"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: A trip into London

a.k.a HELL!

Well, okay, London itself isn't really hell, it's more the fact that I spent about 7 hours there with my family.

We took the train at twenty to two in the afternoon and the first shop we went into was a South African one. We bought biltong there. Delicious, wonderful biltong. Last time we had any was in The Netherlands, 3 years ago!

Our first official stop was at the Natural History Museum. We had to queue for fifteen minutes just to get INTO the damn museum. Then we had a look at some of the things on display in the hall before finding out we had to queue to see the dinosaur exhibition, the big one.

Oh, and we hadn't eaten lunch. So by the end of THAT, we were hungry and our feet were hurting.

After lunch in a Chinese place, where I found out I had the ability to use chopsticks properly, we went to Hamleys, the biggest toy shop in Europe. It was HELL for me.

Trafalgar Square: we climbed on one of the lions and our dad took a picture. I have a slight fear of heights, so that was only slightly scary.

And, the highlight of my day, Foyles. The bestest ever bookshop I've EVER been to. Yes, I am aware that is a bad sentence, but who cares. Not me.

Okay, so by the time we got to Foyles (it took us quite some time--got lost, arguing, sore feet), I was too exhausted to look at the books. I sat down half a minute then thought "Fuck it" and began looking at all the wonderful books!

One thing you should know about Foyles: it's a maze. Seriously. I kinda got lost in that place. But somehow, by just wandering around, I ended up in the Fantasy section, then Paranormal Romance, then Teen Noir, so all was good.

The books I got?

1. Thinner by Stephen King
2. Christine by Stephen King
3. Liar by Justine Larbalestier
4. The Dust of 100 dogs by A.S. King
5. The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance (which has a short story by Rachel Vincent=reason I bought it)
6. Beauty and The Beast by Robin McKinley
7. The Carbon Diaries: 2017 by Saci Lloyd.

Oh, we also bought tickets for "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert", the musical. We're going to see it tomorrow night. And tomorrow around 1 pm, I'm getting a haircut.

That's why today, Tuesday, is a relaxing day indoors.

Writing

Sunday: 261

Monday: 7

So far today: 0

Grrr...

Plotting

So I'm writing chapter 20 and I have no idea where the characters will take me.

However, I know, more or less, what chapters 21 and 22 will be about:

• A trial,
• sadness, and
  
• the last time we ever see characters L and J.

But who knows, things could change. Character M was SUPPOSED to be evil, and she turned out to be really kind.

I've also got a bit of problem with the timeline. And an idea just hit me. It's perfect.

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%

England: Day 3, we go out

Movies

• Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief: Eh. It was okay.
• Friday the 13th, Part 5: A New Beginning: Same.
• Another Cinderella Story: Meh. I REALLY liked the dancing scene with the mirror, but so many parts irritated me.
• Bring It On: Fight to the Finish: Ugh. When are they gonna stop making these movies? I loved the first one, but now I watch them to make fun of the dialogue and characters.
• Toy Story 3: *sigh* I'd heard people saying it was REALLY good and the movie did NOT disappoint. Very good.

Day 1 included the ferry ride and unpacking. Day 2 we stayed in and just watched TV. Day 3, Monday, we went out and did the following:

• WHSmith: Books! I got books! Hush, hush by Becca Fitzpatrick, Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead and Fang by James Patterson (the Maximum Ride series is my guilty pleasure). I also got "Clash of the Titans", the 1981 version.
• Pound shop: I got two pens and skittles. Boring, I know.
• Heart Foundation shop: DVDs! A Knight's Tale, Panic Room, IT and many others.

Day 4, Tuesday, we went to see Toy Story 3 and I got two DVDs for 5 pounds! "Thelma and Louise" and "Red Dawn" (my mom's comments: "But it's a boys' film. And it's ancient." How has she not realized by now that I LOVE "boys' movies and movies from the eighties?).

Day 5, Wednesday, which is today, we're staying in. Tomorrow, however, is a shopping day. Yippee.

Writing

Friday 730
Saturday 186
Sunday 732
Monday 287
Tuesday 58
Wednesday 131

And Wednesday is far from over.

Total word count: 38629

Oh, I was supposed to post this on Monday, but so many things got in the way (leaving the penthouse, internet not working, siblings wanting to watch movies) that I'm only posting this today.

Day 3 of traveling: not so bad

Wake up at 8, go to ferry, breakfast, get on ferry, two hours to cross the Channel, lunch, and finally, at 5 pm, THE PENTHOUSE.

It is awesome. Lounge, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen, dining room and access to the roof as well as the garden (where there's a ping pong table and a trampoline and a swing set thing and mokey bars). Also: my siblings and I got the big bedroom with the carpet. (Our reasoning for us needing it: there are three of us and it's a bigger roomer.)

Tonight, we plan to watch Death Proof, for the second time, while eating popcorn. :)

Lunch: Man, there is SUCH a big difference between waiters/waitresses in England and the ones in France. Here they're very friendly and stop by every so often to ask if everything's okay. In France, they don't do it nearly as often, and when they do, they're very cold and distant. Or, if you want to use a different word, professional.

But those friendly waitresses made our lunch much more relaxed and enjoyable.

My sis, bro and I chose to have traditional bangers and mash. Delish.

Oh! We got a satnav. We chose "Sean" to give the directions, the Irish male voice. I had no idea that satnavs worked that well. In movies and TV shows, people using them always get lost no matter what.

Day 2 is not over yet: only 3 hours spent in car with family

This morning, I got to wake up at 8! And then we only had 3 and a half hours in the car! *sigh* I also read more of "A Clockwork Orange" and wrote 700 words. And it's only 5 pm.

One thing we've noticed about the houses here, and everything else really, is it all looks so much like The Netherlands. Which makes us miss The Netherlands even more.

Most people might think all of France is more or less the same, and I kinda thought it was too, but being in the north of France makes me realize the big difference between here and the south of France. The houses are different--brick instead of... I actually don't know what our house in the south of France is made of--and there are canals. And we even saw a windmill.

Anyway, tomorrow we take the ferry. We'll leave at midday, and two hours later, at 1 pm, we'll be there. Nope. That's not a mistake. England is an hour behind France.

Writing

Like I said, I've written 700 words, but now it's almost 10 pm and I haven't written anything since 5.

I probably won't blog again until tomorrow 5 pm, so here are today's numbers:

• Total wordcount: 37205
  
• Chapter 18: 3853 words
  
• Percent: 49,61 (almost 50%!)
  
• Words written since the 11th of June (first day of holiday): 10 800 (that's 308.5 words per day)

Just need to figure out some dates of births for 3 characters, as well as when they became vampires, otherwise nothing makes sense.Ugh. Gonna be complicated.

Day 1 is over: was spent in car with family

You can just guess how much fun that was.

• 6.30 am: Wake up
• 9 am something: Leave. Finally. Mom had planned to leave at 6.30. Ha!
• 12 ish: Lunch. Waiters ignore us most of the time. I have pizza and didn't realize until much later that what I thought was tomatoes, which I don't like, was actually the chorizo, which I do like. Result: I appear stupid to my siblings. They take advantage and mock me. Evil little siblings... Also: My day wanted to pay; the waiter finally acknowledged my dad then told him we have to go the reception. Why couldn't he have taken the time to tell us that 5 minutes earlier, when my dad started trying to get the waiter's attention?
• After lunch until we get to the hotel: In car. Little bit of arguing. Sleeping. I read more of "A Clockwork Orange", finally, and I love it. Amazed that Burgess could invent a whole slang. A slang that you get used to after a while. Then we play a French game called "Baccalaureat" until we reach hotel.
• From then on, we spend time unloading car. We have to make 3 trips. This is normal for us. Yes, I truly needed my laptop bag, my suitcase, my handbag, my vanity box and my pillow! And my iPod dock.

So here I am, at 7 pm in the hotel room writing this. In an hour or so, we'll be off to the restaurant. Today's writing goal: 500 words. Can I do it? Well, luckily, tomorrow doesn't involve as much driving as today, so we don't have to wake up extremely early. So hopefully. Wish me luck!