Promises

Blogger Buddy Tag

           I was tagged by Skye Hoffert @ Ink Castles and Carly @ Books and Etc.! Thanks; you two are awesome! How about a combination of questions?

Favorite TV Show?

The Mentalist. Always the Mentalist. My family has taken to collecting the series on DVD.

What's one of your New Year Resolutions?

Treasure these days.

What kind of mythical/paranormal creature would you like to be?

I would be a dragon (or, you know, Bat-Stitch  ;).

Coffee or Tea?

 

Tea. But I drink it only when it's cold out. When it's warm out, I go with chocolate milk. [what? I'm a kid at heart]

 

What's the last song you listened too?

Boomerang by Anthem Lights

What's your favorite quote?

Cats or dogs?

Dogs all the way! Here's why.

This is my dog Posy. She's a pretty awesome great Dane.


And of course, there's this

Something that makes you smile?

It doesn't matter where I am or who it is, but if someone twirls me, like under their arm as if we were dancing, I never fail grin like an idiot school girl.

It's rather ridiculous.


Which fictional pairing is your favorite?

A book or movie you would recommend?

Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby

The Princess Bride in any form

The Hobbit in all forms

The Divergent trilogy  [not the movie]

What gif describes you?

This is me world-building.

Me and characterization

 

And when I have to face the real world

All pictures are from pinterest except my dog.

Beautiful People: Author Edition

 

 It's the BP link up co-hosted by Cait @ Paper Fury! This time it's an interview with the author. How different, yes?

1. How many years have you been writing? When did you officially consider yourself a ‘writer’?

*smirks* I've been writing since I first learned to write.

But Officially and Sincerely, I considered myself a writer at eighteen. Ages ago! Okay, not really. I'll be turning 23 next month so I've been writing serious for about five-ish years. I also consider myself a writer since eighteen because I took it so serious that I went to a writers conference and had a Realization:

This is where I belong. This writing thing.

(I've also realized you don't always belong to a place. Sometimes you belong with certain people or doings, such as writers and writing.)

2. How/why did you start writing?

How: With a pencil. (It sounds sassy, but really, these days you have to clarify.)

Why: Oh, you know, because I was bored.

 Many reasons, one of them being I had stories in my head, stories that were the kind I wanted to read. So I wrote them.

3. What’s your favorite part of writing?

The overwhelming quality of the all of it!!

Oh, you meant my favorite part. Not the worst part. Heh, my bad.

 

Editing! And character building. The characters are the bestest. Then there's world-building. Never underestimate a good fantasy world with deep characters. It is a force to be admired.

 

4. What’s your biggest writing struggle?

You mean, THE Biggest? Can I narrow that down? *shrugs* Here's the brainstorm version:

romance scenes

no transitions

too many things going on at once

editing when I'm not supposed to be editing

forgetting the characters had a horse or backpacks or some object with them that, uh, disappears

Spelling! (thank God for spell check)

writing myself and my characters into a corner

So, yeah. That's my biggest problem. 

 

5. Do you write best at night or day?

Usually I write at night. People are sleeping, most of the things I needed to get done are halfway finished.

 I often "mental write" when I just wake up or before falling asleep. This is when I get my best scenes. The action is so vividly, the words are just perfect, the dialogue is phenomenal. The down side to "mental writing" when I'm half asleep is that later I can't remember everything.

6. What does your writing space look like? (Feel free to show us pictures!)

My wreck of a room. I usually sit on my unmade bed which may or may not have the remnant doings of the day. Books, dictionaries, music, clogging cue sheets, clothes. There are clothes everywhere in my room. It's part of my decor.

The toothbrush, again! Where did it come from. . . camera hog. . .

7. How long does it typically take you to write a complete draft?

Uh, uh.

An ambiguous amount of time. Truly.

 

8. How many projects do you work on at once?

I used to work on everything all at once. But then I never finished anything, so that had to stop. Now I work on one project at a time. Though, if I get an idea or scene for another book, I still write it down.

Nothing gets past me to float off to the land of the forgotten. 

9. Do you prefer writing happy endings, sad ones, or somewhere in between?

In between. I never know how to end things (not even a blog post; it's pathetic). Because even after the book ends, the story keeps going. Life continues.

My endings are usually open ended in one way or other. Or at least bittersweet.

 

10. List a few authors who’ve influenced your writing journey.

George Bryan Polivka

Aubrey

Veronica Roth

Cait

Suzanne Collins

Jack

Matthew J. Kirby

Aimee

Tolkien

Katy

Indirectly. Directly. Whether through their writing, their blogs, or their encouragement. 

(Okay, I do realize that those aren't real sentences, but they sounded like sentences in my head. You know, conversational sentences?)

11. Do you let people read your writing? Why or why not?

Yes and no.

I post snippets for you guys sometimes. (You guys are special and highly favored like that. So I give you my crumpled flowers. Sorry.)

 

I've taken my work to be critiqued a few times. But I'm an edit freak. So if I'm not satisfied with it, nobody sees it.

Eh, I don't often let my parents read it. They're like, "Oh, my daughter is going to publish a book and become famous!!" My parents have their head in the clouds over it all. I try to hand them reality, but they just give me that "I'm the parent and I know more about the world than you do" attitude. Which is true; they do usually know more than me. But to be fair, I'm the one who's been studying, reading blogs, and going to conferences all about writing and publishing. *cough* For five-ish years. Just this once, I know a little more. And produce crumpled flowers with my efforts.  .  .

12. What’s your ultimate writing goal or dream?

To write ALL of the book ideas! Um, to be published? I'm not too hard to please. Right?

On the deep side: to inspire people, to make people think, to make them laugh and cry, to help them and myself understand the world around us.

13. If you didn’t write, what would you want to do?

I would be Bat-Stitch.

Write! Duh. If I didn't write, I would write. It's a one way road. No U turns. No multiple choice A, B, or C. I don't write because I want to, I write because I need to.

Sure, I do other things. I clog. I play guitar. But I do those and I write. So I see no reason why you are making me choose. Therefore I refuse to do so.  

14. Do you have a book you’d like to write one day but don’t feel you’re ready to attempt it yet?

Yes. I have a lot of those. 

15. Which story has your heart and won’t let go?

The weird idea. The Sandy series. The Allegory thing. The Archeress and the Prince. Liesel and the Churan. All the ideas I've ever had.

The Oddball trilogy also. But it's the characters that have my heart and won't let go. 

 

  

(all pictures are from pinterest, excluding the one of my room)

The Shelf of Books

I got a bookshelf for Christmas!

I tried to set my books up with reason and order. But that plan fell apart, and I just put books wherever they would fit!

At the top corner is the beautiful Divergent trilogy. This is one of my favorites. I recently bought Four and I am so excited to read it!

Here, we have Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. I really want to finish this trilogy. Has anyone read all three of these books?

Also, the amazing The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. If you have not read this, then promise me to read it. You will not regret it. 

The Princess Bride by William Goldman. I adore this book! It's calling me to reread it. 

Just David by Eleanor Porter, I believe. She also wrote Polyanna. The book itself is old and falling apart. It has that wonderful old book smell. I haven't read it yet. But I just love to look at it. Is that shallow?

On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness by Andrew Peterson. An adventurous MG. A little predictable at times, but very imaginative like an good MG fantasy ought to be. 

And then, then- we have the grand Jack Lewis Baillot's books. I regret that I don't have them all yet. But the Haphazardly series is the best! She has fantastic characters. A Stretch of Loyalty is awesome too! Elves, lost princes, what more can you ask for? My birthday's coming up so I'm hoping to get the sequel.

From the bottom is a Frank Peretti, The Hangman's Curse. Not too bad. It has a nice chill, but isn't extreme scary for those who read at night.

On top is the wonderful Seraphina by Rachel Hartman. You must read this book. Dragons (need I say more?), amazing characters, and the writing- wow! The writing itself seems to have musicality. 

If you can see that little sliver of green on top of Seraphina, that's the Lucky Rhyming Pocket Dictionary. It has served me well. 

Mostly Monsterly. This cute book came out of a cereal box. I adore the illustrations.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. May we just fangirl?

My little sister painted for me a green heart. I find it hilariously ironic since I've never had a boyfriend, and I'm born on Valentines Day.

This quote from Divergent.

Part of the Emily of New Moon trilogy by L. M. Montgomery. Can you believe the library was getting rid of it? I was appalled and swooped in to rescue it (okay, so it was on their "free give away" shelf). I like this trilogy better than Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables. I relate better to Emily.

Then this miscellaneous stack of books and the plaque that I also received for Christmas. (Yes, I keep my toothbrush in my room. With four siblings who forget what their own toothbrushes look like, wouldn't you?)

What does your books shelf look like? Is it organized? Do you have extra stacks of books lying around? Which ones are your favorite?