February | A Basket Full of Memories

What's up, wordlings? So this summary is late but I wanted to write it the week after the conference so I could give you all the full scoop of what happened down in Florida. Also, I had a book review scheduled to go up last week while I was away but it didn't go up for some reason. That'll be ready for next week, guaranteed :) 

This month was a pretty crazy one but it left me feeling satisfied with the direction I'm headed and gave me a new drive to pursue my end goal. Besides that, everything that happened was super enjoyable and I've moved into March with a whole basket overflowing with memories.

Previously, In the Month of February...

1) I tried to write and edit, I really did. However, I realized I had more school assignments than I had anticipated and so I poured my time into that for the first ten days of the month. I'm making up for it as we speak—write like the wind!

2) Tori came up :D We spent ten days exploring the city and the mountains. Instead of rambling on about how awesome it was, I thought, I'd share some pictures instead :) 

Our Valentines Day consisted of ice-cream and a photoshoot at a national park

The ice throne at the ice castle! They played Narnia music too!

Our adventures at the science centre included giant rubber cubes, tony stark technology and a little plush red blood cell that now sits in my bookshelf as one of my writing pals

Can't go ten days without at least trying to turn Tori into a slurpee addict like me!

We visited an antique book store!

Our trip to Banff in the mountains

We signed our names on the wall of the waffle house in Banff ^ ^  

Winter hiking to the frozen water fall

3) I went to the Florida Christian Writer's Conference! If you follow my Facebook page (which you totally should!), then you'll know of the long list of amazing things have happened while I was there.

My purpose in going down was to try to pick up an agent. It's pretty much impossible to get a contract on the spot but I did have two of the agents request a full manuscript from me! One of them wants a book proposal too which is really good news.

The next piece of good news is that I won an award! I got first place for my flash fiction piece, "Adrift". The award is a really sweet victory since that story in particular has been rejected in the past.

The winners from the teen track! Anna, Bethany, me, and Laura

Beyond that, Focus on the Family has some new projects for me, Splickety wants to see my work in their magazine, and I was offered an opportunity to co-teach next year at the conference.

Maybe it sounds cheesy but my favourite part about the trip was getting to reconnect with some of my favourite people, build relationships with new peoples and talk to so many amazing authors! I'm so inspired coming home from Florida :)

Technically I met Ben Wolf last year but this year we actually had some great writerly talks

This sweet lady, Starr, was such an inspiration to me this year. I can't wait for her book to come out sometime in the future! It's gonna be amazing ^ ^ 

Me and my mentor, Bethany Jett :) 

Amanda Davis lead the Teen Track this year and she did an amazing job! I'm so glad I got to know her better this year

February's Monthly Media

1) I re-watched most of "Your Lie in April" with Tori while she was here as well as the beginning of "Guilty Crown". We've agreed to webcam while we finish the both series together. We also watched "Spirited Away" which I really enjoyed.

It was a marathon of feels

2) When I found out that Tori hadn't seen "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", I promptly sat her down, made popcorn, and played the DVD. To this day, it's probably my favourite movie of all time. If you haven't seen it, track it down! DVDs are cheap these days if you can't stream it so you have no excuse ;)

One of my favourite scenes

3) While Tori was here, we went to go see "The 5th Wave". I wasn't a fan of the book for many reasons but the movie fixed a lot of the problems. I actually enjoyed watching the film and I'll probably see the next one when it comes out too.

Well, it wasn't a trashy movie....get it? Cause there's a trash can? 

4) Unfortunately I wasn't able to read Gracekeepers as planned. Instead, I read a play for school and have started a novel for my literature class: "Station Eleven". It's a good story so far but I'm pretty early in yet so we'll see how it goes.

Coming Soon to the Month of March...

1) The rest of "Living City" is scheduled to be completely (well, at least the first draft) edited and I'll be able to write the second draft. This also means it's time for me to look for Beta readers. If anyone has tips on that, I'd be incredibly grateful ^_^

2) Flash fiction time! I've got my list of Splickety themes and I'm gonna start on them. I hope to have at least two written and polished but that's subjective to how many assignments I get this month too.

One of my classmates sent this to me after we handed in a major paper recently XD

3) "Crec" is a hard project. If you've been following me for awhile (or even for the last three months), you'll know my progress on this one isn't as progressive as I'd like. I had the beginning critiqued at the the conference and I also have been working on the timelines of each of the characters. It's difficult, to say the least. As much as I hate to admit it, I think I have to start over. This is the last time, I swear! After this, I'll just have to fix things in the rewrite.

I'm not sure if I'll actually get to starting on it this month but if not, I'll be working on my timelines still so that I'll know what I'm doing when I do start it. 

March's Monthly Media

1) Station Eleven will be read. Since it's for school, it kind of has to be XD I've been wanting to read it for awhile now, though, and I find it interesting that my prof wants to study a mainstream novel.

I have no proof to confirm this but from what I've heard, it's got similarities to that "Night Circus" book that's gotten popular in the last year. If you've read either book, let me know!

2) I'm re-watching "Heroes". For one thing, I love it. Also, I want to watch that new season that came out recently but feel the need to at least catch up on the first season to refresh myself with the premise and the characters (even though most of the characters have been excluded).

Another reason why I'm watching it is because I'm considering cosplaying as Claire Bennet when I go down to Realm Makers in July. They have a costume night and I feel like I could probably do Claire. It's a toss up between her and Tris from the first book/movie (I have long hair so...). Let me know in the comments as to who you think I should do!

So that was my month and also the plan for March :) I'm looking forward to how the opportunities that have been opened up to me will shape my year and ultimately, the path to my becoming of a writer.

See ya all in the comments!

What were some of the highlights from your month? Have any goals for next month?

Keep up the awesomeness, Wordlings! 

Looking Back on 2014: The Box of Good Things

Happy New Year!

2014's Box of Good Things

In November of 2013 I started a box of good things. Well it was supposed to be a jar but I didn't have any jars so I used a small box. 
Around the beginning of the year I was given a bit of flack for being a negative person and having a pessimistic view on life. When I found this idea on Pinterest I was eager to prove those people wrong.
At the end of each day, whether I had an overall good day or not, I wrote one good thing that made me happy that day. On new years eve or new years day, I get to go through all of them and remember all the good things that happened to me.

Some Highlights From This Year's Box

"Had a pillow fight with Amanda and Zack on the stage while setting up for Encounter"

"Singing Fix You in three part harmony with Zack and Amanda during Encounter set-up" 

"Waking up at 5:45AM then walking with Amanda to school in the dark" It was also really cold and snowy but that didn't ruin it for me. 

"Cassidy made my night by offering to help me with my essay—> due at midnight #international_input" And I ended up getting a good mark on it too!

"Played 'Ninja' after school with Zack, Justin M, Tanner, Titus, Jared and Jazlyn then went to Tim's" Tim's is short for Tim Hortons if you didn't know ^.^ 

"Laid on my bedroom floor harmonizing to Imagine Dragons for at least one and half hours"

"Video chatted with Tori and Cassidy for 2 hours"

"I felt pretty today :)" Never underestimate that one day where you just feel pretty for no reason.

"Amanda generally made me feel appreciated." 

"Saw the Lego movie with Karen"

"Lifeguarding was awesome!" 

"Had a great conversation with Nana at Tim Hortons after school :)"

"Wrote a good poem" 

"Found my new favourite song! Carry on by Scott and Brendo" And I ended up using it for a video project I did that summer. 

"Cleaned the large and small practice rooms. People were really happy, I was called an 'angel'" Those rooms never get cleaned. 

"Zack helped me with Bio at lunch today."

"Mom read the first 2 pages of Crec and loved it! ^.^" 

"Finish Reconte Moi Une Histoire filming"

"Was given the solo for "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" for yardbird on thursday." Yardbird is the jazz suit that our school choir performs at annually. 

"Amanda came over to work on a project and we got ice-cream from the ice-cream truck."

"Yardbird performance with my solo and ice-cream after with friends" 

"Went to Marissa's to watch meteors, drink coke and eat ice-cream" Apparently I have a thing with ice cream making my day good!

"Relaxing, no homework day." 

"Listened to mystery Adventures in Odyssey episodes while cleaning." 

"Went on a cross-city long boarding trip." 

"Filmed Encounter Videos with my filming family :D"

"Past my karate belt test for High Orange!!" 

"Played the piano for 3 hours and learned how to play Fly." 

2015's new and improved box of good things

This being my first year completing a box of good things, I was shocked as to how often I was saying to myself, "Oh I remember that!" Usually I remember the really bad things in the year since they leave a larger impact on me compared to little pleasant moments. But looking through my slips of yellow paper, it seems that all I needed was a little bit of a memory prompter to fill my head with thoughts of the good that came to me in 2014.
Whether that changes how I view the year as a whole or not, I'm not sure. However, I can't deny that I'm a little more optimistic heading into the new year. I can at least be certain that 365 good things will happen to me in 2015.

Do you have any highlights from 2014?

Frogs, Solos and Silver Ratings

I've been MIA for awhile now and I apologize for that but a lot has happened in the past month that's kept me occupied and away from blogging. Since a lot of the things are noteworthy, I thought I'd do a post on some of them.

Me (left) and my friend/model/actor
 after the music video was completed.

1) Frogs

After much procrastination, I finally finished the sets and the filming for a music video I'm doing for a Digital Multimedia class in school. After at least 72 hours of hot gluing, cutting cardboard, drawing flowers and frogs on poster board and struggling to make clouds out of cotton, I finished my props and sets...the same day that I started filming. It took seven hours to shoot everything but I'm incredibly pleased with how it turned out.
When I get a finished rendered copy of the film, I'll be sure to post it with a little more detail about the project.

2) Silver Ratings 
My high school choir took a tour to the west coast of Canada to Richmond Vancouver for the national competition. We traveled by bus, 14 hours there and 14 hours back with both the junior high concert band and the high school concert band. We made stops at schools and the provincial competition for the concert bands along the way. I'm so proud of both concert bands for getting Superior (the highest you can get) ratings at the festival! They were great performances to listen to.
Going to Vancouver meant sight seeing. We traveled up to Grouse Mountain, hung out in Stanley Park, and had a day at the beach. The memories I made with some of my best friends will stay in my mind forever.

A photo of Vancouver taken by
a member of the choir and high school 
concert band, Andrew Schroeder.

Near the end of our trip, the choir sang. We had the privilege of concluding the entire festival and it wasn't a disappointing performance! We sang Lux Aurumque (Light and Gold) by Eric Whitacre,  a Venezuelan percussive piece called Salseo by Oscar Galian, and a gospel piece, Shout Glory. For the record, our soloist was better than the one in the recording XD
The performance we gave was so much fun and we sang so well! We got a Silver rating which may not sound incredible but it's a huge accomplishment! Our Director said that he has a friend that's been going to this competition for 17 years and has only gotten Gold once. Not that I like boasting but for a second year choir to get a Silver: that's something to boast about!

3) Solos
Most recently, out Choir preformed at a jazz club. Since only a few of us could go, we were missing one of our soloists and so I was asked to fill in.
I was really excited and not nervous at all—until three bars before I sang my first note. I've never felt nerves like those ones! My entire stomach felt twisted and heavy inside me, my heart was beating and yet I was surprisingly calm. I do wish I could have shown a little more confidence in the way I sang but it certainly wasn't bad for my first solo in eight years.

Hopefully I can get back into a more regular writing schedule now that my crazy month is passed. If there's anything you'd like to have me write about post it in the comments below!

Ice Climbers and Deep Chasms

Back in February, our family had some American guests stay with us for about a week. They insisted on having the full 'Canadian experience' and we took them to Jasper in the Rocky Mountains.

After a long car ride, we escaped the polluted city and could finally breath mountain air.
I've always said that one of my favourite things about winter is the way it smells, even in the city. I find it refreshing. The mountains though, take that smell to a whole new level. 

The sounds were the next thing that caught my attention. It was quiet but totally alive.
We had driven up the mountain to a point where the horns of the logging trains that clattered by every two hours couldn't be heard and where there was no evidence that cars even existed. I guess living in the city has made me forget how much I love being in the wilderness. 

Before we even started the hike, a snowball fight broke out. The sun had warmed the air to a glorious -2°C, making the powder perfect for snowballs. It was girls against guys excluding myself; I was taking the pictures. 

After everyone had cold, wet hands we took to the trails. A lot of other people seemed to have the same idea as us because the paths weren't exactly empty. I mean they weren't crowded but if you couldn't see another group of people on the path around you, you were probably in the trees or lost or something. 

The trail was divided into five bridges as you hike down. Each one has something really neat beyond or below. The first one was a deep chasm. It was so deep that we couldn't see the bottom in places, it was just black. The ledges were covered with heavy, untouched snow. Even the animals had left it alone. It was almost too perfect to look at.
Capturing the beauty of everything around me was hard. The camera didn't seem to be doing it's job and I was a little rushed since my family didn't stop for me to take the photos. I usually lined up, snapped a few, changed positions, snapped some more, changed my settings and took a few more then ran to catch up with my group.

Just before the third bridge we heard the sound of ice being chipped away in the canyon to our left. I kept stopping to see if I could find the source of the sound but after awhile, I couldn't see my group anymore so I gave up and ran as fast as I could on the slick ground.
When I rounded the corner I saw them standing at the railing, looking down. The ice chipping was loudest here and now I was able to pick out voices of other people too. Ice climbers.
On a frozen waterfall over the cliff into the canyon, two people wore spiked shoes and held an ice pickaxe in each hand.
As I took pictures of the girl right in front of me, I kept thinking: how cool would it be to be the one scaling the waterfall? To sit at the top and know that you used your own physical (and mental) strength to get to there.
It was official, ice climbing was on my bucket list at the very moment.
Even better, it's probably going to be something I can check off my list! My mom expressed interest in it as well on the drive home so we decided that next winter we'd make it happen. Then maybe That ice climber will be me.

At the third bridge, now halfway down the mountain, the glacier river was frozen solid. Ice climbers heading to the waterfall trekked on below us.
To my left, one of our guests slipped through a wooden guard rail and started down a steep slope to the river. My love for adrenaline kicked in and I ditched everything but my camera before following his lead.
I half-slid, half-walked down the slope before jumping off a ledge and onto the frozen river.
It was the weirdest thing to walk on. The rapids had froze bumps into the ice making walking uneven in places and the warm weather had melted certain spots into a blue slush. It wasn't all that slippery either like I thought it would be.
I got some really cool pictures on that river and generally just enjoyed being at the bottom of the chasm looking up rather than the other way around.
I just wish that I could have had more time down there so that I could take more time composing my shots and explore for longer.

After climbing back up to the path he continued down the mountain where we were lead to a trickling waterfall.
Group photos were a must but apparently I missed out while I was finding the best angle to get the shot that was imagined in my head—I have it posted below.

Even further down, the mountain, things were melting like crazy. The river was now a glassy, crystal clear stream. The sky reflected off the mirror-like surface. If I hadn't known better, I may have walked right out onto it.

More Pictures I Took That Day

Me (middle) with two of our guests

So there's a look at some of my photography and I guess a little bit into the adventures I have while taking photos. It's interesting because while I was going, there was part of me that was annoyed that I brought a camera in there first place. All I wanted to do was experience it and not feel rushed. But looking back at the shots I got, I'm more than glad that I had the camera. If I didn't have it, I couldn't re-experience it all. 

Hindsight really is 20/20.