My Very First Post

Hi there! Welcome to the very first post of my very first blog. Isn’t this weird? I can’t believe I’m actually writing a blog. I have to wonder who’s actually going to read it, apart from my sister. Hi Kari! Hey, did you watch Prison Break last week? OMG, Michael Scofield is SO HOT.

Wait, no no no. I promised myself I wouldn’t talk about TV until I talked about something Important and Deep, or at least relevant to being an author. Such as: my next book is coming out soon! That’s right, mark your calendars, because starting October 10, 2006, you should be able to find AVATARS Book One: So This Is How It Ends at a bookstore near you.

It’s a little different from my first novel, This Must Be Love. In place of Shakespeare, we’ve got the end of the world. Instead of IM-happy teenage girls in love, think teens with superpowers in a post-apocalyptic landscape (where there are no computers! gasp! the horror!). As for villains, in place of annoying, football-playing ex-boyfriends, think large transparent crystal pterodactyls with a tendency to kill people.

Yeah, it’s a little different. I mean, I love Shakespeare, but I also love post-apocalyptic stories. I love teen romance, but I also love sci-fi. So I figured I’d try it; hopefully you’ll like it, too!

It does involve the end of the world (as we know it) (oops, now I totally got that song stuck in your heads, didn’t I?). However, said apocalypse is not caused by World War III, a nuclear catastrophe, a natural disaster, a biological weapon, a mysterious plague, a robot uprising, or aliens. How else could the world possibly end? You’ll have to read it to find out…

Ok…now can I talk about TV? I think so! I’m excited because all the new fall shows are starting. As a mildly obsessive TV watcher (Kari, stop laughing; I am totally mild about it!), I’ve made my list of the shows I’m most excited to see. This is based on previews, spoilers (although not too many), and the opinions of the TV critics I trust most:

1. Heroes. Awesome! It’s X-Men, but starting all new, plus it has Jess from Gilmore Girls and Weiss from Alias! I sure wouldn’t mind suddenly having a superpower, although I’d probably prefer flying or invincibility to an evil mirror twin, for instance. (Superpowers, by the way, totally feature in Avatars.) (Catch how I made this TV discussion related to books there? Very sly, eh?)

2. The Nine. I like complicated backstory and intriguing characters. I especially like it when totally different characters who don’t know each other are suddenly thrown together by catastrophe (hmmm…just like in Avatars!). I also like Tim Daly and Scott Wolf. And look! It’s Sucre’s girlfriend from Prison Break! Neat. I can’t wait to find out What Really Happened inside this bank-heist-turned-hostage-crisis.

3. Jericho. It’s post-apocalyptic! Just like Avatars! 🙂 And it has Skeet Ulrich, who was fascinating in the too-early-canceled show Miracles. I hear it’s a little somber (hey, my teenagers can find humor in the end of the world, why not theirs?), but by definition, if it’s post-apocalyptic, I am totally there.

4. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Because everyone is SO excited about it, and I loved The West Wing, plus I think I would have loved it even more without all the confusing politics, so this sounds perfect. My crush on this show will be Bradley Whitford, because he has the best worried face ever, and I like that in real life he has one of the only happy Hollywood marriages in existence. Also, the show will have snappy dialogue…as does Avatars! (ok, I’ll shut up now.)

5. Ugly Betty. Yes, at first I was like, isn’t it The Devil Wears Prada again? Why are we so excited? I mean, I love America Ferrara, too, and Eric Mabius was wicked cool in Eyes (also canceled too quickly! cursed networks!), but…why are we so excited? However, I trust my TV critics, and they are SOOOOOOO excited about this show. It has heart! It has humor! If all the critics who like the same shows I do like this show, then I have to give it a chance. And by the way…nothing like Avatars. 🙂

What other new shows will I be watching, at least for the first couple of episodes? 30 Rock, which I’m pretty excited about, too. Kidnapped, Runaway, and Standoff, even though all the titles are too similar (I already gave up on Vanished, sorry). Day Break once it starts because it’s a cool premise, and Adam Baldwin from Firefly is in it. And I’ll try Friday Night Lights and Smith because they’re getting great reviews, but I doubt I’ll keep watching them because…football, eh…and criminals, eh.

So what have we learned today? Apparently I pick my TV shows mainly based on which cute boys are in them. Lucky that my fiancé is such a tolerant, secure, lovely person. 🙂