings

THE CATASTROPHIC HISTORY OF YOU AND ME by Jess Rothenberg. 

This freaking book. I picked it up because it immediately made me think of Giselle and since I'm all about reading the things similar to my WIP (yes I know that makes me weird) I snatched it up and devoured it. And you should do the same. 

This book had me in tears. That awful pain behind your eyes, I WILL NOT CRY, kind of hurt that sneaks up on you and makes you die a little. Books that claw at my emotions like that are pretty rare but this is definitely one of them. In the best way possible. 

As Brie, the girl who literally died of a broken heart, progresses through the stages of grief, she finds that her life was not what she thought it was and her death isn't what she expected either. The range of human emotion in this book is crazy and by that I mean crazy accurate. I don't want to spoil anything so just trust me when I say you will love Brie's attitude and voice as you laugh and cry right along with her. 

What's Up Wednesday #8

(how freaking cute are the new autumn WUW buttons?!?!)

1. WHAT I'M READING
   Yesterday at the library, I picked up THE CATASTROPHIC HISTORY OF YOU AND ME by Jess Rothenberg and I am so excited to get into it. I started the first chapter (artfully titled Don't Your (forget about me) which makes my Breakfast Club-lovely heart purr) and the voice has me already. When I read the cover blurb, I immediately thought of Giselle (and my WIP by extension and I knew I had to read it. I know some people avoid things similar to what they're writing but I actually find it super helpful.
   
2. WHAT I'M WRITING
   I'm still slowly working on the GiselleBook but did I mention it was slow? So I'm writing some new words for G4 too. I got GREAT feedback from by CPs Jenny and Alex so I am all about making this MS the best it can be.
   
3. WHAT WORKS FOR ME*
   Lately, daydreaming has been so productive for me that I don't know if I can actually call it daydreaming. I've been getting an idea - sometimes related to my writing, sometimes not - and just going with it. Those idea journeys have taken me to some interesting places and given me some cool new ideas. I have a new little idea notebook that is just for these musings. It's a bizarre thing to look through but it's kind of cool too.
   
4. WHAT ELSE IS NEW
   I really like grad school, I am drowning in musical drama, I am bizarrely happy with life. Who am I? 

No, you just turned 25!

I can't tell you how many times this weekend I heard the words "oh, 25! That's the last big milestone then it's straight on to 30." While that doesn't exactly instill me with confidence, I am stoked to make this year the beginning of exciting adventures.
My birthday resolutions are as follows:
1. Make new friends/meet new people
2. Have new adventures
3. Find happiness in unexpected places
I'm pleased to report that my birthday weekend alone has already pushed me in the right direction. I started off early by tagging along to my sister's work happy hour on Friday where I even gave my number to a really cute guy she works with. I hit up a local production of Grease before staying up way too late to finish a grad school paper when there were other things I would have rather been doing. My actual birthday dawned and i spent most of the day in class (boo) but then watched Josie and the Pussycats with my family (this movie is so quality) before hitting the town with friends. I met up with that cute guy for birthday shots of Fireball (nectar of the gods why were you unknown to me?) then danced the night away at the drag club with my girls. While there, I got a tarot reading by a queen named Kitty who was so on point that I'm still thinking about it. On the way back to the car, we got caught in a torrential downpour that left us soaked to the skin and shivering but I really didn't care.
I could not have asked for a better birthday weekend. It set the bar high for the year to come but I'm ready to hit the ground running.

You don't get to call me that!

I will be turning 25 in just a few days and I'm trying not to freak out. It doesn't help that last weekend I had a musical fundraiser which plopped me right in the middle of a bunch of old high school acquaintances and one in particular that somehow made me revert to my raging 16 yr old self. I haven't decided if that is a good or bad thing yet. 

But this relates to writing I swear! When I wrote G4, I based a minor character off a boy I went to school with that everyone called by a shortened version of his name. Just as my MC, Mirella, does, I always called that by his whole name when I had a crush on him and when I moved on, I adopted the shortened version (also like Mirella). Sometimes I take "write what you know" a little seriously. #sorrynotsorry

Anyway, I ran into that boy at my musical fundraiser (you don't even want to know the details) and as I relayed my encounter to a few friends, I noticed the gradual shift back from short name to full name. As if that wasn't worrisome enough (Lavender, you are not 16 and five minutes after seven years does not change ANYTHING!), my best friend noticed it too. "You haven't called him that in years," she proclaimed as she waggled her eyebrows. 

So this tiny, insignificant encounter that I first found so interesting because I wrote something similar into my book has now got me thinking about names and diminutives. Several of my characters have nicknames used throughout the book but they are also referred to by their full names. I realized that as I complete this first pass of edits, I HAVE to examine my placement and use of short vs full names and those types of habits etc because what we call people matters. Would Mirella's dad only call her Songbird when she's singing or all the time? Would he only use Mirella when he's mad? Would it matter when her long-lost best friend calls her Miri again for the first time. Are these details important? After my recent experience, I have to think that the answer is YES. 

What do you think? How important is naming to you? Have you considered the role of nicknames  in any of your writing?