Merry Unbirthday to Everyone Else!

It's my birthday. Today, I am Goddess. Fear me.

This woman is a prodigy: a goddess at only 22 years old!

Update from the Search for My Muchness:
I belong to the League of Oldest Children. As soon as I learn that someone is a younger child in their family, I feel protective of them. I will always be the older sister.

I used to be much more muchier

Dear readers,

Have you seen my Muchness? I seem to have lost it. If you need me, I'll be spending the rest of my summer looking for it. If you don't need me (which includes most of you), you should go watch Alice in Wonderland. I'll send you updates from my search for my Muchness.

With great love and a little Jabberwocky-bashing,

Toni

In which I confess

I'm just gonna say it: in the ideal world, my best friend would probably be a 13- or 14-year-old boy.

Think Sean Astin's character, Mikey, in The Goonies.

Braces and all.

Yup, we would be best buds. There is something endearing about that age when we know we are taking up the last adventures of our childhood. At that threshold of adulthood, we are holding onto our fanciful dreams and yet beginning to understand the deep and scary things of the world.

Why a boy? Because I have already gone on all the girl adventures! Hello! I had two younger sisters. We exhausted the typical list of girl-fun.

Now that I'm old (approaching the nearly-dead age of 22!), I want to be a tomboy. With my best friend, I want to do new things. I want to climb trees, play pirates, hunt dinosaurs, jump off buildings to see if I can fly. I want to be a cowboy, an Arctic explorer, a vulcanologist. I want to talk Star Wars, Transformers, Lord of the Rings--everything cool and dangerous! Golly gee, doesn't that sound like such fun?!

In the meantime, I suppose I will read about adventures and prepare myself. I'm currently sailing on the Dawn Treader with Eustace, figuring out what's wrong with the world alongside Ender, and solving perplexing mysteries with the help of Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson. It's amazing where books can take you!

I - IV

I. Happy Father's Day! I was just remembering how, even though he doesn't like to read, my father has supported me through years of reading (which is especially significant now that I am pursuing it professionally--and it costs $$). When I was thirteen, he shared with me his first print edition of The Hobbit. One night, as I lay in bed reading, he burst into my room and proclaimed, "I am Gandalf!" And just like the unsuspecting Bilbo, I was swept up into a series of wonderful adventures that have yet to cease. So, thank you, Daddy!

I also inherited his squint-eyed smile!

II. I was recently in this place.

Be jealous.

There was much adventuring. Details to follow.


III. I spent this past week at the Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers conference, where I dined with famous authors, laughed with/at crazy authors, and workshopped with budding authors. It was the best thing I have done in my post-graduation career. The manuscript I am currently working on is getting more and more polished with every passing day. And thanks to inspiring words from Lovelies like Ann Dee Ellis and Ally Condie and Carol Lynch-Williams, I am training for a writing marathon. I'll share details later.


IV. I'm beginning my countdown for the midnight release of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. 172 days. And I'm totally in love with the first trailer.