My Summer... As Told in GIF

   My summer begins back in April, where I ended my school year (in the world of Homeschooling, a school year can both stretch for long months, or shrink into non-existence), and ends now, where I take my education back up in an eager grasp.

     As you all know, I didn't write at all this summer, so... I had no goals.  Being a goal oriented person, I was completely and utterly lost.  

   Thankfully, I found two new goals to pursue this summer.  Reading as many books as I could, and buying as many books as I could (I'll save that endeavor for another post though).  Thankfully, my birthday was right around the corner, and I got a huge load of books to start me off on my goals.  

     The birthday which I celebrated was my fifteenth, which means I get my driver's permit!  It has been quite the experience.  Excitement, horror, joy, fear.  

   In the midst of this, I continued to read.

   And buy books...

   And of course, I went and saw Finding Dory when it came out in theaters, 

   In July, I started a book club for Heartless, the first book in the Tales of Goldstone Wood series.  The book was loved so much, that in September, we started Veiled Rose, the second book in the series.

   I bought some more books...

   And read...

While I did this, we moved from the house we had lived in for ten years, and into a friend's house, while we waited for the appraisal on our new house. 

Finally though, we moved in... with a lot of boxes

But I always have my books, 

Brand New Blog

   Okay, so I wouldn't say this blog is brand new.
   I only changed the background, font, and a few colors, but there's a visible difference.  There also won't be many changes to the posts- not nearly as many as I had thought there was going to be.  Anyways, I promised all the way back at the end of June, that I would have an explanation to my absence up in the next couple of weeks.  And well, it's finally here.
   To begin my explanation we have to go all the way back to May.  As you should now, in May, I finished the first draft of my work in progress, On Time.  I also had a HUGE burnout.  I was finishing up with revisions for my short story, Tears of Promise (which was coming along quite nicely), when I started crying frustrated tears (gosh, that's a blow to my insufferable pride).  Anyways, after recovering from this breakdown, I went outside, and talked to my best friend- she's great at helping my reorganize my thoughts.  And after discussing the situation, I realized that I didn't enjoy writing as of that moment- in fact it had been awhile since I had truly enjoyed writing.
   You see, I suffer from a few ailments called, stubborn determination, and high ambitions.  I've always taken pride in these things, because they've helped me to not stray from my passion and goals.  But over the last year and a half, these 'ailment's' have taken over my love of writing, and been replaced with only the goal to be published.
   So, I took a nice long break.  Which is just now ending.  I am now very excited to return to writing, but don't know for sure what project I will be working on.  I could go on to my second draft of On Time, the story I wrote in the middle of my burnout (and honestly, the WORST first draft I've ever written).  Or, I could resume Dawns Rise, my favorite project for the last two and a half years.  I'll be dwelling on this subject a bit more, praying, and thinking, but eventually will tell you all what it is I will be doing.  But I can guarantee, it will be a story which I will enjoy writing from the beginning to the end.
   In the meantime, I hope to resume my weekly posts, and monthly Realm Walkers.  I hope you all will forgive me of The Long Absence, and will look forward to my future posts as much as I am.

Realm Walkers Notice

  Wow, it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve posted on here.  There is a reason, one that I can’t fully explain, and I don’t know if I completely understand, but there is a reason.  I plan to have a post hopefully explaining it in a couple of weeks.  But for now, I am addressing the lack of Realm Walker posts there have been since March.  Well, I can assure that Ellie had a valid and legit reason for not being able to write her post in April.  As for me… I don’t.  Except for the reason I will explain in a couple of weeks.  And I’ve been planning to catch up, but I’ve been really busy.  Today, I finally have time to sit down and catch up on the three missing Realm Walkers story, but I came across a problem.

  You see, my family has been in the process of selling, buying, and moving since back in February, and in the midst of this we’ve slowly been packing.  Well, we’ve finally moved out, but we can’t move into the house we’re buying for another couple weeks, so we’ve been living out of duffel bags.  And I thought I had a few writing stuff in this bag- one of the items being mine and Ellie’s Realm Walkers notebook (complete with all of our outlines and plans for Addy and Thacia for the next while).  Unfortunately, I found out this morning, that I accidentally packed that book away.  Yeah, huge bummer.  

  So, Realm Walkers is at a stand still for now until my family moves into our new house.  Hopefully, that’s soon.

Ten Reasons I Love Tales of Goldstone Wood

10. The Song

The Song is the parallel to the Holy Spirit in the Tales of Goldstone Wood, and show up very frequently in each book.  

9. The Cast of Characters-
Each of the books has such a beautiful complimenting cast of characters.

8. The Dragon

The Dragon is the villain of the entire series, and is the parallel of Satan.

7. The Brothers of Ashiun

The Brothers of Ashiun are the legendary heroes of old, and continue to make an impact in the story even after their deaths.

6. Starflower

Starflower is one of the heroines in the series.  In my opinion she is also the best female heroine in literature.

5. Prince of the Farthestshore

The Prince of the Farthestshore is the parallel of Jesus Christ, and shows up near the end of every single one of the books.

4. Bard Eanrin

Bard Eanrin is the beloved favorite character of anyone who reads the series.  He shows up in every single one of the books.

3. The History

The books are written out of order of history, and the whole series is about the history of this one world.

2. Redemption Theme

Every story has a great theme of redemption- along with several other themes.

1. Allegorical Tale

This series has the best allegorical tale and parallels in my opinion.  Anyone who enjoys reading allegories, will fall in love with this book.  

   All the drawings and paintings are drawn by others in the Goldstone Wood fandom, if you would like to see more, go, http://goldstonewoodfanart.blogspot.ca/

On Time

   A week ago, I promised all of you that I would write a post about the story I've been working on since the beginning of the year.  I've finally gotten my first draft done, with a total of 218 pages, and 73,000 words.  The title is, On Time.  It is science fiction- which is a genre I have never done before, so this was a new experience.  It has three point of view characters- Piper, Parker, and Renette.

   The entire story revolves around the fact that someone has messed up time. This shakes the very foundations of history, threatening for it all to collapse if they don't fix it in two weeks.  So, with several people chasing after them, begging for their lives to end, they have to try and save time.  But if they succeed, it will come with a deadly price.

   And let me just say, this story needs a lot of work.  This has to be the worst first draft in my life.  But throughout the story, I had to just remind myself, I was merely shoveling sand into a bucket, and that I could fix it later.

"I'm writing a first draft and reminding myself that I'm simply shoveling sand into a box, so that later, I can build castles."

-Shannon Hale

   The theme in this story is a bit unknown to me.  I began with one idea in mind, but it faded away after a really strong moment, and eventually made a mess of the entire thing.  The villains are quite undeveloped as well.  I wasn't even sure who the villains were until I was seventy pages in, and even then I was a bit confused on why they were there.  I think I'm going to be changing the entire genre, also, and I'll be researching many things over the summer.
   As you can see, this story needs a lot of work, and once June begins, I'll be rereading it to get an idea on the specifics, and outlining it all out.  I plan to take two months on the outline, so that by August I can start the second draft with a clear plan in mind.

   There's the story for you.  I hope it at least sounds interesting, because I think you would be irritated with it if you tried to read it. 

   But now I must leave to fight valiantly for my characters in another story, as I edit fiercely, and create a legend for the centuries.  

For Geeks

Hello fellow readers.  I just wanted to let you know, that if you would like a new blog to read, I've got one you might like.  It's a blog my friends and I have created together, For Geeks.  Anyways, we all hope you enjoy, there will be a new post on every week, by a different author, about different stories.  Comment, and tell us what you think!

Writing Update

Hey!  This week is just a quick update on my writing.  So, I’ve been sick most of the week, and because of that, I’ve gotten a lot of writing done.  I’m done (early) with the novel I started in the beginning of this year- and I’ll be doing a post about it next week.  I’m almost done with the third draft of my little mermaid short story, and it’s going amazing!  I also am starting a new blog with some friends tomorrow, May 2, so I’ll put something about that tomorrow.  Anyways, I hope all of you have a good week.  Allons-y!