NaNoWriMo Results

Hola! Guess what people? I won NaNoWriMo!!!!! Whahaha! I have to say, it was no easy task and I wanted to give up during the entire span of week 2, but I pushed through it and now my little novel Tiger's Eye is 168 pages typed, double spaced, and 40,868 words! Tomorrow I'm going to start editing it and by the 9th I want to hopefully have it edited enough to send it to CreateSpace which will publish it with 5 free copies, courteous of NaNoWriMo. By no means is this little book my best, but hey, it's mine and I wrote it so what the heck, right?

Bannded Books Week

Alrighty, then. If some of you are like me you might not have realized that this week (Sept. 24th-Oct. 1st) is Banned Books Week, celebrating the right to read freely. Ironically I looked at this earlier on simonandschuster.com and just shrugged until I got to looking into some of the books that are banned. Some books that I've read and LOVED! were on the list. I then remembered something that my 11th grade lit teacher said: "Every great book is banned somewhere" These books describe ideas, feelings, and events that other people are too afraid to talk about. But In my mind, after looking into why some of these books were banned, there are movies a hundred times worse then some of these books that people rave and rave about. On simonandschuster.com they have posted every year Ellen Hopkins' manifesto on the subject of banned books. I love what she said in there "But sticks and stones do break bones, and ignorance is no armor." All I can say is amen to that and long live all books!!!!

Weird Spelling Flubs

When I was looking for a poem/quote to attach to a picture of a rainy sky picture I typed into Google "grey skies quotes" Well, it said "grey" was spelled wrong. (Even the spell check on this blog says it's spelled wrong.) It's supposed to be "gray" So I did some research because I'm so confused! So I again turned to Google and Google led me two a couple sites that said the same thing. "Gray" Is the Americanized term while "Grey" is the British way of spelling the color. Using the terms from one of the sites "Gray" is for colors and "Grey" is for colours.

So sitting at my computer I knitted my eyebrows together and frowned. In one of my books I wrote my character has grey eyes. Note I said "grey" G-R-E-Y not G-R-A-Y. Now, I live in America so shouldn't it be with an A instead of E? Wrong sir!!! Because this character lives in a mythical country that is a sister country to England it is G-R-E-Y and I defile anyone who tried to tell me otherwise.
p.s. I like the E!!!!!!!!!

YA Lit V.S. WAll Street Journal

Anyway, back to the reason I'm writing this post. Everyone knows I'm an avid reader of Scott Westerfeld's books and blog. Apparently WSL went on some kind of rant on how YA novels were too dark and scary and causing teenagers to become cutters. When I first started reading about this on Scott's blog I was just waiting for Scott to shoot out all the reason they were wrong. And while he did do that, he also brought out a valid point, what about the parents?

He basically was saying that teens and parents need to talk about what they are reading if this concerns them. I thought it was a great post and I really appreciated it. Grant it, I'll be the first to say there there is some YA lit that I wouldn't recommend reading.....just like there are plenty of PG-13 and R rated movies I won't go see or recommend seeing, or parties I wouldn't' recommend going to, or whatever. So if you want to read what Scoot (and all the other comments [which a lot of parents were commenting!]) just go to Google and type in Scott Westerfeld blog and look at the July 7th post.

P.S. I already put this same post on my other blog because I felt it was important to put on both.

Queries

Okay, so it's been a long time and I've been busy. I finally just got the guts to send off my first round of query letters to five agents off of my long list. Cross your fingers for me and hope for representation! (My birthday is in 13 days so it would make an awesome present. ;] )

Vow of Silence and Poetry

Big news everyone! Yesterday, Sunday the 24th, aka Easter Sunday, I finished typing my book Vow of Silence!! Whahahah!!!! Now that means I only have one more book to go after I edit VOS. Fun. No, it really will be great, painstaking, but great. In other news, one of my best friends sent me this poem that she wrote for her English III class and I think it's beautiful! So introducing Barriers of Life.

Barriers of Life

By Lauren Withiem

What the world cannot see

Is what they push down.

What the world cannot be

Is what they frown.

What they do not know

Is how much you are capable.

What they do not show

Is that they are vulnerable.

You can do so much more

Than they believe.

All you need to do is soar,

But instead you grieve.

They judge,

Because you are not the same.

You hold a grudge,

And make them know your name.

Your heart turns to stone

From all the worlds dares.

You feel alone,

And you think no one cares.

You release all your fears,

Until that day you fall.

On your knees, in tears

After it all.

You scream out

To the world in pain.

Without any doubt,

You get on the next train.

At this new place

You get a new state of mind,

And you receive an abundant amount of grace.

Which you discover is kind.

Even the people who were rude,

And those who disparage.

Were not able to extinguish your positive attitude,

Or your massive courage.

The journey was hard and long,

And you want to forget.

Still you turned out strong,

And have no regret.

Roadmap To Publication

Hey! Yes, I do realize that I pretty much dropped off the face of the blogging world for nearly two months. I've been busy and lets face it, lazy. But, to whom it may concern I started my publication class last night and it's going great! I'm learning a lot and cross your fingers that I can get my stuff published!

I Carry Your Heart With Mine

This is one of my favorite poems. It's I Carry Your Heart With Mine by E.E. Cummings

I carry your heart with me (I carry it in
my heart) I am never without it (anywhere
I go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)

I fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) I want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

Here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart)

Midnighters and Scott Westerfeld

So, here's an interesting story for ya:
Last Thursday my buddy Candice wanted me to start reading this book series with her. I had heard of the series but never read it. (We're totally forming a two-person book club at Richland!) Anyway, I finished book 1 Friday night and thought it was okay. But, if anything, I got motivated to read. (In other words, continuing my phase of wanting to read because I really do go in phases of wanting to write, read, type what I've written from my notebooks, or none of those. It really just depends.)
Sooo, Saturday I told my mom that I just had to go to the public library. Because I knew for a fact that they would have a certain book in another series that I have been dying to finish. But school and life get in the way a little too much when you're an avid reader like myself. (My friends have called me an "Over-dramatic nerd" And by golly, its true! As long as it is pertaining to the fact that I get way into what I'm reading.)
Seeing how there is always opposition in all things, somebody checked out the book before me! I was devastated! But, after gathering up all my courage and reassuring myself that hope was not lost, I began searching for something different. And that's when I saw it. The Secret Hour of the Midnighters series as seen below.I thought "Hmm, looks interesting," I read the back. "Sounds interesting..." Saw the author (Because when I'm randomly looking for books to read I let them come to me, I don't search by author so I didn't even pay attention to where I was at.) And the author is none other than Scott Westerfeld, the author of my favorite book, Peeps. That sealed the deal.
I read the book in 2 days!
I highly recommend it to any fantasy lover looking for a good read. Actually, I just finished book two, Touching Darkness and I had a reaction that I've never had before. I won't tell you what happened in the book (obviously not to give out juicy spoilers.) but it was something that I could kind of guess could happen, but I really, really, didn't want to happen. Naturally it does. I flipped! I was reading at the end Chemistry and the bell rang right after I read the suspenseful bad part. I ran to my locker, yanked out my math books, and hurried down the hall to my math class. I had three minutes left before the late bell and I wanted to read, but I was physically sick to my stomach at what happened!
Now, I've read my fair share of books that bring out a strong reaction in me, but I've never gotten sick! That's how crazy good this book is people!!!!! I have the 3rd one in my possession which is bitter sweet. It's the last in the series. Scott Westerfeld, if you ever read this please write more!!!!! I love you, I love your book series, and I love all the emotional roller coasters it takes me on! Again, I highly recommend this series!
P.s. Scott Westerfeld has a really awesome blog that you can check out at http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/

Flow

I've been reading Tuesday's with Morrie by Mitch Albom lately. I love it. It's a different writing style, but the point is so clear. It's about an old college professor, Morrie, who is dying of ALS and his student, Mitch. Morrie is a teacher to his last breath and is using his death as his final lesson to Mitch, and everyone. Last night I read a section that really struck me. Morrie was talking to Mitch about how people are always seeming to want more, more is good, he called it. He precedes to list all the material things that society views as allowing for a good life. But they're all wants, not needs. And he mentions how weird people can get when you don't believe the way they do about material things and how it's our culture to follow a certain pattern. It inspired me to write this poem.

Flow

If life is like a river
And each life a droplet in the river
Both big and small
We know that the current takes us where ever we are going
Were ever that is.

But one may care to ask,
Is this current taking me where I want to be?
What if I don't like where I end up?
What if it isn't me?

And so the great river breaks off into little streams
With their own flow
And their own destination

And I wonder if
the little droplets who chose to go
into the stream
look back the way they came
and wonder if they made the correct choice

And I wonder if
the many droplets who stayed
Look towards the stream
and wonder what the little droplets were thinking.

I can change the flow, perhaps.
I will choose my unknown.
I don't need to be the same
As the other droplets.
I can be different.
I can make a difference.

And the large droplets
Who stayed behind
Laugh at the little droplet's dreams.
"You can't change the world"
"You're only one little droplet"

"The river could spit you out
against the sandy banks
And let the sun evaporate you.
And who would miss you?

But what the large droplets
Who stayed behind
Do not know
Is that if that little droplet
is thrown
Off into the unknown
It will encourage grass to grow.

And that grass will sustain the small animals
And the small animals sustain the large.
And the large will sustain the man.
and he will continue the cycle
That would otherwise be broken
Except that one little droplet
created it's own flow.

Pushed Away Lullaby

I was cleaning my room this morning and found a piece of notebook paper crumpled up and shoved under my bed. Curious, I carefully un-crumpled it realized it was one of my poems that I had written. Considering it's content I must have been really upset. I remember writing it, just not why I did. Still, I think it's pretty. So, here it is:

Pushed away as no one knows
Pushed away where no one goes
Hear me? See me?
What, I beg of you
Lost in what the heart felt
Where in my darkness I go
In my shadow so deep

Pushed away, pushed so deep
Fallen away in my sleep
I fight for you
Vain I am.
Careless as you
Disappear. Fallen. Broken.
Hear my silent cry
Or fall asleep to my non-sweet lullaby