The Liebster Award

Hey, everyone! I'm back. Not that I went anywhere or anything... *awkward silence*

Kaitlyn from Twin Thoughts tagged me for the Liebster Award. Thank you so much Kaitlyn! :D

The Rules:

-Link back to the person that tagged you

-Answer the eleven questions

-Tag eleven bloggers, and let them know you tagged them

-Ask your tagged bloggers eleven questions

Questions:

1. What is your favorite hobby?

Writing and reading, obviously. :P Ha, writing meaning, trying to keep characters in line, who like to misbehave and question my authority. Other than that there's walking/running/exercising, if that counts. Yes, workouts are a hobby. I'm a body builder, can't you tell? :P

2. What does your first name mean?

Let me start by saying that my name is uncommon and I have yet to meet someone who spells it the way I do. Nobody can seem to spell it right the first time. People have spelled it a million different ways, and come to think it's fun to see what they come up with (for some reason, a lot think that is starts with a C). But, Greece is the origin of my name and it means "beloved".

3. What is your favorite family memory?

Um, all of them? None of them? I don't know, who came up with this question? *folds arms and scowls* Fine, I guess I'll say long family trips, because those are always fun. :D

4. What's your personality type?

I'm an INFJ (Introvert, iNtuitive, Feeling, Judging). I think these are a pretty good summary of me:

5. If you had the opportunity to have a 4-course meal, all with foods you choose, what would the meal consist of?

Oh, so you basically want me to choose favorites? Do you know how many different kinds of food there is? *pauses to think* Okay, here is goes. Salad, bread, steak, cauliflower, and ice cream.

6. Would you rather have a pet dolphin or a pet bear?

I think it would be super cool to have both as a pet. But I'll say dolphin, because I've always really liked them, and I really like swimming.

7. What's one random thing about you that few people know?

I'm left-handed. I know it's on my "About the Girl" page, but not many people know that. What I really like to do is, when someone is like, "Oh, did you see that?! I did that left-handed!" I'll come over and be like, "I can do that left-handed." But there always seems to be that one person who knows and they say, "That's because you are left-handed!"

8. What's your favorite holiday?

Christmas! :) Isn't that everyone's favorite holiday? No?

9. What quote (from a book, movie, or YouTube video) do you find yourself saying often?

I actually find myself saying this quite a bit. But you have to say it the way Anakin does.

10. If you could live in any other previous time period, which one would you choose?

Probably the 1880s West. I don't know what it is, but there's just something about that time period that I like. The Victorian era would also be interesting.

11. If you could see yourself from someone else's perspective, who's perspective would you choose and why? (It could be a family member's, a friend's, your local librarian's, etc.)

I would like to see myself from everyone else's perspective, but I'd have to choose a close friend's perspective. Why? Because I want to know why my friends want to be friends with me. :P

 And I tag:

Audrey @ Audrey Caylin

 Marrok @ Marrok MacIntyre

 Liz @ Out of Coffee, Out of Mind

 Micaiah @ Notebooks and Novels

 Lilly @ A Lilly in God's Garden

 Gray @ Writing is Life

 Your Questions:

1. How long have you been writing?
2. When you write, do you like to type or write by hand?
 3. Oxford comma: yay or nay and why?
4. Do you prefer movies or shows?
5. If you could only visit one other country, which one would it be?
6. Are you an introvert or an extrovert?
7. What's one random thing about you that few people know?
8. What is your favorite animal?
 9. What quote (from a book, movie, YouTube video, etc) do you find yourself saying often?
 10. Would you rather live in the city, or the country?
 11. If you could see yourself from someone else's perspective, who's perspective would you choose and why? (It could be a family member's, friend's, your local librarian, etc.)

If I tagged you, please don't feel like you have to do it. And if I didn't tag you, but you would like to do it, consider yourself tagged! :D

April is Over

And now a third of the year is gone. This is ridiculous guys! It feels like I just did my wrap-up post for March last week! But, summer is just around the corner, so we have that to look forward to. :D  The weather has yet to make up its mind though. I don't know why it's having such a hard time, I mean, it's a simple decision really. *long pause* Anywho, let's get on with- what is this again? A monthly wrap-up post. Ah, yes, a... that thingy.

Writing

Writing went well this month. I participated in Camp NaNoWriMo for the first time, which was so much fun. I joined a couple Google Hangouts groups during that time and got to know some other bloggers. My goal was 10K, which I reached about a week ago. So the first 20K of the rough draft of RtO is written. About halfway into the month, I picked up Strangers again and started working on edits/second draft, because I would like to give that to my alpha readers by June 1st. If all goes well, I don't see any reason why that won't happen, but you never know. :P May looks like it's gonna be kinda crazy.

Reading

                                                                               

Well... we stopped the five books pattern. :P Only read four this month. I blame Camp NaNo I think I may have been in a reading slump (which lasted much longer than I would have liked). But, thankfully, I seem to be coming out of it. I've been reading a lot more recently, and I have about five books going, give or take. I also have a pile of books on my bedroom floor that I want read in May. Again, I loved all the books I read this month (all of them got five stars). My favorite was probably Bound, which I did a review on last week.

Blogging

My posts for the month:

Don't Worry

Homeschooling- Part 2

BOUND// A Review

Posts by other bloggers that I definitely recommend reading:

Marrok- Art, Writing, and Criticism part 2

Audrey- When You Have to Wait

Abi- Self-Publication Part 1 // What It Is and Why I Chose It

Jonathan- 4 Tips on Merging Fiction With Faith

Note: Marrok's and Abi's posts are parts of a series, which are totally worth reading.

Other

So you remember when I said in my last wrap-up that I was going to go on vacation and hopefully get my license? Yeah, well, neither of those happened. :( I couldn't send in my driving hours because I didn't know when I was going on vacation. And we needed to know that so we could make sure they didn't schedule my road test for a day that I wasn't going to be here. But, good news is, I have sent in my driving hours and I'm going on vacation for sure this month. Yay! :D Also, my birthday happened this month. But for some reason, I keep thinking that I'm still 18, not 19. :P


What about you? How was your April?

BOUND// A Review

My first book review ever! Well... on this blog, that is. I actually didn't think that I would be doing a book review this soon. Now, my reviews on Goodreads are never this extensive, so this is kinda new for me. You know that expression "sink or swim"? Yeah, well, I'm just hoping to at least stay above water here. :P

Rating: 5 stars

Overall

This is probably one of my all time favorites now. This book almost made me cry within the first chapter. I don't think I have ever read a story quite like this one. It's hard to explain the things this book did to my heart, and that's probably because this is the first time it's ever happened.

One of the things I really liked was how Victoria Lynn wrote about things that are real. Stuff that, unfortunately, happens every day, happens more than we realize or want to believe.

Plot

The plot was incredible, and well thought out. It definitely kept me wanting to read more, to know more. Because of the way Victoria Lynn ended each chapter, I always had more questions. And the plot twists were amazing! I didn't see any of those coming.

Characters

I loved Levi and Casey from the very start, the first few paragraphs! I felt for them, cared for them. Their lives were very similar, but, at the same time, it seemed as if they were so different. For kids their ages, they'd been through a lot. 

Some of the characters have PTSD. And at first, I was a little wary, because it's hard to write authentic characters with PTSD. But I think Victoria Lynn did a very good job. All the actions and reactions of each of the characters seemed normal considering their backgrounds. They didn't seem over the top or exaggerated to me.

Content Warning

Some of the minor characters, which you don't see very often, use drugs and drink alcohol. And there is a bit of violence, but it's not really descriptive.

So what about you? Have you read this book? If so, what did you think of it?

 

Homeschooling- Part 2

Oh, look! Karyssa is finally doing part two. :P Yes, last month's homeschooling post was a part one (you can find that post here in case you missed it). Having multiple parts to this was pretty much a last minute decision. So there will be at least one more homeschooling post, which I will do next month.


Most of these pictures (which, again, are all from Pinterest) say "homeschool problem" on them, but it's possible that not all homeschoolers will consider these problems.

I feel like a lot of homeschoolers get asked this one (or maybe I only think that because I was asked this so. many. times):

After a while, I stopped giving them an answer and instead just looked at them. I let them figure it out for themselves, and, it never took them very long so... :P

And I probably did that because of this:

I don't even know why I continued asking for help. I mean, I already knew that this is what they would tell me, so what was the point? Maybe I thought that this time, I would be able to get them to help me.
I think there were a couple times they did help me. It wasn't very helpful though. ME: Thank you. You just made it even more confusing than it was before.

I think we can all relate to the next three, or at least the next two:

Just like there is no such thing as a snow day, there is really no such thing as a sick day. *on your deathbed* I gotta do my schoolwork.

When you go to the store with your mom just to have all the other adults stare at you. Then they start walking into shelves and knocking things over because they are still watching you. Just kidding, that has never happened before. :P
What you should do is stand on one of the checkout conveyor belts and pull out a megaphone and say, "Don't worry! I'm not skipping school. I'm homeschooled."

I don't know about the rest of you, but this has actually happened to me. When asked this, just respond with, "Yes, I do. Do you still go to public school?"

When you forget that your friends aren't as fortunate as you:

There have been times when I wondered why my friends weren't online. And for a minute you wonder, "How long does it take them to do their schoolwork?" Then you remember. :P

And, again, here are a couple that I just thought were funny:

So, what about you? Can you relate? Is there one that you relate to more than the others?

Don't Worry

You know one of the things that I love about writing? It doesn't have an age limit. It doesn't matter how old you are or when you finally make the decision. If you want to write, you can.

It wasn't until May last year, that I started taking writing more seriously. (So it's almost been a year. Yay!) I was already 18 by the time I made that choice. And then there are those who've known that they wanted to write since they came into the world. You know who you are. Yeah, I'm talking about you.

No matter how long it took you, you may wonder why it took that long to realize that you want to write, you want to become an author, you want to get published. But, we have to remember that there is a reason. God has a reason, a plan. You probably don't know what that is yet, and that's okay. Don't waste time worrying or stressing over it.

It could be that you weren't ready yet. I know I wasn't. I told you in a previous post, that I didn't even really learn how to write until I was 13. Yeah, I had learned about grammar, how to form sentences, and stuff before that, but it didn't make sense until then. Yes, I started taking an interest in writing books/stories when I was 15, but I still had a lot to learn. And not only about writing.

What I'm talking about now is life. I still had a lot to learn about life, before I could even start writing about it. Only today, did I realize that if I had attempted to write the books I am now, when I was 15, it wouldn't have gone well because I knew nothing about that side of life.

God has things that He wants to teach us and show us, so that we can share it with others in a way that will greatly impact them. It may take longer for some of us. Everyone is different. We all live different lives.

And, there is the possibility that it took you as long as it did because God knows that, by the time you are ready to be published, the people He wants you to reach will finally be at the point in their lives where they are ready to read your book. So keep that in mind. ;)