Fairy Tale Retellings That Need to Be a Thing

For those who don't know, I absolutely love fairy tales and fairy tale retellings. Recently, my roomie and I were chatting about the topic (because she loves them as much as I do, more or less), and as is wont to happen in such conversations, we temporarily wandered onto the idea of fairy tale retellings we'd love to see. We soon meandered on, but the thought stuck in my mind and so now I'm writing a post about it.

Fairy Tale Retellings That Need to Be a Thing

1. King Thrushbeard. Anything King Thrushbeard. This is one of my favorite fairy tales, but no on ever retells it- which is sad, because there's so much potential in there, with the proud princess and the relationship between her and her beggar-husband . . . Honestly, that would be really fun to either read or write, with lots of snark on her part and teasing on his part that eventually becomes love on both sides.
2. Hansel and Gretel crossed with Little Red Riding Hood. This was actually my roommate's idea of something I should write . . . and, hey, I might do it, if I can sort out the details and figure out setting and characters. I do like the idea, and both of these seem to be fairytales that aren't super-common in retellings.
3. Steampunk Six Soldiers of Fortune or the Six Servants. So these fairy tales are really weird . . . but I feel like steampunk could make them work and actually make sense, with some of the different weird powers/modifications and such. (The runner who takes off his leg, for example, or the guy who makes everything freeze over by putting his hat on straight.) And given the current trend towards grey-and-grey morality, this book would fit in very well. My roomie also suggested that a post-apocalyptic retelling (or "post-retelling," focused on the characters' kids) would be cool, and I tend to agree.
4. Not quite a fairy tale, but a mythology retelling, so close enough: The Odyssey . . . in Space! I think that The Odyssey would make a pretty cool sci-fi novel (or perhaps a series of short stories). Odysseus captains a spacecraft, he's on his way home from a war on some distant planet (and because of time-space concerns, though the war might not have been terribly long for him, it's been a long time on his home planet, of which he's the ruler), the islands at which he stops become other planets . . . seriously, can this be a thing? It obviously wouldn't be as beautiful as the original, but it would be amazing in a whole different way.
5. The Six Swans or The Seven Ravens. I do know of one retelling of The Seven Swans, but it . . . wasn't my favorite book in the world, let's put it that way. I'd love to see a really good retelling- preferably one with a fair bit of emphasis on the sibling relationships. I mean, you've got seven or eight siblings in either story; you ought to be able to get some good interactions out of that.

What fairy tale retellings would you like to see? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)
 
P.S. For those who can't guess, September Doings will be delayed a bit due to the fact that I'm rather busy at the moment. I will do my best to have it up sometime in the next few days. Thanks for your patience!

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)

Quotes Challenge Day 2

Hello, everyone! In case you missed yesterday's post, I'm currently doing the Quotes Challenge- which isn't much of a challenge, but is fun all the same. Yesterday, I posted a quote by Anne Elisabeth Stengl, and today, continuing my theme of favorite authors, I'll be posting one from Brandon Sanderson.

“The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.”

– Wit, The Way of Kings

And as for my two nominees, I tag Merenwen and Allison. Feel free to do or not do as you please.
Thanks for stopping by!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

Quotes Challenge Day 1

Hello, everyone! A few months ago, Emmarayn Redding nominated me for the Quotes Challenge. I've seen this tag/challenge floating around the interwebs for a while now, and I think it's pretty cool, so I'm happy to have been nominated. How it works:

1. Thank the person who nominated you- Danke sehr, Emma!
2. Nominate three people every day (except I'm going break this rule more than Lews Therin broke the world; sorry).
3. Post a quote every day for three consecutive days.

Because I like a bit of a theme, I'll be posting one quote from each of my top three favorite authors. Today's author is Anne Elisabeth Stengl.

I don’t believe in chosen ones. In prophecies. In destinies.”

“Neither do I. On principle, I’m against them. Inconvenient, nonsensical things, and a cat does like to be master of his own fate, you know? But what I believe or don’t believe has little to do with the truth of the matter.”

- The Chronicler and Bard Eanrin, Dragonwitch

As for nominations . . . I lied. I'm not breaking this quite as much as Lews Therin broke the world. But instead of doing three per day, I'm doing one today, two tomorrow, and hopefully three the last day. Today's nominee is IDK323 of Writings in Panin.

Thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to stop by tomorrow for the second quote!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

Fall 2016 Reads

Hello, everyone! Fall is upon us (well, unless you live in the southern hemisphere, in which case, pretend I said spring or something like that). And, as always, that means it's time for a new set of books . . . though, sadly, there aren't a ton of new releases this fall that I'm excited about. But, since I'm still working on the Wheel of Time series- at least in theory- as well as reading a bunch of other new-to-me books that everyone else probably read ages ago, it works out. Not a ton doesn't mean none, though, so let's take a look at the to-be-read list.

Fall 2016 Reads!

1. The Forgetting by Sharon Cameron (September 13)

I actually just discovered this book on Goodreads today, and I'm not quite sure what I think about it, but it sounds pretty cool. I'm hoping that it doesn't turn out to be another cliche dystopian-type thing, which it also sounds like it might be, but it gets good reviews, so . . . I'll give it a try, if I get the chance.

 

2. The Creeping Shadow by Jonathan Stroud (September 13).

I am slightly terrified regarding this book- I love the characters (Lockwood particularly) and I want to see more of them, but it's going to be so very tense and Lucy does act like a bit of an eejit on occasion, and yeah. Much worrying. Which means I'll probably procrastinate on this book for ages even if I can get it sooner than that. But I will read it . . . I hope.  

3. Like a River Glorious by Rae Carson (September 27).
This is the second book in Rae Carson's Gold-Rush-era historical fantasy, and I'm pretty excited for it. I love that this series is set in an era so often overlooked by fantasy writers, and while there's not a strong amount of fantasy in it, the touch is just enough to make it more than just an ordinary historical fiction novel (which, to be honest, there's a good chance I'd ignore unless someone recommended it to me). I like the characters as well (most of them, anyway), and look forward to rejoining them. (Also, you know what else is glorious besides whatever river the title refers to? This cover. So pretty.)

4. The Secret Horses of Briar Hill by Megan Shepherd (October 11).
This book sounds rather odd in some ways, but interesting as well. I've a suspicion it'll be sad, but on the other hand, one of the reviews said it's like The Chronicles of Narnia meets The Secret Garden, and I love both of those books, so . . . we'll see. In any case, it should be something out of the norm for me.

5. Heartless by Marissa Meyer (November 8).
I'm not quite sure what to expect from Heartless- on one hand, it's by Marissa Meyer, and I love The Lunar Chronicles by that author, and a Wonderland retelling should be pretty cool. On the other hand, it's a Wonderland retelling and Wonderland is weird. Don't get me wrong; I like them. I'm just not sure how Marissa will handle the weird and it could be very hit-or-miss. Oh well- I'm looking forward to finding out all the same.

What books are you looking forward to this fall? Please tell me in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

August Doings!

Hello, everyone! August was another busy, change-filled month. That means this post might be pretty long . . . and I'm also going to do things a little out of order, so that things don't get out-of-context too much. So, to start out, Life!

Life!

•  Some of you (I hope most of you) may remember that last month's Doings post went up a little bit early, and that I proceeded to disappear for about two weeks after that. The reason? I was off in Rivendell, otherwise known as White Sulphur Springs. Like last year, I was part of the Support Staff, a group of teenage volunteers who basically help maintain the hotel and grounds. This year, my little sister came up with me, which was pretty awesome. Some other highlights and significant bits from our time up there:
• A mini-retreat at the start of our volunteer session. I might've freaked out a little, because the couple in charge of said mini-retreat referred to it as a mini-camping trip/adventure. I, fairly naturally, jumped straight to the extreme of sleeping in a tent (or possibly just under the stars), possibly in a location that we had to hike an hour to get to, probably cooking our own food over a campfire, and undoubtedly getting a maximum of four hours' sleep that night. I was, naturally, wrong- we were in cabins, maybe ten minutes' walk from the hotel, eating food catered by the hotel, and generally having a pretty good time. And while there were some girls who got only about four hours of sleep, I was not one of them- I don't think I got a full eight hours, but I got enough.
• I also got to see several of my friends from last year again, which was awesome! There was one person on Girls' Support Staff who'd been on it last year as well, two on Boys' Support Staff, and several people from both staffs who were serving in other positions. 
• Plus I made quite a few new friends . . . quite a lot of whom were fellow bookworms/writers! Never in my life had I found so many people in one physical place who love the same sort of things I love, and, guys, it was SO AWESOME. There were so many book-chats over meals . . . and one of the Support Staff guys and I chatted for literally hours about our stories and characters and creating characters . . . and I got to chat about writing and books and life in general with the Fine Arts Coordinator (who is awesome, by the way), and I got a bunch of book recommendations (several of which I proceeded to devour as soon as I could get them from the library) and yeah. Much awesomeness. And one of those friends also introduced me to the game SuperFight, which is basically hilarious. I might've spent a few hours playing that too . . .
• Oh, and square dance is still awesome. Though I did end sitting out a fair bit of dancing on the second night for various reason . . . but it was ok, because sometimes not dancing can be fun, depending on who you're doing it with. If that makes sense. 
• Also, the Girls' Support Staff girls and supervisors were all absolutely awesome. Just saying. If any of them are reading this: Hi! Virtual hug for you- I only wish it could be in person!
• This year was a lot busier than last year as well . . . particularly the final weekend. Oliver North was the speaker, which meant that both the new hotel (the one mostly used for conferences and such) and the old hotel (now mostly used as staff housing) were packed to the point that the speaker's own daughter was on the waiting list for a room, and in the dining hall- oh! Both Girls' and Boys' Support Staffs had to be on call for serving meals, and there was no time or space for us to eat dinner at the tables with the guests like usual. It was still good, though. And, miraculously, we got a block of a few hours on Saturday of simply free time, which helped a lot.
• I probably could've made this its own post, but . . . oh well. It's a bit late for that now, I think. 
•  After returning from White Sulphur Springs, we stopped at my grandpa's house for a few days, which was fun. Then we headed home for a week or so before the really big event of the month. That is . . .

• I'm at college. What even.
• We got here for orientation on the 19th, which was . . . slightly crazy, but not as bad as I feared. Everyone was very nice and welcoming, and my roommate and we got there early enough that I could get all my actual registration stuff done, plus go to all the talks I wanted to and get my room mostly organized that day. My family went to a local restaurant/ice cream place for dinner, and then we said goodbye . . . at which point the realness of college finally kicked in, and I had to go to bed quite quickly afterwards so that I didn't spend an hour or two either in shock or crying or both. 
• But the next day was ok. And so was the day after. And the week after. And now I've been at college for almost two weeks, and I'm doing pretty well. So that's good. I'm enjoying most of my classes- most of them are pretty awesome, one way or another. (So are my professors. Particularly my New Testament Literature professor who references things like LOTR and Narnia in class when he's trying to make a point Yep. The last few class periods, I've actually been disappointed when they ended. Though my philosophy professor is great too- very smart, slightly sarcastic, very deadpan, and a bit intimidating because he's so very good at forcing us to think and think again and yeah.)
• And I'm making quite a few new friends, I think, as well as meeting some who I'd known only online before now. (One of them is in my major, yay!) 
• Oh, and my roommate is awesome too. She's a bookworm and a fantasy/sci-fi fan and very smart and incredibly sweet and pretty much just an amazing person. We get along well- we're both introverts, so we're cool with giving each other space when we need it, but we have enough common interests and opinions that we can enjoy hanging out with each other.
• Also, the food is pretty good. I'm pretty sure my college is up there near the top on the list of Colleges With the Best Food. And if it's not, it should be. 
• Plus the campus is gorgeous. I haven't visited a ton of college campuses, but I, in my biased opinion, will say that mine is the prettiest.
• Basically, I'm enjoying college so far. And I'm writing all this so that in February, when it's freezing and snowing and I have a ton of homework, I can look back and say "Right. There's good things here, Sarah. Appreciate them. For five seconds before you go back to studying."
• Um. Yeah. That basically sums up life for me this month. Not that I really need more . . .

 Writing!

• So I'm still working on Fight Song. I've been keeping up with an average of about 150 words per day, which comes out to about 7.7K this month. Which, no, isn't a ton. But it's not bad either. And I swear that I am going to finish this novella eventually. Maybe Labor Day weekend I'll get super motivated and have a writing marathon day or something like that. Or I'll get way ahead in half my classes and so have more time for writing later. Or maybe a portal will open to Narnia and I'll go off there, have a great many adventures, and come back knowing exactly how to finish this book.
• Basically, yeah, I'm in a writing slump. Part of me wants to just go back to editing- but I also want to finish this story so I can share it because I really, really like it. In theory. It's just the actual writing that's getting me down right now.

Reading!

There is lots of it and it is glorious.

•  LOOK AT ALL THE BOOKS!
• So, yeah. I basically was trying to make up for July, when I read next to nothing. Plus I had a few 8-10-hour car trips and a week without any real responsibilities, which meant plenty of time for reading. And thus I managed to get in 20 whole books in the month of August! (Plus one week of July, which I mostly spent on The Shadow Rising. It counts.)
• So. Let's see. I usually start with highlights . . . which are really hard to pick. I've read a lot of really fun books this month, y'all. It's awesome. But it might mean that I just run through all the different books/series in some kind of non-preferential order. If that makes sense.
• The month started with finally finishing The Shadow Rising, which was definitely a highlight. The end of the book was . . . interesting, as were the revelations about the Aiel. My feelings on characters haven't changed much from what I said in July, with a few exceptions. Namely, I love Perrin and Faile, and I'm very interested to see how Perrin reacts once he realizes what he's actually done here. I think I'm slightly less annoyed with Egwene than I was in July, though I could be wrong. And I have been informed that she becomes pretty awesome in future books, so we'll see how that goes. And I rather do not like Aviendhra- while I suppose I might sulk if I were in her position, I don't think I'd do it quite so much- and I also predict that she and Rand will end up married. Which, as I mostly ship Rand with Elayne, poses a bit of a problem. Oh well.
• After finishing The Shadow Rising, I was ready for a long, long break from heavy fantasy, so I started in on the Fablehaven series, which was enthusiastically recommended and (in the case of the first two books) lent to me by a friend at WSS. I very much enjoyed the series- it wasn't amazing, but it was solid and had some pretty good storylines and characters. It also got surprisingly dark in bits . . . but it wasn't a bad type of dark, I don't think. I enjoyed the Beyonders series, another series by the same author that I read later in the month, much more; while the basic concept was slightly less unique than that of Fablehaven, I liked the characters and storyline more. 
• Another series recommended to me by a WSS friend was the Enchanted Forest Chronicles, the first of which was Dealing With Dragons. It's a sort of fairy-tale-parody series, though I'm not sure if "parody" is the right word- it's not so much that it retells fairy tales as it takes place in a world where the fairy tales are the normal and accepted thing and basically determine how the world works. On the whole, it's a highly amusing series, and if some things occasionally seem to work out a bit conveniently, well, fairy tales tend to be that way. The first two books in the series were my favorites, but the second two aren't bad either.
• Finally, a smattering of miscellaneous books: The Girl From Everywhere was delightful and time-travel-y and mysterious and I wouldn't mind sailing with Nyx and the crew for a while if that's all right? Enchanted Glass is a Diana Wynne Jones book which I've been meaning to read for a while, happened to see in the college library (there's an awesome section of classics, Middle Grade, and Young Adult fiction on the lower level; it's one of my favorite places on campus), and thought sounded like a good way to spend the second-to-last afternoon before classes started- and, happily, I was right. And, on the topic of books I happened to see in the college library: I also reread the second and third books in the Wilderking Trilogy, as well as the first two books in the Fairyland series- that's the series starting with The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. It was slightly weird, rather Lewis-Carroll-ish, but on the whole a decent read. (The second book isn't pictured above, for the record, because I only read about half of it in August- the rest I read this morning while I was on the exercise bike.)
• Not pictured above is the book I'm currently reading for Western Literature: The Odyssey, which has been much more enjoyable and easier to get through than I expected. If I didn't have to answer questions about it every third section (not to mention do other schoolwork), I probably would have just read it straight through by now. If anyone's interested in reading a bit of Greek mythology, I definitely recommend it. (Do get the Robert Fitzgerald translation, though. I can't speak for any of the others.)

 Watching!

• Yeah. So. This is going to be a thing now. My roommate is much more into TV and movies than I am- which is to say, she's spent more time watching them than I have. And, conveniently, we have fairly similar tastes in movies. So, yeah, movie/TV nights are hopefully going to be a regular thing when we're not too busy.
• All this to say: if you can't guess from the image up top, I watched the first episode of Firefly, which is sort of a space-western thing! It's sort of odd and I don't quite have a good feel for the world yet, or how the characters got from where they are when the episode started (apparently in the middle of a battle for . . . somewhere? some planet? which didn't work out so well) to where they spent most of the episode (six years later, in space, smugglers, though I don't think they exactly want to be). But I like the characters and I like the plot and I'm not so confused that I can't keep up, and I hope that my roomie and I can find time to watch the next episode sometime soon. 
• Then we had another movie night Sunday and watched GalaxyQuest, which is sort of a Star Trek-spoof thing . . . with a surprisingly good plot once you get through the painfully embarrassing beginning and the rather campy everything. Essentially, it's about six actors who played characters in a Star Trek-type show years ago . . . but somehow this show got discovered by aliens across the galaxy who assumed it was real. And so when the aliens find themselves in a mess, they go looking for the actors, thinking they're heroes . . . you can probably guess the rest, but the basic plotline is of a type that makes me very happy.

September Plans!

• Obviously, now that school's started up, my life pretty much revolves around that. I expect that the amount of work will be increasing as the months go on, but I'm hoping to use Labor Day weekend to get a bit ahead in my work for some of the classes. (Since that'll mean reading a great deal of The Odyssey, as well as a historical fiction novel about the early church, I'm rather looking forward to that.) One nice thing about my schedule (that I didn't expect to be as nice as it is): I don't have any early classes, though a lot of my friends do. That means that I can often get a lot done before classes and then I'm mostly free in the evenings. (It also means that I don't have to lug more than the absolute minimum of textbooks across campus- very useful.) There are exceptions, yes, but I can almost always get the tiresome stuff out of the way early.
• And I still want to finish Fight Song. Somehow. I keep thinking that "Oh, there's just one or two scenes more before the climax," but no, there's more like three or four or five. But it needs to be done by November and that's that.
• And there will hopefully be a fair bit of reading-for-fun; since I try to get to classes early, I generally have five or ten minutes there where I don't have enough time to work on schoolwork but I do have time for a chapter or two. I'm going to finish the Fairyland series, and hopefully reread Reapers so I can finally get to Beyond the Gateway, and I keep telling my roommate that I'm going to read the Shatter Me series . . . Yeah. I won't be lacking reading material, despite having left most of my personal library at home.
• And I'm trying to find a church in the area, which is an interesting process. I know where I'm going this Sunday, more or less, but the Sunday after- no idea. (If you know where I am and have a suggestion of a good church, please leave it in the comments!)

How was your August? What are your plans for September? Please tell me in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

Time Travel Touring

Hello, all! First off, a bit of housekeeping: I know I've been tagged with a few things over the last few months, and I am going to get to those soon- but I can't recall all of them. So if you know you've tagged me with something this summer, could you please remind me of what it is in the comments? Thanks. And now that that's over with, we can get to the real point of this post: time-travel.

 

I'm pretty sure everyone is at least somewhat fascinated with the idea of time travel and its potential. While it could be dangerous and also very difficult to use it as a superhero-type power (assuming you don't want to accidentally break history), as a personal ability? So cool- there are so many times and places you could go. And today, I'm talking about the top seven places I’d travel to if I had time-travel ability. (For the purposes of this post: there are no limits to said ability, except that I can’t significantly change history. And, for convenience’s sake, we’ll assume that the ability to blend in wherever I end up is included in the time-travel power. ‘Cause, you know, limits make for a good story . . . but if we’re going for if-onlys, why not pull out all the stops?)

Time Travel Touring

1. Ancient Egypt, early 15th century B.C. The exact year and century doesn't matter so much with this one- any period of ancient Egypt would be cool to visit. But if I'm going to go, I might as well do it when I could see some of the events of Exodus . . . though I might get out of there once the plagues start getting serious. There's some things I'd rather read about than experience, y'know?
   
   
   
2. Oxford, England, sometime in the 1940s (and then again in 1955). I give you all three guesses as to why, and the first two don't count- of course if I have time travel powers I'm going to go back and actually meet C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and maybe accidentally-on-purpose eavesdrop on an Inklings meeting or two (or even on some of their classes at Oxford!). And then I'd hop forward a decade and see if I can get my hands on first-edition (or early edition, at least) copies of LOTR and The Chronicles of Narnia- and, while I'm at it, I'd see if I could get those copies autographed too. Plus, if I felt like it, I could see if I could track down Diana Wynne Jones while she was taking classes at Oxford- she wouldn't have started writing yet, but it would still be cool to meet her.
   
   
3. Medieval Europe. As with modern Europe, there's no one specific location (or event) I'd particularly want to see- I'd rather travel from place to place (and time to time) and visit whatever catches my interest. I'd visit some castles and tournaments, for certain, and see if I could sit in on some significant events (most of which I can't think of off the top of my head just now) and generally do in-person story research. I would be a little bit scared to visit this time as well, not out of fear of death or injury but because I wouldn't want to let go of my fantasies. But I'd still go in the end.
   
   
4. New Zealand, early 2000s and 2011-2012. Specifically, onto the set of the Lord of the Rings  and Hobbit films, where I'd get a behind-the-scenes, in-person look at the process and then sneak myself into a costume to play the occasional extra in whatever scenes I could manage! Admittedly, I'm slightly iffy on whether or not it would be entirely legal . . . but it would definitely be fun.
   
   
5. Judea, 1st century A.D. Because what's a time-traveling tour without visiting the time when Jesus walked the earth and taught the people face-to-face? I'm honestly not sure I'd manage to approach Him, even if I visited that time- I wouldn't know what to do or say. But it would be amazing to hear Him speak and see His miracles.
6. Jerusalem and Judea, various points in David and Solomon's reigns (between 1010 and 931 B.C.). Actually tied with the time of Jesus for the Biblical era I'd most like to see: Jerusalem at its height, during the reigns of David and Solomon! And while I was there, I'd try to be there for some of the significant events- go back a bit to see David defeat Goliath, watch as the Ark was brought home to the Tabernacle, and sit in on some of the Temple dedication ceremony. Plus, of course, I'd explore the city on a few different ordinary days.
   
   
7. The American Frontier/Old West, 1800s. Because as someone who grew up on the Little House books and similar stories, and still finds the frontier and old west era fascinating, I couldn't not stop in on that time. As with Medieval Europe, there's no particular place and time within this region and era where I'd particularly want to go; I'd just travel around and see what I could see. (That being said, I'd probably try to meet Laura Ingalls, because why not?)
   

Too bad there's only seven slots on the list- other times and places that didn't quite make it on there include Victorian-era England, ancient Greece and Rome (though the latter I could probably do while visiting Judea), various locations during the Revolutionary War and the early years of the the USA (including Philadelphia, Fort Stanwix, Yorktown, and New York), the time of Creation, and several concerts that I wish I could've gone to but missed. And, you know, if I have the ability to time travel to anywhere and anywhen, I could theoretically use it to visit my various online friends around the globe . . . and, depending on how far the ability extended, even take them on some of these adventures with me! That would be really awesome.

What about you? Where and when would you go if you had almost-unlimited time travel abilities? Please tell me in the comments!

Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade) 

 

I'm Back (With a Bookania Interview)!

Mae govannen, mellyn nin! I'm back from "Rivendell," as you can see. I had an excellent time, though not, perhaps, in the way I expected. However, this is not the day for sharing stories (I'll do that in the August Doings post, unless I decide to make another post specifically for my two weeks in Rivendell) or fangirling over books (though I do have two, soon to become three, series, plus an I-think-standalone, to fangirl over).

Instead, I have an interview with Arthur, one of the heroes of Kendra E. Ardnek's Bookania series. This interview was meant to be scheduled to post during my hiatus. Due to circumstances beyond my control, it didn't happen . . . so, with Kendra's permission, I'm rather belatedly posting it now for you to enjoy.

http://knittedbygodsplan.blogspot.com/

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(I have no idea if I'm supposed to post the banner or not, seeing as the party ended a week ago, but I might as well err on the side of advertisement, eh?)

 Hello, Arthur! To start out, why don't you tell my readers a little about yourself? Who are you, what do you do, favorite hobbies, coffee or tea?

I'm Arthur, the newly-crowned king of Britune, I, uh, do king things. My hobbies, which I haven't had time to indulge in lately, mostly involve exploring the tunnels under my castle and collecting bugs. I'm not sure what coffee is, but tea's good. Well, some teas.

Tea is excellent, if you ask me. If my timeframe is right, you were somewhat recently crowned king of Briton. What do you think of ruling so far? What's the hardest part? The best part?

Well, we've renamed it "Britune," but you are correct. It's been interesting so far. So far it's mostly been ceremonies and such. Hardest part has been dealing with people - I've never really had to do that before. Best part is Shira. She's amazing.

I see. Who among your fellow characters are you the closest to? (Excepting Shira, obviously . . . you two are a really cute couple! And excepting Grandfather as well, for obvious reasons.) Who do you get along the least with?

I think of everyone I'm closest to my cousin Robin. I'm not really sure how it happened, though. She scared me at first, but she's really an interesting person, and she doesn't like to hide things like the others do. 

I'm not sure there's anyone I completely don't get along with, though. There are people that I avoid, but I don't not get along with them. Does that make sense? 

Perfect sense. Speaking of your fellow characters . . . what was your reaction to finding out just who Grandfather, Shira, Madeleine, and the others really are? How long did it take you to come to terms with that?

Well, it was hard to believe at first, I will admit, but I'd seen so many other strange things by that point, it was just another strange thing to get used to. Everything now made sense, and when things make sense, they're not confusing. How long did it take me? About as long as it took them to explain everything.

That's impressive. I think it would've taken me longer. If you could go back in time to change one thing during the lifetimes of yourself and your friends (yes, I'm aware that's a pretty long span), would you? If so, what would you change?

I ... I really don't know. While I don't like the fact that my great-grandfather was separately from his family and friends, I don't think I would exist if he hadn't, and I certainly wouldn't be the one married to Shira. As for my own life ... maybe I'd not have my father be captured by pirates ... though again, what would that change now? I think it's really best to leave things as they are.

I won't argue with that. Finally, if you could have any Gift or superpower you could imagine, what would you choose and why? 

Something that would help me be a good king, because I think I'm going to need all the help I can get.

I'm sure you'll make an excellent king, and I look forward to seeing more of you in later Bookania titles. 

Did you all enjoy the interview? Want to know more about Arthur?

July Doings!

Well, it's the end of another busy month, which means it's time for another Doings post. July really has just flown by, it seems-

What's that you say? July's not over yet? We still have over a week to go?

Well, I do actually know that. However, I won't be able to put up Doings at the usual time, for reasons which I'll explain later. For now, on with the post!

Writing!

•  As I mentioned last month, I'm once again participating in Camp NaNoWriMo. My project this month was Fight Song, a superhero novella. Synopsis for those interested:

Three years ago, she saw murder done.
Three years ago, everyone said she was crazy.
They still say it now. But she knows what she saw. She knows what she heard. And she will find the killer no one knows is a killer and bring him to justice, even if no one in the world believes her.
Because she's just one girl. But she has the power of her songs at her back- songs that can shape the world if used the right way- and she's not going to let anything stop her from completing her mission. 

• My goal was only 10K words, which is my lowest NaNo goal yet. I wasn't sure how much I'd be able to get through, and I'm glad I didn't try for more. Although I did hit 10K less than halfway through the month, I don't think I could've made it to 15K, let 20K, by this time. As it is, I won with about 12K words, and I should be able to finish the rest of the novel sometime in the next week or two.
• For those desiring snippets, the first two paragraphs of the novel:

The digital clock behind the receptionist's desk had just turned to twelve, and I was starting to wonder if I could get away with sleeping on duty when I heard it: the song of death.
The discordant notes jolted me into alertness, chasing all thoughts of sleep from my mind. I'd heard that song once before- when my family sat 'round my gramma's bed while she traveled through the pearly gates. It sounded worse now. Then it had bordered on being real music; this time it was . . . not. Not music, not simply noise, but something so harsh and wrong that listening was physically painful.

• And another piece of dialog that made me rather happy:

"All business, Songbird?" Jonathan turns his computer towards me. "Our villain committed the classic blunder-"
I can't resist. "He got involved in a land war in Asia?"
Jonathan rolls his eyes, though in an amused way. "No."
"Oh, so he went up against a Sicilian when death was on the line?"
"Good grief, Songbird, do you want the information or not?"

• Outside of Camp, I haven't done much other writing or editing, though I am hoping to re-edit at least one chapter of Destinies and Decisions before the month is out, and there's one or two stories (or story pieces) that I want to write for blogs if I can find time. We'll see how that works out.

 Reading!

• I have read approximately 50% of The Shadow Rising and that's all. In my defense, I've been busy, and when I've gotten free time, other things have taken priority. In general, my feelings about this book so far are about the same as my feelings about the first three books. I'm not a Rand fan, though he has improved. I like Perrin, though he's currently making a questionable choice or two and his refusal to admit that he's ta'veren is rather amusing. Faile needs to get off her high horse and stop driving Perrin crazy. Egwene is challenging Celeana Sardothien for the position of "Most Aggravating Female Character (Who Still Actually Does Something) Ever." Mat and Thom are both awesome and two of my favorite characters. Elayne is alternately annoying me with her Rand-crazyness and making me happy as she gets a chance to shine a bit away from Egwene's shadow. and Nynaeve continues to be fabulous and my other favorite character.
• I'm still hoping to finish The Shadow Rising by the end of July. I don't know if it'll happen or not, though.
• Oh, and I listened to The Penderwicks at Point Mouette with my family. I always enjoy the Penderwicks books, so that was fun. And it's sort of reading, right?

Life! 

•  Most of the month was occupied by my internship, which just ended today. I am very glad to not have to get up at 5:15 or 5:45 anymore unless I want to, let me tell you. I did enjoy the work, though, and I accomplished a lot in the relatively short time I was there. And today I had to give a briefing on what I'd done and learned during my internship, and I actually did pretty well, so that made me happy.
• We celebrated Independence Day weekend with a trip down to Lexington to visit a family friend who we haven't seen since we moved. I enjoyed the trip, and got a lot of writing done on it- 9+ hours in the car is pretty useful in that respect (even if a lot of that time was taken up by listening to the aforementioned audiobook).
• I crocheted my sister a dragon! The picture is above, for those interested. I'm really happy with how it turned out, especially as it's only my second crochet project. The hardest part of making him was actually sewing all the pieces together; making the parts was all single crochet and decreasing, which is pretty easy. I used the Hannah's Red Dragon pattern, though I used the wings from Tarragon the Gentle Dragon (which is a knit pattern that my sister has done more than a dozen times) because when I grabbed the dragon pattern, the author hadn't added wings. I want to make myself a similar dragon now, but I have to figure out what yarn to use, as I don't have enough red left.
• Last weekend, my church had a summer carnival/festival/mini-VBS thing. I ended up running the can-knock-down game. It was exhausting, but not as bad as I expected, and some of the kids were pretty cute. I think my game ended up being one of the most popular ones, partially because it was easy and partially because I tended to be generous with the tickets. 
• We also had a fair amount of family visiting this month. My grandpa came up the weekend of the 9th, which was fun. And then last weekend my aunt, uncle, and cousins visited, which was also nice since we haven't seen them in a while.
• We finally visited Fort Stanwix! Fort Stanwix is a recreation of a Revolutionary War fort- the only fort which never fell to the British during that war, and the site where the first red, white, and blue American flag was flown. I've wanted to go there ever since we moved here, since it looked pretty cool and like a great place to take pictures. As it turns out, it's even better than I expected. Like Williamsburg, it's a sort of "living history" site- but because it's a recreation rather than an original, you can actually go into the rooms, sit on the chairs, touch and pick up the stuff, and so on- which both made it more fun and better for photography. A few rooms were blocked off, yes, but I think that they may be on a rotation: some are open one day, some are open another, and some are open all the time. I also did my first escape room at Fort Stanwix, which was really fun. It wasn't quite what I was expecting- it was less like the escape room games I've played on the computer and more like a Nancy Drew or puzzle game- but I still enjoyed it.
• I bought a Kindle! I haven't actually used it because (A) I don't have a case for it yet, and (B) I've barely read anything all month. But it's still nice to have one that's all my own as opposed to technically being my mom's. (Not that she used it much at all- it was mostly my sister and I who read things on it.)

 August (and the last ten days of July) Plans!

•  As you may or may not have guessed and/or remember from my June Doings post, I'm taking another internet hiatus, starting on Friday, July 22. It should last for two weeks and a bit, so I'll be back in mid-August.
• However, I may be spotty during the rest of August; it's hard to say. I should be back to my regular posting schedule (or will have formulated a new schedule) by September, barring calamity. Just warning you.
• I really want to read more in August and the end of July than I have the rest of the month. No internet should help with that, though, as should not having an internship to keep me busy.
• I also want to finish writing Fight Song and then maybe work on some short fiction. And also fanfiction, if I can get my ideas sorted out. And once my hiatus ends, I'm going to get back to work editing Destinies and Decisions and whatever else I decide needs edited. 
• And there's something else happening in August, the nature of which some of you (or most of you) may be able to guess. And I think I should be slightly terrified about it, but I haven't had much time to be, so I'm just vaguely nervous and absentmindedly conscious that I really ought to have done more to prepare by now. So that's probably good- the not-being-terrified bit, I mean. Not the needing-to-prepare bit.

How's your July been? What plans do you have for August and the rest of the month? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade) 

Beautiful People: July 2016 Edition

Hosted by Paper Fury

Hello, everyone! It's time for another edition of Beautiful People! Once again, there's no particular theme to these questions, just an assortment of various queries. And, once again, I'm doing it proper interview style, because that's more fun. Today I'll be interviewing Callie, the heroine of my Camp NaNoWriMo WIP, Fight Song. (Incidentally: I hit my goal for the month on said WIP! The novella isn't done yet, but I'm hoping to finish that by the end of the month too.)

Anyway! On with the interview!

1.  Do you want to get married and/or have children? Why or why not?
Callie: Good lord. I don't know anymore. When I was a little girl I figured I'd find a nice guy and have a few kids; then I got older and I decided I wanted to into music, and then there was the murder and . . . I don't know anymore. Ask me in five years; maybe I'll tell you then.


2. What is your weapon of choice? (It doesn’t necessarily have to be a physical weapon.)
Callie: My violin- Well, the music off my violin. I'm better on the guitar, but for a weapon, the violin has more oomph.

3. What’s the nicest thing you’ve done for someone else, and why did you do it?
Callie: Nicest thing? Not sure about that either, not really . . . I've rescued a few people; that count?  I wasn't trying to be nice; it was just the right thing to do. Actually trying to be nice; guess you could say taking care of some of my friends when they were sick- throwing-up sick, I mean- would count.

4. Have you ever been physically violent with someone, and what instigated it?
Callie: Mm, define physically violent?

If you think it might be physically violent, it probably is.
Callie: Well, then, I guess so. I've never hit someone, not since I was old enough to know better. 'Least, not hitting them in a way that's meant to hurt. Punching a guy friend in the arm when he's being an idiot's doesn't count. But I've used my songs to hurt, physically hurt, sometimes. Doesn't feel violent, though, using music to control wind or water or fire or earth or steel or anything else you can think of. And I don't do it just because- just when the person I'm after is hurting someone else. Not that I'm not tempted sometimes.

5. Are you a rule-follower or a rebel?
Callie: Rule-follower, mostly.

6. Are you organized or messy?
Callie: In-between. I'm not a neat freak, but Momma was, and she's taught me enough that I keep my place clean enough.


7. What makes you feel loved, and who was the last person to make you feel that way?
Callie: Oh, little things mostly. Doing a chore for me so I don't have to, making or buying food for me, making sure I'm ok, spending time with me doing whatever, taking an interest in my activities. It doesn't take much, honestly. So, last person to make me feel that way . . . Rebecca, honestly. But she makes everyone feel that way- she wants to know about your life and are how are you doing and what do you like, and she actually cares about the answer.

8. What do you eat for breakfast?
Callie: At home, Momma never lets anyone leave the house without a good breakfast. Even if you can't wait for her to be up and making things, she always keeps baked oatmeal cups in the freezer that you can heat up, and cut-up fresh fruit in the fridge or freezer, depending on the season. Here in the city . . . coffee and whatever I can grab before I run out the door. Bowl of cereal, granola bar, something like that. Let me tell you, sometimes I think it's mornings that make me miss home most.

9. Have you ever lost someone close to you? What happened?
Callie: Gramma- Dad's momma- died when I was 'bout ten. No one was surprised, really. She'd been sick for a while. But it still hurt; I missed her stories and her singing with me. And it was the first time I'd really experienced death.


10. What’s your treat of choice? (Or, if not food, how else do you reward yourself?)
Callie: I'd say coffee, but that's a way of life, not a treat. Fancy coffees qualify, though.

I hope you enjoyed hearing about Callie! Are you doing Beautiful People this month? If you are, please link me to your post in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)