Beautiful People-February

Hello, lovelies! It's been a while since I did my share of Beautiful People, hosted by Sky at Further Up and Further In and Georgianna at Before My Penn Has Gleaned. So I decided that now is better than never ^_^
 I'm doing these questions for Anna, one of my main characters from Avaria, because I've recently dusted off her book and started plotting again [finally]. So here we go.

1. If your character could be played by any actor, who would it be?
Eh. I'm not exactly sure. I don't watch enough movies to know any actresses around her age who would make the cut. Maybe... No. I just don't know xD
2. Does your character have a specific theme song?
I almost feel like it should be Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen or something melancholy like that. But maybe that's just the guilt for all the horrible things I've put her through getting to me ;_;
3. What’s their worst childhood memory?
Her dad leaving when she was about ten years old. She's sixteen, and she hasn't seen him since. It scarred her badly--I don't even know how badly, and I've been writing her story for about five years o_o
4. If your character had a superpower, what would it be?
She'd probably be able to fly or something cool like that. Though she's fast, so maybe she'll be Flash 2. Or Flash Jr.
5. If your character crashed on an island with a bunch of other people, how would your character help the group survive?
Not by having a mental breakdown, that's for sure. She'd probably do a good job of masking her fear, organizing the survivors, and being all rough and tumble; then she'd have her breakdown after rescue.
6. Are they married? If not, do they someday wish to be?
She's not married; she'd like to be, but she's terrified of having her marriage end the same way her parents' did. I think she could do it, though, if the right guy walked along. Which he did. In book three. But she doesn't know that. So SHHH.
7. What is a cause they would die for?
A good cause? Saving a friend, because she hasn't had many. A bad one? Getting revenge. She's an unstoppable monster where revenge is involved. It could be her undoing.
8. Would they rather die fighting valiantly, or quietly at home?
She'd prefer to die quietly. But she's not afraid of fighting. She's been fighting herself all her life.
9. If someone walked up to them and told them they were the child of the prophecy, would they believe them?
You know what, that's funny, because that actually happened. As I remember it, she fainted. Or laughed. Or both. But she ended up being a pretty good child of the prophecy, if I do say so myself.
10. Do they prefer the country or the city?
The city. She grew up in New York, and she despises the small Virginia town her mom's job took them to. *sigh* I guess she can't be perfect.

Okay, that was fun! Every time I finish one of these, I realize that I need to do them more often =D Try one for yourself--you won't regret it!

Praise Him.

{via}

I had my last devotions of 2011 today. Providentially, the final Psalm the One Year Bible had me read was [no surprise] Psalm 150. It's short, but as 2011 draws to its close, I think it says a lot.
"Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.
 Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.
 Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.
 Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.
 Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.
 Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD."


There are a lot of things about 2011 I wish I could change; there are some things I wouldn't change even if I had the chance. It was a good year; a hard year; a year of testing and of refinement and joy. Not as bad as some years I can remember; maybe not as good as others.

At the end of this year, there's a lot of memories knocking on my door. Sometimes I'd like to question God; to ask Him why He thought that moment was right to bring a difficult providence into my life, or if He couldn't have let the sun shine just a little longer before dousing all my hopes in a sudden storm. Other times, I'm overcome with gratefulness at how good He has been this year.

I can't change the bad things that happened; I wouldn't change the good things. So, in the end, there is only one thing to do: praise Him.

I must praise God for every gift He's given me this year; praise Him for the trials He's brought me through.

I must praise Him for the sunshine and the rain.

I must praise Him for the times of happiness, for all the times I did something I thought I'd never do and did it well. Those things I'll remember for the rest of my life. And, in the end, I can do nothing but praise Him for the times I failed because I relied on my own strength to get me through, or simply because He had a lesson to teach me.

I'm so thankful for this year. I've learned a lot; grown a lot; written a lot; talked a lot [that's not unusual]; prayed a lot--though not as often as I should. I've made new friends, discovered new gifts, found new passions. I've read a heap of books and loved almost every single one. I've worked for about seven months now and am really encouraged by how kind everyone at the office has been to me. I got accepted into a college that I really like, and there's a chance that I might recieve a good sum of money to make it easier to attend there [that's something I'll have to wait 'til 2012 to find out]. For all these things and more I can only praise God.


Sometimes the providences I encounter leave me gasping for breath, but I can only praise God that He led me safely through. Other times, they leave me breathless with joy, and what better way to show my thankfulness than to praise the Lord?


Well, that's my formal farewell to 2011. I hope and pray that 2012 will be just as good a year, for me and for you.

As far as any New Year's resolutions go, well--pfft. Aren't mine always the same?


God Bless ~

Ps. One of the things I praise God for is my blog! I'm so glad to have the chance to write down my thoughts, post my stories, and read your blogs. In honor of that blessing, I picked my top ten favorite posts from this year. Here they are:

1. I Know I'll Understand Someday [10/16/11]
2. Another Short Story =] (6/18/11)
3. The Happiness [8/13/11]
4. An Apology [5/18/11]
5. Where Do I Start? [9/17/11]
6. Day{s} After [12/28/11]
7. Braking for Turkey [11/20/11]
8. Second to the Right, and Straight On Till Morning [8/28/11]
9. Is It November Yet? [10/13/11]
10. Ideas, Ideas [4/9/11]


What about you? What were your favorite posts from Something Solid Out of Air?

Awkward Introductions {Featuring Mae}

I love word clouds. So I decided to make one for my blog. You should, too--they're quite fun!

Anyway....

 I've been meaning to do this for a while. Since before NaNoWriMo, to be exact. I just haven't gotten around to it. Then, Meghan reminded me that I've written about 50% of a book about which you know NOTHING. I don't usually do this. As you all know, when I write something, I share it with the world and then talk about it constantly for about two weeks. This is very uncharacteristic. Providentially, I have nothing new to post about (except that I found a long-lost and much-beloved book from my childhood and have subsequently read it to myself each night before I go to sleep--but that's another story) and so I thought I'd take a minute and write out a short synopsis for To Bring Mae Flowers. This is gonna be one of those awkward introductions--the ones where you've seen a person for days and are just now being introduced. Yes. Totally my bad :3

All right. Here we go.

The story is set in the late 19th-early 20th century. It just about covers the entire lifespan of the main character, Mae, whose real name is Mary Ann, whose real real name is Anna Maria. It's extremely confusing--so much so that even I'm not sure I've got it right.

Anyway, Mae lives with her family in Philadelphia at the turn of the century. Her parents came to the United States from Germany, met, married, and had eight girls. Mae is second-eldest. The story begins on the morning of her older sister Sophia's wedding--Mae's seventeen and only slightly jealous. After a series of awkward, unfortunate and really to embarrassing to describe events (i.e. I still can't believe I wrote that scene) Mae lands a job as a telephone operator. Now, this may seem pretty dull--telephone operators today are those people who speak too fast and call you at three in the morning. But telephones in 1905 were novel--in fact, they were almost unheard of. So this was a pretty cool job. Much of this part of the story I filled in myself--for example, the kinds of people she worked with, how long she worked, etc. An important character who sprung from my creativity is Lydia, Mae's best friend who works at the telephone company. She is a main character throughout most of the rest of the story, and I've enjoyed writing her immensely.

For the most part, Mae's stay at the telephone company is uneventful except for one important thing (and, I kid you not, this is the honest-to-goodness truth, according to my grandmother): a man calls and begins stalking her. Not stalking in the creepy way, but calling over and over again and carrying on even though Mae isn't supposed to talk on the phone, only connect calls. Lydia assures her that every once in a while, a man will call, like the sound of a girl's voice, and call again. And again. It seems that this is exactly what the mystery gentleman is doing... until he asks to meet Mae. Then things get rather sticky. In the long run, Mae ends up in a small cafe' with Lydia hiding in a booth and her father hovering nearby. She meets her mystery man, whose name is Arthur. Arthur is British, which means he says cool things like "blast" and "Long live the King". Not really--but it would be cool if he did.

Now I'm going to stop narrating and do a really quick ending--I don't want to give anything away ;) Arthur and Mae marry after a short but extremely whirlwind-ish courtship, and Part One ends. Part Two is where Mae's two children, Mary and Joseph, come in. Part Two is also where Arthur takes Mary, Joseph, and all of the couple's savings and leaves for England, leaving only a note for Mae. This is where Mae's character truly comes out for me--she stops being a slightly vague and romantic-minded girl and becomes the kind of heroine this story deserves. I can't tell you any more, because I haven't written any more and am still researching England in 1915 (which is when Mae goes over to retrieve her two little children).

Okay. I think I covered everything. All in all, I love this book. I love writing it; I love researching it; I love filling in the little holes and speculating about what everything my great-great-grandmother Mae must have been feeling. It's pretty tough, but I'm enjoying every word I wrestle down onto my paper.

Meghan, thanks for the reminder! I hope you guys enjoyed reading a little bit about my novel--hopefully when I'm on my laptop I can put up a couple chapters for you to look at. Any questions? Post a comment or send me an email. I love questions like a fish loves...bubbles. Yeah. That's a lot of love.


Just about 15 days until Christmas!


Elisabeth~

Thiiiiis Close

Do you know what I love about horse racing (for those of you who aren't horse people, these frequent horse-related outbursts are normal with me.) I love the moment when the winning horse (or horses, as the case sometimes seems) cross the finish line. Now, there are a lot of things about horse racing that I don't like. The stress on the horses, the betting, the gigantic hats that look like Muppets posing on ladies' heads... Yeah. You get the picture. But that moment--that crossing of the finish line--that's pretty awesome. And there's nothing in the world to describe it.

See the picture I have so thoughtfully provided. Look at the joy. Behold the glory of a race well run. It's a moment captured forever for posterity by a skillful photographer's camera. You can almost taste the immortal feeling of triumph as that horse soars past the finish marker.

Now look in the background. See all those other horses? They are those often forgotten in the frenzy of the win. They are the losers. But we often forget that they were close--thiiiiis close to victory. But it just wasn't enough to get them across the finish line first.

As far as NaNoWriMo 2011 goes, I'm one of those horses in the background. I didn't make it across the finish line by midnight on November 30th. I'm still running along, disappointed that I didn't win, but pushing to cross that finish line nonetheless. I will cross it: I'm only 8,000 words away. I might not come in first place, but I'll come galloping across that finish line--eventually. We'll see how long it takes.

To everyone who finished NaNo, cheers! And to those of us that are still running--don't worry. We'll all get there someday.

Winding Down

 Maybe a more appropriate title for this post would be: IT'S THE 29TH OF NOVEMBER AND I HAVE TEN THOUSAND WORDS TO WRITE!

Only I don't think all that would fit in the title box.

Well, this week has been a lot busier than I thought it would be when I procrastinated at the beginning of November. I thought I'd get around to NaNoing seriously after I got all my other work done. I forgot one important fact: I NEVER GET MY OTHER WORK DONE. There's always more, and more, and more. Plus, inconvenient little things always happen when you have big plans. Like today, for example: I woke up with a head cold and proceeded to sleep in. Until twelve. When I have work to do. My mom's the best, but this is one time I wish she'd have dragged me out of bed. I suppose it's no wonder I have a cold: I've been staying up until midnight working on essays and applications for scholarships. All in the day of a senior in high school, I guess. And just think: in college, the process starts all over again!

My story is moving. It's really moving. At this time last year, I was banging my head against the wall because I had characters, but no story. This year I have both. I just don't have any time.

I have a large chunk of time tomorrow to fill. Most of it will be filled with essay-writing, preparing for a presentation a friend and I are giving to a local public school class, and doing homework. But maybe--hopefully--a little sliver of time will be for my book.

I know I'm going to finish it.

I just hope I finish it by the end of November.

For those of you who are still writing: I commend you. Keep on going! You're that much closer to the end.

THIS IS WHERE I'M AT

I need one of these kits.

Today, I....

Went shopping

Bought Christmas presents and had Christmas presents bought for me (always fun!)

Ate a delicious lunch at Cracker Barrel

Got some super-awesome shoes which I've decided to wear forever

Watched the old Little House on the Prarie on the way there 

Watched the old cartoon version of Redwall in the car on the way home

Hugged my family a lot

Got stuck in the rain

Sent in my transcript to a college I'm applying to

Went into Carter's and just stared at all the cute baby clothes

Hung out with my sister and pretended to be rich and snobby in a super-expensive store

Got up really early (like, really REALLY early--7:00! That's EARLY, guys) *note* You don't have to take this part seriously >.>

Walked around--a lot

Saw some Amish buggies

And houses

And plows

And some Amish people!

Talked to my grandmother about Mae and learned some interesting facts, such as:

MAE'S dad was the owner of a livery stable, not a watchmaker as I had him in the book. One thing to change.

Her first husband was a British magazine model/interpreter who spoke four languages. Yeah, weird. What's even stranger is that I described him as this really good-looking guy in the book. I guess I just know everything :3

Mae was closest to her sister Clara, not her eldest sister Sophia (as I only thought natural).

And  Mae always thought her sister Rose was a bit off her rocker because their mother had been forced to squeeze through a barred window to escape a housefire when pregnant with Rose. I guess Mae thought Rose's brain got sqooshed XD

Yup. I did a lot of things today. But do you know what I didn't do?

I DIDN'T WRITE IN MY NANOWRIMO BOOOOOOOK.

*begins process of stress relief*