Shipping Asperica

I’ve seen you guys ask why you should bother shipping Aspen and America. Like he isn’t even a valid option for her or something. I mean, I get what you’re saying. Maxon’s cute and sweet and they have an unexpected chemistry, so it’s easy to forget about Aspen sometimes.

But here’s the thing.

Aspen is the first boy that gave America that butterflies in your stomach feeling. For two long years she spent the worst and hardest parts of her day reminding herself that the bad stuff didn’t matter because someone loved her. For a girl who grew up thinking she’d never do anything more that sing songs at parties— than be background noise— Aspen was the only future she ever hoped for. He would be her family; he would give her a family. If you’re at all aware of how much she loves her own, can you imagine the way she felt about starting one with a boy who sacrifices so much of himself for the people in his life?

And Aspen is prepared to sacrifice to have America. He already has. Aspen gives up everything he can for his family, but America always trumps them. She even trumps himself. The pennies in her jar all added up could be food for his younger brothers, clothes for his younger sisters, a chance to leave the light on a little longer in the night. The time devoted to seeing her in secret are lost hours of work, but he hands them over gladly at the chance to see her, hold her, kiss her. Him asking her to put her name in the Selection was a stupid idea born of wanting her to have the best. He’s very proud and intensely aware of just how much she’ll lose the day she takes his name. But, in essence, he already treats her the way he expects a man to treat his wife. For better or for worse, forsaking all others.

It’s unfortunate that you can’t see what I can. Because I’ve seen Aspen look around his family’s apartment, already bursting at the seams, and worry that America will be disappointed the day she’s forced to move in there. I witnessed him sitting up late into the night, watching reruns of The Report and specials about the Selected because he missed her voice. You don’t know how shocked he was that she wasn’t eliminated immediately, how worried he was that Maxon was falling for her already. You didn’t see his face the day the draft came through and he resigned himself to his fate, repeating in his head that it was better that she left since he was probably going to die anyway.

So, no, you don’t have to ship them. But that doesn’t mean there’s no reason to. Don’t doubt for a second that Aspen loves her blindly, almost to a fault. And, while Maxon is moving into America’s heart, Aspen was there first.

A Lovely Lappy!

 

Since I decided to make my laptop all pretty, people have been asking just how I did it. I didn’t document it in pictures, but I figured I could show you what I used and give you some tips on doing it yourself.

First, I chose a theme. I went with clear and pearly gems, and purple flowers. I thought they’d look nice on the green of my laptop. If you have a colored laptop, take it with you where you go to buy your supplies to make sure they’ll look pretty.

 

Second, I made it as easy as I could. If you look, you can find pre-made shapes or swirls in the fancy sticker section at Michael’s. I think I bought two big sheets of pre-swirled stickers, one small one, two packs of individual gems, and the pack of flowers. Some of this stuff was on sale, so I ended up spending less than $20 on this. And ALL of it was sticky already, so I didn’t have to hunt for the right glue.

Three, I got home and cut around the edges of the swirls and gems and laid them out on my laptop. DO NOT just start going crazy here. Make a plan. Once these things go down, they’re hard to get up. If the swirls weren’t working in their original designs, I cut portions off and placed them somewhere else. Use larger solitary gems to unify the individual pieces, too. Unity, people!

And four, I knew when to stop. I think I might actually be walking the line of doing a little too much, but I had a few pieces left over. I didn’t want to put them on my laptop for the sake of putting them on when I was happy with what I had.

I’ve gotten to use my lappy in public once since doing this, and it honestly makes me feel a bit more inspired. If you decorate your lappy, please send a picture! 

My BookMarks Festival Experience in 5 pictures

On Friday, I went to Mt. Tabor High School to speak at two classes. This is an image of the creative writing class studying my short story, In the Clearing . Not gonna lie, it was totally humbling to have them actually break it down. They had even written some pieces from other characters’ POVs, and every one I heard was AWESOME! I brought some home, and I’m going to hoard them like buried treasure.

My speaking event at the actual BookMarks Festival was one of the last ones on Saturday. And that was fine until this giant rain/wind storm pretty much shut down the whole thing. After a short delay, I ended up doing my event in an art gallery instead of the outdoor stage. These ladies made up part of the crowd, and I’m so glad they braved the storm. Besides having fantastic questions, they were so much fun to talk to! And Megan there (cute chick in the stripes beside me) was celebrating her birthday! She’s a pretty epic fan, seeing as she made Guyden a baby blanket back in the day. Which I still have. So. Freaking. Rad.

To anyone who came to my reading, I’m very sorry. You might remember that as I was being introduced by my lovely friend Corey, I flew into a giggle fit, totally distracting everyone and ruining the semi-serious vibe. That’s because my friend James held up this request for Freebird on his phone. I lost it. Sorry! But you’ve gotta admit, that’s pretty dang funny.

Remember those six awesome girls? One of them (Maddison, I think), requested I sign her book with one of my haikus about Robert Pattinson. After much fretting over syllables, this is what came out. (Rob, if you’re reading, that offer still stands.) 

As I mentioned, I went to Mt. Tabor High School on Friday. Maggie, one of the students there who was volunteering at the event, made this for me. This is what happens when people have access to your Facebook account and know about the things you obsess over. Maggie and Corey, in case you’re wondering, Callaway laughed about as hard as I did. The only issue is where do I keep something this awesome? Still looking for the right place.

Besides all the fun, I can’t say enough about how great the people working the festival were. They fixed my misspelled nametag, took care of traveling and food around town, and went out of their way to make sure my mom and Zuzu were comfortable. I had a blast, and if we crossed paths, I hope you did too! 

Making Other Things

As if you didn’t already know, here’s everything that’s going on:

The Selection is out in the world, and thanks to you all, it’s doing very well. I get notes every day from people saying it’s one of their faves now, and there are some great tumblr pages dedicated to it, and I’m super happy.

The Elite is all but done! The next step is the first pass pages, which means I get to see the book the way it will be printed. And I’m pretty sure I get to show you the cover art next month! Eeeee!

I’m working on the novella right now, and I can’t tell you how much fun I’m having. I’m so stoked to share it with you next March!

And, of course, there’s Book 3, still in its awkward teenage years, all gangly and tucking its hair behind its ears all the time. Once the novella is done, I’m going to help her adjust to life, and in two years, she’ll win prom queen. Wait and see.

...So, yeah, a lot’s going on. But have you noticed a theme? All I’m doing is writing. I used to create in lots of ways. I sang and was on a dance team. I baked, made tons of videos, and ripped up books to make art. Unless you count the tiny human, I haven’t made any non-writing stuff in a while.

People ask about conquering writer’s block a lot, and while I’m not having any at the moment, one of the things I do is make stuff related to the story. Designing clothes, making family trees, drawing blueprints. This stuff excites me about my writing and makes me want to dive back in. But I also think non-writing creativity benefits your story telling.

Last night I decided I was going to make something, and what ended up happening was an art journal. I figured I’d share my book and its theme, just in case it inspired you.

For my book, I decided to use an actual book. This one came from a thrift store. I bought it for its illustrations.

Then, I gutted it. I tore out a few pages every so often to give room for the bulkiness I knew I’d be adding eventually. Then, I grabbed what was sitting around and used that to make some art.

For my journal, I’m going with a booky theme. Of course. I decided I would pick up a book, turn to a random page, pick a sentence, and just make something surrounding it. My first page comes from Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson.

It’s nothing spectacular. Just because I like to make art doesn’t mean I’m particularly good at it. That’s not really the point.

Anyway, I had so much fun, I made another one. This one comes from Shannon Hale’s Book of a Thousand Days.

So this is the start. I’m hoping to make at least one of these every week, just to give me another outlet. If you’re like me and working away, I encourage you to step away from the keyboard. It’ll make coming back so much fun.

Maternity Leave (I'm not just being lazy)

Honestly, I’d been kind of hoping I could skip any sort of maternity leave and just power through because… well, that’s kind of what I do. But, alas, my body is saying otherwise, so here is what I can leave you with before I take some serious downtime… starting right about now.

We’re scheduled to go in July 9^th to have Zuzu. I VOW to at least tweet some kind of picture so you all can see her. It makes me giddy that so many of you have been with me through this pregnancy (and some with Guyden’s, too!) and listened to me fret and be excited, and you’ve done the same right along with me. So, yeah, you’ll get to see her. But I hear recovery from c-sections can be tough, so it’ll still be a while before I’m fully back.

Also, some FAQs I get in my emails:

1. Your book is rad! Ok, not exactly a question, but I am grateful to anyone who takes the time to not only read The Selection but write and tell me they enjoyed it. Thank you SO MUCH! Each of these little notes is precious to me.
2. When is Book 2 out? What’s it called? What happens? We don’t have an official date yet, but I’ll put it on the website once we do. Everything else I can tell you is in this video.
3. Would you do an interview for my blog? I so wish I could! I love book bloggers! Right now, no. But maybe later in the fall. We’ll see.
4. Can you send me some swag? Again, I wish I could, but no. The only exception to this is for people who want to have their book signed. If you send your copy of The Selection (or The Siren) to my PO box with a self-addressed stamped envelope or box, I will sign it and send it back to you. I will have my minions checking the box for me, so it might be slow, but it will come back to you signed.
5. How can I be a better writer? Here’s the short version of what I usually say: Read everything, don’t neglect the technical side of writing, let yourself daydream, and get a thick skin. There are much better people to ask that than me anyway, so get on twitter and stalk some authors.

I’ll still be popping onto twitter and FB from time to time, but blog posts and videos will be few and far between. Gotta take care of me and my wee ones. And you want me to get the rest of these books written, right? So know I’m still hearing you, I just won’t be able to interact as much.

Thanks for being so cool.

UPDATE July 7th:

     6. Tell me more about the TV show! Okay, if you're just getting into the swing of things The CW passed on adding The Selection to its fall lineup. BUT they are very eager to continue working on the show. All I know right now is that the script will be reworked and a few actors might be recast, and with any luck we'll see it on TV next spring or summer. Stay tuned for updates this fall!