Friday, May 8, 2009

Snow White, Cinderella, and Rambo?

The Etsy Bloggers Carnival this week is: 
"What is your favorite fairy tale? Any parallels to real life?"
I'm taking a slightly different approach to this. I'd like to tell you a story. It's called...

Snow White meets Cinderella and Snow White and Cinderella meet Rambo



"One day Snow White was walking through the forest.  She came across a beautiful blonde young woman picking flowers. The two of them started talking and they become close friends. Snow White and Cinderella would do everything together! 

The two girls were at Snow White's house one day when they saw a bloody man crawling up the hill. Cinderella helped him into the house while Snow White found something to hold over the hole in the man's. It saved his life. His name was Rambo and they all became close friends."

Ok - maybe not my best writing - but that's all I remember.

Remember you ask? Yes, remember. It was something that my cousins and I play acted once when I spent the night over at their house. I don't know why I remember it so vividly, but the story has always stuck in my head. I was Snow White because of my dark hair (although I had a tan), and Bonny (who's 4 months older than me) was Cinderella with her blond hair. The two of us have never looked like we're related! 

We'd been playing around for awhile when Mark (5 years older than us) decided he wanted to play with us.  He insisted on being Rambo and we had a lot of fun "nursing" him. Can you guess what I held against his head to hold his brains in? The top of a smoke detector! I have no clue why it was lying around in the hallway within reach, but that's my cousins house for you! With four boys in the house things could get interesting :P


Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Ptolemy's Gate by Jonathan Stroud



"Ptolemy's Gate" is the last book in the "Bartimaeus Trilogy" by Jonathan Stroud. Through out the entire series you hear Bartimaeus lament about the slavery of the demons to magicians, but you really don't think too much about it, because the focus is more on the struggle between the commoners and magicians. In this book that background theme is brought to the front. One of my favorite parts of the book is that we finally learn the story of who Ptolemy was, and what his relationship with Bartimaeus was. 

I love the character development that's portrayed in this book, both with Bartimaeus, and with the humans Kitty Jones and Nathaniel. Especially Nathaniel. We already knew that Kitty is a great person, but we've spent the majority of the trilogy hating Nathaniel. In this book he finally begins to see himself for who he really is, and he actually redeems himself by the end of the book!  

I really enjoyed this trilogy and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves the fantasy genre. It's written as juvenile fiction, but adults will love it too! I plan on reading more by the author as soon as I can get my hands on it.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Aria's Quest: Brew it Up

Welcome to Aria's Quest! If this is your first time here this is what you need to know. Aria is a young woodland fairy on a quest in the big city to find a human she can help. If she's successful she can return to her tribe as a full adult. Aria's chosen to look for a true believer (one who already believes in magic and fairies) because she thinks that will make her quest easier...but finding a true believer may be harder than she thought! Read the rest of the story here. 

Section 2
Searching
Part 6
Brew it Up

It had been a long day and Aria was feeling a little bit let down by the time she returned to the dwarves apartment. She’d hoped to find at least something, but her first day of searching had been a big bust. What started out as a day filled with hope and promise had turned to a day filled with rain, soggy wings, and disappointment. 

Gina and Darryl were sympathetic to her disappointment, but they encouraged her not to give up. “It’s a big city deary, I’m sure you’ll find someone, you just have to be patient.” Gina told her as Aria dried out by the heater. “You have to look at this as a long term project. Take your time, explore, and learn along the way. You’ll probably learn things while your searching that will help when you do find the person you are supposed to help.” Aria gave her a small smile, feeling some better, but still exhausted. Gina gave her a small cup of hot chocolate and then let her be. Gina was a mom at heart, even though she’d never had a child of her own blood, and she knew that sometimes you just needed something hot to drink and a good night’s sleep.

The next morning Aria did feel quite a bit better. Today she planned on just exploring. She’d gone to all the close by places that her friends thought might be good locations, and now it was time for her to get to know the city a little bit for herself. So she started flying West, avoiding the crazy building that Robyn called a “Mall,” and soon stopped at a place called “Brew it Up.” It looked interesting, and she figured that she should probably just start looking anywhere and everywhere.

The first thing Aria noticed when she slipped in the door as a customer entered was the smell. It hit her like a tidal wave, for all intents and purposes stopping her where she flew, and overwhelmed her senses. She managed to flutter over to a near by window sill, and she collapsed there, trying to sort out her sensory overload.

The shop was crowded with people of all sorts. Aria was still trying to understand human clothing styles, but she knew enough to know that these people we’re dressed in a wide variety of styles. Some were sitting in chairs, talking and sipping cups of dark liquid, others were standing in a line in front of a long counter, and there were still more people running around behind that long counter. The people behind the counter all seemed to be dressed alike, and they seemed to be preparing this dark liquid for the people in line. 

Aria decided that the dark liquid must be what she was smelling. It was overpowering! But for some reason she found herself drawn to it, wondering what it actually tasted like, trying to understand what lured all these different people to one place. Maybe understanding that would help her to understand the humans of this city better. 

Monday, May 4, 2009

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Saturday morning my brother and I went out to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and we had a blast! I think they did a really good job on this movie. Now, to tell you my background with this series, I'm only a minor geek. While I've seen the original X-Men series (several times), I've never read the comics or followed any of the rest of it. My brother, however, is a major geek and knows the comics and just about everything related to the X-Men!

Overall the movie was pretty true to the X-Men cannon. I noticed one or two small things they missed, and my brother filled me on the rest! Most of the ommissions could be blamed on trying to keep the movie going though I think. If your not a major geek you wouldn't notice most of them!

One thing that suprised me was that they did really tone down some things. I expected the scene where the fill Wolverines body with adamantian to be much more gruesome than it was. In fact, I expected to have to turn my face away during that scene (I get squemish!) and I didn't have a problem with it at all.

I really enjoyed the character development of the story. After all, that's what the movie is all about! The original trilogy left us with many questions (if you don't follow the comics that is) about what happened to make Wolverine who is. His past was a mystery made more profound by his lack of memory. All my questions were answered well, and the progression made a lot of sense!

I also enjoyed getting to know some new mutants. One that really surprised me was that one of the mutants (John Wraith) was played by Will i. Am of the Black Eyed Peas. I'm always a little leery when I see a musician or athlete jump into the world of acting, but I think he did a really good job. I was impressed at least! 

The only thing that bugged me about the movie was the character of Victor, ie, Sabortooth. He seemed much more intelligent in this movie than he's portrayed in the original trilogy. My brother's explanation for that is that Sabortooth embraces his "animal" side more as time goes on. So by the time we meet him in the original trilogy he's barely a man anymore. I can see that as making sense, but I think they portrayed his character as too creepy instead of wild in this movie.

Did you know they are planning more movies in the Origins series? X-Men: Magneto is due to come out in 2011! I'm looking forward to it :)

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Six Haunted Hairdos by Gregory Maquire


"Six Haunted Hairdos" is book two in the Hamlet Chronicles. In this book we rejoin Miss Earth's class as they go on yet more wild adventures! This time the two clubs in the class are debating over the existance of ghosts. 

The boys say that ghosts are real, and know just what to do when they see one! "1. Pinch yourself to make sure your awake. 2. Pinch the ghost, to make sure it's real. 3. Run away - as fast as you can!"

The girls think the boys are just plain silly, so they decide to play a trick on them and dress up as ghosts. They find some crazy old wigs and start a rumor about 6 hairdressers that were supposedly killed in the area. Then they set out to scare the boys! 

This time, however, the boys are right and there really ARE ghosts visiting their small town! It will take all the kids working together to solve the plight of these ghosts in a hilarious adventure that will keep you laughing the whole way through.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Unbelievable!!!

My superheropower is the ability to hurt myself in new and entertaining (for others at least) ways. My latest isn't really that entertaining...but it is unusual. The result? I have a sprained shoulder, I'm wearing a sling, and I'm drugged up! Loverly combination huh? You would think with all that I would have at least some sort of story right? A nasty fall, or a wrestling accident, or something!

The reality falls far short of my imagination. I stretched...and sprained my shoulder. Yup, that's it! Just one of those "I'm sleepy" arms stretched over the head type thing. No clue how THAT resulted in pulled muscles! 

Ok, I actually have some idea. Apparently one of the many side-effects  of the steroids I'm on for my asthma can sometimes be damage to the ligaments and muscles. Oh well, I'll get through it. Doc says I should be good by the end of the week. 

The frustrating part (aside from the pain) is that I have to type with just my left hand. For someone who types about 170 wpm...and loves to write...its torture! I also can't make jewelry :(

I plan to attempt to continue to visit entrecard blogs and publish in my blogs, but how succesful I am will depend on my pain levels and how drugged up I feel. Usually the woozy/dreamy/stoned side-effecs start to wear off after a day or two of taking them. Um yes, in answer too your question, I HAVE been on pain killers and muscle relaxers WAY to many times!

Friday, May 1, 2009

Looking Back at April and Looking Forward to May

Wow - it's been a crazy busy month! But I've gotten lots of blogging done - so that makes me happy! 

You may have noticed some changes around here in the last day or two. I added google adsense. Yeah, I know, it looks a little tacky, but a girls gotta do what she can to earn some money where she can! I've been talking forever about changing my blog layout and I hoping to have that done in the next week or two. When I do, there will be a three column format and hopefully that will make everything look a little bit neater. 

Another change you'll notice is that my book reviews are now linked to Amazon! Like I said, trying to earn some money when and where I can. So if my review inspires you to go out and get the book, do me a favor and go through my site to Amazon so I can get credit, k? Thanks!

***BIG ANNOUNCEMENT***
Starting with all comments left TODAY I'm going to be keeping track of commentators and how many comments they leave. At the end of each month I'll announce my top commentator! There WILL be a prize, although I haven't decided exactly what yet. Sorry, just decided to do this yesterday. I have ideas bouncing around my head, but nothing is firm yet!

Looking back, I was able to publish Aria's Quest weekly all month, which makes me happy! Here are this months additions to her story:



(See, there's one of those Amazon links I was telling you about)

I did a bunch of book reviews this month! I think this is the most I've done in one month so far >_> Yes, I'm probably insane. Especially if I showed you my file of written but not yet posted reviews, and I have two books read that I haven't written the reviews for... And did I mention I just picked up 6 books at the library this morning?

I'm pleased with how much blogging I've gotten done this month, and I think that I've seen some improvement in my writing over that time. Not much, but a little bit. I think the steady writing is good for me. Now I really want to work on flexing my fiction muscles. I have a really busy day today and tomorrow, but starting this next week I'm going to try to spend 1/2 hr a day working on fiction. Some of that will be spent in developing Aria's Quest, but I want to start working on my book again, and maybe exploring some of the other crazy ideas that have wandered through my head recently! We'll see how succesful I am :)