"Yeah, they'll build monuments to you about this high that read 'Rest in Peace'!"

Flatliners: There are some funny lines of dialogue, one of which is the title of this post, but that's not why I'm in awe of the scriptwriter. The premise of the movie is 5 people who kill each other to find out what's beyond death, then bring each other back. How do you transform THAT into an entire movie? But he managed.

For some reason, I can't find anything else to say about this movie.

Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: Now this I've got plenty to say, but that's because it's from Joss Whedon and I LOVE anything he creates.

So. Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is in 3 acts and in total is only 42, more or less. I wanted more the second it was over. And they might be doing a sequel!

It's a musical/comedy about Dr Horrible, whose real name is Billy. He wants to join the Evil League of Evil who will be watching him to see what crime he commits. If it's horrible enough, he can join the league.

As Billy, he's pathetic and in love with Penny, who, naturally, doesn't realize this. Standing in his way is Captain Hammer who ends up dating Penny.

Dr Horrible is played by Neil Patrick Harris from "How I Met Your Mother".

Penny is played by Felicia Day—she played Vi in BTVS.

Captain Hammer is played by Nathan Fillion—he played Caleb in BTVS.

Favorite line: "The hammer is my penis." —Captain Hammer

Writing: This is a pretty simple "revelation", but I just found my solution to the lack of plot in my novels. To me, it's all about the characters, so why not focus on creating realistic characters before starting my novel? Then I let the character interact and the plot will form itself. Does this make sense to anyone else but me?

Query Tracker: If you're about to start querying—or going to next year like me—then you should definitely use Query Tracker to find agents. Know what else is your friend during the querying process?

Spreadsheets: So here are the different column headers in my "Agents to query" spreadsheet:

• Agency
• Agent's Name
• Who they represent
• Address, e-mail, Twitter, website [this works better as one column for me—I use NeoOffice]
• Genres they represent
• Notes [such as "include first chapter in body of e-mail" or "only send query" or "any requested material is sent by mail" and the agent's response time if they mention it on their website]
• Date of Query
• Date of Partial Request
• Date of Full Request
• Offer of Representation
• Date of Rejection

My long list of goals

• Reach 55 035 words in TWWAW by the 31st of August 2010
• Edit chapters 1 through 9 of Kenna's Choice by the 2nd of September 2010
• Reach 68535 words in TWWAW by the 30th of September 2010
• Reach 75 285 words in TWWAW by the 15th of October 2010
• Edit chapters 10 through 17 + prologue of Kenna's Choice by 31st of December 2010
• Second round of editing Kenna's Choice done by 31st of March 2011 (by then I'll 17!)
• Write query letter for Kenna's Choice by the 30th of April 2011
• Third round of editing Kenna's Choice done by 30th of June 2011
• Start querying Kenna's Choice the 15th of July 2011 (enough time to make sure my query and my manuscript are perfect)

"Spike follows the smell of Willow and we follow the fairly ripe smell of Spike."

The Wolfman 2010: Meh. I started watching it a week or two ago and couldn't get into it. I thought it was because I was tired. Now that I finally finished watching it, I know it wasn't. So why couldn't I get into it? It's not a good movie. The make-up/special effects are really well done, but overall it's nothing special. I don't recommend it.


Wrong Turn: I'd already seen it years ago, but I had forgotten a lot about it, the major thing being it's actually a good horror movie. The characters aren't too stupid and eventually they realize what they have to do to survive. I recommend it.

Wrong Turn 2: Dead End: Because it's a sequel, it's obviously worse than the first and way gorier. But it's still not too bad.

Writing

Playing with Darts

Wednesday I wrote a measly 245 words, but that's because I was drained from the previous day's writing. But yesterday I caught up and wrote...

1426 words!

Deadline: 15th of October

In other news, I have found the perfect title for "Playing with Darts". Ready?

The Way Wars Are Won

It's from a line in season 7 of Buffy. Good thing I did that marathon, huh?

Kenna's Choice

I've given myself until June to get Kenna's Choice in shape to start querying. Yes, that means I'm going to try and get it published. It's weird—I had no intention of getting it published. I thought that my first novel-length story wouldn't be good enough, but my critique partner said some very good things about it, and I have a list of things to delete (subplot of Kenna's aunt) and things to expand (Kenna's sister's storyline).

Word count for Draft 2:

Goals

• Have edited chapters 1–9 by the end of August.
• Have 55 035 words for TWWAW

"I bought the airline. [...] It seemed neater."

*****There WILL be SPOILERS***** (Search "End Spoilers")

Inception: Oh. My. God. Wow. I mean not only is the idea of the movie very original, but you also get the sexy Joseph Gordon-Levitt who has grown up a LOT since I last saw him in "10 things I hate about you".

Now this annoying kid critic, Jackson, said "Inception" was confusing—yes, it has the potential to be confusing, but I found it easy to understand. By potential, I'm referring to the levels of dreams. The main characters are on a plane asleep while dreaming that they're asleep in a van while dreaming that they're asleep in a hotel while dreaming that they're on a mountain and some are asleep there but dreaming of being in Limbo.

Don't get what I'm saying? That's okay—it makes perfect sense when you watch the movie.

Re: Jackson: the adult he was talking to in that video agreed and said even he was confused. Um, I'm 16 and my sister's 13 yet we both understood the movie. And of course my dad understood it.

When I told my dad this, I added that it reminded me of "Pink Floyd: The Wall"—somebody on IMDB said the transition from present to past and back wasn't clear. I thought it was.

One thing about the special effects: they were so good, it seemed normal. As in there really was no gravity, or the city really was folding in half.

And Mal. Oh, Mal. She's such an angry, bitter character—and reminded me so much of Pippa in Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle Trilogy. Both are trapped in an other world—dream for Mal, magical, in a way, for Pippa—and both wish their loved ones would join them, and even try to trick them then grow angry when they refuse.

V for Vendetta: Again, wow. V is a character you should hate, I mean he tortures Evey, but you simply don't. And even though I knew it was Hugo Weaving's voice, I couldn't recognise it. He sounded so different.

Amazing movie. And the main theme is something I cannot stand: injustice. So seeing Sutler die and everyone "win" was very satisfying.

And Valerie's story was so sad...so beautiful, especially this part:

But what I hope most of all is that you understand what I mean when I tell you that, even though I do not know you, and even though I may never meet you, laugh with you, cry with you, or kiss you, I love you. With all my heart, I love you.

That's when I started tearing up.

When you wish you could have written a certain piece of dialogue, or wish you could have created that character, or wish you could have put one of your characters in that situation, then you know it's good.

In my case, I wish I'd written Valerie's autobiography.

*****END SPOILERS*****

Writing

So far, August in word count looks like this:

1st    Sunday    391
2nd    Monday    65
3rd    Tuesday    114
4th    Wednesday    528
5th    Thursday    33
6th    Friday    672
7th    Saturday    0
8th    Sunday    0
9th    Monday    0
10th    Tuesday    0
11th    Wednesday    846
12th    Thursday    808
13th    Friday    0
14th    Saturday    678
15th    Sunday    859
16th    Monday    160
17th    Tuesday    12 (so far)

Total: 5166
Should be: 7515

Tomorrow, 10.30 a.m.: Buffy Season 7 Marathon

Buffy Marathon: Oh yeah! My sister and I want to see in how little time we can watch the entire season 7. The only breaks will be: toilet and food. There are 22 episodes and each episode is about 42 minutes: 22*42=924. 924/60=15.4

That's 15.4 hours of Buffy. Broken up by lunch, dinner and toilet breaks, we should be able to finish our marathon Saturday, at 4 a.m. The latest. Wish us luck!


"How I write" series: Angela's guest post about how she writes will be posted at 11 p.m. French time.

"Jeepers Creepers": It was not what I expected at ALL. And the ending is not what you usually see in horror movies. I kinda recommend it--but don't bother buying it. At least not the full price--get it second hand if you really want the DVD.

Writing: My goal for today was to reach 45 000. I still need 458 words to make that happen and it's 1.30 a.m. *bites lip* Maybe I can still do it? Oh, and the chapter I'm working on is chapter 21. I've been waiting a week or two to write it and it is so sad. I'm even considering saving the characters, and if I did, it would be credible. It wouldn't be a "deus ex machina."

I'll see how it goes. Total word count: 44 542.

“The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.”

—Walter Bagehot

"Mentally Fragile Teen Arrested in Stolen Car; Says She Was Looking for a Demon."

The post title is a quote from "My Soul To Save" by Rachel Vincent.

I'm back! And I've got lots of things to blog about: movies, books, writing, spending 6+ hours in a car stuck between my siblings.

First, though, an explanation for the lack of blogging and tweeting: internet stopped working on my laptop. My dad and I fiddled with the settings to fix one problem and ended up causing another without even solving the other problem. Typical. My dad fixed internet problem last night, or rather this morning, because it was 2 a.m.

Moving on.

Movies

Do NOT judge me for watching Disney movies. When you're lazy like I am and you sit down on the couch, you end up watching whatever's on. Anyway, the ones I watched weren't too bad.

• Dadnapped: Melissa's father is a writer, he gets kidnapped and she decides to save him. It was okay. Cliche: police ignores a kid's call because a kid can't possibly be telling the truth. Oh, your dad's been kidnapped? You saw it on a camera, you have proof? Call in a missing person's report in 48 hours. Ridiculous.
• Princess Protection Program: Demi Lovato plays a princess who moves in with a normal American family to protect her country and mother from some evil dictator guy. Meh.
• Wizards of Waverly Place: The movie: It was missing that something the TV show has, but overall I liked it.
• The Nanny Diaries: IMDB summary: A college graduate (Annie) goes to work as a nanny for a rich New York family. Ensconced in their home, she has to juggle their dysfunction, a new romance, and the spoiled brat in her charge.
  I loved it! Brilliant and I loved what Annie did at the end.
• The Bounty Hunter: Funny, but if wasn't for Gerard Butler, I don't think I would have wanted to see it. Unexpected ending.
• Friday the 13th: Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan: When a series of movies go on and on, the movies tend to get worse, but I actually liked this one. Of course, it's ridiculous that people running for their lives trip and stumble so much, but that happens in all horror movies. In real life, it's not like that. My dad would know: he once had an ostrich running after him. Once he was safe, my mom told him she'd never seen him run that fast when he played rugby. And did my dad trip/stumble/fall? No. When a person runs for their life, the adrenaline rush and fear means they don't trip. And the "Jason Takes Manhattan" part took ages to appear.

Books (there will be spoilers)

My Soul To Save: I finally finished reading it, but I'm still working my way through 4 books. Damn it! I shall start no more books, except the 3 books I have to read for school.

Anyway, what did I think of this book? I loved it as I love all of Rachel Vincent's books. Kaylee Cavanaugh is a banshee (written bean sidhe in the book) and in this book, the second in the Soul Screamer series, she wants to save a singer's soul: Addison Page sold her soul to become famous and rish, thus saving her family from poverty.

BIG SPOILER: Addison's sister ends up also selling her soul, making it even more difficult for Kaylee to save their souls before Addison dies. They know in advance that Addison will die on a Thursday, only days away. I was really hoping Addison wouldn't die, but she does. And Kaylee can't save Addison's soul. Sure, she saves Regan's, the little sister, but Addison's soul will be tortured for all eternity.

I wonder how Kaylee will deal with the guilt she feels. Also: for a YA series, it's pretty dark. Which I LOVE, because I'm weird that way.

Writing

My goal for August is to write 610 words every day. This will bring me to almost 60 000 words by the 31st. (Exactly: 59 995 words.) See how bad it's going? I'm 3552 words behind.

My goal for September is 500 words a day.

Other problems: I've got another time line problem. Here's what I emailed my critique partner:

It is so hard writing when you go from one POV to another, and have 8 POVs in total, and character X dies in chapter 14, on a Thursday but because chapter 20 takes place on a Wednesday, X is still alive. Not to mention character Y does/says stuff in chapter 14 that doesn't make sense anymore because of a secret revealed in chapter 20. All while making sure I alternate POVs often enough and keeping track of my huge cast of characters that keeps growing.

Let's say that the time line is a long piece of rope. That piece of rope is one giant knot that I've been trying to undo for the past few days. I have made very little progress.

Word count: 42 888.

Ghost Stories

So the first of August, I went to see Ghost Stories. Maybe you saw my two tweets?

Ghost stories starts in 20 minutes. Apparently it's really scary.

and then

Lights are dim. Cold air. Loud, scary noises. Wondering if this will scare me.

Having seen a LOT of horror movies, and only two of them scaring me to the point where I didn't finish them, I wasn't sure this could scare me. Did it?

Answer: Yes. It freaked me out, I jumped, I gasped, my heart raced and I was on edge for the next time something would make me jump.

The advantage a theater has over horror movies shown in cinemas or at home is they can involve more of our senses. We not only see and hear things: we can also smell and feel things. Such as the cold and the smell of [deleted].

At the end, they ask the audience not to reveal the twist, so I won't tell you anything. But if you like horror movies and you're looking for a good scare, and you live near London, then I urge you to go see it.

"Ghost Stories", I think, has reinstilled a fear of horror movies in me. Example? Please, I beg you, don't laugh, but in an episode of Wizards of Waverly Place, a ghost does this scary face where his head becomes huge and it made my heart race. But I think it's more that I was still jumpy from "Ghost Stories." But I was terrified of the dark for the following two nights.

Now I'm fine.

Mostly.

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: The Musical

On Wednesday, I got a haircut (hadn't gotten one in 8 months--maybe more) and at 7.30 PM, I saw "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: The Musical."

Having seen the movie 3 times, I was worried I wouldn't enjoy it as much. BUT the actors and actresses were so full of energy and so fantastic that I now love it even more.

One thing you have to know to understand my favorite line is that Bernadette and Felicia--wait a minute, do you even know what it's about? IMDB gives this sentence to summarize it: Two drag queens and a transsexual get a cabaret gig in the middle of the desert.

Anyway, Bernadette and Felicia argue. A lot. In a very funny and catty way.

My favorite line: Bernadette to Felicia in a woman's voice: If you feel like joining us later on, FIGHT IT.

The last two words are said in a man's voice, making it that much funnier.

They added jokes that weren't in the movie and we see more of Shirley, but the drinking contest between Bernadette and Shirley isn't there.

If you're in or near London, go see it at the Palace Theater.

Clash of the Titans--1981 and 2010 versions

To be honest, I didn't even finish watching the 1981 version--that's how bad the special effects are.

The 2010 one was much better, but if you never watch either one, you're not missing anything fantastic.

Right at your Door

A thriller in which a "dirty bomb" explode in downtown LA. Unfortunately for Brad, his wife Lexi was there and got infected. He seals himself in his house with Alvaro, a guy who can't get a bus to his own house. Then Lexi appears! She didn't die, but she's infected. Brad can't let her in the house if he wants to stay alive.

There's a twist that redeems the movie a little, but overall it wasn't that great.

Writing

Let's not talk about it. Monday to right now: 351 words.

Plotting

I finally fixed a few problems with the timeline. I know from whose POV each chapter is from chapter 20 to 51. It's all good. Now if I only I can motivate myself to write. I'm having way too much fun plotting.

England: Day 9

Day 7: Friday: I think we stayed in. I wrote 413 words.

Day 8: Saturday: I wrote 0 words. :( And we stayed in. Again. I don't mind, and it's actually partially my fault (I go to bed too late), but my mom's getting annoyed. Why? Because...

Day 9: Sunday: Today we were supposed to go out. I don't think that's gonna happen any more. It's 1pm.

Movies

• Harriet the Spy: Blogs Wars: Meh.
• I rewatched The Virgin Suicides.
• And that's it. I need to convince my family to watch Clash of the Titans (1981 version) with me.

Books

• I am reading "My Soul to Save" by Rachel Vincent, even though I should finish reading "Lolita", "The Sweet Far Thing" and "A Forest of Hands and Teeth" *is an idiot sometimes*.

I have weird dreams

As per usual, I don't even know where to start. Something about a guy and a girl, then he can't find the girl and it turns out he imagined her. And he shoots her in the forehead. Then she reappears, has a scar on her forehead from the bullet. She's now real, I think.

Then there was something with slides and tunnels and water and snakes. Oddly enough, I think I've had that dream before.

Then I was in some shopping center and then someone was chasing a friend and me. And the friend decided to carry me on her shoulders. Eventually we lost the guy chasing us and we sat down on a couch to watch TV. In the middle of the shopping center. And we hid under a sheet when he got close to finding us.

See what I mean by weird dreams?

Word count as it is now: 40271

Word count as I want it by tonight: 40 771.

England: Day 6, we go shopping

Movies (SPOILERS)

• Panic Room: Good. Although they were some moments when the mother and her daughter were SO stupid, but it's to be expected in thrillers, I suppose.
  
• Valentine's Day: Good. Better than I expected. Did NOT expect Julia Roberts to be the little boy's mother. I admit it: I teared up. And a lot of people are saying Taylor Swift's acting was horrible, but I honestly thought it was supposed to be cheesy and bad. If not: WOW. Scary.
  
• The Sixth Sense: Amazing. Yes, I know, it's taken me THIS long to see it. Whatever. My favorite line is: "They don't have meetings about rainbows."

Books (SPOILERS)

I finally finished reading "A Clockwork Orange" and all I have to say is: wow. Go read it if you don't mind books where the protagonist is evil.

(Warning: He doesn't give a shit about the law--he murders, steals and rapes. Other warning: Anthony Burgess invented slang for the teens called "nadsat". It takes a while to get used to.)

I saw the movie AGES ago, so I already knew what it was about. The one major difference is that chapter 21 of the book is ignored. Apparently, Stanley Kubrick wanted a realistic ending. In the book, Alex changes and wants to be good. In the movie, he goes back to being evil.

Anthony Burgess is really good: you end up rooting for Alex, even though you know what he's done. Time and time again, people betray him: his friends, his parents, strangers. And this makes you feel sorry for him.

Shopping

• Boots: I got girly stuff like a tangle teaser, moisturizer, etc. That's it. No clothes, no shoes. Couldn't really find anything...
  

Writing

Wednesday: 1110 words.

Thursday: 250 words. I'd like to write more, but I've got to wake up early to go to the Natural History Museum. Ugh.

Something that I realized at the hairdresser's (my mom got a haircut, and yes, as you would expect, it rained later on. But we had umbrellas) is that I have foreshadowing in chapter 6 for the thing that's revealed in chapter 18. This was NOT done on purpose, because even I had no idea that Fabienne was [deleted] until chapter 18. But this description in chapter 6 now makes more sense. I love when that happens. (And no, it does not happen very often.)

Total: 39858=53%

"Eight dollars for Beer Nuts? This room *is* evil!"

This will be short and to the point because I need to get some sleep. We're leaving early tomorrow for England, where I shall buy all the books I want. *sigh* Giant bookshop=my personal heaven.

Movies I've seen recently:

• Pandorum: Fairly good.
• The Wicker Man--original: Good, strange, sad ending...
• The Wicker Man--remake: Shit. Absolute shit.
• Minority Report: Very good. Loved it.
• 1408: Freaked the hell out of me. So much so I had to stop watching it. But I finished it today and wow. I loved it. Regarding the ending, however... Apparently what I saw is the theatrical ending.

*****SPOILERS*****

When I saw the ending, I thought maybe he had died, because how could the recorder record Katie's voice if she wasn't really there? Then I found out that's the ending where he lives, and Katie's voice on the recorder is EVP, proof for Lily that Mike wasn't lying. I prefer my interpretation.

In the director's cut ending, Mike dies. Then the manage of the hotel sees him in the backseat of his car, then we see Mike in the hotel room and he fades away or something. (I didn't actually see it.)

*****END OF SPOILERS*****

Writing

Since I last blogged, I ended up writing a total of 501 words on Saturday and Sunday I wrote the same amount. Monday was a failure. Tuesday I wrote 480 words. I was stuck, but got unstuck. How did I do this? I used a variation of "When in doubt, kill a character" and introduced a new character. (Well, not really a new character...)

Adding conflict solves writer's block. Most of the time.

But today I have written zero, zilch, nil words. I'm hoping I'll manage to write at least 150 words before going to sleep--which I should be doing NOW.

Tomorrow, I won't be able to write on my laptop until we get to the hotel. Then on Friday same deal. But Saturday, there will be TWO hours on a ferry--with internet access! Which might harm my productivity, but whatever.

Now I'm off to write 150 words in chapter 18 and then print said chapter so I can at least try to write in the car.

First: I overpack. Scratch that--my family overpacks. This time, we vowed to use smaller suitcases. And yet I end up with:

• small suitcase of clothes
• vanity box of bathroom things
• handbag for the car trip: notebooks, pens, books, iPod, phone...
• huge bag with more books, DVDs, iPod dock, phone charger...
• laptop bag

And that's it. Yup: We don't travel light. And yet, that's us traveling light.

That means exactly what you think it means: we used to travel with a LOTTA shit. How much? Well... *said in the manner of Samantha Stephens*

The car would be filled up.

To the ceiling.

Will update Saturday. And Courtney's post about how she writes will be posted Tuesday the 20th of July.

"You do drink don't you?" "Of course. I just said I was a writer."

So. I saw Eclipse on Wednesday. Better than the 1st and 2nd, but I still hate the whole series. Bella and Edward were as annoying as ever with their dialogue. I truly realized how annoying Edward is when he wasn't present during most of New Moon. Absence can not only make the heart grow fonder, it can make you realize how annoying a person is.

I appreciated the hot werewolves and--finally--the fighting. And, like Myra McEntire said in one her youtube videos, the Cullens actually spoke in this movie!

Erm, I don't think I've got anything else to add. Except maybe that considering how bad Breaking Dawn was, Eclipse might be the best movie out of the 4/5 (because of that whole two part thing).

Moving on to more interesting things...

Writing

I was behind on my goal for a long time and finally, I've almost caught up. Just 490 words left. Here's what the word count for the past few days looks like:

Monday 70
Tuesday 444
Wednesday 434
Thursday 920
Friday 828
Saturday 142

Now I'm not done for today--I'd like to at least reach 250 words. It'd be a pity to fail now after the success I've had since Tuesday.

Total word count for now: 35161.

Chapter 18: 1808.

Fact: Chapter 17, which is only 1751 words, took me 15 days to write.

1408

I started watching 1408, but stopped because it is too freaky to watch at night. And what made me want to watch the movie? The words "writer" and "John Cusack" on the back of the DVD cover. I'd seen John Cusack in "Stand By Me", but didn't find him hot. I saw him in 2012 and melted. Yummy.

As my sister knows, I have a thing for blondes (Spike from Buffy and a thousand others) but if there's an actor or character in a book I like, and he's not blonde, then he's got dark hair. Like Michael Madsen in "Reservoir Dogs." *sigh* Or Rob Lowe. And how could I forget Kiefer Sutherland in "The Lost Boys" and "Stand By Me."

That's the annoying thing about watching movies from the eighties--all those hot guys are in their forties or fifties now.

Predator

So. My dad said it was a classic. Really good. Somewhere else I read it's a cult movie.

Honestly, I was disappointed. Slow, not that much happens really. Now I don't hate all slow movies. I mean Alien was REALLY slow, but I loved it. But stuff happened.

"Remember that face I showed you, Scully? I'm makin' it again!"

Movies I've seen in the past few days:

• Banlieue 13: Loved it.
  
• Banlieue 13: Ultimatum: Loved it.
  
• Rain Man: Loved it.
  
• The X Files: Meh. Had never seen an episode, didn't know what to expect.
  
• Mercury Rising: Okay.
  

I'd expand and say what I think, but I am FINALLY getting some writing done.

"How could anyone love a pebble in their shoe?"

Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead: Started the 22nd of June, finished the next day at 3 am. (Which is really the 24th of June, but to me a day is over when I go to bed, so let's say it was the 23rd when I finished it.)

When do I start? I guess with the thing that really stuck out for me. (Search for the words "END SPOILER" to read the rest of the post.)

*****

**

SPOILER

**

*****

When Richelle Mead gave us hope that Dimitri could be saved, could become a dhampir again, she ran the risk of it going really wrong. Rose succeeding to save him could have been cheesy, or we could have complained "Ugh, it was too easy. Just like that she got him back" and so on.

But she pulled it off. Rose saved Dimitri and instead of going "Seriously? That's it?" I went "Yes! She deserved it after all the trouble she went through."

Also, I did NOT expect that twist about Rose being a suspect...

And Adrian! Poor Adrian... It looks like Rose will get back with Dimitri.

*****

**

END SPOILER

**

*****

Overall, Spirit Bound is an amazing book. 5/5

Timeline: Gerard Butler. *sigh* I saw on the Channel 4 website that it was passing on TV and when I saw he was in it, I said "Okay, we're watching this." Also: time travel. Overall: not bad.

One thing that really annoyed me: How hard is it to get French actors to play French characters? Seriously. The one playing Lady Claire sounded terrible when she spoke French. Ugh.

Writing fail--again

As the title in bold suggests, I haven't been writing much lately.

21st Monday 16
22nd Tuesday 79
23rd Wednesday 0
24th Thursday 266
25th Friday 0
26th Saturday 32
27th Sunday 3612
8th Monday 128
29th Tuesday 0
30th Wednesday 0
1st Thursday [Nothing yet]

See? I've got to write 1206 words to catch up.

A Dry White Season: As you know if you've been reading this blog, I had to read the book for school, and I actually liked it. Although the movie leaves out the quirkiness of Professor Bruwer and the relationship between Melanie and Benjamin, it's really good. During one scene near the beginning, when the police is chasing some school kids who were doing a peaceful protest, I almost cried. Usually, during a movie or book, I cry if a character is crying.

But during that scene there was no shot or closeup of a kid crying, yet the emotion in it...

On top of that, it's set in South Africa, where my mom grew up. The film is set in 1976, when my mom was 12. Despite growing up in a place where white people lived better lives than black people, she isn't racist.

Like my dad says, if the parents aren't racist and don't tell their kids that they shouldn't be friends with someone because their skin color is different, than the kids won't be racist either.

Snakes on a Plane: My sister had already seen it, but she watched it with me anyway.

I'd heard about this movie, and it was quite different from what I expected. Gorier.

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli: So I heard about this book a couple of months ago, and then a friend of mine was reading it, so I finally asked my mom to order it off Amazon and it arrived weeks ago. Anyway, despite not having finished 4 other books, I decided to read it. It was a very quick read and definitely worth it. I'll be buying the sequel "Love, Stargirl."

Ever After: I saw it last night with my sister and I LOVED it. Andy Tennant's (the director) Cinderella, called Danielle de Barbarac, is funny and very different from the Disney Cinderella, the only other one I've seen. If you like fairy tales, watch this movie NOW. The quote I used for the title of this post comes from "Ever After."

"I'm sick of sleeping with these insipid Manhattan debutantes. Nothing shocks them anymore."

How on earth did I forget to mention that I saw Cruel Intentions for the first time in my life on Sunday?

Maybe it's because I'm frustrated with the fight scene I'm trying to write. Maybe it's because I haven't left the house since last Thursday. (Although that's nothing for me. I once spent 3 weeks locked up inside. Yup. 21 days. BUT it was a holiday house, with a pool.) Maybe it's because I can't stop admiring my pretty red nails. *admires nails some more* Uh, what's that? Right. The movie.

Ah, what can I say apart from I LOVED IT?

Well Ryan Philippe is in it. And Sarah Michelle Gellar. It's funny, it's got great dialogue, and an ending I did NOT expect. So go watch it now if you haven't already seen it, because within mere minutes of watching the movie, I was in love with it. Now if you'll excuse me, I must go and harasss my mom to buy me the DVD.

Welcome to Kayleigh's Kaleidoscope

So my laziness wasn't enough to prevent me from making a blog on this site. I already have a blog on Wordpress and before that I blogged on Livejournal.

My decision for finally creating a Blogger blog is to reach more people. (10 minutes ago I read that more people use Blogger and now I have a blog here.)

I'm trying to import my blog posts from Wordpress, but it isn't working...

Right, who am I?

My name is Kayleigh and I'm a 16 year old writer who lives in the south of France. Christmas 2010 will mark the 3-year anniversary of when I started writing seriously. Apart from reading and writing, I love watching movies and have seen, I kid you not, 761 movies.

In 7500 words, I will be halfway through my current novel, "Playing with Darts." When I say "halfway through" I mean that my goal 75 000 words and in 7500 I will have reached half of that. Why am I elaborating? Because I now know that half of my goal of 75 000 words will NOT be half of my novel. It's turning into a monster of a novel: 50 character, a dozen plot lines, half a dozen points of view. I honestly don't know how I'm managing to write it.

I am also currently writing the second draft of my first every completed novel, "Kenna's Choice." I'm working on chapter 2 with the help of Angela, my critique partner who blogs here.

As for the title of this blog, let me explain: a kaleidoscope shows you different colors and shapes, right? Well my blog is about different things, not just writing. (My mother came up with it for me.)

If you're reading this, how did you get here? My twitter? One of my blogs? A friend told you about it? Google? And are you a new reader, who'd never heard of me before? And, final question, I promise, are you a writer?