2012 In Bookish Awesomeness (and Fangirlishness)

While 2012 was a huge emotional rollercoaster for me and my family personally (except for the baby nephew, I don't want this year to repeat EVER. OMG, awful,) writing and book-geek-wise, it was wonderful.

And I'm going to list it all here :) because that's apparently the bloggy thing to do at the end of the year:

January

The SCBWI Winter Conference in NYC.

• Where I finally met my friend (and CP) D.B. Graves in person. And the two of us TOTALLY fangirled Cassandra Clare.
• Where I met the amazing Kimberly Sabatini (who confessed to me later that she talked to me because of my shoes :-P) and whose book, Touching the Surface helped feed my fictional dead boy addiction when it came out in October.
• Where I asked Alison Cherry to sign a printout of her fictional boys blogpost, because it is that awesome.
•  Where I fangirled Tara Weikum from Harper Teen, who has edited some of my favorite books ever, including Die For Me.
• Where Henry Winkler made an inspiring surprise appearance and Chris Crutcher drove us to tears.

Henry Winkler!!!!

Me taking a picture of Deena taking a picture of Cassie Clare

April

The SCBWI PA Conference in the Poconos (Thanks to Kim's pressuring gentle suggestions that I attend)

• Where I cried all over the great Laurie Halse Anderson and learned that revision is AWESOME
• Where I made so many new writerly friends *hugs all of the ladies from SCBWIPA*: Stephanie, Megan, Jodi, Taylor, Kit, Ann... and I know I'm going to forget someone, so kick me REALLY hard (it's almost 11 here.) I lost my grandmother that weekend and not only were you just plain fun to be around, you comforted me when I was far from home)
• Uhm, early morning bagpipe tweets, anyone?
• Where Stacy Cantor Abrams' (Entangled Publishing) talk on character jump-started Phoebe's voice in my WIP and Sara Sargent's (Balzer and Bray/Harper Collins) talk on tension helped me figure out the timing for that same story.
• Where I won a copy of Pretty Amy to totally devour before it hit the bookshelves. And won my bid on an ARC of Touching The Surface. Yay, early copies!

Sadly, I had an SD card malfunction and lost most of my pictures from the Poconos! *sniffle* *cry*

May

Until I Die booksigning at Books of Wonder in NYC

• Where I got to see the amazing queen of French fictional dead boys Amy Plum
• Where I met Natalie Zaman, co-author of the Sirenz series, fellow knitter, and all around awesome person.
• Where I met Kristi Cook (author of Haven) and Jocelyn Davies (author of A Beautiful Dark)
• Where I learned that driving into NYC from my office isn't awful, but parking is (well... $$$$$!)

Amy Plum, Jocelyn Davies, and Kristi Cook

June

Dark Days Tour in Fairless Hills, PA

• Where I got to meet Aprilynne Pike, author of the Wings series *fangirl squee* and the upcoming Life After Theft and Earthbound. And baker extraordinaire.
• Where I met two AWESOME bloggers, Jena of Shortie Says and Jaime of The Perpetual Page Turner and The Broke and Bookish.
• Where I also met Liz Norris, author of Unravelling and Bethany Griffin, author of Masque of the Red Death. These two ladies were also wonderfully fun.
• Where I followed mapquest to come home and (I swear) it took me through the middle of nowhere New Jersey. I was convinced I was going to end up breaking down in the middle of a field and zombies were going to eat me.

Liz Norris, Aprilynne Pike, and Bethany Griffin (and me, of course)

  
Book Expo America Power Reader Day

•  Where the publishing industry opened its conference doors on its last day to (some) of the public
• Where I rushed straight to the RWA booth to see Jeri Smith-Ready, author of the Shade series
• Where I saw Stacy Cantor Abrams and Jocelyn Davies again
• Where I ran into My Mercurial Muse while waiting on line for Victoria Schwab, author of The Near Witch
• Where I took a picture in a bubble
• Where I picked up a LOT of books to read...
• ... and then, while getting on the bus home afterwards, kind-of fell into my seat and blocked the bus aisle while the very cute guy behind me laughed at me the entire time. Because I am the most awkward person on the planet and am doomed to never date. Ever.

Jeri Smith-Ready!!!! OMG, I'm wearing flats next to her and am a GIANT.

The Shadowhunter Stairs at BEA

What I brought back from BEA. I'm STILL working on getting to Code Name Verity.

Yes, that's me in a bubble!!!

 August

Bring YA to PA

• Where I took a workshop with so many amazing author-mentors-speakers. If I try to list everyone here, I'll forget someone. The YAPA page has everyone listed.
• Where I sat right next to Gwendolyn Heasley, author of Where I Belong and, when she introduced herself, I said: "You're in my Nook!!!!!" *facepalm*
• Where I totally fangirled Jennifer Armentrout (Lux Series) and Wendy Higgins (Sweet Evil)
• Where I finally saw Frankie Diane Mallis in person (my schedule has stunk for going to the Philly Lit nights)
• Where I had an awesome time chatting a while with so, so many people, including:
  Charlotte Bennardo, co author of the Sirenz series and a transplant to NJ :)
  Jackie Kessler, whose book Hunger kept me company on my flight to Portugal. I really need to blog about it on my book blog, because it's another incredibly powerful eating disorder book.
  Amalie Howard, author of Bloodspell, sweetest person ever, love her!
• Where I won an ARC of Send Me a Sign by Tiffany Schmidt in the raffle (OMG, I loved this book)
• Where I stood on line talking for ages with Stacy O'Neale and didn't even realize it! She's so much fun. If you don't follow her blog or twitter or youTube... WHY?
• Where I saw Jeri, Jena, Kit, and Ann again!

(this was another victim of the dead SD card fiasco... the only ones saved were those I saved to my desktop for tweeting)

Jennifer Armentrout (after I ambushed her)

Wendy Higgins

Jena of Shortie Says

The signed poster of Onyx in my "book picture corner." I LOVE how
Emily looks totally disapproving of Katy and Daemon

In between all of these fun events, I've been writing and growing and changing. I've learned so much this year from contests and tweets and cheering on all of the wonderful people I've met on this journey

I wish you all a wonderful 2013. Writers that I follow, I can't wait to squee over your new releases, or over your steps further on the way to publication. Readers that I follow, I can't wait to hear about the next book boyfriend I'll be crushing on or author I'll be fangirling. Editors that I follow-- I can't wait to see what you acquire next.

This is going to be an awesome year. I just know it. (and, hopefully on the personal side, we're done with deaths in the family for a while, okay? Pretty please????)

Okay, I Admit It, I'm Totally Erudite

I've been travelling a bit more than usual for work lately. All of those plane rides and handshakes have resulted in multiple colds, a sinus infection, bronchitis, and three weeks straight of antibiotics(!) But, even though I was still sick, I was so excited to find out that I was going to Chicago in the beginning of December.

If any of you follow me on Twitter, you might remember my manical pre-trip tweets about going to pre-Divergent Chicago and all of my #ChicagoBookGeekStyle tweets. If you don't, I'm sooooo kindly geeking-out blogging about my trip here.

Before I start, I just want to say that Chicago is lovely (and windy) and I really enjoyed my stay there beyond just hunting for elements of a pre-Dystopian world. I had amazingly good deep dish pizza at a local pizzeria, ate some great Japanese fusion food, and munched on the best gingerbread popcorn ever while taking in the gorgeous architecture. I can't wait to go back someday.

But now, on to the Divergent-y goodness:

The first night, I realized that my hotel room looked out on a building just perfect for Dauntless ziplining:


The Hancock building at night

Since I've totally embraced the fact that I'm Erudite (don't hate me), of course I had to find our headquarters:
 

The Chicago Public Library

Reading by the giant lima bean at Erudite Headquarters (the Lima bean in Millenium Park)



Of COURSE I'm wearing blue. My glasses were in my suitcase back at the hotel, though (contacts, FTW!)

 

No, I did not jump on those trains. What do you think I am, Dauntless? Ha!:

 

The L trains

 

I walked over to the Hub for my choosing ceremony:

 

The Willis (formerly Sears) Tower

And pretended to be Dauntless for a few minutes...

On the glass platforms of the Willis Tower. Not really freaky or scary and actually kind-of cool :)
Don't tell Janine I said that, though!

 ...but really, those simulation results don't lie. I'd rather be reading a good book than jumping off of buildings like those Dauntless ruffians.

And, that's it! Next trip, I'll make sure to make it down to the Navy Piers to see what all that fuss is about carousels and Ferris Wheels. :)

On a non-Divergent note, I also stopped by the Russian Pointe store. Before I stopped pointe because of my achilles tendon rupture*, my last few pairs of pointe shoes were Russian Pointe. When I saw the store, I knew I had to stop in and at least buy a pair of mini pointe shoes-- and I was lucky enough to find a pair that matched my last pair of recital pointe shoes (dyed black!):

OMG, that black dye got on EVERYTHING. Our feet were grey, our tights were ruined, even dance bags had streaks of black dye in them. In my next life, I'm just special ordering black shoes instead.

I was a happy little ballet and book geek that afternoon. Then, I boarded my flight and sadly waved goodbye to my #ChicagoBookGeekStyle adventure.

If you want more Divergent road trip goodness, definitely check out the Fictitious Delicious Divergent Road Trip blog post, which is full of awesomeness.

Have you been to Chicago? And geeked out, like I did?

 *I still managed pointe one year after the surgery, but I just never fully regained my strength in my left leg. Multiple tendonitis episodes pretty much sealed the deal for me on ending pointe. :(

The Annual No-Kiss Blogfest

/PSA

I'm posting today to pressure cajole sweet talk all of you to join me and a ton of other wonderfully bloggy people in the great Frankie Diane Mallis'

4th Annual No Kiss Blogfest.

From Frankie's site:

What: The No Kiss Blogfest! This is when you get to write a scene or post one from of your favorite books, movies, or TV shows that show the almost kiss-- the rising, crushing, excruciating, longing, tension that comes when two characters get oh-so-close to kissing that you can just feel it, want it, NEED it....and then...they don't!

Last year, I had a ton of fun writing up a scene with my WIP's characters, and I'm hard at work on my post for this year's blogfest.

So, head on over to Frankie's site for more details and sign up!

/end PSA

Solstice

An entry from my paper journal, 12-21-2001: "Tonight is Yule-- the longest night of the year.

Tonight reminds us that even the darkest of nights are followed by light, and that even in the worst of times, we have hope. No night is so dark that day will never follow.

...so long as we have hope, it will never truly be dark."

The light installation at Longwood Gardens this past summer-
"wildflowers" over a lake

With the talk of an "apocalypse"(well, since I actually mailed out most of my cards before January 1st, at least pigs should have flown), last night I had another of these freakishly deep moment on twitter:

Tweet: "I'm going to be deep, and then I'm going to bed: The world ends daily for many someones. Live every day like there is no tomorrow. Love, me"

On this darkest night of the year, with so much shadow around us and hope before us, I wish you light when you most need it.

And a lifetime of living for today.

(This post brought to you by Pollyanna, Anne of Green Gables, and too many Christmas cookies.)

A Little Light

The events yesterday in Connecticut were awful, horrifying, senseless. Those of you who follow me on twitter know that I worked with one of the people who lost his child in the attack and it was surreal at the office when picture after picture of him and his wife showed up on news websites or the TVs in the breakrooms. My heart breaks for his family and all of the families who have to deal with the aftermath. (And I am only going to say that I'm disgusted with the media who kept posting pictures of families in their most vulnerable moments. Shame on you new outlets- the sorrow could be captured without exploiting the families' grief. Ditto with interviewing children.)

But this post isn't about that, per se.

While listening to the news yesterday, they interviewed a teacher who said she locked herself and her students in the classroom closet and read to them to keep them calm.

I'm sure a lot of familiar books came out to comfort children across the world last night.

While I talk a lot about YA on this blog because that's what I love to read and write, this post is in praise of the picture book and chapter book writers. Writing kidlit is incredibly difficult and writing picture books in insanely hard (contrary to popular belief. I hold picture book writers in awe.) The critical praise, movie deals, front page press is not as common, at least not when compared to older genres. Very few picture book writers and illustrators are household names, beyond the "greats." And yet, when our kids need comfort, there's nothing more powerful than a worn pressboard cover and sticky pages.

Thank you for writing and illustrating these books, toiling over just the right word, the right flow, the right colors. Thank you for stories that sparked our imaginations and continue to spark imaginations for generations to come. Thank you for the first "big kid books" we read, the kind to sneak under the covers with a flashlight because "I can read now!"

Thank you for being a little light in a sometimes dark world.

The Next Big Thing (Week 26)

My awesome friend, DB Graves, has tagged me with this meme where I get to go on an on and on about my WIP (uhm, sorry?) BUT! Then I get to tag some other awesome peeps and you get to go read about their WIPS! (much better, right?) And if you click on the link above, you get to read what she posted about her (believe me, awesome) paranormal WIP last week.

Ready?

1. What is the working title of your book?

• You and I ... it used to go by Mini Sock Boy (or MSB) on this blog, but while working on a Bollywood flash mob scene, I pulled up some of my favorite music, including tracks from Hum Tum ("You and I.") The name just seemed to fit so well and the movie's theme of true love never quite remaining unrequited really resonated with some plot points. Now I have a little in-joke with the title :)

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

• Anyone remember The Tale of the Mini Socks? Well, I was telling this story to someone and she said it might make a fun book. I had a problem, though- I was a paranormal/fantasy writer through and through... and I couldn't see how I could translate that little piece of life into an entire book-length story. But the idea rattled around in my brain, mixed with every awkward moment I ever had in high school, and out came book- and knitting- obsessed Phoebe, whose entire world is a giant YA novel waiting to happen.

3. What Genre does your book fall under?

• Contemporary (GASP!!!)

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

• This one is hard. I tend to keep my descriptions fairly ambiguous for most of my characters because I want the reader to insert her/his own casting. Grace, for example, is described as having "strawberry blonde hair" and while I've seen caucasian actresses who would fit her character, I also saw a picture the other day of a Korean actress with bleached hair who would fit her as well. Em might have a Greek name (Ephemie) but her dark curls and dark eyes can fit into any number of cultures. But... let's try casting the two MCs:
• Phoebe Martins: In my head, Phoebe is at least half Brazilian and part Portuguese, with grey eyes and a complexion that tans easily. Martins is a common last name in both Portugal and Brazil and her extended family lives in Massachusetts, which has a strong Portuguese and Brazillian community. (hi, background info that never makes it into the story :) !!!)
• So, I actually chose a Portuguese actress who, in a perfect world, would play Phoebe: Mafalda Tavares, back when she was on Morangos com Açucar: 



Her hair is that perfect wurly-ness for Feebs!
Image credit: http://fasmafaldatavares.blogspot.com/






And this is totally Phoebe post-Grace makeover. She wears her hair curled most of the last 2/3rds of the story
Image credit: The actress' facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=180912171970128

 Phoebe also has an older sister, so who better to play Trixie than the other talented Tavares sibling, Cátia:






Their age difference is so perfect and Cátia is also adorable. Who better to play her college-aged fashion-fairy godmother sister?
Image credit: Fas da Catia e da Mafalda Tavares 

• Dev Andrews (last name still in flux): Dev's parents hail from Mumbai, so I'm thinking:
 A younger Shahid Kapoor *swoon*:

C'mon. Wouldn't you want him to serenade you?
Image Credit: Bollywood Pictures Online: http://www.bollywoodpicturesonline.com/shahid_kapoor_01.htm

 And he's just so adorable ("That's All I Really Wanna Do", from Teri Meri Kahaani):

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

• When book-geek Phoebe finds out the hottest guy in the clarinet section is crushing on her, she turns to her fictional idols for advice.

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

• I'm still on the traditional publishing bandwagon *crosses fingers* and I'll just keep writing in hopes that someday I get picked up. Nothing against self-pub, it's just not for me right now.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

• I'm usually a fast first-drafter. This one has been slower than usual because of a lot of things that went on in my life (and lots of buisness lunch meetings, which cut into my lunch writing time.) I was already playing around with the two main characters back in February, was outlining March for a plot, voice and pacing came in late April thanks to the SCBWI Poconos retreat, and I really started around July. It will be finished either the end of this month or early December. I miss my 3 month draft binges!

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

• Probably Anna and the French Kiss, Smart Girls Get What They Want, and Anne of Green Gables (yup, rocking it old-school with contemporary)

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

• I'd like to thank mini sock boy, who gave me the catalyst for Phoebe's absolutely miserable situation. Mwahaha. Other inspirations: Every single YA author on the planet, 6th grade camp, Concert band/Wind Ensemble, and the Pine Barrens.

10. What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?

• This is the book for any girl who has had book boyfriends, who can read and walk at the same time, who dresses like the fictional character du jour, and wishes she was the MC with the hot love interest. Translation: This is an ode to book geeks everywhere.

 Now for the tags. I want to tag each and every one of you because I'm dying to hear more about your WIPs, but since the list would go on forever, I'm only tagging two people based on theme:

In keeping with the Portuguese/Brazilian theme, I'm tagging Rebecca Carvalho
And
In keeping with the New Jersey theme, I'd like to tag Jaybird over at The Bird's Nest

Can't wait to see what you two ladies post next week!

Still Thankful...

But busy! I thought Thanksgiving break would give me a bit of time to blog (and it did, a little bit-- you'll see tomorrow!,) but instead, I spent a lot of time writing and living. I'm thankful for the time I had with my family, including the most adorable nephew on the planet.. I'm thankful for the exercise and movement-- from long walks to my exhausting skating lessons. My WIP was so much fun to work on.

Work has been incredibly busy, especially with the time lost from the hurricane, so it was nice to sleep insanely longer than I usually would. It was wonderful to just curl up in front of the fireplace or disappear into a book for a morning.

Now, I'm back to craziness-- I was in the office until almost nine last night and seven tonight. I'm using up the stockpile of relaxation from this past weekend.

But I'm still thankful!

RTW: The Alpine Path

Road Trip Wednesday is a 'Blog Carnival' where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.
This week's topic:
Share your most inspiring and/or motivational video, book, or quote on writing!

Since I'm not NaNoWriMoing because I'm mid-WIP, this inspiration is just to keep pushing through my You and I contemporary WIP, now at 50K. This post is also serving double duty as a Thanksgiving Blog hop post. Wheeeeee!

I picked up the top left "Emily of New Moon" on PEI because my original book is falling apart, but the 1980's covers will always be my favorites

I'm so thankful that the Emily series were the books that introduced me to LM Montgomery's writing. While a lot of people say Anne is their favorite, from the moment 10 year old me picked up these books, Emily captured my heart. We're so much alike, and her passion for writing spoke to the writer in me.

Everything about these books inspire me as a writer, but especially the passages where LMM captures the magic (and challenges) of being a writer. Passages like these, which sooooo perfectly echoed how I felt when I finished the first draft of my first manuscript:

"Again, it seized hold of her imagination and called forth all her creative impulse. She would write it out-- she would begin this very moment. Flinging on a dressing-gown over her white shoulders to protect them from the keen gulf air she sat down before her open window and began to write. Everything else was forgotten-- for a time at least-- in the subtle, all-embracinbg joy of creation. Teddy was nothing but a dim memory-- love was a blown-out candle. Nothing mattered but her story. The characters came to life under her hand and swarmed through her consciousness, vivid, alluring, compelling. Wit, tears, and laughter trickled from her pen. She lived and breathed in another world and came back to New Moon only at dawn to find her lamp burned out, and her table littered with manuscript-- the first four chapters of her book. Her book! What magic and delight and awe and incredulity in the thought."
...
"Emily finished her book in six weeks-- finished it at dawn one morning. She flung down her pen and went to her window, lifting her pale, weary, triumphant little face to the skies of morning...

"Finished-- complete! There it lay-- A Seller of Dreams-- her first book. Not a great book-- oh, no, but hers-- her very own. Something to which she had given birth, which would never have existed had she not brought it into being."
-Emily's Quest, LM Montgomery

Since these books are semi-autobiographical, there's magic in knowing that over 100 years ago my favorite author felt the same way that I feel today. She covered the joy and self-doubt of being a writer. She wrote about rejection and heartbreak and starting again. For a little while, (SPOILER) Emily just gives up. And she gave me a chance to be Emily holding the acceptance letter for her first book.

What greater inspiration could I possibly have?

How about you? What inspires you to write?

Never Really Belonging

A little bit more thankfulness for the Thanksgiving Blog Hop:

The hardest part about growing up as a first-generation kid who would spend her summers back in the "old country" was this constant feeling in my life of never really belonging. We were raised too European for the US and vice-versa. As a kid, it sucked.

As an adult, I love that I was raised with roots in both worlds. I'm thankful for that gift that my parents and grandparents gave me.

And, oh, what an incredible gift:




The Dolmen da Orca, Oliveira do Conde (Carregal do Sal), Portugal. A 5500 year-old megalithic burial chamber

The other side of the Dolmen. A similar dolmen site closer to town is in ruins, but since this one is in the middle of nowhere, it survived

The Poco Iniciativo at the Quinta da Regaleira in Sintra, Portugal. This well's circular walkway lead to subterranean caverns and is one of the gems of the magic-infused grounds of the Quinta and Palacio da Regaleira. It takes a lot of wandering the forests near the house (estate? Palace?) to find this place.

Reading by the wood stove on a cool October night (and yes, my parents have a modern stove, too)



The castle walls of the Convento de Cristo in Tomar

And I have more pictures and videos from this year's trip on my Tumblr.

There's a burden with having so much history and having these roots. It can be a weight, sometimes, knowing (and caring!) that you have to pass this history to the next generation. It's hard to maintain a connection to Portugal when you grow up outside of the Portuguese community-- no Portuguese school for me or my sisters, limited exposure to other Portuguese-American kids.

It's hard to put down roots here (a place that I love) when I have roots there, as well. I have hundreds of years of ancestors weighing on my shoulders.

And it's so hard to walk out of my bedroom on the last day of vacation.

But for every heart-wrenching moment of saying goodbye for the year to our home there and all of the saudades that I have for this place that I've been tied to since before I was born, I've also been given a million moments of joy and inspiration.

What place are you thankful for?

Lest We Forget

I have a lot of blogging to catch up on-- Portugal, books, hurricanes, nor'easters, Texas, and an epic head cold-- and I thought a wonderful way to start is by hopping on to Brenda Drake's Thanksgiving bloghop.

The bloghop turkey!!!
 

Since today is Veteran's day, of course my post will be about being thankful for our veterans. Not only for their service and their sacrifice, but for the continuous service many of them have provided to their communities long after their tour of duties. The US VFW and their ladies auxiliary hold a special place in my heart because, thanks to their Voice of Democracy speech program (I was the NJ state winner my senior year of high school), I went from a shy, awkward girl to a polished young woman. It would be so easy to just go home and forget about society, but they keep giving back. It's an incredible organization filled with incredible people continuing to do incredible things.

One of the prettiest (and somewhat saddest) memorials to service I've seen has to be the Memorial Chamber in the Parliament building in Ottawa, Canada. I was lucky enough to watch the page turning ceremony when I visited Ottawa in 2010.

 

Inside the Memorial Chamber

 From my travel blog entry (Feb, 2010):

And as I waited for the elevator up to the tower, I overhead one tour guide mention that her group was very lucky-- they were going to be able to observe the ceremony where the pages in the Remembrance books of the memorial chamber would be turned, a ceremony that very few visitors to the Parliament get to see (more on that later.) ...



This case holds more than one book, and the page turning was performed here by a family member of one of the honored soldiers

I did manage to get back to the entrance of the memorial chamber to catch a glimpse of the tail-end of the page turning. What this ceremony does (at 11am daily) is honor those Canadians who died in service to their country. There are five books in the chamber, each page filled with names. This daily page turning allows each name to be on display at least once a year. The chamber walls are inscribed with poetry, quotes, and psalms in English and in French ("In Flanders Fields" is one of those poems.)

It was a beautiful ceremony and, when we were allowed to wander around the chamber afterwards, I actually teared up a little bit on seeing the names in the books and John McCrae's words on the walls.

In Flander's Fields, on the wall of the Memorial Chamber. The book in the case is one of the books filled with names of those who died in service

"We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields."
-"In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae

I'm also thankful for the Peacekeepers, who continue to put their lives on the line for peace around the world. That's probably one of the hardest jobs of all.

The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa, Canada. This inscription reads "In the Service of Peace"
 

To our veterans (US and allies), thank you for serving and protecting.

That's what I'm thankful for today.