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iseulvld · 4 years

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hey, it’s chey! i’m here to introduce you to pristine’s main vocal & main dancer, hyun “eden” iseul. you can find his public profile here, his private profile here, his plots here & his pinterest board here. below the cut, you’ll find a beginner’s guide to eden.

PERSONALITY.

infp-t / the turbulent mediator. self-critical, imaginative, idealistic, intense, disconnected, awkward. much like a turtle, iseul is timid in social situations and while he can be open at times, he can retreat into his shell at any given moment. once he retreats, it’s as if he’s disconnected from reality; he becomes oblivious to the world around him, unaware of even the loudest attempts to bring him back. he has a rich world inside of his mind where he feels comfortable and sometimes, it can seep into reality. you could say that he views the world around him as a fantasy movie scene, often creating things that aren’t there. he romanticizes things that should be perceived as face value and can easily develop exaggerated views of objects, places, people and even feelings. it’s not uncommon for him to put others on a pedestal and tear himself down. will accept the blame for anything that goes wrong, even when he’s being treated unfairly. despite being withdrawn, he relies heavily on other peoples’ opinions to feel validated and worthy.

pisces / the fishes. dreamy, playful, emotional, artistic, fickle, empathetic. fully aware of the pain that the world holds, he still has a habit of looking at things through rose-colored glasses. he has big dreams and can get a little carried away thinking about them. likes to have fun and laugh as well as make others laugh, even though it takes him a while to get to such a comfortable point with people. his mind changes like the weather, so he has trouble committing to long-term associations, whether it’s relating to his career or interpersonal relationships. his moods are dependent on those of whoever he’s around; highly malleable, tries to camouflage himself in social situations and mimic other people as to not draw excessive attention to himself.

HISTORY.

highkey an unwanted child and neither of his parents tried to hide it.

( TW PHYSICAL + VERBAL ABUSE / MANIPULATION ) i tried not to describe it much in his bio but his parents were...... very toxic. didn’t always treat him poorly --- they were actually pretty nice sometimes --- but when they were bad..... they were bad. endured a lot of abuse until he left for college and they also tried to tell him it was his fault and they only hurt him because they cared about him. ( TW END )

his coping method for everything was basically just pretending that things weren’t as bad as they were. any time someone said something hurtful, he was like :) that’s okay! i know you don’t mean it. tbh he still does this. he’ll put up with SO much bs just bc he’ll tell himself that it’s not personal

was kind of always drawn to more creative ventures such as writing and art; one of his first ever dreams (and still his dream) was/is to be an author. also picked up a hobby of origami when he was really young.

started showing interest in music after he got a MEGA crush on one of his classmates when he was like... 13. the classmate wanted to become an idol (side note... this is an open connection if anyone wants it fbjhvd) and he wanted to have something in common w them, so he was like omg no way??? me too???

started practicing w that friend and it was kind of obvious he didn’t know what he was doing, but he did end up getting better and started to really enjoy it!!!

so he started auditioning for companies when he was 14 behind his parents’ backs, never got accepted tho and eventually his parents found out and they were like.... bruh you are NOT the kim dongchul you think you are.... (oh, sweet irony).

started working part-time when he turned 15, mainly just passed out fliers but would help out at diners sometimes too if they’d let him. needed money to pay for actual lessons bc just practicing w his friend, as much as he did love it, was NOT cutting it and there was no way in hell he was going to pass an audition w his skills at the time.

kept auditioning for YEARS, lit rally didn’t stop until he graduated high school even though his parents mocked every single failure. ended up getting accepted into seoul institute of the arts, where he studied creative writing & dance for a lil while

ended up getting scouted by a summit media rep on campus, thought it was HILARIOUS!!!!! that they were from kim dongchul’s company. got so much enjoyment out of telling his parents. laughed about it for hours

he dropped out in his second year of school bc it was too hard to do everything his professors expected of him and train. nowadays, he really regrets dropping out (and kind of joining tbh), but :// what can ya do?

TRIVIA.

he has a lot of interest in languages, for someone who’s... so bad... at talking. he’s not fluent in anything other than korean (and barely that lmao), but he knows a LITTLE bit of japanese, english, french & italian. but when i say a little... i DO mean a little. for example, all he knows how to say in italian is “in bocca al lupo” which is jus like... an idiom that means good luck. that’s ALL he can retain of the italian language and he says it all the time. boy will never master a language

a big fan of origami. started doing it bc someone he had a crush on in grade school did it and he was like wow, can you teach me??? and for the past however many years, he has been leaving a trail of paper cranes in his wake.

he likes to decorate w the origami he makes --- the pristine dorm definitely has a vase with origami cherry blossoms in it. he likes to make all kinds of things (swans, boats, lotus flowers, hearts, frogs, birds, etc) though & he’s always trying to learn smth new!

also loves writing. the kind of guy who will describe you. will and probably has written poems about everyone he’s ever met. probably uses summit media idols/trainees/staff when he needs muse LMAOOOO. he sees them walking through the halls n he’s like “let me break out my notebook rq”

ALWAYS changing his hair...... wants to do whatever he wants with it while he has the freedom to. loves to dye and cut it. right now, his hair looks the same as in 8yuthe gif icon BUT his fc just cut his hair mad short so there will be a change very soon.

stage name is eden --- basically means that by listening to his voice & watching his performance, you’ll find a serene paradise..... make fun of him for it.

#vldintro #if u read this whole thing.... i love u now <3

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comicteaparty · 4 years

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July 29th-August 4th, 2020 Reader Favorites Archive

The archive for the Reader Favorites chat that occurred from July 29th, 2020 to August 4th, 2020. The chat focused on the following question:

Recommendation free-for-all! Name every webcomic you think people should be checking out!

boogeymadam

Joe is Dead - https://tapas.io/series/JoeIsDead

When a pirate is found dead with a mysterious will, crewmember Cricket is sent away to do as his will asks

Heirs of the Veil - http://heirsoftheveil.fervorcraft.de/

An Urban Fantasy about a witch who is aided by the Magical Guardian (known as The Strayer) of the area in search of her missing mother

Xii: of Magic & Muses - https://xiicomic.com/

When Willow wakes from a mysterious dream with a magical amulet that can infect other girls with Magical Girl abilities, she begins to question their bizarre all girl's school

The Guide to a Healthy Relationship - http://tgtahr.spiderforest.com/

Upon discovering his now ex-childhood friend isn't dead, an emotionally immature alcoholic tries to make amends for ruining their friendship.

Wychwood - http://wychwood.sevensmith.net/

Tiara's alien ability to conjure fire is tested in a world set twenty years after the world was invaded and then rescued from a terrifying alien force.

O' Sarilho - https://sarilho.net/en/

A Scifi comic about future roman soldiers who travel into enemy territory to find a satellite... that isn't a satellite :')

Ghost Junk Sickness - https://www.ghostjunksickness.com/

An Action-Scifi about two space-facing bounty hunters with an unstable dynamic chasing a dangerous bounty known as "The Ghost"

Cunning Fire - https://www.cunningfire.com/

Young Witch Akiva Stein is recruited by a coven of Chicago witches to travel into the afterworld and create the Elixir of Life

Keyspace: A Winged Tale - https://tapas.io/series/KEYSPACE-A-Winged-Tale

A wingless girl and her feathered friends journey into an underground laboratory to look for her scientist mother.

The Sea In You - https://tapas.io/series/theseainyou `While trying to clean up the beach, Corinth meets a mermaid. In fact, she's nearly drowned by one.

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Every webcomic I recommend would be over 100 of them, so I'm not posting all those separate links! But here's my recs page with completed comics, with some genre info and a little blurb for each: https://www.bicatperson.com/links/references/finished-comics/

And here's my ComicRocket reading list - a few of them are to-read bookmarks, but for the rest I'm deep into the archives and always ready for more: https://www.comic-rocket.com/users/SailorPtah/

Follow Erin Ptah and others on Comic Rocket to see what comics they're sharing with you!

Miranda (Into the Swell)

Ok. I didn't know Comic Rocket was a thing but that is hella handy!!

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

It is SO handy! If you want to follow lots of comics it is absolutely lifesaving.

Miranda (Into the Swell)

Ya. I'm now setting up a reading list for me haha

RebelVampire

Centralia 2050 - https://centralia2050.com/ About: The story follows Midori, who has no memories, Grey, the unwitting dude who winds up babysitting, and some scary conspiracies they find along the way. Why: It's a fantastically drawn sci-fi with some interesting themes about discrimination and plenty of mystery. Radio Silence - http://www.radiosilencecomic.com/ About: The story follows a band as they basically live life and deal with success, family, and the band life. Why: Lots of great and relatable characters and has a great mix of both comedy and drama in a very pleasing slice of life way. Voidchild - https://tapas.io/series/Voidchild/info About: Voidchild is the story of Mary who possesses supernatural powers and consequently becomes involved in supernatural happenings going. Why: The action is really nice, the supernatural aspects interesting, and if you like seeing people develop their skills over the course of the comic, this is a great example. Alethia - https://alethia.kstipetic.com/index.html About: Alethia is a sci-fi comic about robots where each city is plagued by its own dilemma that's up for one robot to try and solve. Why: I consider this very literally to be the best sci-fi webcomic available. It is exactly what the genre is supposed to be, beautifully drawn, and I could write you a 10 page essay about every reason you should read Alethia. Super Galaxy Deluxe Knights R - http://sgkdr.webcomic.ws/ About: This is a story about Mizuki who doesn't believe in the rules and fixes problems with good strategy and crazy magic. Why: One of the best comedy webcomics in my opinion. Great timing, great payoff, and creative fights. Also Sword Warrior. The Pale - https://tapas.io/series/The-Pale About: This is a story about a small town and what happens when murders start happening. Why: Another beautifully drawn comic, and really one of the few that fills the small town murder mystery niche few comics go for.

RebelVampire

Apricot Cookie(s)! - https://apricotcookies.net/ About: The comic is a comedy about Apricot who lives in a world where basically all school kids are magical girls and she is the only one who can't transform. Why: One of the best parody comics out there. Very smart writing, and lots to laugh and enjoy. The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiiniyya - https://reimenayee.com/the-carpet-merchant-of-konstantiniyya/ About: The story follows a humble carpet merchant who has an unfortunate encounter with a vampire. Why: This offers a double whammy with beautiful, detailed art and fantastic story-telling that pulls at the heart strings. Maiden of the Machine - https://maidenmachine.com/ About: A romance story set in a steampunk world where class divides and societal expectations are a problem. Why: Very nicely paced romance with interesting characters and an interesting world. Sombulus - http://www.sombulus.com/ About: An adventure fantasy comic about a trio of misfits who go to different places, cause havoc, but also somehow kind of fix things. Why: One of those comics where it's really about the journey and having a fun time experiencing that journey. Plus, the world and set up is interesting with just enough bait for theorists. Chirault - http://chirault.sevensmith.net/ About: A fantasy comic about Kiran, a demon hunter, and Teeko, the victim of a spell gone wrong, and how they whoops into a magical adventure that risks the entire world. Why: Chirault is beautiful with great and memorable characters, well-designed world, and just everything you could want from fantasy. Rainy Day Dreams - http://rainydaydreams.mariahcurrey.com/ About: A comic about a world of monsters where Tristin the oopsed into the world human, Mara the magic mature one, and Michael the regular ol' vampire becomes friends and navigate life. Why: A lot to offer in both fantasy and comedy, so overall just a really enjoyable, light-hearted read.

Ring Spell - https://ring-spell.com/ About: A fantasy, slice of life about witches, wizards, and something about rings. Why: Super crisp and beautiful art combined with plenty of mysteries to keep the brain thinking.

Many more I could add, but I will stop there with my walls.

mathtans

It occurs to me that I mentioned a bunch in the CTP talk but never tossed them in here. Some of them already are mentioned above, so for the others...

https://tapas.io/series/champs (Lesbians, wrestling, an interesting mix)

https://tapas.io/series/The-Cat-The-Vine-and-The-Victory/info (Real interesting world built here, engaging plot and characters, long runner.)

https://nattosoup.com/ (7" Kara, for anyone fond of watercolours and the idea that tiny people exist. Currently has a kickstarter going)

Enjoy, all the best, thanks for the memories. ^^

Comic Tea Party

And this wraps up our last #reader_favorites chat. We appreciate everyone for joining these chats and helping us explore tons of different kinds of comics. It’s been a blast not only learning about your personal tastes, but also finding out about new comics in general. Thanks for spreading the love! For this conversation, and all past #reader_favorites chats, you’ll be able to find them archived here: https://comicteaparty.com/readerfavorites

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #comic tea party #ctp #reader favorites

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cover2covermom · 4 years

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Today I’m going to be sharing my favorite books that I’ve read in 2020 thus far…

» The Ruins of Gorlan (Ranger’s Apprentice #1) by John Flanagan

Genre: YA fantasy

They have always scared him in the past — the Rangers, with their dark cloaks and shadowy ways. The villagers believe the Rangers practice magic that makes them invisible to ordinary people. And now 15-year-old Will, always small for his age, has been chosen as a Ranger’s apprentice. What he doesn’t yet realize is that the Rangers are the protectors of the kingdom. Highly trained in the skills of battle and surveillance, they fight the battles before the battles reach the people. And as Will is about to learn, there is a large battle brewing. The exiled Morgarath, Lord of the Mountains of Rain and Night, is gathering his forces for an attack on the kingdom. This time, he will not be denied….

My mother-in-law actually recommended this book for my son. After reading it for myself, I agree that this book would definitely appeal to boys. There are some wonderful themes like hard work, courage, friendship, etc. I would also consider this a wonderful gateway book into fantasy.

» Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in American by Ibi Zoboi

Genre: YA contemporary ((anthology))

Black Enough is a star-studded anthology edited by National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi that will delve into the closeted thoughts, hidden experiences, and daily struggles of black teens across the country. From a spectrum of backgrounds—urban and rural, wealthy and poor, mixed race, immigrants, and more—Black Enough showcases diversity within diversity.

Whether it’s New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds writing about #blackboyjoy or Newbery Honor-winning author Renee Watson talking about black girls at camp in Portland, or emerging author Jay Coles’s story about two cowboys kissing in the south—Black Enough is an essential collection full of captivating coming-of-age stories about what it’s like to be young and black in America.

Black Enough was a game changer for me. I don’t tend to read anthologies because I find that I tend to struggle to connect to short stories, but I loved this collection! What an excellent book to incorporate during #BlackHistoryMonth in February!

» Girls Like Us by Randi Pink

Genre: YA historical fiction

Set in the summer of 1972, this moving YA historical novel is narrated by teen girls from different backgrounds with one thing in common: Each girl is dealing with pregnancy. Four teenage girls. Four different stories. What they all have in common is that they’re dealing with unplanned pregnancies.

In rural Georgia, Izella is wise beyond her years, but burdened with the responsibility of her older sister, Ola, who has found out she’s pregnant. Their young neighbor, Missippi, is also pregnant, but doesn’t fully understand the extent of her predicament. When her father sends her to Chicago to give birth, she meets the final narrator, Susan, who is white and the daughter of an anti-choice senator.

Randi Pink masterfully weaves four lives into a larger story – as timely as ever – about a woman’s right to choose her future.

Wow! A book about teen pregnancy set in the 70s? Yes! I flew through this book. I was very invested in this story & the characters.

» Awkward (Berrybrook Middle School #1) & Crush (Berrybrook Middle School #3) by Svetlana Chmakova

Genre: MG contemporary ((graphic novels))

I’ve adored each graphic novel in this series. Chmakova captures the essence of middle school perfectly. She also does a wonderful job giving us a diverse cast of characters, and tackling relevant topics.

» On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

Genre: YA contemporary

Sixteen-year-old Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Or at least make it out of her neighborhood one day. As the daughter of an underground rap legend who died before he hit big, Bri’s got big shoes to fill. But now that her mom has unexpectedly lost her job, food banks and shutoff notices are as much a part of Bri’s life as beats and rhymes. With bills piling up and homelessness staring her family down, Bri no longer just wants to make it—she has to make it.

On the Come Up is Angie Thomas’s homage to hip-hop, the art that sparked her passion for storytelling and continues to inspire her to this day. It is the story of fighting for your dreams, even as the odds are stacked against you; of the struggle to become who you are and not who everyone expects you to be; and of the desperate realities of poor and working-class black families.

While this didn’t necessarily have as much as an impact on me as The Hate U Give, this book was amazing in its own right. I think Angie Thomas has a brilliant way of writing YA contemporary that is not only relevant & important, but also entertaining at the same time.

» The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo

Genre: YA fantasy

Love speaks in flowers. Truth requires thorns.

Travel to a world of dark bargains struck by moonlight, of haunted towns and hungry woods, of talking beasts and gingerbread golems, where a young mermaid’s voice can summon deadly storms and where a river might do a lovestruck boy’s bidding but only for a terrible price.

Inspired by myth, fairy tale, and folklore, #1 New York Times–bestselling author Leigh Bardugo has crafted a deliciously atmospheric collection of short stories filled with betrayals, revenge, sacrifice, and love.

Perfect for new readers and dedicated fans, these tales will transport you to lands both familiar and strange—to a fully realized world of dangerous magic that millions have visited through the novels of the Grishaverse.

This collection of six stories includes three brand-new tales, all of them lavishly illustrated with art that changes with each turn of the page, culminating in six stunning full-spread illustrations as rich in detail as the stories themselves.

A collection of deliciously dark short stories are inspired by classic fairytales & folklore. I LOVED these stories! They gave me Neil Gaiman vibes, so if you are a NG fan, I’d recommend these stories to you. I also adored the illustrations throughout that really enhanced the story.

» Far From the Tree by Robin Benway

Genre: YA contemporary

Being the middle child has its ups and downs.

But for Grace, an only child who was adopted at birth, discovering that she is a middle child is a different ride altogether. After putting her own baby up for adoption, she goes looking for her biological family, including—

Maya, her loudmouthed younger bio sister, who has a lot to say about their newfound family ties. Having grown up the snarky brunette in a house full of chipper redheads, she’s quick to search for traces of herself among these not-quite-strangers. And when her adopted family’s long-buried problems begin to explode to the surface, Maya can’t help but wonder where exactly it is that she belongs.

And Joaquin, their stoic older bio brother, who has no interest in bonding over their shared biological mother. After seventeen years in the foster care system, he’s learned that there are no heroes, and secrets and fears are best kept close to the vest, where they can’t hurt anyone but him.

Far From the Tree is a beautiful YA contemporary about adoption, family, identity, and love. Told in 3 different perspectives, I enjoyed the journey & development of each of these characters.

» Keeper of Lost Cities (Keeper of the Lost Cities #1), Exile (Keeper of the Lost Cities #2), & Everblaze (Keeper of the Lost Cities #3) by Shannon Messenger

Genre: MG fantasy

Twelve-year-old Sophie Foster has a secret. She’s a Telepath—someone who hears the thoughts of everyone around her. It’s a talent she’s never known how to explain.

Everything changes the day she meets Fitz, a mysterious boy who appears out of nowhere and also reads minds. She discovers there’s a place she does belong, and that staying with her family will place her in grave danger. In the blink of an eye, Sophie is forced to leave behind everything and start a new life in a place that is vastly different from anything she has ever known.

Sophie has new rules to learn and new skills to master, and not everyone is thrilled that she has come “home.” There are secrets buried deep in Sophie’s memory—secrets about who she really is and why she was hidden among humans—that other people desperately want. Would even kill for.

In this page-turning debut, Shannon Messenger creates a riveting story where one girl must figure out why she is the key to her brand-new world, before the wrong person finds the answer first.

I am LOVING this MG fantasy series. While these books are a bit chunky, don’t let the page count deter you. I fly through these books. I’d recommend this series to fans of Harry Potter.

» SHOUT by Laurie Halse Anderson

Genre: YA memoir ((told in verse))

A searing poetic memoir and call to action from the bestselling and award-winning author of Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson!

Bestselling author Laurie Halse Anderson is known for the unflinching way she writes about, and advocates for, survivors of sexual assault. Now, inspired by her fans and enraged by how little in our culture has changed since her groundbreaking novel Speak was first published twenty years ago, she has written a poetry memoir that is as vulnerable as it is rallying, as timely as it is timeless. In free verse, Anderson shares reflections, rants, and calls to action woven between deeply personal stories from her life that she’s never written about before. Searing and soul-searching, this important memoir is a denouncement of our society’s failures and a love letter to all the people with the courage to say #metoo and #timesup, whether aloud, online, or only in their own hearts. Shout speaks truth to power in a loud, clear voice– and once you hear it, it is impossible to ignore.

This is a must read for fans of Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak. While you don’t HAVE to read Speak to read SHOUT, I feel like it makes a bigger impact if you read Speak prior to this. If you didn’t know, SHOUT is Anderson’s memoir told in verse.

» Loveboat, Taipei (Loveboat, Taipei #1) by Abigail Hing Wen

Genre: YA contemporary

When eighteen-year-old Ever Wong’s parents send her from Ohio to Taiwan to study Mandarin for the summer, she finds herself thrust among the very over-achieving kids her parents have always wanted her to be, including Rick Woo, the Yale-bound prodigy profiled in the Chinese newspapers since they were nine—and her parents’ yardstick for her never-measuring-up life.

Unbeknownst to her parents, however, the program is actually an infamous teen meet-market nicknamed Loveboat, where the kids are more into clubbing than calligraphy and drinking snake-blood sake than touring sacred shrines.

Free for the first time, Ever sets out to break all her parents’ uber-strict rules—but how far can she go before she breaks her own heart?

This is a guilty pleasure type of read. Actually, it reminded me a bit of Crazy Rich Asians a bit. It is a tad racy for a YA book… So I’d probably recommend for older YA readers that are 16+

» The Penderwicks (The Penderwicks #1) by Jeanne Birdsall

Genre: MG contemporary

The Penderwick sisters busily discover the summertime magic of Arundel estate’s sprawling gardens, treasure-filled attic, tame rabbits, and the cook who makes the best gingerbread in Massachusetts. Best of all is Jeffrey Tifton, son of Arundel’s owner, the perfect companion for their adventures. Icy-hearted Mrs. Tifton is less pleased with the Penderwicks than Jeffrey, and warns the new friends to stay out of trouble. Is that any fun? For sure the summer will be unforgettable.

This is the perfect book to pick up during the summer months. It really gave me modern Little Women crossed with The Secret Garden vibes. The ending was so heartwarming it almost brought me to tears.

» Becoming by Michelle Obama

Genre: Adult memoir

In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America—the first African American to serve in that role—she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare.

In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.

Despite the fact that this memoir is LONG, I was interested from start to finish. I adore Michelle Obama and find her so inspiring.

» The Stonekeeper’s Curse (Amulet #2) & The Cloud Searchers (Amulet #3) by Kazu Kibuishi

Genre: MG fantasy ((graphic novel))

I enjoyed these subsequent installments even more than the first! The art style is absolutely stunning and I really enjoyed the story line. I can really see this as a TV series or movie.

» Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

Genre: YA contemporary

Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people…

In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal’s office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash.

Separated by distance – and Papi’s secrets – the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered. And then, when it seems like they’ve lost everything of their father, they learn of each other.

Papi’s death uncovers all the painful truths he kept hidden, and the love he divided across an ocean. And now, Camino and Yahaira are both left to grapple with what this new sister means to them, and what it will now take to keep their dreams alive.

In a dual narrative novel in verse that brims with both grief and love, award-winning and bestselling author Elizabeth Acevedo writes about the devastation of loss, the difficulty of forgiveness, and the bittersweet bonds that shape our lives.

Another 5-star read from Elizabeth Acevedo! Clap When You Land is a heart-wrenching book in verse about loss, betrayal, and forgiveness.

» All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson

Genre: YA memoir

In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia. From the memories of getting his teeth kicked out by bullies at age five, to flea marketing with his loving grandmother, to his first sexual relationships, this young-adult memoir weaves together the trials and triumphs faced by Black queer boys.

Both a primer for teens eager to be allies as well as a reassuring testimony for young queer men of color, All Boys Aren’t Blue covers topics such as gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, structural marginalization, consent, and Black joy. Johnson’s emotionally frank style of writing will appeal directly to young adults.

Johnson shares his experiences growing up as a queer black boy in this powerful memoir. I love that Johnson wrote his story for the teen audience. This is a must read!

What are some of your favorite books of 2020 thus far?

Have you read any of my favorites? If so, what did you think?

Comment below & let me know 🙂

Favorite Books of 2020 (January - June) #BookBlogger #Books #Reading #Bookworm #BookNerd #BookTalk Today I'm going to be sharing my favorite books that I've read in 2020 thus far...

#Am Reading #Bibliophile #book blog #book blogger #Book Chat #Book Nerd #Book Talk #Book Worm #Bookish #Books #Bookworm #Reading

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ucflibrary · 6 years

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It’s August already and the summer is almost over. Time really does fly by. June and July were tiny blips on the calendar. It feels like just last week that spring classes were ending and summer classes beginning.

School will be starting up again in a few short weeks. We’ll have a full cohort of students back on campus. The lines for coffee will be never ending and a free parking space will be nowhere to be found. Life will definitely get more exciting.

UCF Libraries faculty and staff suggested a stack of books to help you get back in the mindset for learning. They range from academic subjects to fun fiction to college success tips. Welcome to the 2018-19 academic year!

Click on the link below to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links for the featured Back-so-School titles suggested by UCF Library employees. These 20 books plus many more are also on display on the 2nd (main) floor of the John C. Hitt Library next to the bank of two elevators.

A Separate Peace by John Knowles Set at a boys' boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happens between the two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their world. Suggested by Larry Cooperman, Research & Information Services, and Meg Scharf, Administration

College Success Guide: top 12 secrets to student success by Karine Blackett and Patricia Weiss College Success Guide is designed to walk college students through steps that are proven to make them successful in college and life. The authors have compiled statistics from both campus and online students, along with student feedback throughout the past three years of college instruction. From that data, they have found "12 keys" make students successful. College is very expensive; these 12 secrets will help college students be better prepared for college and protect their investment. Not only will it help achieve better grades, but it will also teach them valuable skills for life and their career. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

Dumplin' by Julie Murphy Dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom, Willowdean has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. With her all-American-beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked . . . until Will takes a job at Harpy’s, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn’t surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back. Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Teen Blue Bonnet Pageant—along with several other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as any twiggy girl does.Along the way, she’ll shock the hell out of Clover City—and maybe herself most of all. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

Everything All at Once: how to unleash your inner nerd, tap into radical curiosity, and solve any problem by Bill Nye Everyone has an inner nerd just waiting to be awakened by the right passion. In Everything All at Once, Bill Nye will help you find yours. With his call to arms, he wants you to examine every detail of the most difficult problems that look unsolvable—that is, until you find the solution. Bill shows you how to develop critical thinking skills and create change, using his “everything all at once” approach that leaves no stone unturned. Suggested by Cindy Dancel, Research & Information Services

Everything Belongs to Us by Yoojin Grace Wuertz This debut novel takes place at the elite Seoul National University in 1970s South Korea during the final years of a repressive regime. The novel follows the fates of two women--Jisun, the daughter of a powerful tycoon, who eschews her privilege to become an underground labor activist in Seoul; and Namin, her best friend from childhood, a brilliant, tireless girl who has grown up with nothing, and whose singular goal is to launch herself and her family out of poverty. Drawn to both of these women is Sunam, a seeming social-climber who is at heart a lost boy struggling to find his place in a cutthroat world. And at the edges of their friendship is Junho, whose ambitions have taken him to new heights in the university's most prestigious social club, called "the circle," and yet who guards a dangerous secret that is tied to his status. Wuertz explores the relationships that bind these students to each other, as well as the private anxieties and desires that drive them to succeed. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell Being consummate fans of the Simon Snow series helped Cath and her twin sister, Wren, cope as little girls whose mother left them, but now, as they start college but not as roommates, Cath fears she is unready to live without Wren holding her hand--and without her passion for Snow. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections, and Emma Gisclair, Curriculum Materials Center

Free Speech on Campus by Erwin Chemerinsky and Howard Gillman Hardly a week goes by without another controversy over free speech on college campuses. On one side, there are increased demands to censor hateful, disrespectful, and bullying expression and to ensure an inclusive and nondiscriminatory learning environment. On the other side are traditional free speech advocates who charge that recent demands for censorship coddle students and threaten free inquiry. In this clear and carefully reasoned book, a university chancellor and a law school dean—both constitutional scholars who teach a course in free speech to undergraduates—argue that campuses must provide supportive learning environments for an increasingly diverse student body but can never restrict the expression of ideas. This book provides the background necessary to understanding the importance of free speech on campus and offers clear prescriptions for what colleges can and can’t do when dealing with free speech controversies. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services

How to Survive Without Your Parents' Money: making it from college to the real world by Geoff Martz Offers sound advice to both students and graduates, including tips on resumes, cover letters, and interviews; using job placement centers; alternative job options; and more. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

Originals: How Non-conformists Move the World by Adam Grant How can we originate new ideas, policies, and practices without risking it all? Using surprising studies and stories spanning business, politics, sports, and entertainment, Grant explores how to recognize a good idea, speak up without getting silenced, build a coalition of allies, choose the right time to act, and manage fear and doubt; how parents and teachers can nurture originality in children; and how leaders can fight groupthink to build cultures that welcome dissent. Suggested by Tina Buck, Acquisitions & Collections

Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate In Seven Ways We Lie, a chance encounter tangles the lives of seven high school students, each resisting the allure of one of the seven deadly sins, and each telling their story from their seven distinct points of view. Riley Redgate’s twisty YA debut effortlessly weaves humor, heartbreak, and redemption into a drama that fans of Jenny Han and Stephanie Perkins will adore. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash Foxcatcher meets The Art of Fielding, Stephen Florida follows a college wrestler in his senior season, when every practice, every match, is a step closer to greatness and a step further from sanity. Profane, manic, and tipping into the uncanny, it's a story of loneliness, obsession, and the drive to leave a mark. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

The Case for Contention: Teaching Controversial Subjects in American Schools by Jonathan Zimmerman and Emily Robertson From the fights about the teaching of evolution to the details of sex education, it may seem like American schools are hotbeds of controversy. But as Jonathan Zimmerman and Emily Robertson show in this insightful book, it is precisely because such topics are so inflammatory outside school walls that they are so commonly avoided within them. And this, they argue, is a tremendous disservice to our students. Armed with a detailed history of the development of American educational policy and norms and a clear philosophical analysis of the value of contention in public discourse, they show that one of the best things American schools should do is face controversial topics dead on, right in their classrooms. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services

The Gift of Fear: survival signals that protect us from violence by Gavin de Becker Covering all the dangerous situations people typically face -- street crime, domestic abuse, violence in the workplace -- de Becker provides real-life examples and offers specific advice on restraining orders, self-defense, and more. But the key to self-protection, he demonstrates, is learning how to trust -- and act on -- our own intuitions. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

The Heart Aroused: poetry and the preservation of the soul in corporate America by David Whyte In The Heart Aroused, David Whyte brings his unique perspective as poet and consultant to the workplace, showing readers how fulfilling work can be when they face their fears and follow their dreams. Going beneath the surface concerns about products and profits, organization and order, Whyte addresses the needs of the heart and soul, and the fears and desires that many workers keep hidden. Suggested by Rebecca Hawk, Circulation

The Idiot by Elif Batuman A portrait of the artist as a young woman. A novel about not just discovering but inventing oneself. The Idiot is a heroic yet self-effacing reckoning with the terror and joy of becoming a person in a world that is as intoxicating as it is disquieting. Batuman's fiction is unguarded against both life's affronts and its beauty--and has at its command the complete range of thinking and feeling which they entail. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave--"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"--wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think"). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living. Suggested by Renee Montgomery, Teaching & Engagement

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is Spark’s masterpiece, a novel that offers one of twentieth-century English literature’s most iconic and complex characters—a woman at once admirable and sinister, benevolent and conniving. Suggested by Meg Scharf, Administration

Verbal Judo: words for street survival by George J. Thompson This book will help police officers and other contact professionals develop verbal strategies that can transform potentially explosive encounters into positive resolutions. It addresses the most difficult problems of the street encounter where quick thinking and spontaneous verbal response often make the difference between life and death. The author explores all kinds of confrontation rhetoric and offers both a theoretical and practical account of how to handle street situations. The principles and techniques described can be used in practically every verbal encounter. Each chapter includes case studies that give readers practice in developing rhetorical strategies for handling street encounters and dealing with the public. Suggested by Rebecca Hawk, Circulation

We Demand: the university and student protests by Roderick A. Ferguson In We Demand, Roderick A. Ferguson demonstrates that less than fifty years since this pivotal shift in the academy, the university is moving away from “the people” in all their diversity. Today the university is refortifying its commitment to the defense of the status quo off campus and the regulation of students, faculty, and staff on campus. The progressive forms of knowledge that the student-led movements demanded and helped to produce are being attacked on every front. Not only is this a reactionary move against the social advances since the ’60s and ’70s—it is part of the larger threat of anti-intellectualism in the United States. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services

What the Best College Teachers Do by Ken Bain What makes a great teacher great? Who are the professors students remember long after graduation? The short answer is--it's not what teachers do, it's what they understand. Lesson plans and lecture notes matter less than the special way teachers comprehend the subject and value human learning. Whether historians or physicists, in El Paso or St. Paul, the best teachers know their subjects inside and out--but they also know how to engage and challenge students and to provoke impassioned responses. Most of all, they believe two things fervently: that teaching matters and that students can learn. Suggested by Renee Montgomery, Teaching & Engagement

#featured bookshelf #ucf library #ucflibrary #ucf #ucf libraries bookshelf #booklr #back to school books #reading suggestions

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nekosayuri · 6 years

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Family: Uchiha.

I recreated this family first, ages ago, pretty much when Konoha was still empty. <3 it’s probably no surprise if you know me even a little (I mean, I use them in my previews too nowadays xD that’s how much I love them.)

I first created Sasuke and Sayuri in Belladonna Cove for the heck of it, but then I got really attached, especially to their kids. Back then (2014ish), my ACOH story was also not all that developed past their 20s, but playing their sims inspired me a lot, and the kids they had became their kids in my story too (well, only the first three, cause come on, eight kids?!) I literally let their sims guide my writing. <3

Since I wrote little Sim/story profiles for them, I posted them separately first, but here’s the all at once post. :D

This is like the first time I ever do this, but I really wanted to try, so sorry if I’m confusing!

Uchiha Sayuri, previously Amamiya, is first, cause why not? She’s one of the main OCs. Self insert originally, too, so I’m a little biased. :D

Sayuri never really fit into the Ninja world. Something about the occupation always rubbed her the wrong way. She knew she was born in a Ninja village to a Ninja family, but was that really all there was? Was her destiny really to fight and kill? She refused that. It took many years, and some friends in high places, but with effort and stubbornness, Sayuri got people to follow her dream and make it a reality: a village where kids could be kids, without the pressure of the Ninja world on their shoulders, where they have a choice and can make their own way. A place where she would want her own kids to grow up.

Nowadays, Sayuri is the head of the Diplomacy department of Konoha’s government. A skilled negotiator who is not afraid to get in the thick of it, she’s solved many situations that could have ended far worse. She gets personally involved, though, which takes its toll. But she can’t help it– this is how she is. She wouldn’t be so good at it otherwise.

Sayuri is a family sim with a pleasure secondary. Her zodiac is Cancer, with a personality of 5/4/5/5/6. She’s relatively in-the-middle there for someone as revolutionary as her, but despite being kinda shy, she’s also VERY stubborn and willing to fight for her dreams/goals/whatever.

Traits: Family oriented, nurturing, over-emotional, bookworm, and terrible cook.

Turn ons: black hair, logical (may have been influenced a little over the years she was married to Sasuke… xD). Turn offs: bad at cooking that should be a turn off, ugh! Right now, it’s robots, because there’s no such thing, yet! I can never find turn offs that actually make sense.

Sasuke is next, this is my attempt at explaining what he is like in my story?

Sasuke spent 10 years living a life that wasn’t his, pursuing a goal that was forced on him by his brother, Itachi. When he came out on the other side, he couldn’t recognise himself anymore– not the person he was before the whole thing started, not the person he had become over the years. He had nothing left but a hollowness inside that scared him. But he was wrong, and there were people who were there to show him that. As soon as he saw in himself something good that could become bigger, he grabbed it with both of his hands and never let go.

Nowadays, he’s the Head of Shield, a team of elite ninja, chosen only by him and the Hokage. They’re the very best for a reason. Each and every one of them are experts in their field and they normally go on the most dangerous missions, and come back alive. That must say something! Due to his position, Sasuke also has a seat on the council. Though he clearly cares about his position and the village itself, Sasuke would prefer to stay out of harm’s way most of the time… so he can come back home to his family at the end of the day.

Random facts: the name ‘Shield’ was chosen by the Hokage, Naruto, at the time. It’s inspired by a word he heard while visiting the Cloud village. Also, ‘dangerous’ isn’t the same as it used to be 10-20 years ago.

Sasuke is a family sim, too, with a knowledge secondary. His zodiac is Leo, with a personality of 7/4/8/3/5 (mostly head-canon, really). He’s a bit of a clean freak and his active personality is literally his core.

Traits: Athletic, disciplined, brave (a condition for his job), social disaster, natural cook.

Turn ons: fitness, creative. Turn offs: fat.

Kaito is the eldest and the only boy in the family besides Sasuke. I admit I was delighted their first kid was a boy. :D

Kaito is a genius. Everybody knows that. He’s “perfect” in every way (ask his fangirls), and so he should be, he’s an Uchiha after all. Kaito sees it a different way though, he just wants to be left alone, so he can read his books and do his ninja training and hang out with his friends and figure himself out. Everybody is in such a hurry to put him on a pedestal...

Kaito is a teenager (15 story-time), so he has only one aspiration, knowledge. His zodiac is Aries, with a personality of 5/4/7/3/7. He was born in game and everything was copied over, although originally I had Sayuri encourage him to be nicer, so that was copied over as well. He’s hell of a lot like Sasuke, personality wise, but his attitude towards people is more like Sayuri’s. xD

Traits: Genius, brave (from Sasuke), terrible cook (from Sayuri). Teens in my game will have only three traits, get another one as YA, and last one as adults.

Turn ons: athletic, brown hair. Turn offs: jewellery.

Mikoto got her name from Sasuke’s mother, because she was born with her eyes (grey which is lighter than Sasuke’s.) It’s mostly not a thing to name your kids after your parents (with some clan exceptions), but meh.

Right from the start, there was one thing that stood out about Mikoto: her unending care for others. Even as a young child, she would take care of her friends and her little sister, watching over them as if she were their mother. She got more into art as she grew, and she loves painting. She doesn’t really know what she wants to do with her life, you know? She’s only 13 after all! She still has two years before she has to decide whether to go to Ninja school or the Academic one, and she’s going to take her time figuring it out.

Mikoto is a child in the sims, despite being 13 story-time (I kinda figure Teen stage starts at 15), so her aspiration is still to grow up. Her zodiac is Aquarius, with a personality of 4/5/5/5/6. Again, born in game and everything was copied. She’s obviously a lot like Sayuri with the whole in-the-middle thing.

Traits: nurturing (from Sayuri), artistic.

Hikari was born in the middle of the night, when Sasuke and Sayuri caught a glimpse of a falling star just before Sayuri went into labor (that actually happened in my game, I’ll add a link to the picture when the archive actually works -_-). Anyway, I’m a bit of a cliche, so obviously she got her name from the stars lighting up the night sky. XD

Hikari is not like Kaito and Mikoto. She’s not unsure, she’s not confused. She knows exactly what she wants: to be a ninja, of course, so she can be as strong as her father, or even more! so what if she’s just 10 and has plenty of time to make up her mind?

Hikari’s aspiration is to grow up in the sims, since she’s still a child. Her zodiac is Cancer, with a personality of 5/3/8/4/5. She got her active trait from Sasuke and her shyness from Sayuri. :D born in game, copied faithfully as always.

Traits: Shy, athletic (from Sasuke).

Bonus: The cats!

From right (sitting cat) to left: Kuro, Kurona and Ryoma.

Sasuke found Kuro on a dark, rainy night when he was just a kitten. He never cared for animals all that much, but when their eyes met, he couldn’t just leave him be, either. Kuro had the kind of eyes that reminded him of his own, at the time-- aloof, independent, but also lonely and lost. So he took him in for the night. That was when he was 17. Needless to say, Kuro stayed. But Kuro came with his own dark past and his own troubles... he’s a ninja cat, after all!

Fun fact: Kuro means Black in Japanese. That’s how creative his name is! Sasuke’s idea.

It was again a dark, rainy night when… ok no, it was a sunny weekend day, when Sasuke and Sayuri were 21, that Kuro came running in frantically and begged (by meowing, a lot) for them to come with him. When they arrived at the destination, they found a pregnant white cat, but she seemed sick. They took her to the animal hospital, who decided to get her kittens out ASAP. Luckily, everybody survived. The kittens were given homes, and the pretty white cat, well… Kuro got attached to her, so Sasuke and Sayuri ended up taking her in, too. Need I mention she’s also a ninja cat?

Fun fact: Kurona was given her name because, well, there’s Kuro, so if we add na (supposedly, a short for nya, which is the sound cats make in Japanese), you get Kurona. It was Sasuke’s idea

Ryoma is their son. He was a part of a litter of four, but the other three were given away because there was just too much chaos at home and Sasuke couldn’t stand it. There was some whining and crying from the children, who were all old enough to understand what was happening, but what had to be done was done. For some odd reason, though, Sasuke decided to keep Ryoma... the hyper, wild kitten!

Funny fact: He got his name from a character in Prince of Tennis. Yep. No story reason there. XD (the other kittens were named Ryoga, Nana, and Kana. Two males, two females. :D)

A note on ninja cats for interested people: they’re not like normal cats. Their lifespan is much longer (closer to humans), even though their ability to breed is similar to normal cats– basically, they can breed as soon as normal cats, but they lose that ability the older they get (halfway through their life). As always, females sooner than males. Another thing is that they do understand the human language, and they can also talk! That said, both Kuro and Kurona escaped from their ninja village before they actually learned to talk, so neither of them can. They do understand the human language though, as they’re taught that sooner than to actually talk it. They can also read it, but not write.

#The sims 2 #ACOH intros

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bookcoyote · 7 years

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REVIEW: A Court of Mist And Fury

Basic info: Author: Sarah J. Maas Series: A Court of Thorns and Roses #2 Goodreads rating: 4.74 Published: 2016 My rating: 7/5 (my rating system gets out of hand) (but it’s too perfect for less)

Synopsis: Feyre survived Amarantha's clutches to return to the Spring Court—but at a steep cost. Though she now has the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and it can't forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin's people. Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates its dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms—and she might be key to stopping it. But only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future—and the future of a world cleaved in two. With more than a million copies sold of her beloved Throne of Glass series, Sarah J. Maas's masterful storytelling brings this second book in her seductive and action-packed series to new heights.

Well, kill me.

Do it.

I don’t want to live anymore.

Because Sarah J. Maas shattered and torn me to very very tiny pieces and I don’t know how to put myself into one again.

This quote speaks to me a lot:

“I’d broken myself apart. And I didn’t think even eternity would be long enough to fix me.”

But let’s just start everything from the beginning.

At first, when I finished ACOTAR, I thought I’ll wait that half a year and read translation of ACOMAF because fantasy genre is really difficult to read in English, but with all those spoilers hunting me every day and those hints from other readers such as “Tamlin is such a prick”, “ACOMAF is a way better than ACOTAR” and “wait for Rhysand” made my curiosity grow and grow so I said that screw my medium English skills and just buy it. So I did.

I was overwhelmed by the size of ACOMAF, tho. Haven’t even known it had 600 pages, so imagine how surprised I was. As a non-English speaker it has been a challenge for me, but I am so proud of myself right now because I freaking read in it just a few days and understood everything. So who is the beast here? No, not Tamlin. Marta is a freaking beast who can read 600 pages in English!

“Hello, Feyre darling,” he purred.

Ya know, I have a thing for males who use some kind of nicknames like ‘love’ (*cough* Warner *cough*) or in this case, ‘darling’. I mean when those nicknames are not ‘babe’ which makes me want to vomit. Those lovely nicknames reminds me of old gentlemen times, when people still used titles as miss and mister. So, Rhys gets a point from me the first moment he enters ACOMAF.

And oh, boy, he brings such a havoc in it. Feyre is about to marry Tamlin, but realizes she doesn’t want to do that yet so she screams in her mind to someone to save her and BAM! Rhysand saves the day. Or more Feyre. Such a drama queen this man. Love it. Bring the soap opera elements and make them look fabulous, Sarah!

Actually, the following quote describes the whole book perfectly:

“I shouldn’t have been surprised. Not when Rhysand liked to make a spectacle of everything. And found pissing off Tamlin to be an art form.”

I am now skipping that part about Night Court and bargain because I first want to discuss Tamlin.

“I’m drowning,” I managed to say. “I am drowning. And the more you do this, the more guards... You might as well be shoving my head under the water.”

I loved how Feyre described Tamlin her feelings. And you know, his reaction kind of was horrific. Instead of going to comfort Feyre, his fiance, he hurts her. It’s like he would have been slapped Feyre in her face. But it still wasn’t enough to make me hate him, as everyone said I will. Even after he caged Feyre, I wasn’t pissed. And I kind of didn’t get why Feyre wouldn’t want to talk to him at least. On the other hand, she tried to talk to him before.

But you know, I had the feeling through the whole book what he is going to do and that made me hate him. I just knew he is going to betray her, come to that awful king and unite with him. I am kind of proud that I can always see plot twists which are about to come.

Now, let’s get back to Rhysand because he is the real star in ACOMAF, right?!

“The most powerful High Lord in history. In the countless millenia they had excisted here in Prythian, Rhys―Rhys with his smirking and sarcasm and bedroom eyes...”

Starting from Night Court and Velaris to Inner Circle and bound... I think that Sarah has created the most unique characters I’ve ever read about. Looking widely, Rhysand would be a bad boy, or even as book-nazis would call, abuser (seriously, stop seeing abusers everywhere, nor Rhys nor Tamlin nor even freaking Christian Grey is an abuser. You probably don’t even know what is an abuser if you think they are such), but he is such a unique bad boy that it seems even wrong to put him in this category. He is more an actor, which has a serious role and lives with that role. As it was said in the quote, Rhysand always puts a spectacle because it’s a part of who he is. And I loved that later Feyre joined him as his partner on the play. She is also an amazing actress, turns out.

I probably should move on the part we all loved. Hell yeah, romance.

And I want to discuss three things from which the first one is a development of Rhys and Feyre’s relationship.

Sarah is a genius in this case because the pace this relationship progressed was perfect. Not too fast, not too slow, just a perfect middle of it. And I loved that it wasn’t “oh Tamlin is such a bad person, let’s just make out with another High Lord”. I loved that Feyre didn’t forget Tamlin and felt awful when she started thinking about Rhys as a lover. Traitor, she called herself.

Another thing is a very unique way of communication, the bond, and very symbolic episodes which at the end, after chapter 54, turned out to have beautiful explanations, too. For example, the ring Feyre had to steal from Weaver. In one case, it was dangerous and stupid, but in another way, it is soooo romantic. I love that Rhys and Feyre’s relationship is sweet and sour at the same time, like hate and love, courage and fear. They accept each other they are, they heal each other.

Beautiful.

Okay, and last but not the least is that more fun part of this book. Sex scenes. I mean, I am not a fan of these, I usually skip those things in books because nowadays authors intend to write everything very openly and detailed and I want that books would have some secret, especially when it comes to that kind of episodes. However, I liked Sarah’s writing, I even fully read those episodes because they had some poetry in them. I think the best example of how erotic scenes should be made is throne episode, where Feyre had to act as Rhysand’s whore. I like that episode more than chapter 55 and I think it’s even one of my favourite all time episodes because it has some secret, it was dark and twisted and wicked and beautiful at the same time. Or this episode, tho.

“Rhys looked up, hands braced on my thights. Bow, he’d once ordered Tamlin. And now here he was, on his knees before me. His eyes glinted as if he remembered it, too.”

And this one, too.

“His words were a lethal caress as he said, “Did you enjoy the sight of me kneeling before you?” I knew he could hear my heart as it ratcheted into a thunderous beat. I gave him a hateful little smirk, anyway, yanking my chin out of his touch and leaping off the stone. I might have aimed for his feet. And he might have shifted out of the way just enough to avoid it. “Isn’t that all you males are good for, anyway?”

What else, what else... Well, plot. I don’t even want to talk about the plot that lot because it’s obvious that Sarah is a genius when it comes to creating a great story. Everything seemed pretty reasonable, a lot of plot twists and a cliffhanger in the very end only confirms that Sarah is a brilliant writer. She managed to entwine difficult history of faes world with an intense romance and thrilling, action-filled plot, so there was no minute when I felt bored or annoyed. Speaking of Sarah’s writting, I really loved it because some sentences or even words felt like poetry for me.

“There were no doors. No lights. No sounds. Not even a trickle of water. But I could feel them. I could feel them sleeping, pacing, running hands and claws over the other side of the walls.”

Her writing style is something that I would call painterly. You can take any episode you wish, or even any sentence, and paint an artwork of it. I, myself, got plenty of ideas for my own drawings, so I can call ACOMAF a source of inspiration.

“FEYRE.” The voice was at once the night and the dawn and the stars and the earth, and every inch of my body calmed at the primal dominance in it.

So, the last thing I really adore is that ACOTAR and ACOMAF both have an art as their main subject. I really like that Feyre is an artist, it makes her very unique, but I also like that Sarah managed not to write her books, but more to paint them. Colours and shapes and textures, it feels like I held an art piece in my hands.

“To the stars who listen―and the dreams that are answered.”

“Rhys still knelt, wings drooping across the white sheets, head bowed, his tattoos stark against his golden skin. A dark, fallen prince.”

Someone wrote me that ACOTAR feels like prologue now when we have ACOMAF and it truly does. Not because of those 600 pages, but the improvement Sarah did, the amount of events and characters and amazing development. It felt like ACOMAF was the real story of human child Feyre.

“So I’m your huntress and thief?” His hands slid down to cup the backs of my knees as he said with a roguish grin, “You are my salvation, Feyre.”

Ah, and just because there are too many quotes I loved, here is one more:

“He thinks he’ll be remembered as the villain in the story. But I forgot to tell him,” I said quietly, opening the door,” that the villain is usually the person who locks up the maiden and throws away the key.” I shrugged. “He was the one who let me out.”

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aj22writes · 7 years

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Chapter three...

...is where things finally get started. We get an idea of how diverse the abilities granted by Sol can be, and how important it is, in this world, not to underestimate people who aren’t physically impressive.

Fun fact: The characters in this, and even some of the scenarios, are based on another story that I worked on for years. In that story, and in this one, Jen is the biggest badass of all time. Just fyi.

Chapter Three

The Exhibition Match

After a few days to rest and prepare themselves as best they could for a long fight, Jo, Jen, Sara and Tucker met up at Jo’s house, and then made their way by bus to the nearby towne center. Across from the spacious mall, that was the focal point of the area, was a building nearly half as large. It had been under construction for almost a year, and had been dubbed the Megadojo, a place for Sol fighters from all over the area to come together and train together and have Heart to Hearts without any risk to themselves and others. Jo often thought of it as the Sol equivalent of one of those corporate super gyms.

While the idea behind it was a good one, after the first month beyond the grand opening, the place was going to charge membership fees to anyone who took classes there. Jo didn’t like the idea of corporatizing Sol that way. She had much the same attitude toward Sol as her mother did, that Sol was a form of self-expression before anything else. After all, the form of a person’s Sol when it awakens always takes a form meaningful to the person. She was worried that, as the Megadojo’s spread across the country, it would lead to a generation of fighters with no individuality or personal pride.

As the four Dueling Hearts approached the front of the huge red brick building, and the massive sliding doors dead center of the facade, the others began to mirror Jo’s train of thought.

“You know,” Jen said, placing her hands firmly on her hips, “I like the idea of everyone who wants one having a place to train, aside from that nasty park, but I’m not really sure that I like how the management here is going about it.”

She put her hands behind her back, as the lacy skirt that she wore over her black yoga pants didn’t have pockets, and assessed the place critically. Between the skirt and the loose mesh shirt that she wore over her black sports bra, Jo, not for the first time, admired how her cousin could preserve her goth style, and still dress in a way that didn’t impede her ability to fight.

“I’m with ya there,” Sara, wearing another of her yellow jerseys, agreed, frowning up at the word “Megadojo”, with a grand opening banner hanging from it. “The name alone is almost too stupid for me to take this place seriously.”

“I love it!” Tucker exclaimed, grinning excitedly. His eyes darted between the building itself and the crowd forming in front of it, awaiting the grand opening ceremony. He wore the same tank and shorts as he had been wearing at the park. Looking at her, you might think that Jo was wearing the same clothing as she had that day as well, just in a different combination. She wore a pair of sweats that were very similar to the black sweats that she had worn in her fight against Keith, and an identical white t-shirt to the one that she’d put on later after getting home. Like Jen, she’d chosen to come wearing something that represented her own personal style, if you could call it that. She wore the same old and worn overshirt that she’d worn that evening to training. She was about to chime in with her own thoughts regarding the place, when she noticed that a group of men were in the process of wheeling a podium in front of the entrance.

“Shh,” she told the others, “something’s about to happen.”

A stout man in a too-small suit, with a balding head and bushy mustache, stepped up behind the podium. He cleared his throat into his microphone, and what conversation was still going on in the Megadojo’s lot died down immediately. The man began to speak, and while he sounded kindly enough, Jo detected the air of pretentiousness in the tone of the guy’s voice.

“Welcome one and all,” the man began, “to the grand opening of the country’s first Megadojo, brought to you by the Prometheus Corporation. Ever since the discovery of Sol thirty years ago, fighters from all around the world have been developing their skills and competing against each other. These Heart to Heart competitions have changed the world, expanding the lives of all who participate. And yet such competitions are dangerous, and many potential warriors always thought that unlocking the powers of their Sols was too risky a dream.

“Here, at the Megadojo, and at all similar installations soon to be opening nationwide, we hope to change that. We will offer simple to follow training in martial arts guaranteed to get real results in anyone who puts in the time, and our patented, and supervised, state of the art Heart to Heart arenas help to make Heart to Heart’s safer.

“To celebrate the grand opening,” the man continued, “the Megadojo has decided to host an exhibition match to demonstrate our new technology, and to demonstrate the kind of exciting competition that one can expect to see here every day. It will be a teams match between a team created by a local fighter, chosen by sweepstakes, and regional champions Team Beatdown!”

There was applause throughout the crowd at the utterance of the name Team Beatdown.

“They didn’t mentions us by name,” Sara complained.

“I thought you didn’t like the name Dueling Hearts,” Jo chided. Sara harrumphed and refused to meet her sister’s gaze.

Jo, chuckling, began to look around. She’d been looking forward to this, a chance to test herself against a professional team of real Sol fighters. She didn’t really follow Team Beatdown, buts she recognized them when she saw them. They were standing about twenty-five feet away, also watching the stout man’s speech. All four were male. One was tall and gangly, much like Tucker, with hair like Hugh Jackman in those X-Men movies. He had a permanent arrogant smirk marring his face. The second and third members were about Jo’s height, maybe a couple inches taller. One of them had dark hair, and a slimmer physique than Jo would have expected. The other had medium-length blonde hair, and seemed pretty unassuming.

It was the fourth member, however, who really caught Jo’s eye. Jo did recognize this guy from fights that she’d seen. He was Christopher Johnson, a guy about Jo’s age who grew up not too far away. He was a fighting genius, who used his Sol to create a near-perfect defense in battle. In a way, Jo’s secret technique had been created specifically to give her a chance of getting inside this guy’s guard. Even considering her new technique, though, Jo got the distinct sense that she would not be able to defeat Christopher Johnson. That no one on her team could. That Team Dueling Hearts had no option other than to lose.

At the thought of fighting someone so out of her league, Jo couldn’t help but smile.

That’s when the crowd started pouring into the large building that housed the Megadojo. Jo had been so fixated on sizing up the competition that she’d missed the rest of the grand opening presentation. Oh well, she thought, that dude wasn’t saying anything interesting anyway.

She was about to join the rest of the crowd and head inside, when she felt attention being directed toward her. She looked in the direction of the brief, but almost tangible, sensation, and locked eyes with Christopher Johnson. The pro was sizing Jo up in turn. Jo smiled again, put her hands casually in her sweats pockets, and walked away. This match was going to be one to remember.

The inside of the Megadojo was even more lavish and impressive than the Dueling Hearts had expected. Tucker was enamored with the place, grinning like an idiot at everything. Jen and Sara looked over everything with involuntary nods. Even Jo was starting to appreciate the place just a little bit. The interior was essentially one huge room. Mats were set up at intervals across the spacious floor, with enough room for groups of people five wide to walk between them. There were seats and a food court near the back right of the room, workout equipment lining the walls, and smack dab in the middle of the back half of the room was a raised arena large enough for probably six people to fight at once. Three bleachers four rows high surrounded three of the arena’s four sides.

“Look at these machines over here,” Tucker said, excitedly, pointing out a row of DDR-like platforms along the left wall. “I think they measure your Sol’s energy!”

“I’ve heard of those,” Jen told him. “They’re all over the place in Japan. But they don’t really work.”

Tucker pouted, but his friends ignored him. All around them, people were spreading out and investigating the amenities that the Megadojo had to offer, or simply heading to the back of the room to take their seats and wait for the exhibition match to begin. Jo scanned the crowd, and she saw Team Beatdown already standing beside the arena, waiting.

“Come on,” Jo told the other Dueling Hearts, “we have a fight to take part in.”

She started walking toward the back of the room, through the crowd. The others kept pace with her.

“So what exactly are our chances of winning this thing,” Sara asked her sister as they walked.

Jo looked again at the seemingly unimposing Christopher Johnson, and once again, despite the young man’s almost average appearance, she got the sense that her team had no option but to lose.

“About zero percent,” Jo answered.

Sara frowned, “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

They arrived at the arena, just as the same stout man from outside stepped up next to the arena, between the two waiting teams. He had a microphone in his hand. A quick announcement and a few minutes passed, and the crowd on the Megadojo floor had cleared, filing into and filling the seats. Suddenly more than a hundred eyes were on the Dueling Hearts, and they weren’t sure how to feel about it.

“For those who do not know the rules of team Heart to Hearts,” the stout man began, “allow me to explain them to you now. Not all Heart to Hearts are fought with teams, or even one on one, but these are the rules for this particular form of competition. Each team must decide ahead of time what order they will send their warriors in to fight, and then make that order official by taking their places in boxes marked on the floor in each team’s area, numbered one through four.”

He gestured to an area on the floor near Jo’s feet. Jo nodded to the others. They’d gone over their fighting order several times since agreeing to compete. Jen stepped inside the box numbered one, Tucker stepped into the box numbered two, Sara into the box numbered three, and Jo into the final box marked with a four.

“Each team,” the stout man continued, “will send one fighter into the arena at a time. The fights will occur one on one, and will continue until one fighter is either knocked from the arena, remains down for a count of ten seconds, or surrenders. The winner will remain to fight the next in line on the opposing team. Things will continue in this manner until all fighters on one side have been defeated.”

His tone grew momentarily grave, “Obviously, attacking with lethal force, or with the apparent intention to permanently maim the opposing fighter, will not be allowed, and will result in disqualification of both yourself, and the rest of your team. I will be acting as referee to ensure that this rule is upheld.”

Then, suddenly, the man’s voice became cheery again, “To ensure the safety of our wonderful spectators, a new technology has been employed in the construction of this particular arena. In a regular Heart to Heart, energy from the participants Sols charges the area, alerting other fighters that they should stay clear until the matter is settled. The Megadojo’s patented arena will harness that energy once the fighting begins to create a barrier between the arena and the rest of the room so that no stray Sol energy can escape.”

The crowd of spectators murmured their approval of this, and even Jo found herself impressed. The stout man waited for the murmuring to die down, and then he continued yet again.

“Now,” he said, finally, “if the first fighter from each team would please step up onto the arena, we will begin the match right away.”

Jen walked calmly and deliberately forward, climbing a short set of stairs the four feet to the arena floor. Her opponent, the tallest member of Team Beatdown, leaped up into the arena, ignoring the stairs completely. The two walked toward each other, until they were both standing in the center of the arena, only about six feet apart. Jen took up a stance that kept her arms tight to her body, but her legs wide. Her opponent just cracked his knuckles and grinned wildly. Lights descended from the ceiling above each of the arena’s four corners, pointing in toward the impending action.

The floor beneath both teams, and the stout man, rose up until it was level with the arena itself, and the stout man declared, “Jen of Team Dueling Hearts versus James of Team Beatdown! Let the Heart to Heart begin.”

Jen was the first to make her move. She moved quickly to her left, circling James. He turned to follow her movements, but just as he did, Jen’s feet were wrapped in a soft purple glow, and she vanished completely from her opponent’s field of vision. The crowd gasped, and some spectators even cheered. James looked surprised. His eyes darted around, trying to locate Jen before she could blind side him with a surprise attack. He didn’t find her, but he did get a glimpse of where the spectators were looking: just above his head.

He looked up quickly, just in time to see Jen dropping toward him, her right foot outstretched. James lunged forward, and rolled, avoiding Jen’s drop kick by a hair. He sprung back to his feet and turned, expecting to see Jen fall hard, and hopefully fail to recover, hurting herself, but to his surprise, she fell to the floor far too softly. James was again surprised, before realization hit him.

He laughed, “Oh, I see, you’re already using Sol right out of the gate. Let me guess, you can make yourself lighter, right?”

He was satisfied to see begrudging agreement on his opponent’s face, and he laughed again, “That’s pretty good, but if you have to use Sol this early just to give yourself a shot, then you really aren’t cut out for a match at this level. I was able to dodge your best move without cranking up my Sol at all. Wanna see what happens when I do?”

His sneer returned, and static ran up and down his entire body. His muscles twitched, and they bulged. His body expanded until he was fifty percent larger than he’d already been. Then eighty percent. Ninety. He didn’t stop growing larger until he was more than twice his original bulk. He suddenly had a physique that a body-builder could only dream of. Energy continued to crackle along his entire body from head to toe. He flexed his arms, and the air around him churned. Jo and the other Dueling Hearts standing on the sidelines could feel that, as much as he’d grown in size, his energy had grown even more. They weren’t skilled enough at sensing things with their Sols yet to know how much, but they knew it was a lot, and they knew that Jen would be able to sense it as well.

And yet the entire time, Jen hardly even shifted position. She moved her feet a bit, as if trying to decide a stance, or as if she were tracing a shape on the ground with her toes, but otherwise she held her ground. James laughed again, “So, you wanna surrender, or should I punch your lights out? I don’t mind either way.”

Jen let out a sigh, “Just come at me already.”

James shrugged, but he obliged. He took his first step toward Jen, but as he did, Jen kicked the ground, scraping her toes along the arena floor in James’ direction. A circular sigil etched out of the same soft purple light that had wrapped her feet before flashed into existence and slid along the ground, stopping just beneath James where it spread out, tripling in size. Suddenly James found himself wrapped in that same purple light, and his entire body grew almost unbearably heavy. He gasped, and dropped painfully to his knees, and no matter how hard he struggled, he wasn’t able to stand up again.

Meanwhile Jen approached him calmly. Her entire body became wrapped in purple light, and she stepped onto the sigil as well, completely ignoring its effects.

“You assumed that I could only affect myself,” Jen told James, “and that I could only make things lighter. You never even considered that I could affect you, and that I could make you heavier. If you had, you never would have made yourself so massive. But worst of all, you assumed that that drop kick was my best.”

James ignored her, continuing to struggle, right up to the moment that Jen sprung up and spin kicked him in the jaw. He fell over sideways, hitting the ground within the sigil of increased gravity with enough force that the arena shook. His eyes rolled back in his head as he passed out. Jen’s sigil disappeared, and the energy surrounding her body faded, as James’ muscles shrunk back to normal.

The entire crowd was silent. They had been sure that James had won the moment that he’d bulked himself up, but Jen had proven them all wrong. Even the stout man seemed speechless. It took him a full second to begin the count. James showed no sign of rising as the count reached ten, and a pair of Megadojo employees ran up onto the arena floor to carry his unconscious body away.

As it finally sunk in that Jen, an amateur, had defeated a pro, soundly, in only about a few minutes, the spectators erupted in cheering and applause, but Jen barely noticed. Instead she watched as the next Beatdown made his way into the arena. He was the one that Jo had taken notice of earlier for being unexpectedly slim, and yet despite what he’d just seen Jen do, and his apparent lack of physical strength, he didn’t seem concerned at all.

“After a stunning upset victory by Jen of Team Dueling Hearts,” the stout man announced, “Mike of Team Beatdown steps up to take his comrade’s place. Will he be able to get revenge for James’ defeat?”

Onward to Chapter Four

#dueling hearts #chapter 1x03 #dh jen #dh james #heart to heart #aj22writes

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howellrichard · 5 years

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The Secret to Creating Healthy Habits that Stick

Hiya Gorgeous!

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say we’ve all struggled to create and/or keep healthy habits that help us feel better—body and spirit. At one point or another, most of us have probably wished for a quick fix—a straightforward formula that’ll get us from A (pre-habit) to B (vibrant health and a little more ease in our lives).

Starting and maintaining healthy habits can feel like an uphill battle (the kind with steep cliffs and sweaty pits). It’s no wonder many of us end up searching for ways to hack the path to point B. Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a magic habit wand.

That said, developing sustainable routines that support you doesn’t have to be so hard. Magic wands may be a bust, but there IS a secret sauce. And once you learn it, you’ll never approach healthy habits the same way again.

Here’s an important truth: the real key to cultivating the life you want is actually a lot simpler (and a lot less popular to talk about!). That’s what my 5 pillars of wellness are about, and we’re gonna explore what that means in just a bit.

But let’s pause for a special announcement—I can’t keep this to myself any longer!

Quick sidebar: If this habits chat is resonating with you so far, then you’re gonna love my 5-Day Back-to-Basics Wellness Boot Camp. This experience includes 5 days of support from me (in your inbox AND via live video broadcasts), a boot camp guide, access to our private community and lots of other fun free gifts to help you break through the barriers blocking you from your vibrant health goals. And we’re going to keep it really simple and make it fun, because I want you to see how just a little effort can take you a long way.

If that sounds like exactly what you need right now, go here to join me for free. Otherwise, keep reading and I’ll give you some more deets later on in this post.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

My 5 Pillars of Wellness: The Foundation for Vibrant Health

So, remember what I said before about there being a secret sauce for creating healthy habits? Well, all of the best sauces start out with a great base… and that’s exactly what the 5 pillars of wellness are all about. Think of the pillars like the tomatoes to your favorite marinara, the avocados to your guac (ok, not technically a sauce, but you get the picture!).

If you’ve been hanging out with me for a while, then this might sound familiar. But if you’re new here or just need a reminder, my 5 pillars of wellness are: What you’re eating, drinking and thinking, and how you’re resting and renewing.

Out of all the stuff we can choose to focus our energy on, I’ve found that these five categories have the biggest impact on our overall well-being. In other words, the pillars are must-haves for creating the kind of internal and external environments that allow us to truly thrive.

Let’s break down each pillar so you can get more familiar with how they’ll support you.

What You’re Eating

Is it any surprise that I’m starting here? The produce aisle was my first stop after my cancer diagnosis, after all!

I will never forget the moment in my Healing Cancer World Summit interview with Dwight McKee, MD (a leading integrative oncologist who helps his patients heal from and prevent cancer with proper nutrition) when he said, “Cooking is a survival skill.” Boom.

I couldn’t think of a better way to sum up this first pillar than with those words. Knowing how to nourish our bodies is at the core of health and healing. I’m not talking about deprivation. I’m talking about respecting ourselves by cooking and eating plenty of eating whole, plant-based foods… Reducing inflammation and increasing our joy in the kitchen. Savoring the flavors we love and trying new stuff too—without compromising our health. And ultimately, accessing and trusting our own inner wisdom when it comes to what we eat.

This may sound like a lot to keep track of, but I promise that it’s easier and a lot more fun than you might think. It all starts with eating your veggies. We’ll cover this one day 1 of the boot camp, so go sign up here if this is something you want to work on.

What You’re Drinking

I love having coffee a couple times a week and indulging in the occasional cocktail, but no drink gets me more excited than good old H2O (well, green juice is a close second!).

If you’ve been tuning into my weekly Wellness Wednesday broadcasts on Facebook and Instagram (join me live!), then you know how passionate I am about hydration. And it’s not just because I know how good I feel when I get enough water every day. Dehydration (especially if it’s chronic) can be a serious problem for your health. It can cause fever, low blood pressure, fatigue and even mess with the way your brain functions (source). And you can bet that stuff will stand in the way of those healthy habits you’re working so hard to create.

To find out how much water you should aim to drink every day, divide your body weight (in pounds) by two to get the approximate amount of ounces you need. For those using metrics, divide your weight in kilograms by 30 to determine how many liters of water you need per day.

Psst… here’s a pro tip to get you started on the path to better hydration: If you feel thirsty, chances are you’re already dehydrated (source). Keep sippin’, sweetheart!

What You’re Thinking

Now that we’ve covered the first two pillars of wellness—what you’re eating and drinking—it’s time to talk soul stuff. Because at the end of the day, all the kale and water in the world won’t add up to our healing if we’re out of balance in other areas.

The thinking pillar is about noticing your thoughts, especially the thoughts you have about yourself. It’s about letting go of judgement about your feelings (the good, the bad and everything in between). And perhaps most importantly, it’s about creating healthy habits for managing stress, because that’s the number one catalyst for disease.

Learning how to manage stress and be kinder and more compassionate to yourself is different for everyone (meditation, Tapping, mindful breaks, etc.!). It takes practice. We’ll find what works for you in the boot camp, but here’s something to noodle on in the meantime: If you can change your mind, you can transform your life.

How You’re Resting

The fourth pillar of wellness may sound like a snoozefest, but it’s just as critical to your overall well-being as the rest (heh… pun intended!).

I’ve written so much about sleep because I know that so many folks struggle to get the recommended 7.5-8 hours per night. I hope you’ll check out some of those articles (here’s one of my faves, or just search for “sleep” here on kriscarr.com) but here are some of the need-to-know details:

An estimated 20-40 percent of adults aren’t getting enough sleep. In America alone, 70 million people suffer from some sort of sleep disorder.

Getting sleep is necessary for everything from building your immunity and regulating your appetite, to cleaning out your brain’s waste products and saving your memories (learn more about what happens when you sleep).

Not all sleep is created equal—your bedtime routine and environment can have a huge impact on the quality of your rest.

There’s more to rest than sleep. Taking time to refuel your energy tank while you’re awake is important, too.

Luckily, there’s a lot you can do (minimal effort required) to create healthy habits for sleep. We’ll get there on day 4 of our boot camp!

How You’re Renewing

This last pillar is about two things: movement and play (yup, having fun is part of the pillars!).

Let’s start with exercise. According to the CDC, less than a quarter of Americans get the recommended 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise each week (source). I’m a firm believer that this isn’t the result of a lack of understanding about the many benefits of movement. It’s really because exercise has an image problem that we desperately need to clean up. If you take nothing else away from this pillar, I hope you’ll remember this: Exercise does not have to be painful. It should be something you actually enjoy doing. You have one beautiful body, treat it with care.

And last, but certainly not least—play! Part of the renewing pillar is to have fun! Allow yourself regular, unstructured free time to follow your whimsy. Enjoy a hobby, see great art, travel, connect with friends and fully recharge. Just because you’re a grown up, doesn’t mean you don’t need playdates. In fact, your soul comes alive through joy. So if you crave a well-lived life, make play a non-negotiable part of your schedule.

Let’s Build Your 5 Pillars Together!

We’ll further unpack each pillar in our 5-Day Back-to-Basics Wellness Boot Camp through simple yet powerful daily micro-actions. Not sure quite what that means? We’ll cover that in the boot camp too, but for now, know this: The easy exercises we’ll explore will help you create the vibrant life you’ve always dreamed of.

This one-of-a-kind live experience is totally free and it starts September 12. That’s THIS Thursday, so go get your cute butt signed up (or at least check this out to get the full scoop)!

I’m so excited because I know in my bones that these 5 days have the power to transform your perspective and overall well-being. And ya know what? You deserve that.

Your turn: Let me know you’re all in for our 5-Day Back-to-Basics Bootcamp by commenting, “I’m in!” below. Mwah!

Peace & pillars of wellness,

The post The Secret to Creating Healthy Habits that Stick appeared first on KrisCarr.com.

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woohooligancomics · 7 years

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Webcomic Whimsy: The Angel With Black Wings

Welcome to the Woohooligan Weekly Webcomic Whimsy! I've given a couple of interviews in the past, but this is my first experience with reviewing. If you have any suggestions for improvements, feel free to leave a note. If you're a webcomic author and would like a review, you can see my announcement and review rules here.

Title: The Angel with Black Wings

Author: Mharz • Tumblr • Facebook

• Twitter • DeviantArt • Instagram • YouTube • Twitch

Site: BlackWings.Mharz.com • Patreon

Genres: Slice of Life, Drama, Action, Adventure, Religion, Christian, Guardian Angels

Rating: PG, T for Teen(?)

Updates: Monday & Friday

My Starting Point (requested by artist): Chapter 6.

Synopsis: (from Tapas) - A story of friendship between a boy (Ray) and a guardian angel (Big Sis).

A slice of life with drama, action, and epic battles between angels and demons! The Angel with Black Wings is a pretty self-explanatory title like Snakes on a Plane or The Blob. The main character, Ray, has a guardian angel whom he calls "Big Sis", and unlike the other angels, her wings are black like a raven. The author, Mharz, is a filipino girl(?) who asked me start with chapter six, and with eleven chapters currently published, I'm not sure if that was the best place to start. I read through the end of chapter seven and I feel like not very much was revealed in that span of the story, and I suspect it might be a much better story if I had more context for the main characters. For example, is Big Sis actually an older sister to Ray, who preusmably died before him, or is that just a nickname? Another frequently seen guardian angel, Silver, is much more skilled and powerful than Big Sis, casting spells of obvious potency, while I have yet to see Big Sis cast any spells at all. If Sis is a guardian angel, why does she seem so helpless? Is she just an intern or what? In fact about the only thing Big Sis seems to have done in these two chapters is briefly abandon Ray (a source of dramatic character development), and choke... err, is choked by a demon she's trying to stop, and has to be saved by Silver and the Archangel Raphael.

The mood of these two chapters is very different, so my review may not be very reflective of the overall tone of the comic as a whole. Chapter six is titled Cynicism and is dominated by themes of isolation and depression. Chapter seven, titled Archangels and Demons, abruptly switches from that to a supernatural fight reminiscent of shows like DragonBall Z or the Power Rangers -- lots of verbal posturing, followed by an actual fight that's over in two hits: I hit you and you hit the floor. This resemblance to anime shows isn't at all suprising, given the obvious manga influences in the art style.

As a side note, Mharz gave me the URL for TAWBW on Tapas and I was fully prepared to review it from there, but then I let out a huge SIGH OF RELIEF when I found it mirrored on her own site. The images seem to be watermarked on her own site, which is a little strange given that they don't seem to be watermarked on Tapas, but that's a very minor issue and certainly nowhere near as horrid as the Tapas interface that makes me want to gouge my eyes out with a rusty spoon. I expect I'll have to review a lot more comics on Tapas or Line Webtoon over the coming years, but damn... Please, PLEASE, somebody teach the people at Tapas and Webtoon SOMETHING, ANYTHING about usability! And also, if you use Tapas, please be careful -- the company used to be called Comic Panda and then changed their name to Tapastic because they got in some hot water (and now Tapas). Recently tried to covertly get "first right of refusal" for free (it's normally paid for), from all their creators. When people noticed that, they tried to claim it was all for the authors' benefit, to protect them from predatory movie deals (like what happened to the Beatles or the creators of Penny Arcade). But if they were genuinely offering a service to protect us, then they shouldn't have tried to silently sneak it into their Terms of Service as a mandatory term, they should have announced it as feature that authors like us could opt-in to receive. I'm not saying they've done anything illegal, but it looks very shady, so make sure you keep an eye on their ToS changes.

Chapter six opens with Ray obviously exhibiting some depression. This is a guy who's pouring bourbon on his cornflakes.

Some aspects of the art are quite skilled, while other areas could use some pollish. The last panel of this second page shows the back of Ray's head. While a back-of-head camera angle is usually a bad idea, when you combine it with the shadows here, it's a good, subtle way of emphasizing his depression (although I would probably have chosen a profile view, so you could see his listless, downturned face). Meanwhile in the 4th panel you've got an extra back-of-ray's-head that doesn't add anything to that panel, pushes the speaking character's face into the distance and makes it harder to place the dialogue. A closeup of Mrs Gomez in that panel would have resolved all those issues.

The last panel on this next page does a great job of conveying the depression. The window at the top of the panel is a great way of symbolizing that feeling of being far removed from the good feeling place you want to be. Meanwhile, the third panel is hard to read -- he's obviously going through a doorway, but what room is he entering? Is that a bed? Obviously this isn't a huge issue on this page since the last panel clearly shows the bed, it's easy enough to assume that's the bedroom in the third panel.

And... wait, what?

It's the loading program, you dolt! Haven't you seen the matrix?

I'm guessing this is a dream sequence... I might have made the first panel a shot of Ray in bed, with a thought balloon leading down to the next panel where he's confused.

I'm assuming this is a dream sequence, but since I started reading at the beginning of this chapter, this is the first time I've seen the angel, or the nickname "Big Sis". For all I know, spontaneous angel combustion could be relatively normal in this story.

Those couple of exclamation points in the last pannel are nearly invisible. I would have placed them above Ray's head, in the white space where readers would notice them.

Oh, I've had that dream. You're running and running and you're not getting anywhere... and the hallway just gets longer and longer... although when I dream it, usually it's the bathroom at the end of the hallway and I really have to piss.

In my dreams? Aren't you still dreaming?

NERD ALERT! The following paragraphs are technical critique for comic letterers. If you're not interested in comic book lettering, you probably want to skip to the next page.

The dialogue on this page is pretty muddled. Most importantly, in a horizontal panel (3) English readers are going to see the dialogue on the left first, which puts those balloons in the wrong order. That could have been remedied by putting ray's first balloon in the previous panel (2), below Silver's dialogue. Silver currently has the only dialogue in the first two panels, those first two panels could have been a wide shot of the two in profile. I would have left those two panels as they are, and made silver's dialogue connected like it is between panels 3 & 4 and moved the last two balloons up into the white-space in panel 2. That would have created space in the lower part of panel 2 to place the confusing balloon from Ray that's currently his first statement in panel 3. As a whole, that would have made the page flow a lot more smoothly -- there wouldn't have been all that clutter in panel 3, following all that empty white-space in panel 2.

I don't read a lot of manga books in general, so this may be common with manga, but even if it is, I would avoid having a dialogue balloon in a panel where you don't see the speaker. Always make sure your dialogue balloon has a tail. If you need that dialogue balloon to run over into another panel, do it like you did in panels 3 & 4 where the balloons lay on top of the gutters and are connected.

I mocked up a sample of my suggested dialogue placement and uploaded it to my DeviantArt account for anyone who's interested. It's not perfect, but I think it's an improvement.

Okay, the darkened panel is obviously a flashback, but in general, I have no idea what's going on here... again, I was asked to start reading at the beginning of Chapter six, and I feel really out of the loop here. Sis would have harmed a human by helping Ray? What was going on? Was someone beating him with a lead pipe? Embarassing him in a chess match? What? Why would helping Ray have caused her to harm a human? And why is that described as "leaving you back there"? I feel like a lot of those questions could have been answered in this dialogue. "I'm sorry Sis didn't murder your competition in the school picnic's three-legged race, but I couldn't let her get herself in trouble over that... now if it had been a pie-eating contest, well, that's a whole other ball game!" It is nice to see that Ray is a nice guy and doesn't want other people to get in trouble on his behalf, even if the dialogue is a little clunky for a native English reader. "Of course I was upset... but I don't want her to suffer because of me."

Silver tousle's Ray's hair like she's a mafia Don, especially that angry look afterward. "Eh, nice fuckin' attitude ya' got there... it'd be a damn shame if somethin' bad happened to it."

Apparently the story about the angel with black wings is top secret... You want the truth?! You can't handle the truth! No sooner does Ray ask about it, then the fourth wall breaks. Anyway, Silver confirms that, yes, Ray is dreaming, and he wakes up to his classmate Mara, knocking at his door at an apparently ungodly early hour because the two of them are partnered for a class assignment. So they head off to the library where the two of them start yelling at each other about some personal history that's not explained in this chapter either.

Again, I think the previous issues could have been explained here, at least in passing. "I'm supposed to pretend like you didn't forward my dick pick to the entire Freshman class?!" - "It was an accident! The forward-all button is right next to degrade! I mean delete! And I have fat fingers... well, fatter than..."

The expression "this and that are irrelevant" is probably a common phrase in the Phillipines, but doesn't translate well for English readers. To be honest, that phrase isn't needed. At least in English, you'd be fine with just the latter sentences, "we're just project partners, don't take it personally!"

"Oh, my gawd, it's called negging... everybody knows your prince charming doesn't ride a white horse, he rides a barage of insults, like, 'is that your face or am I an asshole?'... wait... I think I did that wrong...".

I'm not sure if the phrase, "riding out their insults toward me", is common in the Philippines, but it also doesn't translate well in English. My best guess is "letting them insult me" would be a more natural-sounding translation.

Also, I wasn't sure what Barkada was. Is that a group? A person?

I think this passage from Mara is pretty relatable. I think a lot of us know what it's like to feel lonely and to want more friends. I'm not sure why she says "someone like me", instead of simply, "is it wrong to be surrounded by friends?" or maybe better, "is it wrong to want friends?"

The following couple of pages don't reveal much. Mara thought Ray would understand being insulted, because he was her friend. Ray sticks to his guns and leaves... this bodes poorly for their GPA.

Yep, Ray's pretty emo in this chapter. And either it's his guardian angel or a crow, but one way or another, it looks like someone's molting.

I don't understand the chapter title on this page. This is about 80% of the way through this chapter, so it's sort of in the middle. Aren't chapter titles usually given on the first page of the chapter? Is this a manga thing? I'm so confused!

The following four pages strike me as too drawn-out. There's a whole page for Ray to see a single black feather falling in front of him (yep, Big Sis is molting). There's another whole page for Ray to turn and see Sis and nobody says anything. There's another whole page for sis to say "I'm glad you're okay", and the final page shows the two hugging while Ray cries. Personally I don't think you would lose any emotional impact by reducing that sequence down to a page or two.

The next chapter opens with dialogue between Ray and Big Sis laid over a splash page picture of the tops of buildings... presumably this is the part of the city where the two are talking, but it doesn't work very well for this scene. I understand wanting a splash page for the first page of a new chapter, but in this case, a picture of Ray and Sis would have been the better option. Using a wide shot of the buildings might have worked if these were important buildings, like if it were some nearby monument like the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, or Angel Headquarters or something. But a random section of the city just makes me wonder why I'm not seeing the characters.

In that dialogue, Big Sis explains that she thinks she's causing harm to Ray. If it's true, that's a pretty bad party foul, given that she's a guardian angel. "So we called the fire department, and sure enough, they set fire to our house! Real professionals."

"You're a good person, god-damnit! Stop insulting yourself! After all, you're an angel... isn't that like on the first page of the employee handbook: angels are good guys."

The phrase "I won't worry if I were you" should be "I wouldn't worry", but to be honest, I don't think that sentence is needed. Also, I think there's a little too much detail on Sis' wings in the middle panel where she's seen from behind at a distance. In the closer shots, those feather outlines are okay, but in the distance shot, the wings look a little off, less like real wings and more like a Christmas tree ornament. If you want to put detail lines on the wings, just use a couple of tapered lines on one side, don't wrap the line all the way around the feather.

Like that. That's more like what the wings should look like at a distance. Although now Sis' head blends into the wings because her hair is so dark. A little white halo around her hair like you included a couple pages ago would fix that.

Don't cry... RUN!

Maybe you should have opened with that?

"You're in imminent danger! Let's catch up! So, how've you been? Emo I see..."

No, you idiot, run THE OTHER WAY!

It turns out the mall is on fire... as it should be!

No rest for the wicked. "What do we want?! Paid vacations! When do we want it?! Oh shit the boss is coming!"

Another minor English correction, "they really done it this time" should be "they've really done it" or "they really did it". Oddly, either one is considered correct. Some of us in the US do say "they done it", but that's generally only said by people in the deep south, in rural neighborhoods where they're likely to own a home that's mobile and a lot of cars that aren't. Somehow I don't read Silver as a redneck angel -- you'd have to dress her in western boots and hat, jeans and a tanktop. Bonus points if you get an American flag on her. Extra bonus points for the irony if you get a Confederate flag on her.

You went six and a half chapters of a book about angels without knowing that demons exist? "Yes, it's a buddy-cop show. We've got the cops, cop cars, a jail, a city and lots of law abiding citizens... there's just something missing... I just can't put my finger on it. Oh well, if we can't remember, it must not be that important."

The magical girl transformation still takes a whole page, but at least the effect is subtle.

I'm not sure it needed a whole page for Sis to say she would help Silver with the demons. And then they fly off to the battle, leaving Ray on the street.

Is this a flashback of something that happened just a moment ago? In the same scene? Why not just show it in the normal timeline? Then you give Ray a thought balloon that says "I can't just stand here and do nothing while Sis is in danger." This order just seems confusing.

This is a job for Rockstar Cop! With rockstar hair! And how in the hell did he have time to put up the barrier tape?! He must be carrying it in his patrol car, that's extra dedication! "I'm gonna put up this tensa-barrier first, and then I'll radio for help!"

To be honest, the cop's radio dialogue is a little off as well. This event started with a loud explosion sound, he's not likely to describe that as a "fire accident". He might use a radio code, like "a 407 in progress", or he might just say "emergency situation". A couple other words aren't necessary, and are generally dropped on police radio so they can get the message out as quickly as possible, e.g. "at xxx mall. Request fire and medevac. I repeat..." You could also substitute "EMS" (short for Emergency Medical Services) instead of "medevac" (which is short for medical evacuation).

Did demons really cause this? Yeah, in all the distance shots, the scene looks more like a terrorist bombing than what I would equate with demons. That may be intentional. It certainly would help explain why the average person doesn't see angels and demons running around all the time if the things they do are easily mistaken for more common events.

Oh, maybe it is a terrorist bombing... Mara dropped the bomb! She dropped the bomb on me! :P

Wait. "She's still alive. That's a good thing." He's in a stressful, life-or-death situation, but he sounds like he's discovered that there are still donuts in the office break room. "Oh, good, I won't have to go across the street to get my jelly roll." I would probably go with, "Thank god, she's alive!" In any case, it's good to see that he's not holding such a grudge against Mara that he'd leave her hanging in a dangerous situation like this.

Then there's another explosion, but at least this one's a clean bomb, since the sound effect is "kabroom". :P The placement of that sound effect is a little poor though. It's laid over and parallel to the bannister on the 2nd level of the mall above Ray, which creates what's called a visual tangent in the page. At a quick glance, "Kabroom!" might be mistaken for a sign advertising a hot new store in the mall that sells cleaning supplies. :P If you're not familiar with tangents, here's a good article from Chris Schweizer.

Demon or not, I think I'd be more worried about the fact that someone was just flung off the mall's upper level. Why should he take time to worry about the style of wings? Not to mention that you can see those wings in the lower panel, so having Ray say it and then showing an extra image of one of the wings isn't adding any information to this page, it's just cluttering it up.

And then of course, the demon is a Bond villain, giving away his strategic advantage by informing his opponents what he will or won't do. I think that was Achille's heel too, every time he went into battle, he'd shout "Hey, nobody hit my heel, okay! That's my week spot! Gotta keep this fair!"

The close-up of Sis being choked isn't adding any information to the page -- it's just taking up room you could have used to make the wide shot of that same thing easier to see.

Don't you finger him! That's my job!

Here the first panel isn't adding any information to the page. If you dropped that first panel, you could get panels 2 & 3 both side-by-side at the top and have more room for the dramatic zoom-in shots below. And once you've got that extra room, you could probably use just one shot, rather than a distance shot and a close-up, using an in-between range where Ray's face is large enough to see his expression, and you don't see the demons' whole bodies, but you see enough of their side to see that they're closing in on him.

Okay, the spell Silver cast is really cool, despite the fact that whe had no idea where she was before it happened... but what the hell is happening at the bottom of the page? What's with the foot and the face? There's no context or visual perspective to know what those mean.

Don't need all those faces at the top. They're not really adding anything to the scene. Maybe two. Maybe Ray and the Demon. But putting all four of them there feels crowded and unnecessary to me. Also the dialogue balloons between panels 5 & 6 completely obscure the borders of the panels, making it look like that's one wide panel and Silver and the demon are within striking distance. If you want to keep all that dialogue, make those panels narrower, so the border of those panels isn't entirely covered by the text. And the text runs in a bad order here again. The demon's line is first -- you probably could have put that in the panel above with an elipses at the end... But you should never have something that's supposed to be read last above the other text, like Silver's "You're next." That line could have been placed above the demon's dialogue in the final panel.

Lots of confusion and clutter here. First panel isn't necessary -- we knew the demon was holding Sis up by her throat, and you can get the demon's face in that wide shot in the second panel. So start on panel 2. Panel 3 isn't large enough for us to understand what's going on there, so you should have dropped that shot of just the demon's hand as well. Panel 5 with Silver's rushing face is also unnecessary -- we can see she's moving in the final panel. So in total, just a 3-panel page, panels 2, 4, and 6. And in the dialogue "ya" doesn't sound natural there. Well... it could sound natural, again, if the demon is a redneck, but you'd have to give him a cowboy hat and use "ain't": "I ain't scared a ya!" Otherwise, you need to use "you" if you want it to sound natural.

Okay, now I'm really confused. Silver and the demon were about to fight, and then I missed the fight. I didn't see either of them swing their weapons or anything. Are the black smudges in the background supposed to be the demon disintegrating? Is that what happened to the other two demons before? And if so, how is the demon delivering that much dialogue while he disintegrates?

The first panel should be flipped, with Sis on the left, so that both of those dialogue balloons have tails and read properly left-to-right. The phrase, "when I get here", in English is "when I got here". That's one that I've heard other Spanish or latin-language speakers use.

Ray presumes that the other fucked-up dude angel is Mara's guardian angel, and then the archangel Raphael arrives. Mharz did some research for these stories, because Raphael is a healer. This is the role given to Raphael in early Jewish scripture, the name Raphael literally meaning "God heals". After Raphael gives Mara a boost to keep her until the ambulance arrives, the dude angel we thought was her guardian angel mysteriously disappears, and nobody says anything about it, but it seems like Sis thinks it's as weird as Ray does. It makes me wonder if the dude wasn't a disguised demon rather than an angel.

At which point the chapter ends with Raphael explaining that even angels can "die". Given the scare quotes, I would guess they're destroyed and cease to exist, but who knows, maybe super-heaven! :P And we get another chapter title in a weird place, although this time it's the last page of the chapter.

So there's my pitch. If you enjoy angel and demon stories, and manga with a heady mix of action and drama, check out the Angel with Black Wings!

If you are a webcomic author and are interested in a review from me, you can check out my announcement and my review rules here.

If you enjoy my reviews and would like to help ensure I'm able to continue publishing them, you can contribute on our Patreon or if you're short on funds you can also help me out by checking out and sharing my own webcomic, Woohooligan!

Thanks! Sam

#review #slice-of-life #drama #action #religion #christian #angels #demons #guardian angels

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baileysouth · 7 years

Text

PITCH WARS 2017 #PimpMyBio

WELCOME, FRIENDS.

First, I’ve gotta say: all the other mentee hopefuls are slaying their bios with ACTUAL WEBSITES and gifs galore. I am not so skilled in the ways of being Boss as Fuck, so I welcome one and all to my humble Tumblr Dot Com space on the Internet.

My nom de plume is Bailey South, but a quick search will return woefully little on my exploits and infamy. Thus, the evil plan succeeds. You see, I’ve spent the last ten years writing all kinds of sordid fan fiction under another name.

The kind of fanfic that received thousands of reviews and endless amounts of lovingly rendered fan art. People tattooed my words on their bodies. That is nuts. All over two college dudes doing drugs and really wanting to suck each others Ds.

Sure, there was a fair amount of crippling depression and chaotic memetic desire thrown in, but I had no idea, when I was writing it, what sort of beast it would become. In order to gain some distance, I developed a shiny new name and brushed off the dusty outlines and painstaking map-making I made way back in 2005. There was magic! And a boarding school! It was basically Harry Potter! I tried for years to get things rolling with the manuscript, but I lost focus, then I lost interest.

Fast forward to 2014. I have an idea one night, hating the mundanity of my existence and loathing the sight of the restaurant I force myself into day in and day out, smiling at strangers and putting on the Grand Show of hospitality. I’m angry and educated and tired, so tired, of doing nothing. I open a Word document and words begin pouring out. Those words eventually became my Pitch Wars 2017 submission: MINNOWS, speculative contemporary YA that is furious and philosophical and probably going to end up buried on my hard drive never seeing the light of day because agents hate post-apocalyptic YA right now. But I did it. I wrote it.

I remember being in fourth grade and reading Bruce Coville’s Into the Land of Unicorns. I was all batshit about it and made a teeny-tiny pocket-sized book about unicorns, crayon-scrawled hard cardboard cover and all. In essence, I wrote fanfic. I wanted to create more, wanted to know more about these different worlds and characters. Even now, when I really love something and it ends, I just want more. Writing MINNOWS, for me, was about learning to love what I create, about wanting more of the worlds and characters I’ve created.

And now, AN ABBREVIATED LIST OF THINGS I LOVE:

books

Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab because holy world creating and Kell and the Londons and Rhy and it’s the first series since Harry Potter that had me THERE. You know where I mean. RIGHT THERE.

The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare because H/D fanfic writer turned YA fantasy dominator who the haters are gunna hate, but I love wholly anyway. Because HERONDALES and angels and demons and the entire chronology of Jem and Will as parabatai. I think about Will Herondale even now, years later, and hurt.

The Magicians trilogy by Lev Grossman because gritty magical boarding school? Fuck yes.

Harry Potter series by…. you know who it’s by. Because I don’t care how problematic it’s supposed to be or why XYZ is wrong because of varyingly valid reasons. I love it because it changed my life as a junior in high school when I felt like the whole world was against me. Harry’s entire life, from his childhood to his destiny, was and is the most moving, soul-encompassing experience of my life thus far. I’m a Hogwarts Ravenclaw and Ilvermorny Thunderbird. My wand is 10 ¾" elm wood with a unicorn hair core. My patronus is a wild boar. (Which is HILARIOUS). I went to the California Wizarding World of Harry Potter last October and did magic in the streets of Hogsmeade with a bunch of ten-year-olds and LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT.

Fight Club and Survivor and Choke by Chuck Palahniuk. Instrumental in crafting my idea of what it means to write.

films

The Social Network by David Fincher. I tend to like directors’ entire filmography and this is definitely true for Fincher. Se7en, anyone? But TSN is spectacularly cast, searingly written by Sorkin, and just fantastic filmmaking. It’s smart and devastating. It’s compellingly told and so realistically depicted. And it’s a film about Facebook of all things. I was in Speech 101 in college and for our final we had to give a persuasive speech on any topic. The professor joked that it could be about saving the whales, politics, or even simply being a good person. The last bit got a huge laugh out of the class, like it’s somehow a joke to be a good person. Wrong. I picked compassion as my topic and received a standing ovation. Making something Big out of something not so big, making it into an amazing piece of art, that’s why I love The Social Network.

The Fountain by Darren Aronofsky. Another amazing filmmaker with an impressive oeuvre (Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, etc). It’s a love story at heart, but woven so intricately and directed so hauntingly. A true cinematic work of art.

Sunshine by Danny Boyle. Great ensemble cast and a powerful message about awe. Boyle is another director with all sorts of staggering achievements under his belt (Slumdog Millionaire, 28 Days Later, Trainspotting).

Dead Poets Society. Because gather ye rosebuds while ye may, carpe diem, O’ captain my captain, etc.

music

Brand New. Literally my favorite band of all time. Jesse Lacey, you are beyond words.

The Receiving End of Sirens. Sheer beauty.

Gatsby’s American Dream. Thematically astounding with lyrical elements embedded both in my soul and in my manuscript! A band that writes practically a whole record on Ursula Le Guin’s The Wizard of Earthsea can do no wrong.

and a whole slew of 2000s emo/punk/pop-punk/post-punk/melodic hardcore/pop-core like New Found Glory, Say Anything,The Starting Line, All Time Low, Fall Out Boy, Set Your Goals, Four Year Strong, Forgive Durden, This Providence, The Juliana Theory, Taking Back Sunday, Dashboard Confessional, Allister, Further Seems Forever, Blink 182, Green Day. I lived in Los Angeles for the first twenty-six years of my life; I cut my teeth on Hollywood club shows.

SOME TRU FUN FAX ABT ME:

I can’t whistle. So whenever Sabriel whistled instead of using her dope ass bells in the Garth Nix books, I was sad.

I wanted to be an English professor. I graduated summa cum laude from the University of California Santa Barbara (right on the beach, which was the setting of my aforementioned massive 133k fanfic). Then I went to a graduate school I hated because they offered me a scholarship, and I promptly dropped out after a semester.

I moved away from the endless independent contracting offered to me in Los Angeles and moved to Greenville, South Carolina for absolutely no reason at all other than I thought the Dawson’s Creek scenes shot in North Carolina looked pretty. Really.

And that’s it. The gif threshold has been reached. Check out the other hopefuls on the Blog Hop HERE. Best of luck to all other Pitch Wars participants–we really are all winners. I mean, come on, WE WROTE BOOKS! WHOLE ACTUAL BOOKS!

#pitchwars #pimpmybio

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