It’s Thursday! You know what that means… Bookanista time!

And today, I’m falling in love.

I’m falling in love with the awesomeness of this book cover:

How freakin’ cute is that? It’s like their hands are maybe going to brush against each other, and then there will be insta-love. Then there’s the pink! I love that it’s not all super pink or anything… just a little hint.

I don’t know about you, but I am dying to read this book. If I saw it on the shelves, I think I would skip whatever plans I had for the rest of the day and devour Anna and the French Kiss!

Plus, the author, Stephanie Perkins, has really cool hair:

If you want to visit the other bookanistas today, here’s the rundown:

• Myra McEntire – SHADOW HILLS
• Jamie Harrington – ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS (cover love)
• Elana Johnson – YOU
• Christine Fonseca – LINGER
• Shannon Messenger – ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS
• Shelli Johannes-Wells – RADIANCE
• Beth Revis – PARANORMALCY
• Carolina Valdez Miller – PARANORMALCY
• Bethany Wiggins and Suzette Saxton – MONSTER HIGH
• Lisa and Laura Roecker – YOU

In honor of yesterday’s no more negativity post, I’m going to talk about some of the things make me smile.

1. Yesterday I took the daughter in for her five year checkup. (Doc she’s absolutely perfect, FYI.) She had to pee in a cup, which meant me holding the cup under her while she did her business. While I was trying to get over the grossness, I learned that sometimes when she has trouble peeing, she tickles her belly button. Now, if you’ve never squatted in front of a toilet, holding a cup under your kid while she giggles from tickling her belly button–well, you just don’t know cute.
2. I am obsessed with the Flax Seed. No, not the actual stuff, it tastes kind of oily. I am obsessed with saying Flax. Say it five times fast. See? It feels funny.
3. My parents are coming home! They’ve been in Miami for the last couple of years, and I’ve missed them big time.
4. Me–Treadmill–2 Weeks straight. Oh. Hell. Yeah.
5. Back when I taught kindergarten, we used to have pajama day. (Just occasionally, as opposed to now–which is every day.) All the kids came in the cutest little jammies, except this one girl who borrowed a t-shirt from her dad:

When I called her mom to tell her it wasn’t exactly appropriate for school wear. She couldn’t understand why, because it’s not like the kids could read yet. Far be it from me to argue with that rock solid logic.

So, what’s something that makes you smile?

I read a lot of blogs. Writing blogs, mommy blogs, decorating blogs, cooking blogs, and even gaming blogs.

They all have something in common though, they’re interesting.

Why are they interesting?

Well, some of them tell me things I didn’t know before, some of them are funny, and some of them just put me in a better mood.

Do you see what kind of blog is missing from there? The negative ones.

Now, I am not talking about the witty, sarcastic blogs that take the everyday and give us a different, hilarious perspective on the normal. Those blogs rock.

I’m talking about the whining blogs. More often than not they’re some mom down on life, hating the stay-at-home gig, complaining about her kids, her husband, or her latest anti-depressant medication.

What the hell is up with these blogs? Why do they exist, and how on earth do they have an audience.

Look, I’m not saying I’ve never been in  a bad mood. Heck, I had a horrible week last week, and you didn’t see me taking it out here on my blog. (Now, I may have taken it out on a friend’s blog–but that was probably a mistake.) What I am saying is, why on earth would you want to air out your dirty laundry all over the internet for everyone to see? Why not keep that in a private journal you keep in the drawer of your night stand? (Or, if you prefer to type over hand write, then maybe a password protected blog.)

Those blogs never stay in my reader for long, and I almost never click through to comment.

How do they find an audience, and how do people write in them day in and out without letting all the sadness of the blog wear off on them? Aren’t those people worrying about losing their jobs are screwing up their families with blogs like that?

So, what I want to know is–how do those blogs exist?

First, let me just say that the word anal gives me the willies. I don’t like saying it at all, and I am a little worried that writing an entire blog post about this is going to warrant some unfriendly search traffic–but I just can’t stop myself.

I feel like when people talk about anal, they are actually talking about being anal retentive. But, In one of my psychology classes in college, we learned what it was to be anal expulsive.

Yeah, that’s right–I just said anal expulsive. I’ll give you a minute to really let that sink in.

Now, it isn’t at all what you think it means.

It all goes back to good ‘ol Freud. You see, the thing about Freud is that a lot of the stuff he said was dead on. We’re talking so freaking right that there was just no way he wasn’t a genius, but then other times-he was talking so much crazy that it pretty much makes anything he says laughable. So, one of the big parts of psych classes is listening to your professors pick apart Freud’s theories and telling you which ones they think are total bullshit and which ones are absolute truths.

So, what’s anal expulsive?

Well, Freud believed that a child who doesn’t take control of their sphincter at the anal stage will become fixated and end up with a anal-expulsive personality – which includes being disorganized, messy, careless, rebellious, and on rare occasions, cruel.

So basically, with the exception of the cruel part–Freud thinks all those free thinkers and artists out there can blame their carlessness on the fact that they couldn’t get it together back when they were potty training.

So, let’s just think about this for a second–does this mean that if I’d been more in control of my–um–butt at the age of 3, then maybe I would have been an accountant instead of a writer?

Man, I’m glad I had all that Mexican food…

I love my fellow bloggers, and I love that they give me fun and fun awards.

Problem is, I always forget to do the post talking about how they gave me some super awesome fantastic award.

I am pretty good at paying it forward. As in, if someone does something nice for me, I always try to repay it by doing something nice for someone else in the future. Probably because I am a total karma-whore and I don’t want there to be some sort of crazy inbalance in the universe that makes me break all the bones in my body or whatever. (That gives me the heebie jeebies just saying it.)

What I suck at, however, is paying it back. I usually remember to say thank you–I am not a total creep, but I just don’t always remember to repay the favor to the friend who did the nice thing in the first place.

So, I want to say thank you to two excellent ladies and their exceptional blogs!

First to Shelli Johannes-Wells (a fellow bookanista) with one of my favorite blogs, Market my Words, who gave me the Lovely Blog Award.

And then the amazing Sheri Larson gave me the Versatile Blogger Award. I like it!

So, a big thanks to both of them, and don’t forget to check out the Bookanistas today for some really fab book reviews!

Happy Thursday!

When my husband and I got married, we did the responsible thing and registered for silverware.

I don’t remember where, I don’t remember the NAME of the set, and I don’t even remember how much we ended up with.

What I do know is that most of it’s gone missing…

Yeah… that’s what my silverware drawer looks like. I don’t know where all the little spoons and forks have gone, but I am guessing they’ve been sacrificed to the great takeout box in the sky.

So, I need to do something so that we stop sitting down in our formal dining room with plasticware, because that’s not only bad for the earth, but kind of trashy as well.

I’m kind of loving these. Maybe it’s time to break down and order a new silverware set, eh?

Does your silverware disappear? Where does this stuff go?

As most of you know, I’ve spent the last few weeks driving around in a Chevy Malibu sponsored by the North Texas Chevy Dealers.

heh, I am sponsored by the North Texas Chevy Dealers… that’s pretty cool, right?

The thing is, I wouldn’t normally pick a four door sedan type car to drive, I wouldn’t normally drive a red car, and I wouldn’t normally drive something so smooth.

But, I love it. It’s all super suave and makes me feel like a total grown-up. People compliment me on my cool car all the time and I just smile and say thank you.

You see, it’s cool playing the role of fancy Chevy Malibu car girl, and I love that it makes me be a different person for a month.

I have to give it back soon, and I will be Jeep girl again… but for now, let’s just pretend like that doesn’t have to happen.

I have a little something special for you guys today.

Today is the first launch of the new book review bloggers –

The Bookanistas:

Books are the New Black.

I know what you’re thinking… what the heck are Bookanistas? Well, rest easy, because I am here to explain:

We’re a group of writers in all different stages of the publishing process that review super special books we that knock our socks off. The cool part is, because we’re writers too, and we know how tough this crazy business can be, we will only be posting positive reviews.

Because, dude- no one wants to read a review of a bad book, let alone write one. So, from the Bookanistas, you’ll see nothing but love!

On Thursdays, we’ll post reviews that cover various topics– upcoming ARCs, books we love, special diamonds in the rough, classics, and even cover reviews.

Look for the bookanista badge at the blogs of some of my favorite writing friends:

Christine Fonseca, Jamie Harrington (that’s me), Michelle Hodkin, Kirsten Hubbard, Shelli Johannes-Wells, Elana Johnson, Myra McEntire, Shannon Messenger, Carolina Valdez Miller, Coli Pinnell, Beth Revis, Lisa and Laura Roecker, Sarah Frances and Katie, and Scott Tracey

And, since earlier this week was Barry Lyga Rocks Day, and because Barry Lyga does, indeed, ROCK– I want to tell you about his fantastic new novel, ARCHVILLAIN.

First, let’s talk about the amazingness that is the cover–holy crap, this takes my font love to a whole new level. I want every book I ever write to have a title in that font *stops to email Mary Kole and ask if this can be put in all my book contracts* and I LOVE the color–it’s way cooler in person, all dark purple and full of fantasticness.

But enough about the cover–let’s talk about the STORY When Kyle’s being all pranktastic, he discovers an alien dude, Mike–and he has all these plans to foil Mike’s plans. Only problem is, everyone thinks Mike is some sort of hero, and Kyle has to play the part of ARCHVILLAIN.

And, you know how I LOVE a good villain story…

This book is awesome–READ IT!

And here are the bookanistas participating this week:

Katie and Sarah Frances – ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS

Elana Johnson – THE HEALING SPELL

Lisa and Laura – STRANDED

Christine Fonesca – NIGHTSHADE CITY

Shannon Messenger – LINGER

Shelli Johannes-Wells – DARK GODDESS

Scott Tracey – OTHER

Kirsten Hubbard – THE DUFF

Beth Revis – PEGASUS

Carolina Valdez Miller – MATCHED

Coli Pinnell and Suzette Saxton

The Bookanistas think books are the best accessory. If you would like one of us to review your book or ARC, feel free to contact me and we will add it to our list.

Okay, for starters–it’s my fabulous agent of amazing, Mary Kole’s birthday. So I teamed up* with a couple of her other clients, Jenny Martin and Karsten Knight, and we made this little video for her.

Happy Birthday MK!

Today is also Barry Lyga Rocks day, and he does- indeed -rock. But, I have a big post already planned for Thursday telling you just how much he rocks. So, for today, I will just leave you with that little teaser, eh?

*Okay, by teamed up–I really mean that Jenny did all the work and I just mailed her 30 seconds of footage. Sowhat?!

So, we found this amazingly awesome new website, Fashion Playtes, where my kid gets to design her own outfits! How cool is that?

My daughter designed her own outfit, but how neat would it be to design an outfit for a friend, or to buy a gift card for someone so that they could design whatever they wanted?

What I love is that the actual end product looks all boutique-style custom for half the price.

The cool thing is Fashion Playtes is letting one of my readers win a $20 gift certificate!

So, let’s do this!

Winner will be chosen randomly. 1 comment = 1 entry. If you tweet it or facebook, leave an extra comment and I’ll give you an extra entry.

Contest closes at midnight central on Wednesday!

Good Luck!

Have a Nice Day and Watch out for the Big Yellow Chicken.