Top Three Authors:
J.R.R Tolkien
C.S. Lewis
Ted Dekker.
Top 3 male characters:
Aslan of Narnia
Frodo of LotR
Justin of the Circle Trilogy
Top 3 female characters:
Lucy of Narnia
Luthien of the Silmarillion
Bonnie Silver of Dragons in Our Midst
Top 30 fiction books/series in no particular order:
1. Narnia
2. Lord of the Rings
3. Silmarilion
4. Princess Bride
5. Dragons in Our Midst
6. Oracles of Fire
7. Binding of the Blade
8. Circle Trilogy w/Green
9. Echoes from the Edge
10. AD Chronicles
11. C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy
12. Squire Tales
13. Till We Have Faces
14. The Door Within
15. Starlighter
16. The Time Quartet by L’Engle
17. Birdwing
18. Auralia’s Colors
19. At the Back of the North Wind
20. The Bronze Bow
21. The Divine Comedy—yes, it’s a classical poem, it still counts
22. Inkworld
23. Roverandom
24. Abarat
25. Music of Dolphins
26. Children of Hurin
27. History of Middle-Earth in twelve volumes
28. Screwtape Letters
29. Broken Angel
30. The Hobbit
Top 3 books most recently read:
The Silmarillion
Return of the King
Redeeming Love
Worst 3 books ever read:
The Awakening by Kate Choplin ---so dull and boring
The Things they Carried—weird perspective on Vietnam war
Of Mice and Men—I don’t mind the death of MC’s, but really, it has to be handled better
Top 5 scenes from any book:
Rachel recognizing Justin, Red by Ted Dekker
Benjiah’s resurrection, All My Holy Mountain by L.B. Graham
Aslan’s resurrection Lion, Witch Wardrobe
The triple wedding, The Bones of Makaidos by Bryan Davis
Return of Gandalf, Two Towers
The book(s) that made me cry the most:
All My Holy Mountain
Red by Ted Dekker
Green by Ted Dekker
Tears of a Dragon by Bryan Davis
Enoch’s Ghost by Bryan Davis
I Know why the Angels Dance by Bryan Davis
The Silmarillion by Tolkien
The book(s) that made me laugh the most:
Dragons in Our Midst/Oracles of Fire by Bryan Davis
Echoes from the Edge by Bryan Davis
The Princess Bride
The book(s) that made me feel the best at the end:
All my Holy Mountain
The Last Battle, C.S. Lewis
Contemporary or Historical?
Historical. Contemprary is too angsty
Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror?
Fantasy all the way!
Hardback or Trade Paperback or Mass Market Paperback?
Mass Market Paperback—cheap and you can fit several in a purse!
Barnes & Noble or Amazon?
Amazon--cheaper
Bookmark or Dog-ear?
Bookmark, dog-ears look awful
Alphabetize by author, alphabetize by title, or organize not at all?
None of the above…first by genre, then by title
Star Wars or Star Trek?
Neither…haven’t seen either
Keep, Throw Away, or Sell?
Keep, unless it’s awful
Keep dust-jacket or toss it?
keep
Read with dustjacket or remove it?
Well, I have like, one book with a dust-jacket…but still on
Little Women or Anne of Green Gables?
Anne of Green Gables…she’s much more imaginative
Short story or novel?
Novel
Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?
When someone makes me…so I guess when tired.
“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”?
Once upon a time, without a doubt.
Tear Jerker or Belly Laugh?
Preferably both, but if only one…tear jerker
Charlotte, Emily, or Anne Brontë?
Haven’t read any
Buy or Borrow?
Borrow, because I have no money
Buying choice: Book Reviews, Recommendation, or Browse?
Browse, because no one I know likes my tastes
Collection (short stories by the same author) or Anthology (short stories by different authors)? Collection
Crane or Conrad?
Haven’t read either
Standalone or Series?
Series!
Tidy ending or Cliffhanger?
Cliffhanger only if there is a sequel
Morning reading, afternoon reading, or nighttime reading?
When I have time
Favorite genre series?
I can’t decide
New or used?
Used is way cheaper
Favorite book of which nobody else has heard?
Enoch’s Ghost by Bryan Davis
Tell Me a Story, Raggedy Man
Monday, March 15, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Too Young To Write a Novel?
One of the sites I am a member of is ApricotPie. There I stumbled across this http://www.apricotpie.com/sarah-bethany/i-feel-too-young-write-novel essay. I think it has an excellent discussion of age as it relates to writing.
P.S. 'Kestrel' is me.
P.S. 'Kestrel' is me.
Friday, February 5, 2010
A Moment in the Life of A Nerd
I feel nerdy today.
What are the three distinguishing marks of a nerd?
Glasses--check
Runny nose--Nasty sinuses, yessss, nasty preciousss...Check
Smart--well, Check. I got a perfect score on my precalc test when it's not even my best area.
And what was I doing in study hall?
More geekiness.
Bible study
Learning Quenya
Reading Signature in the Cell, an argument for Intellegant Design.
Any of you have a nerdy/geeky day like that?
What are the three distinguishing marks of a nerd?
Glasses--check
Runny nose--Nasty sinuses, yessss, nasty preciousss...Check
Smart--well, Check. I got a perfect score on my precalc test when it's not even my best area.
And what was I doing in study hall?
More geekiness.
Bible study
Learning Quenya
Reading Signature in the Cell, an argument for Intellegant Design.
Any of you have a nerdy/geeky day like that?
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Fiction and Faith
Ariach swung again, thrusting at my side.
I swung with all my might, trying to knock his sword away. The collision of our blades rang out over the crowd’s roar.Vibrations shook my blade, and it fell to the ground.
Ariach's dagger remained fixed at my chest.
I sank to my knees.I was dead. There was no doubt about that.
Ariach reached over and cut my helmet strap. He stared at me for a long time. I wondered what was going through his mind. A tear rolled down his cheek. He bent down, raising his sword high-
And handed it to me.
I stared at it, confused.
"You dropped this," he said softly.
The arena fell deathly silent. I stood slowly. My helmet plopped into the sand. My emotions swirled back, deadly as a cobra.
"Ariach…”
I swung the blade.
It buried itself in his chest. He fell to the ground.
~Three Dark Roses
In my National Novel Writing Month novel, there is a ‘battle’ between the Roses, the followers of the King, and the Witherers, followers of Deathroot. However, the Roses do not fight with swords, but with music. In this excerpt, Ariach has entered the Witherers’ fortress to rescue his daughter Keturah. The mission failed, and now Ariach is facing death in the arena. His opponent and the speaker of this piece is, Joel, Keturah’s best friend, a traitor to the Roses who had turned to the Witherers.
It was just a story I had written—or so I thought. But recently my youth group began a Voice of the Martyrs series about teens smuggling Bibles into Vietnam. The companion study guide contained an account of a Roman martyr in 203 AD named Perpetua. She was thrown into the arena with wild beasts, but they refused to attack.
So gladiators entered the arena to finish the execution. But the man assigned to Perpetua was young and inexperienced. His hand trembled as he tried to pierce between her ribs. Perpetua cried out as the sword struck her to the bone, but then she calmly took the man’s hand and guided the sword to her throat.~Underground Reality: Vietnam
“Truth is stranger than fiction.”So is faith. If faith can be that strong, than it makes me wonder what we in America are missing. If faith is silver to be refined, what happens when the crucible is never heated?
I swung with all my might, trying to knock his sword away. The collision of our blades rang out over the crowd’s roar.Vibrations shook my blade, and it fell to the ground.
Ariach's dagger remained fixed at my chest.
I sank to my knees.I was dead. There was no doubt about that.
Ariach reached over and cut my helmet strap. He stared at me for a long time. I wondered what was going through his mind. A tear rolled down his cheek. He bent down, raising his sword high-
And handed it to me.
I stared at it, confused.
"You dropped this," he said softly.
The arena fell deathly silent. I stood slowly. My helmet plopped into the sand. My emotions swirled back, deadly as a cobra.
"Ariach…”
I swung the blade.
It buried itself in his chest. He fell to the ground.
~Three Dark Roses
In my National Novel Writing Month novel, there is a ‘battle’ between the Roses, the followers of the King, and the Witherers, followers of Deathroot. However, the Roses do not fight with swords, but with music. In this excerpt, Ariach has entered the Witherers’ fortress to rescue his daughter Keturah. The mission failed, and now Ariach is facing death in the arena. His opponent and the speaker of this piece is, Joel, Keturah’s best friend, a traitor to the Roses who had turned to the Witherers.
It was just a story I had written—or so I thought. But recently my youth group began a Voice of the Martyrs series about teens smuggling Bibles into Vietnam. The companion study guide contained an account of a Roman martyr in 203 AD named Perpetua. She was thrown into the arena with wild beasts, but they refused to attack.
So gladiators entered the arena to finish the execution. But the man assigned to Perpetua was young and inexperienced. His hand trembled as he tried to pierce between her ribs. Perpetua cried out as the sword struck her to the bone, but then she calmly took the man’s hand and guided the sword to her throat.~Underground Reality: Vietnam
“Truth is stranger than fiction.”So is faith. If faith can be that strong, than it makes me wonder what we in America are missing. If faith is silver to be refined, what happens when the crucible is never heated?
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Note on Northernness
What is it that makes some books seem so interesting for a time before falling out of favor? At one point, I found the Redwall series by Brian Jacques fascinating--now, I can barely muster the interest to finish one.
What is the hunger that comes on so swiftly and flees so fast? Lewis descibes it as a moment of utter longing for reunion with God. His friend Tolkien speaks of eucatastrophe, the sudden, almost violent, turn for the better against despair.
...desired with almost sickening intensity something never to be described (except that it is cold, spacious, severe, pale and remote) and then . . . found myself at the very same moment already falling out of that desire and wishing I were back in it.
~Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis
What is the hunger that comes on so swiftly and flees so fast? Lewis descibes it as a moment of utter longing for reunion with God. His friend Tolkien speaks of eucatastrophe, the sudden, almost violent, turn for the better against despair.
It cannot be sought on its' own merits. And if you drink too often, the well will come up dry.
Where have I found it?
A Live Coal in the Sea by Madeline L'Engle.
City on Our Knees by TobyMac
Amarantine by Enya
...even in my own writing when I look at it from a distance.
Where have you found it?
Thursday, November 26, 2009
I won NaNo!
Hurrah! Hurrah! I wrote over 50k of words and am now a NaNoWriMo winner for the second time in a row.
Only...I'm not done. I have probably at least another 10k of story to go. It was meant to be an end of the world story with martyrs, and I've had only two. Well, two who were just standing around when caught. The other four or so were at the evil fortress.
But I am done!
Kind of...
Only...I'm not done. I have probably at least another 10k of story to go. It was meant to be an end of the world story with martyrs, and I've had only two. Well, two who were just standing around when caught. The other four or so were at the evil fortress.
But I am done!
Kind of...
Sunday, November 1, 2009
NaNoWriMo
I'm deep in the world of NaNoWriMo. Go tohttp://www.nanowrimo.org for more info about it. I'm Nenya_s Wings there.
Also, I have started a Facebook group called NaNo 13th~Something Will Happen!
On the guide to NaNo email, it says:
November 13: Nothing really happens on November 13.
I want to change that.
Just repeat the following:I hereby promise to do something shocking, crazy or just plain weird in my NaNo story on November 13th.
Then on November 14th, tell me what you did.
Also, I have started a Facebook group called NaNo 13th~Something Will Happen!
On the guide to NaNo email, it says:
November 13: Nothing really happens on November 13.
I want to change that.
Just repeat the following:I hereby promise to do something shocking, crazy or just plain weird in my NaNo story on November 13th.
Then on November 14th, tell me what you did.
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