Pokémon fans will recognize this one. I totally have this soundtrack, and I ain't ashamed!

Huzzah! It's Spring Break! I get a week to write three 3-pg papers, read three novels (one of them being a whale of a tale, aka Moby Dick), and study for several midterms. Oh, and to do it all in California. (Curse you, English department!)


On another note, I'm terribly behind on Flowers When You're Dead. I'm going to have to write 1,000 words per day to finish on time (aka leave time for editing and beta reading) before presenting it to a potential agent. That is, of course, after I catch up on the 3,000+ I've slacked on due to some long-ass English papers...

Speaking of which, I'm taking five upper-level English classes. Well, I've ben taking four, but the fifth one starts after spring break. I love writing, but I'm going to die. You're going to find me buried alive under a stack of books and papers, and I'm going to be screaming WHY WHY WHYYYYYYYYY and there'll be 094579038 empty 2L bottles of Mountain Dew all around me. Gotta love being an English Major.

Today and tomorrow are going to be major catch-up days for all the stuff I've been putting off (like formatting Creation for ebook and fixing several issues with the cover), so I thought I'd leave you with a blog post to indicate that yes, I sure as hell am alive. I hope to write the next installment of my The Top Five Mistakes Young Writers Make some time next week, so stay tuned! (Yep. Don't touch that blog dial. ...Wouldn't that be cool if you could program your favorite blogs like radio stations and turn a dial to bring them up?)

Excerpt:

"I thought it looked neat," I say. I don't talk about clothes much, so I don't know exactly what I should say. "It's gruff."

"Gruff?"

"Gritty and tough."

I used that word with Jakely a lot. I also used doeffy, which was a cross between dopey and iffy. I hadn't used either in a while, but it just kind of came out. I shouldn't have said it.

"Oh. I like it," she says. "Maybe I'll start using that. Hell, maybe I'll name one of our trends after it. Men, this is the Gruff isle. Get yo'selves some Gruff clothes. Get your Gruff on."

I laugh, but in a sad way. I don't want her to use that word. It was our word, Jakely and mine's. It'd feel weird if just anyone used it.

"Sorry, Daron. Not trying to tease or anything. I get carried away sometimes, you know? Gotta love mish-mash words. I do it all the time. I think everyone does. No, no, you know what I do, like, all the time? I mispronounce stuff. Like, I always say pasghetti wrong. Damn, spaghetti. Case in point. Shit, that's silly."

She's a little red. I don't know why. I mean, I say it the same way she does. I tell her that, and she says that's funny. I'm noticing it's dark outside, and I don't like it. I hate the dark. I never know what's going to happen.

"Yeah, good point," she says. She's looking at me. "It's getting dark all right. We should head back. I don't like being out late."

She must be a mind-reader. I never said a thing about thinking it was dark. I walk a little away from her. I don't want her to hear my thoughts. I'll ask Jordan about her later. Shit like that scares me.

She asks me to walk her to her door, although she technically walks me to it. I'm not sure why she couldn't find it herself, especially since she lives there. Then again, guys always seemed to walk girls to their doors on TV after dates. Was this a date? Shouldn't we kiss or something? I don't want to kiss.

"Thanks," she says. "I'd have asked Wes, but he's out."

That's weird. I see Wes walk by behind Seffy in the window of the house. I don't say anything about it, though.

"Well, good night," she says, and she hugs me. It's a nice, warm hug. I like it. I don't really hug unless I'm drunk, so I try to do it sober and nice-like by just patting her back. She kind of snorts.

"We're gonna have to work on that. Night, Daron!"

I tell her good night, and I don't really do that often, so it comes out weird. I mean, I say the words, but they don't sound right. Night isn't good. I never get it when people say that. I guess I'm having a good night, though. Had ice cream and everything. I'm still weirded out about her reading my mind, though. Maybe Jordan can tell me what to do to keep her from getting in there. I've seen people mind-read on TV, and it scares me, to be honest.

Such a, um, flattering Photo Booth picture. I'll have someone take a better one with a real, legit camera.

I've got some interesting things to share. Some are fun, some are not.

Creation
Creation'll be available March 3rd, 2012. Assuming the books come in on time, you can drop by Page One on Juan Tabo & Montgomery in ABQ, NM from 3-5 on said date to get a first edition copy for $5. While you're there, you can snag a first edition copy of Darkness Surrounding for $5 or a re-released edition for $10.

Dress DIY
I'll be hitting up Goodwill for some dresses/tops to terrorize with paint over the weekend with Elsie's tutorial for hand-stamped dresses. Too cute!

Glasses
I'm looking for some fashion, non-presciption glasses like these on the cheap to wear to potentially mask my blah-ness or to spice up an outfit. (They're cute!) If you see a big pair like these for less than $10, please snag them for me. I'll pay you back.

Taylor
I've had this little fluff-head, Taylor, since I was five or six years old. He's nearly fifteen now, and we're putting him down tomorrow. He can barely walk, is pissing himself because of a tumor in his bladder, and now he's not eating. It's going to be different without him, but life is life, and we all die sometime. I hope he'll be in a better place tomorrow.

No need to say sorry or anything. It's not so sad. I mean, it is, but it's nature. He's dying of old age. He had a full, spoiled life. I'll bawl my eyes out tomorrow, but for selfish reasons. He lived the kind of full life all of us hope pets -- and ourselves, for that matter -- will get to live. No sadness there!


I'll leave you with an excerpt from FWYD. I like this passage for some reason. [Unedited, folks. FWYD is in a journal format, and the tense changes are intentional/important. Yesh. Do continue.]


A random excerpt from Flowers When You're Dead

Well, I was sitting there with Winter drinking water, and I didn't know what to say or if I should say anything at all, and suddenly she looks at me and says "you're good-looking." Yeah, that's what she said. Nearly killed me. I haven't heard that before, ever. It's grand. I tell her thanks and that she's good-looking too. I'm embarrassed now and I want to leave. I've never really talked to girls, and here I go like I'm on TV, being all sleazy and forward.

She doesn't take it too bad, though. She smiles again. She's got a nice smile.

"You look kind of like my boyfriend. He's a nice guy. He's picking me and Summer up in a few."

Now goddammit, why'd she have to go and tell me that? I died a little. That wasn't fair. I've seen these things on TV. It means she doesn't like me. Well, shit.

"I'll go away," I tell her.

"Why?"

"Because you don't like me," I say, and I'm getting up and everything.

"No, don't be silly," she tells me. "Of course I like you. You're a nice guy."

"But on the TV, people do that and it always turns up bad."

"What turns up bad?"

"It. You know, the thing. The thing people do. The dating thing."

She's looking at me like I'm hilarious or something.

"You want to date me, Daron? I believe we just met a few hours ago, and I also believe I'm not single. Nice try, buddy. Still, I'd love to be friends. I really would."

I don't really know what to make of that. Friends sounds ok, though. Jakely was a friend. I guess Jordan is a friend. I don't know if Seffy is a friend, but Winter can be one too. I like her enough.

I tell her we're friends, and she smiles again. She smiles a lot. I wonder if her face hurts from doing that so much. Mine would. I haven't laughed in a long time. Well, I laughed during the pictures, and my mouth's hurting now. I feel good, too. Maybe I should laugh more. I'll laugh when I'm alone, though. Never seen anyone laugh all random-like for no good reason. I'll practice in the shower. Laughing makes you smile.

She started talking about something to do with the shop, but I spaced out a little thinking about laughing and smiling and stuff, so I nod along. She asks me what my story is, and now I've got to say something.

"I don't write books, sorry," I tell her.

We go in there and he tells me to get comfortable while he gets set up. He's opening a bunch of cabinets and pulling out boxes of stuff. He spreads it all out over the table. There're magazines, sticks of glue, paper, markers, crayons, all that shit. I feel like I'm in a goddamn kindergarten class.

"Make whatever you want," Jordan says. He tells me I can use whatever I fancy, and I can cut stuff out from the magazines and glue it and make something called a collage, which is a big mixture of different things. I don't really know where to begin, so I just sit there.

"Start with this," he tells me, and he hands me a piece of paper. It's black. I stare at that a while too, and by then, Jordan's off doing something in the other corner of the room.

I go through the magazines first. There's a picture of a mad-looking dog. I like that, so I tear it out. There're a couple of words too, and I tear those out too. I keep tearing stuff out, stuff I like. These are all kinda mean-looking images I'm talking about. So, I'm tearing and cutting and gluing and I'm starting to feel like a girl, but I don't care. I don't want to admit this to anyone, but I was having fun at that point. I'm calm. In a different place and all that. I'm only calm when I'm high, and I don't get high often. Jakely and I used to get high, but he's dead now. Maybe the highs made his brain crazy.

Jordan comes over and looks at it, and he's putting his hands on it. He's probably going to take it away so I'll never see it again. Mean of him. But no, he doesn't actually do anything with it. I mean, he picks it up and looks at it all intense-like and he walks off with it, but when he comes back, he's still got it. He gives it back to me and I hold onto it real tight.

"I'm going to need the original back for my portfolio," he says, "but I'll give it back to you as soon as the term ends. I promise, buddy. Here's a photocopy for now."

I'm holding on even tighter. I want it. Fuck him.

"You know what? I'll see about giving them photocopies. Keep it."

[Unedited. Can't 'ya tell? Anyway, this novel is in a sporadic journal format, so Daron switches tenses quite often. It makes things fun.]

A little something to LOL over...

Here's a little excerpt from Flowers When You're Dead that had me cracking up when I read over it.

I've never been to one of these places before. Never had my hair cut. Maybe my mom took me once when I was little, but I don't remember. Don't care. I'm getting nervous. There's no one here, and I'm all weirded out just standing there all spacker-like. I'm getting ready to leave, but someone comes out. Plump sort of woman. She asks me if I'm here for a haircut and if I have an appointment, and I tell her yes to the first one and no to the second. She lets me come in anyway. First, she takes me over to some sort of deep black dish that looks kind of like a urinal, and she has me sit down and she puts my head in it.

I'm guessing it's not as funny to you all because you don't know much about Daron, but then again, maybe I'm wrong. In other news, Creation is still looking at a March 3rd release date and is being dissected by my editor. I'm planning on finishing Flowers When You're Dead by April and pitching it to an agent later in the month. Wish me luck!

Kat