How are we more than halfway through June already?! We’ve got TWO birthdays in my family in the next week or so, exciting times! Here are this week’s book recommendations:
1. Mind Games by Kiersten White
2. The Wrong Woman by Kimberly Truesdale
3. The Seventh Blessing by Melissa Buell
4. Ten Things I Love About You by Julia Quinn
5. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare. Hands down my favorite of the comedies (and favorite over all play too!)
We’ve been having thunderstorms with lots of rain (and hail!) all week – perfect reading weather! Here are this week’s recommendations.
1. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. You honestly can’t go wrong with this book. It’s fun and funny and full of adventure. Plus Benedict Cumberbatch is going to be voicing Smaug in the movie. #win
2. Fairy Bad Day by Amanda Ashby is a quick and enjoyable YA read. Loved the world building here.
3. Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart. Classic Mary Stewart. If you see a book by Mary Stewart you should read it…honestly, ANY of her books. I love this one a lot though…it’s my second favorite of hers (after This Rough Magic which I recommended a few weeks ago). I’ve read this one at least 15 times and could read it twice that and still want to read it again.
4. My Particular Friend by Jennifer Petkus is a well-written and engrossing Austen (well, really more Regency) and Sherlock mash up. Plus…I share a maiden last name with the main character. Yeah, baby!
5. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer. This is the second in the Lunar Chronicles a space opera/dystopian/fairy tale series… I recommended Cinder a few weeks ago and I enjoyed Scarlet even more than I liked Cinder.
What are you reading this week?
The first week of June Book Recs! Here’s what I recommended on Twitter and Facebook this week (I even read two of these this week!)
1. Graceling by Kristin Cashore
I finally read this book after having wanted to for years. I shouldn’t have waited. You also should not wait if you haven’t read it. Go get it now! The Kindle edition is $5. Steal.
2. Trophy Husband by Lauren Blakely
This was super fun, sexy, and proof that geeks can be hot (I think I was already firmly in that camp, but I like to read other authors who agree with me!) This is definitely not YA there’s quite a bit of (well written) sexy times happening.
3. Spindle’s End by Robin McKinley
Quite possibly my second favorite McKinley of all time and my top favorite Sleeping Beauty retelling (I can’t count my own because that would be awkward). I feel McKinley is at her best here with how she writes magic. Love it.
4. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
In Attempting Elizabeth I have Kelsey talk about her undergrad thesis being on this book…spoiler alert! So was mine! Well, it wasn’t the thesis for my “capstone class” ’cause that was a super lame paper about how I grew as a student, but my manifesto on the Big Sleep was for a huge class in my senior year and got me into grad school (and then I NEVER WENT)…all of this sounds really boring. This book is not boring. This book is awesome. I love it. The rain in Awake: A Fairytale was my homage to this book.
5. Changelings & Other Stories by Leah Cypess
This is a really entertaining, thought-provoking, solid collection of fantasy based short stories. They’re all quite good. They all leave you wanting more.
What are you reading this weekend?
Three weeks! Actually, slightly less than that until the release date for Awake: A Fairytale!
Sometimes excitement and fear feel the same. Like in that moment right before the roller coaster takes off and you are strapped in and committed with no real way to get out. That’s kind of how I feel right now. Nervous and excited and all jumbled up inside.
It absolutely blows me away that some of you are almost as excited for the launch of Awake as I am. I put the “countdown to release” on the sidebar a few weeks ago after the amazing @Jennwith4 sent me a twitpic of the countdown she has on her phone for Awake! I was honored and humbled that she would be looking forward to my book enough to have a countdown (and suitably shamed into making my own). So, for Jenn, and anyone else that is interested, here is another teaser from Awake. A pretty decently sized one too – almost half a chapter! Enjoy.
*****
“You know how you can tell Ernesto’s is a fine dining establishment?” Becca asked as she set her bright orange tray down on the scarred table across from Alex and slid into the booth.
“You can’t,” Alex answered. “There’s nothing fine about it, but it’s darn good pizza.”
Ernesto’s offered the only reasonably priced lunch alternative to brown-bagging it on the lawn and was therefore a favorite hangout of the summer interns, or at least the non-anorexic ones who enjoyed good food. In other words, everyone but the art interns. It was dark and cramped, the decor was straight out of the 1970s, and Ernesto’s served the best and cheapest pizza anywhere in Los Angeles. It was also within walking distance of the museums, making it easy to get to on breaks.
Alex and Becca were enjoying their first Ernesto’s lunch of the summer. They’d been volunteering together at GeMMLA since the ninth grade, and eating together at the pizza joint had become a tradition.
“You can tell because they have both strawberry and grape soda on tap. It’s like the gods of flavored soda smiled down on this little piece of the city and blessed us with Ernesto’s.” Becca unwrapped her straw and stuck it in her styrofoam cup. “Grape,” she informed Alex before draining half the cup in one slurp. “Oh my word, that’s so good. Their soda calibration is really good here too. Good calibration cannot be underestimated.”
“Hmm,” Alex agreed, taking a huge bite out of her slice of sausage pizza. “The gods of pizza must be in cahoots with the soda gods, ‘cause this pizza is awesome,” she said around a mouthful. “I miss this during the rest of the year.”
“Yeah, Ernesto needs to franchise. I never have time to drive this far for pizza during the school year. Although,” Becca’s face brightened, “I’ll be closer now that I’ll be living on campus.”
“It’s so weird to me to be out of high school,” Alex admitted. “Good—brilliantly great—but weird. I kind of feel like I’m still in class, though, because I have to do all this stupid work for this scholarship thing.”
“That sucks. What do you have to do?”
“There was some reading, and then I have to write an essay. About myself.” Alex grimaced. “Quite possibly my least favorite subject.”
Becca twirled her straw. “Any particular aspect of yourself, or just a general biography type thing?”
“It’s supposed to be about me as a student. And if I have a declared major why I selected it.”
“I’m guessing earth science?” Becca quirked an eyebrow.
“Yeah, of course.”
“Well, why’d you pick it? Why do you volunteer here?”
“I like it.”
Becca gestured with her left hand as she picked up her slice of pizza with the other. “Elaborate.”
“That’s the hard part, when I elaborate I sound weird.”
Becca paused with her pizza mid-air. “Weird how?” she asked before taking a large bite.
“I don’t know. I just love gems and rocks. They, um, make sense to me. More sense than people do, honestly. But that makes me sound like a crazy, loner type.”
“Well, you are a bit of a loner type, but not,” Becca hastened to add as she saw Alex frown, “in a crazy kind of way. Just that you are kind of shy and serious, took us forever to start really talking that first year.”
“Yeah.”
“But, I know what you mean, I guess. I’m more um, socially inclined than you, but I’ve always felt that way too about rocks and metals. It’s more than they just make sense. I don’t know, when I was little I used to think they had personalities. I would pretend that certain rocks had certain character traits. But then I was kind of a goofy kid.”
“I used to pretend that about rocks too. Especially certain gems. You know how the Victorians assigned all these meanings to gems? When I was little I used to look those up in my mom’s old encyclopedia set and laugh at them, ‘cause I always thought they got most of them wrong.”
“Oh my gosh, Alex, we must have been the two weirdest little girls. It’s a pity we didn’t meet until high school; I would have felt less geeky.”
“You are less geeky than me,” Alex pointed out.
Becca grinned. “No, I’m just totally better at hiding it. I remember when I was really young, like preschool, we had this huge sandpit in the back of the school and you know how you can attract the iron fragments in sand with a magnet? I was convinced I could do it with my finger, like I’d stick it in the sand and the iron would gather around it. I was apparently a very imaginative kid. Geek and imagination—probably a bad combo.”
Alex laughed. “Maybe it was a sign of your magnetic personality.”
Becca shook her head sadly. “That’s weak Alex, so, so weak.” Alex laughed harder and after a minute Becca joined her. “Well, at least I wasn’t looking up the Victorians. Really? ‘Cause that’s stimulating.”
“Oh, come on, it was interesting,” Alex defended herself half-heartedly. “That’s where we get the meanings of flower and birthstones and all that.”
“Really? That’s kind of recent. So what, gems and flowers didn’t have meanings before the Victorians?”
Alex shrugged. “I have no idea. I’m sure they did in different societies. Once I got farther into grade school though, the actual science was more interesting than the stories. Although,” Alex took another bite of pizza and chewed thoughtfully, “your preschool story sounds like stuff I used to do: probably later, like kindergarten, though. I remember collecting different stones and making funny patterns with them. I was convinced if I made the patterns right that I’d make stuff happen.”
“Stuff? Like magic stuff?” Becca asked, her mouth gaping open.
“Yeah, I guess, although I didn’t think of it as magic. Just like, oh if I make this pattern in Grandma’s garden her flowers will grow faster. I must have seen some movie or cartoon or something that gave me the idea.”
“How, um, pagan of you. I’m totally shocked,” Becca teased. “I thought you came out of the womb with a scientific mind.”
“Pretty sure I did, which is why I barely remember my early dabbling in the magic arts.”
Becca chuckled. “Sounds like straightforward kid stuff to me, did you have a wand?”
Alex looked horrified. “I can safely say I never had a wand, or a tiara, or a princess dress. Well, I did have some of those. My mom kept buying them hoping I’d eventually get interested, but I never did. The closest I ever got was a stick that doubled as a sword, and that was only to defend myself against Luke when I was eight.”
“Hmm, sure it was a sword? It wasn’t a stick that doubled as a magic wand?”
Alex snorted. “Nope, pretty sure it was a sword. Luke got Excalibur of course. I am sure mine had a name, but I don’t remember it. He was always into the whole Arthur thing. I never really got it.”
“I still find it hard to believe that you guys used to be friends. Did I tell you my little brother asked me to get his autograph? He’s convinced in a few years it’s going to be worth tons of money. And this morning there just happened to be a baseball and pen in a ziplock bag in my backpack. At least the kid’s organized.”
“I’m sure he’d sign it for you. Luke’s a lot of things, but he’s really nice about that kind of stuff.”
“Uh-huh,” Becca leaned forward, pushing her empty tray out of the way and crossing her arms on the Formica table top. “So what are these ‘lot of things’ that Luke is?”
Alex flushed. “Are you asking for gossip about the great Luke Reed?”
“Nope. I don’t care about the gossip,” Becca eyed her. “But you obviously have some interesting unresolved issues with the guy. I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk about a guy, other than Nicholas, so I’m intrigued.”
“Maybe we should talk about your unresolved issues with Nicholas,” Alex changed the subject.
“Nice try. I just think he’s smarmy. He reminds me of my mother’s last ex. You know, the kind that could sell ice to Eskimos. I’m much more interested in hearing about—” Becca broke off as she looked up past Alex’s shoulder toward the jangling of the bell over the front door. “I suggest you finish your pizza in about thirty seconds if you don’t want to start dealing with those unresolved issues right away,” she warned under her breath and then added in a louder voice, “Hi, Luke.” She directed a grin over Alex’s head, ignoring the fact that Alex’s face flushed red, then white, then back to red.
“Hey, Becca, Lex,” Luke said as he surveyed the menu board before taking his place in line. Alex composed her face and then turned and offered a half-hearted wave. As she turned back around Becca rolled her eyes and started gathering up her trash onto the tray. Alex looked mournfully at her half-eaten pizza slice before adding it to the pile of trash. Becca raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment as she picked up the tray and headed toward the trashcan. It was a tragedy, Alex reflected to herself, but sometimes even Ernesto’s famous pizza had to be sacrificed for the greater good.
Alex stood up, gathering her backpack as Becca returned to their table and slung her own across her back.
“Catch you later Luke, we’re headed back,” Becca offered as they walked past the register towards the door.
“See you ladies later.” Luke graced them with a lopsided grin as Alex pushed the door open and Becca followed her out into the blinding sun.
“I’ll say this for the guy,” Becca commented as the door banged closed behind them. “He has to be the hottest man I’ve ever been that up close and personal to.”
This time it was Alex who rolled her eyes.
“It’s true,” Becca laughed as they started back down the street toward the museum. “And if you try to deny objective, scientific fact I will really start getting curious about those unresolved issues.”
“Fine then, I won’t deny it. Every high school girl in a thirty mile radius can’t be wrong.”
“Not sure I’d limit it to just high schoolers. Pretty sure I saw Maureen in the front office flirting with him, and she has to be at least forty. I think his hotness transcends age.”
“That is totally awkward.” Alex jabbed the crosswalk button.
“Awkward, but true. That’s why Nicholas has such a short temper with Luke. He’s used to being the only hot guy at GeMMLA, and Luke is cramping his style.”
I can barely contain my excitement! I love everything about this cover and am completely indebted to my wonderful friend and cover artist Victoria Austen-Young for her amazing work.
I would love to know what you think about my cover! I’m so desperately in love with it that I could stare at it for hours. I may have completely spazzed out when I saw the final artwork (as in flailing my arms T-Rex style while making strange gasping noises and cackling to myself). I really hope you all like it as much as I do!
And for fun, after the picture of the gorgeous cover, I’m including a new sample from Awake (want to read the blurb and first chapter? Head on over to my handy-dandy Awake page).
Awake: A Fairytale
Alex checked the first few storage rooms but found nothing more interesting than cardboard boxes and a few old posters highlighting former exhibits. She pulled open the door to storage room B-23 and stuck her head inside. Set back about halfway into the room was a huge, cobweb-covered four poster bed. Alex started when the door banged shut behind her. She’d been so focused on the bed, she hadn’t even realized she’d been moving, walking towards it slowly.
Alex vaguely noted that the rest of the room was filled with wooden packing crates of various sizes. But she couldn’t pull her attention away from the bed long enough to really look at them.
The head and footboards were covered in intricately worked gold and silver which at first appeared to just be a tangle of shapes. After a moment’s observation, the metalwork resolved itself into heavy coils of twisting vines and branches, each covered in wicked-looking thorns. The dull gold and silver vines twisted off the headboard and footboard and up the four posters, snaking like a living plant around the sturdy posts, here and there seeming to sprout leaves and more thorns as they went up. The whole pattern gave the illusion of a violent twisting and upward movement, as if you were watching the vines growing rapidly before your eyes. Alex vaguely wondered if the bed was solid metal — the weight would be astronomical — or possibly a heavy wood covered in a silver and gold overlay.
But it was the gems that banished all other thoughts from her mind. Bursting out of the vines in huge clusters on the head and footboards and running down each of the posts were huge flowers crafted of precious and semi-precious stones. The flowers were pink and red, the soft colors of rose quartz and the deep reds of rubies and garnets.The stones ranged in size, many of them larger than anything Alex had ever seen before. All had faceted cuts that gave the illusion of depth and individual petals. At the heart of each flower were clear, hard stones that Alex knew without a doubt were diamonds, although they were in a strange, partially polished state. The vines were dripping with the flowers. It took her slightly addled brain a few moments to put the whole picture together.
Roses. Dozens of jeweled roses bloomed like living flowers on the gold and silver vines.
Alex had never seen, or heard, of anything like it.
She took a step closer to examine the metalwork. The items they were receiving from France were supposed to be twelfth-century, but the workmanship on this bed was far, far beyond what any twelfth century metal smith would have been able to accomplish. It looked like something out of fairytale. Not that Alex believed in fairytales, or even really knew much about them, but she did know that what she was looking at skirted the edges of possibility.
A soft sound interrupted Alex’s rapid thoughts. She wasn’t alone. She had been so entranced by the bed itself that she hadn’t noticed there was someone actually on it — sleeping on it, in fact.
Next year is shaping up to be the battle of the Snow Whites! After ignoring this fairy tale for so long, Hollywood has managed to produce two separate adaptations and has them slated to come out the same year! It’s either feast or famine I suppose.
These adaptations are hugely different takes on the same material – although it seems in both Snow White ends up being a little bit more proactive.
So the question is are you into drama and fairy tales with a darker and more sinister edge? Then Snow White and the Huntman will likely be your choice.
If you’re looking for more of a broad comedy send up, then I’d buy a ticket for Mirror Mirror.
Of course, these assessments are based purely on the trailers. I plan to see both and see which ones wins the Ultimate Snow White Movie of 2012 Showdown. My money is on Snow White and the Huntsman, but I’m fully prepared to be swayed either way.
Are you planning to see either of these movies? Which one do you think will win the showdown?
I love my new site. It’s so pretty and shiny and yellow. In my world yellow = happiness. I think it is such a friendly, soothing, cozy color. So many of the best things are yellow. Sunshine. Lemons. Butter (mmm, everything is better with butter). Pineapple. Daffodils. I adore it!
The hard part about starting a new site is that you pretty much leave all your followers back on the old one (it’s still there, I’m using it more as a personal site now). So what do you do? You can remind them, and then remind some more, and become totally annoying and needy sounding. Or you can bribe them. I kind of feel like “oh here, be my friend to win something” is kind of a lame way to go about things . . . but you know what, it works! And I want to meet new and exciting people too! New and exciting people deserve a giveaway, right?
However, I won’t make you be my friend so you can win, but I will offer it as an extra entry option. That makes me feel slightly less needy!
My first novel is a retelling of a fairy tale. It’s called Awake: A Sleeping Beauty Story and you can read all about it here. And read an excerpt here. In keeping with that theme, I am offering a “Fairy Tale Giveaway.”
There are three prizes:
First up, a copy of one of my favorite fairy tale retellings ever: Beauty by Robin McKinley. I love this story. Desperately love it. And I want you to love it too! McKinley’s lyrical style has greatly influenced me as a reader and a writer. The way she writes magic is so real and tangible, but so breathtakingly beautiful at the same time . . . yeah, I’m a fangirl.
Second, a copy of The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald. My fondest memories of this book aren’t of reading this by myself, though I did that often, but of having it read to me (multiple times) by my Mom. I cannot express to you how much this story has become part of my imagination. It’s one of those things that shapes you so strongly that you aren’t even necessarily aware of it, and then you reread, or a phrase or image floats through your mind, and you recognize the fingerprints of a master storyteller. There is a reason that both Lewis and Tolkien were devotees of MacDonald: He was the king of fairy tales. If you haven’t read The Princess and the Goblin yet, you are in for a serious treat!
And last but certainly not least, a “fairy tale” vintage dictionary necklace. Isn’t this amazing? Yes, it really is made out of a page from a vintage dictionary. I got myself one for my birthday with my “Grammy” money (she doesn’t buy us gifts, she sends cash and we have to buy and wrap our own gift. It works out perfectly), and while I was at it I got one for you too! This necklace was handmade by KraftyKash.
This giveaway is open internationally! I am more than willing to send these little bits of fairy tale goodness to you wherever you might be in the world!
And now, for entries:
Mandatory Entry:
Just leave me a comment telling me what your favorite fairy tale is! Simple. Easy, peasy!
Extra Entries:
(leave a comment for each entry please!)
Follow my shiny, new, yellow blog via Google Friend Connect
Follow Jessica Grey on Twitter
Tweet about this giveaway (you could do this once daily if you want, leave a comment for each tweet!)
suggested tweet:
Want a little more “once upon a time” in your life? Win a fairy tale prize pack from @_JessicaGrey http://bit.ly/n1vkar
Follow Jessica Grey on Facebook
Check out the first chapter of my novel and let me know what you think in a comment on that post (leave a comment here telling me you did)
Link to this post on Facebook or your blog
Thank you for entering! This giveaway will remain open through 11/15/11 at 11:59pm MST. I will use Random.org to select a winner. This giveaway is open internationally.
Thank you to everyone who entered! This giveaway is now closed.
Here is a sample of my upcoming novel Awake: A Fairytale. Hope you enjoy it!
Chapter One
The last place Alexandra Martin expected to see Luke Reed was at orientation for summer interns at the Museum Guild of Los Angeles.
Quite honestly, Alex hadn’t expected to see Luke anywhere after graduation, except maybe in the occasional news report about minor league baseball and eventually the majors. Rumor had it he’d already signed a contract with a major league team and was going to be playing in their minor league farm system starting that summer. Not that Alex paid any attention to rumors about Luke Reed.
And yet there he was, slouching in one of the museum’s ancient folding chairs, arms crossed behind his head as he gazed soulfully up at the ceiling. What he found so fascinating about the yellowing acoustic tiles Alex couldn’t even begin to fathom. A group of girls seated a row behind him, obviously destined for a summer of interning at the art museum if their black clothing and red lips were any indication, ogled him blatantly. It was entirely possible that he studied the tiles more to avoid their predatory gazes than from any real interest in the ceiling.
Alex lingered in the doorway and wondered for a single heartbeat if she could escape unnoticed. Maybe she could tell the receptionist she wasn’t feeling well and see if she could be excused from orientation. It was, after all, her fourth summer interning at the Gem and Mineral Museum; she was already fully oriented.
But that would be cowardly.
And he’d already lowered his gaze from his contemplation of the ceiling and spotted her.
“Hey Lex, saved you a seat,” Luke flashed her his trademark killer grin — a grin that caused most females of the species to swoon and giggle like they’d suddenly dropped twenty IQ points, but the only feeling it aroused in Alex was minor irritation.
Alex eyed the seat next to him. She supposed it would be horribly rude to sit anywhere else, seeing as he had just announced to the entire room that he had saved it for her. Alex had never been horribly rude to anyone in her life. She doubted she could even pull off horribly rude if she wanted to.
“Luke,” she acknowledged as she stepped over his long legs to reach the folding chair next to him, ignoring the incredulous, mildly jealous, stares from the gaggle of art interns. Alex sat, hugging her backpack in her lap in front of her and resting her chin on the top of it as she stared at the empty podium at the front of the meeting room.
“Aren’t you going to ask me what I’m doing here?” Luke teased her after a few moments of awkward silence.
Without looking over at him she answered, “I would think it was pretty obvious, as it’s summer intern orientation, that you’re here because you’re interning at one of the museums.”
“Hmm, yes, logic always has been your strong suit,” he replied. “You’re at the GeMMLA too, right?” He laughed as Alex’s head snapped towards him, her eyes widening at his use of the word “too.” “Of course you are, you’ve always had a thing for rocks.”
Alex stared at him, her brain refusing to wrap itself around the concept that Luke Reed of all people was going to be spending the entire summer at the Gem and Mineral Museum of Los Angeles.
“Luke,” she finally asked in bewilderment, “what in God’s name are you doing here?”
He flashed her another lethal grin, but Alex was already too off balance to feel her normal annoyance.
“I’m spending the next nine weeks doing all sorts of geeky rock stuff with you, short stuff.”
Alex winced at the old term of endearment. “Luke, you and I haven’t been friends since the seventh grade,” she pointed out. When everyone began to notice how talented he was on the baseball field, he had started getting popular, while Alex, who’d possessed no discernible talent other than for schoolwork and being slightly awkward, had remained as unpopular as ever. It wasn’t that Alex had been a social outcast: that would have required her peers taking enough notice of her to cast her out. She just sort of quietly existed, whereas Luke’s good looks, charm, and athletic talent had rocketed him into the popularity stratosphere. “We’ve barely even spoken to each other since middle school.”
“Lex, I asked you to the junior formal last year. Doesn’t exactly qualify as not talking to each other.”
“Your mother made you ask me.”
Luke laughed. “Is that why you said no? Because you think my mom made me ask you?”
Alex glared at him, silently daring him to lie to her. “Okay,” he conceded, “she may have mentioned that your mom told her you didn’t have a date to the dance, although I already knew that because you never go to dances . . .”
“There is no sense,” Alex interrupted irritably, “in a person like me ever attempting to go to a dance. That aside,” she continued when it looked as if he might argue with her, “I am sure there is an actual valid reason you’re planning on wasting your summer doing ‘geeky rock stuff.’”
“Yup.”
“Yup, what?” Alex asked, exasperated.
“Yup, I do have a valid reason,” Luke answered.
Alex glared at him for a moment, but he didn’t seem inclined to elaborate. “Well, there you go,” she said sarcastically.
She glanced up at the clock, hoping orientation would start soon. The museums had staggered closed days. The only two days all six were open at the same time were Wednesdays and Saturdays. Even the organizers of the summer internship program realized the cruelty of asking teenagers to sit through an orientation on a Saturday in July. So here they all were, every teen within a thirty mile radius who had even thought of setting foot in a museum during the summer, about twenty-five of them, spending their Wednesday morning waiting to get sorted out and dispersed amongst the main museums.
The six museums were grouped together in a hodgepodge circle surrounding a large open grassy area referred to, quite creatively, as “the lawn.” Other than the occasional errand between museums, the lawn was the only place interns from different museums would ever run into each other. This usually happened during lunch breaks since most of the restaurants around the museum guild were priced out of the average high school student’s budget.
The Gem and Mineral Museum was definitely not the most glamorous museum in the Guild, and therefore it garnered the least amount of interest. Becca Ward, who had volunteered with Alex the last three summers, had waved exuberantly at Alex as she came into the room a few moments earlier. Becca had noticed mid-wave that Alex wasn’t sitting alone. She’d raised her eyebrows almost comically high at Alex as she walked by them and took a seat in the back corner with a group of interns from the Science Museum. Alex tried to flash her a “save me” look, but she was pretty sure Becca hadn’t seen it, or she’d just decided to abandon Alex to her fate.
Alex had figured this year, just like last, it would only be herself and Becca, who would end up at GeMMLA. But now, of course, there was Luke.
The clock slowly ticked down the last few moments to ten when the orientation was scheduled to start. Luke, wisely reading her last comment as signaling the end of the conversation, had resumed his perusal of the ceiling tiles. Alex wondered idly who would be doing this year’s presentation. It was pretty much the same material every year, an overview of the program, usually dryly presented by someone from the Art Museum, as they got the most interns, or occasionally by someone from Science. It was too much to hope it might be someone from GeMMLA, and definitely too much to hope that it might be him. As evidenced by the fact that she was sitting next to Luke Reed and therefore already feeling out of sorts and slightly inadequate, she was just not that lucky today.
Exactly one minute before ten, the door swung open and he walked in, a stack of stapled handouts tucked under one arm. Alex’s mouth went dry and her cheeks flushed as he caught sight of her and gave her a smile and a wave. She could hear the gaggle of art interns whispering furiously amongst themselves. Alex figured they must be wondering how she rated a saved seat from the hot blond athlete and a smile and a wave from the handsome dark-haired advisor. She had to consciously stop the almost frantic giggle that rose up in her throat, because she totally agreed with them.
Luke had also noticed the smile and wave, as well as Alex’s reaction to it. He gave her a little smile, different than his usually casual grin, and Alex had no idea what to make of it.
“Hey everyone, my name is Nicholas Hunt, and I am the intern advisor for the Gem and Mineral Museum.” Nicholas dropped his stack of papers on the podium with an audible thud, then leaned against it, ankles crossed with one arm casually draped across the top. In his dark jeans and sports coat over a t-shirt featuring the logo of a classic rock band, he was the epitome of academic chic. Alex could almost hear the art interns rethinking their museum choice.
“I’m also working on my doctoral thesis,” Nicholas continued, “so I’m a student just like you guys.”
Alex was pretty sure Nicholas could not honestly be compared to any of the high school students or soon-to-be-college students in the room. With the possible exception of Luke, no one else here was as comfortable in their own skin. Unlike Luke’s innate athletic grace, Nicholas radiated a sort of calm energy that came from maturity and experience.
“The information we are going to go over this morning is pretty basic and general, just a bit about the program and the six different museums that make up the Guild. You’ll get more detailed info from your respective intern advisors. I’ve got a list of all your names, so I’ll read it off and make sure everyone is here.”
He paused to pull out a pair of horn-rimmed glasses from his coat pocket and slipped them on. It was really unfair, Alex reflected, that Nicholas’s glasses managed to make him look even hotter, while hers just managed to obscure her eyes and highlight the too-small bridge of her nose by slipping down continuously.
“Alexandra, would you mind passing out these handouts while I take attendance?” Nicholas shot Alex another smile.
Alex set her backpack on the floor and wiped her suddenly damp palms on the front of her jeans before she stood up, tripping over her discarded backpack. Before she could even react to the fact that she was tipping over, Luke’s arm shot out to the side and he snagged a finger through the back belt loop of her jeans, stopping her forward momentum. Three thoughts flashed simultaneously through Alex’s mind. The first was that she was glad her jeans, as well worn as they were, didn’t rip. The second was relief that Luke had been so quick that he had effectively prevented her from making a total fool of herself and had done it in such a way that only those sitting behind her could even tell there was a problem. Nicholas, standing as he was in front and to the left of her, couldn’t even see Luke’s arm steadying her or his hand gripping her waistband.
The third was that Luke was really, really strong.
“Easy, short stuff,” Luke said under his breath. “Make him guess at least a little.” Alex turned and glared at him with what she hoped was enough force to kill. He just chuckled under his breath and tugged on her belt loop once before letting her go.
Alex concentrated on taking careful, measured steps on her way to the podium and accepted the stack of handouts from Nicholas without fully meeting his eye. As she passed them out, she ignored the snide sideways glances from the art interns, who, being seated behind her, had unfortunately had a great view of her near mishap and the heroic save by Luke. She sat back in her chair and resumed her clock watching, this time counting down the seconds until the orientation was over and she could escape to the calming environs of GeMMLA. She made the mistake of glancing over at Luke once, and when he gave her a broad wink, she realized with a small sinking feeling that her sanctuary, the one place she felt relatively normal, was about to be invaded by the person in whose presence she tended to appear the most unspecial and inadequate. And this invasion was going to happen in front of the one person that she desperately wanted to see her as special and adequate.
*****
“42a. Check. 43a, b, and c. Check.” Alex’s pen hovered over her spreadsheet for a moment as she scanned through the stack of small boxes in front of her. Sitting cross-legged on the floor of a storage room surrounded by stacks of boxes wasn’t the most exciting way to start out the first day of her internship, but there was something settling about the solitude and order. It also allowed her the opportunity to stick her earphones in and listen to music while she catalogued.
“44…44…Where the heck is 44?! Oh,” she muttered under her breath as she located the out-of-order box. Alex opened the lid and glanced inside at the contents, mineral samples from the museum’s recently closed display. “A and b…Check.” She sorted the box back into the stack, this time in the correct order. She paused for a moment to turn up the volume on her earphones, the driving beat of the music chasing all other thoughts from her mind as she picked her spreadsheet back up and tapped her pen against it in time with the music.
Lost in her task and her music, Alex didn’t hear her name being called. She was totally oblivious to anyone else in the room until she glanced up and saw denim-clad knees directly in front of her. Alex glanced up, startled, and saw Nicholas looking down at her bemusedly. As she pulled out her earphones, she fumbled to stop the music blaring from them.
“Hey Alexandra, didn’t mean to sneak up on you like that. You didn’t hear me talking to you,” Nicholas said.
“Sorry.” Alex blushed and resisted the urge to smooth down her bangs nervously. “I had my music up too loud. Sorry.”
Nicholas smiled down at her. “No need to be sorry. I know checking the catalog can be really boring.”
Alex nodded. She wasn’t sure if she should try to get up. It didn’t promise to be the most graceful thing she’d ever done as her leg was already starting to fall asleep, but her position sitting on the floor and looking up at Nicholas felt awkward. If she looked straight ahead she was speaking to his knee. If she looked up far enough to see his face her neck hurt. She desperately wanted to avoid appearing to be staring at his crotch, but every time she looked up she felt like that’s what she was doing. There was nothing to do but try to stand up and hope she didn’t look too clumsy. As she started to stand up, Nicholas offered her his hand. Alex took it, willing herself not to show any visible reaction, but of course she could feel her cheeks flushing.
Alex dropped Nicholas’s hand as soon as she was upright. Unsure of quite what to do with her hands, she eventually settled for putting them behind her back and lacing her fingers together.
Alex rushed to fill the awkward silence. “So, was there something you wanted to see me about?”
“I didn’t get a chance to chat with you after the orientation yesterday, I just wanted to touch base, congratulate you on graduating.”
“Oh, thanks. Yeah, glad that’s over. Although it means it’s my last summer interning here,” Alex said ruefully.
Nicholas laughed. “You never know, Alexandra. I’ve been out of high school for awhile and yet, I keep finding my way back here.”
Alex resisted the urge to point out that he was only seven years older. She considered seven years a very surmountable age gap, but she was pretty sure that Nicholas considered himself too old, or too worldly, to be interested in a recent high school graduate.
“I just wanted to thank you, again, for writing me the letter of recommendation. I really appreciate it,” she offered instead.
“No problem, I was more than happy to do it,” Nicholas said. “I hadn’t heard if you got into the program at Hastings?”
“Yes, I did.” She smiled shyly up at him.
“That’s great, Alexandra. Well deserved, of course. You are a brilliant student. I’ve been glad to have you here at GeMMLA.”
Alex cheeks pinked at the compliment. She looked down at the tops of her Converse high tops, and allowed the piece of dark blond hair she had tucked behind her ear to fall forward and hide her face. “I wouldn’t say brilliant, but thanks,” she said shyly.
“Try not to underestimate yourself, Alexandra,”
Alex had absolutely no idea how to respond to that, so she changed the topic. “How is your thesis coming?”
Nicholas grimaced. “Could be better honestly. I sometimes feel I am just repeating things that have already been said and done, not contributing anything new to the field. Haven’t really found a ‘hook’ yet.”
“I’m sure it’s great,” Alex said encouragingly. “Your research is always impeccable.”
Nicholas looked as if he were about to respond, but he was preempted by the sound of someone clearing their throat, loudly, from the open door of the storage room.
“Hey, it’s Mr. Hunt right?” Luke’s voice came from the doorway. Alex couldn’t tell if the fleeting look of irritation that passed across Nicholas’s face was from being interrupted, or from Luke’s emphasis on “Mister.” She hoped it was the former, that he hadn’t wanted his conversation with her to be cut short.
“Yes it is, but feel free to call me Nicholas,” he replied turning toward the door. Alex continued staring at her shoes, afraid that if she looked over at Luke she would either bite his head off or burst out in nervous laughter.
“The lady in the office, Maureen, I think her name is? She’s looking for you, something about a donor list, and mailing labels? She asked me to come get you.”
Nicholas sighed, “Well, I’d better go see what she wants. I’ll talk to you later Alexandra. It’s good to have you back.” He walked out past Luke, and Alex noticed with surprise that Luke was several inches taller than Nicholas, although both towered over her.
Luke watched Nicholas walk past him and out into the hall. “See ya, Lex,” he said loudly, and then looking back at Alex he added under his breath “Seriously, ‘your research is impeccable?’ You really need to work on the whole flirting thing.”
Alex’s eyes darted to Nicholas’s retreating back, but he didn’t appear to have heard Luke’s comment. She glared at Luke and made a slashing motion across her throat. He just laughed and waggled his eyebrows at her suggestively, then turned to follow Nicholas down the hallway.
Alex sat shakily back down among the stacks of boxes. I am going to kill him, she thought. Before the summer is out Luke Reed is going to be dead by my hands.
*****
The bus ride home from GeMMLA usually took Alex about forty minutes. Los Angeles was not the most public transportation friendly city. Everyone had at least one car. Those who didn’t were stuck using the Metro, in Alex’s opinion the world’s most inefficient public transportation system.
The city sprawled in every direction, bleeding out into the surrounding cities so that you couldn’t tell where one ended and the others began. In the midst of the urban sprawl there were still small neighborhoods. Hundreds and thousands of them, each with their own distinct culture. Alex always thought of it as a series of living cells, each separate but dependent on the others, being fed a constant stream of vehicles from the major arteries of the freeways. During her bus ride, Alex passed through at least twenty of these neighborhoods. It was funny that in a city of millions she could almost always guarantee seeing the same people involved in the same events day after day outside the bus windows.
Alex loved her neighborhood. It was a hybrid between urban and suburban, offering the best of both worlds. The tree-lined streets boasted a mix of tract homes and apartment buildings, a few small parks and some really great restaurants. If you walked up Alex’s street to the major intersection you were once again in the heart of the city.
“Hey Mom,” Alex said in surprise as she let herself in the front door of the apartment she shared with her mom. “What are you doing home so early?” Usually her mother, Jennifer, who worked as a paralegal for a law firm downtown wasn’t ever home before eight, and sometimes later depending on her caseload.
Jennifer looked up from the couch where she was currently curled up with a romance novel and a large bowl of popcorn. She and Alex looked so much alike that they often were mistaken for sisters. They shared the same dark blond hair and gray eyes, though Alex was more than an inch taller than her mom. This was a source of pride for her, since it wasn’t often that she stood taller than anyone other than children.
“Oh, one of the partners won a big case today, so to celebrate he let everyone off at five. Thank God too, because I have to go in early all next week. Can I just say though, traffic is so much worse at this time of day. Took me twice as long to get home.”
“Yeah Mom, that’s ‘cause every other person in the greater Los Angeles area is getting off work now.” Alex closed the front door behind her, sliding the extra chain lock into place out of habit before dumping her backpack in the corner and flopping down on the love seat opposite the couch.
“There’s lasagna in the fridge if you want some,” Jennifer said. “I stopped off at Ricci’s on the way home.”
“Oh yum, I’ll have to get some in a minute. I’m too tired to move, even for Ricci’s lasagna.” Alex kicked her shoes off and propped her sock clad feet up on the coffee table, then leaned back closing her eyes. After the cramped bus ride and the ten minute walk from the bus stop to the apartment, it felt good to stretch out.
“How’s it going at the museum? Everything the same as last year?” Jennifer asked.
“Hmm, yeah pretty much,” Alex mumbled, eyes still closed. Suddenly, it occurred to her that her mother’s tone had been just a little too disinterested. “Mom, did you know Luke was going to be interning at the museum this summer?” She asked, sitting up abruptly.
There was a long pause while Jennifer crunched some popcorn and attempted to look innocent, but Alex knew her mom too well to be fooled by her wide, guileless eyes. “Mom?”
“Sherry may have mentioned something about Luke doing something at the museum this summer,” Jennifer admitted.
“Luke’s mom told you he was going to be at GeMMLA and you didn’t think warning me was a good idea?” Alex squeaked in disbelief.
“Warning you? Isn’t that a little dramatic sweetie? You two used to be the best of friends.”
“Oh my god, Mom, ‘used to be’ being the key phrase here. And ‘used to be’ was five years ago.” Alex got up off the love seat and started pacing.
“Honey, I know that you and Luke had some problems, I’m not sure how he acted toward you at the beginning of high school, because you don’t ever want to talk about it, but I know it hurt you and I know he regrets it. Sherry said –”
“Mom!” Alex interrupted holding up a hand. “I don’t want to know what Sherry said, or what she thinks she knows that Luke thinks. I know you guys are friends but please, please, please could you both stop trying to fix things between me and Luke? It’s not fixable. I don’t want it to be fixable.”
Alex couldn’t remember the last time she’d raised her voice to her mom, and judging from the look on her face, neither could her mom. “I’m sorry Alex,” she said. “I didn’t realize it would be that much of a problem.”
Alex leveled a disbelieving stare at her mom. “Then why not tell me about it?”
“You’re right,” Jennifer looked back up at Alex with a mixture of concern and regret, “I should have warned you that he was going to be in the museum program this summer.”
“Thanks Mom,” Alex sighed “Sorry I yelled.” She picked up her backpack and headed down the hall toward her room.
“Aren’t you going to have some lasagna?” her mom called after her.
“Maybe later,” she called back before ducking into her room and closing the door.
Sinking into the oversized bean bag chair wedged between the foot of her bed and the wall, Alex almost instantly regretted getting so emotional with her mom. It would only make her worry. The whole Luke-being-around-for-the-summer thing could have been a lot worse she supposed. Although they’d drifted apart in middle school as Luke had gotten more involved in sports, the “incident” as Alex referred to it privately, had happened at the beginning of ninth grade. And ninth grade was far behind them. By the middle of sophomore year they seemed to have reached a disinterested acquaintances phase, and since junior year, Luke had made more of an effort to at least appear more friendly. The inexplicable junior formal invitation aside, they’d managed as much friendly conversation as a popular jock and a quiet nerd who shared a few classes and one group project could ever be expected to have, which meant a grand total of about fourteen sentences spread over two years.
Senior year he had actually gone out of his way to say “hello” to her in the halls, a fact that she was sure didn’t go over well with the revolving door of cheerleaders he had dated. There had been three, or was it four, different cheerleaders senior year. Well actually, Alex was pretty sure one had been on the drill team, so it was unfair to lump them all together. The conversation she and Luke had at orientation the day before had probably been the longest one since they were thirteen.
Alex opened up her backpack and fished out a spiral-bound notebook, trying to banish from her mind thoughts of Luke and his semi-heroic rescue of her during orientation. Her scholarship to Hastings was based on grade point average as well as extracurricular involvement in subject matter. The university required scholarship students to take an extra class each semester. This seemed a little bit overwhelming for a first-year student, but money for college was money for college. Alex needed to work on the essay she was expected to turn in the first week of school on the absolutely loathsome topic of “what defines me as a student.” The last thing she needed, or wanted, to do was think about Luke’s warm, strong hand, resting on the small of her back as he held onto her belt loop.
Here is the synopsis and release date for my upcoming self-published novel. My cover art is in process, so for the time being I am going to be sharing some of my favorite traditional Sleeping Beauty art whenever I talk about Awake.
Awake: A Fairytale
February 7, 2012
authorjessicagrey 
