Amanda HockingAmanda's Blog
the problem with earwigs
I don’t know about you, but this summer, earwigs have been hitting my small town pretty hard. At work, at home, everywhere I go, I seem to find an earwig.
If you’re unfamiliar with an earwig, here’s what the dastardly little fellas look like:
I’d actually never seen one before this year (to the best of my memory) so I had to look stuff up on them. I assumed that like the evil monsterous centipedes that make me scream in terror, these were mean and vicious and poisonous and most certainly wanted me dead.
Instead, I found out they’re one of the friendliest insects. They’re completely harmless to humans, and they eat other annoying insects and vegetation. Those nasty pinchers on their butts are used for carrying food, and they don’t bite or pinch you with them.
But the thing that got me – they’re one of the only insects with maternal insticts. They actually care for their young, which is more than you can see for many species in the animal kingdom, including my beloved sea turtle.
This fact has drilled itself in my brain. It’s like when Juno when to the hospital to procure her hasty abortion, and then all she could think about was the baby’s fingernails, so she couldn’t go through with it.
I have a no-kill policy, in that I don’t kill insects. (Mosquitoes, fleas, and lice are discluded. I don’t want to kill them but I have no other way to get rid of them. And I really, really, really hate mosquitoes.) I’ll rescue spiders and tolerate ants and run from centipedes.
So I wasn’t going to kill earwigs anyway. But now I’ve actually become rather fond of them, despite the fact that they’re infesting my life. I think they’re about as adorable as a creepy little bug can be. And yes, I would scream and freak out if one touched me. But I like them.
The problem is my roommate keeps killing them. He also tries to kill moths, which really, really makes me angry, because that’s essentially butterfly murder. Butterfly murder is NEVER okay. NEVER.
But it’s making me very sad. I like the earwigs. I would enjoy it if they moved out of my house, and I encourage them to do so every chance I can, because my dog also eats them. And sometimes they fall from the ceiling and land on my cat when we’re watching TV, and I don’t like that, although she doesn’t seem to care. But my cat is really tough. The toughest ever.
Anyway… I don’t know what to do about the earwigs. Or how to make my roommate stop murdering them.
They take care of their babies. That just gets to me. I don’t know why. But there it is.
So the problem with earwigs is that I have no idea what to do with them.
Switched!
Good news everybody! Switched now has it’s own blog! Since it’s the first book in a series, I thought Switched ought to be represented on it’s own. This site will still be devoted my ramblings and news, but all of the Switched new will be posted over there – and I’ll either mention it or link it from here.
Switched will be out in less than a week, and so far, the responses I’ve gotten for it have been positive. So that’s a yay. I’m still working on cover art, but hopefully, I’ll have things figured out soon.
I’ve post an excerpt on for Switched. It’s longer than the one I posted for the the My Blood Approves books, but I’m a rebel that way. Read: here. I also posted the sexy soundtrack for Switched. Listen: here.
The one thing I’ve always hated about being a novelist is that books don’t come with soundtracks. Apparently, they’re working on enhanced ebooks, so in the future, that might not be true anymore. Yay!
I am getting nervous about the release of Switched. I personally think it’s a better than My Blood Approves, but everyone still might hate it. Who knows? Well, I guess I will know soon.
I plan on having a giving away for paperback copy of Switched once I get the cover sorted out, and I think I’ll give away a few PDF’s as well. But that contest will start on the 12th, so I’ll have more details then.
Also – the 12th happens to be my birthday. A 22-year-old coworker asked me how old I would be. I told her twenty-six. She said, “Wow. You don’t look like you’re almost thirty.” I’ve never felt so old in my life.
No, wait. That’s not true. I was a party for a friend of mine. He lives in another country, and he was just visiting for a few days, so his family was there, including his little sister. I was chatting with her friend about life, the universe, and everything. Then her friend told me she was born November 1994. And I was floored. I was having a reasonable conversation with a real, live person, and her entire life, Kurt Cobain had been dead.
I don’t know. It’s just a weird thing to fathom. That people who were born after Kurt Cobain died are now old enough drive and stuff. It’s… strange.
But anyway… please buy my book on Monday. Thank you, and the end 🙂
you can never give up hope
Now that I’m older, I don’t worry so much about being kidnapped, but I still think about Jacob Wetterling all the time. It bothers the hell out of me. Thinking about him and worrying about him has kept me awake many, many nights in my lifetime. I have no idea how his mother holds it together so well.
I’ve also recently written about Jacob Wetterling’s abduction. I mean, it’s in one of my vampire books, and they discuss the abduction for various reasons in relation to the plot. If they find him, I’d have to rewrite the scene. And honestly, I would love rewrite it. I’d rewrite every book I’ve ever written if they could just find him.
Last year was the 20th anniversary of his disappearance, and the post office in my town finally took his MISSING poster down, and it upsets me. A lot.
Yesterday, my brother turned 11. And to me, he seems like such a little kid. I mean, not a little kid but… he’s so young. It wasn’t until that I realized exactly how young Jacob was when he went missing. He’s always been older than me, so it was hard for me to see that he was just a kid.
And yesterday, police started searching a property near where Jacob was abducted. They haven’t said anything about what’s going on yet, but it feels… exciting, I guess, to know the case is being revitalized. (For more details about the new investigation, click: here.)
My heart and thoughts go out to his family, as they do every day, and I hope that this brings some closure to the case.
And again, if you know anything, PLEASE PLEASE contact the authorities about this. His family has been missing a little boy for over twenty years, and they deserve to know what happened to him.
Review of Glimpse
As Avery takes her hand and leads her out onto the makeshift dance floor, Zellie is overwhelmed by her first vision of his death; shocking because not only are they both covered in his blood, but they’re old, like 35, and she is pregnant.
Afraid to tell anyone about the vision, (she’d just be labeled a freaky black magic witch, right?) Zellie keeps the knowledge of Avery’s future to herself and tries to act like any other teenager in love. When they get caught on their way to a secret rendezvous by her mom and his dad, they are forbidden to see each other.
Convinced that their parents are freaking out unnecessarily, Avery and Zellie vow to be together no matter what. They continue their relationship in secret until Zellie learns that their parents are just trying to prevent her and Avery from suffering like they did. The visions are hereditary, they’re dangerous, and if they stay together the visions will come true.
Now Zellie must choose between severing all ties with Avery, like her mom did to prevent his father’s death, and finding a way to change Avery’s future.
Interview with Stacey Wallace Benefiel
I am originally from the Midwest, but have lived on the West coast since 1993. I’ve always been involved in the arts-I’m a major theatre geek, I played the clarinet and oboe in band, and have always written-especially poetry and monologues. I have degrees in theatre, creative writing, culinary arts, and floral design. I also have a mountain of student loans.
2. What inspired you to write Glimpse?
Do you remember that show Roswell? My little sister and I were addicted to it. When it ended my sister challenged me to write a book in the same genre. I’d never written a novel before, but I thought it would be fun to try. I knew I wasn’t going to write about aliens, but that the main character was going to have some sort of power and it was going to mess up her relationships. I just started writing about a girl that was like I was when I was a teenager and went from there.
3. How did you choose the names for your characters?
This is going to sound very Stephenie Meyer of me, but Hazel is the name I was going to name my daughter if I ever had one. At the time I started writing Glimpse, I didn’t have any children, but decided that I couldn’t use Hazel for any future daughters anyway because Hazel was the name of the street one block over from where we live. I do have a daughter now and her name is Arlo.
Grace came from one of my college roommates. I had two tall red-headed roommates-Gracie and Anne. So, Zellie became Hazel Grace-H.G. and I figured Wells was a fine last name.
Paul is after one of my grandpa’s.
Melody goes with Zellie like Valerie (my little sister’s name) goes with Stacey.
Avery was the name of the street one of the schools I taught theatre at was on.
Claire was another contender for my daughter’s name.
Mike and Becky-Good solid names that people my age have.
Jason is after my brother-in-law.
4. If you picked a soundtrack for your book, what songs would be on it?
Each character has their own music that I like to listen to, to get into their heads. Zellie is Taylor Swift and Cobie Calliet and Kelly Clarkson. Claire is MGMT and the Pixies. Pastor Paul is the Eagles. Grace and Mike are Cyndi Lauper and Bruce Springsteen. Becky is Sondheim. Melody is Miley Cyrus. Avery secretly likes country.
That’s not really songs…I had Pandora on in the background, so it made the soundtracks for me.
Zellie and Avery do have a song-Sweet Disposition.
5. What’s your favorite book you’ve read in the last year (other than yours, of course)?
Around the holidays I got sucked into the Outlander books. Drums of Autumn is my favorite one so far. Those books are some serious Scottish crack.
6. Vampires or zombies?
Vamps, they smell better…or not at all?
7. When you’re not writing, how do you spend your free time?
I like to hang out with my family, take the kids to the park and Children’s museum, that sort of thing. I read a lot and like to watch TV. Glee, Top Chef, My Life on the D-list, and Friday Night Lights are some favorites. I stage manage and direct productions at my local community theatre. I’m also studying to be a medical transcriptionist. I take my final in July!
8. When you were a kid, what monster scared you most?
I remember after watching Jaws that I was massively scared of sharks. In Missouri. Swimming around my bed while I slept.
9. Do you have any upcoming novels you’d like to talk about?
The next book in the Zellie Wells series, Glimmer, is due to come out at the end of this year. I should be done writing it by August, then editing and formatting and all that good stuff. The final book in the ZW series, Glow will be out by next Summer. I’m also working on a stand alone contemporary romance and another YA series-novellas this time-about human sacrifices, tentatively titled, uh, Sacrifice.