It's been waaaay too long since I've uploaded anything, or even updated my journal...it's the classic sad story that things have just been INSANE! My month of May is looking fun but packed, with two softball tournaments, prom, a trip to NYC over Memorial Day, three birthday parties, and senior ball...not to mention AP exams! AHH!!

But these were some amazing photos from my inbox, and I thought I'd share them. Give the original artists some love!






.:: Member of ::.

Rules::
1.Choose one of your original characters.
2.Answer the questions accordingly.
3.Tag someone!

Questions:

1. What is your character's name?
Irina Velascu

2. Male or female?
female

3. How old is he/she?
sixteen, going on seventeen

4. What is your character's occupation?
translator during wartime, guardian of two young children, Kyla and Yoey

5. What was his/her childhood like?
Pretty quiet, until the war began. Then she lost her parents and her brother went missing...

6. Does he/she have a significant other?
she's not aware of his existence yet, but I've created him. He's there.

7. What is his/her favorite food?
Yava beans dipped in cocoa powder! (they're a little like espresso beans only sweeter, dipped in chocolate yumminess.)

8. Does your character drink, smoke, or do drugs?
she's tried drinking and doesn't like it... smoking doesn't exist in her country and she believes that drugs are the most foolish thing anyone could ever do.

9. What are your character's hobbies?
She loves to run (especially when she's not running away from anyone), play games with the younglings, and work in the medicine tent at the army base.

10. What is your character's favorite movie?
She hasn't ever seen a movie. But she'd probably enjoy V for Vendetta like I do.

11. Tell me three strange facts about your character.
Irina has incredible nightvision, bordering on inhuman. She has sensitive hearing (although it sometimes fails her when she needs it most). And if she's in a fix, you should ALWAYS ask her to cook for you. She does her best cooking when she's stressed.

12. Does your character have a favorite band?
She enjoys a lot of traditional singing, but I think she's only ever heard one group over the stereo, and that is Libera, the acapella boys choir.

13. Is there anything you don't know about your character?
haha, I like :devxxxKimiko3xxx:'s answer: "There's something wrong with this question."

14. Is he/she an idealist or a realist?
She's pretty down to earth, actually.

15. Does he/she collect anything?
She doesn't at the moment because she has to travel light, but if she did she'd collect stones.

16. Who is his/her best friend?
Vinni and Korin

17. Does your character have any pets?
No, but she loves animals in general.

18. Does he/she speak any different languages?
Several. That's why she's a translator!! She speaks English and Spanish, but also Vietnamese and several tribe languages that I can't speak.

19. What would your character order at Starbucks?
Something fruity, probably. Or a dark, smooth espresso.

20. Any special talents?
Nightvision. And she has a keen talent for predicting future events, even though she isn't sure they'll happen or not. It's not magical or anything...she's just intuitive.

21. Favorite song of the character?
Doesn't have one

22. TAG SOMEONE!
Anyone who reads this and feels that there character needs the spotlight. And let me know if you repost this, I'd love to meet him/her!!

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Stolen from =stormchylde and ~sunni-sideup...loved it!

1. What led you to write?
I've always had stories in my head, since I learned to string sentences together pretty much. And then I learned that you could write it all down in things called books. STORIES. ARE. AWESOME.

2. When did you start writing?
Oh gosh...I remember I started storytelling when I was two (my mom recorded me telling a story about a baby horse that got separated from its mommy, and he had to cross the train tracks before the train got there or he would be trapped FOREVER!!!...it was epic!). Not sure when I started writing though...by second grade definitely.

3. What does writing represent in your life?
It’s a part that I wish was bigger... I love thinking of new ideas and lines, and I always try to get better at it, but I never have the time that I’d like.

4. Are you happy with your current style?
Not entirely. My poetry style yes, but my fiction writing I’m rarely happy with...

5. Do you do editing?
Hehehe, I go back over practically every paragraph right after I write it. It’s baaaaad. Also, I think it's much easier to edit when the story has just been started, because the characters and events aren't quite set in your mind as much. After a while, you feel like the story HAS to be a certain way, even if that way doesn't work.

6. Do you read about writing (creative writing books, grammar books...)?
A little...

7. Favorite genre?
I mostly read Young Adult because there are some awesome books in that genre. I love fantasy and romance and any blend of the two. Historical fiction's nice, too.

8. Favorite author(s)?

Jane Austen, Stephenie Meyer, Kristin Cashore, Allison Goodman, James Patterson

9. Favorite book?
Eeeeek, you had to ask. Probably The Host by Stephenie Meyer, or Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, or The Hunger Games by Allison Goodman...or Skybreaker by Kenneth Oppel. Or Graceling...or the Maximum Ride series, or Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (I’ve never cried so hard reading a book in my whole life!). OHOHOH!!! And Vicki’s book Into the Night! And Dark Night tooooo!

10. What do you prefer to write?
I like to write stuff that's mostly realistic, but with a twist. And I loooove doing science fiction/fantasy, because the possibilities are endless!

11. Is there anything you can't write??
Yeah, I stink at writing internal conflict. I find it really hard to stretch out thought processes... but I also can’t summarize either, so I’m just in a fix.

12. What is the weirdest thing you have ever written?
Hmm. Probably that poem about sunglasses.

13. Choose a topic: love, death, friendship. Now write a couple of lines about it.
(okay, I didn't come up with this on my own, but it was soooo good I had to share it! I believe it was ~sunni-sideup) Friendship should be effortless. Swinging from a swingset, eating ice cream, wind and sea and sun in your hair. Friendship should be constant. When the happy, giddy, bubbly feeling of e f f o r t l e s s n e s s goes away, when you fall off the swing, when the ice cream melts over your fingers, when the sand burns your toes, you should still have your friends. Friends are not just bodies to share in your happiness.

14. Do you think you have influences from any professional writer? if so, which ones?
Lots. Even ones I don’t like have an influence, because then I’ll just think “okay, DON’T do that.” It works nicely.

15. Worst book you have read so far?
Worst book? Daaaaang. Well, I have to say I hatedhatedhated Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Though Huckleberry Finn is probably worse. *gags*

16. Why is it so bad, in your opinion?
In GE, the long, drawn-out, excruciatingly painful sentences that never seem to end, with the over-exaggerated and innately boring descriptions, the endless parade of happy commas, and fourteen hundred and seventy-eight conjunctions in each paragraph. See, even that sentence was hard, and Dickens did it like, 50,000 more times. And Huck Finn was just stupid. The characters made horrible choices and the racism and language was just so rampant and so foul that it made me sick.

17. Choose one of your characters and describe he/she in 3 words.
Alexius. Hardened, shy, determined.

18. Do your characters feel 'alive'?
Well, they certainly seem to talk a lot...they keep me up at night sometimes with their stories that for now have to be unspoken.

19. Could you kill this character?
Alexius? Well, since he’s promised to Valeska, I can’t very well kill him off. They’re both getting a happy ending. :-D

20. Do you hate any of your own characters?
I’m trying to model Eden after Hitler, so yes, I hate most everything he does. Though he’s a really awesome villain, so in a way I love his guts.

21. Now, let's be honest. Every writer has their own favorite creation: what's your favorite story, out of everything you have written/planned to write? and character?
I LOVE my Amarillos, from my Spanish project this year. I can’t get them out of my head...they seriously need their own story, instead of just being a single province on my Isla de los Acantilados. And my favorite character is probably Griffin from Virago. He’s just so...awesome and funny and sweet and loving and sarcastic and hysterical AND I WISH HE WAS MY BROTHER!

22. Have you ever abandoned an idea for a story? Why?
I don't "abandon" them so much as put them away indefinitely. Some stories are just more fun in my head than on paper.

23. Have you ever deleted a whole piece of work? Why?
No...

24. And finally: make up a completely original character right now and describe them briefly. It doesn't even have to be human!

A young girl, named Ara. She has very pale, glowing skin, and platinum blonde curls just to her ears. The sweetest little smile and blue eyes as big as saucers. She’s a young refugee from Samæn (pronounced “sah-main” who lost her home and most of her family in the Great Fires of 2044. Her older brother Jimmy takes care of her, though he’s only ten or eleven.




And...cut!

Anyone can do it, I guess. I don’t know how many of you are writers out there!

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