1000 Pages

In case you're wondering, "mudhorse" is the slang word for runner in TRR;
it's taken from the horse races that used to be popular and the fact that many
of the poor runners, like Sam, race on muddy tracks of very poor quality 

A few minutes ago, I reached 1000 pages of my side-story-turned-monster, The Rat Race. I started the current draft a year ago (on Valentine's, according to my records) after two years of half-hearted brainstorming and trying to formulate a plot. Ever since running track for a few years in middle and early high school, I'd wanted to write a story about runners, and, well, here we are ;) No idea what this story is about? Here's a general description: it's what you might imagine a mix of The Hunger Games, The Great Gatsby, and the Olympics to be. Every four years, runners from all over the world vie for a spot on a team that will spend eight months racing across every imaginable terrain for a medal and political domination for their native country. I focus on the current medalists, who are forced to run the race again—John Alexander, his wife Caltarina, and his brother Jacob—and a young, formerly impoverished hopeful named Sam Decker. 
      "So these 1000 pages must be full of intense action and survivalist material and competition, right?" you ask.
      "No," I sheepishly reply. "In fact, the story is still five months away from the start of the Rat Race!" 
      "How on earth are you still five months away from the Rat Race after 1000 pages?!" you demand. 
      The answer, dear reader, is because I have a fascination with psychology and believe in thoroughly exploring the psyche of my characters ;) For example, both John and Caltarina suffer from PTSD (although John's is much more severe than hers), and it interests me to track their emotions and explore what they might be feeling in the months leading up to the Rat Race, knowing that they have to survive this brutal race again and that there's no way to avoid participation. I devote the other storyline to Sam and his rise from the slums to a runner sponsored by two of the richest people in the state. In other words, the first half of this massive monster focuses on character development, and the second half, yet to be written, will take those characters on an eight-month, 3000-mile journey that will test them to their utter limits. (Isn't that exciting? I'm excited!) 

Kudos to the person on Pinterest who
crafted this amazing piece!

And in case you're wondering where The Great Gatsby comes in, the technology—and the decadence—is equivalent to that of the '20s, and the clothing roughly to that of the 1890s, but also slightly modernized (see photo). Don't ask me why I made it this way; I still don't know. But hey, I really enjoy designing costumes for TRR! :D 
     Okay, if you're even still reading, I'm almost finished, I promise. I enjoy talking about this story because it genuinely interests me, and I love writing it. It will never be published (because who wants to read a 1000+ page story about running?), but it is, and always will be, near and dear to my heart! It's my stress relief and chance to comb fictional minds and situations that I myself will never experience. That's why I write, really—to learn. And in writing a book that I don't have to abridge for the public, lots of learning can take place! :) I can do whatever I please with this book, and that, for a writer, is a beautiful thing. 
      Now that I've told you everything you never wanted to know about a book that won't be published, I'm actually finished. Carry on, lovely people! ;) 

Congrats to Best Actor, Eddie Redmayne

A hearty congratulations to Eddie Redmayne, winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor for his exquisite and moving performance as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything! 

SNOW

I'm a Texan; I can be excited about snow if I want :D Today classes were canceled, and we won't be going tomorrow, either. This has been the most snow I've ever seen in my life, and it's so beautiful! (I'm also really glad the snow came today, because I've been writing flashbacks for The Rat Race involving snow, so now I have more experience with which I can write!) But yes, I took lots of pictures, some of which are posted here, and thoroughly exasperated my roommate with my excitement :D A Texas girl only sees four seven inches of snow maybe once or twice in her life, right? 

In any case, I now sympathize quite a lot with my poor characters in The Rat Race who have to trek across mountains and through valleys in this cold white stuff for months :/ Talk about miserable! Walking to the cafeteria was bad enough. Regardless, I'm eagerly anticipating writing about their journey! Survivalist stories have always fascinated me, so I'm excited to write my own. 
     

Anyway, pictures of snow. Yay! Enjoy your week, whether it's snowy or hot :) I'll be loving the snow and storing info / experience for my books (because that's what author are always secretly doing ;) )

Happy Valentine's Day!

The Question That Always Makes Me Cringe

How I wish it went ...

A well-intentioned potential customer: You wrote a book?! What's it about?

Me: Well, you see ... *whips off imaginary glasses epically* The story begins hundreds of years into the future, when humans are thought to be extinct and elves rule most of the world. A young elf girl, unaware of that the humans still live, sets out on a journey for her father to the capitol city only be captured by the very people she believes to be nothing but a myth. She becomes a pawn in a great war between the humans and the elves, and she and a ragtag group of friends and allies must try to save their world before the warring races tear it apart. 

The well-intentioned potential customer: How exciting! I'll take five!


How it actually goes ...

A well-intentioned potential customer: You wrote a book?! What's it about?

Me: It's, um ... It's a young adult fantasy. You know, like Eragon and Lord of the Rings? It's kinda like that. Elves vs. humans and battles and stuff. 

The well-intentioned potential customer: ... Oh. Huh. 

What can I say? I'm a writer, not an orator. Ask me any question and give me paper, and I will write you an eloquent, polished, lengthy reply. Ask me a question and give me air, and I will stutter and stumble my way through a weak, awkward reply. It's just the way it is. I've often wondered what would happen if I carried around a white board and just wrote everything to people who spoke to me. They'd probably assume I was ill, but hey, at least I wouldn't stutter! And personally, I'd get along just fine if I never had to speak again (though I should be careful what I say, right?). My friend M.F., who is also a writer, and I were discussing / lamenting the fact that we both write so well but can never seem to speak in an impressive manner. What people who don't struggle with this problem don't understand is that our souls can be found at the tips of our fingers, not on the tips of our tongues—don't ever think you can learn everything about a writer by simply listening to him / her speak. If you truly want to know us, read what we write. We live between the midnight strokes of the pen; we live on the endless canvas of the blank page; we live in worlds you can't imagine because they belong solely to us, but we can give you a little glimpse by rearranging twenty-six little letters in a totally unique style. What you see and hear on the outside is not all there is to us, trust me. I stutter when I talk, but give me a keyboard or a pen and I can create universes with a few taps or strokes. 
        

Our Creator God, I firmly believe, has given we the writers a very small portion of His power to think worlds and peoples and creatures into being, and although they do not spring to life from nothing with a spoken word, they can roam freely on the creamy fields of the page and endure for centuries. It makes sense, doesn't it, that the Author of Life, the author of the greatest story ever told, would bless some of His children with a small measure of His infinite creativity? 

        So the next time you ask me what my book is about, go easy on me—and better yet, simply pick one of them up and let the summaries speak for themselves. Because the written word is powerful, and the pen is mightier than the sword, after all. And while I might stutter, I am made in the image of a creator and author who gave me a passion for creating unseen worlds and an ability to rearrange twenty-six little letters in a very unique way :) 

S&D Quote of the Day

Movie Review: Jupiter Ascending

I freely admit that I went to see this movie solely because the primary antagonist is played by Eddie Redmayne, who is currently my favorite freckle-faced actor. I wasn't expecting much from the rest of the movie, and 'not much' is exactly what I got. Don't get me wrong, the special effects were very well done and sometimes breathtaking, but Jupiter Ascending is what I simply call a special-effects movie: i.e. there are numerous, often pointless fight scenes, explosions, or plot aspects that exist solely so that audience can be (hopefully) wowed by the special effects. I expected this after I saw the trailers, and indeed, there was a space fight about every ten minutes of the film (79% of them involving a shirtless Channing Tatum). 
    As for the plot, it was half original, half cliché. It tried; it really did. A young half-Russian woman, Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis), hates her life as a janitor and dreams of buying a telescope to study the stars like her late father did before she was born. However, worthwhile telescopes do not come cheaply, and her motley Russian family doesn't have the money to waste on a telescope, and neither does Jupiter. Her cousin convinces her to donate some of her eggs to a fertility center for $5000, but chaos ensues when the nurses and doctor turn out to be shapeshifting aliens intent on killing Jupiter. She is rescued by Caine Wise (Tatum), a genetically engineered ex-military hunter, and fifteen minutes of special effects fights and falls from tall buildings ensue. Caine takes the perplexed and frightened Jupiter to meet Stinger (Sean Bean), another genetically engineered soldier who explains to Jupiter that humans did not originate on Earth—the planet was seeded by Abrasax Industries about 100,000 years ago and will be "harvested" when the planet's population becomes too large, whereupon the people will be disintegrated into a sort of youth serum and sold to those who can afford the exorbitant price. Jupiter discovers that it is the Abrasax family who wants her dead, because her genes dictate her the heir to the Earth, and it is worth more than any of the other planets combined. Balem Abrasax (Redmayne) currently holds the title to Earth and will not rest until Jupiter is dead; meanwhile, his siblings Kalique and Titus vie for control of Jupiter as well. 
       I liked the plot, but I think too much was crammed into two hours and seven minutes; there was too much information given quickly and in short scenes interspersed with mind-numbing battles in space. Plus, I honestly couldn't understand what Sean Bean was saying most of the time, so that made it even more difficult to track the plot and people because he was explaining many important things to Jupiter. This story might make an awesome TV show, if done well, but there was simply too much to explain in a mere two hours, and the characters suffered for it. Jupiter is your typical, plucky heroine (although I was amused by her rather forward declaration of love to Caine about twenty minutes into the film). We are told Caine is complicated, but he seemed to be your typical super-skilled, gruff fighter who doesn't let anyone but the beautiful heroine into his wounded little heart and ends up falling hard for her even though he doesn't want to. 
      And then there's Balem. I was legitimately glad when Jupiter whacked him across the face with a metal pole—let me repeat that: Balem is played by Eddie Redmayne, and yet I was glad when he got pummeled! That should tell you how dislikeable this fellow was; not only did he whisper 99% of his lines (which I think was supposed to be intimidating but left me wondering if he was recovering from strep throat), but he had a weird obsession with Jupiter because she was the reincarnation of his mother, and he couldn't seem to grasp that she wasn't actually his mother. Jupiter had to remind him of this at least twice ... and then she hit him with a pole. To be fair, he'd been kicking and punching her for the last five minutes, so he certainly deserved it. 
       So to sum it all up: Jupiter Ascending is heavy on the cool effects and weak on everything else. I'm glad I saw it (some of the special effects and costumes really were beautiful), but it certainly won't make my top-ten list of wonderful movies. Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars. If you want to see Eddie Redmayne in a truly wonderful movie, check out The Theory of Everything (he's been nominated for an Oscar in the Best Actor category and won the SAG and BAFTA awards for Best Actor, along with numerous others. Yeah. He was that good.). And of course, Les Miserables—the man can sing. 
        That's all for now, folks! Have a restful Sunday :) 

A Glowing Review of FR!

I received this wonderful review on my Fallen Rose Amazon page earlier this week and thought I'd share it with you (in case you needed any convincing to order a copy). ;) 

"Get ready for a trip that is sometimes harrowing, sometimes thrilling, sometimes romantic, and always full of surprises when you read Fallen Rose. This is a sequel to Young Falcon, and while I'm sure it can be thoroughly enjoyed as a first read, I strongly recommend reading Young Falcon first. You will get to know the fascinating characters and see how their earlier decisions and actions--and their perilous adventures--led to the epic struggles of this book. The central character, a young girl named Elysia, is caught up in a battle waged by the forces of a power-hungry despot against the elven cities. Her story intertwines with other narratives in ingenious ways, often taking the reader's breath away and making it almost impossible to set the book down. The author's teeming imagination and descriptive powers will leave readers of Fallen Rose eagerly awaiting the third volume in the 'Sons and Daughters' series." - Mary E. Weed

Convinced yet? If not, head over to the reviews page and check out additional adulations of the newest book in the Sons and Daughters series, Fallen Rose! People of all ages have loved both YF and FR, so don't hesitate to order a copy today and learn what all the buzz is really about! Carry on, lovely people! 

Dust Bowl Dance

One of my favorite topics about which to write is the struggle of the poor and the innate prejudice between the rich and those living in poverty (in regards to the 18th and 19th centuries). A few years ago, right after I saw Tom Hooper's Les Misérables, I began a novel about a young French orphan named Aurélien Courtemanche and his struggle to survive on the streets of Compiègne during the late 1800s. Unfortunately, it never got any longer than 32 pages, but researching the living conditions of French beggars during the 1800s was fascinating and heartbreaking, and the subject of the poor vs. the rich remains a special one to me. In fact, my 900+ page story, The Rat Race, deals immensely with this topic; if I had to give you an extremely quick summary of this story, I would say it resembles a world where The Hunger Games meets the Olympics and The Great Gatsby (maybe with a little bit of Les Misérables thrown in there somewhere). 

         Anyway. I say all this so you'll understand my love of Mumford & Sons' song, "Dust Bowl Dance." I discovered it a few weeks ago on an album that my friend N.B. gave me a year or two ago, and it has been playing on repeat for the past week :D There are few songs that really capture the spirit of a story I'm writing, and while The Rat Race does not take place in the Depression era, "Dust Bowl Dance" reminds me strongly of its protagonist, Sam Decker, who is living in extreme poverty when The Rat Race begins. 

     Another song that inspires me regarding this theme is "At the End of the Day" from Les Misérables; it was after watching this scene in particular that I decided to write a story about extreme poverty. Every time I listen to this song, it sparks something in me that I can't quite explain. Is it pity? Perhaps. Or maybe it's compassion, I don't know. Either way, we haven't all been blessed with a beautiful home, three meals a day, clean water, and a Christian family, and I am humbled when I think of how blessed I truly am to have all these things. Writing about extremely poor conditions gives me a small glimpse into the lives of people who must deal with poverty every day, but thankfully, I am able to leave, whereas they are not. So I leave you with these thoughts from Deut. 15:7-8 and 1 Sam. 2:7-8:

"If there is a poor man among your brothers ... do not be hardhearted or tight-fisted toward your poor brother. Rather, be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs." 

"The Lord ... raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; He seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor." 

Be thankful for what you have, and always extend compassion to those who have less. God bless! :) 

Cop Cars, Stretchers, and Near-Fainting Experiences

Fun title, right? Well, that's what my day consisted of today. Looking back on it, I'm laughing at the oddity of my day; this morning, I was perfectly fine and expecting a perfectly ordinary day. But as I was sitting in one of my psychology classes, watching a video about prenatal development with a moderate level of interest, I began to have intense cramps in my lower abdomen. I figured they would pass, but they persisted and intensified, and I soon began to experience an alternately warm and cold tingle all throughout my body (which I know from past experience is a sign that I'm going to faint). My hands were also almost completely numb, and my mouth was dry. I put my head down on the table in hopes that this would pass, and by the time class was about halfway over, I knew I could not stand up. So I spent the rest of class in that kind of agony where you can only shift back and forth in pain and hope it ends soon. When class (finally) ended, I put my hand up weakly and was like, "Dr. Brown, I can't stand up." Then I promptly started sobbing, and apparently I was white as a sheet, trembling, and cold to the touch. My kind professor, her GA, and a random girl from my class waited with me until a cop / stand-in paramedic came, and he asked me lots of questions and then called some real paramedics. They came a while later ... with a stretcher. *insert mortification here* They thought my blood sugar might be low since I hadn't eaten much, but that wasn't it, so the girl and the cop drove me over to the doctor's office (in the cop car, I might add), and the girl waited with me until I saw the doctor. He deduced that I have a bad stomach virus in which my intestines are leeching all of the water from every other part of my body, hence the numbness in my hands and my dehydrated appearance. (Think me odd, but when he told me that, I legitimately thought that was really cool ... or, it would be if it wasn't excruciating!) 
      Anyway, I am currently guzzling water, battling the pain of my greedy little intestines, and hoping I feel better tomorrow! Please pray for me; the doctor said the virus should be gone in about 48 hours, but it could be a really painful 48 hours. Hope you all had a good day! :) 

Baby Niece!

My brother and his wife are expecting their first baby in June, and since they live in Germany, we're going to go visit them this summer (I'm ridiculously excited). And the little one is a girl, we just found out, so I'll be bringing lots of tiny little dresses for my niece when we go! :) Her name is Mattie, so if you read about a Mattie in the next few months, that's who I'll be talking about. I will, of course, be posting an obnoxious amount of pictures from our Germany trip this summer (brace yourselves), so be looking forward to that, and I hope you're all having the best Monday you can have! :)