Stefanie is Bedazzled!

Once upon a time, there was a girl who went searching for a writer buddy. After meeting a few people, this girl thought she would never find "The One". Nobody was clicking with her. In an act of desperation, the girl posted on the AbsoluteWrite.com forums, titling the post "Can a girl get a writer buddy :)". The heavens shined down on her then. Her savior came in the form of a girl who wrote awesome YA and was funny and just as silly as the girl was. It was the start of a beautiful friendship.

Okay, maybe that was a little dramatic, but considering the impact this writer buddy has had on me, the dramatics are warranted. I first started exchanging emails with Stefanie Gaither back on March 27, 2011. Over the past year, Stef has become not only a writer buddy, but also a dear friend. I even had a dream once in which we met at a writing conference. When we saw each other in said dream, there was lots of hugging and girly squealing (later, when I told Stef about the dream she said she would have tackle hugged me, lol). After the hugs, we became detectives to find the person trying to sabotage our writing... But back to the point of this blog post.

Without Stef's help, my writing would not be what it is today. She taught me the difference between its and it's. She opened my eyes to the wonders of the semi-colon and the emdash. She's tried to help me with my comma problems, but that is a lost cause. She has always been honest about my writing without being harsh. She's helped me out of many writer blocks including one last night. She listened to me rant about how hard writing is and life in general. We have stayed up into the early morning hours just being crazy.

Needless to say, Stef will be getting a very heartfelt acknowledgement at the end of THE SUMMER I BECAME A NERD  because, if not for her, the book would be crap.

Here's just a small collection of things we've traded in chat sessions (of which, there have been "many" or that's what gmail says, apparently there are too many to count), emails, through facebook, and twitter. Enjoy the crazy!

Fangirl Friday: The Hunger Games Edition

Happy Birthday to all these awesome, strong actresses (just like Jennifer Lawrence!): Keri Russell, Catherine Keener, and Michelle Monaghan!

Oh my goodness... It's here... IT'S FINALLY HERE! The Hunger Games... We've all been waiting a while, feels like forever, and it's finally here! So, let's get pumped up!

Let's go back, when all of us were just getting into the books. This is how we saw the characters before we had a cast:

And now we have this:

Shufflin' Saturday

Music is definitely inspirational for me when starting a new WIP. Sometimes I feel like the vibe I'm going for in a book can't be fully realized unless I find a theme song. This is why, last night, I asked my Facebook friends to suggest music. And I got a wide range of recommendations.

Commence the deluge of Youtube videos, Mr. Chekov!

A Bookish Fangirl Friday!

Happy Birthday to Juliette Binoche! Happy one day early Birthday to Jon Hamm and Rick Rubin!

I've been doing a lot of reading lately, and man, have I struck gold. The first book that blew me away was:

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith (Click image for Goodreads page)

Such a lovely story. I will definitely be adding other books by this author to my TBR pile. This is exactly what it's supposed to be. A love story. The characters are deep and well-developed even though the story only happens in maybe 2 days. Worth the read if you're into love stories and cute British boys.

And just because it's fun to look at covers and especially those from other countries, here's a few for this book.

Shufflin' Saturday

I love music! I mean, who doesn't, right?  So, I thought I'd start a new series of posts where I just talk about the music I'm diggin' at the moment.

Fangirl Friday!

Happy Birthday to Daniel Craig, Jon Bon Jovi, and Dr. Seuss!

New Avengers Trailer!!!!

OMGOMGOMGOMG!!! Soooo BADASS! Am I right? I know. I'm right.

I started watching Downton Abbey this week. And yes, all the hype is correct. It's awesome!

Fangirl Friday!

Happy Birthday to Billy Zane, Edward James Olmos, and Barry Bostwick!

So, I'm sure you've heard, but I must talk about this awesome news: J.K. Rowling will release a new adult book! Here's GalleyCat's announcment: http://t.co/DrMt9OHV

I mean, seriously people, I can't wait! I wonder if it will have any fantastical aspects. Or if it will just be straight up real things happening to real people. In my mind, J.K. can do no wrong. She could write about how to make haggis and I'd read it. And probably love it.

And there's your LOL for the day. You're welcome. I got this from my Pinterest. Harry Potter memes are my new obsession. Check it out :)

Oh yeah, and there's this:

AW YEAH! Are you kidding me?! How awesome does that look?!

And that's it. Post in the comments, tell me what you're fangirl/guy squealing about!

Everyone Should Watch Modern Family

There, I said it. Believe me, your faith in television programming will be restored.

Fangirl Friday!

I know, Fangirl Friday seems to be the only posts I'm doing lately, but things have been busy in Leahland. I promise to work up some other stuff soon :)

Happy Birthday to Elizabeth Banks, Robert Wagner, and Emma Roberts!

New The Avengers stuff!!! ....homina, homina, homina....

"I have an army." "We have a Hulk." *fangirl squealllll*

Speaking of comics, for the longest time I've kind of been avoiding reading the new Astonishing X-Men due to the absence of Jean Grey (my FAVORITE comic character), but I finally gave in when my brother insisted I catch up. And, you guys... WOW! As much as I hate to admit it because of the whole Jean Grey issue, it is awesome! I highly recommend it even if you've never been into comics. I mean, just look:

Fangirl Friday!

Happy birthday to Isla Fisher, Nathan Lane, and Warwick Davis!

So, earlier in the week I made it into the beta of this:

And then I was like this:

I was also able to catch up on American Idol. Here are some of my favorites:

Fangirl Friday!

YAY! Haven't done one of these in a while. So let's do this thing!

Happy Birthday to Rainn Wilson, Lorenzo Lamas, and George Burns!

The Avengers - May 2012!

Can't wait for this! Now when are we going to get a Justice League movie?

The Hunger Games, obviously.

Things For People...

So, there are a couple of things I'd like to bring to your attention this Saturday night. I gave myself a reward for reaching a critical spot in my WIP. The reward was being able to watch Crazy, Stupid Love. Normally, I'm a very critical movie watcher especially when it comes to romantic comedies. BUT since Ryan Gosling AND Steve Carell are in this movie, I let my critical nature take a backseat.

You guys.... such a wonderful movie. It is rare, in my opinion, these days to stumble across a sincere romantic comedy that doesn't just focus on how the girl and guy get together. To find one that has an underlying message that I can relate to is, for lack of a better word, crazy. Dear lord, I wish more screenwriters would make a note of this fact. We want romantic comedies that hit home, that make an impact, that make us relate. Not ones that basically come down to: hot guy meets hot girl, they copulate.

So, the first thing I think y'all should check out is Crazy, Stupid Love! Obviously.

And, if you're a YA writer, please watch Easy A. Emma Stone... I <3 her!

Next thing I'd like to bring you attention to is http://fuckyeahryangosling.tumblr.com/ . Which has images like this:

Yeah, I know right?! So freakin' cute and hilarious. 

The last thing I'd like to make you notice is this:

This... Thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiissssssssssss, has been stuck in my head all day!

YouTube Tuesday

Charlieissocoollike! Watch and love :)

YouTube Tuesday

So, yes, I consider myself a Nerdfighter! NERDFIGHTERS HOOOO! Anybody get the Thundercats reference? If you did, you're cool. Anyway, I've been watching the Vlogbrothers for a while. John and Hank Green are the awesomeness! I can't express how much they've kind of, not trying to be dramatic here, changed my life. Their motto, don't forget to be awesome, might not sound that deep, but, really, it's a very complex statement. It reminds me that everyday we have a chance to be awesome. A lot of us, myself included, just float through life waiting for something to happen to us. Waiting for that one spectacular thing to change us and our life. But, what I didn't realize, is that if I just made an effort, if I took control, the amount of spectacularness could be increased from one to infinity as long as I DON'T FORGET TO BE AWESOME!

That said, I'd like to recommend the Vlogbrothers on this YouTube Tuesday. Here is their most recent video:

Also, can I just say that I LOVE Tumblr! I stole my writer buddies' (*waves* Hi Stef!) idea and created one that is pretty much dedicated to inspiration for my new WIP which I'm about a third of the way through with the first draft. So, check it out or don't or save it for later, ya know, whatevs: http://dftbaleah.tumblr.com/ Also, go check out Stefanie's because hers is all types of alien awesoneness: http://stefaniegaither.tumblr.com/

And that's it! Hope you all have an AWESOME Tuesday! And if you have any YouTube channels that you love, share in the comments :)