"Black hole sun, won't you come"*

As some of you may know, I've been following the process of the Large Hadron Collider and scientists quest to find the so-called God Particle. This giant particle smasher is currently on hiatus, but is scheduled to be up and running very soon. One hazard of this project is that it has the potential to open up a black hole that swallows up Earth (clearly, this did not happen in its first run!).

I haven't been able to get black holes our of my mind since then. I happened to see a billboard for a special exhibit called Black Holes: Space Warps & Time Twists at the Peabody Museum of Natural History. Perfect for an in-depth exploration, right? Well, not exactly. The exhibit was fun, which makes sense because it was geared towards kids and teens, but it wasn't super informative.

Making my Explorer's card was fun. I picked the name "Mini Seeker" because I liked the Harry Potter reference and added a picture of a pizza onto the card. (I could've taken a picture of my face, but no one wants to see that!) The exhibits were interactive and interesting. Still, there wasn't that ah-ha factor that really made me feel like the visit was worthwhile.

That was until I wandered into one of those video areas with those really uncomfortable wooden benches (seriously, the inventor of those should be swallowed up by a black hole). But this video informed me that not everything that gets close to a black hole gets sucked in. I know, you're saying, "Wait a minute. I thought a black hole was like a vacuum and once stuff went in, it never came back out."

That's what I thought, and it is basically true. Once you're in black hole, there's no coming out (and no one knows what happens on the other end of the hole...alternate universe perhaps?). However, matter that is in the process of being sucked into a black hole doesn't immediately fall in (especially because as you get closer to a black hole, time actually slows down...very heady stuff here).

Before the matter is sucked in past the event horizon, it circles around the hole in a disk, and the pieces of matter are all bumping into each other. Some of that matter and lots of gas (okay, no flatulence jokes please) shoot out as a jet that moves at close to the speed of sound. The video below actually does a really nice job of describing this phenomenon.



As more research is done about black holes, scientists are finding that black holes are probably important in the creation of galaxies and the case maybe that every galaxy contains one at its center. Forget the Seven Wonder of the World. That's small beans compared to the awesome mystery and power of black holes.

*Soundgarden

"Take a look, It's in a book, A reading rainbow"*

As New England got buried in snow once again (seriously, when am I ever going to benefit from global warming) and I got the rare snow day off from work, I was happy to have plenty of indoor activities to keep me busy, i.e. writing and reading. I have a big ol' stack of books in my to-be-read pile (some of which have been lent out even before I've read them) and an order of books on its way to my house, but really, one can never have too many books.

One of the books that is on its way is the YA dystopian XVI by Julia Karr. Julia and I roomed together at the SCBWI Summer Conference in L.A. last summer and had a blast. Aside from her talents as a writer, Julia is a kick-ass dancer! I am so excited for her debut novel.

Another debut I'm looking forward to is in the middle grade category: Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide To Not Reading by Tommy Greenwald, who is an esteemed member of my critique group.



A couple of books that are part of a series have also made my most-anticipated-books list. There's The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan, Fury of the Phoenix by Cindy Pon, and Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore. With these books, there will be lots of fantastic things: magical powers, zombies, handsome fellows, and strong females.

What are you looking forward to reading?

*Written by Steve Horelick, Dennis Neil Kleinman, and Janet Weir (please, tell me you remember the PBS show Reading Rainbow)

"Turn the Page"*

As we turn the page on 2010 to a new one on 2011 (yeah, yeah, pretty corny!), I've been thinking about the pages and pages I've read this year, which just happens to be enough fill 65 books (not to mention all the magazines, newspapers, blogs, and cereal boxes I've read). Interestingly that was the same exact number of book I read in 2009. I had hoped to read more books in 2010, but I put reading somewhat aside in the second half of the year in order to give myself more writing time, or as was often the case, more revising time.

Throughout the year, I featured the book trailers of some of my favorite books, including my absolute most favoritest book of the year: The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson (which my twin-not-twin sister gave to me for my b-day). I also picked up a bunch of signed books (some of which are still on my to-read list): Al Capone Shines My Shoes by Gennifer Choldenko (which came highly recommended by my 11-year-old nephew), Dead Girl Walking by Linda Joy Singleton, and Princess Ben by Catherine Gilbert Murdock to name a few.

In honor of Banned Books Week, I draped myself in only banned/challenged books. After reading that post, a certain book buddy of mine gave me The Giver by Lois Lowry when she found out I didn't have my own copy.

As for 2011 in addition to print books, I've now had my Nook for over a year and hope to add to my Nook book collection. At Girls' Christmas a new book bag was started. Basically, a group of us girls pass around the bag of books and when it's out turn to have the bag, we can read none/any/all of the books in it and write in the enclosed journal if we choose to. Then you take out any books you had previously put in and add more books if you want to.

Up next, I've got some 2011 releases I'm really, really looking forward to reading! Enter a great contest on Anna Staniszewski's blog to maybe win some of those books. What were your favorite books of the year?

*Bob Seger