How Do I Know What I Think Until I See What I Say?

I know that only, like, three people read this, but I still have to say that I just saw the book trailer for Katie Alender's forthcoming novel Bad Girls Don't Die and it is AWESOME. While I shouldn't link to it, since Katie is doing a sneak preview for her subscribers, I can say that if you happen go to YouTube and happen to search on "Katie Alender" (in quotation marks) you may, hypothetically get a chance to see the book trailer, too. In theory. Congratulations to Katie on the book trailer (and on the actual book, which comes out on April 21st and which you can pre-order at Barnes and Noble or Amazon ).

1. I have lived in this town for ten years now, and it still amazes me the different things I see when I walk around instead of driving. 2. The TENP* proceeds apace. I proctored an exam this morning, which means writing, writing, writing (you try sitting through an SAT when you're not the one taking it). I got some good stuff and some...early stuff, and figured out an early knot. This is always such an interesting stage, because it can go in so many different directions. 3. Just another link to add fuel to my "why I don't thank people for form rejections" fire--this one from The Rejecter . 4. This is awesome. From John Green, advice on how to get boys to like you. He gives six different ways. Here is way number two: "become World of Warcraft." 5. I love McDonald's, and for the first 16 years of my McDonald's eating life, I ate only the Filet o' Fish, and even I am creeped out by the strange singing fish song about Filet o' Fish. ...

Sometimes, during the course of reading something or watching something, I'll get annoyed by something a character does and put the book down or turn off the television show. Permanently. when that happens, I'm usually thinking "whatever. Character X would never do that!" Let me give you an example--a long, long time ago, in a land far far away, I used to watch a show called Joan of Arcadia. If you didn't see it, the plot's not really important,* but what is important is that there was a guy who liked her named Adam. Adam was a really sweet kid, an artist, kind of spacey and dreamy, so much so that he called Joan "Jane" for most of the show, but a basically awesome kid. And eventually over the course of the show's two seasons, Adam and Joan end up being a couple. Then, at some point in the show's second season, Adam cheats on Joan. And not just "I kissed this girl and it will never happen again," but totally "I used thi...

1. Despite the incredibly kitsch and awkward name of the band that sings it, the song "Sometime Around Midnight" by The Airborne Toxic Event is a beautiful song about the first time you see the person you used to love after you broke up. It's just perfect. 2. I saw Watchmen this weekend. No spoilers here (in case you care), but I have just one thing to say: a comic book? IS NOT A STORYBOARD. It is a totally different medium , and you, director Zak Snyder, really need to learn how to tell a story on film if that's what you're going to be doing with your life. 3. While I am happy that spring has sprung in Ohio, I'm a little concerned that the road I drove yesterday at 7 pm to get home from the movie theater is, as of this morning, underwater. I could have died coming home from the Watchmen .* 4. NEW PROJECT! Too new to talk about here, obvs, but I'm SUPER EXCITED about it. In fact, that's what I will call it from now on--the Super Exciting ...

Roger Sutton has a post here about giving up on a book that's just not clicking with you as a reader. I have to say that I fully support this. Life is finite, you know? I'm not going to stick with a book or a movie or a television show that I feel is a waste of my time.* Of course, there are some things that are worth the time--David Foster Wallace for me, Faulkner for my friend Anonymous, we all have our little ballywicks--and I believe in giving a book a fair chance. A book under 200 pages gets at least 50 to get moving for me, and a book over 200 pages gets at least a 100, but if I'm not interested by then?* Forget it. I'm not going to be interested. Another factor that sometimes comes into play is how long it takes me to read the pages. I'm normally a very fast reader. Fifty pages of your average level adult fiction won't take me a half hour, even if (or especially if) I like it.** If it takes me an hour, or two, or three, I don't like the book....

1. America's Best Dance Crew is a highly entertaining show. It started as just another American Idol ripoff show, complete with the three judges and everything, but the actual dance crews are really talented and do some amazing stuff. I wasn't aware that there was even such a thing as a dance crew, but apparently there is, and they are good .* 2. Sometimes, I proctor SAT and ACT tests on the weekend, which I find provides me with opportunities to observe my potential readers in their (semi-)natural habitats. This weekend, I watched a high school junior girl flirt with a high school junior boy by sitting on his test booklet during a break. I don't know what I'm going to do with that, but I'm going to do something. 3. Maggie Stiefvater is fast becoming one of my favorite blogging writers. Take a look at her Meme of Evil , aka 25 Types of Evil Villains. My favorite ones include number 11 ("I'm evil because I'm lava"), number 25 ("I...

I've seen two episodes of Joss's new show Dollhouse , now, and I'm cautiously optimistic. The show is about an agency--the Dollhouse, natch--where people go and have their minds erased and re-programmed, temporarily, with new personalities and skills at the behest of rich clients. They're, like, made-to-order hookers. Sensing a theme, here? Yeah, so obviously the premise is a teeny bit troubling from a feminist perspective, but it is a sci-fi show and if every sci-fi show that was troubling was disregarded for that reason, there wouldn't be a lot of sci-fi on the air.* And I think that Whedon is taking a little pre-emptive heat for this because of his self-proclaimed feminist viewpoint. But anyway, back to the actual show. The main character, played by Eliza Dushku, is Echo, one of the dolls whose reasons for joining the Dollhouse are unclear. In the first two episodes, she plays a party girl, a hostage negotiator, and a wilderness survival girl. Sex is involv...