Get Well Soon Audiobook Contest Winners!

Thank you so much to everyone who entered the Get Well Soon Audiobook contest. I feel bad that I didn't respond personally to many of the nice blog comments. They got ahead of me, and I didn't know how to get back and make nice. I am baby disorganized for a good, long while. However, I was organized enough to pick the three winners (actually, I let Romy pull them out of a hat. If I didn't grab them fast enough, she also would have eaten them). Congratulations to
*celi.a
*Jake Lsewhere
*Alexa

I will send emails to everyone tomorrow, or, if you read this first, you can send an email with your address to me @ julie@juliehalpern.com

And now for a truly excellent Julie's Most Awesome Book Cover.

Hee hee. This book was actually in my library. Sick.

Ode to Jacko

It’s my turn to write about Michael Jackson. I’ve been thinking so much about him lately, so why not? I cried when I found out he was actually dead (after all of the TMZ and Facebook chatter, is he or isn’t he, type stuff). Just a little, but I still cried. I don’t quite know why. Loss of life is always sad, thinking of his family, his brothers and sisters, of his kids. Remembering him from my childhood, feeling old myself, thinking how sad his true fans must feel. And then I thought back to all of the times in my life that were filled with Jacko. Here’s a list of random memories:

-When the video for Thriller came out, I was so excited-- overly excited-- sick to my stomach if I couldn’t see the full, extended version excited. I watched the video every single time it came on, loved the mix of costumes, great story, fantastic dancing, the song, and Vincent Price’s laugh.

-My friend, Beth, needed a belt for a school play, and all the store had was stretchy belts with Michael Jackson’s face on the buckle. This was in ’85, past the Thriller hype, so she covered the face with a rainbow sticker.

-I ate up every one of his videos because of the dancing, even when I was in junior high and too cool to be into him (I was getting into my “alternative” era, as they called bands like U2, The Church, INXS, and REM in those days.). “Smooth Criminal” was my favorite.

-In health class my junior year of high school, we had to practice CPR on a dummy whose name happened to be Annie. Every person had to shake the doll and say, “Annie, are you OK?” Smooth Criminal! I laughed every time and couldn’t get the song out of my head for days.

-At a house party in college they played “Wanna Be Starting Something,” and I couldn’t help but dance, and seeing everyone else dance, and thought, how cool that all of the hipsters and hippies are all loving this song?

-Somewhat recently, maybe three years ago, Matt, my sister and I went to one of those instant warehouse Halloween stores that pops up for a month or so and then disappears (this one never to return, which is a bummer because it was so huge). The store was packed, the weekend before Halloween, and “Thriller” came out of the ceiling. The whole store started dancing. Little bits at first, and then you could just see it. How that song made everyone groove uncontrollably.

-Most recently I was driving to work at seven in the morning, late spring, when it started to snow. Usually snow that time of year is insanely frustrating because it’s just time for it to go away, but as I drove, “Man in the Mirror” came on my iPod (for some reason that’s the only Michael Jackson song I have on my iPod, even thought it’s not my favorite). The snowflakes were falling in slow motion, and that beautiful song played. It made me cry.

I think I’m going to jump on the bandwagon and buy a copy of Thriller on CD. My cassette disappeared a long time ago with all of my parachute pants and crispy jackets. As wacko as Michael Jackson was for a good chunk of his adult life, and who doesn’t love a good freak show, he affected me, as I know he did others, with his music, style, and dance. I can’t wait to dance around my house with Romy when Thriller arrives. R.I.P MJ.

PS The Get Well Soon Audiobook Contest ends tomorrow.

Ghosts of Blogs Past

This is so weird. Sometimes, I don't get a single comment on my blog posts (for which I don't blame you, since I know I can be sporadic about posting. But I have been much better this summer, haven't I?). But I STILL get comments on a post from almost ONE YEAR ago. The post (click here to read it) was a little rant about how Chandler's assignment notebooks had gone out of business and where the heck was I going to find a suitable replacement (which, gack, has not happened and I had to make do with a Trapper Keeper version and put in a makeshift address book). Like I said, that post has almost been up for an entire year, and just today I received another comment on it! I figured out a while back that the reason people are finding it is that they do a Google search for "Chandler's," and my post comes up. But I think it's really funny that people are so passionate about the Chandler's that they feel the need to comment.

And now for another Julie's Most Awesome Book Cover:
from a Time Life series on Human Behavior. Not much more to add to this fabulous atrocity.

Don't forget the Get Well Soon Audiobook Contest! Click here to enter!!!

Get Well Soon Audiobook Contest!

Yeah, it's time for another contest. I was sort of saving it, to spread the contests out, but then I thought, why? I can have another contest soon to win Into the Wild Nerd Yonder buttons (oooooh!), a Get Well Soon paperback contest, and then, soon enough, a full-on Nerd hardcover contest. Calm down, calm down. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Today begins the Get Well Soon audiobook contest! If you love audiobooks (and who doesn't?), or if you love Get Well Soon (I sure hope you do), or if you just love me (um, no pressure, really), then please enter to win one of three, that's right, THREE copies of Get Well Soon on audio. These are finely crafted, Listening Library audio CDs, ladies and germs, all in a shiny, yellow plastic case. Read by the wonderful Mandy Siegfried. Here's the lowdown on Get Well Soon (just in case you don't already know):
Anna Bloom is depressed—so depressed that her parents have committed her to a mental hospital with a bunch of other messed-up teens. Here she meets a roommate with a secret (and a plastic baby), a doctor who focuses way too much on her weight, and a cute, shy boy who just might like her.

But wait! Being trapped in a loony bin isn’t supposed to be about making friends, losing weight, and having a crush, is it?

In her fiction debut, Julie Halpern finds humor in the unlikeliest of places, and presents a character whose voice—and heart—will resonate with all of us who have ever felt just a little bit crazy.

Here's the ol' webpage link to get the full on scoop.

All you have to do to enter is comment on this blog post about anything. Could be about this post, could be about SYTYCD, could be about what you had for dinner last night. I'll draw the three winners in one week (if I remember to do it next Thursday. Otherwise, possibly next Friday. It's kind of like at the end of voting shows, where they say, "The phone lines will be open for at least two hours after the show." What's that about? How do you know when to stop calling then?).

Good luck, loyal listeners!

Spawn of Satan

Earwigs. What gives? Why are they still so disgusting and scary to me? Forever, I have been terrified of them. I wrote a series of zine articles about them when I published my zine, cul-de-sac, my favorite being a story from when I worked in a public library in Madison. A woman came up to me and asked for info about earwigs. I told her I was sort of an expert, since I was so afraid of them. She pulled me aside, and in a thick, East Coast accent asked me, "Will they go--" For which I promptly interrupted her and said, "No, they won't go in your ears. That's a myth." To which she said, "No. Will they go in my pubic area?" Hee hee. Anywho, the whole point of that was that there was an earwig in my bed last night. Matt caught it before I could see it, but still. Nightmares all night long.

In other news, I got my hair highlighted today. I have some grays, and I thought highlights would be a nice way of covering them without committing to coloring all of my hair all of the time. It looks nice, but I still see the grays! Why didn't the colorist make it a point to seek out all 27 of the gray hairs and paint them individually? Did I need to pay extra for that or something?

Even though I have never watched John and Kate Plus Eight, I feel icky about their divorce. Even ickier than I feel about her hair.

So how many of my blog readers are going to ALA this year?

Get Well Me?

I am having a hard time. I don't know if it's due to events that are going on today (sorry, I will not talk about what those events are, so I shouldn't even have brought it up. But it's a slight context for this post, anyway), or if it's due to lack of sleep (both natural and baby related), or if it's my joyous chemical makeup that has caused me so much beef in the past. I am in a funk. It's like I'm excited about things (including my amazing daughter), but I feel like I should be more excited. I'm stoked about ALA, but now I am feeling pressure to befriend all sorts of other authors and bloggers in an effort to "fit in." I think that's what I'm doing. I like knowing and meeting people, but part of me just feels like a poseur. That, yes, I am an author and, yes, I am a blogger, but am I really legit enough to hang with others of that persuasion? The only people at ALA I feel truly cozy with are my fellow librarians, probably because a) I've been doing that for over ten years, b) I've been on ALA committees and won ALA awards and have already been to numerous conferences, so, yeah, I'm legit, and c) I'm a really good librarian (this is something I know in my gut). Why am I telling you this? Dunno. How about I lighten the mood with a hilarious book cover from my recently weeded NF collection?
Um, maybe not so hilarious? Don't get me wrong. I'm not making fun of suicide, of course (I totally feel like I need to back that up, even with all of my own depression history), but this book cover is funny. The book was published around the time of my own hospitalization as a teen, and I can't imagine looking to this book for guidance. All I can think of is the photo shoot, and the photographers saying things like, "Look sadder! No! Sadder! Touch the pills! Touch them. And be sure to show off those fabulous leopard print leggings!" Is this in poor taste? I sure hope not. I don't need another thing to feel depressed about.

Julie's Most Awesome Book Covers

I've been hoarding silly book covers for a while now. This is the fourth library I have worked in, and I have seen my share of hilarity. I wish I saved every one because I know there are some doozies that are lost forever in the stacks. I do have several, though, collected in the past few years that I will begin sharing in a new blog segment called Julie's Most Awesome Book Covers (is that a lame segment name? It's late. I'll try to think of something catchier. Or, if you like, suggest one for me). I'm starting with one of the best. It's a YA novel (as most will be) by Neal Shusterman. Neal's books can be pretty scary and suspenseful. The cover of Speeding Bullet, however, appears to be the scariest thing about this book, published in 1991.
Now check out my AWESOME tweak of the cover. I worked hard on this, ladies and gents, painstakingly cutting and coloring the M. And let me tell you, if you want to make me laugh, this is the way to go (click to enlarge):
Every time. It is freakin' hilarious EVERY TIME. I sure hope you agree.