Previously freelancing

I'm a little giddy to share that I got to proofread this new book a few months ago:

Ten Rules for Living with My Sister by Ann M. Martin

Yes, that Ann M. Martin, she of the Babysitters Club.

The cover wasn't released online until recently, so I was waiting for that to happen before posting. While it was also exciting to have worked on Sweet Valley Confidential this year, because I also loved that series when I was twelve-ish, the Babysitters Club was far and away my favorite (I think Kristy, Claudia, and the rest were a bit more pure than Jessica and Elizabeth and their friends).



Perfect for those with a slightly obsessive nature because there were 100+ books in the series, I was also so into how each chapter would start with a handwritten excerpt from the BSC journal, and how each girl had her own instantly identifiable handwriting (Mary Anne's looked like a grandma's handwriting, Claudia's was zany and full of misspellings and i's dotted with hearts).

So if you know any eight- or nine-year-olds, Ten Rules . . . is a sweet novel about the misadentures of Pearl and her older sister, Lexie, trying to get along with each other (and they live in a New York apartment in the Village). Also there is a Grandpa with Alzheimer's Issue.

One-woman revolution

Can Doc Martens sandals be back in style now, please? Other stupid crap from the 90s is back now, so if people are wearing lace-up Docs boots with leggings and flowery-print dresses, why not these?


I saw my old sandals from high school when I was at home last weekend at my parents'. They were in the bottom of my closet. I remembered how much I loved these back in 2000 or 2001 when I was SO PUMPED to have reached the height of fashion at my high school, and didn't care that it took weeks of wearing band-aids wrapped around my toes when I first broke these puppies in.

This question is burning enough for me to break my blog silence/laziness.

Could he BE any more awesome?

On a related note, what the hell was I doing listening to this on cassette tape when I was like ten years old?

Every Song You Hear

This is my favorite Christmas music of all time. It's the Carpenters (Peter and Karen! They're siblings!) and it's from, I think, the 70s. It's the music my mom would always have on during Christmas when I was growing up, and my first Christmas season in college I had to buy my own copy because I realized it just wouldn't be Christmas without it.

It's this amazing nostalgic blend of cheeserific cheerfulness (although Karen Carpenter on Ave Maria is really quite lovely) combined with some serious religious numbers. Plus even when I was little the whole thing was tinged with some tragic drama since my mom sat me down and explained how Karen Carpenter later died from anorexia. Heavy stuff for an eight year old.

If you want to listen to one song from this, please make it "The First Snowfall."