Amanda Hocking

I’m gonna start off by saying that everyone should listen to Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good” if they haven’t. If you go and do it now, you can come back and read this and listen to it, the way I am now. It’s an amazing song. (There’s a reason Mae listens to a lot of Nina Simone in my books.)

So, the other day a woman reviewed My Blood Approves on Amazon, and she gave it three stars, but I love the review. I think its really honest and accurate and describes all the pitfalls and high points of my writing and the book itself (without giving away key plot points.) You can (and should) read the full review here: review.

The one point I’d like to discuss (although not necessarily disagree with) is this: 

It’s raining, not horribly so, but it was storming earlier. Thunder, lightening, all that. But it settled down, and I was sitting in my office, the way I do. And I heard this sound, the way I would imagine a big monster throwing up. And then water gushing.

So, naturally, I went downstairs to investigate. (I have a theory that if I’m afraid of something, then that’s the thing I need to do. So if I’m outside and I think a monster is going to eat me, I force myself to stand out in the dark and act like a stupid horror movie vixen.)

A tree in my yard has fallen on the neighbor’s house. Not a big tree. In fact, it was actually meant to be some kind of bush in a hedge, but it’s overgrown and nearly as tall as my 2-story house. But we have a whole row of them seperating our property from the neighbors, and I quite like it, because I quite privacy.

But now that tree is laying on the neighbor’s roof, right above their bedroom window. I investigated with a flashlight, and there doesn’t seem to be any real damage. I considered trying to pull it off the roof, but I thought I would hurt myself and/or make matters worse. Besides that, the neighbors appear to be asleep. Even tho a tree fell on their house.

I did not wake them up. But I’m wondering – what is the protocol on this? Is it my responsibility to take care of the tree? Does my homeowner’s insurance cover it? (Well, I rent, so does the homeowner’s homeowner’s insurance cover it?) Should I apologize? I don’t know.  


On a note related to this one, I’ve lived in this neighborhood my entire life (pretty much.) I’ve lived on and off in this exact house for the past 11 years. I do not know a single neighbor. I’ve never spoken to any of them except to stop a small boy from throwing bricks in my rose bush. I’m terrible at human interaction.


So… I’m getting nervous about talking the neighbors and wondering how I should deal with them. Hopefully, my platonic lifemate, Eric J., will do something to take care of the tree, or my cousin, who lives in a one-block radius. 


If there’s a ghost or a seriel killer or a werewolf, I can handle it. I can face anything that goes bump in the night becuase I refuse irrational fears. I’m not afraid of storms or tornadoes or earthquakes or aliens (and I once saw a UFO.)


But interacting with people – I freeze up. Completely. The strange thing is that my reaction has no basis on your social standing. I once met Michael Ian Black and I reacted to him the same way when a man held the door open for me – I freeze up. I say nothing. My mouth refuses to work.


So, I am neurotic. And I don’t mind dealing with a fallen tree or property damage, except that it means I have to interact with people.

See? It’s meaningless and completely lovely.

But the best things in life seem to be that way, don’t they? The things that are irrational. Happiness is the least logical of all the emotions, and things that insight love and happiness tend to be the hardest to define.