Flying Squirrels

Whoa, it's been more than two months since I've posted a blog! I have been spending all my free time trying to finish the first draft of my novel before school starts back in a few weeks. I am happy to say that I am down to the last 10,000 words or so, and I am ITCHING to get this thing done. So many people have basically laughed in my face when I told them that I wanted to be an author, and I want to prove them WRONG. Like one day, I went to the doctor for a stomach virus, and as he poked and prodded my abdomen, he asked what I was going to school for. I told him creative writing because I am going to be a novelist. (I have stopped saying "want to be a novelist" and have switched to "going to be a novelist". Because, you know, I just AM) Anyway, this doctor chuckled at my mention of writing books for a living, and said, "So what are you planning to do when that doesn't work out?"

I am completely aware that becoming a successful novelist is rare, and that it is a long, grueling, make-you-wanna-pluck-out-your-eyeballs process to write a book and have it sold to a publisher. And I'm also aware that even if a book does sell, it might not hit it off with the general public. The only people that may buy it in stores are my mom, sister, and few friends. But I'm okay with that. Writing is what I love. And do you think I am going to invest years of time and sweat and tears into something that I haven't researched??? Probably not. Hey doctor, did anybody laugh at you and ask you what you were going to do when med school didn't work out? Probably not. So back off and give me some anti-nausea medicine, already. 

Anyway, I know I've said it in my posts before that you shouldn't let other people negatively influence your dream, no matter what it is, I will say it again: DON'T FALTER. Especially if you tell people that you are going to do something crazy like write books or become a singer or cure cancer or eat the world's largest meatball, people are going to roll their eyes and laugh at you like you are a silly little dreamer with no sense of reality. But that's because the majority of the population are like lemmings. They follow what the person beside them does and try not to stand out any way that might make them seem different. But guess what? You ARE different. You ARE special. Make that person feel like they aren't cool for being different instead of the other way around. 

I so didn't mean for this post to become so long. It was meant to be a fun story about my experiences with flying squirrels (yes, experienceS. They follow me), but my frustration with the world for being mean to creative people spilled out a little, and it's hard to stop it once it starts. So after the page break, I will leave you with some funny stories. :-) (I'm telling you, my life is weirdo. Craziness stalks me)

Tornado Relief

I am from Alabama, so naturally, I am an enormous Alabama Football fan (ROLL TIDE!!!). Example:

(Me at Bryant Denny Stadium)

A few weeks ago, a gigantic tornado tore through Tuscaloosa. Example:


Unfortunately, many people lost their businesses, homes, and loved ones. A big chunk of the wonderful college town that I once knew now looks like this:

Tuscaloosa will be dealing with ramifications of this terrible storm for years to come. If you would like to donate to help out, please click here to visit the Red Cross Disaster Relief Website.  Or you can text "Red Cross" to 90999, and a one time donation of $10 will be added to your cell phone bill. In the meantime, I give you an awesome of cover of Coldplay's, "Fix You"- by Little Big Town. They sang this during Music Builds: The CMT Disaster Relief Concert, and I have to share it. They ROCKED it. Or beautified it. Whatever you want to call it, it was awesome.



*Note- Tuscaloosa was not the only town affected by this particular band of storms, but it was considered to have been hit the hardest. My heart goes out to anyone who lost anyone or anything, and I send well wishes your way.

Book Reviews!

 Words.  Words are only a combination of letters and symbols.  It seems simple, right? But without words, we wouldn't have our language.  We wouldn't have names.  We wouldn't have books.  Words are important.  

 

Books have always been my way of being able to travel to another city, or country, even another world without actually having to leave my house.  The right combination of words can make characters jump right off the page.  Good authors have you wrapped up in the story and loving or hating their characters within seconds of opening the book.  It's amazing how you can fall in love with someone without actually having met them face to face. (Edward Cullen, anyone?)  But the greatest thing is, you get to know what they are thinking at all times.  Haven't we all said at one point or another in our lives that we would love to know what everyone is thinking right now?  Well when you read, you get to do just that. 

 

Books can be so engrossing, so utterly enthralling, that they can suck you in so incredibly deep that you refuse to put it down until you finish.  When you can't stop reading while you cook, or while you shower, or while you eat; it blows me away that a person can create a world so intensely interesting that you can't live until you make sure that the character is going to be okay in his or her own life first.

 

I learn something new every time I pick up a new book.  Whether it be a word that I have never heard before, or a town that I have never visited, or a culture that I never knew anything about, reading will ALWAYS teach me something.  So I have decided that whenever I read a new book, I will write a short review and then tell you what that book taught me.  I am big fan of YA paranormal (since that is the type of book that I am writing), but I read all genres.  I look forward to sharing my journeys with you, and hope that it inspires you to go buy a book and learn something!

Beauty and The Beast Retelling

I have decided to post a short story every month to keep my creative juices flowing when I start to get burned out on my novel-in-progress. This particular one is not exactly short (it's almost 2000 words), but I have a soft spot for it. One of my favorite childhood movies was Beauty And The Beast-- i still know ALL the words to the songs, by the way-- so I wrote this story for a fairy tale retelling contest that I entered a few weeks ago. Hope you enjoy!

Scarred

 

My father will not let me be beautiful. 

  "Beauty is for silly girls," he says. "Beauty only causes pain to others."

  I avoid my reflection in the mirror as the familiar burn of embarrassment turns my cheeks a shameful red. My hair falls over my face and I let it stay there; the less of my face that anyone sees, the better. I know that that he relishes in the fact that I will never be beautiful. The doctors said they could fix my skin. They said they could turn the thick, leathery scars that covered my face and arms into skin that I could be proud of again. 

Pimping Maggie

So as I have said before, Maggie Stiefvater is my favorite author. If you have never heard of her, where the heck have you been???? She is the Best Selling New York Times author of Lament, Ballad, Shiver, Linger, and a myriad of other books yet to be published. Shiver and Linger are part of the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy, and the third installment, Forever, is due to be released on July 12th, 2011. Maggie is not only an author that can make a reader's heart bleed with her beautiful descriptions, but she is also an accomplished artist and musician. Here is proof:

And yes. Maggie designed and hand cut ALL of that paper. Plus she shot the video (using stop motion animation). Plus she wrote and recorded the music in the background. Impressed yet? (Don't make me add another "plus").

To pre-order an autographed copy of Forever (or any of her other amazing books), click here. To go to the Wolves Of Mercy Falls website, click here. And if you want to be entertained by Maggie's quirky sense of humor, click here -- Even when she is trying to be serious, she will make you spew coke from your nose.

Oh in case I forgot to mention it before, Maggie rocks. She just does. 

"People Don't Talk In Contractions"

The past two weeks for me have been filled with excitement, disappointment, tears, and smiles. Thanks to the wonderful Maggie Stiefvater, I had my first experience with someone critiquing my novel-to-be. As Maggie and many other authors point out, it is best to have another writer or avid reader to read your work before sending it out to agents or editors. Most authors these days have a critique group, usually made up of one or two other authors. So I asked Maggie on her live journal how she came by her two critique partners, and in response, she set up a post so that other writers that read her blog could find a critique partner or two.

And so began the heart breaking process. I have barely even talked about the plot to my mostly-finished novel because I wanted to know exactly where I was going before I told anyone what it was about. But I was certainly not going to let this opportunity slip through my fingers. So I typed up a little short paragraph about what the main idea of my story was, and waited to be requested as a possible-future-critique-partner.

That day, I had never been so excited in my life. I received ten emails from other aspiring writers who wanted to read my work! People actually thought my story sounded interesting! So I polished my little baby and sent it's first 50 pages out into the world. No one had ever read my private work, and I was SCARED. I knew that there were some grammar mistakes here and there, and I knew that my main character needed to be a little more unique, but I thought the main thing in itself was pretty good for a first draft.

Reality TV

*Reader Warning* - If you enjoy any show with word "housewives" in the title, then this post will most likely piss you off. You were warned.

I have a question for the world today: Why does anyone watch reality television? No scratch that: it should be titled "reality" television, with quotes around the word. Because there is absolutely nothing REAL about it. I get the premise of it. I mean it's neat to be able to see how other people around the world live. It's cool to be able to see inside rich people's houses. But it ends there for me. 

Most of these "reality" shows are only about fame seeking, fake careers and the idiotic people that chase those dreams. Don't get me wrong, I would love to one day have my name printed on a book jacket that everyone has on their bookshelves. I would be ecstatic for people to point at me and whisper, "Hey, I think that is Stefanie Jones. She wrote that book that I read over and over and worship in my basement with secret candlelit rituals every full moon." (Okay, maybe that's a bit extreme, but you KNOW those people are out there. *shudders*) But I wouldn't invite strangers with cameras into my home and pretend to do things like sleep with my best friend's boyfriend just so that I could achieve that dream. 

Since the "Housewives" shows seem to be so popular, I decided to sit down one day and give one of them a try when I came across a marathon on Bravo. I thought, "This might be funny. Maybe I'm thinking about these shows in the wrong light. Maybe these women actually have some depth that I've somehow missed." Yeah.... My husband had to listen to me rant for three hours after watching approximately two minutes of the show...