Even though he was a sociopath... Zach. He was just so dreamy!

Kind of but not quite? It was pretty exclusively pre-teens watching it, hardly a broad cultural phenomenon. I would more compare it to how contemporary kids probably viewed Harry Potter at the time it was first coming out and they're were reading it: here was this amazing thing, made for you!, and you were really into…

Friendships would live or die by the Zach vs. Slater debate. TRUFAX.

It's so hard to quantify against shows now as the landscape has changed so much. Cable is a given now, but back then, most people didn't have it. When SBTB was on, I didn't have cable, thus we had like 10 channels or less (those down thread who mention 30, 40 channels had cable!). The only options for kid's geared TV…

5-15K has become fairly standard for debut novels/new writers. (she says, incredibly depressed about this fact) Buttttt if you've written a breakout novel, or something with a lot of potential, you could get an advance more in the area of 30K, 40K, 60K... or six figures. It still happens.

I've done everything online, which is possibly a sign of the times, or just the product of my fandom background. It comes really naturally to me to cultivate deep friendships without ever meeting :) I was lucky to meet my agent in person before I signed with her, but it wasn't via a conference—she happened to be in…

I've known about this for a while, and I am dubious. If by posting your work you are agreeing to their contract terms, you've basically screwed yourself over should you happen to have a great book on your hands. Even if you get an agent later, you're locked into contract terms when an agent could have feasibly gotten…

The majority of YA readers are adults, actually, though many are Millennials and therefore very digitally connected and social media savvy. However, I personally don't see this system working well for YA because most YA readers prefer hard copies—they are NOT big adopters of ebooks. ie: they are not going to sites…

There's no need to join SCBWI or attend conferences to get published. If you have the money and you want to, go for it, but it's just not necessary. Everything one needs to know is available for free on the Internet. There's a massive community of agents on Twitter who are digitally savvy and answer lots of questions.…

I think one piece that is missing is that there are a lot of people who straddle the line between the high end of "straight" sizes and plus sizes. I'm one of those people. I can wear the largest size at straight size retailers such as Targer and Old Navy (ie: the ones that cut their straight sizes on a generous scale…

Are you signed up with a temp agency? That's another good foot in the door, and to getting experience. A friend in Boston has done it twice—first time got her a FT job at a cemetery (a famous one; she worked on the annual fund), which lead to her second job doing events for a library, and currently while inbetween…

Are you applying for marketing jobs, too? There's a heavy element of PR in marketing, and there are definitely marketing opportunities depending on where you live. There are a good number available in Los Angeles, for sure.

I think it's time to get over the idea that teens that get after school/summer jobs are more employable/better off in the long run of career life. That's just not true anymore. Others have covered the myriad reasons why teens may not be finding summer work, but let me hit you with some anecdata (yay!). I did not work…

Whaaaaaa. On what planet is Taco Bell better than Baja Fresh? Nope nope nope. At least at Baja Fresh they actually prepare/cook stuff from ingredients you can see (from the counter). Their meat isn't suspect. Baja Fresh all the way. By sheer default of not serving McDonald's grade meat.

In my armchair lawyer opinion, I think if you went on one of the TV judge shows, you'd win. Especially if it was Judge Judy or The People's Court—those ladies throw down. Not being on the lease isn't good BUT it sounds like you have evidence of everything else. Did you ever get a copy of the electric bill? Either way,…

I shave my legs when I have to—when the hair grows in so dark it's noticeable and/or I am attending a nice event/going on a date. The rest of the time, I just don't care—I really dislike shaving. I am absolutely a product of the "leg hair is unsightly!" marketing machine, though, as obviously I view shaving as…

That bugged me too. I've read the original script, and the backstory was very different, so while the "wing taking as rape metaphor" is still present in that version, Maleficent had already had a shit life up to that point, and so it was just the final, awful thing that happened to her. I'm really pissed that they…

I read it as both a rape, as well as a disfigurement (Maleficent is, essentially, disabled by it since she has to use a cane to walk afterwards). I thought it was a really bold script decision and Jolie played it brilliant. Actually just read a great piece on it: http://inthesetimes.com/article/16766/…

I typed it all out elsewhere: http://jezebel.com/so-from-what-i…

Yeah, but it's still a critic's job to judge the relative merits of a movie and how it holds up against other movies. Every critic chooses different tacks & lenses for how the approach a film, and for this one I think it was valid to examine missed opportunities, shallow character arcs and how it will stand the test…