In elementary school, the Choose Your Own Adventure series was wicked popular. There was a wait list to get them out of the library. What was great about them was you got transported on some pretty awesome missions. Now, they're starting to make a comeback with blogging. The stories don't start off with you in the jungle or on a riverboat, but stick with subjects we're all more comfortable with. Of course, once people contribute, the story unfolds in crazy ways - and makes it awesome. So, today I'm bringing the Choose Your Own Adventure to Slice of the Blog Pie. I've started and I need you guys to keep the story going. Please tell your friends to join in as well. The Dean Sidney hopped off the overcrowded bus at James Square, eager for his interview. He had heard a lot about the new dean at the academy - some things over-the-top fantastic and some everyday-mundane. Despite the rumors, there was nothing concrete that Sidney could find. This interview would ...

Zombie Thur sdays is a weekly feature with guest blogger, Miranda. You can read more about her here . Another Thursday is upon us, and here I am sitting in a Starbucks to use their free internet since I still do not have internet of my own. Thank you to everyone who responded to last week's inquiry as to what three items you would bring with you during a zombie attack! Many of your answers were alike, which shows there may be some common thread to what we all hold as the most important things in life... Very interesting! This week we jump back to the 'Zombie Sex-tacular!' Again, as a general warning, the subject matter covered in the Sex-tacular is inherently rated 18+ and could possibly offend readers. So, please proceed with caution. Although I don't have internet yet (if ever), I still have my trusty Blackberry which keeps me up-to-date with all the most important goings-on in the world. Namely, zombie news! But for this week's installment, I didn't even n...

Every Wednesday, YA Highway asks their readership a simple question to answer on your blog. Once you answer, you your link in the comments for other readers to hop on board. This is Road Trip Wednesday. Today's question : What's the best book you've read this month? Since FALLING TO NORMAL is off with my very trusted beta alpha, I definitely had time to read this month. A lot more than, say, the past 11 months. In fact, I read 3 more books this month than last. Out of them all, the two new ones that stood out the most are Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock and Tommyland by Tommy Lee & Anthony Bozza. Dairy Queen What I Liked About It : What wasn't there to like? DJ's voice is extremely strong and likeable. The story arcs are seemless. I struggled with putting the book down and devoured it in a day. The sport element is there, but it's not all about football. I can't wait to read the sequel. Tommyland What I Liked About It : That the man i...

Last week, I read the autobiography of Motley Crue's drummer, Tommyland by Tommy Lee. I went into it thinking, "Oh this will be COMPLETELY entertaining" in not a nice way. What I didn't expect was that I would be completely enrapt in Tommy's narrative style and the stories he shares. Tommyland isn't the normal rock star memoir. He's not sharing a particular time of his life, like Nikki Sixx did with The Heroin Diaries. Tommy Lee shares what he thinks is important. And what comes out this way is that the Motley Crue drummer might be insane. "Why?" you ask. Sit down and I'll tell you. We start off with a prologue in script form where Tommy and his penis talk. The penis, by the way has it's own input throughout Tommy narrative. You learn this from the different typeface and the splash stain graphic. A chapter dedicated to Jagermeister. "What I don't know is why my better ideas haven't been put into action yet. Jag...

I still love this one. Anyone who has participated in NaNoWriMo has experienced a creativity sprint of mega proportions. You get so fired up about your WIP you write everywhere: in meetings, in the car, in the shower. You dream Story. You're in love and the creative process Totally Rocks. Then, the inevitable happens. You stall out. We've all been through that moment when you can't write another stinking word. Hell, you can't even come up with a status update that's funny or clever. This is entirely different from scene blockage - the art of avoiding working on a particular section or project - and it's certainly not writer's block.  Your writing brain is fried. Neither the critically-acclaimed Keep-Butt-In-Chair method or the 10-Minute-Freewrite system cure the problem. If you're the melodramatic type, this would be the point when you'd grab the bottle of pills, pop in something more depressing and cliche than The Cure, and shout "GOOD...

While working on the precursor to FALLING TO NORMAL, I developed a character who was totally into the goth scene even though she was entirely too cheerful to fit the trope of "goth." To better understand her, I began buying goth compilation CDs a lot. Around this time, my going out clothes and makeup turned a little more gothish as well. There's more than one photo of me in standard black with red accent color plus the way-too-pale-almost-dead foundation. Turns out, I really like goth music and going all black. Even though I liked these elements of the goth scene, I found a lot of goths take themselves way too seriously. My character fortunately, wasn't one of them. It became a bit of a game for me to see how dark my music could get before I'd end up in a laughing fit.* The summer of 2007 was the summer of awful gothic poetry for me. The deeper I delved into reading what I found online, the more amused I became from the enterprise. Most of the poetry was poorl...

Zombie Thur sdays is a weekly feature with guest blogger, Miranda. You can read more about her here . Oh my. My dead zombie-loving friends, it has been a difficult and stressful last couple of weeks. First of all, let me apologize HEAVILY for missing/not posting a Zombie Thursday blog for the first time since I started. I really had plans to, but unfortunately my work schedule did not allow it, nor did my personal life. So, a big thank you to Alicia for posting in my absence! We make a great team! As my friends know, I have spent the last month working at transferring and moving to Chicago. I am pleased to say that I have finally succeeded and am living in the big city now! Unfortunately, moving is not the easiest or most stress-free thing in the world. In fact, I'm slowly learning that the hardest part is just beginning-- learning my way around, having to save more and spend *way* less, unpacking, cleaning, dealing with all the things that are wrong with my apartment that I...

Every Wednesday, YA Highway asks their readership a simple question for you to answer on your blog. Once you answer, you leave your link in the comments for other readers to hop on board. This is Road Trip Wednesday.   Today's question : Give us the link to the best blog you ever posted. The best. Admittedly, I can't even choose a best friend - I have categories for those like best-friend-within-a-twenty-mile-radius and best-friend-who-could-be-my-mom. And the ladies of YA Highway, want me to pick one? Best Feline Entry Seven Stages of Loss According to Lucky . This is one of my better thought out blogs and explains a lot about The White One's psychology. It also has my favorite picture of him there. Best Generalist Entry The Peril of Fat Kid Logic . I battle this every day, so it's a subject close to my heart. Best Zombie Entry*   Power of Voodoo . This was one of the most interesting ones I've read. I also said that Miranda is too smart in this one....

In the comments from last week's Road Trip Wednesday , Sarah demanded to know what Stephen King sentence restored my love affair with Stephen King*. I've held off answering until now because I wanted to do my answer justice.** "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." With this opener, Stephen King pulled me into Roland's quest for the Dark Tower. This sentence opened an entire universe to me. Parts of it I'd seen before and parts of it were brand new. The story of Roland's life is sad, bordering on tragic at times, but he moves on. Constantly. While not exactly Everyman, Roland does take on certain aspects that match. He's on a quest and others join him on the way. BUT, trust me, his life is anything but a morality play. What Stephen King does is tells us a damn good story about how one the fate of everything is up to one person. You see the odds, you see how things happen, but despite it all (and I do mean despite...

Last night, I finished my revisions for FALLING TO NORMAL and I threw imaginary confetti everywhere. This week my goal is to be lazy and just read. I'm starting Tommyland, which in case you don't know, is Tommy Lee's memoir. I decided to pick it up after watching his ADHD self on Rockstar Supernova.* If the book is half as funny as watching him on TV, I'll love every second of it. In other news, I've entered a contest for books. If you like paranormal and you like winning, why don't you go do it too? Click the pretty icon.  I'm also hoping to catch up reading/ commenting on blogs. I've been powerscanning and writing on the fly for weeks now and I'm getting drained from it. Of course, I say this is what I'm going to do now, but the odds of something shiny distracting me these days are pretty high. Anyone want to place a bet? And, because I love him (and he spent an hour with me dress shopping on Saturday), I'd like to direct you all to ...

So a couple of days ago on Twitter, everyone was talking about who they write like. You go to a website, paste in some text, and poof! Magic. it gave me a much needed 3 second RFP hell break, so even better, right? I plugged in the first scene of FALLING TO NORMAL, which if you're just tuning in, should know it's contemporary young adult fiction. Imagine my surprise when I got this result: I write like Stephen King I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software . Analyze your writing! Pretty awesome, even if confusing. But Miranda asked a good question: am I Eye of the Dragon SK or Pet Semetary? I said Eye of the Dragon, since I don't wrote horror. But the answer should've really been The Gunslinger for project commitment alone. But who cares - I WRITE LIKE STEPHEN KING! (Minus the tediously long narrative paragraphs that everyone loves to skim through, of course.) What I'd like to know then is why when analyzing Bloggy Blog here, I get this: I write li...

Miranda is undergoing packing hysteria, so while there might be a post later tonight, right now you can watch highlights from the 2008 zombie Olympics before reading up on the upcoming 2012 event . _______ Last.fm hit of the day : Prey by Zombie Girl

Every Wednesday, YA Highway asks their readership a simple question for you to answer on your blog. Once you answer, you leave your link in the comments for other readers to hop on board. This is Road Trip Wednesday. Today's question : What's your favorite reading related memory?  Like any book nerd and/ or writer, books hold importance significance to me. I have a lot of memories associated  to books: The Velveteen Rabbit convinced me that my toys came to life the instant I left the room. Anne Rice instilled in me a love and respect for non-sparkly vampires. One book destroyed my love affair with Stephen King, but one sentence restored it. My mom shared her favorite titles with me when I was in seventh which began my year of reading the Bronte's. But the one that sticks out is Little House on the Prairie series. I've always been a voracious reader and as I've said before, this is my mom's fault . If I wasn't playing with Barbie dolls, my nose wa...

According to my local Fox affiliate, today is " Embrace Your Geekness Day ." This is awesome because I'm so swamped at work, I couldn't think of what to blog.* I'm 23% geek. First, if you're not sure if you're a geek or not, you might want to take a test . It's long, so make sure you have time. It turns out, I'm not extremely geeky. If you end up being more geeky than I, you should congratulate yourself with a trip to Think Geek. If you're trying to figure out what the difference is between Geek and Nerd (something I constantly struggle with), check out this Wiki that d supplied a few weeks ago. Whether you're a geek or not, we've all had a moment of true geekery. Mine involved the official Aerosmith tribute band, an after party, and iambic pentameter. What's been YOUR most geektastic moment? *Especially since I'm in the middle of formatting and editing narrative for a proposal. ________ Last.fm hit of the...

You can have the red stuff. Save me the container. The White One has been up to his usual antics as of late. It started on the 4th when he walked out our front door, snuck around the corner, and yodeled at Hubby. (The Stripey One got sidelined by grass.) Since then, he's been unstoppable. In the last seven days, he's Picked his way through the bathroom trash searching for that divine piece of plastic. Broke a bottle of Strongbow Hard Cider. Forced himself on Stripey at least ten fifty times. Sat in the middle of my manuscript twice per editing session. Shoved change onto the floor in the middle of the night until I woke up to let me know that his water dish was below Luckycat standards. Snapped a piece off my brand new purple and pink water bottle. Ate said divine plastic only to regurgitate for us a few hours later. Confused my left hand with an early morning snack. Don't get me wrong, not all he does is bad. He is really a sweet cat. And hella entertain...

Work yet again is kicking my ass, but I have a lurkership (you) to entertain. So I'm inaugurating a new feature - Four for Friday. Easch Four For Friday will have a theme. I'm not planning this to be every week but more like whenever I'm scrambling at work and lists are much easier for me to construct. *a hem* Four For Friday, Firsts Edition Last night, Hubby and I went to our first ever book reading music. Steve Almond read excerpts from Rock N Roll Will Save Your Life and encouraged audience participation by singing the lyrics he supplied. The man is brilliantly funny. If you have the chance, see him speak. For Feline "Assistance" I earned a merit badge, or rather, The Stripey and White Ones did. That's right. It's for when they're being ever so NOT USEFUL . If you like cute little badges, you should check out Merit Badger, who I found from the awesomeness that's Janet Reid. Tomorrow I'll be seeing the hecklefest that'...

Zombie Thur sdays is a weekly feature with guest blogger, Miranda. You can read more about her here . I can hardly believe that it is Thursday already! In fact, it snuck up on me so quickly, I even forgot it was Thursday. I'm in the process of moving for the first time ever. Sure, I've lived 'on my own' before-- school, summer jobs, etc. But I've never had my own place, where I was the sole rent payer, the one in charge. That is all about to change in exactly one week! As such, I've spent the last few days trying to find a new place to live, struggled with money, leases, packing, and all that "fun" stuff associated with the moving process. After a couple of days I ended up finding the perfect place for me. I love it! It's tiny, but has so much character, and I'll definitely be able to make it my own. Although it is technically considered a studio apartment, it actually has a separate room. I think it's a bit too small to be a bed...

Miranda is currently undergoing life. So while we wait for what she's planned, enjoy a zombie video. _________ Last.fm hit of the day: The Impartial Orchestral Mix by The Clockwork Dolls

Every Wednesday, YA Highway asks their readership a simple question for you to answer on your blog. Once you answer, you leave your link in the comments for other readers to hop on board. This is Road Trip Wednesday. Today's question : What would your ideal writing desk look like? Right down to the perfect pen or laptop. In Alicia's Fantasy World - where I'm 5'9", not so busty, and a little more buff - I have a library. This library would have floor to ceiling bookshelves, a window seat, 2 sets of french doors: one leading to the balcony and the other to the hallway. There would be a comfy chair and possibly an area rug in a bright-ass color (electric blue maybe). There's be an alcove (complete with window) where my new office space would be.  I'd have an L-shaped desk with a hutch. The L would be under the window so I can see the outside, but not get distracted by its shininess. The shelves in the hutch would hold any books I was referencing for th...

Blogging has been interrupted by life. I'm sorry, but enjoy some lawn ornaments while I'm unearthing my desk. ______ Last.fm hit of the day : Love Stays the Same by Suicidal Romance

A couple of weeks ago, Erinn gave out blogger awards and I was one of the recipients. It's sort of exciting, since the last award I'd received was a senior in high school. With this the case, I'm overlooking the chain mail aspects of the award, changing most of the rules* and accepting it anyway. So thanks Erinn for saying I'm versatile, especially during a time when I'm feeling anything but. My picks for versatile peeps are... Cathy at Run for Grub . She's a fellow Grubbie and running her first marathon to fund Grub Street scholarships. How cool is that? Bethany at Bethany's Freelance Life . She's my Twitter friend and a lot of her posts recently get me in the soft spot. Heather at Edited to Within an Inch of My Life . She's a mom. She's editing. She recently announced she'll be homeschooling.  Miranda at Angelic Horrors . She's my co-host here. She's extremely interesting and used to be able to tell you what page the first ...

I've made a call for shoes, and people are answering. Diedra (M.M. Misfit in comments) sent me a shot of her shoes. She writes: "Mostly summer shoes - and yes, a few of the pockets contain two pairs. Not so bad, right?" Definitely not bad. I'm noticing an alarming number of orange shoes. For me, that would mean more than one pair. But I know Diedra and am not surprised that she has them. She can get away with them too. For these orange wonders, I'll recap the story she originally posted in the Shoe Love post. "So I got lost on my way to buy dog food and ended up in Nordstrom Rack. (I now know the exact location of the 8th wonder of the world.) The shoe department LITERALLY took my breath away. I had to stop in one of the aisles and calm myself. Even made a friend in shoe heaven. He better cough up that employee discount the next time I stalk, I mean see him. And after telling myself last weekend that I need to cut it out with the orange clothes, I bo...

Zombie Thur sdays is a weekly feature with guest blogger, Miranda. You can read more about her here . It may seem like my interests are mostly horror related. I love zombies, monsters, slasher flicks, freak shows... but it may surprise you to learn that I'm also a history nerd. Specifically, World War II history. I'm fascinated by all things WWII with a special interest in the Holocaust. I am the first person to stand up and press the importance of the Holocaust-- studying it, remembering it, trying to understand it. Many countries turned a blind eye to the over six million Jews, homosexuals, Catholics, gypsies, and many more who were being systematically murdered. The United States was such a nation that did nothing in the beginning years to stop the atrocities, even though we knew what was happening (I wrote a lengthy paper on this my third year of college). The Holocaust is a sobering topic. And the ideas and actions of the National Socialist party (Nazi party) were so...