...a beginning of sorts...

So... hello there. I'm Nicole. I'd imagine that if you're here you are one of a few things:

• family
• friends... probably Alicia!
• lost

Either way, welcome.

Let's get to know eachother. I am a(n):

1. historian
2. grad student
3. writer
4. reader
5. blogger
6. daughter
7. aunt
8. (mediocre) friend
9. intermittently witty
10. loopy
    

I love to blog.  I have another blog with my friend Jean, check it out if you haven't: Don't Oppress My Ovaries. That blog is amazing but it doesn't fulfill all of my needs. Well, that's not entirely true. It's really that my needs are changing.

I've realized a few things this year, the most important being that I really don't like my profession. Being a historian bores the holy hell out of me. Sadly, after devoting the past 6 years to it, it is more than likely going to be my day job or at least the job that I can always fall back on.

But it's not really the work that I want to do. Theoretically being a historian should be perfect for me because reading and writing make me happy. So what's the problem? I've narrowed it down to content and style. History books make me sleepy, which is great when I'm going through one of my spells of insomnia, not so great when I'm sitting in a super trendy coffee shop with emaciated dirty hipsters talking about sneakers at the table next to me.

So what does catch my interest? Plots. Readable writing. Interesting characters. Magic. Witches. Vampires. Love Stories. Mysteries. Fiction. Popular fiction.

I'm considering a career change.

I'm writing fiction. This is my first experience at writing creatively since college and writing fiction stories since I was a pre-teen (seriously). I've got a great friend who is also amazing enough to serve as my editor and she's been integral to making this work.

So what's this blog? I'm thinking that ...an open book... will be me talking about... well, you know, books and what i'm reading/have read/want to read, reviews, suggestions but more too. I love popular culture, music, movies, tv... especially tv, so I'm also going to post comments/critiques about those things as well.

I also love talking/arguing/writing about race and gender. It isn't always easy to integrate this with my love of fiction, but I'm going to do it here because it's fun. And I'm a nerd. And stuff like this makes me happy...

And lastly, when it's time, I look forward to creating a cohort of people who come here to talk about books and pop culture so it's not just me having a creepy one-sided conversation with myself only to justify spending too much time at my computer... um, because you know, there's a very good chance that that's what happening here...