Writing
I ended up writing 19,000+ words over the course of four months for my YA Fantasy class, which is pretty awesome. I kind of skipped around while writing the story so my advisor could critique the later parts as well as the beginning, meaning I have a lot of holes to fill if I ever pick it up again. I don't know if I'll ever go back to it or not, but if I ever decide to take an interest at least I have those words to help me get started.
This summer during Camp NaNoWriMo July I plan on picking up a story I first wrote when I was a sophomore in high school, called Follow the Raven. I've officially decided I want this to be my first published novel, so for the rest of 2016 (possibly excepting November for NaNoWriMo) I'm going to focus solely on this story and work towards getting it editor-ready. This is the first year of the rest of my career!
As far as "Worlds Collide" over on Wattpad, I've posted one more chapter since my last update but fully intend to begin regular updates again as the summer gets under way. My current stats are 1,947 reads; 170 votes; and 81 comments.
Reading
I've done so much reading in the past couple of months that I've been five books ahead of my Goodreads goal for at least four weeks. It's crazy! Here's what I read in April and May:
- Cinder by Marissa Meyer
- Bright Lights, Dark Nights by Stephen Emond
- The Awakening by Kate Chopin
- Richard III by William Shakespeare
- The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
- A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen
- The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
- A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
- Death of a Saleseman by Arthur Miller
- Ratchet and Clank: The Movie Novel by Kate Howard
- The Forgetting by Nicole Maggi
- Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
Cinder is a book that I'd been avoiding but received as one of my two blind dates with a book, much to the happiness of my friend Kailey, who had been trying to get me to read it forever. While the way the classic story was told was certainly unique, overall I was unimpressed. It was very predictable. I have no desire to finish the series.
Bright Lights, Dark Nights "brings to life a painfully unavoidable issue in today's society and makes it real and applicable in ways that will leave you angry, depressed, and determined to change. Excellently written, beautiful characters. I loved every minute." A fantastic modern novel about racism.
The Complete Maus was, in a word, amazing. I generally stray away from Holocaust stories simply because I dislike the topic, but I'm grateful that this was a required read for my World Lit II class. I described it as "Dark and horrifying, but with a touch of humor. This is one Holocaust story that everyone needs to hear. Never before has Hitler's evil scared me so much than within the pages of this graphic novel." I want to own this book and shake the author's hand.
The Forgetting was fantastic. It unashamedly delves into the world of modern sex trafficking that occurs right underneath our noses every single day all while delivering a story that is terrifying and beautiful at the same time. This is a wonderful thriller. I gave this book five stars.
Peter Pan. While I liked revisiting my childhood and actually reading the classic story for the first time rather than just watching a movie adaptation, I was thoroughly disappointed with the author's writing style. He broke the fourth wall far too much, which would not have been such an issue had it not randomly started halfway through the book. There were times I did not want to continue reading because of this problem, but I powered through it.
There you have it! I'm back in business for the summer. You can be sure to look forward to more regular blog posts from me, and since it's June you can definitely expect at least one of them to be about Sonic the Hedgehog! Celebrating 25 years of the fastest thing alive! :D
On a side note, please consider donating to my University fund on GoFundMe. I would love to start right away this fall. Thank you!
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