Hats, Boots, & Chocolate

    "Play is the highest form of research." -- often attributed to Albert Einstein, but this is apparently incorrect ; N. V. Scarfe appears to be the person who said this first.     Regardless, this is one of the primary quotes in use by my professors this semester, because I have been studying early childhood education, and, at least in the UVU community of early childhood professionals, play is considered one of the most important elements of a quality early childhood program, which is often left behind in favor of greater academics both in preschool and during the elementary and high school years.     I kind of already knew this.     Because of my job at Thanksgiving Point, I have seen firsthand how play-based learning can work. Kids beg their parents to go to Thanksgiving Point, whether it's to go see the butterflies, to go ride the ponies and the train, or to climb the giant playground (each different elements of a few of the venues at Thanks...

    In the last eighteen months, I have been on a journey of exploration. Ever since I wrote the first official draft of The Noble Thief  (the novella I'm revising right now, and hope to publish in the next [couple] year[s]) and realized that there wasn't a lot of magic in it, I've been questioning whether I can really call myself a fantasy writer. After all, if your whole magic system is nothing but a volcano that can understand people's intents, that doesn't feel very magical--or very fantasy. In fact, the most fantasy-like part of The Noble Thief  is the plot, which follows the classic fantasy plotline of a runaway/exiled/kidnapped princess who reclaims her throne. Where have we seen that before? Oh, yeah, fairy tales and fairy tale retellings:  The Goose Girl  by Shannon Hale, The Golden Braid  by Melanie Dickerson, The Fairest Beauty  by Melanie Dickerson, etc.     This questioning has raise a lot of insecurities for me--I call myse...

    Hello, and welcome back to Hats, Boots, & Chocolate! I hope all is going well for y'all right now. :)     Today, I want to talk about speculative fiction, and then I'll discuss how that relates to what I think my genre as a writer is.     The reason this has come up is that, a few days ago, I was chatting with one of my professors before class. You see, that day, I brought a book to school with me to read in the gaps between my classes (if you're interested, the book is Allegiant , which is Book 3 of Veronica Roth's Divergent trilogy. It's an awesome trilogy; I highly recommend it. The movies are pretty good, too, but I was a little disappointed to find that the movies changed a lot of things from the books, and a lot of those changes ultimately simplify the plot, which is kind of sad.). Anyhow, my professor came over and asked, "What age are you reading?"     Once we clarified that she was asking whether I was reading YA or Children's Lit...

    Welcome back! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything; I have been knocked upside down and backwards by school, and only now have I even begun writing stories  again, and that mostly because next week is Fall Break and I have less homework to do than normal.     This post is a Frustrated Writer Support Group post, which is basically my version of an open mic. So, if you have anything writing-related that you need to get off your chest, be it a complaint, a victory, or something else entirely, feel free to drop it in the comments!

    It's time I was completely honest with you. Over the last few months, I have done barely any writing.     I know, I know, it's summer, so I should have way  more time than usual to get my writing done! And I do  have more open time than usual... but I haven't been spending it writing. Instead, I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos, playing a lot of Stardew Valley, and working. Sometimes I get up and get useful things done at home, like washing dishes or cleaning bathrooms or folding laundry or practicing my step vault for the parkour program I've started (oh, yeah, I'm doing parkour now. It's great; I'll post videos of some of the moves I've learned sometime!). But all in all, it's been a pretty lazy summer.     And now, oops, summer is nearly over. I start my next semester of classes the week after tomorrow, and between a full-time college schedule and work, I basically have one and three-quarters open days per week (that aren't Sun...

    Okay, welcome back to my blog post duology about storytelling mediums! Let's jump right in, shall we?     The first of the more uncommon mediums I've seen is video games.     No, I'm not talking about the video game itself, though developers can and certainly do tell plenty of stories through this medium. (I'd put this in its own category, as with stage plays and performance art, but I don't play enough story-based video games to have a recommendation so I'll leave it to someone else to talk about the advantages video games have over other mediums.) Rather, I'm talking about people who tell stories through the gameplay.     Take, for example, the Empires SMP. This is, actually, my favorite example of this medium, so here's the recommendation right now, but Empires  is basically a TV series, created by 12-15 different YouTube creators at once , that uses Minecraft to tell its integral story. Each creator roleplays as a different character ...

    There are many methods and mediums to tell a story, and each has its pros and cons. There's a lot of discussion on the Internet about Comics Vs. Prose, Books Vs. Television, or Movies Vs. TV Series. I'm not going to get into all that today.     Instead, today's post is meant to be an exploration of different ways to tell story, from books to visual media of all kinds. Since the post quickly became too long, I'm going to start with a summary of the more common storytelling mediums, and then I'll write a second one about some of the more unusual methods I've seen.     My favorite way to consume story is via books. If they're well-written, clean in their content, and original in their concept, I'll read them, enjoy them, and read them again. Remove one of those elements and it's a one-off book--one I'll read once and call it good.     To subdivide books into two broad categories of mediums, we have prose books (including non-fiction, fantasy for...

    Win Condition: A set of circumstances in a piece of media (book, game, television show, etc.) that determines which side, if any, wins the central conflict.     I was looking at a bunch of my novel ideas this morning, trying to figure out which one I want to work on next. In case you weren't aware or hadn't figured it out by my long absence and the lack of number updating for my current projects on the "My Books" page, my writing has pretty well stalled since the end of April, and I'm trying to kick it back into gear with something fresh.     You see, at this point, I've been working on The Noble Thief  so long that I think my brain has forgotten how to work on anything else. I've been in the revisions phase for what feels like forever, and I'm ready to set the project aside and let it rest for a while (a long, long  while) while I go and explore something new.     So I was looking at a list of ideas for a bunch of unwritten novels I...

    Where I'm from, it's traditional to recite our nation's "Pledge of Allegiance" at or near the start of every school day. Being home-schooled, I actually didn't know about this tradition until I started taking Concurrent Enrollment classes at my local high school, and I have since decided that I don't like it very much.     Don't get me wrong, I'm all for pride in and loyalty to one's country--but I don't think America's current Pledge does a very good job.     In case you're unfamiliar, here's how our Pledge goes:     'I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.'     This is a nice, one-sentence declaration of loyalty--but to what? I feel like this Pledge is really esoteric, and the way we say it every day at school doesn't fit what I think it's actually saying. I don't think ...

    Somehow I didn't realize it was time for another Frustrated Writer Support Group post until just now, so here you go! If you've got anything you want to ask me about writing, I'll answer it as best I can (or else provide resources/links to people who know the answers better than me); if you just want to complain about your current project, I'm more than happy to read your comment and provide some support through it!     Have fun! :)

    In my last post, I mentioned I'd give some tips for anybody considering walking barefoot for the first time. So, here they are! :)     1. If you're the sort of person who wears shoes inside the house, start there. Take your shoes off when you're inside your home and get used to the feeling of feeling the different textures of carpet and tile beneath your toes.     2. If you're the sort of person who avoids wearing shoes inside the house, start on your lawn, if you have one. Grass is one of the most forgiving outdoor surfaces to start going barefoot on, and you'll want to get your feet used to that first. It's relatively rough compared to carpet, but still so much gentler on the feet than going straight to concrete. You will want to watch where you step if your yard tends to have twigs or pine needles in it, though--I've been going barefoot for years, and I still avoid the lawn directly around our spruce trees.     2.5. If you live near a beach...

    Hello there!     Today's post is a summer version of this one , in which I went through the techniques I use to stay warm in chilly winter weather. Like in that one, I'm going to add a caveat that I don't live in the absolute coldest or hottest place ever (though I am in Utah, which is a desert, and we do get pretty toasty), so for the absolute extremes I may not know everything. Also, since I'll be talking about hydration, I have to add that I'm not a medical professional--I've just made some observations in my own body and done a bit of research and taken some basic science classes.     Here we go!     The most important thing to do during the summer is to stay hydrated. Just a few minutes before starting on this post, I heard a statistic on the radio that said that up to 75% of Americans suffer from chronic dehydration. I don't know the source used for this statistic; I'm sure it's Googleable. Still, it's pretty worrying, and since I work ...

    If you're one of the very, very few people who have been here since the beginning of this blog, you may wonder why I decided on the name Hats, Boots, & Chocolate  for it.     Honestly, I've been wondering the same thing for a long time.     The most obvious answer is, of course, that I love hats, boots, and chocolate! I love wearing beanies and my cowgirl hat, and my cowgirl boots are some of the most comfortable shoes I've ever owned. Chocolate is also a staple favorite around here; the very first blog post I ever wrote was a recipe for home-made hot chocolate lumps that store in the freezer and come in very nice, pre-portioned serving sizes perfect for making a rich, creamy cup of hot chocolate.     But I think that's not all--and I think God knew it wouldn't be all from the start. Sure, I initially chose this name because I couldn't think of anything that described me better--I'm a person who likes hats, boots, and chocolate a lot!...