So Dreamy

Inception is definitely the best movie I've seen in the last five years. I find dreams very interesting, so I knew I'd like it, but I couldn't have anticipated how truly amazing it would be. It reminded me how much I love movies. And also how much I used to love Leonardo DiCaprio. 

When I was twelve years old, Titanic was released, and my obsession with Leo began. My friends and I were all in love with him, but I had the most in common with him. See, I'd bought his unauthorised biography, and was stunned by the amount of similarities between us. We were both Scorpios. We both played keyboard. We both spoke 'some' German. We both liked acting. For my twelve-year-old self, this was enough to convince me that we were meant to be together. My cousin Lynda and I watched Titanic at least one hundred times. Our other cousin, Rosie, was capable of reciting entire scenes of Titanic from memory (including the parts in different languages), and she frequently did so at sleepovers. Leo was the Robert Pattinson of our generation. I even included him in my German school project. We could pick our own title, so I chose Der Deutsche-Hollywood Zusammenhang (The German Hollywood Connection). I wrote about Marlene Dietrich, Billy Wilder, Hans Zimmer and of course, Leornardo DiCaprio. Leo's mother was German, and it gave me a plausible excuse to swoon over him and disguise it as homework. Further research only convinced me more of our assured future together. Then something changed. He did a few dodgy movies (The Beach springs to mind) and my friends and I found other actors to adore. But while watching Inception the other night, I thought, Leo, you've still got it. 

Have any of you guys had an extreme celebrity crush you'd like to share? I wish I could find that biography...

Things I ♥

♥The Converse Dr. Seuss Collection. I want, I need. 
♥The Forever Young Adult blog. "for YA readers who are a little less Y and a bit more A". Their posts are really funny. (link via Eimear Ryan). 
♥Pretty Little Liars t.v. show. Mysterious secrets, cute clothes and hot English teachers, all you want in a show really. 
♥Eclipse. I've seen it twice and really want to see it again! Cringey in parts but completely addictive nonetheless. 
♥ Galway. I'm down there this week with my friends to relax and check out the Arts Festival. Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Summer Giveaway!

The First Three Chapters summer giveaway includes:

A sparkly notebook, a wallet

three limited edition 'pocket money puffin' books, released to celebrate Puffin's 70th birthday this year. One by Sarah Dessen, Cathy Cassidy and Meg Rosoff, 

glittery pencils and colourful pens,

and a summer themed charm bracelet from Accessorize!

*GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED*

To enter you simply need to:

♥ be a follower of this blog, new followers are welcome

♥ leave a comment on this post

♥ Check back on Tuesday 10th August to see if you've won!

Giveaway closes on 10th August at 5pm (GMT)

The First Three Chapters summer giveaway is open to followers worldwide. Good luck!

Coveted Cover

Author Jenny Han's website is just as cool as her book's cover. Also check out her blog, where she sometimes posts hilarious extracts from her own teenage diaries. The Summer I Turned Pretty is published by Puffin and is out now.  I can't wait to read it!

Literary Style

 

product info

Edinburgh!

image source

I like comedy, I love music, I adore theatre and I'm crazy about books. So Edinburgh in August is naturally one of my favourite places on earth! Not only does the Fringe Festival run from August 4th - 31st, but the Edinburgh International Book Festival runs from the 14th - 30th. There are also some other festivals on. And I'm going!

The Book Festival has a great programme this year, including an event with teenage fiction author John Green. The last time I was in Edinburgh I just stumbled upon the book festival and was too late to go to any of the events, as they were all sold out. If you're going this year I would advise that you book in advance. But I did buy a tonne of books, including In Cold Ink, David Robinson's interesting collection of essays and writer interviews based on his articles in the Scotsman. The cup is from the Elephant House, the café overlooking Edinburgh castle where J.K. Rowling wrote parts of Harry Potter.

Is anybody else hitting the Edinburgh festivals next month? I absolutely cannot wait!

Writer Wish List

Letter Lampshade for above your desk

Bookends for your book shelf 

Eco Cup to keep your tea warm

Owl Cushion to make you smile

All of the above are from Urban Outfitters

Lose Yourself in the Music, the Moment.

Hello Everyone!

Hope you had a great weekend! I was at the Oxegen music festival on Sunday, which takes place every year just a few miles away from my house. It was so much fun!

Highlights included:
♥Starting the day off with a great set by Rachel Furner.
♥Dancing to D12!
♥Singing along to Jamie T's Emily's Heart.
♥Going on an extremely scary fairground ride.
♥Getting up the very front for Broken Social Scene.
♥Eminem. His entire set was amazing, but Lose Yourself as the encore was unreal! He's so good live.

I was having so much fun I totally forgot to take pictures, but my friend did get this not so attractive one of me drinking tea! Yep, I'm hardcore.

Coveted Cover

I really like this cover for Bridget Jones's Diary.  It's available at Urban Outfitters. 

Laura's First Vlog!

July 2010 from Laura Jane Cassidy on Vimeo.

I Love Rock 'n' Roll

I watched The Runaways last night. I'd been looking forward to seeing it for ages and I wasn't disappointed. It was brilliant. It made me want to be in a rock band. I actually was in a band once, a long time ago, and only for a summer. We were called The Biscuits (seriously). The Violet Kerosene Biscuits to be more precise. It came about because my friends and I were hanging out with guys from a band at the time, and somebody had the crazy idea to start our own one. We didn't like how the guys never invited us to their practices, so we decided to have our own practices. We never even played a gig, just jammed in my friend's garage. And it didn't last very long, but it was fun. I'm not very musically talented, but my friends didn't mind. I played a little bit of keyboard and attempted to sing, and I wrote some lyrics. I'd actually been writing song lyrics all though my teens, although I only ever had a vague, amatuer idea of the melody, so I guess it was more like angsty poetry. As a child I was a little bit obsessed with lyrics. I'd listen really carefully to the music my Dad played, stuff like Neil Young and The Eagles and Garth Brooks, songs that told stories. As a teen I'd sit down on my floor next to my CD player and listen to Bob Dylan, The Frames and Damien Rice, just concentrating on the words, like I was reading a book. I was in awe of how they could capture so much with so few words, how they could tell an entire story through a few perfectly formed sentences. Did you guys ever try writing lyrics? Or ever have dreams of rock stardom?! Most of the lyrics I wrote have since been lost (there was a really embarrassing song called 'Centre Stage' which I hope never resurfaces. It had some dodgy metaphors involving masks and curtains) but some of the better ones I wrote during the Biscuit days have made their way into my first book, Angel Kiss. My main character, Jacki, plays guitar and writes songs. Unlike me, she's actually properly musically talented. People sometimes assume your characters are like you, especially when you're writing in first person, but Jacki's isn't based on me all. I did let her borrow some of my lyrics though.