Quotes Challenge Day 3

Hello, everyone! Today is the final day of the Quotes Challenge- and, coincidentally, it's also September 22, Bilbo Baggins' birthday. Anyone want to guess which author I'm quoting today? Yep, J.R.R. Tolkien, through Bilbo, who else? And, because I'm turning this into a mini-celebration of LOTR, you don't just get one quote . . . you get three.

“Roads go ever ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has shone,
By streams that never find the sea;
Over snow by winter sown,
And through the merry flowers of June,
Over grass and over stone,
And under mountains in the moon.

Roads go ever ever on,
Under cloud and under star.
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
Eyes that fire and sword have seen,
And horror in the halls of stone
Look at last on meadows green,
And trees and hills they long have known.”

 -Bilbo Baggins, The Hobbit

“It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end, because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why.”

- Samwise Gamgee, The Lord of the Rings

"I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.” 

-Faramir, The Lord of the Rings

 And my final three nominations are: Katie Grace, Ryebrynn, and (although she seems to have halfway disappeared) Ghost Ryter. To the nominees: as usual, you are free to do this or not do this as you please. If you do it, I look forward to seeing your quotes.

Noro go hul, bado go Eru, and hannon le for stopping by!

-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

Sarah's Must-Reads

There are many books I like. There are more than a few books I love. And then there are books that I obsess over and recommend heartily to anyone who'll listen. What are these books?

I'm glad you asked.

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

I don't care if you don't like fantasy; you have to read these, or at least read The Hobbit. I know they're long and they can be hard to get through, but they are so incredibly worth it! Besides, they're classics.

The Tales of Goldstone Wood by Anne Elisabeth Stengl

I could (and have) write an entire post about why I obsess over the Tales of Goldstone Wood. They're beautiful, amazing, and most of all, inspiring like no other books I've read. Though they're fantasy, the Tales remind me of the truth: there's more to life than what we see, and that each person is meant for more than just this world.

The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson.

These books are absolutely mind-blowing. Mystery upon mystery builds up- and the answer to each mystery brings a new plot twist that makes you think "Oh my goodness; did that really just happen?" Even the smallest details can turn out to be incredibly important later on. They are a bit on the dark side, particularly the second and third books, so I'd recommend them for older or more mature readers. 

 

The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

 Sci-fi and fairy tale remakes, when done right, are both pretty awesome on their own. Put them together and it just gets better. The Lunar Chronicles are very exciting, fun to read, and take a really unique twist on stories I love.

Dragons In Our Midst, Oracles of Fire, and The Children of the Bard series by Bryan Davis

You cannot read just one of these series. You can't. They just get better as they go on. From the first book to the last, each of these masterfully mixes awesome adventures with powerful faith-building themes. King Arthur legends are woven through the first series, and of course, there's the dragons (who are awesome). As a note, that's my personal collection in the picture, which is why The Seventh Door is an ARC instead of the pretty final version.

The Sky Riders by Christopher Hopper

Christopher Hopper is an amazing author, and this is my favorite of his books. The twists and turns of the plot keep you on the edge of your seat, but don't distract from the deeper themes. I also love the steampunk setting; it really sets this book apart from others I've read. 

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

This book is super fun. It has a nice fairy-tale feel, and I can't help laughing whenever I read it. 

So, have you read everything on my list? What are your must-read books? Please tell me in the comments! 

Thanks for reading!

-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

Top Ten Tuesdays: Favorite Movies

http://www.brokeandbookish.com

Hello, everyone! I'm finally getting back into Top Ten Tuesdays just in time for the one Top Ten Tuesday that isn't about books: Favorite Movies or TV Shows. Since I don't really watch TV, I'm going with my favorite movies.

1. The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Best. Movies. Ever. (Especially if you watch the extended editions like I do.) They did an amazing job of capturing the books' epicness, even if they did leave out or change a few things. The actors, the scenery, everything is absolutely incredible. I could rave about them almost as much as I do the books!
2. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Another amazing movie- not quite as good as the LOTR trilogy but still great. I wasn't all that crazy about the addition of Azog and all that, but the other stuff they added in with the White Council and Thorin's backstory and such? I loved it. Also, I've mentioned this before, but I love how the movie turns the Indistinguishable Background Dwarves (basically everyone except Thorin, Balin, and Bombur) into unique characters, each with their own story and personality. 
   
3. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Smaug. Oh. My. Pumpernickel. He pretty much made this movie for me. And considering that it takes a lot to impress me with movie dragons (mostly because I'm rather particular about how I think they should look), that's saying something. The action scenes were pretty intense too, especially the battle between the dwarves and Smaug. However, there were certain things things that disappointed me- like how quickly they passed over Beorn and Mirkwood- and others that just made me mad (*cough*Kiliel*cough). 
4. The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. This is another great book-to-movie adaptations; it's probably the best of the Narnia movies (though it can't measure up to LOTR). I like that they stayed fairly true to the book, and the casting was great- all the characters looked exactly like I imagined them! Not even LOTR accomplished that, though it did accomplish the opposite (after a while, I started picturing all the LOTR characters the way they looked in the movies). 
5. Tangled. "Frying pans! Who knew, right?" Flynn cracks me up, and he has a ton of great quotes- he's
   
   pretty much one of the fallbacks for my sister and I when we play the Quote Game. (That's a game where we take turns quoting a book or movie and the other person has to guess where the quote is from.) Besides how hilarious Flynn and the movie in general are, I really like the character development of both Flynn and Rapunzel. Plus, it's a retelling of one of my favorite fairy tales. Awesome, no?
6. The Avengers. I haven't watched a lot of superhero movies (mostly because I didn't realize I was interested in them until last summer), but I love The Avengers. The dynamic between the characters is great, and Loki? I'm not a fangirl, but he's super cool. (No pun intended.)
7. The Chonicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I kind of have a love-hate relationship with this movie. On one hand, Voyage of the Dawn Treader used to be my favorite Narnia book (until I decided that I preferred The Silver Chair), so I was kind of upset when the movie changed the story so much. On the other hand, looking at Dawn Treader as a movie in its own right? It's pretty awesome. And unlike certain other movies I could mention, they didn't make the characters act like idiots for the sake of more excitement. (Not that Dawn Treader needs more excitement . . .)
8. Beauty and the Beast. Beauty is another of my favorite fairytales, and the Disney version is just wonderful. I love everything about it, pretty much. One of my favorite parts, though, is the music. The songs from Beauty and the Beast often seem to get forgotten amidst songs from newer movies (like Frozen), but they're still lovely.
9. Frozen. It was kind of overhyped, but Frozen is still a great movie. I love that the biggest relationship-related plotline isn't a romace; it's the sister relationship between Elsa and Anna. The characters are great, and, of course, the music is awesome. 
10. Howl's Moving Castle. This is another book-retelling that's vastly different than the original story. I still love it, though. It kind of reminds me of a Beauty and the Beast type story in a lot of ways. Also, Howl. Howl is awesome. Just sayin'.

Honorable mentions go to Brave, Wreck-It Ralph, and The Princess Bride, which are also awesome movies but didn't quite make the list. What about you? What are your favorite movies?
Garo arad vaer!
 -Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

I Live!

Well, I'm back.

Not that I really went anywhere. But I have been guest-hosting Random Fridays at Awkwordly Emma for the past few weeks, which is why I haven't been doing those here. That's done now, and your regularly scheduled Random Fridays posts will hopefully resume on the first Friday in April. So will Top Ten Tuesdays (for which my only excuse is that I couldn't think of anything to say for the last several topics).

And you know what else is coming up in April? Camp NaNoWriMo. Which, yes, I am doing. I'm hoping to rewrite my novel from November, since it has plot holes big enough for Smaug to fly through. I'm also hoping to actually do some planning before I start writing this time. Why? A large part of it is that I need to figure out what's going to happen in this novel and what's going to happen in the one after it, which was part of why my first try didn't turn out so well. Also, I'll have main characters in at least three different places, which means at least three main plot threads. I can't keep it all balanced in my head. (Of course, I still need to make this outline, but it's going to happen. Trust me.)

I'm also lowering my wordcount goal to 30K rather than the usual 50K. While I'm guessing this novel will be a bit longer than that, I will still have other things I need to get done. This blog, for example. And school. And the ACT test (eep!). And whatever we end up doing at Easter, because no matter what we decide, I probably won't be able to get 1,667 words in that day. So, 30K seemed like a much easier goal to reach.  

In other news, I recently (as in, this morning) finished watching the extended edition of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and it was pretty awesome! I do wish that Peter Jackson had just left out the whole Azog plotline and instead left in some of the cut scenes, particularly certain White Council scenes that foreshadow events in The Desolation of Smaug. There were also a few scenes- namely one or two of the dwarves in Rivendell- that I was very glad were left out. They were . . . painful. But otherwise, it was good. And I still have lots of bonus materials to watch, probably over the summer. Yay!

What about you? Are you doing Camp NaNo? Have you seen the extended edition of An Unexpected Journey? What have you been up to lately?

Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)         

Another giveaway

I feel like I'm doing a lot of advertising and not much else on this blog lately. Oh well.

Anyway, Gillian Adams is doing another winter giveaway at her blog, Of Battles, Dragons, and Swords of Adamant! She's giving away the first three books in Chuck Black's Kingdom Series, the first Ranger's Apprentice book, and- most exciting to me- Kestral's Midnight Song by J.R. Parker. The last one was written by one of the Underground oldies, so quite a few people there have read it. I want to read it, but haven't been able to.

Also, the Veiled Rose read-along is still going on, and it's getting more awesome every day. You should
definitely check it out!

Finally, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is awesome. And amazing. And Tauriel was even cooler than I expected, though a certain relationship was just no. One does not do that. (Can't say exactly what, of course. Spoilers.) And oh my pumpernickel; Smaug was . . . wow. I'm kind of picky about dragons in movies/pictures because they so rarely look the way I think they should, but Smaug was pretty much perfect. And I want to live in Mirkwood, but preferably before or after it's Mirkwood, because the halls of the Elven King are beautiful. Even the dungeon level is pretty. Really. And I could talk your ear off about it, probably, but for the sake of those who haven't watched the movie yet, I won't.

Nai haryuvalyë melwa rë!*

-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

*May you have a lovely day!

NaNoWriMo Day 29- Huzzah!

Wordcount: 51,135
Time I finished: 12:30-ish on November 28.
Most words written in one day: 4042, on November 1.
Least words written in one day (not counting my day off): 839 on November 7.
The first thing I did after finishing: Went to my Bible Study's Thanksgiving dinner.

I won NaNoWriMo! Huzzah!

This was probably one of the harder NaNos I've done. Not as hard as last Camp NaNo last April, but still . . . hard. Thank goodness for wordcount crawls. They helped a lot, particularly during the last week or so. One in particular got me two days' worth of words in about half a day. (Which was a good thing, since I spent the next day raking leaves for a youth group fundraiser.) There were some days when I felt like I couldn't write a word and everything I did write was terrible and why couldn't this scene be over already? But I made it through with grades, health, and sanity intact.

And, like every year, it was definitely worth it. I had lots of fun, and I accomplished something I definitely wouldn't have otherwise. I faced a challenge- and conquered it. In a way, it's an adventure. (But with significantly fewer enemy attacks, near-death-experiences, days without food, and hours of walking on my part.) 

And now it's over and suddenly I have time. I have options. I don't have to spend every spare minute writing. I could start again on my rather large stack of books to read, or play on the computer without feeling guilty, or make graphics, or do some photography, or watch The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey extended edition (which my parents got me for my birthday).

Don't take that wrong, though. Just because I have options doesn't mean my novel is done. I still have a long way to go before I can say that. Also, I still need to finish Monster in the Castle (my Camp NaNo novel), and there's lots of writing contests I'd like to enter. I definitely don't want to make the same mistake I did last year, when I gave myself a break after NaNoWriMo and ended up barely writing anything until Camp NaNoWrimo in April. I'm hoping to stay in the habit of writing something every day. 

But NaNoWriMo is done. As a friend of mine put it, "the dragon is slain". And more projects or not, that means I can relax. 

Huzzah!

-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

Favorite Movies Tag

Hello, everyone! I've been tagged by Hannah from The Writer's Window. For this one, I'm supposed to list my favorite movies. Because I love a lot of movies, I'm going to stick with my top six.
--------------

The Lord of the Rings

 If I had to pick one and only one movie to watch for the rest of my life, I would chose The Lord of the Rings. The word "epic" is often used flippantly, and I confess that I'm guilty of doing so myself, but when it comes to The Lord of the Rings, "epic" is anything but an understatement. I could go on and on about it, but that would take a while, so we'd better move on.

 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Yes, they changed and added a lot. Yes, it was a long movie. But YES, it's still only one step down from the top on my list of favorite movies. One of the things I loved best about An Unexpected Journey was how the dwarves came to life. When you read The Hobbit, you don't really think about many of the thirteen dwarves and how they may very well have their own smaller stories within the bigger one, but in the movie, you're reminded that they each have their own personality, their own story.
 

These next two are pretty much tied for third place:

Tangled
and

Brave
In case no one's noticed, I love fairy tales, fairy tale remakes, and stories that remind me of fairy tales or fairy tale remakes. So, it should come as no surprise that these two would make it onto my favorite movies list. Tangled is ridiculously hilarious and awesome. I love the character growth you see in both Flynn and Rapunzel, all the hilarious lines, and also the fact that they're using a skillet as a weapon. It's probably my favorite Disney movie. (Rapunzel also happens to be my second favorite Disney princess, loosing by an incredibly tiny margin to, guess who . . .)

Yep. Merida of Brave. While a bit more scary and a bit less funny than Tangled, I still love it. I like the whole true love/happily-ever-after dynamic for fairy tales, but it is nice to see something that has a fairy tale feel without romance. Also, I love the way Merida's relationship with her mother develops, and let's face it, Merida's whole family is pretty awesome. Add onto that the fact that, as I mentioned, Merida's my favorite Disney princess (awesome hair+awesome accent+mad skills with a bow and sword+great personality and character development=Sarah's favorite) and it's really no wonder that this is one of my favorite Disney movies.

I want to not go overboard with this, so I'll just do two more movies.

 The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
I go back and forth on which Narnia movie I like best quite a bit, but I keep coming back to The Lion, the Witch, an the Wardrobe. I think it's because, of the three Narnia movies, this one stays most accurate to the book. Also, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is one of my top three favorite Narnia books.

The Princess Bride

 Probably the most quoted movie of all time, not to mention one of the funniest. Also, it fits into the fairy-tale genre quite nicely while still turning some of the usual cliches upside down. (So, it should be no surprise that I like it!) And did I mention that it's incredibly funny?

Well, I hope you enjoyed this tag. Thanks for reading! And sorry for taking so long on this post, Hannah!

-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

Finally, a Post!

Wow. I haven't blogged for a long time. Sorry, everyone. I wish I could say I was busy, and sometimes I was, but mostly I was just a procrastinator. Sorry again. And anyone who still reads this, thank you very, very much.

I had a lot of fun over Christmas break. Grandpa came down to visit for the holiday, and Mommy made ladylocks. (Ladylocks are pastry tubes filled with cream and with powdered sugar on top. They're absolutely incredible.) Some of my favorite presents included the Legends of Karac Tor series, a Skillet cd, and a Middle Earth map poster. Shortly after Christmas, my friend and I went to see The Hobbit a second time. I almost think I liked it better the second time, since I could anticipate what was happening better. New Year's Eve was spent at our friends' house and was also a lot of fun.

New Year's Day was mostly spent in two activities: taking down the Christmas tree and matting and framing my Hobbit posters. In addition to the full-size poster I got for Christmas, I got four free posters the first time I went to see The Hobbit. They all look fairly similar in design to this:

That's actually one of the posters, which obviously shows Bilbo. The other three have Gandalf, Thorin, and Gollum on them. All four, plus my map poster, are now framed, matted, and hanging on the wall across from my bed. This meant I had to rearrange the items already hanging on that wall, but I definitely think I like my room better this way.

School is going fairly well. I'm not overly crazy about my history, and a few semi-recent tests have resulted in me uttering the phrase "I'm dead" more than once. Thankfully, the last two tests have gone somewhat better, and none of my other subjects cause me quite as much pain.

In other news, I've decided to start knitting. This is mostly because I wanted something to do while I listened to By Darkness Hid and To Darkness Fled, audiobooks written and recorded by Jill Williamson. They were originally recorded as podcasts, but you can get all of both books free on her site. I'm very much enjoying both the books and the knitting. So far I've made five pairs of wristers, and I'm working on a cowl. I have another cowl design that I want to try after I finish this one, so that will probably keep me busy for a while.

I haven't been writing much, though I have been doing plenty of editing. I've finished editing my NaNo Novel, and I'm finally done with the first round of edits in my Camp NaNo Novel. I'm planning to try to write more for the next week or two before I start the second round of editing on my Camp NaNo Novel (which is probably going to be edited more times than any novel or story I've written since I wrote Rosa). I have been reading quite a bit. One of my favorite books I've read recently is Princess of the Silver Woods. It's the third book in a trilogy by Jessica Day George, and the first book in the trilogy, Princess of the Midnight Ball, helped inspire my Camp NaNo Novel. I thoroughly recommend the trilogy, though I haven't read any of her other books yet. I'm also looking forward to reading The Fairest Beauty, the latest book by Melanie Dickerson, another author I'd definitely recommend if you like remade fairy tales.

Well, that's about all. Thank you very much for reading, despite my long absences. I hope that I'll do a better job of fighting off Procrastination in future. Thank you again!

Nai haryuvalyë melwa rë.*

- Sarah


*"May you have a lovely day."

Hobbits, Dwarves, and other news.

Hello, everyone! I know, it's been a long time since I've updated. Not much has happened until this past week, and Procrastination has been winning all our battles. However, today, I finally have something blog-worthy:

I SAW THE HOBBIT!!!!!!!!!!

As many of you probably know, I'd wanted to see The Hobbit once it came out pretty much since I found out it would be coming out. I was originally hoping to (read as: wanting to but was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to) go to the midnight premiere, but I'd kind of given up on that by the beginning of this past week. That was probably just as well, since I was sick and short on sleep on Thursday night. I then planned to try to go see it with my friend sometime this coming week, but on Friday afternoon, my wonderful daddy surprised me by asking if I wanted to go see it with him! My answer, of course, was YES!

I absolutely loved the movie of The Hobbit. They did change a few things, and they added in quite a bit (especially in the way of orcs), but it was all good, especially since one of those added-in parts was the story of how Thorin got the surname Oakenshield. (The story can be found in The Book of Unfinished Tales, and it's one of my favorite stories in that book.) Another part I loved was the Riddles in the Dark scene, which happens to be one of my favorite chapters in the book. I also liked the Misty Mountains song (or the little I heard of it), and I wish they'd sung the whole thing.

I wish I could share my two favorite (very inspiring) quotes from the movie. Unfortunately, they're both near the end, and they'd both be something of spoilers. I will say that I absolutely loved Bilbo and Thorin. Actually, I loved all the dwarves. In the book, few of the 13 dwarves are particularly memorable. In the movie, however, you can't help remembering them. Each seems very much his own person, with his own stories outside of the general take-back-the-mountain plot. Of the dwarves, I think Thorin and Kili were my favorites.

In other news, Daddy gave me the job of making the calender we send out every year to some of his family, and that's been going well. I've been working on it since Wednesday, and I only have 4.5 months left to do. (I have the pictures and all for March; I just need to arrange them.) School has been going ok, though I'm glad Christmas break is approaching.

Last night (Saturday, December 15) was my Youth Group Christmas party. It was a lot of fun. We did a gift exchange like a White Elephant gift exchange, except that all the gifts had to be something you would want. I brought a McDonalds gift card in a jar of candy (Mommy's genius idea), which turned out to be a big hit. I ended up with two movie tickets, which I think you can all guess what I'll do with them. (The Hobbit just came out, and I've already said how much I love it, after all.)

Well, that's about it. Thanks for stopping by!

Isusarad 'elir!*

- Sarah

*"Merry Christmas" in Elvish