Dear Veronica Rossi

Dear Veronica Rossi,

Two years ago, I was moving across the country. With endless hours of driving ahead of me and my dad, who was helping me along the journey, I ventured to the library, on the hunt for some audio entertainment. Perched in front of the Young Adult books on CD, I searched for something to grab my attention. I scanned, and deliberated, and finally decided on a few. None of them had I ever heard of.

Once on the road, we popped the first one in. We listened to the first few chapters… but the story became… shall we say embarrassing, for a father and his young adult daughter to listen to together, trapped in a car. Next! We popped in a second book. This was a little better. A little. The story had potential, but was also kinda weird, and a lotta boring. We didn't make it very long before we decided to try again. Eyeing each other, we hoped this book panned out. A bit nervous about our luck, I pushed in Under the Never Sky. My dad and I didn't talk for hours. Which doesn't sound like a good thing, but it is when you are both engulfed in the imaginary pages of an audio book!

Two years later, and much waiting in between, I have just finished Into the Still Blue. Makes me kinda sad. But mostly it makes me want to say thank you.

Thank you for writing a captivating story.
Thank you for creating a heroine that was relatable, clever, teachable, vulnerable, and yet determined. Thank you for writing Roar and Aria as best friends, and nothing but friends on either side. Thank you for writing Perry with just enough brief jealousy, but mostly trusting of their friendship. (So tired of the love triangles and the jealous boyfriends in recent books). Thank you for writing a young adult book without a love triangle. Thank you for writing a book with romance, that glimpses the intimate, but never crosses the line of vulgarity about what is private. (Especially something a young woman could listen to with her dad without being embarrassed.) Thank you for writing about pain, love, forgiveness,  saying you're sorry, admitting your mistakes, and sacrifice. Thank you for writing a truly entertaining book that I can recommend to my students without reservation.

And Thank You for not killing off my favorite characters!!! Especially this. Thank you.

Respectfully,

Megs

P.S. Would the child of Aria and Perry have all three Senses? Cause that would be wicked awesome!

Another PS: If you need help casting roles for Roar and Perry, I would be more than willing to sit in on the auditions. ;) They gotta get this right!

Barely a Blog, Blog

When I first started blogging I was 20, I think. It was a really new thing, and hardly anyone was doing it. I found it fun to just Blah, Blah, Blah on my endless musings, but I didn't really have an audience to share them with. So naturally I recruited my sister. Having introduced her to Josh Groban, Michael Buble (or did she introduce me to him?), and other amazing things I think she trusted my judgement and me on things that are amazing. Shortly thereafter though, I left the "in touch" world to go on a mission for my church. When I came back, my sister had pretty much dominated the Blogging World… and I… I hadn't even heard of Facebook. I liked the idea of starting to blog again, but it seemed too big now… too real.

Finally, after many years of reluctance and trepidation and brewing excitement, I decided I was going to jump in again. It was a daunting task for me. There actually was a blogging world, with people who did this for real… for a living… not just cause they were goofing around. People-- That is intimidating to me. For Reals! Legit writers! That are entertaining… The pressure! My sister had found her niche, Books. Everyone had a niche, so I felt like my blog needed a niche… What should it be about?

I agonized about that question for months… still do.

As you can see, or read, I don't have a niche… I barely have a blog. What ends up happening is life. See, my life revolves around teaching school during the school year, and during that time I really don't do anything. At least not anything terribly entertaining. But sometimes, I have thoughts that I feel need to be spewed out onto a page, and journal just would be, I don't know too private… haha.

So I thinking today, the reason my blog doesn't have a niche, is because I don't have a niche. I don't have a solitary thing that defines me. My life is like a revolving door, the focus changing in a yearly cycle. I have the same passions, but their priority is never in the same order. And some passions do fade and are replaced by new ones. So what I am saying… I guess… is… Here is a niche-less, revolving, nondescript, evolving, barely a blog, Blog. It isn't consistent because my life isn't consistent.

Welcome… looking at my track record, I'll talk to you in about another 5 months… peace!