DIANA RODRIGUEZ WALLACH

So back in May, I blogged about my White Whale. My first manuscript. The one that got away. The book that despite a heaping helping of rejection letters, I just can’t let go of. I told you I was going to dust it off, polish it up, and send it out into the world all shiny and new. And I’m happy to report I did just that.

Okay, don’t jump to conclusions. I didn’t sell it. Yet.

But I can say that for the first time in the five years since I conceptualized it, I finally feel at peace with this great white beast. I have conquered my objective to create a realistic depiction of the (often nasty) friendships that exist between 13-year-old girls with enough internal monologue to make even the great Angela Chase proud.

It’s told from four different girls’ points of view and each contains snippets of thoughts and observations that I pulled from my own middle and high school journals. No joke. I really cracked open diaries to get a fresh perspective on how I looked at my friends and boyfriends at that time. And here’s what I found.

The Collected Wisdom Of My Teenage Self:

• It’s the feeling you get when he smiles at you and says hi. And the feeling you get when he’s talking to another girl.
• As much as I hate to admit it, I think she’s too much like me. And that’s what makes our friendship so boring.
• Some of the cheerleaders on our squad don’t deserve to be there.
• It hurts every time I see him with her, which is often.
• We’re not friends anymore. Actually, it’s as if we’re acting like we’ve forgotten how much time we used to spend together.
• I have to wonder if he ever thinks of me, and if so does he think of me as much I do him? I don’t think I want to know the answer to that question.
• I’ve said goodbye to a lot of people in my life. But it’s only been one day and I already miss her. Maybe because this is different. I’m missing someone who’s standing right in front of me.
• For that one instant, I had his full attention.

There you have it, a sneak peek– thoughts plucked from my own teenage brain that I’ve embedded in my manuscript. So if THE EX BFF (current title, the manuscript’s gone through many) ever does make its way to a bookshelf, maybe I’ll do a contest and ask you all to guess which thoughts are mine.

Because much like the Breakfast Club, I discovered that I was once a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Okay, not really. But you get my drift. Ahh, middle school…

POP CULTURE RANT: General Hospital
So James Franco has officially made his debut in the soap world, and so far he’s really creepy. But in a good way. Yesterday’s episode almost felt like a movie, which is about as high of praise as you can give to a daytime drama. It seems as if all the other actors are stepping up their game to match their Oscar-nominated guest star. And it’s impressive. Maybe if the writers and actors put this much effort into all of their work, the genre wouldn’t be in so much trouble. Just saying…