Understanding Perseverance

Oh, the crushing weight we feel from failures sting

Watching others fly as we nurse our broken wing

Now lost as we ponder what a new day shall bring

Amidst the mist of despair a moment of clarity will arise

Revealing the missed target was not our actual demise

Twas just the chance of new opportunity we must learn to recognize

Following the signs leading to this new trail

We acknowledge failure as a momentary derail

Necessary in discovering how we are to truly prevail

Top 3 Fantasy Book Series

The First Book Series I want to start with, is actually a Trilogy. However, the author Anne Bishop, actually went on to write more books that tie to the characters from the original trilogy.

The Black Jewels Trilogy is honestly one of the most enticing, creative, and beautiful world I have come across so far in my life (and that is saying something since I read the first book when I was 12 and I am now very close to turning 24). These three books are dark and sensual (so beware if that is not your thing). The entire Trilogy and the other books to go with it take place in three realms that are all connected. You will come across people with magic being used in a way I have never seen it used before, dragons, unicorns, queens, priestesses, etc. If you are into Fantasy, then these books are perfect to add to your reading list. (I truly hope that these books are one day made into movies or even a TV show.)

The two pictures above are just a couple of the books that have stemmed from the trilogy.

The next book series on our list of Top 3 is Harry Potter. There are a few books that have stemmed from this series as well, but I find them to be nothing compared to the original 7 books. I'm sure most of you have heard the name Harry Potter at this point in your life, because it has become more than a book series to many of the people who have read it. There is a website that was made by the author, where you (the reader) can join the school Hogwarts from the books, countless fan made stories have stemmed from the wizarding world in these books, apparel and many other things you can by that are from the world in these books, and even theme parks that recreate places from this series. If you have yet to jump on the Harry Potter bandwagon, then my only question for you at this point is; What are you waiting for?

Last but not least, let us talk about the book series, A Song of Ice and Fire. Now this series is exciting in a few ways. One, there is a show that has stemmed from these books, called Game of Thrones (you can find the show on HBO). Two, the last book has yet to be released because it is still being written. Three, not only is the world in these books amazing, but you literally fall in love with the characters just to watch many of them die. I am still slowly making my way through this book series, but I urge you to take the time to read them, especially if you are watching the show. There are so many things the show doesn't fully dive into that the books have to offer. There are even characters that I feel are important to the story line that the show hasn't introduced. 

Photo Credits:

Image 1- Epic Fantasy Books Blog

Image 2 & 3- Amazon

Image 4- Wiki Book Club

Image 5- Booktopia Blog

The Man Upstairs

Brandon was sitting in the living room playing Modern Warfare 2 on his Xbox360, just as he did on any average day after getting home from school. It was just him and his dog Athena in the house; another thing that was normal these days since his mom was a lawyer and usually worked late. He was laughing with his friends online as they made fun of this noob who clearly didn't understand anything about the game, when Athena started barking.
Taking off his headphones, Brandon got up to walk over to the front door to see if someone was there, but no one was. So he went to the back door to let Athena out, thinking that maybe she just needed to pee. While he waited for her to do her business, he grabbed himself a cup of water. While filling up the cup he heard what sounded like the house settling. It had been doing that a lot the last few days; especially the attic area and his moms room, which were directly above the living room.
After letting Athena back in, he went and sat back down on the couch. Just as he was about to put his headphones back on, he heard heavy footsteps coming from his moms room, immediately followed by Athena running up the stairs barking.
Knowing it was too early for his mom to be home, Brandon grabbed a knife from the kitchen just as Athena raced back downstairs, barked a few more times, and then back up the stairs as if she was beckoning him to follow her.  Heart thumping in his chest, he quietly made his way up the stairs towards his moms room. Turning the knob slowly, he prepared to lunge on the unsuspecting intruder; but when he opened the door, no one was there. He closed the door and quickly checked the rest of the rooms upstairs, but the coast was clear. Turning to head downstairs he noticed Athena was just letting out a quiet whine while just sitting, staring at his moms bedroom door. Knowing there was no one inside, he told her to hush and went back downstairs to get back on his game.

...

Brandon got off the school bus at his stop and began walking the rest of the way home. All of his friends had plans today so he was forced to go home and face whatever lay in store for him. For weeks now he had been hearing those heavy footsteps walk back and forth in his moms room. Occasionally there would be the sound of the doorknob being rattled as if someone was having trouble opening it. Every time he had checked though, there was no one in the house. He had started trying the method of just ignoring Athena's barking and the sounds coming from upstairs, by leaving his headphones on while he played his games until his mom came home. So far this had been working perfectly and he saw no reason to stray from this new routine.
When he got inside, Brandon noticed a note from his mom stating that Athena was in her crate upstairs (in his moms bedroom), and under no circumstances was he to let her out. Apparently she had chewed up one of his moms pairs of expensive heels. Not wanting to go anywhere near his moms room anyways, he went over to the freezer to grab a couple of hot pockets; since the note had also stated that his mom would be later than usual tonight and he was on his own for dinner.
Just as the microwave beeped, Athena started to bark and growl as the sound of the footsteps began. For a moment, he wondered if he should go up there and rescue her from her "time out" in the cage, but he quickly dismissed the idea at the thought of having to actually enter that room in order to accomplish the task. Turning on his console and grabbing his headphones, controller, and food, he headed over to his usual spot on the couch. Right as he sat down, he heard a sound that made him stop dead in his tracks.
Athena had stopped barking and had begun whining as the footsteps now accompanied the sound of her crate being dragged along the floor of his moms bedroom. Brandon listened in utter horror as the cage went from one side of the room to the other, just to repeat on an endless cycle. Refusing to give into his instincts and flee the house, he stubbornly sat down and began playing Call of Duty online to drown out the noise.

...

It was a Sunday night and Brandon was finally laying down to go to sleep at around 2 in the morning. His mom had gone to sleep hours ago watching a movie on the couch after having spent the whole day cleaning the house. Feeling much more at ease knowing she was in the room right next to him, sleep did not elude him for long.
He began to have the most curious dream. He could feel himself lifting slowly out of his body as it lay asleep on the bed. Looking down he watched as someone else, or some thing tried to enter his body below. Then he suddenly slammed back into his body and woke up drenched in sweat. Shivering he looked at the time to see it was 3:30 in the morning. Not wanting to fall back asleep he stayed up watching movies while chatting with people online.
The next day at school was long and he had a hard time keeping his eyes open during classes. When it was finally over he tried to see if any of his friends wanted to hang out, since he didn't want to go home until closer to when his mom would be there. But all of his friends had things they needed to do today, so he was forced to go straight home. When he walked in the door he was happy to see that Athena was downstairs and not stuck in her crate again today (something that was becoming a bit of a habit for his mom to do).
His relief at seeing her out of the crate was short lived though; for not even 1 minute after coming inside the house, the heavy footsteps began to pace. Athena began to bark, racing up and down the stairs as the footsteps turned into angry stomps that stopped abruptly as they reached the door. Brandon watched as the doorknob began to rattle and then slowly start to turn. Athena stayed at the bottom of the stairs now as she barked. The door to his moms bedroom began to creep open and this was the point when Brandon decided he'd had too much. Running back outside and slamming the door shut behind him, he waited out on the curb with his backpack still on his back until his mom came home from work.


Writer's Note: This is an adaptation of an experience submitted to me by one of my viewers. If you have an experience you would like to submit, my e-mail address is crystal.k.18@gmail.com (please be sure to write Submission in the subject). If you enjoyed this story and would like to see more of them, hit that like button and hit that share button. I would love to hear any comments you all have about this. If you are new to the page, don't forget to hit that follow button or enter your e-mail in the top right hand corner of the blog to subscribe to new posts.

Photo Credit goes to the blog Must Be This Tall To Ride

If you like creepy stories here are a couple of links of interest
The Ghost Upstairs-by MBTTTR
66 Paranormal Stories-Video

Submit An Experience

My apologies to my readers for the pause in my posts. I have been working on collecting some experiences from some of my readers so I can turn them into short stories. These short stories will be based on the experiences submitted, but of course will have some added embellishments, alterations to the names of the people involved in the experience, etc. 

If you are interested in having an experience you've gone through turned into a short story, please feel free to send it to me at my e-mail address which I will include at the end of this post. 

I will accept any type of experience; paranormal, an encounter with a stranger at a store, an infestation of some sort, etc. Really, the sky is the limit with what you submit. These submissions will be completely anonymous when I release the short stories. Also, please keep in mind that just because you submit an experience, it does not mean that I will automatically use it. 

I am just trying to use this as 

1. A way to interact with my readers/viewers

and

2. A way to challenge my own writing

When submitting your experience, please include the words Anonymous Submission in the Subject line.

So without further ado

My e-mail address is: crystal.k.18@gmail.com

Follow Me

When your lost and alone

When your world turns to stone

Just follow me down to the sea

Away from the world's insanity

When it comes in the night

When you've no strength to fight

Just follow me to nature's bed

Where you may rest your weary head

When your outside of the crowd

When your feeling close to the ground

Just follow me to the mountains peak

Where you will feel anything but weak

When the pressure is too much to bare

When you've had more than your fair share

Just follow me to gaze at the stars

Far from all your earthly scars

When you feel yourself bend

When it's all come to an end

Just follow me to heavens gates

Where eternal love and peace awaits

Photo Credit goes to pinterest 

How To Organize Your Novel's Outline

Trying to organize your plot points, world building, and character development can be pretty tough when writing your first novel. So today I want to share with you all the way I have finally found that works for me. It's kind of an old school method to be honest, but I find that if I use my computer or any other device as my novel planning platform, then my novel isn't "in my face" as much as I need it to be to continue coming up with ideas and stay committed to my story long enough to write it.

Well, here is my secret weapon below

That's right, its a pin board. You would be surprised how much a simple pin board and some sticky notes have helped me so far. On my left hand side of the board I have my gods and goddesses; what they represent, what they look like, what their story is, etc. In the middle of the board I have my first 4 books of the series and their major plot points. Finally on the right hand side is my world building and character development section.

Now obviously as you start adding more ideas to your pin board, it will start to look more like the picture above. Once you fill up the board, I would advise typing all of the ideas that you are completed with out, and keeping the ones you are still adding to or developing on the board.  

This method may not be for everyone, but for someone like me it has truly helped.

 Keep the board in  the room you spend the most time in at home so you can easily add ideas as they come to you (or in some instances pull ideas from the board because you thought of better ones). There may even come a time when you just pull the board off the wall and end up bringing it from room to room with you while you clean, get ready, watch tv, etc.  

I hope this helps some of you to be able to break out of any writers block or even to just think outside of the box more with the way you plan out your novel, short story, or hey maybe even a movie script, (or whatever it is your trying to accomplish).

If you would like to look at more writing tips, check out the links below:

20 Writing Tips from Fiction Authors

David Farland-Story Doctor

Photo Credits

Image 1- Deposit Photos link below

Deposit Photos Website

Image 2- Seasoned & Agile (blog link below)

Seasoned & Agile

Game Of Thrones Theories

With only three days left before the new season comes out, let's take a moment to look at some of the major theories circulating about what is to come in season 7 and season 8 of Game of Thrones.

We will start with my favorite character in the show Daenerys Targaryan (Khaleesi), the unburnt, the mother of dragons, breaker of chains.

First off, we know from the end of last season that she is going to be looking to forge an alliance through marriage. However, it is unlikely that she will actually get married in the upcoming season. Their are really only two eligible bachelors for her to choose from at the moment;

Jaime Lannister (who Cersei would never permit to marry Daenerys)

and

Jon Snow.

Another thing we know from last season, is that the Queen of thorns (Olenna Tyrell) has the  

ability to cut supplies to King's Landing off; and now, with her family being dead she will surely seek her revenge for there is nothing to hold her back from doing so. By starving the people of King's Landing she can weaken them enough for Daenerys to come and make an attack (the battle hinted at in the trailer for season 7).

Now, let's move on to Tyrion Lannister. Should we even be calling him that? Many believe he is actually a Targaryan. Here are the clues used to come to that conclusion. Like Jon snow, Tyrion was always an outcast in his family; maybe that is why they formed a small bond in their few but meaningful interactions (or was it because they are actually blood?).  Tyrion also has the same hair color as Targaryans. Tywin Lannister's last words to Tyrion were that he was no son of his. Was this just another attempt to shame Tyrion? Or did he know that Tyrion wasn't his son? Let us not forget that The Mad King, Aegis Targaryan was completely infatuated with Joanna Lannister (Tywin's wife).

If Tyrion truly is a Targaryan, then this would provide an answer to another theory, that Jaime Lannister can be the only brother of Cersei's to fulfill the final part of the prophecy given to her as a young girl. (Jaime will be the one to kill her.)

There is also a theory going around that Syrio Forel is still alive and that he is one of the faceless men. As we know from the first season, Syrio is from Bravos just like the faceless men; however, as much as I wish this theory to be true, I highly doubt that we will see Syrio again.    

Lastly, my favorite theory, Bran is actually the Knight King. The three eyed raven told Bran, "You will never walk again, but you will fly." Many believe that this means he will learn to fly through time. We have already seen him begin to travel to the past and in these moments he has proven to not just be a spectator to the events taking place. Examples: For a moment, the younger Hodor saw him, his father heard him, and the Knight King not only saw him, but also grabbed his arm.

So essentially the theory goes like this, Bran could be the other Brandon Stark from all of the stories nans tells him, he is the voices the Mad King hears telling him to burn all the white walkers, and he is Bran the builder (the builder of winterfell and the wall). The theory ends with Bran eventually going back in time to when the children of the forest create the Knight King so he can try to stop them. But he will have forgotten something important about that time period; the children of the forest were at war with the first men. Because of this, when they see him they wont recognize him and will decide to use him to create the Knight King. Though, if this theory is correct, then Bran will have to be killed by none other than his brother Jon Snow.

I hope you all enjoyed these theories. Below is a couple of links that will take you to the trailer for season 7 and a couple of videos that talk about more Game of Thrones theories.

 Season 7 Trailer

Game Of Thrones Theories

White Walker King Theory

Photo Credits

Image 1-Wallpaper Cave

Images 2, 4, & 6-Game of Thrones Wiki Fandom Page

Image 3-The Daily Beast

Image 5-The Comic Vine 

Naming your Gods and Goddesses for your World

Naming a character for your book can feel a lot like coming up with a name for your child. The pressure to name them appropriately can feel slightly overwhelming, especially if you are working on your first novel like I am. 

Well the other night I spent hours (no I'm not kidding) coming up with completely unique names for the 5 gods and goddesses of the world my series will take place in. If any of you are like me, and are completely unsatisfied with using names that already exist in other books, shows, mythology, etc. I want to share the process of how I came up with these 5 names.

I took the characteristics of my gods and goddesses and found names from all corners of the world that resonated with these characteristics and then I would find a fun way to combine them into one name.

Example: For my god of strength and wisdom i combined two names

Kenzo- a Japanese name for strength and health

and 

Kenzie- a unisex Scottish name meaning, "wise leader"

When I combined them together I ended up with the name Kenzio.

But let's be honest, that was an easy one to come up with. 

Now for one of the more difficult/creative ones.

The goddess of wind, water, and light.

I combined three names for this one.

Ziv- hebrew for the radiance or light of God

Aysu- turkish, meaning moon water

Aura- latin, meaning air, breeze, and wind

When combined together, I created Zivaysra.

You will notice with this one that it all came down to a play with the sounds in the three names that best suited each other. 

In total my 5 gods and goddesses came out looking like this:

Vulricus (vul-reek-us)- the god of power, fire, and darkness.

Ishvenkosh (the first h is silent, pronounced ees-ven-kosh)- the goddess of creation

Kenzio (ken-zee-o)- the god of strength and wisdom

Keshoria (kae-shore-ee-uh)- the goddess of death, life, and time

Zivaysra (ziv-ace-sruh)- the goddess of wind, water, and light

Obviously when combined, not all these names make sense in our world, but that is perfectly okay, because at the end of the day they are only supposed to make sense in the world I am creating.

Photo credit goes to the tumblr blog beautiful-minds-alike

She also has a list of gods and goddesses in the post this picture is included in, so for those of you who are interested, the link to that page is below

http://tinyical.com/18So

The Cry For War

We humans can never ignore the cry for war

Always caused by greed, power, and land on some other shore

Never ceasing to be fought by a countries endless supply of the poor

Though who cares, as long as we get what we came for

The ones who are left in the end to cry are always our mothers

So many of our young who will never experience having lovers

Too soon does society forget all our fallen brothers

Forever ignoring the warnings of our war seasoned fathers

Does the history of the world teach us nothing at all

Other than the glory that comes in an army that stands tall

Just remember every empire eventually reaches it's downfall

No matter how high they try to build their fortresses wall

Alas, these words will still fall prey on deaf ears

For those at the top will continue to play on our fears

By giving purpose behind all of our bloodstained tears

Perhaps we will finally learn the truth in future years

Photo credit goes to the website Gold is Money

link to the exact page below

http://www.goldismoney2.com/threads/us-nearly-detonated-atomic-bomb-over-north-carolina-%E2%80%93-secret-document.52496/

For anyone who is looking for an anti-war website, the link below will take you to the mission page of one
http://tinyical.com/16nB

Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge-Who Moved My Cheese?

Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson is truly worth taking the time to read.

It's an extremely short book, which will only take around an hour for you to finish, but the information inside the book will last a lifetime. After reading it I immediately recommended it to a few people with the short description of, "It's essentially a self-help book disguised as a short story."

I know, I know, your thinking to yourself that the last thing you want to read is a self-help book, but I promise you it will make you crack a numerous amount of smiles as you make your way through the pages. There may even be moments where you will laugh at yourself as you see how you have acted like certain characters in the story.

There are a total of four characters in the story and each of them represents a different way that we react to changes in life. With each character we see the little things we do that prohibit our ability to cope with change and adapt to it. The change in the book can represent any type of change in your life; financial, professional, relationships, etc.

Who Moved My Cheese? was truly unlike any other book I've ever encountered and I strongly recommend reading it and passing it along to others to benefit from.

For those of you who are looking for the complete list of books in the challenge, click the link below

http://tinyical.com/17PJ

Image 1 photo credit goes to buzzfeed

Image 2 photo credit goes to Google Books

Just a Quick Thank You To All Of My Readers

As someone who has always wanted to reach people through writing, I never actually expected my blog to reach as far as it has. I was genuinely surprised when I checked my stats and saw that I had people viewing my blog from another country across the seas. Now, having been viewed in 5 countries total, I am almost exploding with excitement.
To all of my friends and family that are helping by sharing my posts, I want to thank you for the dedication and love you are showing me.
To all of my viewers in other countries, I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to read my short stories, thoughts/views, and poems.
You all are truly motivating me in more ways than you know. Not only have I been blogging more frequently than I ever have in the past; I am also putting more time and effort into trying to finish an outline for a book series that my husband and I came up with. I will give little sneak peaks from time to time for those who are interested, and I will also do a few posts here and there as to how I went about with character development, creating the world the books will take place in, etc.
Again, thank you to all my viewers. If you like my blog hit that follow button, or even if you just like a single post, please don't forget to hit the like button and share.

Photo credit goes to none other than me, myself, and I. 

Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge-Gone With The Wind

About a year ago I started the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge. For those of you who have never heard of it; its a challenge to read 339 books that were all referenced in the popular show, The Gilmore Girls. This show was one of my favorites growing up. It was where I learned to have a healthy amount of sarcasm, humor, and even where I got the name I later gave to my daughter Loralai. 

Friends and family all pitched in together and helped to obtain a good chunk of the books I would need in order to start making my way through this long list of books. There are quite a few I had already read on the list, but me always loving a good challenge decided I would even re-read the books I should already be able to cross off the list. (Silly me right?) I have a healthy appetite for reading, but being a mother and a wife, I don't have the same amount of time to devote to reading as I did in my youth. 

Well anyways, the first time I read Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell I was in my mid teens and it quickly became one of my favorite books even though I didn't pick it back up again until a short time ago. As I made my way through the almost 1,000 page book I realized how much had skipped my notice the first time I read it. This book truly is a masterpiece and anyone who views it as only a love story is just kidding themselves. There are so many times where Margaret took the time to paint a picture for her readers about how hard life was in the South during the civil war and reconstruction. There are so many times where I put the book down and looked up at my husband and asked him if certain things that were taking place in the story had actually taken place in real life. Things that we hadn't even learned about in our American History classes all through K-12. 

When I was done reading this beautifully written novel, I decided that I would take the time to watch the almost 4 hour long movie I had heard praised throughout my life. Unfortunately, I was to be extremely disappointed. I expected the movie to leave out many of the smaller details, because let's be honest, a movie never does the book proper justice. But this was just too much to bear. So many things happened too quickly in the movie, the timeline was utterly wrong in some areas, and even two of Scarlet's children were left out of the movie. Though even all of this I could have looked the other way on if they hadn't completely ruined one of my favorite characters in the book. Rhett Butler was not made out to be the scoundrel, the scallywag, the complete ungentlemenlike man that he was in the book. They never showed how much the town/society truly hated him, despised him, but yet had to endure him because of the times that he helped them out. It completely ruined the movie for me and therefore I will never recommend anyone watch it if they truly love the book.

The link below will take you to the complete list of books in the challenge
http://tinyical.com/17SR

Image 1 credit goes to buzzfeed

Image 2 credit goes to Goodreads

Image 3 credit goes to IMDb

Two Stories, One Legend

On the side of the tracks we sit quietly

For this is the path we will take to be free

The love that we share came so unexpectedly

Though there is no denying it will last an eternity

Together we will fight side by side

Two joined together to form a single mind

Facing each problem with unrelenting stride

Our destination shall not be denied

The journey is long and filled with many trials

We will face some with tears and others with smiles

Never stopping until we have earned our desired titles

Along the way removing every one of our rivals

When we finally reach the end of our road

We will be legends in stories others long to behold

Photo Credit goes to Blue Eyed Lass Photography at Weebly.com

Below is a link to her page

http://blueeyedlassphotography.weebly.com/about-me---contact-me.html