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Wednesday, October 27, 2010

It's Official. I'm a Published Author.

YIPPEEEEEEEEE!

I'm excited.  Can you tell I'm excited?  Because I am.  Excited.  Seriously.

WOOO HOOOOO!!!!!

So the anthology with MY STORY IN IT was released yesterday!  It's available at Amazon for those of you with Kindles and at Smashwords for those of you with other eReaders or with no eReader (like me).  And just for good measure, here's the link to the page on the publisher's site: http://www.notreebooks.com/anthology---vampires-zombies-and-ghosts-oh-my

If any of you are interested in reviewing the book on your blog, let me know ASAP and I'll pass you along to the Eve Paludan, the editor of the anthology.  She is looking for as many reviewers as possible!  Or if you don't want to write a big long review on your blog but you read the book and like it, would you do me a favor and leave a review on Amazon?  It can be really quick, and it would mean a lot to me and I'm sure to the other authors featured in the book.

W0000000000000000000000000000000T!!!

Anyway, I just wanted to do a quick update and let you all know!  And, um, if you're interested in the book... would you maybe buy it?  Please?  *is hopeful*  Leave me a comment and tell me what you thought of it if you DO read it.  That would absolutely make my WEEK.

Hope you all have a lovely day!

-Allison

P.S.  Apparently nobody cares about my dream wedding.  I promise to avoid that kind of talk in the future at this blog.  I'll keep it to my BEDA blogs when I have nothing better to write about. :)

P.P.S. I posted a vlog the other day about baking, the Grand Canyon, and my story getting published.  You should check it out.  There is a shot of a DELICIOUS strawberry shortcake (if I do say so myself).  Maybe if you're lucky you'll be able to activate the smell-o-vision :D

Monday, October 25, 2010

All I want is to have two last names on facebook... *sigh*

Disclaimer: I don't usually devote a whole blog post to weddings.  Well, okay, only once in a while.  Please don't unsubscribe from me?  :)

It's happening again, folks.  I don't know where it came from, but it was inevitable going to rear its ugly head once again.

WEDDING FEVER.

I've been thinking a lot about marriage lately, and I've come to realize some things: 1) I am nowhere NEAR as crazy-obsessed as I was back in freshman year, 2) I'm actually quite happy being single, and 3) I wanna get maaaried! *whines*

See, here's the thing.  I really like my life right now.  I'm almost done with school, I have some rough plans for the next several years, and I'm actually getting published.  And I even like being single.  The only person I really have to worry about is ME.  On the other hand, though, how great would it be to have somebody else to worry about?  Somebody to make dinner for, somebody to wear collaborating Halloween costumes with, somebody to hold hands with as we walk down the sidewalk in this freaking cold weather...

...somebody to LOVE.




Aside from just wanting to find somebody I really click with, though, I've been thinking a lot about WEDDINGS lately, which brings me back to THE RETURN OF WEDDING FEVER: Thisa Time, It'sa Personal.  I love thinking about weddings.  I love planning colors, imagining venues, and picking out AWESOME* bride's maid dresses.  Let me just map out my dream wedding for you (though, of course, I realize most of this won't ACTUALLY happen at my wedding because I am not rich and I don't know what my husband will want because I don't know who he IS yet).

We'll get married on a Saturday morning, we'll take pictures with our wedding party at the temple right after the ceremony, then we'll have a VERY INFORMAL luncheon for the wedding party and the family in which I will wear bride-themed pajamas and we will all eat turkey sandwiches on croissants and fruit and salad and potato salad and possibly some Breyer's mint-chocolate-chip ice cream.  Or maybe milk shakes.  We'll see.

Next up we will take a nap.  I am sure I will be exhausted.  Maybe if I'm really into vlogging at that point (or if I marry a vlogger) we will take some footage.  Or maybe we'll just nap.  Like I said, I'm pretty sure I'll be tired.  I won't have slept much the night before, I'll have gotten up early to get ready for the wedding, and I'll have gone through some MAJOR emotions** that day, which will all lend nicely to an afternoon nap.

That night will be the FESTIVITIES.  This is where I want to REALLY HAVE FUN.  So, we're talking my DREAM WEDDING.  Which means I can anybody I want.  Soooo... I want Mike Lombardo and All Caps to play at my reception.  The party will be HOPPIN'.  We will all rock out, everybody will DANCE, and it will just be tons of fun.  We will also have a delicious, but simple, assortment of foods.  Mostly it will be snack food and finger food.  There will be the obligatory veggie tray, but I also want to have something with SUBSTANCE (because we'll be hungry from all the AWESOME DANCING) like mini-sandwiches or those turkey-cream-cheese rolls, or maybe even WINGS!***

I want the reception to be particularly fun.  A lot of times the reception will have decent music and an okay spread of food, but none of guests will really be PARTYING.  They'll just sit at their little tables and chat idly with the other people at the table.  My reception will have DANCING.  There will be a cool emcee who will get people on the floor, even if it takes the Macarena to do it.  Seriously.  And since this is my dream wedding, there will be a DJ and All Caps/Mike Lombardo.  So we can have the classics like the Cha Cha Slide along with awesome songs like Don't Unplug Me and That Will Be the Day.  Oh, and I just decided.  Maureen Johnson is going to be the emcee.  And she will probably live-tweet the whole night.

Then at the end of the reception my new husband and I will leave for our awesome honeymoon touring Europe and my friends and family will have to clean everything up!  Suckahs! :D

Anyway... I'm sure I've blogged about this before, but it's been on my mind lately, so there you have it.  I promise I'll try not to talk about weddings or marriage or my lack of a boyfriend in next week's post.

Until then, best wishes!

-Allison



*Non-ugly

**Major Emotions *salutes*

***Probably not wings.  I'll be wearing a white dress.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Piano Gets THIS Chick!

Listening to Mike Lombardo's "Piano Don't Get Chicks".  I <3 this guy.  He is a piano rocker.  He is freaking AWESOME.  I think he might be my favorite musician.  Seriously.  He is a REALLY TALENTED piano player, and he is freaking hilarious.

Check him out on YouTube:



And here's a video of him playing "Piano Don't Get Chicks" live:




My favorite songs of his (in case you were curious):
-That Will Be The Day
-I Found You
-Hey Molly
-Colby's Song
-Abby Never
-Piano Don't Get Chicks

And he's really cool, too.  He always responds to me on Twitter and he streams all his songs for free at http://mikelombardo.bandcamp.com/, which is AWESOME.  So check him out.  Seriously.  I know I'm totally geeking out about this, but I ADORE him.  I just hope he'll come to AZ some day.  Actually, you know what?  I just want him to come out west.  I would TOTALLY road trip to go see him.  (Well, as long as it was during the summer... I probably wouldn't be able to miss classes.  I think he would appreciate the fact that I'm trying to get an education, so I don't think he'd hold it against me.)

ANYWAY... check him out if you have a few minutes.  He's awesome.  Seriously.

In other news, I'm almost finished with Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse by Kaleb Nation (another AWESOME guy that I love).  I need to hurry, though.  The book signing is on Saturday, and I still need to read book two!  Eeep!  I'm not really worried, though.  I go through books pretty quickly when I set my mind to it.

And next up on the reading list is Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson!  Yaaaay!  We're having our first meeting for the NAU Banned Books Club next week and we're going to decide on a reading list and meeting times and everything... and we're going to start out with Speak!  It's going to be so much fun.  This project is like my baby... I'm so proud of it and I can't WAIT to see where it goes!  (I'm using a lot of exclamation points right now.  This means I'm excited.)  We bought some cool merch from the ALA that promotes reading banned books, and I invited a bunch of English Education students, and, and, and.... it's going to be SO AWESOME.  Yay.  :)

Well, I think that's enough excitement for today.  I really hope you check out MiLo, though.  Seriously.  I <3 him.

Best wishes!

-Allison

P.S.  Wanna see the awesome bulletin board I made for Banned Books?  (It's part of my job to make example bulletin boards in the Community Development Center for the RAs to see.  I <3 this board so much.  See all the book covers?  I MADE those.  With paper and markers.  Yeah.)

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Big News! (And welcome back to blogging, Allison.)

YOU GUUUUUYS!  I have something REALLY COOL to tell you.

A short story that I WROTE with my OWN TWO HANDS is being PUBLISHED!  Let me type that again for emphasis: PUBLISHED!

It's going to be in an anthology called Vampires, Zombies, and Ghosts, Oh My! (and Other Creature of the Night STORIES).  It will be published in eBook format, so gets those eReaders ready!

In anticipation of the release, I've launched a WEBSITE.  Because I'm FANCY like that.  You should CHECK IT OUT: www.allisonridley.com :)  It's still pretty simple, because I'm still learning how to do web-site-y stuff, but I'm rather proud of it!

That's my BIG NEWS for the week, but in smaller news I've decided that it's high time I return to the world of blogging.  See, after BEDAugust I was kind of burned-out on blogging, but I miss being able to share my innermost thoughts with the internet on a regular basis, so I'm going to start up again.  I can't guarantee how OFTEN I will blog, but I think I'm gonna shoot for once a week.

Speaking of things that will happen once a week, I've ALSO decided to start* VLOGGING.  My goal with that is also once a week, so I think what I'll do is write my blogs on Tuesday or Wednesday and do my vlogs on Friday or Saturday.  That way they're kinda spaced out.

I've already done my first vlog of this Vlog-Once-a-Week-November-and-December, or "VOWND."




Anyway, that's pretty much my life right now!  School is going well, though I've been kind of distracted the last few nights with the excitement of getting published.  I'm loving almost all my classes, though, which is a HUGE improvement from last year.  I'm a little behind on a couple homework assignments, but I'm not gonna let that get me down.

I hope you'll all check out my website at some point... I'm really kinda proud of it, and I'd love for you to share it with your friends if you're so inclined.  I know I'm not even close to being KNOWN or anything, but I feel so professional now and it's a really cool feeling.  So humor me.  There's a little box on my site where you can ask questions, or you can comment on the "news" section... it would totally make my day if you did.

Thanks for being such great friends.  I love you all!

Best wishes!



*By "start," I mean "start for the first time since the last time I decided to be a vlogger"... which was almost a year ago.  Heh.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Whaaaa...?

Um, seriously? August is OVER? I... don't understand. How did this happen? WHEN did this happen?

Well, guys, apparently tonight is the LAST NIGHT OF BEDAugust 2010! I'm... shocked. I can't believe I did so well this year. I didn't miss a SINGLE DAY. And I brought in two new BEDA-ers! I'd say this year was a success :)

I just finished season four of Bones. And... HOLY FREAKING CROW!!!! WHAT THE HECK??? AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

I won't say anything, because I don't want to spoil anyone, but HOLY CLIFF HANGER, BATMAN!

Oh, and that last episode? SO GOOD.

Anyway, I have a chapter I need to read for Theatre 101 (as a former Theatre major, I have a feeling this class is going to be RIDICULOUSLY easy) and then I should probably get to bed. Don't worry, though. This isn't the last you'll hear from me. I plan to continue blogging pretty regularly, both here and over at the MJ ning :)

Until (insert day here), best wishes!

BEDA POSTS: 31!!!

Monday, August 30, 2010

Eeeek!

I see that my titles are getting progressively stupider, but it's because I CAN'T BELIEVE BEDA IS ALMOST OVER.

Today was crazy busy (but awesome!), so I didn't have a chance to catch up on everybody's blogs and respond to comments, but I WILL get to it!  Tomorrow I only have two classes, one of which is an Institute class, so I'll have MUCH more opportunity to catch up on everything.  Still, though, this whole week is BUSY.

I'm really excited for this semester.  It's going to be GREAT.  I can FEEL it.  I feel really good, and my classes seem like they're going to be pretty awesome, so I'm happy.  Oh, and my job is so much FUN!  We have a Black and White Dance coming up next week, and I'm really excited to get everything set up and to do all the decorations and stuff.  I'm a little worried that the music is going to be, ummm, raunchy, but hopefully it won't be TOO bad.  I just remember going to prom and thinking, "What the CRAP is this stuff coming out of the speakers?" and I have a feeling this isn't going to be very different, but who knows?  Maybe I'm wrong*.

Anyway, today was really good because, for the first time, I SERIOUSLY considered going to Grad School.  I always figured I would teach right away and then go back and get my Master's in a few years or something, but seeing all these grad students working for Residence Life and having such a good time kinda inspired me.  I had a really good talk with one of my Institute teachers this morning when I went to register, and talking with him gave me a really good feeling about grad school.  So... I think I'm gonna do it.  I mean, I still need to do some research and figure things out, but... yeah.  I'm almost certain that this is the path I should take.  I'm not even worried about the fact that this means I probably won't get married until I'm like 25 because the options are so limited in Flagstaff.  (Assuming I decide to stay in Flag, which isn't a guarantee.)  I'm just happy about the prospect of continuing into a graduate program.  Which is weird, because only a month ago I was ready to drop my Education degree and just do English and get out of school as soon as possible.  So... yeah.  Kind of a 180 for me, but I'm happy.

WELL, I don't have much else to say tonight.  I think I'm going to keep blogging even when BEDA is over, though.  Anyone else with me?

Until tomorrow, then, best wishes!


*Doubtful.

BEDA posts: 30 (WOW!)
Sewing projects completed: 9

ACK!

Holy cow. SCHOOL STARTS TOMORROW. And BEDA IS ALMOST OVER. This is SO WEIRD.


Tomorrow is going to be a BUSY day.

9:10 - Theatre 101 (for a liberal studies credit that I still need)
10:20 - Register for Institute classes (religious classes like)
11:30 - American Literature from Colonial to 1865
Lunch? Hopefully?
1:00-5:00 - Work
Dinner
7:00 - Teaching Theatre Class

Yeah. My Mondays are always going to look like that. EXCEPT... starting on the 13th, I will have COOKING CLASS in that 10:20 slot each week. YAY! :D I took this class last semester and it was AWESOME. We made delicious food every time and all the recipes that we got were awesome! I'm so excited to take it again. It's gonna be excellent.

ANYWAY, it's getting late and I need to be well-rested for my return to the world of academia.

Until tomorrow, best wishes!

Days until school: ONE!
BEDA posts: 29
Sewing projects completed: 9