Do Me a Flavor and Finish My CampNaNo Project

April is good. April is fantastic. This is a month of magic, when transformations occur as flowers yawn themselves into blooming.

Sometimes it's hard to remember, but I'm going to do it.

Here are five *new* wonderful things about this rainy month.




1. Boba Tea

Despite being told my reputable sources about how awesome boba tea is, I've finally had one. And, of course, my friends don't lie.

A brand-new coffee shop opened up nearby called Brew House - so new that they didn't have all their cupcakes in the display case... and they don't have a website yet. It's a little out of the way, so my mom and I made sure to include it in our errand run this morning. The shop is cute, with plenty of room for writing novels on napkins or staring at the new hospital across the street. The girl working there was very friendly and gave us an explanation (and samples!) of what boba is. Basically, boba are little round jelly balls filled with fruit juice. It's like biting into a grape. A strong splash of flavor hits you when you eat one and the combination with sweet tea works.

I ordered mango iced tea with strawberry boba pearls. Brew House didn't have all the flavors yet, so I'll have to come back to try their lychee flavor! As you can see from the third picture, I wasn't very good at evenly eating the pearls and drinking - but having so many at the bottom of my cup was a treat!


2. Used Books

Nothing's better than finding good books - books that have had many lives, with bent pages and wounded spines. I came home with four news books that I never would have been able to resist. I love anything about the World's Fair, so Ticket for Tomorrow by Carol Cox sounded exciting.

I almost rubbed my eyes in disbelief when I stumbled upon A Swiftly Tilting Planet because it has a gorgeous cover, one of the new reprints I've gawked at in the bookstore plenty of times. My other L'Engle books date back to the 1960s, with super cheesy, yet appealing covers.

Getting another Neil Gaiman book was, well, totally great because I have not read enough of his work (Neverwhere, Coraline, Stardust, the Sandman comics, and a handful of his short stories. I need more!).


3. Misty

My doggie. She threw out her back last month. In the past week or so, she's returned to her usual spunk and I'm so thankful to see her back in action!


4. Voting in the Lays Do Us a Flavor Contest

Ever since this darn choose-the-next-Lays-flavor contest started, I've had a hard time finding all three flavors to try, let alone deciding on where to cast my vote. Apparently, Florida is apathetic about the contest, so I hadn't been able to find the chips until recently, thanks to my friends.

I've also delayed writing my verdict because it was so hard to figure out which one was my favorite. Thus, I'm happy that I finally figured it out in April, haha!

Chicken & Waffles: I really wanted to like this flavor because it was weird. But it doesn't work for me. I tasted way too much grease and not enough, well, chicken. Or waffle. I dunno. I've never had chicken and waffles, so maybe, if I'd eaten it before, I would have acquired that taste and fully enjoyed the chip version.

Sriracha: Not a fan of spicy flavors, especially not chips. I don't like the idea of having to carry water with me when eating such a casual snack. However, if you ignore the burn, the flavor's actually quite tasty!

Cheesy Garlic Bread: After much deliberation, I have to say that the garlic bread flavor was my favorite out of the three. It's the only one I can eat without feeling sick afterward (that's a good sign, right?). It's not the most creative flavor out of the three, but you can taste the varying flavors of the cheese and garlic, making it different from the garlic-based chips already out.

Thank you Jenn and Allison for sending me chips. Without you, I'd still be dithering over not getting to cast my vote and suffering from unsatisfied curiosity (ugh, can you imagine? O_O).

But in all honesty, I would have really loved prawn-flavored chips. When I studied abroad in England, I tried so many different kinds and they were all delicious. A much better flavor than these three, gotta say.


5. Progressing in My CampNaNo Project

Yep. That's happening. Just as I hoped, my sea legs are coming back in terms of writing. I've been typing away, sometimes so focused that only the screeching beep of the washer / dryer can wake me from my stupor.

I've been getting to know the characters in Stella quite well, but it improves every day. I'll be driving to school and suddenly, after stopping at a light, I'll think, "Oh my gosh! I know what Wyatt's secret is!"

And then I'll dash to my office and write it down on the scrap of an old newsletter.

The character I'm most comfortable with is Layla. I've been enjoying working with her because, in a lot of ways, we're going through the same struggles. However, she's so much snappier than me - it's an utter delight to write her sparring matches with the other characters.

One of the least developed areas of my project had been the fireplace world (coming up in the next chapter officially, I believe). It was kind of hazy in my mind. I wasn't sure if I was going to take the reader there or not. But it's been building steadily. The chimney-palace is being built, brick by brick, and the forests are twisting with endless lanterns. And after finally getting around to watching Bryan Fuller's Hannibal, I now have a mental image of the fireplace king - and boy, does that put some puzzle pieces together.

I can't wait to go there in the story. I'm typing at a brisk pace, knowing that the ending is approaching, no matter how many miles away. It's a good feeling.


6. BONUS. Imminent Graduation!

How to Spend a Hurricane Issac Day

Who hasn't heard of Hurricane Issac?

Since I live in Florida, this terrifying hurricane has been everywhere. Not that, you know, I'm scared of hurricanes. We get them all the time, especially during the summer season. What worried me was that yesterday, Monday 27th, was supposed to be the first day of school. Would we get the day off because of the storm or did everyone have to drive through the wind, rain, and RNC traffic to reach campus?

Well, at the last minute, the schools closed. Monday had become a day off.

If you want to know the proper procedure for protecting yourself during a hurricane, you'd better read another blog. Because, like most hurricanes that hit here, the weather is bad enough that you shouldn't be driving, but it's nothing to really worry about. Stay inside. Have some fun. And that's what I did.

Here's how I spent my hurricane day:


1. Watch Dr. Who

When Dr. Who aired on the SyFy Channel a few years ago, I saw a smattering of episodes. Time travel, funny aliens, a lot of running and screaming - Dr. Who was very exciting, but it didn't quite grip me at the time.

I consider myself a fantasy girl. Give me swords over space ships any day. I have trouble engaging in - and sometimes even understanding - the technical aspects of science fiction. So when I was a little high schooler, watching Dr. Who for the first time, I thought it was just like the other sci-fi shows I'd watched growing up (like Farscape). I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything when I stopped watching.

However, I've since changed my tune.

One of my summer goals had been to watch EVERY EPISODE starting with the 9th Doctor. But then the reality of completing my thesis hit me - and I didn't do a lot things I said I was going to do this summer, haha. So when Hurricane Issac gave me an extra day, I turned on Nettflix and started watching. I've seen about six episodes so far, and I'm really loving the show.

Maybe I had to grow up a bit to be able to enjoy it, or maybe now is just the right time for me to start. I already jumped the gun and bought a "Bow Ties are Cool" t-shirt (not because of the show, but more so... because I really believe that). I can't wait to get to the 11th Doctor, but I will take my time and watch in order. I promise, haha.


2. Read Literary Journals

I have a big reading list, but more often than not I cross novels off my list rather than literary journals. There are two journals that I thought would be fun to read and I finally snuggled up on my couch and read them. Weird Tales and Shimmer are both journals focused on publishing speculative stories that are, of course, weird, whimsical, and surprising.

Weird Tales #358

Weird Tales has a long history, having been founded in 1923 (cool, right? I'd love to read some of those really old issues). Issue #358's theme was Hell (I had no idea when I bought it, haha), so I ended up reading about renegade angels and contract-wielding demons. Although the theme wasn't my cup of tea, I enjoyed all of those stories. Another great aspect about Weird Tales is that they also publish academic / non-fiction articles too that have to do with weird or speculative tales. The articles in this issue included a study of "weird" in film and how McQueen's fashion aesthetic could be considered "weird." interesting stuff.

My favorite story from this issue had to be "A Beginner's Guide to Sandcastle Alchemy" by Nik Houser. A group of boys from a specialized school go to the beach during a storm and build sandcastles - all the with purpose of trying to attract the attention of the Mermaid Queen. However, the boys have no idea what the Mermaid Queen is really like and what they are risking by following through with their whimsical sand structures. This story gave me the chills but it was very well done.

Shimmer #14

This issue of Shimmer didn't seem to have a particular theme, but the stories were strange and wonderful. From mud creatures to eerie trash men, I was surprised by how creative and exciting each tale was. Almost every story has an illustration too, made by the artist who did the cover. Very cool.

My favorite story here is "This House was Never a Castle" by Aaron Polson about a boy and his two sisters Rosamond and Olivia (who is ghost, having been eaten by a wolf). They live in a house kind of like a nautilus in that there are many rooms with shut doors - but there's no way in or out of the house without using a bit of magic. The siblings only leave the house to get food because the world outside is a dangerous place, full of soldiers at war, wolves, and disease. The boy struggles with his desire to stay small and protected, but knowing that he has to step up one day and be a man. This story was creepy and I got attached very quickly to the boy and sisters. I want to read more about them!


3. Bake Macarons

Ever since my mom and I started baking macarons, it's become like an addiction! While the trees out back shivered in the rain, we made two new flavors: banana and lilac. They both are delicious.

A note about the lilac: we bought lilac in the hopes of coming close to a flavor like violet. It would be amazing to make violet macarons, but violet anything is expensive and hard to find. My mom and I trolled all the health food stores in the area, asking for violets, to no avail. But one shop had lilac and so we decided to take a chance on that flavor. Thank goodness - it's really good and it does taste a bit like violet.

These are the flavors we used. Left to Right: Banana for the cookie, chocolate for the whipped cream center, and lilac water for the other batch of cookies and whipped cream filling. The Watkins brand of extract is amazing! I highly recommend.

The lilac water is sweeter than rose water... I dunno, I kind of like the lilac better, haha. I wish that the food coloring had been darker - we have to play around with that some more.


4. Play with Misty

Done and Done!

5. Listen to The Midsummer Station

I love Owl City. It's a fact. frankly, the new album, The Midsummer Station, couldn't have come soon enough. I listened to it for the first time while driving to and from orientation, blowing out my eardrums because, you know, I have to turn up the volume in my car.

During the storm, this energetic, cheerful music washed away the worst of the thunder and lighting flashing outside.

This album is better than I expected; typical of any Owl City song, it's hard to choose a favorite. However, I'm singling out "Metropolis" because there's something mesmerizing about it. Every time this song comes up, I have to pause for a moment and daydream. Here's the song and part of the lyrics:

Oh oh, I can't even take it in

Oh oh, I can't even take it in

Oh oh, I left my heart in metropolis

So far apart, I checked but the coast was clear

I feel like a postcard

I wish you were here

Subway through the dark, carriage through the park

Taxi down the street, get out and use my feet

Don't matter much to me what it is that I do

As long as I'm coming home to you

Oh oh oh, as far as I can see

You're the only one, the only one who can get to me

Like a hijacked plane or a runaway train

Or a speeding bullet, there's no stopping this

I left my heart in metropolis

A thousand miles feels like a million years

Like hundreds of postcards that say 

I wish you were here (I can't even take it in)

Airplane through the sky, greyhound racing by

Dirt bike on the beach, sailboat on the sea

Don't matter much to me what it is that I do

As long as I'm coming home to you

Award News: Figment, Flour House, and Posters

Even though this did indeed happen a few weeks ago, I wanted to gather everything together to properly announce this awesome news: I won a writing contest! The contest was hosted by the teen writing website called Figment.com; anyone's who's been following me for a while already knows about it, haha.

The contest was called the serial contest. For anyone not familiar with the term "serial" in relation to fiction, I found a great quote from an article entitled "Writing Serial Fiction" by Icy Sedgwik:

"Serials have been part of fiction for decades. Newspapers and magazines regularly ran stories in installments, keeping readers hanging until the next issue continued the plot and spun out the story."

What serial fiction usually means nowadays is that you, as the writer, are periodically posting new chapters and the readers are following along with you as it happens. Very exciting. At least, I find it exciting. So when I found out that Figment created a contest revolving around this concept, I definitely wanted to take a shot at it.

The rules were simple:

1. Create a new story and write for four weeks straight.

2. Post at least two chapters each week (minimum of eight chapters in all).

3. One post each week must address the given writing prompt - and there was one prompt for each week.

The prompts were pretty tricky; you couldn't just write your story all at once and be done. So the prompts ensured that everyone entered was writing and creating as they went along - something that really gives me a thrill with the challenge of keeping pace and giving my characters something to worry about. The prompts were:

Week 1: Someone has to buy something from a toy store.

Week 2: Something made out of glass breaks

Week 3: Someone must be dancing or must witness dancing (of any kind).

Week 4: Someone or something (not necessarily human) must die or be dead.

The Prize: A Poster

The prize I won was a free poster from a company called PosterText. What they do is pretty cool - they take the classics (like The Portrait of Dorian Gray or Alice in Wonderland) and print the text of the book on the poster. Yes, it's like hanging a book on the wall. They choose a memorable scene, use the text from the book, and create a neat silhouette picture in the middle of the negative space. I had a hard time choosing which one I wanted, but in the end I stuck with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Here are some pictures of its arrival, followed by what I did after the happy delivery:

The poster arrives!

Ah, the poster is successfully unwrapped and up on a wall! It looks good, haha.

When you look at it up close, you can see the text! This one is the text next to Elizabeth's face.

My dog, Misty, and I eating cotton candy Italian ice. Delicious - and it helped cool my brain off after all that writing.

The Story: Flour House

From this contest, I came up with my entry: Flour House. I listed the prompts because, if you do decide to read it, you might be interested to see how I used them to fit the story each week. It's a story filled with baking sweets, teacup bathes, handsome tiny boys, and a lot of flour. I've posted the first chapter here:

Measuring Spoons

It was late November when Lettice Morris stood outside the toy shop. She was seventeen, a small girl with small feet. She had her brown hair tied back in two braids, her smart green pea coat buttoned up to the neck, and she watched her breath fog the darkened windows and drew hearts and stars with her gloved fingers until they faded away.

A thin layer of frost covered the city street. People walked carefully in big, slow strides with their arms out like tight-rope walkers. Lettice checked her watch out of habit, but she knew what time the toy shop opened.

8:03 am

The lights turned on.

The old man who ran the toy shop was called Duncan. He unlocked the door and popped his head out, smiling down at the young woman. “Good morning, Letty,” he said. His eyes glittered behind his gold-rimmed peepers. His bowtie was blue.

She greeted him with a smile that split apart her chapped lips. She forgot again to rub on her vanilla chapstick; it always got lost in her purse, no matter how small and how few pockets were inside. For this reason, Lettuce believed that all purses were hungry monsters – a notion she had held onto since she was a child. But more importantly, for this reason, her lips were chapped and aching.

When Duncan let her inside, she darted past the train set display and the mobiles of butterflies and space ships to the cash register. She pawed around in one of the small fishbowls filled with tiny, inexpensive trinkets and found a tiny, round container of chapstick. The cover was decorated with swirls like a melting candy cane but it smelled like roses when she opened it. She quickly swiped an un-gloved finger across its smooth, sticky surface and flinched as she carefully dotted her lips.

“Did you come out here for just that?” Duncan said, looking at her over the display of rag dolls. He gently adjusted a fallen teddy bear.

“Not at all. But I’ve forgotten to put it on again. Or my bag ate it. I can’t tell which is true yet,” Lettice said. She took out her wallet and pulled plucked out two crisp bills. “That’s for the sweet relief. I can feel my lips healing already.”

“So what are you looking for?”

“A measuring spoon set.”

“There are kitchen stores for that…”

“No. I mean, I want a tiny one. Dollhouse-sized.”

Duncan laughed. “Well, that’s different. Follow me.”

They walked down one of the cluttered aisles, stuffed with train wheels, menageries, broken china dolls and faded scraps of clothing. The labels on each wooden shelf were faded by the years. Some peeled off and joined the dust on the floor. Duncan stopped at a shelf lined with tiny couches, paintings from Picasso and O’Keeffe on bigger than a thumb, and a bathtub realistic enough to have a ring. He extracted a small box, and from that box, amongst forks, brushes, and necklaces, he offered Lettice a flower-painted measuring spoon set. She held it prudently in her hands.

“I gather you’ve wanted to add to your mother’s dollhouse,” he said, watching Lettice gently turn the set in her hands, hearing it jingle. “It’s a worthy cause. It’s almost like building a real home, from the ground up. You’re lucky your mother boxed away most of her collection so that, when she passed, they would belong to you.”

He spoke easily about this because it had been five years since her mother died. Lettice was comfortable with it. She thought of her mother often, but not sadly; she had her cheerful, older brothers always making her feel safe. But although she did have a keen interest in putting her mother’s dollhouse back together, there was another reason why she had started to spend her money on the tiny delicacies. So without hesitating, Lettice said, “There’s that, Duncan. Yes. But my boyfriend is living in the dollhouse, and he’d really like to bake a cake.”

(Original cover art found on We Heart It)