I think the best course of action to take on this “About the Author” section is to call it a disclaimer right off the bat before you read further and realize for yourself that I am no professional writer. I love to share the inner workings of my crazy at length but as I do, I will most likely have a messload of made up words (I direct you to exhibit A: “messload”), grammatical errors and run-on sentences (I now direct you to Exhibit B: this entire paragraph). Just for the record, run on sentences, both written and spoken, are the way to GO…that way you say everything that’s on your mind before you have time to forget why you started saying what you were saying. Anyone with children will tell you: if you don’t get it out now you never will due to the loss of brain cells after each childbirth experience. Can I get an “Amen”? So here’s the disclaimer: I’m merely writing the internal monologues going through my head as if they were meant to be shared. And by internal monologues I really just mean the voices in my head but you know, potay-to, potah-toe.
What I am is a wife, a mother, a school volunteer, someone trying to build a new home business, beat my nine year old son at Battleship, clean the house, finish laundry, wrestle my six year old son into the bathtub (despite the fact that he swears he’s allergic to water), return girlfriends’ phone calls, read bedtime stories and spend at least a few moments each day with my splendiferous husband who from here on out will be known primarily as “my beloved”. At the end of the day what I am is tired (but in a good way). I don’t think I’m unique…I can see you nodding your head as you read this. Yes, I can see you because I’m every woman and blah, blah, blah. But there’s something else about me that you should know.
Here’s my confession: Every few weeks, when my monsters are tucked in their beds and things are quiet in my world, I give my beloved a kiss and run to the living room to – as he puts it – go hide. What he doesn’t know is that I am sneaking out. My books (YA and otherwise) are dear friends who pick me up, sneak me out the back door and take me away (in a yellow Porsche Carrera, of course) to some other place. I try not to do this too often, but there’s the times when I am sitting at the dining table, minding my own business, trying to have a nice meal with my family and there will be a swoon worthy book making googly eyes at me from its bookshelf. That’s when it’s worth hoping that pesky spot on my floor won’t creak while I tiptoe down the hallway at 2am, attempting to slither into bed without waking the man of my dreams as I return from my crazy night of reading on my couch. When a book crush hits me and I sneak out to spend time with it, the dear man I married has to live without me for a few nights. Listen, it could be worse, I could be a slow reader.
Then I call my MFEO to discuss my flavor of the week…or month…as I tend to fixate on books and their characters for longer periods of time than most people might. I’m not insane. I don’t do anything crazy like write fan fiction. Thaz crazy. I do perfectly normal things like cast the characters I love for the movies that I’ll write the screenplay for, produce and direct when I take over the world with my MFEO. (I’m even casting for the re-makes of the Twilight movies — though I am keeping Edward as is. That man has the most dead on crooked smile my brain eyes have ever seen.)
I also create soundtracks for books as they should be. This is one of my talents. Hmmm…perhaps “talent” is a strong term to use for something that is as astonishingly unmarketable as the ability to match songs to my favorite book moments. However, this is my article, dammit, and I’ll call it a talent all I want. Don’t like it? Get your best friend to build you a blog and talk about it. OK, fine, you got me. Perhaps I should call it a hobby. But I’m thinking…if this whole writing for the blog gig doesn’t bring me the enormous fame and fortune that will come naturally of any blog about YA books, I’m going to seriously consider taking a few courses on how to become a professional soundtrack creator. Should be just as lucrative.
Before I allow the voices in my head to retire tonight, I would be remiss if I didn’t give a Crazytown Salute to my darling MFEO. I am ever grateful that she had the wherewithal to take the time to research and create this forum. Prior to this blog, the world we like to call Crazytown existed only in our heads. She and I have been talking about our literature love, that spans across all genres and age groups, for years, and this is the avenue she has created to help us get it all out — that is, in addition to the 3-7 times a week we talk about it on the phone and the 7-45 times we e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and text each other about it. So I guess you could say there’s plenty of crazy to go around.
There’s so much crazy flowing that there’s more than enough for us to share with you, so read up and join in! Just remember one thing: this is just for FUN (I implore you to refer back to the initial disclaimer in paragraph one), there are no delusions of grandeur here. Well, except the taking over the world part perhaps, but this blog itself is just for the heck of it. If this forum is the catalyst for world domination as people see the genius of our crazy, well, so be it.
YA Crush 