TV: It's just another way to tell a story, right?

Oh my goodness. How many times in my life have I heard someone tell young people (or me!) to "turn off the TV and open a book?" Or, you know, something similar?

How many times have you heard that television rots your brain? And then wanted to charge at the person making this claim like a velociraptor at a cocky paleontologist?

Oh, don't get me wrong. I love books. I mean, well, duh, I write books! I have a house full of books! Books are sort of my life. But you know what else I love?

TV.

I love TV on DVD. I love that I can use my DVR to record shows that are on at the same time. I love that there are funny shows and serious shows and documentary shows and sci fi shows. I love that there are all these stories that I can watch.

So why does TV get a bad rap? Why do so many of us think of it as a "low" art form, or as a hobby for the feeble-minded? Like, okay, The Jersey Shore exists. I'll admit it. But so does The X Files. So does House. So does Scrubs.

And, yeah, books might be easy to pin as a high art, because you have to read them. But, come on, not to lay the smack down on anyone, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that GOSSIP GIRL isn't particularly literary. (And I'm putting this out there because I'm like 99.9% sure that creator Cecily von Ziegesar would agree with me. I hope.) Does this fact stop jillions of readers from being entertained by the books? No.

Books are a form of entertainment, too. Sure, sometimes books are going to be what I like to call "meat and potatoes" books. SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson, John Green's LOOKING FOR ALASKA -- you know, award-winny types. Entertaining and also enriching. Then there are what I like to call "candy bar books" -- the books we read for funsies and sometimes consider guilty pleasures. Books without many SAT words but with superfluous kissing scenes or maybe epic gun fights. Do these books change your world? Probably not. And that's cool.

So what makes books better than TV? What makes them sacred? Like, okay, there are lots of reasons that books are different, ways that without seeing the pictures on your screen you might have to use your imagination more while you're reading. But have you ever watched an episode of your favorite show and felt just so inspired? Just wowed? The same way you feel after you finish a good book?

TV and books are different ways to tell a story. But when it comes down to it, a story is a story. Why can't we love both, treat them equally, and call it a day? Why do we think certain things can go on TV but "don't belong" in books? Why are books on a pedestal, guys? I want to know.

Walking on Eggshells in Publishing. ALL the Time.

I’ll admit it. I speak my mind. Almost ALL of the time.

I tell bosses what I think. I’m straight-up with my husband. We fight constantly. (It’s a healthy thing in marriage – trust me. J )

I’ve disagreed with a Deputy Secretary of State. To her face.

And I lived to tell the tale. People at work respect me for my opinions.

But most of the time, I’m scared to death to talk about how I really feel about publishing and books on the market.

A lot of book bloggers and reviewers have admitted that they won’t post negative reviews of books.

Why? They don’t want to ruin their reputation.

This year, a book came out that I didn’t really like, but everyone else adored it.

Of course, I didn’t say anything about the book until I was at the American Library Association Conference, where two trusted friends and I talked about how we didn’t think the book was all that much to call home about. 

But we whispered about it. And then we swore we’d never say anything in public. Several months later, I saw one book blogger write about how she didn’t understand what the big deal was about the book.

It was the first time I’d seen this book publicly questioned.

Did I agree with her and say so in the comments section of her blog? Hell no. I didn’t want anyone to know my thoughts on the book. What if I said something about the book and then it damaged my relationship with the author? The publisher? The readers who adore the book?

As an author who’s about to have her debut novel published, I can’t risk that.

Recently, my friend found out that her erotica book had been flagged by Amazon as being not appropriate for kids or something, so readers couldn’t find it using a standard search. Readers had to have a link to find it.

A bunch of worse erotica/porno books are out there, and they’re searchable on Amazon. That’s not fair. 

My friend’s book did not deserve this, so she’s going to battle to get it on the search bar.

I’m all for this, of course. I said, “Where do I light my torch and sharpen my pitchfork?”

But other people told her, “Don’t worry about it! Don’t say anything. Don’t rant about Amazon!”

My first thought was, “Well why the hell not? She wants to sell books. She should be fighting this, not ignoring it.”

Going further, sometimes famous authors/editors/agents act a bit mean online. I’ll admit I’ve stopped following a few of these people after watching them humiliate wannabe writers online. Okay, so maybe the author doesn’t know all the “rules” of querying, but do you have to call them out personally in front of your thousands of followers?

I know someone who deleted their Twitter account after being humiliated by some agents.

And instead of authors standing up and saying, “Whoa. Was that really called for?” everyone either 1) Ignores it, or 2) Laughs along with the agent.

Me? I ignored it. And that makes me ashamed. But I can’t really risk it, you know?

And then a month ago, a Twitter friend, who is represented by a great agent at a different agency from mine, and I were chatting about how now that we have agents, we rarely get good honest critiques of our work. Before I got an agent, readers and friends and critique partners ripped my work to SHREDS.

Now, it’s either that 1) People think everything’s perfect because we have agents, or 2) They are scared to question us because we have agents, and they don’t want to upset us and hurt our relationships.

I think this is total bullshit. If I critique a book/pages by someone, I tell them the God’s honest truth about how I feel, because if I lie and coddle them, what’s going to happen when they finally send the book to an agent and editor, and the agent/editor comes back and says exactly what I said? (This has happened before.) You’d be pissed, right?

You can take my advice or leave it, I don’t care, but I feel like I owe you an honest opinion.

I feel like people owe me an honest opinion.

Sure, I might hate you for five minutes, but then I’ll probably learn from whatever you said. And then I’ll thank you.

If everyone is too scared to say what they think, how will we ever weed out the good from the bad?

I feel like society is already on information overload, information coming from all different sources and angles, and it completely confuses people and makes it harder to think.

Is publishing like the Stalin era? We’re so afraid to say anything wrong because we’ll be sent to the PUBLISHING GULAG?!

What say you guys?

Have I gone too far?

Does everyone hate me now? J

Happy Friday!

"A taught thriller"

This, to me, sounds like a way you might describe someone's butt, not someone's book. But that is probably just me.

Last night I finished reading REVOLVER by Marcus Sedgwick. Have you read it? I would classify it as a taught thriller (of the non-butt variety). It's an historical novel about a family living in the arctic circle, dealing with a major crisis. It is very intense, though I think the intensity is written extremely well for the target audience of this book (which I would put at probably 12 and up).

The book is written almost like a play - a one room drama with some flashbacks. It's short, concise, full of psychological action, and it's very easy to read. I recommend it, and not just because I want more people to read it so they can talk to me about it.

One thing the book made me think about is writing with minimal description and how, when a book is well done like REVOLVER, I finish it actually "seeing" the world better than I would have had there been detailed descriptions of every nook and eye twitch. My brain has filled in the nooks and eye twitches on its own and for this I am grateful to Mr. Sedgwick. Grateful that he trusts us to create the world in our own minds, with only a little guidance from his words.

This trust that the author has for his reader is another reason why REVOLVER reminds me of a play. When you write a play, people don't like it when you write in too much direction. Don't write in the script that the actor stomps into the room and shouts angrily, let the actors read your words and figure out the emotions for themselves. Often, in books, we are not given this leeway. Every minute feeling and action is laid out for us in a buffet of words. Sometimes this works (in something dated but beautifully ornate like Gone With the Wind), but often it steals power away from the reader.

I don't think writers think they are stealing power from their readers, and I don't think readers realize their jobs are being subsumed by too many words. Until a reader pulls out a book like REVOLVER. Suddenly, the world comes alive, with limited prose, and it is a wonder to behold.

I especially appreciate this authorial trust in children's books. Let the kids create the world as you take them on a tour. To me, A WRINKLE IN TIME is famous for this. I read it as a child and saw so much vivid detail, that when I read it again as an adult I was shocked - shocked - at how much of that book had been devised by my own wee brain.

So what do you guys think? Do you know what I'm talking about? Lack of description equaling a richer reading experience? It seems counterintuitive, and yet.... it's true. To me, at least.

On Allegra Biscotti, my new fashionspiration.

I don't usually like to write about a book before I've finished it. But you know what? I can't help myself. THE ALLEGRA BISCOTTI COLLECTION by Olivia Bennett (Sourcebooks, 2010) is so freaking stuck in my head that last night while I was getting dressed to go out I was thinking of its main character.

I'm not even kidding. I was putting together a way-over-the-top outfit for my birthday celebration (we went to Sonic for dinner -- yes, THAT Sonic) and I was trying a bright purple mini dress and sparkly shoes with the right leggings and I thought to myself, "What would Emma Rose do?"

That's when I knew: THE ALLEGRA BISCOTTI COLLECTION is definitely one of the best tween books of 2010. When a character sticks with you like that, when you haven't even had a chance to pick up the book yet that day, man, you know it's good.

And I love that this book is about a young entrepreneur. Emma Rose is a thirteen-year-old fashion designer juggling all the craziness of the 8th grade with an accidentally burgeoning career. And, okay, I'm only about halfway through the book, but I have loved every page -- and not just because the pages are decorated with illustrations from Emma's sketchbook. But because Emma is so real, so vivid, so inspiring.

I started making my own clothes when I was in high school, but maybe if I'd read THE ALLEGRA BISCOTTI COLLECTION I would have gotten a head start. And had some serious delusions of grandeur...because the way Emma Rose is headed, whoa, there's no stopping this girl. Gotta love a character that lights a fire in you, that's for sure.

So, with Channukkah in full swing and Christmas right around the corner, I hope you'll give the young girlie-girl in your life some ALLEGRA BISCOTTI. I promise, she'll fall in love just like me!


Oh, and PS, yes it *is* my birthday today. And some of the YA-5ers are on my blog making fun of me. Hop on over for the hilarity.

Sex and Sexy Scenes in YA: Let’s Look at it a Different Way

Does sex belong in young adult literature? 

I recently had a lengthy discussion about whether healthy sex between two consenting teenagers, who are in love, belongs in YA or not. Before I get to the main point of today’s post (starring a special guest), here are three constants I have to mention:

First: I don’t know the answer.   

Second: I personally don’t consider young adult books to be for children. I consider YA books to be books for adults, because I consider anyone above the age of 14 an adult in terms of their mind. Sure, they are silly and immature at times, but they think and feel like adults do. The YA genre consists of books written for adults that feature teenage protagonists.

Third, putting YA aside, I think all scenes in a book MUST matter, or they shouldn’t be in the book in the first place.

Last year, I was at a conference where Maggie Stiefvater spoke on a panel about love in literature, and someone asked her why SHIVER had a sex scene.

Maggie didn’t have to answer, because another author – uber cool Michael Knight, spoke up and said, “If you include a sex scene in anything you write, you should have a reason for doing so.”  

Maggie had a reason for doing so (her characters were in love), and I loved Gayle Forman’s thoughts on it (which are put so much more eloquently than I’ve done here).

But getting to my real point.  As I was discussing the positives and negatives of featuring sex in YA, I realized something. 

How often do any of us actually ask teenagers what they want to read about?

Why is it always about what adults want to showcase about sex?

Why is it always about a “message” or lack thereof?

In other words, why is it always about what adults think?

I’ve seen sex in YA showcased in a very positive manner, e.g. – WHEN IT HAPPENS by Susane Colasanti. I’ve seen sex showcased in negative ways, too. TOO MANY BOOKS TO NAME.

So you tell me – what do teenagers want to read about?

If you’re a teenager, what do you want to read about?

If you’re a parent, what do you want your kids to read about?

Since some publishers want YA novels to be cross-over novels that adults will read, do you feel like this factors into the equation at all?

So, since I’m being all anarchist-like and crazy today, I’ve invited my romance author friend Tiffany Reisz to tell us what she wanted to read about when she was a teenager, and how that’s shaped her life as an author today.

So here’s Tiffany!

Matthew Fox, star of Lost, age twelve.

Britney Spears, pop star, mother of two, age fourteen.

Daniel Radcliffe, Harry Potter, age sixteen.

Johnny Depp, world's greatest actor, age thirteen

Angelina Jolie, Oscar winning actress, age fourteen.

What do all these celebrities have in common? They all had sex for the first time in middle school or high school. 

When Miranda asked me to write a little about what I thought about sex in Young Adult novels, this list was the first thing that came to me. Sex in YA novels seems like a no brainer. Teenagers have sex. Not all of them. But a lot of them. And if you want to write realistic stories for teenagers, you're probably going to have to address the issue of sex at some point. After all, there really is no such thing as a YA Book. Books are books.  The rules are the same whether your stories are about teenagers or million year old aliens--tell a good story and tell it well. Saying you can't have sex in a YA novel is like saying you can't have dinner in a YA novel. Makes no sense whatsoever.

As soon as I hit age twelve I started reading "Adult" Fiction. Some of it had teenage characters in it (Katherine Kurtz's Deryni series) and some didn't (Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead...and A LOT of Star Trek novels.).  I was a teenager reading these books. Did that make them Teen Books? Most of what I read back then had sex scenes. Especially when I discovered historical romance novels. Oh my Lord, my little thirteen year old brain delighted in reading semi-explicit sex scenes. So much so that by age fourteen I was writing semi-explicit sex scenes of my very own. I wasn't having sex then. I didn't lose my virginity until after college. But I was fascinated by sex, the mechanics of it, the power of it, and the joy. 

Yes, I said joy. Sex in romance novels was so magical, so uplifting, so life-altering and beautiful, that I couldn't help but think that sex was something incredibly special. Reading about sex made me take sex more seriously, not less so. When I had my first boyfriend in college, I told him "No sex until marriage." He said, "Fine.”

Anywho, I didn't think of sex as an "issue" in those days. I heard about the "issues" of drugs and AIDS and teen pregnancy. But they seemed very far away from me. They didn't really interest me. I had my nose stuck in a Julie Garwood novel reading about a handsome earl seducing his virginal bride he'd won in a card game or something like that. I hear people talking about tackling "issues" in YA novels. Have these people even met a teenager?

Here's a teenager for you. She's fourteen. She's beautiful. She's smart. And she's my cousin. I took her to see Harry Potter over Thanksgiving Break. The trailer for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader came on. The Narnia books are about God, sin, temptation, the resurrection of the world--BIG issues.  But then tall, dark and handsome Prince Caspian strides onto the big screen. My teenage cousin leans over her friend and says to me, "I want to make love to that man." 

Me too, Kid.  Me too.

________

Tiffany Reisz's first novel THE SIREN comes out from Harlequin in 2011, and her first e-book novella SEVEN DAY LOAN is out now!  Anyone below the age of 18 - please check with a parent before reading Tiffany's work. :) 

A Most Awesome Endeavor

So, if you didn’t already know. Today is the launch of the most awesomesauce Emily ‘s (you all know her as Miss Monday) new project, Dear Teen Me.  She and Miranda (Girl Friday) have started this amazing website where authors are writing letters to their teen selves.  This is going to be an amazing project, and I think it will be really popular.

One of the great things about reading the letters is I think most people will see it the difficulties of being a teenager have little to do with the year or the person.  Adolescence (I hate that word, it’s so high school principal) is a rough time for all of us, and even if our problems are not all the same (anyone else who had to deal with being the only black kid in the entire high school, raise your hand), how we respond to them and how they change us is similar.

I look forward to reading everyone’s letters.  In fact, why are you still here? Go!

From The Department Of The Friggin' Cool

We interrupt this blog for a Very Important Announcement: NASA, launcher of freaky-cool space probes, gatherer of rocks, thinker-upper of massively amazing ideas like submarine space probes (with detachable  drills to break through the icy surface of Europa into its watery sub-surface) has made an announcement.

Or rather, they've made an announcement for an announcement.

According to this, NASA will be making an announcement regarding a recent finding in the field of Astrobiology. So, first of all: ASTROBIOLOGY! Holy crap!

Now, here's a thing I did not know: NASA has an entire section dedicated to the study of Astrobiology, and the link to their site can be found here. And Astrobiology does not necessarily mean the exclusive search for E.T. and light-saber-weilding Jedis (though, certainly the search for non-Earth-based life forms is certainly part of their research). But mostly, what they're looking for is some sort of insight as to how life happened on our planet. And the fact that there are scientists who are looking beyond Earth to understand about Earth, is pretty dang cool if you ask me.

The thing that has the internets all a-flutter right now is the fact that NASA is instituting an information black-out in the run-up to the announcement on Thursday. So we don't know exactly what  was found or what was learned. We just know that they learned something, and to find out what that something is, we are all gonna have to cool our heels and wait.

In the meantime, I don't know about you people, but I am going to be dreaming. And thinking. And imagining. And probably writing. If life was truly discovered somewhere beyond Earth, what does it do to our understanding of Earth? What does it do for our understanding of us? If we are not alone in the universe, does that change how we see our relationship to our own planet, or our relationship to one another? I wrote a story recently called "The Taxidermist's Other Wife" that will appear in the December issue of Clarkesworld Magazine. The story is essentially a meditation on loss and loneliness - and on the lengths that some people will go to to preserve the memory of what they once had, but there is a moment in the story when the narrators are bending their backs to the howl of the wind, feeling the aching emptiness of the land around and the sky above like a weight. (You are alone, the stars seem to tell them. You are still alone.)


But what if we're not? Do I need to re-write the story? If the universe is populated, how does that alter how we see the stars?

I've been working on a YA sci-fi novel lately set on an energy transfer station on the moon. I'm already bracing myself for how this information is gonna change my own story. And the question is this: how will it impact other stories currently being written now? How will it impact the stories we will write next month? Next year?

On Thursday, I will be simultaneously glued to my laptop and radio. Where will you be?

(And secretly, I am really, really, really, really hoping they're gonna announce they found this guy:)

New Year, New Projects, Epic Awesome

As we get closer to the holidays (and further from the pie-pocalypse that was Thanksgiving), things may appear to be slowing down in the blogosphere. But that's not entirely true. Even if I miss a Monday every now and then (hey, I was in a wedding last week!) know that I am busy behind the scenes working with fellow 5-er Miranda on a sekrit project.

Okay, it's not so sekrit. It's called Dear Teen Me and, holy crap, it's going to be awesome.

Dear Teen Me launches Dec. 1st with some of your favorite authors participating. Head on over to the site for more details, but for now, I'll tell you this: it's an entire blog dedicated to authors writing letters to their teen selves. Could it possibly get more awesome?

I'm not sure. I mean, every time I get an email from an author saying "hey can I write a letter for Dear Teen Me, too?" it definitely gets more awesome. And all of the YA-5 bloggers are on board, so, you know, you can count on some hilarity.

I hope you'll go check out our website. There's not a ton there now, but there will be very, very soon. I promise, this is going to be epic!

Winner of the HUNTRESS ARC!

An impartial third party (my husband :-D ) put all the names in a hat and drew out Maggie Desmond-O'Brien! Congrats on winning the HUNTRESS arc - we hope you enjoy it. Email mirandakenneally (at) gmail.com with your address, and we'll send it to you.

And thanks again to agent Sara Megibow for sharing her thoughts on YA with us!

Giving Thanks

This week is Thanksgiving here in the states, so I thought I would do the obligatory Thanksgiving post.  I'm a bit of complainer, and spend a fair amount of time yammering on about the stupid stuff that happens in life.  So I figured I should balance it out with a list of 365 things I'm thankful for.  I'll be blogging about at least one of these things a day starting January 1st at my blog (you know, because I rarely write anymore), so stop by if you're interested.

And if you want to be thankful for an ARC of Huntress by Malinda Lo, go here.

1. Indoor plumbing

2. Books

3. My agent

4. My family (I should mention here that these are in no particular order)

5. My job (although not always)

6. Central air

7. Toes

8. Fingers

9. Noise cancelling headphones

10. Cupcakes

11. Waffles

12. Pillows

13. Comforters

14. My husband

15. Decoder rings

16. Pop Tarts

17. Rubik’s Cubes

18. El Rodeo (Mexican food)

19. Heath bars

20. Twizzlers

21. Easter candy

22. Snow days

23. Vacation days

24. Snowflakes

25. Sunrises I can sleep through

26. Clean Water

27. Highways

28. Yo Gabba Gabba

29. Shampoo

30. Deoderant

31. Chocolate

32. Judd Apatow movies

33. Beds

34. Digitally signed emails that prevent me from sending without verification

35. Beer

36. Art

37. Digital cameras

38. Cell phones

39. Dilbert

40. Beautifully sparse writing

41. Credit cards

42. Lotion

43. Noise cancelling headphones

44. Rise Against

45. Pandora

46. Crit partners

47. The YA-5ers

48. Internet

49. Netflix Watch it Now

50. Cars

51. Coffee

52. Cake

53. Trees

54. Twitter

55. iTunes

56. Kindle

57. HDTV

58. The Pittsburgh Steelers

59. Chocolate

60. Tea

61. Email

62. Charity

63. Friends

64. Shelter

65. Kleenex

66. Warm sweaters

67. The ocean

68. Grocery stores

69. Calculators

70. Breathtaking architecture

71. Rivers

72. Amusement parks

73. My daughter’s laughter

74. Falcons

75. Long drives

76. Hawaii Five-0

77. Pecan Pie

78. Conditioner

79. Tampons

80. Inside jokes

81. #wordtribbles

82. Surprises (good and bad)

83. Mistakes

84. @ replies

85. Writing

86. Nail polish

87. Butterflies

88. Jon Lovitz as Satan

89. Bicycles

90. Lighthouses

91. Porch swings

92. The annoying people who write checks at stores and give you something to laugh about

93. ATMs

94. Acceptance

95. Computers

96. Cake

97. Tea parties

98. Stuffed animals

99. Roller coasters

100. Lemonade on a hot day

101. Hot cocoa on a cold day

102. Roses

103. Birds that sing at the crack of dawn

104. Playgrounds

105. Libraries

106. Food courts

107. Discounts at stores

108. iPods

109. AFI

110. Winter

111. Farmers

112. Windows

113. My Chemical Romance

114. Bad Religion

115. Dropkick Murphys

116. Spellcheck

117. Showers

118. Long baths

119. Taking Back Sunday

120. Northstar

121. Bread

122. Chik-fil-A

123. Sweet Tea

124. Money

125. Milkshakes

126. French fries

127. Health Insurance

128. Car Insurance

129. My mother

130. Satellites

131. Best Buy

132. Thumb drives

133. Metal water bottles

134. Balloons

135. Music

136. Johnny Depp

137. Tim Burton movies

138. Chocolate

139. Spring

140. Hot air balloons

141. Zoos

142. Fish

143. Duct tape

144. Sparkly things

145. Fire

146. Stoves

147. Macaroni and cheese

148. Cheese

149. Solitaire

150. Tim Burton movies

151. Bruce Willis

152. Math

153. Numbers

154. Gravity

155. Schrödinger’s cat

156. Big Bang Theory

157. The Mentalist

158. Judge Judy

159. Ice cream

160. The People’s Court

161. Laws

162. Gum

163. Shoes

164. Socks

165. Razors

166. Treadmills (okay, not really)

167. Parades

168. Halloween

169. Candy

170. Pearl Jam

171. Perfect timing

172. Romance

173. Jewelry

174. Scottie dogs

175. Good dreams

176. Text messaging

177. Other people driving

178. Lunch dates

179. Deer

180. Streams

181. Forest

182. Wildflowers

183. Mud

184. Ergonomic chairs

185. Patience

186. My butt

187. Spanx (see above)

188. Jokes

189. Batman

190. Cliffhangers

191. Beethoven

192. History

193. The perfect turn of phrase

194. Making friends laugh until they pee

195. YouTube

196. Cookies and cream anything

197. Vaccinations

198. Wikipedia

199. A fertile imagination

200. Leaving work early

201. The Constitution

202. Three Branches of Government

203. The Bill of Rights

204. The Federal Reserve

205. Low interest rates

206. Mouthwash

207. Fresh laundry

208. Sesame Street

209. Phineas and Ferb

210. Post it Notes

211. Love letters

212. 80s Tv Theme songs

213. VH1

214. Palm trees

215. Maple syrup

216. Snow

217. Chocolate

218. Books

219. Honesty

220. Travel

221. Chili’s

222. The Army

223. Joint Chiefs of Staff

224. Montgomery G.I. Bill

225. Bubble baths

226. Comic books

227. Hellblazer

228. Ed Brubaker

229. Books

230. Kanye West

231. Crazy people

232. Kittens

233. Puppies

234. Alligators

235. Armadillos

236. Capybaras

237. Unconditional Love

238. String Theory

239. The Universe

240. Combustion

241. Detectives that are Loose Cannons

242. Steampunk

243. Zombies (at least fictional ones)

244. 70s funk music

245. School

246. Literacy

247. Lessons learned

248. Ice

249. Mint

250. Kettle korn

251. Cartoons

252. Peace and quiet

253. Target

254. Red Cross

255. Football

256. Basketball

257. Hockey

258. Boots

259. Old-fashioned letters

260. Strangers

261. Kohls

262. Makeup

263. Toothbrushes

264. Pipe cleaners

265. Construction paper

266. Crayons

267. Watercolors

268. Bean bags

269. Sewing machines

270. First person present

271. Glue guns

272. Apples

273. Bananas

274. Fresh baked bread

275. Frou-frou coffee drinks

276. Sandwiches (not open faced)

277. Reruns

278. Pennsylvania

279. Kermit the frog (and Muppets in general)

280. Cheese steaks

281. Dear Teen Me

282. Promises kept

283. Blood

284. Lungs

285. Brain

286. White Collar

287. How I Met Your Mother

288. Big Bang Theory

289. Cherries

290. Fried chicken

291. Saturdays

292. Me

293. Relaxers

294. Labrador Retrievers

295. Walking

296. Bookstores

297. Indie films

298. Jake Gyllenhaal

299. Kevin Smith movies

300. John Cusack

301. Sixteen Candles

302. Febreze

303. Laundry soap

304. Modern medicine

305. Cop dramas

306. Jeans

307. The railroad

308. Long haul truckers

309. Cheetos

310. Tahitian treat

311. Fresh cut grass

312. Lawn gnomes

313. Chocolate cake

314. Cheesecake

315. Sushi

316. Memorial Day

317. The Easter Bunny

318. Bunnies

319. Chipmunks

320. Corn

321. The Alamo

322. Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum

323. Styx

324. Journey

325. Earth Wind and Fire

326. Happy Accidents

327. Hibachi

328. Summer

329. Holidays

330. The Smurfs

331. Neil Patrick Harris

332. Cable

333. Blogs

334. Games

335. Cellular divison

336. Photosynthesis

337. Organ donors

338. Hair salons

339. Flat irons

340. Books

341. Praise

342. Scooby-Doo

343. Karaoke

344. Soup

345. Rain

346. Fall

347. Ducks

348. High school memories

349. A job well done

350. Flattery

351. Coupons

352. Anime

353. Action Movies

354. Die Hard

355. Celebrity Jeopardy

356. My birthday

357. Junk food

358. Tchotchkes

359. Stream of consciousness

360. Cookies

361. Watching a movie in the theatre

362. Throwbacks

363. Unicorns

364. Trains

365. Self-Reflection

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!