An Epiphany! Finally!

It's about time! I've been thinking about a lot of things right now. I've thought about school, although that's mostly grades. I'm not failing, if that's what your thinking. I just have an AP US History Exam coming on May 15th, and I'm stressing just a little. Anyway, that is not what this post is about. It still relates to school, but... differently. 

All my life I've loved fairy tales, Disney movies, and just Disney in general. Let's face the facts, I'm now 16 and still love it like I was 6. I get excited when the new Tinkerbell comes on! Not only that, but I'm obsessed with it. I love fairy tales, they're all I think about. I imagine myself and others as if the world was like a fairy tale. I'm a tad bit disappointed when I realize it's not. But here's where my epiphany comes in. If I love fairy tales so much, why not create them. 

I'm a fairly decent artist, and I know that's  being modest due to my history, but I just can't bring myself to say how well I really am or I'd jinx myself. I've always dreamed about having a career in an art field, I've just never figured out which one I'd do best in. I can paint, sketch... well, I can pretty much do anything. If I've ever tried it, I usually excel at it. Point blank, I've imagined myself in so many different scenarios that anything is possible. 

And now today, I'm watching Tangled for the who knows how many times, and I realize I could draw the opening scenes. To me, they appear simple and not very detailed. (I'm sorry to the artist who I may or may not have offended with that little note.) A few years back I was watching the Fox and the Hound, and wanted to draw my own animation, put it on YouTube, and see how many people watch it. I tried, but I didn't have the right technology to do it, or the patience to make a flip book version. It would take me years to make it that way. So I gave up the idea, for a while. Now I'm back to it. Maybe not right now, maybe not next year, but I will make my own animation. And I just may work for Disney or Pixar when I do it. :)  

Catching Up!

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't posted lately. It's been a busy month. I have all my required courses this semester, and add that to APUSH, it's too much. I can't tell you a day this past week where I haven't been cramming late into the night with homework.

Anyway, this is a book blog, isn't it? Let's chat about books! Starting now, I'll give you my top 10 favorite books of the past month. Whether I've had to add past books, or not. I'll also add a new page: Favorites of All Time.

Okay, here's my list:

1. The Ballad of Aramei by J.A. Redmerski*-- I feel so awful because this came out last November, and I DIDN'T KNOW. The first two books of this trilogy were aMAZING! I obsessed over them a lot when I first bought them, but as all things do, they faded away from my thoughts. I re-read them the past week in my free-time because they are on my Favorites of All Time list, or will be, and there weren't any good freebies on kindle. When I figured out that The Ballad of Aramei was released, I bought it right away. The reviews say that it was an explosive ending, and they have got it right! For every turn, I did not guess what would happen. If you read below, you'll find out I'm rather great at doing so. I literally couldn't put it down, and delayed studying to read it. If you haven't read the Mayfair Moon trilogy, you must. Just take my advice. 
2. Scandalous by H.M. Ward-- I was in the mood for a good book, and since the freebie section didn't have any good ones I decided to buy one. This is .99 cents on kindle, and worth it. Even though the content is a little...mature... for me, it was still a great read. I try not to buy books that I know will have open-erotic scenes. It's just my motto so I don't have to explain to people why I bought that book. This book is about a woman who, after her love 'crushes' her heart (my words, not Ward's.), runs off to become a minister. A little weird, but I dealt with it. Well she gets in a jam for money and gets kicked out of her church. She returns to her hometown to live with her best friend until she can get back on her feet. She runs into her past love, bla bla bla, you guys should all know what happens. The only thing that's interesting is that he is a famous artist that does..erm.. erotic work. There are some twists, some turns, and an ending that I totally guessed. I'm talented at that, I'll warn you now. 
3. Stolen by Cheree Alsop-- This book was an interesting turn of the werewolf/shape-shifter genre so many people have been trying to pull off. Most fail horribly, but this one wasn't too bad. A young woman finds a boy her age badly injured in her father's animal clinic. As you can probably guess, the boy is a shape-shifter. They are told to be highly dangerous and are hunted by the Falconians, who are these freaky police people who take over from regular police, basically, except they are part falcon. Weirded out, yet? No? Good. This story has great character build up, and I love the snippets of romance that come through. Kyla, the main character, grows up through the story and goes on to achieve great things. Don't we all wish that something will happen to us and we'll learn through it and make the world a better place? Well, Kyla does and that's what is so amazing to me. I love stories like that. 
4. The Pearl Savage by Tamara Rose Blodgett--I don't usually read these historical type books. They just don't interest me, and I guess one of the only reasons I bought this freebie was because I was bored out of my mind from the lack of activity on the freebie list.  Either way, I bought it, and it was interesting. But still not my type of book. It wasn't bad, or bad-written. It was actually a great story line, just not my style of reading. 

And that's all I can find on my Kindle. I've had a busy month, so I get to catch a break. But maybe these titles will help you out on your quest from boredom. Good luck, and happy reading!

*I completely spazzed out when I realized that J.A. Redmerski wrote The Edge of Never, a book I've been stalking and trying to put off buying. But that's just a bad thing, because buying is so easy and fun. 

It's time for some confessions

Everyone out there has done this at least once in their life, if not more. The following list is everything going through my 'life' right now.

1. Procrastination. That's right, I'm a huge procrastinator, and I can't help it. There are just so many more interesting things to do!
2. Boredom. Yep, that too. But who hasn't ever been bored in their life? I'm bored on a daily basis. Right now I'm making an animation and it's so boring because I'm just shrinking down the characters as they run, and dragging the snowflakes across the screen. How boring!?
3. Projects. Yeesh! If there is one thing I hate, it's projects. Sometimes they're self-inflicted, such as this charcoal sketch I want to do of my dog. I thought of that idea weeks ago, and I still haven't even started. Or they can be assigned to you, like this animation project I have to do, or the five zillion photography projects, or this AP US project I have to work on tomorrow with a group of friends.
4. Stage Fright. I'm a completely shy girl. I don't dance, I don't sing, and I don't act. Not only do I not like doing those things, but I stink at them too. Tomorrow two of my friends are coming over to film our video project for AP US. Not only that, but everyone in the group has to be on camera. This is going to be fun. 
5. People who think they're right, no matter what. This is a major thing right now. Remember that Digital Photography class I mentioned above? Well, my teacher is like this. When we started the semester, she emailed me saying I need to update my email. We went through like 10 messages bickering over how I already did it and how my correct email was in there, and her saying I needed to go check because she had to go through the school to message me. In the end, she said she was sorry because my email was right. But that's only the first instance! Right now I have three zeros for projects I've already completed, and she won't correct the grades! Gah! This irritates me so much!

So.. I guess I'm procrastinating from my procrastinating, because I still have only done 57 of the 100 required cells for my animation. Whoop de do. Talk to you guys later, I have to get to work :/

Sudden Urges

Okay, I am going to have to change some stuff about this blog. From now on, I won't be doing book reviews, but I will rave or rant about them. I'm just going to talk about me, regarding books and writing. My thoughts and ideas.

With that said, I have the sudden urge to write a book like Lord of the Rings. Not exactly it, in case you were wondering. Have you ever seen the movies? My mom has a replica necklace from The Lord of the Rings, belonging to one of the elves. Arwin, I think it was. But I was just looking at these jewelry from someone on deviantART.com, and it looks eerily similiar. Lunarieen is her name (Click on the link for photos of her jewelry). Anyway, it's made me realize that I can picture myself in the future with my sister designing jewelry for my book, as she has an interest in that kind of stuff, and I'm hiring models wearing it for the cover of my book.

It probably won't happen, but hey, you can always dream. First off, I'd need to write that book, and I have a  tiring habit where I begin a book with a great idea, but leave off shortly afterward when I get stuck. It's very irritating. I've started many books and get stuck in a conflict with no direction of where I'm heading with this story.

My sister volunteered the idea of a romance novel with mythical characters, because I have another quirk that I can only write when the characters have something wrong with them, such as being a faerie, or elf, or something peculiar. But don't all main character's do? In every story you come across, there has got to be something wrong with the main character. In Amanda Hocking's book My Blood Approves, her main character Alice is bonded with Jack, err, Peter. See, she's different. She's special. Every main character has to have something wrong with them, or there wouldn't be a story about them in the first place.

So, I'll be back. I make no promises unless I intend to keep them. Until then, bye everyone!

Wow!

Okay, before you think this is a new review for another book I've read, I'm sorry to say I won't be doing one in this post. But, I have read a book I loved called Beautiful Disaster, and I'll review it later on.

Now, onto what this post was really about. I'm so happy for some of my favorite authors. I've discovered a few that were self-published and were published by various companies. My first being Amanda Hocking. I discovered her with her book, My Blood Approves and have been hooked ever since. Recently, with her Trylle Series, she was published by Macmillan. When I found out, I was overjoyed. Even though the prices of her books were about to go up, she was being discovered and bringing herself up in the world of books. I'm happy to be one of the many who found her before the publishers did.

Another of my favorite authors, Rebecca Donovan, is getting published too! She's been discovered by Penguin before the release of her third book in her series, which happens to be released this Friday, October 5th!

Okay, that's it for now! I'll check back in with you guys later, when I think of something else to say. Until then, au revoir!

..Bunch of Things..

So, just starting off, this post is not a review. I'm tired, sick, and just want to go to bed, but I decided to clear up a few things before I do so. I've edited the Favorite Author's and To-Read list, so things are no longer outdated.

Wow, so my 'clear up a few things' turned out to be just one minor thing. Huh, my mind seems to be leaving me blank on a bunch of things. Well anyway, would you like to hear a somewhat aggravating and humorous story?

If you said no, well, too bad. Because here it is:
On August 1- August 8, my family and I took a trip to New Jersey to visit family. While we were there, two of my books I was dying to read came out. The first was Wake by Amanda Hocking, which was outstanding, and the second was The Rise of Nine by Pittacus Lore. Well, I ordered Wake and the last Maximum Ride(whose title is slipping my mind at the moment). I didn't order The Rise of Nine until much later, like 10-15 days later, I know, pitiful considering I wanted it so bad. So while we were in Jersey, my family gifted me with a bunch of giftcards as an early 16th Birthday gift, and one of those was a Barnes and Nobles. But I had to share it with both of my sisters. So we were snooping through Barnes and Nobles online, and they both found a book and I found mine, and we placed the order. Did you know that if one of those books is pre-ordered, they won't send the entire order until that one little book is released? Well I sure didn't! My sister's book, called Just Getting Started, wasn't released until the 13th of this month. I ordered those books around the end of August. I didn't recieve them until yesterday, the 18th. So here I am, smacking myself for letting her get the book and holding me and my other sister up with our orders. Well, I can say one thing. The Rise of Nine was goood! Like, amazing good. I read it in less than a day, and am disappointed there wasn't any notice of a fourth book, because there has got to be one! But I'll make a review for that book tomorrow, maybe.

I've got a ton of stuff to do. I'm in an AP class this year, so I'm booked up on homework and studying. There won't be as many book reviews until after May, but I'll make one when I can. I have a few projects to complete in the next week, so stay with me. That's a story for another day. Until then, I'll see you when I see you. I'm tired, au revoir*!

*Is it sad I took two years of French and the best I can do on a daily basis is Bonjour and Au Revoir? I also know Salut and Enchante, but that's just off the top of my head. Oh oh oh, here's another one that may or may not be correct: J'aime peinture! Au revoir, mes amis!

AngelFall by Susan Ee

Hey there, readers. Sorry I haven't updated this in a while. School started, and my AP class had homework right from the get-go. This is the first free time I've had in a while. Now, you want to know what I did?

I purchased and read a book of course! Today's book is AngelFall by Susan Ee. I wouldn't have found it had I not snooped onto Amazon today. After reading the description and the ratings, I decided to give it a try. And try I did!

AngelFall is officially my favorite book of the month. Okay, I guess that's not such a great achievement since it's only September 2, but it's still my favorite book of the last couple of weeks. I was really excited to give this book a try, and while it was a little of a let down, it was still a great read and worth the $2.99(That's two dollars, ninety nine cents.) I spent.

First off, I love the whole plot and ideas for the story. The main character's name, Penryn, is interesting enough. I mean, where did that come from? This is a one of a kind name, at least thus far. Never before have I heard the name Penryn. Now, before you start wondering why my review has headed towards a girl's name, remember that I'm in high school and will get easily distracted and amused by such things.

Okay, moving on. Back to the plot and story. It's revolving around an apocalypse. But not of the zombie or meteroid strike sort. This is an apocalypse caused by angels. But not your sweet, halo-headed angels; these angels are warriors. Not Christmas decorations. Now, in all good apocalypse books there have got to be fight scenes. Usually they're with zombies, but.. These ones were pretty good too. The angels kidnapped Penryn's little sister, Paige. Did you see that? My name's in the book! Yaya! Paige is a seven-year old cripple. She's wheel-chair bound and during one of those fight scenes Penryn watched her get taken from her fingertips. Now, can you guess where this is going? I sure hope so. Penryn is extremely loyal and stubborn. She recruits kidnaps, holds against his will an angel who was near death. Together they go on a rampage and kill every angel they find! Well, sorry. That's not what happened! But they do go on a journey to find her little sister. There are many twists that I sure didn't expect, and I'm sure you won't too.

Now, do you want to read this book? It was very captivating and catches you right from the beginning. The plot is well-developed, keeping that little hidden point in the very beginning that only the best authors can do, and the dialogue wasn't forced. That's one of the best parts. With some authors they try too hard, and the dialogue seems like they had to push it out of themselves rather than letting it flow naturally. I like that.

I look forward to the remainder of the Penryn & The End of Days, which has yet to be announced. But I'll be sure to blog about when future releases are! Until then, keep checking my To-Read List, because all of my favorite authors' future books are sure to be on there!

See you next time! Happy Reading!