Hello! I hope you all had a great and fun holiday season. ;) I think I'm almost getting back into the swing of things...almost. Thank you for the comments you all left me in my last and very old blogpost. I've missed you all! It's been hard keeping up with the blog because of a certain reason I will reveal soon in the near future. (Um, no, I don't have an agent. I haven't even started querying yet.) :D

So. Anyway, I wish you all good health and happiness to ring in the New Year. Do you have resolutions for 2012? Goals? Mini-goals?

I'm hoping to get back into writing and finishing my NaNo novel, which needed at least 10k more to end the story. Also, I have my other WIP Hidden awaiting edits. I think I've let it stew long enough. ;) My brain has really been in a foggy state lately so I'm hoping to get back my focus really soon. Must be all those holiday goodies. I swear my kitchen counter is overflowing with treats and chocolates and fudgey goodness, and I just can't...I mean, who's gonna eat them all? Good thing candies last for a long while, eh?

Well, I'll see ya when I see ya. Now that I have a brand-new laptop for Christmas (thanks to the hubster!), this writer is going places...or something like that. ;) 

Here's a picture of the cake my hubs and I made for Christmas--a Buche de Noel!

Hello lovely people!

Yes, I've been gone for a while. And I miss you all! But my health (and those of the people in my household) hasn't been well lately and has kept me away from the Internet. Alas, I may continue to be sporadic with blog posts all through December, but I'll try really hard to keep up with all of you.

I only resurfaced today to acknowledge blog awards that wonderful people have given me. Sorry this took too long, guys!

First off, from Jenny Ryan of You Were Going to be Fantastic is the 7 x 7 Link Award. Since I've already done this, I won't sort through my posts again for the Mostest and the Bestest. :)  If you missed my 7 x 7 post, well, here it is!

Thank you, Jenny! You guys should check out her blog where she posts chapters of a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story about a girl named Katie. ;)

Next up, is the ever lovely and beautiful friend of mine, Angela V. Cook of The Starving Novelist, who gave me the Beautiful Blogger Award. I love you, girl! Thank you ;)




And lastly, a more recent one, is the One Lovely Blog Award from Dean C. Rich of The Write Time. He blogs about writing and time management, people! If you're having a hard time trying to balance writing with life, go check out some of his posts. I bet you'll find something useful or applicable to you.


Thanks, Dean!

And now, for the awardees:

7 x 7 Link:

1. Erin Summerill
2. Rachna Chhabria
3. Suzanne F. Payne

Beautiful Blogger:

1. A.M. Supinger
2. Ashley Nixon
3. Caitlin Vincent

One Lovely Blog Award

1. Jessie Humphries
2. Peggy Eddleman
3. Jen Bennett

<3 to all. And stay healthy, everyone!

*cue Rocky Balboa's victory music*

BOOYAH!

Whew. Now I can actually go to bed at a decent hour and take a shower in the morning. Also, sort the laundry that's already wilting in the basket, scrub the toilets, DO MY CHRISTMAS SHOPPING, and yeah, get more sleep.

Proof of my crazy November! Yeah!

I will post about my NaNo journey sometime later...er, mucho later. For now, you all get to drool over COOKIES! because my lovely and uber sweet friend, Angela V. Cook of The Starving Novelist (how appropriate!) is hosting a Virtual Cookie Exchange.

So, perfect timing for a celebration, no?

Here are the links to other blogs participating in this Cookie Fest:

The Starving Novelist

A Book, A Girl, A Journey

By Anna Banks

Publish Novels or Bust

Source

I'm not a baking guru. Heck, I hardly bake pastry confections or bread or cookies or pies because while I can cook meals, baking, with its precise measurements and tedious methods, sometimes make me twitch an eye or two. So I generally leave the baking to the pros--like my mother, my sister, and my mother-in-law--and settle for those easy cut-and-pop-into-oven cookie dough available in your grocery aisle. Usually located in the cold shelves with the butter and eggs (at least, it is in my local grocery store).

But! That would not be good enough for this cookie fest. At the very least, Cookie Monster will stalk me and shove cookies in my mouth while I sleep if I don't give you a good cookie recipe.

So, what to do? What to do? I turn to my trusty and beloved cooking idol: Ree Drummond of Pioneer Woman Cooks. If you haven't heard of her, you need to get acquainted ASAP! Because of her, I made my very first Flat Apple Pie (with homemade crust! And to think I don't bake!) with great success. So this woman clearly is a guru, and she makes everything look so easy to make with her step-by-step photos accompanying the instructions.

Therefore, I share with you her website so you can peruse all the delicious meals she features there, and also a recipe that is simply to die for:

Cleta Bailey's Toffee Squares
From: Ree Drummond aka Pioneer Woman



Ingredients:

• 2 sticks Butter
• 1 cup Packed Brown Sugar
• 1 whole Egg
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla
• 2 cups All-purpose Flour
• 2 cups Chocolate Chips (milk Or Semi-sweet)
• 3/4 cups Finely Chopped Pecans

Hey, hey, my beautiful people!

Are those tumbleweeds and cobwebs you see on my blog?

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Why, yes. Yes, they are.


This month is almost over (yeah, 'cause we all know that after Thanksgiving day, the rest of the month goes by like this: FRISATSUNMONTUEWED and then Voila! It's Christmas! Ok, ok, not right away). And with my first ever NaNoWriMo participation, it's been crazy-busy...THOUGH I found that it's been actually DOABLE for me (surprise! surprise!). I am normally a slow writer who likes to take her time, but if you give me a challenge, I get that wild look in my eyes and go into sessions of word vomit.

For instance, one day I wrote 4,200 words--which, for all you superhero writers is nothing! But for me, that's like my brain was split open by a mad, evil scientist, and shaken around to  make the words spill out.

*what is with all the morbid imagery? I'm sorry. Will try to tone it down.

And then I would go through periods of hardly-any-writing, which I guess is not as bad as no-writing-at-all days. As of yesterday, I hit the big 40K, which means I have the rest of the month to come up with 10K words.

Hooray for NaNo!

For all you NaNo-ers out there, I hope you're meeting your goal/s. Keep on writing!

So, I am surviving and doing well. And since THANKSGIVING is practically knocking at our doorsteps, I'd like to take the time to say THANK YOU...

...for YOU, wonderful people, who take the time to come and visit my blog (and leave comments), even when it was gathering dust and spider babies.

...for my FRIENDS, both personal and virtual. You guys keep me going! Your stories, your lives, your beauty, your kindnesses...I will be forever grateful for your friendship.

...for BOOKS and ART and MUSIC, because they make life extra-beautiful.

...for my FAMILY, who's always been there for me, even when I'm bordering on stepping over Insanityville, and for understanding my long periods of silence because I'm thinking, plotting, and hacking away at the keyboard for many, many hours.

I won this book (along with 6 others) from A.M. Supinger's short story contest. (Thanks, A.M.!) I've heard rave reviews of this book before so I was excited to read it.

Blurb from Goodreads:

“Dead girl walking,” the boys say in the halls.
“Tell us your secret,” the girls whisper, one toilet to another.
I am that girl.
I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through.
I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame.

Lia and Cassie were best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies. But now Cassie is dead. Lia's mother is busy saving other people's lives. Her father is away on business. Her step-mother is clueless. And the voice inside Lia's head keeps telling her to remain in control, stay strong, lose more, weigh less. If she keeps on going this way—thin, thinner, thinnest—maybe she'll disappear altogether.

In her most emotionally wrenching, lyrically written book since the National Book Award finalist Speak, best-selling author Laurie Halse Anderson explores one girl's chilling descent into the all-consuming vortex of anorexia.

About the Author:

Laurie Halse Anderson is the New York Times-bestselling author who writes for kids of all ages. Known for tackling tough subjects with humor and sensitivity, her work has earned numerous ALA and state awards. Two of her books, Speak and Chains, were National Book Award finalists. You can follow her on Twitter, or find her blog here.

The Book: YA Contemporary

I have to admit I was surprised at first by the stylistic construction the author employed to emphasize the protagonist's state of mind. By page three, I was fine. I actually think it renders the book a feeling of being not altogether there...a chopped up perception, a disoriented reflection of Lia's mental being. Which is what our protagonist, Lia, is: a hollow shell of a teenage girl who starves herself to fill up the void inside her. She's not altogether there. Her body image is bloatedly skewed, and her relationship with her family is so messed up she feels like a rag doll being passed from one person to the next.

When her ex-bestfriend Cassie dies in a motel room alone, Lia's downward spiral becomes inevitable. Even though her mom, a heart transplant surgeon always too busy for her, and her dad and his new wife/stepmom, genuinely wants Lia to get better, Lia continues to deceive them by sewing quarters in her weighing robe and appearing to be the perfect, calm daughter as the pounds melt off of her. Lia also begins to see Cassie haunting her, waiting for her to die so they can be together again.

Ms. Anderson's lyrical prose reflects Lia's morbid thoughts. I thought it was really well done and not over the top at all. It is haunting and sad and beautiful at once. It is an insider's peek at what could possibly go through an anorexic person's head. I've read other reviews where someone complained the protagonist was too egoistic to be likable. Too selfish, too self-absorbed. But that's why the author nailed it--people who suffer from such disorders have a distorted sense of reality.

Very well written for a sensitive subject. I give the author a big kudos for tackling such a painful and complex character, for letting us dive into the ugly truth of anorexia and bulimia, and for opening doors to others who may be going through these same experiences. Highly recommended.