Internship

I officially have an internship at a public library here in town once the spring semester starts. I will be working in the children's/YA department (emphasis on YA). I'll mostly be working on the graphic novels section, I think. My supervisor said she wants me to "fix it."

And it was hinted at that the interns there often turn into employees.

Words cannot express how excited I am about this. I am beyond exclamation point excited. I am thrilled. I am contemplating leaping with joy around my apartment. Or I would if I wasn't so exhausted. Grad school is keeping me hopping!

Just a minute of your time

A friend of mine started a non-profit organization in Lee County, AL in 2009 called Big House Foundation. They provide clothes, luggage, and extra-curricular activities for foster children in the county, because these things are often hard for foster parents to give on their own.

They're currently in the running for a $25,000 from Pepsi through Pepsi's Refresh Everything project. They have to be in the top 10 at midnight tonight (April 30th) in order to receive the money. They're currently at number 8. So, please, vote. It takes about one minute, even less if you have a Facebook. And you won't get annoying spam email, I promise.

Here's the link: www.refresheverything.com/bighouse

Please, vote.

Just for fun

Just some thoughts on YA

Disclaimer: I like YA fiction. I enjoy it immensely. But this has been annoying me.

Why is it that 3/4* of the books I see written for teenagers these days follow the "outcast girl meets heartthrob boy, something paranormal happens, Big Bad is vanquished, they live happily ever after on a unicorn farm**" trope? I enjoy a good urban fantasy romance just as much as the next girl, but come on!

I like Girls Who Do Stuff books, like Tamora Pierce. Or Robin McKinley. Or Cassandra Clare. Girls who freak out*** about whatever they're facing and then put on their big girl panties and deal with it instead of waiting around for another character to come and sort things out for them, be it an emotional problem or the Big Bad of that particular story. Yes, Alanna gets a little mopey when she and Jon have a fight during the Lioness Quartet~ books. But she doesn't sit around for three months in a funk, she deals with the problem(s) at hand (evil sword, evil shamen, that sort of thing) while sorting through her emotional issues instead of drowning in them. In Sunshine by Robin McKinley, the titular character spends most of the book scared out of her socks about what she has to do, but does it anyway. I recently went to see Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. I absolutely loved it. The Disney version has always bothered me because Alice comes off as this blonde little ditz who just kind of wanders around getting into trouble. But Tim Burton's Alice actually Did Stuff and Was Awesome. These characters acknowledge their problems, deal with them, and keep on going.

Yes, I've made a lot of pointed jabs at Twilight. I've read them, I own them, I enjoyed them before I realized how much of a whiney person Bella actually is. And Edward's completely a Captain Cardboard character. You can dream in whatever personality you want into him, because he doesn't really have one, at least not to me. Jacob, though he's annoying sometimes, actually has a personality to be annoying with. That's who he is. He's hard on Bella because he knows what'll happen to her if Edward leaves again, and he doesn't want her to end up this catatonic shell like she did before.

The "outcast girl meets heartthrob boy, something paranormal happens, Big Bad is vanquished, they live happily ever after on a unicorn farm" trope is all well and good, I'm just tired of seeing it.


---
*Not an accurate statistic, I'm just generalizing.

**Or married, or in a relationship, or whatever.

***Understandably+
+Wouldn't you freak out too if you were faced with a dragon/kraken/evil sorcerer or sorceress /actual vampire that does not sparkle?

~By Tamora Pierce. It's awesome. Read it.

Wreck

I got rear ended on Thursday, March 11 around 10:30 PM. The guy clipped my back bumper and back passenger's side tire, so I spent my Spring Break trying to get it all figured out and fixed and all my ducks in a row because the guy doesn't have insurance. He also attempted to flee the scene and is now in jail, pending bond, as far as I know. I'm fine, I was sore for a few days, but other than that I wasn't hurt.

My car is currently in the shop, and I'm waiting (still, this is day 3) for them to call me with the final damage count. The appraiser said it was not totaled, but they're getting a more comprehensive look by taking it apart. I'm pretty sure most of the back end will have to be replaced. The back passenger's side wheel is at an angle to the car. Here's hoping it gets fixed soon.

In Which I Met Neil Gaiman (And Spazzed Out)

So, on February 18th, I went to a reading. By Neil Gaiman. I have been waiting for this for months, since I found out that he was coming to the University of Alabama. He read some stories (which were awesome) and some poems (which were awesome) and answered some questions (which was really cool). The way they did the questions was that they (the theater people) handed out index cards and little pencils and had you write your question down and then they came by and picked it up and handed them to Neil Gaiman backstage.

He came out with a three inch stack of note cards. He just kind of looked at us, looked at the stack, and said that he normally got about this many (pulls out about 20) at a reading when he did this. If he had an enthusiastic crowd, he'd get maybe twice that. He didn’t get to all of the questions (we’d probably still be there if he had) but it was really cool that he was willing to answer questions like he did.
He was Twittering while he was backstage and after the reading was over, one of the ushers came back out and asked if the woman who had been Tweeting about getting a book signed for her six-year-old would come backstage so the book could be signed. I would have never thought that Twitter could give someone that opportunity.

After it was over, I stopped to talk with some of my friends and I had collected a couple of books that I was going to take to the reading the next day (Friday the 19th) to see if I could get them signed. They headed out because we were meeting at IHOP and the others went home. I stopped again to talk to an old teacher for a few minutes, and then started for my car.

The side door of the theater opens, and Neil Gaiman walks out.
The guy in front of me asks for him to sign the book he has, so I decide to wait. I got the books signed (I hadn't brought one for myself because I didn't think he'd be signing, they had told us he wouldn't), and then called my friend to tell her the good news.

I'm pretty sure I made her year. She almost ran off the road when I told her.

Friday morning, he did a Q&A session for MFA students and creative writing minors. I managed to get a ticket, even though I am neither, and it was, again, amazing. I managed to get my copy of the first volume of Sandman signed, along with a couple of other books for friends. He read a bit from The Graveyard Book (won the Newberry last year) and answered a lot of questions and was very interesting and now I want to go write things even though I have entirely too much school work to do to be goofing off and I MET NEIL GAIMAN. TWICE. He's a very nice person and made time to talk a bit with everyone.

(Photo credit to Morgan Higgins)

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