Monthly Archives for February 2010

getting ready

Leaving tomorrow for D.C. Currently packing.

No really. It may look like I’m sitting on the couch watching America’s Next Top Model, but I am in fact packing. Really.

This has been a pretty stressful/exhausting couple of weeks, what with the conference prep and the whole strep throat thing—yeah, did I mention that? The doc gave me penicillin and oxy. (seems like overkill, but hey, I’ll take it.) Seems to be helping, but I’m still sleeping like 12 hours a night.

So, off to D.C. tomorrow. I’ll either be bored and posting a lot, or exhausted and posting not at all.

ALSO: I am thinking of cutting my hair short. Thoughts?

so much dracula, so much boob

I watched like 8 hours of Dracula yesterday. Because I am AWESOME.

Also, because I bought a Christopher Lee fourpack at Target last week and it was dying to be watched. I mean, come on, the 4th one was called Dracula: A.D. 1972. That could not set on my shelf unwatched for long.

And really, I think these four Dracula movies can be summed up with one word:

BOOBS

The first one (Horror of Dracula) was a pretty ordinary Dracula, style-wise. I mean, they pretty much took the plot, put it in a blender, and poured the smoothie onto film. For instance, Harker was engaged to be married to someone named Lucy Holmwood, who is (I think) the sister of Mina and Arthur Holmwood (although those two may be married, I’m not really sure). But, yeah. There was blood, garlic, Peter Cushing as Van Helsing—pretty ordinary Dracula.

But then.

We move into Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (tagline: “You just can’t keep a good man down!”) which was a lovely little film that begins with a girl hanging upside down, covered in blood, and showing about as much boob as was legal at that time. From then on, the movies just turn into a boobfest. Never any nipple, but… yeah. So much tit action.

There was a point, near the beginning of the third movie (Taste the Blood of Dracula), when I thought, “ah, we’ve returned to a simpler, boob-free time,” but then OH NO! our heroes visit a brothel.

And then, well yeah, the 4th movie is set in the ’70s. That’s really all you need to know.

They were pretty fantastic, not gonna lie.

I love my life.

RAZOW!

Here we have a post in which Grace shamelessly pimps out things she likes.

So. A couple of days ago somebody, knowing my preference for the 1980s Transformers, handed me a small book:

A 20-something girl in a dress and heels gets some pretty funny looks reading this on the subway, let me tell you. Especially when she’s giggling maniacally.

But my God is it good. It details the tragic battle between the Awesomebots and the Fantasticons, which eventually leads them to Earth, and it’s pretty much as amazing as it sounds.

Excerpt!

(Slightly longer excerpt here.)

And not only is the book AWESOME—I wrote my first-ever author-fan letter in response to this book, and Jeffrey Brown responded in approximately 3 hours, which pretty much made my day. Dear Mr. Brown, I love you.

Anyway. If you like the old Transformers and/or things that are funny, you should check this book out. Brown has written other comics (for which I think he is better-known… I’m not really sure) in an entirely different genre, which I will be reading shortly.

44

I’m just going to make one comment about yesterday’s Superbowl and then we can all move on with our lives:

That onside kick the Saints pulled off to start the second half may be the hottest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.

That’s it. Carry on.

AND THE WINNER IS

SECRET AGENT IVANA GETCHA

aka Lyn.

LYN email me your address and how you want your copy of The Naughty List personalized and I will let Suz know! (grace.gracetopia at gmail dot com)

Thanks to everyone who entered! More copies are in the mail to me as we speak, so I’ll be doing another giveaway soon!

And once again, congrats to Suzanne on publishing her first book!

(wowwww exclamation points much? oh well, Suz deserves them!) (!!!)

New York + SCBWI + Suzanne and Sophie = Win

So let’s see if I can adequately describe this weekend I had.

First, a reminder: Enter to win Suzanne Young’s debut, THE NAUGHTY LIST! I was with her at her first signing yesterday, at the SCBWI conference in New York, and the book SOLD OUT. Here’s a pic of Suz IN ACTION:

I’ll be drawing a name Wednesday night. (I don’t remember what day I said in the original post, but I am hereby declaring it to be Wednesday.)

So yes, SCBWI.

It was everything I could have hoped for and more. First, Sophie and I prepared for our big surprise entrance—Naughty List shirts! We didn’t quite bring Suzanne to tears (which was my ultimate evil goal) but I like to think we came close. Here we are with our shiny new signed copies:

(btw, I am blatantly stealing all these picture’s from Suzanne’s blog—check it out!)

So we spent the first day hanging around with Suz while she did her awesome conference blogger thing. Afterwards, Soph and I hiked back to our hotel through the bitter bitter cold, stopping partway to enjoy some classic NY diner food. Yummmm.

Sunday was just me, because Sophie had to go home to “go to school” or some BS like that. I spent the afternoon with Suz while she did her first ever book signing. People loved her! And there were so many who were so upset when the book was gone. THEN, I ended up at lunch with some truly fantastic people who I am going to keep anonymous so I don’t feel like a name-dropping heel. But wow, I felt like a rockstar.

Unfortunately, come mid-afternoon it was time to catch the sketchy Chinatown bus home. Nobody was having phone sex this time, so it was a much more enjoyable ride than the last time I took Lucky Star to New York. (At least, for me.)

So. A couple of things I took away from SCBWI:

1. I want to be a writer. The conference basically reignited my desire. Being around writers and industry people in general is always a good spark, but I think this time it just made it… tangible? somehow. Like, oh yeah, THIS is the dream you’re shooting for, Grace. It is real, it doesn’t just happen to people in the movies.

2. The authors I had lunch with gave me some reassuring words about heavy subject matter in YA fiction, and I was just generally encouraged to keep going. It was wonderful.

3. I really want to go to SCBWI LA. Can I afford this? Probably not. Can I dream? Yes.

So, thank you to everyone I met who was so awesome, especially to Suzanne. I had a truly fantastic weekend.

(P.S. Here’s the official SCBWI blog if you want the real low-down.)