My Fault: A Star Wars Fanfic

In which I celebrate Star Wars Day by- what else?- writing a bit of fanfic. A note for those unfamiliar with the characters and circumstances, otherwise known as everyone who doesn't take part in the CaC2 roleplay on Whitehall Castle forum, otherwise known as most of my blog readership: this roleplay is set before any of the movies, during the Old Republic era (around the year 3653 BBY, to be exact). These particular events occur shortly after a group of Jedi have made a raid on the Sith Academy on Korriban in an attempt to recover a stolen holocron. The results, however, have been less than successful . . .

---

Three ships left Korriban, two members lighter than when they’d come. In the medbay of the Felrel, Ver Tai slumped by the bacta tank where her sister rested, still and silent and serene. If Ver only looked at Dae’s face, what she could see of it beneath the mask, she could almost convince herself that Dae was simply sleeping. But her eye invariably wandered lower, to the bloodstains at Dae’s midsection, and so she couldn’t forget how close death still lurked. As if Polla hadn’t been enough . . .

Thoughts of the day spun in a mental misery-go-round, despite Ver’s efforts to not dwell on what had happened. They’d failed. She’d failed. The holocron was still lost, Aza was captured, Dae had almost died, Polla had died because Ver hadn’t been able to defend herself, hadn’t moved fast enough, hadn’t fought well enough . . .

Once or twice the cycle slowed enough for a few halfhearted, un-Jedi-like thoughts of what she’d do if she happened to meet the Sith who attacked Dae, who left her bloody and dying . . . the Sith who used whirling blades rather than sabers. Strange, that was, and frightening. Lightsabers and blasters blackened and burned; they didn’t leave their victims to slowly bleed out . . . She should’ve been there when Dae was attacked; they should’ve been gone before the Sith even realized Dae was there; why hadn’t they moved faster . . .?

Ver was still sitting there when the ship docked in the Temple the next morning. But when she tried to follow the infirmary workers come to move Dae, they pushed her aside and told her to go get some rest, that there was nothing she could do, that she looked like she was about to collapse and they didn’t have space for a fool Jedi who worried herself to exhaustion. That might actually have been true, with all the attacks that had been happening lately, and so Ver straggled off as ordered.

But she didn’t actually make it to her room, or to the dining hall, or to anywhere in particular she might’ve meant to go. Instead, her former master found her crumpled against the wall in a little-used corridor, head in her arms, elbows resting on her knees. He’d heard about the mission by now, of course. A Jedi had died; everyone knew about it. And so he didn’t have to ask what happened, what was wrong, how could he help. Instead, with an exasperated shake of his head, he pulled Ver to her feet and half-supported, half-dragged her to her room, ignoring her muttered insistence that she was fine, that she’d be fine, and no, she didn’t want to talk about what happened.

Dae wasn’t awake the next day, when Ver checked after six hours of exhausted sleep, an official Council debriefing, and a hundred inquiries from well-meaning friends and acquaintances about was she all right and how was Dae doing, and an equal number of assurances that they’d both be fine. Ver hadn’t protested the latter, even though they were wrong. They didn’t know Dae would recover; even the doctors didn’t know if Dae would recover; and whatever happened, Ver wasn’t sure she herself would ever be fine again. Not with Aza captured, Polla dead, Dae dying, all because she’d failed, failed, failed . . .

The next day passed, and the nurses transferred Dae from the bacta tank to a bed. The wounds on Dae’s midsection were reduced to pink scars by now, but still Dae didn’t awaken . . . The infirmary attendants assured Ver that this was fine, this was normal, that after such a close brush with death some patients didn’t wake up for some time because their minds and bodies were still healing, and bacta could only do so much. Ver worried anyway, and now she practically took up residence in the chair by Dae’s bed. The nurses and other workers grew used to seeing her there: slumped in restless sleep, or meditating, or reading or working on her datapad, or holding Dae’s hand and talking to her in hopes of a response.

Once or twice, Dae drifted close enough to consciousness to talk too- in her sleep, muttering about masked Sith and flying blades and lightning, and calling Ver’s name. But not once did she fully awaken, even as the days turned into weeks and still Ver kept her vigil, only departing when basic necessities and responsibilities forced her to. Others came by often, bearing comforting words and mugs of tea and occasionally the suggestion that Dae would rather Ver go on with living her life rather than just sitting here and fretting. Ver accepted the first two gratefully and glared at the last. Her life could wait until Dae woke up, and surely it wouldn’t be too much longer, it couldn’t be . . .

When the others weren’t there, and when Ver had run out of things to say to Dae for the moment, her thoughts inevitably turned back towards the mission. She replayed every moment, every choice in minute detail, wondering: if she’d done this, if she’d said that, if she’d moved faster here or responded better there, would they not have failed? Would they have recovered the holocron? Would Aza not have been captured, Dae not be lying here? Would Polla still be alive? Would I not have failed? She never found answers, only a growing certainty that if she’d simply been better somehow; everything would’ve been all right.

And then, late one night, a long-awaited voice interrupted the spin of her thoughts as she drifted towards dozing: “’S not your fault.”

Ver started. “What?” She turned-

And there was Dae, eyes open, half-turned on her side to face Ver. “’S not your fault. Whatever you’re thinking is your fault, ‘s not. Never is, ‘cept when you make it that way.”

Not her fault, she made it her fault . . . Ver couldn’t think through the ramifications of Dae’s words right now; there were more important things to focus on. “You’re awake.”

“’Course I am.” But Dae’s eyes drifted towards closing again, and her tone was still heavy with sleep. “I got tired of feeling you mope beside me, so I had t’ wake up and set you straight. How long’d I nap?”

“Two weeks.” Ver took her sister’s hand where it rested on the rails of the bed. “And if you ever come this close to dying again, I’ll . . . I’ll kill you myself.” She’d meant the threat to be teasing; it came out wobbly and suggestive of tears.

“Don’t plan on it. It wasn’t fun . . .” Dae shook her head, trying to stay awake. “Next time, you can take on the ridiculously overpowered Sith and I’ll sneak around and enjoy myself, ‘k?”

“I vote we both sneak around and leave the overpowered Sith to fight each other instead.” Ver’s smile faded. “The mission failed, Dae.”

“I know.” Dae squeezed Ver’s hand weakly. “But ‘s still not your fault.”

Ver nodded silently. The questions, the self-accusations still swirled. But in that moment, she could almost believe Dae- and even if Dae was wrong, maybe it would be fine. She had another chance. And this time, this time she wouldn’t fail.

---

Happy Star Wars Day, and May the Fourth be with you. Hope you enjoyed the fanfic!-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)  

Why I Love Roleplaying

I love roleplays. If you and I have met on a forum, or on Goodreads, you might know that already; the roleplay threads are where you'll find me posting the most. I love it as much as I love writing- maybe more at times, since it combines some of the best parts of both reading and writing: the excitement of finding out what'll happen next, the thrill of creating characters and a story. But that's not the only reason I love to roleplay . . . and this week, I'm going to tell you why.

Why I Love Roleplaying

1. It's telling a story, but with other people. I love writing things by myself. But I also love writing with other people, seeing what happens when different people work together to tell one story. Each person has a different view on the situation, different expectations on how it'll go, different ideas for the story they're trying to tell. Put those together and you get something special- something that never would've happened without collaboration. And while sometimes those differences can end up being explosive . . . more often than not, they turn into something pretty awesome.
2. It teaches you to improvise. In a novel, you're in control. No matter what you say about characters surprising you, you're the one who creates the plot and tells them where to go. In a roleplay, it's a different story. You can't know what the other players will throw in your way, what the other characters will do. You have your own characters and, depending on who- if anyone- is running the story, certain plot elements. And so when your roleplaying partner (who happens to be the GM of this particular plot in all but name) throws your Jedi against four scarily powerful Sith ghosts (not all at the same time, thankfully) and everything those Sith and the traitor who let them out can come up with . . . well, you learn to think your way out of situations you never would've come up with on your own.
3. It teaches you how to plan (and to write convincing villains). On the other hand, if you happen to be the one largely driving the plot, well, you need to be able to plan ahead- at least a little bit. Otherwise, you'll find yourself spending a lot of time stalling while you try to figure out where to go, and that's the best way to kill a roleplay. And you need to be able to write a good villain- one who'll raise the other players' interest and who'll give them a good fight before going down, but who is possible to defeat . . . one way or another. 
4. It gives you ideas for your own stories. I'm sure I've said it before: at least half my characters owe their origins, one way or another, to roleplay threads. The Battle! thread, one of the longest-running roleplays I've ever been a part of, gave birth to my Berstru Tales novels and the Alyron and Firhirt families that make up most of the characters in those stories. And some of those characters came from other roleplays before Battle!; Jared Alyron in particular- along with Jason Silver and Jarek Gilleth- came from Jared Siver, a character on a dying roleplay who I just couldn't seem to let go of (and still can't). Outside of my own experience, I know that two or three of my other friends (including the one who came up with the four Sith ghosts) have written or are writing their own books based on roleplay threads.
5. On the other hand, it's a good testing ground for your ideas. For example, there's the New Generation- an idea I came up with after I watched The Avengers for the first time. What happens when the government decides the existing superheroes are too inclined to be loose cannons? When they decide to try to create their own heroes, more loyal to them than the originals? I thought of writing it as a fanfic or a novel- but I had enough projects going on already, and I knew next to nothing about writing superheroes anyway. But the next summer, there came a surge of superhero threads . . . and so I grabbed the opportunity to test my idea, and I think it's turned out pretty well.

Of course, there's one last, very simple reason I love roleplaying: it's just plain fun to come up with characters and see them interact with each other and with the challenges you put in their way. It's one of the same reasons I enjoy writing.

Have you ever roleplayed? If you have, what are some of your favorite roleplaying memories? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)  

The Underground: It's Just the Beginning; This Isn't the End

I should've seen it coming, really.

I joined the Underground, a forum created for fans of The Berinfell Prophecies, in spring of 2011. In the almost-four years I've been there, the site has gone down or messed up in some way about once a year. Sometimes it's from hackers. Sometimes it's because of spammers and the site's defenses against those spammers blocking the wrong people. Sometimes it's because the Underground has so many awesome people and stories and memories on it that it temporarily breaks the servers it runs off of. Each time something like this happens, it's frightening. But each time, someone steps in to fix the problem and bring the UG back online.

Each time- until this time.

On Friday, March 13- just three days ago- I tried to log on to the Underground and found it gone. There were no clues as to what had happened, only the message: The site you're looking for cannot be found. I tried again- still nothing. When the site was down the next day, I emailed Sir Hopper, the more active of the authors of TBP, to see if he knew what was going on. His reply: The server had been hacked. The UG as we knew it was gone.

From the very beginning, The Underground has been one of my favorites- if not my very favorite- sites on the internet. Why? I could list numerous reasons, but in the end, they all trace back to one cause: the people. The Elves of the Underground are, quite frankly, beyond amazing, and they've become some of my closest friends- never mind that I've never met a single one of them face-to-face. We've chatted together about everything and nothing, obsessed together over shared favorite books and movies and fandoms in general. We've shared our stories and our characters with each other and even written together- written epic, amazing stories, some of which were still in progress when the Underground went down. Most importantly, we've supported each other. Whenever one of our number was struggling, the others came alongside to encourage and pray for him or her. It didn't matter if the struggle was something big- depression, a potential move, a family member losing a job- or something small- an upcoming test in school, a need for inspiration in writing. We encouraged. We prayed. And we saw our prayers answered.

And now all that's gone.

Except . . . it isn't.

Just as the Elves of Berinfell didn't cease to exist when Berinfell was destroyed, so the Elves of the Underground remain even after the Underground is gone. And just as our namesakes salvaged what they could of their city and moved to a new place of refuge, so our Elven community has a new home: the Underground 2.0, Whitehall Castle Forum. True, it's not the same as the original Underground. True, we've lost a lot. But the people who made the Underground the Underground remain, just in a new location. If you're a fellow Elf who's been wondering what happened to your community, please come join us at Whitehall Castle. We miss you. And if you're not an Elf yet, but you enjoy The Berinfell Prophecies or just Christian fantasy and writing and awesomeness in general, come visit us- maybe even come to stay.

Rest in peace, original Underground. Long live the Underground: Whitehall Castle.
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade) 

P.S. If you know other Elves who haven't yet heard this news and you have a way to contact them, please let them know about this change! We're trying to make sure all the elves have heard, but there are some people we don't have contact information for. Thank you!

This one's for you, Rye.

Hello, everyone! I'm here with a very special announcement concerning this blog!

As you probably know if you've been reading this blog for any length of time, when I started Dreams and Dragons with my parents' help, it was a private blog. That meant that the only people who could view it were those my parents and I invited. We did this mostly because we didn't want to take any privacy risks. After all, creepy people aren't just in fantasy books.

Time passed. The novelty of blogging wore off slightly. I joined WI and the UG, two forums I'd been interested in for some time, and which now are a large part of my life. I was stepping past Dreams and Dragons, which remained private, into a bigger world. I still kept blogging, of course. But no one on those sites knew I had a blog.

Then, a week or two ago, we opened Dreams and Dragons up- temporarily, we thought- so some of the posts could be used as examples of my writing for a writing class I hoped to take. While it was opened, one of my friends from the UG found my blog, quite by accident. One friend turned into two. I'd like to say I took it calmly. I didn't. The truth is, I freaked out slightly. Even opened up as it had been, Dreams and Dragons was still supposed to be fairly private. I hastily explained things to those who had found it, and they were quite kind and understanding about the whole situation. I told Daddy about it. He was much calmer about it than I was. I still had plans to return the blog to its invite-only state as soon as possible.

However, the experience had gotten me thinking. I rather liked the idea of having a blog that my friends on the UG could read, and those on the UG who'd discovered Dreams and Dragons seemed to like it. I posed the idea of starting a new blog to Daddy. He suggested that, rather than doing that, I clear Dreams and Dragons of anything that could give away personal information and leave it open to the public. I liked this idea much more than my own, and I started work the very next day. Five days later, he approved the clean-up job as complete.

And now, with that backstory laid out, it's my pleasure to declare Dreams and Dragons officially open to my fellow elves of the UG and for any other friendly passerby who happen upon my humble blog. I hope you enjoy it!

And, Rye, if you read this, this post is for you.

Calo anor na ven!*

- Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

*May the sun shine upon your road!

NaNoWriMo Excitement and Other News

Hello, everyone! It's almost Halloween, and guess what that means? It's nearly time for . . .

 

Yep. that's right. NaNoWriMo, otherwise known as "30 days and nights of literary abandon", otherwise known as "one of the two months in the year where Sarah goes slightly crazy with excitement and it's actually a good thing". (The other month, if anyone was wondering, is July, which is Camp NaNoWriMo.) Believe it or not, I'm more excited about NaNoWriMo than I usually am about Christmas or my birthday. (Ok, maybe not Christmas. The excitement there is probably about equal. But I'm definitely more excited about it than I am about my birthday, which happens to be drawing near.)

This year, of course, I'm about four times as excited about it than I was last year. Why? Here are the reasons:
♥ My plot and characters. I've wanted to write this plot for several months now, and my characters are some of my favorites I've ever created. This is my plot for this year:

Emma Alyron isn't fond of the danger and adventure so many of her siblings seem to relish. That's why she and her mother moved away from Alyron Village and to Port Metre in Beylend so many years ago. Now, with her mother dead, Emma is alone, friendless, and defenseless. She doesn't mind too much- at least she's safe . . . for now.

Meanwhile, Emma's ne'er-do-well brother, Jared, is in trouble once more. Having run up more debts than he can pay, he's fled from his creditors and headed straight to Port Metre, where he hopes his luck will change for the better. It seems to have when he runs into Emma and falls in with a group called the Circle of Eight, but soon he begins to wonder if he's jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire.

To make matters worse, Gwen Alyron and the Firhirt siblings are on their way south, in search of another Alyron brother, Jake. They too run into Emma, much to the consternation of both Emma and Gwen, neither of whom is very fond of the other. Gwen and the Firhirts' search is cut short, however, when friends arrive with news of a terrible emergency. Thanks to Jared, Emma knows a secret that could be the key to solving the emergency, but will she share it and not only help Gwen, but become permanently entangled in what she's been running from for so long? And that's not her only secret . . . will she risk everything for this? Find out in Secrets and Searches, the third book in Leilani Sunblade's Berstru Tales series.

 For the record, "Leilani Sunblade" is my username on two forums: The Underground (which I'll be talking about again later) and the NaNoWriMo YWP (young writer's program) forum. 
♥ As I think I've mentioned, I'm doing it on the official site this year. Basically that means that I have a place where I can get help from other NaNoWriMo participants when I get stuck. And if I get my novel finished and edited in time, I have the opportunity to get five free copies of it.
♥ One of my favorite authors, Wayne Thomas Batson, is also doing NaNoWriMo! Even better, the book he'll be writing is Dark Sea Annals #3! For those who don't know, the Dark Sea Annals series is pretty much my favorite Wayne Thomas Batson series of all time. Book 2 in the series, The Errant King, also has the double honor of being my favorite book by Batson, as well as having one of the most awesome covers I've ever seen. So, you can imagine how excited I was when I learned about this! (This paragraph was actually two reasons for why I'm quadruply excited for NaNoWriMo this year, by the way.)

In other, non-NaNoWriMo-related news, I recently received the honor of being chosen as a Sentinel (moderator) on The Underground, one of the three forums I'm on. The Underground is a forum based on The Berinfell Prophecies, one of my favorite series. Needless to say, I'm pretty happy about it, and I enjoy being able to help on the site. The other moderators are all quite busy and don't have as much time as they used to, which is part of why they were looking for a new Sentinel.

Editing my Camp NaNoWriMo novel is going well. I hit the 2/3 mark this morning, which I'm happy about. Since the last third of the novel is probably my favorite part, I'm hoping it'll go a little faster than before. Of course, I won't get it done by NaNoWriMo, but I'm hoping I'll be close enough to being done that I won't have much to edit after November and I'll be able to start editing my NaNoWriMo novel soon after finishing it.

Finally, I watched Ever After last night with my family. I enjoyed it, though I like the Narnia and Lord of the Rings movies better. I'd probably put it about on par with The Princess Bride. I'm hoping that we'll have time to watch another movie on Saturday, preferably one of the longer ones that we were going to watch last night but didn't because didn't have time.

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

- Sarah

SKILLET!- My Day at a Music Festival

Hello, everyone! Guess where I went yesterday! If you read the title and guessed a local Christian music festival, good for you! This one features various popular Christian bands, mostly rock, as well as other activities. This year, my Youth Group was going there, and I got to go with them! I had a ton of fun, and we stayed until 11-something last night. The only real problem is that I got nasty sunburn on my face and neck, which isn't very fun. But I consider it a small price to pay for getting to see some of my favorite bands live.

The Youth Group left the church a little after 8:30. There were five of us plus my (totally awesome) Youth Group leader: me, two girls from my Youth Group, one person I invited, and a friend of one of the others in my group. We got there about a half-hour before the gates opened, so we had a bit of a wait. Once we got inside, we set up chairs and blankets in a spot right at the edge of the seating area. From here, I'll give the account according to what artist was playing at the time.

10:30- The Letter Black: We'd just finished setting up our stuff and I wasn't quite sure what the plan was, so I ended up listening to this group, even though I'd never heard of them before then. As it turned out, they are good. Really good. I definitely like them a lot now. (Unfortunately, the library doesn't have any cds by them, which is annoying.)  After they finished, my friend and I walked up to the merchandise booth and looked around, but didn't buy anything.  We also looked at the booths for the radio stations that were sponsoring the festival, and I got a shirt and a poster for free. (Free stuff rocks, doesn't it?)

11:15- Dara Maclean: Has anyone who reads this ever heard her song, "Suitcases"? (If you haven't, try to find a chance to soon. It's a good song.) That's the only song I'd heard by her before then, but I knew I liked it. I definitely liked the rest of her singing too. After she finished, my friend and I went to get in a line to get her autograph. We thought it was a long line at the time. (Ha-ha.) I had her autograph the poster I got.

12:05- For King and Country: Sadly, I missed the first half of their time onstage waiting in line to get that signature up there. I wasn't really upset, however, since I didn't even think I knew who they were until they sang two songs I'd heard on the radio. I liked the songs, but I still didn't mind missing most of their songs.

12:35- The Museum: I spent most of their time eating lunch. I had brought a PB&J sandwich from home, and someone else there brought in Costco pizza and churros to share, plus I had some Cheez-Its. Yummy. (I actually have no clue what I thought of the artist, sorry. I was more focused on food.)

I, my friend, and another person from my Youth Group left just before Decyfer Down started playing at 1:55. We walked around the booths and games, mostly just looking for something to do. Decyfer Down, as it turned out, was very loud. I could hear it just fine from the games and booths, and when we returned to our seats, the music was deafening. Next year, I think I might look into bringing earplugs, just so I can turn the volume down on the bands I'm not a fan of.

2:55- Jason Castro: This guy really needs a haircut. His hair is at least as long as mine, and that's just wrong. And while it might be forgivable if I liked his music, I'm not a fan of his singing. I sat through this, but that was more because I didn't feel like wandering around anymore. I will note that he's the only person I've ever heard play "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on a ukelele. I'm not saying that was a good idea, but it was different.

4:05- KJ52: I had absolutely no idea who this person is before this concert, and other than the fact that he's a rapper, I still don't really know who he is. I spent this one away from the stage, but I still didn't miss anything. I think the later in the day it got, the louder they turned up the volume. I wasn't a fan of his style; I much prefer Lecrae. However, I will say that it was kind of funny to watch from a distance.

5:25- FIREFLIGHT!: This was the #2 reason I came to this music festival, and they not only met my expectations; they surpassed them. I think I like them even more live than I do on cd. I got down in the crowd by the stage for this one, since I like them so much, so that was fun. What made it even better was that they played three of my favorite songs: "Stand Up", "You Gave Me a Promise", and my all-time favorite, "Unbreakable"! After they finished, I went to get their autograph, but found out that they weren't signing autographs until after the speaker (who was next up) finished. Needless to say, I wasn't very happy about that, but I still came back after the speaker to get their autographs.

The speaker, Jeff Bramstedt, started talking at 6:40. I didn't hear all of his talk, since I was busy eating dinner (Papa John's pizza) and buying a shirt with the logo of the music festival on it. What I did hear was fairly interesting. He's a former Navy SEAL, and apparently he's fairly well-known. I really have no clue; once again, I'd never heard of him until now. Just as he was ending the talk, I and my friend went to get in line again to get Fireflight's autographs.

7:30- Family Force 5: I, unfortunately, missed a little of this while I was standing in line. However, I don't think it was even a third of all the songs they did. I was fairly excited to see this, since I have a friend on the Underground (a forum I'm on) who really likes them. I think I like them too, more or less, though their songs are a little strange. They're also very, very loud.

After Family Force 5, there was a dance competition. (I, of course, didn't take part.) They played one of my favorite Lecrae songs, "God Is Enough", which was cool. After that, it was a long, long wait for the final band, this year's headliners. That band was my #1 reason for going, and it was . . .

9:30- SKILLET!!!: (insert scream of pure excitement and happiness) This was pure awesomeness. They went until 11 PM, and it was so totally worth staying up that late and getting sunburned. They sang most of my favorite songs, including "Hero", "Monster", and "Lucy". They also sang one that I'd never heard before but is definitely going on my new favorites list, "Savior". I was down in the crowd by the stage the whole time, which made it doubly awesome. The only problem was that during the first few songs, there was one girl standing by me with a rather high voice and I occasionally heard her singing over the band's singing. After a bit, however, someone told her to be a little quieter and she moved away from me, so it was fine. And the rest of the concert was, as I said, INCREDIBLE!

Skillet was the last band, so after they finished, my Youth Group headed back. And that's about it from me. The only other noteworthy thing that's happened is that I bought From the Mouth of Elijah, The Homelanders Series, and Princess of Glass. They arrived on Wednesday, and I've already read From the Mouth of Elijah and Princess of Glass. From the Mouth of Elijah was pretty good, though I liked the first in the series better.

Thanks for stopping by!
-Sarah

This Week . . .

Hail, all ye who cometh to my blog! Since today is Friday, it’s time for an update on my life!

·        My stories, sadly, aren’t going as well as I’d like them to be going. So far, I’ve only gotten the chase scenes and the attacking, but no answered questions. I hope to remedy this today or tomorrow, if possible. My Easter story isn’t doing much better, as I only have two scenes in part two. Fortunately, it’s a short story and I already have Part One written. Also, I finished typing Ovulum this morning, which is good. However, I need some help with one of my other stories. You see, I need a name for a certain group of bad guys. These bad guys are evil, twisted humans (and possibly elves as well) who, at the moment, wear all black, typically have hoods on so you can’t see their faces, and wield swords and some kind of taser-type weapon that looks like a black staff. If anyone has any suggestions, they would be much appreciated. (And please do not suggest “pretzel people.” Someone has already suggested that and the humor has worn off.)

·        I have started and finished Pilgrim’s Progress. It, quite obviously, went a lot faster than I expected. It was also a bit, dare I say it, boring. And while I’m quite aware that it’s an old book and an allegory, I highly prefer the Kingdom and Knights of Arretthrae series, both of which are by Chuck Black.

·        Now, the piece of news that I’m most excited about. As some of you may know and most of you probably don’t, I spend quite a bit of time reading the Webkinz Insider and Underground forums. These are two forums, the first of which is primarily for Webkinz-related stuff, though there’s considerably more than Webkinz on it, and the second of which is a forum for The Berinfell Prophecies by Wayne Thomas Batson and Christopher Hopper, one of my favorite series. I have wanted to get an account on one or both of these for quite a while, and this week, I actually got accounts on both of them! My past week’s computer time, other than what I spent on my blog and stories, has mostly been spent exploring these new accounts. And, I like both of them even more than I expected to.

Well, that’s about it for this week. Please comment and vote in my surveys! I always like to hear what you think!

-Sarah