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Authors: Autumn Cornwell

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BOOK: Carpe Diem
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Frangipani's Revised Life Goals
Non scholae sed vitae discimus.
We do not learn for school, but for life.
—Seneca
 
1. LIM 24/7.
2. Travel light.
3. Legally make Frangipani my middle name (again) and go by that instead of Vassar.
4. Plans and goals = guides, not absolutes.
5. Live my life, not my parents'.
6. Learn for learning's sake.
7. Consider ALL colleges, not just Vassar (with special attention to colleges in the vicinity of Wyoming).
8. Spend summers with Grandma Gerd.
9. Get soft contact lenses.
10. Send nicotine patches to Bounmy, Polo cologne to Vang, and somehow get a care package to Stick Girl.
11. Research Thailand.
12. Find more Godings.
13. Research God, spirituality, miracles, trick bras, etc.
14. Marry a 5'8”, chops-wearing Malaysian cowboy for love.
15. Complete my novel for AP and AAP English credit.
(LIM, Frangi, LIM!)
16. Buy Laurel a spoon in the airport or she'll kill me!
17. AND NEVER, EVER TAKE THE TOILET FOR GRANTED AGAIN.
“
L
et each of us examine his thoughts; He will find them wholly concerned with the past or the future. We almost never think of the present, and if we do think of it, it is only to see what light it throws on our plans for the future. The present is never without end. The past and the present are our means, the future alone our end. Thus we never actually live, but hope to live, and since we are always planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so.”—Pascal's
Pensées
In the spirit of Vassar Spore, I'd like to list all those who helped catapult
Carpe Diem
into the world:
 
1. My parents, William and Patricia Erickson, for jumpstarting my love of Southeast Asian culture as an MK in New Papua, and my love of reading by refusing to own a TV—thus forcing my sister and me to check out stacks of library books every week out of sheer desperation.
2. My sister, Danica Childs, fan of textured, virtually unlikable heroines adventuring in exotic locales, who wanted me to write the book we'd always wanted to read.
3. My supportive in-laws and extended family, who never suggested alternate employment to the unpublished writer in their midst.
4. Friend and fellow writer Ruth Campbell, for her absolutely
insane
level of encouragement.
5. Artist Helen Homer, who taught me how to see the extraordinary in the ordinary—and who really did “sleep wrong!”
6. All the friends I made in my travels and treks through Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and Burma—from tour guides to engineers to refugees to entire hill tribes. Especially those living in countries under oppression.
7. Author April Young Fritz who, through SCBWI, was the first person outside of family to read my manuscript and whose enthusiasm propelled me to send it to …
8. My enthusiastic agent Rosemary Stimola, who in her infinite wisdom sent it to …
9. My enthusiastic editor Liz Szabla, who embraced Vassar, Hanks, and Grandma Gerd wholeheartedly enough to put their adventures in print.
10. And finally, my husband J.C., to whom this book is dedicated: Best Friend, Sugar Daddy, Constructive Critic, Patron, Cheerleader, Soulmate, Big Cheese—who, in the spirit of Hanks, will no doubt say to “cut the sap and end this already.”
CARPE DIEM. Copyright © 2007 by Autumn Cornwell. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address Feiwel and Friends, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
 
 
A FEIWEL AND FRIENDS Book
An Imprint of Holtzbrinck Publishers
 
 
eISBN 9781466807105
First eBook Edition : December 2011
 
 
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cornwell, Autumn.
Carpe diem / Autumn Cornwell.
p. cm.
Summary: Sixteen-year-old Vassar Spore's detailed plans for the next twenty years of her life are derailed when her bohemian grandmother insists that she join her in Southeast Asia for the summer, but as she writes a novel about her experiences, Vassar discovers new possibilities.
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-36792-3 / ISBN-10: 0-312-36792-9
[1. Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. 2. Grandmothers—Fiction. 3. Artists—Fiction. 4. Authorship—Fiction. 5. Secrets—Fiction. 6. Life skills—Fiction. 7. Southeast Asia—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.C8164512Car 2007
[Fic]—dc22
2006032054
First Edition: September 2007
BOOK: Carpe Diem
4.81Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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