Sunshine does not like the Cone of Shame either :-)
First of all, YOU MUST ALL GO SEE UP! IT IS ONLY THE GREATEST MOVIE IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD! Or if you don’t entirely agree with that, I think everyone can at least agree that the talking dog is one of the most brilliant character ideas in movie history (along with Dory, the fish with no memory in Finding Nemo, which I love because it’s one of the very few movies where a female character gets to be the most hilarious part of the whole movie) .
This movie is so awesome. I should warn you, though, I sobbed through almost the entire thing. Seriously! And yet it’s totally hilarious! But also sob sob sob! I know, I sound crazy. But I’m sure you’re all planning to see it anyway, right? 🙂
It is insanely busy week here in Tui-world because of the 3,000 things I have to finish before going on vacation (woo!), such as:
(1) Registering for ReaderCon! Yup, I’m a guest at the conference this year, which means hopefully I’ll be sitting on panels saying wise, profound things…or, more likely, sitting on panels gawping at other guests saying wise, profound things!
The ReaderCon I went to two years ago is how I discovered Catherynne M. Valente, who is not only an amazing writer but also probably my favorite author blogger and full of astonishing profound wisdom. I pretty much think anyone who’s ever heard her speak two sentences would have to fall madly in love with her brain. :-) And she’ll be there this year, too! Yaayyy!!!! Only mildly intimidating! :-) :-) 🙂
(2) Writing editorial critiques for the awesome young writers from Danvers who gave me writing to look at. There are SUCH talented writers in here! I can’t wait until all of you have published books for me to read! :-) There are fabulous stories about mermaids, pandas (a really surprising amount of pandas, actually), golf (!), runaways, and lots and lots of dogs.
Some of the dog ones are really sad, though! I don’t think I could ever bring myself to write a really sad dog story. Just taking Sunshine to the vet is a hugely traumatizing experience; I can’t imagine writing something even sadder than that! If I must do traumatizing things to bears and cats in the name of art (or more specifically in the name of Erin Hunter) :-), then so be it, but when it comes to dogs, I’m afraid Pet Trouble is going to be much more about the happy endings.
(3) Choosing a piece of writing to give to my new writing group. Yes, I’ve joined a writing group! Eeeeee! I’m so excited! It includes ridiculously awesome writers like Mitali Perkins, Karen Day, and J. L. Bell, as well as several other writers who don’t have websites yet but whose writing is amazing.
To be honest, I’m most excited about this because finally I have someone to talk to besides poor Adam, who for some reason doesn’t want to spend two hours dissecting the details of writing with me (MYSTERIOUS!). Poor new writing group friends, though; they probably don’t know that I’m secretly scheming to make them my new BFF’s. I mean, I literally had a dream where we were all in the same college dorm and we were hanging out complaining about our homework and the cafeteria food together.
Yeah, I know, it’s goofy! I need friends! It turns out meeting people when you never leave the house is surprisingly hard! ;-) And most of my best friends are far too far away. Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.
I’ve always been a little wary about writing groups because you could end up with very unhelpful people, but in the two sessions I’ve been to so far, everyone has been SO cool and smart…I can’t wait to see what they’ll say about my piece! Although of course I’m a little nervous, too. I’m used to my editors by now…and there’s only one of them at a time telling me stuff, as opposed to eight people critiquing me at once. Yeeep!
And now I have to decide what to give them. Something shiny and new? Something I’ve been working on and put aside for a while? YA or middle grade? Historical fantasy or potentially scandalous contemporary teen stuff? I have too many things I want to write! But it may come down to what I already have 20 pages of in my writing folder, if I don’t get more done before we leap onto a plane. (URP!)
(4) Packing. Packing is hard! Nothing fits me! OMG weddings! Whine whine whine! :-) Someday I think someone should have a pajama-themed wedding. Wouldn’t that be awesome? But on the other hand, having an excuse to dress up like once a year isn’t so terrible, either. Assuming I can still fit into this shiny purple dress o’ mine. 🙂
(5) Cleaning up our DVR. It needs to be left in a very cheerful mood so it won’t eat any So You Think You Can Dance while we’re away! How excited am I that the top 20 are finally performing this week? SO EXCITED! And I feel like I actually have a good sense of who most of them are, too…there are only four or five that I feel like I’ve literally never seen before. And according to the spoilers (miniature spoiler alert!), Evan is doing jazz (YAY!) (with Randi, cute unitard girl) and Jason & Caitlin are doing Bollywood (WOO HOO!) so that should be SUPER COOL!
I must admit I didn’t watch the Tonys, although I was tempted to because Neil Patrick Harris was hosting, and I think he might literally be the most adorable person on the planet. Just you try to disagree with me after watching the closing number he did:
Awww! LOVES HIM!
All right, I must away to bed because Sunshine has another appointment in the morning (just to remove her sutures, although I’m quite hoping the vet will say: "It’s a MIRACLE! She’s COMPLETELY HEALED already! Feel free to put your couch back together and run around chasing tennis balls!" Since that is clearly what Sunshine thinks has happened, anyway. Tiny bananas dog!).
I’m not sure if I’ll be able to post on Tuesday…it kind of depends on whether we have the Internet in our rustic Yosemite cabin…hmmmm. But if not, I’ll try to post sometime while we’re away…I’m hoping being immersed in all that nature will help me with Seekers 5, which is what I’m working on now! Although I think I would be all right with not actually seeing any actual bears, thank you very much, universe. 😉
Quote of the Day: "My name is Dug. I have just met you, and I love you." — Dug the talking dog, Up