Book Blog

Dear Bloggie,
     After asking for name suggestions yesterday, I finally choose one for my new book review blog.  The Babbling Book Queen! Thank you so much to the wonderful Jennifer (a.k.a The DiVine Writer) for the suggestion, it was perfect.
          ~ XOXO,
                             Ariana

Even Atheists Love Christmas

Dear Bloggie,
    Hope you're all having a great Christmas, I know I am. All my close family (plus my two aunts boyfriends) were over this morning to open up gifts at my grandfathers house (located two floors under mine, seeing as I love in a three story apartment/house). Good news: I received Photoshop and an iPod Touch from my mom. Bad News: I didn't receive Ellie Goulding's CD from my Godmother. Oh well, I'll buy it myself; I'll have to import it from the UK. Oh that reminds me. While I didn't get a British singers CD, I did get a British authors book! My mom imported Louise Rennison's (the author of my favorite series ever, Confessions of Georgia Nicholson) new book Withering Tights! All the way from England! I have a UK version of a book!

    I hope your Christmas is going as good as mine is. I'm going to sync my new iPod then change so we (my family) can head off to my great aunt Madalena's house. That's were almost everyone in my family goes every year. Even though I basically consider myself an atheist, I have always and will always love Christmas. For me, Christmas isn't about gifts (though I do love them and couldn't imagine a Christmas without them), and Christmas isn't even really about celebrating the birth of baby Jesus. No, for me Christmas is about getting together with my family, eating good food, and having a good time. It's about being all around thankful for the people you have in your life and being glad that they are still there. Because trust me, as I learned with my grandmother about six years ago, you don't know how mush longer you'll have them for. Merry Christmas.
    ~Libby

NaNoWriMo

Dear Bloggie,

   It's that time of year again. You know, zombies, vampires, and witches, oh my. And how can we forget the warm juicy turkey? But first, between Halloween and Thanksgiving, there is something uber important we music take notice of.

   NaNoWriMo!

   For those who don't know what that is, well, just keeping reading. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It's the time of year where you sit yourself down for 30 days and night and make yourself write a novel. Some people can accomplish this, some can't. Some can just reach the word count goal (50,00 for the teen/adult site; whatever you want for the kid/pre-teen/teen site) and some find themselves passing it.

  Last year I signed up, but I was so busy/sucked into Becoming that I was unable to pull myself away to write another book. Because, for NaNoWriMo, you MUST start off with a totally unwritten book on November 1st. OK, so if you don't they won't know, but just think of it as a challenge; wouldn't you rather do it and win knowing your really that tough, instead of lying to others and more importantly yourself?

  So for right now C.O.A.O.P. is on hold. I probably get to it until after the New Year. If I use all of November to write, I will probably not be done with the book yet so I'll continue into December. After that I will edit and if I like it enough I'm sending it to a publishing house called Medallion Press Inc. They opened up a YaYa division (Young Adults writing for Young Adults: Teens writing for teens) which really excites me.

   I was reading their "About" area, and  let me tell you, it sounds really awesome. I like that they care about covers just as much as the books. I put so much time into making my own mock covers, that one day, when I'm published, I really hope I have great covers.

  I might as well just show you the cover and story I'm working with.

   

   When fourteen-year-old Addie Baudelaire made the choice to attend art school across town, she knew she would be in for a change. While most of her friends are attending Northeast Catholic for high school, Addie took a chance to follow her dreams as a writer.

Enter Danny Moretti.

   Smooth talking and popular, sophomore Danny catches Addie’s attention the first day. Even more importantly, she catches his. Romantic and irrespirable, it’s no wonder Addie – level headed, mature, and always responsible Addie – falls head over heels for him.

   But as their relationship deepens, transformations start to take place in Danny. As her world turns to darkness, Addie may very soon have to choose between saving her love and saving her life.

   

  This story is about abusive (mentally, emotionally, and physically) relationships. I had been working on another cover Saturday night, when I cam across the pictures. Somehow, they just morphed together to a point that I knew I had a story. Even though I'm nuts most of the time, I must say I sometimes like how I think. :)

  I always have authors that inspire each book I write. Becoming it was Stephenie Meyer and Kelly Armstrong, C.O.A.O.P. it is Louise Rennison and Meg Cabot, and for The Many Scars of Addie Baudelaire, it is Judy Blume and Sarah Dessen. I love their books and love how they write about real teen problems and issues. Sex, death, puberty, suicide, pregnancy, ect. They have been there. 

  I was doing some research on real life stories of teen girls being in abusive relationship, when I came across the statistics. They say that one in five girls will be in a relationship that their partner will hit, punch, or harm in any other violent way. I couldn't believe it. Why is there not more books on this? Why is there not more discussions? One in five is a lot.

  So in a way, I am also trying to raise awareness. As they commercial (that they kept airing last week on Teen Mom because Amber was abusing -- physically and mentally and emotionally with her words -- her ex-fiancé, Gary) says, love is respect. Violence is not respect. 

  In short, respect others. Please. Pretty please with a cherry on top, just for me. **Flutters eyelashes** I hope you listen. 

~XOXO,

    Libby

Tainted

Dear Bloggie,

   I hope you like how this blog has been transforming. I know I am. Eventually I do wish to make my own
template, but until then I will survive with the one I have now.

   So my Photoshop trial is about to expire, so I decided to go into cover making overdrive. I have this book idea that I worked on in the past, then put aside when I got the idea for Incandescent, which I put aside when I decided to work on C.O.A.O.P. Yeah, I have a hard time completing a book. Tell me about.
   The point is, today I made a cover for it. Here it is:

 Some Secrets Are Blood Deep....

Sixteen-year-old Carson Elmwood has stood as a sign of hope for her people all her life. She is the youngest on earth, the last born after The Fall. She defied the possible. Carson will be their savior. Or people say.

The truth is Carson has no idea how to save the world. She has no idea if she can have children – a feat that is thought to be impossible. To be truthful, she doesn’t even want to have children. Why expose them to poverty and death as she has been exposed? For Carson, life will be restrictions she dreams of breaching and expectations that she fears of both reaching, and never coming close to.

Beth Haven has never seen poverty or death from any other cause besides old age in her nineteen years. Her whole life has been simple and carefree. After her marriage to Brandon, finding herself pregnant was supposed to be her fairytale ending.

However, secrets can’t stay buried forever. When Brandon is taken away Beth suddenly finds herself – and more importantly the baby – in grave danger. Running away from everything she holds dear, she must rely on Carson – who is desperate for a way out – and an unlikely ally to save the day. But as secrets start to unravel faster and faster, they may soon realize that they are way over their heads. That this secret runs blood deep...

   What do you think? This is a dystopia/sci-fi/romance novel. I got the idea while reading To Kill A Mockingbird last winter/spring. They were talking about the villages in Africa that raise their children together,  when I remembered that saying "It takes a village to raise a child". That got me questioning what would it take for Americans to adopt this thinking. That's how I got to "Well, if there was only one child left, wouldn't people watch over it?" As the idea jumped around, I remembered this movie I loved called "Children of Men" about a future where no children are being born, except then one woman dose get pregnant. The main character (a guy in the movie/book) takes it upon himself to protect her. 

   The only thing I never truly got was why people stopped having children. I felt that the movie never gave a good enough reason Maybe if I read the book I'll find out, but not right now. The point is, I started asking myself "What would cause the world to stop being able to procreate?" Of course, I can't tell you in this post, but I will tell you that I have an answer to that question. After that, the rest just started to come to me. 

   This book isn't a main priority, but I do plan on working on it before I graduate high school. OK, so I'll post more tomorrow or Monday because I'm getting to distracted. More later. 

~XOXO,

     Libby

Movies & Other Distractions

Dear Bloggie,

    As someone has reminded me (*cough, cough* Cat *cough, cough*) I’ve been needing to update my blog. It’s not that I have nothing to say -- trust me, that will NEVER be an issue; I come up with random blog posts in my mind all the time -- it’s just that I’ve been too lazy to actually type it. But since I’m having a rather good day, I might as well.

   First off, as you may have noticed, I have redone this blog up. I preferred the only template, but it just wasn’t giving me the freedom I wanted. Now I have been able to add reactions and other pages -- two freedoms a premade template was not giving me. The tabs are simple and understandable. I have one tab for Home (where you are reading this), one tab for Current Projects (where you can find story ideas that I have put some or plan to put some work into; this tab is up, but not totally done. Still, there are projects posted there so check it out), Contact (where you can find information on how to contact me for whatever reason), and one labeled C.O.A.O.P (which will change as my most current projects change). Any story I am seriously working on will have it’s own tab.

   So now onto the real updated part. My life as a high school has been normal for the most part. Well, as normal as life at an art school can be. This guy I know named Hayden showed up in a dress today. The dress was borrowed from a senior who made it, and it was worn over his usual attire of skinny jeans a and a T-shirt, but the effect was still there. Specially when he went to the bathroom and stuffed the top. He tried to stuff it with paper, but it didn’t work. So instead he stuffed it with his socks which made it appear as if he just had one big breast instead of two separate ones.

   Now, onto the overly high school news. Jonah told this girl named Kayla who told my lunch table that he like this girl named Sarah (we call her Sarah Starfish). She’s the one with the ukulele. But according to Kayla, though Sarah Starfish considers him a dear friend and is even the one who has brought him out of his shell, she has no romantic feelings for him. Which, though it is mean, is good news to me. Sarah is pretty, nice, and fun/crazy. If she likes Jonah back, well I have no doubt that I will never have even the slightest chance with him.

   Today, as sometimes I do, I was able to watch a movie. I watched The Young Victoria, and am now watching 9, an animated movie about a rag doll that awakens in a post-apocalyptic future holds the key to humanity's salvation. I loved The Young Victoria. To begin with, I just love Emily Blunt and then there is just the fact that Queen Victoria is one of my favorite royals, second only to Queen Elizabeth the 1st.The movie was great and was filled with wonderful actors. I give it a ten stars out of ten. Between the acting, dialogue, settings and stage, and costumes, that movie was just plain brilliant.

  One thing that I love about Queen Victoria, is that unlike Queen Elizabeth, she was able to balance out her love life with being a great queen. Queen Elizabeth gave everything, and got almost nothing in return. I feel bad for her since she had been in love, it just was that she could not marry him because of his unpopularity. She chose her country over love. I will never have to make such a drastic decision, but I just hope that my life will be balanced like Queen Victoria’s, not like Queen Elizabeth’s.

   9 has been a little dull up to this point, but maybe that’s because I’m not really paying attention. Tomorrow is the last day of my visual arts rotation. Next Monday I start Technical Theater for three weeks. I’m really excited.

   Well, that’s about all the time we have for today boys and girls, but don’t worry, I’ll post again. I love blogging too much not to :)

 

~XOXO,

     Libby

 

P.S. Tonight begins the new season of Criminal Minds. I heard on a radio advertisement that Tim Curry will guest star on it. Ever since seeing him one The Rocky Horror Picture Show, I have totally loved him. In I think he’s a good and funny actor sort of way of course. Check out The Rocky Horror Picture Show if you haven't seen it, it’s awesome. :)

How I Got My Phone Taken Away For An Hour, Saw A Hot Guy, Missed A Chance To Talk To Another One, And Still Found Time To Blog!

Dear Bloggie,
    Sorry, it's been a couple days. I was going to post yesterday.  I was tired when I got home and I had started working another book cover (which I still have not completed) and then ended up falling asleep right after dinner. I'm posting now though. So lets's get into it.

   On Wednesday we had our freshman seminar. Freshman seminar is basically this meeting thing we have every Monday and Wednesday instead of another art class. We meet with our freshman seminar advisor and talk or watch other students (older but maybe eventually it'll be us too) perform. I won't go too much into what they performed, but there was this really hot guy there.

   His name is Eli and he's a senior -- basically he's way out of my league. Still, he's hot. So being my natural creepy/stalker self what do I do? I take out my phone and take a stalkarazzi style photo of him. At the moment my cell is dead so I can't send it to my computer to upload, but I will next entry. Basically, the best way to describe him is tall medium built guy (average) with Robert Pattinson style hair (via first Twilight movie) but a face that looks like you took Robert Pattinson and crossed bred him with Jesse McCarthy, a younger version of Hayden Christensen, and Hunter Parrish (who I think is very hot, is one of a few people that my mind uses when I think of my character Ethan Stanford -- except Ethan is muscular and tan from being a lifeguard -- and, in my opinion, would make a great Peeta Mellark in the Hunger Games movie...).

   Sadly my FS (freshman seminar) advisor saw it and took it away from me. After FS I had to go to the office, sign a paper that said I understood the school rules and if I get caught with my phone out again my parent or guardian would have to come in and sign it out, and yada, yada, yada. Point being, I got it back but will be more careful with it in future situations.

   Today I passed up a chance to talk to Jonah. Why you ask? Because I'm a quiet idiot. He was sorta sitting by himself reading this book (yes, I looked it up and all...don't judge), when this girl I sit with for lunch (we call her Sarah Squishy -- you would be surprised how popular the name Sarah was in 1996, so many of the girls in my grade have that name!) went over and dragged him to our table. He was sitting right next to me. Seriously, right next to me. All I would have to have done was ask him a question or something.

   But no, of course I don't do that. That would require talking. What do I do instead? I follow his example and take out the Princess Diaries book (my cover looks like this, but it's soft cover) I am reading . Yes, it was as pathetic as it sounds. It's 100% official: I'm a failure at boys.

~XOXO,
      Libby

Want To Hear Something Weird..?

Dear Bloggie,

Want to hear something weird? OK, here it is: I actually have readers! I know, odd. But it's true! I was checking my blog status and found out how many views I have and from what parts of the world. It really surprised me. This has boasted my confidence -- and ego -- quite a bit.

So on to the subject you all really want to hear about: High School. I can truthfully, wholeheartedly, without fear of turning into Pinocchio say, I am loving it at GHAA (pronounced as Gaw -- and abbreviation for Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts; my mom thinks it's funny that I'm using the lingo). I have met some really nice people, most of whom I believe are on their way to becoming my friends.

I met these two boys who I really like. Not like-like, but in a only friends way. I met Nick when I went for my placement exams -- I had also met Nick's friend Emily, who I just so happen to have all my morning/routine classes with -- and had liked him right away. He's nice and a "little" out there. OK, really out there, but in a good way. He's the type of person who is always happy and nice to everyone. He never shies away from the spotlight or anything like that. I wish I had his confidence. You always need one of those type of friends in your life.

The other guy is named Noah. I've hung out with him most of the day. Actually, I found out that he used to attend SBS back in Kindergarten. I even checked out the video montage that we all got on class night, and there he is in the Kindergarten class photo. It's pretty funny.

He's friends with Nick, but that's not how I met him. I met him yesterday when we got put into the same group for icebreakers. I was alone for most of lunch, but as we were going inside he called me over and said for our group to stick together. And for the most part, the people I met in the icebreaker thing, is the people I socialize with now. Of course, Nick brought friends in and others met more people, so I ended up meeting a lot people. Our table was so super packed at lunch that we needed to pull up many chairs. I have one class with Noah (American Literature Honers) and one class with Nick (U.S. History Honers) so I'm happy enough.

Towards the end of the day I met this nice girl that I really liked. Sadly, I didn't catch her name because I wasn't really paying attention in the beginning of our conversation. For all I know maybe she is meant to be my new best friend and I will never know because I missed her name! I know, that thought is ridiculous, but still.

Tomorrow is thankfully my last day of orientation and Thursday I will finally get to start on my classes. Yay! Well, my art classes since I already started on my academic classes. (Only in meeting my teachers and getting to know peoples names, not actual work.)

When I got home today I friend requested everyone I met -- that I could remember their name or find them on someone else's page. I was thinking about friending this guy named Jonah Sparrow -- I think he's hot -- but I chickened out. :(

Now it's almost 11 and I watch to watch one of my favorite shows, Chelsea Lately. I just love Chelsea Handler. I mean, when she writes a book like this (look below) how can I not?

( I haven't read it, but I am dying to)

But before I do, I recommend you listen to the song "On the Brightside" by Never Shout Never. I especially recommend that you listen to it while eating bagels that your school had provided as a welcome breakfast, one of your maybe-friends playing it on her ukulele while singing it with the help of another maybe-friend. It's an awesome experience. Not that I would know of course... ;)

~Libby

Ramblings Of A Mad (As In Crazy) Teenage

Hi Bloggie,
So I'm basically blogging from camp today. Okay, there is no I basically. Right now I'm sitting in the computer lab, trying to make a post out of something so insignificant it doesn't even belong as a Facebook status update. Yeah, not something easy. Trust me. But since I'm beyond the valley of the bored and approaching the graveyard of the dulled to death - I have break from 12 on for the rest of the camp day every Friday (during which I normally swim), but seeing as I'm recovering from an ear infection (that's what that ear ache turned to be) I can't swim this week - I might as well ramble on my blog. That is what blogs are basically for. Rambling that is.

Only two people at most read this so it's not like I'm really wasting someone's time. Though I am sorry for those two people. But on the other hand, when have I ever had anything really interesting to say? Never. So you should be used to it.

You know what I'm going to save you the torture and stop rambling now. Maybe I'll read. Nah, the book I'm reading right now isn't catching my attention like others have this summer. I've read 15 books this summer. Two of those I was technically read while I was still in school, but in my mind graduation week doesn't count. All you do is talk, remember, try on clothes, try not to cry, and practice a skill you've had mastered (for the most part, unless you're like me and have no balance) for almost thirteen or fourteen years - walking.

Since graduation life has only shifted a bit. I'm still driven to write, but now I actually have the time to. That basically means that my time for excuses has ended. I'm going to a school where writing is going to be my major. With the exception of Cat, I was one of the top writers in my class. I even got voted so in the year book - though I think Cat should have won instead, seeing as she got the award in English or/and Literature from our English/Lit teacher, Mr. Marino, but whatever. I also got voted most talkative, but that is no surprise. I've had that in the bag since third, fourth, fifth grade. I'm sure the kids at camp would never believe that, I'm so quiet here it's sad. Now back to the point.

The point is that I was so proud of myself for being up there in writing. I want to be the top at it, reach goals my competition can never dream of reaching. Which is wrong, I know. but I want to be the best. I've never cared about being the best in anything, except for this. Writing.

I used to be good in Math, but ever since they added the alphabet it...yeah nothing good happened in Math after that. History and I are and will always be frienemies, while on the other hand Geography and I will fight until the end, only one of us coming out victories. Science isn't on any better terms with me than Geo, but astrology and phychology classes in the future will most likely make up for the harsh feelings we have for each other right now. And don't even get me started with Spanish...! The language itself isn't bad, but I've had three bad (two crazy and one so-so) Spanish teachers so I have been turned off the subject forever. I'm hoping that in high school I can convince the principal (his name is Eric Bernstein, strange that I remember that. Well I think it's Bernstein, but I don't know for sure. I'm sure about the Eric part.) to add French or Latin (maybe both) to the language choices.

For a post that I didn't even know what to write, I wrote and awful lot. Sometimes I surprise myself. It's like a quote I like:

"I am so clever sometimes I don't even understand a single word of what I'm saying."
-Oscar Wilde

~Libby :)

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

So I have decided to start giving reviews in different novels. No, I’m not doing this professionally so I won’t be giving the before the books come out (sadly). However if you ever want to buy a book and don’t know which one, my blog will give reviews of some of my favorites.

First up If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Synopsis: In a single moment, everything changes. Seventeen-year- old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall riding along the snow-wet Oregon road with her family. Then, in a blink, she finds herself watching as her own damaged body is taken from the wreck... A sophisticated, layered, and heartachingly beautiful story about the power of family and friends, the choices we all make—and the ultimate choice Mia commands.

How I Heard About It: So little over a year ago I was in the car, reading through my Entertainment Weekly magazine, as my Mom drove me to Borders. The second I read their review I knew I had to find that book. I ran to the young adult section of the store and there it was waiting for me.

First Impression: My first impression of the novel was it was going to be one of those books that can make you cry your eyes out and reflect on your life…yada, yada, yada. Let me tell you right now; I was not wrong. I did make me cry and reflect but, at the same it I wasn’t crying so much tears of sadness but tears for life in general. No matter how much you love or hate your life, things can change in a single second. You just better hope you made the best of the time you had.

Cover: I have the original hardcover version, so the cover is different. Personally I prefer the Hardcover version. It embraces more of the theme of life and love than the theme of death which I feel the Paperback cover illustrates.

Dislikes: None.

Final Thoughts: I have wholeheartedly fallen in love with this book. More than a year later I still can’t get it out of my mind. It really makes you stop and reflect on what is truly important in life. I am personally not the type of person to cry – actually I’m the first to roll my eyes when someone cries over a book or a movie, normally my Mom – but as I read the last words of this novel my eyes were tearing up. Moving and haunting, it’s pure perfection.

~XOXO,

Carrie

Carrie and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Hi,
So this is only going to be a quick post since I should be doing both my home work and working on my book Incandescent (Ever's story), but I just needed to say a couple of things. First and foremost... Serena and I are friends again. Yeah after a month er finally made up. What happened was that her brother is sick in the hospital so her mother asked my mom to bring her to the dance. As we are getting into the car she taps me on the shoulder and asks if I'm still angry. Well I said no and that led us to talking out what happened. Let's just say by the time we walked into the dance we were laughing.

The second thing I wanted to say is that I am having the worst day ever! I keep falling all over the place. Like earlier I kept bumping into people and tripping, but it wasn't until I was leaving school and fell and scraped my knee that it was really bad. So right now my knee really hurts! Ooch, Ouch! Well, have to get back to homework and writing so ta-ta for now.

~XOXO,
Carrie

P.S. I had my placement exams on Saturday, and though I did horribly in math, I met some kids and talked. They seemed nice and a lot like the people I know right now so I'm not worried so much for September anymore!

Faerie

Hey guys,

I am sooo excited! Guess what happened today? No idea? Okay, I’ll just tell you. So I was thinking about how I can not wait to write Kaela's story – how I have it all planned out for the most part – while I was reading Radiant Shadows, the newest novel in Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely series. The series explores the world of Fearie and all its courts. There is the summer court, the winter court, the dark court, and then there is the High Queen which is basically the head honcho. Yeah it’s probably my greatest inspiration for writing about fearies.

Well I was reading the book (I technically just started) when I felt the longing to write Kaela’s. That’s when it hit me; I should just write it. I mean I’ll change Kaela, make it another character. That’s the only tie to Lulu’s series. I can finally write about something I really like.

I’ve always loved faeries. Ever since I read about Tinkerbell as a third, fourth, and fifth grader I’ve been obsessed with fearies. Then, in sixth grade, I read Wicked Lovely and discovered a different world of fearies. A darker one that I loved tenfold. I already came up with a name. Ever Moore. You know, like forevermore. Eternity. Perfect name fore a fearie. I came up with the name when I was writing “Ever since…” earlier in this paragraph.

I’ve read a book about a girl named Ever, actually the book was named Evermore (by Alyson Noel), but the girl’s name was Ever Bloom. Pretty, taken, and I’m okay with that. Mine fits the character better. And it reminds me of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem The Raven, since the poem repeats the words “Forevermore” and “Nevermore”.

The only problem I still have is the fearie courts that are supposed to be at war. I’ve read different books since reading Wicked Lovely, and I’ve discovered other names for courts. Unseelie and Seelie courts are the most known, but Holly Black wrote about them in her books, Valiant, Tithe, and Ironside. I’m thinking about a day and night court, maybe that will work. Maybe I’ll text Yoda about it. Either way, I’m really excited!

World War III: Lulu Cohn vs. Me

Dear Bloggie Readers,
So I'm utterly bored. Today was my first day of spring break, and you know what exciting things I did today! If you guessed traveling to California, then you're WRONG! What do I hear from the person sitting in the back of my imaginary audience? You said nothing? Well guess what? DING, DING, DING! You're right! But you win nothing.
Okay, on slightly saner news (and slightly is already pushing it) there are voices in my head. Not really voices, but more irking people. Wait! Before you call the men with the big needles and the white jacket for me, let me explain. You all know I wrote a book. Well it is called Becoming. Here's the summery:


Lulu Cohn never thought her dreams would come true – too bad they turned out to be a nightmare.

Lunetta Cohn, Lulu to most, lived a simple, middleclass life in Salem, Massachusetts for sixteen years until the night she had her first vision, one of her family’s death. It has now been a long and bizarre year since she awoke to find her dream had come true. Lulu, a sarcastic, clever, and strong willed about to be seventeen year old girl, has now discovered that a grandmother who she believed to be dead is still alive and living in a small Connecticut town. But just as she adjusts to her new life, one filled with friends and a potential love, deep buried family secrets start to unravel, dragging Lulu and the people she cares most about into a dark and mysterious world of magic and sorcery.

Becoming is the first in the The Immortals of the Night series which follows Lulu and her friends as they discover themselves and what they have become. Filled with romance, humor and friendship, they will have to wage an age old battle, stop history from repeating itself, and once and for all banish evil.

Yeah, it does sound interesting doesn't it? Yeah, that's the problem. I love the story, but I'm fourteen and how many agents and publishers would take a chance on a fourteen year old to write a eight book series? Count of hands anybody? Let's see...thats....zero hands. Yeah, that's what I thought.

So instead I told myself to write another book. One that was a stand alone or part of a small series. Well in theory that sounds all good and dandy, except Lulu won't leave me the hell alone. Every time I write, I start off all "I can do this!" then all of a sudden I stop. It's like I have writers block, even when I don't. I know the reason though; it's because my heart isn't in it. I put all my heart into Lulu. I wanted to write that book more than anything, but I got discouraged. Now I try to write other stuff and my heart just isn't in it. Truthfully I don't want to continue writing the other stories, I want to work on book number two of the Lulu series, Secrets. Here's it' summery:

Before she can change the future, she will have to discover the truth about the past.

Lulu Cohn is an average teenage girl – well she was until her parents died, she found out she’s a witch, and she fell in love with Jason Griffin, a sarcastic and charming witch hunter who dumped her after she almost got killed. Yeah, Lulu’s life is just peachy these days. But dark forces are lurking around the small town of Westerfeld, Connecticut and it’s up to Lulu to save the day. With the help of Stella Kennedy, the former Queen Bee who is too busy planning her revenge on her former clique to be bothered learning any spells, Soleil Rouge, who gets major headaches when she hangs around too many people because of her psychic abilities, and Ian Sinclair, who keeps hinting that he wants to cross the line of friendship when Lulu can’t stop thinking about Jason, Lulu will have dive deep into family secrets before it’s too late.

You see? It sounds interesting. But I'm scared. Stupid fear!!! Fear sucks. It ruins things.


~XOXO
Carrie

My Day With Angela Pearson, Georgia Nicholson, & Other Imaginary Friends

Hi guys!,

So I've decided to turn over a new leaf. No more drama. No more friend problems. No more bitches. It's time for me to live life to the fullest. I know it sounds weird and corny, but I'm just so tired of all of this. Of 8th grade. I can't wait for high school. I get to reinvent myself in a completely new environment. I get to totally be me and not have to worry that other people think I've changed. That's who I want to be. Not the person I became over time at my now school.

Now you all know how I love to write, so I decided to tell you some about my the newest novel I'm working on. It's a very flexible maybe series, because it's just fun. I love reading this series called Confessions of Georgia Nicholson By Louise Rennison because it's realistic. I mean I don't have half the boy drama she does (sadly I don't even have one hundredth) but her friends are so relatable. Like her friend Rosie is soooo much like Yoda/Cat. And now I see that Serena is soooo much like Wet Lindsay!

But back to the point. As I read the eleven book series I discovered that I could relate to Georgia in a way that I couldn't with many other characters. That's when I realized I need to write my own relatable tale. So that's how Confessions of an Optimistic Pessimist was invented. It's also in diary style and it follows our protagonist Angela Pearson as she graduates form eighth grade and has her first summer romance. She has five close friends: Catlyn (Cat) Flannery, Lindsea Anquillare, Kimberly (Kim) Pascal, Victeria (Vicie) Phan, and Renee James-Herald. Then they is her family: her mother Janet, her father Jonathan, her eldest brother Philip, and her other brother Nate (short for Jonathan).

I haven't totally figured everything out, but I have a good idea about this book. It will probably turn into a series, but it doesn't have to since it will have a happy-all-loose-ends-tied ending, unlike my last book where you needed to read the second book because you had so many questions, but I'm not working on a second book yet.

I'm excited and happy today, so I guess thats a turn of events. The sun is shinning, I'm writing, then I'm going to do some homework later after lunch. I'm cold though so it's not perfect, but that's New England. Earlier this week I was dying of heat, today I'm cold. :)

~XOXO,

Carrie