Hi! It's firefly114, author from inkpop and fictionpress and owner of the Fire Me Up website! I'm also Mischief1Managed on fanfiction.net and Amortentia Black on mugglenet. Here's my blog, for rambles and updates. If you have any requests (and I love requests) of things you want me to give my opinion on, or questions to answer, shoot me an email at laurel.firemeup@gmail.com or ask on my formspring widget on the lower right side.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Hipsterama

Currently listening to: O Valencia! by The Decemberists




Hey guys! As I mentioned before, things in my life have become a little... hipster. Maybe it's me being tired of everyone always being, looking, and acting the same, maybe it's me being bored with life, or maybe it's just the influence of my boyfriend (who can be seen walking the streets in skinny jeans and a pulled back beanie)... who knows. Anyway, it's been quite fun. I'm not actually a hipster, but things have been leaning that way. The other day, I was in class and I get a text from my friend who was hanging out in my dorm asking what the heck I was doing with an anthology of British Literature... there I am for you! I've been rereading some of my favorites. 


One of my all-time favorite poems is The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot. There are so many parts of the poem that I love, but I'm always a sucker for descriptive words (especially about nature) that flow off the tongue... like the first part of the stanza. I love it. 



April is the cruellest month, breeding 
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing 
Memory and desire, stirring 
Dull roots with spring rain.



When I write, sometimes I find myself rushing the action. I try to remember that it's important to slow down and write descriptions that will paint just the right amount of a picture for readers. If I notice myself skipping through the descriptions, I try to take a break and come back to my writing when there's less pressure to finish quickly and when I'm more relaxed--that way I give myself more time to think of just the right wording for my descriptions: alliteration, personification, similes and metaphors can all work together to make a great descriptive passage. 


Some Cool Links: 
The best way to write an essay: Written Kitten
What I wore today... on my polyvore!
Indie Rock Cafe: lots of free downloads here!
Weird writing habits of famous authors
Best closing lines of books




Updates: I've been in contact with my betas and I started working on my stories again! Well, mainly my Harry Potter prequel series. Yay! I am working on posting the new prologue on my blog, so click on the "Harry Potter" tab and find the prologue link! 

Monday, November 28, 2011

The End of the Challenge


Remember that Harry Potter challenge I started a while ago? Yeah, well I was going through my files looking for my outlines, ready to start working again (YAY!) and I found the rest of it! So here it is. What do you think? Do you agree? Disagree? 

 Day 11: What character would you say you are most like? I'm a lot like Ginny. I stand up for what I  believe in and have a hot temper. And I fall in love with Harry... just kidding
Day 12: Favourite relationship/friendship: the Marauders. It says in POA that they would die for each other. Enough said. 
Day 13: Least favourite movie: HBP skipped so much. Not a fan. 
Day 14: Team Voldemort or Team Harry Harry... obviously. 
Day 15: Who would be your best friends at Hogwarts. (three only) Trio-era: Harry, Ron and Hermione obviously and Marauder era: James, Sirius, and Dorcas (yeah in my world...) Anyway, I got sorted in Pottermore and I was a Gryffindor...
Day 16: Favourite professor McGonagall-I love how she changes throughout the books and shows her true colors as time wears on. She isn't just a strict teacher by book 7. 
Day 17: Are you excited about The Deathly Hallows movie or scared it won’t do the book justice? it didn't do it justice, but the experience of dressing up and going to the premiere was uneabatable
Day 18: Least favourite book 7 because it was the last. I love all of them for their own reasons
Day 19: Do you prefer the books or films? Books. There is nothing like a book to distract you and these books have been through so much with me.
Day 20: If you had to meet one member of the cast, who would it be? I already met Rupert Grint. Tom Felton next plz. or Emma Watson because I love her style.
Day 21: Out of all the characters that died, if you could bring one back, who would it be? Sirius. He made Harry truly happy without changing who he was (i.e. an orphan).
Day 22: Harry Potter or Twilight HP srsly?
Day 23: Any part of the books/movies that makes you cry? All of the memory scenes. And when Sirius died. And the end of 7
Day 24: Any particular scene you wished would have been put in the movie but it wasn’t? The whole Lupin/Tonks/Teddy and Harry being the godfather storyline. It's like passing the torch. I also wanted to see more of the Prince's Tale.
Day 25: Nineteen years later. Are you happy how it turned out, or do you wish something was different? Angelina? Srsly? Marry your dead boyfriend's twin?
Day 26: If you could be able to work one spell without a wand what would it be? Wingardium Leviosa, it would be hilarious. Doing one spell without a wand is not useful because if you get into a fight you only have that one spell!
Day 27: Would you rather own The Invisibility Cloak, The Resurrection Stone or The Elder Wand? invisibility cloak, and not just because it's the smart option
Day 28: Do you listen to Wizard Wrock, what do you think about it? I have a Harry and the Potters album. It's funny but I don't listen to it often.
Day 29: Did you enjoy A Very Potter Musical? YES. It's on my iPod! To witches and wizards and magical bests, to goblins and ghosts and magical feats! It's all that I love and all that I need at Hogwarts!  (gotta get back to schoooool!)
Day 30: What effect has Harry Potter made on your life and how much does it mean to you? It got me to start reading. It got me to love storytelling and writing. It inspired me to write my own stories, because if she could, I can. But not only that, there are characters who have inspired me. 
Gryffindors are "brave at heart," have "daring, nerve, and chivalry." That's something I strive for every day. 

UPDATES:
- Just finished reading the complete works of Emily Dickinson and Christina Rossetti!
- Starting to get out my fanfic outlines again to work on. YAY! Words of encouragement would be appreciated, I'm using up my free time to do this! I want to know if people want it!
- Still in Israel, still studying abroad, still busy as a bee...
- I noticed that I've started to become considerably more hipster. The music I've been listening to (Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear, Neutral Milk Hotel...) the clothes I've been wearing (chunky sweaters and combat boots) and... yeah... well, that's about it... 

Great. I had two hours of time alone in my dorm after class today and I was going to use it to write... just used it to shower, go through all my files again and blog. Let me know if you're reading this, I want to know if people will be here for me while I write! 

Sunday, November 27, 2011

!What's up-- from Jerusalem


Hi everyone! Someone recently asked me a question on my formspring and it made me realize that you all deserve an update and an explanation for my extended absence. Normally if someone leaves the fiction/fanfic community for longer than a few weeks, you assume that they dropped the project, got too busy, and/or are probably not returning any time soon. Just wanted to let you all know that THIS IS NOT TRUE! I'll be back for sure in February. 

"Here's how I responded to the sad question "where are you
I'm glad someone noticed I was gone! But don't worry... I haven't gone too far! I'm studying abroad in Israel and this semester is my university semester. It took me a while to settle in and then we didn't have internet in our dorms so it was impossible for me to keep up with everything on here (my stories, blog, and email.) The semester ends at the end of December. In January I have ambulance training (I'm working on an ambulance the second half of the year!) and then I'm going to Czech Republic for two weeks and then I have a bit of army training. (I'm not going into the army but everyone here is drafted into the army at age 18 so this is a program for international students to experience what they go through--feel free to ask me more about it if you're interested!) And then after that my life finally settles down and I move to a tiny development town in the desert to do volunteering. Everyone who has done this program before says that we have a lot of free time during that part of the year so I know I'll resume work on my stories then. Keep in contact, though, because I'll be working on everything intermittently before then!

Feel free to comment, email me at laurel.firemeup@gmail.com or contact me in any other way if you have any questions about my projects, progress, or even my life abroad! I'll be happy to share! Also, sorry about the weird punctuation on here... blogger is all in Hebrew now and that's written left to right so the punctuation gets all messed up. 

שלום ולהתראות
Shalom v'lhitraot! (bye and see/talk to you soon!
xoxo,
Laurel


Tuesday, October 25, 2011

A Quick Update!

Hi Everyone! I just wanted to apologize quickly for the lack of updates. I recently moved to Israel for a year before college and life has been extremely hectic. I'm taking classes and living in dorms and there is basically no internet in my dorm. ( I have a rare free hour at school right now.) Anyway, I'm still alive and writing! Well, I'm not writing too much right now, but my ideas are still flowing. Most of my projects will be on hold until January or February, where I move to a smaller town and begin volunteering. Everyone who has done this program in the past says that the pace of life gets a LOT slower during the second semester and people spend a lot of time reading and catching up on TV shows. What am I going to do? Write, of course! So keep me on your watchlist, I'm not stopping my writing!

Updates on my specific projects:
Meridian:As I planned, I will probably resume work in a few months. I'm still at a loss for ideas, but my brainstorming for other stories has helped.
Harry Potter Prequels: Also still going, don't worry! I just don't really have internet access to communicate with my beta readers, and I spend a lot of my free time that I used to use for writing exploring the city I live in and hanging out with friends and such. But don't worry. I got so far on that project and it still really excites me, so I'm still working! Feel free to ask me any questions if you have them.

(ps... it took me the longest time to figure out how to use blogspot here! The entire website is in Hebrew, which is why the formatting looks so weird.)

I'll update you all soon, when I start working again. They said they are going to be fixing the internet in my dorm building within the next week or two. I anticipate that I will begin writing a  bit again once that happens, because there are a few afternoons where I don't have class and my roommates do, so I have the room to myself and nothing really to do. So hopefully I'll be able to be productive again, because I really miss my stories! If you have any questions about anything at all, please ask me! Ask on here, on my formspring, on my email... whatever.

Until next time!
Laurel

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Hunger Games, Dinner Club, and Earthquakes

Currently listening to:

Many interesting things have happened in the past few days. I've heard a lot about the book Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and have been meaning to read it for a while.

I found it sitting on the kitchen table--my younger brother had bought it the other day--so I stole it for the night and decided to finish it in one sitting. Admittedly, I fell asleep on it after an hour or two, but I finished it the next day. 

I definitely loved the book. The writing style took a bit to get used to, as it was all written in present tense and the sentences were a bit choppy. Overall, the effect was certainly unique and definitely made us feel like we were inside Katniss's head. At some points the writing seemed too simple and minimalist; I wanted more emotion.  Sometimes it seemed that Katniss was thinking about the wrong things--love when it should have been her family, family when it should have been love. It picked up about halfway through the second book, though. The dialogue was sharp and clever, the characters were full, and the narrator had a strong voice. She stated startling blunt truths, and the writing showed a lot of insight into the human condition. The book ended with a few twists (I'm not about to give them away), which I thought were at first extremely predictable, but I was satisfied with the way they turned out and led into the sequel. This afternoon I went out and bought the sequel, Catching Fire. So far so good, I'm two thirds of the way through. Love triangles usually make me angry, and this one is no exception. I'm a Gale person myself. He knows how to fend for himself, he knows where his priorities lie, and he has never changed. His anger is understandable. And I'm a firm believer that, in order to have a successful relationship, the two must be able to sustain a friendship first. Otherwise, there's nothing but PDA, and when you strip away that, there's not much left. The closer the friendship, the stronger the potential of the relationship, and Katniss and Gale were as close as you could be. So we'll see how that ends up. (And yeah, maybe I just have a thing for brooding dark-haired boys.) All in all, I really like the political basis of this book, and I'm no revolutionary, but I think it rings true in some ways in our country. I'll let you all know when I finish the book. 

It was funny, just as I came to the part about the tracker jackers, a HUGE wasp flew into my room! I relocated to outside to finish the rest. And about halfway through the book, an earthquake hit. Now let me tell you, I live on the East Coast, and earthquakes are basically unheard of. So when I was home alone (of course) and my entire house began to shake, at first I thought it was the garage opening. But no, it kept on going. My next thought was that it was a tornado, so I ran to the shelter. But no. It was an earthquake! We spent the rest of the day waiting for the aftershock that never happened, but they say it can take up to a week. 

All of my friends have either left for college or are this week. I'm one of the last to leave, and it's weird watching all my friends move away one by one, literally dropping like flies. My week has been filled with meeting friends for ice cream or dinner before they go off. Two nights ago we had our last Dinner Club. While we were at school, a few of my friends and I decided that we would form a sort of club, and every month or so we'd all get together at someone's house, cook dinner for each other, share gossip, and watch movies. We were all from completely different social crowds, but we all became friends in Calc class. Under different circumstances, you'd never normally see a group of people like us together. Let me just explain who these people are, so you get the full dynamic. There's Collin, the gay indie filmmaker. He wears skinny jeans and plaid scarves, is attached to his iphone, and knows all the ins and outs of the school gossip. There's Noah, the lax bro, who always wears Sperrys, pastel-colored shorts and a lacrosse t-shirt, and always has some funny news about the athletic crowd. The other boy is Jack, the clumsy one who trips over chairs and sometimes falls off them, knows nothing about fashion but works at a clothes store, and is a genius but you'd never know it. The girls consist of Ella, the artsy painter who usually wears huge tortoise-shell glasses and something handmade,  Ava, the singer and fairy princess who is the most whimsical girl I know and probably my closest friend at school, and myself, Laurel, who is just... me. I play some sports, I write and draw, I dress almost exclusively in Free People clothing, I can be snappy and intensely loyal, and people find me pretty hard to categorize. All in all, we're an eclectic, yet very fun bunch. I'll miss them. 

Updates: I'm taking a year abroad before college this year and I leave on Monday. SO much packing to do! I probably won't be physically writing much while I'm gone, but my goal is to finish the outlines for Meridian and my Harry Potter fanfic (I've finished the outline for the first book, now on to the following three!) So I'll keep you all updated on my progress. If there's anything you want to know about... anything, please ask! I never know what to write about in my posts. 

HP Challenge
Day 6: What house would you want to be in? Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart! Every time I take a quiz, that's where I end up. And people tell me I'm intensely loyal to my friends and not afraid to speak my mind. 
Day 7: Favourite female character: Hermione grows up so much, and she overcomes her greatest obstacle: herself. That's very honorable and probably the most difficult thing to do. 
Day 8: What would be your favourite lesson? Transfiguration or Charms. I see myself as someone who would be good at those. Transfiguration is more calculating, Charms is more about effect. 
Day 9: Least favourite male character: Peter Pettigrew. I have no room for a traitor.
Day 10: Horcruxes or Hallows? They're no good, destroy them both. Keep the Cloak, maybe. 


Tuesday, August 16, 2011

William Blake and Other Assorted Novelties

Currently listening to:
Barrel of a Gun by Guster




New things!

  •  I don't know how you could not notice, but I've got an awesome new layout! A huge improvement on the last one, don't you think? It really fits with the silverware theme. (A very odd theme if you ask me, but I like it.) I'm still working on the design of the blog and the widgets and such, so if you have any suggestions, let me know!
  • Another exciting new addition is the c-box. It's located on the right-hand side, under the post archive. You should still comment on my posts (hint, hint) but the c-box lets you talk directly to me and gives me a chance to respond! It's only a live chat if we're on at the same time, but it's a great way to ask me questions, give me suggestions, or just stop by and say hi! I'll love you forever if you write in it. 
  • I've figured out a way to upload Word documents as a PDF so you can see some of my works in progress before I post. The first one I did is for my Harry Potter prequel fanfic. It's located under the "Harry Potter" tab, and you can see the rough prologue I wrote. Next, I'll probably be uploading a short story I wrote last spring entitled "Devil's Beach" as part of a collection of stories. 
I had jaw surgery last week and I was starting to recover, but I stopped being able to open my mouth more than an inch or so, and the after-surgery swelling never went down, so I have to go back in for a second surgery tomorrow morning. Joy. 

I couldn't really do much this week, so I sat with my big anthology of British poetry and read the entire thing cover to cover. I love William Blake, and I've read Auguries of Innocence before, but the first stanza struck me even more when I read it this time. 

To see a world in a grain of sand
And heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

The poem just has such a serene feel to it. If you read it when you're agitated--the whole thing, not just the first stanza--it helps you calm down and accept whatever it is. I first read the poem in British Lit class in high school. It was a whole class devoted to British Literature, and I was in heaven! Well, admittedly, my mother forced me to take the class to get some "real" literature and I was less than happy about it, but my teacher was great and he had a way of getting everyone interested in even the most boring writings. He didn't care if we turned stuff in late, as long as we did it eventually, we never had any tests or quizzes, and we would just have whole-class discussions about our interpretations of the readings. I always imagine his voice reading this poem--it had a slow, low, soothing quality to it. The first stanza is all about seeing the world in different ways--through something tiny, something living (which is also a symbol for love), and to see time as something either ever-expanding or  with a limit.

Anyway, enough of that. I found this wonderful Harry Potter 30 Day Challenge, courtesy of Scandalacious Intentions. It looked like fun, but instead of doing full posts about every question, I'm going to do short answers and post five days' worth of questions for each blog post I write. 

Day 1: Your favourite book: Order of the Phoenix or Goblet of Fire. OOTP because of the places that book has been with me--Italy, camp, Wyoming... and GoF because it's the only book where I felt Harry was truly happy. 
Day 2: Your favourite movie: Prizoner of Azkaban, but only because of the cinematography.
Day 3: Is there any of the films adaptations that have made you angry because they’ve ignored important parts of the book? Deathly Hallows Part 2. It left out so much. I posted about it right after the premiere.
Day 4: Least favourite female character? Ginny, because I feel like she wasn't developed enough as a character. JKR started to, but stopped after the second book. She had the possibility to be a really deep, interesting character.
Day 5: Favourite male character? Sirius Black. He's such a complicated character--a case of arrested development, fiercely loyal to the point where he knows he would die for his friends, yet rash enough to risk everything







Updates:

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Apps Galore!

Currently listening to:
FA FA by GUSTER


It's been a while! I've had a really eventful week--jetskiing, tubing, and a Guster/Jack's Mannequin concert! And yesterday morning I had jaw surgery! Yesterday was sort of miserable and I really can't eat anything, which is horrible. I've been having this gross rice-in-water combination and Advil liqui-gels along with my mega-painkillers. Good thing my brothers are away, they'd make fun of me forever. But I woke up this morning feeling a lot better (after the 5 hours it took me to finally get to sleep) and I'm just really sore now. It feels like I have a migraine in my mouth. But I went out shopping with my mom this morning and hung out with some friends tonight (I couldn't talk), so I guess you can say I'm improving! 


I'm going to devote this post to my favorite iPhone/iPod apps!


1) Words With Friends. Of course. What's better than playing live Scrabble against your friends?

2) iMailG is a handy little app for Gmail users. Even though iPhones and iPods come with built-in email, this app has all the features of Gmail, including threaded messages, Google+, docs, calendar...


3) Evernote. It's the same as the website, and you can even sync your accounts. It's really handy for writing, school, just about anything! Evernote lets you record and organize your thoughts in any manner imaginable--lists, pictures, videos, voice memos, anything!


4) iHeartRadio. Listen to hundreds of radio stations from cities all across the country. 


5) Kindle, self-explanatory. I don't use normal kindle, but some free stuff is always good to read when you're waiting somewhere. 


6) Songify. It's just really fun. Speak into the microphone and your words will come out autotuned!


7) Flood-It! 2 is quite possibly the most ridiculously addicting game ever. The goal is to flood the screen all one color by starting with the block in the left-hand corner and changing the selected blocks to the color of a touching block. It makes a lot more sense on screen.


8) Helsing's Fire Lite is a new find and I already love it. "When the implacable Professor Helsing and his assistant Raffton travel to The Shadow Blight, they'll need every weapon at their disposal to defeat Dracula's vampire horde. In this captivating, dark Gothic puzzle-adventure, use Dr. Helsing's powerful torch and tonics to save the world from the demonic uprising!" It's a lot of fun and the graphics are great!


Updates: Still working on Meridian and my Harry Potter prequel! You guys will be the first to know when I post anything. Also, check my project tabs above, because I've changed stuff! Feel free to comment!


-Laurel

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Death in Notebook Form

Currently listening to:
Happy by Fischerspooner


I still have to load my photos from Europe, so here are some newly edited, both old and new photos. 

We grow purple cabbages. 
summer 2011


A column in the Roman Forum, Jerusalem
summer 2010

 Gateway to the West, St. Louis, Missouri.
spring 2009

In the writing world, I'm still toiling away on the outline for Meridian. Between that, taking college classes (which are death in notebook form), and preparing to have jaw surgery in two weeks, I haven't had much time for anything else.  What little free time I have is going into a new interest, fanfiction. (Look at the pretty tab up there!) I've battled with the ups and downs of writing fanfics, but seeing as I'm still outlining Meridian and not writing yet, I wanted to do a little writing, and it's just a creative outlet that doesn't take up too much of my time or energy--I need all of it for class! So I've decided to write a full-length prequel to the Harry Potter books, which will answer a lot of questions and feature our favorite Marauders. It won't be one of those silly who-dates-who and 'prank wars' fics, it's actually going to have a plot. They're in the middle of a war, for goodness sake! And the Marauders aren't going to be the usual self-absorbed inflated-ego pranksters we usually see in fanfics. Well, sometimes it happens, but there's always a reason for everything. The characters are human, after all. The working title is "Brave at Heart" so please, email me or message me if you want to hear more!
I also just finished a short story for a challenge. It's here, and if you're interested, I'd love it if you took a look and left a comment:
Our Heads Could Do With Filling by Mischief1Managed
SUMMARY: In which Harry asks for girl advice and Sirius has just the story from his years at Hogwarts. "Mate, I always thought she rather fancied you but..." he shook his head. "Now I reckon she just likes to make your life difficult!" Who knew that the Marauders had been putting on such a good show? 
(for more info, check the 'fanfic' tab above)




Hautelinks for a Never-Ending Good Time


25 Hilarious Date IdeasI highly suggest numbers 1,3,6,7, and 16. I could see myself doing all of those things. My friends agree.


Best 100 Opening Lines from BooksStuck with your opening? How about taking a leaf out of the book of one of the Greats? (literally)


Rock Stars Who Look Like WizardsJustin Bieber? David Bowie? Lady Gaga... with wands?


Emotional Bag CheckCheck your emotional baggage or carry someone else's! I actually had a lot of fun with this one. 


Why I'm Glad I'm Not A CelebritySo true. I was on a kids' TV show when I was younger. I've always sort of regretted not continuing with it, but I certainly don't anymore. 


Harry Potter Scandals
Favorite headline: 'Daniel Radcliffe's Sex Life.'
Second favorite: 'Harry Becomes a Dwarf.'
Third favorite: 'The Right to Read.' Actually some interesting legal stuff here for authors. 









Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Save Me, San Francisco

Currently listening to:
Save Me San Francisco by Train



Look at those tabs up there! New, shiny tabs! That's right, you can get the latest info on my stories there! Anything from trailers, character pictures, fanart, previews, and sequel info! Go ahead, check it out. And leave me a comment! 


If I could wish upon a star, I would hitch a cable car...
As you may have guessed, this post might have something to do with San Francisco. I have a bunch of friends who live in that area so I go out to visit sometimes. Last time I was there I brought my good camera! I've got a Nikon D-70 which is a right pain to lug around. It's my first photography post, so let me know what I can do to improve!


Bryce Canyon, Utah. The. Coolest.
Place. Ever. 
Yosemite, Californ



Yosemite. How
cool is the sky?


The crazy streets of San Francisco.
The tree is crawling! 








Saturday, July 16, 2011

Harry Potter Gets Drunk on Butterbeer and Pulls and All-Nighter Writing Hundreds of Fanfictions

Currently listening to:
Sons and Daughters by The Decemberists



I promise this is the last Harry Potter post for a while!


The big event of the weekend was, obviously, the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. The experience itself was absolutely amazing--my friends and I dressed up, waited outside the theater for hours (we were second in line!) and acted like total dorks, quoting lines from the books and discussing various plots. At random times during the night I started spouting various tiny bits of trivia that is embarrassing that I even know (for instance, that Hermione's original name was Hermione Puckle, and the creature that sits in Lupin's office the first time he meets with Harry is a grindylow.) One of my friends is literally a carbon copy of Tom Felton and he, of course, was dressed up as Draco. I was Hermione because people tell me I do look a bit like Emma Watson (only I just got really tan on vacation so that took away from it), another friend did a very good Bellatrix, and we had a Luna and a Sirius. Hoards of obsessed fangirls wanted pictures with us because our costumes were so good! Here's what I wore: Click here for a link to the polyvore! It took a lot of preparation.


The movie itself needed a bit of work. I had some issues. Here are a few: (SPOILER ALERTS! IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW, SKIP THIS UNTIL I SAY IT'S OKAY!)


  • One of my favorite things about the books is the scope of the story. As an author, I love the world Rowling has created. She also pays great attention to the various characters and their stories. In Deathly Hallows, there are so many stories in the book that were missing from the movie, and they all affected Harry in some way. Lupin and Tonks was a nice story, and the fact that they made Harry the godfather was touching. It was a sort of passing-the-torch of responsibility, and now as Harry is going to save the wizarding world, he is the new "protector" of the next generation. Dumbledore's story was alluded to, but not shown. And I wish they would have done more with Snape/Lily. It was such a huge part of the plot of the series. 
  • I think Harry's last fight with Voldemort should have been in front of everyone like it was in the book. In the book, it was a group effort. In the movie, it was just Harry, and frankly, it was less powerful. 
  • I also think they should have shown Voldemort's body dead on the ground. Without his Horcruxes, he was a human just like the rest of them, and was capable of dying. 
There are many more things I think should have been done differently, and I would love to discuss them with anyone! But I do understand that yes, this is a movie, and no, it's not the book, and you can't have everything. I'm just giving my two cents. 

RESUME READING!

I have also recently started writing Harry Potter fanfiction! You can see my profile here: Mischief1Managed and my first story is Love, Hogwarts. I battled with the pros and cons of writing fanfiction, but I decided that it might help me get over my huge obsession by taking the characters into my own hands. Plus, I'm having trouble with Meridian at the moment, and I hate to be at a point where I'm not writing. So if anyone wants to read it and give me feedback in the form of reviews, I really want to hear what you like and what you don't! I would really appreciate it and I'd love you forever.

I think next post will be some photography from Florence, but don't hold me to it!

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Harry Potter and the Cursed Pencil of Doom

Currently listening to:
Toy Soldiers by Carbon Leaf



Let's just say that drawing is something I really really want to be good at, but don't think I will ever be. First of all, my attention span doesn't last that long. Second, I'm just... not that good at it.
(Sorry for those of you who don't like Harry Potter, these are my most recent doodles.)


The top part is funny. Harry looks
insane on the bottom. 
Floppy-haired, pointy-chinned Ron





Sirius looking quite a bit like a dog
 
At least he's got some facial structure.
I found some drawings of Malfoy and tried to copy
 to learn how to draw different positions. He looks quite odd here.

Giraffe-Fred and Viktor Krum
Notes on the proper positioning of ears

Ron looks a lot healthier here.





 Sorry about the excessive amount of Harry Potter doodles. Tomorrow I'll post some real stuff. I'm working on the first chapter of my novel, Meridian. If I'm finished that soon, I'll post a preview!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Who Am I?

I thought I'd start off with a bit about myself. Who is that girl behind the keyboard?

Well, I'm just your average girl, armed with a computer. My worst quality is that I'm very ambitious. I see something, and I say "hey, I can do that!" I choose something, and I don't rest until I get good at it. It started with writing, and I've progressed from writing silly short stories to full-out novels. Then, I found a bunch of writing contest sites, so I made my own, with the help of my beta reader! (firemeup.webs.com) After that, it was the graphics sites (mine is desperatehearts.webs.com). But this bad habit of trying so many things stretched outside the realm of the internet. My mother is an artist and I've always wanted to be able to pick up a pencil and just draw anything. In a feeble attempt to make this happen, every day I doodle something in my sketchbook. Most of it is laughable. Right now, I'm an aspiring rockstar--my brother is teaching me to play the electric guitar, and I'm experimenting with song lyrics.

I've experimented with a lot, but I think writing is my true love. I've been writing since I was in sixth grade, I think. The first thing I ever wrote was for a school project. My group was the crew of a boat and had to travel the world, writing diary entries as we went. Mine were so creative that I got extra credit and my teacher told me to make it into a story, so I did! It turned into sort of a journal--anything interesting that happened to me or bugged me turned up in this story. Even guys I liked made an appearance. After finishing two installments, I finally got bored of that story, and let's just say my writing has progressed quite a bit since then. Maybe some day, if you guys want, I'll treat you all to a few excerpts of my early writing. It's pretty funny, actually. My next story came from a dream I had. Two sisters were failing history and were taken to a magical school where, during their lessons, they had to go back in time to ancient civilizations and solve mysteries. That one was pretty funny, too. Finally, after reading Twilight, like most preteen girls, I did something that most didn't. I realized that I could write something better. My next story, Hate Is A Strong Word (available on my fictionpress) shows a few similarities--teen girl goes to live with her dad in a small town and meets a mysterious boy that she just can't figure out. It ended different, with old Native American mythology instead of vampires, but it was still a very early story. Secrets of Andover came next, a boarding school story about the descendents of the witches from the Salem Witch Trials. I wrote a oneshot called Valentine Wars which won the SKoW prompt contest, and a novella All That Glitters, about a family of thieves, which won the A Drop of Romeo contest. Finally, I was able to develop my characters and give the main voice a spunky, funny attitude.
 Now, I'm becoming more ambitious. The current story that I'm working on, Meridian, is a steampunk-era Victorian novel. My goal is for it to be a full novel with many different plots that will tug at your heartstrings. We'll see how that turns out.

Anyway, enough about my writing. I have a big family--I have a younger brother, an older brother, and an older sister. It's hard for everyone to keep track of everyone else, to say the least. When everyone is home, dinner is a crazy affair. My older brother had a band for a while and the loud practices in our garage never did much for my concentration while I was trying to write... especially when I'd get frustrated, go downstairs, and ask if I could join. The answer was always the same: NO!

About the title? Well, my friends tell me I have about the emotional range of a teaspoon. Everyone jokes about the fact that I'm great at keeping a straight face. But I DO have feelings! Don't get me wrong! You'll see on this blog! "Just because you have the emotional range of a teaspoon..." is a quote from Harry Potter, the series to which I dedicate my love of reading, so I thought it was both funny and fitting. It was the first real book I read--in first grade, while other kids were reading Amelia Bedelia or Berenstain Bears, I picked up the first HP book and loved it. From then on, I progressed to reading the Narnia, His Dark Materials, and Lord of the Rings series all before fourth grade. I was quite an accomplished young reader. I've recently become interested in Shakespeare and all sorts of British Literature, but I have HP to thank!

Well, I'll stop rambling for now. Let me know what you want me to write about, I'd love suggestions!

Ciao!
Laurel