It. Is. Time. To. PARTY.

Happy Friday!!! This is not just any Friday, but the last Friday or any day my kids have school for the year!

even Hank is excited

Man, it feels good! This year has been one helluva ride, and I'm so relieved it's over. I have serious plans to sit back, relax, write and read a sh*t-ton of books over the next three months (check out my 2013 summer reading challenge on the left sidebar). As part of the fabulous VikLit's Celebrate the Small Things blog hop, I'm going to quickly list the things that had me do jumping jacks (in addition to the kids being done with school thing):

1. The re-write of What I've Done is still going amazingly well, and my editor just helped me add a new scene that brought a giant, gale-force wind of fresh air to the story.

2. I found an amazing designer to give my blog a facelift, and our vision of the new look is going to blow you away. Just. Wait.

3. Someone close to me is dealing with some health issues, and I'm just going to say that I'm so grateful to have her in my life, as well as all my family, friends, and fans! Three middle-aged people in our small community tragically/suddenly died in the past week and it has, once again, opened my eyes to the importance of life and just how precious it is.

4. I chaperoned my 13-year-old's class trip to the Minnesota Zoo on Wednesday. It has been many years since I didn't have a toddler in tow while visiting there, and I have a new appreciation of how much fun it can actually be. I thought for sure the 7th grade girls would become bored, but I literally had to drag them away from petting the sharks and stingrays.

I'm sure there were other things to celebrate, but my ADD is kicking into high gear and I need to close this post up as I started it a couple of hours ago. So I hope this Friday gives you lots of reasons to celebrate, and I hope you're gearing up for an epic summer!

Summer Reading Challenge

I just realized this morning how slack I've been online. No video blogs, no Friday "Celebrate the Small Things" posts, nothing.

But I have a good excuse. Despite the fact that we still have snow on the ground and it's nearly May, my children are crazy busy. We've been running non-stop with volleyball, track, dance, confirmation, tae kwon do and that little thing called life.

I know that really doesn't excuse my daytime hours, but those have been filled with a major overhaul on my first novel What I've Done as well as trying to tackle my second zombie book.

And although I obviously love reading just as much as I love writing, I've had very little time for that lately. To remedy this, I've decided to challenge myself to read one book each week this summer (not PER DAY as previously stated *oops*). I'm not talking digital books (because if you watch my vlogs you know how well that goes), but honest to goodness books that I can hold in my hands and turn each page. 

So I've started hoarding books for this challenge (see list on left side of this webpage). Most of them are of the paranormal persuasion, but I'll probably throw a few old fashioned romance stories in the mix to spice things up. Plus there are a couple of John Green's I have yet to read. If you have any recommendations for something that is sure to knock my socks off, leave them in the comment below.

 So while I'm working from our lake home this summer, I plan to at least try to give you a video reviewing a book every week. We'll see how this goes.

I challenge you to set up your own reading goal for this summer. Even once a month would be an awesome goal for anyone who loves to read but can never seem to find enough time. Now if this freaking snow would just melt and it would warm up enough to wear a pair of capris for the first time in 2013, maybe I could actually believe that summer is really on its way...

The Small Things Blog Hop

Happy Friday! Once again I'm posting as part of VikLit's blog hop. You can sign up to participate on the link at the bottom. It's a great way to remember accomplishments don't have to be anything major in order to celebrate them and to pick your spirits up if you're feeling a bit down.

There are all kinds of awesome things to celebrate this week. Not only did I post a more successful, calmer, less eye-rolling video blog, but I finished the first draft of my fifth book! Oh yeah, I'm doing "virtual" cartwheels (because I'm too old and out of shape to do real ones). The book deals with mind control and is something I started back in November, but hit a major writer's block on for months. One of the best parts is that the first draft sits at 80k words, which is much heftier than my other books usually start out being. And as if it was meant to be, I got the edits back on my fourth book the very next day!

To celebrate, I went with a friend to see the Beautiful Creatures movie. FINALLY. I'll share my thoughts on the movie in next week's video blog.

Yesterday we bought my son-in-law's old Mustang as my commuter car (the Tahoe is a gas guzzler but a necessity for living on a road that doesn't always get plowed in the winter). The car may be an older model, but it's my very first Mustang and I've wanted one for as long as I can remember!

I finished reading two books this week (it's an amazing feeling to find time for this once again). On my second vlog I reviewed Beautiful Darkness (the sequel to Beautiful Creatures). I plan to review Lauren Oliver's Requiem (that I devoured in a little over 24 hours) also on next week's vlog.

We also finished my son's science fair project, which means we are DONE WITH SCIENCE FAIR FOREVER!

Oh man, that is such an amazing feeling. And not to beat a dead, overweight horse, but there were those five pounds I lost on the first week of my diet that has me doing a happy dance. It won't be long before I'm allowed to have an ice cold beer...I can taste it already!

Writer Wednesday: Lauryn April

I first met Lauryn April after discovering her book Into the Deep on Goodreads. Into the Deep is the story of a girl who develops an unusual ability and is forced to protect her school from being blown to pieces by an angry teen. I liked it so much that I *may* have stalked her on Twitter. Now we're on a group blog together. It's funny how things sometimes happen in strange ways.

Where did the idea of Into the Deep come from?

Initially it was inspired by an episode of Buffy titled “Earshot”, and some notes I’d written in Abnormal Psychology.

Have you personally ever experienced something that could only be explained as paranormal?

Oh yeah. When I was a kid I lived in this old farmhouse with my mom and sister, and I swear the place was haunted. I have a few stories, but one really good one. I doubt anyone will believe this but I swear it’s true. When I was about twelve I was having a slumber party with one of my girlfriends and we fell asleep on the couches in the living room. In the corner of the room was a fluorescent bulb from the closet that had died. We'd set it aside planning to buy a replacement the next day. In the middle of the night my friend and I woke up to the bulb glowing. Dead, not plugged in to anything, just sitting there, glowing. We stared at it for the longest time watching the light pulse and flicker. I think we even picked it up and carried it into another room to see if it would stop, but it didn't. By the next morning it stopped glowing and I've never seen anything like that since.

Favorite songs on your writing playlist?

Oddly enough, I often write in silence, but when I do listen to music and write I have a playlist on Youtube with some really chill, moodly kind of stuff. “Breath Me” by Sia, “Use Somebody” cover by Laura Jensen, and “Always” by Saliva are some of my favorites on it.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’ve recently finished the first draft of “Hidden Beneath” which is the sequel to my debut novel “Into the Deep” and I’m in the process of re-reading, making changes and getting it ready for beta readers.

Do you plan to stick to the paranormal genre, or do you think you will venture out to other areas?

I think I’ll stick to the paranormal. I’ve written some contemporary short stories in the past, but I just like monsters so much more. Everyone has their demons, when I write I just like to make those demons a little more literal.

What’s the best thing about being self-published?

Having total control, and not just with writing what I want, but with choosing what I publish next and when to have it out. I tend to be really scatterbrained and I jump from one project to the next. I have, I think, twelve books that I’ve started writing. Some are no more than sheets of notes, others are 10, 20, 30 thousand words in. So, half the time I don’t even know which one I’m going to finish next.

Hardest?

The work. I’m not just a writer, but a publisher, cover artist, promoter, ect… I do hire an editor, but other than that I do it all, even the formatting for both the paperback and e-books. It can be a lot, especially with trying to finish a BA in Psych and working part time.

Favorite scary movie?

I love scary movies, so I don’t think I could pick just one, but at the top of my list would have to be “The Silence of the Lambs”, “The Lost Boys”, and the director’s cut of “Alien”.

If you could spend a day with any celebrity/author, who would you choose?

Either Stephen King or Joss Whedon, but probably Joss Whedon because I think Stephen King would be a little too intimidating.

What are some of your favorite books?

“The Talisman” by Stephen King, “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins, and “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte. I’m also really into the Lux series by Jennifer Armentrout at the moment.

Ways to follow Lauryn: Twitter, Goodreads, her website

Where to find her book: Amazon, Barnes & Noble 

Lauryn is from a small town about thirty minutes outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She started writing in high school but never thought seriously about being a writer until college where she spent some time working for the school newspaper. Currently she lives in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where she’s studying Psychology and lives with her boyfriend and two dogs. In August of 2012 Lauryn published her first novel, INTO THE DEEP, which looks at the intricacies of the adolescent mind and explores how teenagers deal with feelings of loneliness and judgment. She continues to write in the YA and NA Paranormal Romance genre, and when she’s not writing she likes to spend her time out on Lake Winnebago, snowmobiling, or just hanging out at home watching movies.