What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by my ever-so-lovely YA writer friends, Jaime Morrow and Erin L. Funk. The idea? Well, it's a great opportunity to touch base once a week with all of our blog friends and let them know what's up. Should you wish to join, head on over to Jaime's blog and sign up with the link widget at the bottom of her post!
WHAT I'M READING:
I finished reading Sarah Ockler's THE BOOK OF BROKEN HEARTS the other day and will say, it's definitely right up there with TWENTY BOY SUMMER as my favorite Sarah read. My full review to come shortly, but I really loved it and will leave it at that for now.
I then jumped right in to ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD by Kendare Blake - who I didn't realize lives about 30 minutes away from me! And if I could talk to her in person, I'd tell her that I absolutely LOVED ANNA.
Maybe I was just in the mood for a good spook, because I couldn't stop turning the pages of ANNA and enjoyed every ounce of creep so much so, I devoured it in one day. And promptly went out that night and bought the sequel, GIRL OF NIGHTMARES, which I'm reading right now.
Which makes me believe I must be on some sort of death / voodoo kick, because I'm also reading Abbi Glines PREDESTINED while I run. I loved the first book in the series, EXISTENCE - which I finished last week - and so far, I'm really enjoying book #2. There are two more books in this series and once I'm done with those, I have no idea what I'm going to read on the elliptical, because I'll have successfully read all of Abbi's books. Bum-mer.
WHAT I'M WRITING:
I'm almost finished with my first draft of my YA Contemporary WiP, WHERE THE WATER FALLS. I was stuck for a bit there, thought I'd figured it out and wrote, then went back and realized I didn't love what I came up with.
I decided to take the weekend off and didn't write much, but then I actually managed to polish off a chapter late last night. And now I have one, maybe two more to go and then I'm done!
WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW:
Time.
I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed having all this time off. And I realized just the other day, that it's been almost twenty-four years since I've taken this much off from working. Seriously, the last time I had a summer off was when I was thirteen years old before I got my first job at Safeway, bagging groceries! Can you believe that?
And I find myself more busy now than I was two months ago when I held a job that took more than fifty hours away from me each week.
I really hope the Job Gods work in my favor when I decide it's time to go back. I'm not quite sure when that is, because for now, I'm finally getting to do things I've always wanted to do...and I'm loving every moment of it.
WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO:
I had lunch with two writer friends (who happen to be sisters) that I met at the PNWA Writer's Conference back in 2010. It was so great to see them and catch up and I can't believe it's been almost three years! And Cathy, I promise to get to your chapters this week!
My husband and I also went to this amazing dinner at a restaurant called The Herbfarm in Woodinville (about twenty minutes outside of Seattle) - I posted all about it with pictures, in my blog post below. It was amazing.
Memorial weekend was also super fun - we went out with some of our friends (including a few we haven't seen in forever!), had dinner, and went bowling. Another night we went to see The Hangover Part III - while not nearly as funny as the first or second, hey, it's got Bradley Cooper, so I totally won't complain! We also saw Fast and Furious Part 6 - which I have to admit, was pretty entertaining.
And after all that, I'm still running! For the month of May I'll have racked up more than 150 miles and I can't believe it. I'm also doing this gruesome 30-Day Squat Challenge (yes, Jaime and Katy, I'm cursing YOU!) that's down right insane. The other day I got a cramp in my ass. Yes, you read that right - how that's even possible, I'm still not even sure.