Merp Squad Week: Eileen (Singing and Reading in the Rain)

Nikki: Talk about how you started getting involved in our Merp Squad Talks--if you can even remember.

Eileen: Well, I think for me it was where I was talking to Hinky (What I call Hannah/Inky) and she was all like to me, "We need to come up with a name for us!" And I was like, "YES WE SHOULD!" A week or so later she came back with MERP SQUAD and I was like, "THIS IS AWESOME I LOVE IT!!" And then I always ended up tagged in the Merp Squad conversations we had and it would always be during the WORST times because I'd be in a singing lesson or something so I'd open my sucky BlackBerry afterwards, which always took maybe hours because it would crash with all the notifications.

And that is how I got involved!

(Click to go to Singing and Reading in the Rain) 

N: Who's a Merp Squadder you haven't talked to in a while and really really need to?

E: Well, I haven't talked to YOU since yesterday, I talked to Annabelle last night, and I talked to Jessi two days ago, SO HINKY WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE? No, wait I talked to her two days ago too! I think definitely Jessi because I never text her and I need to catch up with her soon! I wish I could like split myself into five pieces, and one part of me would do my work and each of the other parts of me would talk to every other Merp Squader.

N: Who would you like to strangle hug the most?

E: WELL, I would love to strangle EVERYBODY equally. But Annabelle and I have this thing planned where we're going to run in slow-motion towards each other with that flowery music in the background and then hug like those 60's movies! I actually get to strangle you Nikki in August so I don't know if that counts since I technically WILL strangle you.

N: If you could give a nickname (that has nothing to do with their NAME) to all the Merp Squadders, what would they be?

E: In alphabetical order:

Annabelle: Red Velvet Cupcake (or Twinny, but since I guess we have to give NEW nicknames, I can't use Twinny)/Anti-Autocorrect/Hater of 4s

Hinky: Writer of Epic Proportions/EAT A KIWI/Do you hear the people sing?

Jessi: Design Goddess/The Awesome Sometimes Black Sheep that We All Love Hardcore

Nikki: "I'm going to loophole out of this question now but Eileen won the last loophole contest so obviously she's better than me JKJK I'm still the Loophole Queen"

N: Favorite thing of each Merp Squadder's blog?

E: Again, in alphabetical order:

Annabelle: I love her blog it's, like, literally perfect! Her reviews are so eloquent and she covers all of her points so perfectly. If she has a complaint, then she explains why she didn't like it so well and fully that I feel like I've read the book, and if it's a book I loved and she hated, I'm still like, "I hate this book too! WAIT NO STOP IT PERSUASION!"

Hinky: Her vlogs are amazing and so epically awesome! They are insanely cheerful and spazzy and I cannot get enough of them! Her review style is really fantastic too, because they're profound at the same time crazy fun to read, which is the best kind of review in my opinion. And her interviews are so laid back, but at the same time they really let you get to know the author!

Jessi: Jessi makes crazy-cool graphics and she has such a wide variety of things on her blog, from interviews to reviews to guest posts to excerpts...it's a great plethora, seriously. And I am in love with her reviewing style because she has this perfect mix of funny ranting and professionalism, and it's fantastic!

Nikki: The one who believes her reviews suck but they obviously don't because everybody always says they're really great. They are. They totally are. And that's all I have to say about that.

N: TYPICAL QUESTION: What made you start blogging and how is it different from what you expected?

E: Okay, so I have this insanely long-winded story about how Julie Kagawa was holding an ARC contest for her ARC of The Iron Knight, and while I was in a frenzy after The Iron Queen, I saw it and jumped. It was like, "Write out your perfect day with Ash" and then she said to post it on your blog. I didn't really understand at first, so I resposted the same thing I wrote five bajillion times in the comment form because I kept thinking she wouldn't know who I was so at first I had an anonymous entry, and then I used one with my name, and then I did another one with my name and email, and then I opened a blog and posted it. Of course, it was the same exact entry every time so she probably thought I stole the entry from that anonymous comment BUT I DIDN'T I SWEAR. Not one of my most brilliant moments. But I kept the blog up, one day I accidentally deleted my email, so I started a new one up that was the same exact thing, and I kept going.

I think it's different because I didn't know you could get so involved in it. I thought it was kind of like you just blog, but you don't really have any friends that you really visit. I always feel like people with YouTube channels are like that; they post videos, like other people's, but I don't think they have any super close friends from YouTube but they probably do. That's what I originally thought but it turned out to be much more different and I like that I get to connect with so many different people. And authors. I didn't know that you could get review copies, either, so I was a pretty clueless blogger for the first few months.

N: What is the BEST thing about blogging?

E: Okay, this is totally a cliché answer, but it is, by far, the bloggers and authors I get to interact with every day. I never imagined there would be people who wanted to talk to me, or people who would help me feel better when I was having a hard day. And bookish people are usually socially awkward, so when you're as socially awkward as the person you're talking to, then you don't feel socially awkward anymore and you don't think they're socially awkward either!

N: How did you do/choose your design?

E: I actually won a design a while ago, and I was telling the designer how I wanted pinks and blues in my design, and I wanted a microphone kind of incorporated in there somewhere because I like singing so much. When she showed me the design, I think I flipped out because it was absolutely GORGEOUS. The colors were so me and they were so perfect and she did such a fantastic job, even though I gave her probably nothing to work with. Seriously, I love my design.

N: Your Top 5 books of 2013 are...

E: Considering I've probably only read about 5 books in 2013 that I've given five stars to: 

Confessions of an Angry Girl by Louise Rozett

Dare You To by Katie McGarry

Send Me a Sign by Tiffany Schmidt

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Renegade by JA Souders

N: WHAT IS A QUESTION YOU'VE NEVER BEEN ASKED BUT WOULD LOVE TO ANSWER. And answer it. (STOLEN FROM EILEEN.)

E: Eileen, what is wrong with your head?

GOOD QUESTION! Not the inside of my head, but the actual size and shape of my head is weird. I have this sort of jut-outy bump on the back of my head that kind of covers the entire back of my head so whenever I lay down on the floor without something soft to cushion my head it starts to hurt because my head is so weird in the back. Also, after I was born the top of my head had a point because the doctors had to vacuum me out because my head was so big.

N: Everything you know about Annabelle?

E: Annabelle wants to be an architect, is going to her dream college (EEP I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!!), and she is going to be only 10 hours away from where I live so WIN. She LOVES red velvet cupcakes and sweets and also loves socks. She (I think) hates the yellow and green skittles, only likes Hals' strawberry cream cough drops, has a flowery graduation dress, and OMG I forgot like everything I know about her, this always happens when I'm asked to repeat what I know because I always forget TONS of details. Oh she doesn't have a nearby Crumbs, she has a younger sister, hates Autocorrect and the number 4 because of obvious reasons, her favorite Emojis are the kissy face with the heart and the actual red heart, she loves red and has this class at around 2 that is NOT psychology but it starts with a ph, and it is philosophy. Yes. That.

N: What made you want to become a singer

E: Okay so I bought Taylor Swift's album from Costco when I saw it in its giant display, and I was like to my dad, "WE MUST GET THIS! I don't know who Taylor Swift is BUT WE MUST GET THIS!" That was her Speak Now album and I knew of her but I hadn't actually listened to much of her music. I went home, and at first I only played her first song because it was the only one I'd heard before. But then I decided to play another song and I fell in complete love, and all of a sudden I wanted to be a singer and do what she did.

Fast forward two years, I was starting to fall out of love with Taylor, even though I still LOVE her, I'm just not totally obsessed anymore, but I found something new: Les Misérables. I cried and sobbed and fell in love. Then during a field trip to Broadway, I saw Newsies and I fell in love again. I just couldn't believe how talented the singers were, and I knew that I didn't want to be a singer in the spotlight of the entire country. I just wanted to be a singer on Broadway with actual talent and all of those vibrato and belting techniques. So that's really it.

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