Happy Hannahkah

This post is going to be better than usual because this post is not about me.

It's about hannah moskowitz, whose twitter and formspring are oh-so stalkable,

Whose love for Sam Winchester is unrivaled and also really cute,

Who wrote a few books, a couple of which I've read and loved to pieces,

Whose first middle grade came out today,

Whose characters will not get out of my head,

Who feeds and cares for and answers the silly questions of her magic gay fish,

And did I mention that ZOMBIE TAG is OUT and everyone everywhere should buy it? That's very important. All the Barnes & Nobles in my (admittedly miniscule) state are out of them already, meaning my life has become signifigantly more tragic (I have to ORDER THINGS? And WAIT?).

I'm going to post some photos of my hannahkah present, because unfortunately you can't scan painting. Instead of just using an image hosting site like I usually do, I decided to write a little something to go with it. 'Cause hannah is awesome.

I heard about hannah on twitter, which is the second-best place to hear about hannah, the first being in the vicinity of someplace where you can buy hannah's books, but that wasn't me. I found her twitter account first. I'd never read anything by her. Usually when I have not read an author's books I wait to follow them until I have, because this is one of the things I decided when I got on twitter so I wouldn't end up following a bajillion people. I did not do this with hannah. I followed her right away, because I thought she was funny. Actually, I very nearly beta-read sparklyfairyprostitutes for her before I'd read one of her published books. I think I started Invincible Summer about a day before sparklyfairyprositutes. Both of which I loved, bits and pieces, you know. But I already loved hannah before I read either, because it stuck in my mind that she was some kind of epitome of awesome. Which is not untrue.

hannah is, like, the highlight of my day. I know when I tweet her exciting things her responses will be in ALLCAPS and possibly include smiles and hearts ( :D <3 :D ). I know if I ask her anonymous questions she will respond honestly (unless the questions are dirty, but I swear I am not the one sending the dirty question) and by God is her honesty refreshing and sometimes a bit squick, in the best way. What I'm saying is, it's an honor to interact with hannah and read her books. Thank God for the internet!

So happy hannahkah, hannah moskowitz. Long live the provider of fish food.



The words are from The Hollow Men by T. S. Eliot. I haven't read the entire poem, but I found the lines "Between the idea/ And the reality/ Between the motion/ And the act/ Falls the Shadow" and for me it represents something which I, and I suppose writers in general, am very afraid of, yet it's beautiful. It makes me think of sparklyfairyprostitutes in a few ways. Also, I apologize for the horrible picture quality.

So, I dropped off the face of the earth...

Am I back?

Well, not really.

Things have kind of changed. I'm in college. I'm right in the middle of a first draft. I'm working on a secretproject. I'm helping a friend illustrate her novel for self-publication.

In short, I am busy. Like everyone else on the planet. But because this blog is a lonely little place anyway, it is really easy to forget about. I'm not quite ready to re-commit myself to regular blogging, especially because of the secretproject, which probably won't be ready for quite a while so I'm not going to talk about it yet.

In short, I'll be around. Not regularly. I'll probably still post more words on twitter per month than I do here. But things are in the works, promise.

The things I do to motivate myself.

Best wishes!

Top Ten Tuesday - Freebie Week

Top Ten Tuesdays is a blog meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This is a free week, where we're allowed to chose our own topic. Since I, as per usual, was late to this bandwagon, I decided to pick a topic from the Top Ten Tuesday vault, because looking at that list always makes me a bit wistful. I love quotes, so I chose the topic of my top ten favorite book quotes. This is going to be hard. To make it easier on me, these are in no particular order.

1. Calcifer, Howl's Moving Castle: "That's magic I admire, using something that already exists anyway and turning it round into a curse." Howl's Moving Castle makes many interesting points about magic that are about more than magic, but this is one of my favorites.

2. Annabel Lee: "And neither the angels in heaven above, Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee." It doesn't come up quite enough just how much I love Edgar Allen Poe. Annabel Lee is my favorite poem.

3. The Motorcycle Boy, Rumble Fish: "It would be great, if I could think of somewhere to go." I really love this book. What can I say?

4. Lord Henry, The Picture of Dorian Gray: "The reason we like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid of ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror." Lord Henry's often ridiculous rants were amazing and hilarious. Not to mention amusingly scewed.

5. Finny and Gene, A Separate Peace: "'...when you really love something, then it loves you back, in whatever way it has to love.' I didn't think that was true, my seventeen years of experience had shown this to be much more false than true, but it was like every other thought and belief of Finny's: it should have been true. So I didn't argue."

6. Kerry and Ethan, Companions of the Night: "'In the movies,' she pointed out to him, 'a vampire could have turned into a bat or mist and followed me.' 'In the movies,' Ethan countered, 'Lassie never peed on the rug.'"

7. The Silver Chair: "She felt frightened only for a second. For one thing, the world beneath her was so very far away that it seemed to have nothing to do with her." I probably could've pulled sixteen excellent quotes from Screwtape or Mere Christianity, but I have a soft spot for this quote.

8. Sunshine: "I didn't know you could go on finding out you'd had stuff by losing it. This didn't seem like a very good method to me." There are a few for this book, of course, but I had to pick one.

9. Louis, Interview with the Vampire: "An artist, stealing paint from a store, for example, imagines himself to have made an inevitable but immoral decision, and then he sees himself as fallen from grace; what follows is despair and petty irresponsibility, as if morality were a great glass world which can be utterly shattered by one act." So many underlines... so hard to choose...

10. The Psalms: "You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy." Part of my favorite psalm.

I could go on. I could go on and on and on. I love quote darn it. Probably would've had a Good Omens quote, but I've lent out my copy. That concludes my favorite quotes. According to John Green, they say more about me than they do about the books. Comment with your favorites, or link to your posts! Happy Tuesday.

Top Ten Tuesdays - Underrated

Today's Top Ten Tuesday (a blog meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish)is underrated books... I might have a little trouble deciding what constitutes underrated. But I do honestly love all the books I've chosen and feel like more people should read them. Even if I couldn't come up with a complete ten.


Sunshine - It doesn't seem to get as much attention as Robin McKinley's other books, which is basically a travesty in my mind. I love love love this book to pieces.

Girl, Stolen - It's just good, darn it. I love it when everything goes to hell really quickly. I love heroines who are brave and resourceful. Concept to execution, there's little not to love.

Hawkes Harbor - Same with Sunshine, this book doesn't get much mention, possibly because when people talk S. E. Hinton they're thinking young adult, not adult fantasy. But it's really very good.

Invincible Summer - hannah moskowitz has awesome hair. Also, she can write amazing books.

Almost Perfect - Though it kind of irritated me on a few levels, it is, in the end, a good love story. The bittersweet character and realistic complications of a trans-gender relationship were really interesting and something I don't read every day.

Dark Sons - Just a very good story about a kid with a real-life problem sympathizing, convincingly and heart-warmingly, with a largely ignored figures of my religion. It hit close to home, but in general it's a wonderful example of a verse novel, not to mention a great male YA narrator.

Companions of the Night - Despite its quite odd packaging and title, this book was pretty much everything I ask from a paranormal. Good characters, engaging, and with some interesting twists. It's also short and stands alone, which I always love. It's better than some big vampire series I've read.

The Shadow of the Sun - If you have an interest in the complicated and unique history and culture of Africa, or maybe you sometimes forget that there are actually individual countries in it and they aren't covered with savanna and elephants, this is a great book to read. Granted, it's a little dated, but it really brought a part of the world that I'd always glossed over to life. And it inspired my internet handle.

The Man Who was Poe - Compared to Avi's other work, you could consider this neglected. I loved it, but then, there are few literary figures I find more interesting than Poe.

What are your underrated favorites? Please link to your posts and remember to visit the blog hosters.

Top Ten Tuesdays - Trends

Top Ten Tuesdays is a weekly meme from The Broke and the Bookish. Today's TTT is on trends: ones we like and ones we don't.

This was a little tough, but I wanted to see if I could name five trends I'd like to see more of, five trends I'd like to see less of.


Yay: Racial Diversity, especially in couples/families - The only character I can think of who is half-anything, yet with race not being a major factor, is Jake from DragonHaven. Seriously, I love mixed-race characters. I just do. There need to be more. And I have a Hispanic friends who really wants to date a black guy - sounds awesome, right? Diversity is cool. **After School Special Over**

Yay: Sub-genre fantasy - vampire detectives, comedic ghosts, etc. It annoys me when fantasy/supernatural characters are shoved into the dramatic/romantic/horror roles: the base characteristic of being such-and-such a creature doesn't have to restrain the roles a character can play. Mostly, I see this subverted in kidlit, sometimes YA. But there's always room for more in this fantasy-lover's book.

Yay: Fairytale Adaptions - They have to be good, of course, but in my mind there can never ever ever be too many. Not so sure how I feel about things like the Jane Eyre modernizations, but then I haven't really explored that yet. Also, I'd love to see people adapting Biblical or other religious stories.

Yay: Local diversity - especially for hauntings. I want to see someone whose apartment is haunted, instead of the big old house way out in nowhere. I feel like a lot of genres make use of out-of-the-way locals too much. I don't get to the city much, I want to read about cities!

Yay: Boys being kidnapped - Like, not trying to hate on boys or anything, but it is always the girl that gets kidnapped. I really like the complexity of the kidnapping trope, whether it's a the whole plot or a sub-plot. But I can't think of one example where it's a boy being kidnapped, or a woman doing the kidnapping. I can think of real examples, but not in fiction. Isn't anyone curious about how that dynamic plays out? Or, say, Stockholm syndrome between homosexuals? I mean, so many options. Explore, people. (Although, from what I myself have written, I have very little room to talk.)

Nay: The one-thing-that-changed-everything - because it is not events that change people so much as their reaction to those events. I feel like this isn't explained enough. Bella did not become a zombie because Edward left: she became a zombie because, once Edward was gone, she focused on his absence instead of the other things life had to offer her. This was not dealt with in a satisfactory way, for me. (I will make an effort not to use more Twilight in my bad examples.)

Nay: Stock Christians - So, you need to a stock unpopular for someone to bully. He could be the science geek, the band geek, the theatre kid, the alternative, the quiet one, the socially awkward. Or he could be the Christian. There is nothing wrong with having Christian side characters be bullied, but, to say they're a Christian at all, you're going to talk about religion. If that's not going to tie in somehow, then it's probably just going to get people mad and not add anything. Like that quote about not mentioning the gun on the wall if it's not going to go off. (I'm looking at you, Watching Alice.) And, is it just me, or are these characters always boys?

Nay: Non Co-dependent Relationships - as in, guy always protecting girl, never really needing help even when she's trying. Or girl is staking her whole identity on boy, and he's, well, not. Or one party is always bending to the other party's will, and when it goes the underdog's way, it's because the alpha is placating. Now, these are great examples of bad relationships, but I don't find this kind of thing appealing or romantic. A good relationship is two people meshing, each offering something, bending to each other.

Nay: Chatrooms/texting - Not a fan of textual communication, really, unless it's short and really important/interesting. That thing in Beastly? That was okay. Could've lived without it.

Nay: Bad good friends - it's one thing to have bad friends and know it. It's another to have bad friends and pretend everything's okay. It seems like, especially in romance, the main character's friends sometimes aren't very friendly. Or their relationship is so underdeveloped it's hard to tell what's going on. I mean, not everything has to be Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, but really.


What trends do you love, and what are you sick of? Link to your posts, and remember to visit the original post at The Broke and the Bookish.

Top Ten Tues

For this week's TTT, a blog meme started over at The Broke and the Bookish, here are ten books I've read that deal with a tough issue. Whether you agree may depend upon your definition of 'dealing' and possibly your definition of 'issue.' There were some I wanted to include but, uh, ran out of space.


The Book Thief - War (specifically WWII), the Genocide, Death

Bridge to Terabithia - Childhood death

Living Dead Girl - Sexual Predators/Abuse

Wintergirls - Eating Disorders

Kissing Doorknobs - OCD/Mental Illness

Deerskin - Rape/Incest

Almost Perfect - Transgender Relationships

Dark Sons - Split Families

Will Grayson, Will Grayson - Gay Acceptance

Fahrenheit 451 - Censorship


What are your top ten issue books? Or is there an issue you think isn't given proper treatment in literature? Please link to your posts, and remember to visit the meme hosters!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Think Should Be Required Reading For Teens

Top Ten Tuesdays is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This weeks it's books that teens should be required to read. I took this literally, as in I think schools should put these books on their lists and make kids read them in a classroom setting. If I were doing books not to be read in school, I think a few things would be different.

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: While it may not be the easiest read, Les Mis has some important points about morality, judgement, and government, wrapped up in a darn good story. Also, having read this made it a lot easier to learn about the French Revolutions in History.

Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens: This actually was part of my required reading, for sophomore year, I think. For one thing, though I may not seek out Dickens, you cannot deny that he is a powerful writer. I also think that Tale of Two Cities and Les Mis should be read in the same year, for comparison.

Looking for Alaska by John Green: I thought it would be very hard to pick one John Green book. While An Abundance of Katherines is my favorite, I choose Alaska quite easily because it's the 'grown-up' version of a book that I think should be required reading for kids, so it's like two stages of the same story. (I won't say which kids book I'm thinking of, as it gives away an important spoiler.)

The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley: Outlaws has a pretty wide appeal; it's a classic tale retold in a light that grabs the attention of romantics and the rebellious, and the basic twistedness of the Robin Hood morality would be fun for discussions.

Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare: I like Shakespeare okay, but I feel like more teens would like him if we got to read the fun plays, like Taming of the Shrew and Midsummer Night's, as well as the tragedies and historicals. Also, Midsummer would be wonderfully fun for acting projects - Julius Caesar was okay, but I'd love a chance to play Puck.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: Beautiful, unique, and compelling, the least of this book's charms is that it'll help you care about history. One of the best things about this one - it can be read in conjecture with another common required reading book, The Diary of Anne Frank. (I'm a firm believer in reading more than one book on a subject, if you haven't noticed.)

A Separate Peace by John Knowles: Another that was actually on my required reading. A few kids in my class really enjoyed this, and the discussions about motive and friendship got pretty lively, so I think it's a good book to get teens talking.

Rumble Fish by S. E. Hinton: To go with the above, another book about betrayal with a bit more of a contemporary setting and attitude. Also, I'm sure you could spend weeks trying to root out all the symbolism and references used in this book. I understand why The Outsiders is the most popular of her books, but for classroom purposes I think Rumble Fish is great for discussion, even though it's harder to grasp. And it's short, which is appreciated in school assignments.

The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton: If I hadn't had to read this book going into seventh grade, I'm not quite sure I would've written my first manuscript that year. It really turned me into a reader and got me interested in the authors behind the words for the first time. Everyone should read the Outsiders.

Only one left? I guess I'll choose The Best-Loved Folktales of the World by Joanna Cole. This compilation of folk and fairy tales has a bunch of great stories, both familiar and obscure. The reason I chose this over other fairytale books is that it has the greatest mix of origins I have ever seen in such a compilation, as far as countries go. The lack of world lit in my English class has always kind of bugged me. And besides, I think teens need to realize that just because Disney strips them down doesn't mean fairy tales don't have things to offer as you grow older (not that I have or ever will outgrow Disney.)

And that's my list! Did you read any books for school that you really loved or hated? Any that you wish you'd read? Comment or leave a link to your own post.