11 Random Fact- Stuff About Me!! :D

So, remember when I was doing the 10 Random Facts things on days when I didn’t get any Candor Fridays questions? Well, according to the Reader Survey people want more about my personal life. So, instead of random facts about me, here are 11 (because I came up with too many XD) random fact about my life recently. Hope y’all enjoy!

1. My puppy, Malachi, is 9 months today! He was born August 1^st, 2014 so today is his official 9 month birthday.

2. My Mom and I have been watching my nephew while my brother and sister-in-law are working. He’s 19 months and super adorable. Especially when he plays with Malachi :3 He’s really a good kid and I love him to pieces.

3. I am currently listening to Luke Bryan’s “Crash My Party” on repeat as I write this post.

4. I bought six Christian Fiction books on Wednesday and I’m not even remotely remorseful. If I didn’t write YA fiction, I would probably write Christian Romance. And I still might, someday when I’m an old married lady :P

5. Mom took me to the library yesterday and I was able to get the next two volumes in the manga series I’m reading. I’ve been waiting a long time for these so I’m so psyched about it! Read on of the volumes yesterday and it so way too cute. And exciting. And yeah. Really loving it :D

6. Mom and I went to see Age of Adaline on Sunday. I don’t have a ton to say about it, except that I loved it. There is a moral issue, as it’s implied Adaline is having premarital sex, and I was kind of disappointed about that. But, nothing is actually shown, and the movie is really wonderful otherwise. It’s very much a contemporary fairy tale and I totally want to see it again :D

7. I had my very first job interview on Tuesday. Interviewed at the office where my dad works for their summer help position. I think it went okay, but I’m really nervous. I just wish they would get back to me soon so I can mentally one way or the other.

8. Getting ready for Book Club on Tuesday. We’re reading Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George, which I’ve already read. So, I just need to come up with discussion questions. Book Club has eight members now, including me. Which is strange, because I can still remember when we had meetings with just me and like two or three other girls. But, it’s also good. The girls add a lot to the discussion and we have a blast chatting about books and life and all that jazz.

9. I’ve been getting really angry about social issues lately (haha, ask my mom and she’ll probably tell you it’s been the last several years XD) and have been trying to process my thoughts on them. I hope to write extensively on my thoughts about them in the future. Which will be weird, since the non-fiction writing I do has always been about writing, so this’ll be a stretch for me.

10. I helped my best friend enter this contest using her super amazing idea that I helped make even more amazing. Regardless of whether we win, we had a ton of fun and I plan to push her to do something with even if we lose. Because her idea is awesome. I can’t share it here, because it’s hers, but yeah. Take my word for it. So. Awesome. Stayed up until after midnight several nights working stuff out and we got it in right at the deadline. So much fun.

11. I’ve been very unfocused in my writing. The last several weeks I’ve jumped from story idea to story idea and haven’t written much of anything. The weather’s just so nice I want to write everything. All at the same time. So, I’m having trouble focusing. If you want to make things even more complicated stop over at my Pinterest and check out my story boards (any board with “[NB]” at the beginning) when stop back here and drop me a comment about which one you’d most like to see me write! Or, if you somehow know about a story I don’t yet have a board for, you can go ahead and mention that one…

And, not a fact, but sort of: I’m hoping to start writing more reviews in the future, so if there is any book/ movie/ or show you would like to know my thoughts on, go ahead and ask me about it. I’ll have either read/ seen it and can review it for you, or I’ll consider reading/ watching it. Not making promises that if I haven’t read/ seen it that I will, but I’ll certainly give it consideration!

I’m also playing with some blog post ideas, but I always have trouble deciding what to write about. So, if you have any ideas, go ahead and share them with me! I always love to hear from my readers and find out what they’re interested in or want to know from me.

And, there you have it! I shall hopefully get a post written for Monday. And, Candor Fridays is still a thing. So, please send me questions if you have them!! And, in the meantime, don’t forget to stop over at my Pinterest account to look around or drop me an email about something I should write about/ review.

Christmas Songs of a Favorite Nature

No questions this week, but since it’s the holiday, I figure you were all just busy. So, I’ll let you off the hook.

This time.

I thought I’d do something different this time.

Instead of listing random facts, in spirit of the holiday, I thought I would share you some of my favorite Christmas songs.

I have nothing against traditional Christmas songs. In fact, they are really great to sing. But, when it comes to preference, I am more inclined to go for nontraditional. That’s just my personality.

Also, you will notice very quickly that most of the songs are from Behold the Lamb of God, Let It Snow Baby… Let it Reindeer, and Christmas Stories: Repeat the Sounding Joy. If you would like, you can go listen to all of those right now and be done with it.

Or, you can read on and listen to just my favorites and learn why they’re my favorites.

All right, without further ado, my favorite Christmas songs, roughly in order from lesser favorite to most favorite:

Five Golden Rings

From: How Many Kings: Songs for Christmas by Downhere

Favorite Line: Just listen to it.

12 Days of Christmas

From Let It Snow Baby… Let It Reindeer

Favorite Line: What's a partridge?/ What's a pear tree?/ I don't know so please don't ask me/ But I can bet those are terrible gifts to get.

Matthew Begats

From: Behold the Lamb of God by Andrew Peterson

Favorite Line: All of them. This one can’t be explained. Listen to it. It’s wonderful.

In Like a Lion (Always Winter)

From: Let It Snow Baby… Let It Reindeer

Favorite Line: When February rolls around I’ll roll my eyes/ Turn a cold shoulder to these even colder skies/ And by the fire my heart if heaves a sigh/ For the green grass waiting on the other side

How Many Kings?

From: How Many Kings: Songs for Christmas by Downhere

Favorite Line: Definitely love the chorus: Cause how many kings, stepped down from their thrones?/ How many lords have abandoned their homes?/ How many greats have become the least for me?/ How many Gods have poured out their hearts/ To romance a world that has torn all apart?/ How many fathers gave up their sons for me?

I Celebrate the Day

From: Let It Snow Baby… Let It Reindeer by Relient K

Favorite Line: And I, I celebrate the day/ That you were born to die/ That I could one day pray for you to save my life.

Labor of Love

From: Behold the Lamb of God by Andrew Peterson

Favorite Line: Not so much a favorite line as a favorite concept. This is beautiful because of the idea, the story of the faith of Mary and Joseph. So many times we forget how greatly they were opening to being used by God.

Christmas for Jesus

From: Christmas Stories: Repeat the Sounding Joy by Jason Gray

Favorite Line: The opening lines: We celebrate Jesus once every year/ And, God’s little boy born into our kingdom here/ Is it Christmas for Jesus when I’m born into his?/ Is my heart the present He put on his list? (even typing it up now, I’m getting all teared up. <3 <3)

Forgiveness is a Miracle (A Song for Joseph)/ Man of Mercy

From: Christmas Stories: Repeat the Sounding Joy

Favorite Line: But the forgiveness that gave/ Would be given back to you/ Because you carried in your heart/ What she carried in her womb

Be Born in Me

From: Music Inspired by the Story performed by Francesca Battistelli

Favorite Line: All this time we’ve waited for the promise/ All this time you’ve waited for my arm and I am not brave/ I’ll never be/ The only think my heart can offer/ Is a vacancy

If you want to listen to them in succession without having to go through and play them all, here’s them all in a playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZY8ggLqeVIDgFulx42yAQ3iUGhqXnt7O

Ten More Random Facts

No questions for this week, so here are ten random facts about me. If you want to spare me the agony of having to think up ten more for next week, you'll have a little mercy and send me a question.

In the meantime, here are the facts:

1. Something about rain makes me happy to be alive.
2. My laptop’s name is Edmund
3. Gregory Peck is one of my favorite actors.
4. I have an affinity for old westerns, both movies and TV shows.
5. If I had to choose one costume to sew for the rest of my life- one costume to make and nothing else- I would choose the dirndl hands down. It is, without a doubt, my most favorite thing ever. If you don’t know what a dirndl is, go look it up as soon as you finish reading this post.
6. My Myers-Briggs personality type is INFJ/P (it changes depending on what test I take…). And every personality test I have ever taken (no matter what kind it is) has told me I am a romantic or a dreamer or an idealist. Like I didn’t already know that… XD
7. Muffins are my favorite food item in the world.
8. My favorite food is hash because it’s so yummy but also super practical- you just fry up potatoes with whatever leftovers you happen to have in the fridge and BAM! Hash. Now you know where Kit Parker gets it from (though, she liked the canned stuff and I’m more partial to the homemade kind)
9. In line with my romantic side, I set characters up with each other almost as soon as I meet them. I have couples set up that would make people shake their heads or question my sanity because I don’t just set up the obvious couples, I set up everyone with everyone. If the writers don’t present me with a couple to love, I create one.
10. I am a fairly modern old-fashioned girl. I believe in traditional gender roles as set out in the Bible but I also believe that people take them to extremes that they don’t need to be taken to. But, that is a discussion for a whole separate blog post. If you want to know all of my thoughts on the subject, just drop a comment below.

And there you have it! Ten things you might not have known about me. If you found any of these interesting, drop a comment for me. And, don't forget to send in your questions for next week!

Also, I'm done with this post, so go look up a dirndl. Now. Right now. That's an order.

Why are you still here? Go. Now.

See you all at the beginning of the week!

10 Random Facts and a Winner- Candor Fridays

No questions this weeks, folks, so I thought I'd do something a little different and give you 10 random facts about me. I tried to come up with things most people wouldn't know and it turned out being a lot harder than I expected XD But, succeed I did.

And, here they are:

1. My favorite letter is “R” which is nice and all until I’m naming characters. I have a nasty habit of giving too many of my characters names starting with “r”. Which is ironic because I don’t have many “r” characters in my published novels…
2. My favorite numbers are 7 and 3 and multiples of those two make me happy. Except 18. I don’t like the number 18 for some reason.
3. My top five favorite movies (in no particular order) are: Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Pride and Prejudice: A Latter Day Comedy, Secondhand Lions, Holes, and You Can’t Take it With You.
4. The first character crush I can remember having is Dimitri from 20^th Century Fox’s Anastasia.
5. I used to sleep with scissors under my pillow.
6. My favorite fairy tale is the Brothers Grimm’s King Thrushbeard.
7. I prefer vanilla to chocolate in both cake and ice cream, but like chocolate frosting better
8. I don’t like Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, The Lion King, or The Jungle Book. Sorry. They just aren’t my thing. And I feel really horrible because they’re classics and stuff…
9. I think it’s completely unfair that it’s only socially acceptable one day out of the year for people to wear costumes while they go about their daily lives but people can wear their team colors or favorite sports shirt for a whole season. Want to dress like your favorite player? Go for it! Want to dress like your favorite character? That’s weird…
10. I once took a dog biscuit to school for a teacher. Yes, he took a bite of it because he thought it was a cookie. No, I don’t remember why I did it.

And, no I didn't forget what this week is. I promised on Monday that I would select a winner and so I have done just that.

In honor of my upcoming book release, the winner will receive a copy of How to Properly Deface a Book - Kit Parker Book Two. For the rest of you, this title is due to hit the shelves at Amazon on November 10th. So, make sure you mark your calendar for that date (I'll be reminding you the day it releases too, of course :P)

Now then, without further ado, I present to you the winner of this month's Candor Fridays Giveaway:

Lydia Matzel!!!

[insert cheering and general noises of excitement]

And, for those of you who want a chance to win something, make sure to send me your questions. Every entrant will have their name put into the drawing, but I can't put your name in if you don't send me something!

And, in the meantime, I'm starting NaNoWriMo tomorrow!! So excited!! :D :D And, I have several great blog posts lined up, including something a little different. So, make sure you stick around for that!

Cookies, Poems, Puppies, and Characters- Candor Questions

Didn't do this Friday, so I'm doing it today ^.^

Lydia Matzel asked: What are your three favorite poems? And why? (or songs based on the lyrics if you're not as into poetry)

Oh!! Poems!! This question made me realize I haven’t read much poetry in a while. Which is dumb because I like poetry. But, since I also like music a lot, I’m going to give you a bonus and answer both questions.

To start with the poems:

The Book of Hosea: I’m not sure if this counts or not, but I would have to say this is my favorite poem. The way it’s written, the wording, is just gorgeous. Especially Chapter 2. So beautiful. Verse 14 is my favorite: Therefore, behold, I will allure her/ Will bring her into the wilderness/ And speak comfort to her. Like, after all that, God still loves her (loves me) and is willing to take whatever steps necessary to draw her back to Him. Such a beautiful love story <3

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116: The one with Love is not love which alters when an alteration finds. I love it so much because I think if any poem knows something about love, it’s this one. The whole thing speaks about love being a steadfast thing, something that is steady and sure. And, it refutes the idea of “falling out of love.” It’s just lovely ^.^

But You Didn’t: (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/342062534170016745/)

I found this on Pinterest and fell instantly in love with it. It’s not a poem in the strictest sense of the word, but it’s still considered one. It’s just a beautiful portrayal of the love talked about above (Sonnet 116). And it has really pretty illustrations. So, yes, I love it.

The Highwayman: So, since I’m not sure if Hosea counts as a poem or not, I’m adding this to the list too. I had an amazing fixation with this poem when I was younger. I had it memorized, and had a story idea based off of it, and yeah, I was slightly obsessed. It’s kind of morbid, but incredibly romantic and all that jazz. Plus, Anne Shirley recites it in the first Anne of Green Gables movie, so it must be good. Right?

And, for the songs, I’ll be short and sweet:

Owl City’s Galaxies, Relient K’s Be My Escape, and Andrew Peterson’s In the Night.

These are three of the most poetic songs I know and I love them for that. There are other songs I would put ahead of these as “favorites” but in terms of poeticness, these three are at the top of my list. You should go listen to them if you haven’t heard them (or, better yet, if you have, listen to them anyway!)

Lindsay Marie asked: If you could meet any character from the Bible (aside from Jesus, of course)... who would you choose?

Oh! This is a really good question!! And, I’ve got it down to two people- Gomer from Hosea (which, you probably gathered is one of my favorite books of the Bible) or Esther (from the book of Esther, in case you didn’t know XD).

But, as much as I would love to meet Gomer, I think I have to pick Esther because her story really confuses me and I have a ton of questions I want to ask her. Like, what all was going on with that? There’s just so much that doesn’t make sense.

In fact, if there’s a Q&A session in Heaven, I’m definitely going to ask God about it. Because, He’d have better answers than Esther anyway…

Rodger Sauer asked: OK – suppose you’ve been exiled to a desert island.  The person exiling you has a small bit of compassion, though, so he allows you to have a reasonable supply of one kind of cookie per year…   But only one kind per year…   What kind of cookie do you choose for your first year on the island?

First of all, I want to know what I did to get myself exiled. And, what I’m getting exiled with. Like, do I get books and paper and stuff? Because if I do, coupled with the cookies, this doesn’t seem like such a bad deal…

Anyway!

I would say, for the first year, I would choose oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Because they’re yummy. And, then I would pray really hard that the person exiling me doesn’t accidently get me ones with raisins. Because that would be dumb. Who wants to eat cookies with raisins in them? Yuck.

And, then, here are the other cookies I would ask for in following years (in no particular order):

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip

Keebler Elf Cookies

Snickerdoodles

Iced Cutout Cookies

Cindy Sauer asked: Do you have any pictures of your new puppy?  And what do you find most rewarding about being a puppy parent?

I finally got my camera charged so, yes, I do have pictures! And, for those of you who don’t know, five weeks ago (five weeks ago tomorrow, actually, but whatever) I adopted a puppy. He’s a shepherd/ shiba inu (and some other things) mix. His name is Malachi and he's my precious little baby (when he's not getting into trouble).

Anyway, here are some pics:

This was taken the day I brought him home (isn't he so tiny?):

And, a couple I took today:

He's getting so big :3 [insert proud, motherly things]

And, the thing I find most rewarding about being a puppy parent is the cuddles. There’s nothing like falling asleep with a puppy snuggled against you or quietly working on your latest story idea with him sleeping on your lap. Yup, definitely the cuddles. It's so nice to feel loved <3

 And, that's that! I'll still be answer questions this Friday, so go ahead and send me some! Also, I feel like I should specify- Random or personal questions are always welcomed. I feel like people don't ask questions because they don't have writing or reading related ones, but you don't have to stick with those themes. When I said I wouldn't be answering questions that were too personal, I meant personal on an inappropriate level. But, if you're itching to know what I ate for breakfast this morning or if I prefer wearing shoes or going barefoot, feel free to shoot me a question. I would welcome it with open arms.

See you all on Friday!

Candor Fridays: Week One :D

It’s Friday folks and time for the very first Candor Friday answering session!! I received four questions this week and answered them a lot more in-depth than people probably wanted… oh, well. What can I say? I like to talk…

But, I won’t bore you with introductions. Let’s just get right to it:

Rodger Sauer asked: I hope a “two-parter” is OK: As a person about to leave her teens (next Tuesday… ), (a) what would you say is your best memory from your teen years, and (b) what one piece of advice would you give a teen (boy or girl) who is still working through their teen years?

A two-parter is fine. Technically, I’m not about to leave my teen years, I left them this Tuesday, but I suppose that’s what you meant.

And, to answer your questions:

(a): There are so many fond memories I could mention here. My teen years were good ones and I’m sure I had it so much better than most. I don’t deserve all the wonderful blessings I have received. But, after a lot of long, hard consideration, I finally settled on the one that sticks hard in my mind as the best- the time my dad called me while I was staying in Pennsylvania and sang the song he’d written over the phone. Made all the more wonderful by the fact that I felt like the song pretty much summed up everything I was feeling and going through in regard to growing up. And, I’d been feeling really homesick at the time and it was just perfect. Plus, what girl doesn’t want a guy to call her up and sing to her?

And, (b): If I had to sum up my advice to those still working through their teen years, I would have to say: enjoy it. Every stinkin’ second of it. Stop trying to rush to adulthood, stop wishing things would change, stop trying to be more grown up or less grown up or anything other than what you are. Because, let me tell you, it doesn’t get easier. The carefreeness of being an adult is childhood’s greatest lie. Trust me, if you’re a teenage living at home right now you’ve got it better now than you ever have an ever will. You’re old enough to get to do new things and experience more but young enough to not have all the stress and care that comes with the responsibility of growing up. So, enjoy it while it lasts. (Man, that sounds bleak… :P)

Lindsay Marie asked: Who is the best villain you have ever read about, and what made them such a great villain?

Okay, so this is a hard question, because when villains are mentioned, the ones that come to mind first are from movies and TV shows… But, I finally settled on a villain. But, ironically enough, he’s from an unpublished novel written by an online friend. He’s the villain from Hosanna House by Hannah Mills (https://plus.google.com/u/0/108129961349075440338/posts)

I had a really hard time pegging out why he was such a great villain. Honestly, my reason for picking him is because he’s the only villain I have ever wanted to climb into the book and strangle personally. But, I didn’t know why. And then I started reading Four: A Divergent Collection by Veronica Roth and Marcus Eaton helped me realize why.

I think the best villains are the ones who don’t know they’re wrong. And, I don’t mean that they’re these wonderful people who have the hero’s best intentions in mind but go about it the wrong way and don’t realize it. I mean it on a darker level. In their twisted minds they think that by hurting people they can help them. They think their evil actions are justified by the fact that they’re “doing people good” (that’s what they think, anyway…). They don’t realize just how evil they are. They think they’re the good guys, that they’ve just been burdened with this hard task of riding the world (or, sometimes just one person) of a certain evil. And, if they have to use force or violence to obtain that end, so be it.

They make me sick. But, they’re also great from a writer’s point of view because they’re more human than the stereotypical villain who wants to take over the world and doesn’t care that he’s evil and hurting people and all that jazz. The best villains are more complex than that.

 Taylor asked: Do you have any other book series that you would like to write and publish?

To answer you simply- yes.

Less simply- if you’re looking for titles, sorry, I can’t give those out. Because I have no clue which ones I will actually get written. I have (and I am not exaggerating here) over a hundred stories started. Some of those are part of the same series, but for the most part they’re individual books. But, what generally happens is I get so far into a story and then it turns into a series. I planned for Kit Parker to get only one book and now she’s going to get six.

And, I can’t tell you which ones I’m actually going to write because I just don’t know. I’d like to say all of them. But, I tend to get a few new story ideas a week. Most get an hour of my time tops before I toss them aside and forget them. But, a few stick around. So, I’m constantly getting new ideas and working on old ones and bouncing from idea to idea. I never know what I’m going to write next.

But, I can tell you that if I finish it and people think it’s good, I’ll publish it. And, I plan to keep writing and publishing until God clearly tells me that part of my life is over. I’m hoping He never tells me that.

And, cloudseeker7 asked: Where do your story ideas come from?

I get my ideas from a lot of different places, but I think the best way to sum up where most of them come from (for me) is to say I get my ideas from people. Mostly, fictitious ones, but sometimes real people too.

I am a very character driven person. I connect with characters even if I hate the story. Seriously. Even books I absolutely hate have a character I love. So, usually what happens is I connect with a character and I start playing around with creating a character of my own that fits the archetype of the character I connected with. Like, if I connect with a little orphan boy, I’ll start playing around with little orphan boys in my head. From there, I’ll start creating a setting and supporting cast.

The supporting cast usually comes from other characters I have connected with, which can get fun because I watch and read a lot of different genres all at the same time. So, I might connect with a little orphan boy in a Dickens drama and a cyborg in a sci-fi story and then I start to figure out how I can work them into the same story. And then I might start reading a book about an Arabian princess and suddenly little orphan boy and his cyborg sidekick are rescuing an Arabian princess from gangsters (thanks to that Humphrey Bogart movie I watched) in a sci-fi/ fantasy kingdom I created just to fit all the elements of my story into one world.

That’s a slight exaggerations (although, now I’m getting ideas… like a need another story idea!!) but that’s also basically how my train of thought works. And, sometimes I keep the idea, sometimes I throw it out after an hour or two of mulling over it.

And, that’s it! Everyone above is entered into the giveaway. I’ll announce the winner August 15^th.

If you would like a chance to win (or, are just wonder what this post is even about) check out this page here: http://ivorypalace.blogspot.com/p/candor-fridays.html

I look forward to hearing from you all this week! Can’t wait to see what questions you come up with! :D :D

And, in the meantime, I’ll see you all on Monday!!