DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED...

on what an exciting adventure it's been renting a Manhattan apartment for my daughter and her friend for the coming school year.  Maybe someday I'll tell you all about it, and we'll laugh together, hahaha, but today is not that day.  I'll just tell you one things, because it's educational and non-whiney:  Did you know that South Korea is 13 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern standard time?  Well it is.  So, for example, if (hypothetically) your daughter's prospective roommate happens to be from Korea and to have parents who live there and don't speak English, any time between 11 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. is kind of a blackout zone for communication (which of course can only be done through the daughter at any hour of the day anyway).  Okay.  Enough about that, right?
     What I really want to talk about is the fact that tomorrow is the kickoff of the

A TO Z BLOG CHALLENGE,  

and for that reason it will be a frabjous day, not to mention an entire frabjous month of April, and I am psyched.  I've spent hour after hour researching and writing my posts, and tomorrow I get to spring the first one on the world, and it will be a beautiful thing.  Please stop by tomorrow!  And the next day, and the next!  You have my permission to skip Sundays because so does the Challenge and so will I, but on the other six days you'll be getting my spin on a motley crew of 16th-century thinkers, dreamers, and practical folks who just happen to be awesome in one way or another.  C'mon down and join me in MY SUPER-SWEET SIXTEENTH CENTURY!!

A TO Z CHALLENGE THEME REVEAL!!

     Step right up, ladies and gents, for my A to Z Challenge Theme Reveal!  Of course, if you follow my blog, my theme will come as no surprise because I've already kind of announced it:   MY SUPER-SWEET SIXTEENTH CENTURY.  Because I'm a history geek, and because a long time ago I adopted the Sixteenth Century as my century, and because I thought it would be cool to do my April posts about 26 interesting-but-not-hugely-famous people who each spent at least a significant portion of his or her life in the years between 1500 and 1599.  But even if my theme doesn't come as a total surprise, I still have more to say about it than I did when I'd first thought it up, because now I've already written 10 of my 26 posts (and I hope to finish at least a few more before April 1st) so now I know for a fact how fascinating some of these people really were.  Just by way of example, I'll be bringing you: a real-life pirate queen; a brilliant surgeon; an architect; a mapmaker; an Italian missionary to China; a midwife; and the man who was probably the first violin-maker in the Western world.  You won't want to miss this, folks.  Prepare to be

AMAZED!!  DELIGHTED!!  and ENLIGHTENED!!!

and, unlike Mr. Barnum over here,  I'm not going to be making ANY of it up!  I hope to see you in April.

I WOULD STOP BLOGGING ABOUT AUTHOR HOLLY SCHINDLER...

if only she would stop being so awesome, constantly challenging herself and trying new things!  But she's not stopping, so neither am I.  Her latest venture: after four well-received, traditionally-published novels (3 YA, one MG),  she's decided to try something new: the indie route.  Her new-adult romantic comedy, FIFTH AVENUE FIDOS, will release on March 20th, one week from tomorrow!

     Yes, that's NYC, my hometown, in the cover background, and in the foreground... DOGS!!  What could be better?  And here are some other reasons why you should get out there and pre-order:

Fifth Avenue Fidos

A New Adult Rom-Com with "Bite"

Holly Schindler

When a mutt from Queens meets a purebred New Yorker, it takes man’s—and woman’s—best friend to convince them what they feel is more than puppy love.

Mable Barker, a hilarious, good-natured sweetheart who is always the pal but never the girlfriend, endures nine horrendous months of bouncing between lackluster New York City jobs (and suffering unrequited love) in her unsuccessful attempt to find her one true talent. So when she meets Innis, the ill-tempered Upper East Side Pekingese, she assumes her dog-walking days are numbered, too; soon, she’ll be heading back to Queens brokenhearted, tail tucked between her legs. But Innis belongs to the adorable yet painfully shy young veterinarian, Jason Mead, a man whose awkward ways around women have him dreaming not of finding love for himself but of playing canine matchmaker—breeding Westminster champions.

When Mable and Jason meet, romance is officially unleashed: they find an instant connection and shared goal, as it appears that Mable could very well have what it takes to be a professional handler, soon to be seen holding Innis under a banner labeled, "Best in Show." As Jason and Mable get closer to putting a new twist on the term "dog lovers," outside forces—Mable’s overprotective brothers, a successful wedding planner with her eye on Jason, even the theft of purebred pups from Jason’s Fifth Avenue apartment building—all threaten to come between them. Will Mable and Jason simply let their burgeoning love roll over and play dead? Or will they rally to make sure Innis emerges as the leader of the pack?

Brimming with humor and endearing characters, Holly Schindler’s Fifth Avenue Fidos offers a sweet romance and modern-day fairy tale in which dogs, not dragons, rule the land…a story about the loves that help us realize our dreams.





Links:
 
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Avenue-Fidos-Adult-Rom-Com-ebook/dp/B00UCI9ED4/ref=la_B003E3TJ7U_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1425769738&sr=1-5

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/fifth-avenue-fidos


The book will also be available through B&N and iBooks. Links to purchase will be found here: http://hollyschindler.blogspot.com/2015/03/fifth-avenue-fidos-celebration.html


Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25095977-fifth-avenue-fidos?from_search=true




Bio:
  Holly Schindler is the author of four traditionally published books; her work has received starred reviews in Booklist and Publishers Weekly, has won silver and gold medals in ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year and the IPPY Awards, respectively, has been featured on Booklist’s Best First Novels for Youth and School Library Journal’s What’s Hot in YA, and has been a PW Pick of the Week. Fifth Avenue Fidos is her first independently published book. She is owned by a Pekingese named Jake and can be found working on her next book in her hometown of Springfield, Missouri. She can also be found at hollyschindler.com.


p.s.  So, as I was saying: I would stop blogging about Holly if she would only stop being so awesome.  But not only does she refuse to do that; she insists on continually MULTIPLYING her awesomeness.  So, as I learned this morning, she's about to independently release not only one NA novel, but two, apparently at roughly the same time: http://hollyschindler.blogspot.com/2015/03/playing-hurt-sequel.html.  PLAYING HURT was a hot YA romance, and since she's labeling the sequel NA instead of YA, I suspect it will be even hotter!
     And don't worry... I'll keep you posted when she announces she's formed her own rock band.

 

HANGING IN

     For me, 85% of waiting to hear back from an agent consists of trying to trick myself into thinking that I'm NOT waiting to hear back from an agent.  (And yeah, I must admit that the other 15% consists of obsessively checking my email roughly 5,000 times a day.  But still  It's only 15%.)  So, for example, I pretended that yesterday was just a regular old day, consisting of doing a little exercise (which I loathe but now have to do, thanks to my recent diagnosis of severe osteopenia - serves me right for being white-or-Asian, built small, and largely sedentary in my habits), completing three loads of laundry, going with my husband to take the dogs for a snowy hike in the reservation (when I stepped off the path, I sank into snow past my knees), looking through the window at home and watching some of the snow slowly melt (it's supposed to get up into the 40's today!  I didn't think I would make it to this point!), and completing and storing as drafts several posts in preparation for the April A to Z Challenge.  I told you about that, right?  That every day in April except for Sundays, I'm going to post, in alphabetical order, short bios of some 16th-century people I find really interesting and hope that you will too?  Right now, I have to credit this project (and Yvonne Ventresca, who suggested my theme for me) with saving my life.  Oh, and I also signed on to be a minion during the Challenge, mostly because I'm a total sucker for anyone asking for help with a task, but also because who knows whether I'll hear from the you-know-who by the time April rolls around, and the more distractions I can plan for myself, the better.
     It's called hanging in there, folks.  Living my life as if the only thing I'm waiting for is spring.

YO! FEBRUARY! COME GET ME NOW, LOSER!!

     But you can't, can you, February?  No, because you're OVER. Gone. Dead.  And I have outlasted you.  I don't even care how much it snows today, because it's MARCH snow, not FEBRUARY snow, and March snow is eventually going to melt and disappear.  And you know what, February?  Despite your best efforts, despite all the shitty things you've done to us this year, March is going to bring SPRING, and there's nothing you can do to stop that.  And every bud on every tree will be another nail in your coffin, and I hope you're somewhere that forces you to watch it all happen.  Flower, by flower, by flower.

                     SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!!!