I’m With the Mockingjay

This past weekend once again found my family and me in Lubbock.  You may or may not know this, but Lubbock and I… Well, we don’t really get along.  For some reason, every time I go out there, I have the worst luck.  I get abandoned at an airport, I get sick, the fire alarm goes off at my hotel (because there’s actually a fire), I get snowed in… I don’t know what it is.  Lubbock just doesn’t seem to like me.

I wasn’t going to let that get me down, however, because this weekend, my sister starred in an opera (as a demented eight-year-old) called The Turn of the Screw.  Y’all, this was a seriously creepy show with some incredibly talented singers.  We were all blown away by the performances. And I loved it, of course, because it was a ghost story!

As much as I enjoyed watching my sister act possessed, I think we were both really looking forward to the next morning, when we finally got to see the final installment in the Hunger Games series: Mockingjay Part 2.

Let me just say that I think they could have made Mockingjay into one exceptional movie and it would have been perfect.  I’m not really a fan of this new splitting the last book in a series into two movies.  But the Hunger Games movies are by far the best book-to-movie adaptations I’ve ever seen, so I can’t complain too much.  This last movie did not disappoint.

So, in the style of all my other movie reviews, I present to you… Mockingjay Part 2!

*** MAJOR SPOILERS. IT’S A BOOK. I’M NOT HOLDING BACK. ***

• OMG I’m going to cry so much.
• Peeta!  Poor baby!  😥
• Aw, Philip Seymour Hoffman.  I wish you were still alive.
• Commander Paylor!  Woo!  You go girl!  (And we all know you get to be President in the end so BOOYAH)!
• Hey…. It’s Brienne from Game of Thrones.
• It’s kind of scary how accurately this parallels what’s going on in today’s world.  I feel like our politicians have done just as good a job of dividing our country as the Capitol did dividing Panem.
• Aw, wedding!
• Finnick… 😥
• You know, I named Sam Morneau in Boy Band after Sam Claflin.  Because he’s adorbs.
• Wait, she’s stowing away in the delivery crate?  That’s not how it happened in the book.
• She’s already in the Capitol?  Is this the final siege?  That happened awfully fast.
• Oh hey, Liam Hemsworth.  I don’t like Gale, but I definitely like you. 😉
• Also, we totally almost have the same birthday.
• Okay, people, can we just talk about how seriously adorable Pollux is?  Look at his little man bun and his sweet, expressive eyes.  I think I have a new Panem crush.
• This is all happening so much faster than it did in the book.  I’m not sure I’m ready for this.
• Poor Peeta!  Oh, my poor sweet little baker!
• The siege hasn’t even started and I’m already scared of those sewer lizards.
• These pods are freaking me out.  Again, too many parallels for what’s actually going on in some parts of the world.  Can you imagine seeing your city, your home, war-torn and deserted?  It’s terrifying.
• Finnick, why are you smiling?  Is this fun to you?
• RIP Boggs.  I hate it when the only authority figure you can trust dies.
• Finnick’s face when he saw his image displayed on TV, just as if he’d died in the Hunger Games!  That boy is giggling!  Oh my goodness.
• Coin, you are so full of it.
• President Snow correcting her. HA.
• Down to the sewers. Nope, nope, nope! There are lizards down there!
• Oh, POLLUX!  It’s okay my baby!  Please, let me hold you!
• Oh no.  I can hear them.  Oh no.  They’re coming.  OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG.
• I don’t know if I can watch this.
• OH MY GOD THEY ARE SO MUCH SCARIER THAN THEY WERE IN THE BOOKS.
• Oh, I am going to have nightmares for sure.
• Finnick’s final battle.  What a send-off.
• Seeing his face on that wanted poster… OMG that hurts…
• BUT SEEING POLLUX CRYING HURTS MORE!  HIS BROTHER DIED.  THIS IS SO SAD.  POLLUX SHOULD NEVER BE ALLOWED TO BE SAD!
• I think I officially care more about Pollux than I do about any other character in this entire series.
• Liam Hemsworth is doing a really good job of making Gale even more of a douchebag than he was in the books.  Wow.
• The march on the Capitol.  This is it.  We all know what’s coming.  Unless you haven’t read the books or have been living under a rock.  Then I guess you have no idea.  But we know.  We know.
• That little girl crying over her mom.  This movie is SO sad.
• There it is.  That lone hovercraft.  I have the chills just thinking about it.  We all know.
• That’s it.
• I wish I could say I cared more about Prim as a character.  Her death just didn’t impact me the way it did in the book.  I only care about what happens to her because Katniss cares.
• Coin is such a scary character, because she’s essentially Snow, but she acts as though she’s good and diplomatic and that she cares about the people of Panem.  She doesn’t.  She’s just as power hungry and evil.  And Julianne Moore does an excellent job of portraying that.
• Her speech.  HA.  We all know what’s coming.  This is perfect.
• BYE FELICIA.
• The letter from Plutarch.  This scene might be the saddest one of all, because he was supposed to deliver that speech.
• HAYFFIE KISS HAYFFIE KISS OMG.
• THIS IS THE SHIP I NEVER KNEW I NEEDED.
• Though to be totally honest, I don’t actually think they would ever work out together.  Still, it was an adorable moment because Effie has a huge crush on him and I think he really respects her even though he’d never admit it.
• I’m glad they made Haymitch more of a father figure and less of a damaged alcoholic.  He was still broken in a lot of ways, but he was much stronger in the movies than he was in the books.
• So… Haymitch and Katniss go back to their destroyed district… Totally alone… Amidst the rubble…  How depressing is that?
• BUTTERCUP. Oh no… Oh no… This is another scene I’ve been dreading.
• I’m sad for Katniss, of course, but OMG I AM SO SAD FOR THAT CAT.  That cat is making me BAWL.
• Saddest moment.  Sad animals.  Can’t handle it.
• Peeta!  PEETA!  EVERLARK FOREVER.
• REAL.
• REAL.
• REAL.
• Peeta is officially the world’s cutest dad.

All in all, I still get emotional thinking about this movie.  Actually, the series in general.  It’s my favorite.  I love it.  I love everything about it.

Though I’ve got to tell y’all, as we were leaving the theater, all just completely wrecked and sobbing, some guy behind us starts singing at the top of his lungs, “SHOT THROUGH THE HEART AND YOU’RE TO BLAME!”  Yeah, that kind of killed the moment.  But it was pretty funny, I have to admit.

Well, I better be off.  I’m going to a NaNoWriMo event at a local library!   Talk to y’all soon!

All Good Things!

So a few months back, my good friend and fellow author, James Peercy asked me if I might be interested in participating in this little event called Comic Con.  I said, “Yes, of course!” thinking, Wow, if this could actually happen, that would be a dream come true! 

Well, yesterday that dream came true!

James messaged me to inform me that we will, in fact, have a booth and be selling our books at Dallas Comic Con!

http://fanexpodallas.com

I’ve never actually been to Comic Con, but thanks to my love for The Big Bang Theory, I like to think I’m still worthy of being a part of it.  I am so, so, so excited, y’all.  This really is a huge dream come true to take part in an event like this!

In other news, I think I’ve finally recovered from that 24-hour-turnaround to and from Lubbock to pick my sister up from college.  Here’s the thing.  I love road trips.  I love driving.  I love Texas.

I do not love Lubbock.

I don’t know why, but Lubbock has it out for me.  You know Murphy’s Law?  Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong?  That happens to me EVERY time I visit Lubbock.  I’m not going to make a list of everything that Lubbock has done to me, because frankly I don’t have the time.  Just know that Lubbock hates me.

The drive out there is kind of fun, however.  That is when it’s not pouring down rain like a freaking hurricane in Florida.  Seriously, I’ve never seen rain like this.  There was one point where a giant truck passed the car I was driving (my sister was with me, our mom was up ahead in a rent car), and splashed this wave of water all over the windshield and I was totally blind for about three seconds.  I know it doesn’t sound like much, but three seconds with no vision, going 75 MPH on an overpass?  Not safe.  Not fun.  Very scary.  I really thought that was the end.  Sadly, I wasn’t thinking, “Oh no!  I have precious cargo (AKA my sister).”  I was thinking, “Oh no!  My kitty is going to be an orphan!”

Thankfully, we all made it home safely, if not completely dry.

Those are just a few pictures from the drive (the dry one, not the one with all the rain).  They’re all very Texasy.

Have a great weekend, y’all!

Oh!  And one more thing… Boy Band has remained in the top 20,000-10,000 Bestselling Kindle books for the past almost three weeks.  I am totally and completely overwhelmed.  Thank you all so much.  I’m trying to think of a neat way to thank you all!

Much love!

Cool Things

So, I’ve been so preoccupied with my trip to Lubbock and seeing my sister’s first professional production (it was AWESOME by the way) that I haven’t really been keeping y’all up to date with a lot of the really cool things that have been happening lately.

So first, a few pictures from the trip.  Lubbock wasn’t quite as awful to me this time around, but I did suffer some nasty hay fever and my friend totally burned the back of my hand with a fresh-out-of-the-oven baking sheet.  Thanks, Rachel.

Seeing my sister, though, was absolutely the best!

We caught up on a lot of important issues, like final exams, The Hunger Games, and the new One Direction music video.

There were also several Christmas decorations around, which I loved.

There was also tea and and an awesome Lubbock sunset.

Then I hopped on a plane and flew home.  I had a great time, but now that it’s over, I’m so excited for Thanksgiving week, I can’t even tell you!

Okay, finally on to the other cool updates.

First of all, I got to meet one of the most iconic writers of our time and a fellow Texan, Anne Rice!

My friend and fellow writer (soon-to-be published author) Savannah graciously accompanied me and we had a lot of fun browsing old books, enjoying White Rock Coffee, and of course, fangirling over writing.  We really lucked out too, because I didn’t realize we needed a ticket to meet Anne Rice.  A very kind and thoughtful man overheard our conversation, walked right up to us, and gave me an extra ticket!  What a cool guy!

Ms. Rice, in case you were wondering, was very polite and soft-spoken.  She signed my copies of The Vampire Chronicles and Prince Lestat, which I am very much looking forward to reading.  Then, I gave her a copy of Cemetery Tours.  I’m not sure if that was a gutsy move, or a very presumptuous one, but I wanted to give it to her A) because I admire her work and B) as a way of saying thank you.  I have no idea if she’ll read it or not, but she was very gracious.

The next cool thing to happen is I finally ordered a dragon from Donna’s Dragons!

This is Simon the NaNo Dragon.

For those who don’t know, Donna is an independent artist who makes polymer clay dragon statues.  Ever since I stumbled across her on Facebook, I’ve been in love with her dragons!  You can find her on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/DonnasDragons

Cool thing number three is that Cemetery Tours is featured in Pose Magazine’s December Issue as Book of the Month!  I am so humbled and honored and I want to send a huge thank you out to editor Tiffany Jones for including my book in this month’s issue!

You can find the issue here: http://www.joomag.com/en/newsstand/pose-magazine-december-2014-pose-magazine/0457396001416541990

Another really, really cool thing is that I recently joined Ancestry.com.  I’ve always been curious about my ancestors and where I come from.  I have found a lot of Yankees, Sons of the American Revolution, Swiss people, and Scots.  It just so happens, however, that one of those Scots is Robert the Bruce.

This is a picture of Robert the Bruce I took at Stirling Castle in Scotland a few years back. I had no idea at the time that he is, in fact, my 22nd Great Grandfather.

It turns out my dad is a direct descendent of Kings Robert I (the Bruce), II, and III of Scotland.  This is a really cool thing for me, not only because of how much I love Scotland (I love it a whole lot) and Robert the Bruce is remembered as being one of its greatest heroes, but because growing up, I wanted nothing more in life than to be a Princess.  Well, maybe I just have a minuscule fraction of Robert’s DNA swimming around in my veins, but you know what?  It still counts.  Childhood dream is officially a reality.

Finally, and perhaps this isn’t as cool as all of that, but after taking a few days off, I went back and reread my NaNoWriMo project.  Y’all, I really love it.  I love Cemetery Tours also and I’m still so excited and proud of it and the third one is definitely coming next year, but I am really enjoying this new book.  I can’t wait to finish it and get it out there.  Granted, I’m not sure the same crowd that liked Cemetery Tours will be as into this new one as I am, but that’s okay.  There are a lot of readers out there.  And I love you all.

Enjoy your weekend!  Mine is rainy and cold, but that’s okay, because I have warm pajamas and a kitty.

My First Trip to Lubbock or Seven Hours in a Movie Theater or OMG There is Snow Everywhere

I wish I had been updating throughout this entire weekend.  It probably would have been a lot funnier as it was happening.  As it is, however, I have about an hour and a half to kill sitting here in the airport, so I’ll try to recap everything to the best of my comic abilities.  

My sister and I have been planning to see “Catching Fire” at midnight since the first movie came out.  She is a freshman in college and we both agreed that it didn’t matter where she ended… one of us would fly out to the other so we could see the movie together.  She ended up at Texas Tech in Lubbock, so as soon as movie tickets went on sale, I bought two tickets and booked my flight to Lubbock. 

Now, my parents love Lubbock.  Every time they visit my sister, they come home absolutely raving about it.  Me, I’d never been, but the way my parents made it sound, Lubbock was just paradise on Earth and I would just love it so much and places like Scotland and the Gulf Shores would pale in comparison.  Naturally, I was eager to visit this exotic piece of Texas Heaven.  

I was so excited when I finally arrived at the airport on Thursday afternoon.  Not only would I get to see my sister, but we were going to see “Catching Fire!”  THE cinematic event of the season!  Also my favorite book of The Hunger Games trilogy.  My optimism didn’t waver one bit when my dad warned me that Lubbock was expecting snow storms over the weekend and that I needed to pack boots. 

Now here’s the thing about me.  I believe in packing the absolute least I need to get by.  Boots take up a lot of space in a suitcase and they are a nuisance to wear through airport security.  After insisting over and over to my dad (by the way, I get my stubborn side from him) that I would be fine, he relented and I went about my happy little way, sure that I would not actually need boots.   

Almost as soon as I made it through security, I noticed that my flight was delayed.  Again, not a big deal.  Flights get delayed all the time.  I don’t think I’ve ever taken a plane that actually left when it was supposed to.  Heck, the plane I’m supposed to be taking in an hour is delayed.  Hence the blog post.  And actually I’ll be home when I actually get to post this.  I’m just writing it at the airport.  

For the record, I just tried to take a selfie with my laptop to prove that I’m at the airport, but I just ended up looking really stupid.  I’m trusting you all to just take my word for it. 

So back to Thursday.  Plane’s delayed, but I wasn’t worried, or even fazed by it.  I was in too good a mood.  Finally boarded the plane, the flight attendants tell us to buckle seat belts and turn off electronics.  Check.  Okay.  Got it.   

We pull back from the gate.  

Then we stop.  

Okay, again, no big deal.  They were probably just checking something or communicating with the control tower.  

 But then twenty minutes passed, and I began to wonder.  Finally, the Captain came over the speaker and announced, “Uh, hello ladies and gentlemen.  You might be wondering why we haven’t moved.  We’re experiencing some technical problems.  We’ve discovered we have no steering.  We will know in a few minutes if it can be fixed so we will either be headed back to the gate or on our way to Lubbock.”

 Okay.  Not cool.  

 I don’t know if I’ve ever told you all this, but I am a very nervous flyer.  I think it has something to do with my control issues.  Or you know, the fact that there is absolutely NOTHING between the plane and the ground after it takes off.  I hate turbulence, I hate that feeling you get when your ears pop, and I hate being closed in tiny little places and knowing I can’t get out.  I love traveling, but I’ve got to tell you that the only thing I like about flying is LANDING.  

 So, Mr. Captain, you’re trying to tell me, an already anxious passenger, that you might not be able to steer the plane?  Oh, that’s awesome.  

 However, I knew that the Captain would never knowingly endanger the lives of his crew, his passengers, or himself, so I knew that he wouldn’t take off unless he was absolutely 100% certain that the plane would land safely in Lubbock.  And we did.  Twenty minutes after we were supposed to.  

Lubbock! Very flat.

Pretty sunsets though.

 The reason that was an issue was because I had a shuttle waiting to take me to my hotel.  Well, apparently shuttles don’t like sitting around and waiting on planes that are almost half an hour late, because mine left.  While I waited for my bags, my mom called the hotel for me to let them know I’d finally arrived and that I still needed a shuttle.  The lady said that she would have sent the shuttle that was supposed to get me back to the airport, but it was stuck in traffic.

 Wait a minute, what?  There’s traffic in Lubbock?  Hey Mom, where’s your magical land with no traffic?  

Stranded in Lubbock. Making sure to stay inside because it is COLD.

 Anyway, to make up for the lack of shuttle, the hotel called a cab for me.  They told me to look for a checkered cab.  Now that right there confused me.  I’d actually never ridden in a taxi cab, but weren’t they all checkered?  Well, it turns out that Checkered Cab is a company!  I found that out only after I ran over to a not-Checkered-but-still-checkered cab and asked if they had been sent by La Quinta.  The driver was very nice and honest and he told me that no, he hadn’t been, but he would love to take me since A) I was in no way dressed for the frigid Lubbock weather and B) I wouldn’t have to wait around.  I told him thank you, but I thought it was best to wait for the cab that was scheduled for me.  I didn’t tell him that the real reason I wanted to wait around was because the hotel was paying for the other cab and I’m a poor writer up to her ears in student-loan debt. 

 Well, the Checkered Cab finally came and I made it to my hotel.  My sister came to pick me up and we went to Chili’s.  There, they got my order wrong, but one of the waiters who worked there actually looked like Finnick Odair, so I didn’t mind all that much.  After we ate, we hightailed it over to the movie theater for Catching Fire!  

 We arrived at exactly 8:00.  Four hours to midnight!  But, as anyone who has ever attended a midnight premiere knows, if you want good seats, you’ve got to get there early.  

Movie Theater!

May the Odds be Ever in Your Favor.

 Well, we got there early, alright.  Unfortunately, we went to the wrong theater!!!  Apparently, Lubbock has more than one movie theater!  Who knew?!  

 Well, we finally made it to the RIGHT theater, and still managed to get a pretty decent spot in the line for seats.  For those of you sane people who’ve never waited four hours to see a movie at midnight, it’s a very interesting endeavor.  You’d think it would be long and boring, but you’re so excited and everyone around you is so excited that you kind of feed off each other.  There’s an unspoken sense of camaraderie.  You don’t know these people, but you know automatically that you share at least one similar interest, in this case, The Hunger Games.  Books are powerful.  I bonded with a few of my closest friends over books.  

This is the RIGHT movie theater.

 One of my favorite moments while we were still waiting in the hall was when a few guys walked by, glanced at all of us in line, and said, “Oh, are y’all waiting for the Hunger Games?  Harry Potter dies in the end.”  I don’t know why, but he cracked me up.  

Camped out in the hallway.

 When the doors to the theater were finally opened to us, my sister and I bolted for the best seats in the house.  We settled ourselves down to top row, middle of the theater seats and prepared ourselves for the beginning of the revolution.  

 Two hours later, we were ready.  The lights began to dim, the screen went black…

 And then a lady and two men walked to the front of the theater.

 “Hey guys, we’re sorry to have to tell you this, but we’re experiencing some technical difficulties.  This movie is showing on a lot of screens right now, so it will take just a few more minutes to get yours up and going.  It will probably start around 12:45, but you won’t have any previews.”

 Well, it just so happened, my sister and I didn’t have to wait for Catching Fire for the revolution.  We got to experience an uprising right there in the theater.  My sister was ticked off because she had an 8 AM class.  The people in front of us were ticked off because we were among the first people in line for the movie, yet we’d be the last to see it.  We should have been the FIRST theater to get the movie!  A few of them started angry-tweeting Cinemark, which, I have to admit, while childish, was kind of funny.  I was pretty much just flabbergasted.  Had I brought the Delay Curse with me or something?  What was the deal?!  

This is the movie theater screen while we were waiting for the movie to start.
Illusion that movie theaters still use those cool old movie reels: Shattered.

 Well, naturally, I forgot about everything as soon as the movie actually started.  Catching Fire might actually be one of the best movies ever.  Seriously, I am pretty hard to please when it comes to movie adaptations of books that I love (I hate the third Harry Potter movie.  I’m even more resentful of the fact that Prisoner of Azkaban is my favorite book!), but Catching Fire was PERFECT.  I found myself reading the book in my head throughout the entire movie.  I loved it.  I loved everything.  I loved all the new cast members and I especially loved the returning characters.  I actually cried during Effie’s final scene.  There was nothing I did not love about that movie.  My sister and I are already planning to see it again on Wednesday when she comes home for Thanksgiving.  

 Okay, it is now the day after I began writing this post.  I was planning on having it finished and up as soon as I got home from the airport, but I was so tired that I crashed right after I ate dinner.  

 I’m sure I’ll write another post about how much I loved Catching Fire at a later date, but at the moment, I’m still overwhelmed by how amazing it was.  

 Anyway, the rest of the weekend was absolutely frigid.  I knew it was supposed to get colder, but I had no idea that it would be freezing.  The temperature must have dropped at least twenty or so degrees while we were in the movie.  I even took a picture of the world to remind myself how cold it was.

Are you serious?

 I finally got into bed around four in the morning.  The next morning, I was rudely awakened by a strange noise blaring throughout the entire hotel.  After the noise didn’t stop, I stepped out into the hall to discover that the fire alarm had been triggered and that the hotel staff were signaling everyone to gather down in the lobby.  Since I was still in my pajamas, I ran back into my room, pulled on a sweatshirt, and grabbed my phone and my computer (obviously the most valuable in my possession) and ran down to the lobby wearing my pajamas, totally barefoot, and clutching my computer like a treasured stuffed animal.  I also still had my night guard in.

Fancy hotel elevator.

 Well, needless to say, there was no fire.  Everything was totally fine.  It was a heck of a way to wake up, however, after such an amazing movie.   

The rest of the weekend was, to put it lightly, COLD. 

That’s the view out of my sister’s windshield. It’s frozen over. That is all ICE.

You can see the cold in the air.

TGFS – Thank God For Starbucks!

However, it was still enjoyable.  My sister and I saw a lot of her professors and a few classmates perform in a local theatrical production of Les Miserables.  Simply fantastic.  

 

Before the play started, my sister and I walked around and looked at Christmas trees!

 

 

 

We also had lunch with my friend Rachel and her wonderful husband, Steve.  Rachel is my oldest friend and just so wonderfully delightful.  We’ve been friends since we were 3.  She’s actually one of my sister’s teachers also and is in the process of earning her PHD.  God bless her soul.   

My sister and I also made a stop at Barnes and Noble, where I almost always have more fun than I should. 

I love this cover of Dracula! Isn’t it beautiful? It makes me wish I didn’t already own it so I could buy this one!

Look! I found my book!

That’s me!

The rest of our weekend was spent trying to stay warm…

And when that didn’t work, we decided to just embrace the arctic chill and went out to play in the snow.  As much as I complain about the snow, I secretly love it.  I don’t like driving in it and I don’t like being cold, but there is something magical about snow, especially when you live in Texas.  

 

Finally mastered the art of the snow ball.

Then I got on a frosty airplane and went home.

The end.