Pre-Read The War Horn!

After much revision, my friend, Jake, has decided to publish his novel, The War Horn, and he needs your help.

How can you help? He needs pre-readers, people that read the novel before it's published and alert the author of any possible errors, awkward passages, et cetera.

If this is something you're interested in, visit his blog here. But I warn you: act now, because after February 3rd, your chance is gone.

Something from the Back Burner...

Heh, heh. I'm not sure how or why I forgot about this,

but here's the trailer for "The Hobbit" movie set to come out in December.

Enjoy!

Madness (or: Our Insane Weather Today)

Just the other day, we had snow. (See picture from yesterday's post). Today, it's 53 degrees. And windy. It was raining, but that stopped at about noon. Good-bye beloved snow. Hello Georgian winter. 

This afternoon, I noticed the wind picking up. Leaves skittered across the front lawn. The clouds looked...interesting. So I grabbed my camera phone and leaped out the front door. Barefoot (*facepalm*). The wind instantly assailed me, and the clouds moved absurdly fast.

This Doctor Who soundtrack (thank you, Murray Gold!) started playing in my head.

(Series Five: Words Win Wars)

I ran down the cold driveway, imagination transporting me to the story I'm writing.

Feet now numb, I ran back inside.

Then, a few minutes later ran back out (this time with shoes) and took these pictures:



Strange, no?

Now, it's getting even darker. And even more ominous. And colder, creepier.

I checked the weather forecast. Today: 50 Tomorow: 23 and snow.

There are thunderstrorm warnings.

Madness.

Utter madness.

Snow!

'Nuf said.

I Write Like...

I found this website on Jake's blog. 

Basically, all you do is copy a couple paragraphs of

something you've written

(a blog post, essay, a chapter of a book you're writing, et cetera),

and paste it in the big white box, then click "Analyze".

Then, it shows you the famous author that your writing style is closest to.

I entered a short story I wrote recently, and this came up

I write like
Stephen King

I Write Like by Mémoires, journal software. Analyze your writing!

I entered a few more. Poems, chapters, short stories, and one of my blog posts.

And got six more different authors.

James Joyce.

J.K. Rowling.

L. Frank Baum.

Cory Doctorow.

David Foster Wallace.

Ray Bradbury.

I can look at this two ways:

1. I have an inconsistent style, or        
2. I'm good at imitating different styles

Anywho, for the website, just click here.

What authors do you write like?

2012: Beginning in a Promise

Ah, yes. Another year. 2012.
"A fresh start," as I heard often this morning at church.
So far, it feels fresh. It actually feels a lot like 2011:
50 degrees and rainy. (At least, that's how it was for us Ohioans.)
On the way home from church, it was raining. (In January!)
The clouds were beautiful, the sunlight streaming through...
I glanced out the passenger side window and saw the most magnificent rainbow I've ever seen.
It looked as though someone had taken the world's largest paintbrush and the world's most vivid watercolors and painted, arc by arc, a rainbow.
Normally, it seems that rainbows end at the ground, or just trail off in the sky.
Not so here. Where it seems it should have stopped at the ground, the colors shone and shimmered on.

Magnificent.

Beautiful.

Painted by God.

That reminded me of a promise.
In Genesis chapter 9 Noah and his family exit the Ark.
God promises that he would never destroy the Earth by water again.

"I promise every living creature that the earth and those living on it will never again be destroyed by a flood. The rainbow that I have put in the sky will be My sign to you that I will keep this promise forever. When I send clouds over the Earth, and a rainbow appears in the sky, I will remember my promise to you and to all other living creatures....The rainbow will be a sign of that solemn promise."

You know, come to think of it, the rainbow also reminds me of something else: God is always here. He never leaves you. Always there. He stands by you, and loves you, and will help you, no matter what you're going through in life. No matter how harsh, how awful, how bad or horrible the storms you're going through right now (and the storms to come), He'll be there.
What a promise. What a reminder. What a Master Artist.

What a God.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

What's wrong with this picture?

Well, nothing, really.

Except that it's December 21. The Winter Solstice.

Do you see any snow?

I didn't think so.

All day (all year, more like) it's been between 50 and 70 degrees.

What's wrong with that?

Nothing. Unless it's December. Unless there's four days until Christmas.

Here are some other pictures I took:

From a tree. Not a good idea when it's wet and your boots are muddy.
You can almost fall out and scare yourself half to death.
Take my word for it.

Not a good way to find out your boots aren't completely waterproof... >_<

It's been raining all day. Can't ya tell? 

With the weather we've had this year, you'd think it was Ireland or something...



They kinda look like the clouds out in Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, and that area. Absolutely beautiful. 



Oh, my. If you could hear the wind right now...

I think it's trying to blow down our door.

Ah, well.

Happy Winter Solsice to you all,

and may you get more snow than it looks like I will.

The Perils of Being a Bibliophile

There comes a time in one's life when one needs to reorganize.
Clean things up a bit.
Literally.
It's a bit crazy when your room looks like a library exploded.

Drowning in a sea of books isn't fun.
Which is why I decided that I wasn't going to wait until I build the rest of my bookshelves.
I'd had enough.
I shelved. I stacked. I almost died.

Four really thick, ridiculously heavy hardbacks almost fell. Almost slammed into my throat. The perils of being a bibliophile...

(comic courtesy of  Whisper)

Reshelving accident. Sound familiar?




Please note: just because a book is mentioned or pictured or on my bookshelf doesn't mean that I recommend or endorse it.

Ominousness

Okay, I don't know if that's even a word or not, but if it isn't, it should be.

Anywho, It's really ominous outside right now.

My dog was running back and forth across the front yard, going crazy.

So, I opened the front door to see why he was acting so strange.

Nothing.

Then I looked up and saw this:

My camera is broken, so I grabbed my phone and ran outside in my bare

feet.

Wind ran its fingers through my hair, and blew through my clothing,

chilling me to the bone. My neighbor was shouting to someone else.

My dog was going crazy.

Leaves skittered past.

Clouds raced across the sky.

An eerie Celtic song wafted from my computer and through the screen door,

giving me chills.

It was one of those moments when it feels like anything could happen.

Like when the main character at the beginning of an

action/adventure/fantasy novel finds the thing that starts the story.

An ancient key or map, secret room, or portal. You never know what'll

happen.

The last time I saw clouds move that fast, there was almost a tornado in

my neighborhood(but that's a different story for another time).

Thankfully, these clouds weren't spinning or appearing to tumble over

each other. No, they were just tinged with pinkish orange.

These are the other pictures I took: