a band, a book, and february

i get so tired of starting every other post with something along the lines of "i'm so terrible at blogging lately."

but, well, i am.

i've been busy, i suppose. focused? eyes on the prize(s)? overwhelmed? lazy as hell?

all of the above.

the hooligans
well, the boys had valentine's day parties this week. boo was underwhelmed to say the least and kept begging me to take pick him up early when we dropped him off that morning. (he's in pre-k, folks. he's in that classroom three hours, tops...) dom came home with a bag of candy and his first crush. don't tell him i told you, but her name is kimberly. she's the smartest girl in class. and a brunette. i think she likes "my little pony" as well and that's probably what sealed the deal.

the girls, well...all i can say is there's only one belt and they're determined to fight to the death for the title. riley is a hair puller and kenna is a gut puncher. i'm never bored.

the man
i love him. i do. i'm a lucky girl. he and some friends went to a local "haunt" searching for some paranormal apparitions. turns out the bridge they checked out was like katy's own haunted disneyland complete with carloads of goofy paranormal investigators driving up and down. it's really a funny story to hear him tell it and i think it's so cool they're these big bad MMA dudes trying to coax ghosties out of the woods. conversations around our house are never lame.

what i'm working on

i'm doing my darndest to finish the rest of a story about a girl and ghosts (and a boy and some animal spirits on a reservation). i'm very nearly there and it's for a huge contest macmillian is putting together in april. i needed a cover for preliminaries and i'll share it with you. i know if this story ever gets picked up, the covers change and so do the titles, but seriously...the cover is so motivating. maybe i'll spill more beans about july's story as i go. she's so fun to write about and it's my first attempt to write the first person POV. i hate first person, but when i read it with other books, i get so drawn into the story, especially when its YA. i seem to write first person faster, too...i just miss being able to give the glimpse into the other protag's vantage. this one-camera angle is tough...

what i'm listening to
omg. obsession time.

 i haven't gotten this girly in the knee socks since i saw christian slater in "heathers" the first time all those years ago. i nearly pulled all my hair out with his turn as the shmexy will scarlet in the costner version of "robin hood: prince of thieves". anyway, i needed music to write "ghosts of july" to and stumbled up on the song "chocolate" by the 1975 and i fell instantly in love with the band and the man, matt healey. so much that i can't get his face out of my head when i'm writing my character, the teenage heartbreaker renn. so, there's that. poor renn, forever linked to an adorable little british rocker. i've pretty much downloaded all of their songs now much to my husband's major eyeball rolling and its' all i listen to when i write. i'm done with the fangirl thing for now, i promise. but you should listen to them. start with their song CHOCOLATE and go from there. good luck not dying from adorable british boy punk cuteness.

what i have been reading
i picked up myra mcentire's "Hourglass" (the first in a trilogy) on a twitter-suggested whim and was blown outta the water. holy crapola. highly recommended. for some reason, i've gotten sucked into two time-traveling trilogies now and for the life of me i can't explain how that happened. i've never been much of a fan of time travel and no matter how hard i try, i can't really get into dr. who and the tardis and all that space/time continuum. but, again...never say never. next thing i know i'm obsessed with a punk band from manchester and reading a YA time travel trilogy that keeps me away way too late.

here's hoping i don't wait until june to check in again... :)