Thankful

With Thanksgiving upon us, Stacie and I thought we'd take a minute to say Thank You to all of you and to talk about the things we're most thankful for as Book Bloggers.

(You're got a mental picture of our Thanksgiving prep, right? We're both sitting calmly, fabulous smells coming from the oven, looking pristine in dresses covered with beatuiful aprons. That's what you see, right? Right.

Or, we're really in sweats, frantically throwing crap into closets before company arrives. Use whichever version you like best while reading this. We'll keep the truth a secret. *winks*)

I'm thankful for the Mockingjay post b/c it gave us an opportunity to discuss it with so many people.

And I'm thankful for the Graceling-Post-of-Doom because it gave us an opportunity to have a literary disagreement and have both of us gain support.

I do love that we got to have a literary disagreement. It was almost more fun than agreeing. And, I loved the Mockingjay post because everyone had such great thoughts to contribute. I'm sure I've said this before, but book discussions are like #geekporn to me, and Mockingjay needed some discussing!

I'm also thankful for the posts where we got to make file folders for book characters. Not only were they fun to do, but we got Hot Boys With Swords out of it. And, I loved doing our Chicks Who Can Kick Our Asses post because, well, I love those characters almost as much as HBWS!

Ooh, good ones. Speaking of the HBWS post, I'm also thankful when authors comment on our posts (like Julie Kagawa did on that post.) We know how busy they are, but it's nice to know that they see what we're writing and appreciate it.




Oh definitely! Like when Maggie Stiefvater commented on our Lazy Book Club discussion on Shiver and Linger to clear up our sexytimes question! I loved that!

YES! And, I'm thankful to be a book blogger because it gives me access to NetGalley. The Iron Queen, TheVespertine <---note that both books have characters we've envisioned as BinBons. It all comes back to BinBons.




Well, of course we're thankful for BinBons! And all the inspiration he provides to our favorite writers!

I'm also thankful for having such a great blog partner in Leigh, and having Sophie, Cher, and Dusty to play along with us. Bookish Friends are the best!

And, you, our readers! Your comments make this so much fun, and I love finding new books through you all, and I love it when you all force me to look at something I've read differently.

*sniffles* You had to go and get all emotional, didn't you? You always were the more sentimental of the two of us. *wink* But, seriously, you're right. I'm so thankful for you girls and the opportunity to talk about books we love with people from all around the world!

What about you all? What are you thankful for?

Readers, Writers, and Castles: A Labor of Love

*waving* Hi guys! It's just me today. Rain is out of the country for a little over a week and she left me in charge. (I know, I thought it was foolish of her too.)

I co-write this blog with her because I adore reading. I've come to realize that as a reader I've really underestimated the amount of work that goes into creating a novel. Sure, I've always admired the talent that it must take to be able to create characters like Sam and Grace or Ash and Mehgan, but I've never really thought about the process. Until now.

Some of you may be aware that I'm currently writing a book. Some of you may ALSO be aware that I'm a 30ish stay-at-home-mom, so writing a book may seem like a forgone conclusion. They hand out blank notebooks and smencils when you leave the hospital with your second child, after all. Besides, if Stephenie Meyer can do it while her kids are swimming, it can't be that hard, right? I read Twilight and thought "Dude! I'm just like Stephenie Meyer with my amazing ideas, except that I drink and swear!"

Then I started to write, and read blogs about writing, and talk to other authors about writing, and it hit me. Writing is a LOT of work.

It's like cooking Thanksgiving dinner: Turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes, homemade gravy, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, salad, sweet potato casserole, and homemade rolls...  just to find out that the turkey is still frozen, the gravy is lumpy, and you need to throw out the mashed potatoes completely and start them from scratch while the turkey cooks for another 3 hours. Oh, and that pumpkin pie that you slaved over? It's lovely and delicious and doesn't fit on the table, so throw it in the trash. 

Is it worth it in the end when you have an amazing dinner? Of course it is! Does your husband really understand why you don't want to even LOOK at the kitchen for the next week? Of course not.

If you take all of this work and end up a Certified Big Deal (like J.K. Rowling or Stephenie Meyer, for example) the payoff is obvious. And, since we're human, we may even question the scope of their success.* But most authors don't hit Certified Big Deal status.  During #YALitChat** last week I found out how much a typical author makes off of that debut novel: $10 - $15 thousand dollars. That's before taxes, expenses, agent fees, and whatever else is thrown in. Which is why, when you talk to most authors or read their blogs, they'll tell you that they don't write for the money. It's a labor of love.

And after thinking about all of this, I've come to the following conclusion:

J.K. Rowling deserves her effing castle.*** In fact, I think that Maggie Stiefvater, Julie Kagawa, Rachel Hawkins, and all the other authors we gush over on here deserve one too.

xoxo,



*Well, if you're heartless and mean, anyway. I'd never make snide jokes about how nice it must be to make so much money off of a book that uses the word "moats" wrong. Because that would be bitchy.
**YALitChat is a weekly twitter chat where authors, agents, and all sorts of other people get together and talk about YA lit. If you're ever bored, throw up a hashtag search. You might see some of your favorite authors discussing how they write.
***Okay, so it's not REALLY a castle. It's just a GIANT HOUSE THAT IS REALLY OLD AND FABULOUS.