I Should Write About That

Instead of posting a 140 character tweet about certain topics, I have decided to blog them with the amount of space they deserve. Instead of thinking, "I should tweet that," I have decided to look at the world and and say, "I should write about that." I also blog Pride & Prejudice vs The Lizzie Bennet Diaries at http://pandpvslbd.tumblr.com/ -Joslyn Dechant

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Yoga Journaling

Empower Day 5 - Stretch & Soothe

So I may have started Empower a day before my emails started. As a result I'm a day ahead of them and today Adriene's email hit my inbox suggesting Stretch & Restore. Needing to dial it back but still wanting a longer practice, I opted for Stretch & Soothe instead. I lit a candle, kept the lighting dim, pulled out my thicker mat and was kind to myself. It was a much needed practice. I don't know if I'll be able to get anything in tomorrow. Hoping to do something Saturday. Namaste!

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Yoga Journal

I've been doing yoga since March and I discovered Yoga With Adriene shortly thereafter. She has free yoga videos on YouTube and she has online yoga courses you can pay for as well.  I recently purchased Empower and started this past Sunday.  I've been checking in with the Facebook Kula.  Daily emails from Adriene are also part of the deal and today's was to start a yoga journal.  Here are my entries thus far from the Kula.  I have a physical notebook I've recorded them in too, but I thought it would be fun to share here.

9/28/2014

Today I started Empower. I went with the mantra of strength and confidence and I didn't let myself down. It wasn't too hard like I had feared. I was far from perfect, but I have plenty of room for improvement which I'm really excited about. I can definitely see the areas in which I will have to push harder and I can't wait to work on my practice. I found myself smiling while doing jumping jacks on the mat and I'm definitely part of Adriene's yoga dork parade. Here's to looking forward to the rest of my journey.

9/29/2014

Empower Day 2 - Strength (1)

I found today's practice a bit more difficult as I really need to work on building strength especially in my upper body. I was grateful for the practice though as I can feel it in my arms already. I rounded off my practice with the guided savasana which was wonderful. I think I may have even dozed off I got so relaxed.

9/30/2014

Empower Day 3 - Heart (1)

I really love Heart (1). It's a lot of fun and I feel great during and after my practice. I got to round off my practice with some bunny cuddles which made it even sweeter.

10/1/2014

Empower Day 4 - Strength (1)

Today was rough. I wasn't feeling well, just very tired, but I got on my mat anyway. I'm really struggling with the Strength practice as I need to build strength, especially in my upper body. That seems to be what compels me to keep going. I think it may help if I do some foundations videos, especially the new Half Moon Pose one as it's a pose I really struggle to stay in without falling out. Perhaps I'll incorporate one before my full length practice each day. Tomorrow it's back to Heart (1), which I love. Thank goodness for balance.

[ishouldwriteaboutthat]

My Sister Is Studying Abroad & Why I'm Excited

My sister is studying abroad in Sunderland, England this fall.  Today we left her with a very teary farewell at the Pittsburgh Airport.  My dad asked if I was okay and when I said no he said, “Isn’t this everything we wanted for her?”  The answer is yes, so in an effort to dry my tears, I thought of all the reasons I’m excited she’s finally made it.

Her hard work is paying off. - Studying abroad takes a lot of hard prep work.  Not only are you dealing with trying to apply for an overseas program, but you’re dealing with your home university as well.  The hoops you have to jump through become tiresome.  At times it even seems like everything is going to fall apart, sometimes it does, but with perseverance everything comes together.  She has made it though and is finally on her way!

New experiences - Any travel is going to provide you with new experiences, but studying abroad is incredibly unique.  She is not only going to learn a ton about another country and culture, but she’s going to learn a lot about herself.  She’ll be stretched to her limits and past them.  She’ll grow in ways she didn’t know were possible.  I can’t wait to see that growth in her.

The Stories - If you know anything about my sister, you know she loves to tell stories.  She not only writes and keeps a video blog, but she recounts various aspects of her life in hilarious bouts of storytelling.  She’s going to have some great stories over the coming months and I can’t wait to hear them.

The Study Abroad Understanding - As previously mentioned, studying abroad is a unique experience, one which is only best understood by fellow study abroad students.  When I came back to the States, I felt like I had all these adventures and stories to share, but everyone lost interest after about twenty minutes.  I can’t wait to not get bored of her adventures.  I can’t wait to swap stories and experiences.

New Friends - One of the coolest parts of being abroad is all of the friends and people you meet.  Making those connections helps you to grow as a person and allows for travel to other places once you’re Stateside.  You have to visit those new friends at some point right?  She’ll have those opportunities which is great.

Sightseeing - Traveling within the UK and to other countries will be great for her.  She’s into photography and filming, which will allow those of us back home to see the world through her eyes.  She’ll get to see places she’s always dreamed of, which is a surreal and wonderful experience.

These next reasons are a little selfish, but if I left them out that would be lying by omission which would just be wrong.

I get to visit. - I get to go on a trip! My parents and I are going to visit her about halfway through her program.  The coolest part of this?  Seeing the ways in which she has grown in the environment in which she has done so.  I can’t wait.

Built in travel buddy - We’ve traveled together over the years for family vacations and we went to Chicago together a couple years ago.  I’m looking forward to her catching the travel bug and hopefully wanting to explore even more of the world.  Wanderlust is addictive and I hope to share it with her.

I’m sure there are other reasons I’m forgetting at the moment, but I’m a bit too tired to remember them.  When I wake up in the morning, my sister will no longer be in an airport or over the Atlantic in an airplane, she’ll be IN ENGLAND!  How cool is that?

P.S. She’s writing a weekly column for her university’s newspaper, The Clarion Call.  Check it out.

[ishouldwriteaboutthat]

Week 1: Complete

So I survived week one of six in this walking for miles gig.  I'm too tired to write a full post, but I stepped it up this weekend walking 4 miles yesterday and 5 today to total out 18 miles for the week.  

In my yoga adventure, I started Yoga with Adriene's Reboot program Thursday.  It's a month long program that I'm really excited about and it can be found here.

I seem to be good at this whole, "Let's start workout programs all in the same week," thing, but it helps to motivate me when I don't want to do it.  I have coworkers relying on me to get my mileage in and we're all supporting each other which is awesome.  Adriene sends out daily emails throughout the 29 day Reboot and has a facebook group that is great for support as well.

That's it for me today.  Peace out.  Namaste.

P.S. The Mowgli's have a great album and it made my walk wonderful today.

[ishouldwriteaboutthat]

I Biked Across the Golden Gate Bridge, I CAN DO THIS

In an effort to not complain about walking, I've decided to look to past physical endeavors I thought I couldn't do, but did.  The first of these, being in the same vein, was running and completing a season of cross country.  Like most eighth grade kids, I signed up because all of my friends ran and they thought I'd be good because I had long legs.  Think again friends.  At any rate my dad doubted my abilities, so even though I completely sucked and came in last or second to last every race, I finished that season just to show him I could.

The next feat came within my first week of studying abroad in Dublin, Ireland.  A bunch of us took the train to Bray where we proceeded to climb Bray Head Mountain.  Needless to say, I was not keen on this and part of me wanted to wait at the bottom but a bigger part of me wanted to try something new and make friends, so I climbed that damn mountain.  I was the last of the group to the top and I wanted to stop many times on the way up, but I did it.  If you want to read my blog post from that trip, you can find it here.

The final feat worth mentioning happened one year ago yesterday.  i biked across the freaking Golden Gate Bridge.  Now please take into consideration the fact that I hadn't been on a bike probably since my early college years, so at least four years previously.  I was incredibly hesitant, but my friend Erin was very persuasive.  Plus how often are you in San Francisco with the opportunity to bike across the bridge?  If you're me, well just the one time so far.  Needless to say (again) it was hard work and there were points when I wanted to throw that bike down, lie down on the ground and wait for a taxi to come pick my sorry ass up, but I completed the ride and it was worth it.

So this brings me to my current challenge.  I wanted to skip my walk today so badly.  I was hoping the monstrous thunderstorms the Weather Channel was calling for would happen so I had an excuse.  Instead the sun was out with some clouds and I revamped my workout routine this evening.  I did my yoga first, not only as a treat to myself but for a solid warm up.  I'll be honest, my practice has been suffering due to the walking and it does not make me a happy camper, so I fixed that.  Turns out that was probably the smart move and I should have done that two days ago.  Oh well I least I figured it out on day three instead of day thirty three!  I didn't walk as far today, only 2.3 miles, but I managed to run some small part of it.  The other added bonus to this is that if yoga comes first, the walking comes during a cooler part of the day which makes it a bit more bearable.  To recap: I suffer less during my walk if I warm up first and it's cooler outside.  If yoga comes first, I'm not too tired for the practice and feel refreshed afterward.  All of these things might seem obvious, but I had to re-frame and rethink my routine.

Due to the next couple of days being busy, I might actually not be able to get out, but Saturday looks promising.

Also can I just say, the one similarity to my bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge and my walks in Clarion is the wind.  It was an incredible opposition while trying to pedal to and over the bridge.  While walking, I smile and embrace that wind as nature's fan and boy does it feel good. 

[ishouldwriteaboutthat]

Yoga and Walking and Ugh

I recently started a workout routine.  It's probably the first real one I've had since I ran cross country in the eighth grade, which was about twelve years ago.  At any rate, I decided one cold day in March or April, I can't remember which, that I would go to a yoga class at the YMCA.  It was that thing I never knew I needed.  You know how people talk about things like that, they wouldn't know they needed something or someone until that something or someone entered their life, yeah that's me and yoga.  So anyway, I've made it a somewhat daily practice, whether at the Y or in my living room.  Some days it's wonderful and other days it's work, but wonderful work nonetheless, as I always feel great afterward.  Then the walking happened.

So it's just walking right?  I could be running those 3.2 miles I've been walking.  It's been HOT out there.  I told myself I wasn't going to complain about the heat after freezing my butt off all winter, but I didn't know this walking for miles in the heat thing was going to happen.  It's part of a health initiative at work, this walking thing.  Assemble a team of four people who either want to walk or run and the team must reach 359 miles in six weeks.  It's day two of this venture and I'm already wondering what the hell I got myself into.  Mind you, I am out of shape and this should whip me into it, but dear lord am I ever tired.  I made the stupid mistake of walking 3.2 miles yesterday, taking a 20 minute break, and then going straight into Vinyasa Flow Yoga.  Do you know what that is?!  It's constant movement, for what seems like an eternity, especially after a long walk in the heat.  This particular practice was only 20 minutes long and I was dead at the end of it.  I should have done a relaxing practice, but hindsight is twenty, twenty.  I decided to start dinner and not even five minutes in my doorbell rang.  It was my friend Luke who happened to be in town due to unforeseen circumstances.  He stood on my threshold with Bob's Sub, only the best subs in town.  He was definitely a sight for sore muscles.

So today, being day two, I went on another 3.2 mile walk, but a different course.  It's a mile into town from my place and a mile back.  Apparently I didn't walk far in town, because I had to circle the old grocery store parking lot by my apartment twice to hit three miles.  I rested again and did a beginners yoga sequence, which was a heck of a lot better than the Vinyasa.  I'm still dragging butt though and it's only day two.  This walking thing goes on for SIX WEEKS.  When I think about that stretch of time and walking all those miles, at least 90 myself, I get a bit overwhelmed.  I think the best way to cope is to write about it, because what do I do when the going gets tough?  I write.  Apparently things haven't been overly tough lately, because I haven't written so much as a paragraph lately.  In an effort to make myself write, I've decided this could be a good way to go.  I've decided to devote myself to this whole mileage thing, so why not get back in the habit of this words thing.  Hopefully when my six weeks is up, I'll continue the words thing regardless of what happens to the mileage thing.  I'll try to make these things more interesting and less me complaining, that would be good right?  Perhaps I'll take the learn a lesson from each day approach.  We'll see where this journey takes me.  After all, yoga is a journey, as I'm learning, so why shouldn't this be too?  

Until next time...I sleep.

[ishouldwriteaboutthat]

Hotel Room Thoughts

When you're a kid, staying in a hotel is a great treat.  It's something you see all the time in movies and on television.  Most of the time, when you're staying in a hotel, it means you're on vacation and fun is bound to happen.  Let's talk about the excitement of the hotel itself.  The beds are typically much bigger than your average kid sized twin.  You're usually at least guaranteed a double.  Next is the fact that you have a TV in your bedroom.  Now for some, this is typical, but for me I was never allowed a television in my room, so being able to channel surf from bed was a big deal.  Checking out the night stand, my sister and I always looked for pens, notepads, and of course we checked out the phone book and Bible while we were at it.  Another great thing about hotels?  The miniature shampoos, soaps, and lotions.  We would stock pile them as souvenirs in our suitcases.  The most magical part of staying in a hotel was that you never had to make your bed and you could leave your towel on the floor.  After a great day at the beach or an amusement park, you would arrive back to find your bed made and fresh towels waiting for your nighttime shower.  If only you had the luxury of leaving your room a mess at home to have it clean itself while you are out.

Last week I stayed in a hotel with my family while on vacation.  I shared a pullout bed with my sister that was all springs and bars.  It lacked the comforts of home, but my family was there with me.  At times we could have used more space, but this week I seem to have too much.

Walking into a quiet hotel room by yourself is depressing, at least it is for me.  The room is often all too quiet and dark.  Tonight I walked in, turned on every light in the room and put the television on a random channel just to have noise.  I now remember why I invested so much money in TV on DVD in college.  I lived alone for three semesters and if I was in my apartment, the television was on.  Quiet can be all too deafening, especially as I live in a small town and am used to at least having outside noise.  At times I would mute the TV while I was studying, but it at least provided some movement in the room aside from my own.  I always prided myself on being good at being alone, but the truth is, I'm not very good at it.  The king sized bed, while more comfortable than my 20 year old twin at home, looked too big for just me.  Having to face fast food for dinner was less than appealing.  Not being able to go home to my family after a long day at work, with nothing but the walls to bounce my voice off of, had I wanted to speak, made me feel more alone than ever.  I unpacked my clothes, booted up my computer, and stacked up my notebook and novels.  Items that often brought me comfort, seemed just as much out of their element as I was. 

[ishouldwriteaboutthat]

New Pants

I can't say that I have body image issues, but I do have insecurities.  I've never been one to wear clothes that are tight fitting.  Recently my clothes have been very loose fitting, but it hasn't been on purpose as I've lost weight in the last year.  I'm not sure of the exact reason, but I can cite a few: job anxiety, cutting back on snacking since college, lactose intolerance, and not eating as much chocolate.  I've lost 10 pounds and gone down a size.  It must be noted that I don't exercise, even though I should.  I'm usually too tired after a day at work along with my commute.  Typically I just want to read, write, or watch TV when I get home.  At any rate, back to my pants.

One day a coworker told me she had been talking to another coworker about how I wear my pants too loosely.  Another coworker had noticed my weight loss and said, "We've been hard on you," in reference in job anxiety. A few weeks later I ended up at the doctor's office to be treated for a sinus infection.  When I got there I weighed in 10 pounds lighter than I did the previous year.  Some girls would race right out and buy new pants and be super excited about losing the weight.  I didn't really know how to feel about it.  On the one hand I was happy to have lost the weight, but on the other hand I knew part of it was unhealthy because it happened from anxiety.  I would rather weigh more and be happy than weight less and be anxious.  Also I hadn't worked for it.  I felt like I should have been working out and watching my diet in order to obtain a smaller size.

At any rate, my mom, being the supportive woman she is, took me shopping this weekend.  We went to Christopher & Banks, usually I shop at JCPenney, and I tried on both the classic and modern fit as well as cotton and polyester materials.  I ended up with the modern cotton, which fit really well.  The feeling I had knowing they look good on me was a little triumph.  As silly as that may seem, I feel good about myself and my pant size.  In a world so focused on body image, whether it be Hollywood's definition or Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty, it's nice to feel good in your skin regardless of what anyone else thinks.

[ishouldwriteaboutthat]

I want to congratulate the cast and crew of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries on not only making it to 50 episodes, but doing a great job along the way.  When the show first launched in April, I remember co-creator Hank Green asking for support so the show could continue going past episode 8.  It has now passed 6 times that amount of episodes and will continue airing through the end.  Not only have they successfully created a webseries, but they have created two spin offs as well through Lydia Bennet and Maria Lu.  In addition their use of social media is astounding, by using every facet from Twitter and Tumblr to Lookbook and Pinterest, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries has gone where no other adaptation of Pride & Prejudice has ever gone before.

That being said, this webseries has done so much for me.  About two months after it launched, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries inspired me to start writing again and I created Pride & Prejudice vs The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.  This project has taught me a lot about characterization and plot, both by examining Austen in depth and through analyzing the adaptation.  Two months after that I found myself en route to Chicago for LeakyCon where I met Bernie Su, Rachel Kiley, Ashley Clements, Mary Kate Wiles, Julia Cho, and Laura Spencer.  I decided to go last minute, approximately 3.5 weeks before the conference, when it was announced that the LBD would be on a panel.  Not only was it amazing to meet all of them, but I spent that weekend attending literary panels with brilliant authors such as John Green, Maureen Johnson, Lev Grossman, and Holly Black to name a few. 

The dreamer in me longs to be a writer and I know for a fact that if I ever get anywhere with it, that weekend is the one that changed my life and I owe it to The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and all of those involved.  If it weren't for them, I never would have thought about going and I wouldn't have heard wisdom from so many authors.  In addition to all of this, I have met other fans, now friends, both at LeakyCon and online who love Jane Austen, Lizzie Bennet, writing, and nerdy things just as much as I do. 

Congrats again to a wonderful cast and crew on 50 great episodes, here's to 50 more!

[ishouldwriteaboutthat]

New York City 390

wan·der·lust/ˈwändərˌləst/

Noun:

A strong desire to travel: “a man consumed by wanderlust”

Written on 2/19/2012 @ 11:49 PM

On my way home from Kent I saw a sign for New York City indicating that it was only 390 miles away.  I was very tempted to drive there.  Immediately I looked at the time, 6:15 pm, and did the math.  Even if I only went 60 mph on the interstate, I’d be there by 1:00 am at the latest.  I had enough clothes in my suitcase to get me through Monday and I could hopefully just wear the dress clothes I had from Friday, or pick up some new ones for work on Tuesday.  I had money for a hotel, so that wouldn’t be a problem.  The overwhelming desire to drive to NYC simply came from seeing the opportunity on a road sign.  With every passing road sign tempting me with New York City, I felt the pull just a little bit stronger.  When I started the weekend, I was so ready to get out of familiar territory.  I wasn’t ready to come back to it at the end of the weekend.  Something about driving at night surrounded by headlights while blasting music just makes my wanderlust stronger.  If it weren’t for the fact that my parents were expecting me home, I’m fairly certain I would be driving to NYC as I type.

Not to generalize, but I really feel like most people don’t understand what it’s like to have extreme wanderlust.  It can be overwhelming and all consuming.  When I want to go somewhere, I can’t get it out of my head.  I can’t say as that I have had the incident like I did with wanting to drive to NYC happen before, but I feel stuck more often than not.  A large part of that comes from being born and raised in the same town, not to mention still living there at the age of 22.  I would love to move to a different area and make it my own, per se.  When I lived in Dublin, I believe part of the reason I loved it, was because I was able to explore it and make it my own.  No one I knew had been able to do that with the city.  I loved the independence that came along with it and honestly I think that is a huge part of what I’m longing for.

Hopefully I’ll come across a road sign in the near future that I can actually take advantage of.  Until then, I’ll keep my eyes open, my mind active, and my heart full.

[ishouldwriteaboutthat]

Lit Game Show & I Was A Teenage Writer

For this post I’m going to combine both the Lit Game Show and the I Was A Teenage Writer panel as I don’t have much to say other than a few amusing points about the authors.

Starting with the Game Show, which was hosted by Maureen Johnson, the authors were split into two teams.  John, Dan, and Stephanie were on one team and Holly, Robin, and Meghan were on the other.  The game centered around truth or lie.  The authors had submitted facts about themselves and Maureen put them on cards with lies in among them.  On their turn, the author would read what was on the next card in their stack and the other team would have time to question them about it before making a final decision.  The facts and lies I remember were:

John Green as a young child threw up on a secret service man. Lie, but he threw up on the politician whose campaign event he and his dad were at.

John Green wrote fan fiction about the Swoodilypoopers and posted it online, but the fan fiction by an actual fan got more hits.  Truth.

Holly Black ate a squirrel.  Truth.

Stephanie Perkins collects cans of strange food. Truth.

Dan Ehrenhaft stole a salad bar from the Burger King he worked as a teenager.  Lie.

Robin Wasserman has not eaten a fruit in her adult life. Truth.

Meghan Whalen Turner stole her neighbor’s car.  Lie.

The funniest part of the entire thing was that Maureen did such a great job with the lies she made up that the opposing team often said, “But I can see “author in question” doing that.

At the I Was A Teenage Writer Panel, each of the authors read embarrassing juvenilia.

Dan read lyrics he had written for his band which was called “Big Flannel”, and it was all rather angsty and hilarious.

Margaret, in keeping with a similar theme, read very angsty sexual poetry.

John read a sad but funny story about his grandfather and fireflies, which I recorded and can be found on YouTube here.

Stephanie read from her senior year journal about her online whirlwind romance with her now husband, which can also be found on YouTube here.

Holly read from her early start into fantasy.  The work was quite funny and she could hardly keep composure while reading it because of how bad it was.

Maureen didn’t read anything, because she destroyed all of her juvenilia works.

[ishouldwriteaboutthat]

Bad Books & Why We Love Them

The Bad Books & Why We Love Them Panel was highly entertaining and it brought about great conversation.  Meghan Whalen Turner kicked it off by reading an excerpt from the academic paper In Defense of Rubbish, by Peter Dickinson.  In her opinion, if you’re reading, why does it matter what you’re reading?  I have to agree with her.  It’s important to hone the skill of reading as well as to engage in mental stimulation.  If nothing else, reading makes you a better writer.  In the case of “rubbish” reading, it can teach you how not to write. 

Robin Wasserman spoke of her love for Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews.  She and Margaret Stohl talked about the plot line, which involves a mother hiding her children from her parents in the attic and bringing them food that is laced with arsenic.  Apparently there is also some incest between a brother and sister.  I personally have never read it, so if I got some of the storyline wrong, I apologize, but it definitely made for some hilarious discussion. 

Holly Black talked about craptastic novels.  This was probably my favorite discussion of the panel.  Basically she described a craptastic novel as being one that is so crazy that it goes through and comes out the other side and you end up loving it.  Two books that were discussed at length in this panel were Twilight and 50 Shades of Grey.  Some attendees voiced their concerns about the influence these books have on readers and how they may encourage abusive relationships.  The authors pointed out that we have to trust that readers are smart enough to sort through the story in order to decide for themselves what is right and wrong, or what is rubbish and what is treasure.  None of them believed that these books should be banned or kept from readers as they encourage reading.

[ishouldwriteaboutthat]

Come to this Panel If You Think You Hate Romance

In the Come to this Panel If You Think You Hate Romance panel, the authors spoke about the stigma around romance novels and how romance impacts their lives.  Laini Taylor said that she has RDWRS, Reader’s Dissatisfaction With Reality Syndrome.  For her, she loves fiction and romance because it’s an escape from the real world.  For Stephanie Perkins, romance is essential.  She had a whirlwind teenage romance with her now husband and it has greatly influenced her novels.  Daniel Ehrenhaft admits to loving romance and he even writes under a female pseudonym when he writes girly and romantic fiction. 

Overall discussion between the authors focused on why we like to read romance.  One reason being that when you’re a teenager your hormones are going crazy, so romantic fiction is highly relatable in young adult novels.  Another reason, and it may be the main one, is that in addition to food, water, and shelter, love is a basic human need.  From a social aspect, it’s something everyone needs in order to help lead a happy and emotionally healthy life.

[ishouldwriteaboutthat]

Girl Books & Boy Books

The Girl Books & Boy Books panel lead to some heated discussion and was one that greatly interested me.  The overwhelming stigma surrounding this issue seems to be that girls can read anything, but boys can’t.  The reason for this being is that boys can’t read chick lit, but only action books.  Boys are often made to feel bad about reading “girly” books.  Stephanie recalled when she worked at a bookstore and would recommend the Harry Potter books.  One day she recommended them to a father for his son and said of J.K. Rowling, “She’s a great author.”  The father who had picked up the book, put back on the shelf and left the store empty handed. 

Maureen Johnson talked about her books, which have girls on the covers, and how that has affected her.  When she is at book signings, mothers often tell her that their daughters love her books, but that they can’t get their sons to read them.  Maureen, who read mainly “boy” books growing up said that if she had been told at a young age that should would be an author of “girl” books with “girly” covers, she would not have believed you.  Often girly covers keep boys from reading the books, not only because of preconceived notions, but because they get made fun of by their family and friends.  The authors suggested taking the dust jacket off of hard covers or reading the book in eBook format to those who wanted to encourage their brothers or guy friends to read books featuring a lead female character.

One of the authors, I believe it was Stephanie but don’t quote me on that, said that there is this idea that boy books are considered to be normal because anyone can read them, whereas girl books are not normal because only girls can read them.  At this point John admitted to being a huge fan of The Babysitter’s Club.  When he read them, he was younger and didn’t know the difference per se between “girl” books and “boy” books and whether he should or shouldn’t read them, making the point that if there wasn’t such a stigma around the issue, that it might not be an issue at all.  If more boys read “girl” books, they might have a better understanding of empathy.  “Boy” books tend to be focused on action and adventure, whereas “girl” books focus more on emotions and social interactions.  By reading “girl” books, it’s possible that boys would be able to better identify with girls by reading about female characters.

Another stereotype is that “boys don’t read”.  Part of the reason this gap has become a focus is because girls are doing better in school than boys are, which is the opposite of how it was fifty years ago.  It’s not necessarily true that boys are doing worse, but  that more girls are reading and doing well in school than there were in the past.  Another point that was mentioned is that boys not reading was never an issue until more girls started reading and there became a need to bridge the gender gap.  Meghan spoke about the special treatment that boys receive in order to get them to read.  The situation she spoke about was the “man cave” one librarian started in order to encourage boys to read more.  They set up a tent in the library and filled it with “boy” books.  The boys would go in and pick the book they wanted or they could read in the tent as it was their own special place to read.  The girls did not have a special place to read, but were allowed to go in if they wanted a book that was in the tent.  Not only does this add to the stigma that boys don’t read, but it excludes the girls making them feel as though the fact that they do read isn’t as important.  John brought up  that boys do read, but sometimes it’s not considered “valid” because they aren’t reading books, but comics and online articles.  For him this is often the case.

[ishouldwriteaboutthat]

How Not To Write A Book

At the How Not To Write A Book panel, each of the authors spoke about what they believed to be their biggest mistakes.  I'm just going to recap those.

Stephanie Perkins said that her biggest mistake was pulling out a 10 year old manuscript and trying to make it work.  She was working 17-22 hour days while rewriting the companion novel to Anna and the French Kiss.  She admits that she was very unhealthy during that time and the book may have been better had she started from scratch.

Laini Taylor's biggest struggle is that she is such a perfectionist.  In order to combat that problem, she writes with two documents open side by side.  She writes in one and uses the other for notes on what to fix or look up later.  This also avoids the problem of distraction, for example going to dictionary.com and ending up on social networks then realizing an hour later that you should be writing.

Holy Black admitted to another type of perfectionism, especially in editing.  She would write chapter 1 and edit it.  Then she would write chapter 2 and go back to edit chapters 1 & 2.  Next she would write chapter three and go back to edit chapters 1, 2, & 3.  The cycle would continue and it was a rather lengthy process.

Maureen Johnson gave helpful suggestions as the moderator of the panel.  Having a writing buddy is key.  Someone who can read whatever you are having trouble with writing and tell you exactly how to fix it.  Holly Black is her writing buddy.  Stephanie agreed that if you can't figure out what's wrong with your book, you call Holly and she fixes it. 

Meghan Whalen Turner suggested that if you are struggling with a section, write it without punctuation just to get an idea of what should be in that space.  Go back to it after you write what you know.  It's then easier to write what you didn't know.

Lev Grossman spoke about time constraints.  He works a full time job in addition to writing and finds that he gets more writing done because he has a limited amount of time to write in.  He knows authors who quit their day jobs once they were published and found they couldn't write without the pressure of a time constraint.  Having too much time on their hands sunk them as writers.

[ishouldwriteaboutthat]

John Green & Lev Grossman in Conversation

This will be the first of many posts about the lit panels at LeakyCon.  I can’t promise that they will be thorough as I collected my thoughts in the week following the conference.  For the most part they will just be comprised of tidbits that I remember from the author discussions.

First up is John Green and Lev Grossman in Conversation.  This panel amused me as the authors not only discussed their books and writing processes, but their personal backgrounds as well.  It really could have taken place in a coffee shop and had the same effect.  The panel was laid back, informative, and amusing.  Lev started by informing John that he was told to always ask what the grandparents of his others did for a living.  Both of John’s grandfathers were engineers while both of his grandmothers were first generation college graduates who worked from home.  This lead to Lev asking John if his grandfathers were disappointed that he did not become an engineer.  John’s one grandfather died before he had the chance to be disappointed that he ended up a writer.  His other grandfather was supportive, but was told not to read his book, so he didn’t.

John brought up the topic of anger and Lev’s use of it in his novels.  John noted that Lev doesn’t seem like a particularly angry guy, but Lev assured him that he has anger issues.  The discussion that followed was the interesting link between fear and anger.  Both authors feel that anger often comes out of fear.  When it comes to examining people and characters in general, I found this interesting especially for future character development in my writing.

The discussion moved to Lev’s books and how they came about.  He began them as a sort of Harry Potter fan-fiction asking, “What would happen if Hogwarts was translated into an American college?”  The other element he examined was, “What if magic isn’t inherited, but you have to be intelligent to get in?”  Both of these are major plot points to his book The Magicians in which the students undergo rigorous testing to be accepted into the college and continue to do so in their course work. 

The final discussion I recall dealt with John’s latest novel The Fault in Our Stars.  He was very afraid of how it would be received because of the topic.  John himself hates cancer books and assumed it would be treated like many of the others on the market.  He wanted to do justice to the topic and the people it is based on, especially as some of those people are no longer with us.

This was a great panel to just sit back and take in.  I really enjoyed the format of it as it was different from the typical moderated panel. 

[ishouldwriteaboutthat]

How Jane Austen Continues to Change My Life - LeakyCon Edition

About a year and a half ago, I entered an essay contest entitled, How Jane Austen Changed My Life. At the time, I had only read Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility. I was about halfway through Emma and loving every minute of it. I had seen both the 1995 BBC miniseries as well as the 2005 film adaptation of Pride & Prejudice along with Becoming Jane. I wrote my essay while sleep deprived on a Saturday night from 1:00 AM to 4:00 AM. I'm not proud admitting this, but I didn't revise it. My friend Caitlin who majored in English edited it for me and then I submitted it just under the deadline. Did I mention that I was told about it with less than a week to submit? I figured I had nothing to lose by trying. My creative non-fiction writing professor was the one who told me about it. As a matter of fact he was Vice President of the Pittsburgh JASNA chapter that was sponsoring it as part of their first Jane Austen Conference. He was one of the judges, so I didn't tell him I had entered. Needless to say, we were both surprised when I, the economics and international business major, placed 3rd to two English majors, one of which had interned at the Jane Austen Centre in Bath.

Technically I was given honorable mention and my prize was a two volume set of Austen's complete works. Dr. Stemmler offered to pay my admission to the conference, as it was only a prize for the 1st and 2nd places. Not only that, but when I said I had received honorable mention, he insisted that it was third place. I think he was proud that one of his students had placed.

The conference was amazing to say the least. At the end of the semester, Dr. Stemmler told everyone in my class to continue our reading and writing pursuits no matter what our major or career. He even used me as an example, "Joslyn will have a boring day job, but she will spend her evenings with Jane Austen." Little did either of us know how true and to what extent he was right.

About 11 months after that was said, a web-series called The Lizzie Bennet Diaries launched on YouTube. Creator Hank Green, is one of my favorite vloggers along with his brother John Green who is one of my favorite authors and together they are the VlogBrothers. As an Austen fan, I began watching it and loved the show immediately. The show stars Ashley Clements, Julia Cho, Laura Spencer, and Mary Kate Wiles. The writing team is headed by co-creator and director Bernie Su and it comprises Rachel Kiley, Margaret Dunlap, Anne Toole, and Kate Rorick. New episodes air on Mondays and Thursdays, so those were the days I began looking forward to. Hank was doing a trial run to see if the show would gain the viewership it needed to sustain the entire run. I anxiously awaited episode 9, as it would mean that the first 8 episodes had received enough of a viewership to continue. Needless to say, it took off. Adapting a 19th century novel to a 21st century vlog series fascinated me to no end. The writing team is brilliant and when episode 19: The Green Bean Gelatin Plan aired, I loved the adaptation so much that I wanted to start a blog. Pride & Prejudice vs The Lizzie Bennet Diaries was the result.

Before I knew it, Bernie, Ashley, and Julia had all plugged it and my readership increased exponentially over night. It became the thing I most looked forward to, my evenings with Jane Austen & The Lizzie Bennet crew. As the weeks progressed, probably about 5-6 in total, I found myself interacting with Bernie and Rachel on Twitter.

To my great surprise, one morning I woke up to find out The Lizzie Bennet Diaries would be attending LeakyCon, which was three and a half weeks away at the time. It was at that point, I think, that I knew I had to find a way to get there. I spent a couple of days crunching numbers and looking at the other programming. When I saw that a great panel of YA authors would also be in attendance, I booked the trip for my sister, Marissa, and myself.

My expectations were to hopefully meet the cast at a signing and to get a decent seat at the panel. Most of my other conference time would be spent at the Lit Track. As an aspiring writer, I was incredibly excited about it.

Thursday morning, we arrived in Chicago and took our time getting to the hotel. When we arrived, we registered and did some of the light programming while waiting to check in. By the time our room was ready, we decided to skip out on the opening ceremonies. We did arrive shortly before they ended and I actually ran by Hank Green in a hallway. (It must be said here that I work with the public on a daily basis and I love greeting people that I recognize. When I saw Hank I said, "Hi! How are you?" At that point numerous thoughts ran through my head such as, "That's Hank Green! I watch lots of his videos on YouTube. I'm wearing a Lizzie Bennet Diaries shirt which is possible because he created it. This guy has no clue who I am.") At any rate, we had decided to go check out the ceremonies, because we were looking forward to the rock concert that would occur later.

Fast forward to that concert. Meghan Tonjes played and it was amazing. I didn't know of the next two bands, so with sleep deprivation and social networks to check, I went to the lobby to get WiFi on my iPod. When I went back up, I saw Julia and Rachel standing just inside the doorway. I had seen Rachel earlier in the day and had been kicking myself for not introducing myself, so as I was given a second opportunity, I took it. Julia briefly introduced me to Laura as well. Another fan of the show, Erin Wert, was present, so we talked about the show and my blog before the concert dispersed about five minutes later.

Friday we attended a variety of Lit Track panels, which I will recap in posts of their own. Just know that they were great and I'll elaborate at a later date. Friday evening was the Lizzie Bennet Diaries signing followed by the panel. We couldn't find the line for the signing, so we ended up at the LeakyLit game show, hosted by Maureen Johnson. It happened to be in the same room where the Lizzie Bennet panel would take place next. As for my expectations, I was one for two, no signing, but decent seats at the panel. In addition I had already met Julia, Rachel, and Laura, so I was ok with it.

The panel itself was great with a lot of discussion around what it actually takes to adapt a 19th century novel to the 21st century world. The panel featured Hank, Bernie, Ashley, Laura, Mary Kate, and Julia. They showed two clips, one of an upcoming episode and another of the newest cast member, Wes Aderhold, who is playing George Wickham. After the panel my sister asked if I wanted to go talk to any of them. As I had talked to Bernie on Twitter, and being that he is the head writer, I did want to introduce myself. As it turns out, he was just as excited to meet me as I was to meet him. We shook hands, hugged and proceeded to talk about the show and my blog. Before leaving, we talked about possibly hanging out later.

Marissa and I ended up in the hotel's Irish pub for dinner and toward the end of the meal, Bernie showed up. We talked more about the show and he ended up giving us a behind the scenes look. I gained an even greater appreciation for the show, especially from the writing perspective. He even gave us a sneak peek at the scripts from upcoming episodes, which I am really excited about. We even got to see the extended version of episode 26 and we agreed that it should be posted as bonus content Saturday. Bernie elaborated on the casting process, which Hank had said he hated during the panel. He also asked us what we want to do with our lives, to which we both responded that we want to be writers.

Afterward, we went to see Hank Green play his concert and the place was insane. I'm honestly surprised that the floor didn't cave in from the sheer force and number of people jumping up and down. Bernie told us after that he would see us on Saturday, if not during the day, then definitely at the ball.

Saturday night we headed to the ballroom around 9:30 PM or so and I received a text around 10:00 PM from Bernie. He told us to come over to the bar by the VIP area. When we met up with him, he held up two red wrist bands and told us we were VIP for the night. At that point we met Ashley and Mary Kate. Ashley instagramed a picture of us and Hank responded, which was awesome. I also tried LeakyCon's version of butterbeer, which was delicious. Everything was rather crazy and I think all of us were a bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people in the room. I was glad to be in the VIP section, aside from the obvious reasons. It was all rather surreal being in the same space as people like Melissa Anelli, Evanna Lynch, John & Hank Green, The Lizzie Bennet Crew, Darren Criss, and a ton of StarKid people who I didn't know.

I spent a good portion of the first half of the ball just being a wallflower and observing the room. It was completely insane. Bernie kept checking in on us to make sure we were alright. At one point he said he would be right back and when he came back, Erin was with him. (Above is a picture of the them swing dancing.) She brought great fun to the evening with her dance skills. At one point she and I went in search of water and ended up in a VIP lounge that had a water cooler. When we came back, Bernie steered us toward the stage where we met up with Rachel and Julia. The next part of the night was spent on stage dancing with the girls and all of these other people who were apparently famous in the Potter realm who I didn't know. It was completely insane and wonderful. The only way I know how to sum it up is to quote The Perks of Being a Wallflower, "And in that moment, I swear we were infinite."

I am incredibly grateful for my weekend at LeakyCon. The experience I had exceeded my wildest expectations. Jane Austen is the reason The Lizzie Bennet Diaries exists. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries has brought me into a community and introduced me to amazing people that I would not have met otherwise. Not only did I get to meet Bernie, Rachel, Julia, Laura, Ashley, Mary Kate, and Erin, but there are other fans online, such as Monique Ocampo and Joshua Goldberg, who I have been able to connect with which is just great. I look forward to what The Lizzie Bennet Diaries will do with the rest of Pride & Prejudice. As for my future, I can't wait to see what Jane has in store for me.