I’m just…. Lovely.

LIAM KEEPS GIVING ME AWARDS. 

So. Yes. The One Lovely Blog Award. I have received it. The rules are as follows:

1. You have to thank the person who nominated you on their blog to receive your honor.
2. You have to tell 7 things about yourself and human canoe counts!
3. You have to nominate 15 blog’s and then tell them of their nomination!

(I don’t know what human canoe means.)

(I’m not going to nominate 15 blogs.)

(I don’t even read 5 blogs.)

So.

Step one: Thank Liam of This Page Intentionally Left Blank.

Thank’s Liam. 

Step Two: Tell You All 7 Things About Myself.

1. If I have to make another one of these lists, I’m going to hit someone with a pencil in their eyes. 

2. I’m in a bad mood.

3. Follow me on Tumblr. http://www.short-infinities.tumblr.com

4. I have a coin collection worth more than 266 dollars.

5. No Seriously. Follow me on tumblr.

6. My nail polish is chipping.

7. My mood is still one not to call ‘positive.’

Step Three: Nominate 15 Blogs. 

NO. 

Liam got them all. Seriously. Just go to his post and check them out. 

Oh what. You want a link?

Sure whatever.

Liam’s Post. 

Thanks. Bye. 

I Was A Teenage Fairy: Review and Playlist

Hey there People of the Internet. Today I am wearing normal people clothes because I had to go out in public and I couldn’t let the strangers know I was actually a fish.

In other news I just read and re-read a fantastic book by Francesca Lia Block.

For those that don’t know me well, FLB is one of my favorite authors. She writes moder day fairy-tales that take place in Los Angeles. They are all wispy and dreamy and beautiful peices that just make you want to *make* something as wonderful as her books are. Or I don’t know. Maybe that’s just me.

Anyway, today I went on a long drive from the Farm Lands of Washington to an Native-American reservation in Idaho with  2 little kids, and my grandmother and her sister. Sitting next to 2 four year-old is not ideal, but armed with my ipod, my phone (side note: there is some serious reception in the middle of no where. Who knew?) and FLB’s I Was a Teenage Fairy, I was prepared for the worst.

I didn’t get the worst, just a few dozen “Are there yet?”s and some minor squabbling.

But I also got one of the best books I have ever read.

I feel like I’m glowing right now, no joke. Like the strength the characters had in the book have rubbed off on me and I can fly as well as any Teenage Fairy around.

The book started about a girl named Barbie, who’s mother wanted her to be a fashion model in LA. At 11, her beauty is not quite there yet, just a hint of what could come. One day she finds Mab in her yard. Tiny, with magenta hair and straight talk. Oh and wings. Mab is the queen of Faeries that tries to save her when Barbie’s mother lets such terrible things happen to her

Barbie grows older and more beautiful, falling for a man named Todd at 16, who wants to save people so much he hurts them. She meets Griffin, a boy in love with Todd as well, who needs to be saved by Mab the same way Barbie does.

The book as serious themes about dreams that should be followed, and people that should be believed in. It makes me want to take pictures of fairies the way that Barbie does, makes me want to tell the world that beauty is real.

Playlist for I Was a Teenage Fairy:

White Winter Hymnal – Birdy (a song about following others, with the whispery layered feeling that most of the following songs should have. It makes me think of the trap that Barbie’s mother must have fallen into to make her believe that fame and a career are the only things that really matter in the world.)

Falling – The Civil Wars (A song about leaving love behind, that fits with some events in the middle of the book. Also haunting and fitting for Barbie’s feelings.)

Ode to my Family – The Cranberries (Obviously, not the family that Barbie had, but still a haunting song that reminds me a bit of the family that Todd talks about.)

In the Shallows – Daughter (Misty, moving, this song reminds me of the dreams of the characters.)

Unbroken – Missy Higgins (The themes of abuse are a big part of this book and this song is all about moving on. Missy Higgins, is also, an artist that always reminds me of FLB’s books.)

The Call (live in london) – Regina Spector (I know this is the Narnia song, but it has the magical feeling of finding yourself and who you really need in your life that Mab always brings.)

The A Team – Ed Sheeran (a song about a girl who’s vices take her over. This song fits with this book so much, in the parts where character’s give up hope and turn to their fears rather than the light.)

Okay. There we are. Go read some books, preferably FLB.

Photo Editing

I know. You’re like, “Sarah you don’t write for weeks and then you don’t stop. Go away.” Sorry. I just, ya know. Get in blogging/non-blogging moods. It happens. 

Anyway, this post is sort of a response to Novice Journal’s post in which she edited a photo of a flower with her phone. I recently took some pictures of my friend Olivia, and thought I might show you some different versions of one of the photos I took, as well as some assorted photos I took in her house later.

The Original:

Color Edited: 

Black and White Edited:

 

So there are those, and here are just some other photos I took. 

 

So there you are. Hope you have a nice day. 

Dress Like Your Character Week- June

• Hey guys! It’s time again for DLYCW, where you dress like a character you created. I host it with Pheris and Lily, and invite all to join. Th rule are as follows:

• Please refrain from nudity, inappropriate captions and poses in your photos
• In your post, please link to the host’s post, and don’t forget to leave a link to your post/blog on it.
• You do not have to show your face if you don’t want to (Here’s the link to a website where you can blur your face out if you want)
• Feel free to invite other participants privately to ensure they are comfortable with participation
• In your post, tell us how your writing changed when you dressed up, or did something else daring (did you use an accent? We’d love to know!)
• Spread the word! Tell other people about DLYCW.

So this moth I’m dressing up as the character Miranda from my work in progress that Ree (from my last DLYCW post) also resides.

Without further ado, here is Miranda:

Miranda is training to be a police officer, a tough girl, a bit of a tom boy, and emotionally guarded. For her, I thought she might wear a black shirt of nondescript branding and such, jeans without an obvious brand (because she wouldn’t buy jeans of a specific brand), and cowboy boots because under her shell she must have some sort of style. She’s standing in police stance also. 

Minimal make up, darker hair, an okay smile in the rare moments she does.

Show us what you’ve got.

Book Covers- A TCWT! Post

Hello my lovelies, time has come again for my Teens Can Write Too! blog chain post. This months’ prompt was: What kind of covers grab you? Why?

To this I say, I should have prepared for this. Dang it. Why don’t I ever prepare for these?

And then I run to Goodreads.

(Speaking of which, people who don’t have Goodreads accounts should get those. It’s cool and other adjectives of the positive sorts.)

Okay, after looking at some covers of my favorite books I have come to the conclusion that A) I am drawn to cool typography and B) if there is another YA book released with two attractive white people kissing/about to kiss on the cover, I’m going to hit someone.

Examples of A:

  

What I like about these:

1) Having read all these books, I know that the words are incorporating the theme/setting of the book. Breath My Name is a YA suspense and romance, scary but sexy. The girl looks robotic and scared but attractive, and the words written in condensation seem, to me at least, like a plea for help. Margrettetown is a twisting and beautiful story of madness and love, and the title being splayed on a Street sign shows Margret Town’s character in the book: both a place (of madness) and a person (who is mad). Delirium is also romantic, as well as sci-fi. The story is romantic and I think the trails across the cover are as well, confusing but beautiful. And the girl poking from underneath is like the the girl in the story, still finding out who she is under all of what other people are telling her.

2) The covers let the words make the statement. The photography is there, but minimized in the affect the words make. The photography points to the words, or in the case of Delirium, make the words it’s self. It’s about the story, not the image of what they want you to think the story will be.

3) They’re creative. For the Breath My Name cover, someone had to actually go out and write those words in condensation. Someone had to create the cover for Margarettown, not just set some words on top of a photo. Each element on that cover, conects to what is underneath the cover.

4) Those could not be the covers for any other books.  They are distinctive to what is inside the book.

Examples of B: 

 

What I don’t like about these covers:

1) It doesn’t tell you anything about the story. Guess what? It’s romantic. Two people will fall in love. Guess what else? Well see, I can’ *tell* you anything else because that’s the only thing that these covers tell you.

2) It’s obviously unoriginal. I’m not saying these stories are bad. But I am saying that I would never want to be an author with one of these covers. It’s like putting out for the world to see that their novel is just like all the other novels with covers like that, which isn’t true. It seems sloppy, like there wasn’t any thought put into the cover, they just slapped on the exact same cover as everyone else.

3) IT’s a bit intrusive isn’t it? It kind of tells everyone *exactly* what kind of book you’re reading, even if under all that cover the book’s actually good. It just says: Sex, which isn’t always the case. There might be a beautiful novel up there that just looks trashy, which I don’t think is the best way to go about putting a cover on a book.

 

Okay, I’m out. 🙂

 

une 8–http://hazelwrites.wordpress.com–hazelwrites

June 9–http://miriamjoywrites.wordpress.com–A Farewell To Sanity

June 10–http://insideliamsbrain.wordpress.com–This Page Intentionally Left Blank

June 11–http://laughablog.wordpress.com–The Zebra Clan

June 12–http://weirdalocity.wordpress.com–You Didn’t Really Need To Know This…

June 13–http://otherrandomthings.wordpress.com–Dragons, Unicorns, and Other Random Things

June 14–https://correctingpenswelcome.wordpress.com–Comfy Sweaters, Writing, and Fish

June 15–http://kirstenwrites.wordpress.com–Kirsten Writes!

June 16–http://lilyjenness.blogspot.com–Lily’s Notes in the Margins

June 17–http://inklinedwriters.blogspot.com–Inklined

June 18–http://realityisimaginary.blogspot.com–Reality Is Imaginary

June 19–http://planetaryelastic.blogspot.com–Tangential Bemusings

June 20–http://musingsfromnevillesnavel.wordpress.com–Musings From Neville’s Navel

June 21–http://allegradavis.wordpress.com–All I Need Is A Keyboard

June 22–http://incessantdroningofaboredwriter.wordpress.com–The Incessant Droning Of A Bored Writer

June 23–http://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com–Teens Can Write Too! (We will be announcing the topic for next month’s chain)

Poem and Self Portrait

I’m sitting in the back of the room

my head is spinning and 

I am the ocean can’t 

you see it?

 

Cover Thoughts?

I’m making my cover for the June Camp NaNoWriMo I’m doing. 

Thoughts so far?

Also, if someone is interested, I would definitely make a cover for you. Love to, actually. 

Awards for the Ever so Humble

Hey guys! Once again, I have been gifted with awards. This is because I beautiful, unique, creative, and oh so humble. Really. 

My lovely friend Lily of Lily’s Notes in the Margins has nominated me the Kreativ Blogger (get it? They spell the word wrong  ON PURPOSE because they are SO CREATIVE. Genius.) And The {Booker} Award.

First off:

With this I must answer 10 questions about myself, share 10 random facts about myself, then award this to 7 kreativ bloggers.

Deal.

What is your favorite song? To play- Skinny Love by Bon Iver. To laugh with- Love Is… by Bo Burnham. To cry to- Small Bump by Ed Sheeran. To dream to- Same Mistakes by Paper Aeroplanes.

What is your favorite dessert? Creme Brulee. I’m classy. 

What ticks you off? Hmm. When people don’t listen to me. When people try to tell me what to do when I know what I’m doing. When people make fun of my hand writing WHICH ISN’T THAT BAD ANYMORE THANKYOUVERYMUCHYOUJERK. When I don’t have coffee.

When you’re upset, what do you do? Cry. I don’t enjoy it, nor do I chose it. It’s just happens. Pretty much at any negative emotion. Frustration, angry, sadnessssss.

What is your favorite pet? My friend Olivia and I have plans to bet matching pet owls. Mine will be named Liv hers will be named Sarah and they will take over the Owl Nation by storm. 

Which do you prefer: black or white? Probably black. I want white hair though.

What is your attitude? I don’t know. What’s your attitude? What kind of question is that?

What is perfection? George Watsky. What? No. Books. 

What is your guilty pleasure? See ‘perfection’. 

Facts: 

1. I went to get a hair cut today but they either weren’t open or had to many people inside of them already.
2. I should be cleaning my room right now. 
3. I should also have bangs on my forehead right now. 
4. In the words of Jagger, You don’t always get what you want.
5. I went to Mt. Rainier the other day with my lovely Olivia. I took pictures. It was grand.
6. My iPod’s being wonky and I’m freaking out because if I don’t have music, I don’t have life. 
7. My addiction to tumblr is not waning. 
8. I’m thinking about posting a video of me playing a song on the ukulele.
9. I’m still having trouble spelling ukulele although I’ve been learning for months. Thank you auto-correct. 
10. I haven’t worked on my story in ages. That’s probably not good. Don’t tell Queen Coffee. She’ll eat me or something.

I nominate: 

Coffee of The Land of Man-Eating Pixies

Yup. That’s it. 

Now The {Booker} Award. (What are those symbols called?!)

Rules:

1. This award is for book bloggers only. To receive this award the blog must be at least 50% about books (reading or writing is okay)
2. Along with receiving this award, you must also share your top five favorite books you have ever read. (More than five is okay)
3. You must give this award to 5-10 other lucky book blogs you adore.

Books: IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER BECAUSE MY BRAIN WOULD EXPLODE IF I TRIED. 

1. Dreaming of Amelia by Jaclyn Moriarty.
2. I am the Messenger by Markus Zuzak. 
3. The Fault in out Stars by John Green.
4. How They Met and Other Stories by David Levithan.
5. Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta.

There are probably some I love more. I don’t have a brain. 

Nominated: 

Coffee of The Land of Man-Eating Pixies

Again. Cos I don’t really want to give anyone else ANYTHING EVER. 

True story. 

Goodbye loves. Here’s a picture I took. 

In Which I Explain What My Favorite Quote Means

You know you haven’t been on wordpress in a while when you have to actually sign in to write a new post. But of course, *I* have no way of knowing that…

*Intro Music*

It was John Green that said in one of my favorite Vlogbrothers videos, “Maybe our favorite quotations say more about us than about the stories and people we’re quoting.” And I agree with this statement.

I mean, John Green should know, shouldn’t he? He has so many teenagers quoting him on their Facebook statuses that he could beat out Lady Gaga in a repetitive contest.  Listed below are some of the most popular on Goodreads.

“Saying ‘I notice you’re a nerd’ is like saying, ‘Hey, I notice that you’d rather be intelligent than be stupid, that you’d rather be thoughtful than be vapid, that you believe that there are things that matter more than the arrest record of Lindsay Lohan. Why is that?’ In fact, it seems to me that most contemporary insults are pretty lame. Even ‘lame’ is kind of lame. Saying ‘You’re lame’ is like saying ‘You walk with a limp.’ Yeah, whatever, so does 50 Cent, and he’s done all right for himself.” 

“Thomas Edison’s last words were ‘It’s very beautiful over there’. I don’t know where there is, but I believe it’s somewhere, and I hope it’s beautiful.” 

“So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane.” 

“I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, then all at once.” 

And yes, those are all wonderful, lovely quotes. Quotes about love and imagery and being awesome. Quotes that are worth every re-blog, like, and re-tweet they can handle. But I think, just like John said, the people reiterating those thoughts? They’re saying just as much as he did in different ways.

My favorite quote from him personally however isn’t one of those at all. 

It was in math class, sitting next to a girl who loves her hair more than her dog that I was rereading John Green’s latest book The Fault in Our Stars, highlighter in hand. I was reading the only part of the story narrated by Augustus, and not to give any spoilers away, it’s pretty gosh-darn heart breaking that part. And that’s when I found the line that really struck me. 

“She walks lightly, old man. She walks lightly on the Earth.”

In some back story of the plot, I should tell you that although this letter is about the main character Hazel by her boyfriend Gus, it is not written to her, but to an author the two of them used to admire. It was referring to the fact that, although Augustus wanted nothing more than to be a hero, to leave his imprint on the Earth, Hazel tended to differ. 

You see, Hazel didn’t want to change the world. She know she was meant just to be on the Earth to love the people she was with, do her own thing, etc. And she walking lightly, doing just that. 

But what do I mean when I highlight this quote? When I chose it of all the others to be my favorite? This is what  am trying to say.

I want to be a girl that can be admired without trying to be admirable. (Hypocritical, I know, but true.) I want to be written about in a way that Gus writes about Hazel, loving–even to someone that doesn’t deserve to see that part of you. I love the way that Earth, and lightly, and walking, are all such powerful words in that quote. I love the harmony between those words.

And I of course love that what Hazel is doing. Walking lightly on the earth. 

 

So what are your favorite quotes, John Green or otherwise? What do they say about you.

 

 

Photo: Lamp

Took this down town.