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The Muddled MLD (Recipe)

We made ours based on the idea of the ideal Mysterious Loner Dude. What does he drink? Bourbon, obviously! 

Out of Becky’s whiskey-strong liquor cabinet we picked Burnside Bourbon, because it's small batch, and not mainstream. 

We muddled sour cherries, the kind used to make something sweet, like pie, but very tart raw. 

Then we mixed it with Juniper Dry Soda, which is dry, unique, earthy - just the thing to capture your senses.

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The Seraphina (Recipe)

The overall fave from our 2017 Killer Party was the SERAPHINA!

Ingredients: Dragonfruit Vodka Cranberry Juice Muddled Raspberries

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KCFYA makes us laugh the most.

+5 from FYAVWA

On Wednesdays we wear pink

Megan’s Lewk: paper, tape, Whole Foods bag

Dennis’s Lewk: QT sack, post it notes, yarn

Sarah’s Lewk: sugar packets, plastic forks, USPS postal box

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Top notch cover recreation!

+5 from FYAVWA!

Just casually lying in the yard.  As you do.

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This makes us lol

+5 from FYAVWA!

Trying our hand at toilet paper ribbon dancing a la The Boomerang Effect.

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Ugh, this is so good!

+5 from FYAVWA

[fyavanwa]

1. Mockingjay and One Evil Summer I love the cover of One Evil Summer for the Katniss/Buttercup reunion. One Evil Summer is about a babysitter who gets powers and murders, the bird could represent the unleashing of her powers...

2. Saint Anything and The Roanoke Girls The Roanoke Girls has a few important scenes at an old carousel. And it’s cover could work well for Saint Anything and how Sydney feels about her place in the family.

3. Those Girls and American Girls Both girl books with generic girl covers, this is an easy swap. Those Girls actually focuses on more than one girl while American Girls is really just one girl’s story, so this might make a little more sense.

[fyavanwa]

Audiobook Rec’d

The Raven Cycle read by Will Patton An easy favorite. Will Patton has such a great voice and does a range of Virginia accents for the series. Plus, Maggie wrote the music for the audiobooks! Every time Becky starts an audiobook with a blah reader she just decides to listen to The Raven Boys instead.

Graceling read by Full Cast Audio It’s been a few years but a lot of us remember Graceling as a superb audiobook. It’s read with a full cast as well as fun sound effects, like horses hooves beating.

Artemis Fowl read by Nathaniel Parker Karey loved the Artemis Fowl series on audio. Nathaniel Parker does a great job on all the character voices, especially Artemis as he grows up through the series.

Illuminae read by Olivia Taylor Dudley, Lincoln Hoppe, and Johnathan McClain with a full cast Sometimes when you listen to a book that has a lot of visual components you worry about losing important parts of the story, but the additions they make in this production match the cool visual parts of the printed book. For example, the retracted parts of the files in the book are bleeped out in the audio version. The voice of the AI and all the characters are so good, and mix of sound effects creates a unique atmosphere for this series.

Ready Player One read by Will Wheaton Will Wheaton is a good character reader, but Megan particularly liked the nerdy meta-ness of him reading the reference to himself in the book.

The Dresden Files read by James Marsters Not YA, but the reader makes it YA adjacent. Being read by Buffy alum, sexy-voiced James Marsters, is a big plus for this audiobook.

I Hunt Killers read by Charlie Thurston “Just like cutting chicken” will echo in your mind after you listen to this terrifying audiobook!

[fyavanwa]

A Killer Party

FYA Vancouver held our Riverdale-themed mixology party Saturday, July 8.

Here’s Megan and Becky channeling Betty and Jughead. Megan is drinking our version of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and Becky is drinking Mysterious Loner Dude.

We made 8 different cocktails. Here they are:

MYSTERIOUS LONER DUDE Muddled Sour Cherries Burnside Bourbon Juniper Dry Soda

ILLUMINAE Whipped Vodka Peach Schnapps Orange Juice Grenadine Spill Glitter Rim

MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRL Lavender Dry Soda Elderflower Liqueur Gin Raspberry Garnish

SERAPHINA Dragonfruit Vodka Cranberry Juice Muddled Raspberries

LUNA LOVEGOOD Fruit Stacked Crazy Straw Lemon “Glasses” Dragonfruit Vodka Muddled Blueberries Juniper Dry Soda Blue Food Coloring

Our M.O. for this was to choose the strangest things we had, mix them together, and color them blue for Ravenclaw. The result was a drink that tasted like a Squeeze-It with alcohol in it. Yet, like Luna, it gets better over time. When we went back and tasted it again at the end it was better than when it was fresh.

STIEFVATER Lemonade Strawberry Daiquiri Mix Vodka in a to-go cup

Inspired by this list “5 Signs of a Maggie” story in The Curiosities. Angst (vodka), cars (to-go cups), sarcasm (lemonade), kissing (strawberry daiquiri mix), geniuses (us). We don’t actually condone drinking and driving, obviously.

BETTY AND VERONICA Mountain Huckleberry Ice Cream Kahlua Chocolate Syrup blended - just like Pop’s!

GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE Whipped Vodka Limeade Green Food Coloring

Overall favorite was probably Seraphina. Becky really liked Mysterious Loner Dude, but the others don’t really care for whisky. The Stiefvater was very good, the most like something you’d actually drink. :)

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The Signs as YA Tropes

aries: bromance

taurus: end of the world

gemini: movie montage makeover

cancer: love triangle

leo: elizabeth/darcy (hate --> love) romance

virgo: college admissions essay

libra: fake boyfriend romance

scorpio: missing girls

saggitarius: summer after high school

capricorn: twist ending

aquarius: manic pixie dream girl

pisces: mysterious loner dude

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Bookface!

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[fyavanwa]

We quickly fall to a crouch behind a large bale of hay, not ideal for cover, but it’ll do for now. I turn to see what Tony is looking at and promptly whack him upside the head with my empty hand. “Haven’t you ever seen a person in a hazmat suite before!? I thought you were supposed to be some kind of geeky kid, haven’t you ever seen a sci fi flick?” I say in a whisper-yell kind of way.

He gives me a droll look and rubs the back of his head, “It’s a common misconception that to be geeky, one needs to be a sci fi fanatic. I prefer fantasy, like Game of Thrones or DnD. Basically, any kind of RPG or anything really, involving the possibly of dragons.”

“DnD? RPG? Do you only speak in acronyms?”

“Dungeons and Dragons is a type of RPG or Role-Playing Game. But I feel like aliens in general are a big part of science fiction so my original observation wouldn’t be so far outside the realm of possibilities, using your logic of….”

“Shut up...”

I interrupt him, because suddenly I see Vito and the mysterious faced person carrying a slumped over Joey-shaped-lump between them. They are about ten paces ahead of our position and are completely engrossed in watching the hazmat suited people loading large boxes into the round aircraft.

I lean in close to Tony, “So here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to go take those guys out nice and quiet like. You follow close behind me and catch Joey before he falls and makes a big clattering noise, then we silently take him back to the car and get the hell out of here. You got it?”

“I’m not going to let you kill my Uncle” and for a second I think I see some menace behind his painted face.

“Relax, I’m not going to kill anybody. I can set this emotion extractor in such a way that it will only knock a person out for a short time. Just enough for us to get Joey and book it out of here.”

To his credit, Tony doesn’t ask questions like, “How?” or “Why?” or “What will happen if they catch us?” He just nods his head in grudging trust and acceptance. I engage the Emojiicon Extractor, make sure it’s set right, and with a here-we-go nod to Tony, I spring into action.

Prom: the final frontier.

Prom: the final frontier.

This year it was actually going to happen. This year I was finally going to conquer my fear and participate in something most of my friends thought was fun. I couldn’t begin to understand how something so anxiety inducing could be fun, but then again, they didn’t have my problems, so I guess it was understandable. The thought of it actually turned my stomach, but I didn’t have a choice. If I didn’t go to prom this year, I might end up dead. Literally.

The reason I’m so opposed to prom dates back many years ago in my preadolescence. For now, living in this small town for so long has really started to get to me. It feels like the world is caving in on itself, and the bubble is about to burst. Prom is only one of the ridiculous traditions that is of the highest importance here, and my group of friends, though not exactly the most popular crew, fully expected each of us to pair off and attend the social function together. Well, at least I didn’t have to worry about finding a date.

At least, that’s what I thought. My date-to-be, Cam, came down with the chicken pox three days before the dance, so he’ll be staying at home on Saturday night with oven mitts taped to his hands. (Side note: Who in the hell gets chicken pox at age seventeen??) Naturally, the town crier sent up the alarm: “HEAR YE, HEAR YE! MARIA ESPOSITO SEEKS HER PRINCE CHARMING FOR THE BALL!” At least that’s what happened in my head. In reality, the town crier was my best friend Emily posting a message on Facebook that sounded a little too much like a Craigslist Casual Encounters ad. I begged her not to click “Post,” not to destroy what dignity I had left, but as with all best friends, there was no convincing her otherwise. But to my amazement, it worked. Within minutes, I had a new prom date. If only I had known that it was Tony de Luca, son of Italian mob boss, Dominic de Luca.

@cltfya you’re up!

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Last Seen Leaving

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Dave used to be our token regular male member, but since Charlie was born in May we now have "The Other Boy."

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I’d known that this tryout was going to be hard, but I had no idea it would be impossible. I mean, basically impossible. I’d spent all summer training, focusing on my reaction speeds just like EJ warned, only to show up and find out that everything had changed. Like, CHANGED. Overnight.

My big competition for goalkeeper, Taylor, got bit this summer, the night of the Fourth of July. She and her brothers were lighting illegal fireworks out on the basketball court, late, after everyone had gone home from the city-sponsored show, and when the cops showed up she ran blindly into the woods toward the park, and that’s where it happened. I didn’t find out until I showed up at tryouts, of course, otherwise I wouldn’t have come, or I would have went out, maybe, for volleyball instead. Because if you’ve seen Teen Wolf (and who hasn’t) you know that no one can beat a werewolf on a court or a field. No one. I looked like an idiot out there.

You’re up @vancityfya