Please, pretty please come and check out my new site: http://kittyhietala.wordpress.com/

When I started this blog, I was just dipping my toes in and really had a lot of things to figure out yet. One of those was whether or not I wanted to use my real name or not. Somewhere in the past year, I decided to go for it. So, this “kittynonymous” URL is not representative of me at all anymore (in many ways). This was my first little baby step into the world of platform building. Come over to my new, permanent site to get to know me even better!

“Life is meant to be fun, and joyous, and fulfilling.” – Jim Henson

This last week has been all about fun! We took our kids to the Wisconsin Dells. None of us had ever been there. We did one of those “stay and play” deals where it was a hotel/water park/amusement park all in one place. I realized that I had sorta forgotten how to have fun! Just good, old-fashioned, don’t-think-too-hard, slide-down-a-water-slide-and-come-up-spluttering-at-the-end-while-your-kids-laugh-at-you kind of fun. I’m not saying that my life is devoid of fun. But there are different kinds of fun and I definitely hadn’t taken part in this kind of fun for years and years. I highly recommend it! If nothing else, go to your local park and take a turn on the swing set.

In other “fun” news (but definitely a different sort of fun), I attended a workshop on Saturday hosted by the Minnesota Chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators called “Crafting the YA Novel: Word Choice and Voice.” It was awesome to be in the same room with all those like-minded and creative people. I learned so much just by simply being there. If you ever get a chance to attend a workshop such as this, don’t hesitate.

Have a great week everyone!

I’m going to have to cheat a bit here because I really couldn’t think of a “sports book” that I’ve read. Ever.

However! Since the topic is in honor of the Olympics and the Olympics do have horse-related events… I’m going to go with THE SCORPIO RACES by Maggie Stiefvater for my answer. I think a re-read of this one might be in my future, in fact. Just thinking about it makes me want to go back and read it again. The language is beautiful and rich. The action is brutal. The love story angle is subtle and beautiful – there is no whiny, helpless female character who needs a man to make her succeed. The setting is beautiful and harsh at the same time. All in all, a wonderful read.

“A happy life consists in tranquility of mind.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero

I’ve been unplugged quite a bit lately – trying to find a little tranquility. Easier said than done. You would think that would mean that I’ve done lots of writing lately, too. But, sadly, no. I have some time off this week and hope to balance family time with a little “me” time for writing. (One can always hope!)

Have a great week, everyone!

“When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

Ah, here’s an oldie but a goodie! I don’t know about you, but I need this quote this week. Without going into details, let’s just say my body seems to be a train wreck as of late. So I’m tying my knot and hanging on. And putting faith in the idea that I’ll snap out of this soon. It’s nothing permanent or chronic or truly awful. I just seem to be getting sick a lot lately! At least it makes me grateful for my normally healthy body and I look forward to getting back to that state.

The picture doesn’t really tie in with the quote, but it’s a nice shot I took last weekend while camping. Have a great week, everyone!

People who did wacky stuff like this with you:

(That’s tinfoil on our heads to wrap up the henna stuff we put in our hair… the dog was curious so he got sucked into the picture, too. Tinfoil and all.)

And, even though applying henna to your friend’s hair may have turned it green for an interminable several minutes, she remained friends with you.

These are the people who saw you through horrifying prom dresses, boyfriends (and break-ups), listened to you crying on the phone from college when you were homesick (even though they were at another college and equally as homesick) and with whom you took your first drinks of alcohol (and maybe a few after that).

Then college was over and you had to get jobs. You moved this way and they moved that way. Then you were in their weddings and they were in yours. You moved further apart. But you still got together several times a year.

Then they had babies and you had babies. Or maybe they got jobs that took them even further away. You got together once a year.

Then the babies started getting older and your life became completely, solely all about their lives, their activities. You and your friends? Christmas cards became the primary form of communication.

Remember those people? Go look them up – Right Now. Set a date. Get together. You will wonder why you didn’t do it earlier. Their kids and your kids will become fast friends (maybe even frog hunting friends – see below) in a matter of hours. Watching these new friendships grow will make you feel as great as renewing your old friendships.

This is all to say that I had a fantastic camping gathering last weekend of a group of friends – some of whom I’ve known almost my entire life. But none of whom I had seen for several years. There were about thirty of us altogether – adults and kids. We are going to make it an annual gathering. It is absolutely amazing to me that, no matter how long it’s been since we’ve seen each other or how far apart all our lives have drifted, when we get together it’s like we’ve never been apart. It’s like the best kind of family in the world – one you choose. We grew up together. I hope we’ll all grow old together.

Well, I’m cheating a bit with my answer because I’m still reading this book. So, if the last third of this book really, really stinks, I’m going to have to retract this entire post. I don’t see that happening, though.

The book I’m currently sucked into (I mean like – “kids, get your own dinner and I’m not doing any laundry this week” sucked into) is the first book in the Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness – THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO.

It is a dystopian YA set on “New World” where settlers have come to start over but there was a war with the natives and things went terribly wrong. You can check this link on Goodreads for the full description. During the war, the natives (called “the spackle”) set loose a germ that made it possible for everyone to hear each other’s thoughts – or “noise” as he calls it.

The thing that I really love about this book is the main character’s voice – Todd. It’s in the first person. There are misspellings and colloquialisms and the first few pages I had to really focus a bit to get into the “world.” But once I did …. I was really all the way in.

Because of this germ that was unleashed on New World, the people can even hear the animals “noise” and vice versa. Because of this his faithful dog, Manchee, becomes a major character in the book. (For those of you who may have read this book… if something bad happens to Manchee, please don’t tell me!)

What’s the best book you read in July? Or are reading?

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” – Winston Churchill

Attitude, indeed! This little honey has lots of it. This picture is from the very fun camping weekend that I just enjoyed. More on that to come later. I’m just dashing off this quick and late edition of Motivation Monday as I’m trying to catch up from a weekend of nothin’ but fun. Have a great week, everyone!

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” - Albert Einstein

I’ve spent a lot of time this weekend thinking about the murders in Aurora, Colo. and the fragility of life. I’m sure I’m not alone in that. It causes me to really stop to think: am I living as if everything is a miracle? It’s hard to do that day in and day out. But there are people whose lives have been cut short – in the Colorado shooting and elsewhere across the whole planet every single day – and if I’m not at least trying to make every second count then, shame on me.

The above photo was a miracle of sorts – I happened upon this beautiful cardinal while I had my camera in hand with the zoom lens attached. I only got a couple clicks in before he took off.

Have a great week everyone!

Well, for starters, the closest major metro area is more than an hour away so I would really need to be paying attention to when book signings would be happening there. It also happens to be a metro area that does not always get included in some of the major book tours – ie: it’s not New York or Los Angeles.

Thanks to the modern conveniences of social media, I came across a post by Amanda Hocking announcing dates for her book tour after WAKE comes out on Tuesday, Aug. 7. Those dates, times and places are here, if you are interested. Ms. Hocking lives in my home state of Minnesota (woot!) and is starting out her tour here. So several of these places are actually places I can get to.

I’m very excited and hope that, in my book-signing-virgin state, I don’t do anything uncouth and am asked to never attend a book signing ever again.

The description for WAKE – which will apparently be the first in a four-book series – can be found here. I have read her Trylle Trilogy and Hollows Series and enjoyed both so I’m looking forward to WAKE.

And for those of you who do not want to follow the links – check out this cover! Is this not one of the prettiest covers ever?

What book signings have you attended? What advice do you have for a newbie to make the most of the experience?