(no subject)

So, it's something like nineteen degrees below zero in Chicago this morning.

Okay, it's 4 degrees above, that extra 23 degree drop is for wind chill, but I'd like you to stop and think about the kind of wind that causes a 23-degree drop in temperature. And then imagine me walking in it, and you will understand that I am not delirious or surrealist when I make the following statement:

My house keys froze to the inside of my jacket pocket this morning.

I'm not particularly fussed by the cold, except when my belongings freeze together. Today does present some obstacles, namely that everyone who could call in sick did so. BossBoss, Coworker Fail, and three department heads are all mysteriously missing, which means basically I'm running the place. The down-side to this is that anyone who could provide lunch support, or who could concievably notice that I don't have lunch support, is gone.

It's going to be a long day.

(no subject)

In the insanity of the last few days, I've been remiss in not sharing with you a new triumph for Nameless!

A few months ago, I was approached by Rebecca, a reviewer for Voice of Youth Advocates, which is a library journal targeted at librarians and teachers serving teenagers in a literary capacity. Although VOYA does not ordinarily review self-published books, Rebecca thought they would be interested in Nameless because of the process of its creation, and they agreed to publish a review in the December issue of the journal. VOYA is also tentatively set to run an article about Nameless which I believe will be in April's issue.

I received the review a few days ago and was really pleased with it. Rebecca submitted a long review and two teen reviewers, Alisa and Julia, also submitted shorter reviews. They're all positive about the writing, which is always nice, but also conscious of the book's flaws, which I appreciated. (Julia, in particular, hit the nail on the head with her assessment of my fear of conflict in writing, and Alisa and Rebecca both commented on the rather leisurely pace of the thing. :D)

It's late tonight and I'm traveling tomorrow -- I'll be out of town this weekend, though I'll have the netbook -- so I'm going to pull some quotes later to add to the brag post, and I'll link when I do so. If you have access to VOYA, which is a great resource in general, check out page 424 of the December issue to find the reviews.

As a little PR reminder, you can always find Nameless (and my other self-published books) in the links on the right sidebar of my journal, and digital PDF downloads of the book are still completely free.

I FEEL LIKE A GROWNUP WRITER OMG.