The Art of Decisions

I have never been the kind of person who is really decisive. I flip flop. Thank goodness most waiters and waitresses have been very patient with me. Though it is much easier to pick from a menu as opposed to deciding things like where you want to go to school and what you want to do with your life. Those sorts of decisions have always tripped me up. One minute I know exactly which direction I am going in and the next I do not know. This has specifically been my problem over the last couple of weeks. Since I am on summer vacation there has been lots of time to think and work on my writing projects. One of which is a children's book I have been trying to self-publish.

Every other day I waiver as to whether or not I actually want to publish it. Yes. No. Yes. No. And so forth. I think you catch my drift. Anyways I guess the main concern is whether or not anyone will like it. I do. Then I don't. Then I do. Then I don't. (You catch my drift again?)

It is one of the many frightening things about being a writer. It has definitely been scary to stand up in a classroom full of people the last couple of semesters and share my work. Here's the deal though: not everyone will like your work. I don't like everything I read or hear and that's the way it is. Yet there is something so personal about putting out a work that you have spent so much time on. In a way it's a little piece of yourself that you are giving away to the world. It is hard. It is scary. It is completely worth it. Deep down I know this and yet I am still scared. I think in a way that is all part of the fun. If it wasn't hard or scary then it wouldn't be as fun or as rewarding.

My mom pointed out to me the other day the obvious: look around. If you go the bookstores you will find shelves filled with titles. They did it and you can too.

This is true, very true. I'm sure that most of these authors had the same fears I have right now. That doesn't make it any less taunting. I keep hearing, though, about how we have one life to live and we should take every opportunity we get. This is another one of those times.

I have the same feeling when it comes to this blog. However, whenever I see all the different kinds of readers I get from around the world it all feels very worth it. So, thank you. :)

Hello Again!

The creature has once again come out of its cave!! Kidding. Sort of. If you count a room filled to the brim with rough drafts of essays and short stories. That has basically been my life up until the last couple of weeks, hence the reason I have not had a blog post since Christmas break. Once again I am sorry to anyone that follows this blog for the lack of posts. I really am going to try to blog more.

In honor of the blog's resuscitation I decided to put up a poll to see what people want me to write about more. Your input is much appreciated and I will do my best to write as much as I can.

Here are a few things that have happened since December:

1) I have a hard time writing for long periods of time because of one very annoying blister (which I got from all of the writing I did in the first place).

2) I finished my second semester of university (insert cheesy dance break to Enrique Iglesias' "I Will Survive").

3) I started taking part in the 50 Book Pledge (currently I have read 22 books!!).

4) I decided to write 50 pages a month for the 4 months I am off for summer vacation to write a novel (currently I am at 9 pages for the month of May! Only 41 more to go!!)

So yeah... pretty fascinating stuff I know. However, I also want to focus some blog posts on the process of writing the current novel. I am really excited about it and hopefully I can actually finish a whole novel (this time). Also, I am in the process of self-publishing my children's book which for the most part has been living in my desk drawer until I find the time (and some sort of inspiration) to carry on.

That's about all I can think of for right now! Thanks for reading this blog or for just skimming past it on your way to another! Either way I really appreciate it!

Now all that is left for you to do is answer the poll above and tweet me (@owhitmyknee) with any questions or comments you might have!!

Thanks again!

Emma

2012

It's hard to believe that another year has gone by. A lot has happened in the world and it will be interesting to see what will happen in 2013. :)

Personally, I had a really great year. I hope I can do just as well in 2013 as I did in 2012.

I read a heck of a lot of books (some of which I don't even remember).

Best Books I Read This Year (But weren't necessarily published in 2012):

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I mentioned this one in an earlier blog post but I had to bring it up again. It made me laugh and cry. Sometimes both. John Green is an awesome writer and I am excited to see what else he will publish in the future.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontё

I read this in my Lit class and I loved it. At first there were terms and such that were unfamiliar, making it a difficult read. But in the end I came to sympathize with Jane and I loved the rest of the book. It really cemented my new found interest in literature.

The Liar Society by Lisa and Laura Roecker

I could not put this book down even if I tried. It was exciting and thrilling from beginning to end. There were many twists and turns, not to mention mysteries. I look forward to reading the sequel (which is currently sitting on my desk, waiting to be read).

A Midsummer Tights Dream by Louise Rennison

Another one of my favourite authors. Louise Rennison`s books never fail to amuse me. Her characters are fresh and quirky and make me laugh. She was the first author to ever make me laugh out loud while reading a book. I can`t wait to see what chaos Tallulah and the gang will get up to next. :)

The Sweetness of Salt by Cecilia Galante

The title says it all. It intrigued me to find out how in the world salt can be sweet. It was definitely a good read with a nice ending.

Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler

Yet another one of my favourite authors, her 2012 release was just as great as her other books. Next year she is releasing a new book and I am eager to see what it is all about.

Dear Teen Me

Various young adult authors wrote letters (or draw cartoons) to their teen selves. It was interesting to see how far all of these authors have come and what they had to overcome to achieve their dreams. It really inspired me to reflect on life in this kind of way.

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The other day I came across this list of young adult books coming out in 2013:
http://novelnovice.com/2012/12/28/new-ya-releases-coming-in-2013/

Super excited to finish several different series and start a few new ones!

Happy New Year!
Emma :)

The Trials and Errors of Gingerbread

    I am sorry for the lack of blog posts in recent months but I've been quite busy. Last week I completed my first official semester of university!!! Woohoo! :) I can remember starting in September and being so completely nervous. Plus it was sunny at the time, now....... *looks out window* it's snowing. Quite heavily.

    Now that winter break is here I thought I would catch you up on some stuff. Mostly I wanted to talk (more like rant) about all the experiences I have had with gingerbread in the last couple of weeks. Last year we bought a gingerbread kit to make a village of mini gingerbread houses. It failed. Miserably.

    First of all, they didn't stay up. We tried everything we could. There were different methods of stacking involved. As well as a boat load of icing and frowning. Finally we resorted to toothpicks. What were supposed to be cute and festive little houses but turned into haphazard tents. It was very pathetic looking and cleaning up all of the icing afterwards is always a pain.

    So this year we decided to cheat. We bought ourselves a gingerbread kit with an already assembled house. Hooray! No problem, right? Wrong wrong wrong. On the plus side, it was standing. The negative? I cannot pipe very well. So my icicles turned into blobs, and the roof? Um....it doesn't look like any of the sample pictures on the box. Our track record in the past few years has not been very good when it comes to making these houses. Maybe next year, eh?

    Anyways, I thought that would be the end of my gingerbread troubles this year. Well, it turns out that that wasn't the case. My sister had to bake gingerbread for school and I helped her out. It all started with molasses.

   None of us had ever bought molasses but we managed to find it at the store. We were wondering what is in it. Guess what the carton said?

    Ingredients: Molasses

    So helpful.
   
    We brought it home and began the (very) tiring task of making it from scratch. Never again. Try singing that to the tune of Taylor Swift's "We are Never Ever Getting Back Together."

"We are Never Ever Ever Making Gingerbread Again!"

    The smell was so unbelievably horrible. Nasty. I can't even begin to tell you how ill I felt. The cleanup afterwards was the worst part. It would NOT come out of the pot. We ended up soaking it 2 or 3 times. I really don't want to think about gingerbread for a while. Until next year gingerbread!

   So for now I'm just going to say that there are big things coming. Great things, really! I am working on a couple "new" projects and I hope to share them with you all in the next couple of months or so.

    Happy Holidays everyone! I hope your experiences with gingerbread are a million times better than mine!! :)

P.S. unlike last time I really am going to try to blog more.
P.P.S But who knows what will happen when school starts again in January.






    

Halloween

Happy Halloween! I always seem to come up with ideas, like for costumes, way too late to execute them. I end up saying I'll do it next year and then I never really do. Maybe this is that time. There's always next year, right?

So I thought that I should post something for the month of October even if it is not incredibly long. There will be more to follow in the first few days of November... I promise :) Hope everyone had a great time today!!!

New Beginnings

Hello!!! A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks: the end of summer, the beginning of university and the 3 day novel contest just to name a few things. :) All in all there have been a lot of changes.


I spent the Labor Day weekend up in my room attempting to write a novel. Let me tell you that is no easy task normally but in those 3 days I learned more about my writing than I would have thought possible during that time span. I found that I like to write comedy and strive to make the reader laugh (even if that is just me). I also learned that I can finish something when I put my mind to it.

During the summer, I cleaned my room. Now you may think What is so important about that? Is it so messy you can't move around or something? but really there is a lot more to it. I guess you could say I collect stuff, mostly stuff I don't need but hang on to anyway. It was hard to throw out all these things that took up most of the space of my room. One particular thing in abundance was stories. The unfinished kind. As a kid (well I guess I still am a kid) I would dream up these ideas for stories and novels and set out to write them. But every time I only got so far before I stopped and I came up with another idea or got distracted by life. With this contest I really forced myself to sit down and write what had been stuck in my head.

When I signed up for the contest a couple months ago I had a clear idea of what my storyline would be. Then I went on my two week road trip in August. I spent many nights thinking about that story and the characters and all that sort of thing. One night a thought hit me: I have no personal connection to this story. Without anything I could relate to, how could I write it? I needed a story that I could mold out of my own experiences and the ones I dreamed up to make myself sit there and write and make them believable. So that night I switched to an entirely different storyline. I had less time to think about it in comparison to the other one but that is the whole point of the contest. Writing under pressure to see just how much you can achieve.

Three days after that contest I started university. I am finding several recurring patterns, one of which happens on a usual basis. Adults and parents of my sister's friends come up to me and ask What are you studying? I tell them,  I am majoring in Creative Writing. This odd kind of look spreads across their faces because they don't know how to process that. Had I said I wanted to be a nurse or a teacher it might be more plausible for them (well maybe not a nurse because I am extremely squeamish). I guess really the look on their faces asks me what in the world do you do with that? Honestly? I don't know yet. Isn't that the whole point of university? To figure out what you want to do?

At an info session at the university before I started, someone told the parents that 1/4 of the students know what they want to do and have a clear vision, while the rest don't. They went on to say that everybody (including half of that quarter) go on to change their minds about what they are studying. Basically only a small fraction of them end up with what they'd originally had in mind. Sometimes I am scared of changing my mind as I am usually terrified of change as well as any decisions. It seriously took me forever one time to pick what I wanted off of a menu and the waitress took pity on me. Now that I am getting older and growing up, I realize that more decisions have to come from me and that I am in control of my life. It's intimidating but at the same time I have this underlying drive to do things.

For those if you in need of a mental break from all the studying and what not I suggest you watch this

Summer Adventures Pt.3

14 days, 3700 km and we are back to square one.

There is nothing quite like the feeling you get when coming home. It's always a comfort to know that you have a home base as opposed to all the other places that you have stopped at in between.  No more meals sans vegetables. Hallelujah!

We managed to pack in 2 UNESCO  World Heritage Sites in one day, one of which was Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. It was amazing to see the evolution of the methods used to herd the buffalo and where they were carried out. One of my favorite stops on our road trip was to Lake Louise. It is so breathtaking with the clear water and the mountains in the background. In some ways it was hard to believe that it was all real!! Fort Steele was also a blast with all of the people in costume and  in character.

Week 2: I ran out of reading material which is to be expected. We stopped at this used book store that had 100,000 books crammed into its shelves. Everywhere you turned there were books, books and more books (not that I'm complaining).

This trip made me realize that there are a lot of spelling mistakes out in the world. I encountered one of the funniest mistakes I've seen and I thought I'd share it with you :

We actually fixed a mistake later on in the day because we felt the need to.

During our down time we made sure to watch the Olympic events. I find it really inspiring to see athletes younger than I am doing what they are passionate about and living out their dreams. This summer I have begun to really notice how much our generation is attached to technology. When I was on a ferry back in July, I noticed that parents gave their kids all sorts of technology to keep them entertained for the duration of the boat ride. In some ways it makes me feel old knowing that ten years ago I was in there shoes. But it was different. Sure I would play video games but I'd have these magical coloring books that came with a clear marker that turned the pages colorful. I'd also have crossword puzzles and word searches and books (of course). Let's not forget the play area on the ferry which was basically one of the best parts of going away. It just feels weird seeing how much the world is changing everyday in ways that aren't always the most obvious until you begin to look very hard.

Until next time!!!