We will love it if you’ll take a look! http://we-have-words.com/

I think it’s a well-put-together tutorial and worth checking out for writers. Of course, I also have a very special fondness for it, since she used examples from my book, Freefall, to illustrate her points!

Well, now that 20 years has passed, the time has come to bust in and find out what 14-year-old Mindi wanted to share with People of the Future!

Alisia Leavitt was kind enough to host this very, very important unveiling over at her blog. Please, please, please check it out! There’s even a picture of me from my high school year book there.

One of the pictures taken of me and the Freefall ARC was of us chilling in the driveway. Another was of us having the time of our fricken lives, like so:

On this past Friday, I received pass pages, which are regular 8×11 sheets of paper that are printed to show precisely what the layout and font of the book will look like. I had good great fun taking pictures of the title pages and all the hot pink and florescent green Post-Its that I was using. See?

I intended to put up a little entry to share the joy in this milestone. (Because, I’m not going to lie, there was a time when reaching this stage with this book felt so impossible. And somehow . . . I did it!)  But then this week came along before I could post that proposed entry. And with this week came a Live Through This ARC, which kinda sorta trumps the pass pages discussion since it is my book in actual book form!

So here is me and the LTT ARC, chilling in the driveway:

(It’s amazing what a difference a month and half makes in the appearance of that bush behind me, isn’t it?)

And I didn’t want my old, falling apart Freefall ARC to feel left out (yes, I still have it), so here’s a pic of me and both ARCs, having the (dark and blurry) time of our fricken lives:

So, yay!

And, I know. It’s the middle of February. And Live Through This doesn’t come out until October. (OCTOBER? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!!) As recently as a few weeks ago, I was all, like, “Oh, October. You will be here soon enough. La la la,” but now I am ready for October right this second.

So you’re maybe feeling as sad as I am that I’m showing you the outside of the ARC, but not the inside, because that’s just mean, right?

WELL. We are in luck! My editor gave me permission to share with you the very (er, shocking?) first paragraph of the book as it will look in the real book that you will one day be able to acquire for yourself. So here it is!

DUN DUN DUN.

If you want to know what my next book, Live Through This, is about, and see the pretty, pretty cover, please click here!!!!

I spent January 2 through November 18, 2011 working like crazy on this book. I first started it in January of 2010 and worked on it some throughout that year, but the debut of Freefall that autumn was a huge distraction. My progress was much slower than I (or anyone) would have preferred.

My agent officially sold LTT in February 2011, and I then worked on writing and revising it almost every day after that. My editor’s turn-around on my drafts was so fast each time that I literally had only about three weeks when I was truly on a break from it in almost eleven months. I have a feeling that when I look back on 2011, it will be even more of a blur than 2010 was!

Live Through This is slated for release October 2, 2012. The day before my birthday! It’s going to be a simultaneous hard cover and paperback release, which is very, very exciting. I’ve now seen the cover (and I adore it!) and I’ve read the summary that my editor put together. I’m assuming that I’ll be able to share those in the next month or two since ARCs should be out around then.

Happy New Year, everyone!

I’m not mad a Dylan anymore and I don’t think he’s evil. I have this thing now where I just want him. I want to kiss him and hold him and that kind of stuff. Sometimes I feel like I hate him, but right now, I feel like I love him. He makes me feel weird.

I really want to kiss him. We’ve never kissed and I think it’s nessisary and it should happen soon. The problem is, it doesn’t look like he’s going to make the first move. That means it’s up to me. But what if he doesn’t want me to kiss him? What if I make a fool of myself?

Another complication is that we have like no opportunity to do this. During school, there is no way because when we do have breaks together, that means that the rest of our classes have breaks with us. No way am I going to kiss him in front of people!

Before school is  a stupid idea because the hall is full of student and also all of the teachers. That is the ultimate no-no.

That leaves after school. At that point in time, we’re always working out butts off vacuuming to make our school a cleaner place to learn. Mind you, we work in different classrooms. When work is done, there is always two or three little kids in the hall and teachers wandering around.

We don’t see each other on weekends unless we happen to go to the same church. That is very rare. In fact, it’s happened once. Tomorrow, it’s going to happen again, I think.

We don’t go on dates because we have no transportation and both my mom and his parents would kill us if we even mentioned such a thing to them. Speaking of his parents, they are two grouchy old people. They are always bitching at him. If he calls me, he can’t talk for more than 5 or 10 minutes. If he attempts to do this, his mommy and daddy darlings will start screaming and threatening him and all that kind of crap. I think they are both jerks.

Today, a girl from my old church told me that a friend of ours is not even close to be as innocent as we first thought he was. Appearantly, he drinks alot and sleeps around. He’s 13 years old and he got a girl pregnant. I am in shock. I knew he had problems (he tried to kill himself last summer after his girlfriend broke up with him), but I didn’t know things were that bad. And last Saturday, he kissed a girl even though he has a girlfriend with whom he has had sex with.

I feel kind of weird knowing all of this about him. I thought he was just a cute, sweet, strange, normal teenager. I wonder if he also does drugs. I would die if he did.

At the church I used to go to, the “in” thing is to NOT be a virgin. I don’t want to do it just to do it. I only would if I really loved the guy. It’s kind of weird. I’m worried about just kissing Dylan, but these kids don’t have a problem sleeping around. I could never be like that.

It’s kind of odd that the “Christian youth” are worse influences on me than lots of people I’ve met other places.

Oh gosh. Now I’m back to worrying about The Kiss. I just want it to be something special that I’ll remember for a really long time. Most people probably don’t even care about this. I don’t know. Maybe they do. I wish I could just find the courage to kiss him, though.

Maybe tomorrow at church. NOT! Maybe on Monday. Maybe next month. That would be depressing if I had to wait a whole damn month for a kiss. I would die. I feel like I’m going to die right now as it is.

Well, I should go now. This is 8 pages and only 5 of them were about this kiss. The Kiss that Never Was.

Okay. I really would die if we never even kiss once. Auugggh!

I love you!

Love,

The first thing I will say is that I won the election and am A.S.B. Vice-President. Now I have yet another responsibility to take on. I really need time to do my homework. In fact, I shouldn’t have a social life until I catch up. Whatever.

Today, Dylan was a total dick. I could about strangle him. He got mad at my sister because when he was vacuuming*, the cord came unplugged. He had an absolute cow and started yelling at her. So I got mad and told him he should keep quiet because he didn’t know what he was talking about. Somehow the word “jerk” slipped in there (I don’t know how that possibly could have happened!). He got totally pissed.

I left the room to talk to Rob when I came back, Mr. Jerk was banging the vacuum around and that kind of crap. So I said, “Oh, so I presume you’re mad at me.”

He turned the vacuum off in a huff and yelled, “Yes, I am!”

Then he turned it back on and started banging stuff again. I jumped on the vacuum and turned it off and he started totally yelling at me. I suggested that my sister leave the room, but she “couldn’t,” so we went into the library.

He said, “I can’t stand it. You’re always so sarcastic and you’re a jerk to me!”

That pissed me off and I said that I had to stick up for my sister and blah, blah, blah. Then we stood there and glared at each other for a few minutes and then he whined, “I’m sorry.”

WHAT A CREEP. Anyway. We made up and that’s all taken care of. I’m still pissed off, but I guess everything is fine for now. When he gets mad, he gets so violent.

I swear, in the halls and stuff, he looks like a total stoner. He never talks, never smiles. I guess that’s how he is in all his classes too. I wouldn’t know because I’ve never had a class with him. Tori said that the only time he’s ever happy is when he’s with me. That scares me. Maybe he’s evil.

I know. That’s a terrible thought to think about my boyfriend. He is kind of cute and ugly all mixed together. It’s hard to explain. I wish he would break up with me. I don’t want us to break up, but I don’t want us to go out anymore either. Maybe we should both just die. Then we won’t have to worry about it anymore.**

I think that I should go now. It’s almost 10 pm and I’m tired. I still have about 100 tons of homework to do. I could about puke.

Love ya,

 *FYI: “Dylan” and I worked as janitors at our school that particular year, mostly so that we could stay an hour or more late at school and spend time together.

**It sounds like I’m suicidal, but I think I was trying to be funny?

Last week, the topic was “If You Like Male Narrators.” Freefall was one of the suggested titles, and there are many, many more on the list. I see lots of search terms coming up through my website indicating that readers of Freefall are looking for something similar, so this list might be a great place to look!

1. Mignonne came up for here for my birthday. We has a blast. (I hate that phrase.)

2. Dylan asked me out again — on my birthday. I turned him down.

3. Curt is trying to get together with me again.

4. Me and Dylan are back together now – it was my idea.

5. Dylan has braces now.

6. We got a new kid in our school. I think he might be a homicidal maniac. I’m scared of him.

7. We have been playing football for P.E. I could about puke.

8. We are having ASB elections tomorrow. I am running against Curt for vice-president.

9. I am the assistant yearbook editor.

10. Curt told me how much he likes me and how incredibly hurt he is that I’m going out with Dylan again.

11. Tori was saying some pretty lude stuff about me and Dylan today. She claims it was “just to make him mad because he’s such an asshole.” Whatever. I don’t care anyway.

12. Renee broke up with her boyfriend last week.

13. I am starting to wish Dylan would break up with me.

14. Today, Troy told me he likes my voice and how I talk.

15. Right now, I am so tired that I’m about to collapse.

16. See ya later. Love ya!

17.