Thoughts on SAVE THE CAT! WRITES A YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

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Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this lovely, toasty day? I ended up with two books to review this month because this one decided to release a week early, so it’s impromptu book review time! It’s a craft book. I don’t know why I chose a craft book, but I did. Mostly because it’s been a while since I read one, I guess. Anyway, Save the Cat! Writes a Young Adult Novel by Jessica Brody was released on July 18th (Dad’s birthday! Happy belated birthday, old man!) from Ten Speed Press. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s do the thing.

Save the Cat! Writes a Young Adult Novel expands on Blake Snyder’s screenwriting guide (Save the Cat!) and tweaks it to make it more easily applicable to YA novels. Along with the expected beat sheets, the author also includes guides to what she calls the ten Save the Cat! story genres. There’s also a chapter dedicated to writing a series and one about creating loglines and synopses when you’re preparing for publication/the agent hunt/whatever you decide to use them for.

The original Save the Cat! is pretty much the only craft book that I remember with fondness. Most I’m either meh about or hate with a passion. This particular craft book is better than most of the ones I’ve read, but I couldn’t get into it when the genres came up (and they’re most of the book). First, the good. I liked the beat sheet. It explains where events usually go and how plotlines merge and diverge and how to make your own beat sheet either before writing, during it, or between drafts. Plus, you can tweak it as needed if your story feels off. It’s a great tool. I also liked that the author discusses how to apply everything to a series and a synopsis. That was all actually very helpful.

My biggest problem with this book was the breakdown of genres. Instead of using traditional genres (fantasy, sci-fi, etc.), the author tries to categorize stories by their essence (rites of passage, buddy love, etc.). That’s cool. I like the idea. But there’s far too much overlap for these genres to be distinct from each other. How do I know? Because a lot of the same books are used as examples in multiple genres. It’s confusing. The author says that’s okay and that many people will disagree as to what books go into which genre, like it’s not a big deal. It’s fine for debates. But she also says each genre needs to include certain things. If my book crosses multiple genres, how do I know what to include? It’s confusing. Especially for newbie writers who might think a craft book is writing law and don’t realize they can break the rules. It’s just too messy for my liking.

The other problem I have with the book is definitely a me thing. I don’t like it when writers use their own work as examples in craft books. It just feels like they’re trying to get me to buy their stuff and they never delve as deeply into their own stuff, like they don’t want to give away spoilers. Meanwhile, they’ve just spoiled every other book they used as examples. This author does it sparingly until the chapter on series which is all about one of her series in the example. It’s annoying to me, but I know most readers don’t care.

As far as the writing goes, it’s a craft book. Starts out a little preachy, but that fades away pretty quickly. Otherwise, it’s long and very repetitive as most craft books are.

Ultimately, I found some useful things in Save the Cat! Writes a Young Adult Novel. It was one of the better craft books I’ve read. Apparently there’s also one about writing novels in general, so I might look that one up.

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Overall, I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. Craft books are either pretty good (4), meh(2), or bad (0) to me. This one leaned toward pretty good. If you’re writing a YA novel and you’re stuck, it’s worth having around.

Tell Me What To Write

~ shawnaborman ~ 2 Comments

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? Things here are okay. I finally have the desire to write again, but I can’t decide what I want to work on. Short stories have been going nowhere for me, so something novel length. But do I want to start something completely new? Edit something that’s been sitting in the metaphorical drawer for years because it needs a complete rewrite and I’m lazy? Or untrunk Bailey now that I’ve got some distance from her and see if I can rework her using some new techniques? So, I thought I would list some descriptions here and let you all vote for what I should attempt next.

1. Garnets and Guardians (this one has been shopped to agents, so it actually has a blurb, but I’ve learned new editing and plotting techniques that might help improve it/make it marketable)

Sometimes, the voices in your head really are out to get you.

Bailey Donovan is a thirteen-year-old who has recently been diagnosed with a life-changing disease: Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy.  On top of that, she is forced to move to a small north Texas town to be close to a hospital that specializes in these types of diseases.

Despite all the changes being thrown her way, Bailey remains stoic.  A little too stoic for her mother who encourages her to express emotions Bailey would rather keep to herself.

After a series of increasingly strange events including a psychic waiter, her grandmother’s fairytales, and a psychotic dentist, Bailey finds herself stuck in therapy with the headache-inducing psychologist, Alice Parker.

As if all of this isn’t bad enough, Bailey stumbles upon the hospital’s dirty little secret: it’s built on a doorway to Hell and many of the town’s residents are actually demons.  This throws her further into chaos and raises questions about her origins and a possible intruder in her head that only her grandmother can seem to answer.  Follow Bailey into the abyss as she juggles family life, new emotions, physical challenges, and dark secrets.

2. The Last Rider (this one needs a complete rewrite because the plotting is off, so it’s got a first draft but has never seen the light of day)

Ky Reinholdt is an average, if somewhat of a loner, teen in a small town in far west Texas.  He’s a klutz, with no friends, who works in his dad’s diner and rebuilds things in a small shack out back when he’s not blowing up the chem. lab at school (it was an accident!).  Life is quiet and mostly peaceful until someone tries to kill him.  From that day on, he’s dragged into a world of secrets and war where everyone seems to know his name.  To top it all off, a creepy dude Ky meets in the school basement refuses to leave his side and doesn’t know the meaning of personal space.  Can Ky survive until his 18th birthday?  And what happens then?

3. Unnamed Cozy Mystery (this one is brand new and not completely plotted, but has a solid enough premise that it excites me and I could probably plot it out enough to start writing soon)

Cozy mystery about an older woman who drops everything to move to the country and open a small hotel. Twist, she sees/interacts with ghosts. She can’t open the hotel until she finds out what happened to a young girl on the property. But I haven’t decided on the reason for the big life change. And I’m not sure when I want it set. Modern day would be easiest research wise, but something older might be fun. I know the killer, but I don’t know the why yet.

So, what should I work on next? Vote below. And feel free to comment here or on my social media pages with your thoughts and ideas!

Just A Quick Reminder

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Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing today? It’s been a while since I took a lazy day for the blog, but as I’m writing this, it’s July 4th, so I’m using that as an excuse. Woo ‘Murica! Not really. I’m not exactly proud of my country lately, but I do want a break… sooooooooooo… HOLIDAY! I’ll be vegging and possibly catching up on reading. Or just watching TV. I don’t know. Mostly, I just wanted to use this post as your annual reminder that July is Disability Pride Month. Go learn something about cripples! I’ll be back next week.

Thoughts on DEAD ELEVEN

~ shawnaborman ~ 4 Comments

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this bright and hot Wednesday? Things here are about the same as usual. Luckily, we’re not here to discuss the monotony of life. It’s the last Wednesday of June, so it’s book review time! This month, I decided that something on the horror side of things would be nice, so I requested a copy of Dead Eleven by Jimmy Juliano. It was released yesterday (the 27th) by Dutton (an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group). As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s do the thing!

Dead Eleven follows Harper on his search to find his missing sister, Willow. She struck out on a mission of her own, but disappeared from a mysterious island where everyone seems to be stuck in the past, 1994 to be exact, and Harper is determined to find out what happened to her. But he discovers far more than he bargained for in this creepy little place.

The book opens with a note to the reader, which honestly… I almost skipped it. I rarely read stuff like that because it’s usually useless, but I stopped and figured I should at least make sure it wasn’t important. It’s actually part of the book and not something tacked on by the author or the publisher at the last minute, but still. Skip it. I wish I had. It basically just tells you right up front that the ending is going to be vague and unsatisfactory. I didn’t want to keep reading. Vague endings are not my favorite thing, so that little note made me dread going on. Luckily, things weren’t left as open as this implied, but certain things were definitely not wrapped up at all.

Let’s talk structure. This book is set up as a collection of data and anecdotes, so it’s a little strange to get into, but I mostly liked it. There’s one part from the viewpoint of Jennifer Larson-Quint which comes super late in the book and from nowhere. And it ends up being kind of important. She should’ve been introduced earlier and built up a bit. The random appearance felt like an afterthought. But the rest of the data was collected in an interesting way and the layout of everything else felt natural.

Pacing! This book dragged so much and was so very repetitive. It was just far too slow until the last quarter of the book, then things picked up. But combine that with characters who were mostly unlikable and it makes for a tough read. Then, the monster is kind of disappointing. I almost felt like it would’ve been better not to see the actual monster at all. The “dead things” were cool and creepy, but the thing behind them was best left to the imagination, especially since nothing was really done to defeat it. I’m sorry, but I was far more creeped out by what I had conjured in my head than I was by what was described on the page. It was a let down.

As far as the writing goes, it ranged from really good to sleep-inducing slow depending on the sections. Rita only had a couple of sections from her perspective, but they were the slowest. The rest of the viewpoints were okay. The opening (after the note) was weird and worked really well to create interest. I’m not sure I would’ve kept reading if it weren’t for that scene.

Ultimately, I was disappointed by Dead Eleven. I was hoping for ’90’s nostalgia mixed with creepy horror, but there wasn’t really anything nostalgic about it and the horror was meh at best.

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Overall, I gave it one star. I started at three stars, but the more I think about it, the more I find wrong with it. I can’t even find a reason to recommend it to others. It just wasn’t very good to me.

More Book Talk

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? I’m sure it’s lovely somewhere. Here, it’s hot and humid and generally blah. But the cicadas are doing their screeching thing, so that’s nice. Anyway, today I’m here to ramble about the last “Ask me about…” thingie. Unless someone picks another number before July 4th (feel free). So far, we’ve covered 13 (you can find the prompt list there), 31, 41, and 54. Today, we’re doing number 7: Ask me about my favorite book.

I think you all know my reading tastes by now. Anything Stephen King or Neil Gaiman. I’ve loved everything I’ve read by Rainbow Rowell. The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. Rick Riordan. Stuff about gods and demons. I’m not picky about genre, though I do lean towards fantasy or horror or cozy mysteries. Adult, YA, MG. I don’t particularly care about the target age range. As long as I enjoy it, that’s all that matters. But if you’ve been reading my blog, you know this, so I think I’ll approach this question in a different way and tell you a little about my favorite book that I’ve written so far.

None of my novels have been published (not for a lack of trying), but I do have a couple that are query ready, one that’s ready for revisions, and a handful of others that are at least partially written. Out of all of those, I’m particularly attached to one tentatively titled A Taste of Cyn: A Dreamscapes Novel. It’s a darker version of a cozy mystery with paranormal elements (vampires). And it has been rejected… a LOT, but I keep sending it out. Any personal rejections it’s received boil down to “We love the characters and idea, but have no idea how to market it.” I’m gathering that’s code for “it crosses some weird ass genres and we don’t know what to sell it as.” Which I thought might be a problem when I started writing it. Then again, it might just suck and no one wants to say that (I wish they would). But I still love it.

Here’s the blurb I’ve been using when querying:

Love bites and stalkers suck.

Lucynda “Cyn” Moseman wants nothing more than a quiet life running Dreamscapes, the first and only host club in Dallas. Unfortunately, Cyn’s life is anything but normal.

When she was eighteen, Cyn used college as an excuse to flee from Marfa, an awkward relationship, and her dysfunctional family. It’s been twelve years since she left, and she rarely looks back.

Three years ago, Cyn opened Dreamscapes, and now, the cozy nest she’s built around herself is being torn apart. Someone is picking off her customers and draining them of blood. With a staff consisting primarily of vampires, Cyn fears the worst.

Dragged into the middle of a murder investigation despite wanting nothing to do with it, Cyn’s life is spiraling out of control. Throw in a detective she may or may not have feelings for, the unexpected arrival of her clingy ex, and a box of hair appearing on her doorstep, and Cyn tells herself things can’t get worse.

She’s wrong.

I like it. I guess that’s what really matters. The second book in the series is actually plotted and partially written. It has more beasties than just vampires. I like it too, but stopped working on it after so many rejections. Maybe I’ll get back to it. Or maybe I’ll start working on the slightly more traditional cozy mystery that’s been banging around my head. It has ghosts, but I don’t think that’s too far out of the genre to make it unsellable. I mean, they have ones with talking dogs and others with witches now, so why not ghosts?

Anyway, that’s my current favorite book that I’ve written. I’m sure that’ll change. As always, feel free to leave your thoughts and questions here or on my social media pages!

THE FIRST BRIGHT THING by J. R. Dawson

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Howdy, howdy! Today, we’re interrupting our regularly scheduled programming to shamelessly promote my friend/fellow Stonecoast alum, J. R. Dawson! Yesterday (06/13), her book, The First Bright Thing, was released by Tor. I’m super excited for her, so I wanted to let my little part of the world know that this book exists and you should buy it. I’m currently only two chapters in, but I’m loving the atmosphere and characters so far. I’m so proud of you, J. R.! As far as where everyone can get the book, obvious choices include Amazon and Barnes & Noble, but also check out your local bookstores and libraries. You can find J. R.’s website here with access to her social media and information about tour dates, etc. And you can add the book to your GoodReads here. Go! Get the thing!

Blurb:

If you knew how dark tomorrow would be, what would you do with today?

The First Bright Thing by J. R. Dawson is a spellbinding debut for fans of The Night Circus and The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue.

Welcome to the Circus of the Fantasticals.

Ringmaster – Rin, to those who know her best – can jump to different moments in time as easily as her wife, Odette, soars from bar to bar on the trapeze. With the scars of World War I feeling more distant as the years pass, Rin is focusing on the brighter things in life. Like the circus she’s built and the magical misfits and outcasts – known as Sparks – who’ve made it their home. Every night, Rin and the Fantasticals enchant a Big Top packed full with audiences who need to see the impossible.

But while the present is bright, threats come at Rin from the past and the future. The future holds an impending war that the Sparks can see barrelling toward their Big Top and everyone in it. And Rin’s past creeps closer every day, a malevolent shadow Rin can’t fully escape. It takes the form of another Spark circus, with tents as black as midnight and a ringmaster who rules over his troupe with a dangerous power. Rin’s circus has something he wants, and he won’t stop until it’s his.

Flashback

~ shawnaborman ~ 1 Comment

Howdy, howdy! What’s everyone up to on this lovely day? Not much going on here. I’ve been hermitting hard. I’m not really avoiding people, but I’m not initiating contact much. Sorry! But anyway… tomorrow is Jenae’s birthday, so I have to take a minute to squee! Happy early birthday, Sis! Love yous! And now back to our regularly scheduled program: the ask me about stuff. I’ve done 13, 31, and 41. Today is 54. Next week is 7. Feel free to pick a number or two to add to the list. The prompts are in the post for 13. Today, apparently we’re going all the way back to school with… “Ask me about what I hate most about school.”

School was a long time ago. Like 8.5 years ago. That’s weird to think about. But I suppose what I hated the most were group projects. I’m very much the kind of person who sits back and let’s the group decide on the hierarchy, then I volunteer for the key elements (mostly putting together the slideshows on top of whatever section I’m assigned), so that I have a reason to relentlessly prod people to finish their part in a timely manner and get it to me. And if the leader was useless, I’d gently usurp the role because no one else actually cared. I wasn’t about to get a bad grade because other people sucked. The only group project I didn’t mind was for a research methods class. We had to work together on the experiment, but were only graded on our individual papers. That was a nice assignment.

I also despised prissy professors. The ones who acted like they were superior to everyone and if they didn’t like something, it was drivel. Those people in general annoy me, but teachers like that were the worst. Like the first year creative writing professor I had at SMU who told me I was a great writer, but that genre fiction was an unworthy pursuit. Like… my dude. All those authors of old that you worship were the pop fiction writers of their time. Chill. My classmates seemed to enjoy my stories, weirdness and all, so it was like fifteen people vs. one. I think I did okay with pleasing my audience.

And teachers who don’t clearly tell you their needs/expectations then blame you when they screw up. Like the statistics teacher who “didn’t know” that I would need to take my tests in the disability center despite the email I sent before the semester even started, the letter I hand delivered the first day of class outlining my accommodations, and the first test that I took in the disability office with no issues whatsoever. She just forgot and got mad at me for “not telling” her. If she needed reminders, she should’ve admitted it. None of my other teachers ever needed them, so I didn’t think about it. Needless to say, I inundated her with reminders for every test afterwards to the point where I knew I was being annoying and asked every teacher after that semester up front if they would like me to remind them about tests. Don’t yell at your students because you forgot something. Ugh.

I got lucky. There wasn’t too much to hate about school in general. I like learning. Most of my issues had to do with accessibility on the campuses, which varied from school to school. What did you hate about school? As always, feel free to share your responses and whatnot here or on my social media pages!

Thoughts on THE WISHING GAME

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this last Wednesday of May? Actually, it’s the last day of May in general. Time flies, I suppose. Things here are fine, so let’s get to what this post is about. It’s book review time! I was looking for something in the fantasy vein, but the genres listed on NetGalley lied to me. It happens sometimes. The book is fantastical in the sense that these things don’t happen, but that’s about it. Mostly it’s regular old fiction with a little zest. Anyway, The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer was released yesterday (May 30th) from Ballantine Books. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s do the thing!

The Wishing Game follows Lucy Hart as she struggles to make her dreams come true, the biggest of which is adopting Christopher. When everything seems impossible, she receives an invitation to her favorite childhood author’s private island to participate in a potentially life changing contest. Can she win against the other contestants? Can she face her fears? Can she resist the brooding artist who lives on the island with the author? Will all her wishes come true?

There’s definitely a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory vibe, but without the fantasy elements. More of a made-for-adults version (not the smutty kind of adult, just the kind of book kids wouldn’t appreciate as much). The golden ticket is a blue envelope and the factory is an island off the coast of Maine with a sad little amusement park that was never finished for reasons you’ll find out if you read it. Honestly, it’s pretty neat because it’s tied in with a (fictional) series of children’s books. The books have fantasy elements, but the novel itself reminds me more of a slightly dark Hallmark movie. Everything could potentially happen in the real world.

As far as the plot goes, it’s predictable, but that makes it comforting. You have to have a couple of miserable losses to make the wins seem earned. There’s a bit of romance just to spice things up. And the author dude is super rich and benevolent, so you know everyone is going to win in the end somehow, even though it might not be what they thought they wanted. There are plenty of trials along the way and everyone has their own fears to face. It’s well paced and despite the predictability, it’s intriguing.

The characters are mostly well rounded. Lucy is likeable and relatable for the most part. Her relationship with her sister felt really cringe-y until it’s finally revealed what her sister did. I feel like that reveal could’ve been made earlier and it would’ve helped a lot. Up until it comes out, Lucy comes off as selfish and ableist in a way and I didn’t want to feel that way about her. Especially when it was the fact that her sister was a dick rather than the fact that she was sick that caused everything. Anyway… Christopher’s age is difficult to pinpoint in the beginning. It seems like he’s 12 or 13 at first, but then he’s 7, which is a little jarring, but he finally settles into his age. Hugo is my favorite, of course. And Jack is interesting. I did wish that the other contestants were fleshed out better. They felt like they could’ve been anyone really, like they were just cardboard placeholders basically. And the potential bad guy just disappears, so that was awkward. But mostly the people were cool.

And the writing was nice. It made for a quick read. I actually finished it like two weeks early, so it went surprisingly fast. And I kept thinking about it for a couple of days afterward, but I haven’t thought about it much since. I guess that means it’s one of those books I enjoyed in the moment, but won’t remember much of a few months from now, which isn’t a bad thing.

Ultimately, I really enjoyed The Wishing Game despite the fact that it wasn’t what I was expecting. I’ll definitely keep an eye out for more books by Meg Shaffer.

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Overall, I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. It was fun and if you enjoyed stuff like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a kid, you’ll probably like this book.

Sweet Nothings

~ shawnaborman ~ 7 Comments

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? Things here are pretty okay. Just reading a lot and that’s about it. I try writing and eventually give up after a few days. Can’t even force it. Anyway, I’m not here to complain. It’s time for another of those “ask me about” prompts. I’ve done 13 (you can find the prompt list there) and 31. Today is 41. Next month I’ll answer 54 and 7. Feel free to pick more numbers to add to the list. But let’s see the prompt for today! Ask me about the nicest thing said to me…

Well, this is difficult. I’m not someone who knows how to deal with people saying nice things to me, so I usually just file them away as people being kind but not really meaning anything by it. Thus, I forget those things. You can only get so many “You’re so inspirational” and “If I were you, I’d never get out of bed” types of comments before you start realizing people are just nuts. Eh, that’s unfair. They think they’re being nice. It’s not. It’s low key ableism. But that’s not what this post is about! This is about my inability to take a compliment.

Unless those compliments are super weird, then I’m okay. I still remember the time the dude said my eyes were like blue crystal and he wanted to cut them out and hang them on the wall. A friend dude, not a stranger dude. Even I would be like “Stranger danger!” if I didn’t know the person. Don’t tell strangers things like this, please. Anyway, this same dude also told me that he forgets he doesn’t have to explain his creepiness to me and is glad I’m crazy too. So, those were good compliments.

Me trying to figure out how all my friends end up being creepy.

Believe it or not, he’s not even the weirdest person I know/have known. Anyway, I’ve also been told normal things too. Back when I was studying psychology at SMU, I had to take an extra random science course because one of the ones I did at Eastfield didn’t transfer. I chose Physics. The teacher dude lagged behind after lab one day just to tell me that psychology was kind of a science, but I should pursue a real science degree… preferably in physics. It was funny and weirdly nice. I would’ve if I’d had more time on my scholarship, but I didn’t and I would’ve needed too many math courses to catch up even if I had enough time for the regular physics degree, so somehow (blame Dad if you know the story) I ended up switching gears entirely… to English. So science-y, right?

I could probably list more nice things now that I’m thinking about it, but I won’t. It feels awkward to dwell on these things. I like randomly recalling them, but thinking about them in order to write about them is weird in the creepy way. So, your turn. What nice things have people said to you? As always, leave your thoughts and comments here or on my social media pages!

Lottery Dreams

~ shawnaborman ~ 3 Comments

Hello, hello! How goes it on this delightful Wednesday? Things here are okay. I have to venture out in public tomorrow for an ENT appointment to get my ear cleaned out. Fun. Not really. But you gotta do what you gotta do. Anyway, I was planning on procrastinating writing this until I remembered I have some of those Ask Me About thingies left to answer. You can find the prompt and answer to number 13 here. Today is 31. I still have 41, 54, and 7 to go. Feel free to pick a number to add to this list. Today’s prompt is: Ask me about if I won the lottery…

How big of a lottery are we talking about? Take home, not the actual “prize” amount, because we all know that’s not what you get. And I’d take the lump sum because no one has time for that yearly payout crap. Anyway, it’s a dream. Let’s splurge and say half a billion. I’d be comfortable with 10 million, but I’m supposed to be dreaming big here.

First up is land. Because we’re getting out of Texas if one of us ever comes into so much money we aren’t stuck relying on my benefits. How much are islands going for these days? Something warm, preferably. If those are too expensive, we can at least afford to leave the states. Or not. Maybe we’ll just find some land by an ocean. Have a house built to our needs and wants. Hire people to help take care of me without having to worry about what the government will pay for or allow or whatever. People to clean. A part-time cook. Gasp! Pastry chef! But yeah… sorry, Dad. You’d still have to cook sometimes.

Healthcare and medical equipment. A new wheelchair whenever I want one without having to argue with people about what I NEED, let alone what I want. The fancy insurance won’t cover it? I’ll just pay out of pocket. Whatevs! That would be glorious. And with people to help take care of me, Dad could use his fancy insurance to get fixed up without worrying about money or me. Why do people keep saying money doesn’t buy happiness? It gets rid of like 90% of the stress in life when you can afford everything you need, like shelter and food and clothing and healthcare and (in my case) personal assistants/caregivers. That’s a happy boost if I’ve ever seen one.

I’m sure we’d get new vehicles. How much does a used cruise ship go for? We could refurbish it and create a writers’ retreat (or artist get away or pretty much any kind of retreat people want to pay for) at sea when we’re not using it to travel. Boat maintenance and storage is expensive, so some kind of income from it would be helpful. Or maybe just a fancy yacht for us. Something to go all over the place in. I don’t know.

Oh! And I could get a job without having to worry about losing my Medicaid. That’s the best part of having money. I can become a productive member of society without some government peon constantly threatening to pull all my attendant care and healthcare before I’m actually capable of supporting myself and Dad.

Money sounds delightful. A house in a place that isn’t Texas. Healthcare and medical equipment. Care attendants besides Dad. Vehicles. The freedom to get a job. I could go for all that. Anyway, pick a number if you want. And, as always, feel free to leave your thoughts or comments or questions here or on my social media pages!