It’s fall! One of my, if not the, favorite seasons! In reality, I like all the seasons. Fall and Spring tie due to the gorgeous weather and all the colors. Winter is amazing because of the pretty snow and crisp cold air. Summer is nice when you get to go to the shore and vacation. But the fall has Halloween and my birthday. Ok, my birthday is 3 days before the official start of fall, but I count it as fall.
Recently, Jen posted on Facebook about Overdrive. It’s the free website/app where you can borrow e-books and audiobooks from you local library on your device (laptop, phone, tablet, etc) without having to go into the library. I had heard of it before, but never looked into it until Jen’s post. I am obsessed. .
I was always against audiobooks. I felt like if you listened to a book you actually did not read them and therefore, it did not count. I also never understood how anyone could listen to a book read by someone else and let them have an influence on how you heard a character speak. Last, I did not see how you could not zone out and miss a lot of the story when listening to an audiobook.
Hello friends! It is I, the elusive Jen. I am here from the dark interwebs to tell you about this new thing I’m going to be doing. Well, I’m guessing you already know what that is based on the title of this post.
Yes, I want to start making YouTube videos testing pens.
Crazy, say you? Ingenius, says I!
I have a vast amount of pens at my disposal, and I intend to test and torture them to the fullest extent. I also have a problem where I keep buying more pens. It’s an addiction. I need them like I need air. I have everything from felt-tipped, needle point, fountain pens, all the way to a glass dip pen. Heck, I just ordered myself some nice .3mm pends that originally came from Japan. Why? CAUSE I NEED THEM, DAMMIT. I’m getting 15 of them, so I can sacrifice one for the testing.
What kind of tests, do you ask? Well, there’s the standard smear test, the fun, skipping test, and the “how does it feel to use it” test. Then the fun begins. We’re gonna torture the pens in the most insane ways we could think of. That should be an interesting one because I WILL BE CRINGING THE ENTIRE TIME. MY POOR PENSSSSSS.
However, it must be done in the name of science.
That, and it’s the only excuse I can use to buy more pens.
If you guys are interested in seeing what we come up with or have some cool ideas for tests that we could do, leave a comment below! We always love to hear from you and I want to see what your crazy minds come up with.
One of my favorite genres of fiction is stalker fiction. Don’t ask me why, cause I don’t know. I just can’t get enough of it. Anything where there’s a stalker and they’re obsessed with someone, I’m hooked. It might have to do with my obsession with The Phantom of the Opera, but who knows.
One of my first forays into stalker fiction was the book Stolen by Lucy Christopher. The story is about a young girl named Gemma who is kidnapped when she was at the airport with her family. The kidnapper, Ty, takes her to the Australian outback, where they live off the land. Slowly Gemma becomes to care for her captor and the land that she grew to love.
A few years ago, I had the honor of meeting Christopher at the AWP conference in Boston. I didn’t realize it was her when I gushed “OMG I love that book! It’s one of my favorites!” She replied, “Thanks, I wrote it.” My heart nearly stopped and my jaw literally dropped. She was so nice and took a picture with me:
I attended every one of her lectures during the rest of the conference. They were very informative, especially the one about setting. She showed pictures of the Australian outback and some of the places that inspired Stolen. At the end of the conference, which was also my birthday, she gave me her copy of the book and signed it. As you can imagine, I was excited.
However, not as excited as I was when I saw this pop up on my Facebook news feed:
Yes, my friends, it is true. We’re getting a Stolen 2. I freaked out and reblogged it as fast as I could. The original book shaped how and who I am as a writer. It inspired me to not be ashamed of writing stalker fiction. If so many people loved her book of creepy kidnapper/stalker, maybe one day they’ll love mine too.
Now, I know everyone is also excited about the movie, and of course, I am as well. However, there’s been talk about a movie for ages with nothing coming of it. However, this post seems to indicate that we’re definitely getting a Stolen 2. If we’re getting a movie, I’ll freak out and post about that. However, I’m more excited to see a continuation of Ty and Gemma’s story.
