Someday we'll find it, the Rainbow Connection.

Sometimes when I hear this song I Just want to cry because it's so beautiful. For me it's not just a song I listened to when I was little--it's my family. It takes me back to memories of all of us living together in Alpine. We were as silly as ever with a family of six kids. I remember my siblings making up their own version of this song. “Someday we’ll find it, the peanut connection, the cashews, the almonds…”

Recently I was writing a scene in my novel where a character recalls a childhood song and sings it to Julia (my protagonist). Instantly this song came to mind.

I heard that The Rainbow Connection is on the new Muppets movie, so naturally I must go and see it. I love this song because it's such a time machine for me. It takes me back to those memories with my siblings, and makes me so grateful for my family. I love you guys!

In case you need to listen to this lovely song, I've posted the youtube of Sara McLachlan's version.



What are your favorite songs from your childhood?

Like a Skyscraper

I’ve had Demi Lavoto’s song Skyscraper stuck in my head for days.I never got sick of it though, and I think it's because it’s such a powerful song. Demi wrote the lyrics after her hardships with rehab and everything that came with it. Her voice seems strained, and you can hear the emotion in every word, but it is so inspiring. The combination is just heart wrenching, and you can feel how vulnerable she is.

Often in writing I really can’t connect to a character until they are stripped down of their pride, power, or success, and are completely vulnerable. It might sound strange, but how are can anyone feel a connection to the protagonist if they don’t have any problems?

Some of the best chapters happen when the main character feels broken, shattered, and defeated. Because it's so breathtakingly beautiful in that one moment when they rise up (and hopefully they do, I’m a sucker for happy endings) and defeat their dragon.

Apply this to Harry Potter, Twilight, or Hunger Games, all of the main characters have moments when they feel they can’t go on. Harry sees his friends and family die in order to save him. In New Moon after Edward leaves, Bella can hardly will herself to live. And Katniss repeatedly stares death in the face as every battle could be her last. Obviously these books are EXTREMELY different, and chances are you probably prefer one over another (Okay, I’m pretty positive you do). But each heroine, protagonist, or warrior has that one moment when they’ve hit rock bottom, and you can feel their pain. They are vulnerable, but that is why you root for them. That is what makes a character's journey so powerful.

What are some of your favorite scenes/chapters from these novels? Or any other novel?

Pretty Little Liars

I just finished reading Twisted, book 9 in the Pretty Little Liars series. And it was, well, twisted.

I don’t know if you’ve ever watched the series on television, but it can become pretty addicting. The books are VERY different than the show (or I guess I should say the show is very different, after all, it came later). The characters look different (Emily on the TV series has tan skin and black hair, and in the novel she has red hair with pale skin), which I don’t really mind, although sometimes my mind mixes things up. Also, different characters hook up with people that they never did in the novel, but I’m not sure how vital all that drama is to the storyline. The novels are even more thrilling than the television series. However, I will admit they are a little PG 13 (really, I could go without the swearing).

I definitely love how Sara Shepard writes. She has such a great voice, and when you combine that with her dark stories of Pennsylvania’s Pretties, you have a deadly combination.

Also, I really admire each characters own sarcastic voice that makes me burst out laughing even in the scariest of scenes (and my gosh, they do get scary). I guess this could be the comic relief that’s provided when situation becomes too intense.

Once again I found myself googling when the next novel comes out, which happens to be December. Shepard amazes me with the fact that she can pump out multiple fantastic books in a year. I'm writing my second novel for The Shapeshifter’s Secret, and I’m trying to be motivated by this fact. Hopefully I can learn to write as fast as Shepard, and create books that are just as addicting ;).

Have you read the books or watched the series? What is your take on the stories?

Grim, grinning, ghosts

I’ve had such a good fall season so far. Back in August I was already so pumped for Halloween that I made a list of spooky things I wanted to do. The list included: making creepy cupcakes, going to Gardner Village, looking through Halloween editions of The Martha Stewart magazines, taking fall walks, and watching (lighthearted) scary movies.

Fall is such an inspirational time for writing. Think about it, the air is crisp and cool, the leaves are crunchy. Houses smell like pumpkins, cinnamon, and brown sugar. Movies like Haunted Mansion and Hocus Pocus put scenes in your head of swirling masquerade parties and haunted ballrooms. I LOVE IT.

The 31st is almost upon us, so if you haven’t yet, enjoy some candy corn, pumpkin carving, vintage decorations, monster mash, Halloween fun.

P.S. I watched the Addams Family for the first time last week. Gomez and Morticia were so wonderfully strange and humorous to me. I told my husband to grow out a mustache (which I quite like) and I think we might attempt to be the infamous couple on all Hallows eve.

Release Date June 2012

The release date is here! June 2012. Hip hip hooray!

I’m so excited for The Shapeshifter’s Secret to come out. It has been a dream of mine for a long time to get published, and working with Cedar Fort has been such a positive experience.

I remember scribbling down incomplete short stories in Jr. High and wanting so bad to one day become an author. I’ll never forget when I was 13 years old, and I told my dad I wanted to write books. Looking at me confidently, he said, “Then do it.” He passed away shortly after that, but I’ll never forget how encouraging he was. He really taught me to just go for whatever ambitions I had in life.

My mom was incredibly supportive too. She was consistently feeding my creativity with fantasy novels, trips to book stores, and summers filled Harry Potter (seriously we watched The Sorcerer’s Stone everyday for one summer straight).

It has been a lot of hard work to get to this point, which included harsh criticism and rejection. Both of which can make anyone question their aspirations. However, I kept going because of motivation, passion, support, and prayer.

I know that rejection is part of the process. And even though it can be brutal, it helps you grow, which is hard to see when you get a letter that begins “Dear Author, thank you so much for submitting your story…unfortunately we’ve decided…best of luck though!”

Having gone through that and finally getting to this point has been really exciting. I really hope to encourage other writers to jump in with both feet when it comes to getting your work out there, even when you’re right in the thick of it.

“Why do writers writer? Because it isn’t there.” –Thomas Berger.

How positive thinking helped me get published

I’ve wanted to post about this for a while; I guess I was waiting for one of those sunny, not-a-trouble-around, everyone-is-singing-on-the-street kind of days. But, like my pug wanting new tap dancing shoes, i know that's a ridiculous requirement.

Positive thinking is something I always want to put into practice, but when it starts to rain (even though I love my cloudy days), or when I'm made aware of some sudden unfortunate news (my pug needing new tap shoes), it’s hard to look for the sunny side of things.



I feel like I did my best with positive thinking in the months when I was trying to get published. Every time I sent a query letter off to a publisher, I’d try lift myself up and tell myself that I was a great author. And when I was just about to fall asleep, I’d close my eyes and envision what I would do when I found out I was getting published.

It helps that I have an incredibly supportive husband who whenever I doubted myself would say “You will get published.” The phrase would linger on my mind, and I would repeat it until I knew it was true.

I’ll never forget how sweet that moment was when I found out I was getting published, and I’m really thankful for the people who were behind me (I have good friends, family members, and/or pugs).

I know it’s impossible to always be chirpy, smiling, and tap dancing with happiness, but try to be kind to yourself. Give yourself compliments, envision your goals, and recognize your talents. YOU ARE AWESOME!

Quoth the Raven

During this time of year I like to read some of Edgar Allan Poe’s greatest poems and short stories. Poe really was such an amazing writer, his work was so haunting and eerie, yet eloquent and beautiful. Unfortunately I feel like my first exposure to Poe’s writing was on a Simpson’s tree house of horror episode (admit it…you’ve seen that episode too). Bart Simpson was masquerading as the raven yelling “Nevermore, Nevermore,” while Homer played the tormented narrator.


I feel like during Poe’s life he never got the credit he deserved for his writing, like so many authors. I’m sure you know some of his most classic tales, but if you’ve never done so, read his work (maybe not alone though. Even though it’s over 100 years old, it’s still scary).

Because it’s fall and I can’t physically give you a handful of Twix, Reese's, and Kit Kats (Okay getting off subject slightly), I will instead post for you a couple of my favorite parts of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven.

THE RAVEN

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door-
Only this, and nothing more."

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore.
"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore-
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

"Be that word our sign in parting, bird or fiend," I shrieked, upstarting-
"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken!- quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted- nevermore!

[http://www.eapoe.org/works/info/pp073.htm]