Monday Meme

I stole this from the awesome, amazing, astounding and any other glowing word starting with "a" Jennifer Pickrell

A is for age:  27.  But I'm not talking about it right now.
B is for breakfast today: This is going to make me sound nuts, but I'm a night owl and I sleep late, so I don't eat breakfast food that much.  So mainly, I eat chicken nuggets for breakfast.  I know...
C is for currently craving: I constantly crave, and fight off the craving, for Taco Bell.  Also chocolate.  And hummus.  *shakes fist at healthy eating*
D is for dinner tonight: Sesame Chicken in the crockpot.
E is for favorite type of exercise:  Zumba or really, really tough circuit training.  My motto is:  If you don't feel like you might be sick, you're not working hard enough.
F is for an irrational fear: Snakes and failure, although both seem perfectly rational to me.
G is for gross food: Peppers.  I hate the taste and smell of them.  And I have the superhuman ability to taste even the smallest amount in any food.
H is for hometown: Seaford, Delaware.  It's ghetto but it was home for twenty years.
I is for something important:  Books.  And my family! Duh, family.
J is for current favorite jam: This isn't my style at all, but I am SO into Taylor Swift's song "Eyes Open" right now.
K is for kids:  Someday.
L is for current location: Living room.
M is for the most recent way you spent money: Frozen yogurt!
N is for something you need: To relax.
O is for occupation: Mainly, I'm a student but I freelance to make extra cash.
P is for pet peeve: God, I have so many.  Slow drivers, small-minded people, people who don't shut cupboard doors, anything that's crooked... seriously, I could go on but I'm working on being positive these days.
Q is for a quote: "Don't ask what the world needs.  Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."  -Howard Thurman
R is for random fact about you: I have the same middle name as my mom and my grandmothers on each of my parent's sides. 
S is for favorite healthy snack: I'm really into plums, although the season is over.  You should have seen my face in the grocery store staring at the empty plum section.  So I'm moving on to red pears.  And Power Crunch bars!  So good.
T is for favorite treat:  When I'm not eating healthy?  Late Night Snack, which is Ben & Jerry's flavor for Jimmy Fallon.  It's vanilla ice cream, salty caramel and chocolate covered potato chip clusters.  Sounds nuts, but it's amazing.  What I'm eating healthy?  Frozen yogurt.
U is for something that makes you unique: I don't have wisdom teeth or roots for them.  Yaaay evolution!
V is for favorite vegetable: Onions!  I can't eat them raw, but I could cook them and eat a whole bowl of onions.  That sounds gross now that I've typed it out, but YUM.
W is for today’s workout: I worked out my patience on the phone with my school all day.  Tomorrow will be circuit training though!
X is for X-rays you’ve had: I think just my teeth.
Y is for yesterday’s highlight:  I took the most ridiculous nap yesterday.  Slept like the dead.
Z is for your time zone: Eastern

Okay, that's it. Feel free to steal this and pass it on.  Or just read it and tell me how weird I am.  I can take it.

Brandy

Thoughts on a Friday

Okay, so you know you haven't blogged in a really long time when your blog host changes the entire layout of things and it took you five minutes to figure out how to post something new.  Whew!

Anyway, the Semester That Will Probably Kill Me did not, in fact, kill me, but it was hairy there for a while.  I was hoping to graduate this summer but due to mix-ups and the universe's hobby of making my life more complicated, I have to make it through the fall semester.  The bright side is that the classes I have to take are fun, besides one math, but I'm in denial about that right now, and it won't be as intense as this one.  Look who is focusing on the positives! *pats self on the back*

So I plan on finishing up revisions on HOOD now that I have a little more free time along with beta reading and reading new books because, you guys, I haven't read a book in over a month!  I know.  I flew through the last two books of the Hunger Games when the movie came out (my feelings on that series would take another blog post, maybe two) and since then I haven't touched a book.  I'm remedying that this weekend.

Since I do have more free time, I'd looove some book recommendations.  I have a small pile that I need to get through right now, but I'm hoping it won't take long.

So, what should I read?

Go hard or go home.

So as it turns out, I'm not very good at leisurely writing a book.  If I'm not putting myself under constant pressure to finish something, I get all, "I'll get right on that!  Tomorrow."  This actually is totally unsurprising to anyone who has ever met me, because I'm a works-well-under-pressure gal.  Yay, Scorpio!  I've always said I'm awesome when things go to crap.  It's when things are going good that I get suspicious.  So anyway, the moral to this story is that if I'm going to write that sequel, I'm going to do it in a month with a hard deadline.  Plus side, I'll be awesome when I'm finally published and am put on deadline.  ::Hear that agents?!::

So now I have to decide what I'm going to do.  Do I put my nose to the grindstone and finish the sequel or try to think of a new idea?  It's silly, but I feel weird putting the amount of energy needed to write a book into a sequel of a book that hasn't been picked up by an agent or sold yet.  And writing for me is cool, but am I missing out on My Next Great Idea (yes, I capitalized it.  It felt right.) because I'm working on something for fun?

There's also something to be said for that buzz I get when I have a new idea.  It's when I know that I'm operating on all cylinders and doing what I'm supposed to be doing with my life when I get an idea that I know I can turn into 50-80 thousand words.  And I miss it.  I haven't worked on anything new since NaNoWriMo and I miss the rush of it.

Maybe I will write something new.  I guess it's time to hit up my ideas list to see what comes up.  If nothing does, then I'll finish the sequel.  A plan!

Before that though, I have finals and revisions for HOOD to finish in the next few weeks.  Then I'll put myself on an intense deadline and stress myself out.  Good times.

Brandy