The Fault in Our Stars Tour

On the 29th Gordon (my brother - ie - the guy in the orange hat in the picture with me) and I went to the Fault in Our Stars Tour and I have been wanting to talk about it ever since! Ahhhhh!

Yes, this is the awesome thing I've been wanting to talk about for the last week. Well, the start of the awesomeness.

Backing up, The Fault in Our Stars Tour is the book signing tour of author John Green, but it was also so much more than that!

John and his brother Hank make up the Youtube team the Vlogbrothers. A Vlog is a video blog, and they are brothers, so it's a perfect name! These two guys are very, very smart, and awesome. They are one of the more well known vloggers (among people who watch these things) and they call their followers the Nerfighters.

Yes, I said Nerdfighters. No, not those who beat up nerds (who we can safely call losers), but nerds who fight "To increase world AWESOME and decrease world suck." Anywhere you see DFTBA pop up (Don't Forget To Be Awesome) you are seeing the influence of these Nerdfighters.

Let me let you in on a little secret, in case you hadn't guessed it yet, I'm a giant nerd. When I was younger I took great pleasure in sitting and reading our junior encyclopedia, I am a writer who thinks nothing is more awesome than being in a room full of other writers all talking about writing, I love Star Trek, Star Wars, and most all things fantasy and sci fi related, and I've been known to craft in weird places.

Remember this picture? I was knitting while listening to the guys talk and Hank sing. Getting back to the tour itself, the tour was a combination of promotion and signings of John's latest book (The Fault in Our Stars), John gave a talk, Hank sang, and of course, there was lots of nerdyness. Everywhere you looked there was nerdyness. People talking about Dr. Who (I saw a knit cap that looked like the Tardis!), singing songs about particle physics, and screams. Lots of screams and yells and cheers and goofy dancing.

Guess what? They even made a video with footage from the event we were at! No, I'm not in the video.

Now one of the things that John (the one who wrote the book) talked about was, well, living an awesome life. That is, after all, one of their main focuses! It really got me thinking. Is my life awesome? Why or why not? Then I read the book and...

Well that's a story for anther post. What? Yes, I'm not going to delve deeper into my thoughts on living an awesome life today because I have a lot I want to say. So, aside from my updates on how my writing life is going, I'm going to focus on this for a few posts (maybe many posts). Check back, join in the discussion, and leave me your thoughts, I'd love to hear them :)

~ Ruthie ~

Ps. I'm having blog comment problems and we are not sure why. Feel free to send me a message at jedimarri(at)gmail(dot)com instead. We are in the middle of a family crisis so I haven't had time to contact blogger about it yet. Any information you can give me will be useful when I am able to contact them. Thanks!

Poem - The Distracted Writer's Mantra

source

It's Monday again - so it's time for me to share another piece of my writing! I wrote this piece last week. NaNoWriMo was over, and I wanted to keep up my pattern of writing every day, but I didn't want to work on any big projects for a few day, to let me brain unwind a little. I hadn't written a poem in awhile, and I decided that would be perfect! That's about as far from writing a novel as you can get right? 

Well, maybe. As you will see this poem is all about the writing process, and all the things that writers do to avoid sitting down and writing. I've done each and every one of these in this last month.

The Distracted Writer’s Mantra
By Ruthie Stickney
Copy-write 2011

Must Write! Should update Facebook first.
Must Write! Can’t forget about Twitter!
Must Write! There’s an email from Mom.
Must Write! Haven’t written Nana in awhile…
Must Write! Should respond to that comment.

Must Write! Forgot to check my phone!
Must Write! Should respond to that text.
Must Write! Call from my best friend.
Must Write! Need to text my cousin.
Must Write! Oh look, another email!

Must Write! Forgot to shower today.
Must Write! Should start the laundry.
Must Write! Did I water the plants?
Must Write! There are dishes in the sink.
Must Write! Did I eat breakfast?

Must Write! Need more coffee first.
Must Write! The coffee pot is empty.
Must Write! I’ll make some more.
Must Write! The coffee’s done!
Must Write! I’m out of creamer.

Must Write! I should run to the store.
Must Write! I need to return that book.
Must Write! The car needs more gas.
Must Write! Think I’ll stop at McDonald’s.
Must Write! A quick trip to the Goodwill.

Must Write! I deserve a break now.
Must Write! They updated my game!
Must Write! Earn more coins for items.
Must Write! So close to the next level…
Must Write! Change my characters outfit.

Must Write! Never folded the laundry.
Must Write! What should I make for dinner?
Must Write! I’ll thaw some chicken.
Must Write! Should clean the bathroom.
Must Write! Is the mail here yet?

Must Write! Don’t have a playlist for it.
Must Write! Should download that song.
Must Write! This isn’t enough songs.
Must Write! Look on Youtube for more.
Must Write! Should synch this to my phone.

Must Write! Time to make dinner!
Must Write! I’ll eat and answer emails.
Must Write! Ice-cream for desert.
Must Write! I haven’t written anything.
Must Write! Oh well, maybe tomorrow.


It's a wonder I made it both through my 50k and to the end of the book huh?

~ Ruthie ~

Ps. What do you do when you should be writing instead?