John Green recently requested quote posters, and here’s my TFIOS themed addition to the bunch.
I designed the glasses and book myself and liked the glasses so much I made a pop art thing with them too.
As my boyfriend pointed out: There is a reader in the word “books” and a book in the word “readers” tee hee.
Anyways, I may be getting this printed for my own wall. We hear you John!
right now
That is so close.
My preordered copy of TFIOS still has not been signed or bookplated.
He is at a conference on education and social media with such awesome people as Vihart and CPG Grey. Not to mention Minute Physics.
I want to learn more about social media and education strategies and hang out with awesome people. Uncomferences seem awesome in general as well.
I have class and homework though, so no just hanging out at PI for me.
I really wish I could go to brainSTEM though.
This is blowing my mind.
I think I’ll just carry TFIOS around with me for the next two days.
I have been SO off of blogging I wasn’t even sure how to begin this entry. Which is CRAZY, considering how often I used to do it. What, you may ask, HAVE you been doing with all your time? Well, there’s been this little matter of raising my kid. Also a first draft of the next book to try and finish. Plus: husband’s business things, brawling with NC Dept of Revenue (don’t ask, will just say do NOT recommend it) coddling my chickens, helping my parents get ready to move for the first time in over thirty years. Also, a lot of Real Housewives to watch.
Somehow, however, I have managed to join Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/dessensarah) AND resurrect this Tumblr. So clearly I am still into social networking/procrastination, if not blogging. Look no further than my Twitter (@sarahdessen) which I am on constantly. I’m thinking I may cross post from now on here AND Tumblr, with shorter entries. If I can pull myself away from my chickens and the Housewives.
I am also reading: I swear! Although this week I faced that dilemma of having started a REALLY well reviewed, Literary, Important Book that I just…couldn’t get into. It was nonfiction, a bestseller, with a serious but crucial subject. The kind of book you feel like a moron if you don’t like, because you MUST be shallow. (That’s my internal voice talking: it’s nice, right? Yeah, I don’t really think so either.) Anyway, thanks to support of my Twitter folks, I decided to set it aside anyway, even if it was a failing on my part. It was not the book, it was me. But as my mom is fond of saying, “Life is too short to read books you don’t enjoy.”
And you know what? I am SO GLAD I did, because I finally had a chance to pick up John Green’s latest, THE FAULT IN OUR STARS. Disclaimer: I bought this book back on the day it was published (no joke) but I don’t read YA that much, and not at ALL when I am working on a draft of my own. Too distracting. However, I was finally at a place where I could dive in and I am LOVING it so much. (Please, no spoilers! Please?) I really don’t want to work on my own book at ALL since it is so good (which is kind of unfortunate, as I really do need to knuckle down right now). Seriously, though, I’d been trudging through this serious book, berating myself for not being more into it. Then I picked up TFIOS, read one page, and was sucked under. Night and Day, people. Related: YA rocks. Yeah, I said it.
Sarah Dessen has tumblr now! And thinks TFIOS rocks! (This is just a piece of the post, go to Dessen’s blog for the rest!)
This Valentines card was inspired by Alanna and the Valentine she made.
I really loved the idea and wanted to try designing a valentine around the same idea. It’s also my first project using illustrator, so I’m doubly excited about it.
I know it’s sort of late, but feel free to print this out and share the tfios love around.
For anyone who is confused by this, check out John Green’s newest book The Fault In Our Stars from your library, or anywhere books are sold.
EDIT: These are now also for sale on my Etsy! Check it out here!
EVERYBODY WATCH! I AM A GOOSEBUMP!
This is lovely. If you haven’t read The Fault In Our Stars yet, and want to avoid thematic spoilers, I recommend waiting to watch this. But do come back!
My copy of tfios has yet to show up, and I haven’t gotten my hands on lola and the boy next door yet either, so today I made the cold, although short, trek to the library. I got a few books, but the one I read is Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr. What can I say except that I sobbed through the majority of the story. The story brought up some of my own fears and I felt myself close to panicking at a few points, but I stayed okay. It’s the story of a girl Deanne Lambert, who slept with her brothers best friend when she was 13 and he was 17. After almost a year of this, her dad caught them together, and he never looked at her the same since. Now she’s 16 and the boys in her school treat her like public property, her brother is a new father with his own problems, and her two best friends are in love with one another. But they make it through you know? There isn’t a flowery ending or a grand conclusion, just small steps taken to try and make things right and move on.
I don’t like hating things, I don’t like to say I hate things even, but I hate that teenagers treat each other like this. It’s so incredibly heartbreaking. What screwed Deanne’s life was not that she had sex when she was 13. I’m not saying I advocate 13 year olds getting it on, but it wasn’t the ugly thing that it was portrayed at school. She just wanted to feel chosen really, to feel closeness with someone, to have their attention, and that is not a bad thing. What screwed up her life is the way the story was twisted and spread and lingered over, by her classmates and her own father, until she started to believe that was all she was. Pathetic. Trashy. A slut. Yet she wasn’t, she was just a girl, trying to find compassion and love. It’s true that she didn’t find love in Tommy’s 17 year old arms, but that’s all she was really looking for. What right does anyone else have to judge her for that. What right does anyone really have to judge anyone. We just go around in our lives not knowing how to be or what it’s like to be anyone else. But trying to know, trying to feel, trying to understand, I think that’s pretty much the most important thing any of us really ever do. Now I’m tearing up again, but hey, that’s okay. Sometimes I just get scared that we’re not doing it right, we’re wasting all these precious moments we could make things better, but then I take a breath, and say, the only way we can go is forward, so we might as well embrace it and do our best.
And be grateful.
I am so grateful to this author for stirring up these feelings within me so that I am reminded of the things that are most important. So that I can remember to live my life the best I can, even if I’m still scared some of the time. Breaths, one, two three. Breate in and out. I’m also grateful for John Green’s book tfios, even though I haven’t read it yet, because I can feel in my heart from the general themes people have let slip, and the response overall, that it will be a positive and beautiful thing in my life at this time.
It’s okay. Remember to be loving to people, even those who’s choices seem silly, or stupid, or wrong to you, because no matter how smart or experienced or right you are, you still don’t know.
When I went to the mall I saw John Green’s new book, The Fault in Our Stars, in Coles. I checked the signatures and they were all purple. I’m still waiting for my copy in the mail (I should get it in a couple days) but I started feeling emotional just reading the dust jacket. I think this book is just what I need in my life right now to remind me of that even in the midst of a fear of oblivion, there can be hope and love and meaning.
I haven’t read it, so what do I know. But still, it’s clear from the response so far that it’s a powerful and genuine novel, and I can’t wait.
I am extremely pleased to share a middle name with Hazel.
I just wanted to talk a little more about my comic making process. I’m learning how to use Photoshop, but I’m not super comfortable with it, so I mostly draw things on paper. I do my drawings in pencil first, and then use pen to draw over the lines once I have things roughly how I like them. I use Staedtler triplus fineliners, but sharpie fineliners also work pretty well. The reason I use felt tip pens instead of ballpoint is that I find ballpoint pens catch more often and have problems with any previous grooves in the paper. I scan and take pictures of my work at various stages. The Ordinary Superpower comics I’ve been making required an additional step. I used Photoshop to colour them in. I mostly used the paint bucket and brush tool, although I’m sure someone with more expertise (or me when I have had more practice) could use more tools for more advanced effects.
The finished comics of my boyfriend, and John Green are also on my blog, in case you want to check them out 🙂
P.S. Tell me about your ordinary superpower and I may just use it in my next comic!
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
The Serenity Prayer
I don’t believe in God but I believe in this.
