What a Day/Night!

Let me start off by saying that as I am writing this, I am functioning off of 2 1/2 hours of sleep so if none of this makes sense, I am sorry. Secondly, I would like to apologize to Mandy for this post (you'll see why) because it's going to be all about my night last night.

Okay. Last night was probably one of the best nights of my life. Why, you might be asking? Well, because I got to see The Hunger Games at midnight. It was the first midnight showing that I've ever gotten to go to (though I wanted to go to many a Potter one!), so it was a really cool experience. I got to the theater around 5-ish. I wanted to get there earlier, but I had a test in my Spanish class, so I kinda needed to go to my class. We waited around outside with loads of other people, and played many games of "Kill, Maim, Alliance," a very fun game, I might add. We ate "Hunger Games-y" food, and just had a great time. Then, almost at 9, they let us go into our theater. Three hours might seem like a long time to wait for a movie to start, but with all of my friends there and other fans, along with a few video crews recording stuff for the news, etc. (we think one of them worked for TMZ!) the time just flew by. Before we knew it, it was 12:01 and the previews began.

I won't get into any details of thye movie, but I will say that it was SPECTACULAR! It exceeded my expectations by about a million-fold. As soon as the film was over, the first words out of my mouth were "Is it time for Catching Fire yet?" Too bad filming hasn't even begun.

I know that I should probably be tired, but I don't feel like I am. But after today (another action-packed day, where I'll be up for a long time again) I will probably pass out as soon as I get home. Well, thats all I;ve got for now :D

My Author: David Foster Wallace

Anna and the French Kiss

Second post in a row!! Round of applause, anyone? No? Just stories from Mandy? Ok.

I've had tons going on this week and I'm also quite busy today, so my post won't be that long. I read a book a couple months ago and I just recommended it to a friend and she loved it, so I thought I'd share it with everyone. This isn't going to be a proper review, but here we go! 

The book is called Anna and the French Kiss and it's by Stephanie Perkins. I'll put the description from Stephanie's website here, since I'm terrible at summarizing stories.

"Anna was looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. So she's less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris—until she meets Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Étienne has it all . . . including a serious girlfriend.

But in the City of Light, wishes have a way of coming true. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with their long-awaited French kiss? Stephanie Perkins keeps the romantic tension crackling and the attraction high in a debut guaranteed to make toes tingle and hearts melt."

I really enjoyed this book. The main characters really pull you in, especially Anna and St. Clair, who are both funny and full of wit. I felt like I could connect to Anna and could see where she was coming from in the ways she reacted to the events in her life. I think it's a great coming of age story, and it accurately portrays a girl at that age. I loved how throughout the story, the way Anna reacted to similar situations changed as she matured and grew up. Paris is an amazing city for this story to take place; it's like a character in its own right. From the title, I had assumed it was going to be a cliche, cookie-cutter book but it really surprised me with the depth of character and emotions.

If you're looking for a book to read (or even if you're not) I would highly recommend Anna and the French Kiss! Give it a read and come back here and comment letting us know what you thought! If you have read it, let us know now! 

Lazy Day

My life is crazy right now. I've been working crazy hours and this weekend is Hunger Games weekend, which means I'm trying to do a million things before all hell breaks loose tomorrow. It sucks and I know I should be doing an actual post, but enjoy this youtube video!

Upside Down

That is how my life is right now. Last week was kind of boring. I mainly was just in school praying for the weekend. I am on Spring Break this week and extremely glad about it. But starting Saturday my life has been a literal roller coaster (figuratively of course).

Saturday I went to the First Ever Ninth Annual World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade in Hot Springs. It was a literal blast (not figuratively). In the middle of the parade a transformer BLEW UP about 40 feet away from me. It was absolute chaos. Only one person was seriously injured and they were taken away in an ambulance right in front of me. I could have reached out and touched the stretcher.

After the parade my dad and I went to the 38 Special concert. I had forgotten how much I adore going to legit concerts. Except for dealing with the drunks it was an incredible concert. The smoke and the lights and the music were only half of it. Watching the band have fun and interact with the crowd and dance around stage and mess with each other made the whole concert. You could see they truly love what they do. I was so close to the stage I could see the sweat dripping off their faces and could read the labels on the drum set. When I got home that night my heart was still pounding, my hearing still half gone, and my face still smiling. You know it was a great concert if that happens.

Sunday was kind of blah.

Today was the kicker. I am at my parent house in Benton. I had only been away for about 15 minutes when all this happened. I woke up to my aunt calling me to say that my cousin's water had broke. She lives in Fayetteville. This is probably the closest I will ever some to having a nephew. My cousin Kevin and I are the only children in the family. We are 14 years apart but we are extremely close to each other. He is the closest thing to a sibling I have ever had. His son is being born today and I will be up there as soon as my dentist appointment is over this afternoon.

The second thing today was a total shock. It happened about an hour ago and I am still shaking and my heart is still pounding, but not in the way the concert made it pound on Saturday. The concert brought life into it. This about killed me. I had just gotten off the phone with my aunt (remember this all happened within 15 minutes of each other) and someone starts beating on my door. I thought it was UPS with a wedding package and wanted a signature. I changed into some proper clothes (as I was in my pjs since I had just woken up) and I answered the door. Standing on my driveway was a man I had not seen in about 5 years and did not even recognize until he told me his name. It was another cousin of mine who had basically dropped off the face of the earth. We have heard from him once in my entire life and that was 5 years ago. He asked where my parents were (at work!) and said he would drop back by this evening. I closed the door and literally collapsed in shock. I just laid on the floor for about 20 minutes trying to calm down.

So why do you care? You probably don't but I had to tell someone. My brain is absolutely going crazy with everything that has happened. I feel like I am in a work of fiction. One of these episodes will probably end up somewhere in something I write. You can't make this stuff up! I guess, in short, my advice today is take scenes from your life. There are somethings that will happen to you that you would have never imagined in your wildest dreams. Tweak your stories to fit your fiction. I think I have said this before, but I passionately believe it. If you don't put some of yourself into your stories then they aren't really your stories. Your thoughts, beliefs, loves, hates, life will come through regardless. I believe that is what makes every story unique. You can write the same story as someone else, but you will have your own viewpoints, ideas, and insight. Start there.

Just a few things...

First of all, I would like to say that I hope everyone has had an amazing week. I know that though there were some ups and dowens, overall my week was pretty fabulous. I've not really got anything to talk about. Project Create is going quite well for me. I need to upload some of my stuff though because so far it is just sitting around. I thought I would talk about Amy's post yesterday (shockerrr!).

I, like Amy, am a very self-conscious writer. I love writing. But I do occasionally get the feeling that I'm not good enough. Sometimes I don't know what to write, or how to word something. But I just keep chugging along, hoping something will come to me eventually. I don't think that my posts on here are particularly entertaining or anything, but I do enjoy writing this blog with my gurrrls. Sometimes I might come up with a witty remark, but for the most part I think I am boring.

I've not written anything for fun in a long time. Probably since the middle of January. But soon (after Girl Scout cookie season is over) I will get back to writing. I am even contemplating doing ScriptFrenzy this next month. But I don't know. Maybe I can talk my gurrrls into doing it with me (are you in?) and I'll be more motivated to actually do it. Well, thats all I've got to say at the moment, so I'll stop trying to think of things to put on here.

My Author: Cory Doctorow (I really must read some of his writing, seeing as I keep getting him!)

I'm Not That Fond Of You

Woahhh! Can it be? A post? From me?! Despite the fact that I have not posted in ages, it is really me! I have not posted in such a long time. I'll get to that in a minute, but first I'm going to address what has motivated me to post today. I'm being bribed by Mandy, we all are. On time posts from all of us for two weeks, and we get chapters from her story. I'm doing this, we all are, but revenge is sweet, gurrrl. Moral of the story: Don't bribe people, kids!

Moving on to my topic for today's post, what I like least about writing (which also happens to be the reason I haven't posted in a long while). I hate the ever-present speculation on what other's will think of it. I know that that is really not what I should be thinking about while writing, but sometimes I can't help it. It becomes so discouraging and it inhibits my writing to the point where I just stop.

In terms of this blog, I see the posts from my gurrrls and they are all so good and amusing and I look at mine and get discouraged because they aren't as good. This leads to me shooting down every idea I come up with to blog about, which leads to me not having anything to blog about, which leads to no posts from me. It is a very convoluted and self-destructive process.

I'm sure I'm not the only person who goes through this in their writing, but I think we should all stop. When writing, the most important person that needs to enjoy the writing is the writer. We shouldn't let ourselves get psyched out based on the work or the opinions of others. I'm going to work on this, and if any of you readers have this problem, you should work on it, too.

Hopefully I'll get my act together and get back to regular, weekly posts! Until then, may the odds be ever in your favor! Goodbye! (I am in a very Hunger Games mood right now, what with the movie coming out in a week after waiting for years and years. Sorry, Mandy.)

-Amy

Author: Cory Doctorow

The Savage Grace by Bree Despain Book Launch

Okay, in the spirit of my enjoyment of author signings and book launches, I'm going to talk about another launch party, this time for The Savage Grace by Bree Despain.

The Savage Grace is the third book in The Dark Divine trilogy following The Dark Divine and The Lost Saint. I first came across the first book when Bree was doing a signing at the movie theater during a midnight release of one of the Twilight movies. And, me being the nerd I am, had to buy it because it's a book and the synopsis on the back sounded pretty awesome.

So anyways, about two weeks ago, I got a text from a friend of mine saying "TSG comes out on March 13. We're going." Of course, we basically said the same thing to another friend of ours and that other friend brought another friend, meaning the four of us piled into my Mazda and drove to King's English. What makes these friends absolutely awesome is that there was another book launch by Brandon Mull, but they decided to come with me to this one.

Arriving at the bookstore, we decided to buy our books before going to the Gallery two doors down where the release was being held. Considering one of my friends has gone with me to a lot of signings and was only just purchasing The Dark Divine, shows you how much I had to bother her to actually buy something this time.

Me With The Savage Grace

So, going into the gallery, we were given a questionnaire with trivia having to do with the first two books. Unfortunately, my issue with double guessing myself reared its ugly head and I didn't get as many answers as I could possibly get. There were some awesome prizes for those who aced the trivia, though, such as a moonstone ring and a box of Chocolate Cinnamon Bears.

Bree spoke about what it was like to finish a series, about her kittens divine, and, of course, Taylor Kitsch. We were able to hear her read a part of The Savage Grace and even got a small summary of what her next series is about -- Fall 2013 can't come soon enough.

Compared to a couple other book signings we've been to, this line wasn't too long to wait in. We got our books signed and got some pictures with her.

Maegen and Bree Despain

Mandy and Bree Despain

I think one of my favorite things about going to Bree's signings, besides being able to say hello and have a new book, is the fact that there's always nail polish that goes with the book covers. I have them sitting on my dresser waiting for me to use if I ever get time to sit down and do it.

After the signing, we all went to Village Inn and literally sat for two hours just talking and playing Draw Something on my iPod, which Marissa can tell you about.

Here's a summary about The Dark Divine, because the summary of The Savage Grace does contain a couple of spoilers for the first two books:

Grace Divine, daughter of the local pastor, always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kalbi disappeared—the night she found her brother Jude collapsed on the porch, covered in blood. But she has no idea what a truly monstrous secret that night really held. And when Daniel returns three years later, Grace can no longer deny her attraction to him, despite promising Jude she’ll stay away.As Grace gets closer to Daniel, her actions stir the ancient evil Daniel unleashed that horrific night. Grace must discover the truth behind Jude and Daniel's dark secret . . . and the cure that can save the ones she loves. But she may have to lay down the ultimate sacrifice to do it—her soul.

If you get a chance to get your hands on The Dark Divine Trilogy you really won't be disappointed.

Now, I'm about half way through The Savage Grace so I'm going to sign off with a Happy Hump Day!

ehh...

Do you ever have those times when you just plain don't care? Yeah you do. Everyone does. Sometimes you just want to curl up in bed and sleep. That's how I have felt lately. Except with midterms, wedding, my cousin expecting to have her baby any day now, and everything else I can't just sleep. Sometimes you just have to suck it up and do the things you need to do. And as always I have tied this in with writing. My advice today is to create goals for yourself. Tell yourself if you do this much then you can do this. Create rewards to motivate yourself to finishing the tasks that need to be done. For example, if I read two chapters in my microbiology book then I can work on the nativity set I am making for my new baby cousin. You can use this both ways in writing. You can say you are going to work this much on your story before you can do this. Or you can say I am going to get this done then I can allow myself to work on my story. Either way creates an opportunity to get things done and to help you sort your priorities. And that is all I have today. Sorry about no posting lately. I will try to get back on schedule soon. Next week is Spring Break and I am doing nothing but going to the dentist and organizing my life. Sounds fun, huh? Well once I do that I am allowing myself time to read and see the Hunger Games. Can't wait!!

Author: Cory Doctorow <-- someone buy me this guys work! Oh wait...tax refund!! Yay! I'll let you know how I like it :)

Happy Birthday Sydney!!!

On behalf of all of us here at Tripppy, I would like to send a very special HAPPY BIRTHDAY to one of our favorite gurrrls in the whole world, Sydney! Hope you have the best birthday Syd! We all love you.

Sh*t Writers Say

Okay so I admit, I have no idea what to post today. Life's been so hectic that I've barely been able to write anything besides the review for the Sphinx Project. So instead of talking about things that make no sense, I leave you today with an awesome youtube video about writers and a promise to have a good topic next week!

Too Lazy To Come Up With A Title

I don't have anything particularly interesting to talk about this week, but I felt obligated to my gurrrls and whoever may read these posts to at least try to come up with something good. But what should I talk about? I could talk about how as I am writing this, I am on break from school, but have to go back to class in a little more than an hour. I could talk about how I woke up this morning and didn't want to go to school whatsoever. Any one of these would do. But for some reason, all I can think about right now is how I want nothing more than for March 23rd to get here, for the Hunger Games movie. And then after that? I want time to just whiz by in the blink of an eye, to where school is out for the summer, and I've got two amazing vacations to look forward to. I am so done with school right now, the only thing I can focus on when I go to class is how much I would rather be anywhere else. Sure, my friends make it a little better, but I can't take much more of this. College sucks. High school sucks. But soon enough, it'll be spring break, and I'll have a week of vacation. Things to look forward to.

Also, it is so windy outside right now that it sounds like I am going to get blown all the way down the street if I step outside. It's a little frightening, but whatever. Just one more "perk" to living in the Antelope Valley. Outrageous wind.

My Author: Cory Doctorow