Things I'm thankful for

Since it's Thanksgiving, it's obviously a great time to blog about some of the things/people I'm thankful for. So here goes, in no particular order and without explanation:

--The child. 

--My family. 

--My fiance.

--Amazing friends.

--YA Highway.

--My agent.

--Writing.

--Books.

--The Internet.

Hope everyone has an amazing holiday weekend!

RTW: Best book of November

So ummmmm...I kind of didn't read any books in November. I could blame this on lots of things, but I'll just accept my failure as a reader and move on with it.

But, like Kate, I did some research this month, which means I read some nonfiction. (Sidenote: does the word "nonfiction" sound weird to anyone else, if you think about it for a few seconds?) A couple months ago, I bought the super awesome book, The Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life. I'm not going to lie, guys. It's pretty much the best thing ever. (And hey! Amazon classifies its reading level as "young adult").

I read it through once when I first bought it, but this month I've been reading parts of it more thoroughly because I am using some prehistoric-like creatures in my WIP. I've learned all sorts of irrelevant things, too. Aren't you guys glad we don't live in the time of six-foot cockroaches? I love learning things, but I hate feeling like I'm learning things (you know what I mean, I hope).

So if you are secretly or not-so-secretly harboring a love of prehistoric creatures, I really recommend this one. (Also it has pretty illustrations.)

What was the best book YOU read this month? Visit YA Highway to share your link!

RTW: The Wildwinds Made Me Do It

This week's topic is super extra special. The first line of Kirsten Hubbard's LIKE MANDARIN (which you can win on YA Highway--have you entered yet?) is: "The winds in Washokey make people go crazy." This week's RTW prompt is to post about a time you did something completely crazy.

Well, I thought about it. I thought and I thought. I've done plenty of crazy things I'm not going to share with you all (sorry). And I've done crazy things that no one else would ever consider crazy but me. I've done things that are crazy in the middle school sort of way--deciding the bandstand at school was haunted and making a ghost club; getting lost in the woods; trying to get a creepy abandoned house unlocked late at night (it still freaks me out that we did that. That place is so scary you have no idea). Things that are crazy in an "I can't believe I stayed up that long" kind of way--driving straight from Ithaca, NY to Ashland, ME and then continuing on to Presque Isle like there wouldn't still be donuts if we waited until the next day; late night chats with friends followed by early morning classes; driving from Connecticut to Ashland overnight because it seemed like a great idea until the morning when we realized one of us was going to have to not nap and watch the baby.

But really the craziest thing I ever did? Deciding to date my fiance. The whole story isn't that interesting if you weren't there, but it's one of the most spontaneous decisions I've ever made. I barely knew him, was going back to school--seven hours from where he went to school--in a week, but those are the things that made me decide, what the hell, why not? If it didn't work out, we wouldn't have any of those awkward post-breakup run-ins. And if it did, then it was a risk worth taking. And it did work out. So there you go.

Want to share something crazy you have done? Visit YA Highway, add your link, get an extra entry to win an ARC of LIKE MANDARIN. And you don't have to be embarrassed by your crazy--you can blame it on the wildwinds.