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I Feel Sick and Boring
I am getting toward the end of writing the first draft of POSITIVELY, but I’m not there yet, so I’ve been kind of absent from Live Journal. Even though the absence is my fault and for a good cause (at least I hope so!), I am bummed out by it. I really love getting messages in my inbox that someone has commented on something I’ve written. It’s hard to get comments when I don’t post anything new. |
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The Rachael Ray Show
My friend Jake Glaser's television appearances continue! He was one of the guests on The Rachael Ray Show last Thursday. (John Krasinski from The Office was the other guest that day. Coincidentally, I read something about John Krasinski on Meg Cabot’s blog last week – she said a friend of hers had seen him on the street. I came really close to leaving a comment that said I had an idea of why he was in |
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The Last Best Lecture
Last night I happened to watch Primetime on ABC, even though it came on at 10 p.m., which is usually when I am settling into bed with a book. But I had just finished the book I was reading. It was wonderful by the way– Zu Vincent’s debut, The Lucky Place. I highly recommend it! Anyway, with Zu’s book done, I couldn’t decide what to read next; besides, the remote control was closer in reach than my bookshelf, so I turned on the television instead of starting another book. Diane Sawyer was interviewing a Carnegie Mellon professor, Randy Pausch, who has terminal pancreatic cancer. One of my mother’s cousins died of pancreatic cancer exactly a week ago, so the episode was particularly bittersweet. But what made it amazing was Professor Pausch himself. They had video of him giving something called “The Last Lecture” – a lecture that a distinguished professor is invited to give each year. It is meant to be a mock last lecture, where the professor talks about what he really wants to impart, as if it were indeed the last lecture he would ever give. But for Professor Pausch, the lecture came about a month after his diagnosis, so it really was the last lecture. The thing is, it wasn’t maudlin at all. It was incredible. He said you have to decide if you’re going to be a Tigger or an Eeyore, and he was a Tigger all the way. He talked about achieving his childhood dreams – from winning the big stuffed animals at carnivals to experiencing zero gravity. He did them all -- and it wasn't because he knew he was dying; he had always lived his life that way. I started to think about my own childhood dreams. I could only remember two real ones – the one about owning a dog (a Chow Chow I intended to name “Chow Chow”) and the one about writing a book. I haven’t yet achieved the dog one, but the big one was always to write a book. Always. I talked about it all the time. I used to staple pieces of paper together. I remember going to a friend’s country house for the weekend – this was around fourth grade – and while she was playing outside with a neighbor, I stapled a few pages together and sat down at the kitchen table to write. But after college, it began to seem so hard and I got scared that I would never be able to write a whole book. Not too long ago, I wrote in my journal something along the lines of, “If I die before I write a book, I will be so disappointed in myself.” Last night I was crying as I watched television – partly because Professor Pausch himself was so inspiring, and partly because, while I’d like to think I fall into the Tigger category, the truth is that I sometimes get a bit Eeyore-ish. But all of a sudden, I was so proud of myself for having written a book like I always dreamed I would. I was absolutely giddy about it. When I woke up this morning, I still had that feeling. Then I went online and ordered Professor Pausch’s book. |
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More Pictures
I guess I should stop taking so many pictures of my ARC, but I can’t help myself. I just can’t believe it’s really real. I’ve been showing it off to everyone. My friends have been very indulgent. Even my godson Brody, who is not quite a year old, seemed impressed with it. He kept grabbing for it and trying to stick it in his mouth. After I left Brody’s apartment, I met up with my fellow 2k8 class member, Jody Feldman, and we took a picture with both of our books. I am so star struck by writers, including the 2k8 members; the fact that I am one of them is just plain weird. I have read 9 of the books so far, and everyone is so talented. But I think I acted cool and normal in front of Jody. Then I gushed about her book and made her sign it for me. I’m hoping to meet the entire class by the end of the year, so I can have my entire 2k8 book collection signed. In the meantime, I am reading the blog and pinching myself that I’m part of this. |
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Jake on TV (and with the ARC)
My friend Jake was on TV today! He was on the CBS Morning Show – you can see it here. |
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The ARC hits New York
My ARCs have arrived! They came on Thursday, in a brown box with “Simon & Schuster” written over the sides in blue block letters. I couldn’t open the box fast enough. I pushed a key through the packing tape and starting ripping. But then I got worried that I had pushed too hard and pierced one of the books inside. I was so relieved when I pulled the sides opened and saw the books perfectly intact. They are beautiful. The cover is so shiny and even prettier in person. Naturally on Friday I brought one of my ARCs to work with me so I could show it off. I pulled it out of the protective wrapping I had wrapped around it. Everyone oohed and ahhed and wanted to hold it. All of a sudden I felt like it was one of the Crown Jewels, something that should be viewed from behind protective glass so the shiny cover didn’t get smudged with fingerprints. I mean, I want people to read it. I want it to be the kind of book that is read over and over again, and gets weathered from all the love and wear and tear. But my ARC was just so pretty. Letting people hold it was like saying goodbye to my kid on the first day of kindergarten . . . at least, how I think that will be, someday. I don’t have a kid yet. Later on, I met my friend Christine Whelan, who is also a writer, for a drink at Joe Allen. She is visiting from out of town, so it was especially exciting that I got to show her the ARC. I took her picture holding it. Then my best friend Arielle met me for dinner. I ordered the La Scala salad; incidentally, the text my book is set in is called Scala. Then we went to see The Little Mermaid on Broadway. We found our row. Arielle sat down next to a little girl who was bouncing up and down in her seat in excitement. “Guess what my name is,” Arielle told her. “It’s Arielle.” The little girl looked at her, baffled. “But that’s the name of the little mermaid!” she exclaimed. I, of course, busied myself taking pictures of the book in the theater. I posed it on the seat. Then I made Arielle hold it up. The mother of the little girl next to us offered to take a picture of Arielle and me together. I held up the book and Arielle held up the playbill. Arielle told her that I was a writer and the book I was holding was a book I had written. “That’s wonderful,” the woman said. Since the photo shoot was now over, I put the book back into its protective wrapping, and back in my bag. Arielle leaned over to me and lowered her voice. “They’re talking about us,” she said, nodding over toward the little girl and her mother. “Really?” I asked. “About my book?” “Well no,” she said, “they’re actually talking about me. You know, because my name is Arielle. But I’m sure they’ll talk about your book next.” |
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Procrastination
I can’t tear myself away from Facebook. This is problematic because today and tomorrow are my only writing days for the whole week. I have a book deadline, but I keep looking up people from first grade on Facebook. I check back to see if I have new friends. I just uploaded my very first photo album, and I wrote captions for each of the photos. A couple weeks ago I made myself stop playing Scrabulous. It was taking up way too much time. I love it so much, and I miss it terribly. |
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Weekend Homework
I have a very busy weekend ahead of me. First of all, I have to get back to writing POSITIVELY. The deadline to hand it in is getting closer, and I took last weekend off from writing because of my parents’ party, along with the fact that I had a cold. I just don’t write well when I have to blow my nose. But now I am better. I turned my computer on early this morning to get the Internet browsing out of the way so I could get to real writing. Also, my friend Nicole is in town from |
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Good Medicine
I got a cold in |
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Website!
My first book comes out exactly eight months from today. In the meantime, I now have a website: It was designed by the wonderful Lisa Firke. Feel free to check it out. There are loads of surprises (not really, but there are lots of pictures). It's all things Courtney, all the time. I'm also told if you google my name, it will help "spark" google to pick up the website in searches, so feel free to google away! |
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The Middle Place, by Kelly Corrigan
About two and a half years ago, I was watching my favorite show, The Today Show, and there was a segment about a woman named Kelly Corrigan. It was October, breast cancer awareness month, and Kelly had just finished up treatment. She had brought her father to Today with her, and she told this great story about how he used to wake up her when she was a little girl. He would go into her room and throw open the window and shout out, “Hello World!” (You really had to hear her tell the story; it wasn’t at all annoying. It was, I thought, the way every kid should be woken up in the morning.) Kelly seemed like the kind of person you want to be friends with. In fact, Katie Couric seemed to feel the same way. She kept Kelly and her dad talking on the couch for fifteen minutes, which is like a month in TV-time. |
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"These are the Good Old Days"
I had a seriously good weekend. Actually, everything started to be seriously good even before the weekend. On Thursday evening, I went to Simon & Schuster to drop off my first pass, and my editor showed me this: It is the most beautiful book cover I have ever seen. I think this is what it must feel like to have a baby, sort of. I just look at it and think it is the most special, lovely, amazing book cover ever in the world, and I can’t believe it is mine. I love the girl they picked for Leah, and I love the colors, and I love the way my name looks across the front. MY NAME! ON A BOOK JACKET! My editor gave me a printed out version of the cover mounted on black poster board. I propped it up on the shelf next to my bed. I wanted to stay home and stare at it for a few days, maybe a week or so. We had such a wonderful dinner, and it was cool to get four people closer to my goal of meeting everyone. Marissa gave me a button with the 2k8 logo on it, which I pinned onto my purse. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, I got to spend Saturday morning with this little guy. He’s my godson, Brody, and he just turned nine months old. I played with him, fed him some gross peas, and ate a cupcake that he is too young to know he should insist I share with him. Then I went home, packed up, and met three of my closest friends for a kind of reunion/retreat weekend. One of them is Brody’s mom, Amy, who I love dearly and thankfully get to see all the time. The other two are our friends Lindsay and Melissa. We love them too, but they live outside So now I just got home, and I’m exhausted but very, very happy. I keep thinking about that Carly Simon song, when she sings, "These are the good old days." |
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A Cool Contest, and Some Other Things
I just logged onto LiveJournal so I could tell you about the fabulous Class of 2k8 contest, but now the halogen light in the corner of my room is making weird noises, so I’m sort of distracted. It’s kind of crackly, but very faint crackly. It doesn’t smell smoky or anything like that. I changed the bulb not too long ago – like maybe two weeks ago. I know you’re not supposed to touch the glass part of halogen bulbs while you’re installing them, so I was very careful about it. I held onto the edges . . . but I guess it’s possible that my finger brushed against the glass. Could that be why it’s crackly? I hope it’s not about to explode. I have heard scary stories about halogen lights – how they can catch fire if they come too close to a piece of fabric. Also, the Bed, Bath & Beyond store near my apartment no longer sells halogen lightbulbs. I don’t know why, but I’m wondering if it’s because of the fire explosion issue. It meant that I had to walk several blocks farther from my apartment to buy replacement bulbs this last time. Now I have three extra halogen bulbs. Maybe I should just toss them and replace the lamp altogether. The crackling actually just stopped. I’m afraid to leave the room now with the light turned on. |
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Books are Being Published: Must Eat Ice Cream!
I have several friends with books coming out THIS WEEK, and in celebration, I just ate a pint of Haagen-Dazs ice cream. Yes, it is barely past 10 o’clock and no, I didn’t even wake up that long ago, but it was the coffee-flavor, which means it’s the morning flavor. |
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I Stink At Rhythm
Have you heard of this new video game called Rock Band? My best friend Arielle has it. She lives down the hall from me, so the other night, she invited me over so we could play. She gave me the choice of guitar, drums or microphone. I picked the mike because I’ve always wanted to be a singer, even though I’m pretty much the worst singer anyone has ever heard. |
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Remembering the Bar Exam
I have a friend who is in his second year of law school, and today we started talking about how we will have to take the bar exam in a year and a half. He said he tried not to think about it too much, because it made him scared. I told him not to worry. I said, “I really had a good time that summer.” I meant it, too, and he looked at me like I was crazy. |
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Thinking of Lily
The other day my friend Amanda told me to save the date for her wedding – August 16th, which happens to be Madonna’s birthday. This made me think of Lily. Last summer, when I was in |
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The Campaign to Win Back My Friend Amy’s Three Year Old Son
Recently, my friend Amy’s three year old son, Madden, decided he didn’t really care for anyone who wasn’t Amy. To most other people around him, this was a bit irritating. For me, it bordered on devastating. You see, it was my goal early on in Madden’s life to be his favorite of all of Amy’s friends. Up until a couple months ago, it seemed like I had succeeded. When he was very young and barely spoke a word, he knew my name (or a version of my name – he called me “Gook”). He loved when I came over to play, rushing over to show me his newest cars and trucks. He let me put him to sleep at night, and would ask me to sing “a Courtney song,” and when I finished, he would ask for “another Courtney song.” And just this past summer, he chose to leave Amy behind and come with me to get a sandwich at the supermarket. I was waiting in line at the counter, and Madden was walking around next to me, muttering something I couldn’t hear. “What are you saying?” I asked. “Madden loves Courtney,” he replied. Then it became a chant, louder and louder: “Madden loves Courtney! Madden loves Courtney!” |
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The Elevators Look the Same
Earlier this week, I went back to my old high school for the alumni book club. We read a book a month, and then meet with a teacher to talk about it. I guess it is a testament to how nerdy I am that I paid to belong to this club, but I love going back to school. I love being a student again – if only for two hours each month. The elevators look exactly the same, and this makes me very happy. Riding up in the elevator to the seventh floor, I pretended that nothing had changed. It worked too: I felt like I shouldn’t even be in the elevator – I should’ve been taking the stairs like students are supposed to, and if I got caught, I would have to wear my uniform on Friday. |
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The Other Sister
I bet you didn’t know that you’ve been reading the blog of the sister of the third most beautiful non-celebrity in |
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