Hats, Boots, & Chocolate

    English grammar is a funny thing, especially on the Internet. While you may have noticed that I, and many bloggers like myself, use extremely good grammar as much as we can, comments on blog posts, YouTube videos, and Internet forums often have entertaining grammar slips. Furthermore, at least in Utah, there are even more hilarious mispronunciations of commonly-used words.     Here is a very old blog post on this topic, which is part of the inspiration for the blog post I am writing today--and it's hilarious to boot!     All right. When talking with me, please do not axe any questions. Such treatment is not very good for them, and they usually don't survive. Asking  is a much better way to use questions, as that way you will actually get an answer instead of a sad jumble of broken words. So long as you don't reverse the 's' and 'k' sounds in the word ask,  you'll be fine. ;)     Furthermore, fellow Utahns (I hear this isn't as much o...

    I started a new project last week. If you've been following my blog, you might have seen the Landsong  word-counter on the "My Books" page rising over the last nine days or so, and therefore are aware that it shot from "In Planning Stage" to "14K words" in under two days, then further grew to its current 22K+ words over the course of the rest of the week.     I attribute a lot of this sudden progress to the fact that last week was my Spring Break (and as such am eager to find out what happens when this semester ends and all I have to worry about is work and dance and youth camp and so on).     At the same time, though, I attribute a good deal of that progress to momentum.     Once I got going, the law of inertia said I wasn't going to stop for a while--and I didn't. It was only when I got a really solid night's sleep that the torrent of words slowed down, and even still, I didn't start playing Stardew Valley to recharge my batteries...

    Well, folks, I have finally done it--this morning, my mom and I dyed my hair in a jar of hot cherry Kool-Aid. Here's what it looks like:      My hair has a lot of natural red highlights already, so the dye job is very subtle in dimmer lighting, but in the sun as I am here, the color is a lot more noticeable. It also helps that the color has gotten more obvious as my hair has dried.     If you're interested in doing this to your hair, too, here is a link to the instructions we followed. The process works pretty well, just as the author of that post said it does, and I'm very happy with it! Update as of April 15th: For some reason, my hair has started leaking pink onto things. It didn't do that right after I dyed it! So, just a little warning: If you try this method, and it doesn't leak for a few weeks, still be watchful after each shower. Kool-Aid is not  fun to get out of fabric!

    Hi! Yup, three blog entries in one day. Don't be too surprised; I tend to write in bursts when it comes to my blog. In this post, I bring you more of my favorite books! However, because I seem to have lost the file in which I kept my big list of books, my life has gotten significantly more difficult, so we'll see how this goes... 1. The Blue Sword,  by Robin McKinley     This book, like Chalice  from an earlier post in this series, has thoroughly won my heart. It is such  a good book, with a lovely bit of romance, a lot of swordfighting, and horses!  Also, the magic system routinely makes the main characters do things they wouldn't otherwise do, and the results are highly  entertaining. I will admit, though, that I didn't like The Kingdom and the Crown  (this book's prequel) nearly as much as I like this one. It's still good... just not as  good. 2. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles,  by Patricia C. Wrede     Patric...

    The last presentation I attended at LTUE was all about fear. While it was mostly directed towards us writers and the fears that we face, the information was still really, really good, and can be used in any context.     The presentation was called, "Let Your Fears Disappoint You," and was done by an awesome guy named Matthew Bockholt. Here's what I learned--maybe it'll help you in some way!     Mr. Bockholt's first main point was that fear is natural. It is meant to protect us from things we don't understand.     However, fear has an antidote: Experience.     He told us about a time when he was a kid, when he heard a scratching sound on his window in the middle of the night. Terrified it was some kind of monster, he ran to his parents' room and woke his dad to come chase the monster away. When his dad came back with him and opened the window, though, he revealed that the source of the scratching sound was nothing but a twig on a near...

    Welcome back to the Frustrated Writer Support Group!     If you've got anything to say about your current project (be it a success, a failure, a frustration, or anything else), go ahead and put it in the comments below! As always, be polite and kind, and try to contribute to the discussion in a positive way.     I'm excited to find out what you're working on! Good luck!

    Hi!     No, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, I promise. :) I have, however, been taking an English 2010 class this semester, and as a result I've used most of my writing brain cells working on boring, academic papers instead of interesting blog posts and stories. Let's just say that my writing productivity overall has dropped a lot, and it's taken me a while to figure out what to say around here.     This is the first post in a series that I'll refer to as the LTUE Report--or, in other words, a bunch of blog posts about what I learned at LTUE 42 this year. To start, I want to talk about Medieval weapons, because that was probably my favorite presentation of the entire symposium. The presentation itself was called "Medieval Weapons 101", and it was done by C. David Belt (just to make sure I attribute my sources like my English professor would want).     First, I don't have a lot of specific notes in my notebook about what I learned....