It isn’t often when my two world collide, but when my bud Susan Dennard told me she was coming into town and needed author shots, I was stoked.  THEN I saw an inspiration for steampunk themed pictures, and awesomeness ensued.

Susan is a master.  Can you believe she crafted her entire outfit herself?  That purple gown? Old prom dress. Awesome zombie slaying gun? Nerf gun.  Goggles? All Susan!

I love people who are willing to try anything, especially when we can do something that crosses my interests!  And Chattanooga had the perfect location for steampunk – a train museum!

Susan’s book is due from HarperCollins in 2012.  Keep a look out for it!

I finished Lauren Oliver’s BEFORE I FALL, yesterday and if it wasn’t my high school made over…oh my gosh.  Down to the flowers on Valentine’s Day!  Those who say the cliques and sterotypes persented in YA aren’t realistic, you didn’t go to high school with me.

This book brought me right back and I started analyzing myself as if I were a character in one of today’s YA books. 

There always seems to be a Queen Bee/King and his/her followers in all groups, whether it’s the band circle, the jocks, the “popular” types, etc.

They each have their leader and they each have their followers.

I started looking at the people I surrounded myself with and even as an adult, I realize I’m drawn to stronger personalities.  Not that I don’t have a strong personality of my own, because I do, but I’m not the take charge, leader type at all.

Then I started questioning if that was a good thing or a bad thing.  Is there a need for a dominant personality in a group of people for it to work? I don’t really have the answer for that.  I see pros and cons with both sides.

A positives is that there’s someone to make decisions – to make things happen.  That’s nice if you’re typically an indecisive person because otherwise, you may just wind up stuck in your house for days on end. That would be really boring.  Plus, strong personalities liven things up a lot and make you want to be near them.

But on the negative side, it makes you question if you are really in control of the decisions you make (or made).  This is a big one.  I came to the realization a while ago that I was tired of not standing up for what I believe in or want.  It’s no way to live your life.  This is a theme explored in BEFORE I FALL, as well, and it’s one worth noting.

So basically, I realized that I will probably always be a worker bee and never a Queen Bee, but that’s really okay.  As long as I’m aware of the pitfalls of that role and to avoid them, I’m at peace with that.

Have you ever though about your position before?  Where do you think you fit in and how does it make you feel?  Pros? Cons?

I think it’s so interesting how one comment can spark blog posts a many within our community.  My bud, Regan Leigh, runs #QueryChat and apparently there was a discussion about whether writers should also be true book reviewers.

To me the answer is pretty obvious, but yet people want to blast others for giving them “straight-from-the-horse’s-mouth” type advice.  And it’s not been in just one place. I’ve seen it in quite a few of the entries spurred by this discussion.

I’ll never understand this. It’s different if it’s presented as someones opinion, but when major agents, editors, etc. are telling you facts about how they operate, perhaps listening would be wise.  Especially when their argument is sound.

Sometimes our pride gets in the way of seeing truth.  It would be a sad thing for something as simple as a book review to stop your career as a writer.

Want to write book reviews?  Be anonymous, or stop pursuing writing yourself because in no profession would you be allowed to publicly and harshly judge one of your peers.  Notice I didn’t even say bashing.  And I was naive of this myself when I first started.  The thought that my opinion on a book could have an impact on what I was trying to do didn’t cross my mind, but as soon as I read a true expert’s opinion on the subject, I did an about turn (and promptly deleted my reviews).

Let’s compare this to another situation.

I’m a teacher.

Let’s say I published a blog post discussing how Mrs. Pretend Teacher at my school didn’t teach her students in a manner they could comprehend.  Her students regularly failed the state test and it was obvious to me she wasn’t an effective teacher.

Now imagine I was in the job hunting stage again and the school I interviewed with Googled me and up popped my Mrs. Pretend Teacher post. Do you think that would make me look good?  Would I have demonstrated professionalism by posting that?

It’s my opinion! I have freedom of speech as an American!

Great, but I wouldn’t get the job.

This is no different.

I’m not belittling the people who have had problems with this, and freedom of speech is well and good, but like I mentioned on Regan’s blog – freedom of speech isn’t a free pass.

Words are powerful – use them wisely.