The Reason I'm An Insomniac

I've made a discovery readers. I am in an insomniac. I've suspected for some time now. But, I have finally discovered the reason why I am this way.

See, I often thought it had to do with spending too much time looking at an ipod screen, thinking about crazy stuff, reading heart stopping books right before bed, eating too much sugar. Things like that.

But those aren't the reasons at all.

The other day as I was looking around my room,

It hit me.

The reason is handsomeness.

There is much too much awesome handsomeness in my bedroom for me to sleep.

Why on earth would I ever want to close my eyes when this is what is around me, covering all the walls?

I mean seriously?

How am I supposed to sleep when this is hung up right above my bed??

I suppose I might get more sleep if I took all the posters down, but that would make my room such a dreary place. The entire wall space is covered in pictures and posters and drawings.

I can't give up my babies.

Mockingjay Part 1 Review

Hi!

My dad took us to see the last showing of Mockingjay part 1 a few weeks ago.

It was so good!

So I thought I would tell you guys what I thought of it.

First off, the movie theater experience wasn't nearly as fun, because when the place is full of strangers, my family doesn't laugh like Caesar Flickerman,



or do the Mockingjay whistle, or scream GALE!!!

We're much more reserved with an audience.

But the movie was still good.

My family said it wasn't as exciting as the Catching Fire movie, but it did follow the book, so the lack of excitement was simply because most of the movie took place in District 13 under ground. But the movie was no where near boring.
It's been a while since I've read the books, so I may have forgot some minute details, but all the major points were present in the movie, and the things they did change were not soul crushing, so I was very happy.

I absolutely love The Hanging Tree song that Katniss sings in the movie, and I now have it on my ipod, and am learning to play it on guitar.

For those of you who want to know about inappropriate content, there was none. No cussing. And a little itty bitty tiny kiss. That was it. If you don't like gore this movie had way more in it than the others. There was blood, there were wounded and dead people. So that might bother some people. Other than that it gets a squeaky clean report.

My love for Gale continues to grow. I just cant find fault in the guy. I'm sorry.

My dislike for Peeta remains steadfast.

My family was devastated seeing him in his hijacked form. It was pretty freaky. I applaud the makeup artist who worked on him for this movie. He looked malnourished and tortured for sure.
Finnick! I savored every moment. I kind of wished some of his *ehem* awkward lines had made it from the book into the movie, but oh well. I'll survive.

Anyway, it was a great movie, and I cannot wait for the last one to come out! Mockingjay is totally worth the watch. It must hurry and come out on DVD.

Resolutions

Hello everyone!

Since it is that time of the year where everyone decides to write down what they think would be cool to do during the year, but don't usually do, I thought I'd do so as well.
My dear friend came home from California this week, and she brought me these gorgeous notebooks (take my word for it, as I have no picture of them yet), and the first thing I wrote in the black one was a list of my 2015 goals. I thought I'd share them with you- some of them anyway.

2015 Writerly Goals:
1. Finish first draft of Running Crazy
2. Finish first draft of RP Fantasy
3. Edit and revise Out of Darkness
4. Edit and revise Blaze
5. Edit and revise The Dynamic Duo
6. Send Out of Darkness to agents
(The amount of editing in here terrifies me)

2015 Life Goals:
1. Make wedding present
2. Get in shape (I will not be disclosing what number I consider 'in shape' for me, because when I did, my whole family freaked out at me)
3. Read the Bible everyday.
4. Take all the awesome fabric I have acquired and sew and Ariel-esque outfit.

5. Learn electric guitar
6. Get Flint going good
7. Buy a laptop
8. Work at camp
9. Learn cursive

2015 Fangirl Goals:
1. Watch Insurgent
2. Watch Mockingjay Part 2
3. Watch The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
4. Watch Pan and cry because my Garbear is in a movie where he doesn't die, and is the King of sass.

See? Sass.

What about you? Any new years resolutions or goals you have set? I'd love to hear about them!

The Iron Curse Update and Wrap-up

Hello, lovely readers!

The other day I mentioned that I had finished The Iron Curse, and then I realized that I hadn't officially told you guys, and let you know how it turned out and all that jazz.

So this is that post.

Official Notice:

The Iron Curse is done.

I finished it a week ago give or take. It's a bit over 17,000 words, and I am quite thrilled with the way it turned out.

Skye was awesome and read it for me, and then Minion 1 also read it for me (I had to hound Minion 1 though- Skye volunteered)

Their advice was helpful. If at times blunt- Minion 1 told me my ending was lame and she wouldn't let me send it in until I had re-wrote it. She couldn't exactly tell me what about it was lame- she just knew it was lame.

I did manage to tweak the ending a bit to satisfy us both, and I sent it in to Rooglewood Press.
I admit I was ridiculously excited to get the confirmation email that said they got it and someone was going to read it. I was stoked.

I am so excited for this contest. I got to read Skye's take on the story as well, and it was SO good. I'm definitely hoping her's gets chosen, because you all have got to read it. It was amazing.

I'm also hoping for myself over here.

*selfish and unashamed*

Here's a few parting snippets for you guys. I figure on the off chance mine makes it into the final five, I'll lose my rights to the story, so I'd better share it with you while I can....I think I would buy them back if that happened. I love Carrick....

Anyway-

“When I was thirteen, some friends and I were playing and a woman came by the gates. She asked me to come over, but I told her no and called her an ugly old witch.”

“Was she?”

The question surprised Carrick and pulled a smile from his lips. “She was truly hideous.” His smile faded. “And a witch, as it turned out."

Carrick’s eyebrows pulled together. “Why aren’t you surprised by any of this? I just told you about a supernatural occurrence.”

Bellatrae lifted a shoulder. “I was educated, you know. In an old history book, I learned that magic was banned two hundred years ago. Then one hundred years ago they started teaching that magic doesn’t exist.” She looked at him pointedly. “Why would they go through the trouble of banning something that doesn’t exist?”

Carrick shook his head. “You know, you are the first one to ever mention that discrepancy?”

“People are willing to be blind to things they don’t wish to acknowledge.”

Carrick smiled a little. “You would have done well in court.”

The grass was starting to lose it’s vibrant green color, and the air was turning cool. Carrick led her across the yard toward the back of the castle. Rose bushes guarded the foundations and a few blossoms stood in rebellion against the changing seasons.

“I don’t know why we bother with the metal ones when the real flowers are so beautiful.” Bellatrae said, a mournful note in her voice.

Carrick nodded. “To prove that we can make things just as good as what is around us.” He reached for a butterfly setting on one of the petals and wound the key between its wings to set it flying. “Why bother feeding and tending to real animals when you can use an automated one? Before my parents sent me here, I was starting to study Hamlin’s first volume. He said that people will willingly live in a prison, if you paint the walls to look like outside and there’s a nice sofa to watch the view from. But the walls are still stone and the bars are still iron.”

Josef nodded and Thomas grinned. “And what will happen after that?”

Carrick shrugged. “We’ll live happily ever after.”

Josef frowned. “Bellatrae says we don’t know there’s an ever after until the story is over.”

He glanced at her and she smiled. “I believe in this one.”

Adios 2014!

Wow!

I can't believe another year has come and gone. It's just crazy!

So much has happened this year, and since the trend seems to be to recap the previous year and sum it all up in a post, I thought I would hop on the band wagon.

This year-

I traveled out of state- Four times.

I read Four book series'.

I fell in love with a boy named Four.

I finished Four stories.

I started Four stories.

I watched three movies based off books I've read...curse that three.

I got one new job...I guess this is the end of the Fours :(

I made a complete idiot of myself at least Four times, I'm sure.

(Fours will rise again!)

I had so much fun blogging.

I started beta reading for people.

I joined an official critique group.

I entered my first official writing contest.

I completely lost my mind, and let it get posted on the internet in the form of blog posts, and didn't regret it at all.

Thank you all so much for reading my blog this year!

I've had so much fun with it.

 I'm sure this upcoming year will be just as great.

The One- A Book Review

And I'm back for another book review. It's another end of the series book.

The One by Kiera Cass

 

 

(goodreads)

 

The time has come for one winner to be crowned.

When she was chosen to compete in the Selection, America never dreamed she would find herself anywhere close to the crown—or to Prince Maxon's heart. But as the end of the competition approaches, and the threats outside the palace walls grow more vicious, America realizes just how much she stands to lose—and how hard she'll have to fight for the future she wants.  

 

♥♥♥♥

This book killed me.

It was such an emotional train wreck for me. Half the time I was screaming at America to pull her head out and grow up, and when I wasn't screaming at her, I was screaming at Maxon.

(I never did scream at Aspen, except to say I love you)

It was frustrating, but not in a way that made me want to quit reading. It was just so easy to get emotionally invested in their lives and then freak out when I thought they were going to ruin things.

I had a couple problems with the book.

There was quite a bit more cussing in this one than I remember being in the first two books.

And there were a few romantic scenes that were a little hotter than the others got. It wasn't terrible. There was no sex or anything like that, but some people might be uncomfortable with the level of touchy-feely kissy stuff that was in it. If you don't like that sort of thing it was easy to see coming and skip over.

I did have the end spoiled for me before I started the book, but I sort of hoped it wasn't true.

I guess if America had to end up with that boy then the ending was good.

Let me put it this way, the ending was very well done, I was just rooting for the other boy.

Overall I did love the book. The humor in it was hilarious and there were several twists and flat out shockers that I did not expect.

I'm actually looking forward to reading The Heir now.

Of course, Minion 1 has first dibs on it, so I'll have to wait before I get to find out how on earth one girl handles 35 suitors.

That's got to be either bucket loads of fun, or hoards of trouble.

 

 

 

After Christmas Post

Hello all!

I hope you had a lovely Christmas.

Mine was swell. My grandma came over and I literally ate myself sick.

I honestly did not mean to. I had a regular sized dinner, and I felt stuffed immediately and hardly ate any dessert until hours later.

It was pineapple upside down cake- totally worth the wait.

Christmas eve I went to my grandma's house on my mom's side and played with all the little girl cousins, and got to hold the new baby. She is inhumanly beautiful. I mean, I have never saw a baby that adorable. And she always smiles. Even when she's crying.

My family loves me very much. To show my level of appreciation for them, I will be locking myself away with the spare tv for a long period of time.
See, they got me Revolution season 2, Legend of Korra season 1 and 3, and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Minion 1 got The Maze Runner.
So we have a lot of watching to do.

Christmas day we made my poor parents and grandma sit through the Maze Runner. It wasn't as good as the book, but it was a decent movie. I'll probably do a review on it in the near future. (I also have one for Mockingjay part 1- yes, I watched it and didn't tell you.)

Minion 2 got me a Tim Tebow poster. Minion 2 is my best friend forever.

I had so much fun tricking my sisters into whose box belonged to which person, and what was inside and all that fun stuff. It was great.

How was your Christmas?