Postponing The Elvish Pen

Since tomorrow is Labor Day, I am going to postpone the next episode of The Elvish Pen until Tuesday.  :) Have fun tomorrow and God bless!

Bible Verse

Wow!  I have been ignoring my blog lately!  Sorry about that.  I just haven't known what to post about.  Here is the Sunday Bible Verse!

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”  Deuteronomy 31:6 (NIV)

The Elvish Pen-Episode 3

 

Episode 3

     "No way!" Rox jerked away from the mysterious elven woman.

     "Why not?"

     "Because you're a stranger!"
     "Your parents didn't teach you to always go with a stranger?" the woman asked.  Umm...no, actually, they taught me the opposite.
     "No...they taught me to never go with a stranger, anywhere," Rox emphasized. 
     "Well, unless you want to be attacked by yet another goblin, I suggest you come with me."  Rox thought about this for a minute, but common sense won out.
     "If you give me a weapon, I think I can manage on my own," Rox crossed her arms in a defiant manner.
     "Can you?"
     I hope so.  "Of course.  I have fenced once or twice." More like once, at camp where no one would die if they lost.  The elven woman raised her eyebrows and looked me over.
     "From the looks of you, I don't believe that you've ever held a weapon in your short life."
     "Well, I fenced only once, but I am pretty good at archery."
     "How good?"
     "I usually hit the bulls eye eight out of nine times," I nodded my head, pleased that I actually remembered that.  A twig cracked next to us.
     "Goblin," the elven woman murmured just before grabbing my wrist and running off with me.
     "Let go of me?"
     "No!  If I do that goblin back there will kill you, and you are vital to our cause."




Which path do you want The Elvish Pen to take?

Path 1: They run without stopping to wherever the elven woman is taking Rox.

Path 2: The elven woman leads Rox to a dragon and they ride it above the clouds to where the elven woman is taking her.

Path 3:  The elven woman takes them to a horse, which they both mount and ride to where the elven woman wants to go.

Bible Verse

"So do not fear, for I am with you;
    do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10

Books I Want to Make Into Movies

Just incase you didn't know, along with being an aspiring author, I am also an aspiring filmmaker!  Since I love to read, I would love to see some of those be turned into movies.  And not distorted Hollywood films, movies that follow the book so closely that the dialogue is the same.  So, without further ado, here they are:

1. Resistance by Jaye L. Knight (The Ilyon - Oh my goodness, I SO want to make this into a movie!  it would have to stay extremely close to the book, though!

2. The Makilien Trilogy by Molly Evangeline - This will be quite...ahem...violent, but it still needs to be made into a movie.  And who cares if its as long as the LOTR movies, right?  :)  No detail of any book is unimportant.  :)

3. The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart - I love these books and they would make great movies!

4. The Elsie Dinsmore Series by Martha Finley - Ah...perfect clean historical fiction... :D

5. The Door Within by Wayne Thomas Batson - I read this a couple of years ago and really liked it!

This list is definitely NOT limited to these titles!  I have probably forgotten some (I'm so sorry authors of those books) and not read some yet.  :) Have a great rest of your night!

The Elvish Pen - Episode Two

 

Episode 2



     "Who's there?" Rox repeated once more.  Her heart pounded and she took in shallow breaths of air.  Why did I come here?  She inwardly reprimanded herself over and over, all while contemplating whether she should run or not.  Then, a thought stuck her that she was overreacting.  She was what, 100 yards from her grandmother's house?  It was probably just a rabbit or something.  Thinking these thoughts calmed herself down a bit, but she was still agitated.
     Suddenly, something came tumbling out of the shadows.  It did a couple of somersaults on the ground and then jumped up.  Rox burst into nervous laughter.  That is, until she saw that the unearthly "thing" was pointing a bow and arrow at her.  Abruptly, she was silent and stared wide eyed at the one who could kill her any second.  She wanted to scream, but found herself unable.  She wanted to cry, but no tears would come.  She wanted to move, but she was paralyzed.  Fear shot all the way through her, chilling her to the bone.
     The being was short, only about three feet tall and was absolutely the most hideous thing Rox had ever seen.  It had a greenish-grayish complexion and ears that pointed out about six inches from its head. It had two eyes, but the left was significantly bigger than the right.
     "Someone help me..." Rox managed to whisper.
     "No one can," the raspy voice of the creature spit out.  Terror shot through Rox once more.
     "What are you?"
     "A goblin."
     "Help."
     "No one is near enough to hear you," the goblin chuckled a little and shook its head.
     Rox took a few deep breaths.  Summoning all of her courage, she shouted, "SOMEBODY HELP!"
     "No one can hear you but me."  A tear of utter fear slipped down Rox's face and she wiped it away angrily.
     "And why is that so?"
     "You aren't where you think you are," the goblin lowered his threatening bow just a bit.
     "You're joking."
     "Welcome to the forest of The Elvish Pen."  Suddenly catching on, Rox started yelling for some sort of elf to come and help her.  The goblin raised his bow, once more becoming dangerous.  Rox froze and shut her eyes.  I am going to die.  Her knees went week at the thought and she fell onto the ground.  Rox heard a cry of utter pain and a twang.  She felt something rush above her.  Something touched her throat.
     "She's alive."  Then whatever had touched her throat leave.  Rox opened her eyes and squealed, backing away as fast as she can.
     "What...are...you...?" she gasped.
     The human-like woman laughed, but not unkindly.  "Child, I'm an elf."  Child?  I'm like, 15.  And you don't look a day over it.  The elven woman's hair was long and a light brown color, intricately braided in a half up, half down fashion.  Her clothing was green, blending in with the landscape.
     "I'm 15," Rox corrected the elf after a few moments of thought.
     "15 years is nothing in the life of an elf.  I myself am about 1,000."  Rox shook her head in disbelief.
     "You don't look any older than me!"
     "Elves do not age in the same way humans do," the elven woman smiled a white smile.
     "Why was that goblin-creature-thing attacking me?"
     "You must have so many questions.  Why don't you follow me to a safer part of the forest."


 Be sure to vote on what you want to happen next just above the About Me section on the right!  Here are the 3 Paths that you can chose from:

Path 1: Rox refuses to go with the elven woman.

Path 2: Another goblin attacks.

Path 3: The elven woman leads Rox to a hidden Elvish city.

How do you like it so far?  Are you excited for next week?

Bible Verse

 ^"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." John 14:27 NIV

 

 

How I Started Writing

Every writer has an adventure.

Every writer and author has a start to there adventure.  All are different.  Some authors never have their work published and some do.  Some think of it as just a hobby and some think of it as something that they are very serious about it.  Here is how my epic adventure got started (well, the epic adventures of my characters).

I used to hate writing...like seriously hate it.  I would complain about writing anything.  Then, I went into 4th grade and had an amazing writing teacher!  She taught me how to write stories and I absolutely loved to write them!  They were never long, always about a handwritten page long, but they were adventures in themselves.  That year, I also developed my reading obsession, which has helped my writing tremendously.  Yet, after 4th grade, I wrote some, but not consistently and my stories were never longer than a few hundred to a thousand words.  From then on, my writing time waned, until basically, I stopped completely.

January 2014, I watched The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey for the first time.  It was my first association with anything related to Lord of the Rings, except for reading some of The Hobbit.  I was absolutely fascinated.  I wanted to know more, I wanted to know everything about Middle-earth, Hobbits, elves, dwarves, dragons, and all of the amazing creatures that inhabit J.R.R. Tolkien's epic land.  At that point, I barely knew about the characters of Lord of the Rings, just there names and what they look like in the movies, however, I had a dream about it.  It was a pretty weird dream, but I felt the strange urge to pick up a pen (or start up Microsoft Word) and write a fanfiction story.  And so I did.  It was really, really bad (mostly because I didn't know anything about LOTR).  From then on, I was in love.  I have written 3 LOTR fanfiction stories (all of which are incomplete, but one is almost finished) since then and both read and watched LOTR.  One of the fanfiction stories is currently in first place for my highest word count!

I know that I have vaguely told this story before, but I wanted to tell it in more detail. At this time, I would really like to thank my 4th grade teacher for starting me on the right track for being a writer!

Alea Harper

"Death Like Sleep" Update

Hi!  Sorry I didn't post yesterday, I just had blogger's block!  (Oh wow, I just made up a new term!) It's like writer's block but it is when someone doesn't have any ideas for a blog post.  ;)  Anyways, I thought that I would just post about my current WIP, Death Like Sleep.  It is a Christian fantasy retelling of the fairytale Sleeping Beauty.  Writing it is actually going very well!  I had writer's block a few days ago and haven't worked on it too much for about a week.  I did do some word wars though which helped me a little bit.  :)  So, let me update for you:

Current Word Count (as of this very second): 9,822

So, I am almost 1/5 of the way to my goal of at least 50,000 words!  I think that the pacing is pretty good right now.

If you are new and have absolutely no idea what I am talking about, I am writing a novel called Death Like Sleep, and as I mentioned before, it is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty.  Here is a little blurb about it:

           "It doesn't matter.  Wherever you want.  You have about a million to choose from," I laughed lightheartedly.  Suddenly, my vision blurred and spots flew before my eyes.  The world began to spin.  Was this was vertigo feels like?  My heart pounded.  Was I dying?  I struggled to take a breath and my knees buckled.  My eyes closed and my head never hit the floor of the stadium.

When Lyric Valvo wakes up in a strange forest that she doesn't recognize (more due to the fact that she has never seen a forest), she and her best friend Finn are mistaken for runaway soldiers and treated harshly.  On top of that, Lyric has a strange attraction to sharp edges.  Could this be related to something that happened just after she was born?  How did she get to where ever she is?  Are the fabled Mind Wars real?

 

Have a great rest of your day!  God Bless!

Alea Harper

Character Interview with Galatea

Hi!  Yesterday afternoon, I had the wonderful privilege of sitting down and interviewing Galatea from Mickayla Jansen's WIP, Galaxy Connectors.

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Castilla leads a normal life in the Galaxy of Anaramus Galamuni Galactica. But when she does some more exploring for a history report, she ends up on a spaceship which is about to launch. Castilla soon finds herself in a galaxy she has never heard of or seen. On this planet, she meets a girl, Galatea, who could help her change the history of the universe. Could the government be keeping people captive on this unknown galaxy? And what about the rumor that a man is creating portals to connect galaxies?

-------

Hi, Galatea! It is such an honor to have you here today! Could you tell me and the faithful readers of my blog a bit about yourself?

Well, I live on the Malucious Magnalus Galactica on the western side of the universe and am 16, born on October 2. When I was 10 years old, on my birthday actually, my parents took me out on a canoe for the first time. We were inexperienced and not very knowledgeable at this sport, but I always loved the idea. A storm soon rushed in and we all ended up in the water. *tear trickles down face* A gracious man named Mr. Weaver rescued me, put was too late for my parents. I never saw them again.  My house was soon burned to the ground and I now live with Mr. and Mrs. Weaver, but illegally. I am still being searched for just not as thoroughly as before.

Wow. You have quite a story there. What are your career goals for when you turn 18?

Well, I have not been to school since before the accident, so I plan on continueing my education. I would take any job I could get, really. Mr. and Mrs. Weaver's health are declining and I would like to get a well paying job to care for them and their medical needs, after all they have done for me. My dream job, hmm, probably being an engineer.

What makes you the happiest?

After all I have been through, I scrambled for something that cheered me up. But, what brings me the most joy is doing things for Mr. and Mrs. Weaver, they are like grandparents to me. *smiles in thought*

They sound like really neat people. :) What is it like living in Malucious Magnalus Galactica? (Did I pronounce it right?) ;)

Yes, you did, it is a handful to say. I as well as other citizens often call it MMG. ;) For me, it is hard to tell. I rarely ever go out in the public part of the galaxy but I remember pieces of it from when I was younger. Only the rich have private automobiles called cars. They drive themselves around where ever they are told to go. For public use, there are what we call pods, which are circular devices (that drive themselves) which hang on heavy wire. There are transportation centers all over the city, so all you have to do it walk to the transportation center and transport to your destination. All children go to school and get assigned after school activities at certain times. All adults go to work during the school and after school activities hours. Life is pretty normal around here!

Sounds like a pretty interesting place to live! Are you very social, or are you more reserved?

I am very reserved, because I never go out in public or else I would be living in an orphanage. Trust me, you don't want to live in an orphanage, they are like jails.

Oh my...I didn't know orphanages were quite that bad... What is your greatest fear?

Well, one already came true - losing my parents. My greatest fear, though, is being stuck somewhere I cannot get out of or escape.

I just can't resist asking a totally random question. ;) What is the first thing that comes to mind when I say the word "toast"? (Told you my question was random)

Watching flames coming out of my oven at my home where I lived with my parents. It was a horrifying sight!

Oops...I guess that I should have picked a little bit better random word...  Sorry if  upset you, Galatea.  :)  It was a pleasure talking to you and I look forward to reading about your adventure!

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Mickayla Jansen is a homeschool writer who is just starting on her amazing adventure of writing. She is most interested in Science Fiction and Fantasy genres, but is open to mostly anything. She has been very interested and excited about learning ever since she was little and very much enjoys sharing the love of her personal Savior, our Lord Almighty. Other things she enjoys doing are drawing, working with horses and dogs, and reading. Her first novel, "Galaxy Connectors", is a work in progress and she is excited to see what becomes of it!

The Elvish Pen-Episode 1

Yay!  1st Episode!

Episode 1

     Roxie looked down at her socks and then back out the window.  Trees and wildflowers rushed by as she rode in the car for yet another hour.  Her stomach rumbled from her lack of lunch that she refused in her fowl mood.
     "Mom," she grumbled for about the millionth time, "Do we absolutely have to live at Mimi's house?"
     The middle-aged mother looked over at her daughter who was sitting in the passenger seat.  "Yes," Roxie, her nickname was Rox heard her mother sigh.  "Honey..."
     "Don't call me that," Rox snapped.
     "Don't you use that tone of voice with me, young lady."
     "Sorry..."
     "Rox, I know this is hard, but your grandmother needs help and since you are living with me instead of your father-"
     "I don't want to talk about it, I want to go home!"  Rox turned her face away from her mother, staring at the passing, and very much the same as before, scenery.
     "I know," her mother's voice broke at the end.  If her mother said anything further, Rox did not here it.  She was in her own little world which seemed perfect...her mind continued to drift, and she fell into a peaceful slumber.

     Roxie felt someone saying her name softly, sweetly.  It was familiar, yet somewhat estranged to her.  Still groggy and not ready to leave behind her dreams of home, she opened her eyes.  Peering into her face was an elderly woman, perhaps 78, with wrinkles creasing across her face and white hair.  Her eyes shined with youth and her voice filled with life.
     "Welcome home, Rox," the woman smiled joyously.  A somber expression crossed over Rox's face, but the older woman still held the smile intact.
     "Hi, Mimi," she raised her head from the headrest and unbuckled her seatbelt.  Rox rubbed her eyes, grabbed her purse, and got out of the car.  Mimi grabbed her granddaughter into her arms and kissed her repeatedly on the forehead.
     "I hear someone needs some love.  You are going to get plenty of that here, you just wait and see." Rox noticed a strange glimmer in the eyes of her grandmother.  She could not tell what it was about or even exactly what it looked like, but it meant something...Rox could just tell.
  
     "The moving truck will be here any minute," Rox's mother announced the next morning, just after breakfast was finished being consumed.  Rox groaned.  That would make it official.  They would live there.  She got out of her seat and ran to her room, laying down on her sleeping bag, dark tears of water and mascara ran down her cheeks.  Why was this happening?

     Rox heard the front door bell ring.  That was it.  She needed fresh air...majorly.  Her throat constricted and she slipped out the back door unnoticed.

     Her grandmother had no neighbors, Rox noticed, at least not nearby.  On the sides and back of her property were woods.  She breathed a breath of fresh air, but it could not lift the sullen mood that had sunken over her.  Rox took another deep breath, trying to free the constricting of her throat from trying to keep back her tears.  After a moment, she let them loose.  Her knees buckled and it all came down.  Hiding her face in her hands, her chest heaved up and down with deep emotion.  She pulled her knees up close to her and hugged them like a life line.

     A breeze washed over Rox several minutes later.  This caused her to look up.  No one was around.  She could hear the loud sounds of the movers.  She only thought, only felt one thing: I'm alone.  A chill ran up her spine as her mind formed those words and they sunk into her mind.

     "Rox?" a voice called from behind her.  "Rox."  It was Mimi, but Rox didn't want to hear it.  She got up and ran the other direction into the woods-away from "civilization".  "Be careful in there!  Those are strange woods, they could-" Rox could hear no more from her grandmother, even a few feet into the forest.  Rox shivered, even though the temperature was not uncomfortable.  What can the forest do?  She walked a little bit further into the woods and then stopped and sat on a fallen tree.  A few more tears escaped from her eyes.

     I wonder what is out here... Rox's curiosity had begun to take over.  The woods appeared to be very mysterious.  The trees filtered the sunlight into a greenish almost mist.  It was dark, yet light at the same time.

     "Hello?  Hello?" Rox's voice echoed, but not one living thing returned the call.  No one was around, at least that she could tell.

     Suddenly, a twig cracked.  An electric shock ran up Rox's entire body.  "Who's there?"




Be sure to vote on what you want to happen next just above the About Me section on the right!  Here are the 3 Paths that you can chose from:

Path 1: An elf comes out of the shadows pointing a bow and arrow at her.

Path 2: A huge dragon shows himself.

Path 3: A goblin comes tumbling out of the shadows and charges towards helpless Rox.

How do you like it so far?  Are you excited for next week?

Bible Verse

Its time for the Sunday Bible Verse!

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." 2 Corinthians 5:17

The Elvish Pen "Trailer" :)

I'm about ready to kick off The Elvish Pen Readingvision series (I just made up a new word!) and I'm so excited!  In the meantime, let me give you the "trailer" for it!

Rox doesn't want to move in with her grandmother...at all.  She won't have any friends and she will have to be homeschooled because there is no school around...only trees, hundreds-no-thousands of them.  And the woods that go on for miles around her have a secret...  The adventure starts Monday, August 11th at 6am Eastern.

Dun...dun...dun...

Hehe...that was fun!  Are you guys excited yet???  I have already "filmed" the first episode and am ready to click the publish button.

-Alea Harper (Director and Writer of The Elvish Pen)

The Elvish Pen

Ooh!  I'm so excited for this post!  I have created a sort of TV season, but it happens write here on Elvish Pens, Fantastical Writings.  I will explain how it works at the bottom.  ;) So, without further ado...may I present:

 

 

Now, here is how this series will work.  It does require your participation to keep it "airing".  :)  Each week, there will be an episode (its really just a story snippet).  After reading the episode, you will chose one of 3 paths and vote in the normal spot: just above the About Me section on the right column.  You will have 48 hours from the time the episode was aired to vote.  Then, I will take the winning path and write the next episode!  The season starts on August 11th at 6am Eastern Time, 5am Central Time, 4am Mountain Time, and 3am Pacific Time.  I believe that there will be about 13 episodes in Season 1, each airing on Monday at the same time.  If you miss it when it first airs, no worries.  :) I have DVR, so you won't miss it.  Enjoy the season!

Story Snippet- "Ice Eyes" Part 2

Here is just a little snippet from Ice Eyes.  If you haven't read part one, read it here: Ice Eyes Part 1.  Again, this is just a first draft and it will probably sometime be edited, so please excuse any awkwardness and/or grammar/spelling issues that have been overlooked in just a micro (also known as "line") edit.  If you have absolutely no idea what a line edit is (don't worry if you don't know what it is), just check out my Abbreviations and Definitions page. :) Enjoy!

Chapter 2

BEEP!  BEEP!  BEEP! My alarm clock screamed the next morning.  I groaned an rolled over, looking straight at it.  Inwardly, I threatened to smash it against the wall.  I did this every morning.  I’m not really a morning person.  BEEP!  BEEP!  BEEP!  The alarm was still going off.  Ugh!  That annoying thing.  I guess I should get up.  I turned the alarm off and threw the covers off me, much to my dismay.  Without getting out of bed, I opened my closet doors (with my mind of course) and picked out an outfit.  I turned on the light and got dressed.

“Morning, Dad!” I ran down the stairs and into the kitchen.

“Good morning, Eira,” he continued scrambling eggs.  Dad looked up, “I forgot to ask you how your testing was.”  I stiffened.  The doctor person had told us not to tell anyone…but Dad knew I was a half-blood.  Did he know about my abilities?

“Yah.  It was good,” I commented shortly.  I looked down at the table I was sitting at.  Dad set a plate of eggs and toast in front of me and I ate in silence.  Fortunately, Dad didn’t question me further.

Dad drove me to school and I went straight to my special class.  I liked to call it “The Half-blood Society of the Round Table”.  We did sit at a round table...

Once outside the door of the classroom, I paused, taking a deep breath before turning the handle and walking into the room.  The doctor was the only one in the room.  He looked very different, though.  He had lost his lab coat that he had been wearing the day before.  He had replaced the coat with a t-shirt that said, “How did we let the elves die off like the dinosaurs?” 

“Good morning…doctor…umm…” I trailed off, having absolutely no clue what to say.

“Sir Donovan,” he corrected.  Sir?  Was this guy a knight or something?  “I’m not really a doctor.  I’m the founder and president of the Half-blood training and protection division of the government.”  I tilted my head sideways, trying to comprehend what he was saying.  “All half-bloods have special abilities.  My job is to teach you to use them for the benefit of the world.  If one turns evil, the world will be in trouble.”  My eyes went wide at the thought.  Were half-bloods really that powerful?  All we could do was move stuff with our minds…right?

At that moment, the boy with the blue eyes walked into the room.  Sir Donovan welcomed him and offered him a seat at the table.  Both of us accepted the invitation and sat down.  Just before the bell rang, the other two students walked in.  They were also boys.

“Please take your-“ Sir Donovan was interrupted by the rather obnoxious bell.  “…seats, gentlemen,” he finished.  Much to my surprise, the two boys obeyed and sat down.  “Now that you are all aware that you are half-bloods, I need to educate you on how powerful you truly are.  But first, are there any questions?” 

The boy with the rainbow eyes spoke up first, “Can only half-bloods move things with their mind, or can elves do that also?”  Sir Donovan seemed pleased at the young man’s question.

“Only half-bloods.”

“Why only people like us?” I asked.  Sir Donovan seemed to ponder this for a moment.

“I don’t know.  Are there any more questions?”  No one answered, so Sir Donovan started his lecture.  “Half-bloods are the most powerful beings on Earth.  Their only threats…” he paused, “are other half-bloods.  If one stops a bullet from hitting them, the other can force the bullet back towards the one who stopped the bullet.”  Silence filled the room.  No one spoke, no one blinked.  A sense of urgency hung in the air.  A chill crept up my spine.  

 I looked at the person to my right, then my left.  “So…the government is trying to train us so that we are all on their side?”

"These Are A Few of My Favorite Books..."

My Favorite Books (I strongly recommend all of them!)  I apologize that there is only the picture of one cover.  Blogger just decided not to work right today.  :(

1.  http://www.ilyonchronicles.com/

2. Courage by Molly Evangeline

3. Truth by Molly Evangeline

4. The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

5. Finding Faith by Molly Evangeline

6. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

7. Trust by Molly Evangeline

9. Elsie Dinsmore by Martha Finley (The entire series is great!)

10. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart

Some of these books I have reviewed, so check out my Book Reviews page!

Lyric Valvo Interview

Hi!  A couple of days ago, my character, Lyric, was interviewed by Athelas!  Check it out here: http://craftingstoriesinred.wordpress.com/2014/08/05/character-interview-lyric-valvo/

How Reading Has Helped Me In Life

Reading has really helped me, in more ways than chasing away boredom (which it does nicely).  I have loved to read for many years and I consider it a privilege whenever I find a book that I a.)haven't read or b.) looks interesting.

1. Reading has helped me become very observant.  Now, I am naturally observant, but I think that reading has helped me sharpen those skills.  I understand what I observe better.

2. Reading has helped my writing.  This is actually one of the greatest benefits of reading!  I know what good writing looks like and I use it as a guide for how to write.

3. Reading has helped my vocabulary.  Oh, this is so true!  My vocabulary is huge from reading.  Need I say more?

4. Reading has helped my spelling.  When I see a correctly spelled word on the page of a book (or on my Kindle ;) ), I will usually remember it, or at least that it looks right.  Because of that, I know how to spell it the next time I write it.  Unless I blank...

5. Reading has helped my grammar.  Now, I'm not saying that my grammar is perfect, but because of reading books (where the grammar is correct...most of the time), I just get the feel for proper grammar.

6. Reading has helped my creativity.  Wow.  It is amazing how each book expands the possibilities in my mind!  For example, I recently read Heartless by Anne Elisabeth Stengl (you can read my review by clicking here).  The dragons in the book were so different then I have ever imagined!  Now, when I think of dragons, one more possibility of what they could be like is in my mind.

7. Reading has encouraged me.  Now, this is usually if it is a Christian book, but I mostly read Christian books.  :)  Characters that shine for Jesus just inspire me!  I can't describe it...it is just encouraging.

8. Reading has helped me experience so many different things.  I feel like I have lived many other lives just by reading!  When I read, I just picture what is happening in my mind, just like watching a movie.  The words lift off of the page!  I found a picture on the Internet that describes this, but due to copyright, I am not going to post it.  :(

Well, I am sure that there are many, many more ways that reading has helped me, but this is all that I can think of.  ;)  Tomorrow, I will be posting a list of my favorite books!

"Heartless" Review

Princess Una of Parumvir has come of age and will soon marry. She dreams of a charming prince, but when her first suitor arrives, he's not what she'd hoped. Prince Aethelbald of mysterious Farthestshore has travelled a great distance to prove his love--and also to bring hushed warnings of danger. A dragon is rumored to be on the hunt and blazing a path of terror.

Una, smitten instead with a more dashing prince, refuses Aethelbald's offer--and ignores his cautions with dire consequences. Soon the Dragon King himself is in Parumvir and Una, in giving her heart away unwisely, finds herself in his sights. Only those courageous enough to risk everything have a hope of fighting off this advancing evil. 

My Review:
Well, hearing a whole bunch of fellow bloggers raving of the Tales of Goldstone Wood series, I decided to give it a try!  In short, it was a very good book.

The beginning of this book was very slow, the actual "story" starting around page 150.  So, up until then, I really wasn't all that impressed.  But, I like books where the story starts within the first few chapters.

Once the actual "story" got started, I found it very hard to put the book down!  This book is full of intriguing fantasy and is completely clean!  I don't want to spoil anything for those of you that haven't read it, so I won't talk too much about it.

Characters:
The characters in this book are awesome!  Una is a fabulous main character and is hopelessly romantic. She has plenty of internal conflict, questioning her dream of falling in love.  The Prince of Farthestshore is a mysterious character with secrets and is full of love!

I encourage you to read this book!

About the Author:
Anne Elisabeth Stengl is the award-winning author of the Tales of Goldstone Wood, a series of fantasy adventure novels told in the classic Fairy Tale style. She is married to the handsome man she met at fencing class and lives with him, a gaggle of cats, and one long-suffering dog in NC.

Link To Buy Heartless Kindle Edition: http://www.amazon.com/Heartless-Tales-Goldstone-Wood-Book-ebook/dp/B008BT9F7Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1407167258&sr=1-1&keywords=heartless+anne+elisabeth+stengl

Link To Buy Heartless in Paperback Form: http://www.amazon.com/Heartless-Tales-Goldstone-Elisabeth-Stengl/dp/0764207806/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1407167258&sr=1-1

Link To Heartless Website: http://heartlessnovel.blogspot.com/

Link To Tales of Goldstone Wood Blog: http://anneelisabethstengl.blogspot.com/

Bible Verse

"But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. 'Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.'" 1 Peter 3:14

I think this verse is very encouraging. :)

2-Month Blogiversary!

Well, yesterday was my blog's two month birthday!  It is currently on its second look and doing quite well.  :)

Upcoming Posts:
Heartless Review
Bible Verse (I am planning to post one every Sunday)
List of my favorite books
How Reading Has Helped Me in Life