Well, tomorrow is AUGUST! Already! Summer has come and gone and left us with new challenges (or will sooner or later…) in the new school year…hence the theme. It kind of scares me to think that I’m going (and most of you are, too) to HIGH SCHOOL next year. I remember having dreams about this. D:
But now, ready or not, high school is just around the corner and with it will come new beginnings. I wish you all luck in the next school year and hope it’ll be great.
And yes, I will still be working on my novel. I finished Lightweaver last October. Hopefully I can finish V.Fia before then.
Sorry for not blogging for the couple of weeks…I guess I was too busy enjoying my summer. I have bad news and good news. Which one would you like first? Well, since I’m the kind of person who likes the bad news first (because getting the bad news after the good news always seems to spoil the good news), I’m going to share the bad news first.
Bad: I haven’t exactly been writing…heh…I mean, I HAVE written a few pages, but they’re not typed, which means you can’t check the progress on the Writing page.
Good: I have, however, plotted out the entire book during my daily walks around Russell Creek Park (at 6:30 in the morning!) So, all I have to do is sit down, get my butt in that chair, and write.
What have I been doing all this time? Reading, watching movies, etc…I’m going to review them in just a minute.
(SPOILER ALERT FOR EVERYTHING BELOW THIS NOTICE!)
Movie: “Jumper”
I watched this movie about a week ago, and I loved it. It’s gotten a lot of bad reviews and a lot of bad criticism, but I personally loved it. I mean, I haven’t read the book yet so I don’t know how it is compared to the book, but I think the movie itself was awesome.
Here is the plot summary from IMDB:
“David Rice is a high school student in Ann Arbor, abandoned by his mother at five, enamored with Millie, a fellow student, and picked on by at least one classmate. On a winter’s day, while about to drown, he discovers he can transport himself instantaneously to anyplace on earth. He leaves town, goes to New York City, robs a bank vault, and comes to the attention of a shadowy group of government hunters. Eight years later, the hunters, led by the murderous Roland, get a fix on David. He heads home, searches out Millie, invites her to travel with him, and only later realizes that Roland and his crew are seriously deadly. Is everyone close to David in danger?”
My favorite part about the movie is that one of my favorite actors, Hayden Christensen, played David Rice. (the main character). TOTAL hottie, with an awesome six-pack….
Now, a few of you might not know him very well, but I’m sure A LOT of you will know him as…:
ANAKIN SKYWALKER!! OMG MY FAVORITE JEDI!!!! The dude who made me love Darth Vader~ <3 I LOVED his “fall”, very dramatic…kind of gross how he burns in the lava thing though…(btw, I was mourning for his hot body and face the whole time)
Here’s the trailer to Jumper:
Book: An Abundance of Katherines
John Green did it again!He made my jaw go slack. He is so freakin good at capturing the nerdy teenage guy! (But I’m sure he was one back in the old days) I loved Colin more than I loved Miles…and part of that was that Colin didn’t COUNT THE LAYERS BETWEEN HIM AND HIS GIRLFRIEND! (Sorry, John Green, but the whole: Three layers…two layers… ONE LAYER OMG!! -drool- thing kind of scared me…)
I loved how Colin wanted to ‘matter’ and got really stressed out that he was a ‘washed up child prodigy’ and not a ‘genius’. Although I don’t claim to be either, I really related to his desire to be remembered and loved. I also loved how he dated NINETEEN GIRLS NAMED KATHERINE. That is so cool…and kind of disturbing. I also loved the fact that he ended up with Lindsey at the end of the book.
I also loved his relationship with his only friend (which is kind of sad) Hassen. (I think I spelled that right) Hassen’s a great, funny character that was an awesome supporter of Colin. I don’t think Colin could have gotten so far without him.
I love it how John Green incorporated deep, psychological insights in this almost-comedic, romantic YA novel.
(I listened to the audio book last month or so…and just recently read the book itself)
Book: The Host
Yeah, yeah, I JUST read it yesterday. (Took me two days, though) It was…well…phenomenal. The beginning of the book was kind of slow (as usual) and I almost fell asleep…but then THE GUYS showed up and perked my interest. (LOL)
It’s basically about this parisitical alien type of thing (I can’t remember if they had a name for them) named Wanderer, who gets inserted into this rebellious, kick-butt girl named Melanie Stryder. This REALLY reminded me of Animorphs…(I used to have paranoid nightmares about the Yeerks…AHH THERE’S A SNAIL IN MY BRAIN!!) And the process is pretty much the same.
Now, Melanie is special because she, instead of fading away like the rest of the humans, doesn’t and instead sticks around to bug Wanderer. LOL. (So, two different personalities in one body: one fighting, violent human, and one peaceful, altruistic alien)
And to make it even MORE confusing, Wanderer/Melanie finds a hideout of the rest of the renegade humans, and there meets JARED, MELANIE’s BF! Now, Jared and the rest of the humas first hated Wanderer/Melanie and hit her a couple of times. But eventually Wanderer’s almost altruistic (-sigh- YES, she’s a “Bella”) nature won everyone over…(But this time, I guess Wanderer’s Mary-Sueness can be forgiven in a way because she’s not used to normal “selfish” human emotions)
There’s even like a love “square” going around among: Wanderer, Melanie, Jared, and Ian. Here’s the trouble: Ian loves Wanderer, who’s in Melanie’s body…Melanie hates Ian, and loves Jared…Wanderer loves Ian, but she also loves Jared because, well, she’s in Melanie’s brain and body, which are basically telling her to love him. It’s funny how they’re all like: “Er…can I like…speak to Melanie?” or “This is for Wanderer…” when it’s the same body.
Stephenie Meyer is so good with romance and getting the chemistry all right. But, to tell you the truth, it basically seemed like Twilight with aliens, deserts, and more people. Wanderer “Wanda” (although, I HATE her nickname because it reminds me of that fairy from “Fairy Odd Parents”) is like Bella, Jared is sort of like Edward (in the way that in the beginning, he’s mean to Wanda and is a very…’angsty, lonewolf’ kind of guy.)and Ian is like Jacob (he comforts Wanda when Jared’s not around, is more intimate and more “I LOVE YOU!!! I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU ARE!! EVEN IF YOU’RE SOME WORM!!” ish)
I honestly don’t see why The Host published as an adult novel…it seemed only longer to me. There was no sex and disturbing, gory images. (But then again, I’ve read erotica…and erotica is like the worst of the worst… maybe it numbed my brain to romantic images… )
Now, I’ve read a lot more books and seen lots of movies, but these are the ones that stick out the most in my brain now. I might or might not blog about them later. Until then, ciao!
I was surfing on the internet yesterday, and I ran across a post on Jennifer Lynn Barnes’s blog. In one of her blog entries, she does a little thing that she calls “Teaser Tuesday”, which is basically where you post a small little sample/”teaser” of your WIP (Work In Progress)…so, I decided to do one on V.Fia. Enjoy!
I never study for exams. I know, it’s a pretty horrible habit to have–especially for a sophomore in high school. But, see, I just don’t see the point. Why waste hours trying to cram little facts into your brain when you could do something more…interesting…like, make little slinkies out of fire and play around with them?
Now that was fun and…strangely addicting.
Longing for the pleasantly warm sensation of fire encircling my fingers, I felt a little lethargic and turned up the volume on my iPod. Ignoring the throbbing pain in my brain from the heavy metal pounding in my ears, I tried to suppress the urge to summon up a little ember underneath my desk.
A little, teeny-tiny spark won’t hurt, will it? I mean, no one will notice… remarked a small voice in my head that I liked to refer to as my Inner Demon-child.
No, damn it! I bit my lip and clenched my fists as I thought of the “Sacred Oath”, the promise my parents had me swear to keep in order to convince them to let me go to an actual, public high school.
“Promise us that you will never, ever under any circumstance use your power in school.” They had said. And foolish little me, desperately wanting to escape the confines of home-school, had agreed and sworn. Because, I had then assumed, public school was probably ten times better than this.
If only I’d known how wrong I’d been.
Recently, I’ve been reading the Dark Reflections Trilogy, which I loved because it was…very strange and unique while at the same time being a little bit familiar.
It’s basically about two girls, Merle and Junipa, who, along with a very diverse motley of friends have to save the world from the evil Empire of the Pharaoh. Now, Merle and Junipa are not ordinary girls. (Spoiler alert!) Merle, who was previously an orphan, discovers that she is half-Sphinx, quarter-Lillum, quarter-human.
(Lillum are supposedly grotesque looking creatures that live in the center of the Earth, “Hell”, as it is nicknamed. Because it is kind of like Hell. No day, no night, caverns and lava and the Stone Light, a fallen star that was previously the Morning Star, aka Lucifer.)
And Merle, is a previously blind orphan who was given mirror eyes and can maneuver through mirrors and see what no other human can see.
It is unlike any series that I’ve ever read, yet while reading it I was reminded of various things…for instance, the whole Egypt segment (the Pharaoh, the gods, the Priests, etc.) reminded me of Yu-Gi-Oh.
And one of the villains, Seth, the High Priest, is the stereotypical genius that was too obsessive about his goals and ended up causing his own downfall. (He commits suicide later on, realizing what he’d done.)
(And for some reason, I always fall for the genius types…and about 80% of them commit suicide!)
So anyway, Seth was my favorite character in that he “fell”…also, I liked him because he at first seemed almost inhuman, but you could see little traces of humanity in him, like he really felt remorse about the death of his fellow priests. (He was all like: “It was my own stupidity, my own naivete that killed them. I knew that it was bound to happen some time, but I chose to ignore it.” …so DARK…and tragic. Me like. )
Kai Meyer is an awesome writer, and describes everything in so much detail that you can picture everything in your mind. (Although I admit, some of the descriptions were a little boring, so I skipped some of them). But I was very surprised that he was a guy. I mean, his writing style is kind of…feminine in that he describes things a lot and is able to master the mushy-mushy romance factors.
I’m hoping that it sounds mushy-mushy and feminine because the person who translated the original text from German into English is a woman. (Cross your fingers!)
Because well, he looks nothing like the mushy-mushy kind of guy…
The story is mostly set in Venice, which reminded me of the Thief Lord…partially because of the Master Thief, Serafin. (Who later on sacrifices his own life to save Merle and the rest of the world…aw…tragic romance story)
It incorporates so many things! Like, there’s mention of Lucifer and kind of sort of religion-defying factors. (For instance, one of the characters, the Flowing Queen, mentions that gods are nothing but what the humans want to think of them as and ever so slightly, insults religion.)
That and the whole “there are other worlds beyond this one” theme reminded me of the Golden Compass…which I also loved.
I literally finished the whole trilogy over the weekend. I just couldn’t put it down.
So out of ten stars, I’d probably give it 8.5.
First things first. Sorry peeps, but you are all going to have to wait a little bit longer for me to complete my new version. I know, I know, I said that it was going to be ready by this week, but that was before I came up with this crazy idea.
It’s an idea that will either make you guys REALLY hate me, or love me…(And by now you’re probably telling me to get to the point right now, so I will) The idea is as simple as this: I am removing Aurora and Chloe from the story.
My reasons why: 1.) Caren Johnson, in her comments, stated that Aurora
“is a difficult character for the reader to connect with because she comes across as spoiled, judgmental and unsympathetic to others.”
2.) I have never, EVER heard someone say that they like Aurora, 3.) Someone (whose name I will not name for the sake of the person) has commented that my ‘new version’ is worse than the original and 99% of that problem is because of Aurora (this isn’t a direct quote, but that’s basically what the person said… and 4.) Well, the truth is, in the beginning (back when I was still planning), Aurora wasn’t meant to be the main character. Yeah. She wasn’t. I just needed a character to introduce the readers to both Sebastian and Fia…and also provided a plot.
But now, I don’t think it was a good idea to include the whole “Aurora-trying-to-save-Chloe-and-Chloe-turning-evil” thing. It’s turned a bit lame and actually has nothing to do with the GRAND PLOT (the plot for the whole series). It was just a slight…detour.
What am I going to do? Well…I was thinking of making Fia the main character…and removing Light and Darkness from the circle of elements, so it’s just Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire. Because truth is, I’ve never really worked that much on the Darkness Angel.
So, yeah. That’s the big news. The only problem is that I have NO IDEA what to call my novel now, because Fia isn’t the Lightweaver. I’ve thought of “Flamedancer”, which is supposedly what Fia is, but the name’s kind of corny. Feel free to email suggestions to me via my author email.
And yes, you can share your opinions on this idea in the comments section.
A small random note: I’ve noticed that there is some confusion about the watermelon on my header…and let me assure you that the watermelon is supposed to be square. Square watermelons DO exist…in Japan.
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