Personally? If I put my bag/purse on the seat next to me, it's b/c I don't want creepy men sitting next to me. I'll move them for a non-threatening woman.

Genre YA tends to have more crossover appeal with adult readers. Personally, I read the sh*t out of "realistic" (ie: contemporary) YA as an actual tween/teen, but as an adult, I have almost zero interest in contemporary YA. Your average contemporary YA is teen romance fiction set in high school, and personally I have…

Sigh. Yes. And I think we all have that WIP that never got finished that we long for. Mine is from 2003 and I STILL WONDER what happened to the author. Antenora's "The Losing Side," I miss you! XD

Holly Black was never active in HP fandom, so she can't be counted among that group (Cassie just happened to meet her while CC was in fandom). The ones that I know of are CC, Sarah Rees Brennan, RJ Anderson, Jaida Jones (that's the Shoebox Project co-author). Then there are a handful that I suspect either wrote HP…

I think where Hollywood has got it wrong is they think that a series that is a huge hit with tweens will be a huge hit as a movie release. What they don't realize about The Hunger Games and Twilight (and Harry Potter) is that those films didn't do well because kids/tweens/teens love the books. They did well because…

Related/unrelated, it *is* fascinating how some of the "best" fanfic writers don't end up writing original work and publishing. Some of the most gifted writers of novel-length fanfiction from my days in the HP world, to my knowledge, have never branched out into original fiction. Many of them don't seem to be…

While I agree with you (CC clearly works her butt off), I did LOL at "youthful indiscretions." CC was around 30 when all the super fun fandomy drama went down. A 30-year-old professional journalist (which she was) should have known better, IMO, though in fandom it's often the so-called "adults" who cause and…

*eyeroll* This is the same lady who wrote the delightfully misogynist piece of shit about why we're all single, right? Yawn.

I just read the book, and just a few of the characters are "real," and most of the finer details (ie: all the good stuff!) from the show are 100% dramatized/fictional. So Red is based on a real person, but beyond knowing she was married to a mobster, there's nothing about her backstory in the book (also she doesn't…

That was my thought as well. While of course sometimes crazy-hot girls go for short geeky guys (and vice versa), it's damn rare. It's frustrating for me, as an average-but-not-unattractive, overweight geeky girl, because this guy is definitely my type (though a bit too young/immature/Nice Guy for my tastes) but guys…

I lived in Boston and the landlord is not required to pay for your heat. In my last apartment, we paid rent only and were responsible for everything else (water, electric, heat). (and if NYC landlords are required to provide heat, that just means it's factored into the jacked up rent — so either way you pay for it,…

While I'd like to join you in finger wagging at my generation (I'm a pretty old fashioned, no nonsense Young), when you're talking specifically about income + loan expenses + ability to pay rent, it really doesn't matter whether your proxy theoretical Millennial cuts back on so-called luxuries. Taking the example of…

Right?! I feel so guilty, especially since I was a "nose to the grindstone" student that was set on finding a dream career and loving it to pieces. But I'm not sure I would love it, even if I had that job. For me, a huge part of it is that I'm an introvert in an extroverted work environment (which my dream career…

Yeah, I really enjoy the relative comfort I have making a living wage. I don't make a *ton* of money, but it's at least 10K higher than I would make as a journalist with 100X more job security (my particular position in my particular company is kind of recession proof). And AMEN. I discovered that, ultimately, I just…

40K is high for a journalist. Sounds about right for a staff, senior writing position at a print publication. Depressing, right? Starting salaries for journalism are persistently under 30K and have been for a longggg time (just like publishing!). If you make it to really senior positions at the major papers you can…

I wear an Anita Extreme Control in a 38E (I'm a 38DD in "normal" bras). I got fitted for it at Intimacy, to ensure I got the right size the first time, but I re-up for cheaper via Amazon. As I use it and it gets looser, sometimes I get some "uni-boob" action, but not nearly on the level as I've had with every other…

I have several ON tops. Any of the ones that have a cinch tie waist have a really generous shape. I like them b/c they hide by back fat and cover my hips :) I've ordered two of their workout tops online, based on knowing my ON size in store. So I would recommend trying in store and then ordering online.

1) Fuck Lululemon. I always see gorgeous, thin women in my exercise class wearing their tops and I COVET them, but I know I can't shop there (and I'm too cheap anyway). If 10/12 is fat, then I'm a massive hippo. (spoiler alert: I'm so not)

I've known about McKee for years, and always found it rather sad that such a talented songwriter—and voice—didn't get any recognition for her work. (and Perry claims she "writes" all her songs, which I find ridiculous since Cathy Dennis also writes for her, and no way Perry "wrote" any part of a Cathy Dennis song,…

I think she'll do well. I agree that based on P&P it's a stretch, but I thought she had some grit in Jack Reacher. She's also played other supporting roles in thrillers, so I think she can do ice-bitch (Surrogates comes to mind). I'm kind of excited to see her play her first real, meaty role, personally. What's nice…