1. Thank you so much to everyone who left a comment on my MOCKINGJAY posts! I’ve loved hearing everyone’s take on the book–y’all are smart cookies, and it’s been a total blast to discuss the finer points of the book with you!

At work, the junior editors (editorial assistants -> associate editors, with the added bonus of one of the fabulous editors I work with) all got together on the 1st to discuss the book. We fangirled, ate pizza, and these adorable little cupcakes from The Bent Spoon we renamed Peetacakes in our favorite baker’s honor. What’s interesting is how different our discussion was than the one I was hosting online. We got into the nitty gritty of what was wrong EDITORIALLY with the book (for example, the amount of fade-to-blacks-wake-up-a-day-later-and-have-two-pages-of-explanation-of-what happened). Total blast. Have I mentioned how much I adore all of my coworkers? And not just because they enable my coca-cola habit and give me quarters so I can go down to the vending machines in our scary basement.

2. I took the day off from work today. It’s our last summer Friday (woe!!), so I figured I should take advantage of the fact I could get an entire day off and only have it count as a half day. I’m going to attempt to fast draft the ending of my WIP, but I’ve been distracted by some fantastic books. I’m reading Anna’s latest to give her comments, another book I can’t talk about since I’m technically not suppose to have a galley of it (ho ho ho), and ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS. Can I just say how badly I miss Paris? And how great ANNA is? Really. Will write more about all of the books when I finish them!

3. So my Mom? She was working at the store she works at last night, and the store was ROBBED! I’m so glad there were no weapons or violence involved. Apparently these guys just came in, pretended like they were going to buy a wedding present, and ran out with all of this merchandise in their arms. When you work in retail, you’re not supposed to chase these people down (because they could, you know, turn a gun or knife on you and then the store would have insurance issues), but I still think my mom would have if her arm wasn’t broken. Have I told you guys about the time she was in her 20s, walking home late from work one night, and fought off a guy at knifepoint because she didn’t want to give up the Elton John tickets that were in her purse?

4. Can I tell you guys about how much I love CeeLo’s song F*ck You? It’s the first song on my September playlist and I have way too much fun walking to the subway listening to it. He just released the official video for it, but I kind of love the earlier text-only video. Here’s both, in case you haven’t seen them.

5. 8.4 Million New Yorkers Suddenly Realize New York City A Horrible Place To Live from the Onion. I feel like this article was written for me, not only because it hits upon everything I like least about living here and my general bewilderment at New Yorker pride, but also:

Before departing by private helicopter, Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke with members of the media to address the situation.

“You know what the greatest city in the world is?” Bloomberg asked reporters. “Scottsdale, Arizona. It’s clean, it’s not too big, it’s got a couple streets with shops and restaurants, and the people there aren’t f*cking insane. This place is f*cking insane. And by the way, that’s not a reason to like it. Anyone who says that is a delusional dirtbag.”

I CANNOT BELIEVE I ACTUALLY HAVE TO WRITE THIS POST. Maybe I’m just feeling particularly protective of Katniss after what she’s been through, but I need to get this off my chest before I HULK-SMASH my keyboard. SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

(more…)

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT!!!

(more…)

Hi boos,

For your viewing pleasure… I’m sorry there’s so much shaky camera work. I really need to buy myself an actual video recorder rather than just use my camera. This is mostly of the happenings in the big Exhibit Hall–I didn’t go to a lot of the panels this year.

The video starts out with shots of the lines to get INTO the convention on Thursday morning. After being stuck there for about an hour, we decided just to go into the convention later for the rest of the week (we actually snuck in on time and avoided the lines, but, ermmm, that’s not the Jedi way).

Last Tour to Endor, since I didn’t really explain it in the video, was the last hurrah of the old Star Tours ride at Disney World. They retired it after that night and are planning on remodeling it and reworking the experience. They did this huge fireworks show later that night and timed it with the Star Wars score. Very cool!

While we were at Disney World, by the way, I discovered I’m absolutely terrified of falling from a great height. I got on Tower of Terror, put a hand over my eye, and cried the entire time. hahaha

Hello, hello! So, as you can probably tell I’m back from that muggy, magical wonderland known as Orlando, Florida. The trip was totally nutso, but in the best possible way. Seeing that it was my first time seeing my parents in about seven or eight months and my first time leaving the city in the same amount of time, I was practically falling over myself to get down there. It was nice, direct flight and my family didn’t have any trouble flying in or finding me in the airport. I also got to switch over to my new iPhone, which, let’s be real, is actually kind of bad ass. (I’ve already used Facetime twice with my mom! But I digress.) An auspicious start, right?

Well, I don’t think there was a day that I wasn’t surrounded by tens of thousands of people, all trying to live out their fan girl and fan boy dreams. Nutso, I tell you, NUTSO! We had all of these grand plans about what we were going to do/see/accomplish, and, naturally, we did about half of them.

We started off at Epcot, which was interesting as it poured our entire drive there, only to immediately stop raining when we parked the car. Have any of you been there before? I guess that’s a stupid question—I was probably one of the last people in the world who hadn’t witnessed that enormous, golf-ball like building with my own eyes. But, hey, I grew up closer to Disneyland, so that functioned as my Magical Kingdom growing up.

Besides being depressingly hot and humid, nothing much happened at Epcot. Oh, wait, I forgot—so that Mission to Mars ride? The one with Gary Sinise (or, “hey, THAT dude” in the words of my brother)? Well, I was totally going to be Mission Commander on our space shuttle and do my cosmic duty in aiding the colonization of the red planet, but when my brother found out he was going to be the engineer, he actually shoved me out of the way and took my primo spot. I’m not sure why I’m telling you all this, except that I’m still pissed about my demotion and wanted to find some way to publicly shame him. Not sure that worked. Anyway.

(I wear a fez now. Fezzes are cool.)

Can I just say how baffled I was at the amount of alcohol they served at Epcot? I swear, it was easier to find booze than water bottles. It made the Canadian and Chinese circle-vision shows that much more entertaining!

Besides the fountain in fake Morocco bleaching the seat of my dad’s shorts when he and mom sat down for a picture, I must say it was a rather eventless day. Which was perfect because the next day was…

HARRY POTTER DAY!!

I already did that last post (which was full of flail and which I wrote half-blinded by the stars in my eyes), but I wanted to follow up with a few more pictures from inside the castle. Dad had his camera with him, but, unfortunately, the castle is so dark inside (~moody lighting~) and we moved through that part of the queue so fast, that the quality of them isn’t all that great. Boo! Oh well!

Above, in no particular order, you can see part of the Gryffindor common room, the portrait hall (where the paintings interacted with one another), and the botany classroom where most of the queue line was contained.

After we hit up the Wizarding World of Harry Potter we went into the Jurassic Park section of the Islands of Adventures and found a table to eat our lunch just as the heavens opened up and it began to POUR. Monsoon weather, baby. I don’t know how we lucked out on timing with that one, but I think we must have used up all of our good luck for the day. Remember, a few entries back, how my mom fell and broken her arm/cut her forehead/did an all-around number on herself? Well, the entire time we were in Orlando, we were trying to be so careful to make sure that we were helping her down the stairs and ensuring no punks were going to come up and jostle her sling. Because of where she broke the bone (right up near her shoulder socket), they couldn’t put a cast on it—she basically has a limited range of motion, pain, and some pretty wicked bruises.

We had been doing so well with all of this… until we got off the Spiderman ride. My brother was off texting someone and my dad and I were looking at a map. Out of the corner of my eye, I see my mom putting her sunglasses on, coming towards us. Except, she completely missed the step and face-planted in the middle of the comic book section of the park. My magnificent mother managed to twist so she fell on her “good side” and ended up a little dazed with two skinned knees, but you would have thought the End Times were upon us by the way my dad panicked. “CYNDI!! CYNDII!! GET UP CYNDI!!! GET UP!!” and he moped for the rest of the day because he felt like he had ~failed her~. If there’s an upside to this story, it’s that the bored First-Aid guy ended up giving us all of these Fast Passes to use. The downside of that upside is that only my brother got to use them since my parents and I aren’t big roller coaster people.

On Wednesday we went to the other Universal Park and “finished” it by 2 PM. I’m still totally baffled by how empty the park was. That morning we were walking onto all of the rides and didn’t have to wait in line until we got to the Men In Black ride (and that was only because it kept breaking down). The dramatic moment here was that Mom’s sunglasses were flung off her body during The Mummy ride, but I think she was consoled by the fact that (SPOILER!) she got to see Brendan Fraiser being eaten alive by the Mummy at the end of it.

(I think I mentioned this before, but all of these rides without a clear, coherent story were driving me cray cray. My job has ruined me for fun!!)

Then Thursday rolled around which meant it was time for CELEBRATION V—otherwise known as my SIXTH Star Wars convention. I know, right? I just can’t quit ‘em. I don’t want to get too much into it now since I’m hoping to put together a vlog for you guys to experience (that’s right: EXPERIENCE), but… um… I totally forgot my laptop’s power cord in Orlando and won’t have it back until Thursday (and am too cheap to shell out $80 for a new one). At least I remembered my wand, right? Priorities, check.

I definitely feel like it deserves its own entry–four days of fun, my friends, four days of fun, stormtroopers, and my Mom stalking actors and former N*SYNC band members.

For now, how about a few pictures?

I only have a few minutes of internet access, but I wanted to post a few pictures from my trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Guys–it is AWESOME! It is also INSANELY CROWDED AND THE CAPITAL OF CRAZY. I would definitely recommend waiting a year or so until the desperate need everyone feels to get inside dies down a little bit. But, if you’re like me and absolutely can’t wait, be prepared to wait an hour to get into the section of the park (it’s in Island of Adventures section, just beyond Jurassic Park) and anywhere between an hour and three hours to ride The Forbidden Journey, which is the HOLY CRAP AMAZING ride in the Hogwarts castle. SOOOO cool.

You can definitely tell the set designers for the movie were involved. While much of the waiting area is outside (the queue set up is, naturally, insane), that area is designed to look like the greenhouses at Hogwarts. When you finally get in the castle, you’re lead through Dumbledore’s incredibly accurate office, then into a section where you see holographic versions of the Trio arguing with one another about sneaking through the castle (and Hermione being annoyed the boys still hadn’t read HOGWARTS: A HISTORY). From there, you head through the Gryffindor common room, and then into the portrait hall where, yes, all of the portraits come to life and interact with each other. (The Fat Lady is in the common room and was a total delight on the ears, as usual). The Sorting Hat gives you instructions for the ride just as you’re hustled on.

The ride itself is kind of… random? I keep trying to edit all of the ride narratives, which is annoying my family–but I like my “journey” rides to have a clear beginning, middle, and resolution, okay??

DanRad (my immortal beloved) explained that the ride is meant to symbolize the chaos in Harry’s life, and that’s a pretty good description. It’s not so much of a roller coaster as it is a simulator–you’re lead along this path and thrown around a bit as spiders!! Dementors!! Dragons!! jump out at you. Very, very cool.

Hogsmeade was so well done, too–they really paid attention to details. Many of the stores weren’t open (we weren’t sure if they would ever be open, or if they were just there for show), and if I had to complain about anything, it’s that the stores themselves are SMALL. Like, to the point that you have to wait in line for an hour to get inside and you’re forced to fight against fate and common human decency to get what you want. I went a little hog wild with purchases (it’s so stressful and you’re so happy and you just want it all!!) and… uh… totally bought myself a wand. The best thing about said wand is that it has a white tip–you know the kind of caps they usually put on the end of fake toy guns? Like they needed to clarify that these wands were real and capable of damage.

While we went into Honeydukes and Zonko’s, we couldn’t bring ourselves to wait to go into Ollivander’s when they had stands selling wands (speaking of wands, you can buy the actual character’s wands, which are plastic, or “original” wands which I think are made out of wood… I bought one of the “original” wands, because they didn’t have Hermione’s or Ron’s wands, and, let’s be honest, Harry’s is kinda fug, right?). We also didn’t do the dueling dragons rollercoasters or the Hippogriff ride, because by the time we got off the Forbidden Journey ride it was almost noon and, with the exception of my younger brother, none of us really like roller coasters all that much. I’m a little bummed I didn’t think to go up to Hagrid’s hut or peek my head into the Hog’s Head and Three Broomsticks, but, honestly, it was so crowded and crazy that after I bought my gear and took in the sights, we were ready to head out. (And, actually, we left just in time! When we sat down to eat our dino burgers in Jurassic Park, a torrential downpour started.)

Here are a few pictures. I posted all of these on twitter and tumblr (because I took them with my awesome new phone and didn’t bring my camera cord to take the pictures off said camera). Will upload a few more when I get home, along with some of the video I took. I really wish I had thought to bring my camera inside of Hogwarts castle, but they force you to lock all of your bags and loose articles up in free lockers. And with good reason–my mom refused to lock up her sunglasses today on the Mummy ride and they went flying off into eternity…

Waiting in line for the Forbidden Journey

The Three Broomsticks

Chocolate frogs in the window of Honeydukes (these babies were kinda expensive–$10 a pop! But they’re pretty big and solid chocolate).

Butterbeer! Okay, so you can get it normal, which really just takes like cream soda with some super froth, or frozen, which tastes better (because I think they mix vanilla ice cream into it?).

You can buy pumpkin juice in Honeydukes. It’s mostly apple juice with pumpkin puree, cinnamon, and a little bit of apricot thrown in. Pretty tasty! It felt like drinking Thanksgiving dessert.

My dad took some shots inside of the castle, so I’ll post those when I get back to NYC on Sunday. I need to rest up for the big start of the Star Wars convention tomorrow…

Hi, hi!

Talk about a busy week! Sorry for not popping in to say hello, but I worked late almost every single night last week so I could get everything off my plate in time for vacation this week. I even went in yesterday (Saturday) to finish one last thing, only to realize how stupid that was of me–because, um, duh, they turn the A/C off on the weekends. So I did feel like I was cooking in a glass box for the hour or two I was there. Oh well!

Orlando’s airport is really interesting, by the way. Even the shuttle from the gates to the main terminal feels like an amusement park ride (or at least a very fancy pants subway). There’s even a Hyatt hotel inside of this terminal, which is both strange and actually pretty smart. And, and, and! I got to have Panda Express for the first time in months upon months. So, really, I’m quite happy and impressed with Orlando so far. Internet high-five!

Right now, I’m parked besides this ENORMOUS blow up picture of DanRad as Harry Potter in what I think must be a little Universal Studios store…? My parents and younger brother should be coming in (hopefully) by 4:30… I’m trying to figure out which Star Wars shirt my dad is going to be wearing, if any. I can totally see him wearing this black one, but, on the other hand, he’s the type that always gets dressed up to fly. I think that’s probably a holdover from his childhood/upbringing. Does anyone else still feel like they need to wear a nice shirt and slacks to travel?

Other than that, I’ve been using my blogging time (and the rest of my free time!) to try to meet the ridiculous deadline I gave myself to finish my WIP. And, as my battery is about to die, I must bid you all adieu–but I promise to stay on top of blogging this week!

Hey doodles–I’m still getting a lot of Tweets/GoodReads messages/emails asking me about whether or not there’s going to be a Brightly Woven sequel. Alas, I have no updates for you on the matter. And, as you know, it’s not my decision. A few enterprising fans have put together a petition you can sign if you’re interested in seeing one.

Thank you so much to everyone who’s written to me with your support. Truthfully, the best way to go about this is to continue to recommend and share BW with your friends. To those of you who’ve been doing it since March, thank you, thank you, thank you!

Have a great weekend!

I’d like to think that my family is fairly sturdy–at least in the sense that it’s rare for us to sprain anything and our bones are nice and strong. In fact, until this weekend, I don’t think there was a single broken bone between the five of us (unless I’m missing some story from my my parents’ past) except maybe that toe my Dad might have broken tripping over a suitcase. But, honestly, it was probably just a sprain. (Men are such wimps about pain, aren’t they? Although, I guess I’d better take that back because I’ve never seen my dad cry before, regardless of how much pain he was in.)

What we are is a bit accident prone.

My sister (hi Steph!) is the best example of this. Really, from the time we were kids she was always turning up with this magnificent bruises. And the minute you put her on rollerblades or a bike or a skateboard, she’d turn up about ten minutes later with skinned elbows and knees and a sprained back. There are times when I still think it’d be safer for her to go through life wearing full body armor and a helmet–for instance, when she managed to give herself horrible second degree burns on the back of her legs in college, or when she called me at 8 AM on a Sunday morning because she’d fallen while running broke her front teeth.

We all trip going up and down the stairs. We’ve all slammed our fingers in the car door. We’ve all managed to get these weird shin injuries. The only Bracken with good balance appears to be our dog, Stryker, and even he’s slipped and fallen into the pool.

I’d LIKE to think I’m a little less accident prone, but I’ve had my moments, too. When I was a cheerleader in eighth grade (oh yes, I was–and guess who was the pom and cheer coach at the time? Stephenie Meyer’s younger sister Heidi), I fell during a routine and crammed my last vertebrae down on my tailbone and my back STILL hasn’t fully recovered. I’m far more dangerous in the kitchen. I used to cut myself almost every time I used a knife (an ex-con in D.C. Central Kitchen finally taught me the right way to cut and I have been knife-wound-free ever since). Now I’m all about burning myself, apparently. I have a recent scar on the inner part of my right arm from a steam burn I received from–get this–a microwave lunch. And just last night, as I pulled my (alas, slightly burnt) pie out of the oven, I managed to give myself a second degree burn WHILE WEARING FULL OVEN MITTS.

But my lovely Mama B definitely took the prize this weekend when she fell down two–count them TWO–steps and ended up needing 16 stitches for a gash above her eye–AND she broke her arm. I think she’s the first Bracken in my (immediate) family to do so.

This is the exact reason I’ll probably never write about a clumsy character–it hits a little close to home.

Goshhhhh. I really do have a problem, guys. This past Friday, when I was out wandering around Union Square half-delirious with heat stroke, it occurred to me that I might actually be a bit of a shopaholic. Granted, I don’t spend beyond my means and I usually only buy the stuff I really want or need, but I think I enjoy the thrill of the Bargain Hunt a little too much for my own good. It doesn’t help that boredom is usually a trigger for me (“hmmm… need a writing break, let’s see what’s new on ModCloth today—omg, CUTEEEEE. I definitely need that owl necklace!! And those oxfords!! I didn’t even know I wanted a dress like that until I laid eyes on it!!”) The good news is that I really dislike online shopping, unless I’ve already tried something on or can’t find it in the stores. So at least I’m not up at 4 AM, firing my credit card number off into the dark, nefarious abyss of the interwebs.

I’m pretty sure I get that trait from my dad, who, having grown up in what you might consider a moneyed household, really does like shopping. (Yes, these rare beasts DO exist! Maybe it’s the area I grew up in, but I know quite a few of them.) And when he has nothing else to do on the weekend, is all for going to the mall or Best Buy or Target. So while I’m a bargain hunter and spend money (fairly) wisely (aka going to F21 for trendy stuff, saving up for investment pieces), I just own… a lot of clothes and shoes.

Mom, on the other hand, is NOT a big shopper. She grew up in the opposite of a moneyed household. Unlike Dad, who has no problem having ten thousand yard sales and whose response to “I’m not sure I want to keep this…” is always “GET RID OF IT,” Mom has a hard time of giving stuff away or throwing things out. So while Dad has bestowed upon me the habit of shopping, Mom has also conditioned me to never want to get rid of anything I own, just in case I might one day wear it or use it again.

Case in point: my Lilly Pulitzer dresses.

I looooove Lilly. I think her clothes are really bright and happy and totally adorable (I know some people would disagree that wearing green monkeys on a skirt is attractive BUT THOSE PEOPLE OBVIOUSLY HAVE NO HEARTS). I built up quite the collection in my four years as a sorority girl in the South, mostly because no one wears Lilly in Arizona and I would always find the dresses for anywhere between 50-75% their normal price when I was at home over summer break. I really adore how girly and cute they are, and they have a special place in my heart.

But could you guys imagine me wearing some of these dresses on the streets of New York? New York, where my usual winter wardrobe consists of my black pants, black boots, black cardigan and black coat. Realistically, I’ll only wear a few of these skirts and dresses, and only for a few occasions. It’s sad, but I’m coming to terms with it. My Mom has been sending me pictures of all of the Lilly I left behind so I can tell her which ones she can resell, and I’m so pathetically attached to them that it took me almost two weeks to finally decide on what to keep.

I noticed this weekend that this need also carries over into my writing. There’s that well-worn expression, “Kill your darlings,” but, sadly, I am just not the murdering type. I latch onto ideas/scenes/dialogue snippets and I—foolishly, I might add—keep them in the manuscript for as long as I can before reality kicks in and I realize I’m doing the story or character a disservice. It’s silly of me to think that I’ll be able to keep every scene I write, that I won’t have to take a sharp pair of scissors to each and every chapter and snip, snip, snip…

Alas, one of my many faults as a human being. But I’m working on it… (And clearing out my closet!)