КНИЖНЫЙ

Yeah, see that word up there? That is how you say "book" in Russian! (Allegedly. I just plugged it into an internet translator, so, you know, it could say most anything, and since this is the internet, it probably says something dirty. But for now let's just decide the internet didn't lie, and it does in fact say book and not, like, "fish boobs.")

So why am I speaking Russian on my blog? BECAUSE ALL 3 HEX HALL BOOKS SOLD TO RUSSIA! Yay!! For those of you playing along at home, that means you'll be able to find HEX HALL in France, The UK, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Germany, The US (duh), and now RUSSIA! Now, I go into spasms of excitement any time a foreign country buys HEX HALL, obvs, but it's particularly neat to think of it being in Russian because...well, look at that word up there! The Cyrillic alphabet is so cool!

In addition to brushing up on my Russian (so far I have "book,"- kind of- "good-bye," and, thanks to one of those mail order bride sites, "I am looking for a nice woman to spend my life with." I think all of these will make me a BIG hit in Russia!), I've been watching a lot of TV. I'm usually not a huge TV person, but when I'm working on a book, I find reading to be kind of stressful (which is the one depressing drawback to being a writer. When books are your work, it can be hard to just take simple joy in them anymore.). Plus, The Husband has been out of town a lot this summer, so that's given me ample time to watch whatever I want without him yelling about how it is "stupid" or "boring."


Two words he would almost certainly apply to NYC Prep. Are any of y'all watching NYC Prep? Because you so should be! I actually kind of hated the 1st episode, but it's really started to grow on me, and now I am hopelessly invested in all of their sordid little relationships. Far and away, my favorite "couple" on the show is PC and Jessie. If you've seen any commercials for it, PC is the Chuck Bass-y guy wearing scarves and dropping "witty" bon mots like he's an Upper East Side Oscar Wilde. Jessie is his BFF, and they used to date, but she's clearly still in love with him, but he's just as clearly probably gay, not to mention super self-loathing, so he pushes her away, which only makes her love him more, and... whew. It is SO dramatic. So of course I love it.

But what I love most about the show is that it really shows that teenagers are just teenagers wherever you go. Yes, they're fabulously wealthy, and they have these swanky parties in ginormous lofts, but when they get to said parties, what do they do? They sit around and make awkward small talk, and cry because boys they like talk to other girls, or get weirded out because girls they used to date are sitting too close to boys with Leif Garrett hair.

You know. Like all teenagers everywhere.

But the best part of watching NYC Prep is reading the hilaaaaarious recaps on Gawker. They're great because not only are they funny (the recapper, Richard Lawson, refers to Taylor- the one kid on the show who goes to public school- as Rags McTattershanty. I mean, that is comedy gold), but also because he says stuff that's just so true, and really resonates with me as someone who writes for teens. Like this:

"Teenagers like each other in fits and starts, sweaty lusting and sad desperate clawing towards one another, the kind of thing that makes you glad that, even though you are feeling old and cancerous and haven't left the house for two days, you escaped that age. That you busted out and figured out other people at least somewhat, at least halfway, and so nothing is as fraught as it once was. Nothing is as exciting, either, but that's the compromise of growing up."

Isn't that dead-on? Love it! I may print it out and hang it over my desk.

Oh, and I also emerged from my Writing Cave to see three movies so far this summer. The Mama and I took Small Son to see "Up," which was amazing and made me cry like a little baby girl. Then The Husband and I went to see "Star Trek," which was ALSO amazing, but did NOT make me cry like a little baby girl.

Then we went to go see Transformers 2.

It was not amazing at all, and the only tears I cried were ones of sheer, total boredom. Seriously. I have never been so bored at a movie IN MY LIFE. And it contained so many non-boring things! Killer robots from space! Explosions! Megan Fox's tiny shorts! SHIA, whom I ADORE! More explosions!


"Hey, Shia, it's Rachel. You know how you're one of my imaginary boyfriends, and how I even have a character in a future book completely based on you so that you could play him in the movie? Right. See, the thing is, I think we need a break. What? Oh, you don't wanna break up? Well, maybe you should have thought about that before you starred in a movie that featured ROBOT TESTICLES, SHIA."


At the 2 hour mark, I was banging my head against the seat, willing it all to be over. I'm still trying to distill just what I hated so much about it. At first, I thought it was the whole "fighting robots" aspect, but I really liked the first Transformers, and God knows that it had plenty of fighting robots. Or maybe, as The Husband suggested, I am just a "H8ter."

Hmmm...