What up, my peeps? I'm doing a wrap-up post this month, the first one I've ever done, so bear with me if it's awful. It will likely not live up to your expectations.

Music this Month

Then I also have been listening to lots and lots of TheFatRat. Yes, I know, I know. But you should check them out. They do electronic music and it's lots of fun.

Books

I finally got around to reading the Hunger Games trilogy this month and my oh my. The first book was meh, the second one had me standing on the roof screaming the Alicia Keys "Girl on Fire" song at the top of my lungs, and the third one crushed my soul. I have a review of Catching Fire on the same page as the one for Messy Beautiful Friendship, where you can read my very professional opinion of it.

Movies

You guys, I think I'll be Jyn for Halloween.

                                      Writing

“Church is tomorrow,” William answered promptly.

“And she wanted to be rested for church?” Mr. Alltote’s tone was incredulous. This was unlikely. Opal never rested for anything, even though they went to church every week.

William chuckled. “More likely she wanted to be rested to see Henry.”

Silence reigned in the room for a long moment where Melinza tried to figure out what a proper reaction to this statement would be.

William cleared his throat. “Sorry. That was an inappropriate thing to say.”

“It’s okay,” said Mr. Alltote. “I’ve often felt that way myself.”

Mrs. Alltote gasped and smacked him on the shoulder. She missed and hit Melinza’s shoulder. “Oh, I’m sorry, honey!”

“Don’t make me call the cops for child abuse,” William warned.

“Good grief, child! Put a filter on your tongue!” Mrs. Alltote scolded.

There was another pause, before she added, “But you’re right. I’ve never understood how anyone could be attracted to someone with a million piercings and tattoos and such.”

Mr. Alltote started to respond to this.

She smacked him again. “You, sir, are a case in point.”

~Watched

(He has tattoos and plug earrings from back in his reckless youth.)

Life

• Easter happened. And I blogged about it.
• Easter was also my birthday! Happy birthday, me!
• I got Facebook. :)
• The pro-life organization that I am a part of accepted me into its Stevens Fellowship (@Students for Life) and I get to go to their headquarters for a weekend by myself and it will be awesome :D
• I finished reading the book of Revelation, which has been one of my goals for the year.
• I started reading Jeremiah.
• My best friends and I went to dinner - BY OURSELVES. #Milestones
• I finished the dissection unit in biology. ICK. It was awful (especially when I had to dissect a pig with two boys as my partners XP) but it's OVER NOW. Praise the Lord.

I am two people.

Now, I don't mean that I have multiple personality disorder or anything like that. But I have two sides, one of which is public and the other of which is private.

And I am very cautious about showing the private side to other people.

In the privacy of my bedroom, I laugh. I cry. I sing at the top of my lungs to songs with ranges I can never hope to hit the notes in, and I scream at my laptop when it doesn't work and pummel books with my fists when something happens I don't want to. (Looking at you, Hunger Games. *shifty sideways eyes* )
The best way to get to know this side of me is to be there when my computer's screen won't turn on again. Or when the printer stops working and our church service will start in ten minutes and we don't have any bulletins. Or when my favorite character soullessly dies.


When I go out, however - to co'op, to church, even here, to my blog - most of the things in that first paragraph vanish.
All I do is laugh. I am the fun person, the one who talks and talks and laughs hysterically at everything regardless of how funny it is and betrays no emotion other than that. If I'm upset about something, I bury it deep down inside.

I am not alone in this, am I?

God calls us to be his ambassadors. To let him shine through in our lives. And the private me is more than happy to do that. But when I go out in public, the whispers in my mind begin. Maybe you should just talk about the things they're talking about.

Why be weird?

They don't care, so why would you bring that up?

It's too awkward. You'll have other opportunities.

And so I talk about the things that everyone else is talking about, and the gospel never comes up in my words.

Do you ever feel this way?

It's fear that holds us back. The fear that our souls will be stomped on. The fear that if we let them see who we truly are, they won't love us anymore. The fear that we will lose friends if we talk about the truth of God's grace.

The challenge is this: Let go of the fear. Let those around you see that you're not afraid to be vulnerable. If you are willing to be genuine, to be real, to show your friends and acquaintances and the person who sits next to you on the bus and the salesman who rings you up at the grocery store and the mom whose kids you babysit that if Christ has set you free, you are free indeed.

Because who knows?

You may be offering them the invitation to throw off their masks.

And who knows what you could start?

~Faith

Hey guys! Mirriam Neal did this tag like a couple of days ago and she tagged the whole wide world to do it. And so I shall. And it will be wonderful and you will learn the answers to things you have been wondering about since you met me. Like how I write like I'm running out of time.


^^^This is me. Writing.
I wish.

1. WHAT GENRES, STYLES, AND TOPICS DO YOU WRITE ABOUT?

Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Right now, the answer is: pretty much anything and everything. I love fantasy with all my soul, but I've been writing a lot of contemporary too, and my current WIP is dystopia. Not sci-fi dystopia, though. Just futuristic dystopia. I am not trendy.
Looking at my prospective works list, I have the following genres:

• Fantasy: 7 books (plus 1 mythology type fantasy)
• Science fiction: 2 books
• Contemporary: 3 books
• Historical: 2 books
• Dystopia: 3 books

I am biased. I know.
The styles and topics depend on the work, to be honest. XD

2. HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WRITING?

3.WHY DO YOU WRITE?

4. WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TO WRITE?

5. PARTS OF WRITING YOU LOVE VS. PARTS YOU HATE?

6. HOW DO YOU OVERCOME WRITER'S BLOCK?

7. ARE YOU WORKING ON SOMETHING AT THE MOMENT?

8. WRITING GOALS THIS YEAR:

Me at the plot bunnies

So I've been thinking it's about time I do a review of a bunch of movies I've seen so far this year. I will epicly fangirl over 5 of them and give brief overviews of a few honorable mentions, then list off the movies that I would REALLY REALLY REALLY like to see before the end of the summer.

This will be great and you will enjoy this. And you had better watch some of these movies if you haven't yet because they are wonderful.

So, here we go. Faith's Top Rated Movies This Year.

Arrival

Priceless

I'm Not Ashamed

Cinderella (2015)

Brooklyn

Honorable Mentions

Movies I Want to See

-Who inspired this character?

-What is their weapon of choice?

-Have they ever been physically violent with someone else? What instigated it?

-Are they more of a rule-follower or a rebel?

-What kind of child were they? Curious? Wild? Quiet? Devious?

-Where would they go to relax and think?

-Do they have a temper?

-When they are upset, do they turn to other people or isolate themselves?

The day is here

The day when the light exploded out of a hole in the rock

When a heap of dead bones began to breathe again

When God Incarnate rose from the dead

And every sin was laid on him two days before

The sins of everyone elected

And he rose again with our salvation assured.

Jesus Christ, the son of God, died for me.

The wonder. And the glory.

Let me always sing praise.

Your grace is all I will ever need-

All-encompassing, all sufficient

And when you carried all my sins

It is freely given to me in exchange for faith

You have redeemed me from the pit

Never let me stop singing praise.


Happy Easter, everyone. I'd advise you to take a minute to marvel at the grace and redemption of our Savior at this time in the year - it's truly unfathomable. He gave up so much for our salvation - Jesus is completely deserving of all our praise.

~Faith

Hey, my peeps. Whazzup?
Aaaah, musicals. We all know of them, and many of us are unashamed musical theater geeks. It's not uncommon in my house for me to listen to musicals from the moment I get up until I go to bed. Sure, it makes my family crazy sometimes, but I have to feed my addiction somehow #Obsessed

But what makes musicals worthy of our time and attention? I mean, you have to choose the things you pour your time and energy into, and nothing should come before God. There's lots of other obsessions in the world, so why do we theater buffs love our plays?

In this post, I'm going to argue that there are great life lessons to be found in four of my favorite musicals. I chose these four just because I know them very well and I like them - and I think the messages are very clear.

And just as a warning: There are some minor spoilers ahead, although I will try to steer clear of the big ones. If I'm adding any of those, I will mark them in their own paragraph.

The Phantom of the Opera

Hamilton

Hey, everybody. Faith here. I'm back. Yay. *confetti*

I have a small announcement, which is:

I may not be completing The Wacky Factor this April. Instead, I may move to editing my dystopia, Watched, and trying to finish Book 1 of the Pentegreen Series.
My reasons for this are threefold. Here they are:

1. It's very personal.

The story of The Wacky Factor is based on my experiences in the last few months. I've been changing details so that it's not entirely me, but I don't know that I'm ready for the world to know what's been happening in my life.

2. It's a fresh experience.

Writing this down is opening things back up that I didn't allow myself to feel at the time that they happened. It's very painful and very hard. And it also happened very recently. So it may be good - part of the healing process - but I don't think I can handle it right now.

3. I'm just more excited about editing Watched.

I went into Camp this year thinking, "Maybe I should edit the first draft of Watched for this month. I mean, I've been wanting to do that."
But that I decided to write The Wacky Factor instead. And I think that was a mistake. I want to work to make Watched the best book it can be. I want to be published, and I think that that book is in a unique genre that compels me to finish it and makes me want to get it to other people. And I have a million ideas on how to make it better.

I've felt bored with stories before. But I would push on and write them even if I wasn't interested in them at the moment. This is different, and I think it's healthier for me to not write The Wacky Factor right now.

So there you have it: my reasons for not finishing The Wacky Factor this month like I said I was going to. I may not win NaNo this month, and that's okay. I've made my peace with it.
Sorry this is a short post, but it covers what I'm feeling right now. And, if you don't mind, prayers would be greatly appreciated :)
Stay tuned for Watched updates!
~Faith

Soooo.... What's up, peeps?
I've been working hard on my Camp NaNoWriMo novel, currently under the working title The Wacky Factor. This will probably change, but for now it's a cool title and it works.
What I thought I'd do for today's post (because Wacky Factor is still under wraps for the rest of the month [or at least until I get to my Word Count Goal of 60,000 {I'm at 16,000 now!} and I don't have to feel bad about spoilers or anything]) is to give you all a look at my ideas list for the rest of the plot bunnies I have kicking around in my head right now. And maybe you can give me advice on which to write next.
I'm warning you, though: Steal my ideas and I will send my pet dragons to quickly and stealthily slay you in your sleep. You have been warned.

So, without further ado:
The inner workings of Faith's weird author brain!
(To see my actual WIPs, check out the "My Writings" page here on my blog.)

#1. Finish the Pentegreen Saga

Any books I wrote in this series would be a sequel to the book I'm kind of in the middle of right now, The King's Daughter. It's a (sort of) epic fantasy story (that genre tag is debatable), and it revolves around Princess Esma Pentegreen, a girl struggling to survive a war that threatens to destroy everything she holds dear. Some of my favorite characters I've invented are in this series: Esma, the princess who's kind of a wimp but learns to develop a spine as the story progresses. Martin and Bernathel, her warrior parents who are completely different from most other parents in YA fantasy. Rishatta, the boy who everyone thinks is the enemy, although there's no real way to tell for sure. Kariana, the spy (ever tried writing a character who has a very British accent but doesn't live in our world, so you can't say British? Try it sometime. It's strangely fun). And Derek and Torin and Anna and everybody else.
And of course, there's Clark. Good old Clark. And Elensha and Burashna and Dauthang. They're the villains.
These books are my babies. You can't tell, right?

#2. Finish the Watched Trilogy

Watched was my NaNoWriMo project for November of '16, and you can find a synopsis on the "My Writings" page. It's a dystopia where I attempt to answer the question, "What will America look like for Christians in twenty years?"
Because you can't write dystopia without it being a trilogy, that's what it ended up being. I've written the first one, and it needs a lot of edits, but that's okay - I'm actually excited about editing a book. There must be something wrong with me. It's great.

#3. Les Miserables Retelling

#4. Robin Hood Retelling

#5. Gritty War Story