Tagged Again!

I've been tagged by my Mom, so here is my tag:

8 TAGS - HOLIDAY EDITION!

8 Favorite Holiday Shows

1. The Bishop's Wife

2. Muppet Christmas Carol (yes, I'm a hopeless Muppet fanatic - Gonzo's my favorite)

3. It's A Wonderful Life (which I saw for the first time this week)

4. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the original cartoon version)

5. Elf ( I know, not a very intelligent, sophisticated movie, but incredibly fun)

6. The Santa Clause (refer to the above)

7. NARNIA!!!! (Duh! How could I forget that one?)

8. I can't think of any others that I don't consider remarkably stupid movies... so I'll leave you with seven.

8 Christmas Things I Did Yesterday

1. Put up the Tree of Sheba (my mom's tree)

2. Put up the Holly Jolly Christmas Tree (my siblings' and my tree)

3. Sang a million Christmas carols in harmony with my sister

4. Read my friend's Christmas card (it was actually last year's Christmas card... )

5. Looked over my very exciting choir music for Carol of the Bells that I found and am learning with my sister

6. Watched Muppet Christmas Carol (I told you - I'm a hopeless Muppet-lover!)

7. Watched the snow.

8. Worked on my Christmas short story for KOF

8 Things I Look Forward to at Christmas

1. Celebrating the birth of my Savior

2. Duh, the Christmas carols (my sister won't let us listen to Christmas music or watch Christmas movies until after Thanksgiving... it was misery this year)

3. Wrapping presents (call me weird, I LOVE wrapping presents and curling ribbon)

4. Christmas cards/letters

5. Christmas movies

6. Eggnog (mmmm)

7. Having people over for Christmas

8. Christmas break (I love school, but not enough that I don't love a break : )

8 Favorite Things to Eat at Christmastime

1. Eggnog!

2. Prime Rib

3. Apple Cider

4. Trifle

5. Jocelyn's Egg Nog Pie

6. Random things with peppermint in them.

7. Turkish Delight - and if I get a candy thermometer, I may actually get it to turn out (another continuing story- Catey's battle with the Turkish Delight. It came out once and now it goes runny every time I make it, but I think a candy thermometer may cure that... maybe)

8. Gingerbread

8 Things I Pray for at Christmas

1. Salvation of friends and family

2. My Awana kids - they really weigh on my heart during this season

3. Renewed focus - that Christ would keep my eyes trained on him.

4. Snow - or lack thereof, depending on how many people are coming over to my house (or if I'm going over to someone's )

5. Specific people who are hurting in my community

6. People who are hurting outside of my community and around the world

7. God's glory

8. That others understand the real gift of the season

I tag Judi, when she's done with her current tag game, and Never-Again, and FaithfulFollower

Just Another Chapter of My Eccentric Life

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope yours was great. Mine was. We had the entire world over to our house today. Food was everywhere! On the counters, the cabinets, all in my brother's hair...

Anyway, this isn't a typical Thanksgiving blog post. I wanted to first recommend that you read Patrick Dunn's thoughts on Thanksgiving (he's amazing and hysterically funny - check it out here) and then that you read another chapter in the continuing drama of Catey and the random store clerks. I promise - there will be a Thanksgiving-related point somewhere in here (if I can find one... no, really! There will be a point!)

This blog continues the drama of the store clerks where the posts titled "But I Don't WANT a King Soopers Card!!!" and "Why Can't I Just Have A Normal Life???" left off.

Yesterday, when I was dropping off my contest submission (yeah, the one that is exactly 1,499 words long) at PakMail, I was there with my dad. I come in and the guy behind the counter looks at me and says, "Hey! Haven't you been in here recently?"

Yeah, he was talking to me. I said that I had been. He took my envelope and said, "Is this another writing contest?"

How did this guy REMEMBER that stuff???

That's what my dad said (but without several of those question marks after it so that it sounded more civil). The guy behind the counter (who, by the way, did not have weird long hair) shrugged and said, "I don't know. I have a memory for useless stuff."

He ended up remembering a lot of other crazy stuff - for instance, that I had come with my mom the time before, that I'd stood at the other counter, that one of my other contest entries had also been going to Purcellville... It was totally weird.

What is it with me and random store clerks???

Oh yeah! The point!

When I was sitting at the table with my sister and brother with the rest of my family close by and surrounded by most of my friends in this state (and thinking of and praying for the ones who weren't with me visiting or living other places) I found myself thinking about the little experiences that make life special. Topping the list I made of things I'm thankful for was the fact that God gives me a heart for writing and that he gives me stuff to write about! Some of that is big, like my novel where the whole story idea came formed pretty much in one shot and I just had to develop and expand. Some of it is just the little things that make life unique and worth it. If I didn't have grocery store clerks going a little overboard on their job and Pak-Mail clerks stalking me, then I probably would have lost my zing for life a long time ago (and you probably all know just how zingy I am about life - some people might call it hyperactivity, but they simply don't understand that to keep up with the speed my brain's going, my body and mouth go a little fast too : ) ) In that case, my writing would dry up, my enthusiasm and fire for God would be gone. How depressing would that be? Instead, I thank God that He gives me those little things (as Patrick Dunn writes, things like raisins and puffy sea creatures - those things taht no one thinks about and therefore doesn't appreciate).

Stay tuned for more adventures of Catey and random store clerks... with my luck, there are sure to be more... many, many more...

Why Can't I Just Have A Normal Life???

You know what that means. It's time for another sort-of-true story about life (but this one happens to be totally true without any embellishment)

So, you guys are probably aware of my contest and publication craze that I did last month (you can read a little bit of my opinions on it here.) This month I thought I had it easy. One CWG assignment, an easy RTF assignment, some fun KOF assignments and one contest. Well, that contest was just about the death of me.

I submitted it today. Yesterday, I was finishing up my denouement (closing) scene. Now, my denouement is usually highly significant, highly emotion-packed and my favorite one to write. So I check my word count to see how long I could make it.

The short story was supposed to be 1200 words (insert one of Catey's loudest high-pitched screams). I had used up 1147 of them. Yikes. That's a really bad situation.

About three seconds away from a heart attack, I checked the website to make sure it was 1200 words. I was quite relieved to find that it was actually 1500 words, buying me an extra 300.

Still, 300 words???? What kind of short story is this???

So, after using all but twenty of my 300 words to tie up my story (which I was NOT enjoying and didn't even sound good to me) I started to read over for spelling/punctuation errors.

And that's when I realized it. Why was this section here? I had moved that scene to be the second scene, instead of the opening. What was going on? I read down the document - realized I had forgotten to delete the scene once I moved it.

I now had 415 extra words.

And I wasn't about to let them go to waste!!! I promptly went back into my document and inserted my 415 extra words, reread and...

Realized that I was now 60 words over count. How do I ALWAYS manage to do that??

Want to know my final word count? 1499 words.

Book Review: The Redemption of Sarah Cain

The Redemption of Sarah Cain, by Beverly Lewis

I’m hopelessly stereotyped as a reader. People look no further than my long hair and feminine mannerisms to assume that I’m a die-hard romance reader. They naturally place me in the category of people who read Karen Kingsbury, Wanda Brunstetter, and Beverly Lewis.
They place me with the people who cry in chick flicks and can’t stand it when characters have to suffer anything other than emotional angst over the boy they love.
They’re wrong.
I’m actually a suspense reader. My favorite authors include Ted Dekker and Sigmund Brouwer. I like books that play with my mind (a.k.a., psychological thrillers) and that make my heart race. I HATE the romance genre (any book I think I can predict in the first chapter generally loses my respect very quickly) and so, when I put The Redemption of Sarah Cain by Beverly Lewis on hold at the library, I really had no idea what I was thinking.
But I’ve been more than a little pleasantly surprised. Not only did I not have the story figured out in the first chapter, but I’ve been kept entertained and hooked through the whole book, even as a self-declared non-romance reader.
Recently publicized when its movie counterpart Saving Sarah Cain came out,The Redemption of Sarah Cain tells the story of a self-absorbed, hurting journalist whose sister bequeaths to her five Amish children, now orphaned. Told in both Sarah’s perspective and her oldest niece Lyddie’s, this story is hugely moving in a completely un-preachy way. Rich story from Sarah’s past, Lyddie and her siblings’ past and present and journal excerpts from Lyddie and her mother litter this book, giving it a real-life feel.
The Redemption of Sarah Cain, as its title suggests, is about Sarah Cain finding God, but above and beyond that, this is the story of how, no matter what, God has a big plan. Sarah Cain can’t see the reasons for a tragedy in her early career as a teacher, her sister’s leaving to become Plain. Lyddie and her siblings can’t see a reason for their mother and father’s death, why she should have to live with a woman who is so obviously against everything their family stands for. But through it all, Beverly Lewis writes the story of God’s love and faithfulness throughout the book.
So, even if you, like me, don’t “do romance”, I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

"But I Don't WANT a King Soopers Card!!!"

Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Catey. One day, Catey and her family were preparing to go to Co-op for the second day in a row. Catey was excited, but very tired from the Co-op the day before. That morning, Catey's mom had to put gas in the car, so she recruited Catey and her sister Jocelyn to go into King Soopers and buy shredded bagged lettuce and sour cream.

They had only one problem: They only had ten dollars and eighty cents between the three of them.

So Catey and Jocelyn walked into King Soopers, determined to buy as much sour cream and shredded bagged lettuce as their ten dollars and eighty cents would allow.

Catey is half Chinese. She inheried her incredibly frugal side from her father, who is even more frugal than she is (hard to believe, but true). So, five minutes later, Catey had found the cheapest, on-sale lettuce and a large carton of on-sale sour cream, all of which should cost her under ten dollars and eighty cents.

The man who checked her out at the checkout line is rather odd-looking. She didn't read his name, but he had long hair that is jet-black and nasty looking. He asked her, "Do you have any coupons?"

She said, "No."

He asked her, "Do you have a King Soopers card?"

She said, "No."

He said, "What? No King Soopers card? That's like the most important card ever! You need a King Soopers card." He began to fish around in the checkout stand for a new King Soopers card.

She started to not feel so happy. "No, you don't understand. My family has a King Soopers card already-"

"You should have one for yourself then." He threw a King Soopers card in front of her.

Catey was apalled. "But, I don't want a-"

He gritted his teeth. "Yes, you do. It's not a checking card and this way you get the sale prices. It's like a coupon, but it works all the time."

"But I'm a minor!"

He looked at her quizzically. "Well, that's fine. Eight-year-olds can use this card."

About now, Catey realized she was arguing with a grocery store clerk and that conflict completely terrified her, due to her very nature. "But I don't WANT a King Soopers card!"

By now, the clerk has realized that Catey is not an easy nut to crack. "Too bad." He scanned the card and slid it back to her. "Six fifty."

Dumbfounded, Catey counted out six dollars and fifty cents. "Thank you."

The End.

A Short Opinion

I haven't posted in a while, so here are my less-than-entertaining thoughts about life.

Today was co-op. My mom, my friend Emily (of doomed razor fame) and I did an interview for writing class. It was so much fun, but now my brain is dead. That is bad, considering tomorrow is Chemistry (moles... moooooooooles!) and my brain can't be dead for Chemistry.

Today was also Lit class. We're reading Ivahoe, and one of the characters (Locksley is his name) is the equivalent of Robin Hood. All of us LOVE Locksley and LOVE Robin Hood. I personally think it's wonderful that in the wake of great events and substantial, formidable evils and spectacularly glorious bravery, we have such people as Locksley/Robin Hood. If we didn't have them, I'd be tempted to think that people were so very different then, so far from who I am, that I couldn't understand them.

King Arthur is my personal favorite maybe-true person. I like to believe that Arthur was real, in some form. He is so deeply imbedded in English history and mythology that it would be strange if some such person didn't exist, or maybe even several persons who made up, together, this King Arthur that we have come to love.

I was so inspired by this merry brave King that I decided to write about him in one of my stories. It is a rather unusual story, taking places over thousands of years and told in several perspectives. I put in some interesting twists to his character. His name isn't actually Arthur, but rather, his title (since he is a warrior) is the Bear. The word Arthur means 'bear'. He is sort of elected leader of his small city-state that he recaptures from the enemy, but not officially. He works through a weak monarch. He's supposed to be married to a girl named Gwynnhyfvar, who is a Welsh princess, but we all know the story of King Arthur's misfortune with his wife Queen Guinevere. This is the man I wrote to be King Arthur, but not in the same way as so many see him.

Thinks like these add interest to one's story, because they not only add credibility, but they make people, places, events and times real to a reader.

I call people like King Arthur, Robin Hood, Salome and the like the forgotten heroes of history. We don't even necessarily know they existed, and if they did exist, we are certainly not sure what they were really like. But certain actions who never have their source identified, certain character traits, certain things suggested by the story can be applied to these forgotten heroes to give them a new role in a story where they star now as heroes, and not simply characters who are and then are not.

It gives the writer ultimate freedom. If nothing is known about someone but the events and people surrounding him or her, the writer is free to do whatever he or she wants with the person. At the end of everything, this means that these people can even answer nagging questions that we've always had about a time period.

I think they're fun.

Have any of you ever thought about characters or people like these? Have any of you attempted writing them?

Forgive this rambling... it's my excuse for a blog update. : )

The reason I haven't posted in a month....

Well, there are actually a lot of reasons I haven't posted in a month, none of which would sound good - EXCEPT:

As some of you may know, I was pouring out my heart and soul in no fewer than nine writing assignments due between Thursday and now. It may interest you to know that I DID, indeed, get them all done, but that my brain was fried and I didn't post on my blog. Apologies.

Well, now you may see many of those heart-and-soul-poured-out articles on my wonderful friend and fellow writer's online newsletter: kidsoffaithonline.net.

Please visit if you get the chance - the newsletter is just starting to take off. Before a few months ago, Kylie (the editor) was the one and only writer, and then I was on for a month before being taken on as the second writer. Now, much to my delight, I am one of four wonderful young ladies and one amazing young man as contributors on the site.

And - one of the most exciting things for me - Kylie says I get to run the fiction column all by myself!!!! I haven't had my fiction published on a forum in FOREVER!!!!

On a more excuse-for-why-I-didn't-post-all-month- note, I totally killed my hand yesterday (and by killed, I mean, killed). We had friends over and for some UNKNOWN reason we decided it would be fun to play monkey in the middle. Yeah... that was really smart on my part. I am very small - like 5'2" on a really, really good day. My sister is my same height (but she's three years younger) and her friend who was over is an inch shorter than us. The other person playing was my friend - a young man of barely fifteen who quite decidedly towers above me. He is no fewer than eight inches taller than me - and that makes monkey in the middle very difficult. So, I found my newest athletic talent (chortle... what athletic talent?) in volleyball. I could jump up into the air and hit the ball out of the sky, but I would end up on the floor every time. The last time I did so, I tripped over my friend's foot on the way down and ended up smashing into a wall - hand first. At least that loud cracking noise wasn't my head... that's what he said, at least. Now my hand is bruised and I'm having a hard time typing with my right hand (which is bad... because I'm right-handed).

Anyway, for all the blog posts that I should have made, but didn't, visit: kidsoffaithonline.net