Fly to Jesus

As it is for many people, life has been busy for me. Mostly with wrapping up my high-school education. This year I will go from high-school to my un-school education. Because that's really the only change there will be. I'll still be learning, and in many ways more than I ever did my entire homeschooling experience.

Since I've finished second draft of The Way We Think, I've kind of been taking a break from serious writing. Serious meaning, any of my main works in progress. I've been enjoying the break, but I'm already gearing up to start work on Ash Valley. I've decided, despite my 50k word count, I'm going to completely start from the beginning and re-write the whole thing. I used to think my writer friends were crazy when they did that. Now I totally understand. I may have reached 50,ooo words, but that doesn't mean they're any good.

The biggest problem with Ash Valley has been staying on track, and moving from one plot point to the next promptly. With the re-write I'm going to try a new way of outlining. Who knows if I'll actually use it past the first day, but I would really like to give it a shot in hopes that it'll help me stay on track. Instead of using one of those highfalutin programs with all the fancy features, I'm going to go with a stack of post-it notes and a notebook. It's a bit more simple, and more fitted to my organized chaos kind of style.

I'll end with this. I've been listening to it non-stop lately.

In Which Georgie Feels Bookish

As the weather begins to get warmer, I no longer feel like curling up with a thick book, but sprawling out with one. On my bed, the floor, the freshly mowed lawn. The book nooks of the summer months. I wish I could read all day.

Bookish by GeorgiePenn featuring slim jeans
Sadly, I can't. With graduation looming in the distance, I must keep to my studies. My library pile must remain small for now. Not forever though. No, not forever. Summer is almost here.

Beautiful People - Luna Telmarin

I decided to do this months Beautiful People post on Luna Telmarin. One of the five main superhero's in my 2010 NaNoWriMo novel, The Way We Think. Luna's twenty-three years old and has the superpower of invisibility. It can be useful, but at cost. Each time she uses it, her fainting spells become worse. Very simple style, but it suits her beautifully.

Luna by GeorgiePenn featuring a lacoste sport messenger bag
On to the questions!
What type of laugh does she have? Loud, but not to loud. When with the people she loves, you hear it often, but the sound doesn't grow old.
Who is her best friend? Grant Fallyn, and Exie Shile.
What is her family like? She lives with her Dad, Mom, and six younger siblings, ages nineteen to two. They could easily be described as wild and fun loving. Luna can get rather frustrated with them at times, but she loves them all dearly and enjoys spending one on one time with them.
Is she a Christian, or will she eventually find Jesus?She has grown up in a Christian home and became one herself at a young age.
Does she believe in fairies?Sometimes she likes to pretend she does, but in all reality, no.
Does she like hedgehogs? They aren't her favorite animal, but she thinks they're adorable.
Favorite kind of weather? Sun, warmth. She loves the Summer months. She is inspired by an occasional rain, but to much of it and she gets rather moody.
Does she have a good sense of humor? If so what kind? Yes, she has a great sense of humor. Sarcasm, and high humor are her favorite kind to laugh at. She herself is very puny and can laugh at it, but wishes she didn't spout them out so much.
How did she do in school, or any kind of education she might have had?Luna was educated at home in her schooling years and did well at it. The only parts she enjoyed however, were history, reading and writing. She had reached high-school level of reading by the time she was eleven, and she wrote so much on her own, writing as a school subject became non-exsistant.
Any strange hobbies?Not particularly out of the ordinary, really weird hobbies. She keeps up a journal, glueing little bits of memoirs into it, such as movie ticket stubs, concert programs, and photographs. She has an old typewriter that she bangs away at whenever the urge takes her, writing anything that comes to mind. Song lyrics, short stories, scenes from a novel she might be writing at the moment, scenes from a novel she didn't know she was writing till that moment.
If you haven't heard of Beautiful People, check it out here!

Beautiful People - May/June

Due to both mine and Sky's busy schedules we decided to post Beautiful People a few days early. If you're not sure what Beautiful People is and would like to find out, check out this post.

Also, I would just like to point a few things out to everyone participating. The questions are not only a way to share your character with others, and refresh them in your mind, but to discover more about them. If you don't know the answer to one of the questions, think about it for a little while. Some of the questions are hard, but finding the answer will help to give your character more depth.

Last, but not least, even though some of the questions seem more geared towards non-fantasy kinds of characters, I still encourage fantasy authors to see if they can adapt the question so it'll work for them. If you need to change the questions around a little bit, please feel free to do so. You can also imagine what the answer would be if your character wasn't fantasy, what would they be like in a modern world?

Okay, let's cut to the core. The May/June questions are...

1. What type of laugh does he/she have?

2. Who is his/her best friend?

3. What is his/her family like?

4. Is he/she a Christian, or will he/she eventually find Jesus?

5. Does he/she believe in fairies?

6. Does he/she like hedgehogs?

7. Favorite kind of weather?

8. Does he/she have a good sense of humor? If so what kind? (Slapstick, wit, sarcasm, etc.?)

9. How did he/she do in school, or any kind of education they might have had.

10. Any strange hobbies?

This rounds questions were submitted by Lily, Inna, and IGirl. Thanks girls!

Have fun, and don't forget to sign the linky!

Your Mountain Is Waiting

I used to tell myself I didn't like traveling. I got car sick, I didn't like being away from home for so long, I was tired of moving around. While that may have been true then, I've changed quite a bit in the last few years and I can now say I love to travel.

I've been privileged to go more places than many people I know. Places like...

• Seattle, Washington
• Lexington, Kentucky
• Vancouver, Canada
• Hawaii

I still have many places I would love to see though. After all, as A. E. Housmen wrote.

Clay lies still, but blood's a rover

Breath's aware that will not keep

Up, lad: when the journey's over

There'll be time to sleep

Broadway

For the theater. For the history. It would be awesome.

Australia

I want to know what the real Outback is like. Not what you read about, or see in movies. I want to see Snowy River country, and Melbourne. The Sydney Opera House. I don't think I could choose just one place, I want to see it all.

Ireland

Ah, another country I would love to travel across. All of it. The villages, the

countryside, the museums, and the castles.

Churchill Downs

Yes, I once lived in Kentucky. No, I never saw a horse race. In fact, I never even touched a horse the entire time I was there. I would love to return to see what the state is so well known for!

I could make the list longer, but I'll spare you the whims of flighty feet. By the way, in case you were wondering, my blog is in the process of being re-templatized. Things should be decent again soon. I hope.

Goal Achieved

I finished the second draft of The Way We Think today. My NaNoWriMo novel of 2010. 75,328 words.

I'll be honest and say I'm not as happy with it as I could be. I really don't think I'll ever be 100% satisfied with it. I knew it wouldn't end with draft two when I started draft one, but I'm beginning to understand what people mean when they say the re-writing, and editing never really ends.

That being said, this step is rather exciting for me as it's the furthest I've managed to make it with any of my novels. It's a place I've never been to. A place I'm learning from, as I have from every new step I've made in my writing.

It's a milestone and for the next week I can enjoy this. Then it'll be back to fretting over how I'm going to get this character out of that, phrase those words so they sound just right, and asking Finn "does that sound cliche?"

In Which Georgie Rambles On the Subject of Jane Eyre

After watching the new Jane Eyre a few nights ago, writing a review was inevitable. I didn't really think I would, but as my thoughts came together I decided to share with those who may be interested.

Jane Eyre. I watched the 2006 Masterpiece Theatre version several years ago and discovered this story different. This one stood out to me. It wasn't just another period film that ran together, like all of the Jane Austin adaptions. I was fascinated. Enough so to read the book. So, news of this movie excited me as much as any other fan out there. Judie Dench, Jamie Bell, Mia Wasikowska. Oh yes.

They all did an amazing job. You can't really expect any less of them though. Mia graduated into a favorite actress of mine.

Jamie Bell was awesome, but for some reason I did not like John Rivers in this adaption. I liked him in the book, and in the 2006 version, but not this one. I think it was more due to his lines and such than anything else. He was made more awkward and sullen than I remember.

Although there was a lot taken out, it did remain true to the book. There was one point when I thought everything had taken a completely different turn, only to discover it was all in Jane's mind. I do think they did a pretty good job of shortening what would have be an extremely long film, although there were certain things that I thought there should have been more of. Such as Grace Poole. You see nothing of her till Jane finds out about Mrs. Rochester.

Last, but not least, the ending was a little to romantically cheesy for me.

Over all: I left the theater wanting to write something mysterious, yet beautiful at the same time. I liked it, but I like the Masterpiece Theater adaption much better.

In Which Georgie Explains Her Absence

If you've been wondering where I've been, let me explain.

My very nice oral surgeon and his cute little cronies caught me off guard and knocked me out the other day. Their reasoning behind this was so that they could brutally rip out my wisdom teeth and fill my mouth with gauze without me ever being the wiser... literally. Unfortunately for them I figured out what happened and sent them a short little note demanding the return of my teeth. As a sick joke they sent me what they called pain pills. Very appropriately named. These white little beauties were just another laugh on their part as they made me rather... uh... nauseated. No doubt if I had continued to take them as they instructed, I would be dead. Thankfully, my dear Fin has experienced the exact same thing and was able to tell me, before it was to late, about the evilness in the pills. Since then I have been slowly recovering which involves a lot of ice cream, pudding, mashed potatoes, and sleep.

So... uh... there you have it. The full... er... story. Eh-hm. Moving on.

I pass on the job of appeasing the thronging fans who have been demanding more from their favorite blogger, to Adam Young. Because old songs, or new, he always makes me want to write music. I give you Owl City.

May his awesome toy room thrill you as much as it does me.