It Has Begun (AKA I Have No Idea How To Edit This Mess)

BIG NEWS.

GUYS.

THE EDITS. THEY HAVE BEGUN.

      To celebrate, I used what few pictures I have of Bethany looking happy! (Okay, okay. That was a bit uncalled for.) If you watch Downton Abbey, you're recognize her as Lady Rose. I swear, the two of them are like, identical fictional twins. *nodnod*

      I'm not really sure what I'm doing, but I'm having fun! I've rewritten parts of chapter 1--which is now considerably longer--and an opening I'm absolutely in love with. 

I won't say what's important about number 213. :P

    Right now I'm working through a read-through of my first draft (and trying not to cringe every few seconds), along with reading Go Teen Writers: The Book and doing some of the worksheets in it! It's super helpful, as is their blog. I mean, it's not like I've been stalking the editing tag on there or anything. *whistles innocently* Nope, don't know what you're talking about. :ninjaface:

     Also: research. And lots of it. Because I decided to write Empty Alibi about a week before November 1st and didn't have nearly enough time to research, I'm getting around to some of the things I should have looked up before. Namely...

• NYC Geography. In general (I mean, it might be good to know where, exactly, Brooklyn and Manhattan lie in relation to Long Island) and also, specifics. For example, I spent this afternoon on Wikipedia reading general histories of different neighborhoods in NYC that were upperclass in the '20s. I also found a closer alternative to Long Island: Port Washington. It's gorgeous. You should look it up. 
• Popular films, music, books, etc in 1923/early 1924. In the first few pages of Draft 2, I got to reference Yes! We Have No Bananas (an insanely popular song of the early 20s) and Ain't We Got Fun? (another song). Also, a minor character may or may not have fangirled over Douglas Fairbanks. :P

      I also constructed a broad outline using my first draft as reference. There's a lot of things that are changing, and a lot of key scenes are getting booted out (as much as it hurts me to do so). BUT, there are some really fun elements I'm looking forward to putting in! Like, a completely new character is getting...well...poisoned. But don't worry! There's no death as a result of this. Maybe. Hopefully. I'm not sure. .-.

    ALSO. I'M MAKING CHARACTER COLLAGES AGAIN. I HADN'T REALIZED HOW MUCH I MISSED THIS. 

Ouch. 

Awwwwwwwwwwwwww<3

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH


AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

     Alright. I'm out. :P

2015: A Year of Exploration (AKA A Very Late New Year's Post)

     I wanted to do a New Year's Post on New Year's Eve, but on the 31st, I was burrowed under blankets and running a fever. So not much happened. And then on the 1st, I went and saw Into The Woods with my cousin, a friend, and their parents. And then a bunch of stuff happened and this morning I remembered: hey, I wanted to do something for 2015 before it gets too late!
So here. Have a (sort of maybe super late) New Year's post!

     Last Sunday, my Sunday School teacher asked us all a question: what is your word for 2014? I thought this was kind of funny, since I’d come across this same thing the day before and thought of my word.

     In 2015, my word is Explore. I want to explore a lot of things, but mostly I want to explore in my writing, my reading, my art, and in God. I want to push myself with my writing—blogging included. I want to read more of what I love and more of what I haven’t tried before. I want to explore new styles and techniques with my art (photography, classic art, and piano). And, lastly, I want to grow in my relationship with God and explore different parts and questions about God and Christianity.

We may be crazy but we have more fun. >:D

     2014 was wonderful. I made one of the best friends I have and really got to know another. I spent time with my family (well, less in November) and I got to do some pretty great things with my cousins. I wrote a novel. I learned so much on piano and am finally able to sit down and play without having to do a lot of practice before hand. I read so much. I actually made some okay art. I took a photography class and I’ve got a lot
of pictures on my computer because of it.

     2014 was a big year for me. It saw my first workshop, the finishing of my first novel, two piano recitals, and an action-packed summer. I changed in a lot of ways in 2014, and I stayed the same in others. Looking back at the past year feels really weird—wait, it’s 2015? But it was just 2010! And then it was just 2007! It can’t be 2015! I can’t be halfway through my freshman year of highschool! Or have my learner’s permit! No way.

And yet, I am. So here’s to another year of starry-eyed adventures and exploring new worlds.

[Book Review] The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

     The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

     With a name like that it’s impossible not to be interested. It begs to be read; and once you open it, the begging gets more desperate.

     Read me! It cries. I’m a book of letters! I feature a writer and a loveable farmer and an only-slightly-crazy islander/potion brewer! I’ll make you laugh and cry! You’ll have a peculiar urge to visit the English island of Guernsey after reading me!

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Genre: Historical, Epistolary*, and if it were a genre, Home.

Author: Mary Ann Shaffer

Content: Often people talk of the horror that came with living on occupied Guernsey during World War Two. Mentions of concentration camps. A woman has a child before marriage. A Ravensbrück survivor spends a good deal of time in the letters.

Memory: "And then Dawsey, dear Dawsey, swore. He took the Lord's name in vain. "My God, yes," he cried, and clattered down that stepladder, only his heels hit the rungs, which is how he sprained his ankle."

Rating: 5 stars.

Overall

     I love this book. I love Isola Pribby with everything and I adore her parrot. Dawsey Adams has taken up residence in my heart and Juliet Ashton will forever be one of my literary role-models. I want Amelia as a grandmother, or maybe just a good friend.

     I want to be a member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

     After reading this, I get the same feeling I remember having after finishing the Anne of Green Gables books. I wanted to live in Avonlea more than anything, and I wanted red hair, and I wanted a Gilbert Blythe. Finishing this felt like walking through the doors and into the brisk air conditioning of the Bell Center Lobby this past summer.

     It felt like Home.

Characters

     This isn’t a plot driven book at all, although there was a tiny plot that I was rooting for and seriously flopped back on my bed and laughed when everything tied up with it. No spoilers here though. ;)

     Back to what I was saying. This is not a plot book; it’s a character one. You don’t pick up Potato Peelers to read about the German Occupation of Guernsey or an author’s struggle to find a good plot for her books in 1946, you do it to hear Juliet become pen pals with the members of the Society. To listen to Isola Pribby’s hilarious stories, to hear Dawsey talk about Charles Lamb.

     You read for the characters, and they are amazing. They’re so real, it almost feels like this is a collection of letters from 1946, not a story. I picked this up and was taken to Guernsey even when Juliet wasn’t there yet. I was, for a few hours, a member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and it was amazing.

     There’s one character I haven’t talked about yet, and that I don’t want to say much about because I don’t want to spoil the book for anyone. But her name is Elizabeth, and she is one of my favorite characters in any book I’ve read.

Buy it?

     Yes.

      Oh, yes. If I didn’t already have a wonderfully beat up copy from Mariesa, I would order a hardcover from Amazon right now.

     And, finally, this book is so quotable. I think I spy some new canvases on my walls in the future. ;)

*I only just looked up the genre epistolary, because I saw it on Goodreads and thought it looked good. ;) It's a book of letters, in case you couldn't tell from its being put with Potato Peelers.