Illustration by Maggie Kneen (from "The Owl Keeper")

Not long after 9/11, I began writing “The Owl Keeper.”  The world had changed overnight, becoming a darker, more frightening place, devoid of warmth and color, and with the darkness came a deep sorrow, a sense of lost innocence.

Also in 2001, I saw the film “The Others” - Alejandro Amenábar’s frightening ghost story which unfolds in an isolated house on the island of Jersey.  The children who live there are both fatally allergic to sunlight, which means the windows are covered with heavy curtains, and ”no door must be opened unless the one before is closed.”

That’s when Max appeared, in my mind anyway: a frail sickly boy who was scared of most things in life, both real and imagined.  Allergic to the sun, Max stayed indoors throughout the day, hiding behind closed curtains, away from the light.  The one thing he didn’t fear, however, was the night.

In mid-2002 I read an article in “The New York Times” about Camp Sundown, where campers have a rare disorder that makes them unable to tolerate ultraviolet light.  And so activities take place at night, when the children can venture safely outside.

When he was young, Max used to do brave things like go tramping through the forest with his gran after dark. He loved the stories she told him about the world before the Destruction—about nature, and books, and the silver owls. His favorite story was about the Owl Keeper.  According Gran, in times of darkness the Owl Keeper would appear to unite owls and Sages against the powers of the dark.

Night after night, I dreamed about Max, alone beneath an ancient tree, in a world with no color, no seasons.  Waiting, always waiting..

But Gran is gone now, and so are her stories of how the world used to be. Max is no longer brave. The forest is dangerous, Gran’s precious books have been destroyed, and the silver owls are extinct. At least that’s what the High Echelon says. But Max knows better.

The rise of the High Echelon was easy to imagine: an all-powerful regime that grabbed power following an environmental cataclysm (the Great Destruction), operating behind closed doors, hiring goons for their Dark Brigade, paying mad scientists to carry out deadly experiments.  Years ago I’d lived in Spain, under the Fascist dictator Francisco Franco, and I knew what it was like to glance over your shoulder in a crowded café, worried that someone might be listening.  Fear, I’d learned back then, was a powerful weapon.

Maxwell Unger has a secret. And when a mysterious girl comes to town, he might just have to start being brave again.  The time of the Owl Keeper, Gran would say, is coming soon.

She currently has four out of the top ten best sellers. She is Mormon and lives with her husband Christian Meyer and their three sons: Gabe, Seth, and Eli. The couple has been married since 1994. She is a master of capturing the obsessive thought process of teenage girls in love for the first time. Some credit her for making teen abstinence “sexy.” The movie based on her novel “New Moon” broke “Harry Potter’s” box office record for midnight showings. She is also represented by Writer’s House…

Ah, what could be more charming than a first crush?  Not much.  How may of us would love to revisit age 13 again?  Probably lots of us.  So today was a fab writing morning.  2364 words to be exact.  Total is now 12,313.    Two things have changed for me as a writer during this process of NaNoWriMo.  One is respect — complete respect for published authors like the ones in this article — some of them are my faves anyway and now that I saw them talk about how they come up with the words? Well.  What occurs to me is that some of us are full of words and we probably always were — even when we were little.  In fact? Maybe the words on the page are the only way we can speak about some things?

Certainly, when I was writing love poems, I knew that.  Some of us burn our words down, sometimes?  That is how much they mean.

And there is something else too — a book is a really important thing.  When I think about the books I read in childhood — and sometimes escaped into?  Well — what if I were making something like that for other kids?  What if I were making something really important that would be left as a legacy of my life in a way?  Hmmm…..

Most serious published authors must feel that way I expect, as well.  That is what the cavern is about for us writers.  I think so — that cavern being the place that we somehow manage to be like the scribes that always existed — since the beginning of time.

Well, enough of that — it was a good day today — my characters have just communicated… here is a snippet from today:

And so he began, a little like this:

I am Devlin,
boy of the dunes and boy of the air who left you the magic feather and you are the sad girl that I saw crying.

Then he sat looking at what he had just written to her.  He wondered if maybe he shouldn’t have told her that he’d seen her like that.  But it was too late.  He’d already written it down, and besides, if he wanted to have a relationship with a real girl like she seemed to be, he thought he’d better just tell her the truth.  So, he continued.

I am the boy who built this driftwood shelter
I am fourteen years old and my mom died
and so this summer my dad left me here with my grandparents,
do you want to be friends?

The words had just poured out of him from someplace and he wasn’t even sure where.  But that feeling of tightness in his chest had lessened while he wrote.  He let out a giant sigh.  There was no going back now.  None at all.  He decided that was enough to say for his first answer.  He’d wait and see what she was going to say back.
Devlin stuffed her paper airplane in his pocket, and left his note folded inside the abalone shell — weighting it down with a rock, like she had.  It was time to go home and have dinner, and besides what had happened seemed so magical to him that he didn’t want to break the spell by staying too long in the hut.

I’m writing this in two ways — one of those is as a therapist, in a way –  and that is the really fun part, because, well, I sort of miss doing that work and so this novel is what I said I was going to be doing.  Putting all my “work” into something that hopefully eventually could be a screenplay — so this is serious stuff, for me.  Really serious.  My main characters, the boy and the girl are both grappling with loss — and this friendship they form is going to be very important to both of them.

Ah, the cavern.  It’s made of so many different things for each writer.  It really is!

xxoo!

Loving the writing this morning is going to help me tackle the parts that will be harder?

I have nothing but gratitude for NaNoWriMo in my heart — what an opportunity it is to be among my fellows as a writer!

ps: I love the tweets too!  They are the greatest!

What Teenie Alexander did was to leave Devlin a second note — it was a paper airplane this time — and the passage above is the note he left her back!  It looked a bit like this one!

Today was great as I wrote because the characters are coming to life on the page.  Teenie has just caught sight of the boy Devlin and found the shell he left for her in the driftwood hut.  Writing this really took me back to that era in my own life and, my favorite old dog Buff was in there too.  There will be more about him, but, he was just there!  Like he always was — even though he has been gone ten years.  I called him “Melloman” and put him on a porch!  Really great to see him again and bring him to life on the page…

here is an excerpt from today:

Teenie sat for a long time just looking at the shell.  Finally she thought to herself, somebody else.  Maybe it was even the person who had built the sea hut!  And then, just up in the dunes above her was a boy.  He looked like he was her age.  The wind ruffled his sandy blonde curls.  He was wearing a plaid flannel shirt — that was all she could see of him.  It was Devlin Underwood.  Teenie stood up to call out to him but he had bolted across the dunes like a young colt.  In one instant he was gone.  Gone.
The longer Teenie sat there looking at the shell, the more she thought it might have been that boy who had left the abalone.  She picked it up and held it to the sun so that she could watch the colors shift inside like magic.  It was one of the prettiest shells she had ever seen.  The outside was rough and knurled like it had lived for a thousand years in the ocean, but the inside glittered like a spectacular jewel.  It must have had about two hundred colors all swirling around inside it — like water, almost.
He must have done this, Teenie thought.  He must have left this here for me.

So, these characters are kids?  I imagine that my character Teenie Alexander would have gone to see a movie like Bright Star — she would have wanted to see that.  Except this is set in modern times — in a way.  They live in a village, by the sea — the details of which are unfolding gradually.  Yesterday Dev had seen her crying — sitting in a sea hut he’d made of driftwood — these are very common along the beaches here — all year long.  I’m having a great time writing it — it’s kind of charming so far, I think.  At this point we have boy and girl just “seeing” each other across the windswept sandunes.  I’ve decided to make this novella just last one week – in both of their lives?  Right before school starts — Junior High.

I dd a reading for a friend last night over the phone.  She loved it so far…

Well  today was 2089 — bringing the total so far to 4123 words!  Pacing myself…  This pic looks like the hut that Teenie found…a little.

and this one shows the iridescence inside a special abalone, like the one Devlin left for Teenie!

I did it! After putting it off for years, I finally finished all the Anne books. I have to admit, the books about Anne’s children just do not interest me as much as the books about Anne herself, but I really wanted to get through the whole series. A couple of weeks ago, I sat down and started reading Rilla of Ingleside, and while it wasn’t the most interesting volume in the series, it was alright.

Unlike Anne, Rilla has no ambition to speak of and does not feel ashamed to admit it. She just wants to be pretty and have fun. A little vain and a little proud, Rilla is nonetheless a very loyal sister and friend. At 15, Rilla has nothing on her mind but enjoying herself at her first dance, and that pesky war is not going to ruin her evening.

But when the war truly breaks out and Canada is called upon to send her troops, Rilla finds that there’s more to life than worrying about your lisp when a handsome boy takes you for a moonlit walk.

Like Anne, Rilla is a full of heart and makes the best of any situation. When her brothers leave for Europe to fight, Rilla is left to wait and comfort her mother, but she does not do so with her hands crossed. Though she wants nothing more than to be the wife of Kenneth Ford when he returns from the battlefront, Rilla grows and matures into a capable young woman.

Like many of L.M. Montgomery’s stories, the book is a bit preachy in parts, but the anxiety and terror brought on by the war serves to balance the many references to the divine. Rilla’s story is interesting as an account of the lives of women left at home during WWI. She experiences loss and grief but stands firm to support those she loves, even when the other girls call her cold.

Overall, I liked the book, but I could have done without some of the passages about the Glen St. Mary crowd.

—

After I finished Rilla, I told myself that I would also finish Robin McKinley’s The Door in the Hedge.

I started this four story collection of fairy tale retellings a few months ago, but didn’t get around to reading the final story until yesterday.

McKinley’s second published book, the collection includes “The Stolen Princess,” “The Princess and the Frog,” “The Hunting of the Hind,” and “The Twelve Dancing Princesses”. The characters in the stories are often unnamed, identified by their descriptions and titles and representing the sort of archetypal personalities often featured in traditional fairy tales.

Of the four stories, I enjoyed “The Hunting of the Hind” most of all, but though I like fairy tales, I prefer McKinley’s novels. The stories almost feel incomplete, which might explain why McKinley often notes that her stories have a tendency to turn into full-length novels when she starts to work on a short story collection. The descriptions are lush and airy, almost dreamlike, but I prefer a bit more depth.

That said, I still want to check out Water, and McKinley’s latest addition to the elementals story series, Fire.

Valentine Bonnaire takes the plunge into NaNo WriMo — with a YA themed novel.  Will it be a romance for teens?  Maybe!

You can click that graphic and see for yourself what this is all about but in the meantime, whew!  50,000 words to be written in November!

So, VB-Demoiselle is a sub-genre for me and it is going to be…

!

writing to a deadline (which is how I got that MA thesis done btw) — it is my first year trying this…madcap warpspeed novelista stuff…

I’m going to write some posts about the writing process here in the blog but the novel will not be going up online as I do it.  You’ll see their logo attached to those posts about writers and the writing process during the month of November.  One of the funnest experiences I had at the Writer’s Conference I go to was in the YA group.  Truly, so, I can carry this writing with me when I go back in June.

If you feel like telling your pals, I’m going to try and ask you for a huge favor to promote this great place for writers.  What you would be doing is sponsoring me — but for them!

So, for YA, I’m VB-Demoiselle — people who have read me over the last couple of years know I will be writing empowerment for girls because, well, I just will!

I already have an idea for my novel, but I can’t tell you about it until November!

Wish me luck!

Here is how you contribute to them!

And look what you will be doing for kids in creative writing programs!

That is fab!

xxoo!

Author Kyann Zorain has no doubt wrote the bomb of the century.  As a writer she has it down with blogs, articles and columns, but not so much as a novelist.  This follow-up blog is not intended to hurt the sales, if any, of this novel but just to get people to acknowledge that it is out there. To many readers of fantasy and sci-fi have asked the question when asked about the book, “What is the stones of the hidden power and who did you say wrote it?”  So this blog is up to you to take a look at the excerpt at Kyann’s author page www.kyannsbooks.weebly.com  and let the world know what you think by blogging about it or just leave a comment here for us to read.  Another follow-up will be posted as time will allow.

In general some of the excerpt reads as is,   As he and Tessiyon stared up to the sky, the darker clouds in front of them promised a troublesome storm and was filled with at least four hundred red dragon images.  What was worse is that they were sailing right into the heart of it all.  Tessiyon knew there was to be trouble with the storm and fire-breathing dragons, but she knew she had to be ready for whatever destruction was to meet her crew. Tessiyon did not have much of a company to begin with, for she had gathered at least twenty men before leaving.  And twenty was not large at all, but all of her better choices have aged or passed in death.  Troubled times were to be over, yet some knew they would return; when it did, it was not to be in their lifetime and Tress would have been ready for whatever displeasures were to be breathed up them.  She knew without an army to help her with the fight against Zian she was pretty much on her own.

  Tessiyon stepped over to the left from where she was standing on Filton’s left side.  With her sash and black robes, they stood with eyes glued fully on the dragon filled sky; she pulled back her robe from her side just to expose her sword before she drew it for battle against the dragons.  She could see the red dragons descending from the sky to attack the drifting boat as it bounced on top of the roughly rapid waters, nothing was more disturbing than the sky.  Black clouds rolled overhead to the fading orange horizon as the sunlight vanished.  (from Kyann’s offical author weebly site.)

After a brief sales count, which is the research we do on some books to see where they stand, we can see that this book is just not known enough to be a famous movie, but we may be wrong, some times we are.  In the works is a screenplay written by Kyann Zorain, so maybe we’ll see more talent with writing of screen than novel.  In short this novel is not the best known but may be the best new read for you fantasy, dragon, Harry Potter wizardly types. Even though, The stones of the hidden power resembles more of the Lord of the Rings adventure then anything else, give it a try. See what you think of this under priviledge novel and see where it sits with you readers on the shelves.

It’s not the beloved story of  ”Wind in the Willows” written by Kenneth Grahame, but author Kyann Zorain writes something very close.  “The diary of Twitched whiskers” is a young adult read for those who love the smart wit of talking animals. There is no characters like the overly rambunctious Toad, but we do have a character that comes close, a rat named Oliver.  He loves his motor car and is very much a cheeky thinker.  Readers may be comfortable with a timid, shy friend named Badger, not the harsh type in other story books holding such a character.

The diary of Twitched Whiskers is about an adult male orange and creamed colored cat who has stumbled into a strange village of talking animals called Strawberry Hills, not Fields.  Kyann Zorain writes the life story through story of this cat where he goes, what he thinks and were he will end up.  A premeditated series of this cat that starts new years and ends every christmas. Readers who have viewed this story say it’s a good read but not one that will make it on store shelves, if it even gets past the agents to be published. Still Kyann pushes forward with this new novel hoping somewhere in the world it will find a home in the hearts of readers.  It is written in the format of story book mixed with journal or diary entries of whatever the cat, Twitched, is thinking.  It does give mood to the story, but is it really what readers want?

Kyann Zorain is best known for stories containing dragons, witchcraft not one that is a life story of a cat.  With the publication of “The stones of the Hidden Power part one: the fight for freedom” Kyann’s first novel publication,not the best but the first, she is trying her hand at a different genre of story telling. I guess being a writer with high ambitions, you may need to be good at writing more then just your usual. Yet Kyann is not seeing part two of “Stones” out any time soon making “The dairy of Twitched Whiskers” her next novel assignment.  She is proud, however, of “The stones of the Hidden Power” but thinking Twitched can make the rebound needed for a long successful writing career.  “The diary of Twitched Whiskers” is for now just idea sheets passed about for reader approval, any necessary changes will be made at a later date before this loveable story goes to print.  Sadly, this story is not going to be released any time soon, so if you were thinking of what to get your young readers for the Christmas season this one will have to wait.  You may be able to read an excerpt or two on Kyann’s official web site www.kyannsbooks.weebly.com  Her twitter pages reflect many “Hooray” and “Doom, gloom for my book” while she is in her writing process.  She tells what she thinks about writing, “In order to have a great story you need to have every moment, event, with the right proportions readers will adapt to or you’ll lose them in the middle of the story. It won’t make sense to them and they will never pick up any more of your books.” 

Kyann revealed much when interviewed last year by a fan forum constructed for the Harry Potter actors James and Oliver Phelps, who play the Wesley twins, Phelps twins annoymous.  Kyann undoubtedly regrets her writing ”The Stone of the Hidden Power” for them and farther more will do massive revisions to the novel.  Good news for anyone with a first publication! May be worth something in near future.  As for Twitched, he’s next in line of novels Kyann’s writing that will be published. He has pawed his way to the front of the line of stacks of manuscripts she has written, so we also have good feeling for a mangy middle-aged cat.  But will a middle-aged cat be good for young readers? Will they relate to him, his friends or to his life? Maybe not, but it still is a fun journey of a cat nonetheless.

More on Kyann Zorain, www.myspace.com/kyannzorain, http://twitter.com/kyzorain and at her personal official site www.kyannsbooks.weebly.com  and let us know what you think of her writing. Do you think she’s got what it takes to be a long time or famous writer?

I am thrilled to learn that my first YA novel, Wildflowers and Winged Boys has placed first in the YA category of the 2009 Lone Star Writing Competition.  The contest is sponsored by the Northwest Houston Chapter of RWA and a YA writer friend from that chapter gave a shout out that led me to entering.

I found out this evening, too late to do anything special, so think I’ll treat myself to writing time in Starbucks tomorrow.  I love having my hot chocolate away from the distractions of my needs-to-be-cleaned house and can-you feed-us-again pets.

Scott Westerfield is going to be reading from Leviathan at Books & Books this Sunday at 6 pm. I so want to go! I’ve never read Westerfield’s novels, but this book has really sparked my interest. Steampunk and a girl a disguised as a boy, this is definitely a book to add to my “to read” list.

If I get to go to the event, I’ll post pictures and such .

Hey, I had a third place in the Indiana’s Golden Opportunity contest!  That’s quite an honor, as I know they had a lot of entries in the YA category.  As the genre becomes more popular–thanks Stephanie Meyers, P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast, and many others–there are more YA contests and entries.  Thank goodness, because nothing is more disappointing than preparing a contest entry and sending it off, only to find out the category didn’t have enough entries and has to be cancelled.  Happened to me last year!

Nearly happened in the Lone Star Writing Competition this year, but they extended the deadline and put out a lot of calls on the loops.  I entered, and finalled.  This coming weekend, the Northwest Houston Chapter will be announcing the winners at their conference in Houston.  Too bad it wasn’t closer, but I’d be a nervous wreck if I went.

Soon I have to start thinking about entering the Golden Heart contest that RWA sponsors for unpublished writers.  I finished polishing both of my YA manuscripts this week and will print out the first fifty pages of each to review on paper again.  The contest accepts a total of fifty pages, but that must include a synopsis, so I’m also going to be looking for an interesting hook in the 45-48 page range to end each entry on.

I just got my notice from the most recent contest I entered and both of my entries finalled.  How amazing is that?  I’ve belonged to RWA’s Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal Chapter for years and only entered the On The Far Side contest for unpublished writers my first year with my first manuscript.  No need to say any more.  I started to enter last year, but the thing about contests is you have to read the rules.  And pay attention.  Very close to the deadline I discovered that the font had to be courier 12 point.  I typically use Times New Roman.  If you have ever switched between the two, you know courier takes up more space.  This lengthened my entry and it no longer ended at a good spot within the 20 allowed pages, so I gave up.

This year, since I’d already tightened that manuscript, Seaside Sorcery, for other contests, I was prepared.  It finalled in the Young Adult category.  I entered my most recently completed ms, Passages, in the Futuristic category.  The winners will be announced in December, but in the meantime I’m really enjoying my success.  Ironically, it comes on the heels of learning that Seaside Sorcery was rejected by the agents I pitched to at Nationals.  So this is the encouraging boost I need to just keep putting my Sapaksa stories out there until I find someone who is a good match for representing me.

I’m very close to having a thesis to submit but it’s taken quite a bit longer than I planned, due to a nasty monster which kicks at my heels, waiting for the right moment to trample mud all over my life. Monster isn’t the clinical term, most would call this monster depression, but I find euphemisms much more fun. Visits from the monster have been a bit too frequent for my liking this year, so I’m really looking forward to Halloween, when I will have a thesis to submit.*

At one time I thought I would submit at the same time as Zoë S. but she beat me to it and provided some useful advice on comments to be prepared for in the final stages of writing a thesis, in order to avoid a sociopathic outburst. I also found Zoë’s artistic post-it-note monster of great use. This looks just like the monster scribbled on the inside of my skull which runs circles round my mind, at the most inopportune times.

I haven’t been depressed constantly this year (in between I wrote a thesis with only editing keeping me from submission), but during the times I was, I came to the disconcerting conclusion that I couldn’t write a single coherent thesis sentence, but I could read book, after book, after book. Sadly none of these books were part of my lit review. Runaways is listed in my Literature Cited (as opposed to my Reference List) but reading all the vols I’ve got one after the other without a break in between (and this wasn’t the first time, so I already knew what happened) didn’t improve my thesis.

After whinging to my doctor about my inability to write a thesis, but my perfect ability to read a book (as long as it had no connection to my thesis) he told me that while depression makes thinking complex thesis thoughts pretty much impossible, reading, for me, is as automatic as breathing. This leads to the interesting hypothesis that if I stopped reading would I stop breathing? For my continued existence I’m not going to test that one out.

During various periods of automatic reading during the year, I discovered what’s good to read when you’re having a bad day and what you should save for a good day, thus follows my comparison of Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson (she of the headless girl brigade) and Paper Towns by the Real John Green. Sadly I break all the rules of reviewing including those laid out by pro-reviewers such as RealJohnGreen and Shannon Hale.

My rules for reviewing are easy to follow for any novice reviewer:

1. Frantically try to remember the names of characters. It helps if you have the book on hand, but if the library threatened you with a debt collector cause you still hadn’t returned it, or some annoying pup chewed it up, this can be problematic.
2. Write “I loved [insert title of book].” Alternatively try “This book captivated me” for a bit of variety.
3. Because you’re writing this in some word program, highlight loved/captivated and go to thesaurus to find a word with more syllables. This word program you’re using will also fix all your sp. mistakes – very unprofessional.
4. Add lots of spoilers cause the best bits of books are always at the end.

Luckily for me, Suite Scarlett has her name in the title, so that was easy. Luckily for Scarlett the headless girl brigade has taken its last head and her pretty face adorns the hardcover of Suite Scarlett. First spoiler: Scarlett thinks her sister Lola** is the beautiful one in the family, but a very clever aside from someone sets the record straight. I loved that line because Scarlett never even noticed.

I read the paperback, which has a key with the NY skyline as the lock, highly appropriate for a family who own and live in an NY hotel. Unfortunately for Scarlett this isn’t as fun as it sounds – she has to work in said hotel all summer long. But assorted adventures, romances and impromptu venue changes for their production of Hamlet ensue. Even when things get difficult for O’Hara I wasn’t reduced to tears – a good sign when pretty much everything was reducing me to tears the weekend I read it. And Hamlet almost became a comedy in the hands of the entertaining theatre troupe, complete with unicycles – always the best way to get around.*** My recent listening to Oliver Twist revealed a thoughtful insight on tears,

He begged, in an encouraging manner, that she should cry her hardest: the exercise being looked upon, by the faculty, as strongly conducive to health. It opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes, and softens down the temper.

Mr Bumble, in saying this, was bagging his wife and when she realised her tears weren’t doing their work, she proceeded to beat him, which he deserved. But it was nice to know tears are good for the health.

Back to Scarlett, if the best thing you achieved in your day was to do the dishes from the last three days, but only so you had space to cook dinner. All you cooked was French toast, but you managed to burn it. Don’t despair, Suite Scarlett will lighten up your evening. On the other hand you should steer clear of Paper Towns. I know what a truly amazing writer John Green is, and he’s up there as one of my fav writers, but I finished Paper Towns wondering why I hadn’t liked it.

Unfortunately I can’t remember Mr Protag’s name. It was first person (i think!?) so that didn’t help, but I’m pretty sure his name was something weird. I do remember Margo Roth Spiegelman (although sp. might not be quite right). And I remember their all night adventure, a fiendishly funny way to start a book and not part of my dislike. It was months after reading Paper Towns that I realized thinking

Her strings will not break. Her strings will not break. Her strings will not break.

most of the way through the book is not conducive to a good reading experience. That was when I decided I’d re-read Paper Towns again sometime, when my strings weren’t so close to breaking.

For some reason I haven’t learnt from my experience of Suite Scarlett and Paper Towns. Finding Girl at Sea by MJ and The Beginner’s Guide to Living by Lia Hills on the Inkys and the library I read Girl at Sea when I was feeling fine and all its cheeriness was wasted, although I had fun reading it. Then I began The Beginner’s Guide to Living. I knew this was a mistake, what with the subject matter and a first line

She looks good for a corpse.

But Lia Hills is a poet. A poet writing prose can be an awe inspiring thing:

There’s no space for him, for anything, except this throbbing. A thick cord of grief winding itself around me.

I’m going to have to wait for the rest of the metaphors because after reading a third, my strings had stretched too far. I removed my bookmark and went onto something else.

But thank you MJ and the RealJohnGreen for writing the stories you do. And thank you Colin Thompson for telling me not to be ashamed of my monster (obviously I haven’t quite taken on this advice, because I much prefer the word monster). And thank you Zoë S. for being the queen of post-it-notes. She doesn’t know this, but one day we’re going to make a hybrid novel**** together. It’s going to be a best-seller and we’re going to make millions

*If I don’t have a thesis completus by Halloween I’ll surrender myself to the first zombie I come across and happily join the walking dead.
**I remembered Lola’s name because I once had a pup called Lollopy Lola. She chewed a book, not lent by the library, but by my friend. And I didn’t even buy him another copy!? I just gave the chewed copy back to him – no wonder I haven’t seen him in a while.
***My parents still have the unicycle my brother used to ride when he was a kid. He’s visiting now so I have to remember to ask him if he can still ride one-wheeled.
****That’s what Zoë did her thesis on. Go to her research blog to see the list, choose some to read and discover the wonder of word and image living in symbiosis.

Literature Cited

• Vaughan, Brian. K. et al (2003-) Runaways New York: Marvel Comics
• Johnson, Maureen (2008) Suite Scarlett New York: HarperTeen
• Johnson, Maureen (2007) Girl at Sea New York: HarperTeen
• Green, John (2008) Paper Towns New York: Dutton Books
• Hills, Lia (2009) The Beginner’s Guide to Living Melbourne: Text Publishing

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