I am currently reading a book by Elisabeth Elliot. I am of course really enjoying it. This was one of the quotes that stuck out to me: "Be silent enough to hear." 

Shortly before that one was another quote that could possibly be even better, for me at least. "Never pass up an opportunity to keep your mouth shut." It did make me laugh, but I probably need to remember it in certain situations. 

So I shall take this opportunity to keep my mouth shut and leave you with the last picture.

I have known Hope Ann for quite some time and so am quite excited to be able to hand this post over to her and her beautiful book cover. I will also have a review of the story to post as soon as I have read the book. I am almost finished The Shadow Rising (Wheel of Time book 4) by Robert Jordan, after that Hope's book is next on the list. I hope it will be good. For now I will hand the post over to hope so we can learn a bit more about her stories.

It’s finally here! The cover for Burning Rose, a paperback collection of the first three Legends of Light novellas!

A war, founded in ancient legends, changes the lives of those it touches forever.

Elissa, a villager from the northern mountains, attempts to save her brother and ends up trapped in a hidden valley with a strange host and a treacherous enemy.

Evrard, the Wingmaster of the Prince’s army, races against his own weakening powers to discover the location of his twin and save her from deadly mistbenders.

Haydn, a pardoned rebel from Tauscher’s army, confronts shadows of myth and former comrades in his struggle to keep his sister safe and find the stolen Stormestone.

Before the war, before the legends, before the Separation, there was a man who started it all. There was a curse, a promise, and a sacrifice. There was the Oathkeeper.

Fairy tales retold as you have never heard them before. 

ROSE OF THE OATH: Beauty and the Beast

SONG OF THE SWORD: Rapunzel

SHADOWS OF THE HERSWEALD: Hansel and Gretel 
and 

ROSE OF THE NIGHT: a Rose of the Oath prequel

You can check out each ebook individually here or the Burning Rose page here. The Kindle version is available for preorder, but the paperback won't be up to buy until the launch on October 3rd. Don't worry, I'll tell you all about it then. In the meantime, you can add Burning Rose to your lists on Goodreads.

I suppose you'd like to actually see the cover now? Very well. It is glorious. 


Designed by Kate Flournoy

Worth the wait? Because I love it. And it's less than a month before you can hold a copy of Burning Rose in your own hands! Also, if you want blow by blow updates as well as cool tidbits and a behind-the-scenes look of the launch, you can hop over here to Facebook and join the Readers of Aslaria launch group!

Hope Ann is a Christian wordsmith, avid reader, and dedicated author. Her time is taken up with writing, reading, playing with inspirational photos, blogging, helping care for the house and eight younger siblings, and generally enjoying the adventures of life on a small farm at the crossroads of America. She is the author of Legends of Light is currently working on several projects including a fantasy novel and futuristic trilogy. You can find out more about her at https://authorhopeann.com/

Rules:
0.5. Wonder why in the wold it is called the 'Wisteria Writer's Tag' 
1. Thank the blogger who nominated you.
2. Answer the ten questions asked.
3. Add ten (writing or book related) questions of your own.
4. Nominate people.

So a wisteria is a climbing shrub of the pea family, with hanging clusters of fragrant flowers, typically pale bluish-lilac in colour. Native to eastern Asia and North America. Ornamental varieties are widely grown on walls and pergolas. And it is a plant that has nothing to do with writing unless you count the fact that is smells heavenly and therefore the scent is quite inspiring. It's a pity I can't smell any now.

And to avoid any confusion I must confess that I don't have any photos of wisteria (well actually I may, but I don't remember when I took them and I take have over 1,000 images that I keep each month -don't ask how many I take- and funnily enough I can't find the photos), but I did have that shot of a beautiful smelling purple flowering native plant on hand, so it had to do. Now that the wondering is over I will thank Jane my lovely sister over at Maiden of the Misty Mountains who tagged me. Thanks, Jane.

Now to proceed to the questions she asked.

Questions:

1) What inspired the idea for your current WIP (work in progress), and how long have you had the idea? The Rooglewood Press writing competition.

2) What are you most looking forward to about this WIP? It being finished... well being finished means it is way better than it is now so that would be great. It needs to get a lot better.

3) Have you ever dreamed about your characters? No, I do dream a lot but not usually about my own characters, although I have used things from dreams to inspire parts of stories.

4) How do you go about naming your characters? I take ages, or else I write out a name and it is there. But every name must fit the character and have a meaning that goes with them, meanings are so important for me. My characters names are often short and unusual, I also tend to make a lot up by combining parts of two other names. 

5) Do you plan out your theme? Vaguely. For my current WIP it was easy because they asked that you would use some of or similar themes to the original Snow White story, that is also often what I do with my retellings. My other stories kind of find their theme as they go along.

6) Do you discover the MBTI thing of your characters? (if so, what are the types of your WIP protagonists?) Yes, for my longer works anyway. I never did them with this story but I do know what a few of my main characters are in my other story that I have put aside while working on the Snow White retelling.

This is what Irene my MC gets.

7) Have you a favourite genre to write in? (or do you like switching it up randomly) Fantasy, but I dabble in other genre too, mostly fantasy though, logical magic and world building make a good story for me.

8) What is a big inspiration for you in writing? (a person, book, quote, scenery, ect.) Umm, life. I always have ideas. Someone will just say some word or sentence and I will be whisked off to some shadowy world that I then try and light up. Characters jump out and worlds unfold and I have to pack them all away before anyone notices. And I have to ignore most of them because I can only write one story at a time.

9) Are you competitive in your word counts, or more chill and relaxed? Depends. If there is no chance of me winning then no, I will simply not care. But if I decide I want to win them yes. I do like beating myself though and beating goals and things like that.

10) Do you like sharing small snippets of your work? (*hint hint* :P) No. I will share all or nothing. If you want to beta read something then sure but snippets are my preciousssssss.

As it turns out I was also tagged by Jasmine from Where My Wild Heart Grows, so thanks to her I have more questions to answer..... so here goes.

Le Questions come again:

1) What was the closest time ever your character came to perishing? Well my antagonists goal is simply to kill the MC so quite a few times, and then there was the time she did die..... but spoilers.

2) Was your character close to his/her parents or were they very distant? She does not remember anything about her parents as she was only 2 when they both died.

3) When was the last time your character felt scared? Like they couldn't do anything- helpless! Hmm, when she was poisoned and almost died.

4) What would your character do if they lost the ones they loved/cared for? Not know what to do. Mourn, be tempted to kill someone but probably not go through with it.

5) What are your stories stakes at this moment? The MCs life and then her friends lives then her families lives.

6)  Your Character's friends are all jumping off a dragon. Would your character do it too? There are no Dragons in Elsewhere so this question is an impossibility.

7) The villain has won. What become's of your character(s)? They are dead.

8) What does your character want? Instead, what does he/she actually NEED? She wants to be left alone, but needs to fulfill the bad guys quest, and other things that I also can not mention.  

9) Say your character has a pet, what would it be? Wow, a pet, chooks maybe, I honestly never thought of Niamah with pets. In 'Relinquished' Irene has a pet camel and also kinda has pet goats.  

10) You character needs something done imminently, but they are trapped in a cave. Wait, there is someone on the other side who can help your character! What would your character say to them? I have no idea, I am wondering how they can even speak with someone outside the cave, if they could I think they would ask the person on the outside to help them get out.

There we go, all done. Was I meant to do anything else? Probably. Oh yes, think of more questions and tag people. Well if you are reading this and wish to answer the same questions I did (in a post or in the comments), please do, if not well I don't see how any questions I think up would be much better. I would rather be off editing my story. So consider this post done, or don't but I do, and you can't change that fact. 

I heard of the Snowflake method of plotting from some writer friends and wanted to try it, because before that my poor stories were very, extremely, highly un-plotted. The main one I have been working on for years is a mess. But then I read this book and it inspired me. 

So in case you have not heard of it let me introduce How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method.


This book is amazing. I have never read such a fun writing book before. Sure I have read other good ones but this one was so engaging. The first more than a half is written as a novel in which the main character is being taught how to outline using the Snowflake Method. It is kind of like you as the reader are also sitting in the class and you can go off to do your homework on your story as the main character does.  

To give you a bit of an idea the teacher is called Baby Bear and the main characters name is Goldilocks. There is a main plot line running through the book of Goldilocks wanting to write a story and a secondary plot line as well. I just wanted to keep on reading like it was a novel.

And yes the Snowflake Method, has made me write some kind of outline and I managed to get up to starting step 8.... after that I'm not so sure if all I have is a mess, but it is so much better than what I had before that. And so much less of a random mess, and I know what I am doing now. It was so fun to read through and helpful too, I highly recommend you give this a go and you may even find that is it just right.

See look how ordered does that look! I am so happy right now looking at that. It took me ages to make Scrivener do what I wanted but I knew it had to do it somehow I just had to find out how and an hour or so later I did. Yes I whited out the main parts because spoilers. 

And binary, because I have been looking at it for half the day. No I can't read it, but my sister needed a book cover and I don't use other people's graphics if I can help it (unless they happen to be in public domain or are book covers.) So I spent ages making some binary graphics up. And they look cool, but as far as I know the book covers are secret for now. So you only get to see the binary on the first picture of this post, which is comparison to the cover is quite un-epic. And has nothing to do with snowflakes or my own writing.

Anyone else plotting for camp NaNo?

It has been requested of me to share some more of my blackout art. So here it is, these got  a lot more arty than the first one I did. The umbrella design is one I found another place and copied the idea but what the picture says is of course of my own creation. 

Yes I have a bible that I rescued at the book fair from going to the tip and yes I do use it for craft, and yes I do feel terrible every time I cut a piece out of it and yes it was even worse cutting a page out it it, but also very effective!

I really like how you can add so much by taking away. It is so fun to change what the paper says into something completely different. 

These other pictures that contain people were first sketched from a photos of people I found online but I generally looked at a page and then knew just what picture I needed to find and put on it. 

 The wind idea also came off another persons blackout poetry art piece. I liked it, so I flicked through the pages of the falling apart poetry book I have used for some of these pieces until I found a page with the word 'wind' on it. It turned into this. 

This one was fun. My parents thought I might die from the smell of the permanent markers. It was quite different removing everything else and making the white/blank parts what was there. I also did not intend to make the lady quite so thin, but I forgot that the outline was more like an inline since not the outside of the line but the inside would become the outside. (Sorry if that confused you)

This last one is my favourite though. I saw the words "THE ELDERLY GENTLEMAN" and some of the other words on the page that I have brought out in the image, and I knew instantly what I wanted it too look like. The problem was I couldn't find a photo of an old man with a stick in the position I imagined. Eventually I found one that I could flip and then sketch from. Resulting in this. 

 Do you sketch?
Do you like playing with words?

Have you ever tried any blackout poetry?

I saw this idea a while back but decided to finally do it the other day. It's quite simple all you need is a page or words a pencil and a black marker. I looked over the page finding interesting words and then beginning from the start I circled words to make sentences. The one of these I had seen before had only one sentence, but mine got a lot longer. It is hard sometimes but really fun to change a page of words completely and make it say something that does not even relate to what it originally did. 

Once I chose all my words I drew boxes around them with the marker, even as I did that I changed a few. I then began filling in all the other words leaving the little boxes.

It took a long time, and I changed my mind again a few times adding another word and drawing over a box I no longer wanted visible.

Eventually I got it all filled in and finished. Since I finished this one I have made a lot more, and most of them are way more arty, with less words and more pictures instead of just black. I may even get around to photographing them and sharing some photo later on.

What do you think? Want to try it?

Thanks to Bonnie I have been tagged for the "Text Tag". It has nothing to do with texting on a phone, which is good because that takes me way...way to long... to write even one word. SO thanks for tagging me for this interesting tag Bonnie.

//Thank the blogger who nominated you and link back to them. 
//Answer the original 6 text-themed questions.
//Add a typography/word related question for those you tagged to answer.
//Tag 6+ bloggers
//Include these rules in your post.

1. What is your favorite letter of the alphabet?
F, because I like to write it in an unintelligible way. In fact I normally forget how to write it other ways. But you can't really blame me that was how my handwriting book taught me to write it.

2. What are three words that you love?
Ostentatious
Verdant
Books

3. What are three words that you hate?
No
Pixelated 
Squished

4. If you could create a word, what would it be, and what would it describe?
Well when I was little I did create an Xacorn... I don't remember how I spelled it, (probably not like that) but I wanted to know what you get when you have a horse with a horn and wings, pegacorns and unipegs are all well and good (okay they sounds silly) but we really need some more words that start with X that we can use.... Which I think is why I originally made up the name, because I had to draw something starting with x.

5. What are your three favorite punctuation marks?
This one : and this one D because together they make a grinning face :D and the question mark, why? because I always know when to use that one! 

6. What are your three favorite fonts?

Bonus question: What is your favourite girls name? What is your favourite boys name?
That I am sure is two questions and I have no answer because how can one have a favourite anything. Besides I like making up names and then I hide them on a secret board on Pinterest and don't let anyone see them in case they steel them... I am very protective of my names, they are precious things.

And my bonus question: Do you like writing? If so share a favourite snippet of something you have been working on recently.

I tag Sarah of novus papilio // Jane // Emily // Abigail Cossette // Jessica of apples of Gold // you // anyone who knows the name of any of the fonts I used in the picture, most of which are random ones I downloaded, because fonts are so cool!

Last April I did Camp NaNo for the first time, my sister Jane joined me in a cabin and we both reached and exceeded our word count goals. Camp NaNo is fun because you can set an achievable word count and watch your stats go up each day as you write more (and add you word count in). I was always scared of NaNoWriMo (Still am) But Camp NaNo is a good amount of scary, while still being possible because you don't have to write 50,000 words in a month. That is not something I can even imagine myself doing, and I have a good imagination.

The point of this post though it that there is going to be another Camp NaNo next month. It starts the first of July. This time we have created our own cabin, lovingly dubbed The Fellowship of the Keyboards and we need more cabin members. There are limited spaces (like 12 in all, if I remember correctly) but if you would like to join our cabin head over to my sisters blog and leave a comment on her post about this telling us your Camp NaNo username, first in best dressed. 

So far there are four crazy people already in there hiding behind cover names and profile pics of our characters. 

If you have never done it before and are somewhat of a writer, have a go! Set yourself a small goal of a few thousand words, and even if we do run out of space you can hopefully find some other cool cabin to join, or make your own like we did!

Have you ever done Camp NaNo?

Are you one of those amazing people who have actually done the full NaNoWriMo?

I made some rather cool (even if I do say so myself) paper beads a while ago. They were so easy to make and look great on a necklace, I made two and gave them both away, and I know that one at least gets worn often. At least half the time that I see my young friend she is wearing it. 

What you will need:

• A printer that works, paper
• A few toothpick and cooking skewers
• Glue
• (optional, probably useful but I didn't have any) some kind of glaze

And if you want to make more than the paper part:

• Some other beads, (a few metal ones look nice.)
• A necklace chain, some other chain and some Jump Rings
• And some things which I have googled and I think are called "Metal Head Pins" sounds kinda violent....

First you need to decide what words you want and what font and print them out, but remember that shorter words work better... because otherwise you have the problem of chopping off one end of the word with the other end. Then you need to cut the paper into strips with each word at one end of a strip and you want them to be as straight as possible! 

Make sure your strips are not so fat that the finished bead will be to big to fit onto a head pin with some other beads. You need some other beads on there (at least I did) not only because it looks good and I say so but because the skewer sized hole is probably too big and the bead will just slip off the pin.

Then get glue everywhere, but not too much of it.... contradictory 
terms I know. Roll the strips into beads, tight around the skewer. Once it is rolled take it off and put in on a toothpick-that is resting between some other things that are lying around-to dry. Then continue until you have rolled all of them. As you can see some of mine were longer and others shorter. When they are dry it could be a good idea to glaze them.... I tried it with glue but that did not work so well as the ink started to run...

Now you have paper beads. Next you need to chose some other beads and thread them all onto the head pins. Bend the loops at the top and attach a jump ring or some chain, varying lengths look nice.  Obviously you will then need to attach the pendant you have made to the necklace with a jump ring. And then you are done.

Have you ever made paper beads?

If so what kind were they?

Do you like glue?

I was not going to post about Australia Day, because it forgot about if for so long but then I found the paper that I had written most of the content of this post on during the ceremony, so in the end I am gong to share it and some photos, even if that was weeks and weeks ago.

The only noise a speaker talking on and on, the occasional shuffling as positions are changed. There comes a burst of clapping and the person talking changes, all is still again, all except the fluttering of one white moth flying above the audience and floating down to rest on the chair in front of me. To one side of me are rows of people filled seats and then the three ranks of soldiers standing still as stone. Guns are carried by all but one who holds a ceremonial sword high. Then the speaker finishes and the crowd comes out of is slumber into a tremendous thunder of clapping. 

A while later the band starts up and the soldiers unfreeze and stand to attention and we all rise to sing our national anthem everyone is paying attention now and a great noise fills the hall. Everyone remembers the first verse, but there is a falter in the crowd as the second verse begins, it is sung much less often.  Applause rings out again bouncing off the walls and ringing from hand to hand. We have two new Australian citizens, the soldiers move again, saluting them and then turning as one, march out of the hall as erratic clapping fills the air once more, then evens out with the beat of army boots on the wooden floor.

This was actually my favorite speaker, much more interesting and well spoken than some of the others

For a six word story competition. That Joy is hosting, ending tomorrow. And I found out about today. The pictures inspired me to write. My sister Jane was doing this. She is how I found out. I thought it would be fun. Good exercise for a writer's brain. So I am doing it too. See her six word stories here.  Now for my three short stories. 

First picture Three, my favourite one:

They rippled, changing, then splashed downwards.

Now for the Second, inspirational picture:

Paintball should not end like this.

And finally the last, picture One:

This Ice Queen is not me.

Do you realize just how hard it is to put what I think about one picture in six words! Or even a whole blog post. Well almost all of a post. Have you ever written a one sentence, or six word story? They are almost like a poem. 

I experienced one of those rare magic moments today. I felt as though a portal to some fantasy place had opened for a minute. The experience just seemed too wonderful to belong in this worlds realm. It was kind of like a glimpse of heaven.

I drove past a house the other day and it inspired me to write, this;

Once this was not a sad little house, I am sure. Once a man, or maybe more, laboured on its foundations. Each wooden slat, cut and placed by loving hands. With joy and laughter, looking forward to a brighter future, this house rose up from the steep hill. Finally the wife arrived, the furniture, and the corrugated iron for the roof. It rumbled up on a slow moving wagon, drawn by a team of oxen, maybe. Maybe they had trudged the tree boarded track up the mountains for days, weeks.

Once, maybe once, the young wife ran up and into her husbands arms,  so glad that they were together again. So glad of the beautiful house, a house of her own, with wooden boards to sweep the dust from. Together they would make this their home, possibly.

As the rain fell, it drummed down on the roof, horrendously noisy, but they sat together, knowing that the house was solid built. It would not blow away, or collapse like a tent of canvas. Maybe soon after that children could have come.

Once they could have leaped off the bottom step and run down the slope, crossing over the fallen tree that bridged the creek, and jumped into their fathers arms as he arrived home. Did he come from taking their cattle to market? Or selling the furs of the animals he trapped? Or from the homestead where The Boss lived? 

Other times the children could have run with buckets down to the bubbling mountain stream and tried to catch the little mosquito fish, that darted through the clear water. Little trousers, or skirts, hoisted high. Maybe muddy little feet ran back up the hill to show Mother their prizes. Or maybe they fished out the fat black tadpoles, and kept them in a jar, watching as they grew legs, squiggly tails shrank and then disappeared. 

Once upon a time, long ago, many things could have happened in and around that happy little house. House of promises, hopes and dreams, once. Now though, it sits a weathered grey. On a hillside, far from anywhere, a dull house rots, silent except for the clatter, bang, and scratch of the rusted iron roofing, that has now come loose. Each gust of wind, pulls at the house, and it succumbs, sinking away, slowly returning to dust, and memories.

What memories it must hold though, if only I could hear it speak. If only the creaks, could, be interpreted, or the language of old things found out. But the people who lived there once, have gone, grown old and died. Maybe the children still live on somewhere, I wonder have they forgotten, the once happy little house on a hill. Or are they no longer, here to be able to remember, have they too passed away. I do not know, but I wonder, what does that sad little house remember?

The book shop is the best shop in town.... and one of the most dangerous places for me to go, whether I have any money to spend or not. We are friends with the shop owner and I just enjoy being in there, with all the books! I may have walked out without a book once.... maybe... I took some photos last time we went, to go with a silly rhyme I made up. So come with me and take a tour of our local bookstore. Or at least many of the more interesting shelves.

I just finished listening to the audio book of Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

I really would not recommend reading the synopsis from Goodreads, it gives away way too much, here is the one I read. 

"An author whose previous, wildly successful novels have earned him a reputation as fantasy's master of magic, Brandon Sanderson continues to dazzle audiences with this tale of princesses and gods. In this extraordinary world, those who attain glory return as gods. And those who can master the essence known as breath can perform the most wondrous miracles - or unleash the most devastating havoc."

I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads, but I possibly should have given it four.... there are no half stars though. Rating books is really hard.

Warning: there are a few minor spoilers in this review.

The juices in my mouth stopped squishing in sweet flavoursome bursts at every chew and no longer slipped smoothly down my throat to fill my stomach in a satisfactory way. The soft pulpy fruit turned hard after a few mouthfuls and the liquid that ran from it, down my arm, began to feel sticky and dirty. 
I chewed harder; my teeth grating together, with a gulp, another mouthful of the fruit scratched its way to fill the pit of my stomach, sharp edges catching at my throat. Yet I cannot stop. My jaws keep working and again I swallow... I swallow what feels like rocks picked up from beside a path, gravel. 

When winter was forgotten

Autumn spun straight to spring

The drying leaves had not yet dropped

Yet out, burst a flowery thing

Rosy leaves remain on branches

On trees to which leaves should not cling

Not in the winter season anyway but

Already to them have come, the blossoms of spring

Here is a small fact to think on:

~ You are going to live forEVER ~

Or to put it another way

~ Your soul is IMMORTAL ~

After you leave your body

you will continue to live....

but where?

there are only two options

and this is not an either or fallacy

it is fact

now is the time to chose where you will spend eternity

That just says it all

One candle stood in a corner. It looked silently out over the room; it could not see to the rooms extent, the candle did not even know if there were other edges. Hundreds of thousands of candles stood in the shadowy room.  A few of the candles had faint lights on them, some sputtered, but most were dark. In one place nearby, a group of lighted candles stood together right next to each other. Each little flame melded together to create one roaring tower of light that could be seen by many more candles. The group of candles dispersed, each leaving with more fire atop it than it arrived with. They went out and mingled with the unlit candles. 

From the corner the candle watched, many of the dark candles leaned towards a flaming candle as he passed them. The flaming candle stopped in amongst a huddle of dark ones, as he left the wick atop one he had just spoke with sputtered into life, a faint glow, but still a glow. 

Sadly some of the lighted candles walked about with their arms shielding their light as if they were afraid it would be blown out if someone else saw it. Others hid their light, ashamed of the shadows it seemed to cause, though really all it did was show the truth. Still others selfishly kept their light hidden so only they could use it to guide their path. Candles around these ones never had any idea they were near lighted ones. 

The candle in the corner stopped watching the others as she heard a strange sound. Following it she came to a small group of candles. Their wicks were faintly lighted or sputtering. With a smile she walked into the midst of them. They gathered round and gazed at her light. As the little group came together their wicks touched and a great tower of light shot up. They soon parted, but each candle now held their heads high, showing their light to anyone watching. 

The candle from the corner kept on moving through the darkness. At times she saw one of the candles beside her start to sputter, other times she had long passed on before her light lit theirs. Most of the time she only warmed their wax, but that prepared them for when another lighted one passed their way then they too burst into flame. 

One candle had time only to light one other before he melted away, but that other burned bright. The one candle that the candle of short time lit went on to light many others, and warm or bring to sparks many more. When others lights flared up, they too lit still more.

In one place, too many candles away for our corner candle to see, a bright burning candle refused to go out. Other candles entrenched in their darkness noticed his flame and for fear of it catching, took him away. Still his light shone. So they bent him, they battered his light. They failed their mission. The battering of his light only caused sparks to fly; the distances some of them went were incredible. Finally the dark ones smashed him to pieces until he was no more, but his light had already given many others light of their own.

One lighted candle can make a difference, yet each does in different ways. Let your light shine. Give the Light time to catch, light up the darkness.