Surviving 2012 And Other Life Accomplishments

I'M BAAAAAAAAA--

*ducks flying tomatoes*

I'M SORRY OKAY MY BAD I'M LIKE THE WORST BLOGGER EVER I KNOW. Life got hectic. It does that you know. BUT ANYWHO, I'm back now, and I've got a bunch of posts lined up for y'all.

Can you believe the world didn't end like we thought it was going to? I gotta admit, I'm a little disappointed. I was all stocked up on notebooks and Snickers and I was gonna write the whole thing out while it happened. Would've made the best book ever. *SIGH* But alas, God has other plans. Silly mortals for thinking we can predict when the world ends. :P

Anywho, now that that's out of the way...

First things first! WE CLEARED 20 FOLLOWERS!

*blows up balloons* *pops balloons* *parties*

Okay, I know I said I'd do a first page critique but I'm thinking starting small might be better. AND THIS WAY, I can get to all of you! So, if you'd like, post the first paragraph of your MS in the comments below and I will comment and critique. Feel free to comment on any others you see!

((If your first paragraph is one line you can go ahead and post the first two. :P ))

Second-- and sorry, poor Atticus, can you wait like one more post? I PROMISE I'll get to you!-- my wonderful friend Avvie ( http://avonsbabbles.wordpress.com/2012/12/25/blog-of-the-year-award/ ) gave me an award! YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!

*points at you* Oi. I hear your exasperated sigh from here. *STICKS TONGUE OUT*

ALRIGHTY HERE WE GO!

Ooh. Shineh.

THE RULES:

1. Display the award logo on your blog.
2. Link back to the person who nominated you.
3. Link back to the Blog of the Year 2012 Rules page so people can read the real, complete, and fully accurate rules of this slightly different blogger award.
4. State 5 things about yourself.
5. Pass the award onto 6 other bloggers and link to one of their specific posts so that they get notified by pingback.
Here’s the original — The Thought Palette.

Easy peasy. Let's do this thing. *cracks knuckles*

FIVE THINGS ABOUT YOURS TRULY:

1. My penname, CinderScoria, comes from the volcanic rock with two names. Cinder and Scoria. :P
2. I won the VFW essay contest and went to state, which was both terrifying and awesome. I think it's the most I've ever been fawned over. Seriously, I ended up in like five different newspapers. MORE THAN ONCE. Plus I got $500 for it. (I was also the only Freshman there.)
3. Meg Cabot has read the first 5,000 words of The Lucky One. And she liked it. Well, she said that Lucky's a likeable character (like I didn't know that already). OH, and that she "couldn't wait to see more of him." O__O I'm telling you right now, when I publish TLO the first person I'm signing my book to is gonna be her.
4. I can play piano. Used to be able to play the guitar too, but then I forgot... the fingers are all backwards. :P
5. I make the best brownies ever and your argument is invalid.

Unfortunately, I don't know anybody to tag. :P Can't I just close my eyes and point randomly? *does so* Erm... AUDIENCE, I CHOOSE YOU!

Why I Like Taylor Swift

Sorry, Atticus, you're going to have to wait. I have a confession to make to my fellow followers: I absolutely hate Taylor Swift.

Oh wait. My post title says I like her. Well, yes, that too. What I mean to say is, she's kind of sort of really brilliant. I have tons of friends who can't stand her music-- "She's sooooo annoying!" "She can't sing." "Everybody else likes her."

People, I respect others' opinions as much as the next person. But I have to wholeheartedly disagree. I don't find her annoying at all. I think she can sing pretty stinkin' well. And everybody likes her because she has a super epic magic superpower: the ability to understand make people feel what she feels.

It's true. You listen to her music-- take "Mine" or "Ours" (I just now realized how similar those titles are...)-- and while you can't really place your finger on how exactly she does it, you can't deny how the song makes you feel. Hopeful, longing, like you had an epiphany. It's like she stuck her finger and pinned one of the life-long dreams you've ever had.

How does she do that?

In my opinion, the music is only a secondary part of it (although it is a big part, no denying that). Her words are the most important. That's why I like her so much: Taylor Swift is a first class wordsmith. She's brilliant. The way she writes is just like an exceptionally talented storyteller, in music form. Writing is different than storytelling. While writing is simply telling a story, storytelling is an art. A storyteller uses words to make the reader (or listener) feel exactly what they want them to feel.

Taylor Swift uses words. And her voice.

There are other people who do this, too-- Pink and Fun, off the top of my head. But none quite like Taylor Swift.

So why do I hate her?

Well, at the moment, I'm jealous. Also, she wrote a song called "The Lucky One" that, unsurprisingly, is not about a boy who is half-demon/half-angel and expected to save the world. I'm a little disappointed. And irked. Just saying.

I know a lot of writers who are TS fans. What are you favorite lines by her? I have too many to count, seriously, but they'll probably make appearances in my Song of the Day box.

ALSO ALSO ALSO! I am at 18 followers! :D If I get to 20, I think I'll do my first giveaway. Since I have no money to actually give anything physical away, I will happily give away a first-page critique of your MS! Thank you all for getting me this far!

Intermission - AKA October Blog Chain!

So we're taking a little break between interviews so I can participate in my very first TCWT Blog Chain! Yeah, I've never done this before, so feel free to laugh obnoxiously.

This month's prompt was:

“What are you writing for NaNoWriMo? Briefly explain how this book idea come about. Then write a mock first page for the novel.”

So! The novel is Death and Other Things I Fail At, which is about Sophia, a naturally curious ginger who reads from a spell book, which then separates her soul from her body. So she wakes up as a disembodied soul sixty-something years in the future, in which humanity has discovered ghosts exist and 'hunt' them for sport-- Sophia included. Except she's not a ghost, 'cause she's not dead. Soooo basically she, along with some poor boy whose body she hijacked and a Junior Hunter chick who'd rather blast Sophia to smithereens than help her, has to get to her body-- which was (conveniently) cryogenically stored somewhere in Florida. One other thing-- the ghosts that really are dead want Sophia to help them destroy the human race, so in addition to dodging Hunters all over America she also has to avoid being a pawn in a plot to rule the world.

Certainly sounds like a handful! I'm going to be experimenting with world building (something I've never done before) in order to create a futuristic setting. :P

Mock first page!

---

Okay, I'll admit, it was really stupid thinking the spell book was fake. What did I expect? That the lady selling the book was so desperate to get rid of it because it looked like it'd been throught he washer too many times, and not because it was magically enchanted hundreds of yeards ago? "It's cursed" is kind of a lame excuse not to buy the thing. Besides, it was summer. I was bored. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

I didn’t even realize I’d been asleep until I woke up—outside, no less. The first thing I noticed was the buildings. They were all round, for one thing, and really tall, which was nothing like the buildings in Seattle. These had really weird silver antennae reaching for the sky like the tip of the Space Needle, but they were on every building as far as I could see.

Sitting up proved harder than I thought. The world swam and my head felt light and airy. Was I dreaming? I sure hoped so. The last thing I remembered was reading that stupid spell from that stupid book, the unfamiliar words still burned in the back of my mind like those cliché echoing reminders you hear in the movies.

“Such a spirit proves cursed thee
                So spirited you soon shall be”

That’s not even good poetry. I sighed and stood, shivering even though the sun was out and shining.

The place was pleasant enough, I noticed as I took a better look around. There was a small, fenced park in front of me, complete with children climbing on the big toy like tiny, overeager monkeys. It took me a second to realize that everything was moving—the sidewalks, the fence around the park, the grass in the park, and the people of course. I wasn’t moving though, despite the ground underneath me sliding along like those moving walkways you find in airports. When I looked down to see why not, I could see my feet floating an inch or so above the ground.

Yep. I was definitely dreaming.

A lady walking her dog—well, not really walking, but you get the point—looked up at me and gasped, obnoxiously red eyebrows shooting up almost comically. I lifted a hand to wave at her, still not getting what was going on.

“Um, hi.”

She shrieked. Every head turned as she slid away from me, mouth wide open, hand still clutching the poor dog’s leash outstretched to point at me.

“Ghost!” she screamed. “There’s a ghost!”

Say what now? I felt like Scooby-Doo (“Rhost? Rhere?”), except I knew that she was talking about me. And as the rest of the people got a good look at me, they started screaming too.

Everyone started to scramble away from me as fast as their legs could carry them, completely ignoring the moving walkways to help them get along. Somewhere an alarm blared. I took a step back, utterly confused, before I realized that there was actually a light post behind me. I’d stepped right through it.

Holy crap, I really was a ghost!

--

BLOG CHAIN:

October 13^th – http://cinderscoria.blogspot.com – Between the Lines

October 14^th – http://weirdalocity.wordpress.com – Inside the Junk Door

October 15^th – http://musingsfromnevillesnavel.wordpress.com – Musings From Neville’s Navel

October 16^th – http://kirstenwrites.wordpress.com – Kirsten Writes!

October 17^th – http://mirrormadeofwords.wordpress.com – A Mirror Made of Words

October 18^th – http://theteenagewriter.wordpress.com – The Teenage Writer

October 19^th – http://platonicpencil.wordpress.com – Platonic Pencil

October 20^th – http://markobrienwrites.blogspot.com – Mark O’Brien Writes

October 21^st – http://amandafoody.blogspot.com – It’s All In My Head

October 22^nd – http://incessantdroningofaboredwriter.wordpress.com – The Incessant Droning of a Bored Writer

October 23^rd – http://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com - Teens Can Write, Too!

Meet My NaNo Characters! PART DOS

Hello hello! Welcome again to Part Two of Meet My NaNo Characters! We've already met the protagonist for Death and Other Things I Fail At-- now, let's meet the supporting character (and potential love interest?), Eli Kelinson!

PHOTO CREDIT: Johnny Pacar (Flight 29 Down)

http://www.teenidols4you.com/blink/Actors/johnny_pacar/johnny_pacar_1216865543.jpg

Eli: Sorry, love interest? Crikes, that'd be a nightmare. Sophia's about as lovely as a plasma gun.

Host: So, Eli! You're from the future? Tell the audience about that.

Eli: S'really not much to tell. We've got an EMF field lining the domes, so, you know, ghosts can't get in. Didn't stop Sophia, 'course. She a whole different sort of entity. Anyway, everything sort of mechanics now. Suppose you still use cell phones and cars. Sorry 'bout that. Don't know how you lot lived in the Y2Ks.

Host: That's... interesting. So, what are you and the protagonist up to these days? Any goals?

Eli: Oh, don't get me started on Sophia. She says, "Oh, we've got to get to my body! It's cryogenically stored in Florida! But first we've got to find a book that may have been destroyed decades ago so I can actually merge with it again!" If you ask me, this whole thing's a suicide mission. But when she took over, my dad was all sorts of convinced that I'd been turned evil or something, so it's not like I can go back home.

Host: Yes, that is fascinating. Oh! We've got a call from back home-- Lisa from New Jersey asks, "Are you a dog person or a cat person?"

Eli: What sort of question is that? I'm a person, person. Gene splicing is just a myth.
-SUBJECT JERKS-
Dogs! I love dogs!
-SUBJECT JERKS AGAIN-
Crikes! Sophia! I told you not to do that! It makes me feel like a girl!

Host: Heh. Well, thanks for the question, caller. One last thing: Are you nervous or excited about your upcoming adventures?

Eli: Erm, well, I'm on the run with a ghost. What's not to be excited about? I could die at every turn. No, I'm not nervous at all.

Host: That's all we have time for today! Thanks for hanging around, Eli. Listening and watchers and readers, stay tuned for our next guest-- the evil, the despicable, the utterly insane King Atticus!

Meet My Nano Charries!

Hold your applause, 'cause I know you're excited, but it's time to INTERVIEW MY NANOWRIMO CHARACTERS! That's right - I'm plucking questions straight from the NaNoWriMo preparation handbook to further explore three excellent characters: Sophia Parker, Eli Kelinson, and King Atticus. So without further ado, Getting to Know Your Characters, part... erm... Seventy-something!

(Please note that I paraphrased a lot of the handbook's questions. :P )

Title: Death and Other Things I Fail At
Summary: Sophia Parker does some dangerous things when she’s bored - things like, say, accidentally separating her soul from her body one summer day after reading from a book she shouldn’t have. Now she’s stuck fifty years in the future, where mankind has discovered that ghosts are real and “hunt” them for sport - Sophia included.

The good news: Her body was cryogenically stored all the way across the country, and if she can just make it there in one piece, she’ll be able to reenter it and prove that she’s actually alive to all the people trying to kill her.

The bad news: Her only companions are the grumpy son of the world’s best ghost hunter and a girl who would rather blast Sophia to smithereens than help her reach freedom.

 

Not to mention the ghosts who really are dead want Sophia to help them overthrow the human race and kill every hunter in existence. Staying alive just took on a whole new meaning.

MAIN CHARACTER: SOPHIA PARKER

PHOTO CREDIT: Caitlin Evanson (Taylor Swift's BAMF violinist, in case you were wondering)
http://theswiftagency.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/caitlin-elizabeth-evanson.jpeg

Host: Hello, Sophia, and welcome to the show! We're really excited to have you here today. Can you tell us a little about what is going on in your life right now?

Sophia: My life right now? Well, since I'm technically dead, my life has sucked lately. But, you know - stuck in the future as a disembodied consciousness with the whole of humanity deteremined to put me in a grave... there's never a dull moment.

Host: Wow! Sounds like you have a lot going on. Rumor has it, though, that someone is out to get you. We've heard you've been having some trouble with a villain. Cam you tell us what that villain is up to these days?

Sophia: Ha! Take your pick. Eli's dad wants to blow my head off for kidnapping his son. Z wants to wring my neck just because I don't currently have a body. And King Atticus the Homicidal Ghost wants to destroy the human race and isn't too happy that I'm opposed to the idea. Not a lot of people don't hate me right now.

Host: Oh, you poor thing. Do you at least have anyone helping you out throughout your adventure? A supporting character, perhaps? What has he or she been doing lately?

Sophia: Who, Eli? He's a giant pain in the backside. I only used his body once - now he's all indignant about a girl taking over and making hime "feminine and stuff." I guess he's my only friend, though. Z's just along to make sure I don't kill anyone while I'm trying to get Florida and find my cryogenically-stored body.

Host: You're lucky to have that person by your side. We've all been wondering, and we hope you'll tell the folks at home - would you rather be able to fly, or have the ability to become invisible, and why?

Sophia: That's a joke, right? I'm a ghost. I can do both.

Host: Look at the time! I'm afraid we're going to have to wrap this interview up. Thanks for talking to us, Sophia! Next up, folks, we're interviewing the big, the bad -

Sophia: The idiotic.

Host: The bravest amateur ghost hunter around: Eli Kelinson! Stay tuned for part 2 of this interview, up tomorrow!

Team Free Will

((SPOILERS AHEAD for Psych and Supernatural, and the crossover fanfiction "The Voice of Shawn" by Somilge

I've been thinking about this a lot lately in regards to my book, The Lucky One, which is still in editing and revising stages (and probably will continue to be until I can find the time to actually work on it again). Exactly how much of what we do is our own choice? I mean, Lucky was destined to be the first seraphim hybrid in existence, the only one with the luck hex, the only one with a preordained death date. He's one of a kind-- but is that because his already rare-blooded mother decided to fall in love with a demon, her sworn enemy? Did she know what she was getting into, that her son would be the one to fulfill a prophecy spoken long before she was even born?

And what about Lucky? He could decide to let the world hang and refuse to participate in the war, in which the Apocalypse, the height of the Great War, comes to pass. He could hunker down and hide, never to be seen again, regardless of his distinctive heritage and attraction of trouble. But he doesn't. He does the right thing... but what, in any case, is the right thing to do? And how do we know?

There are a couple of reasons this train of thought has been drilled into my head as of late. One, I just read Helen Boswell's Mythology (as seen in my previous post, a review of her amazing book). I like Hope, the protagonist, who adamantly stands by her non-belief in Fate. Even though it couldn't possibly be coincidental that someone like her could run into angels and demons after years of not coming into contact with them in the span of a week. At the same time, Micah displays extraordinary free will when he insists on loving Hope, rebuking the demon side of him and giving Fate the finger. So even though in this book, there is a ton of evidence that points to Hope's entire life being mapped out on parchment, there are also tons of instances in which Hope makes her own decisions.

I also just read an amazing crossover fanfiction (yes, I am a fanfiction author/reader in my downtime-- I am not ashamed) between Psych and Supernatural. It was mostly focused on the Supernatural side of things, set during the Apocalypse wherein Lucifer walks freely (sort of) and angels need Dean to say yes to becoming Michael's vessel so they could defeat Lucifer (whose vessel is, ironically, Dean's brother Sam). So yeah, where Shawn comes in (the MC of Psych, who is an immature man-child with an eidetic memory who solves mysteries while pretending to be psychic) the Voice of God Metatron needs a vessel and he needs Shawn to do it.

Shawn has a huge dilemma. If he says yes to being Metatron's vessel, Metatron could use him to find God (who mysteriously disappeared for the last two millenia), which may ultimately stop the Apocalypse from coming to pass while simultaneously dealing with the war between angels and demons and the sudden civil war between angels and angels all at once. That's the plus side. The downside is that once Metatron's done using his body as a meat suit, Shawn will be left as a brain-dead walking, drooling zombie-- that is to say, he'll be a vegetable, which is a suckish way to live (no offense to the incapacitated out there in the world).

If he says no, he'll get to keep his body and super sharp mind... but he'll have a target on his head for both angels and demons. And Shawn's only human. A brilliant human, but still. He'll only survive for so long, and he'll never be safe as long as he lives.

In the end, Shawn said no to Metatron.

This is kind of mind-boggling to me. Safety over freedom, right? Or maybe not. Maybe the reason that ultimately drives us to decide for ourselves is that people would rather be free than be a prisoner, even for a good cause. Selfish, maybe. But maybe that's what makes us human.

It's important for me to be thinking about these things if I'm going to be putting them into The Lucky One. Lucky's got a choice, too-- save the world, or save himself. Unlike Shawn, Lucky doesn't choose himself. But maybe the conditions are different. In the Supernatural world, angels are assholes. But to Lucky, they're just people. And people make mistakes.

What do you think? What would you choose? And do you believe in freedom or destiny? Or both?

Review: MYTHOLOGY

Hola, peoples! So I just finished my good friend Helen Boswell's MYTHOLOGY and it was soooo so so good. I suggest you buy it. It's on Amazon. Just click the little linky thing at the top where it says MYTHOLOGY and it'll take you straight there! :D

 

SUMMARY: Hope Gentry doesn’t believe in Fate. Born with an unusual power to see the dark memories of those around her, Hope just wants to be a normal teenager. But on the first day of her senior year of high school, she finds herself irresistibly drawn to a transfer student named Micah Condie. At first glance, Micah seems like a boy that most girls would dream about. But when Hope's powers allow her to discover Micah's darkest secret, she quickly becomes entangled in the lives of mythical entities she never dreamed existed. Was this her destiny all along? And will her powers help her survive the evil of the Demon Impiorum?

Mythology isn’t just for English class anymore.

...

So bear with me, as I've never done a book review before. :P It might turn out ridiculous and/or laughable. Feel free to tease me about it mercilessly.

MYTHOLOGY is about Hope Gentry, who can see everybody's darkest secrets. Yes, it's as bad as it sounds. How does she deal with it all? In reality, she sees people's souls-- everybody's except Micah's. Micah is a drop dead smexy new boy in Hope's English class. Oh yeah, and he's also a demon.

Helen and I both have angels and demons in our books, and that's not where the similarities end. From gray-eyed protagonists to the resistance of Fate and what it has in store for our heroes, I connected with Hope on a level I don't usually connect with other characters. It helps that she's spunky and blunt, full of personality that you don't see often in other books. MYTHOLOGY was different in a good way, twists and turns you didn't see coming that leaves you gripping the pages until the very end.

All in all, five stars! Now go out and buy it. :P

How did I do? Terrible? Awesome? Somewhere in between? Don't be shy-- I can take your teasings. :P I'm looking at you, Pinky.

This is Where the Title Goes

I love titles.

I love titles and summaries, to be exact. People allllways tell me: "Don't title or summarize your book before you write it!" But where's the fun in that? I mean, if you're good at it why wouldn't you make your title and pitch first? Because honestly, writing them makes me feel like it's already a book.

Titles are so hard to get right though. I mean, there are those that feel like they could change the world, those that are silly and let you know it'll be funny. Titles can portray what sort of book it will be-- scary or funny or inspiring or a combination of feelings. Titles stick with you, too. Like, am I ever going to forget "The Fault in Our Stars" or "If I Stay"? Will I forget "The Probability of Miracles" or "13 Reasons Why"? (Hint: This is a trick question.) Of course not! That's the point of a title-- fitting a book so you'll never forget it, even if you forget what actually happens in the book. God forbid.

It's very easy for me to come up with titles. I dunno why that is, but summarizing and titling come natural to me. When ideas pop into my head I need to put them down on paper (or in docs, as the case may be), and the words just kinda... write themselves.

Okay, that sounds silly, but I'm having a bit of a writer's block at the moment. Forgive this rambling post of randomness.

Back to relevance: It took me ETERNITY to come up with the title for Death and Other Things I Fail At. Seriously-- I was sitting in class one day and the title just popped into my head. And it was just perfect! Because it gives hints as to what the book's about-- a girl who dies, but sort of doesn't at the same time-- and it's ironic, since technically she did die, but since she didn't apparently she fails at death. Not to mention it's humorous, and it shows that the MC is a teenager (because what adult would say "Yeah, I fail at dying"?), and female for that matter.

Oddly enough, that title came after I came up with the idea for the book. It's usually the other way around. I wrote a sonnet once for school with the lines: "Rage to blood on pearl and lace/Way to kill the human race", which then spurred this crazy book plot about a girl who grew up after zombies had more or less taken over the world and was used to them. So really, the title came first with Way to Kill, as well as Oops.

The Lucky One was a little tricky. At first it was called Harm's Way, and it was actually about a man whose knack for almost dying on a daily basis was softened by the fact that a guardian angel always saves him-- a mysterious woman who shows up, stops whatever it is trying to kill him, and then disappears without a trace. I'm not sure how that plot evolved to the point of going from Adult Thriller to YA Urban Fantasy/Supernatural, or that it needed a completely new title, but it did. I'm saving Harm's Way for when I actually am an adult and can understand how adult stuff works. :P

Of course, changing the title to The Lucky One was fine up until I learned there already was a book by the same name, written by Nicholas Sparks, no less. And then it was made into a movie. Yeah, I'm still a bit bitter about that. What can I say? I feel slightly cheated. That almost forced me into changing TLO back into HW, but I decided it wasn't worth it. Harm's Way is a future project, and The Lucky One fit.

I like titling things, complicated or not. Titles give a book purpose, make it memorable. And summaries, well-- they keep my ideas together. I dunno why they come so naturally to me. They just do. :P

What about you guys? What are some of your favorite titles? Have issues creating pitches and summaries?

Hello Again!

What's uuuup? I decided to do the Gear Up to Get an Agent Blogfest (SEPTEMBER 12th!), which means it's Meet and Greet time! Feel free to drop a comment, ask a question, etc. I am here to introduce myself to you!

So, the rundown on yours truly: I am a sixteen-year-old Seattlite who dreams of someday juggling singing, writing, acting, and spreading the love to the far recesses of the globe! I'm a Leo and quite talkative, I've got about a billion really good friends (most of which are fictional and/or on the internet) and I like to think of myself as outgoing. :P Right, and I like smileys. And sarcasm. And languages (I am (almost) qua-lingual)! I am a writer first and foremost, a crazy teenager second. :)

RIGHT, so, on to the questions! Getting to Know You, part... uh... lost count.

-Where do you write? Anywhere I can. Usually wherever the computer is, which, at any given moment, could be in the dining room or the couch or my room. It changes hands a lot.

-Quick. Go to your writing space, sit down and look to your left. What is the first thing you see? THE KITCHEN! Yeah, I'm on the couch right now. It's very comfortable.

-Favorite time to write? Any time I can write. Usually in the wee hours of the morning when my wonderful insomnia kicks up and my mom's not downstairs to yell at me.

-Drink of choice while writing? Orange soda of any kind. I channel my inner Hardison. (And Spinelli... what is it with hackers and orange soda?)

-When writing, do you listen to music or do you need complete silence? Depends. Like, usually I'll turn on Pandora, and then I get distracted, but then it'll play in the background and I'll just zone out writing. So yeah, depends.

-What was your inspiration for your latest manuscript and where did you find it? Well, my latest manuscript is Way to Kill, which is my 2012 NaNovel. And you're going to think I'm crazy, but I got the idea from the cover I made for it. I have this thing where I find pretty pictures on Google and I want to edit them to make book covers. It turned out that way by total accident, but it looked sooo cool and I suddenly realized that I wanted to write a zombie novel. Not to mention, Riley is a character I usually fall back on for writing exercises, and I was excited to find something that fit her personality.

-What's your most valuable writing tip? Write whenever you can. Procrastination is a writer's greatest weakness-- once it gets going there's no way you'll get something done! WRITE! Even if it's crap, write!

SO, that's me! Nice to meetcha!

Flameheads

Yes, I realize that it's Friday and I missed Writing Wednesdays again. I APOLOGIZE OKAY. I WAS SICK. *sticks tongue out* Oh, wait, there's a smiley for that...

Anywho, I have another blog post for yooou! I was talking to my friend Annika (TWO 'N'S OKAY PINKY I DID IT THIS TIME) about how incredibly underloved pyrokinetics are. Seriously, think about it. There are, like, none in canon fiction. And when there are, they're, like, evil and stuff. Fire is not evil, okay? It represents hope and fierceness! At least, it did in Lord of the Flies. Not that anybody wants to revisit that book...

Right, so, I've decided to list my favorite pyrokinetics! Oh, by the way, pyrokinetics are wonderful people who can control fire with their minds. (And it's PYROKINETIC, not TELEPYRIC. I mean, I bet they're both right, but pyrokinetic sounds cooler.) There are some limitations considering-- some can only control it when a flame is present, some can only go for a short amount of time, some can use their hands and others can light separate things or places on fire-- but they all have it to some extent. By the way, there may be some spoilers if you haven't read the books or seen the show of those characters I'm about to list, so... don't blame me if you're spoiled and you don't like it. xD My top five, in no particular order, are:

Philip "Torchie" Grieg:

 Hidden Talents/True Talents

 

So I don't know if I ever told you, but I'm a sucker for those "innocent-as-a-puppy" guys. They're just soooo cute, and Torchie is no exception! Actually, he's one of my favorites, because his power is so friggin' destructive but he wouldn't hurt a fly. You might not know him-- he's from a two-book series about supernatural kids that I stumbled across in middle school. One of my favorites. You should check it out, forseriously!

Zuko:

Avatar: The Last Airbender

 

Come on now, you know this one. Zuko's the exiled prince of the Fire Nation, which means he's got BAMF firebending skills. I love Zuko so much because you could always tell he had a soft side, and when he joined Aang and the others I was like, "YES I KNEW YOU WEREN'T EVIL!" So that made me happy. 'Course, dude's got an attitude problem but that doesn't necessarily mean he's evil, right? Plus it helps that he's cute. (I think him and Katara made a better couple than Katara and Aang, but whatever, to each his own).

 

Leo Valdez:

Heroes of Olympus

 

Another famous pyrokinetic, although he's a bit underloved in the series. I love Leo so much because for one thing, controlling fire is rare and dangerous and that singles Leo out for being special (not that he wasn't already being Sammy Valdez's great-times-whatever relative and the spitting image of Hazel's old boyfriend). Also, he's Latino. And he's trilingual. Well... is Morse Code a language? You get what I mean. He's a runner (one of my favorite types of characters) and ADHD (I find it more prominent in him... and cuter) and is freaking hilarious. I seriously love him. He's one of my favorite fictional characters of all time.

 

Phoenix:
Gifted

 

You don't know her, because the book hasn't been published (yet), but this chick is the ultimate back-talking, baddie-taunting, sweet-and-sour Australian queen of battle humor. Her pyrokinetic powers are a bit different than others'-- like, her skin burns you, for one thing. Poor girl's always gotta wear gloves. But she's funny, wicked awesome in a fight, and is about as talkative as a jackrabbit. Definitely one of my favorites. (Also created by my friend Elyse, so no stealing (not that I would think you guys would haha)).

 

Lucky Freeman:
The Lucky One

 

Oh come on, how can I not include my own pyrokinetic? Lucky's a seraphim, an angel with amazing flame-controlling powers! 'Course, that makes for a really inconvenient disability when Lucky gets angry, or excited, or basically any other extreme emotion, 'cause then his hands spontaneously combust and he has a hard time explaining it to regular mortals such as ourselves (although I would totally understand).

 

So there you have it: my favorite fictional pyrokinetics. There may be more (I didn't really look anybody up). Who are your favorites? Anyone I missed?

What's in a Name?

So I was gonna totally rant about how underloved pyrokinetics are (as my friend Annika pointed out, they all seem to be evil) but then I had this very nice Twitter conversation with this lady whom I don't know about names. Names are very hard to get down in a character. They've got to be perfect. Names practically define their character and personality! The ambience in the room changes when people look to that character.

I've seen plenty of common names. Just look at the Top 100 Names for Girls (and Boys, for that matter) as seen HERE and HERE. See how Sophia is at the top for girls? Now look at my MC for Death and Other Things I Fail At.

Oh, look at that. It's Sophia.

I swear I didn't mean to do that.

My point is not to go out of your way giving unique names to your characters. I mean, if the time period calls for it I doubt you'd name a 1820's Englishman Jay Javelpin. Well, you could, but it would be odd. My point is to name the character what seems to fit best for them. Sophia, to me, means bubbly and excitable, while at the same time curious and intelligent. The actual meaning of the name is wisdom, although I don't go basing my characters soley on the meaning of their name (like my own name, Jasmine, which means absolutely nothing).

I guess it's partially why naming characters is so hard. Authors are so concerned about not having the same name as everybody else ('cause honestly, who else is going to name their character Percy after Rick Riordan made him famous?) that they go out of their way to think up a name that'll fit. I'm guilty of it, I admit, but naming was always more about the personality of the character than trying to be original. Take the nameless little girl in Way to Kill. Yeah, I still haven't found a name for her yet. She's mute and never talks, she has wicked skills with knives, she's only twelve years old and she's Native American. What I want to call her is Jasmine, but that's my name. So even though Jasmine fits, I have reservations naming her that, because then won't people think I'm conceited to call a character my own name?

(Not that that stopped Jay Clark, but still).

So anyway, I don't know what I'll do. I just wanted to point out that having unique names isn't everything to the plot of the book. Nor is basing your character's personality on the unique names you picked. It's kind of a meet-in-the-middle sort of thing, you know? Names need to fit the personality, the ethnicity, the mood of the novel. Names are important, you know. They're what sets the groundwork for the characters to become famous someday. They become synonyms for great (or terrible) books-- like Percy, Cullen, Jace, Katniss. Those names we'll remember... and not just because they're unique.

Thoughts? What are some names you like to use? What are some names you see often?

Heroic Much?

Mkay, so I seem to have this annoying habit of making my male MCs heroic. I mean, in Oops Rocky got kidnapped by a "crazy homicidal kidnapped chick" (his words, not mine... well, they are mine, but you get the picture) and yet once he found out that she was only trying to keep her brother from being killed he immediately offered to help. Like, seriously?

And in The Lucky One, Lucky's pyrokinetic and half angel, half demon with a human heart. He's like the whole friggin' package. Understanding, gentle, fierce when he has to be, and freaking hilarious in battle.

Even the characters who aren't the protagonist get heroic tendancies. Aidan, in Way to Kill, is a self-sacrificing Slayer who is seriously drool-worthy. And Eli in Death and Other Things I Fail At stands up to his father and the rest of society to defend Sophia.

They're all so... perfect! *pulls hair out* Did you know that when we did Character Superlatives in NaNoWriMo's YWP forums, Lucky won five awards? Funniest, Wittiest, Most Charming, Most Accident-Prone (yeah, okay, this is true), and Best Character Overall. That's ignoring the Best Couple catagory (Jasmine and Lucky won that, from SHIFT) and the catagories he got second place in (Most Likeable and Most Unique).

... This sounds a lot like bragging, but really, I'm appalled.

I didn't mean to make him so perfect. :P

'Cause seriously, are guys like that in real life? I wouldn't know. I've never actually really held a conversation with one, soooo... I'm basing all my male characters on idealistic boyfriends? Wouldn't be the first time an author did that, I don't think (Jace. Enough said).

Anywho, yeah, it's not so bad. Boys are so hard to get down. Tips would be great. ;D

Brotherly Love

Whoo! Last two weeks have been BEYOND busy! Sorry for poofing on your guys. However, I am back with a writing-related post on-- you guessed it-- bromance! I absolutely love bromance. There's something about affection between guys that makes a girl's heart melt.

So, what is bromance? It's not a slash pairing! Bromance is strictly brotherly friendship between male characters. There are quite a few types:

Tolerance: My personal favorite. Character A is the big, brooding bad boy, while Character B is annoying/funny/idiotic best friend that grows on Character A, even after being shoved away many a time. Ex: Jason and Spinelli (General Hospital), Dillon and Ziggy (Power Rangers RPM), Lightning and Mater (Cars).

Bickering: My very very very close second favorite. In which Character A and Character B apparently hate each other's guts, but over a period of time come to rely on their constant gripes at each other until it's so natural they don't even realize they're friends. Ex: Tony and Clint (Avengers), Merlin and Arthur (Merlin), Shawn and Gus and Lassiter (Psych), Wes and Travis (Common Law), Tony and McGee (NCIS) ... too many to count.

Mentor/Sidekick: Similar to Tolerance, I should think, in most reluctant mentor/sidekick partnerships. But the real friendship we see is when the mentor finally admits he cares about his protege. Ex: Anakin and Obi-Wan (Star Wars), Bruce Wayne and any of the Robins (Batman), Kyrian and Nick (Chronicles of Nick).

Big Brother/Little Brother: The one in which one feels responsible for the other one. Ex: Jack and Daniel (Stargate SG-1), Morgan and Reid (Criminal Minds), Castiel and Dean (Supernatural).

Rivalry: What's bromance without constant competition? Ex: Han and Luke (Star Wars), Legolas and Gimli (Lord of the Rings), Steve and Dano (Hawaii Five-O).

Besties Since Birth: Okay, maybe not birth, but since childhood? Few things could cement a bond so strong. Ex: Chuck and Morgan (Chuck), Kendall, Logan, James and Carlos (Big Time Rush), Shawn and Gus (Psych)

Partners: Oh, you know this one-- in practically every cop show there's some bromance between partners, am I right? Ex: Sam and Callen (NCIS: LA), Lee and Carter (Rush Hour), John and Sherlock (Sherlock), Ryan and Esposito (Castle).

Unwaveringly Loyal: Those who stick by your side no matter what the cost, no matter what fights you've ever had, no matter how bad you've treated them. Ex: Sam and Frodo (Lord of the Rings), Jason and Sonny (General Hospital), Hiccup and Toothless (How to Train Your Dragon).

So as you can see, the list is pretty much limitless. There are people who fall into mulitple catagories (I didn't add Sam and Dean, and Frank and Joe, because they're actually brothers and I don't think that counts :P ) but there were far too many to mention. Believe me, I would if I could've!

I like bromance because it shows a guy's vulnerable side. It's kind of gratifying to know they have a heart, isn't it? There is truly nothing better. ^_^

Honorable mentions:

• Timon and Pumba (The Lion King)
• Han and Chewie (Star Wars)
• Shaggy and Scooby (Scooby-Doo)

Have a favorite bromance type? In books, TV, or in a movie? Tell me! I'd love to hear your opinions. :)

Sweet Sixteen

That's right.

It's my birthday.

I'm sixteen.

You guys can party now.

Okay, seriously, today's my sweet sixteen! AND it's a Wednesday! So I guess you can guess what comes next right? A BIRTHDAY themed Writing Wednesday! \o/ Let's get this party started!

The prompt comes from the first line in Chapter One in my novel, The Lucky One: My sweet sixteen started off okay and went downhill from there.

Here we go!

...

My sweet sixteen started off okay and went downhill from there.

For one thing, it was sunny. Despite the fact that it was just kicking off the month of August, there is rarely any sun anywhere within a 500 mile radius of the city of Seattle. Most people may take that as a good sign, but in reality, it made me nervous.

I woke up early. The night before had been difficult-- not only was there a full moon out (I don't really sleep during full moons, for some strange reason), but I was way too excited about turning sixteen. That said, it really wasn't that surprising that the time was just barely past seven in the morning as I peered through bleary eyes at my clock.

Should I get up? I listened carefully, hoping for any noise that would indicate my parents were already awake (and hopefully setting up a surprise birthday party for me). Only silence reached my sensitive ears.

I sighed. There was no way I was getting back to sleep, but I did not want to get up now. It was way too early, and everybody was probably already asleep.

My stomach growled. That settled it, then. I had to get something to eat, or it would drive me crazy. With a huff I threw the covers off of me and climbed out of bed.

As I opened my door I noticed three things.

The first was that Mom's bedroom door was open, and the bed was empty. So was my brother's to the right of my room. And although I couldn't see into the bedrooms of my two toddler sisters from here, I could tell by the lack of noise that their rooms were vacant, too.

Second, the hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up, my eyes widening, an odd fight-or-flight reaction I was unused to having as I looked around the house. Everything, from the bookcase to my right to the staircase railing, had been broken, strewn about, or shredded. My house looked like Wolverine had taken a buzzsaw and hacked everything to pieces.

And the last was that my cat, Stallworth (who is actually a girl but named after a boy), was sitting patiently at the foot of the staircase peering up at me with wide yellow eyes.

I suddenly decided that this was not going to be the best birthday ever like I'd originally thought.

Once Upon a Time

I hate beginnings.

Mostly because I suck at them.

You guys think ending something's difficult? How do you even start? Do you begin in the middle and backtrack, like I did in Oops? Do you start with a flashback, before the protagonist is even old enough to understand what is happening, like I wrote in The Lucky One? Or do you just jump in, like so in Death and Other Things I Fail At?

Admittedly, I've never really had an issue with something like how to kick off a story until I joined this contest that asked me for the first 100 words of my book. I seriously obsessed and edited and rewrote every sentence to make it all fit, and even then I wasn't satisfied. How do you make a good first impression in only the first 100 words of a novel? So sue me, but I hate word limits. It adds extra pressure, and I like to take my time with my hooks.

Speaking of, I love writing lead-ins and hooks when it comes to persuasive and expository essays (like in school), but it's a whole 'note ballpark with narrative writing. It's hard to be creative when there are catagories you can choose from to make the beginning more interesting. Start with a bang, or come in slow, mysterious? The possibilities are endless, really, so how do you know when to choose?

I don't have a preference. Depending on the genre I'm writing in, I'll go all over the place with my lead-ins. What about you guys? How do you usually kick off your novels?

That Wednesday Thing

Whoops, forgot to tell you guys I'm alive! Well, ta-da, I survived the movie experience (although I'm not sure if I really did-- I just about died three dozen times throughout). And now it's Wednesday-- writing day!

This theme is from last week because it's the only one that caught my eye, haha. It's technically the bonus, because the other one was a bit long, but anyway, here we go!

"Write a scene in which two characters with the same name, but very different personalities, interact."

...

 

Sam didn't think much of her name. It was short for Samantha, which is the girl version of Samuel, which she knew but didn't usually dwell on. Today, however, she'd been giving it a lot of thought. If her name hadn't been shortened to Sam, and her last name hadn't been Krypt, she probably wouldn't be in this mess.

So in actuality it was all her parents' fault.

"Oh, it's alright, don't try to help or anything," the boy next to her grunted, tugging against the chains binding his wrists.

"I'm thinking," Sam said calmly.

"How can you not be freaking out? Aren't you a girl?"

Sam felt a stir of annoyance at his claim and turned her head to give him a reproachful glare over her shoulder. "Seeing as we are both handcuffed to each other thought not in any immediate danger the situation calls for planning on how to get out of here. Which is what I'm doing."

The American-- she could tell by his lack of patience and his accent-- huffed and jerked his hands apart as if that would make the chain snap by force. It didn't.

Eventually he gave up, sighing heavily and leaning back against her. Sam took the silence to survey the dark room they were in. She didn't remember ever falling asleep but she'd woken here, cuffed to this annoying, haughty teenager her own age. The room was made of stone as far as she could see and it took some time for her eyes to adjust. At her back the boy shifted and continued to twist his wrists as if he couldn't bear to sit still.

"So," he said into the silence, sounding slightly awkward. "Do you know why we're here?"

"Because my name is Sam," Sam muttered under her breath.

The boy caught it. "Really? So's mine. Sam Crypt."

Sam rolled her eyes. "I figured. The man who grabbed me told me they'd finally found me. Sam Krypt. With a 'k'."

"Seriously?" The other Sam sounded surprised. "They went all the way to England to nab you?"

She let out a growl deep in her throat. "I'm Welsh."

"Sorry," Sam huffed behind her. "I didn't realize there was a distinction."

"Of course there is, you stupid Yank." Sam blew her blonde bangs out of her eyes, mostly in annoyance. "That's like calling you Canadian."

"Oh."

Sam longed for him to shut his mouth and help her think of a way out of here, but the boy seemed set on talking her ear off.

"So they went to Welsh--"

"Wales."

"Right, that. They went to Wales to grab you?"

Sam sighed. "I'm in America to visit my aunt."

"Oh."

He was incredibly talkative. Sam longed for him to shut up.

Everybody's Got a Dark Side

So did you hear about the shooting in Colorado? At the Dark Knight Rises midnight premire? Who hasn't, right?

I'm going to see that stupid movie in a few minutes.

Yay. (/sarcasm)

Nah, I'm kidding. I doubt anything'll happen, but it just adds extra tension, doesn't it? I gotta say, as horrified as I am at what that psycho did (he called himself "The Joker"? Really?), the author in me is freaking out. It's totally something from out of a James Patterson novel! The guy just LET himself get arrested by the cops after shooting a bunch of people and flooding the theatre with tear gas? Doesn't that raise a huge red flag in your brain? I mean, he must've been planning something like that for a long time. It went off, if you were that crazy guy, without a hitch. Then he lets himself get caught. Can anybody else hear the warning bells?

I dunno, I just feel like, if he were a character in my book, there would be something else going on. Some other part of his plan that hasn't been put into effect yet. Which is why I'm so nervous about going tonight. Who knows how many other crazy people were inspired by The Joker's massacre?

So if I don't post in, I dunno, the next week or so, assume I've been shot. :P Okay, kidding-- there might not be anything happening tonight. Maybe I can just enjoy the movie and forget about The Joker.

Still.

HEY LOOK IT'S WEDNESDAY!

I'm on a roll with this keeping-up-with-Wednesday-Writings thing. ^_~

Today's prompt was courtesy of Figment's Daily Themes (as usual): "Look through your writing from the past week/month/year. Choose one of your favorite lines--something that really excites you, makes you curious, or is just so freaking good you can't believe you wrote it. Now begin an entirely new story (new characters, new plot, new setting) with that line."

A bit of langauge warning... I just read James Patterson, and I'm feeling like writing a thriller. xD So! Here we go?

...

Why'd he have to be so damn good?

Ivy groaned out loud. "This is why I partner with other girls." She yanked the steering wheel to the left, swerving across both lanes to land herself behind the target-- currently a wildly swerving car. She could see the alarmed eyes of the ex-Mossad agent in shotgun seat widening as they focused on her in the sideview mirror. Just to tick him off, Ivy took one hand off the wheel to flash him a tiny wave.

Even from here she could hear him yelling at the driver to go faster. Ivy snorted and shifted gears. "In a Jeep? I don't think so."

This, she figured, was all Wash's fault. Her new partner Travis Wash was reckless, sexist, and annoying as hell. And self-sacrificing, as she found out when he offered himself as a trade for their mission objective, the twelve-year-old Chinese girl currently sitting in the back of Ivy's Crown Victoria. That was fine and dandy, except he'd done so without Ivy's knowledge. So now Ivy had a preteen to babysit and a partner to save-- and she wasn't sure which job she hated more. Being easy on the eyes only got you so far with Ivy's fiery attitude.

"You okay?" she yelled back to Jade Cheng, daughter of Chinese-United States government liason Jian Cheng. American born, the girl flashed her a grin and a thumbs up as she fixed her crooked iPod earphones in her ears.

Ivy grinned at her spunk. Nice to know she didn't have to worry about the poor girl's sanity after this whole thing was over.

"You better hold on to something," she said as she slammed the gas pedal to the floor. Jade probably couldn't hear her through those headphones, but she got the gist, grabbing the handhold at the ceiling of the car to keep from falling over. Car horns honked at her and Ivy ignored them, coming up so fast on the Jeep she had to slow down before she went from tailgating them to being bumper buddies with them.

She barely remember to throw on her turn signal before she pulled into the lane beside the Jeep, speeding so she came along side it. The ex-Mossad agent pulled a gun and Ivy braked. The three bullets sped past her face. Ivy pulled her own gun.

"Head down!" she commanded at Jade, who obeyed.

Ivy steadied the wheel with her left hand and aimed with her right, barely blinking as she sent a shot into the Israeli's forehead. He slumped forward, giving her a look at the driver.

"CIA!" she shouted at him, trying to point the gun and drive at the same time. "Pull the vehicle over now and put your hands up!"

That never worked. Sure enough, the driver sneered at her and the Jeep pulled away for a second. They were approaching ninety miles per hour. Ivy didn't think a Jeep could go that fast-- and if one did, it probably wouldn't be for long.

"Hope you've got your seatbelt on, kid," she muttered aloud. Ivy pushed the toe of her combat boots further to the floor, the car responding beautifully like every CIA-issued vehicle. Shooting the driver would probably not be smart-- not if Wash were in there. So Ivy squinted, focused on the Jeep's tires, and fired.

Pop!

With the slightest hiss, the Jeep's front tire exploded and it swerved to the right, straight into Ivy's lane. Ivy braked and the Jeep missed them by a foot and a half, screeching across the second lane before careening to a stop in the middle of the third lane. Car horns honked, tires screeched, and Ivy watched in amusement as people fought to avoid hitting it.

She stopped her own car without much trouble, grabbed Jade's hand, and pulled her out of the Crown Vic.

"You know how to just stand there and look pretty, right?" she warned. "Don't do anything."

"No big," Jade said, popping the bubble gum in her mouth. Ivy shook her head. It was a wonder she didn't bite her tongue during that chase.

"CIA!" she shouted, approaching the Jeep. "Come out! Hands up!"

"It's alright, English, I got him." Wash's voice sounded tired, but no less annoying. He kicked, and the back door to the car popped open.

Ivy holstered her weapon and gave him a hand out.

"What took you so long?" he asked, grinning.

"I'm here, aren't I?"

"Yeah, but you're late."

Ivy rolled her eyes and turned back to Jade. "Alright then, next time I'll leave you in the trunk and you can go have fun being interrogated by ex-Mossad."

An Amazing Award of Amazeballness!

OOOH LOOKIE ANOTHER AWARD. *claps excitedly* I like these thingies! They're fun. :P This was one made by my friend NevilleFan! \o/ *CRACKS KNUCKLES* Mmkay, let's do this thing. :P

GETTING TO KNOW YOU, PART EIGHTY-THREE.

Rules

1. You must link to the blog you received the award from.
2. You must answer all the questions.
3. You must pass it onto at least one other Amazeballs Blogger, the more the merrier.
4. You must remember to tell the recipients that you nominated them!!! Whether by commenting on their blogs, PMing them if you know them on a different site, etc. Those’re the rules!!!
5. You must be amazeballs!!!

Questions

1. What are you favorite song lyrics? Uh. It's kind of tied between a bunch of stuff. *points at Song of the Day box* Currently I'm going back to Some Hearts by Carrie Underwood:
   "Some hearts just get lucky sometimes
   Even hearts like mine"
2. What is your favorite book/book series? *broods* I can't believe you would ask me that... It's seriously a three way tie. The Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan/Chronicles of Nick series by Sherrilyn Kenyon/The Hardy Boys series by Franklin W. Dixon
3. What is your favorite movie/TV series? Lots of things. NCIS, Psych, Supernatural, Doctor Who, Sherlock, Merlin, Big Time Rush, My Babysitter's a Vampire, Covert Affairs, White Collar, Common Law... etc. :P
4. Who inspires you? Lots of people. Kendall Schmidt at the moment because of his song Cover Girl. I'm an inspirational person, so... pretty much every country singer in existence, Frankie J, my favorite authors, and other things. :)
5. What is your dream job? To somehow juggle being a (preferably famous) singer, actress, philantropist, and author. *scratches head* Who knows, it could be done!

Recipients

1. Annika at Writing Beyond the Moon
2. Taylor Lynn at Perfectly Sensible Nonsense
3. Jocelyn at The Cupcake Dictionary

Suck it up, you're all made of epic win (AKA Amazeballs). xD

Writing Wednesdays

Whoot! It's Wednesday and I'm not actually missing Writing Wednesdays again! \o/ You guys should be proud of me. :P

So I've decided a good way to not completely fail on ideas for short stories is to use this wonderful website called Figment-- or rather, their wonderful Daily Themes. These are prompts to get the creative juices flowing, which is good because I've been itching to write something for a while now and I just can't get past that stupid wall blocking my way.

Anywho, today's Daily Theme is: "Ping! Bam! Pow! Splat! Choose two of the most evocative onomatopoeic words you can thing of. Now write a story that begins with one and ends with the other."

Here goes nothing!

---

Shrieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

The screeching assaulted Mallory's ears as she scrambled for a handhold. The train's glistening metal exterior was scalding to the touch due to its many hours trapped in the summer sun, but Mal barely noticed, her fingers clutching onto the railing at the roof of the train for dear life.

Down below Aidan climbed the ladder with ease, his obnoxiously blue eyes gazing up at her. "Hurry!" he said urgently.

Mallory wanted to snap at him, or maybe stomp on his fingers, but even from here she could hear the bounty hunter's heavy bootfall as he ran from the front of the car to the back. She gulped and followed Aidan's advice, shooting the rest of the way up the ladder and onto the train's roof.

The train's wheels moaned again as it started to creep forward. Mal lurched as the car did, but Aidan caught her by the shoulders as he appeared by her side. He pointed down to the locomotive at the front and yelled something she couldn't make out.

"What?" she yelled back.

Aidan grabbed pointed again, put his mouth right next to her ear, and shouted, "We have to warn the conductor!"

Oh. She knew that.

Mal took a step and almost fell off the train. It was picking up speed, and with the speed came difficulty to hold on. What was she doing up here? This was crazy! Aidan noticed her hesitation and grabbed her hand. Any other time she would've pulled away, or smacked him-- probably both. But his support allowed her to take another step, and another.

Ping!

Something slammed into the roof next to Mal's foot. She yelped and jumped, clutching at Aidan's hand. He looked back, then turned forward, grim-faced. Mal went to look at what he looked at, but Aidan shook his head.

"Keep moving!" he said in her ear, pointing again to make sure she understood. "Don't stop!"

"What are you going to do?" Mallory asked him, but Aidan was already turning, not hearing her. As Mal looked back again, she saw the bounty hunter, a black, glistening pistol in hand. The good news was that it looked like he was having a hard time holding it, let alone aiming it. The bad news was that Aidan was headed straight for him.

Why did guys have to be so stupidly heroic? Mallory felt trapped. Should she help Aidan? Or tell the conductor that the train was under attack?

She rolled her eyes skyward, mouthing a silent prayer for Aidan's health, and started again for the front of the train.

Ping!

"Jasmine" is a Hooker Name

FIRST OF ALL, I wanna thank you guys who followed me! I'm at 10 followers... which is crazy... Because I totally didn't expect people to actually read my little ramblings. So thank you. *beams* I've made a pact to hopefully make my blog a little more writing-like and hopefully a little more entertaining for people to read. :P

Speaking of, I had an epiphany a few days ago. I read the amazing book, The Probability of Miracles by Wendy Wunder, and was inspired to write something inspiring. Or rather, I want other people to feel the way I felt reading that book, reading my book. But I couldn't figure out what to write to make it not so depressing.

So I came up with a few ideas. (I know people say not to write summaries until after the book is written, but I happen to love writing summaries, so there. :P )

Jasmine is a Hooker Name:
People always write their autobiographies when they're at least in their thirties and honestly, how are you supposed to remember what it was like to be young when you're that age? So this is my life, as told from a teen's point of view, at that moment in life where everything is either going better than you'd hoped or falling apart-- depending on the weekday. Life is a constant roller coaster, and when you're fifteen you seem to finally understand that not everything's perfect. Not even you.

When You're Older:
Kelly Ross makes the discovery of a lifetime-- a letter she wrote to her future self when she was a teenager, reminding herself of all the things a parent should and should not do, all the things to keep in mind even as an adult, and all the things she should hope to understand when she's older. People change the older they get, but it's being young at heart that makes the difference in how to live your life.

Confessions of a Compulsive Liar:
Ivy English is a compulsive liar.

(No, really.)

She's pretty good at it, too, until she gets caught one time too many and is sent away to attend a rehabilitation camp for compulsive liars. There she meets Jay, a Latino who secretly drag races motorcycles; Amber, who can talk her way out of anything; and Parker, the camp's overly helpful director who is more than he appears. They all seem like perfectly nice people-- except the fact that they're all skin deep in a lie they can't escape.

And if Ivy wants to help them, she has to first figure out how to pull down the walls she built and quit lying, to both herself and everyone else.

Happy Enough:
Music was Cammie Banes' life, until a disease ripped through her and stole her voice. After two years of chronic depression a change of scenery is in order, and Cammie is moved all the way across the country to sunny Miami, Florida.

Cammie doesn't think life could get any worse-- that is, until she meets Gino Santos. Gino might just be the happiest boy alive, and Cammie would know. He plays his guitar on the street corner outside of her apartment every morning.

Gino doesn't understand why Cammie doesn't like him, and Cammie doesn't understand how he could stay so happy while life takes you for a tailspin. But there are things about Gino Santos even she doesn't know, things that could change her perspective for the better.

Perfectly Kissable:
Lani Long lands the lead role of a lifetime in her school's play. Unfortunately, it requires her to kiss the male protagonist.

The only problem? Lani's never been kissed.

Maybe to other people it wouldn't be such a big deal, but Lani wants her first kiss to mean something. It has to be in the perfect spot, at the perfect time, with the perfect guy. With only three months left until opening night, Lani needs to find and fall in love with a boy to have her first kiss with before she can smooch the actor playing her love interest, which is easier said than done. Love has a funny way of reminding you what's more important-- the perfect kiss, or the perfect moment to have it.

---

So those are a few running through my brain. I might combine a few into one... maybe. Although I would love your input! Which one would you guys read?

Breaking Hearts

Hehe I am soooo not a romance person... Despite this, my writing always seems to have a sprinkling of romance in it. What can I say? I'm a fan of the guy getting the girl. So I decided I haven't written any posts that have specifically to do with writing, so this is me. Doing that.
Right. On with it.

PHOTO CREDIT: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bb/Broken_heart.svg/220px-Broken_heart.svg.png

My favorite romantic archetype is the love-hate relationship. I know, it's horribly cliche, but when done right it's simply adorable! And by "done right" I mean not having a "boy meets girl, girl hates boy, something happens and then they make out" plotline. C'mon, people, when does anything work like that?

I like twisting cliches. In my book Oops, Maya kidnaps Rocky, so naturally they should hate each other. But after the many times Maya saves Rocky's life, he falls for her hard. It's Maya who has a hard time admitting her feelings about Rocky. See-- a love-hate relationship! A fun one, if you're asking me!
In Death and Other Things I Fail At, Sophia and Eli have an awkward relationship-- she posesses him (literally) and he hates her for doing so. Not to mention, Eli likes Kari but she doesn't give him the time of day. It's another one of those love-hate relationships that sort of makes sense but doesn't at the same time. I like the idea that falling in love is a slow process, one that should last either the entire book or the entire series (like Maya and Rocky's relationship. Or Lucky and Ava's).

((SPOILER AHEAD FOR THE HUNGER GAMES SERIES))

It's probably one of the reasons I despised the Peeta/Katniss relationship. How many ups and downs can you have in one series? I mean, LITERAL ones? First she hated him and he loved her, then she pretended to like him and he still loved her, then he found out and hated her, then she had to pretend again, and then-- dude, my brain can only take so much.

((END SPOILER))

Like I said, I'm not a romantic expert. Never had a boyfriend, let alone a first date or breakup. Or a first kiss for that matter. But those are sentimental things to me, y'know? So love should be sentimental. It should mean something, not only be a plot device to move the story along.

What about you guys? Got any romantic preferences? Hit me up!

And the Award Goes To...

Wow, this is incredibly belated. MY APOLOGIES. I just now found out what a Blog Award is. Haha I feel like a total newbie. :P

Thank you to Hedgehogs, AKA NevilleFan (onedorkandablog.blogspot.com) for tagging me with this thing. I hope I don't completely embarrass myself attempting to answer these questions correctly, lol, because I can honestly say I have no clue what I'm doing!

*rubs hands together* Let's do this!

The Rules

1. This award is for book bloggers only. To receive this award the blog must be at least 50% about books. (Reading or writing is okay.)
2. Along with receiving this award, you must also share your top five favorite books you have ever read. (More than five is okay.)
3. You must give this award to 5-10 other lucky book blogs you adore.

FIVE FAVORITE BOOKS

1. The Chronicles of Nick series by Sherrilyn Kenyon
2. The Heroes of Olympus (Percy Jackson and the Olympians included) series by Rick Riordan
3. The Hardy Boys series by Franklin W. Dixon
4. The Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter
5. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

Yep. Teens put in weird situations in modern day time... that's me in a nutshell. Oh, and I also happen to like symbology professors whose knowledge gets them in trouble. *happy sigh*

Uh... I don't really follow a lot of blogs, so...

1. The Leaning Tower of Plot -- Charley Robson

2. Writing Beyond the Moon -- Annika

3. Further Up and Further In -- Kylie

4. This Page Left Intentionally Blank -- Liam

5. A Story of a Dreamer -- Amy

So there we have it! Wow. I actually made it through that unscathed. I FEEL ACCOMPLISHED.

---

And now for a blog-relevant post! I get to go mentor some middle schoolers on the art of novel writing.

The catch?

I have no idea what I'm dong.

OKAY, LIE, I have SOME idea. Maybe an inkling. I'm kind of nervous because, well, this program is five weeks long and I have to somehow get my charges to write and complete and edit an entire novel within that time period. It's like NaNoWriMo, except worse because I'm not actually the one writing. They are.

*headdesk* I feel like this is going to be a total disaster... I meet my middle schoolers today, so wish me luck. In my experience they're rowdy, crazy, mean (at times) and have a hard time paying attention to anything. Of course, it's a challenge, and I think we all know how much I like challenges.

So I made a game plan on what to work on when I meet my charges. I really don't want to steer them wrong-- I've only written two novels in my lifetime. I really want to be a good role model and help these kids out.

Anyway, I'll be meeting them at three today, so, wish me luck. :P

Till next time, people!

Every Happy Thing

I kind of have a depression problem.

Okay. Not so kind of. I have a depression problem. I'm in one of those moods, ya know, the one where you want to rip your hair out and scream to the world that you matter and all you wanted was for one lousy person to tell you that.

Or maybe that's just me.

In any case, I prefer being happy over being frustrated and angry and depressed all the time. The only problem is, I have a hard time being happy for myself. Sure, shove me in a group full of depressed kids and I can get everybody laughing in no time, but when it comes to making myself laugh... It's not as easy as it sounds.

So. Instead of dwelling on the negative things in life, I'm going to think of every happy thing that's happened to me.

1. I have an amazing best friend, Angel.
2. Big Time Rush just came back for a new season.
3. Common Law is AMAZING.
4. I'm (still) going to Big Time Rush's concert in September.
5. I have two beautiful baby sisters.
6. I have two... baby brothers.
7. I have a bed.
8. I have water.
9. I appreciate what I have.
10. I love music.
11. I love writing.
12. I'm lucky to have my friends to support me in things.
13. I'm lucky none of the abuse in my life is physical.
14. I'm lucky to have enough money to be fed, blog, write, sleep, and just be generally happy.
15. I love my mom's computer's keyboard.
16. I love Seattle sunsets.
17. I love climbing my roof at night to look at the stars.
18. I love the deer in my backyard.
19. I love summer when I can lay in the grass and think quietly.
20. I love my life.

There. That wasn't so hard. Felt really good, actually. :) There you go-- Getting to Know You, part forty-three!

The End of the World

So, I lost my flashdrive.

*sobbing foreverrrrrr*

Because of this, I can't publish my book. Yes, my entire novel was on that flashdrive. No, I didn't back it up.

Go on and say it. I'm a big fat moron. *sighs*

Good news... Nothing else unbelievably important/wasn't backed up was on it. Other good news, I have the unedited version of my book still. So all I have to do is edit it allll over again and then publish it.

*deep breath*

Yeah. I can do that.

Anyway, I'm kind of relieved, because I still feel like the finsihed copy wasn't perfect enough. So I get another chance to correct whatever was wrong with it now. Yay.

So.

Yeah, that's what's up with me! I'll post something a little more relevant to a blog when my life decides it wants to throw a plot twist in there somewhere. :P Peace for now, people!

Procrastination Fail... (AKA D-BOP!)

I hate bullies.
I've been there. Both on the recieving end and the dealing end. Sometimes you wanna just scream at someone, anyone who'll listen. Doesn't matter how you do it, be it through teasing or put-downs, calling names or being passive aggressive. If it hurts other people, you shouldn't do it.

Cyberbullying... I never understood how people could be more effective when bullying this way, but now I do. My entire Twitter page blew up because of what some girl-- some young girl, no less-- said to my friends. Calling them horrible, nasty names, things a twelve-year-old shouldn't even know about until she gets into high school. Hacking my friend's account and changing her bio and her display name. I honestly don't understand how someone could be so freaking mean. She told my friend to kill herself or she would for her. Freaked her out so much she almost did, but us Twitterfolk got to her in time.
This is not okay by me.

I don't like bullying. I don't like my friends getting bullied. It took me copying her tweets into a Word document and threatening to call the police for her to leave and give my friend her Twitter account back. I would've done it, too, which kind of scares me. But I'm not afraid to step forward and stand up to them.

D-BOP: Don't Bully Other People. :)
--
Okay, rant over. I apologize for poofing on you guys! I went online and I saw that I had an extra follower! :D Thank you for following me, whoever you are! <333
Now that I actually have people who read my posts, I should post more often, huh? Okay, I shall!
Updates with yours truly:
1. MY BOOK IS BEING PUBLISHED AS AN EBOOK TOMORROOOOOW! It's Harm's Way-- previously known as The Lucky One-- and it'll be on Amazon.com, iTunes, and Kindle. I'll post a link if you guys wanna check it out. :)

2. I'm learning to drive... joy. [/sarcasm] No, seriously-- it's kind of terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. Guess that gives you a hint on my age, lol... if you're American. :P

3. I'm sick. Yucky yucky grossness. So if I sound slightly incoherent in any of my recent/future posts... it's probably 'cause I am.

Anyway! That's what's up! I promise to update more often. :P

Wednesday Writings

Hey, they both have 'w's in them. Soooo here are some excepts of some of my writing! Just random things; some for flash fiction challenges, some from my actual novels. What can I say-- I like to share stuff with people. Feel free to give me feedback if you'd like! Enjoy in any case. :)

   ...

Going on a Ghost Adventure

(Feel free to laugh. This is part of a Ghost Adventures fanfic.)

...

“Mickey, come on, it’s starting!” Sarah shrieked from her bedroom.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” I muttered, grabbing the large bowls of popcorn and half-stumbling, half-sprinting through the hall. My best friend, Sarah, had the TV paused on our favorite television show, Ghost Adventures, decked out in her super-fluffed pink pajama pants. It was almost midnight and pitch black outside, while Seattle rain was pelting the window outside her room. The perfect atmosphere for watching a ghost hunt.

“Thank God for Tivo, right?” I joked, placing the bowls gently down on her bed and curling up next to her.

Sarah sent me a dirty look and got up to turn off the lights. “Don’t even start with me, Mackenzie Anne Galloway. I’ve been waiting for three minutes!”

“We were there for this investigation, remember?” I reminded her. “We already know everything that’s going to be on the episode—probably more.”

“Yes, well, some people don’t have a photographic memory like you,” Sarah sniffed good-naturedly. “And I, for one, would like to see how Zak narrates this.”

She played the video and Zak’s face flashed up onto the screen. He looked exactly how I remembered him: spiked, jet black (and probably dyed) hair tucked beneath a bowl baseball cap, slightly crooked teeth, and intensity and excitement shining in his dark blue eyes. This clip was in full blown, green-tinted night vision, and he was frozen, one finger up, eyes staring somewhere off to the right like he was listening for something.

“Get out,” came a whispered voice, and Zak immediately reacted, gasping and recoiling. Sarah giggled.

The scene flashed to a group of people gathered around Zak as he held up a small digital recorder.

“Did you hear—wait, did you hear that?” he demanded, cutting through the quiet chatter they were making.

Again the scene cut and, shockingly, Sarah and I were on screen. Sarah paused the show and grabbed my arm, shrieking loudly into a pillow. I rolled my eyes and grabbed the remote from her, playing the episode again.

“Sarah,” I’d whispered. In the present I winced; my voice sounded weird on television. “What was that?”

A scream was ripped from the both of us and the scene cut off right before we jumped around again, to the GAC’s official opening.

“My name is Zak Bagans. I never believed in ghosts until I came face to face with one.”

Beautiful People: May

Sooooo my good friend Annika informed me of the wonderful world of Beautiful People, and I think I should participate! [insert cheering emoticon HERE]. I started this post before they came out with their next edition, so I'm going to finish posting the first ten questions and then move on to their latest set-- Villains. So! Getting to Know Your Characters, pt. Un!

...

The Lucky One

PHOTO CREDIT: http://www.ifc.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/110911-thehost-jakeabel.jpg

Lucky Freeman

(Isn't he ADORABLE? Gah, I love Jake Abel xD )

Lucky is half demon, half angel. He didn't know this until he turned sixteen and his powers first appeared. For some reason, he's always in the middle of danger when it rolls around-- which is often. Despite him growing up without a mother, he's very passionate and sincere. He's an avid closet painter. He's a seraphim, a fire angel, which means he can start and put out fires at will.

1. What is their full name? Luke Anthony Freeman
2. Does his or her name have a special meaning? Weeeell... His nickname does. "Lucky". He got that nickname because he's constantly in near-death situations and yet somehow gets out of them without a scratch. And 'Luke' is so close to 'Lucky' it just stuck.
3. Does your character have a methodical or disorganized personality? Methodical. He's an artist-- a painter-- and he takes things step by step. Was raised more as an adult than a kid since his dad was always super busy with work. Despite his maturity, however, Lucky has a very snippy, sarcastic personality.
4. Does he or she think inside themselves more than they talk out loud to their friends? (more importantly, does he or she actually have friends?) Lucky has one friend: Dominic. Dom usually does the talking for him. Lucky's quiet until he doesn't need to be. Sometimes he talks without thinking, but that's only when he's upset, which is rare. Lucky's a chill guy.
5. Is there something he or she is afraid of? Heights. Almost fell of a bridge once and that affected him more than his other near-death experiences. Had to hang by a rung for almost two hours before they were able to get to him.
6. Does he or she write, dream, dance, sing, or photograph? He paints. Sketches sometimes, but he prefers to paint. And he has some bizarre dreams, but that's before he learns he's half angel, half demon.
7. What is his or her favorite book? (or genre of books) Lucky doesn't read much, but he likes science fiction. Hates romance. Hates horror. Fantasy is okay, but he'd rather read sci-fi-- the modern kind.
8. Who is his or her favorite author and/or someone that inspires him or her? Well, his favorite artist is Monet. Painting is more or less his life-- not that he'd ever admit it out loud-- and he secretly aspires to be a famous painter one day. He specializes in the sky and the ocean.
9. Favorite flavor of ice cream? Vanilla. Weirdo.
10. Favorite season of the year? Winter (he has a hard time painting snow and he likes challenges).

...

Death and Other Things I Fail At

PHOTO CREDIT: http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2004/11/26/lemony_wideweb__430x292.jpg

Atticus

Atticus is the Ghost King. He's a little nutty in the head but very fatherlike, despite the fact he wants to destroy the human race. He's only one of the main antagonists in this book and definitely the most entertaining to write. His purpose as a ghost is to find his daughter and deliver a message-- a message he'd long since forgotten, which, of course, drove him mad.

1. What is their motive? Humans have been hounding him for decades, figuring out a way to eliminate ghosts-- "kill" them-- and Atticus, being the longest surviving ghost, decides that it needs to stop. He wants revenge for all the ghosts killed by humans. And he wants humans to stop trying to hunt ghosts.
2. What are they prepared to do to get what they want? Yep. The way Atticus sees it, he kills humans and the ones that become ghosts either join his cause or get hunted by the humans. It's a flawless plan. If everyone is a ghost, or dead, or whatever, then there wouldn't be any problems being hunted by the living. He planned on turning Sophia, the protagonist, against the humans and use her as an asset to launch an attack to kill hundreds, maybe thousands of humans. And of course when she refused, that made him even angrier.
3. Are they evil to the core, or simply misunderstood? He's crazy. Like, the literally definition of crazy. But he's also misunderstood. He's very parent-like and a good king, if you ignore the fact he's trying to wage war on the living.
4. What was their past like? What about their childhood? Was there one defining moment that made them embrace their evil ways? Atticus, like all ghosts, don't remember anything of their past aside from a single thing: their purpose. The reason they didn't pass on. All ghosts have a purpose, and Atticus had his, but he'd been hunted by humans for so long that he'd forgotten his purpose. It drove him mad, not being able to fulfill his purpose so he could pass over.
5. Now that they’re evil, have they turned their back on everyone, or is there still someone in their life that they care for? (Brother? Daughter? Love interest? Mother? Someone who is just as evil as they are?) He's an effective leader. A great king. He's gentle to all ghosts and protective, too, but when it comes to humans he gets nasty and violent. He used to be a good guy, but decades of hatred towards humans turned him bitter towards them, and crazy. He's definitely crazy.
6. Do they like hugs? Yes, actually.
7. Are they plagued by something? (Nightmares, terrible thoughts?) Just the incredible urge that he needs to fulfill his purpose. He can't pass over until he fulfills it.
8. Who are they more similar to: Gollum or Maleficent? Gollum. Driven by one thing-- well, two-- and two things only: the fulfillment of his purpose and the destruction of the human race. He has this war within himself whether he wants to hurt people or use them for his own selfish gain. Oh, and he's crazy. 
9. If your villain could have their choice of transportation what would it be? He's a ghost. He can fly. And possess people. He has all the transportation he needs, really.
10. If you met your villain in the street, how afraid would you be? Are they evil enough to kill their creator? He's a fair king. He just hates humans. So I wouldn't be too worried, as long as you specify you're not a blood crazed human with deadly intent to ghosts before he kills you. He's not evil-- he's just crazy.
11. Does the dark side really have cookies? Mm, I hope so. I hope they're chocolate. That would make sense, right? Chocolate is amazing.