Huzzah!

For the life of a novel, the battle was fought

Between our good Writer and foul Writer’s Block.

It started when Writer’s Block swooped in one day,

Captured the novel, and carried it away.

Anyone remember that poem? I'm hoping you do. (If you don't, you can read it here.) I wrote it this past summer for the TPS Summer Creative Writing class. Then, a month or so ago, I entered it in my library's short story contest. I really didn't expect it to get anything. I mean, I really like it, and other people have said they do too. However, I've tried entering this contest several times with no success, mostly because my style doesn't seem to line up with what they're looking for.

Then I got a phone call from the library. They said I was in the top ten. (My reaction, more or less: Oh. My. Pumpernickel. Really?) So, I went to the awards ceremony, thinking I'd gotten an honorable mention.

Nope.

Second place.

And not only that, but the winners got their stories printed in a book. A real book. Which you can actually buy at a particular branch of my library. They gave each winner a copy and I was possibly more excited about that part of the prize than anything else. I mean, I've had one or two pieces published in Clubhouse Member's Mags, but somehow, having my poem in a book seems more exciting than having it in a magazine (even if the magazine was probably read by far more people).

The same day as the awards ceremony, we had closing ceremonies at Awana. It's the end of my first year as an official leader. In some ways, it was a bit sad. Awana is a lot of fun, and I enjoyed seeing the T'n'T girls every week. At the same time, though, I'm ready for a break.

Then, yesterday, I met my Camp NaNoWriMo goal! Huzzah! My novel is not done, but I do plan to keep working on it. If all goes well, I'd like to finish by the end of May. Of course, I also have short stories and fanfiction that I want to write, and I'd like to work some more on Monster in the Castle. (I miss Hayden! And Pansy. But mostly Hayden.) But, hey, if I can write a thousand words of one novel in a day, I can work on a few projects at once. Right?

Finally, school's almost done! I gave my spring presentation in German class yesterday. I wasn't expecting to have to do it until next week at least, so I was caught a bit off guard, but I think I did all right. I am glad that it's done. And in Literature I just finished reading Romeo and Juliet, which I enjoyed. I did like Cyrano de Bergerac, the play I read last year, better, though. As for history . . . Well, the last chapter and what I've read of this chapter make me really want to go back in time and rewrite pre-WWII history. (Anyone have a time machine I can borrow?) But I only have two or three chapters left, and it should get interesting soon, so I'm not complaining.

How's your life been lately? Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

P.S. Titles are hard.
 

Top Ten Tuesdays: Book Characters I'd Want to Have on a Quest

http://www.brokeandbookish.com

Hello, everyone! I'm finally doing a Top Ten Tuesdays post again! This week's theme is Book Characters Who (blank). Since I get to fill in the blank, I decided to take inspiration from a Fantasy Reflections post in which I and other readers were challenged to create our own Fellowship of the Ring with nine fantasy characters from any fantasy books besides The Lord of the Rings. I had a lot of fun creating my questing group then, so I thought I'd do it again now! As a side note, this isn't a group for any particular quest, unlike the original Fantasy Reflections question.

1. Leader/Guide: Aragorn (The Lord of the Rings). Aragorn proves himself to be an excellent leader throughout LOTR. He's experienced, brave, humble, and cares for those under him. I can think of very few characters better suited to leading a quest of any kind.
2. Main Fighter/Backup Leader: Alastair Coldhollow (The Dark Sea Annals). As a former Wolfguard/assassin, Alastair is a highly skilled fighter. He's also an excellent tactician and pathfinder, meaning he could easily serve as a backup leader or guide if necessary. (Though we're going to hope it's not necessary.)
3. Archer: Will Treaty (Ranger's Apprentice). He's a very good archer (maybe not the best archer in the fantasy world, but still very good), and his other Ranger skills, like tracking and invisible/silent movement would be very useful too. 
4. Fighter/Scout/Spy/Entertainer: Bard Eanrin (The Tales of Goldstone Wood). Being a Faerie, bard, and a Knight of Farthestshore, Eanrin would no doubt be very helpful to have around for multiple reasons. And one cannot deny that Eanrin is pretty awesome. 
5. Healer: Dame Imraldera (The Tales of Goldstone Wood). Someone needs to keep Eanrin in check, after all. Moreover, Imraldera is wise, brave, gentle, and a skilled healer. 
6. Wizard: Kale Allerion (The DragonKeeper Chronicles). Kale's skills as a wizard, as well as her minor dragons, would be infinitely helpful on just about any quest. 
7. Fighter: Bardon (The DragonKeeper Chronicles). If Kale's coming, Bardon's an obvious choice. They are married. And he is a knight, so . . .
8. Fighter: Cruedwyn Creed (Legends of Karac Tor). Like several others on this list, Cruedwyn is an extremely skilled fighter. He's also quite funny . . . and yes, I admit it; I want to see what happens when you put him and Eanrin on the same team.
9. Burglar/Spy: Bilbo Baggins (The Hobbit). Because this company has a noticeable lack of hobbits on it. More seriously, Bilbo is loyal, naturally good at avoiding notice (as are most hobbits), and has a wealth of other (sometimes surprising) talents, and having a ring that makes you invisible (even if it is an evil ring) is quite useful as well. Plus, I like Bilbo.
10. Fighter: Farix. (The Door Within.) Because he's a fascinating character, and he's so good he doesn't even need a weapon. And he's cool. Farix really doesn't get enough attention.

 And of course I'd want to come along as . . . I don't know. I'd find something to do. But I am coming. You'd have to send me home tied in a sack to stop me. (Unless Imraldera asked me to take care of the Haven and her library while she was gone. That I might be willing to skip the quest for.)

What would your ideal questing group be? Feel free to tell me in the comments, or make your own Top Ten Tuesdays post!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)    

Smoke Photography

It's been a long time since I've posted any photography here. This isn't because I've totally given up on it; I just haven't been doing quite as much. I've had more inspiration for writing, and certain ideas I've had required warmth and green foliage and such. However, last month, I discovered smoke photography- specifically, taking pictures of the smoke from incense sticks and then editing those pictures in various creative ways, like changing the color of the smoke, adding other elements to the pictures, etc.

You can probably guess one of my first ideas. After all, what's one of the first thing a fantasy lover thinks of when she thinks of smoke or fire?

That's right. Dragons.

I originally planned to have the smoke coming out of the dragon's mouth like fire, but the toy dragon we bought didn't have its mouth open. I ended up liking what I did instead much better, though.

From the Pages of Legend

The hardest part was getting the smoke to look like it was coming out of his nostrils. I wouldn't have been able to do it if my dad hadn't helped a lot.

While playing around with other smoke pictures, I happened across this one:

Admittedly, it doesn't look like much on its own, but I'd been listening to Howl's Moving Castle again, and the shape and color reminded me of something. So I did a little more playing around, added some other smoke images, and came out with this:

Calcifer

It's Calcifer! (Also, if anyone watched the movie and is thinking "What? Sarah, Calcifer is yellow and orange and looks like a normal flame!", I'm going by the book, in which he's mostly blue with green flames at the top like hair and orange flames for eyes.) This was actually a lot easier to do than it looks; the only really hard part was figuring out how to select smoke for the eyes. The rest was just layer masks and hue-saturation adjustments.

I haven't done much else with the smoke pictures, but I'm hoping to get around to it soon. I have a few other picture ideas I want to try sometime. I hope you enjoyed these two! Thanks for reading!

-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)     

Random Fridays: Recipes

http://bookworm716.blogspot.com

Hey'a, all! Yeah, I haven't been doing anything very regularly like I hoped to. Which is too bad, since I really wanted to do Random Fridays last week and Top Ten Tuesdays this week. (On a side note, would you be interested in reading posts with Random Friday/Top Ten Tuesday themes I miss, even if they're not posted on the days they should be? If that makes sense? Thanks!)

This week's Random Friday theme is recipes I want to try. I'll admit, cooking isn't my favorite activity. However, due to parental decrees, I have been doing more cooking over the last few months, so there are some recipes I'd like to try (eventually- some of them are beyond my skill level at the moment). Most of the recipes are foods my mom has made and I like.

1. Just about anything from the Redwall cookbook. I discovered this last Friday, and I haven't looked through it extensively, but what I've seen sounds good. I think it would be fun to try making some of my favorite Redwall foods. The only problem is that a lot of the most interesting ones seem to call for ingredients we don't usually have on hand.

2. Fried rice. If you ask me, this is one of the best ways to eat rice. It's good as a side, of course, but if you add meat, it's a tasty main dish as well. I like it best with pork.

Ladylocks, without powdered sugar

3. Ladylocks. Have you ever had ladylocks? They're pastry tubes with vanilla or chocolate filling inside and powdered sugar sprinkled on top. My mom doesn't make them often; we only get them at Christmas, and only if my grandpa visits. I'd like to learn to make them myself someday (though not until I'm more experienced).

4. Orange chicken. This is another of my favorite foods that I don't know how to make (yet). My mom has made two varieties: one in the crockpot and one in the skillet. I prefer the skillet variety,  though the crockpot version is probably easier.

5. Peanut butter bars. My mom has made these several times, and as far as I know, almost everyone who's tried them loves them. I know I certainly do! They're a little like peanut butter cups in bar cookie form, but I think they might be yummier.

Peanut butter bars.

6. Baked Oatmeal. If you haven't tried this, you need to. It's vastly different from normal oatmeal that you make in a pot. My favorite version, peanut butter and jelly baked oatmeal, tastes a bit like a peanut butter cookie, especially if you pour some milk on it when you eat it.

7. Lembas. I don't think they'd be at all the same as Middle Earth lembas. However, it's the closest I can come, so I'd like to try it anyway.  

What recipes would you like to try making? Please tell me in the comments, or make your own Random Fridays post!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)     

Want to join in the Random Fridays fun? Feel free to make a post of your own on the week's topic! Please just be sure to use the Random Fridays banner, link back to Awkwordly Emma, and post the link to your post on the Awkwordly Emma blog so other participants can check out your post. For a list of future Random Friday topics, click here.  

Camp NaNoWriMo Week One (and two days)

Wordcount: 10,574 words
Most words in one day: 1,884 (April 4th)
Fewest words in one day: 378 (April 6th)

Hullo, all! As you can probably see from the stats above, Camp NaNoWriMo got off to a pretty good start for me. I had no trouble getting in my daily goals and more for the first five or so days. In fact, I was thinking that Camp NaNoWriMo this month would be the exact opposite of last April's Camp: no problem whatsover. Then on Sunday I was busy most of the day . . . and I got sick. Bleh.

Admittedly, I do often get sick during NaNo events, but usually it happens a little later in the month. I'm just glad that I seem to be getting over it quickly. Also, last night I had an Idea of how to make my plot more exciting and I'm very happy about it. It does potentially delay a few subplots, but that won't hurt the novel, and the more I think about my idea, the more I like it. My characters, on the other hand, are guaranteed to dislike it (except for Nightshade and some of her allies, who will be quite happy about it). But such is life. 

Also, for the record, I meant to post this update on Monday, but . . . I was sick and had other stuff that needed doing. So, it didn't happen.

How's Camp NaNoWriMo (or April in general) going for you? Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)       

Random Fridays: Bookstores

http://bookworm716.blogspot.com

Hello, everyone! I'm back to doing Random Fridays on my own blog, as you can see! Today is also the 4th day of Camp NaNoWriMo. It's going great, though I still need to get my wordcount in for today. I'm planning on a long afternoon of writing. Anyway, onto today's Random Friday topic: Bookstores!

I don't frequent bookstores as much as some people do. That's mostly because many of the nearby bookstores have closed, and of those remaining, not many can be counted on to have the books I want in store. Most of my book shopping now is done online. (Or at book sales. I love book sales.) However, while I love the feeling of finally getting that package I've been impatiently awaiting, there's something special about actually going to the store and searching for the title I want.

All the same, I rarely pass up an opportunity to stop in a bookstore, whether or not I can actually by anything. It's fun to look through the shelves, see which of my favorites are in stock, and try to find new books to look into later. Occasionally I'll have the pleasant surprise of discovering a new book has been released in a series I enjoy.

Most of my bookstore experience is with big-name stores: Borders, Books-A-Million, and Barnes and Noble. Barnes and Noble in particular is where I buy most of my new books, since I get a gift card for that store every year for my birthday. When I was younger, I did the summer reading programs at Barnes and Noble and Borders, and got several good books from those programs. (My favorite was The Ruins of Gorlan, which I got from the Borders reading program the year before I grew out of it.) And I love the big bookstores for the same reason I love big libraries: there's nothing quite like being completely surrounded by thousands of books.

I do like small bookstores too though, even if I haven't had much experience with them. From what I know of them, they feel cozier, less overwhelming. At one point, one of my dream careers was owning my own independent bookstore- specifically, one specializing in either young adult and middle grade fiction or fantasy in general. (This may or may not have been influenced by The Berinfell Prophecies- I'll let you draw your own conclusions there. But I did want to name the bookshop "Ye Olde Book Shoppe".) By now, I've given up on the idea, but independent bookstores are still awesome. I rather wish I had the opportunity to go to them more.

What about you? What's your favorite bookstore? Do you have any special memories involving bookstores? Please tell me in the comments, or write your own Random Fridays post about them!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)       

Want to join in the Random Fridays fun? Feel free to make a post of your own on the week's topic! Please just be sure to use the Random Fridays banner, link back to Awkwordly Emma, and post the link to your post on the Awkwordly Emma blog so other participants can check out your post. For a list of future Random Friday topics, click here.  

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)         

Personality Tests

This morning (well, last night, but I read it this morning), a friend of mine posted on his blog about how he'd done the Meyers-Briggs test for several of his characters. I thought it sounded like fun, so I decided to give it a try with the main characters in my Berstru Tales series.

As a note for those of you who don't know, the Meyers-Briggs test asks you seventy-two questions. Then it gives you a four-letter result, which is some combination of:
1. E (Extroverted) or I (Introverted)
2. N (Intuition) or S (Sensing)
3. T (Thinking) or F (Feeling)
4. J (Judging) or P (Perceiving)

Rachelle Firhirt is an ESFJ.  She's decidedly (89%) extroverted, a moderate (50%) tendency of sensing over intuition, a moderate (38%) preference for feeling over thinking, and a very small (1%) tendency of judging over perceiving. I'm slightly surprised she didn't get 100% extrovert, since she's one of the most outgoing characters I have in any of my stories. Other than that, I wasn't very surprised by any of it.

Dustin Firhirt is an ESFJ as well, just barely. He's pretty much balanced between extroverted and introverted, but a tiny bit (1%) more extroverted. He has a moderate (50%) tendency of sensing over intuition, a moderate preference of feeling over thinking (38%), and a strong preference (89%) of judging over perceiving. He surprised me more than any other character . . . until I actually looked up the difference between judging and perceiving. I discovered that "Judging" doesn't mean "judgmental" and "perceiving" doesn't mean "perceptive." According to what I found, judging people prefer order and organization, and tend to plan more, while perceiving people tend to like being flexible and keeping their options open, and tend to act spontaneously. In that case, Dustin is definitely more of a judger.

Hunter Firhirt is an ESFP. He has a distinctive (67%) tendency towards extroversion over introversion, a moderate (38%) preference of sensing over intuition, a definite (62%) preference of feeling over thinking, and a slight (11%) preference of perceiving over judging.  So, no real surprises.
          
Gwen Alyron is an ISTJ. She's more introverted than extroverted (56%), has a minimal (1%) preference of sensing over intuition, a distinct (75%) tendency towards thinking over feeling, and a strong (78%) tendency towards judging over perceiving. Overall, what I expected her to get.

Ariana Nernathon is an INTJ. She has a slight (11%) preference of introversion over extroversion, a strong (88%) tendency of intuition over sensing, a moderate (38%) preference of thinking over feeling, and a strong (89%) preference of judging over perceiving. I thought she'd tend more towards thinking, but otherwise, no surprises. As a note, she's the only one of the characters I tested who had a preference of intuition over sensing.

Deanna Alyron is an ESFJ. She's slightly (11%) more extroverted than introverted, has a slight (12%) preference for sensing over intuition, a small (12%) tendency towards feeling over thinking, and a decided (100%) preference for judging over perceiving. Like Gwen, there's no surprises there.

Jared Alyron is an ESTP. He has a strong (78%) tendency towards extroversion, almost as strong (75%) a preference for sensing over intuition, a slight (12%) tendency towards thinking over feeling, and a distinct (67%) tendency towards perceiving over judging. The fact that he's a thinker rather than a feeler caught me off guard; Jared is very much one for spur-of-the-moment decisions. However, after further thought, it made sense. While he is very much ruled by his emotions, he also doesn't make major decisions on a whim. He thinks about them- not always as much as he should, but somewhat.

Finally, Emma Alyron is an ISFJ. She's completely (100%) introverted- no surprise there. In all my writing, there's only one other character who's as quiet and withdrawn as Emma. She has a decided (75%) preference for sensing over intuition, a moderate (38%) tendency for feeling over thinking, and a moderate (56%) preference for judging over perceiving. Once more, pretty much what I expected.

Overall, I had a lot of fun doing this, and I think I got to know my characters better through it. I'll definitely keep these results in mind when I return to work on Destinies and Decisions, my current Berstru Tales WIP. If you're a writer, I'd definitely encourage you to try it with your own characters.

Thanks for reading!    
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)         

In Which I Have an Argument With a Bardess

Not too long ago, I found myself having to do something I almost never do: restart a scene. There were so many things wrong with it that I couldn't stand leaving it until revisions. But I decided, hey, if I'm going to do this, why not have a little fun with it and see how it feels to my characters to rewind and reset the scene? I figured it would take no more than a paragraph, but, well, things got a bit out of hand.
-------

Rewind

[Ok, this really isn’t working. AUTHOR POWERS INVOKED. REWIND INITIATED.]

             

Suddenly, the room around Dea blurred into a mass of mingled colors and vague shapes. She felt as if she were being pulled backward and yet wasn’t moving at all. The last several minutes began to fade from her mind.

           

 Ariana’s voice cut through the strangeness. “What is going on?”

 
[REWIND IN PROGRESS. Nothing you need to worry about, Ariana.]

          

“I demand an answer!” The world began shaking ever so slightly. “Now.”

[REWIND IN PROGRESS. Ariana. Relax. It’ll be over in a few minutes and you won’t even know it happened.]

             

Dea wondered who Ariana was speaking to. She herself could hear no reply to Ariana’s demands, yet Ariana was obviously conversing with someone. “What is this, sorcery? You have no right to manipulate us.”

[REWIND IN PROGRESS. Actually, I do. Will you please just relax?]

             

“Not until I get an answer.”

            

 The world jerked violently. It stopped moving for a moment and then jerked again as if caught on something. Dea fought a feeling of nausea. She heard a wail from Micah and Cara and Keely’s whimpers, but couldn’t seem to figure out where they were.  

[ERROR. REWIND JAMMED. ERROR. Ariana! Behave! You’re a bardess!]

             

“Yes, I am a bardess, and therefore, I have a right to know what is happening. I claim the Right of the Talekeeper.”

[Confusticate and bebother you, Ariana.]

             

Gwen’s voice slid through the jerking. “Ariana? Do you know something about this?” She sounded as unsettled as Dea felt. Other voices- Dustin, Hunter, Rachelle, Abbie- echoed her question.

            

 Ariana alone seemed to remain unfazed. “I will soon. Do not worry, Gwen. I have things under control.”

[Let it go, you meddling, pig-headed bardess!]

            

 “That is hardly polite. Tell me.”

[Gah. Fine. It’s a rewind. I’m resetting the scene. Will you let it go already?]

             

The jerking stopped and the smooth movement resumed. Ariana’s voice sounded cool, calm, and smug. “Thank you.”

[REWIND RESUMED. You’re not welcome. I swear, I’m going to revoke bard and bardess powers.]

            

 “No, you’re going to write a new story in which you can actually make use of them.”

[REWIND IN PROGRESS. Dragons eat you, bardess.]

             

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

[REWIND COMPLETE.]

             

Suddenly, all memory of the strange experience disappeared from Dea’s mind. The blur around her shifted and resolved itself into a street and a row of nearly identical small three-story houses. Gwen and Ariana stood in the doorway of one of the houses. 

-------

Yeah. Ariana and I haven't been getting along all that well lately. I think it's her version of revenge for something I did to her two books ago . . . Apparently she was more upset about it than I thought. 

What about you? Have your characters ever surprised you in some way? Have you ever had a conversation with your characters? Please tell me in the comments! Also, please check out my guest post at Awkwordly Emma, where I blog about one of my current obsessions: The Tales of Goldstone Wood.

Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)