Monday, February 27, 2012

Short and Sweet

Today's post will abide by it's name. I have no real advice for you today. A person can only give so much good advice before she begins to repeat herself. Let me live and little more and learn a little more before I jump back in. But I still wanted to keep you updated with my literary life. I am still working on the planning of my story. It will definitely take a while. However, I also recently bought two new books. They are rather mainstream and I feel behind on reading them. But I also believe that it is never too late to consume wonderful literature. I bought The Fault in Our Stars and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I am reading the latter of the two now and I am finding it hard to put down. There are so many beautiful words, sentences, paragraphs! It makes me really think about what I say, what I write, what I feel. I love the stories the sculpt your soul and I believe this to be one of them. So my advice: read. Read. Read read read and read more. Read until you feel the way that I do now. Read until it changes your life then find something else to read to change it again. Read.

Author: H. P. Lovecraft

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Review: The Sphinx Project (The Chimaera Chronicles Book 1) By Kate Hawkings



Title: The Sphinx Project (The Chimera Chronicles Book 1)
Author: Kate Hawkings
Published: February 28, 2012

Summary:

Not many people can say their entire existence has been one big lab experiment: poked and prodded by scientists, genetically modified to be the best and endure the worst, subjected to daily tests and trials that would kill a normal human. All Michaela wants is her own life, to be able to go to school, flirt with boys, maybe eat ice cream now and then. So when the chance to escape finally comes, Michaela and her sister grab it, taking their friends with them.
But they weren't the only ones to find their way out of those labs. Following close behind are another breed of creature, one that doesn't know the difference between right and wrong, who exist only to feed their own hunger. The appearance of a strange boy who seems to be too much like them to be a coincidence makes things even more confusing makes things even more confusing. But as the world begins to literally fall apart around them, Michaela must accept his help, especially when she could lose the very thing she holds dearest: her sister.


Review

Have you ever read a book that leaves you speechless and anticipating the next one? That's exactly what The Sphinx Project does!

From the first minute you begin this book, you'll be hooked until the very end, unable to put the book down until you've reached the final page.

An action packed, fast paced Young Adult novel, this book will have you on the edge of your seat. Kate Hawkings has created an amazing paranormal Y story that has no parallels. From kick-ass heroines, like Michaela and Nicole, to brilliant plot twists and turns that will leave you wanting more.

If you don't have this book on your To Be Read list, you really don't know what you're missing. Once you've read the book, you'll be infected by the Chimaera Chronicles!

Friday, February 24, 2012

A New Page...

I didn't post last week. I have no excuses. So now that that is out of the way, I'm going to get today's post underway. Today has been a wonderful day so far. In fact, as soon as I finish this post I'm heading over to Starbucks. And earlier this week I picked up my midnight showing tickets for The Hunger Games (I can barely contain my excitement that the movie is less than a month away... Sorry Mandy! :P). So this week has been really good for me.

With the news of J.K. Rowling's new book also coming this week, I thought that I would write about that. Queen Rowling has moved on from her old project, something you might have heard of before called Harry Potter. And now she has moved on to a new project, one that has yet to be announced. And for all of us who are incredibly sad that she isn't writing more Potter books, sometimes you just need to move on as a writer. Change toppics. I have my project that I started for NaNoWriMo last year, and I've not touched it since December. I haven't had the urge to continue it. But I have started a few new projects, that I think have some promise. And I think thats what Jo did with Harry too. Though she wants to put out an encyclopedia of Potter, she needed to move on to something else for a while. Just because she isn't working on Potter now doesn't mean she won't in ten years. And just because I've not continues my NaNo book doesn't mean that I won't continue it sometime in the next year.

My Author: (coincidentally enough) J.K. Rowling

P.S. Girl Scout cookies come in this weekend! I shall send pics to my gurrrls of all of the cookie chaos in my garage tonight :)

Monday, February 20, 2012

Lazy-Eye Moody

So lately I have been in a funk. I was sick a little while back and cannot get rid of this cough! But I haven't really had a chance to rest to help it anyway. Not that it is a bad thing though. I've have been full steam ahead working on wedding stuff. Friday I met with my decorators, Saturday my bridesmaids picked out their dresses, Sunday was spent making "what's left" lists and organizing the rest of the payments due. It's been run run run. And it continues to be that way with school. Three tests this week. Fun stuff. Interestingly enough, I have been lazy as well. I wake up and have to convince myself that I can take a nap later just so I will get out of bed and go to class. I hardly ever have time to take said nap, but it seems to be good motivation at the time.

However, in the middle of everything I continue to work on my story. When I have an idea I immediately write it down. But I don't marry it. I just keep it in case I want to use it. For instance, I have three versions of a background story for some of the supporting characters. I don't know which one I like more or if I like a combination. Point it, I have them handy. If I am in class I will flip to a lean page in my notebook and write. If I don't have paper I will make notes on my smart phone. I usually have one of the two, but if I don't I search for the nearest substitute. I love some of the things I learn about my characters and I don't want to lose any of it. So there is my advice. Write whatever comes to mind, whether it makes sense or not. You can always edit and cut and paste. That's what writing is in my idea. It is a story that is continually edited. Whether you publish or not, continue to edit.

On the other hand, with this blog I never edit. I may spell check, but I just let the words flow usually. That is why they seem a little disconnected sometimes. I try to make them flow into something pretty but they usually end up like scribbles in my head. But it does help. It helps me get out what I have been thinking writing wise. And it helps to see what my other gurrrls are thinking about. I am so glad I decided to do this blog with them. It may end up veering away from writing sometimes but I always try to bring it back with some connective lesson. So here is the second one for the day that ties in with the first: keep some kind of journal. I know this has been written about before, but siriusly :) DO IT! It really does help. Even if it is just the place where all your story idea are put. Mine is this blog. I already explained why so I will not be redundant. Instead, I will stop my ramblings and go to sleep. Got a test tomorrow morning and a dinner for my fiance's work tomorrow night. Like I said: run run run!! But I should be able to squeeze in a nap between the dinner and my business law class. Yeah...that will work...

Author: Cory Doctorow (I get this guy a lot. I need to read his stuff!)

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

I'm Sick

First of all I would like to apologize for not posting last week. I didn't remember until I was already supposed to write up this week's post. As for this week, I have been sick as a dog since Friday. I barely got out of bed Saturday and Sunday. The title of this post is kind of a joke. I am a very annoying sick person, but my fiance and I kind of joke about it. I use "I'm sick" for any excuse I need. I want to watch Doctor Who because I'm sick. I want to eat sushi because I'm sick. I want to go to London because I'm sick. Even when I am not sick I use this excuse. It has become a great little joke between us and our friends. So that is my excuse for this week's late posting :) I'm feeling better but I still have a cough like a ninja that randomly sneaks up and tries to murder me. I know you care and all...

Anyway here is my post. Yesterday was my first real productive day since I got sick and I had to go to an 8am microbiology lecture and lab. During lecture I let my mind wander to my story. I don't know if it was the class or that I wasn't feeling great or both but I ended up killing about 10 people in my story. It was not anyone major, simply some people in a background story of some of my characters, but they were still real fictional lives I snuffed out. I like where the story went, but here is my warning: beware of feelings. They can get to the best of us. Even JKR had this happen when she almost killed off Ron (thank Merlin she didn't!) because she was in a foul mood. Don't be the stoic and ignore them, because they are part of who you are. Therefore, let them leech into your story. But here lies the rub. Don't throw anything away. You may kill someone one day, let them live the next, then get to the final draft of the story and realize that you do need them dead. Worst case scenario is you don't use that draft at all, but it will give you a better picture of who your characters are and why they act the way they do. JRK is applicable here too. She has an entire background story on so many characters that she truly got to know them and was able to determine how they acted because of their past. Hardly any of them made the final cut, but this made them more believable and real to the readers. So let your emotions fill the pages. It's your story after all and should be a part of you. So let yourself be a part of it.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Just Writing to Say Hello...

I recently had a conversation with a friend about the book The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. We were talking about how Charlie's letters seemed to help him and that we wished we could have something like that to get our emotions out there. So I said "Why don't we just do it?". He was a little hesitant at first, but after decided on fake names for both of us to use, we said we'd do it. I don't think we are going to mail them or anything, but you never know. Even just writing things out is sure to help somewhat. I'm quite excited and am going to start writing my letter as soon as I'm done with this blog post.

The point I wanted to make in this post is that sometimes, you can't talk to people you know about troubles you may going through. Whether it's because you can't trust them, don't think they'd understand what you're going through, or simply can't find the right words. But writing can help with a lot of things. And even if you're not writing letters to some random stranger like Charlie is, you can still write. Write in a journal, on a white board, write wherever (as long as it's legal!). Something that I like to do when I get really emotional is write down all of my sad/mad/angry feelings onto a piece of paper, and then burn it. It makes me feel as though all my problems are burning along with that paper, and I'm free to feel better emotions. And this usually happens... at least once a week. My gurrrls know that sometimes my mom just makes me want to crawl up into a ball and die. But I would never do that because there are plenty of people who love my who would be very sad if I did such a stupid thing.

SO my point is, write. Write about your emotions, all of them. It helps. It really does. And that's coming from someone who feels like they could break down every day.

For Sydney: That is a really good question. After immediately thinking of J.K. Rowling, I also thought of John Green and then I went to Stephen Chbosky. So I suppose my answer would be a mix between thee three of them. But really I'd be happy with any of them.

P.S. Ten points to anyone who can guess what name my friend came up for me to write my letters as! <3:Dx

My author: William Shakespeare

Monday, February 6, 2012

Keep Trying

Yes, I'm late. I had a busy Friday night, and then a busy weekend, and I never got around to coming on to post. Heck, I was lucky I found time to go read chapter 6 of Mandy's story. But, while I wasn't on here posting my highly awaited blog post (that's sarcasm, if you can't tell), I was getting my inspiration for my post.

Friday night I went to my school's talent show. And as always, there's the really good acts, and the ones that are... sub par. They don't suck but they're not the best, if you know what I mean. And it made me think of writing. Some people are incredibly adept at it, and others could use some help. But you know what they all have in common? The courage to go out there and risk making a fool of themselves because they are doing what they love to do. And that's how I feel about writing. I'm not the most confident person in my writing, but whenever I do show someone a bit of it, whether it's personal writing or a school assignment, I always seem to get lots of positive feedback about how great I am at writing. You'd think that'd convince me? Well, it doesn't. But I still continue to write because I love doing it. And that should be everyone's inspiration to write. Not because you have to or you think you might become famous from it (because lets face it, it's hard to become a well-known author), but because you truly want to.

My author: Cory Doctorow

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Writing About What's Real

When I write, it's usually about reality with a little fantasy splashed in to make it more entertaining. I like writing about mermaids, angels, demons, and everything in between. That's a known fact about me that everyone who knows about what I write knows. I never thought that I could write a book about real life topics like Sarah Dessen or Emily Brontë so I stuck to what I knew I could right.

Now, looking back on it, I know I was just scared. Books such as Dreamland and Just Listen by Sarah Dessen are things I could never even dream about writing. The topics are so hard to write about because you don't want to offend people and give them the wrong impression.

For my English major, I had to take two semesters of a foreign language. I'd had my heart set of Italian or Russian just to give me a challenge and have some fun. Unfortunately for me, they didn't have Italian 1010 or Russian 1010 available during a spring semester. They did, however, have American Sign Language (ASL) so I decided to give it a try.

During my classes, I found myself enjoying it more and more, especially with how many hours I was in class plus a weekly lab and studying on my own or with friends. We had to be in the mindset of not being able to talk for long periods of time, but having to find ways to communicate even if we didn't know the sign for a word.

When I saw Switched At Birth a while later, I decided that was what I wanted to do. I wanted to write a book about a character who was deaf. Of course, that was easier said than done seeing as I've tried distinguishing between thoughts and signing in writing and let me tell you that it's nearly impossible to do unless you're bolding, italicizing, underlining, or whatever other fancy things you can do. So instead, I chose a different topic that's not so far from a deaf character.

Currently, my Writing In Progress is to a huge concrete road block like the one that blocks my shortcut home from campus thanks to flooding this past year. I know where I want to go and how I want to get there, but I'm not quite sure how to make the words flow.

I suggested a story idea to Bailey and she really liked the idea so I began writing it. It's been coming out great so far, but the tricky part is that it's not my usual Urban Fantasy. This is actually about real life and has no magic or fantasy in it what-so-ever. That means that I have to do even more research than I normally would. My plan is that on my next free day, I'll spend the day at the library to do research since I trust books more than I do the internet even with how often I'm online.

With this new idea, I keep wondering what happens if I offend someone? What happens if all the facts are wrong and I'm made to look like a fool? Then I realize that this story may never be published or even looked at by another person who isn't part of this blog, but it's something for me to have fun with. It's a new challenge. If it doesn't work out, that's a shame, but it's not the end of the world.

I know what my strengths are and that's good, but sometimes you have to try something new. You have to step out of your comfort zone and prove, even if it's just to yourself, that you can do it.

This week's author: Not even going to put it because it never changes.