March 2018 Doings!

Well, what do you know? March's Doings! post is up right on time, despite the fact that this has been another pretty busy month! The fact that I'm currently on break for Easter probably helps; I actually wrote this post in one sitting instead of writing bits and pieces here and there over the course of multiple days. Anyway. What have I been up to that's kept me so busy? Let's find out!

Writing!

• As a recap, my goal for the month was fifteen minutes of writing-related work per day, six days a week, or two chapters of Fight Song and a plan for April completed. I didn't quite get the first goal, mostly because class assignments kept trying to murder me (though there were also a few days in there when I got caught up in something else— like writing blog posts or playing board games or reading books— and failed to write as a result). 
• However, I still managed to edit not two but four chapters (well, more like three and a bit; I'm pretty sure I was in the middle of a chapter when the month started). I think that aiming for fifteen minutes a day instead of thirty was a good choice for the same reason that the 100-4-100 challenge was effective while it lasted— except, for me, fifteen minutes works even better than a hundred words. It's a small enough goal that I can squeeze it between other things, but once I'm working, I often keep going. But I don't have to keep going if I don't want to. It's nice.
• Besides working on Fight Song, I did a bit more worldbuilding on my multiverse (well, more like I recorded worldbuilding I'd already done in my head, but y'know) and tried again to work on my short story for the Indie e-Con contest. Said short story isn't working very well and it frustrates me. Oh well.
• As for plans for April . . . well, I know I'm doing Camp NaNoWriMo, and I probably know which project I'm working on. And it's a rewriting/editing project, so I don't really need more than that, right? (I definitely need more than that. Hopefully, by tomorrow morning I'll have more. But we'll talk about that later.)

Reading!

• So, I felt like I read a lot this month, but apparently, I only managed four books? One of those was The Three Musketeers, though, which is both a classic and fairly long, so that's probably part of it.
• Part of why I feel like I had such a good reading month, though, is probably that I really enjoyed most of the books I read. Admittedly, Ink, Iron, and Glass wasn't quite as amazing as I hoped it would be (I had issues with the worldbuilding, and the author fell into cliches occasionally), but I still really enjoyed it. And The City Beyond the Glass was a Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling that I really enjoyed, even if it can't beat Entwined (which I'm not likely to shut up about any more than I am about Anne Elisabeth Stengl or Brandon Sanderson or dragons). As for The Three Musketeers, it had excellent writing, an exciting plot, and a fairy modern feel, but suffered from a cast primarily composed of complete jerks. (There are, I believe, exactly three exceptions, maybe four. No more.)
• And then there's THE LOST PLOT! Also known as the latest Invisible Library novel! Also known as the book that made me realize I desperately need more fantasy set in 1920s America. (Anyone have any recommendations? Maybe?) Obviously, it was awesome— it's an Invisible Library novel; there's no way it couldn't be awesome. It involved the dragons more, which I liked (even if that meant fewer Fae), and all the twistyness and mystery of the other books. Not 100% certain how I feel about the ending— some elements I really liked; some made me sad; and some I'm trying to withhold judgment on so I can see how they work out in other books. Also, Irene is awesome and I would rather like to be her in many respects. Just sayin'.

Watching!

• I finished the Key of the Starry Heavens arc over break, as I hoped, and I'm slightly torn about it. On one hand, it was extremely frustrating and some of the plot twists didn't quite make sense, and . . . yeah. It was frustrating. On the other hand, it had a fabulous emotional payoff in a couple places. For example, when characters finally realized "Wait, we have the same goals, let's actually cooperate to achieve them!" And also one fight in which one of the heroes, instead of beating up the villain he was fighting, is like "No, let's save her by showing her that what she's doing isn't worth the damage she's inflicting on herself." (The fact that the character in question is kind of one of the more annoying villains in the show made his decision even more impressive, in my opinion.) Yeah. Those were good bits. I don't know that they made up for the overall aggravation the arc caused me, but still.
• Now the roommate and I are about halfway through Grand Magic Games arc and I'm really enjoying it. It's relatively low stakes compared to a lot of the other arcs (at least so far; I have a feeling that the stakes are going to rise significantly pretty soon), with more focus on character relationships and development— and, of course, plenty of opportunities to showcase different characters' awesome powers and their strengths both magical and personality-based. There are a lot of "YES THIS IS WHY I LOVE YOU" moments and a lot of "Oh storms that was crazy AWESOME" moments and yeah. I can understand why the roommate loves this arc so much.
• Also: at some point, I apparently became emotionally attached to Laxus and I don't know when or how and it's mildly frustrating because I spent so much time yelling at him for being a dragon-kissed jerk. His character has developed pretty nicely, though. And his big moment in the Grand Magic Games arc? Awesome.

Life!

• The month started with spring break, which was an odd mix of STRESS and chill. It started with a three-day power outage at my house (thankfully, we have wonderful friends who let us stay over so we could have things like heat and running water), followed by my getting my wisdom teeth out— which, I'd like to note, went about three million times better than anyone implied it would. I'm pretty sure that some of the people I talked to were like "Oh, yeah, I basically couldn't move or think or do anything for three or four days afterward," and even the people who didn't have horror stories implied that I'd be down for the count for a day at least due to either loopiness or trying to sleep off the loopy. But, as things worked out, I was mildly nonfunctional after the surgery for, oh I don't know, maybe a couple hours? And that wasn't even caused by loopiness; I was just hungry and grumpy and in pain so I didn't want to do anything except sit in my chair and read webcomics. But, y'know, that evening I finished drafting the paper I'd started before the procedure that morning, and the next day I was back to doing homework and editing and reading as normal. The only real issue was that I got frustrated pretty quickly by how little I could eat without pain, but otherwise, I was able to spend most of break chilling, writing, reading good books (and webcomics), and doing some homework.
• Then I got back to college and everything was crazy again because I had projects for two different classes that I hadn't been able to work on over break (or, not much, anyway) because they required resources I didn't have at home and yeah. I don't think that's slowed down at all this month— at least not until this weekend, as I'm currently on Easter break and took yesterday for some well-earned rest. I made a really cool infographic about self-publishing, though! And a storyboard about self-publishing (which is where the picture up there is from)! And I wrote a paper about my MBTI type and how it affects the way I work!
• Also, caramel M'n'Ms are very yummy. Just throwing that out there, if anyone was curious.
• I also celebrated Pi Day, of course . . . even though my college dining hall totally failed to help me. You'd think that in a school where engineering is one of the biggest majors on campus, people would make a bigger deal out of Pi Day and that a dining hall as big on holiday specials and bonus bites and responding to student needs and desires would bring in pie to celebrate . . . but nope! Not a pie in sight! I had to go on a special quest to the convenience store to get myself a mini apple pie so I could observe the holiday. (I almost bought myself a full-size chocolate turtle pie, but I wasn't sure who else would want to eat it with me, plus I didn't want to spend that much money.)
• I'm still looking for summer internships, and I've applied to several, but no luck so far. I did get a phone interview for one position, but the organization wanted someone with more social media and marketing experience— and, honestly, I don't blame them. I mean, yes, I'm a quick learner, and I know how to reapply knowledge I already have to new situations, but I understand why they'd be wary of bringing on someone who won't know what she's doing until she actually does it. I haven't heard back yet from any of the other positions I applied for, so right now I kind of just have to wait and see what happens.

April Doings!

• Of course I'm doing Camp NaNoWriMo— I may be in college, taking design and writing classes in which almost every project is highly time-consuming, but there's no way I'd miss my favorite month of mild insanity! Originally I was going to aim for a time-based goal of 15 hours of writing or editing, but apparently, you can't have a goal of fewer than 30 hours, so that's out. Instead, I'm aiming for 10K words, since that was pretty manageable last April. (Plus, I haven't had a word-based goal all year, so I might as well change it up a bit, right?)
• What am I working on, you ask? Well, assuming everything goes to plan, I'll be revisiting my epic fairy tale retelling series— y'know, the one with that one book that I spent two years working on. However, I'm not writing a new book; instead, I'm rewriting Danger in the Tower, which I'm tentatively renaming Dust of Silver. Dust of Silver is a retelling of Rapunzel mixed with the Twelve Dancing Princesses, and I'm writing it for Kendra E. Ardnek's Arista Challenge. Or, more accurately, I'm using the Arista Challenge as motivation to start something I've been meaning to do for a couple years now. Because I discovered so much about the world of these books while I was working on Monster in the Castle and my multiverse worldbuilding thing, I really need to rewrite both Dust of Silver and Monster in the Castle (which will be renamed once I get to it) before I can continue with my other ideas for the series. (I have a genderswapped Cinderella retelling that I'm so excited to write, which I think might be the next book, and I have ideas for another plotline later in the series but I don't know what fairy tale I can connect it to yet.) So, yeah. Ten thousand words won't get me super far, but it'll be a start.
• Besides Camp NaNoWriMo, well, most of my time will be taken up by school-as-usual. I have three more Illustrator projects to get through, an online help documentation thing to write and design, a group project for Design Thinking, another paper, and a few things for editing. That plus classes will probably keep me pretty busy.
• Oh, and as if I didn't have enough to do, a group of people in my major are going on a trip to North Carolina in late April! We're going to visit Samaritan's Purse and see how professional writers function in a nonprofit of that type, and then we'll spend the rest of the weekend enjoying the local area. Since I did work to help pay for the trip last semester, I'm definitely going . . . but I am a little upset that it interferes with all the end-of-year stuff for Honors. Grr . . .
• And hopefully, I can squeeze in some reading and watching-of-Fairy Tail too somehow. We'll see what happens. One thing's for sure: April definitely won't be boring!

How was your month? What plans do you have for April? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

The Christmas Character Tag!

Hello, everyone! Less than a week remains before Christmas, there's carols playing all around and presents beneath the tree, and the Advent devotionals and storybooks are drawing their ways towards the climax. Yes, the holiday spirit is definitely in full swing- something that always puts me in the mood to write Christmas-themed fluff-fic. Unfortunately, I can't sort out Christmas songs and characters into a writeable plot, and Fight Song is taking top priority at the moment for actual writing. So instead I'm creating the Christmas Character Tag in order to indulge my desires for fluff without having to come up with an actual story. Others equally taken by the season are more than welcome to join in.

Of course, since it's my tag, it's my rules, and here's how this is going to work:
1. Acknowledge the person who tagged you. Thanking them is nice, but not necessary. You can be annoyed at them if you like. (Though, if you're annoyed, why are you doing the tag anyway?)
2. Pick your characters. I advise having several, though not too many. They can all be from the same story, or they can be from different stories. If they're from different stories, make sure to specify who's from the same story.
3. Answer the questions. This should be self-explanatory.
4. Tag people. If you want. Don't tag more people than you have characters in the tag. If you don't want to tag anyone, you can do that too.
5. Listen to your favorite Christmas song. Because putting the effort in to write a post deserves a reward, my friend!

I'm going to be answering with the main characters from my Fairy Tale Retellings series, despite (or maybe because of) the fact that I haven't written much of anything about them since February or March-ish. So, our cast for the tag consists of adopted sisters Ivy Jade, Poppy, and Pansy, as well as Prince Hayden of Aldurna, Aethan Falleth, and Jason Silver.

And now for the questions:

1. If any of your characters are from Earth: what are some of their Christmas traditions? If your characters aren't from Earth: does their world have an equivalent to Christmas, and if so, how do they celebrate it?
 None of my characters are from Earth (though, for the rest of the questions, we're pretending that they are, or that they at least know about and celebrate Christmas). However, equivalents to Christmas do exist in the various countries of that world, and celebrations vary from one place to another. Specifically:

• Ivy, Poppy, and Pansy are all from Keltia, which has a twelve-day midwinter festival culminating on the shortest day of the year. The festival celebrates the triumph of life and light over death and darkness, and like Christmas in our world, evergreen decorations and abundant sweet treats are common. However, like most Keltian holidays, there's a much greater focus on dances- whether that's traditional jigs and reels at various parties and socials during those twelve days or the symbolic dance of the final day in which whole towns participate.
• Jason is from Morovia, which shares Keltia's midwinter festival and many of the same traditions, but in Morovia, there's much less focus on dancing, and much more on gift-giving. Each of the festival's twelve days is dedicated to giving to a certain person or group. However, as often as not Jason finds himself outside his home country during the festival because of his duties- and if he happens to be in the right part of Keltia, he'll just slip in to join Poppy's celebrations.
• Hayden and Aethan are both from Aldurna, the only one of the five nations to not join in the midwinter festival. Their winter holiday, which is held later in the year, is focused much more on thankfulness to and worship of Adonai (God). Though the holiday itself only lasts one day, it's preceded by three weeks of preparation, much like the tradition of Advent in our world. The climatic day begins with a special church service, followed by a feast in the midafternoon and social gatherings in the evening. Despite the comparative solemnity of the Alduran celebration, it's still much more festive and relaxed than their culture the rest of the year, which might be why Aethan says it's the only time of year when he actually enjoys life in his home country.   

        

2. Which of your characters gets the most into Christmas? The least? Who gets annoyed at the commercialization, and who doesn't care because it's CHRISTMAS?
Poppy is by far the most excited about Christmas, and she'll sweep everyone around her up in her exuberance. Hayden is the least excited- not that he dislikes the holiday, but he generally doesn't get worked up about holidays. He and Pansy are also the most bothered by commercialization.
 
3. All the characters try to decorate a Christmas tree together. What happens?
Poppy and Ivy do most everything; they have the process down so well by now that it seems like a dance. Aethan cut down the tree, though, and he does the top branches that Poppy and Ivy can't reach. Pansy strings popcorn and cranberries and hangs up the stockings and sets up the nativity on the mantel. Jason mostly watches and makes sarcastic comments and teases Poppy and Ivy about their lack of height, but allows Poppy to bother him into doing the lights. Hayden, a firm believer in not having too many cooks in the kitchen, generally doesn't join in.
 
4. What's each character's favorite Christmas song?
Poppy and Ivy both sing "Feliz Navidad" and "Deck the Halls" about two dozen times each during the Christmas season, but Poppy also loves "Christmas in Killarney" (mostly because it's so fun to dance to), while Ivy prefers songs like "Sleigh Ride." Pansy's favorite by far is "Mary, Did You Know?" Hayden enjoys "O Come O Come Emmanuel." Aethan likes "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" (though lately he's been playing "All I Want for Christmas Is You" a lot . . . particularly when he knows Pansy can hear it). Jason, for his part, isn't one for Christmas music, but he'll tolerate whatever's playing.


5. Can your characters agree on a Christmas movie to watch together? What happens if they try? Speaking of which, who cries at Christmas movies? Anyone?  
Hahaha, no. Not all six. Not completely. What begins with six people wanting to watch six different movies ends with one of two situations:

• Poppy, Ivy, and Jason are watching a Christmas comedy (which one depends whether Poppy or Ivy gave in first on their pick); they throw Jason out halfway through because he won't stop making sarcastic comments about the characters and plot. Aethan would've been fine with joining in the comedy, but Pansy wants to watch Miracle on 34th Street, so they're watching that. Hayden has to go find other friends with whom to watch It's a Wonderful Life or else wait for Pansy to be done with Miracle.
• Poppy, Ivy, and Aethan all somehow agree on White Christmas. Depending how late it is, they all end up singing along with some of the catchier and more upbeat songs (never the titular one, though, unless it's really, really late). Hayden, Jason, and Pansy either watch A Christmas Carol or else watch A Charlie Brown Christmas and save A Christmas Carol for when Aethan can join them.  

Of course if they all started watching movies earlier, they could all watch together and just take turns picking the movie every night- though Pansy and Hayden would still sit out some of the comedies (because of strong second-hand embarrassment and a different sense of humor than the movie is meant for, respectively). But because they don't start soon enough, they have to split up so everyone can see the movies they like best.
  
6. Your characters are going to a White Elephant Gift Exchange; what kind of gift does each one bring? 
Poppy comes up with something clever, but still nice, probably involving food. Ivy just goes the easy route and brings a mug and hot chocolate. Pansy either asks Poppy to come up with something for her or sits the game out. Hayden goes the even-easier route and picks up a gift card for either Chick-fil-a or ice cream, but he does the box-within-a-box-within-a-box trick (with a few more layers) to show that he tried. Aethan finds something silly, but not mean- if anyone brings a literal white elephant of any kind, it'll be him. And Jason looks for something as ridiculous as possible; forget the consequences.


7. What's each character's favorite Christmas treat?
Ivy loves peppermint bark and always makes it herself. Poppy doesn't have a favorite, per se, but she is very fond of molasses cookies. Pansy's preference is Russian teacakes and biscotti with hot chocolate. Aethan's treat of choice is ladylocks, but he can compromise on chocolate-dipped macaroons. Hayden isn't one for sweets, but he, like Pansy, enjoys biscotti as well (though he eats it with coffee, not hot chocolate). And Jason, for his part, has to be restrained from sneakily eating all the toffee.


8. Who among your characters likes eggnog? Who thinks it's disgusting?
Poppy heartily dislikes eggnog. Hayden doesn't hate it, but doesn't much care for it either. Ivy and Pansy will drink a little bit if it's there, but don't like large quantities. Aethan and Jason both enjoy it very much, and both will drink the alcoholic version as well as the nonalcoholic.
  
9. Who's meeting who under the mistletoe? Who's catching those people and teasing them about it forever?
Aethan would like to meet Pansy under the mistletoe, but knows she won't let him kiss her until after they're married. Poppy doesn't seek out the mistletoe, but if she happens to run into a certain Keltian prince (not a main character yet) underneath it . . . well, she doesn't mind a kiss or two. Hayden studiously avoids the mistletoe; he currently has no time for or inclination towards that sort of thing, and Jason teases him enough about his love life (or lack thereof) as it is.
 

10. Who makes all the Christmas cookies and other treats?
Poppy generally bakes for at least three days straight during the Christmas season, making not just cookies but also other treats both sweet and savory. Ivy and Pansy help as needed, but Poppy does the most- which is fine, since she loves baking.
   
11. Who stays (or used to stay) up late waiting for Santa? 
Of the characters included in this tag, Ivy kept staying up late for that purpose the longest. Pansy figured out first that Santa wasn't real, but would stay up with the sisters who did believe in order to keep them company, and because she thought that staying up late was exciting and romantic- she still does.


12. What would each character say Christmas isn't Christmas without?
For this one, I'm going to ask the characters directly, so we can get it in their own words:
Poppy: Family- and food. You can't have Christmas without plenty of food.
Ivy: I agree with Poppy about family, but I love the holiday dances as well.
Pansy: I think you can guess what I'd say . . . Poppy's right; family is the most important part.
Hayden: No Christmas is complete without a Christmas Eve candlelight service and a Christmas morning service as well.
Aethan: Holiday parties- I'm not particular what kind, but 'tis the season to celebrate as much as possible!
Jason: Eh . . . snow, I guess? It's the one day of the year when it isn't a pain. 

Finally, we tag people! As usual, picking up this tag isn't mandatory . . . but I would love to see your answers. I tag:

• Deborah O'Carroll
• Emmarayne Redding
• Anyone who's making any variety of chocolate-chip or oatmeal cookies for Christmas this year.
• Anyone who wants to do this tag.

And here's a clean copy of the questions:
1. If any of your characters are from Earth: what are some of their Christmas traditions? If your characters aren't from Earth: does their world have an equivalent to Christmas, and if so, how do they celebrate it?
2. Which of your characters gets the most into Christmas? The least? Who gets annoyed at the commercialization, and who doesn't care because it's CHRISTMAS?
3. All the characters try to decorate a Christmas tree together. What happens?
4. What's each character's favorite Christmas song?
5. Can your characters agree on a Christmas movie to watch together? What happens if they try?
6. Your characters are going to a White Elephant Gift Exchange; what kind of gift does each one bring? (Or, because I had a different question here originally and forgot to change it before it started circulating, if you prefer you can answer: "Speaking of which, who cries at Christmas movies?")
7. What's each character's favorite Christmas treat?
8. Who among your characters likes eggnog? Who thinks it's disgusting?
9. Who's meeting who under the mistletoe? Who's catching those people and teasing them about it forever?
10. Who makes all the Christmas cookies and other treats? Who eats all the Christmas cookies?
11. Who stays (or used to stay) up late waiting for Santa? 
12. What would each character say Christmas isn't Christmas without?

Thanks, everyone, for reading! I hope you enjoyed this!
Merry Christmas!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

Knitting and NaNoWriMo

Hello, everyone! Happy Day-After-St.Patrick's Day! It's nice to think about spring coming soon- though I'll admit I was none too pleased when I woke up this morning to see snow on the ground! Hopefully the weather will start getting more springy very, very soon, because I want to be able to read and write outside in the sun, go biking, and wear short sleeves.

Most of my free time lately has been spent in knitting and reading. In addition to the projects I've already told you about, I've made a second pair of wristers, which I'm wearing now, and a pair of yoga socks. Yoga socks, if you didn't know, are socks that don't have heels or toes, so they're basically the equivalent of fingerless gloves for your feet, except that I typically wear them over normal socks. Go figure. Right now I'm working on a shawl for my sister. It's going well, and I'm almost a fifth of the way done. There's one row in the pattern that drives me nuts until I start making strange noises of aggravation, but otherwise, it's quite easy.

Book-wise, I've recently been reading the rest of Jessica Day George's books. For those of you who didn't know, Jessica Day George is the author of several remade fairy tales, including Princess of the Midnight Ball, one of my three favorite books by her, and one of the books that inspired my Camp NaNoWriMo novel last year. I also read The Fairest Beauty, the latest book by Melanie Dickerson. I very much enjoyed it, though The Merchant's Daughter is still my favorite Dickerson book.

Speaking of Camp NaNoWriMo (we were talking about it, briefly at least), this year it's in two months: April and July. I plan to do it with the official site this year, which is exciting. I'm thinking that I'll go for my usual goal of 50,000 words in April, and that I'll write the sequel to last year's Camp NaNoWriMo novel (which I've named Danger in the Tower). This year's novel will be called Monster in the Castle, and it's going to be a remake of "Beauty and the Beast" combined with "East of the Sun; West of the Moon". Here's the summary I wrote for the Camp NaNoWriMo site (WARNING: contains spoilers for Danger in the Tower):

King du Karel is dead. The once-missing girls have been returned to their families, except for Poppy, who travels with Ivy and Jacob Serlend in search of Ivy's family. All should be well, especially for Pansy (last name undecided). After all, not only has she been reunited with her father, but she's also learned to control the voices she hears. But Pansy's sisters resent her, and her father is in deep debt because of the money he spent searching for her. When a beast offers Pansy's father riches if one of his daughters will come live in a castle with him (the beast), Pansy feels that she has no choice but to volunteer. But she will discover that all is not as it seems at the beast's grand castle, and the beast himself might not be a villain, but a victim of the same beings that once held her captive.

Sounds cool, no? I'm very much looking forward to writing it, especially since Pansy is one of my favorite characters from Danger in the Tower. I can hardly wait to write a book that's (almost) all about her!

As for the July session, I'm not sure if I'll do it or not. If I do, it'll be with a lower wordcount goal, since I have several other plans for July as well. These include the possibility of a summer writing class and helping a friend with something. (Details to come later.) Possibilities for July's novel include a rewrite of My Father's Daughter, which I started almost a year ago and have yet to finish, or another novel which I haven't named yet, but which will involve aliens, people stabbing bad guys with knitting needles (and actually accomplishing something other than making the bad guy mad), and possibly superheros. I will confess that this novel might've possibly come from my desire to write something in which someone gets stabbed with a knitting needle. (And that desire came mostly from Jessica Day George. Thank you very much, Mrs. George.)

I haven't been doing much current writing, however. I have written one or two short stories, and I wrote a poem yesterday, but that's about all. Procrastination, unfortunately, seems to have mostly beaten me when it comes to writing. I'll have to make sure to send him packing in time for NaNoWriMo, though.

Well, that's about all. Thanks for stopping by!
Calo anor na ven!*
- Sarah

*May the sun shine upon your road!

Danger in the Tower Prologue

Hello, everyone! I'm here with the first of my recent writings that I'm going to be posting. So, I know that if you've been reading my few blog posts over the summer, you know a bit about my Camp NaNoWriMo novel, which I've named Danger in the Tower. While editing, I ended up having to completely rewrite the beginning of the novel. (I eventually ended up scrapping quite a bit of material.) In the revised edition, I have a poem at the beginning as a prologue. That's what I'm going to share with you today.

Hidden Secrets

Trees of silver,

Dust of gold,

Cover a heart

Of dirt and mold.

Sisters twelve

Trapped on high

In a tower reaching

To the sky.

Secrets kept

For darker plan;

Someone save us

But who can?

Names of power,

Names of trust,

Expose the dirt

Beneath the dust.

But when warnings fall

On deaf ears

And only one sees;

Only one hears,

Who will save us?

Who will come?

Bring us out

Beneath the sun?

One sets out

To save the day

While other heroes

Come our way.

But who can see

Beneath the dust

To the heart that’s made

Of mold and rust?

-Pansy of the Hidden Tower

If you're wondering what the "Pansy of the Hidden Tower" at the bottom means, I wrote it from the point of view of one of the characters of my story. I actually tried to make it seem like that character, Pansy, wrote the poem, and she references it a few times throughout the course of the novel. Pansy happens to be one of my favorites, partially because I originally based her somewhat on myself and partially because she's one of the most surprising characters.

Well, I hope you liked my poem! Thanks for stopping by!

- Sarah