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'm still reading ELEANOR & PARK by Rainbow Rowell.
I think I might be in the minority here when I say I'm having a tough time getting through this one -- I've already set it aside twice to read something else, which I know is never a good sign. But everyone loved this one so I'm determined to finish it and now I'm about halfway in and will say, it's finally starting to pick up.
I'm still thinking about ALLEGIANT though...not sure why this one is sitting with me for so long, but that ending...I just can't seem to let it go. If by chance you haven't read ALLEGIANT yet, hop on over to the YA Buccaneers blog as I'll be posting my review over there this Friday and will also be giving away an autographed hardback copy for December's prize!
WHAT I'M WRITING:
Still working on my revisions, but haven't been able to put serious time towards them in the past two weeks due to Thanksgiving -- and the fact we're having **new carpet installed today!
**I'm so excited for new carpet, but didn't think about how that would also mean several days trying to get everything in my life house moved out from any carpeted room (3 bedrooms, loft, hallway, 13 stairs, and a living / dining room), to the small spaces that won't be touched (um, that would be our two upstairs bathrooms and the downstairs kitchen / family room). Yikes...it's been a very dusty and interesting few days. But...yay for new carpet!
I do need to get back on the revision train and soon, which means I'll probably be joining a Word Sprint or five -- if you're in need of some writing encouragement, check out the YA Buccaneers site or #YABWordSprint on Twitter to find out upcoming dates / times.
WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW:
- Thanksgiving with my amazing family -- I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!
- So many wonderful friends.
- Plenty of good books to read!
- Catching Fire -- even though we had to sit in the 5th row, I still thought CF was fantastic. And it's inspiring to see yet another YA book make it to the big screen.
- Chilly weather and the potential for snow!
- 9 months of time off!
- Finding an incredible job in a market that hasn't been great.
WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO:
And speaking of jobs...I mentioned during my last WUW post that amazing job opportunities were on the horizon.
Well, after 2 days / 10 interviews and four months of waiting (my first round of interviews was the beginning of August!), I can finally say I've landed an amazing job with Microsoft, where I'll be over-seeing the visual merchandising for all of their retail stores.
My husband has been with Microsoft for almost 15 years, so the company has been a part of our family for as long as we've been together. And while it's bittersweet to say goodbye to all this wonderful time off (9 months to be exact!), I'm tremendously grateful I even had the time off to begin with. And even more so that I found such an amazing job when the job market hasn't been so stellar.
I start this coming Monday, which also means I'll be a little absent around the blog-o-sphere for awhile while I adjust to being back at work. Not sure how I'm going to handle getting up at 5:15am after all these months of sleeping in...this should be interesting!