Okay. A lot has happened--sometimes inconsequential--in the past two days. 1. We went over to see friends. Yesterday we went to see our friends, the Smiths. We hiked up to a rocky cliff that looked over a huge deep blue reservoir in the midst of a forest filled with pine trees and the white stalks of naked aspen trees. It was beautiful. We had lunch on the rocks and hiked all over those mountains. We drove back to the house crammed in the trunk of their huge bus-like car and baked cinnamon rolls which were amazing! We ate spaghetti for dinner and watched Seven Brides for Seven Brothers afterwards, consuming the cinnamon rolls in the process. It was a charming mid-fifties chick-flick musical. Had a lot of fun with you guys! :) 2. I finished my NaNoWriMo goal. What to say? I finished my goal of 25000 words. 76 pages of my nameless story. Finished at around midnight last night. It's not done yet. Not even close, but I got a lot done this month. I find I work better when I have a goal to beat. We went out to FroYo in Woodland Park to celebrate and saw Josh N there, which was a nice surprise. 3. I went to see the Mockingjay, part 1. Oh! It was amazing! Kind of violent and definitely earning it's PG-13 rating, but amazing all the same. They changed a couple of things and added a couple more parts in to increase the tension, which, as a writer, I thought was a wise move for the places they added it. It helped the story along and increased the conflict and suspense, which is something every writer should want to do. I almost cried once. The acting is incredible. I don't even see how it can be people acting, that's how good it was. It also made me very happy that they alphabetized the names of the groups of people in the credits. Call me OCD, but it did. 4. I had my fourth Thanksgiving meal this year. Tonight we invited our next door neighbor over to have a Thanksgiving meal with us. He's a single, disabled veteran and all his family lives in Arizona, so he's alone for the holidays, excluding his cats, which don't really count. So, we made roast chicken, potatoes and gravy, salad, and he brought over these delicious homemade pastry dessert-type dishes. One he called pull-apart bread was sweet, soft bread that's in chunks covered in cinnamon and sugar that you can just pull out of the pan and it's all caramelized and browned on the edges. Holy cow, it was amazing. And the other was a cinnamon roll type thing just with thinner bread crust. That was irresistible as well. 5. I've started a new TV series. I've started watching Once Upon a Time. I'm kind of just blindly watching, so if anyone has seen it and knows that there's something horribly bad in it, you can comment below. I love it so far. It's slightly cheesy, but, hey! I like cheese. And romance. And fairy-tales. It's fairly good acting and a really good concept. 6. I've started to formulate a list of movies I want to watch. Anyone have any more suggestions? I've heard the Giver is amazing. I love retold fairytales, so Cinderella seems interesting. Exodus: Gods and Kings seems like it will twist the Bible story quite a bit, but if I watched as an action movie, I'd like it. The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies I've been wanting to see for forever. Ever since the last one ended at a horrible cliffhanger. *Glares at Peter Jackson* Maleficent is another retold fairytale and everyone knows that I love those. I've heard this was really good as well. Into the Woods is yet another retold fairytale. Actually a combination of quite a few fairytales. Avengers 2 seems interesting. I've also posted all the trailers if you want to watch them below.
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I woke up this morning missing my voice. It ran away in the middle of the night and I can't seem to get it back. It has to be close, because it comes back in snippets at a time, but never all the way. It left on the day we decided to go up the mountain to our rental, so I had to do things with a non-existent voice, attempting to ask people where this is or if they have already packed that. Maybe by tomorrow I'll be able to convince it to come back and work for me again.
A lot of times during the holidays, I feel stressed, as we're preparing millions of dishes, trying not to mix up what goes to so-and-so's house and what goes to the other. Especially when we are hosting, like we are this year. We're having 43 people come over (half of them very small children) to eat a full Thanksgiving meal. So we have to transform the house into a massive dining room so everyone has a place to eat. And oftentimes in the chaos, I tend to forget to be thankful, which is the whole reason I'm doing this in the first place. Instead, I tend to focus on the fact that we have to make five different dishes in three hours, clean the garage and set up tables and chairs and manage to make the garage safe for children by removing all the fun but deadly tools and on the side, clean all the bathrooms, the kitchen, the living rooms and make sure that the house is suitable for company. So, last night I had to stop myself and tell myself to take in what's around me and thank God for the things he's given me.
The fact that I can actually get ready for Thanksgiving since I have a house, food, and lots and lots and lots of family and friends to share this day with should alone, be enough to make me thankful. Some people are living on the streets today. No family. No home. No food for that matter. Or some people could be in the hospital today and can't help celebrate this holiday. Or maybe someone out there has family, but their family is abusive to them, and they have to spend this holiday in fear. So, remind yourself to stop and be thankful that you have the life you have and don't focus on all the things that could go wrong or the stress of all the things you have to do. GodTube is being weird right now, but SkitGuys have a good skit on being thankful on Thanksgiving. You should check it out. Happy Thanksgiving to you all! Have a great day! This song has been such an inspiration for my nameless story, since my character feels as though God has forsaken her. Or maybe, she speculates, he's no there at all. So, I thought I'd post it here, for you who need story inspiration of the kind. Don't you love it when you find a song that fits your story exactly? Okay, this is another rap, by the way. Word count update! I just passed 100 pages and 20,000 words. YAY!!!! 5000 words to go to get my word goal for NaNoWriMo. I'm so close. I'm going to need to be dedicated, though. The last couple of days of November are going to be super busy and I'm going to need to fit in 1000 words a day. I can do it, though! Hopeless. I can spell it. I can smell it in the air. Tradition is always important. Every year on November 22nd, my mom's birthday, we put up our Christmas decorations and watch While You Were Sleeping, a romantic comedy. Last night we threw a surprise karaoke party for Mom at the Loft. We had so much fun. I sang in front of people for the first time ever and took dumb pictures with my family and cousins at the photo booth. Overall, it was a really fun night. There are pictures below. You don't analyze miracles, you just believe in them. Where do I even start? God has blessed me to give me such a great mother. Thank you for everything that you do. I've tried to do what you do for two days and one night and I was on the verge of going mentally insane. How you do it, I don't know. You manage to stay on top of the house, keep Liam and Ella entertained and out of trouble (which is a chore in and of itself), homeschool, cook, work part time and still spend time with us. I love how you can laugh at anything and keep laughing, even though everyone's already gotten over how funny it is. Whenever I'm having an overwhelmed breakdown, you hug me and give me a little pep talk and do anything in your power to make it right. You're always able to talk. From the smallest, inconsequential things to the big things. You're amazing and I can only hope that I'll be like you when I grow up. You're so appreciated and we love you so so so so much! Happy 40th, Mom! (And no matter what you say that's not old. And this is coming from a teenager) I'm taking a snapshot
Of these moments in my head So when I'm old and grey I'll remember the fun we had When we laugh at something So hard we can't breathe. When you hold me close And help me grieve. When you give me advice On how to live life Or just little tips On how to survive The pep talks. The time spent On laughter and fun. The long walks and picnics The jokes, quotes and puns You're a pure inspiration To all that you meet. You're stunning, charming, funny and sweet. You're everything that I aspire to be. A writer, a good friend, Joyful, pretty. I'm taking a snapshot Of these moments in my head So when I'm old and grey I'll remember the memories we shared. I loved this description. This man is telling how he was broken and how he needed to get God's help to be put back together again. Fell off the wall of purity doing that Humpty dance. Forget the king's horses. Forget the king's men. And this one. In the last one I think he's talking about when he didn't know about God. Yes, they're both rap songs. I've been feeling in the mood for rapping, for some reason for the past couple of days. I try to write poetry and it comes out with a rappy kind of beat. Doesn't work very well.... [I'm] a trail of stardust leading to the superstar. If ignorance is bliss, it's 'cause she never heard of this. Today we went ice skating with our friends Ruth Anna, Clare and Selah and I experienced an example of how a couple of simple, non extravagant words can make someone's day. There was a woman there, skating. She was doing way better than me - just use your imagination to conjure up how I was doing - doing twirls, perfect control, everything. We were leaving and I saw the same woman, packing up her bags to leave. I passed her, feeling these word on my lips, remembering how pretty she'd looked on the ice. Almost without thinking, I stopped and turned around and told her, "You skate beautifully." That's all. She turned around and got all choked up and started telling me how she used to be a professional skater, but now, she is sixty four and was telling me how she felt like everything was just mechanical for her and she hated it.
Me telling her that she was beautiful, contradicted what she'd been thinking about herself. I know God put me in that place at that time to talk to tell her that. To be his light to her. And I'm very thankful I got that chance. It just shows how a simple, genuine compliment can mean more to someone than you'd ever suspect. Note to self: Don't listen to Piano Guys' Just the Way You Are or the Twinkle Lullaby when you wake up at five o' clock in the morning. I'm finding myself falling asleep over my computer. It's just so peaceful and sleepy sounding. I'm blocked in my story, that's why I'm blogging. You know that time when you know what's going to happen. You have this whole scene in your head, but you don't know how to execute it, so you just stare at the blinking cursor, wishing you could come up with some sort of thing to put down that would convey what you want it to. That's me this morning. I've written a grand total of 400 words in the past two hours. And half of that is random fluff that I'm probably going remove later. My brain just shut off last night at around 4:00 and since then I haven't been able to think of one intelligent thing to write.
Here are a couple of good articles on beating writer's block. http://goteenwriters.blogspot.com/2014/09/writers-block-shans-thoughts.html http://goteenwriters.blogspot.com/2012/05/3-ways-to-bust-writers-block.html This is how I feel this morning. I'm normally like the guy in this skit, totally chipper in the mornings, but today....I'm more like the girl. *YAWN* This evening from 6-8 we did a youth program thing, where we stuff H2O bags. It stands for Hope 2 Others. Basically, we packed them with socks, water, granola bars, peanut butter crackers, beef jerky, apple sauce and a tract, a coupon for a free meal and an invitation to our church. We stuffed around 75 packs and then walked around the city and looked for the homeless and handed out the bags. We only handed out six, but hey, that's six people who have some food and water and an invitation to go to church. Our pastor said this morning that sometimes God takes a ton of people out of their way to reach one person. Just pray that these bags reached the right people and that they can hear the good news of God. First and formostly, please be praying for Jessica C. She's been having health problems. For more information, go here. Elisabeth explains it better than I will.
Secondly, Tim Hawkins just came out with his new stand-up show called "That's the Worst." Here's his take on athiest megachurches. It's hilarious. Click Read More to watch it. Nothing hits the spot on a cold, snowy day than corn chowder, ham and green beans. I actually hate green beans, but the rest of it just hit the spot. Thank you, Abby! You're an awesome cook. I think corn chowder is my new favorite food, thanks to you. Stephanie Morrill posted this great post on being content in where you're at in writing. Click here to see it. Here's the song she's referring to, just so you can hear it. I'm going to work on NaNoWriMo now. I have 1000 words today and I'm on temporary roll. I'm going to embrace it while it lasts. It won't stay long. *Sigh* Oh, and here's another inspirational song, just for good measure. NaNoWriMo update. I'm 37 % of the way to my goal and we're 40% of the way through the month. I can do this! I reached my 50th page last night as well as my 20th chapter and my 7500th word. Oh, and forget what I said about the roll. I was checking. Yeah. Not there anymore. I know I've posted this so many times before, but I adore this video. It honors our troops who are fighting for our freedom right now. And the one right below is a tribute to fallen soldiers. That one made me cry too. We need to remember these men and women who are fighting for us. I loved this line of Jo Dee Messina's Heaven Needed a Hero. This is what made me cry. If I knew the last time that I held you was the last time, Thank you to all our soldiers, fallen and still fighting and retired. We're grateful for you. These videos say it better then I can, so click 'Read More' and watch them.
Ray is driving me insane. What is his problem? He refuses to explain and then at random times drops random tidbits of information that totally alter the story. Urg. I just want to strangle that kid at the moment. For you who are doing a double take and thinking, "She doesn't have a brother named Ray," he's the younger brother of my main character in my book that I'm writing. Yes, I'm being driven insane by a person in my head. Does that make me already insane? It is literally snowing up at the moment. Snowing Up. I'm making that into a poem. I'll post it once I'm finished with it. I got released from GEM an hour early today because it was getting too cold and icy and they announced over the intercom that it was advisory to leave. It's windy and snowy and 19 degrees right now. The weather outside is frightful and the fire (that I'm actually sitting in front of) is delightful. Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow! Okay, so I'm a hypocrite about Christmas music, but that's the first one that I thought of:) Emma, Abby and Ella are ecstatic dancing around to Christmas music. They are playing Christmas music on two channels now. 102.7 and 106.3. What's wrong with America? It's not even Thanksgiving yet!
Just thought I'd post this, because they put it up today and this is how we fight:) Click Read More. Elisabeth N nominated me for the Best Blogging Buddy Award. Thanks so much, Liddy:)
'Kay, so here's how it works. Don't worry if you don't understand at first (I didn't either): 1. Make a post to show your award on your main blog. 2. Tag the person who nominated you in your post. 3. Nominate all of your best buddies, and those whom you want to become best buddies with, who, to your knowledge, have not been nominated, for this award. 4. Ask your buddies at least 15 questions on your post. 5. Answer all of the questions your buddies ask you. On your post. Okay, so here are the questions that Elisabeth asked: 1. Favorite little kid's book (as in kindergarten or younger)? Hmm....I love Winnie the Pooh, the art, the characters, the voice, everything. I still like the books I used to read as a kid because they bring back memories, such as If you Give a Pig a Party or the Amelia Bedelia (are those kindergarten?) books or the ones about Froggy. Can't remember what those are called. 2. Favorite mid-elementary book? I like When you Reach Me by: Rebecca Stead. The Percy Jackson books are okay. 3. Night-owl or morning person? Morning person, definitely. I have the ability to get up at four-thirty and not be tired for the rest of the day, but if I stay up past 10PM, my eyelids are drooping and I can hardly stay awake. 4. Do you like being that way (referencing the above question)? Yes, because my parents don't like me to stay up late anyway. My sister is a night-owl and she has trouble getting to sleep when my parents tell her to and I can basically get up as early as I like. 5. Plays or musicals? Musicals, just because I adore music so much. Of course I haven't watched a play since I was around 10, so I can't really say fairly... 6. Favorite secular Christmas song and favorite Christian Christmas song? Hmm...Christmas songs are so overplayed, so I don't really know. I do like Christmas Canon Rock by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Christian Christmas song-Peppermint Winter by Owl City. LOVE this song! :) 7. If you could choose what your dying words will be, what would you pick? It seriously depends who I would be talking to. I'd want to make sure that everyone I love knows how much they meant to me and what they did in my life. I would hope something deep. 8. What do you think is more important: justice or mercy? All the deep questions. Mercy. 9. Why to the above? Sometimes justice has to bend to mercy. Mercy is the reason Christ died, to free us all from the justice that was before, right. Tell me if I'm getting this all mixed up. Before Christ, the only way you could get to Christ was if you did everything right and justice was the only way to get to him, and Christ came to give us mercy so we didn't have to do everything perfectly. Does this make any sense? 10. What book/move that's coming out are you excited for? I'm on pins and needles waiting for Omega Dragon which is coming out February. I can't wait for the third Hobbit to come out and for Mockingjay part 1. 11. If you could pick a fantasy weapon someone’s already invented (i.e., lightsabers, the Ring, Shardblades, etc.), what would it be? I'm not incredibly educated on fantasy weapons....I always thought that Percy Jackson's pen/sword was cool. For you who don't know it's a normal 25 cent ballpoint pen that you can take off the cap and it turns into a sword. It always returns to your pocket. Or the White Witch's hot chocolate/Turkish delight making liquid. 12. Frodo or Sam? (If you don’t know whom I’m talking about, first, shame on you, and second, just list a favorite book character of yours.) Sam, definitely. He's sweet and loyal and all those good things. And he has emotion, unlike a lot of male characters in stories. 13. What do you like to snack on or do you not snack at all? Oh, I snack day and night. Anything that mostly applies to my "diet." Except I cheat a little. Whenever I'm bored I'm rifling through the pantry or refrigerator looking for something to eat. I probably should quit the habit before I grow up and have to watch what I eat.... 14. Three words that people often use to describe you. "Insane," "Creepy," and "Quiet" by Emma. "Boring" sometimes:) "Smart" and "Graceful" by my parents. "Normal," and "Creative" by Abby. 15. What did you want to be when you were little? Same thing as now, actually. Not as detailed, of course. I wanted to have something to do with the church. Be a worship leader or a class leader or something like that. Then I started wanting to go on missions trips. 16. What question would you like to be asked and what is your answer? What superhero powers would you have if you could? In Donita K. Paul's Dragonspell one of the characters was able to erect a sound barrier around themselves that could block out all sounds. That would be so helpful with three sisters and a little brother. 17. If you could go to lunch with a person in history, who would it be? Probably C.S. Lewis, because he was a great author and an inspirational Christian, and because I'm watching The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe right now and he's the first person I thought of that seemed to fit:) People I would nominate if they hadn't already been nominated: Elisabeth Cameo Arielle Okay, here's who I nominate: Emma D. Abby D. Rachel M. Ruth Anna P Lydia M. Here are my questions: 1. What's your pet peeve? 2. What's your favorite movie? 3. Do text talk and hashtags bother you? 4. Favorite book? 5. Are you a night owl or a morning person? 6. What do you want to be when you grow up? 7. What superhero power would you have if you could? 8. What's your favorite kind of music? 9. Frodo or Sam? Or if you haven't seen/read Lord of the Rings, what's your favorite book/movie character? 10. What are your top three least favorite foods? 11. Who's your favorite author? 12. What gives you inspiration for writing, since I know all my nominees are writers? 13. Are you introverted or extroverted? 14. Social or unsocial? 15. What would be the dream environment for you? 16. What three words are most common for people to describe you? Okay, I honestly don't know who gets on here, but I'm asking for your help. Based on what I've said about my story before (I'll give a brief overview at the end of this post) do you think it's a good idea to have Ray be responsible for Chris's death? Someone gave me that idea in Writing Critique today, and I can't decide whether it would work or not. He's fifteen and can't drive, but I was thinking that since he's under the influence of drugs, maybe he goes out anyway and crashes into Chris and drives away, because he has no license and he doesn't want to get into trouble and lies about it to his mom. Aura will figure out later. Do you think this is a good idea? Or is it just to far-fetched?
Here are the basic plot points. Oh, and if you're in the mood to come up with a name, you can post it too:) : 1) The main character is Aurora "Aura" Simms. 2) She has a little brother named Ray and a mom who is super strict and reactive. 3) Her boyfriend, Chris, dies at the beginning of the story, in a car crash so she's devastated with that. She believes that she won't ever be able to love again. 4) Adam, Chris's best friend, promised Chris before he died that he'd take care of Aura. 5) Aura doesn't know whether or not God even exists. 6) Ray's a brat on the outside, but he's seriously hurting on the inside, because he thinks no one cares about him. He attempts suicide later in the story (need ideas on that too. Need to know how he could try, but fail) 7) Aura is eventually going to fall in love with Adam. I think that's it. So there you go! Create magic! I need help! Thanks:) I was writing the funeral scene for my story. For those who don't know it's about a girl whose boyfriend dies and after he dies she isn't quite sure what to believe in. There are a bunch of other side plots that play a major part in the story, but I'm not going to diagram them. Maybe later. Anyway...what was I talking about?...oh, right. I was writing the funeral scene for my story. It's the part when Aura (my main character) finally accepts the reality that her boyfriend is dead. I don't like saying "boyfriend." That makes it sound like a shallow relationship, thanks to our culture. He's more like her best friend who also happens to be her boyfriend. Sorry. Back on track. Anyway, it finally dawns on her that he's not coming back. As I'm writing this, I mention a coffin and all the sudden it hits me. Coffin. He's really dead. He's not coming back. I'm totally taking this death seriously. It seriously just hit me that he is really dead. I've been writing this book for, what? Three months? Sorry, I'm feeling distracted today. And kind of uninspired after this scene. What next? I found a couple of good tips on getting past writer's block. Some of these are just strange, but I'm open to anything right now. I'm desperate! ----------------> Stephanie Morrill said this, "Stick two of your characters in a room and get the talking. Lock them away and force them to discuss your plot. How are they feeling about all the stuff you've been putting them through. How do they relate to the character across from them? And goodness, what is that smell? Force them to confront the other character in the room and don't let either of them out until you squeeze your next plot point out of them." And here are a couple...maybe not a couple...of songs that I think are inspiring. :) Yesterday morning I tuned through the radio stations to find something to listen to. And guess what I heard? You probably already guessed based on the title, but Christmas music! Christmas music, people! On November 4th! Two months from Christmas! If you don't believe me, click the button. Heard this same song 20 times and it's only Halloween! It's not even cold outside. |
About Me!Hannah writes to satisfy her imagination. She's written six books so far--five of which need to be rewritten--and is working on a seventh. She ranges through a variety of genres, but favors contemporary YA, fixing broken characters. She wants to use her writing to change people and bring hope. She's currently going to college for Nursing and that takes up most of her writing time. She's a rather stereotypical writer, talking to imaginary friends, eavesdropping on people at the store, secretly being nosy, stashing herself away in her room with a paper and pen and chocolate and her teddy bear. She loves Jesus, the way the morning smells, her family of seven (four siblings), old movies, fairy tales, candles at night and helping people. She writes on another blog at nerdywriter.blogspot.com to hopefully build her chances of publication. My Author Site:Archives
December 2016
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