TGIF!!

So I just started reading a new book to review for The Long and the Short of It - and I'm impressed. Really. Most of the books I review for them are decent, pretty good, but not great...but I'm incredibly picky. I was an English major in college and graduate school, after all.

But this book? Outstanding. I love the characters, I love the plot (and I desperately want to know more...), and the writing is strong too. No, I'm not telling you the title - yet. Let's hope it continues to be a good read.

By the way, LASR is looking for more reviewers. You get free books, and you get to mouth off about them (well, nicely). If you like to read, why not do a review or two every once in a while? There's a link on their site if you want more info.

And I forgot to mention that I have an article on dealing with rejection, featured on their site this week too. Check it out here.

Without further ado, here's the Friday Feast:

Appetizer
What was your first “real” job?
Oh, this is a good one: I spent one summer inserting the syllable breaks into words for the Smith Corona typewriter that had the auto-dictionary feature. Boring as all get-out, but I worked in the same area as a bunch of their engineers (and I was 16), so it was fun.

Soup
Where would you go if you wanted to spark your creativity?
This is totally bizarre, but when I was growing up, we had an old rural cemetery less than a mile from our house. I loved wandering around, checking out the headstones and thinking of the people and the lives they must have led; plus it was quiet and really beautiful. I spent a lot of time sitting and writing in notebooks there.

Salad
Complete this sentence: I am embarrassed when…
Actually, since I've grown up I rarely get embarrassed. Maybe I have a tough skin because I teach high school.

Main Course
What values did your parents instill in you?
What values didn't they instill in me?! Hard work and an open mind, those are probably the top two.

Dessert
Name 3 fads from your teenage years .
Oh, boy. Um...big hair, acid washed jeans (rolled up at the bottom in a very cool and precise manner), and those little plastic bracelets strung all the way up girls' forearms ( a la early Madonna). Can you guess the decade? :)