Great day to be me, Fantabulous day to be you!

Hey hey!

First things first. The fantastic Laura (Elbie) interviewed me (!!!) over on her blog.

I'm an supercalifragilistic sorta mood! Yeah, I used that in a sentence. It's that good!

But what say we does this all logical-like and start at the beginning?

I don't make plans.

In general, that is. I don't really have anything personal against plans, but I just don't make 'em. Several reasons, really.

See, plans require energy. You might not think it a lot of energy, but thinking about stuff and making sure X is done and Y is done and Z is paid, and blah blah, it'a a lot to keep track of. Unless I`m really, really into something. Then I`m happy to plan it forever. Like my Masters Degree- I`ve researched just about every school in the US and the UK that offers MFAs or MA Translation or combinations of the two. But normally, I just don`t do plans.

The other thing about plans is their tendency to fall through. When I imput something into my mind, I become attached to it and I`m loathe to let it go. Take my August Writers' conference for example. First I found out Vermont is one step from impossible to get to from Japan, then I found out it clashed with my concert, then I lost my passport. Still, I hung on. Until I let go.

That's right, I'm done. Not going to the conference anymore.

It was a hard decision. So hard in fact that I've been cycling between depression and mania faster than ever before. For 2 weeks I've gone between looking at bridges as diving boards and feeling that eagles couldn't soar higher than me. EVERY SINGLE DAY. Last night, I started hyperventilating. That's when I worried. I haven't hyperventilated since I was in the military. And that was 9 years ago!

After poking around on youtube, I finally found something to cheer me up. Cartoon musical soundtracks in Italian. The quintilingual life is so good. Let me just say, some songs are somuch better in other languages. I like the Japanese "Ato Mo Sukoshi" better than I like "Almost There" from Princess and the Frog. (I've acctually only seen this movie in Japanese. I'm afraid I won't like the English as much!) Toy Story's Soundtrack is so much better in French, that I never listen to the English, even though they're on the same CD. Hercules was meant to be listened to Italian. My favourite is "Ti Vada o No" (Are you going or not?) which you might know as "I Won't Say I'm in Love."

Another fave of mine is "Dille che l'ami" (Tell her you love her) or "That's how you know" from Enchanted. (I've only seen this in Italian. I'm so weird). Oh, and "Baciala" or "Kiss the Girl" is fantastic in English, but incred in Italian. What caught my ear last night was Anastasia's soundtrack. "Cuor non dirmi no" (Heart don't tell me no) and "Quando viene Dicembre" (When December comes) or "Once Upon a December" are both excellent! And I love the Italian name of "At the Beginning", "Il Mio Vero Inizio Sei Tu" (My true beginning is you!) That's just plain sweet. Animated translations for the bigwigs tend to be good, because they're done in-house. Disney's (I know Anastasia is Fox) always capture the feel so well, and I think some work better than English.

Anyhow...

All this to say I'm happy!

I'm missing my conference, BUT

Instead I'm going to

the 2 day Jay-Z, Nas, Smashing Pumpkins, Nickelback, Keri Hilson, Jason DeRulo, Orianthi, Sum 41, A Tribe Called Quest, Taylor Swift and STE(EEK)VIE(EEK) WON(EEK)DER(EEK)
Hokkaido (northernmost Japanese island) to see friends

Since I recently discovered SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) Tokyo (only due to Laura Rennert's agent page, I don't know why I didn't look it up before) I'll go to their conference when they have one.

Also since I'm also re-hooked on Italian, I'm going to go to give up fighting and go to Italy. At some point. Preferably after I have a passport.

After all that $3000 isn't going to just spend itself!

Kidding!

Sorta.

By now, you're probably wondering in the ramble mess of a post, why it's fantabulous to be you. Well, I'm pretty good at keeping the brunt of my depression off the masses, but when I'm happy? That stuff just oozes out of me. And so I'm passing the love on!

How?

GIVEAWAYS!!!

All next week, I'm giving away books! In 2's maybe even in 3's. Books get lonely too!

Here's the Plan:

Monday: The Interview Packet
Tuesday: The Nathan Packet
Wednesday: The Bloggers' Choice Packet
Thursday: The Debut Packet
Friday: New Release Packet

The rules?
1. You have to be a follower to win.
2. The post will go up on how to win sometime around 12.01 am the day of (JST- Japan Standard Time, it's so cool we have a time zone with our name on it.) and you can enter until 11.59 pm EST. By my calculations that's 37 hours.
3. You won't know how to enter until the day of, so keep your eyes open.
4. You can win a maximum of two prizes for the week.

Remember if you've got a ticket, you've got a chance! Wait no, that's the lottery.

Oh, and one last thing, I'm accepting suggestions for the Bloggers Choice Packet. Let me know what books you'd like to win.

Apologies that I'm so crazy, but it's so much fun. Maybe I'll be normal tomorrow.

Or, to quote Beauty and the Beast's Lumiere, "Zen aggen, mebbe not!"