Break

Not that I've been posting a ton, but I'm going to take a break from blogger for...ohhhh...maybe a week or two. I'll be back by Christmas, I think, but we're just so busy and I can't keep up with everything plus blogging.

Besides, my last posts have been anything but substantial. Maybe when I come back I'll bring some editing tips along with me. But for now I'm going to focus on Christmas, my family, and my NaNo book.

See you 'round, folks! Happy December in advance!

And I won for the second year in a row...

...yes! I've finished NaNoWriMo! I'm really tired and under the weather so this won't be a long post.

For all of you who haven't finished yet, keep on! You still have some time!

It's so hard to say goodbye to my characters. So I made room for another sequel at the end of my book. =)

Already making plans for next NaNoWriMo,

In Short

Here's a quick look at how life as been for me.

We had a very small, quiet Thanksgiving. My grandma came over, and we ate lunch and went for a walk. Then, of course, we turned on the football. =) I detest the Cowboys, so I'm happy to say that the Saints won. Actually, it was a pretty good game.

Today we...*takes a deep breath* GOT OUR CHRISTMAS TREE I'M SO EXCITED ITS IN THE LIVING ROOM ITS AWESOME!!!! And I get to decorate for Christmas! So exciting! *sigh* This year has just flown.

I would get a start on the cookie baking, but I'm very sad to say that I am sick. Ugh. It may be just a cold, but they last a week and they give me headaches. I decided it wouldn't be a good idea to contaminate the cookies. =)

NaNo is going okay, I suppose. I'm a wee bit ahead, but I want to write even more. However, Erestor turned off my laptop and its too much of a pain to turn it on again. I'll just write tomorrow, I guess.

I came down today to behold Galdor closing the oven door. Of course, a two year old around an oven is not a good thing, so I chased him away. However, I did NOT find out that he had slipped a plate with fake food in there until Mom opened the oven door to pop in lunch and found a nicely roasted fake lemon half. That kid...

I'm sorry this was such a boring post. =( Maybe tomorrow I can come up with some last minute NaNo tips.

My Memory Has Failed the Test

I was looking through my post drafts, and I came across this old tag that I forgot to publish! I don't even remember who tagged me.

What song are you currently addicted to?
None right now.

What books are you currently reading?
'Fellowship of the Ring', 'Doomwyte'

What's your favorite color?
Green or blue or silver or brown or gold or red or orange or yellow or purple or...well, let's just say all of them!

What's your favorite hobby?
Sports, writing, reading, music, photography...yadiyadiya.

Sweet or Salty?
Sweet.

What's your current fandom/obsession/addiction?
LotR

Cake or ice cream?
Ice cream.

What websites do you always visit when you go online?
Blogger.

What was the last thing you bought?
A new notebook.

Which fictional character do you think you're most like?
I honestly don't know. I'm like a lot of them. Probably Bear from 'The Shadow of the Bear'.

Favorite toy growing up?
idk.

Favorite instrument?
Bagpipes or piano.

What was the last meal you ate?
Peperoni roll with spaghetti sauce.

Do you want to learn another language?
Most definitely.

Five things you really appreciate:
God, beauty, the arts, sports, love.


What's one of your favorite quotes?
I don't know.

What's something you'd like to say to someone right now?
I don't care whose idea it was! You just DON'T hand a girl rattlesnake eggs!

What are you looking forward to?
A lot of stuff.

I tag:

Anyone who feels like doing this.

Nope, didn't kill of a character again...

...but you'll never guess what I DID do!

Okay, so me and a friend (a friend and I...) were talking on the phone on Sunday about my book. Apparently, she thinks its really...upsetting, hilarious, unusual?...that I killed of Elizabeth (twice). So she said that I'd probably kill off another one.

Well, ha! I didn't.

Heh heh. I did sink an island though.

So yes, my NaNoWriMo book is going well, to say the least.

How is everyone else doing?

I forget...what's thankfulness?

I am very behind on NaNoWriMo. Think a couple days worth of writing.

I am seriously starting to think I'm lactose intolerant.

I am SO behind on Biology. So behind...*moan*.

And I miss my blog! I really want to make more time to post, but things are so hectic...

Ran a 5k on Saturday in 35 minutes. No, I did not run all the way, and yes I'm a horrible runner.

Doesn't seem like I have much to be thankful about, huh?

My family. My friends (from the ones I've known since I was 3 to the ones I met this August). All this wonderful food that I can look forward to on Thursday. The ability to write. The freedom that I have in America that came at such a great cost. My health (what's left of it). My God. My church. America.

Let's thank God this Thanksgiving. No, it's not Turkey Day. What do you think we do, thank the great turkey for letting us eat him?

Thanksgiving is a day to spend time giving God the gratitude that He deserves.

Hey, we wouldn't even be here without Him. Think we could spend one day--just one day--saying thank you?

A Tag From Eldarwen!

Another tag I forgot about! I'm dreadfully sorry! This one's from March!

1. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?
In this world? Scotland.

2. Why did you start blogging?

My friend told me about it. My first blog was just about our family. Now it's private, anyway.

3. What is your ambition?

To serve the Lord, and to become a good wife and mother.

4. How many siblings do you have?
Three.

5. What's your favorite subject in school?
I'd say writing.

6. What is your favorite Bible verse?
Uh...all of them! I really can't decide.

7. What is one of your hobbies?
Archery.

8. If someone handed you a five dollar bill, what would you do with it?

a. slip it in your wallet and think, "Ooh, this will buy me a yummy meal at Sonic!"

b. shove it in your pocket and forget about it, then while you're doing laundry you find it and say, "Hey, mom! Here's that five dollar bill I got the other day!"

c. give it to your younger sibling. It's just five dollars.

d. use it to buy that homeless man a meal.

I'd hope I would do D.

9. If your sibling came to you with their math book and asked for help, you'd say:

a. "Oh, here, let me help you."

b. "Too bad. I'm not good at math. Go ask mom."

c. "I'm sorry, I'm not very good at math. Can you go ask someone else?"

d. "I'm not good at math, but I'll try!"

I think everyone knows not to come to me for help with math! Lol. I'd say d.

10. If you could have one of the following abilities, which would it be?

a. singing

b. sewing

c. skateboarding

d. song writing

e. guitar playing

f. swimming

g. writing

h. riding a bike

I guess sewing

And now I tag...

...Catherine Morland (if you haven't been kidnapped by aliens, that is :)

...Celtic Traveler

...and Nahla!

I've done it again.

Don't get me wrong. I really love my characters.

But there's something about Elizabeth that...I don't know. Deep down inside, she really likes drama and being the center of the attention. I guess that's why she likes getting killed so much.

Yes! I admit it! It's a spoiler [don't read ahead if you'd rather wait for the book to be published, yadiyadiya] !

*gasp* I killed Elizabeth. Again.

Don't shoot me! I really am not mean to my characters! She's the one who chose it!

Don't worry. I'll resurrect her. Again.

How to Get the Most Out of Your Wordcount

I have begun the "Desperation Stage" of NaNoWriMo. That's where I wring out every single word I have in my brain onto the paper and hope it's enough to make the daily word count! Here are some sneaky tips! Shhh...

1. Similes! Instead of:

'The sunset was shining over the water'

write:

'Like a ball of fire, the red glimmered over the dark waves, which were ripples of silk in the salt breeze.'

See? That's three times as much words! 21 compared to 7 may not seem significant on its own, but it really adds up in the long run.

2. Avoiding contractions. Now, I will warn you that it will make your writing seem much stiffer, but it's pretty good for if you're desperate. After NaNo, you can go back and fix it.

3. Dreams. They can be weird and far fetched, and they can be really long and descriptive!

4. Add a character that uses a lot of 'ums' and 'uhs' and 'stuff like thats'.

5. Describe something in great detail!

Now excuse me while I go and put those tips to use!

A Tag From Eldarwen A While [And I mean a while] Ago...

Took this tag from Eldarwen about a month ago, and I decided to schedule it to this day. Lol, it's just one of the weird things about me--I love to schedule posts!

EDIT: The 'about a month ago' was written back in April. I was looking through drafts and realized that this never got published! Sorry!

Rules: Finish the first part of the little phrase/sentence thingy. The stuff before the comma is the first thingy.

If I were a gemstone, I’d be an Emerald.


If I were a scent, I’d be Cinnamon Spice.

If I were a pair of shoes, I'd be high heels.

If I were the weather, I would be a thunderstorm.

If I were a facial expression, I'd be a knowing smile.

If I were a car, I'd be sleek and black.

If I were a time of day, I’d be at sunset.

If were a month, I’d be October.

If I were a place, I'd be a cozy cottage.

If I were a liquid, I’d be water.

If I were a taste, I’d be apple pie.

If I were a sea animal, I’d be a shark.

If I were a food, I’d be a pie.

If I were a color, I'd be silver.

If I were a musical instrument, I would be the bagpipes.

If I were a flower, I’d be a lily.

If I were a song, I’d be either 'The Last Rose of Summer' by Celtic Woman or 'Brave' by Nichole Nordeman.

If I were a planet, I’d be Venus.

If I were an object, I would be a book!

If I were a fruit, I'd be a grapefruit.

If I were a sound, I’d be the sound of the ocean.

If I were a day of the week, I’d be Saturday.

I tag...

..anyone who's birthstone is traditionally green or yellow.

Izori

Part of a Story

This was written a very long time ago. I never finished it. Here it is, and I hope you enjoy!

Here is my story about the modern girl, the dignified dragon, and the crazy sea captain, and the prince under a 'kangaroo spell'. Warning: it's the first draft, written in a great hurry. You will probably run across some horrible writing, typos, and plot-holes. Sorry.

Oh, and it's supposed to be a short story. I'm afraid it's more of a small novel. Is it a good thing I'm stuck in novel mode?

----------------------------
Chapter 1

I've noticed a growing trend in books these days. Many of the main characters start out as normal, average kids who suddenly make a great discovery or are dragged into adventures. This isn't necessarily a bad thing because the readers--most likely normal people--relate to the characters more. After all, if they are 'normal people' too, isn't there a chance that they could be on the verge of stumbling across a treasure map, or being targeted by a mysterious assassin? I don't think that you'll be as drawn to me, then. You see, I'm not what one would call 'normal'. Is there such a thing, even? Because if there is, then I am most certainly not it. Of course, on the outside I look like your average twelve year old American girl. I live on a house with an acre or two of land. Medium height, brown eyes and hair...I tend to blend in a lot. If someone asked you to pick out someone who looked like they had been to other worlds before and was best friends with a dragon, I seriously doubt you would consider me. Ah, but your opinion doesn't really count. My story started when Reginald caught news of a quest...

Shifting on the warm grass, I absentmindedly pulled the petals off of a golden dandelion in front of my nose. Then I flopped onto my back and stared up at the sky. Maybe counting clouds would help pass the time while I waited.

I was in the 'wilderness', as my younger brother called it, behind our house. Our backyard is really cool in the way that it has everything. Tamed yards with domestic grass and a vegetable garden are nearer to the house. Then you get the fringes of the forest, with the trees spread a fair distance apart and dozens of my brother's little fortifications against imaginary enemies scattered everywhere. After a little, you come to a wide creek. And on the other side of that creek was the wilderness.

It was hardly more wild then the woods close our house, really, but it stretched figuratively forever. Wild clumps of evergreen by stately maples and wise old oaks; delicate, misty flocks of white flowers close to thorn plants; thick groves combated by sunny clearings. I was in one of those clearings, on top of a fairly good-sized hill. Reginald had converted it into his 'landing strip', so to speak, and I was waiting for him there.

All of a sudden, the fluffy white clouds were blocked from sight by a huge, green thing that came whizzing by just a foot away from my nose. My hair was blown out of my face by the powerful surge of wind that followed.

Reginald landed a short ways away, folding his wings neatly against his back. His emerald eyes twinkled at me as I sat up and glared at him. He was on the small side for a dragon, but still very big. He could act somewhat like a puppy.

"Did I surprise you, Lisa?"

I folded my arms, still playing the un-amused victim of a foul prank. "Reginald!" I tried to make my voice as stern as I could. "How many times have I told you not to fly right over me like that?"

Reginald began grooming his glistening, green scales, listening tranquilly to my tirade. "Are you done, my lady?"

I sighed, knowing that when he spoke using things like 'my lady', he had found something of importance. For some reason, he mimicked what he thought King Arthur would have talked like when he knew something significant.

"Go right ahead, Reginald. As always, my words go in one ear and right out the other." I sighed again, although secretly I was holding in a huge smile. I was so relieved to see Reginald again after he had been gone for nearly a week.

"Well, I went world-hopping again," Reginald said. "Yes, yes, I know that world-hopping is really dangerous, Lisa."

"You just don't listen enough, do you?" I walked over to him and began rubbing the scales between his eyes, just in case he felt that I was being too harsh. "When you go world-hopping, you could get stuck in another world! I don't want to be without a dragon, Reggie."

'World-hopping' was what Reginald and I called a dragon's special ability. They could go from present time, or our world, to fantasy time and back again. Actually, the 'back again' part was on the unreliable side. I suspect that was how Reginald ended up in our world as a very small dragon--he had world-hopped from there to here and the 'back again' part had failed him. By the time he figured it out again, he liked this world and me so much that he always came back.

"That's besides the point," Reginald argued, his eyelids dropping lower in enjoyment as I scratched him.

"What is the point, then?"

"I was just flying around like I always do, checking out how everything was going, when I saw something." He stopped for suspense, and then continued. "I saw a parchment."

"Well, that's great. A parchment. How did you see it from the air?"

Reginald gave a rumbling dragon laugh. "I went in to town."

I jumped back, horrified. "Reginald! You went into town? All those poor people saw you?"

"Am I really that ugly, Lisa? No one was there, anyway."

"Well...if you say so. But then what happened?" Despite myself, I was getting interested.

"And so I found a parchment on the ground." Reginald handed me a scroll he had drawn from a pouch in his scales.

I unfurled it and read it silently. At the very top of the page, it had the words:

'For the honorable Herald Matinnaus, official herald of His Highness'

Right below that, it read:

'A proclamation to all the citizens of the Kingdom of Bumbleduff, from His Highness, King Bartholomew LXIV. Let it be known throughout the land that whomsoever--sir or peasant, lady or child, nobleman or poor, page or knight, sea-faring man or mountaineer--that can find a cure for the prince's troublesome malady and can give it to him will receive an excellent reward from His Highness Himself, and extra for whatever amount of extremity he or she has gone to for the remedy. His Highness thanks his loyal subjects in advance.

Below that was a royal seal, most likely from King Bartholomew LXIV.

I whistled and handed it back to Reginald, who re-stashed it. "A reward! That's a pretty cool thing there, Reggie."

"I know." Reginald's questioning pause spoke more than words.

I looked over at him. "You want to do it, don't you?"

He nodded his large green head up in down, his eagerness showing in his eyes. I gave him one last scratch, and then climbed aboard his back.

"Oh, very well then." I settled myself comfortably, and then said the fatal words.

"All I ask is that I be back for dinner."

And then we were off.

Chapter 2

World-hopping is always odd. I had only done it twice before, and I could never get used to it. The way I can describe it is that it's what I imagined sailing off of the edge of the world would have felt like. Or going up and up on a roller coaster, but instead of going down again, the track disappears and you fly away.

Once I was on, Reginald wasted no time. The ground fell away as a few pumps of his powerful wings launched us up into the air. Suddenly, all of the wilderness was far below us, and I could see my house, now looking like a tiny miniature model.

My head was engulfed in a misty cloud for a moment, and then Reginald reached the apex of his sky-ward climb. All of a sudden, he dived toward the ground.

My stomach dropped away and I gave a startled, thrilled shriek as the hill came rushing back up at us. Distantly, I could hear Reginald laughing uproariously at my reaction.

Just in time, the ground and our world dissolved and we were in another sky, seemingly below the earth's crust. With that part over, I sighed--partly in relief, partly in sadness. It gets me every single time, but it's the best feeling in the world.

We landed in a grassy meadow, with the sun shining down on Reginald's emerald scales so that they gleamed. Everything was so peaceful and silent.

Silent?

There were no birds. Usually at this time of year crickets and grasshoppers were giving everyone a symphony in meadows like these, but they weren't now. Puzzled, I turned my gaze all over. Not even a squirrel in sight!

"Reginald," I asked nervously. "Do you notice how quiet it is?"

He nodded solemnly, and then turned and started walking.

For the first time, I noticed a town only a few hundred yards away. I had been oblivious to it at first because, like the meadow, there wasn't a single sign of life coming from it. Then I remembered that Reginald had said that there was no one around when he found the parchment.

"Something's wrong," I said in a whisper, half to myself and half to my dragon.

"Shhh!" Reginald whispered back.

Together, we entered the town. I was right--there was no one there.

It was absolutely deserted.

Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't have tried to peek into houses that weren't mine. But now wasn't normal, so I stood up on tip-toes and peered into the window of the first house we came to.

I turned and looked back at Reginald, who was waiting for me expectantly.

"Well?" he asked.

"No one." I shook my head. "There's no one there!"

"That's hard to believe," Reginald noted, trying to see into the house on the other side of the road. "This doesn't look like a deserted ruin. See, the street's been trodden on recently."

"Could the 'trodding' have been done by a dragon?" I asked with a small smile.

Reginald, however, wasn't in a mood to be funny. "No, it was by a whole group of people. They were in a hurry, too!"

We checked all of the other houses, with the same unusual results. The whole entire place--empty. Devoid of life. After those discouraging results, I made up my mind.

"Reginald," I said. "I'm going to go in this house over there."

His head swung around in surprise. "How are you going to get it? Break the lock?"

I shrugged, not really having much of an idea myself. But then I walked up to the house just to our right and laid my hand on the doorknob.

The door wasn't even shut all of the way! It swung open as soon as I gave it a slight push, and I cautiously stuck my head inside.

At first glance, it appeared empty. The small house was only furnished with a chair and a few tables, but there was a large pile of cloth in the furthest corner--which also happened to be the darkest one. It was very dim everywhere inside, so this was saying something.

I approached the pile of cloth, not really expecting anything to be under it. That was why I had no caution whatsoever as I pulled the first piece of fabric off of the pile.

"YAAAAAAAHHHH!"

All of a sudden, a scimitar was in my face, held threateningly at my throat.

"Avast! Ye shalnt take this old seadog without a fight! Blood and sea-spray!!"

An old man had popped out from under the cloth pile. He had a mop of white hair half-covered by a swashbuckling hat at a rakish angle, and his beard looked as wild and unruly as the sea-spray he was yelling about. His dark blue sea captain's coat had only half of the golden buttons it should have had, and I could see at least two rips in it. He looked very much like a mad man.

"Whoa! Take it easy there, sir!" I said, reaching to take his scimitar away from him. He was hardly taller than me, and I bet I could easily beat him in a tussle.

He glowered at me and pulled away. "Aargh! Murdering coward! Dare to take a weapon out of the famous Billy Von Whiskers? And that's 'Captain' to you!"

Now I was starting to get a little annoyed. "Well, it's not 'murdering coward' to you, that's for sure!"

He leveled his scimitar at me again. "Don't try to deny it, lassie! You turned our prince into a kangaroo!"

Okay. Now I was certain that the poor man was a little wrong in his upper-story. "What do you mean by saying that I turned your prince into a kangaroo! That's a lie!"

Captain Billy Von Whiskers withdrew his scimitar and glowered at me, practically nose to nose. "Now I'd call that a lie!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"YES!"

"N--"

"Lisa? What's going on in there?" Reginald interrupted our little argument by sticking his emerald head into the doorway.

Immediately, the captain scampered across the floor to Reginald and began stroking his scales. "Ooooh. I haven't seen a dragon in...in fifty years! What beautiful scales! And that genuine color! Magnificant!"

"Hmmm. Looks like you found a pretty nice person in this deserted place, Lisa." Reginald was amused, and probably puffed up too, over the eccentric Captain Billy's praises. I could tell by the grin.

"Not so great as it appears, Reginald. He's um...how shall I say it? A little cracked?"

The captain didn't appear to hear me, so Reginald answered in a husky whisper. "He might help us out with this peculiar situation, you know."

"Oh, you mean the prince and the enchanter?" The old man asked, eager to answer Reginald. Of course, he ignored me. "I can tell you plenty about that!"

Just then it hit me!

"Wait," I said, stepping forward. "You mentioned something about a prince who was turned into a kangaroo?" Could that be what the 'malady' was on the herald's scroll?

Billy sheathed his scimitar and stared sadly at the floor. "Aye. Our prince...turned into a blinkin' kangaroo!"

"What happened to him?" Reginald asked. "But first, can we come out of this house? My head's cramped."

I would appreciate...

...if you all would just take a second to pray for my pet, Tintin (he's a water turtle).

For the past couple days, he hasn't been eating much of anything at all. I'll drop the food right in front of his nose, and he'll kind of look at it and then swim off. I'm hoping that it's just because he's feeling cold and sluggish, but even though he won't eat he looks so hungry. =(

I'm not quite sure what's wrong, but it's making me a bit nervous (our last six aquatic pets have died before we had them for six months).

On a lighter note, I'm finding keeping up with my word count easier than I thought it would be. Thankfully, my headaches have been pretty nonexistent and my wrists are much better! *does a happy dance*. But I'm kind of behind on speech, history, biology, and vocabulary...which isn't good.

I'm trying to think happy thoughts. =)

Help! My Characters Are Rebelling!

Aaargh! I so didn't mean for...oh, wait. I might as well warn you that the next things I'm going to say are **SPOILERS!!** and you shouldn't read them if you would rather be surprised when my books get published. When, not if. =)

Okay. So, the two characters that are bugging me are Arimathea and Abriel.

Arimathea

age: 14
height:5'5"
build: On the slimmer side, although not quite wispy.
Personality qualities in brief: Forgiving, optimistic, content, unshaken, trustful.
Personality faults in brief : Forgetful, tends to overlook other's faults so much that she would trust a traitor.
Brief Bio: Raised as an orphan in Draelaet, she comes along on the quest to close the portal and proves to be an invaluable member of the group. A follower of Light.

Abriel

age: around 16
height: 5'11"
build: fairly average, okay for athleticism but not excelling athletically.
personality qualities in brief: Sensitive, protective of loved ones, strong leadership and organizational skills.
personality faults in brief: Able to detach himself emotionally, selfish.
Brief Bio: No one knows very much about him, but he claimed falsely to be a prophet and tried to lead his traveling companions into traps to accomplish tasks given to him by Dark.

And this is my problem.

You see, Abriel was supposed to marry Skye (one of my other characters) and Thea was either going to remain single or marry Erri (another character). But...

...Abriel and Thea are falling in love! I wrote a scene of dialogue between them and they matched perfectly. Just awesome. But...aargh.

I suppose this is a good sign, that my characters are real to me and that I can't force them what to do. If I could, that would mean my characters are weak. But still.

Why. Must. They. Be. Like. That?

Sigh.