I forgot to tell you how awesome I am.

Publishers Weekly said about Capers,  “Piva fuses romance, family, food, travel, and a touch of mystery in this charming, character-driven story narrated by 17-year-old Hazel…. Hazel’s credible and often funny narration keeps Piva’s novel moving at a bracing clip.”

A reminder...

True story. I've been practicing my whole life to be this awesome.

I'd just like to go out for a nice walk, so...

Scribbling and snacking my way to NYC

FIRST DRAFT
"Don't get it right, just get it written”
          --James Thurber
Me: scribblescribblescribblescribble DONE!

SECOND-ISH DRAFT/MINOR OVERHAUL
“Writing is the hardest way of earning a living, with the possible exception of wrestling alligators.”
          --Olin Miller
Me: scribble Look! Something shiny! scribble scribble This stinks! scribble ::years pass:: (imagine a calendar with the pages flying off, a la Hollywood) scribble?

THIRD-ISH (and by this I mean SEVENTH-ISH) DRAFT/ MAJOR OVERHAUL
“Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then for money.”
          --Moliere
Me: scribble snack scribble ::sees end of the story, a mere weekend away:: scribble snack scribble snack scribble

I said I would get this thing (known by friends and family merely as "Hazel") done by the end of the month. Actually, I said I would get this YA novel done by the end of last November, during NaNoWriMo, but there was that whole extended hospital stay (kidney infection, pneumonia, and gall bladder) and pain-medication-fueled recovery, during which time my brain resembled a tumbleweed.

Of course, anyone who knows me also knows

1. I will do anything for attention
2. I will do, no, would have done anything to avoid finishing this thing--but not anymore. Now I want to be done. Done-er than done.
3. I rarely feel badly about not achieving a self-imposed goal. I just wave to it as it passes by. No sense beating myself up; I was probably distracted by shiny things, and who can feel badly about THAT?

Psst. The Chef doesn't know this but he's going to help me this weekend with some of the foodstuff descriptions included within Hazel. The book, not the person. Not that she's a real person. You know what I mean. But I digress (again). My degree has made writing about the sweet stuff easy. The savory? Not so much, especially considering if left to my own devices, I'd eat Campbell's tomato soup for every meal. Except breakfast, at which time I would have French toast.

Don't worry! He shall be rewarded--with a trip to New York for the SCBWI conference next week. Well, it's kind of a reward. It's reward-ish.

When Jame asked if he'd be attending sessions, I said (via the facebook), "He will run amok in the city whilst we suffer for our craft. Or sneak off and drink. Whatever." 

Then she pointed out, "Watch he'll get a book deal while he's out: Drinking in the Underbelly or some such." Knowing The Chef as I do, I TOTALLY see that happening.Stay tuned to see who he signs with. :)

We'll be staying here. Well, kind of here. Dare I say, here-ish?

Words to live by.

Again from One Twenty Five

:-)

"Don’t ever think you’re nothing because somewhere along the line, there’s going to be someone who thinks you’re everything."
--stolen unabashedly from One Twenty Five, my new favoritest blog, which I found via my other new favoritest blog, Do Life.