Ah, Montreal. You were a fabulous city to spend the New Year in. Wonderful people, clean street, and food that inspired me to purchase home workout equipment while on my Amtrak ride back.

I feel like the above picture pretty much sums up my entire writing experience while in Canada. I spent most mornings and afternoons in coffee shops and cute restaurants, where I would nurse my hangovers (the people in my hostel were a blast) while sipping coffee or eating poutine (thanks for showing me the best places Liz & Kim). Also the fireworks were pretty fantastic, and I was in seriously good company

And because the weather was so horribly frigid, I didn’t have much of a choice but to sit and write every day. Wandering the city was tough in the cold, so holing up in a cute cafe was the best way to spend the day. Night time I’d hit the clubs (ugh karaoke), sure. But during the day, I kept warm with my netbook.

When I left for the trip, the new book was a little over 40,000 words. Now? As of this posting, I’m at 62k. I’ve been working on it since I came back to Philly, yes, but a lot of that happened while abroad. Note, Textual Healing was a little over 60k, and I really only feel like I’m halfway through this story I’m working on. Kind of scary, very exciting.

Anyhow, I’ve pasted my favorite photos from the trip below,or you could just flip through them on my Flickr page for 200+ more. Trying to figure out where my next stop will be, other than Lobsterfest in Maine come August. Any recs?

Took this photo as soon as I got off the train.

Montreal had some really cool public art.

Seriously. So neat.

New Years Eve in Montreal = CRAZY.

Thousands of people.

Trying to walk back was impossible.

Nighttime wandering the city.

Wandering at night.

Best brunch of my life, thanks Kim!

A blogger friend (sup Kim!) and her pal.

Cool windows in downtown Montreal.

Kim approves.

Such a cool building.

Crazy guys in my hostel made their own cups… out of beer cans.

Never Have I Ever does not translate well into other languages. Played anyway.

This photo sums up my trip quite nicely. Spent a lot of time in that particular Starbucks.

So five years ago this month, I packed up a handful of things and moved to Philadelphia.

I found a horrible, filthy apartment on Craigslist in West Philadelphia. I only had one day to visit Philly before moving here and as crazy as this sounds, the apartment that had crack needles littering the stoop and a third roommate sleeping on a bare mattress in the living room was the best choice. It was a toss up between that one and living in a house in South Philly that regularly got raided by the FBI, as a past inhabitant was on some sort of wanted list. The tenants once had a raid happen in the middle of a party. They thought this was hilarious. I did not.

I didn’t have much. My entire life fit quite comfortably into the backseat of a 2006 Ford Focus. I had to sell two guitars, my entire DVD collection, all my video games, my soprano sax, and my beloved vintage tenor saxophone to afford to move here and have some funds to live off of until I found a job. I bought a futon on Craigslist the day I showed up, and thought I was going to get stabbed in a Chinese restaurant when a man demanded I give him a hug. One of my best friends, who had driven me to Philly in my parents’ car, was hesitant to leave me here.

I told him I’d be alright.

And five years later, I’m doing just fine.

However, these past five years wouldn’t have been nearly as successful and fulfilling without certain people. Whether they were pushing me forward career wise, encouraging me to be a better writer, or educating me culturally, these are the folks that, without them, I probably wouldn’t have gotten this far.

Five awesome people. Five awesome years.

Tim Quirino: I was trying to limit this list to solely people I’d met in Philly, but creating this sort of VIP list is impossible without mentioning Tim.

I’ve known Tim for nearly a decade, but we only became close friends these past five years. He did design work for bands, I took their pictures, and we ended up working together on some stuff. Fast forward to me moving to Philly, and he was living in a house in University City while wrapping up his undergrad at Drexel. I was attending grad school and knew no one in the city.

Let’s forget for a moment he’s one of my dearest friends and that he moved me from apartment to apartment over the course of several poor living choices. We launched Geekadelphia together, a site that, much to our surprise, changed our lives quite a bit. A majority of the people I spend my time with, I met directly and indirectly through the website. They came to our events, were friends of friends, local writers, etc.

Tim and I inadvertently helped build our own social circle together. Quite sure that my social life is the direct result of our friendship and the project we built.

He designed the cover of my book, built almost every iteration of this personal blog, and also, he pressured me to get the Master Chief suit built. And we all saw what happened as a result of that.

—

Brennen Lucas: When I moved to Philly, I had zero job prospects. I dished out my resume to dozens of retail shops, publications, etc. I was turned away constantly. On a whim, I applied for a blogging job on Craigslist. Despite the fact that I’d only been in Philadelphia for two months, Brennen gave me a chance, hiring me at my first “real” job at a non-profit called GPTMC. Philly folks know them better as the Visit Philly people.

I was working in Philly tourism, and at that point, I’d yet to go the Liberty Bell.

Here, I managed a website called Uwishunu for a little over three years. As the original team behind the project left, leaving me the only one from my department there, I slowly grew to dislike the gig… but without it, a lot of things wouldn’t have happened. I wouldn’t have been able to pay for graduate school. I probably wouldn’t have started Geekadelphia or met many of the people I spend time with these days.

In fact, several people who I met because they wanted to write for me, are now some of my closest friends here in Philadelphia. Kishwer, Gino, Ben, my darling Britt Miller (she was an intern there!)… never would have met them without this job.

Him taking a chance on me was the catalyst that launched my life in Philly. And I’ll never forget that. These days, you can catch him at Fishtown’s Whipped Bakeshop, creating delicious wonders with his talented wife, Zoe.

—

Marisa McClellan: As my dislike of my old job grew, Marisa was my rock. We constantly supported each other when it came to our pet projects and grustles (hustles that you work on during your daily grind). Me, it was my blog and my novel. Her, all her freelance writing and Food in Jars (soon to be an awesome book with Philly’s Running Press). But before we were sitting next to each other in an office, we actually met at a blogger meetup at Ten Stone in Philly, where I went with the intention of recruiting bloggers.

Oh man, did she teach me a lesson.

Marisa taught me a lot about working with bloggers. And not just the whole pay scale / editorial side of things, which I’ve seen applied to Geekadelphia, but how to talk to them, something I do every day now at Quirk. Without meaning to, she taught me the importance of short press releases and pitch letters, when (and when not to) follow up regarding a review, and that bloggers should be treated as legit journalists and media outlets… not just blogs.

This sort of stuff just came up in casual conversation, whenever we were sent a product we didn’t want or were getting harassed by marketing people. Those small annoyances are lessons in themselves, but talking about why they were wrong in our cubicle taught me even more. Marisa prepared me to be good at a job that I didn’t even have yet.

And Marisa, sorry I spelled your last name wrong in the Acknowledgments in my book.

—

Christopher Wink: Back in New Jersey, I always had playful rivalries with my best friends. My pals Darlene, Miguel, Dario… the closest of us would always mess with one another, bragging about accomplishments, whether it was salary, degrees, etc. It was all in good fun though. We loved one another, and the jabs kept us all trying harder.

I met Chris when I was working on Uwishunu and he was a student at Temple. Him and a handful of his buddies were writing for me, and we became fast friends over the Internets. Fast forward two years, and we were hanging out pretty regularly. And he was launching his own hustle. Technically Philly.

When Chris launched Technically Philly with Brian James Kirk and Sean Blanda, I was thrilled. They were covering local tech news in a way I could never with Geekadelphia (plus Geekadelphia is more about the pop culture side of being a Geek), and at long last… I had someone to mess with. A rival. Finally.

Without realizing it, Chris had finally given me the greatest gift of all… playful competition. I love being able to throw a jab at him now and again via Twitter or on the blog. Mocking him when I see the buzzwords flying… I should list that as an interest on my Facebook profile. I’m thrilled when I hear about a local PR firm thinking Chris and I (aka Technically Philly and Geekadelphia) hate each other. When he gave his keynote speech during the first Philly Tech Week, I ruined his moment with a tweet (this was an accident though!). When he received an award at the Geek Awards, he slammed the hell out of Geekadelphia, and I loved it.

But despite the joking around… Chris makes me want to be better at what I do.

When he started seeing real revenue from ads, I built Geekadelphia’s BlogAds network and started offering up serious ad space. When him and his crew launched Philly Tech Week, that was the punch I needed to finally get the Philly Geek Awards in gear. When I spent some time reading his personal website, I relaunched my own.

No single person in Philadelphia inadvertently pushes me harder than he does, and I love him for it. He’s an inspiration.

—

Robin Black: I stole this picture from Philly.com. I probably talk more about Robin on my blog and Twitter more than I should, but whatever. She’ s awesome. And you just have to deal with it.

Over the course of my year and a half at Arcadia, where I earned my MA in English, Robin helped shape me into the sort of writer and professor I always wanted to become. My first two published essays, one of which is appearing in Philadelphia’s Apiary this month and the other of which is all about Master Chiefing… those are the direct result of having worked with Robin.

As I start work on my second book and revel in my career in publishing, I constantly find myself thinking about Robin and her bits of wisdom.

—

And to all my many friends in Philly, my current coworkers and colleagues, I love each and every one of you. Thanks for making these past five years so very, very awesome. Can’t wait to see where the next five take me.

Giveaway is Closed! Thanks guys and gals.

Hey book loving friends.

I spent some time cleaning out my bookshelves and bins at home, and came across some ARCs from 2011′s BEA. It seems a shame to just toss them out, especially when I enjoyed each of these books so very much.

So, I’m doing a little ARC giveaway. Just leave a comment about what book you’d like out of these three, and I’ll pick one of you at random sometime next week and mail it your way. You get a great book, I clean out my library, everyone wins.

Here we go!

Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby: I distinctly remember snagging this book from Scholastic’s table because I wanted something to read while at lunch. What? Don’t judge me. I ended up devouring this book (as well as lunch) over the course of two days. From Goodreads:

Trapped in a hidden fortress tucked between towering mountains and a frozen sea, Solveig, along with her brother the crown prince, their older sister, and an army of restless warriors, anxiously awaits news of her father’s victory at battle. But as winter stretches on, and the unending ice refuses to break, terrible acts of treachery soon make it clear that a traitor lurks in their midst. A malevolent air begins to seep through the fortress walls, and a smothering claustrophobia slowly turns these prisoners of winter against one another.

Those charged with protecting the king’s children are all suspect, and the siblings must choose their allies wisely. But who can be trusted so far from their father’s watchful eye? Can Solveig and her siblings survive the long winter months and expose the traitor before he succeeds in destroying a kingdom?

For a Middle Grade book, I was really swept up in the story. And the moral / message that’s dished out, encouraging the reader to believe in the power of storytelling… well, it’s just damn sweet. Great book, made me want to read more from Kirby.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater: Wow. Who could have known this was going to become a huge New York Times bestseller? Another outstanding book from Scholastic. From Goodreads:

It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die.

At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.

Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen

This one is Young Adult, and pretty damn intense. Lots of violence and really quite heartbreaking, this was a great read in the Fall.

The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch: Hm. Seems like all the ARCs I had were from Scholastic. This one actually received some fabulous acclaim from Suzanne Collins, the gal who wrote The Hunger Games. It’s your standard dystopian piece of YA, and a fun read.

In the aftermath of a war, America’s landscape has been ravaged and two thirds of the population left dead from a vicious strain of influenza. Fifteen-year-old Stephen Quinn and his family were among the few that survived and became salvagers, roaming the country in search of material to trade for food and other items essential for survival.

But when Stephen’s grandfather dies and his father falls into a coma after an accident, Stephen finds his way to Settler’s Landing, a community that seems too good to be true, where there are real houses, barbecues, a school, and even baseball games. Then Stephen meets strong, defiant, mischievous Jenny, who refuses to accept things as they are. And when they play a prank that goes horribly wrong, chaos erupts, and they find themselves in the midst of a battle that will change Settler’s Landing forever.

Was surprised to find this one didn’t get a lot of good reviews on Goodreads. Hirsch’s debut is a good one.

The latest addition to my signed first edition collection is probably my most dear. Ray Bradbury’s Death is a Lonely Business. I managed to find it for a steal, mostly due to the fact that a corner was slightly bent.

I have some other Franklin Library books that are worth a bit more than this one, but owning something that Bradbury once touched makes this absolutely priceless to me. He’s an author I always looked up to and admired. I adored his novels and his short stories, his vast imagination and memorable characters. For a long time, I considered getting some sort of Fahrenheit 451 inspired tattoo, such is my love for his works.

Hell, I even saw A Sound of Thunder in theaters, piece of rubbish that it was, and subsequently bought it on DVD.

I’m grateful that the Franklin Library grants me the opportunity to own things favorite authors of mine have touched, but there’s always a little bittersweetness when a new one shows up.

Like Michael Crichton (who I wrote about when I found a signed copy of Travels), he was an author I always wanted to meet. Sigh.

Well, this is it.

Christmas is in a few days, the Quirk Books office is shutting down until January 2nd, Geekadelphia is finished posting until the New Year… at last, it is time to vacation it up.

After hanging out with family and friends for Christmas, I’m hopping an Amtrak to Montreal (an 11 hour train ride!) for about a week. While working on my new book in Puerto Rico I managed to bang out over 20,000 words, and hoping to have similar success while in Canada. Yeah, I’m psyched to see some museums, eat a lot of poutine, and party with random travelers… but writing is number one on the to-do list.

The new novel is currently a little over 40k, and it sure would be nice to have a finished draft early next year. I met a handful of writers from Montreal during Comic Con this year, and it’ll be nice to connect with them while I’m in town.

Anyhow, I’ll see you all in 2012, hopefully with a near-finished book. Be safe!

Some of the best advice Robin Black (go buy If I Loved You I Would Tell You This before continuing) ever gave me, was on the importance of “treating your inner writer.”

While I’m sure she said this in a far more elegant (and possibly award-winning) way, she made this fantastic point in one of our creative writing classes about how necessary it is to give yourself little rewards for doing… well, just about anything when it comes to your writing. It’s something I’ve carried with me ever since those graduate school days.

It’s a simple concept really, but an important one.

Writing is a pain. As much as I love it, sitting down and dedicating a solid few hours to working on my new book, drafting up another essay, or fiddling around with blogs on Geekadelphia… it takes a lot of effort. There are so many other things I would rather be doing. I live in an awesome city, full of amazing restaurants and cultural events. My friends are all social media addicts, and are easily accessible as distractions. There is always something more fun to engage in that isn’t the solitary act of slumping over my netbook and gazing at that intimidating, glowing screen.

As the weather gets cold and I just want to stay inside, treating myself has become a serious means of motivation, and Robin’s advice has been on my mind in a big way.

I find its easier to tear myself away from, say, a game of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, when I’m promising myself a tall gingerbread spiced latte at Starbucks. The urge to order delivery and watch a movie is negated by treating myself to tortilla chips from El Fuego, a local burrito joint, and writing by the restaurant’s front window. I force myself out to the Green Line Cafe for a hot tea whenever new episodes of my favorite shows hit Hulu Plus, telling myself I can watch them after I finish at least an hour of writing there.

There’s this joke I like to bring up, from Family Guy, about writers having to write in public because OMG how else would people know they were writers. It’s hilarious and probably true for some people. For me, I’m out and about treating myself so I will write.

Shrug.

Like I said, the idea is simple. Whether you’re fussing over a book, an essay, a blog post, or a poem (or broem, sup Brian), remember to treat your inner writer. You’ll feel better about yourself, and get work done.

Treat. Yo. Self.

Get it? Moby Duck?

I read a lot of books this year. A lot. I don’t think all of them are even listed on my Goodreads profile.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a little roundup of my top 5 fiction titles, and was disappointed that I didn’t mention one of my other favorite books this year, Moby Duck. I rambled about that title to so many friends, went out of my way to try to see the author read in the suburbs, etc.

So, here’s a little roundup of my favorite non-fiction reads. There were more, but I don’t think its fair to mention books from Quirk (Ten Tea Parties and Geek Wisdom).

1. Moby Duck by Donovan Hohn: I remember when the story broke, when tens of thousands of rubber duckies plunged into the ocean and made their way around the world. You can find old articles on it online (check out this Daily Mail piece), but it was Donovan Hohn who took all these stories and wrote a fantastic book.

The thing that really awes me about this book, is Hohn’s ability to write about topics that are regularly boring, like science (oceanography, meteorology) and business (Chinese toy manufactures, global economics), and make them incredibly thrilling. His adventure around the world is just so arresting and intense, it’s impossible to not get caught up in the drama of it all.

Who knew a bunch of rubber duckies could be so interesting? They sure are. Get this book.

2. Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America by Jeff Ryan: I was fortunate enough to meet the editor of this book at BEA earlier in the year, and not only did she send me a copy, but she introduced me to Jeff via email. A great guy, he later wrote a really fun post on the Quirk Books website for me. Also he’s from New Jersey. Bonus points.

Anyhow, Super Mario, tells the story of how Nintendo found EPIC success here in the states, and doesn’t skimp on the drama. It’s a rollicking, exciting, and often times hilarious read about Nintendo’s past thirty years and the people who made those years so phenomenal. Jeff fills the book with plenty of pop culture references that’ll thrill game lovers and gives you enough details behind the scenes of the business to excite even the stodgiest businessman.

You can follow Jeff on Twitter via @dailymario and check out this Mario blog, here.

3. Packing for Mars by Mary Roach: Yes yes, this book came out in 2010, and I’m supposed to be prattling about non-fiction books from 2011… but when Mary came to Philadelphia for a First Person Arts event this year, I actually got to do a Q&A with her on Geekadelphia. And her publicist (who lives in Philly!) personally dropped a copy of her new book in my mailbox.

I’ve loved every single one of Mary’s awesome essay collections (Bonk, Spook, Stiff), and Packing for Mars was no different. She answers the sort of quirky questions you never think to ask about space exploration. Throwing up in your helmet, having sex, etc. When I chatted with her, she told me about how she learned all about space exploration without ever leaving the planet, because of the fantastic simulations available here on Earth… all of which she tried out.

An awesome book, an awesome author… definitely a must read. Can’t wait for her next book and her next visit to Philadelphia.

—

Other fun non-fiction books I read this year? All Your Base Are Belong to Us by Harold Goldberg, and two fantastic Halo art books, the Halo Encyclopedia and Halo: The Essential Visual Guide, both of which are from DK Books. Scope those out if you’re a gamer.

Whenever I visit home, I always give my awesome and hilarious nephew, Jordan, my iPhone. He flips through it carelessly, and I let him call whoever he wants… well, within reason. If I spot him calling my boss or a media contact, I take it away. Let’s be real here.

I shot this over Thanksgiving and finally got around to piecing some of my favorite clips together. Thank you Allie (aka Alex Hack-cher), Jess, Mikey, Sarah, and Linzy for being such good sports about the whole thing.

Next installment… Christmas edition.

So last weekend was interesting.

My pal Glen Tickle, a guy I went to college with (and took a monster road trip with last year), is one hell of a funny stand up comedian. Once a month, he hosts a show called Pretending to be on TV. It’s a late night talk show without the actual television, hosted at a gorgeous theater in Bethlehem, PA. He’s been talking about it for quite some time now, but as much as I fancy myself a good friend, I couldn’t figure out what the hell it was.

Until this past weekend.

Glen had me come on to chat about the Master Chief suit and essay, my book, my love of Skyrim, and just some general stuff about myself, like work and what-not. I was joined by celebrated blogger (and former college classmate) Jill Pantozzi, who oddly enough I pitch a lot of Quirk titles to. She spoke about comics, why she writes about them, etc. All in all, it was a fabulous time, and was actually the first time I’ve gotten to hang with Jill outside an industry event. Which is a shame, cause she is fabulous.

Jill wrote about her experience being on Glen’s show, here. She’d actually read about the Master Chief story, but didn’t know it was me. Ah, small world.

There’s a video clip of my talk over on Pretending to be on TV’s official website / Tumblr, check it out here. And of course, some (terrible low resolution iPhone 3G) photos below. Thanks for having me on Glen. I’m super proud of you.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

There’s a soundtrack to my favorite 2011 novel! Get it here!

The great thing about working in publishing, is I get to read a hell of a lot of books. And not just the books my job puts out (though I do read every single one), but the titles published by our friends in the industry.

BEA and Comic Con are just fantastic for loading up on bookish swag, and I actually discovered most of my favorite reads this year in the form of sweet, sweet free ARCs.

Anyhow, thought I’d write up a little post about my favorite reads this year. I was pretty much all about science fiction, steampunk, and dystopian YA romance this year.

…

What’s wrong with me?

1. Ready Player One by Ernest Kline: If my inner child were to write a book, and was a competent writer, I’m pretty sure this would be it.

I adored this book, so much that I even wrote a review of it on Geekadelphia back in August, and I never write book reviews on there. Loaded with 80′s pop culture references and set inside a virtual reality landscape that makes World of Warcraft look like Pac-Man, it is impossible not to get sucked into Kline’s geektastic masterpiece.

While the rest of these titles aren’t in any particular order, Ready Player One is, hands down, my favorite book this year. You can read my ramblings about it on my other blog. I only wish the ARC cover ended up the final cover. Oh well.

2. Robopocolypse by Daniel H. Wilson: Even though I scored a free ARC of it at BEA this year, I went ahead and pre-ordered the hardcover, just so I could own it. I let a friend borrow it, and I never saw that copy again. So I bought another.

The only other book I’ve bought this many copies of is High Fidelity, and that’s my favorite book of all time.

Wilson’s epic science-fiction saga reads like any number of Michael Crichton’s well researched classic sci-fi thrillers, blended with the narrative structure of Max Brooks’ World War Z. You’re introduced to a number of interesting characters and plotlines, each entirely enthralling. And Wilson’s seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of robotics shouldn’t surprise readers. Not only did he write the hilarious How To Survive a Robot Uprising, but the guy holds his Ph.D in Robotics.

3. Ganymede by Cherie Priest: At BEA this year, the folks over at the Tor booth were dishing out copies of Priest’s first book in the Clockwork Century series, Boneshaker. I devoured that book over the course of a week, the second in the series, Dreadnought (2010) shortly after… and I just  wrapped up the third title in the series that released back in September. Ganymede.

I love the amazing steampunk universe that Priest has so cleverly crafted. Sky pirates, airships, zombies, monstrous steampowered war machines… all set in an alternate history where the Civil War never ended… man, I just have no words. She managed to throw in so many things that I love into a fantastic series that I just couldn’t put down.

I can’t recommend these books enough. And according to Priest’s agent (who also reps Quirk author Jason Heller!), the first in the series is being made into a movie. Go order all three of them, right now.

4. Crossed by Allie Condie: While I was on my “I need to read as much YA as possible to properly market Miss Peregrine” trip, I picked up Matched by Allie Condie. It come out at the end of 2010, and was being toted as the next best thing in dystopian YA after the Hunger Games series. Don’t be fooled by that sort of language though, as Matched is light on the epic violence, heavy on the sugary romance… though it goes get a little more intense towards the conclusion.

Anyhow, Matched was a bit of a guilty pleasure. I finished reading it while in Puerto Rico in the Fall and couldn’t wait for the sequel,  Crossed, which came out in November. Luckily for me, I was able to nab it month early at Comic Con. Well, my intern managed to. Thanks Chris.

Crossed picks up where Matched left off, and this time, gives us the voice of two protagonists and kicks up the violence. Condie gets creative and does something risky, introducing the new narrator like that. It was a bit jarring at first, but eventually works and benefits the story. Great read.

5. Divergent by Veronica Roth: I won’t lie. It took me a few tries to get into this book. After reading the Hunger Games, it was hard to scoop up any YA dystopian book without immediately comparing it. I picked this book up, put it down, picked it up, put it down… and finally I managed to get through it over the course of a weekend. Loved it.

In Roth’s awesome first book, society is split into a number of factions (much like Matched, actually), each contributing to the so-called perfect society. The standard YA tropes pop up; society isn’t perfect, people are lying, folks fall tragically in love, etc. But oh man, is it gripping. The writing is just fantastic. Loved it.

—

I should stress that these were my favorite books to come out in 2011. I read a hell of a lot more, including some great non-fiction, which might make for another post.

I also adored reading the entire Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, catching up on (most) of Harry Potter (as of this post, I just started Order of the Phoenix), all of the Percy Jackson books (so fun!), Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (shut up), Rob Shefield’s Love is a Mix Tape and Talking to Girls About Duran Duran (thank you Linzy), the Gears of War trilogy by Karen Travvis, all of the Scott Pilgrim books, ah, and so much more.

If you want to keep up on my books, be friends with me on Goodreads. Be warned, there are lots of guilty pleasures on there. Don’t judge.