Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving y'all!

Today is a day of giving thanks for all the good things we have recieved. I know you probably don't want to read a list of things I'm thankful for, and really, it's far too long a list to put anywhere; so I'm just going to metion a few things.

I'm thankful for:
All of my amazing friends! I can't say enough how grateful I am for them.
The Theatre that I love - it gave me hope and a new life.
All the midnight conversations I've had with people I love.
Being away from the one that hurt my family.

Now on to the fun part of this post!

On this Thanksgiving I decided to do something completely silly and imagine my character's as little kids putting on a Thanksgiving pageant.
Here is the result of that:


Cast of characters: John, Naya, Anthony, Sue, Gigi, O'Brian (Agents and Assassins), Dallas, Nora, Lucas (The Animalia Project), Cinderella, Rapunzel, Ariel, Snow White, Belle, Aurora, Flint, and Valor (Alternatives).

THANKSGIVING PAGEANT

The kids, six boys and eleven girls, were gathered in a backyard and were attempting to practice a Thanksgiving play that Nora had written.

Nora tried to bring some order to the group, but the challenge of directing sixteen other kids in a play was a nightmare.

"Alright everyone listen up!" Nora shouted, "I'm only gonna remind you one more time!" She held up a clipboard with a scrawled list of who was supposed to play who.

"John, you are William Bradford. Naya you are Captain Miles Standish."

"Why does she get to play him?" Flint complained

Naya explained "Becuase I'm the best for the part obviously,"

Nora continued with the list, "Anthony, you are John Carver. Ariel you play his wife, ."

"Why her?" Flint asked

"Because they both have red hair," Nora replied, "Oh, and Rapunzel, you are Rose Standish. O'Brian is Chief Massasoit, and Flint is Squanto."

"Yes!" Flint shouted jumping up and down.

Naya rolled her eyes, "Dude, you already knew what part you got, we've been practicing all day."

Nora ignored the interruptions, "Belle is Dorothy Bradford. Gigi, Dallas, Lucas and Aurora are Indians. Snow White, Valor, Cinderella, and Sue are Pilgrims. Now! Places everyone, let's practice one more time."

The 'pilgrims' got on stage and climbed into a very large cardboard box that was meant to resemble the Mayflower.

John had the first line but had to be nudged several times by Naya before he remembered it, "Here we go, to a new land."

"Yes." Naya said in a deep voice, "We have left England behind us so that we can build a town in America."

Nora was blissfully unaware of the errors in her script.

Belle gave her line next, "I'm sure our lives will be wonderful there."

Anthony said hesitantly, watching Nora to see if he was doing it right, "Let's pray for a safe journey?"

Everyone on the 'boat' bowed their heads for about two seconds - except Naya who thought that her character wouldn't pray.

Then they moved the 'ship' around the 'stage' and Rapunzel called out, "We're here!"

They climbed out of the box and looked around. Flint jumped out at them and yelled "boo!"

Nora called, "Flint! No scaring!"

"Fine..." Flint grumbled. He approched the pilgrims and said, "Hello! I can speak english! I will help you!"

"I don't trust you." Naya/Captain Standish said.

"But I can bring you fish!" Flint/Squanto said whipping one out of his pocket.

Nora nodded to the 'pilgrims' and they all called out. "We feel sick!" they fell to the ground and shivered. While the 'Indians' made the sound of a harsh winter.

Ariel/Kathrine Carver said, "This winter is so cold!"

Then the howling stopped and the 'pilgrims' - except Valor - stood up.

"Snow White!" Nora yelled "You're supposed to be dead, like Valor."

"Oh," Snow White said, quickly dropping back to the ground.

Anthony clutched his heart, "Ugh! I'm dying!" he fell down.

"Oh no!" Ariel/Kathrine cried then died too.

Then the 'Indians' came on with pretend food. "Here you go!" Flint/Squanto said. The 'Indians' left again. The 'pilgrims' mimed working hard, then John announced, "Our food is growing so well, let's celebrate Thanksgiving Day!"

"Yay," they all cheered.

The 'Indians' came back and O'Brian/Massasoit was introduced.

Then after pretenting to eat a lot, everyone stood up, came forward and took a bow.

"Good job everyone! Let's do it one more time!" Nora said.

The cast groaned and all of them pretended to die.


THE END

Beautiful Books: Nov edition.

Last month Further Up and Further In hosted Beautiful Books in place of Beautiful People. And this month - the precious month of NaNoWriMo - they did it again! This time we are going to talk about the writing process.

Of course, I will be talking about my NaNo novel that right now, for the sake of ease, is being called Alternatives (though that is more likely going to be the title of the sequel - yes, I'm already planning the sequel.)

Now for the questions:

1. Is the book turning out how you thought it would be, or is it defying your expectations? - Well, some of both, I haven't really gotten far enough into the story to let it completely run away, but some new characters have already sprung out of nowhere.
2. What’s your first sentence (or paragraph)? - I'll give you the first three (they're pretty rough right now): "In the land of ____, in the country of ___, in the year 00--.  The sun rose and cast a gentle orange light on the six lands of _____: ___, ___, ___, ____, ___, and ____.  And as it dawned upon them that it was time to wake, twelve year old Cinderella was already busy at her chores."
3. Are you a plotter or a pantser? Have you ever tried both methods and how did it turn out? - Usually I am more of a Pantser - though I do put some thought into the story and characters before I start. But this time around I tried to be a planner, and I plotted away, however my plans were foiled because my lap-top died - fortunately a friend of mine was able to rescue my documents, but the lap-top is dead so I don't have a way of accessing them, and my memory is awful; therefore, I was forced to be more of what I normally am.
4. What do you reward yourself with after meeting a goal? - I'm not really a reward based person... Meeting the goal is the reward...
5. What do you look for in a name? Do you have themes and where do you find your names? - I like the names of my characters to have meaning and to relate to the story, but I don't always make them do so. I look through baby name books or I'll google names with specific meanings. My favorite name site is Meaning of Names.com especially if I'm working on a fantasy story.
6. What is your favourite to write: beginning, middle, or end — and why? - Well... I don't know... So far in my writing career I've only written beginnings or isolated scene ideas.
7. Who’s your current favourite character in your novel? - oh, wow, tough question... Well, I have this cool fairy guy, his name is Valor: he is young, handsome, and he loves his friends and would do almost anything for them - as is demonstrated in the story. He's near the top, of my fav list, but I really don't think I have one favorite.
8. What kind of things have you researched for this project, and how do you go about researching? (What’s the weirdest thing you’ve researched?!) - I haven't done any research yet for this story. But probably the weirdest thing I've researched for a story in the past was the Portuguese man o' war - and it was not becuase someone gets stung by one.
9. Do you write better alone or with others? Do you share your work or prefer to keep it to yourself? - Bit of both. For this story I like writing alone, but I think that if I were with a group of other writers, the atmosphere would be good for writing. I often share my work, the responses are a lot of what keeps me going.
10. What are your writing habits? Is there a specific snack you eat? Do you listen to music? What time of day do you write best? Feel free to show us a picture of your writing space! - I am a very inconsistent person, so I really don't have any writing habits. Pretzels and trail mix are good writing snacks. I sometimes listen to music while writing, I like some of the playlists put together by this site: SoundFuel. I often write best a night, after everyone else is asleep; but at other times it is simply whenever the inspiration hits! I don't have any picture of my work area but I shall attempt to describe it to you: Sometimes it is the brown office chair, with my work in my lap. Sometimes I lie/sit on my bed with my work either on my lap, in my hands, or on a make-shift desk constructed from pillows.

That was fun!

Well, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it. Now, go and see what others have said, and maybe answer the questions yourselves.

Beautiful Books: NaNo. Fairytale. Lots of pictures!

Ok, so I realized that I should have done this in my last post (which was only a few hours ago), but since I didn't, I'll just link back to it since they are connected: NaNoWriMo - Fairytale-Mashup
There. Now go read it.

Did you read it? If so then you may continue.

Beautiful Books. It's like Beautiful People, but instead of being about characters it's about the books themselves. This is going to be fun! Of course you should go check it out on Further Up and Further In. Go! I'll wait...

Did you go read the explanation? If so, then you may continue.

I will - of course - be answering the questions as in regards to my NaNo novel, the Fairytale Retelling Mashup, currently being called "Alternatives". I don't exactly know why I am calling it that, but it was what came to mind so I'm going with it for now.
And now, for the questions!


1. How did you come up with the idea for your novel, and how long have you had the idea? 

I don't remember the answer to either part of this question. I really don't know. I haven't had it for very long.
*edit* I was at a coffee shop, it was raining, and I was listening to a SoundFuel playlist, but I don't remember which one.

2. Why are you excited to write this novel? 

Because I love writing, and I love fairytales, and it's going to be awesome! I'm changing some big parts of the stories to make them more unique. Such as: one of the girls (I won't say which) doesn't  believe in True Love. And I'm drastically veering off from the well known Beauty and the Beast storyline. So yeah, I'm excited! 


3. What is your novel about, and what is the title? 

As you know, it is a fairytale-retelling-mashup about Cinderella, Belle, Aurora, Rapunzel, Snow White, and Ariel; and their crazy adventures. The current working title is "Alternatives". 


4. Sum up your characters in one word each. (Feel free to add pictures!) 

Cinderella: Sincere
 

(She has grey eyes, not brown.)

Belle: Protective 

Aurora: Inventive or Apathetic - (I can't decide which word suits her better)

Rapunzel: Surprising

Snow White: Lonely

 

  Ariel: Yearning

 

(yes I realize that yearning is a noun, while all the other describing words I used are adjectives)


5. Which character(s) do you think will be your favourite to write? Tell us about them! 

I think I'm going to love writing about all of them, but if I enjoy writing one over the others it will probably be Ariel's plotline (because I have a special connection with the role - having played Ariel onstage), and because I gave her a super cool best friend!

6. What is your protagonist’s goal, and what stands in the way? 

Well, they each have several goals throughout the story so I'll go with their first main goals.

Cinderella's goal is to get out from under her step-mother's rule, and to marry the man she loves. Her step-mother and step-sisters; and secret identities, are in the way.

Belle's goal is to move away from the village where she lives and to find healing. Her past/memories, Gaston, and a monster in the forest, stand in the way. 

Aurora doesn't have a big goal until Cinderella and Snow White show up on her doorstep, her goal then becomes helping Snow. 

Rapunzel's goal is to escape the tower and live a life of fun and adventure. Her "mother" stands in the way.

Snow's goal is to survive. Her step-mother has other wishes.

Ariel's goal is to go to the surface and explore the land. But her father, King Triton, stands in the way.

7. Where is your novel set? (Show us pictures if you have them!)


It is set in a medieval-fantasy-fairytale-ish land (like most every other fairytale)
There are forests the stand near each other, and mountains, and a coast/beach.

8. What is the most important relationship your character has?


The ones they have with each other I guess... there are a lot of relationships in this story.


9. How does your protagonist change by the end of the novel?


*River Song voice* Spoilers!!!

10. What themes are in your book? How do you want your readers to feel when the story is over?


Friendship. Love. Standing up against evil - even if it means slipping around in the dark.

I want them to feel happy and sad and intrigued and... I want them to feel exhausted because I took them on a rollercoaster ride. And I want them thirsty for more.
I want my readers to be invested in the lives of the characters and willing to come back and see them do more (in another book).

NaNoWriMo BONUS: Tell us your 3 best pieces of advice for others trying to write a book in a month.

Oh what do I know?! I'm the one that needs advice. But here goes anyway! :)

1 - Don't give up! Even if you feel like no one but you will like the story, just keep writing, just keep pourng your soul onto the keyboard, 'cause in the end, it will have be worth it!

2 - Find what helps get you in the zone. Whether that means nibbling chocolate, putting background music on, sitting on the floor, going for a walk before you write, or maybe, hanging from the ceiling. It really helps to figure out what helps.

3 - Be excited about it! And keep up a bubbly attitude!
(I don't actually know if this actually works, but, my theory is that if you convince your brain that writing is always enjoyable it will put more energy into writing.)

If you want to see more pictures for the story go see my pinterest board: Alternatives - a fairytale mash-up - NaNo 2015

Now. Go and prepare yourselves for the glorious battle of 50,000 words in 30 days! :)

P.S. I apologize for the fonts changing back and forth, I can't figure out why it's doing that.

*All the photos in this post are either from Pinterest or Google Images. I do not own them.*

NaNoWriMo: Fairytale mashup!

Hello everyone, after my depressing last post I thought I should write about something fun! And since we are over half way through NaNoPrepMonth, I thought I should write about my NaNo novel!

I'm very excited! And anxious. It's going to be tough, I have yet to successfully complete NaNo. But It's going to be really fun! What is the story, you ask? It is a Fairytale Retelling Mashup! About six well known princesses: Cinderella, Belle, Aurora, Rapunzel, Snow White, and Ariel.

But they're all slightly different then the way you might think of them.
What if a princess didn't believe in true love?
What if a princess loved hunting?
What if a princess was depressed?
These are some of the questions that I asked myself, and that I will now explore.

And now for some pictures!

Cinderella:

Belle:

I'm having trouble with the other pics, so I guess those two are it for now.

It will be a challenge to write about six girls - which means six plotlines - plus their villains, love interests, friends, and families.

I'll try to update you on the story every now and then, but I don't want to give away any spoilers.

Have a lovely day!

We Don't Have Long... Tomorrow Could Be One Day Too Late.

Listen up people. This is something that has been on my mind a lot. And now is the time to say it out loud.

You need to get out there and do something with your life.

BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY: You need to tell the ones you love that they mean so much to you, because Death Is Just Around The Corner, and tomorrow could be One Day Too Late.

Never leave for tomorrow, that which can be done today. (the quote goes something like that) And that includes telling someone I Love You.

Death. It's coming, and no one knows when they're time to go will arrive. It terrifies me to think that at any moment I could lose someone dear to me. 

I know I've talked about this before, but I can't stop saying what's on my heart. I think about death a lot - I "joke" about how I want my funeral, but it's not a joke.

Last night I dreamt that I lost two people I care about - and even though I'm now awake, I still feel the pain of loss.

The words in the title of this post, are song lyrics, from a song by Skillet, called: One Day Too Late. And I think everyone needs to hear it. So here:

And, like I've said before, I have a very difficult time telling people that I love them, but from now on I'm gonna try harder. I don't want to let tomorrow become one day too late.

Please don't miss your chance.

Beautiful People: September - John and Dallas

Better late than never. It's time for Beautiful People!

What is Beautiful People?

Beautiful People is a blog meme hosted by Sky @ Further Up And Further In and Cait @ Paper Fury. Every month, they post ten questions to help you get to know your characters better.

So, today, I had two characters - from separate stories - approach me and say that I needed to do Beautiful People this month.

Those two characters are John Fletcher and Dallas Green. Dallas wanted a post about herself, and John was just trying to be helpful and remind me. So I decided to do it with both of them. 

John is from Agents and Assassins. And Dallas is from The Animalia Project.

So here is a quick description of them.
Dallas is 16 with curly brown hair and fierce green eyes, she is tough - and acts tougher - and likes to be on top.
John is 21 with blond hair and blue eyes, he is gentle and just wants to be free from the pain he's in.

Alrighty, here we go!

Me: "Alright guys, I'm going to ask the questions and we will answer them," 

1. They’re in a crisis: who would they really like to see right now?

Me: "Dallas you go first,"

Dallas: "Ok then. In a crisis? I'm never in a crisis,"

Me: "But if you were, who would you want to come help?"

Dallas: "I don't need help. I would probably see Erwyn, because I'd defeating him and his silly try to get me in a crisis,"

Me: "I think that she would want to see Joe,"

John: "Who's Joe?"

Me: "A friend of her's that has saved her a couple times from fights,"

Dallas: "I told you, I don't need help,"

Me: "John. Your turn."

John: "Um... well, I guess I'd like to see Cary Hitchcock."

Me: "Not Agent Law?"

John: "Well, her too I guess, but if I could only have one person help me, I'd go with Cary. He's um... friendlier... than, Agent Law."

Me: "Next question. John you go first this time,"

2. Are they easy to get along with? 

John: "I hope I am. But I guess I wouldn't really know,"

Dallas: "Of course I am. I'm very easy to get along with, as long as other people don't act like iditots,"

Me: "John is very easy to get along with. 
  John: *Smiles shyly* "Thank you,"

Me: "Dallas, on the other hand..."

Dallas: "What?"

Me: "Dallas can be a challenge - not for me - but for others."

Dallas: "Oh, come on!

3. Who was the last person they had a deep conversation with?  

Dallas: "Deep? Deep conversations get you nowhere. And they make peopole emotional. But I guess the last person would be Nora, it was not fun."

John: "I guess it would be... her... I'd rather not talk about it,"

Me: *nods* "Ok,"

4. They’re in the middle of a huge crowd of people: how do they feel? 

John: "Not too bad, crowds don't really bother me. I like that you can disappear and just be another face in a crowd,"

Dallas: "It's neither here nor there. Crowds are crowds, so as long as they aren't all cheering for an opponent, I'm good."

5. Do they believe in luck or miracles? 

Dallas: "In luck, yeah, never seen a miracle,"

Me: "Your position on that might change pretty soon,"

Dallas: "What does that mean?"

Me: "Can't tell you. John, your answer?"

John: "Both I guess..."

6. Do they like and get along with their neighbours? 

John: "Well, before I left the states, yeah, but where I am now, it's a little more difficult," 

Dallas: "Define "neighbors". If you mean people in the town, then yeah, most of 'em. But maybe you mean the Green Kids, in The Green. Still, yeah most of 'em are fine."

7. If they could travel anywhere in the world, where would they go? 

Dallas: "The big city," 

John: "Well, I was kinda given that card already. Really, I'm not in to traveling,"

8. How do they feel about their body? 

John: "I'm very aware of how much stronger than me, everyone on Cary's team is,"

Dallas: "I feel great about myself, I'm the best kid in The Games, and I'm gonna win,"  

9. What is the cruelest thing someone has ever said to them? How did they react? 

Me: "Well, Dallas?" 

Dallas: "No one would dare try to be cruel to me."

Me: "Why is that?"

Dallas: "Because I'm tough, I'm not fazed by stuff like that,"

Me: *nods with the wisdom and knowledge that comes from being the author*

John: "The cruelest thing? I don't know..." 

10. What’s the kindest thing someone has ever said to them? How did they react?

Dallas: "What is it with these sappy questions?"

Me: "They're great questions!"

John: "I guess, it would be something - anything - that She said,"

Dallas: "Who? Who is it? You always just say "her" or "she", what's her name?"

John: *makes eye contact with me* "I can't say her name. But she was wonderful. And I can't pinpoint just one thing she said, she was always so kind." *looks over at Dallas* "What about you, Dallas?"

Dallas: "I'm a Green kid, people aren't "kind" they're condescending. No one cares about us except when we're competing in the games. Though I guess, Joe and Mrs Ballet are nice,"

Me: "Ok... now that I've depressed the two of you, I guess we'll wrap this up. Thank you for partisipating, I hope you got at least some enjoyment from this."


And thank You for reading this very long post. I hope you all enjoyed it.

Doctor Who and Heartbreak.

Warning! I was very emotional when writing this post.

I love Doctor Who. I do. I love it. And I have for several months now.
But right now I'm suffering because of that love, and I am left to wonder why anyone would ever open their heart so much.
This show has made me laugh, made me overflow with joy. But it has also made me worry, and cry, and mourn. It has torn my heart to pieces - I imagine it's very much like being put through a paper shredder.
So, why? Why did I allow something so far into my heart?
I think that I must have underestimated the power of the show and the strength of the attachment that would form.
Is the pain worth it? Does the good outweigh the hurt? I don't know. I'm still trying to decide.
This show makes you fall in love with people, people you know you will one day lose. And then, just as promised, it tears them away leaving an enormous hole in your heart. I have just lost someone very very dear to me (Ten) and I don't know how I'll manage.
But still in the midst of the raging heartbreak... I still love the show.
Why?

So? Do you watch Doctor Who? Is it worth it?

...Waiting... Dreams... Ambition...

Here I sit, at my favorite coffee place, staring at my screen until I see double... with nothing to say... seriously, I have nothing to say, but I want to shower the world in words of wisdom and wit. So here I am... waiting for some bolt of inspiration.

Waiting...

Waiting...

...Life is too short to spend it all waiting...

...and yet...

...I'm still here... waiting...

I've been waiting for things all my life: freedom, happiness... luck... talent...

But how can I recive something I'm not working towards?

I finally have my freedom (mostly), but what about my dreams?

I never had ambition until recently - sure, I had dreams, but no hope of them ever becoming a reality; I simply accepted that they were dreams and didn't fight for them. Though really, I couldn't have done anything about it before now anyway, so maybe it's good that I didn't have ambition until now - but anyway... a little while back I tried something big, nothing came of it, except: I found ambition, I realized that I could do something that I loved and maybe even do well. So I decided to do more than just dreams of reaching for the stars, I decided to start building my rocketship.

Really, I don't why I'm saying this right now. I don't even know if I have already said this.

Right now, I just want to encourage you to work towards your dreams. How can you build real castles on clouds unless you get into the sky? 

What about you??? What are you stretching for? What does your cloud castle look like? Decide how you want to get to the sky, and start construction on your space-ship, or ladder, or trampoline, or jet-pack fueled by cuteness; do what you love and do it well.

Tell me your thoughts in the comments! I'd love to hear from you!

~ Smithy Rose

7-7-7 Challenge

I have been tagged, by my dear friend Kelsey at Kelsey's Notebook, to do the 7-7-7 challenge, which is where you share 7 sentences from page 7 of your WIP, and then tag 7 other writers to go and do the same.

 Anyone I would tag has already been tagged, and I don't have 7 people to tag anyway, so you are tagged if you want to be.

 Here is my clip from "Agents and Assassins"

“Why do I keep talking to myself?” John wondered aloud on his way to the village one morning a week later. The sky was bright, and the air fresh, with a tinge of excitement, as if something was to happen soon. However John ignored the feel of the air and continued his conversation with himself, “I never used too. But I do it all the time now. That is when I’m alone. Like right now. I suppose that I won’t be able to get rid of it very easily since it’s kept up this long.”

Reading and Saying Goodbye

I love to read. But I don't like finishing a book or series, because it hurts, and it's like saying goodbye.

I just finished reading the Manga "Ouran High School Host Club". I fell in love with the characters and I've watched them go through so much. And now, I'm saying farewell to a part of them, and a part of me. I love them SO MUCH.
My only consolation is that they might visit me in my head and heart.


I've never "liked" saying goodbye . But I always want to. Because one day, I'm going to see someone for the last time. And I don't want to let them go without a final parting - even though I won't know when it is.
Other people may go the other way and choose not to say goodbye, but I can't do that.

I struggle with telling people how much they mean to me; for me, saying goodbye - to my friends - giving and receiving a hug or just a smile... it's kind of a way of saying, "I don't want to lose you,"
I was very young when I realized the frailty of life. And when I did, it hurt... I think it changed me... I got scared... because one thing I do know, is that I love hard, which means that I can't bear the thought of living without my friends.
I actually wanted to die young so that I wouldn't have to go through the pain of someone going before me. I might still desire it.

So anyway... these are my thoughts... and I'm actually crying right now...