Hello People Of The Interwebs!

Went Skiing. Kicked Butt. 

Well, hello again. You look quite lovely today.

It's roughly 10:45 P.M. on Sunday and I have school tomorrow. Not the most exciting thing in the world.

I just finished watching Radio Rebel which is a Disney movie about a shy girl who secretly has a radio show. Very moving. Not really. It was moving enough to make me want to blog something.

Well, I almost never do an Info Dump on what I've been up to in the past few weeks because that's not what this blog is for. I guess I just sometimes have to talk to someone, even if they are basically mute.

This probably sounds really, really cliché for two reasons- 1) When I am tired, I start to over think and tend to get a bit too emotional. I then end up regretting what I've said. 2) I'm listening to Mike Tompkins A Capella arrangement of We Are Young by Fun. We Are Young fills me with nostalgia probably because I listened to it all the time when certain events of last spring were playing out. Some people say that We Are Young is a terrible and crappy song, but I love it. I like a lot of music that people don't like. Or, at least, music people my age don't like. I think I have a fairly decent taste in music. My parents addicted me to music from the 70s and 80s. John Lennon alone, The Beatles, Billy Joel (It's Still Rock and Roll to Me), Elton John, Gary Wright (Dream Weaver), The Proclaimers, Roberta Flack. This love of old music is fueled by the only radio station that the radio in my bathroom can pick up. And yes. I do sing in the shower. My fifth grade teacher got me into Pop and Rap, and my cousins got me into Techno and Punk Rock. Green Day is amazing. I've been into country music for all of my life, and I've always had a deep love of film scores. Right now, I'm really into alternative music like Of Monsters and Men and Coldplay.

When I get a new song, I listen to it on repeat for hours. Somehow I manage to not get bored. Weird, right? This entire post is being written with We Are Young repeating over and over.

Well, where I live, we do this little thing call Speech. There two types- Large Group and Individual. My large group (Choral Reading. We read chorally.) went to State and received a 'I'. Individual districts just ended yesterday. I went with two pieces in the categories of Spontaneous Speaking and After Dinner Speaking. Not as easy as they sound. I managed to get a 'I' in both, so I'm headed to State. My After Dinner piece was about Socially Awkward People. According to the people who've seen me preform, it's really funny and I'm an adorable person. I was the perfect person for the speech because I am about the most socially awkward person you will ever come across. I'll have to put it on Youtube, but I think I'll have to wait until after State is over.

Last night was also our school's Cabaret program. The theme was Disney songs. I love Disney songs. I didn't actually sing, I worked in the Sound Booth. I don't know what it is about the sound booth. It's one of the places I feel most at home in SH, that and Narnia. SH drama people know what I'm talking about.

So, my friends are amazing people. I actually have friends this year! It's exciting. Two of them are seniors, and they are going to leave in a few months. I'll miss them a lot, but I don't think this will be the last year I'll see them. There's only really one Freshman in our group. Pretty sure he has a little crush on me. I don't mind. He's a nice guy. There are a lot of things that are different from last year. I do miss last year's seniors a lot. They were really amazing people. This year there is one senior- J. He's a nice guy. I guess I consider us friends... Sort of. We talk some. I think he's had a rough year. Things with his first girlfriend didn't workout so well. And, his schedule didn't workout well so he had to drop band. The band teacher wasn't very happy and now they aren't on very good terms. Not J's fault. Now Js not going to prom. Not any of my business. I was just being a wallflower. I saw, and now I think I understand.

I can't remember if I told you guys, but I now compose music. The music teacher said I have lots of natural talent. Actually, he said I have good phrasing, which is uncommon for a person of my experience. Which brings up my dilemma. Music and writing are my life. They are the only things that have ever made me really happy, but at the same time I want to know what makes stars rotate and why black holes eat light. So, which do I do?

Well... I guess I should go to bed. It's nearly 11:30 PM and I'm supposed to run with S tomorrow. I could talk for hours, but this post seems really long already. Tell me what's up in your life down in the comments. I would love to know. Really. Good, bad, happy, sad. Just get it off of your chest.

DFTBA

Best of Writing,

~Snowie

P.S. Go check out this BLOG and convince him to keep posting. 

Why Write It?

The final installment in The Night Stalker Q&A series is brought to you by Banana (TM). Bananas are good!

Perhaps the most important thing to know about any story is why the author wrote it. Why did they put the time and the effort in to writing, editing, and publishing this particular story? What's so important about it?

As I was growing up, I always felt like there were more books for boys with manly, handsome action heroes and ditzy girls. The girls were princesses who wait in towers to be rescued and can hardly pick up a pillow. I was never that girl. Ever. I was the strongest girl in my grade and could beat all of the boys at arm wrestling. Perhaps that is why my imaginary friend and my first ever not stollen from another story character was a B.A. elf named Arya Poisonhold.

I'm still probably one of the strongest girls in my grade, but all of the boys can beat me at arm wrestling. Karma.

For much of my childhood, I longed for the strong, heroic female characters that I was missing. I felt out of place because to be pretty, you had to be Barbie. And Barbie wasn't strong or B.A.

When I started writing The Night Stalker, I think I was trying to fill the void of a strong, female role model. If you look at everything I've written up two about a year ago, you'll find that all of my main characters are strong, heroic females. The first book I wrote where the protagonist wasn't a strong female was Loving Amelia Perfect, which I wrote last summer. The two main characters are Amy, a shy girl who is secretly agnostic; and Ben, a social outcast with major family and relationship troubles. Ben was the first time one of my narrators was a guy.

Now, books are changing. More and more protagonists are heroic females like Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games and Tris from Divergent. Writers are saying that girls don't have to be skinny to be pretty. Any shape or size is beautiful. People don't have to be perfect, they just have to do the right thing and be strong. Don't let people push you around. Make your own decisions.

This is exactly what I'm trying to get through in The Night Stalker. I want to tell girls that they can be independent and make their own decisions, go after dreams, and kick fear in the butt. Gail isn't a perfect person. She's stubborn and very independent. Gail doesn't take orders well and will decide to go off and do her own thing in the blink of an eye. But, at the same time, she knows when to be smart, when to stay, and when to help people. She doesn't try to act stupid around guys, and she repeatedly doesn't do what they want her to do. Though there is romance in The Night Stalker, the romance isn't a huge part of the storyline. Gail is focussed on other things like finding her mother, defeating the Alliance, and deciding, as the Night Stalker, if what she is doing is right. I wanted to show that there is more to life than romance, and that you don't need someone to love you in order to be a good and amazing person.

That's all I have today. Take it away, Banana (TM)!

Banana (TM) because bananas are good! Free fez with a purchase of thirty bananas. 
Bananas are great for everyone. Warning: Bananas may cause extreme energy boosts and acute healthiness. Eat regularly. For free fez, send in the form with proof of purchase. 


Best of Writing!

~Snowie