Disney's Flower & Garden Festival 2014

There's nothing more rewarding after finishing a big project than celebrating its completion in style. Thankfully, Disney always has something fun planned this time of year: Epcot's Flower & Garden Festival.

Epcot typically has a lot of flowers all year round, but the festival paints the entire park in vibrant colors (and mosquitoes, due to the sudden change to hot weather).

The topiaries are the stars of the festival, though they usually remain the same every year (which is why I only have the Muppets one pictured here - in honor of the epic movie that just came out, Muppets Most Wanted).

The newest addition to the festival is multiple tiny gardens throughout Epcot, each with a different theme - either from a Disney / Pixar movie or learning experience. I took a photo of the Gardener's Palette on the bottom left, focusing on color theories and language. It was probably my favorite of the gardens.

The Festival Center was abuzz with presentations from gardeners and plant life geniuses, including HGTV stars (in theory. I wasn't there on those days, haha). The four photos on the right were taken in the Festival Center; in the space where the Food & Wine Festival shows off chocolate sculptures, this festival presents a pint-sized history of Disney Horticulture. Not as interesting as chocolate, but still pretty cool.

Another new thing: the Flower & Garden Festival has FOOD. Guys. Guys. Guys. Instead of booths, they're called "Outdoor Kitchens." And the food, as a whole, was fantastic. Apparently, Disney started the outdoor kitchens last year... and I somehow missed it. WHAT. I chalk it up the stress of my impending graduation last year. March-May is always a weird time.

And where there are booths / outdoor kitchens, there will be passport stamps. And I collected them all! HERE WE GO:

(Left to Right: Festival Center; Gardener's Palette; Mater's Parts, Plants & Play Garden; Garden Retreat; Mike & Sulley's Monstrous Garden; Water Wise Herbs and Vegetables; Pineapple Promenade; Merry Meadows Outpost; Buttercup Cottage; English Tea Garden; Fleur de Lys; Backyard Play Garden; Taste of Marrakesh, Hanami; The Smokehouse: Barbecue and Brews; Primavera Kitchen; Florida Fresh; Lotus House; Jardin de Fiestas; Urban Farm EATS) 

Food I Ate:

The food was great for the strange fluctuating weather as Florida jerkily transitions into its usual intense hot weather. The food offered stayed on the cool size, either chilled or naturally refreshing with fruits and veggies. Ever since I heard about the outdoor kitchens, I'd been dying for violet lemonade - I can't describe how perfect it was. The candied strawberries peppered with sesame seeds made candy apples pale in comparison. And the Shiso violet sauce used with the Hanami sushi is divine. To the point where I'd fight an army of bridge trolls for a bottle (ohhhh, I hope Disney sells it someday. It seems to be an exclusive festival creation).

The only real disappointment was the Caprese push-up pop... because it was tiny/ Even Oleander from Flour House wouldn't be able to make a meal of it. Yikes. 

Ghost Pepper-Dusted Tilapia with Crisp Winter Melon Slaw and Mint Oil

Urban Farm EATS

Shrimp and Stone Ground Grits with Andouille Sausage, Sweet Corn, Tomatoes, and Cilantro

Florida Fresh

Beijing-Style Candied Strawberries

Lotus House

*My Favorite*

Hanami Sushi (A flavorful combination of salmon, scallop, and beef topped rice balls served with a Shiso Violet Sauce)

Hanami

*My Favorite*

Popped Rice Cakes (Japanese puffed rice cakes with green tea whipped cream and azuki)

Hanami

Freshly Baked Potato and Cheddar Cheese Biscuit with Smoked Salmon Tartare

Buttercup Cottage

*My Favorite*

Frozen Desert Violet Lemonade

Pineapple Promenade

*My Favorite*

Caprese Push-Up Pop (Tomato, mozzarella, and balsamic)

Intermissions Cafe, Festival Center

Pork and Apple Sausage Roll with House-Made Piccalilli 

Buttercup Cottage

Macaron a la Fleur d'Oranger (Orange blossom macaron with white chocolate ganache)

Fleur de Lys

*My Favorite*

Little German Village:

German's little train village is usually decorated a bit for each festival, and the Flower & Garden Festival is no different. The main area has lampposts with festival banners hanging from them.

You can see the flower stands and people either relaxing on benches or busy doing... things. Like walking. 

Okay. So not as exciting as the mini booths during the Food & Wine Festival. BUT I'm sure that the decorations will be expanded in the future. I expect to see a lot more little flowers and gardens throughout the village next year. 

I keep a special eye on one corner of the village, where a church sits on top of a hill. The figurines throughout the village do change from time to time, but I've grown attached to the characters in this section because they've changed the most over the years I've gone to Disney. So imagine my surprise when I saw the nun, fallen on the pathway still in her sitting position! She's never been dislodged before. Which led me to wonder exactly what devilish thing has caused her to collapse (maybe the push-up pop, haha!). 

We Could Fall in Love: Vote on Swoonreads.com Now!

Say hello to my new manuscript, We Could Fall in Love!

Fallon attends high school in the town of Grimbaud, where magic takes the form of crafted charms, potions, and fortunes. When she receives this year’s love fortune from Zita’s shop, the mysterious woman whose fortunes are said to come straight from Love itself, Fallon refuses to accept what her new fortune decrees: being eternally unloved–and a guaranteed residency at the Spinster Villas.

But a rebellion is brewing, and she suddenly finds herself at the center of it, joining fellow ill-fated teenagers determined to end Zita’s reign. There she meets Sebastian, a handsome boy notorious for dating and dumping girls before they can know his heart.

Her aversion to Sebastian fades as she gets to know him, but love is risky when heartbreak awaits her–unless the rebellion succeeds.

You can read the first three chapters on Figment.com, but the entire manuscript is available exclusively on Swoonreads.com.

Swoon Reads is a teen romance imprint publishing under Feiwel and Friends, an imprint of Macmillan. Readers can vote and comment on the teen romance manuscripts posted: the best manuscripts have a shot at earning a publishing contract with Swoon Reads. Voting for the second round ends on May 31st, so I hope that you'll be able to read, vote, and review my manuscript in time! :D

Extras:

Here's a playlist I made, using the songs I listened to while writing the manuscript: I tried to put them in narrative order!

And a Pinterest Board:

We Could Fall in Love (Maybe. But I'm Talking About the Manuscript)

I've been very bad. For months now, I've been writing something and kept it a secret from you.

Considering how often I've written serially on Figment, this was EXTREMELY HARD to do. I'm terrible at keeping secrets. That's why my friends know better than to ask me about movies and books. I usually slip up with spoilers, though I try to give fair warning. Sometimes.

But now, the time has come. My newest novel manuscript, We Could Fall in Love, is officially online and ready for reading!

So I've been giving you hints about this novel, but really, what is it about? Well, well. I could give you a list, or I could be reasonable and give you a summary instead:

Fallon attends high school in the town of Grimbaud, where magic takes the form of crafted charms, potions, and fortunes. When she receives this year’s love fortune from Zita’s shop, the mysterious woman whose fortunes are said to come straight from Love itself, Fallon refuses to accept what her new fortune decrees: being eternally unloved–and a guaranteed residency at the Spinster Villas. 

But a rebellion is brewing, and she suddenly finds herself at the center of it, joining fellow ill-fated teenagers determined to end Zita’s reign. There she meets Sebastian, a handsome boy notorious for dating and dumping girls before they can know his heart. 

Her aversion to Sebastian fades as she gets to know him, but love is risky when heartbreak awaits her–unless the rebellion succeeds.

Where Can I Find It?

I'm glad you asked.

You'll find three sample chapters on Figment.com. The full manuscript, however, is exclusively on Swoonreads.com. 

Swoon Reads is a teen romance imprint publishing under Feiwel and Friends, an imprint of Macmillan. The great part about them is that they work the same way Figment does, creating a community where writers can share their manuscripts with readers. Swoon Reads is focused on YA and NA romance novels, spanning many different genres and subgenres. The exciting part is the chance of publication: if readers and the staff love the book, you might get offered a publishing contract with Swoon Reads.

You'll need to make an account on Swoonreads.com to read my manuscript, and I hope you do!

Voting for this round ends May 31st.

It may mean that you'll need to shift around your endless reading lists to read and comment on We Could Fall in Love in time, and for that, I'm truly appreciative.

Fallon and Sebastian's story is near and dear to my heart. I've been eating way too many sweets over the past few months, seeing hearts on everything, and questioning the fate (or lack of it) that brings some people together and keeps others alone.

Now is the perfect time to break out into an 80s love song, but I'll save you the torture (I can't sing. Really). Instead, I'll just say that I've been waiting a very long time in Kim-years to share this story with you. Please enjoy!

Commercials and Life

I really don't care how hipster Instagram is. I love using it. There's something irresistibly charming about seeing the world through a phone. Little moments on the go. I look forward to sharing fragments from my life, as well as seeing what my friends are up to in their travels. And I've discovered that an old college buddy of mine is rocking Instagram. Meet Colby.

I'm really proud to say we're friends. In college, we lived down the hall from each other in the dorms. I remember stepping into her dimly-lit dorm room - one of the few dorms in the building that smelled nice. More than nice. Colby was always using a strong, cakey sweet perfume. I'd sit on her bed, admiring her Marilyn Monroe / Michael Jackson / Abraham Lincoln posters as she went through her beauty regimen. I'd always been interested in the past, but I think spending time with Colby strengthened that desire to immerse myself in all things vintage and research my favorite time periods. She also made me think about female role models.

Before college, I can't say I really had any. Except for maybe the heroines in the books I read. But along came Colby with her intense love for Marilyn Monroe. For our senior projects, Colby gave a riveting hour-long presentation about how different biographers have portrayed MM over the years (while my presentation had been on mermaids in folklore, using Vladimir Propp's version of structuralism - turning fairy tales into equations. So. Much. Fun).

MM wasn't quite for me, though. I looked at other Old Hollywood starlets. Who won? Mary Pickford, of course. Jeez, she was wonderful.

But Audrey Hepburn came in second. I love how she carries herself, a confidence that I've rarely seen. There's something mysterious about her as well. So far, I've seen Breakfast at Tiffany's and My Fair Lady. Though both films are classics, I can't say I like either that much. That's the weird part. I'm not too thrilled with the films (or even the prospects of watching the other ones), but I love the woman herself. I get the shivers every time I hear the lines from Sky Sailing's "Sailboats" song:

Once in 1964
An actress ran on the shore
And though you'll never return,
I love you Audrey Hepburn
Sometimes I can see your face in the crowd

And when I saw the brand-new commercial that Dove Chocolate released, I was in awe:



The best part? Audrey is actually CGI. It's a lot easier to notice that on the computer, but she certainly looked real to me on my plain old television. I had just assumed a lookalike actress or model was playing her. Wow. This is such a cute commercial. I get the chills (the good kind) every time I rewatch it. 
Speaking of role models, I'm guilty of periodically searching Nicoletta Ceccoli to see if she's created anything new. I'm fidgety and EXTREMELY RESTLESS because it's going to be forever (or never) until Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart film makes it to America. Please, just give me subtitles and a way to buy it. 
I loved the book and author Mathias Malzieu's soundtrack (he's a brilliant musician, so you know...). And Nicoletta Ceccoli worked on the film. The character designs are modeled after her style. I'm dying, guys. Dying. To tide me over, I found a little commercial that she had worked on:



Lice-prevention has never been cuter. If you think about it, this was a good fairy tale for Paranix to choose. Having hair that drags all over the place because it's so long must not be very hygienic. A perfect home for lice. But luckily we have princes that ride stick horses and peddle Paranix.

Writing has been going well. I always gain more momentum when I pass the halfway point in a manuscript. At 64k, I'm almost done with We Could Fall in Love. Just. A. Few. More. Scenes.

The main thing I'm keeping in mind at this point is keeping the plot tight. No flabby scenes. No fluffy exchanges of dialogue. No boring.

Which makes watching this commercial highly appropriate if you ignore the car part:


I have no shame in saying that I've been singing this song around the house as my brain recovers from mad-typing. I may be an adult, but I still find Muppet humor just as funny as it was when I was a kid. I'm probably hyper aware of Jim Henson everything these days, since participating in The Dark Crystal Author Quest contest (sorry folks, I didn't make it). 
Still, the Muppets continue to put a smile on my face. I'm considering seeing the new movie, because I can't sit through those trailers without laughing. Even if I see the same trailer 15+ times in one night. 


So what commercials have you seen these past few months that seem to be speaking to you? What a crowded month March is turning out to be already :)

Writer in Search of a Writing Spot

I need a change in scenery. Something to spice up the endless hours of burning my eyes out on the screen. Meeting my 1k word count goals every day at the same computer in the same shifting light is fine... but I'm tired by the weekend. I want to go outside.

Or sit inside, in the AC, but somewhere that's not the office or my own house.

Graduate school gave me the chance to write anywhere I wanted on campus. I had my pick of at least five different buildings, each with their own nooks and outlets to suit my moods.

But now I commute to work, come home, and go to sleep. And at work, the only real place to sit is in my cubicle. I'm really good at sitting there for hours. So my project is to find (a few) public places (besides the library) that I can hunker down at and write on the weekends.

I haven't always had this opinion - another point for the Real World. In fact, writing in public spaces had been kind of fun to joke about among my grad peers, because we all knew the stigma behind it. To quote one of my favorite cheeky writing books, Robert's Rules of Writing, Robert Masello says:

Starbucks is where writers who want to be seen in the act of creation go, who treat writing as if it were some kind of performance art. They want to be admired, they want to be soothed by the ambient noise and the occasional glance from an attractive patron. They want to be asked, "What are you working on?" so they can sit back and talk about it.

I'm not gonna lie. Part of the intrigue is that I have a shot at being a little more social. By simply sitting at a cafe or bookstore, the possibility of making new friends or witnessing something inspiring (or funny) is greatly increased than... if I sat at home.

Besides, aren't hip 20-something's supposed to be out in public, soaking up the universe? I dunno. You tell me.

I've been living in the same place for 10+ years (not including the four years at college), so I know what's around here. Businesses close so fast that my memories of failed gift shops, pet stores, and a parade of restaurants isn't so great. The rent's too high, I guess, for some entrepreneur to open a coffee shop down the street from me.

Like any good sleuth, I searched the internet for coffee shops, bakeries, soup and sandwich shops - anything that might be in reasonable driving distance. The shops I found were a good 45 minutes away (without traffic) and/or in dubious areas of town. So.

So.

So. That leaves only one place: Barnes & Noble. *cue ominous music*

My local B&N (which is not so local, driving-wise) is really the only central book hub left after Borders closed. There are no used bookstores. Only one place to go. Personally, I love wandering the two-story store; as much as I love ordering books online, nothing beats the pleasure of finding books by simply stumbling upon them. There's a coffee shop inside the store, so to speak, so I'm going to start going there to write for an hour or two in the morning.

The hard part is making sure I don't leave with a new book each time!

Do you have a favorite place you like to write/read at besides at home? What's your view about writers writing publicly? 

BTW, make sure you stop by Namie's blog, Good Morning Lovely, because she's just posted her interview with me there. Do poke around her blog; Namie's posts are both uplifting and inspiring - and I have the honor of being her friend (like, in real life. We hang out).