We’ve had a ridiculously mild winter here so far, which makes me wonder if anyone around these parts is all that concerned about whether or not the groundhog sees his shadow or not. I suppose the same can’t be said for Maine. They actually had some snow on the ground when I was up there this weekend. I’d almost forgotten what the stuff looked like. Also, I spotted this on an SUV on I-95:

Interestingly enough, that “I Hate Winter” message was on an SUV with Maine tags, which begs the obvious question, “Then why do you live in Maine?”

So, whether you love or hate winter, I wish you a happy Groundhog Day and hope that whatever the groundhog sees today it’s to your liking.

This was Jack’s first experience with saltwater. He was very confused by how peculiar it tasted. He kept trying to lay down in the shallow water only to become startled when a wave smacked him in the butt.

This weekend, we have to travel up to Maine where it will be significantly colder than it was in Delaware on Tuesday. I think we’ll skip the beach this time around.

]]> http://alissagrosso.com/2012/01/enjoying-the-ride/feed/ 7 http://alissagrosso.com/2012/01/saying-goodbye/ http://alissagrosso.com/2012/01/saying-goodbye/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:41:00 +0000 Alissa http://alissagrosso.com/?p=1787 My Grandma Grosso passed away last night. She was 92 years old, and of tough Scottish stock. In our family, she was

This is a picture of both my grandmas from the 1970s. That's Grandma Grosso on the left who must not have seen the photographer in time to sprint out of the room and my mom's mother, my Grandma Hersey, is on the right.

known as The Queen, and so it feels a little weird knowing that our queen is no longer with us. I thought I would take a few minutes to share some facts about our family’s matriarch.

Grandma had an almost pathological hatred of cameras. It’s a good thing she was born when she was, because I don’t know how she would have survived in an era of camera phones and Facebook. She was not an athletic woman in any way, but the minute someone pulled out a camera, you should have seen how fast she ran out of room. It was like she suddenly morphed into Jackie Joyner Kersee.

The only other time I ever saw Grandma move that fast was when insects were involved. She hated creepy crawlies almost as much as cameras. I recall one time in my cousins’ backyard when someone spotted a bee. My grandmother (who is not allergic to bees, by the way) jumped out of her lawn chair and made a mad dash for the house. She fell and scraped her knee on the concrete patio, doing more damage than the bee would have.

There’s also a story about a bee getting in the car when she was learning how to drive and allegedly she nearly killed herself and her driving instructor in her panic. Of course, the story my grandfather always told about grandma learning to drive was during her driving test when she kept tugging down her short skirt while she was driving. The man giving the test told her not to worry about the skirt, and my grandfather always joked that she passed that test because she showed some leg.

My grandmother never wore pants, and just to clarify by pants I mean trousers or jeans or whatever and not underpants. Those, she wore. She would only wear skirts or dresses. Of course, thanks to her fair Scottish skin she never had to shave her legs. Her legs were perfectly, smooth and hairless. Unfair, right?

Grandma was a highly opinionated person and held some interesting views on a range of subjects. Thanks to Grandma, I’ll never drive a green car. Why? Because according to her green cars are bad luck. I’ve since learned that this is a superstition that comes from race car driving, but as far as I know Grandma was not into racing cars. Well, unless a bee happened to fly in the window.

When my grandmother was in high school she decided to change her last name. Her last name was McKay. She had born in Scotland, but moved here with her family as a young girl. When a friend’s motherpassed on her own version of wisdom that spelling a name Mc meant a person was Irish and spelling it Mac meant a person was Scottish, my grandmother changed the spelling of her own name. She and her brother were in high school at the same time, and classmates didn’t even realize they were related because their last names were spelled differently.

In fact, I have my grandmother to thank for the fact that there is no wrong way to pronounce my last name. It’s an Italian last name and should be pronounced like the word “gross” but with an “o” at the end. Grandma didn’t like the way that sounded so she changed the pronunciation. She changed the first “o” to a soft “o” vowel sound. The result is that I’ve always mispronounced my last name, and of course if someone says it the other way, the right way, I’m not going to correct them.

Grandma may be gone, but her legacy will live on in an entire family who can’t agree on how to pronounce their last name and who avoid driving green cars and a million and one other personality quirks that The Queen has bestowed upon us. Goodbye, Grandma. We’ll miss you.

It was a result of a conversation I had with my boyfriend over the weekend. In a roundabout way it has to do with Route 66 and some commentary that was included with the Cars DVD that related how years ago, road trips were as much about the trip as they were the destination. The same isn’t really true anymore. Now, most of us, myself included are so focused on our destinations we have no time to really enjoy the ride.

I guess you could think of this in a metaphorical sense, but truthfully, I am thinking of my resolution to enjoy the ride in a completely literal sense. For my day job I’m constantly driving all over the place. It’s true that I have places I have to be at specific times, but pretty often I find myself with extra time on my hands. Unfortunately, I don’t use this wisely. I don’t often make a habit of enjoying the ride. I’m too focused on my destination.

So, in 2012, I’m going to try to remember to enjoy the ride.

It won't be long before the only newspapers we have left will be clever creations like this Fairy Tale newspaper sold by the Etsy shop theFiligree.

Years ago, book reviews were printed only in publications read by professionals or if one was lucky in a newspaper’s book review section. When an author received a good review she might celebrate by popping the cork on a bottle of champagne or calling her mother. A bad review might lead to throwing pillows around the living room or placing a different sort of call to her mother.

Times have changed. Professional review publications are still around and so (at least for the moment) are newspapers. However, the internet has multiplied the number of opportunities to receive reviews be they good or bad. There are book bloggers, Amazon.com and something called Goodreads. The internet has also changed the way we as authors interact with the world and how we as authors interact with our fans. We are used to sharing our every emotion with the world and the most mundane events of our life via places like Facebook and Twitter. We write blogs where we can rant and rave about whatever annoys us. This internet thing can be a dangerous place for authors.

So no matter where you are in your writing career, here’s some tips to keep in mind.

1. Some people are not going to like your book. It seems impossible after all that you went through to finally get your book accepted for publication and then all the edits and tweaks your book went through, but it’s true, some people still won’t like it. Prepare yourself for this fact.

2. If you are having a hard time accepting the fact that there are people who won’t like your book, do yourself a favor and turn off your Google alerts, stay away from Goodreads and Amazon, and do not click on any links to reviews you accidentally stumble across on sites like Twitter and Facebook. Some of these reviews will be good, but some will be bad. It’s a fact of life.

3. If you’ve decided that you can handle reading bad reviews and you do not take the steps outlined in step 2, do not comment on any online reviews you find. Although it might seem polite to thank a blogger for a nice review, I think it might cheapen the review somehow to add your comment to the blog post. I also advise the no comment rule because you should absolutely under no circumstances comment on a bad review.

If you're determined to read bad reviews, invest in some good throwing pillows. A literary pillow case like this one by the Etsy shop BookFiend isn't a bad idea either.

4. Don’t react to a bad review. Okay, you’re human. You’re going to react to a bad review. Do it the old fashioned way. Throw pillows. Call your mother. Do your reacting away from your computer. If you need to, send an email to your close friends to vent. Don’t vent on Twitter, Facebook or your blog. These are public forums. The literary world may seem huge, but it’s amazing how small it gets when one of its member engages in bad behavior. You don’t want to be that person.

5. Write the next book. The publishing world moves so slowly that by the time a book comes out you should no longer be emotionally invested in it. You should be pouring your passion into your next book. It’s easier to ignore critical reviews if you accept the fact that once your book is out there in the world it is out of your hands. Cut the apron strings, and move on to the next project.

Some advice from Jack the dog:

Stay warm.

Stay comfy.

Wash daily.

Book bloggers as you probably could have guessed are individuals who blog about books. They post book reviews,

Last year when I put out the request for "I Am Popular" pictures for the Popular book trailer, more than one book blogger helped me out.

interviews with authors and favorite book lists. Like other blogs, book blogs each have their own style and format. Many list review policies and the genres they prefer.

Of course, this description only scratches the surface of what book bloggers do. To an author, book bloggers are heroes. They champion authors. As a debut author, whose first novel came out from a small press, I was astounded at the outpouring of love and support I received from book bloggers. When I attended BEA last May, I met book bloggers who came to New York from all over the country. Many of them spent their own money to attend the conference.

In an era where print media is disappearing, at a time when most mainstream media pretty much ignores books with the possible exception of all but the biggest bestsellers, book bloggers are a tremendously powerful ally. Book bloggers rock.

I’m not naive. I know that not everyone (and that includes book bloggers) is going to like my book. That a book blogger would take the time to read and share their opinion of a book is an honor. For this reason, I’m glad to be a writer at a time when book bloggers exist. I think these hard-working, devoted and under-appreciated bloggers provide a tremendous service to the writing community.

Thank you, book bloggers everywhere.

So here (my fingers are crossed that I don’t mess this up again!) for your viewing pleasure is a collection of unusual shoes, and my favorites are still the ones that look like doggy faces. How about you?