CD Palooza

Today, Brittany, Megs and I became a CD factory.Britt was doing special, limited edition Howler EPs because they're going to be recording a proper album soon. I'm pretty excited for them.

But anyway, Brit decided to do this this morning, apparently. She asked me if my laptop burned CDs last night, so I figured something was up. But I didn't expect the large scale awesome that she  had planned. She drew a picture on every single one of the EPs, all of them different and origional. It was pretty fun. I sketched out a few of them and burned the CDs while she drew and inked them, and Megs cut, folded and glued all of the covers.

There's one or two that were made after this picture was taken, but ah well. It was fun to make them. The dark lines that you can see are all Brit's. She has an awesome style, no? I hope they sold well tonight. I should ask her. I think there were 20 of them altogether. Aren't they gawgeous? Not as gawgeous as Brittany herself, of course. (: Here's a video for their song Jesse James if you're interested in beautiful, talented people.

Props to my Howlin' friend! 20 personalized, hand drawn CDs in one day? Accomplished. Now would be a good time for our awesome fist-bump robot handshake.

I'm responsible for the pencil lines of about three of the CDs in the above image. She did the pen for them, and did the rest all by her lonesome. Hope their show at Mansion went well. (: I couldn't go because my sister had basketball and my parents were driving her out. And Monica is too lame to drive me places.

It's Wrong

Homosexuals, that is. Obviously they're evil and out to convert everyone to their wretched ways.

Obviously.

Now, before you go off and start hating, this is not my opinion. It's my fathers.

I can't blame him for having opinions that differ from mine. I don't see why people being homosexual is wrong in any way. Love is love, and we're lucky if we can find it, no matter who from. Dad thinks "It's wrong." with no reasons as to why. I said that, with all the over-population that the world has, homosexuals aren't having children (generally. Also, I think that people can be homosexual for any reason they like, but I was trying to appeal to his sense of reason). He says that they adopt other peoples children and teach them ways that are wrong. I think the only kind of 'wrong' parenting is done by parents who don't love their children properly. If a kid has two moms or two dads, that shouldn't be a problem, so long as the parents love and support their child properly. If kids are being adopted and loved, that's a good thing.

And who's to say that he wasn't the one who was raised right? Because I'm willing to believe that he wasn't exactly raised in an accepting environment.

If being with someone of your same sex makes you happy, then there is nothing wrong with it. As long as your happiness doesn't require hurting another person, then there should never be something wrong with it. I don't know why it has to be such a big deal. Can't we all just accept eachother?

Tonight I'll be singing with my choir at an event hosted by my School's GSA (Gay Straight Alliance). And I am proud to show my support for them. I'm glad that my school is open and accepting enough to have such a group. And I think that it would be a good idea for all schools to have one, or an equivalent. By ignoring or hating what is different among ourselves, we become weaker. Acceptance and love, people.

I'm saying this as a straight female. I have a good friend who's a lesbian. My sisters best friend is gay. There's absolutely no need to feel threatened by the sexuality of others. We're all just people, ya know?

We Have Come Together

-Insert Canadian Improv Games oath here-

I have beautiful, talented friends. I've just gotten back from Kitchener, where I watched the Tri-city improv tournament finals. I laughed, I cried (I did, but only once. Oh Brit!), and I seriously enjoyed watching the friendliest, most awesome competition ever. Improv is an awesome sport.

My school has an amazing team. They're creative, their funny, they're talented (Not to mention extremely good looking c; ) and they have so much heart. The whole time I watched the competition, I thought, "How could they not win?" They put themselves on the line, every time. And it paid off.

They won, but I don't know if they expected to. They were sitting so tightly together, wrapped up in a nervous hug. And when the other teams were awarded their places, they would jump up and cheer, only to return once again to their huddle. The whole time they were sitting holding hands, too. They're a family, they really are. When they were called up for first place, they were so excited and crazy, and in awe. They're going to Nationals!

And then, when they had been presented their medals, the other improv teams descended upon them to congratulate them and hug it out. That's why it's a beautiful sport. Everyone legitimately loves each other, even if they'd only met recently.

I'm jealous of the improv kids. There's no way in the world I resent them for their love and passion for what they do. I just wish I had that feeling of being so involved in something so tight like that. I'm friends with all of them, but I will always be on the outside of what they have. And that's all right. But I've realized, that what I really want out of life is that. That feeling of belonging, of love, and acceptance and comradeship.

I don't know. I just want something that meaningful in my life.

I'm completely bringing down this post with my obnoxious feelings. Allow me to do so some more.

I think I may have strong feelings of love and or attraction to someone. I'm not sure however, because I sometimes find it hard to figure out what I've fabricated and what I actually feel. I'm emotionally convoluted. And I don't want to risk my friendship with the guy if I'm not sure what I feel.

Dear readers, what do you do when you're in love? How can you tell? I just don't know how.

750 Words

I am beginning to work seriously on My Soul To Keep (Seriously, I need a new title. This one is lame.), and because I love (hate) myself so much, I'm giving myself a deadline. I am going to have my first draft done by July 21th. Done, as in finished, with a beginning, a middle, and end, plot points, character development, the whole deal.

How will I get this done, you ask? I will, from now on, be writing 750 words a day. That seems like a reasonably figure, doesn't it? I wanted to kickstart my manuscript by writing 10,000 over the break, but, because I'm lame and rarely stick to my goals, I only wrote 2000 over the whole week. It's not like I was doing anything else, either. I was just being lazy.

But no more! And, in case you care and want me to stay on track, I will be posting an excerpt from the story every Friday. This may be a decent, comprehensible excerpt, or a smattering of lines I like. I won't have the full 5000 or so words to choose from this week, since today is the first day of the challenge, but whatever. Maybe it should be every Monday? Whatever. Friday seems like a better day for blogging.

I'm gonna do it.

Current word count 255/750
Not bad. It's only 10:22 am

Howl

I've been thinking about my story lately, and it's getting out of hand. But I will be writing it anyway, and figuring it all out later. I'm just sort of bumbling through it and procrastinating a lot. My goal for March Break was to write 10,000 words. I've written about 500. Whoohoo. And here I am, not working on it some more. I need to get my but in gear here. Lord.

Spring has sprung! The snow is almost gone, and I didn't have to wear a winter coat when I went out for lunch with Brittany today! YES! Suck it, Winter. I just want to sing and dance and be happy. So I did. I did some twirls and leaps on my way home from The Best Little Menu (If you live in Grimsby, check it out!). 

Speaking of singing, Howler is going to be recording an album this month! Brittany is pretty stoked about it, and for good reason. Howler is one of the top new bands in Niagara, and they deserve it. If ever you get a chance to go to one of their shows, do it up! It's worth it!

Brittany is one of my best friends. We started a blog together, which you can find a link to in the sidebar, and, though it has very little content right now, we're just  sort of throwing ideas around for a someday cafe. We'll probably have more collab stuff to follow, such as The Fox and The Crow (Which will be a collab art and writing book project thing) and, occasionally we sing together, which rocks. Brittany has a sweet voice, and we do a lot of harmony to songs. I might be doing some harmony stuff on the Howler album, so we'll see how it goes. If it doesn't happen, I'll be a little disappointed, because I just like being involved. It's fun.

Also, I love all of you that have taken the time to read anything I've written here. Seriously, even if you don't comment ever, I like to think you're out there, somewhere, reading what I have to say. I can try to be better at having opinions that matter to you all, but I basically just live my life and do what is to be done. You all rock.

Something New And Exciting

If you live in the Niagara region, you may have heard of the band Howler. They're pretty new, having formed last summer, and they've been gaining popularity ever since. They will be recording an album this spring. If you're interested in hearing the songs from their E.P, check out their myspace.

Brittany (Check out her art blog), half of the duo that is Howler, is one of my best friends. The other day, she was sick, and hiding in the green room, so I brought her tea and hung out with her all day. We started talking about a book project that we will be doing at some point (Tentatively titled The Fox and The Crow). This conversation turned to talking about her new album, and then to a possible Songbook thing.

Basically the Songbook would be a shortish story or group of short stories that relate to her songs. They would be sold alongside her albums. I'm pretty stoked about this project, so I hope it actually happens, ahaha. It would be such a cool project. Apparently she talked to her label manager, Timmur, and he thought it was a cool idea too. So we'll see!

I'm so glad the weekend is here. I need to do some serious catch up on homework, and get as much writing in as I can.

Love you. Seriously. : )

Progess (Or Lack Thereof)

I heard the train go by a few minutes ago. It's funny. I never heard it once throughout the whole winter, but it's suddenly back again, as familiar and regular as ever. I think I'm beginning to pay attention again, which is a good sign. The train makes me think wistfully of the summer, when I'd sit in my window and listen to the frogs singing and the crickets chirping, and the rapid percussion of the trains passing through. The spring is coming. I can smell it in the still cold air, see it in the glass edged puddles, hear it in the tentative chirping of the returning birds. I don't think I've ever been so ready for winter to end. Let the ground thaw! Let the grass grow! Let the rain fall and let the stars touch the earth. Let the warm breeze catch me and take me away.


I've been thinking about writing. Not in the sense of, I should write something down. More in the sense of why I do it and why I don't. I mostly write when I want to create something. But lately, I've been wanting to create music. I'm hopeless when it comes to instruments. I'd like to learn to play the piano, but opportunity offers me no venue to try. All I can do is write the words and make a tune in my head. It inevitably gets kept to myself. Not only that, but the words sound all wrong. I never was much of a poet.

I digress. I've mostly been thinking about reading versus writing. Anyone who knows me is aware that I am an avid reader. I love having a book with me, I love the feel of pages between my fingers, the words that paint pictures behind my eyes. I love getting caught up in a story. So often, however, I will leave my own writing to read someone else's. In my own writing, I have complete control. I can create worlds, change them and destroy them in a heartbeat. The story is mine to craft. I should be more invested in the lives of my characters. If I want a story, wouldn't I be better off to work on my own?

We live in a world where everyone and their mother wants to become a writer. Obviously I am no exception. I think, in general, we undervalue the importance of the reader. When someone says they write, but never read, it makes me want to lock them in a library for a week. How can they take themselves seriously as writers if they don't take other (published and successful) writers seriously? I may be guilty of occaisionally ignoring a tantalizing new read for my own work, but rest assured that I've abandoned my writing for a book much more often.  I'm not sure if this is a good thing. It just is.

I need to make time to fit in all the things I need to do. I should crack down on my wasted hours doing nothing on the computer. Yes, facebook is all lovely and shiny, but it won't do my homework for me, or write my stories for me. It is a yawning canyon into which I am throwing away my free time. Not just facebook, mind, but the entire internet.

I guess this means I need to get organized. I suppose I should begin by doing my homework, no matter how dull and boring it may be. And then, I will write. Then, if time permits, I will read a few chapters of Stolen.

Speaking of reading, do any of you, my readers, faithful and fleeting alike, have blogs (tumblr, independent website, whatever) that you'd like to share with me? I'd love to know what you all do. Drop me a comment with a link, and I'll check it out!

Kelley Armstrong

Today I was given the opportunity to introduce Kelley Armstrong at my town library. For those of you who don't know who she is, go here for more information. She is a fantastic writer, and I personally look forward to reading more of her books. If you're into paranormal dark fantasy stuff, check her out! She has novels for both adults and teens, so chances are she'll have something you like.


So basically, I've been psyching myself out about this night for about a week. I only had about that much notice. If I'd been given more notice, I would have been panicking more earlier, and maybe not freaked out so much tonight. I made a few jokes about how my friend Spencer could get hired at the library after my intro was done, because they'd need someone to scrape bits of me off the ceiling. Luckily, it turned out to be a false promise, as I didn't explode. Which is good for me. Not so good for Spencer's job prospects.

Before the evening officially started, I got introduced to a bunch of people. Two librarians, the man who organized the Grimsby Author series, and Kelley Armstrong herself. I'm ashamed to admit that I geeked out a little (a lot), but she was really nice. I think she was nervous about speaking too. She even said, "When my publishers told me that I was touring, I was like 'what?' I'm a writer because I communicate best through writing."(A little paraphrased, obviously. I don't exactly have a perfect memory)

She did a great job of speaking though. She laughed and joked with us, gave out little prizes (Spencer got a bag, the lucky bastard), and read excerpts from The Summoning and The Gathering, the first books from her YA series. The Gathering is the first book of the second trilogy of the Darkest Powers Series.

She got a lot of questions about what was next for some of the characters in the Otherworld series, but those questions didn't mean a lot to me, seeing as I haven't yet read any of those books. I will next chance I get. My friend Rebecca (who was there at the event) has a bunch of the books (most of which she got signed tonight. She's a big fan of Kelley), and she says I can borrow them. I'm pumped.

The questions I thought were great were primarily about Kelley's writing process (being a writer myself, I always like to hear how other authors write). She writes most of her books using an outline. She said that she used to be a "pantser" (A writer who writes with no outline or plan, only an idea in their head) but became a "plotter" when she got published and suddenly had deadlines to deal with. Having an outline helped her to avoid going off on a tangent. Which can be detrimental when you have to cut out 75 pages because you've drifted so far from the actual plot line.

Someone also asked her about writers block and how she deals with it. She told us an amusing story about a writer friend of hers that snorkles in her bathtub to get through writers block. She then told us that she didn't do anything quite as exciting as that, but tried to cut writers block off at the source by outlining. She also gives herself permission to suck, because "No one ever has to see the first draft." That is one peice of advice that I totally agree with.

This post keeps getting longer and longer, and, even though no one is likely to read it,  I want to get this all down.

Fun fact: Kelley Armstrong first wrote The Summoning as a NaNoWriMo novel! It was her first attempt at YA fiction, and she didn't want to waste a lot of time on it if it wasn't going to work out. So she wrote it in the month, and, though she decided that it needed a lot of work and ended up rewriting it entirely, actually got it down, which is pretty exciting.

I think that's everything I wanted to get down. I will probably remember more things later on, but I'll write them down somewhere else. Also, if you've been wondering why I haven't been uploading any short stories lately, it's because about 5 novel ideas have attacked me recently, and it's getting difficult to think outside of the lines of those novel parameters. But I should be back with an interior monologue and a dialogue before too long, if my Writers Craft teacher ever photcopies them for me.

There's Not A Lot Going On

Nothing to upload today. Sorry about that. I spent most of today cleaning my room, and I found a lot of my old writing. And it's bad. So, so very bad. Bits and pieces are kind of inspiring though. Especially these two lines from a generally awful poem that i wrote: "Before you can begin again, you must be ground to sand." It sounds a bit like the mantra of a weird, strict religion thing.

I haven't been doing a lot of writing lately. I'm totally uninspired, and I need to get to work on my novel, Ghost. There are a few short stories that I've posted on my Deviant Art account, and i can repost them if anyone wants, but I won't unless someone actually wants them. I understand that I pretty much don't have a following, and that's okay.

Anywho, I'm tired. I need to start writing more and be distracted by the internet less. Fun times.