End of the Year Writer Round Up

Another year has come to an end already. Man, seems pretty fast looking back on it, doesn't it? What all happened in the writer world this year. Let's see.

The Harry Potter movies officially came to an end. That breaks my heart. Lol. I went to a midnight premier of it and had a blast. Another book/movie was The Help which was also really good.

The Inheritance Cycle (Eragon series) has finally come to an end. I'm still reading it and just got to a good part. Seems like we spent a long time waiting for the this last book but I'm sure it's worth it.

I went to NaNoWriMo's Night of Writing Dangerously which was FANTASTIC. I have big plans for fundraising next year. It's going to be a ton of fun so be looking out for that. I've also finished

In blog related stuff, we just finished a year's worth of Poetry Slams! Awesome. Scribbles and Shorts had it's first birthday and it's first give-away.



Let's see how I did on last year resolutions.

Write more shorts- Hmmm, well, if you count the little things I did for writer's group then maybe? I might be stretching it a little thought.

Finish editing/write a query letter for NaNo 09 novel- Ok, editing yes, query letter no. I'm no where near ready for a query yet. Lol. I'm working on it though.

Do a little poetry- Yes!

So I think I did pretty good. Here's to doing better in the new year!


Overall, writer wise and personally, I'd say that this was a pretty good year. How was yours?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

POETRY SLAM! #12

Poetry Slam 12!? Do you know that means that we've successfully completed a year of Poetry Slams!? Whooo!!

Well, for the last Poetry Slam I put together a Sonnet about snow. This winter has been uncharacteristically warm for us. As in 'I didn't even need a jacket of any kind with a short sleeve shirt this afternoon' kind of warm. That's weird for us because we're usually a foot deep in snow by now. Lol. Most people are really excited about that but honestly I WANT MY SNOW! :/ Not a dangerous amount, just enough to cover the ground and be pretty. So maybe this will bring good snow vibes my way. Lol.



Snow Day

Little eyes turn to the sky
Fingers pressed to window pane
Searching the dark clouds up high
Driving their parents insane
They see it, it's coming soon
There's no need to go to bed
If not morning, surely noon
They'll be out to play instead
Don't need to pack lunch for school
Won't eat it there anyway
Because the weather's too cool
We'll all be home for the day
Parents say these days are blue
But not if they can stay too



Ah, the good old days when a good snow meant I could stay home. Lol. Well, I'd say that is a good end to a year of poems. You can read all the Poetry Slams HERE if you missed some or want to give them another look. Who's ready for another year!? :)

Christmas Shopping (A holiday short)

The moment that she saw the man at the kiosk she knew that it was a bad idea to bring the boys. They always did demonstrations when it was close to Christmas.

What she saw was a man stepping on a button that sent a flimsy styrofoam rocket into the air and his TV telling them about the four easy payments. What she was sure they saw was a rocket launching 90 feet in the air trailed by fireworks with the TV blaring 'It goes so high it's like flying a real rocket. It's like shooting rockets with your feet! It's like firing missiles from your toes! Missiles. From. Your toes! Oh my gosh, it's so cool!'

"Mom!"

"No."

"But it can be an early Christmas present!"

"Ask Santa."

The oldest rolled his eyes but the youngest thought it was brilliant.

I wrote this short as part of a drabble we did in our writer's group. Our prompt was 'Missle Toe'. So, naturally, this was where my brain went. If you want to read some more you can give my Reindeer Games story from last year a look. Hope shopping wasn't too bad for you this year. Merry Christmas! Or any other holiday you're celebrating! :)

Deck the Shelves with Awesome Authors

I think that a lot of people have a go-to book in their house. The ones that you can just pick up when you're bored and never seem to get old no matter how many times you read them. I thought that I would list a few of my favorite books and the authors that quickly became my favorite too.


Shel Silverstein - A light in the Attic, Where the Sidewalk Ends

Shel Silverstein was a children's poetry writer and he has been my favorite since forever. I have four of his books at least, the two titles I listed up there included, but I only put those two because they might have been the ones I first picked up. All of his poems are so fun and weird, in a good way of course. Lol.

Lois Lowry - The Giver

This is the only book to my memory that I have reread cover to cover. Once I know what is going to happen I really can't get into a book like the first time, but something about the way she uses description just impresses me. I did a project in my Children's Lit class on it as a matter of fact. I read the other two books that accompany it, but The Giver is by far my favorite.


Jack Prelutsky - A Pizza the Size of the Sun

This is another children's poet that I enjoy. I think I found him around the same time that I started reading Silverstein. This book had my favorite poem in it, which the book is named after. It's a really fun well written piece and it probably helps that I like pizza. I actually did a project a class on this one too.


Nadine Bernard Westcott - I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

Hands down, all time favorite children's book. Ever. I still have the entire thing memorized and that has to say something that after years of not reading it I can still quote it nearly word for word. Now I'm not sure who actually was the first to write it but the copy of the book I have says that it was retold and illustrated by her. I also know that it was a song, which I never learned. It's just so catchy.

I like how most of my choices are children's books. Lol. What authors have you or do you want to deck your shelves with this year? Anyone specific on your Christmas list?

POETRY SLAM! #11

This is... really late to say the least. Lol. But better late than never, right?

Today we're doing more haiku's.

Stuffed

Relatives are here
Almost all the seats are full
The house is so stuffed

Dinner's being cooked
Smells of casseroles and pies
The turkey is stuffed

Everything is gone
Leftovers packed up and sent
Now I'm way too stuffed


I don't know about you guys, but that last part was entirely too true for me. Lol. How was everyone's Thanksgiving? Now that everyone is gearing up for Christmas, what are your plans?

The Night of Writing Dangerously!!

So I was able to save up enough money to go to The Night of Writing Dangerously! It was AWESOME!! My mother and I had a blast. This calls for pictures!

There were a ton of people there! I was so happy that I got to meet a ton of them while I was there. Everyone, OLL staff and regular Wrimos included, were super nice and really seemed like great people.

I'm happy that I got to sit at a table full of some wonderful people too. Our table seriously had it going on. Two people won prizes for being top fundraisers, one won a raffle, and yours truly won the costume contest! And a word war! Even though that was by default for being the only hand writer at the time... I still count it though! Lol!

By the way, did you notice all the people in that first picture walking around with crowns on? You got one of those after you reached 50k and rang the bell as two of my table members did together!

We also got to listen to a lot of good speeches as well from people like Chris Baty himself, the man that started NaNoWriMo! He's actually leaving his job at the OLL to write full time. Good luck, Chris!

Anyways, I had a blast and I thank all of the staff members for putting on such an awesome event. These are some seriously awesome people, (glad to say that one of them is even my Municipal Liaison! :D ), and I applaud you all.

And thank YOU GUYS, all of you reading this, for donating and spreading the word around on my behalf. I really appreciate it. I'm so excited about this that I've even started to plan for next year. Ha! Who's coming with me!? Lol.

Thanks again guys. Go finish those novels while I work on mine and I'll see you next time!

NANOWRIMO!!

Yes! We're well into the the second week onf Nanowrimo and I am..... so far behind. Lol. As I'm writing this I have around 11000 and I'm suppose to be around 25000. Maybe I should be working on it instead of this.... Hmmm. Lol. I'm not giving up hope yet! I still have Thanksgiving Break to do nothing but write and not to mention the Night of Writing Dangerously next weekend.

I'm so excited. This is going to be a great month.

My story this year is about a guy that finds out he can teleport anywhere by just touching a map. Here's a little snippet:


"Ok... What's wrong?" he asked.


"Nothing, just listen, ok?" his mom started. "Remember that time when you were five and you went from the map to the store?"


"I can hardly remember anything from when I was five."


"Well, what about the time you set o the schol fire alarm?"


"That I do remember. What about it? You aren't still holding that over my head are you?"


"No, it's just... I think you got in that room by touching the map..."


Jerry stared for a second. "That... makes sense!"


Lol. That, in so many words, sums up my MC and what he's dealing with. I'm having a lot of fun with it an my some what lack of plot. Lol.

Anyone else doing Nano? What's your story about? What are you working on if you're not doing Nano? I'll see you all later!

POETRY SLAM! #10

A 'spooky' Halloween sonnet for you today!

The Jackals Lantern

The dark mangy creatures moved through town
Snatching away the things that caught their scent
When the air was cold and the sun came down
The villagers were careful where they went

Each year the town's chances seemed to narrow
Their numbers seemed to grow every season
Until one man, lantern, bow and arrow
So set to fight, his family can't reason

The jackals came then with their snapping jaws
Cautious of the lantern along their path
Then in a flurry of arrows and paws
Too late to hide from the light and his wrath

Now the jackals still from light with fear
I will make my Jackal Lantern this year


Happy Halloween!! Turns out we're not making Jack-O-Lanterns this year. Now I'm wondering what to do with the three pumpkins we bought... Lol. What are you guys doing tonight? Whatever it is stay safe! :)

Full of excuses...

And so I'm back. (From outer space. I just walked in to find you here.... What? No singing? Ok.)

I feel like I've been away for awhile. I could give you a list of excuses, real life things and such, but they are just that: excuses. But like I said before. I'm back. I'm trying to get myself on a schedule so that I can do everything without getting piled on.

With that being said, one thing that is being scheduled is a new writing goal. In my writer's group we made a goal challenge. Everyone gave themselves a goal that they wanted to finish by next week. Mine is to write at least a page a day on the story I started over the summer. That's about 3000-3500 words I believe. Not that big of a deal if I can do NaNoWriMo. (Which is another goal for another post.)

There will be more on that later though. I just felt like I was abandoning things here so here's a quick post! See you guys soon!

POETRY SLAM! #9

Let's do a Cinquian! Cinquians are kind of like haikus. They're made by counting syllables in the form of (2 4 6 8 2). We did some as a challenge in my writer's group and mine went something like this.


Cricket
How cold is it?
Tell me what I should wear
If I came out today with your
Chirping


Well, it's something anyways. Lol. That was the first time I've ever heard of a cinquian so I tried my best. Have you ever heard of a Cinquian? And do you find the word Cinquian as fun as I do?! Lol. Give writing one a try!

The Help - Kathryn Stockett (Movie/Book Review)

A couple weeks ago my mother and I went to see The Help after reading the book. Mom loved the book enough to suggest we go see the movie. To be honest, I passed over the book until I heard it was a movie. I figured if it was a big enough deal to make a movie then it might be a good read and I was right.



The Help (Book):

I really liked it! Sometimes with longer books you worry about most of it being filler, but with The Help I can say that none of it felt like it was unimportant to the story. Although, the way some of the dialogue was written did take some getting used to. I think that was only because that's not how I speak personally. Usually when I read I don't think about it because I kinda know what's coming next. But the way some of the characters spoke kind of took me in and out of the moment a little.

For example, they might say 'gone ahead without me' instead of 'go on ahead without me.' Once I got over that though it was great because it let me know what the character really sounded like.

The Help (Movie)

Overall, GREAT movie. The actors were great and for a two hour movie it seemed to go by pretty quick. That's a good thing because usually if I'm not interested in a long movie I start checking the time and getting distracted. Lol. It might actually be unfortunate that I read the book before watching the movie. They tied some of the scenes together in a way that didn't change the story any but was definitely noticeable if you got the book first.

Overall, both were great. I'm even considering asking for the movie for Christmas. Lol. Have you seen it yet or read the book? What did you think?

NaNoWriMo LIVE?!

More detials about the 24 hour NaNoWriMo chat I hope to be doing. Feel free to pass this around!

Embarrassment for a cause!

So I'm going to California for Nanowrimo's Night of Writing Dangerously!! This video explains how I'm going to fundraise, so whether you donate or pass this video along to others I really appreciate it!

POETRY SLAM! #8

So... I woke up this morning and the first thing I thought of after realizing that it was September 1st was that I didn't do a Poetry Slam Yesterday! So here it is now!


Which is the Witches

Two witches went too the cauldron store
They went by broom to buy pots and more
They parked in the lot beside the park
And browsed the tops, top to bottom, til dark.
They left the store and went left toward their broom
With bags on their back they came back with no room
They tied them together, both tying for most
Rode with them between, bumping the roads and posts
Just when a rest was due, they got home and didn't know what to do
They got all the same things and couldn't tell whose was whose.


So this is really impromtu and it probably shows. Lol. I hope you guys liked it anyways though. I'll see you all later!

Sell Out

My 'Dream Job'? Sitting in my office, writing. Going on book tours, seeing people holding my book, signing them, maybe even working up nerve to talk to groups if asked...

Yeah, I know. From where I'm sitting now, way far off from my dream office, that's a pretty big day dream. For now I need a little bit of a more 'realistic' job. I've been looking into bookstores and such (right now I'm crossing my fingers for a phone call) but so far no luck.

I'm probably just being weird (no comment) but somehow I think I put it in my mind that if I didn't work somewhere that had something to do with books or writing then that's a sign I'm giving up. Like taking any other job said 'Oh well, I tried'. Finally though, after the hope of the phone ringing for me this time has lowered only slightly, I can see around that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You know, it's been a couple days since I wrote that first part. I didn't get called back, but I've had some time to think and I believe I've come to a conclusion. Some big steps have to be taken soon in the direction of building my writing career.

If I got a job at the place I applied at that would've rocked. I mean, it was a bookstore. What more could I have asked for? But even so, I would still have that day dream dangling just over my head. Sure, I would have a stable, dependable cash flow but I shouldn't treat a job somewhere else as my end point when what I really want is for it to be a stepping stone on the way to my real goal.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not being naive. I know that I'm not going to send out one query letter then become the next J. K. Rowling or Stephanie Meyer. I know I'll need a job to pay the bills if not forever then for at least now. Maybe not something that deals with writing or selling books but hopefully one that I don't wake up dreading. Meanwhile, I have some heavy plans to make. Believe me, the wheels are turning.

I'll let you guys know if anything solid comes up. :)

Challenge!!

I had a thought for a post to day but honestly my brain feels like mush. Lol. So instead I wanted to issue a challenge here that a got at my writer's group.

CHALLENGE: Write a 26 word story where every word starts with a different letter. No repeats and it doesn't have to be in alphabetical order.

So this is the first one I did and let me tell you, it's really hard to make sense using 26 words, much less making sure you're not starting with the same letters.


Alpha bears climb down every frostbitten ghastly hill impaitiently jousting kelp loosely mangling, nearly obliterating, part quails refused suddenly tearing under various winds xeroxing your zenith.


Uhhh... yeah, I don't know how I have bears running down kelp strewn hills trampling things that quials don't even want but it completed the challenge! If you want to give it a try put it in the comments!

Room - Emma Donoghue

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It’s where he was born and where he and his Ma eat and play and learn. At night, Ma puts him safely to sleep in the wardrobe, in case Old Nick comes.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it’s the prison where Old Nick has kept her for seven years, since she was nineteen. Through ingenuity and determination, Ma has created a life for herself and her son, but she knows it’s not enough for either of them. Jack’s curiosity is building alongside Ma’s desperation -- and Room can’t contain either of them for much longer...

Told entirely in the inventive, often funny voice of Jack, Room is a celebration of the resilient bond between parent and child, and a brilliantly executed novel about a journey from one world to another.

-- http://www.harpercollins.ca/books/Room-Emma-Donoghue/


Room was seriously an amazing book. I don't even know what to say about it outside of that. It's told in the the voice of the little five year old, Jack, and was written mostly in the kind of broken grammar that a kid would use.

I got upset, laughed, got scared all in one in this book. I honestly can't rmember the last time I felt genuine fear for a fictional person. Ha! I don't know if it's just when it's a child character that you start to feel more for them, but Jack was able to bring out all those emotions.

Again, it was a great read. Emma Donoghue did an excellent job on building these characters and conveying their emotion. It's a must read.

POETRY SLAM! #7

Built Like a Library

If I were a library all made up of books
You'd think Adult Section, African American by looks
My attitude has pictures, probably written for kids
My brain would be mystery cause who knows where it hid
My face should be comedy for its goofy smiling ways
All my nails are horrors when they've not been cut for days
My hearts probably the thing that's living in a fantasy
All together not too bad of a mixed up little library


What kind of books do you think you'd be made of?

Little Red Riding Hood

In the writer's group I'm in, we do these drabbles where someone chooses a topic or idea that we can write something short about and share it the next week. I think I'll start posting them whenever I do them. When we did this we all took an object out of a bag. Mine was a Little Red Riding Hood Happy Meal toy. :)


She found her in one of the upstairs rooms stroking the dark hair of a doll. The young babysitter knelt down beside her on the floor.

“Who’s this?” She asked.

“This is Red Riding Hood.” The girl said, admiring the doll some more before looking up at her. “You want to play with her?”

The sitter smiled and reached for it but a hand on her shoulder stopped her. She jumped then laughed when she saw it was the girl’s mother. She smiled back at her and took the doll from the little girl’s hands.

“I’m sorry I startled you. It’s just that this doll was handed down through generations and I don’t like for it to be played with. This little girl knows this.” She said sternly yet playful and ruffled her daughter’s hair before placing the doll back on the shelf, too high for the girl to reach but right at eye level for the babysitter.

Soon her parents left on their night out and she put the little girl to bed. She just left the bathroom tying her blond hair in a ponytail and was going to watch TV when she passed the doll room again. It was a very beautiful doll. All she wanted to do was look again, but when she found herself in front of it the temptation was too great and it wasn’t long before she had the doll in her hands and was stroking the hair like the girl did.

She lifted the dolls hand with her finger and when she let it go a good amount of the wax came with it. She quickly put it back on the shelf and examined it with her other hand. The doll looked fine but more wax came off the other hand. She tried hard to wipe it off but it seemed that the more she wiped at it the more it spread. She was just going to rush to the bathroom to try and save her babysitting career when she saw that the little girl was in the doorway.

She shook her head with a disapproving yet amused look on her face. “Mommy told you we shouldn’t play with the doll.”

The babysitter would’ve screamed had she felt something was wrong. What she should’ve noticed was that she didn’t feel anything at all. Soon the little girl picked up her new friend off the floor and played with her light haired ponytail while she walked to the back closet that no one seemed to notice, opened it up and placed her gently among the others before shutting it tight and sending herself back to bed.

The End of an Era

Must. Finish. BOOK.

There has only been one book, to my knowledge, that I didn't finish because I didn't like... Until last week when I made it two. These books will remain nameless here because I think it would be a little unfair for me to say something 'bad' about a book I haven't finished all the way.

It's not even that the books were bad. They're published so some one's reading them, they have to be doing something right, but they just weren't for me. There were others that I could tell I wasn't really into but I finished anyways. I can tell the signs: Taking longer with it than usual, not taking it everywhere with me, get easily distracted from it, only reading a few pages at a time as oppose to someone telling me I haven't blinked for seven hours...

I hate it when I realize that I'm not totally into a book. As a writer I know how hard it is to finally let someone else see your work, for me anyways, and one of my worries is that no one will like it. But it makes me realize that I can't write a book that every single person will love. Even some of the most popular books have people that don't like them.

While I would love if every book was fantastic and just not be able to put it down, I have to realize that it's unrealistic if I'm reading from a genre or subject that I don't care for. This can also prepare me for when I finally have a book published. Not everyone will like it. I'll just have to come to terms with that and make it the best I can for those who will.

Anyone else still trying to come to terms with this too? How many books have you just put down before?

POETRY SLAM! #6

It's Poetry Slam time again! For my new followers (welcome!) CLICK HERE to go to the first Poetry Slam to see how we got started.

Well, this one should be interesting. This month's poem is being brought out of the archives of poems I found in an old notebook of mine. I'm not sure what type of poem you'd call this. Freestyle? Feel free to correct me. Anyways, off we go.

Creative Boredom

Laying in bed, the morning in sight
I'm trying to think of something to write
My boredom is keeping me up really late
But I honestly cannot think in this state
My body is tried and ready for bed
I wish it would tell this same thing to my head
I'll try to get comfy, force my eyes to close
As soon as I finish this really bored prose


So what do you thing? And suggestions! I'd love to do poems from suggested topics and types if you'll leave them in the comments. I'll see you next month!

Every Soul a Star - Wendy Mass (review)

A novel about three very different teenagers finding their place in the universe

12-year-old ALLY likes the simple things in life—labyrinths, stargazing, and comet hunting. Her home, the Moon Shadow Campground, is a part of who she is. She refuses to imagine it any other way.

13-year-old BREE is popular, gorgeous (everybody says so), and a future homecoming queen for sure. Bree wears her beauty like a suit of armor. But what is she trying to hide?

13-year-old JACK, overweight and awkward, is used to spending a lot of time alone. But when opportunity knocks, he finds himself in situations he never would have imagined.


-- http://www.wendymass.com/


I really enjoyed this one. It's a middle grade book so it's not too long and not too short. It didn't take me too long to get through it.

At first I found that I was taking awhile to get used to the characters. I think it was just in that 'gosh I hope I didn't act like that when I was that age' type of way. Come on. You guys know what I mean. Anyways, after I got past that I really liked them.

A couple things that I thought was interesting and cool about this book was that it was educational without feeling pushy like a text book. Like a character would say something in passing and I'd find myself going 'is that true?' There are a lot of cool facts in there.

Another is the way the chapters were put together. You would see each event from each characters perspective in turn like they each had a chapter put they are numbered like Ally 1, Bree 1, Jake 1, Ally 2, Bree 2, Etc... So the real chapter wasn't over till each of them had their part.

Please check out Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass! It really is a good book and something that I think older kids and adults would enjoy.

If you can't stand the heat...

So for a few weeks now I've been trying to work on a story of mine. Recently, I thought of a another story I wanted to work on. Now I'm pretty weird about how I work on stories because I don't like to work on a different one before I'm done with the one I've already started. But I'm kind of excited about the idea so I found myself thinking 'Oh, well, I'm just doing this one for fun so I can work on it when I'm bored'. But wait. If I consider this as 'for fun' what am I doing when I write the other?

That thought kind of shook me up. I'm a writer. I've written nearly all my life. I love writing. So what's happened that this story isn't fun?

I'll be honest. I haven't been writing a whole lot and I think it might be because I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself. It kind of sounds stupid but I just changed my major to Creative Writing, I've set in stone that I want this to pay the bills one day. And perhaps it's knowing that the sooner I finish something the sooner someone will read it. That's nerve racking for a lot of people right? I want people to like what I wrote so I take way too much time getting it done. I need to remember that the first draft will never be perfect. If I keep going at this rate I'll never get done at all.

Anyways, I think this was just a needed complaining rant post. But my summer has officially started! Now I have plenty of time to learn how to... write badly? Lol. Let's see how that goes.

Happy Blog-iversary!

Summer Reading!

Oh summer. Great for reading, writing, and lazy time. One of my favorite memories is of the summer reading program at the library. Me and my cousin would set the same goal of pages and see who could get there first. We had to write the name of the books we read and the number pages in order to show that we met our goal. I'm now way to old for the program but I guess the tradition sort of stuck because I found myself making a list to read this summer!

Summer Reading List

The Naming - Alison Croggon (finished)
The Riddle - " (finished)
The Crow - "
The Singing - "
Fire - Kristen Cashore
Room - Emma Donoghue
Started Early, Took my Dog - Kate Atkinson
Gone -Micheal Grant
Hunger - "
Lies - "
Plaugue - "
Every Soul a Star - Wendy Mass (finished)
The Clockwork Three - Matthew J. Kirby
Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
On Hummingbird Wings - Lauraine Snelling
If I Stay - Gayle Forman
My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult


This is definitly a long list but when can you ever have a list a books to be read that's too long? :) Any suggestions that I should add? What's on your to be read list?

(PS- The Giveaway ends at 12:01 am on Friday the 10th! Hurry and comment on the Giveaway post to enter! Click HERE to go to it. :) )

POETRY SLAM! #5

This month's Poetry Slam suggestion was inspired by the season. Summer! Tell me what you think and leave a suggestion for next month. So here we go!


Summer Dreams

School lets out, scorching heat
Lakes and pools to wade our feet
Barbeques and lazy days
Sun block and mosquito sprays

Fireworks and lots of sports
Bonfire goodies of different sorts
A few short weeks and summer's done
Back to dream of the coming one

Just a Query Letter. Not scary at all.... Right?

Earlier this week I finished editing my NaNo novel from 2009. (Yay!) I'm excited. Quite. But with the excitement comes apprehension. I've crossed an editing threshold into a new one, the Query Zone. (Oooh...) I've only heard about the Query Zone, never been there myself, but I've heard things. Word searching, hair pulling, almost as bad as writing the book itself! It's the making of the dreaded query letter! (Gasp!)

Ah, the query letter. Such a little piece of paper with so much importance. The letter that sells your book. The letter that will show an agent why your book is going to be perfect for them. The letter that's suppose to make an agent fall so deeply in love with your book that they come beg you to let them represent you. No pressure, right?

Well, yeah, there's a little pressure. This is new territory for me so I'm going to need some help. I know close to nothing about a query letter except for what I researched a little. So I ask you, any suggestions? Have you written a query letter before? Where did you research, a website or a book?

Well, my novel is still no where near ready for being queried so I'll try not to stress about it for now. I'll just sit in the holding area between editing and querying and wait my turn. I believe that place is called revision, right?

PS- Don't forget about the Blog-iversary Giveaway!

The Naming - Alison Croggon

In the classic spirit of epic fantasy comes this glittering saga of a young girl who learns she possesses an uncanny gift—and is destined to use it to save her world from a terrifying evil.
-http://www.alisoncroggon.com

First of all, I want to say that I like this book. If I didn't like it I wouldn't have finished it. With that being said, I almost didn't.

The Naming is a good 400 pages long and it seemed that I hesitated reading some parts of it. The two main characters, Maerad and Cadvan, spend a lot of time traveling. I don't want to say it's boring, but really all that happens in those parts is a description of the area and the weather then something exciting then back to travel and they get where they're going. Now I haven't read the other three books in the series so I'm in no place to say what I think was necessary to put in there or not so I won't go that far.

I will, however, be reading them because it's an excellent plot. I'm stuck wondering what's going to happen next. I want to know what's going to happen to the characters and what kind of trouble they're going to run in to and that's really important for a book.

BLOG-IVERSARY GIVEAWAY!!!

Next month is the one year anniversary of Scribbles and Shorts!! I thought it would only be appropriate if I had a party for it. :) Consider this your invitation. And what's a party without some goodies? That's why I'm having a giveaway!! This is what I'll be, well, giving away!



A dictionary, thesaurus, notebook, 3 ring pencil holder, pens, mechanical pencils, and highlighters. Basically it's a writer's starter kit. Even if you don't write these are things that you would use pretty often.

Rules in short:
-Be a follower of the blog
-Leave a comment about anything on this post
-Contest closes on June 10th at 12:01am Central time
-Results will be posted on June 11th

Rules in Detial:

So how do you get in on this? Follow the blog and leave a comment here. That's it! It can be about anything. A book I should read or what I should post on the blog. Have fun with it! I'll number the comments (the first is number one, next is two, and so on) then I'll use the random number generator to pick one. I'll close the contest at 12:01am on June 10th Central time, film the generator pick that day, and post the results on June 11th.

So have fun posting your comment! But be quiet, it's a surprise party for the blog so only tell EVERYONE you know. :D

POETRY SLAM! #4

This month's suggestion is brought to you by another friend from writer's group.

The topic is: Distraction
The type: Left up to me...but I don't know what it is. I just wrote it on a study break. (It's finals week, cut me some slack! ;) )

So without further ado...

You Know Me

I am talented, I am skilled
I'm hardheaded and strongwilled
I don't need you to grab my attention
I don't need anyone, I am distraction
Think you can stop me? You know you're not right
I come and you don't know it, I keep you up at night
You hear that buzzer? Please. Hit the snooze.
Think of all the dreams you'll lose!
Ha! Look at you, now you're late.
Get up! I've got plans to procrastinate
Social Networks. Trust me it'll only be a minute
Check your email. There's probably something important in it.
Oh yeah, what about that homework, that paper to write
I win. Look's like someone's not sleeping tonight.
I'm procrastination, laziness, but I'll help with a clue
My name is distraction, but mostly I'm you.

When Dad was the Easter Bunny

We heard mom scream first. It was like the time I showed her the toad I found in the puddles after it rained. Then I heard Dad scream. He sounded like he was watching one of his football games. Me and my little brother ran to their room.

"Whoa... Dad, you've got ears." Tod said.

"Like not people ears." I specified. "Rabbit ears."

By this time he knew that because he was already in the mirror tugging at them. Tod and I looked at each other then burst out laughing which we stopped immediately when both Mom and Dad glared at us.

"Ok, which one of you did this?" Dad said.

"We didn't do it!"

"Yeah! We thought you put them on."

"Obviously, your father--" Mom was cut off by the doorbell. She got up and put a robe on. "Don't worry, I've got it. You guys go get dressed." She pushed us out of the door with her and went downstairs while we went to check out the window.

"That looks like an icecream truck."

"Maybe it broke down and he'll give us free icecream!"

We raced down the stairs and heard Mom talking to someone at the door. He had a funny suit on and thin, wiry glasses. He was showing his clipboard to Mom.

"Yes, that's my husband, but we didn't order anything..."

"I know this, ma'am. This is about what other people have ordered and if your husband doesn't leave soon-" He saw Dad coming down the stairs with a baseball cap to cover his head. "Ah, good. I'm assuming your ears came in nicely?"

He adusted his hat. "How do you, uh, what ears? Who are you anyways?"

"There's no time for that. I need you to take this and this," he handed him the clipboard and a suit on a hanger. "And be on your way soon." He started to leave but Dad stopped him.

"Hang on, I didn't order anything."

"I know, I know. Listen, do you want those ears to go away? Yes? Then put that on, take the clipboard and that truck there, and make the deliveries." Then he was gone.

"That truck is ours!"

"Awesome!"

"Tod, stay inside!" Mom said. "Maggie, get back in here! That truck is not ours."

Too late, I was already in the back. "There's Easter eggs in here!"

"Mom! That's unfair I want some too!"

"No one is taking anything from that truck. Maggie, get in here now!"

I hopped out and ran back inside. "Dad, the guy said it was yours right? So those are our eggs."

"No. These are addresses to people's houses. Apparently, I'm suppose to take stuff to people's houses." He looked up from the clipboard. "I think I'm the Easter bunny."

Me and Tod looked at each other again. ".........AWESOME."

Mom muttered something about coffee while we dragged Dad back up stairs. "You've gotta get dressed! We gotta go!"

"No, no, no. No one is going anywhere especially in that truck. It could be anyone's."

"Dad," I pulled him down to my level and snatched to cap off his head. "You have real life rabbit ears. What more proof do you need!?"

He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Give me the suit."

"Yes!" We went to get dressed while he went to his room and we heard Mom trying to talk Dad out of it but when we came out she was dressed too.

"Let's go!"

"How long is all of this going to take?" Mom asked him.

"Well, all the addresses are local so not long from the looks of it."

We piled in the truck and took off. We even found three more headbands with rabbit ears on them. They got to the first stop and took a basket into a sitting room full of people who laughed at Dad's funny suit and our bunny ears. Then we were sent to a park. The instructions said to hide them so we did. Mom and Dad hid them in way too obvious places so me and Tod went looking for the perfect hiding places. Behind a tree, under a bench, and on the slides, we even managed to get one to sit on a tree branch. Tod tried to keep one but I told him I was going to tell if he did even though I wanted one too.

That's how the rest of our day went. Delivering baskets and hiding eggs. When we got back home in the late afternoon we were all so tired from laughing at each other that we almost didn't see the basket at our door with a little card that said 'Thank You'. We took it inside and ate some of it while watching tv and soon we noticed Dad's ears were gone. I tried to tell my friends when they asked what I did for Easter but they still don't believe that my dad was the Easter bunny.

Happy Easter everyone! Sorry for the late post but I hope you enjoyed the story. I guess you could say that this was a good idea from the 'plot bunny'. See what I did there?! Ha ha!......yeah. *ahem* Now to rest after a heavy Easter lunch. :) Next post will be really special. See you then!

Things Only a Writer Should Say

• There are so many characters in my head.


• I'm really sad I had to kill him off.


• Finished. Now I can go to the bathroom.


• The characters are telling me what to do again.


• I like this guy. It's too bad he's imaginary.


• This whole conversation is being written down.


• I need a soundtrack for this.


• The end is near!


• This really sucks but that's ok.

You ever find yourself saying something that would probably sound weirder coming from someone who wasn't writing a book?

Week of the Writer Wrap Up

So it ends. First off, thanks for sticking around even though I realize that not all the posts were exciting or anything. With that being said, let's see what I actually got done from the list at the beginning of the week!

Putting up a desk in my room (Yes!)

Finish the 2nd edit of Nano 09 (Not quite)

Finish at least one short (No)

Read (Uh huh)

Blog (Indeed)

Facebook fanpage (Yep!)

Youtube channel (Nope)

Print business cards (sort of?)

A good 4.5 out of 8 isn't so bad considering I at least worked on two others. I gave myself half a credit on the cards because I didn't print them out but I did start using them. And I do have a desk now! I'm really excited about it. Perhaps I'll have to post a picture when I get it all pretty and stuff.

Anyways, hope you had a good week. I'll be going back to normal posting now. See you then. :)

Week of the Writer: Day 8

One day till Wrap Up Day. A really short post today because I was enjoying the awesome weather by taking a trip out of town to see a friend. But I'm happy to say that I'm now ready to put my desk up! That's something I'll do tomorrow. I'm already imagining what I'll clutter it up with. Question of the Day: What do you think is a must on a desk? Anything that you just can't imagine your or any desk without? I better go rest then prepare for tomorrow. See you for the 'grand finale'.

Week of the Writer: Day 7

I wrote words! Like real, new words. Not a lot of words but I wrote them. It's kinda late so maybe I'll share some before the week is over. Tomorrow will be busy but Sunday will be my wrap up day. We'll see how much I actually got done.

I did make business cards awhile ago. I wanted to get them printed on cardstock but I don't see that happening soon. They're pretty cool though. I made two kinds, one with just my blog info and one with my name and all my personal info. I took someone's idea and started putting the blog cards in books I read at the library. Hope that's not frowned upon or illegal for some reason. :)

Anyways, short post today because it's late. I went to see Insidious. So creepy and yet so good. I'll see you all tomorrow.

Week of the Writer: Day 6

Well, I did the Poetry Slam! :D *waits for you to be impressed and forget about the big writing and editing promises I made you...* Ok. I seriously don't know what's wrong with me. I have all this time to do stuff and yet I don't. This is making me sound like a horrible writer, neglecting all my character children... Words will be written. Seriously. SERIOUSLY. Ok, you're right to doubt me but I will cry wolf no more. You know, unless there's an actual wolf.

Anyways, have you visited my facebook yet? Pretty cool, huh? Hopefully it'll grow in number we'll get some more Scribblers over here. What would you like to see me do on there? There's a disscusion area on it so you can talk about different topics. I already set one up for Poetry Slam suggestions. Let me know if there's anything else you would like to see.

Something else I was thinking about was a youtube channel. There are a few authors that are coming close to my area and I was thinking that if I went to go see them it would be fun to do a vlog. And the Night of Writing Dangerously for NaNoWrimo that I intend to go to would be more fun to watch than to read about. So what do you think? Is that a good idea? What else do you think I could put on there? What would you like to see?

Wow, only 3 days left till Monday. Well, I knew I would have to go back at some point. Lol. See you later.

POETRY SLAM! #3

This week the poetry slam suggestion is brought to you by a friend from my Writer's Group. I read my last poem to the group and she said it reminded her of when her kid would call toast with butter on it 'wobbly toast'. I jumped on the challenge. And after some research I found Odes, which generally describe things you love. Perfect.

Now I couldn't pinpoint a specific pattern used to create an Ode. I'd find one pattern then I'd find another and I even heard of one poem that used different kinds in each stanza. But there are ten lines in each stanza and the pattern goes in some variation like this: ABABCDECDE. I used ABABCDEDCE. So without further ado:

Suggestion: Wobbly Toast

Type: Ode

Ode to Wobbly Toast

Oh wobbly toast, so golden brown

I love your flimsy darkened sides

But how you wobble up and down

Butter’s where your secret hides

With hard crust and soggy crunches

Four sides of jelly or cinnamon

I will take in every flavor

Each of your tastes are par to none

You’re good for breakfast, dinner, brunches

Each wobbly bite are those I’ll savor

Well, what do you think? Let me know. Even give it a try yourself! I'll see you next time.

Week of the Writer: Day 5

I made a facebook page for my writing!!! :D http://on.fb.me/f3lV0k 'Like' it and pass it around if you will. I'm really excited about this and I have no idea way. Ha! If there's anything you would like to see on there let me know. Stop by and leave my a comment or something. :)

Anyways, that's really the highlight of my day. I played a good hour of Sonic but that has nothing to do with writing... Still reading The Naming. I guess I don't read as fast or maybe not as often during the day as I thought. It's a pretty thick book. I probably won't finish it this week. We also added painting into the list of things to do before we put my desk up. It's not a big desk so maybe we'll just move it when we're ready to paint but I'm not sure. I also decided that tomorrow I will be strict about getting some writing and editing done. I'll be disappointed if I don't get it done this week.

I'll see you tomorrow with another day and a Poetry Slam too! :)

Week of the Writer: Day 4

Yeah, so you remember all that productivity yesterday? I must need to refuel or something. I wasn't in the right frame of mind to do anything today. I was just really bored. Doing anything in the four walls of my house just sounded horrible, which is ridiculous. I would rather stare at walls and watch youtube videos all day instead of actually getting something done? Am I the only one that does this? I WILL get my editing done and at least one of my shorts... just not today. *sigh*

Anyways, I read some more of The Naming and did edit maybe one page. I also looked at facebook pages today. (Ha. I sound like I'm looking for a car or an apartment.) There are different categories, like business or cause, and under Artist, Band, or Public Figure you can choose Author or Writer. Am I missing the difference? Which am I?

I'll see you guys tomorrow. :)

Week of the Writer: Day 3

You know what? I am really proud of myself. The only thing that I didn't get around to today was my shorts. I did laundry, recruited dad to help move something around in preparation for my desk, edited a chapter, and went to Writer's Group. I even went to the gym and washed my hair. By golly, I've been, what's that word... productive. Wow, I don't see that word too often. Looks funny.

Anyways, I don't have any of my shorts to share with you but I do have a question. Remember back on my list of things to do this week when I mentioned a facebook fanpage? What do you think about that? I've been tossing the idea back and forth in my head. It would be more for me as an author rather than a blogger, though I'll put links to blog posts on there too. Let's put this into a pros and cons list.

Pros



• Access to more people (A lot of people have facebook though I know a few who don't)


• Easier to share (If I'm not wrong there's a button on groups or fanpages that you can 'suggest' it for a friend)



Cons





• Copyright issues? (Would it be easy for someone to take stuff I write off of facebook? I guess that's really anywhere.)



What do you think? The pros out weigh the cons? I think I might go for it. Let me know what you think.

The Week of the Writer: Day 2

Only thing I've really done today was finish Graceling. It was amazing, as I stated in my review. I'm going to start The Naming by Alison Croggon now. Tomorrow will be when the real work starts. I've got a couple shorts that I've been putting off for quite awhile. I really like them so I want to go ahead and get them done. Perhaps I'll share a bit with you tomorrow. Add to that two chapter edits since I didn't get to one today. Also some more cleaning and moving things around for my little desk. Shouldn't be too long before I can get it up. It's weird how excited I am for this. Lol. So how was your weekend? Get some writing done? Read something good? I'll catch up with you guys tomorrow. :)

Graceling - Kristin Cashore

"Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight- she's a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king's thug. When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change. She never expects to become Po's friend. She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away..."

Graceling was nothing short of fantastic. I enjoyed it all the way. It was really easy to lose myself the story and start caring for the characters. Cashore was really good with throwing surprise stuff at you too. You might think you have an idea of what's going to happen but more often then not I found myself pleasantly surprised. There were some times when Cashore would break quotes up in a different way then maybe I would, but it's nothing I took too much notice of. Everyone has a different style of writing after all. Gracling is a thriller. It's definitely a book that I suggest you pick up. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on it's companion, Fire. You can find out more about Kristin Cashore and her work at her blog.

Week of the Writer: Day 1

Actually, I did the first thing that anyone does when they have a week of doing nothing ahead of them. I got lazy.

Yeah, I didn't do much today and didn't even leave the house except to get the paper and the mail. I've been reading. Still working on Graceling. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out. It's getting into some really exciting stuff.

I'm also taking a break on editing my 'Nano 09' novel. I wanted to see if I could finish it this week and it turns out that I have the same number of chapters left as number of days off. I figure I'll try to do atleast one chapter a day and that will get done. Whoo!

So lets see, things left on the agenda for today:
Read more
Finish editing a chapter
Wash and put away laundry

Turns out if you want to put a desk in your room you have to have somewhere to put it. Gees. The fine print of life. Well, back to work. I'm realizing that this wasn't exactly a thrilling day... The posts will get more exciting! Lol. If you really want to know what my day was like than go play QWOP. (Caution: It's very frustrating and addicting.) Ha! I'll see you tomorrow. :)

The Week of the Writer!!!

It's Spring Break. FINALLY! So with out classes to worry about I have a bunch of extra time to do whatever my little heart desires. It wants to do writerly things. That is why I declare this week THE WEEK OF THE WRITER! (I found that I like themed days even more after starting this blog.)

Events of The Week of the Writer will include but not be limited to:

Really wants
Putting up a desk in my room
Finish the 2nd edit of Nano 09
Finish at least one short
Read
Blog

Maybes
Facebook fanpage
Youtube channel
Print business cards

We'll talk more about these in detail later. I'll keep you posted over the next 9 days. For now I'm off to finish Graceling by Kristin Cashore. It's awesome so far by the way. See you tomorrow. :)

The First No of Many

I don’t know if I mentioned this before but about a month ago I sent in an application for an internship. Now I’ve recently found out that I didn’t get it. I’m disappointed obviously, quite so, but being the Captain of Optimism that I am I like to look on the bright side. I’m trying not to take it personally, only thinking about what reasons they could have to say no and how I could’ve done things differently if it won’t help me get better for next time, because as a writer I should be use to this.

One of the first things you may here when a writer talks about querying is that they’re expecting a ‘no’. This may sound really pessimistic but it’s just reality. Querying is hard, so I hear. Agents probably get a bunch every day and they have to say no sometimes. I’m looking at this as practice for that.

They may have said no but there’s always next year. I’ll just make myself better, dust myself off, get back on the horse, walk it off, insert other ‘try again’ catch phrase here, and that’s how I’ll go into my future as a writer. There will always be another year, another internship, another query, another agent, another review, till you get just that one YES.

No more feeling bad about no’s. From now on they will only be fuel to my fire and I won’t leave the kitchen because of the heat because my glass will stay half full and I’ll drink it if I get hot and fill it back up again!

Ok, I’m getting carried away with the clichés.... I’ll end with this: No’s will not make me stop!!

Books have spoiled me.

And I'm pretty sure it's mostly Harry Potter's fault.

Seriously, how awesome would it be to just Accio something you lost or something that you want but are too lazy to get up and get. (A hint: Accio might work if you say Accio someone with something. Example: Accio Mom with a cookie. Person may have to be present and you have to say please.) Or if you locked your keys in the car. Alohamora that thing and you're on your way. Can't find something in your bag? Lumos. Problem solved.

Can you imagine flying around on a broom? That would be awesome for the enviroment. No more carbon foot print. I'm looking at you Scientists. Get busy. Even just some Floo Powder. I know I don't feel like driving everywhere so just pop some Floo Powder in and get there.

I'm pretty sure that I won't be satisfied till I can fly and throw stuff around with my mind. Excuse me while I go work on that. What books have you wishing it were real life?


(By the way, still looking for suggestions for this month's Poetry Slam. Throw some challenges out there... Or I'll have to read your mind for them. :) )

Night Star - Alyson Noel

Night Star is the fifth book in the Immortal Series by Alyson Noel. I mentioned the fourth book of this series in one of my past posts about new books I wanted.

Ever and Damen are in a really tough spot with keeping thier friends under wraps about their special abilities and keeping them safe from a jealous rival. Meanwhile, Ever learns more about her past and thinks she may have found what she needs to help her and Damen truely be together like they want to be.

If I had to say one thing about this book I'd say that it was a major teaser. Each chapter was like someone dangling something just out of your reach, something that you want REALLY bad! Lol. While trying to avoid any spoilers I'll say that while she dangles a lot of stuff in our face but not much gets resolved and a whole other twist was added. This builds a nice frame for the final book Everlasting.

If you haven't read this series yet then go get caught up! Especially if you're really into paranormal type things.

Poetry Slam! Round 2!

Poetry Slam is back again for another go! Last time we did some haikus about childhood.


I Just Know Everything joined in with one of his own:

Watching Snick with friends
Every Saturday night
Then we would sleep in

So awesome. I think we can all relate to the sleeping in part. Lol. Thanks for that!


This months challenge comes from:

mikesteele05 - "Mushy foods. Doctor Suess style."

Ooh, this is going to be fun. :) Well, I'm taking a class on Shakespeare and we talked about sonnets so I'm going to do it sonnet style! Can a sonnet be Dr. Suess-ish? We'll find out. From what I've found there are many ways to write a sonnet but I'm going to do it the Shakespearean way. This is a 14 line poem that follows the pattern of - abab cdcd efef gg. A rhymes with a, b rhymes with b, and so on.

So I now present...


My Mushy Meals

I like to eat things known as mushy food
Those things that flop and plop and stand up too
They're great for building, but I'm not too rude
When it gets on my fork it's what I do

Oatmeal with sugar, flakes in milk too long
Bananas that have brown spots from old age
Cottage cheese that slides out of its bowl wrong
Toast soaked in butter past its crunchy stage

Pasta in sauce that glue them together
Twirling up in short and sloppy towers
Icecream melted in the summer weather
Giving fingers cold and sticky showers

Mushy foods have great things they're meant to build
But in a fight they are weapons to wield


How did I do? Did I take the challenge well? Let me know and give it a try yourself if you want. Leave a type of poem or a subject for next month and I'll see you then!

The Whining of the Writer

Warning: The following is a series of complaints made by yours truly and may mimic the sound of crying babies, whimpering puppies, and other sounds that express the feeling of being upset and are yet sometimes annoying. Read at your own discretion.

Hi, my name is Sarah and I reign over the Land of Lazy as Princess Procrastinator. Lately though, I've been thinking of resigning. *insert gasps from the Lazy natives*

Yeah, it's true. Procrastinating just isn't working out for me anymore. At the risk of sounding like a child, school has gotten really hard. Especially for a procrastinator. The further behind I let stuff fall at school, the more time that I have to spend getting it done again. And you know what has suffered as a cause to that? My writing.

Aside from school stuff and blog posts, I don't think I've written anything new in awhile. My poor, half edited, Nano 09 novel sits in my writing bag waiting for the return of my pen. It probably doesn't know who wrote it anymore. *sigh* I also have three shorts in mind, two of which have been started and one on the back burner of my brain.

So I hereby vow to work on my time management. During the daytime hours I will do everything school related. After dinner I will do what I want, writing and so forth. It has been decreed... (Because royalty are always decreeing something right?)

How do you all handle writing time and other priorities?

By the way, still looking for a challenge on the Poetry Slam for this Monday. Have a suggestion? Let me know. Leave a comment! :)

Imaginary Love

Alright, character crushes. We've all heard about them and a lot of us have had them. There's just something about certain fictional characters that we just can't resist. Let's go through some popular ones:

Jacob vs. Edward - Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Of course this is the first of any imaginary love list. I mean people created teams for them for goodness sake. For myself, I'd choose Jacob. Come on. He's at least halfway normal. But for Bella I'd choose Edward for reasons that are obvious in the last book.

Peeta vs. Gale - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Now this is a tough one. On one hand you have Peeta who grew close to Katniss by being the chosen boy in their pair, but on the other is Gale who grew up with her and is already like family. Ugh. I can't even make a choice. I don't know what I would do.

Brenda vs. Teresa - The Maze Runner by James Dashner

In the second book, The Scorch Trials, we are introduced to someone who could be a new love interest for Thomas, Brenda. So again we have the old friend and the new one. From where they're at in the book now I'd say that Thomas should go out with Brenda but it wouldn't work out then he'd be conveniently single when he runs into Teresa again years later. Classic romance movie scenario.

Regardless of what choices they make, I wish these imaginary characters the best. Here's to finding many new imaginary loves. Check out these books if you haven't already. Happy (early) Valentines Day! :)


Ps.- Check out the people over at The Treehouse Gang. They posted a story of mine today! Let them know what you think about it then check out their other posts too. :)

The Scorch Trials - James Dashner

The Scorch Trials is the second book in the series following The Maze Runner. I'm going to try my best to avoid anything that might be a spoiler. After escaping one nightmare that they were forced to fight through, Thomas and his friends have come to a resting point only to find that WICKED, the group that's to blame for their troubles, wasn't done with them yet. It starts right where the last one left off. If you remember, back when I made a list of books that I couldn't wait for, this was one of those along waited books I sought after. I have to tell you, it was well worth the wait.

From the very beginning I was hooked. Every chapter just pulled me in and I could hardly find a place to stop that wouldn't have me wondering "what's going to happen?!" until I can pick it back up again. Once you get to the middle it levels out a bit but nearing the end of it he builds it up again till you finally think you have it figured out.

It's like a roller coaster ride the whole way. I highly suggest you pick up The Scorch Trials after checking out The Maze Runner if you haven't already. Check out James Dashner's blog for more details on all his books. I will see you guys on the next post. :)

POETRY SLAM!

Welcome to the first ever Scribbles and Shorts Poetry Slam! *snaps fingers*

So this is how it's going to be done. Each poetry post will be put up on the last day of the month. Until the end of the next month you guys, my Scribblers as I've decided will be my friendly nickname for my 'followers' (I like it, don't you! :) ), can comment as to what kind of poem I should write for that month and what it should be about. I'll choose one and post it. So here it goes!

First Poetry Slam starter honors go to:

I Just Know Everything
Type: not given
Subject: Childhood

Since I the choice was left open I decided I would go with some haikus because, well, it's all I know for now... So I give you:

Childhood - in form of haikus

Late cries for parents
Waiting for bottles of milk
Changing the diapers

Learning to sit up
To crawl and walk and say words
Loving picture books

Going to school now
Fun with teachers, toys, and kids
Learning to write things

No recess here now
School's not much fun without it
The homework is hard

Sleepovers and snacks
Movies or just hanging out
Always on the phone

Starting to talk back
Whoopings and groundings aren't fair
I always miss stuff

Learning to drive cars
The first time alone is cool
With friends is better

All grown up we think
Only later do we find
We want it all back


So how did I do? Let me know know what you like or don't like and leave a suggestion for next month. Thanks for this months prompt, I Just Know Everything! I'll see you guys next post.

The Replacement - Brenna Yovanoff

"Though he lives in the small town of Gentry, Mackie comes from a world of tunnels and black murky water, a world of living dead girls ruled by a little tattooed princess. He is a Replacement—left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. Now, because of fatal allergies to iron, blood, and consecrated ground, Mackie is slowly dying in the human world.
Mackie would give anything to live among us, to practice on his bass or spend time with an oddly intriguing girl named Tate. But when Tate’s baby sister goes missing, Mackie is drawn irrevocably into the underworld of Gentry, known as Mayhem. He must face the dark creatures of the Slag Heaps and find his rightful place, in our world, or theirs."

-http://www.brennayovanoff.com/


This is the book I was talking about in my last post. I decided to check it out and I'm glad that I did. It was a great, edge of your seat, kind of fantasy. I didn't really know what was going to happen until it was happening and I liked that.

There were parts that seemed kind of confusing, like the characters were going along with it too easy. I don't know exactly how to explain it but I guess I didn't really connect with them the way I thought I might have. I can't say that there was a character that I liked more than another.

It was very descriptive so it was easy to visualize what was going on. Some strong language was used here and there so you can use your own discretion on that. Overall, I'd say this is a book worth picking up.

This book sounds familiar. Did I write this?

I was browsing through some blogs recently when I found a couple of reviews for Brenna Yovanoff's The Replacement. That one got my attention because I just so happen to have a short story with the same name. So I thought, huh, that's interesting. Similar titles are bound to come up every once in awhile, right? But after I read the reviews I found something a little more concerning. The expert sounds a lot like my plot.

No, as fun as it sounds, I'm not trying to come up with some crazy conspiracy theory about how Yovanoff sent ninja spys into my notebook to steal my plots. I am, however, presented with my first problem. Do I read this book or not? If I read it and I decide that I want to put some more work into my short than will everything I write suddenly sound like Yovanoff's? If I don't read it than I'll forever wonder if we two great minds that think a like.

Here's the second question. Will having a similar plot lower my chances of getting that story published? I don't believe that short of mine was ever meant to go anywhere but I've been told that if I were to expand it than it could be a really good book. Does it make any difference to agents or publishers if they've heard of something similar?

Well, I've decided I'd read The Replacement because it sounds like a pretty cool book. In fact, I've just started it and it seems to be a little more fantasy whereas mine is pretty realistic. I may do a review on it when I'm done.

What's your opinion? Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever seen a book that was close to something you wrote before?

(PS- HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SISTER!!! :) )

2011!!

Happy New Year everybody! I hope the first week of 2011 has gone well for you. We had a lot of fun with my family so mine has gone pretty well. But, along with going back to work and school, a lot of people are making resolutions. Since this is the first post of 2011 I thought I’d share some of my writing resolutions here so you can all yell at me if I’m not keeping to it. :) Lol. Here they go:

1. Write more shorts
Writing short stories is how I started writing in general. Lately though, it seems that I haven’t been doing many of them at all. I kind of miss it. So let’s put a number on it. I will write at least 3 shorts this year. Short number one is in progress by the way.

2. Finish editing/write a query letter for my 2009 NaNo novel
It has been sitting there unfinished long enough. Time to fix it up and see what I can do with it!

3. Do a little poetry
I’m going to try to get an internship and the portfolio that I have to fill out asks me to do poetry. I’ve never really tried poetry before. I had to do a couple of high school assignments here and there but really I have no experience in that. So this year that’s going to change too.

So that’s just a few things I want to do this year. What’s some of yours? Have you already gotten started? I have a feeling that 2011 is going to be made of awesome. Whoo!!

A new year could also bring new things to my blog. I have a couple ideas that I’m going to throw out there that could mean more posts. I was thinking about more book reviews and a ‘Poetry Slam Challenge’ series.

I want to do book reviews on random days because when I finish a book I like to do reviews as soon as I can so my idea of it is still fresh. So I figure why not post them as I read them? The ‘Poetry Slam Challenge’ could be every month. You all challenge me with a topic and the type of poem (like a haiku or…uh, well, that’s really the only kind I know. I really, really need to work on this) and I’ll do it and post it. It will help me learn more about poetry and keep my word on my resolution. Hopefully it'll be fun for you guys to be involved and see how I do with your challenge too. Maybe you could even do it with me and I’ll post a link to poems for that month’s challenge.

Let me know what you think. See you next post. :)