When I Can’t Sleep

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Writing Prompt: What do you think about when you can’t fall asleep?

I have a lot of trouble sleeping, so there’s a lot I think about when I can’t sleep.  Mostly I worry and stress out about stuff when I can’t sleep.  Sometimes I think about why I can’t sleep and when I will fall asleep.  I think about why I can’t have a normal sleeping pattern.

I also think about things I need to do and things I should do.  Like go to the gym, or work on my novels.  Lately it’s been about how I’m ever going to read 100 books this year, and also how I’ve been putting off finding places to volunteer.

And like I said before, I tend to do most of my worrying at night.  I do worry/feel anxious throughout the day, but for whatever reason, it’s just terrible at night, and while journaling helps to a certain degree, it doesn’t completely make it go away, so I’ll still be awake at 1 or 2 in the morning, worrying about how I can’t go to sleep.  Perhaps I need to journal before I go to sleep instead of the middle of the night when I can’t sleep.  Knowing me, I probably need to change my getting-ready-for-bed routine.

We all know sleep is important, and when you’re writing, or in my case, attempting to write, getting a good nights sleep is a really good idea.  This is especially evidenced in this post I wrote back in November.  While it makes rereading my writing entertaining, it makes writing a bit harder.  I’m more distracted than normal, and it’s harder to focus on writing when I’m trying not to fall asleep.  It’s definitely a lot easier for me to get my thoughts onto paper if I’m well-rested.

Can’t Stop The (Wizard) Rock

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I love wizard rock.  It’s totally awesome!

I’m still pretty new to wizard rock (some people call it wrock!), so I only know of a few bands- Harry and the Potters, Draco and the Malfoys, The Whomping Willows and Gred and Forge are currently the bands I have.  But there are so many more bands out there that I don’t know if I can ever keep up!

Wrock is pretty creative, considering everything is based off of Harry Potter.  Plus, some songs (like those by Harry and the Potters,  Draco and the Malfoys and Gred and Forge) are told from the perspective of a character- usually the character mentioned in the band name.

The song titles alone are great (and often hilarious):

  • My Ear Is Not Here
  • Our Fireworks Say Poo
  • It Sucked When Dad Was Bitten By Nagini 
  • Hermione Screws Up The Polyjuice Potion
  • Never Going To The Bathroom Again
  • Save Ginny Weasley From Dean Thomas 
  • 99 Death Eaters
  • Party Like You’re Evil
  • Mother, Stop Being Ridiculous

And I could keep going with the great song titles, but that list is long enough as it is, so I’ll probably end up doing individual posts on the different wrock bands.  And anything that involves harry potter is awesome in my book. 

 The songs are really creative as well, like The House of Awesome by The Whomping Willows.  Or Potions Yesterday by Draco and the Malfoys.  Bertie Botts by Harry and the Potters is absolutely hysterical, as is The #1 Reason To Be Nice To House Elves by Gred and Forge. 

Wrock is pretty good background music for when I actually write because I tend to not be distracted by it.  I don’t feel the need to start singing or dancing, like I tend to do with everything else.  It really is a shame I don’t listen to it as often as I should.

3 Things I Can’t Live Without

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Today’s Prompt: Three things you can’t go without.

  1. Lip gloss/lip balm: I always have it with me,  Always.  I think I have around 5 or 6 different things of lipgloss.  It’s a bit of a problem actually, because I always feel the need to buy more, even though I have more than enough.  And sometimes, they go missing, but because I also have a slight addiction to Sephora, and therefore pay around $10 or so for lip gloss, I tend to make sure it doesn’t go missing.  There’s no way I’m going to lose a $10 lip gloss.  I did once, and it was terrible, because it was one of my favorites.
  2. Nail polish: I love nail polish as much as I love lip gloss, although nail polish is a lot hard to lose than lip gloss.  Nail polish is so fun!  You can coordinate it to whatever’s going on; and I will admit to wearing red and green at Christmas, red and blue for 4th of july/memorial day/labor day, and orange at halloween.  And again, I always feel the need to at least see the new shades at Sephora, and test them out.  Which is why I only go when I actually need something and when I have money.  Because otherwise I’ll get sucked into the vortex that is known as Sephora-land.
  3. this is a hard choice: it’s a tie between my iPod and my flash drive.  My life is on my flashdrive, although I tend to be rather obsessive about backing things up, so if i were to lose it, I think I’d be okay.  Most of my novels are password protected…not that they’re any good, although I suppose someone could figure out the password and edit them and such, although I don’t know why they’d want to.  And with some of the songs/artists on my iPod *cough*MileyCyrusHannahMontanaHanson*cough* they might want to return it.  But that is a post for another day.

I would like to point out that while 2 of my choices are beauty products, I’m not really into make-up.  Mostly because I’m not only too lazy to actually take the time to put it on, but also because I’ll forget to wash it off.  I do have a weakness for lip gloss and nail polish, and I feel weird without either one.

I Have A Thing For Cookies

Posted in Crafts, Food by

Cookies are always my default dessert. I don’t know what it is about cookies, but they’re generally awesome, easy to make, and as far as writing goes, they make an excellent snack. Plus, there’s a ton of different cookie recipes because everyone has their own take on cookies.  Chocolate chip tends to be my default, but once in a while I’ll make peanut butter cookies or sugar cookies. 

I definitely need to branch out more as far as cookies go, and make something different. 

Cake Mix Cookies

Cake Mix Cookies!  These were by far the easiest cookies I’ve ever made in my life.  Cake mix, eggs and oil.  And I couldn’t help but eat them all.  They are definitely a keeper. 

Taco Casserole

In other cooking news, I made taco casserole, pictured above.  It was quite delicious, if I do say so myself.  Also another keeper. 

And speaking of branching out, I did make a marble cake for my grandma’s birthday.  I pretty much never make cake (unless you count cupcakes), so this was definitely a challenge.  Especially since the recipe I used was very precise.  And I used a bundt pan, which was fine…until I had to get the cake out of it, as you can see below. 

Marble Cake

Part of it stuck to the pan, and so it came it lopsided.  Cutting cake isn’t really my strong point, in fact, I’m not the best at cutting cake.  So I tend to make stuff that I don’t have to cut, except for the rare batch of brownies.  But other than the cake being lopsided, it turned out okay, and my grandma liked it.  Of course, she likes most everything, so I don’t think it means very much, but she did like it, which is all that matters.

Hurricane Vase

So I also made this vase for my grandma’s birthday.  Granted, all I did was paint it, and that was Plan B, after I broke the candlestick holder that was supposed to be glued to the bottom of the vase.  And then I filled it with potpourri, as seen below. 

Hurricane Vase With Potpourri

It’s been a busy couple weeks, what with the reading and the cooking and the being craftsy.  I’ll admit, my painting skills also need some work, but my grandma liked it, so all is good.

The Olympics!

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Writing Prompt: If you could participate in an Olympic event, which one would you choose and why?

That’s a hard question to answer, mostly because there’s a few answers.

  • gymnastics: gymnastics has fascinated me for a really long time, and I would totally love to be able to do that!  Unfortunately, I’m nowhere near coordinated enough to do balance beam or the uneven bars.  But for the sake of the question, let’s pretend I am that coordinated.  It’s definitely one of my favorite sports, so it’s one of my top choices.
  • ice-skating: again, it’s another sport that I’ve been fascinated with since I was little.  And like gymnastics, I’m nowhere near coordinated enough to be able to do all the jumps.  Half the time, I can barely walk without tripping or running into something.  But it’s also one of my favorite sports, and they’re definitely graceful.
  • softball: I used to play softball when I was little, so that’s why I’d want to be on the Olympic softball team.  Although since softball’s not in the olympics anymore (or at least for the 2012 olympics, I can’t remember if it’s going to be in the 2016 olympics or not), I guess softball would be out.
  • swimming/diving: swimming doesn’t get enough tv time, except during the olympics.  It’s sad, but what else can I do?  I did group swimming and diving together, because they’re both water sports, and for some reason, I always associate the two together.  I love water, and even though I grew up in San Diego, I never spent enough time swimming or at the beach. 

So those are my four choices- or 3 if you count out softball.  But if softball were to be magically included in the Olympics again, it would be 4 choices.

Dicey’s Song

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Title: Dicey’s Song

Author: Cynthia Voight

Pages: 211

What I Thought: This is the 2nd book in the Tillerman series by Cynthia Voight.  It picks up where Homecoming ended, with the Tillerman kids being adopted by their grandma, and their life in Crisfield. 

They make some new friends along the ways- Mina, who goes to school with Dicey; Mr. Lingerle, who teaches music at Maybeth and Sammy’s school; and Jeff, who plays the guitar.

I didn’t like it nearly is much as Homecoming, mostly because Homecoming was good as a stand-alone novel.  I wasn’t invested in the characters enough to like Dicey’s Song. 

Dicey still has trouble letting go of her siblings, and letting their grandma be the parent.  The family still has some financial issues, as Dicey takes on an after-school job at the local grocery store, and their grandmother (Abigail) gets Social Security to help care for the 4 children. 

I wasn’t even moved when Liza, Dicey’s mom, died.  It was sad, of course, but it was expected.  Besides, from the few recollections in the book, it sounded like she wasn’t the best mom, and as said by James, she had truly died during the summer, when she had abandoned them. 

Rating: 2 out of 5.  I felt like everything I had liked about Homecoming was gone in Dicey’s Song.

Mike Adams

Posted in Character Spotlight, Wildflower by

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about one of my characters, so this post has been long overdue.

Mike Adams is from Wildflower, and made his 1st appearance in my 2006 NaNo.

He’s 31, and has brown hair and brown eyes. He plays 3rd base for the Ashton Bears, and is an only child. He has a daughter (cassie, I still don’t have an age for her, but I feel like she’s around 4 or 5). He used to be married, but his wife died while they were in the process of getting divorced. In fact, the only reason why they got married was because of Cassie.

Everything he does is for Cassie, and he, at times, wishes that he had never pressured Cassie’s mom into getting married. He does want to get married again, but he’s going to be more cautious about it because of his 1st wife, and because of Cassie.

My favorite thing about him is that he’s very giving, thoughtful and generous, but he’s also a little too giving.  He wasn’t afraid to help Chloe out when she needed it, and would do anything for her.

I definitely set things up so that they’d end up together in the end, which is cliché.  He comes in and saves her, and after a while, they realize that the person they were looking for was in front of them all along.  Although, why not use clichés in November?  It’s not like I have the time to come up with something original or different.

But his concern for Chloe, and his appreciation for Chloe helping out with Cassie is sweet.  Anyone who dates him is going to have to be okay with his job (and not care about his money, despite what my handwritten notes say).  Liking kids is a must, and furthermore, if Cassie doesn’t like who he’s with, she’s probably not going to be in the picture for long.  And of course, all of the baggage from his 1st marriage.  She’s going to have to be okay with the fact that he has some regrets about that.

Homecoming

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Title: Homecoming

Author: Cynthia Voight

Pages: 372

What I Thought: This book is the 1st in the Tillerman series by Cynthia Voight.  It’s another young adult novel (like the 1st 2 books I reviewed).  It’s set in the 1980’s, according to Wikipedia, which I never would have figured out were it not for Wikipedia. 

The book follows the 4 Tillerman children, Dicey, James, Maybeth, and Sammy, and their journey to their aunt Cilla’s house in Bridgeport.  They were abandoned by their mother at a mall in Connecticut. 

There are strong themes of belonging and family throughout the book.  Family’s important to the Tillerman children, especially Dicey, as evidenced by the fact that she doesn’t want to split up herself and her siblings, and would do most anything to keep them together.  Their father left when their mother was pregnant with Sammy (who was 6 during the novel), and eventually their mother (Liza) loses her job.  Liza would disappear for hours, not talking to her kids, and like I mentioned before, just abandoning her kids at a mall.  This is strongly linked with belonging, because the family is presumed to be poor, setting them apart from the other kids at their school, resulting in them being bullied, having no friends (in the case of Dicey and James), and getting into fights (Sammy and Dicey).  They don’t really belong anywhere, so they learn to stick together, which makes their relationships with each other that much stronger. 

So they end up at their Aunt Cilla’s house, only to find that she has died, and are taken in by their cousin Eunice, who only does it because it’s the “right” thing to do.  Eunice doesn’t really care for the children, but will sacrifice her goal of becoming a nun in order to take them in.  However, they learn of their grandma in Crisfield, and they end up at her house, with all of the children and their grandmother realizing they care for each other.  Their grandmother ends up taking them in, even though she is resistant to the idea, setting aside her fears to take them in. 

Rating: I give it a 3 out of 5.  While a very enjoyable read, it was just average.  It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t bad either- just an average book.

Random Novel Update

Posted in Turning Point by

So I totally thought that I be working on more than one novel.  It was a grand scenario I imagined where I’d spend my days planning upcoming projects, writing, revising, and reading lots of books.

Alas, that is not how I spend my days.  I either watch whatever marathon they’re showing on USA or the histoy channel.  I read a little, and most certainly not the way I used to.  I’m lucky if I do anything related to those novels I had such high hopes for.

The hard part is actually doing it.  I can imagine all I want, but if I could just imagine things, and they’d be true, my life would be a lot different right now.  Please believe me when I say there are some things I could imagine right out of existence.

Even the rereading of every NaNo I’ve ever written has pretty much stopped.  I might read a page here or there, but there’s so many!  It makes my head want to explode!  I guess that is what I get for writing multiple novels though. 

Complaining aside, I am happy with how Turning Point is coming along, even if Saturday mornings are the only time I work on it.  This one is definitely my favorite of the bunch, as it’s the only one I’ve actually continue to write.  I’ve read some of the others, and had a good laugh (I have yet to jump off any cliffs, and I promise I’ll try to stay far away from cliffs), but reading and working on it are two completely different things.

Kiora is starting to work things out with her dad, and that’s good, because things got weird between them.  Or maybe things were always weird, but it’s become much more pronounced. 

Her secret service agents are going above and beyond the call of duty.  They’re concerned about her, and I think they’ll miss her, even if they won’t admit it. 

Not that I want to publish right now, because I don’t really want to publish right now, but if I did, I think it would be turning point.  And it’s not because I think the idea is any good, although it is an intriguing idea, but because it’s the only thing I’ve ever continued to work on.  Who knows, it could be coming to a bookstore near you someday.

New Books!

Posted in Books, Music by

The last thing I need are some new books, but I did stop at Barnes and Noble and got a few books.

  • The Bell Jar: I’ve always been meaning to read this book, so I finally picked up.  I’m really excited about it.
  • A Tree Grows In Brooklyn: I can’t remember if I’ve read this book or not, but either way, I’m really excited about this one too.
  • The Witch of Portobello: I loved the Alchemist, and happened to see it at the same table as the other two books.  I think I’ll like this one too.
  • In The President’s Secret Service: I came across this book in my research, and have been meaning to get it.  I managed to find it (I believe it was one of a few copies left on the shelf) and looked through it, and I think it’ll be really helpful.

On another note, I also downloaded some new music.  A few random songs, plus the NCIS soundtrack.  There’s a few song that I just love on it, and I was trying really hard to not start singing along and dancing when I was at the living room on saturday.  I think After All by Saving Abel is my favorite song so far.