Blog: Old enough to be your mother!

I was always young-looking for my age.  When I was 13, I looked 11.  When I was 21, I looked 16.  My face could never keep up with my real age, it seemed.  Which wasn't a bad thing.  It was mostly just annoying in my early-20s when bouncers would try to turn me away at clubs and tell me that my I.D. was fake.

I'm now a few days away from being 33.  I'm not sure how old I look to most people (and seriously, no need to tell me!), but apparently I look at least 33 to one woman in my town.

On Friday, Dwayne and I went to the high school football game (which we LOVED).  On our way in we passed various adults giving out thingamajigs:  A pamphlet for a woman running for judge, golden-yellow signs that read "GO SHORECREST"  on one side and had info regarding a voting initiative on the other, etc, etc.  After we grabbed our sign and rushed past the others, a woman called out, "Excuse me, Shorecrest parents!"

She was addressing us, and she wasn't phrasing it as a question.  She seemed certain that we were parents.  Parents of high school students! 

Technically, yes, we could be.  If we'd hooked up with I was 17 and he was 19 and then I got pregnant and had a baby when I was 18 and he was 20, we could totally have a 15-year-old son or daughter right now.

And that?  Is just alarming.  I mean, I've pretty much known since I was 16 that I'll never be an actor.  But now that people think I'm grown-up age and not teen-age--that I would play the mom in a movie -- my world is a bit askew.

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As promised:  The most recent stops on the FREEFALL blog tour with Teen {Book} Scene are:

The book trailer at Erika Breathes Books
Kelsey's review of FREEFALL at The Book Scout
An interview with me by Hattie at DeRaps Reads

I also wrote a guest blog about "The Call" for the We Do Write blog.

New Vlog: "Author Fashions"

In all the book trailer excitement, I almost forgot that it's Vlog Day, today.  But it is! 

Fun facts about this video:

1.  The lighting is a little horrific, despite my efforts to make it otherwise.  I had the overhead light and FOUR lamps on room to try to brighten the room up.  Sigh.

2.  I keep feeling paranoid that I pronounced Maggie Stiefvater's last name wrong.  But I'm pretty sure she's said it's "STEVE-Otter."  Which is what I said.  I think....

3.  As with most of my vlogs, previewing this one caused Dwayne cover his face with what might have been discomfort at least once.  I understand the feeling.

This is a link to the official Freefall book trailer!

My blog tour with Teen {Book} Scene started TODAY!  Which means that my book comes out in eight days.  Eeeeek!

There will be fifteen stops over the next few weeks with contests, interviews (with me and with a character), guest blogs, an excerpt, and a deleted scene.  I'll be sure to link to the next stop here every day.  I'm also going to have other interviews popping up, so I'll link to those as I find out about them.

The very first stop on the tour is at Erika's blog, Erika Breathes Books.  And there! 

You can view the book trailer for FREEFALL! 

(I'll embed it on my website later in the week, but I wanted Erika to have the exclusive today!  :-))

Fun facts about this trailer:

1. Madison at M² Productions put it all together based on my notes about the characters.  I'm not really visually artistic, so it was cool to get to see someone else's take on the things in my book!

2.  I originally didn't want Seth's face to be shown, like, AT ALL.  I thought it would ruin my vision of him or something.  But there is one quick, kind of full-on face shot and I didn't freak out about it, so I decided it could stay.

3.  I really love the song Madison picked.  I sometimes have the trailer playing on my computer so I can listen to it.  (I do also have the full-length song now, too.)  I'm not really sure if "Gentle Steel" is a real thing or if it entirely makes sense, but I like the idea of it.  "Your soul is gentle steel:  strong enough to take the blows, but soft enough to remember to feel."

4. I hope you like it!!!!

Blog: Invite/Reminder for my first two FREEFALL signing events!

As you probably know,  FREEFALL, a novel I wrote is being published by Simon & Schuster and will be available for purchase in the U.S and Canada on October 5, 2010.  (And, I believe, but don't quote me, in the U.K. and Australia in December 2010.) 

In honor of this, some actual bookstores are going to have me visit to talk about and sign copies of the book and such.  If I somehow missed spamming your email or FB, please consider this your official invitation to those events.  If you're able to make it to Seattle, Washington, or to New York City on these dates, I will love to see you there!

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   October 17, 2010 5:30pm - 6:30pm

     Third Place Books
     17171 Bothell Way NE
     Lake Forest Park, WA 98155
     206-366-3333
     Facebook Event Page (RSVP here . . . if you wanna)

    Launch Party!  Kick off of Teen Read Week!
    Mindi Scott's debut novel "Freefall "shows what comes next for a teen who was the last to see his best 

    friend alive, and the first to find him dead.  We’ll be serving refreshments at this fun launch party!

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October 10, 2010 (aka 10/10/10!) 1pm - 3pm

Books of Wonder
18 West 18th Street
New York, NY 10011
(212) 989-3270
Facebook Event Page (RSVP here . . . if you wanna)

Books of Wonder is pleased to announce that on Sunday, October 10th, we will be joined by a group of eleven 2010 debut authors as they each present their first novels. On hand will be JOSH BERK for The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin; ALEXANDRA BRACKEN for Brightly Woven; MARGIE GELBWASSER for Inconvenient; EMILY HORNER for A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend; SHAUN DAVID HUTCHINSON for The Deathday Letter; PHOEBE KITANIDIS for Whisper; JESSICA LEADER for Nice and Mean; MINDI SCOTT for Freefall; LAURA TOFFLER-CORRIE for The Life and Opinions of Amy Finawitz; AMY BRECOUNT WHITE for Forget-Her-Nots; and AMBER BENSON for Among the Ghosts.

Within these eleven novels, there are books for tweens and teens with stories that span comedy, adventure, fantasy, and drama. Beginning at 1pm, these eleven debut authors will talk about their books, take questions from the audience, and sign copies of their books. Ages 9 and up. 1-3pm.

Blog: Easy A and Slutty Sluts of Slut town - (not really a movie review)

I've been intrigued by the movie EASY A ever since I saw the trailer a couple of months ago, so I went out and watched the movie this week.  (The trailer is below.  You're welcome.)

Did you watch the trailer?  All right, good!  So you now know that EASY A is the story of Olive, who stops being invisible after she starts a rumor about losing her virginity and then goes on a spree of fake-rocking boys' worlds.  This is an example of how empathy and the need to be noticed can be a really, really bad combination, yes?

Just so you know, there were a few things I didn't 100% love about this movie:  All of the adults were over the top (yet mostly hilarious, I admit) and the love interest was a little too perfect (although I understand why he needed to be for Olive's journey).  Also? Scary-judgmental cult-like Christian kids seem to be turning into a new teen movie cliché that both amuses and alarms me.

So what did I love?  Pretty much everything.  It is funny, the dialogue is superb, Emma Stone is AWESOME, and the message is really poignant, I think.

The scenes where everyone is staring at Olive and gossiping and texting about her exploits didn't always feel entirely like something that would happen in real life.  The details were exaggerated for the film, but I can say from experience that when your reputation deteriorates, that's what it feels like is happening, at least.

When I was in high school, I never intentionally fake-rocked anyone's world.  But rumors spread, you know?  I had more than the acceptable-at-my-Christian-rumor-mongering-private-school one or two boyfriends during my four-year high school career.  I kissed some (but not all) of those boys.  I did more than kissing with some (but not all) of those boys. 

By the time I was sixteen and in eleventh grade, I had a Serious Reputation and it just kept getting worse.  There were guys to whom I'd never even spoken (or met, in some cases) who would swear that they'd slept with me--or that one of their friends or cousins had.  It didn't matter if I denied it; no one believed me.  Interestingly, on the occasions when I did say that something happened with me and some boy--even if I said it as a joke--everyone would believe that.

She's out of control!  She's such a slut/whore/skank/tramp! 

I hated feeling so powerless.  I hated that no one cared about the truth because the rumors were more interesting.  I hated that I was supposed to feel bad about the times when the rumors weren't rumors.  Why was it anyone's damn business? 

I mean, really? 

Really.

One thing I can say is that being thought of as the Slutty Slut of Slut Town dramatically increased my empathy.  Sure, I'll listen to gossip sometimes, but I never automatically believe everything I'm being told.  In fact, I disregard most of what I hear second-hand about someone else's sex life. I don't revel in falls from grace.  Really, mostly, I just don't care what people choose to do.  It has nothing to do with me.