Confession: I don't have anything to say here at TKD :( But that's only because I used all creative energy on today's Skylights article. So instead of whipping something random up, I'll just redirect you guys over there!

The Contact High of Connection

www.skylightsmagazine.com

I'm actually really, really proud of this piece. I struggled and tussled with it for weeks and finally the words started clicking into place. Fitting, really :)

So if you get a chance, go ahead and check the article out! And I'll see you here on Wednesday. Hope your week was all kinds of wonderful!

When You're Obsessed With The 100...

You compile a post full of gifs about The 100. You also talk incessantly about it, and tweet your love for it ad nauseum. Because you know, that's what it's like when you're a total fangirl.

I've mentioned The 100 approximately seventy billion times on the blog already (here, here, and here), and people who don't watch it are probably like "okay, alright, we get it!" But for reals... you don't. Not yet. You don't understand the amazingness that is the The 100 but maybe after this post, you will.

When you're obsessed with the 100

During the first 10 minutes, when you understand the premise of the show and how life in space would totally suck.

When you think "hey, maybe living in this world wouldn't be so bad"... 

When you realize it might be that bad because no one is safe...

Not even your favorites...

When your ship looks like it's setting sail...

 When you've gotta give props to the writers because it's only episode 3 and you are legitimately hooked... 

When someone tries to talk to you during an episode...

When it's 2 A.M. but you just have to see what happens next...

When you've finished Season 1 and you're trying to trick Netflix into thinking you're in Canada so you can watch Season 2...

When you finally trick Netflix and rejoice in 16 more episodes of this awesomeness...

When the anxiety is too real and you feel like you need someone to save you from the feels...

When it looks like your favorite ship is about to sink.

When said ship soars instead and then your other ship looks like a 'go'...

When the thing you thought wouldn't happen in a million years, just did...

When you can't wait until Season 3 and you know this is going to be your future next fall and you're totally ok with it...

Please don't blame me if you now spend your weekend watching episode after episode of The 100. I warned you! I also kinda encouraged you so there's that :)

Happy Weekend!

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Also, if you have some time, do check out Skylights Magazine! Today is the final day of launch week & we're highlighting the most popular tourist attractions in our cities!

Currently

Guess who's back? Back again. Kari's back. Tell a friend. You see where this is going, don't you? :)

As I've been kinda scarce around this blog of mine, I thought I'd get reacquainted via a post about what been going on recently. And as the gears are turning on multiple projects, TKD may be taking a more personal turn soon, so getting personal today feels right. (Thanks to my Kay for the inspiration behind this post!)

Wondering: where the hell spring is. Go home, Mother Nature. You're drunk.

Trying: to get my sleeping schedule in order. Somewhere along the past week or so, I started feeling wired at night and tired during the day, and it's so not a good look. Especially because it always seems like fixing it is so much harder for me than for other people. Wah!

Learning: what it really means to be a lady. And most importantly, learning how to rectify that definition with the kind of woman I want to be and the things I believe in.

Source

Listening To: "Black and Gold" by Sam Sparro. This was probably my favorite song in high school and so when I heard it again recently, I was taken right down memory lane. And the nostalgia is real ya'll. It will always induce amazing memories for me, like cruising down the highway at unspeakable speeds in my first car with my windows rolled all the way down on a warm night. A whole new meaning to "cruisin' for a bruisin'".

Reading: Insurgent by Veronica Roth. I was suppose to finish it this weekend, but alas, television was calling for me. It needs to get read this week though. I can't hold out on seeing the movie much longer and I really wanna reread it before I do.

Watching: all of the my shows I neglected to watch when I was binge-watching The 100. Seriously guys. My DVR is 91% full, even after watching like six shows and deleting them. It's a little sad.

Waiting: for The Mortal Instruments television show. Not that I need a new show to be addicted to, but come on now! They announced the project back in like October and all we've gotten so far is a name (Shadowhunters) and random tidbits of information. We still have no real idea when it will premiere ('this year' they say) or anything about the cast. Boo!

Photo is of the movie cast; Source

Writing: or at least attempting to write my novel, Omission. I was suppose to have my first draft complete by March 31st, but I'm about two weeks behind on that deadline at best.

Focusing On: working out. Operation #beastmode hasn't been a total fail these past 3 months, but it surely hasn't be a soaring success either. One week I'm excellent, the next, well, I'm not. And I haven't checked in since basically the beginning. Whomp. Getting my shit together stat.

Loving: Skylights Magazine! I know, you guys. I've mentioned it on here bagillion times, but I can't help it. It's still launch week, meaning a new post every single day until Friday, and I'm just so proud of our little baby!

What have you been up to recently? I want to know :)

Friday's Favorite Launch-ity, Launch, Launch

I was so looking forward to doing a proper favorites post today, as I haven't participated in quite some time and I've got a few things I'm loving on. But when I say that I haven't a creative or coherent bone left in my body right now, I do not lie. This week has been cray-zeee. With what little brain power I have left, I'll use it for shameless (or maybe shameful, depending how you look at it) self-promotion.

www.skylightsmagazine.com

Did you know that if you say "launch" enough times, it starts to sound like 'lunch'? Now, I'm hungry. I'm also weird or just sleep-deprived. Maybe both. Bleh. 

Months in the making and it's finally here. Relief and exhaustion and excitement are washing over me faster than I can feel them all, but I know this is the day we've been waiting for. Skylights Magazine is now live! Hip, hip, hooray!

Because a single day wasn't enough and we thought "why not extend this party?', we are having a "launch week". A week full of content as we'll be posting an article every day from now until the 27th. Crazy kids! 

We'd love for you to share your pictures and stories with us by tagging us on iG and Twitter and using #embracetheunexpected or #confesstheunexpected. Show us anything you find beautiful and unexpected, we want to see it all!  

And that's all I've got! What are your weekend plans? I hope your week was the greatest yet and I'm sure your weekend will be even better. Mine will be full of the things I neglected to do all week. Oy ve!

Happy Weekend! 

Courage & Not Reading {Confessions}

Mid-week scramble. I've got a bagillion-and-one things to do and about -10 hours to do it in. But I also haven't shown my face on this blog in a few days. Unacceptable. With that, I'll confess a few things because why not?

++ I legit rolled out of my bed yesterday. Leg day will do it to ya.

++ I am certifiably obsessed with The 100. It's a CW show about kids from space that get dropped to the ground to see if Earth is inhabitable. Basically, it's Lost with teenagers. And it's addicting. I've watched all of Season 1 and damn near half of Season 2 in the past 4 days. Send help soon...

++ There are a few projects I've been working on that are quite scary. And it's really strange to admit that fact - that I'm a little scared, because I'm normally not afraid of much. This quote has been the mantra for weeks now.

++ Above-mentioned projects would be why I've been kinda absent on this blog. It's been consuming almost every free moment, but that's okay for now.

++ I haven't finished a book in 3 weeks, which feels really weird when I read like crazy for the first two months of 2015.

++ After finally reading Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chobsky, I saw the movie. I cried pretty much the whole way through. It was beautiful. Just beautiful. Instant favorite. And now I love Emma Watson even more.

++ Speaking of book-to-movie adaptations, I'm really excited for Insurgent to premiere this weekend, despite the fact that I totally don't recognize it from the trailer. And weirdly enough, what's bothering me most is that Tris' hair is too short. LOL priorities.

++ But what's most exciting about Friday is that Skylights Magazine is launching!! I'm excited and nervous and freaking out all at once, and I'm not sure whether I wish it were here already or that I had more time. Regardless, you can sign up for a one time notification of the launch right here! >> WWW.SKYLIGHTSMAGAZINE.COM!

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In my quest to figure out my internet stuffs (my brand if you will), I've kind of missed confessing my little heart out. Perhaps, confession posts are here to stay, at least occasionally. Hmm...

*Note: I should be tuning back into the blog world very shortly and of course, reading posts and joining conversations again. Special thanks to all of you who keep checking my blog even though I've had like zero time to reciprocate the love. You the real MVP <3

Birthday Positivity

Oh hello! Yes, yes I did just miss an entire week of blogging. There was my birthday and then a few projects got kind of consuming and before I knew it, it was Thursday. Seriously, where did this week go? Shit, where did this month go? Where did my life go? That would be how I felt last Friday on my 27th birthday. How the hell did I end up here?

A few days back, or weeks I'm not sure, my lovely Kristen did a post on positivity and I immediately put it on my never-ending list of post ideas. And now that I'm officially a year older and I basically skipped the blogsphere's mandatory "Today's my birthday!" post, I figured it'd be the perfect post to commemorate turning 27. Sidenote: 27 is such a weird number. For real. I'd much rather be 26 or 28. In fact, let's pretend like I'm still 26 and then next March 6th I'll just magically be 28. Like "poof, I'm 28!" (see that Sex and the City reference here for a good laugh!).

Something you love about yourself.
I really love how passionate I am. Or maybe I love how obvious that is to other people. Since I was a teenager, it's always one of the first things people use to describe me. Whether it's "wow, you're excited, aren't you?" or "you really throw yourself into what you love" or "you love hard" or "you feel everything" -- I translate it all to a note about how passionate I am about things. (Although, that first comment might actually be an insult in disguise :) Whatever.)
Passion is such an important value to me and living passionately is something I've always strived for and loved identifying in others, so I'm so glad others see it too!

Something you want to work on.
Kindness. Kristen mentioned being nicer to herself in her post, and surely I need to work on that too. But really - being totally transparent here - I want to work on being kinder to other people. Last summer I read We Were Liars by E. Lockhart and a quote really stood out to me. "Be kinder than necessary." I've since learned that the quote originated with J.M. Barrie, but I'm still striving towards it. I don't really mean showing kindness to those I know and love. I think I'm a pretty nice person in that sense. But I'd like to work on being kinder to those around me, walking down the streets with me etc. I'm a New Yorker through and through, and we tend to move quickly and have a tough attitude. So yeah.
...There's also always losing a bit of weight and shiner hair :)

Give someone a compliment and mean it.
There are legit 50 different bloggers that I can genuinely compliment. I've met some amazing ladies over the past few years. But there are three ladies in particular who immediately pop into my head right now.
Dearest Kay and Deb, you are both such wonderfully supportive and positive people. You inspire me to dream because you never shoot down my fantasies, however unattainable they may be. As such supportive and nurturing people, you're bound to be (or rather already are!) wonderful mothers.
My soul-writer Mae, your kindness and sincerity are a rarity in this world! You dole out wisdom like it costs you nothing, and despite doing eleventy billion things, you find time for other people. They truly do not make them like you anymore.

Something you are proud of, succeeded in, or are just generally pumped about.
Generally, I'm really pumped about a few of the projects I've been working on recently (including Skylights Magazine launching in just a week! Get notified here!).
I think I'll always be proud of graduating law school, regardless of whether I practice or not, because it was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Another thing that'll make me super proud of myself? Finishing the first draft of my novel, hopefully by the end of March. I also wouldn't complain about a two book deal from a well-known publisher :) Hello, Simon and Schuster!

Happy Friday! 

To Fill Up & Live | Ugly Love

Title: Ugly Love

Author: Colleen Hoover

Publication: 2014

Major Character(s): Tate and Miles

Main Plot: Tate, fresh out of university and starting grad school, has little time to dedicate to a relationship. So it seems like a blessing when she meets Miles, who is the definition of emotionally unavailable, and the two decide to engage in a purely physical relationship instead. But things are never really that simple, are they?

Favorite Lines:
"God gives us the ugliness so we don't take the beautiful things in life for granted."

"Some people they grow wiser as they grow older. Unfortunately, most people just grow older."

"She's like poetry. Like prose and love letters and lyrics, cascading down the center of a page."

My Rating: 4.7

Confession: I'm a skimmer. Well not habitually but sometimes I'll start reading a new book by skimming it first, just flipping the pages. First thing I noticed about Ugly Love was the switching of point of view between the two main characters and how Miles' chapters were set six years earlier and the prose was formatted strangely. And I groaned because I just knew I was going to hate it. Lies! It was my favorite! I loved Miles chapters. They read like a diary. No more than that. The lovely 'stream of consciousness' writing flowed like the lyrics to a song, bopping along to a melody only Miles could hear. And what makes me love it even more is that it fits his mentality and feelings perfectly, and is surely something Hoover intended and it's perfect!

So it's fair to say that I really enjoyed Hoover's writing style. I also really liked the story! Truthfully, I was surprised by the existence of a storyline - Fifty Shades of Grey really set the bar low for storylines in New Adult books for me - and that said storyline was actually laid out and executed very well. And I enjoyed the sexy times immensely. Am I allowed to say that? Does it make you completely uncomfortable to read that? Oh, well. I did! And you'd be hard-pressed (hehe, a pun!) to find someone who can say they didn't. I found that Hoover used sex as a mechanism to display how either a relationship was developing or falling apart. It never felt arbitrary and so it felt less like reading soft-core porn.

I also really loved Hoover's characters (especially Cap!). Don't get me wrong, I had issues with every single one of them and found myself getting frustrated with their decisions. But I still liked them, which to me is the true test of characters and their development. If I like a character or can really appreciate their story arch - if I care about what happens to them -, then an author has truly done her job. Hoover's characters are believable and feel very real. I get them and their motivation, despite whether I agree with their choices or not. (As my dear Kristen would say, some things were just unforgivable.) My heart felt for Miles while truly understanding Tate. I wanted happiness for them both and found myself rooting for them less than 30 pages into the novel. And most of all, I loved that they both developed throughout the story. Every character in Ugly Love ended up different and, I would argue, better people on the other side of things.

Overall, I'm so glad this was our book choice this month. It was love-related without being too lovey-dovey and it managed to be a heart-warming story despite the heavier topics it handled. It was a quick read because I constantly wanted to know what happened next as I was so invested in the story from the very beginning, only coming up for air after the final page.  If you're into contemporary reads and don't mind a little lust in the pages of your novel, definitely pick this one up!

Did you read along with us this month? Any thoughts on Ugly Love? Link up your review below and of course, let me know what you thought in the comments below.



Also, do you regularly read New Adult books? If so, I'd like some suggestions as this genre is relatively new to me.  

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March's book is Love Lucy by April Lindner. 

During her summer in Florence, Italy, Lucy finds herself falling in love with all the the city has to offer - all of it. Once she returns home, she finds out that moving on from an experience like that is easier said than done. We hope you'll read along with us and join us in reviewing Love Lucy on Tuesday, April 7th!

Skylights

Back at the start of January, I set out on the mission of developing my internet presence, defining it. It made the past few months both exciting and super busy. Isn't that always how it happens? I don't think I've ever been one without the other. Is that even possible?

Anyway. In trying to define my internet self and my blog content, I kept running into a snag. You know the snag I'm talking about because I've mentioned it a million times and so I won't dwell on it now. Simply, I found that my blog worked best, connected with the most people, when I was being really laid back, posting about my favorite Oscar moments or weird confessions. And that's perfectly okay! But I was struggling to find a place for all the other things I wanted to write about.

Then Mae entered my life. Lies. She entered my life almost two years ago via an amazingly inspiring comment on a very lonely blog post. But this time she entered with what turned out to be the answer to all my prayers. I'm being dramatic. But really, when she asked if I'd start a digital magazine with her, it felt like everything I was looking for.

What came out of numerous texts, tons of emails and hours of phone calls was Skylights Magazine. And it's more than I could have ever imagined!

Skylights Magazine is a digital publication about embracing the unexpected in a city of a billion lights. The publication stems out of the love we have for our big cities, NYC and LA, but also the love we have for our creative selves. It's easy to lose ourselves in the bright lights and in the expectations of others, but it's important to fight like hell for the other 'unexpected' parts that make us who we want to be. For me, that's writing. For you, it might be your love of cooking or painting or blogging despite whatever title society places on you (lawyer, mother, nurse, etc.). Skylights aims to embrace the unexpected in our cities (or states, or towns, or wherever!) and in ourselves :)    

The magazine will officially launch on March 20th and although I know there is much to do before then, I find myself anxious to just show the world now! Ok, calming down.

In the meantime, you'll find that you can sign up for the launch notification at skylightsmagazine.com! I know March 20th is weeks away and easy to forget about, so this way you'll get a sweet little reminder email once we launch! (Don't worry, your email address won't be kept on file after that, so no spamming.)

I'm not forgetting little ol' TKD and still plan to blog here 2-3 times a week. Just now, I have another place to call home as well :)