The Cricket Apocalypse

This is a modified snippet from the comedy-fantasy short story I wrote for my friend as a Christmas present. FYI, this takes place inside Braum's (an ice cream shop).

           The mouse-size cricket chirped as it washed its face. Then it raised its head, and fell silent. Suddenly it jumped up on the table, and people screamed when it dunked its face in the sundae.

            “It's eating ice cream!” Sasha said, putting her hands up to her head and stepping back. The woman in the track suit returned. “Oh, this is just bizarre!” she said. Suddenly, Sasha's hand slipped and gathunked into her head. She felt something hard and metallic in her grasp. There was more screaming behind her as she pulled her hand out of her head and wrestled a metal spoon from her hair. A broad grin spread across her face for a moment, but it slipped as she realized a spoon wouldn't do her much good. She stashed it and looked down at her body where the utensil had just been absorbed. Concentrating hard, she imagined her hand gathunking into her body and grabbing something more useful. She closed her eyes and reached in, and her hand closed around what felt like a knife handle. She opened her eyes and swung out with it, making the runner lady jump back.

            “Careful with that dagger!” she said.

            “Here goes nothing.” Sasha raised the knife over the cricket and took aim. In one swift slice and a crunch the cricket's head fell to the floor, still latched onto the ice cream. A couple drops splattered Sasha's new white TOMS.

            “You did it!” Danny said. “You figured out how to use your metal-absorbing superpower!”

            “That is so freaky,” Sasha said.

            “But awesome!” Danny said.

            “Bizarre!” said the runner lady.

            By now, several people had run out of the store screaming, several had called the police, and the rest were either watching in horrified fascination or complaining to Patrice, the manager on duty.

            “Oh, that's just bizarre!”

             Sasha barely heard Runner Lady's declaration. What she did hear was a strange clicking sound. One look at Danny's wide eyes staring behind her made her whirl around. A huge cat-sized cricket crouched on the table in front of cone line. It gave a chirp, and before Sasha could use the six-inch blade that was in her hand, it leaped to the ground and dug into both the peanut butter cup ice cream and the smaller cricket's head.

            “Ugh!” Danny said. He stood up in his seat and hopped over the table to the aisle. A strange noise came from the bug, and it slowly increased in decibels. It sounded like, “mmmmmmmmmmMMMMMMM! YUUMMM!” Then it lifted its shiny black ice cream-smeared face. “Heh! Yoo tink yoo so bigbig cause yoo kill bugbug?”

            “Ahhhhh!” Sasha and Danny both screamed and jumped back.

            “Look out, yoo hyoomans. He is coming. DESDEMONE is coming. He is big, and he is coming to get yoo.”  To Sasha's horror, it pointed two spindly antennae at her.

Merry Christmas!

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

  Well, I failed to wish my readers a merry Christmas this morning, but in my last two minutes...Merry Christmas!! Have a fun and safe time. Maybe use your extra time to write a poem about what Christmas is about or what it looks like.
   I don't have my story handy to update you on number of pages (for my goal project) but I did write a 14-page story for my friend at work! Here is one of the illustrations.

A Change in the Weather

 
 Winter arrived yesterday. As we get into December and start to feel a little more frigid, are you thinking about New Year's resolutions?
   In my Intro to Human Behavior class, our last project was to make two goals, one long term and one short term (3-6 months). Guess what I picked for short term? To write 100 pages of one story by May 2013! That might seem like a lot to some people, and to others it might seem like nothing. But it will definitely be something for me who has probably never written more than 25 pages of the same story. Especially recently my greatest obstacle to writing is...writing. Actually sitting and putting the words down.
   So help me keep my commitment and reach my goal! Once I decide which story to stick with, I'll start page number updates.

What are your short term goals?

*Free photo courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Lest We Forget

I have to add that in case you've forgotten, today is Pearl Harbor Day. We can remember in a lot of different ways. By reading the news, watching a movie, writing a poem, posting a status.

How do you remember on Pearl Harbor Day?

Book Review: "Code Name Verity"

We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.   

--Ernest Hemingway   I've always thought this quote was about being a writer, but all of a sudden I wonder if maybe Hemmingway meant it about life? Anyhow, if it's about writing, I'm going to disagree, because there are writers like Elizabeth Wein (author of Code Name Verity). On Wednesday I said I'd post a review, so here it is!

   What I Thought: Chocolate is so good for comparisons. Code Name Verity is a dark chocolate book. With caramel and truffle. And nuts. It's so rich and full of gobsmacking surprises, relatable and strong and heroic characters, humor despite the circumstances, tons of conflict, and all those things that make a good novel. Elizabeth Wein is a master storyteller. There are so many different pieces to this jigsaw plot that all fit together perfectly in the end. Novels are about change, and I liked seeing the progression of Maddie and the narrator's friendship and how they see each other. History really "comes alive" in this book. I particularly liked learning about English and Scottish culture.

Me feeling small

   After reading CNV I felt very, very small, because you have to be some kind of genius to write such a very, very good book. What a life accomplishment! I wonder what that feels like to be the author? Even the "mistakes" were intentional. In the afterword Ms. Wein explained any historical inaccuracies and why  she chose to fudge a little on certain details. If you not only can recreate history but also can judge which parts you can manipulate (not because you're too lazy to get it right, but in order to get the best effect), I think you're about as close to a master as you can get.

Jargon: Because Maddie is a pilot, there are a lot of descriptions of plane-flying and a little bit of pilot jargon. Some people might dislike it for being too technical. I liked it because it made me feel smart. Or I just didn't notice because it's described so matter-of-factly and woven in so seamlessly.

Notes: I'm going to read it again now that I know the big secret and look for all the clues. Maybe this time I'll make notes of what I did and didn't like because anytime you look back at a good memory, you tend to forget the bad and see the good as better. Maybe I'll write out interview questions, too! It doesn't hurt to try...
(Random fact: for some reason almost the whole time I was reading, I imagined the narrator to look like Birdy, the English singer. The narrator would be furious, because she's Scottish, not English.)

  I hope this book wins a lot of prestigious awards. The least of which needs to be "most quotable book of the year."
  For any of you Bible-readers (other readers too, but this happens to me most with Bible verses), you know how sometimes there's a verse you want to find, and you remember that it was towards the bottom righthand corner of the left page around chapter five or six, so you fix yours eyes on that general area and flip-flip-flip until you see it? That's how I re-found the quote that I'm ending with. It tells exactly how I feel about a lot of stories and movies! The quote is by the narrator, who is a very well-read character and understands these kind of things.

"It's awful, telling it like this, isn't it? As though we didn't know the ending. As though it could have another ending. It's like watching Romeo drink poison. Every time you see it you get fooled into thinking his girlfriend might wake up and stop him." --Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein, page 174

*Free photos courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

"Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein

  I heard about Code Name Verity on the book blog called "Yearning to Read," which is on my bloglist. The review said it was good, but I wasn't expecting that much. Then I read it...and, it was pretty intense. I've spent hours figuring out how to do this review (then writing and editing it) and I finally decided. In this post I'll introduce the book, and in the next one, I'll tell you what I thought about it.

   Genre: A review somewhere called Code Name Verity a "spy thriller," and yes, it's definitely thrilling to read, and it is about spies, but that label cheapens it. I would just call it "historical fiction."

One of the planes Maddie flies

   The Barest Details: This book is hard to summarize because most details about the plot are also huge spoilers. I want you to be surprised! So I'll just give you the barest details. If you want a more comprehensive review and don't mind spoilers, Google the title.

   Code Name Verity is  about two girls, Maddie and the narrator, who both use their special skills to help the war effort. It takes place in England, Scotland, and France during World War II. The narrator writes from her prison cell, recounting for her Nazi captors how she got from her homeland of Scotland to where she is now. Maddie is a pilot, and the narrator is a radio operator.

Here is the book trailer: Code Name Verity
Before you read CNV, it would be helpful to know the song "The Last Time I Saw Paris" .

Rating: 16+ (I'm stricter than "Yearning to Read")

*Free photo courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Happy Thanksgiving!

   It's thankful time! One thing I'm thankful for: soldiers who are spending their Thanksgivings and Christmases far away from home, for the good of others.
   A week or two ago I dropped off a box of hot chocolate and a card at the campus library. A group of ladies will send it and other gifts to deployed troops. If you like soldier stories like I do, then maybe this scenario will ring a story bell for you. Here's the card illustration (I worked hard on the coloring!).

What are you thankful for?

Fun Facts

   Making alliterations or poems out of my homework helps me remember it better. You should try it. It's fun! (Sorry for the messed formatting on the poems. They didn't fit!)

Bachelor Buchanan Balanced the Budget!

Buchanan

Shoemaker

Eugene Shoemaker

Never lived in a shoe

But he really, really --hankered

To go to the moon

He studied quite a lot

To be ready for his flight

And  found Earth's craters --fraught

With the mineral cozite

Giorgione

Giorgione was no phony

He changed Venetian painting --ways

'Twas oil on wood before his day

But he dismissed that as baloney

Venice has no roads you see

And to painters' great dismay

Importing quickly turned passé

(Góndolas struggled with loads --so hefty)

So Giorgione, Titian's master

Solved the problem of too much --water

Averting fearfully near disaster

Canvas he found to be the --answer!

Something to Chew On

   If the phrase "a raisin in the sun" sounds familiar, you may have already pondered what happens to dreams deferred, but what about voices unheard?

Courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

You've got the words to change a nation

But you're biting your tongue

You've spent a life time stuck in silence

Afraid you'll say something wrong

If no one ever hears it how we gonna learn your song?

So come, on come on

Come on, come on

You've got a heart as loud as lions

So why let your voice be tamed?

Baby we're a little different

There's no need to be ashamed

You've got the light to fight the shadows

So stop hiding it away

Come on, Come on 

I wanna sing, I wanna shout 

I wanna scream till the words dry out

--Emeli Sande, "Read All About It (Part III)"

   Beauty, enjoyment, travel, audience--I write for a lot of reasons, but one is so that I, who stammer for an answer in face-to-face conversation and think of good comebacks twenty minutes too late, may be eloquent. I write to free my voice that sometimes gets buried under layers of insecurity--to let it be heard.

How do you make your voice heard?

My Tribute on Veterans' Day

   I wrote this poem a few years ago. I've changed my mind now about how much I actually understand about freedom, nation, or sacrifice, but the patriotic gist of wanting to honor both those who died and those who survived rings true, and this is my tribute today.

Something More Than Dye

In this current day and age, I live in profound liberty.

Before I carry on this way

I’m first obliged to understand

Through portals writ in faded ink

Freedom, nation, sacrifice.

In images antique I see

A boy dressed up in soldier’s clothes

Broken for our liberty, while we are dressed in mockery;

A young girl, silent, bearing stripes and scars from whips most cruel,

While we object to wounded pride with curses from our lips.

I think I hear the echoed cries, I think I understand.

“Who else with me will carry on the cause for which they fought?”

Perhaps if you could see with me

The fields laid thick with those who fell,

Perhaps if you could feel with me

The burning tears of friend made foe by nation rent in two,

Perhaps if you could glimpse the fear

In marching headfirst into iron

From endless cannon blasts,

Perhaps if you could comprehend

You’d leave your foolish trifles be.

Do not let it be in vain that countless fell, indeed, to pay

The price that made this nation One

Or gave you this day liberty.

Take the gift before you now; don’t squander it away

With scoffing words, indifference, I see so oft today.

Above our heads waves fabric striped with something more than dye.

Before you hustle on with life, salute with me and say

What war-torn fields have always cried, “Under God, our Nation’s One.

The price has been full paid.”

Author Interview: Heather Dixon

Wentworth Castle Gardens (what do ya know?)
Courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

   Have you been looking forward to this? I have! Thanks to Heather Dixon (author of Entwined) for answering these q's!

How old is Azalea?

She's 15 at the beginning of the book, and 16--nearly 17--by the end.

Who was the inspiration for hilarious Lord Teddie?

That would be Bertie Wooster, of PG Wodehouse fame (who I'm kind of in love with). In fact he was originally named Lord Bertie...but it was decided he would be better at a Lord Teddie.  He's my favorite fella in the story ;)

When you started writing Entwined did you hope to get it published, or were you writing for a smaller audience?

I didn't think much about publishing or audience.  In the beginning, I thought it would be fun to write it as an illustrated story!  In the end, I just wrote what felt right, and tried to make the best story I can.  After I'd been working 2 or 3 years on it, I was lucky enough to attend a writing conference where an editor like the story as much as I did.  I think the best thing to do with writing is to write for yourself and the story first.

Did you use your many sisters as sounding boards as you wrote? I read online that one of them came up with the title.

You are quite right!  My second-to-youngest sister, Lilli, came up with the title "Entwined".  She was 17 at the time.  My sisters were also the first people to read the story, and they were more than honest in what they thought worked and what didn't.  I'm pretty lucky to have them.

How does your faith affect your writing?

Hmmm.  This is an interesting question, and one I've never been asked before.  I'm actually pretty religious (though you probably can't tell from my blog) and it does affect my story work.  On the surface, it's simple things; Family is important in the story, and I don't like to have profanity or innuendoes in my work; that's not my style.  (Of course that doesn't make me shy from going dark!)  On a deeper level, I feel very strongly about redemption, and try to make it the focus of every story I write.  I feel like that's the theme of everyone's life.  It certainly has been that way for me.

Heather Dixon's  blog: StoryMonster

Other interviews: The Book Rat
                             Melanie's Musings
                             The Bookish Type
                             Tynga's Reviews
                             Fantastic Book Review (hilarious comment about police uniforms)
                             Jean Book Nerd
                             ADR3NALIN3 (this interview is in white letters against black screen--it kind of hurt my eyes)
  

Happy November+Book Review: Entwined

   Happy November! If it's cold outside where you are, make yourself some apple cider or pumpkin muffins and read! If you're a fan of ABC's "Once Upon a Time," or just like fairytales in general, I recommend Entwined for your fall reading.

   Entwined is the Victorian Era retelling of the Grimm Brothers' fairy tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses (my fave since before I could read). In it, the alphabetically named and nearly penniless Wentworth princesses and the King live in the kingdom of Eathesbury. When their mother dies, the household goes into mourning. They aren't allowed to go outside, their colorful clothes is dyed black, drapes cover the windows to block out sunlight, and worst of all, they aren't allowed the one activity that helps them cope and gives them joy--dancing. On top of that the King treats his children coldly. Soon, though, the oldest daughter, Azalea  discovers a magical pavilion owned by a mysterious but handsome gentleman named Keeper. To the sisters' delight, he invites them to come back and dance to their hearts' content! Will the pavilion be the solution to, or a whole nother set of problems?

   There are so many things I loved about this book. It has all the best bits of a fairytale: dancing, flowing gowns, graceful curtsies, handsome gentlemen, secret passages, gardens, horseback riding in the rain. It has shy (Clover) and bold (Bramble) and lovable (Lord Bradford and Lord Teddie) characters, hilarious lines, and darker tones of a curse, and a really sinister villain to balance out the floofty business. I was stuck to this book for two days, eating it up like a delicious cookie.

   I only had a couple of complaints. One was that Azalea (and the next two oldest sisters) were quite rash and immature (especially childish in how they treated their father), but that turned out all right because they learned better in the end. The other was that, well, it was so good and so what I would like to write, that I'm slightly jealous it's already been written! But that's okay, too, because I got to read it, and I got to interview the humble, bubbly, funny, talented author, Heather Dixon, specially for the Well in the Wood! Keep your eye out for it in the next post!

*free photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

Unlocking Ideas

   
   Not really on purpose I set foot into another creative art. I've never done an oil painting before, but my former piano teacher asked me to paint her house, so I'm trying. Aside   from making some money and teaching myself a new skill, maybe it'll unlock new ideas for my stories.

The Umbrella: Part II

   Finally! The Umbrella: Part II is finished. Click here to find out what happens next to Helen, her bodyguards, and the stranger!

Comment below to share what you think!

*If you haven't heard Part I or forgot what happened, click here and listen to it again!

A Writer's Word 100%

   Recently a friend posted on her status about some bad times.

I wanted to do more than just add my short "So sorry! Praying for you!" comment to the ones already there. So I spent an hour or so scribbling up old lecture notes as I arranged and rearranged my words so that my poem said what I meant and I meant what I said.

   When you write a poem or story for someone, not only will it mean a lot to the person you give your writing to, but it will mean a lot to you. It's what makes writing worthy, and it's probably why people put a dedication page in their books.

Anti-Writer's Block

   Bought this a couple weeks ago, cause I sure need inspiration!

   I've listened to about 15 out of 60 minutes of it so far. I can relate to all the things K.M. Weiland talks about (stories not turning out how you expected, learning to stick with a story, etc), but it's not too in depth yet. Still, it's good, general kind of advice, and I'll see how the rest of it is.

For the Back Burner: 13 Ways of Looking at a Novel

  After class a week or two ago I biked to the library and picked up the book I ordered: 13 Ways of Looking at a Novel, by Jane Smiley. It's about three inches thicker than I expected (think about carrying that home a few miles in a backpack). The 100 summaries of novels Ms. Smiley has read is what makes it so long.

   I don't know if maybe I'm just not patient or not scholarly enough, but I was disappointed. It's sort of an autobiography, and the beginning is a deep, deep examination of what a novel is. Neither of those are particularly what I was looking for. Another thing that made me put this book down was Chapter 11: A Novel of Your Own. Ms. Smiley starts out by telling you she assumes you want to write a novel but have no real supporters--->no outside pressure to write well or at all. But that's not true for everyone, and that's not true for me. People read what they relate to, and they like books that they feel like were written for them. I'll try to remember that.

Is it just common sense?

  So maybe this is a good book, and maybe in ten years it will be my favorite book. But not yet.

   What kind of an audience do you write for? What book have you grown to like over time?

Set Foot into Music

   I've heard it's good for your creativity to set foot into the other arts too, so if you're stuck and need inspiration while you write, or if you just want some soothing background music, listen to Ólafur Arnalds. He's an Icelandic artist who plays the most mysterious,
glorious music!

P.S. I haven't forgotten about The Umbrella: Part II. I hope you haven't either, because it's
about 95% finished!

Magical Realism: Coraline

   I'm just starting to learn a little bit about magical realism. From what I understand (correct me if I'm wrong) magical realism is a type of art/literature in which one thing or everything is twisted or sprinkled with a bit of the impossible. A lot of this kind of art seems strange and slightly dark, for example, the short story, A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings. But some of it is beautiful like the paintings here. I think Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, could fall under the dark category of magical realism. It's a scary children's book. A review compared it to The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe as well as Alice in Wonderland, and there are similarities, but Coraline is a much more nightmarish take on adventures in a different world. I don't like scary movies, I don't like scary stories, and I don't like scary books, but because Coraline is written in the kind of plain, storytelling voice that I like so much, and because I wanted to see the nightmare end and for Coraline to come out victorious, I read to the end. And despite the dark tones, it does have some brighter themes like courage and good winning against evil.

Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Wordle-World!

   Do you take forever to look up a word in the dictionary because of all the other fun, distracting words around it? Then you might like making wordles...
   If you don't know, Wordle.net is a site where you type in a bunch of words, and they randomize and make word art with them. You can choose a palette of colors, what direction the words go, and a few other things. Here's my first ever:

   I just discovered The Sunday Whirl blog where followers respond to weekly wordles with an original poem that incorporates all the words. If my wordle rings story bells for you this can be your writing prompt, in any genre.

   I would love to see what you create--leave it as a comment!

Another Good Book: Code Talker

The code talkers were at Iwo Jimo, too.
www.freedigitalphotos.net

   I like reading books that tell about different cultures, especially ones that I don't know much about. Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two, by Joseph Bruchac is one of those. I've never seen the Nicholas Cage movie, and I hear much more about the Cherokees than any other Native American tribe, so it was all new to me! Bruchac tells the story from the point of view of a WWII veteran and code talker, Ned Begay, who explains to his grandchildren what his war medal means. Starting from when Ned is a little boy to when he serves as a marine in the Pacific to when he is a grandpa, one of the main themes is the importance of preserving culture and language.
   Since war and mistreatment of the Navajos are a huge part of the plot, you might think it would be a graphic or depressing book to read, but the bad is balanced with humor, hope and determination. Code Talker is a book worth reading.

If I Were the Queen

   My dream library is the one in Beauty and the Beast, inside Beast's castle! Besides all the leather bound books row after row and shelf after shelf, I love the soaring ceiling, the huge window and sweeping red curtain, the blue walls and the gleaming brass handrails on the curving staircases. If I were the queen I would have that library, and I'd have lots of servants to dust the shelves everyday and make sure there were no paper mites. And I would have other servants to read the books and make sure there were only fun ones. I would zoom around on a rolly ladder like in Belle's village library, and I would read and read and read....
   And if I were not the queen but still had lots of money, I would have a home library built that looks like this (but maybe minus the magic eye rug). It's less grand but super cozy and beautiful. I also love the idea of a window seat between shelves that I found on this website. What a grand daydream!

Penny From Heaven: Stumbling Upon a Classic

   The other day at work when I asked for more pennies for my till my manager asked, "From heaven?" with a big grin on her face. I had no idea what that was a reference to, but obviously it was supposed to be funny, so I laughed.
   On Tuesday I was downstairs in the juvenile fiction section. I found what I was looking for and was on my way upstairs to check out, when I noticed a colorful book standing up at the end of the H shelf. It was Penny From Heaven, by Jennifer L. Holm. I thought, "Oh, maybe I can find out what that meant!" Still, I wasn't sure if it was worth borrowing because I didn't like the cover and it was large-print. I stood there, putting it back and picking it up again, until I decided it wouldn't hurt to borrow it and not read it, but it would hurt to miss a good book. I didn't know how good!

  Penny From Heaven is about an 11-year old New Jersey girl in 1953 who lives with her young widowed mother and her Me-Me and Pop-Pop, plus her Italian grandmother and all her Italian uncles, aunts, and cousins. What a cast of characters (a lot of them are based off of Ms. Holm's family). Penny and her mischievous cousin Freddie remind me of Scout and Jem in To Kill a Mockingbird. I love the occasionally hilarious and always simple yet somehow eloquent and witty narration that makes regular, everyday things sound like an adventure! Even though some things in the story seem idealized, between butter pecan ice cream and doting uncles the author weaves in little known shadows from World War II and very real issues of fear, loss, and family conflict and secrets, plus a glimpse into a culture (and food) that makes you wish you had Italian relatives.

   I tried hard two or three times to put this book down and pick up my story, because it was the perfect, quiet environment for writing ...but I just couldn't! There was no comparison between the next chapter and the blank page. I read this all in one sitting (besides snack breaks for me and the guinea pigs). It made me bust out laughing, blink back tears, and remember why I like reading so much. Penny From Heaven is a children's book that's a classic no matter how old you are.

Free photo: courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net