scatterbrained mess

Yep, that's me. But at least I'm getting a lot of cleaning done! Writing? Uh, no. Thinking about writing? Sure, but it's not the same, right? Those same three chapters are still waiting to be written. Although the blankness of mind while accomplishing said cleaning tasks does have some creative value. Because I'm still struggling with what happens in the first of those three chapters. I'm tempted to write them very un-YA, but then I try to remember my audience. I guess the challenge is to write them the way I want while still technically complying with the unspoken code of what the market deems "appropriate." All about pushing boundaries and exploring limits, no?

On another note, I'm reading a great book right now. As usual for me, it's a few years old, since we're broke and I get my reading at the library. Anyway, I was trying to describe it to my husband and older son, and I'm all, "Yeah, this book is so good but so long."

"How long?" my son wants to know.

"Like 500 pages or something."

Laughter. "All the books I read are that long."

"Yeah, but you read fantasy."

"So?"

"I'm just saying, fantasy's longer, but this isn't fantasy. Or maybe it is, since it's narrated by Death. But it's also historical, since it's set during World War II in Nazi Germany."

My husband: "Is this another one of your friends' stories?"

Me, laughing: "Uh, no. This book's, like, won all these awards. It's THE BOOK THIEF, by Markus Zusak."