Lately, I’ve needed lists to organize my thoughts. That might be because I’m smack in the middle of an epic WIP rewrite (WIP’s scenes, characters, GCMs and all the other tiny details are sorted into lists, might I add) so my head is sort of jumbled. In that spirit, what better day to post a list of super things than boring old Sunday?

1) Words With Friends – Last weekend, my sister-in-law oh-so-innocently asked, “Hey, Katy, have you bought Words With Friends yet?” To which I replied, “No, I sure haven’t. What is it?” She went on to explain that it’s like Scrabble, only you can play on your phone with real friends who play on their phones, or you can start games with random strangers.

SOLD! Scrabble is my very favorite game, and let’s be honest: I’m all about procrastination tools that suck up huge amounts of time before you ever even realize it. Long story short, I bought the app and now I’m in the midst of about eight different games–some with real friends and some with strangers I’ll never meet. I couldn’t be more joyful.

2) Borders – Speaking of joyful, last week I went to Borders and got four new books! (Elizabeth Scott’s The Unwritten Rule, Sarah Ockler’s Fixing Delilah, Deb Caletti’s Honey, Baby, Sweetheart, and Courtney Summer’s Fall For Anything, in case you’re wondering. I’m on a contemporary kick.) As I was perusing, my husband kept our daughter busy, so tolerant and sweet. Mid-browse, I suddenly  realized something: Borders is my happy place.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I find great delight in my family, friends and (most of my) daily activities. But there’s something about walking into Borders with the goal of buying new books that makes me particularly blissful. Do you know what DOESN’T make me blissful? All this talk of Borders going under. I’m not sure if they make 12-Step programs for obsessive book-buyers like me, but I’ll tell you what–if the Borders in my city closes down, things might get ugly.  *Edited February 17th: While Borders has officially filed for bankruptcy, the store in my town is NOT among those listed as closing. What a relief!

3) Craft Quickies – My talented CP, Heather Howland, has started a new series on her blog: Craft Quickies. They’re short posts covering craft issues (obviously) that can trip some (all?) writers up. So far she’s covered dialogue tag abuse (I went through my manuscript with a fine-tooth comb after reading this one) and the stress-inducing possible sequel. Rumor has it she’ll be tackling verb modifiers soon. I highly recommend you check Craft Quickies out.  

4) The Walking Dead – Have you seen this AMC show? From what I’ve heard, it’s an adaptation of a graphic novel and it is the epitome of ridiculousness. Still, I kind of love it.

We’ve had all seven Season One episodes sitting in our DVR for months and just recently got around to watching them. (I freely admit that we watched with our three-year-old daughter present. She loved it. “Mommy, why are all those zombies eating that horse?” Our status as Parents of the Year may be in question…) Anyway, I love watching The Walking Dead for the very same reason I love watching Dexter and The Vampire Diaries: Something major happens in every. Single. Episode. There are no lags, no weeks and weeks of I know where they’re going with this and I wish they’d just hurry up and get there. Nope. It’s fast paced and exciting and I can’t wait to find out what happens to those crazy zombie fighters next season.

5) Phrase Frequency Counter – The perfect writing tool for closet OCDers like me. Much like Wordle, you can paste in as much or as little text as you want, choose the number of words-in-phrases you’d like the Frequency Counter to check (two-word phrases, three-word phrases, and so on), and then sit back and let the magic happen. The most common phrases in my WIP were things like “I said” and “he said,” but I also noticed that I used “took a long swallow” and “took a long sip” and “took a long drink” three times each. That’s nine times. Clearly, I’m writing about a couple of lushes.

6) Across the Universe  by Beth Revis – As a rule, I don’t read science fiction. I know, I know… I shouldn’t wall myself off completely from any one genre. The thing is, aliens, space travel, cryogenics, and otherworldly futures just don’t interest me. Then Twitter went abuzz about Across the Universe. I became curious. Rave reviews started pouring in. I became intrigued. Some of my CPs read it and couldn’t stop gushing. I knew I had to check it out. So I bought Across the Universe (See  #2 above… I have a problem.), and I am SO glad I did. It’s sci-fi, but it’s accessible. Relatable. Really cool. I’m somewhere around half-way through and I’m totally into it. But now I’m starting to love it so much that I’m stressing about the ending being a disappointment. Ugh. Please, Beth Revis. Please make the end of your book stand up to the fabulous beginning! 

7) That’s YAmore – In case you haven’t heard: I’m a participant in Oasis for YA’s “That’s YAmore” blogfest. It has been so much fun reading all of the sweet, romantic, steamy entries. If you’re interested in reading my contribution, you can find it HERE. And please visit the That’s YAmore Blogfest page to check out the other participants. You’ll be glad you did. 🙂