Saturday, May 30, 2009

Just goes to show

Even prominent editors and authors can't predict the future. Sol Stein is a high-up editor/novelist who's written a couple books on writing. The book I'm reading was published fourteen years ago, and I found this jewel of a quote in a chapter on titles:

"Another American author, winner of the Nobel Prize, had a novel that for a while he called Twilight. Not exactly a grabber that invites you to open to the first page. The author is William Faulkner. Does Twilight conjure up the energy of The Sound and The Fury?"

No sir, it does not. It conjures up screaming crowds of teenage girls who swoon over a marble-chested undead being who reads minds and sparkles in the sun. Twilight (the SM version) may fade, and The Sound and The Fury may endure the ages, but to enhance popularity, I suggest Robert Pattison.

And after you have hired him, fire his hairdresser.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Wi-fi is lovely

Especially when it comes from a consistent signal in one's own home, and not in faulty waves from...erm...the neighbors. The only downside is that the parentals go to bed earlier than me, so it gets shut off too early. Alas. Oh well, I shall have it during the day! Which means I might actually blog every few days - hurrah!

I wish I had a lovely short story to share with you, but all I can think of are a couple more emo poems in the vault of Google Docs. So either I will proceed to ramble, or freewrite a short. Or both, perhaps. My grandmother was buying the books a few days ago, so I got four. Four juicy, thick books. Yum. A quick rundown:

North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley: BUY IT. I don't care if you've never heard of it (though I suspect many of you have). It is one of the best books ever. Simply amazing.

Unwind - Neal Shusterman. Kind of scary, conceptually. Thought-provoking. Adventureous. The third-person present took me a bit to get used to, but I did, and enjoyed it. Excellent. Highly recommended.

The Summoning - Kelley Armstrong. Not my usual type of book. Involves teenagers with various supernatural powers. I liked the narrator. Fairly tough, but not a stereotypical tough girl at all. She has her moments. In paper back :D

Savvy - Ingrid Law. Pick the thing up and read it. The lovely Miss Erin has a great review of it. It's another one I will order you to buy. Yes. Buy. Gorgeous cover. Even better story.

Must. Freewrite. Something. First lines? Yeah.

1. He didn't like her smile.

2. My face is changing.

3. Don't get me wrong, I love my brother, but when he lays into the whole 'Luke-I-am-your-father' routine in the middle of the 59 diner, I usually disown him.

4. I sighed, shut off my car, and rolled down the window as the cop strode up, lights on his car still flashing. "Hey Dad."

5. If I had a real superpower, like flight or ability to manipulate metal, I might have avoided the whole bad-guy-chase scenario. But no. I ended up in a van with a sack thrown uselessly over my head because I could see in the dark.

Randomness concluded. Hasta luego!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

'ello

Hey, y'all!

Well, I'm done with finals, but not quite home free. My fam's moving right now, so I'm going to be in and out of internet access for a couple weeks. However, I will, over the summer, be able to keep this blog more updated!

So, for right now, I know what my quest is for the summer: to figure out who I am, and who God wants me to be. I realize that's a lifetime goal, but I want to really focus on that over the next three months. That, reading, writing, running, and playing Frisbee.

Also, if y'all would be praying for a friend of mine whose brother is having some pretty major health problems, I'd really appreciate it. I don't know a ton about the exact problems, but it's not a great situation.

Later!