So I got two more signed books to add to my collection. Yay! I won’t go into a long explanation, but basically Kelley York donated some prizes for an auction to raise money for people the Sandy Hook tragedy. And I won.
 
 

So two of those many items she donated were signed copies of Suicide Watch —her recently released book, and Hollowed—her first paranormal novel. Both YA. I’ve read Hollowed a while back, but Suicide Watch is new. And I started reading it the day I got it. ‘They’ say the first page is so important and Suicide Watch has a first page that grabs your attention right away and makes you want to keep reading.
 
 
 

Kelley also included 2 signed bookmarks from her book Hushed—which I’ve read and loved too. So thank you, Kelley for everything.
 
 
 
 
 
My final Jan Plan update
 
So I had 2 goals I was trying to accomplish partcipating in for Christa Desir’s JanPlan. Goal #1 was to finish a few things in The Proper Way to Say Goodbye. Well technically I finished the things I’d planned at the time, but then I found lots more things to fix. So I’m gonna call it completed—at least what I wanted to finish when I first made the goals. #2 was to finish the rough draft of my NaNo project. Which I did. Time to let it sit for a bit now.
 
So I’ll call it successful.
 
Anybody do Christa’s Jan Plan?
 
Or, as I ask every time I do an I-got-a-new-signed-book post, do you have any signed books?

 
Thank you to Annalisa Crawford and Kyra Lennon for hosting the Imaginary Friends Bloghop.
 
They want to know about your imaginary friend. What were they called? How old were you? Were they naughty or nice? If you didn’t have one, were there ever times when you could have used one? Did you ever set fire to your mum’s favorite rug and have to take the blame yourself?
 
I did not have any imaginary friends growing up, so I’ll share another story. I don’t remember how old I was when this happened, but I may have been in jr. high. Or around there somewhere.
 
One day, my mom smelled something funny in the bathroom. From the closet. A place where bad smells do not usually originate. So she looked and discovered a Ziploc bag with a piece of stinky fish. It had been frozen at one time, but not anymore.
 

Imagine this, except 3 days after the ice melted.

Image courtesy of Piyachok Thawornmat / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 
Thank you to Stephen Tremp , C.M. Brown, Elise Fallson and Mark Koopmans for hosting this fun bloghop.
 
Here is what it’s about: An opportunity to re-introduce ourselves to the ever-expanding blogging community. Simply take a moment and tell us something interesting about yourself. Anything. It can be about writing. Or blogging. Or a hidden talent. Perhaps you’re in the Witness Protection Program. Feel free to keep your post short. This is meant to be a quick and fun Blogfest.
 
So…
 
My name is Suzi. Yes, my given name. (That seems to surprise a lot of people.)
 
Not Susan, Sue, Suzanne, Sue, Suz, or Suzie Q.
 
And if you call me one of the names from the above line, and you’re not a good friend or family, I’ll roll my eyes inwardly, because you weren’t paying attention when I told you my name.
 
But I won’t correct you.
 
My parents wanted to be different I guess, so they named me about the least used form of Suzi. (Others are Suzie, Suzy, Susie, Suze ) So that means that basically, I ALWAYS have to spell my name out because nobody gets it right.
 
Growing up, I probably only knew of a few other Suzi’s (and they were actually spelled differently.) I had none in my grade.
 
I used to hate it. I don’t anymore.
 
So what about you? Do you have a common or uncommon name? And do you like it?

 
Not long ago I let a friend read The Proper Way to Say Goodbye. And her name is Chloe, just like my main character. That made me wonder, does it feel weird to read a story with a main character that has the same name as you.
 
I asked the real Chloe, and she said no, it didn’t feel weird to her.
 
But I’m wondering what other people think. Especially those with common names that show up in stories. Because mine does not.
 
I went to the Social Security Baby Names Wesite. I reference this site a lot when I’m trying to find character names. It’s great because you can look them up by popularity of any year. Of the top 1000 names. So if you need a name from an earlier decade, it’s easy to find them.
 
And big surprise, Suzi doesn’t even rate in the top 1000. Neither does Suzie or Suzy.
 
Susan actually rated pretty high my birth year. #27. But Susan isn’t my name, so it doesn’t count. Susie came in at 541. But still, it’s not my name.
 
So my point is, I don’t think I’ve ever ran across my exact name in a book. And I’m curious if it feels weird for you to read a story with your name.
 
And, have you found a story that has your first AND last name?
 
That would be pretty cool.
 

(Come back tomorrow for more name stuff with the Allow Me to Re-introduce Myself Bloghop.)