Friday 5

1. OK, so I've decided to start cross-posting between Livejournal and Blogger again. I have no idea why because no one reads me at Blogger--besides, which, I've gone through TWO GRAPEMOS since the last time I posted there. Today I transferred a few recent posts, then lost interest. I will try harder now. Maybe I'll make some new friends?

2. I rented a Dumpster. Seriously. They're delivering it next Friday so I can spend Easter weekend throwing crap out. What's it like to be able to park your car in a garage? I don't remember. And how long has Grandma been in that nursing home? Going on 4 years. Her whole apartment is still packed into my house. This is not an exaggeration.

3. Read two wonderful books sent to me by Tina-- 100 CANDLES:



and FLIP:



Both EXCELLENT!

4. I am thoroughly enjoying my second day off in a row (and trying not think of dragging myself back in there at 7 a.m. tomorrow)

5. I can believe Eli slept here beside me the whole time I've been playing around online and didn't bug me one single time. :)

6. I need something to write. WAIT! I snuck a sixth one in. Does it count?

Music Therapy for a Very Crabby Person

Ahhh, music.

Some days just start out stressed,

1. Can't find my hairbrush for second day in a row: stress. I have nothing to brush out my hair with. It has to be This Particular Kind of Brush, not just any old one lying around house. My mom hammered it into my brain for years that you never, ever use anyone else's brush. Of course at the time she was thinking: lice. No, no one in my house has lice. But I can't use their brushes. Mine is special.

2. Out of coffee: stress. All we had left was flavored. Ugh, ugh, ugh.

3. Overstuffed garbage pail left over from last night: stress. Seriously!!! Can you NOT see the trash falling out of the can? Are you going for some kind of world record to see How Much Trash Can You Shove Into A Single Can?

4. Grocery store: stress. Stupid*** self-serve registers are only a step above the stupid*** full-serve. Hmm, lets see how many times we can set off the flashing HELP light, Why will the register accept two coupons but then reject the third--which, as summoned cashier admitted, is actually the NORM? How about the cheap bags that break as you're schlepping your groceries to the car? (when I use the full serve registers I insist on bagging my own--double bagging, that is--thus subjecting myself to the stinkeye from the highly affronted cashier).

5. Work: stress. Yes, just thinking about how I am Not Off Till Thursday already had me in a tizzy on the way home from the store. I hadn't washed my hair yet (because I had no hairbrush, duh) and wasn't sure if I had any clean scrubs, and what I really wanted to do was to go back to bed.

And then, while punching radio buttons, I stumbled upon the overture from The King and I.




Suddenly, everything's fine again. :)

I am happy. I have music. I'll be humming the soundtrack all day.

Friday 5

1. A BEAUTIFUL ESSAY by  

2. April is movie month for me. JANE EYRE is next. Last week it was INSIDIOUS.

 


Best scene in that? Claws sharpening on a spinning grindstone...clomping cloven hoofs...and "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" playing on a gramophone. The adrenaline kicks in just thinking about it. I'm also considering the remake of ARTHUR but, hmm, I dunno. I still have such a soft spot for the Dudley Moore version.

3. I still haven't received my invitation to The Royal Wedding so I guess I'll have to watch it on TV with all the other peasants. I doubt my manager would've given me enough time off anyway. Who's with me? Shall we make a party of it?

4. I spent 4 hours yesterday revising an older project and 15 minutes deleting 50% of my revisions.

5. Anticipating a rollicking night at work tonight. I may very well be the only one on the schedule. For some reason 95% of the staff gets Friday nights off. Go figure.

I WON!

I won a signed book mark for JULIA KARR'S XVI by posting an April Fool's prank in her comment section. Yay! Because I almost never win anything (though I did get lucky with a lottery ticket recently).



Thank you, Julia!

A Beautiful Gift

Thank you, Emjae!
xox

Migraines and Spur-of-the-Moment Purchases

If you don't get them, thank your lucky stars.

Mine started when I just 9 years old. I'd get one maybe every two or three years. Then, in my thirties, I began to get them every few months, several of them bad enough to send me to the emergency room. I'd ask for a Demerol injection--which, at that point, because I was barfing my guts out--was the only thing that would work. Imitrex injections didn't. I certainly couldn' t keep down a pill.So then the doctors and nurses would exchange looks and roll their eyes, obviously thinking: Oh, she's one of THOSE.

Hello? am I not lying here on your exam table with my face in a basin, sobbing with pain? And you think I'm here because I want to get high? If that were the case, wouldn't I show up here more than once or twice a year?

I saw doctor after doctor. I tried medication after medication. I subjected myself to the suspicious glares of medical professionals who believed I was simply seeking drugs (though they never said that to my face), never mind that I do not now, nor have I ever had anything remotely resembling a drug problem. I hardly ever drink, for pete's sake. I haven't had a hangover since 1986. I'm sure one hit off a joint would send me to my grave.

Finally a doctor (who now is my current doc) tried me on Fiorinal #3. For me, it's a miracle drug. The combination of 4 different ingredients will usually knock out a migraine right from the very start. I still get headaches--a LOT of them--but if I take the Fiorinal in time, I'm usually good to go.

Except for yesterday. I woke up in pain at 4 a.m. I took a pill. Two hours later the headache was worse. I took another one, cursing myself for not taking 2 to begin with. But one almost always helps. Not yesterday, though.

So then I have an hour or so where I'm feeling better; the headache is there, but not throbbing and I am not nauseated. I answer some e-mails, do a bit of proof-reading, check out my usual haunts...and then I'm flat on my back again, immobilized by pain.

This goes on all day. Pain, lull, feeling kind of decent, then pain again. During one of these lulls, the virus-I-though-I'd-gotten-rid-of-a-week-ago reappeared, rewriting itself over and over again. I zapped it again (after a 2-hour scan--NOT McAfee, which is worthless in this case) but my computer, which has been slowly dying over the past month or so (sudden blank blue screens, constant screen freezes, and getting BUMPED OFF) was pretty much worthless at that point.

Maybe it was the frustration. When you write, there's always stuff to take care of and I was, and still am, pretty backed up. Or maybe all the drugs, haha, But I decided then and there I needed a new laptop--NOW. I couldn't take it a second longer. So Nate and TJ and I went to Best Buy two minutes away and I bought the little Toshiba I'd had my eye on. Nate and TJ were there for 1) technical support, and 2) someone that drugged out has no business making a major purchase without supervision.

Of course when I got it home, it's not like I could play with it. Nate set it up while I huddled under a blanket, dizzy and exhausted, migraine back full force.

Then, at seven p.m., I lifted my head and realized that, after 15 hours: I AM PAIN-FREE! Pain-free enough to eat dinner, though one hour earlier I was too sick to get up and make it. You can imagine how wonderful that feels. And this morning, too, I'm perfectly fine (and regretting having to use up a sick day when I'm actually...yanno...sick).

I never know what brings these things on, though stress is often involved, and sometimes very strong smells (think church-lady's cologne). But I was off this weekend, did not go to church, and the only stress I experienced was stress from my old computer. However, I DID eat cranberries, plus had a glass of cranberry-apple juice--2 things I almost never have--and I had them both on Sunday. Haven't Googled it yet, but....cranberries? Is it possible?

Ban Musical Chairs!

I think Musical Chairs is way, waaay too stressful a game for children for play. I watched them play it at my niece's birthday party and I practically had a nervous breakdown.

Think about it. Remember when you played it? Did you actually like it?

I bet not.

You're afraid to pass any chair while the music is playing. You guard it till the last second, when the kid behind gets too close for comfort. You hope against hope that the music won't stop before you've reached the next chair. Suddenly, all of your "friends" have become your enemies, willing to do anything to knock you out of the game. Talk about paranoia.

The music screeches to a halt. A kid leaps into YOUR chair, shoving you out of the way, and everyone else finds a chair as well.

And there you are, standing all by yourself.

Alone.

Chairless.

In silence, except for a few smug ha-ha-ha's.

And you stumble away in humiliation and defeat while the music resumes, and those who are left continue the wretched game.

OK: Duck-Duck-Goose is fun. Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey is fun. Tag is fun. Hide-and-Seek is fun (unless nobody bothers to look for you). Heck, even Dodgeball is fun...so much fun, in fact, that some schools have actually outlawed it. Dodgeball gives you an opportunity to bash someone else with the ball. And you are moving, too, not slinking around a circle of chairs...those chairs...omg, those coveted chaaaairs! In Dodgeball nobody follows you, invading your personal space, hurrying you along, breathing down your neck. There's no jolly music to be choked off right in the middle of the tune--which, in itself, I find extremely disturbing. One second you hear it. The next second you don't. Maybe you were humming along. I don't even like it when my husband switches the TV in the middle of a commercial. I prefer closure, I guess. Or else I was taught that it's rude to interrupt.

I used to break out in a cold sweat whenever I had to play Musical Chairs. Now, as an adult, I still find it painful to watch. I don't think my nephew liked it much, either. He got bounced out twice and looked positively heartbroken. I gave him bubblegum. What I really wanted to do was whisper in his ear: Tante hates this game, too. Hey, I know! Let's go find some cap guns and scare the shit out of 'em ALL!

Something tells me I may be a bad influence on this child.

So...who besides me also HATED that game? :)

Elijah UPDATE

I haven't been posting much about Eli. Believe me, he's FINE. The twice-a-day Pepcid keeps his puking to a minimum (maybe once or twice a month and no more of those long, drawn-out nightly barf marathons). He weighs 65.5 pounds and though he has mellowed somewhat, he's still a handful, especially when he's bored. We try Very Hard for him Not To Be Bored and send him to Camp Bow Wow about 3 times a week. We use a Gentle Leader now and he walks nicely, though he still has a tendency to bristle at (male) strangers. Such a protective boy! He is handsome and sweet, funny as hell, and understands every word we say. Really.

When we noticed him limping a few weeks back, we took him in for extensive x-rays (another week-long cruise I can kiss goodbye) and discovered he has severe congenital left hip dysplasia. Yep, only two years old, with a geriatric hip. He'll eventually need surgery, which runs in the general area of four to seven thousand bucks (arrrgh!!!) but for now we've started him on Rimadyl, a heavy duty anti-inflammatory agent previously used for humans, but the FDA kicked it off the market b/c of lethal side effects. As far as Eli's concerned, this is a miracle drug. He's doing so much better now and almost never limps (occasionally he might be a bit stiff in the morning). He has Ultram for pain, but rarely needs this, either. He goes in regularly for bloodwork to check his liver function and white blood cells (he had an appointment today) and so far, so good. We may even be able to cut the dose back a bit.

Nothing--I mean nothing--slows this dude down. Yet the other thing we've discovered is a heart murmur. Aside from a very irregular heart rate (which worries me) he shows no other symptoms, so I'm hoping we won't have to treat this any time soon. I am wondering how this heart murmur will affect any future hip surgery.


This poor guy had such a rough start in life.  I do want to keep him around for a long, looooong time. :)

Goodbye, Liz

Twittter

I used to do it. But I find it a waste of time to "tweet" to people who don't tweet you back. I mean, seriously.

Is there a point to that?

LOVE this Version! (warning: adult content)

THE UNQUIET: Book Description

Sixteen-year-old Rinn Jacobs has two secrets: she’s bipolar, and she accidentally killed her grandmother.

After a suicide attempt, and now her parents' separation, Rinn and her mom move from California to the small Ohio town where her mother grew up. Back on her medications (again!), hoping to stay well, Rinn settles into her new home and school. She refuses to be daunted by the fact that the previous owner hung herself in Rinn's bedroom, or that her classmates believe the school pool is haunted by Annaliese, a girl who drowned there. But when a reckless séance goes awry, and terrible things start happening to her new friends—yet not to her—Rinn is determined to find out why she can’t be "touched" by Annaliese...or if Annaliese even exists.

With the help of Nate Brenner, the hunky “farmer boy” she’s rapidly falling for, Rinn devises a dangerous plan to uncover the truth. Soon reality and fantasy meld into one, till Rinn finds it nearly impossible to tell the difference. When a malevolent force threatens the lives of everyone she cares about--not to mention her own--she can't help wondering: who should she really be afraid of?

Annaliese? Or herself?

THE UNQUIET
Winter 2012
Bloomsbury USA Children's Books

That last sound you heard was a SQUEEEEEE! because I've been dying to post about this story now I really have a title. :)

10 Things I Learned While Editing This Novel

1. My agent is brilliant. I really should pay attention to her the first time around.

2. My editor is also brilliant, mostly because she never uses the word “suckage". Even if it’s what she means.

3. I obviously like funerals--I have one in every book. In THE UNQUIET I have 3.

Note: my grandmother routinely attended funerals (weddings, too) of people she never met. I used to think it was for the food. Now I believe she simply had a morbid interest in the whole process.

4. It doesn’t matter if I’ve re-read, re-written, and re-revised 10 times--I'm still gonna screw up. I don’t know what the magic number is. I doubt I’ll ever find out.

5. There is no such thing as “Are you outta your SKULL? I can’t cut that!”

6. God invented vacation and sick days specifically for writers on a deadline.

7. Even in my so-called “final” draft, my daughter can always point out something stupid I wrote.

8. I am still the Typo QUEEN of the 21st Century. That'll never change. Bow to me, peasants.

9. I’d forgotten how exciting a new book could be. :) :) :)

10. This laptop ain’t gonna hold out much longer.

Because We All Need a Laugh Every Now and Then...

...I let this darling baby rip up all my old rejection letters. Watch!!!

FINSHED (for now)

I feel like I've just survived WWIII.

My revisions for THE UNQUIET are completed. It took about 4 weeks and required a significant amount of rewriting. Eliminating the two extra POVs wasn't as bad as I'd feared. I didn't want a MC who always happened to be in the right place at the right time (HP, anyone?) which is why several major incidents were told from other characters' points of view. Regardless, they're gone.

I'm still in that weird zone where half of me thinks I did a good job while the rest of me fears I've completely botched it. As my brilliant editor is currently on vacation, I'll have no way of knowing at least till April.

But for now, it's behind me! Now I'll be working on an upcoming library presentation, making changes to my website, and hopefully hanging around here a lot more.

Other than that, I'm officially ON BREAK.

A GRAPEMO F.Y.I.

Here is a list of last year's Grapemo participants. For those of you who unfamiliar with Grapemo, think of it as a mini NaNo without all the pressure. All you need is a Personal Writing Goal--this can be to write so many words that month, or pages, or chapters, or even a single chapter. You can use the time to revise/edit/or proofread your work. You can work on your synopsis, outlines, query letters, whatever. If you're an illustrator, not a writer, you can use this time to work on whatever project needs your undivided attention.

The object of this is to spend ONE SOLID MONTH completely devoted to the most pressing matter at hand. And the nice thing is, nothing is carved in stone--goals can be reasssed and changed as needed. We'll be posting weekly updates (guidelines will be announced) and--for those brave enough to share your work--weekly (or possibly twice-weekly) teasers (not manadatory). It's fun and it's inspirational, and anyone can join in. Whoever is interested, please reply this post, or PM or e-mail me, and I'll add you to the list.

I desperately need this, by the way. :) And I bet I'm not alone.

GRAPES, ANYONE?

Hmm. I smell...



Yes! February will be here before you know it. You know what that means?

It's GRAPEMO time! Remember this?



C'mon, don't be shy. Who wants to play? :)

HAUNTED?

Maybe I've been spending too much time with my paranormal. But can you see the orbs in the picture below? Two near the center of the mantle, and one near the two pics on the wall to the right. WEIRD!

DECEMBER PICS!

Grandma and Nate on Nate's birthday (just before Christmas)


Our teeny-tiny puppy-proof Christmas tree


Hubby and Grandma


Nate, Grandma, Beth, and me on Christmas morning


Beth and me


Genevieve and Brandon ("...sitting in a tree, etc.") on New Year's Eve


Matthew, Leah, Molly, Sophia, and Hubby


Peace out, Lydia!


Pooped-out puppy on New Year's Eve

CAMPER OF THE MONTH!

Totally cool! Elijah is Camp Bow Wow's Camper of the Month!



From CBW's Newsletter: "Elijah is a one year old beagle mix who loves coming to camp! He knows he's in for a fun filled day when his owner, Jeannine, asks him if he's ready to go to Camp! He loves coming to camp so much, in fact, that one day he just couldn't wait until mom parked the car and jumped out of the open window in the parking lot and ran to the front door! Elijah has been coming to camp since he was 4 months old and it has been a lot of fun watching him grow up. He recently developed his "big dog" bark and loves gossiping with the other Campers! He also likes to help welcome new playmates to camp by lending a paw in the interview process. Elijah is at camp every Saturday and usually a day or two during the week as well and would love to help welcome your pup to Camp! Congratulations Elijah for being the January Camper of the Month!"

Squee! I am such a proud mommy today! :) :) :)

Click to find a Camp Bow Wow near you.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy 2010 to everyone, a day late. Let me just say that my whole New Year's Eve dinner sucked, though everyone was far too polite to say so (though the hors ovaries went over quite well...not homemade, of course). The lasagna burnt. The fruit salad was utterly tasteless. The idiots at  (name deleted to avoid potential litigation) Pizza forgot to put the mushrooms on my mushroom-and-onion pizza. I ended up with an ONION PIZZA. Who the h-e-double L eats an onion pizza??? The shrimp cocktail was awesome, but then, how can you screw up shrimp cocktail? I drank 2 glasses of wine and didn't even get a headache, so that was good.

Yesterday I'd planned to write all day (Santa brought me 25 free days of doggie day care! Either I was a very good girl last year, or he wasn't paying much attention) but I spent it in a coma into front of episode after episode of "Law and Order: SVU"--none of which I'd seen before because I work 3-11. And ate leftover ONION pizza for lunch and dinner.

How was YOUR holiday??? Hmm? Anyone?

P.S. Pics to come. But I am at Borders right now trying to redeem myself.

HELLOOOOOO

Still employed:                _√_

All teeth intact (see above):     _√_

Survived dog:                  _√_

Survived Thanksgiving:   _√_

Survived Christmas:         _√_

Survived New Year’s:       _√_ (pending)

Revisions completed:        ___

 

Oh, wait. “Revisions completed” seems to be lacking a _√_ .

Can that possibly be because I'm not finished with them yet?



"What? WHAT??? How dare you insinuate this novel is a hopeless cause?"



"Shh, it's okay, it's okay...she won't hit you again, I promise."

WEDNESDAY BLATHER

I haven't posted anything of relevance for a while.

I'm not about to break my record.

Seriously. I have bronchitis. I've had bronchitis for, like, for-ever. This chronic lack of oxygen is affecting my ability to do anything other than drag myself to work, drag mysself back home, occasionally post a FB note--like about THE SERIAL KILLER in my backyard; seriously, the neighbors thought the smell was coming from a sausage factory?--and sleep. Antibiotics. Antihistamine/decongestant. Cough syrup. Albuteral inhaler. Hopefully I'll be recovered in time for the BOOK FAIR this weekend. I spent 4 hrs in Urgent Care yesterday and did not come out of there with what I wanted, which was steroids--Doc-in-a-box: "You're not wheezing." Me: "But I'm not breathing either!"--but this new antibiotic seems to be doing the trick.

So I blame hypoxia for my lack of writing effort. I'll flip open a file, look at it, hack and spew all over the keyboard, hammer out a word or three, then close the file out again and laspe into a coma. I can't concentrate enough to do any further revisions on LMB. And with Rinn still out to Tina there's not much else for me to do (still awaiting the ______ sucks ______ doesn't suck verdict). Meantime I've been watching a lot of TV and oinking out on leftover Halloween candy.

LOST IN OZ

WITCH:
What a nice little dog!

JG:
What are you going to do with my dog? Give him back to me!

WITCH:
All in good time, my pretty. All in good time.

JG:
Please give me back my dog!

WITCH:
Certainly! If you give me that manuscript!

JG:
No, no, it's not finished! And my agent, the Good Witch of the North, hasn't seen it yet!

WITCH:
Very well! Winged monkey, throw that basket in the river and drown that stupid dog!

JG:
No, no, no! Here, you can have the manuscript. Just give me back Elijah!

WITCH:
There's a good little author. I knew you'd see reason.
 

J.G. HOLDS OUT MS. WITCH REACHES FOR IT & MISSES. MS LANDS ON HER  FOOT

WITCH:
ARGGH! OW,OW, OW! This thing weighs a TON!

JG:
I'm sorry. I know it's rather lengthy, but--

WITCH:
YOU BROKE MY DAMN TOE!

JG:
Can I still have my dog back?

PIANO STAIRS

See? Taking the stairs can be fun!




Thanks, Dallas, for the link. :)

BORING CELEBRITY MEMOIR

I'm currently (well, actually I've been at it a while) struggling through a memoir written by an actor I've admired my whole life. I mean seriously admired. Like, if this actor came to my town and charged upward of $200 bucks to read the Holy Bible backwards--in Czech--I'd happily pay for a front row seat.

The book s-u-c-k-s.

Okay, in all fairness, maybe "s-u-c-k-s" is too strong of a word.

How about B-O-R-I-N-G?

How about "DO-WE-HAVE-TO-KNOW-EVERY-MINUTE-DETAIL-OF-YOUR-GENEALOGCAL HISTORY?"?

Or: "IF-YOU-PAID-A-GHOST-WRITER-FOR-THIS-YOU-SHOULD-DEFINITELY-ASK-FOR-A-REFUND"?

Except I doubt this actor used a ghost writer only because this actor has written books in the past. You guessed it: children's books. Without launching into a Celebrities Who Decide To Write Children's Books rant, let me just say I wasn't impressed with those stories, either.

I checked out the reviews for this memoir on Goodreads (there are tons of them) and I'm amazed at the number of 4 and 5 starred reviews. The few 1 or 2 starred reviews all say the same thing: boring. BORING!

But the majority of the reviews are 4 and 5 stars. What??? Either y'all have a much greater attention span than me (which is quite possible these days) or you're hoping the author will read your review and send you a thank you note that you can sell on eBay.

It takes a lot for me to put down a book and never finish it. I mean, if I don't find a story positively thrilling, I'll least skim it, you know? And hope it gets better? This one is not getting better, which is an absolute shame because this actor lived a fascinating life. And I'm a fan...

no, not just a fan--a huuuuuge freeeeakin' faaaan!!! I should be mesmerized by every word.

<--tosses book into my NTBF (never to be finished) pile.

Haven't Posted for a While, but...

1. anywherebeyond has been posting Real Life Ghost Stories all month from fellow bloggers. Check it out! Today's story freaked me out.

2. Still shaking the Deadly Unknown Virus from God-Knows-Where-I-Picked-This-Up. It's all very well and good to say "stay home from work when you're sick"--my own workplace says that--except when you run out of sick days and don't get paid plus they'll still reprimand you for too many absences. Oh, yes.

3. So b/c of #2 I got nothing done this weekend, aside from a 20-hour nap.

4. Rinn is out to Tina.

5. LMB is going nowhere.

6. Grandma had her phone turned back on. Good! B/c I reallyreally missed those 27 calls each day. ;)

7. Someone asked me the other night if I've put on weight. YA THINK????

8. I need ice cream.

9. No, I don't. 10.

Ohhh, yes I do!

DOG NOTES

There are no words to describe my love for this dog, even when I'm ready to kill him.

The way he looks at me, when his ears are down and his big brown eyes go all soft...well, those of you who own dogs, you know which "look" I mean.

Yesterday we went for a long walk on the bridle trail. The woods were dense, the trees aglow in color, and all was silent save for the birds and the occasional squeak of a branch. We went off the trail for awhile and climbed a fairly steep hill...Eli bounding ahead, full of puppy energy, and me, trying to keep up, breathing in the scent of fresh fallen leaves...

Till I threw my neck out.

Note to self: You are not 15 years old anymore.

I must be under a lot of stress, because then last night I had a very sad dream: I dreamed Eli died by electrocution (don't ask) In the dream I was balled up on the floor, sobbing over and over, "My heart hurts so bad. My heart hurts so bad."

I know, right? Awwwwww!

I woke up this morning, esctatic that it was only a bad dream. And in the past hour alone, I've threatened Eli's life at least 10 times:

"Drop that checkbook or I'll kill you!"

"Drop those socks (or keys, cell, envelope, pillow, rug, whatever) or I'll kill you!"

"Drop Daddy's as-of-yet-unopened-DVD-of-1,000,000 BC-with-Raquel-Welch's-scantily-clad-heaving-bosom-on-the-cover or I'll kill you!"

He knows I don't mean it.

And, no, he doesn't drop these things, either. I practically need a crowbar to pry them loose from his jaws.

Then he gives me...

Yep, you guessed it.

That LOOK!

NORMA FOX MAZER 1931-2009

A fitting TRIBUTE to Norma Fox Mazer, who will be greatly missed.

New Release: FLASH BURNOUT

Congratulations to L.K. Madigan and the release of her new YA novel FLASH BURNOUT:



From Amazon: "Fifteen-year-old Blake has a girlfriend and a friend who’s a girl. One of them loves him; the other one needs him.

When he snapped a picture of a street person for his photography homework, Blake never dreamed that the woman in the photo was his friend Marissa’s long-lost meth addicted mom. Blake’s participation in the ensuing drama opens up a world of trouble, both for him and for Marissa. He spends the next few months trying to reconcile the conflicting roles of Boyfriend and Friend. His experiences range from the comic (surviving his dad’s birth control talk) to the tragic (a harrowing after-hours visit to the morgue).

In a tangle of life and death, love and loyalty, Blake will emerge with a more sharply defined snapshot of himself."

YAY, LISA! I am so proud of you!