July 2011
35 posts
A Love Letter to the Mall →
I absolutely love this story by Ann Hood about her time as a teenage Jordan Marsh model or a “Marsha Jordan” girl at the Warwick Mall in Rhode Island.
1 tag
9 tags
3 tags
Sugar Rush
stephennaps:
Another movie idea from my old blog…
Sugar Rush Four innocent kids from Encino fall under the influence of a charismatic West Hollywood dessert chef, and after a whirlwind summer of decadent overindulgence, they fall headfirst into the upside-down world of sugar addiction. Genre: Food-porn morality tale. Translation: Requiem for a Dream meets Chocolat. 3D potential: ...
1 tag
Writing Excuses 6.8: What an Agent Does →
Insight into the business of agenting from my own fabulous agent Sara Crowe!
3 tags
3 tags
“That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.”
– Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake (via girlwithapen)
3 tags
“There is something in particular about summer that is poignant, because we all...”
– Sherry Lefevre from NY Times article “The Instant Heirloom House” (via jennyhan)
1 tag
Hunger Games
I thought I’d just pick it up and read a chapter… coming up for air several hours and 250 pages later. This is good stuff! Katniss is a badass!
Inara "I'd Rather Be Writing" Scott: YA Scavenger... →
inarascott:
Ready for fun? On Aug 1, join me and authors Josephine Angelini, Angela Corbett, Kady Cross, Heather Davis, Bree Despain, Marley Gibson, Abbi Glines, Colleen Houck, Tara Hudson, Elana Johnson, Alexandra Monir, Lisa Nowak, Gregg Olsen, Amy Plum, Beth Revis, Lisa and Laura Roecker, Sophie Jordan,…
3 tags
5 tags
Why Twin Peaks is so much better than The Killing
I’m moved to write this because many, many years after everyone else, I watched Twin Peaks. And I saw all of The Killing this spring. These shows have the same hook: a young girl in the northwest is murdered and all the townspeople are fascinated/involved/changed. The girl in both cases is attractive, popular and involved in prostitution-like activities, but the shows are very...
My Creative Business Workshop: Friday Night Lights... →
mycreativebusinessworkshop:
Posted by Jonathan L. Davis
Okay, SPOILER ALERT! At the end of Friday Night Lights, Coach Taylor had a choice. He could move with his wife to Philadelphia or he could stick it out with the championship Dillon Panthers/Lions football team. I think he made the right choice by going East, but…
1 tag
“I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in...”
– Edith Wharton
hlekren asked: I absolutely loved Starcrossed! I randomly ordered it despite my immense reading pile and it was definitely one of my top four books I've read so far this summer. It made me so crazy and so giddy and so angry all at the same time. It was just awesome.
3 tags
Eric & Tami Taylor
I want to be Tami Taylor when I grow up. Except…wait, I am grown up. Okay, so I want to be more like Tami Taylor. She’s smart, sexy, and so. damn. authentic. I love her. I admire her. And I also just really like her. Who among us wouldn’t benefit from a cup of coffee with Mrs. Taylor? I dare you to not learn something from Tami.
As it turns out, we could all learn...
5 tags
Starcrossed
Though I write contemporary, realistic fiction, there is a part of me that loves fantasy.
One of my favorite books of all time is The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. For my last two years of high school, I attended a boarding school in Rhode Island. The campus was on the ocean. There were woods, old train tracks, a church and a boathouse. The church was dark, but designed to always...
1 tag
“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most...”
– Henry James
1 tag
“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one...”
– Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)
YA Through The Ages: 1900-1950 →
mybookself:
Part of an awesome series of articles of Young Adult books through the years.
1 tag
The Penderwicks
It’s time to read these books. They’ve come highly recommended to me by a pair of sisters (ages 10 and 12) who, during a short elevator ride, were able to sum up the plot and main characters in a succinct, exciting, and charming manner. The younger one wanted to tell me more, but the older one stopped her, telling me I’d have to read them myself to find out. I’m in.
Deliberately Aimless: My Creative Business... →
stephennaps:
mycreativebusinessworkshop:
Posted by Jonathan L. Davis
1) Why isn’t Harry Potter considered a warlock? A warlock is a male witch. Isn’t Harry Potter a male witch? The term “warlock” is never used in the books or the movies. We’ve been robbed of something wonderful.
2) Quidditch is a…
3 tags
The Sky is Everywhere
The Sky is Everywhere is a novel by Jandy Nelson. It’s a book about sisters and loss and growing up and falling in love. It takes place in northern California. Ms. Nelson is a poet, and it’s apparent on every page; she writes sentences that make me swoon. As I read I found myself thinking, “oh yeah, I know just what you mean, that is what that feels like, but I never thought...
Ferries are transporting
Literally, yes. But there’s something about traveling by boat that captures my imagination. Soon I’ll be heading back to Nantucket to think about my next book. I took this picture last summer, on the last ferry out, after polishing off a hot dog.
“A lot of people see friends as something you have on Twitter or Facebook or...”
– Noel (real live boyfriends by E. Lockhart)
“It is better to be alone, she figures, than to be with someone who can’t see who...”
– E. Lockhart, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (via sorttoosoon)
2 tags
Harry Potter's relationship style
Looks like Harry needs a little therapy if he wants to find a healthy relationship. Check out this article about Harry Potter and attachment theory from the awesome blog Science of Relationships. It might help you cast your own (happy & functional) love spell.
2 tags
2 tags
Dear Teen Me
Love this blog, Dear Teen Me. The idea is that people write letters to their younger selves with thoughtful advice. I’d like to start Dear Adult Me. Teen Leila might have a lot to teach me. Just look at her. She has a napkin on her head and she’s about to down some Orangina and go rollerblading.
“Perhaps it is our imperfections that make us so perfect for one another!”
– Emma by Jane Austen (via effyeahyoungadultlit)
3 tags
Best Friends
I have about five best friends. Best friend from summer camp, best friend from high school, best friend from college, best friend from New York, and of course, my oldest, my childhood best friend. Izzy. At my recent wedding, she gave me a piggy back around the dance floor. I was in my floor-length gown and she was in a hot pink, one-shouldered number that had, to her great dismay, recently been...
