Dare to Dream

Fantastic Weekend

2009-08-05T01:27:41Z

This weekend I was at Camp Hollywood, an annual swing dance conference held in LA. It was amazing. Classes all day, then competitions in the afternoon and themed dances at night. I met some amazing people and got to spend a lot of time with the friends I already have. I also learned a lot about the people I know. For instance, a guy I know makes a pretty awesome mojito.

With all of that awesomeness going on there has to be some non-awesomeness to balance that out. In the form of a cold and allergies. Ugh. The weather is alternately hot and dry, and hot and humid. I'm at home and I just inhaled two bowls of steaming hot chicken soup and had a cocktail of orange juice and pomegranate juice. I am currently boiling some water for some lemon-honey tea.

So tell me, what are your cold remedies? What do you eat, what do you do, when you are physically worn down and in bed for a bit?

Long time no see...

2009-07-23T17:40:29Z

I don't use my livejournal. Well, almost never. But because LJ seems to be growing in popularity, I am going to be double posting what I post over at my blog here on my livejournal also.

Today I wanted to talk to you about a very interesting phenomenon happening over at Fiction Press. If you don't know what that is, fictionpress.com is the sister site to fanfiction.net and it is a place where anyone can create an account and post original stories or poems and wahtnot that they have written. The problem is that plagiarism is very easy and the past few months has seen a rise in plagiarism that has been simply astounding. To me, this isn't just random occurence or a response to the current social condition that is causing this dramatic increase in plagiarism. This reeks of organized attack.

The authors that have been hit are among the most prominent authors with stories that have comments well into the upper thousands. Many of these authors have banded together to form a livejournal community over here. Go check it out and please show your support. Plagiarism, whether the material is physically published or just published on the internet for free reading on fictionpress, is still plagiarism. It still hurts for both the authors and the readers- the authors spend so much time and effort writing and it is painful for them to see someone copy and paste it without any credit and claiming it as original work! And the readers are disappointed and upset because then the authors have to remove the stories from a public venue.

Please show your support. Plagiarism in any way, shape, or form is unacceptable and destructive.

-------

On a slightly unrelated note, because this livejournal is going to be sharing posts from my blogger the content is going to vary. Mostly I will do book reviews and talk about literature, but I will also talk a lot about harry potter and horses and whatever else I feel needs to be said. No topic is off limits!

Hmmm...

2008-11-11T22:33:14Z

Okay, so here's the deal. I use blogspot more than I do livejournal. The only reason i have LJ is so that I can comment on peoples LJs so if you want updates on my writing and NaNoWriMo, go here: http://www.horsesandpotter.blogspot.com

Cheers!
C ("FreedomStar")

Flu

2008-02-17T20:20:30Z

I is sick.

Felt horrible wednesday, and not too good on thursday either. I had to miss out on delivering singing valentines with my choir, which I was kinda bummed about. But on Friday, I woke up with the motherload of all headaches and I was hot and cold at the same time, shivery, I hurt all over, amongst other things. So I went to the university health center and was told that I had the flu with a temperature of 103.5. That is something that, apparently, you don't recover from overnight.

No really? *rollseyes*

So I've been taking advil, which has helped with the fever and the body aches a bit, but I think I'm going to finish off the bottle of dayquil I've got here, considering there's probably a dose and a half left in here. So I'm gonna go eat something and then take my meds (always take medicine with food or else you might hurl it back up!) Laters!

ARC Review

2008-01-28T10:02:21Z

Emissaries From the Dead by Adam-Troy Castro

So, it is 1:40 in the morning, Monday. I'm sleepy and exhausted to the point where I don't feel it anymore. And I've just finished reading the above mentioned book. The ARC that I received last week. It took me a lot longer to read it than I thought it would, because of all the school stuff that has been piling up, and the busy weekend I've had. Kind of. But on to the book.

This is one of those all out sci-fis, where from the very first page, the very first sentence, you know you're not in any world that you can identify. And that's because you can't, because you've never been in the world. That's what it was like.

The world that is created is amazing; it is intricately detailed and quite obvious that he put a lot of effort and time into figuring out his world. I found the first chapter a little difficult to get through. I read chapter one, then put it down, did some school work, and then picked it up and read a couple of more chapters. But then that's where it started to get interesting. We get to know our main character, our narrator, a little more, and we see a bit into her dramatic past, a past that has shaped her into who she is at the time this book takes place. And she's unlike any character I've ever read. Complex and simple, she's got some demons in her past that she either can't or won't let go of, and it contributes a lot to the character's development.

The races that Castro has created are also quite unique. Take the Brachiators, for instance. These creatures have a very interested take on life and death, and it seems so mystical and confusing, until you see it from their point of view. Then it becomes perfectly, breathtakingly logical. And the AIsource, although they're not really a race so much as...technology. A bit frightening when you really think about all they could be capable of.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a little slow to start, and because I've had little experience with Sci-fi, I had trouble figuring out the aspects of the book, but once I got all the information straightened out in some sort of order in my head, it fell into place and I was able to enjoy the book much more. It's a great mystery and Castro weaves in the character's personal issues very well into the plot. Especially difficult, seeing as this is a woman's point of view written by a man. And there's a big twist at the end. It caught me by surprise. If you read this book when it comes out, I'll tell you what I originally thought had happened.

So, if you're a fan of Sci-fi, i think you'll like it. if you're not, give it a chance. It's hard to get all the Sci-fi aspects of the book straightened out, with so much information necessary for understanding the created world, but once you get all that ordered in your mind, it becomes that much more interesting.

So, there you go. The book hits shelves on February 26, and with the epilogue ending as it did, I'm thinking there's a sequel in the works. So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and reserve your copy now!

ARCs

2008-01-24T22:37:21Z

All you literary buffs know what ARC stands for. It stands for "Advanced Reader/Reviewer Copy." And guess who received one in the mail today.

Go on, guess.

WOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!

A week or so ago, Eos Books posted on their website asking for volunteers to read and review EMISSARIES FROM THE DEAD by Adam-Troy Castro. They were only going to take the first ten people who e-mailed in, and I sent in my address, thinking that they probably already have ten people but what the heck, I might as well try on the off chance. I didn't get an e-mail back, and forgot about it when I was engulfed in school-work.

So I came back from class, cold and damp from the wind and rain, and stopped by my mailbox. There's a pink package slip in it, so I take it and pick up an oversized envelop from the RSO. I thought it was the Outlaws 2008 Tour t-shirt that I had ordered from Kim Harrison, but I felt something like cardboard in it. I came back to my room, tore open the envelope, and turn it over, and a one inch thick manuscript plopped onto my desk.

I literally stared at it for a moment, then flipped the envelope over where it said "Harper Collins Publisher" with my name hand addressed on the envelope. And then I started reading the letter that came with it, which started "Dear Reader, thanks so much for offering to read..." and that's when I started hopping up and down with excitement.

I have tons of school work, and non-school work, to do this weekend (including studying for a midterm and a quiz) but I usually take Friday evenings off. You'll know what I'll be doing Friday night. :) I'll post a review here and on my blog (horsesandpotter.blogspot.com) after I've read the entire thing. It's a sci-fi, and though it's not what I usually go for, this one caught my attention.

So, I am off to go do some homework, read, and twitch with excitement some more. I'll be back this weekend with a review!

Why?

2008-01-22T04:48:53Z

Why are people so addicted to livejournal? I'll admit, my laptop likes livejournal better than blog. I like blog better than lj. I only got an lj so I could vote and participate in communities and author contests. But I still like my blog better. No comments over there (hardly any here) but that's b/c i'm silly and I haven't friended anyone yet. So tell me, why does it seem like livejournals are more popular?

In other news, I've been sent a couple chapters by someone I know and I've been reading them and making a few edits here and there, but it's going slowly. know why? Because the story is absolutely brilliant. I'm taking my time with my second read through. I cannot tell you who it is, and I cannot tell you what the story is about. (not even half a word.) But it's awesome, and a fresh look at a genre that I am very fond of. I shall leave you guessing with that. And no, I won't tell you anything about the author or the story no matter how much you bribe me. Not even for chocolate. Maybe if you somehow manage to finagle a meeting with JK Rowling for me. I might be willing to negotiate then. But it's doubtful.

Gonna go back to working on those edits, and then I'm off to bed. Catch'ya on the flipside.

New Anthology

2008-01-15T18:27:07Z

Guess what! In all the excitement, I completely forgot to blog about this, but several of my favorite authors have just announced (within hours of each other) that they are putting together an anthology! WOO-HOO!!!

The Authors:
Jeaniene Frost
Melissa Marr
Vicki Pettersson
Jocelyn Drake
Kim Harrison

My squee was probably heard 'round the world.

Celebrate with me! Sparkling Martinelli's Apple Cider and chocolate covered strawberries for all :)

On another note, Rachel Vincent has posted her January contest. Check it out here at her blog, and if you enter you might get to win a copy of Jeaniene Frost's debut, Halfway to the Grave.

-Freeeeeeeedom

p.s. please pardon all of the links. It's a habit I've picked up from transcribing for PotterCast.

Hallelujah!

2008-01-13T05:36:37Z

I was wondering why the title of my blog wasn't showing at the top of the page. It was there at the top of my browser window, but my lj itself was unnamed. So I went to my friend for help. Turns out it was the layout that I was using that was doing something funny so that the title of my blog was not displayed, but now that that is fixed it's all good.

Some new things...well, not really. I've got loads of schoolwork to complete and a case study to participate in for psychology, plus I need to work on my geo project for Natural Hazards and Disasters. And then there's a bunch of extra-curricular stuff that I need to work on. I really hope there's some good news from the authors whose blogs and lj's I keep an eye on. Kim Harrison's newest, "The Outlaw Demon Wails" has a countdown widget, and I cannot figure out how to download it to my laptop so I can display it too. I really like it, and I want one of my own.

So anyways, I changed the layout to this lj so that the title shows. And now that it does, I see that it is nothing special, but I like that it has a title. I love that phrase, "Dare to dream." Believe it or not, it's something I got from school in eighth grade. They showed us some movie, and the only thing I remember from it was that it was all about how students should "dare to dream." I liked the phrase and have used it for various things since. Yeah, I'm ripping it off of what was probably an inspiration film, but honestly, does anyone really remember those films? They all spew the same thing.

Been working on some random scenes that have popped into my head. Perhaps now that I'm actually writing them down, they'll stop plaguing me every time I walk down the hall.

First Entry

2008-01-09T00:42:34Z

First entry. Please bear with me as I am still figuring out how to use livejournal, which seems much more complicated than a blog. Honestly, I only got this lj because a bunch of people I know also have lj's and I decided it would be nice if I could join lj communities and post in them and such.

I'll mostly be posting on my blog, over at www.horsesandpotter.blogspot.com, but I will use this one and occasionally post something. Maybe I should make some sort of distinction between my lj and my blog. Like my blog is only for updates on my writing, and lj for everything else. Or vice versa.

I don't know who is actually reading this, but if there actually is a soul out there reading these words, then "hello!" to you!