Favorite Books of 2011

As crazy as it is, the year is practically over! I read quite a bit this year, a bunch of rereads and books for English and then a ton of really great new (to me) books. Just an interesting thing, out of all the new books I read only five of them were completely non-magicky. Also, out of this list of ten, six are part of series'! And they were really all so good, I didn't have much trouble picking my top ten, but I'm not even going to attempt a numbered order. It was all personal preference and what stuck with me the longest, and what characters I loved the most, so I'm just going to list the book and blab about them and tell you to read them all.

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

I'm just starting off with the only non fantasy on the list, and one of the ones I read most recently. It's made a pretty big splash in the book world and for good reason, it tells the chilling story of a girl and her family who are forcibly relocated from Lithuania by the Soviets. They have to try to survive in awful conditions in Siberia, while at the same time trying to find their father who was separated from them. The author went to Lithuania to talk to people who had similar experiences, and it's awful to think of how everything in the book could have and probably did happen to someone. But it's not completely depressing, there are little glimpses of love and happiness amidst everything else, and hope for a better future.

Red Glove by Holly Black

This is the middle book in a series about a world very like our own where 'curse workers' (people who can do some kind of magic) are criminals and have to hide their talent, or very often join the mafia. I read the first book last year and was kind of eh about it, but this one I loved. My issue with the first book was that it was all good and fine but I never really connected with Cassel, the main character. I didn't have that issue at all in the second one, I liked him immediately and got swept up in everything right away. I loved the plot, and his friends are awesome, and it left me eagerly waiting the third book.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

This was by far my favorite dystopian of the year. After the world has gone to pieces and wars and craziness happened, a system of five factions (groups to promote different virtues, like honesty, selflessness, peacefulness, bravery, and intelligence) has taken over the society. At sixteen every teen has to choose to be in one, and then undergoes training to see if they're worthy. But the thing that is most valued in that city is control, and the few people called the Divergent (people who could fit into more than one faction) are hard to control, and therefore dangerous. After that awesome set up, there were characters I really liked and an intriguing plot that was always moving, so there weren't really any downsides to this one!

Forever by Maggie Stiefvater

The last in the Shiver series, Forever is told from four points of view which I loved. The writing is gorgeous, I love the characters (Cole especially), and it was a satisfactory ending to the whole story. It was just really good, but I can't say much about it without giving away the other two books! I'm sad the series is done but this book made me really happy.

Pegasus by Robin Mckinley

Oh, how I adore Robin Mickinley's writing. It's just wonderful. Pegasus is about a princess who, when she is bound to her Pegasus, discovers that they can hear each other's thoughts. This forms a strong friendship that the whole book revolves around, her adventures with Ebon, the things they discover, and the changes they inevitably start making in the world because of their bond. I so wish I had a flying horse to ride on. I know I'm going to say this with every single book on this list but it really is one of the most important things for me: I loved the characters. Especially Sylvi and Ebon, but tons of the other small ones too. They were all really good. And then this book completely and totally wins the award for WORST cliffhanger EVER. It made me SO upset (and no, it wasn't anything ridiculous like a main character dying *glares at a different book*) and it was like a kick in the gut, but it had to happen for the story I think. So it wasn't just a trick to get you looking forward to the next. Still, I wish 2014 was tomorrow!

Chime by Franny Billingsley

This book was really interesting, very twisted, had excellent character development and characters in general, and had simply gorgeous writing. It felt like every sentence had been fine tuned and worked on until it was the best it could be, and it captivated me. It's setting is really interesting too, a small town on the edge of a swamp in England somewhere in about the late 1800s I thought, but there are old ones, and witches who are sentenced to death if they're found. Briony is a witch, and is to blame for most everything wrong in her family's lives. But through an unexpected and extraordinary turn of events, she slowly starts to think that maybe that isn't true after all.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Karou isn't really sure who she is. She lives with Brimstone, in his shop of teeth and wishes, and is an art student in Prague with friends who think that she actually dyes her hair blue. But the discovery of an entirely other world through a shop door and the reappearance of Seraphim in the human world means that she will find out after all. There's been a ton of buzz about this book and I read the author's blog, so I was really looking forward to reading this one. It did not disappoint. The worlds are lush and detailed, from colorful Prague to the city of the Chimaera. I really liked the characters and the writing and the plot, and I love Karou! Can't wait for the next one.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

The Scorpio Races is about two people who live on the little tiny island of Thisby. Thisby is mostly populated by fishermen, and it's economy survives because of the annual Scorpio Races. The waters off of Thisby are full of the capaill uisce, water horses that sometimes come out of the water and eat people. And every November people race on them, for fame and glory and lots of money. Puck is the first girl to enter the races and Sean is a four time winner of them, and alternately they narrate the story of competition and home and family and love. Things I especially loved about this book: the mood, the setting, the characters (George Holly! Finn Connolly! Corr!) the writing, and the ending. You really should just read it.

The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

Elisa is the chosen one, she is the one person per century who has a Godstone. Everyone who recieves a Godstone is meant for great things-- whether or not they accomplish them is another matter. She is also a princess, which means that she is married off to a neighboring king at sixteen. It is only when she is in his kingdom that she finds out what being a chosen one really means, and that there are people who would go to any lengths to get her power for themselves. This one's really hard to describe without giving away the plot, so I'll just say, there's court intrigue, kidnappings, trekking across deserts, romance, wars, finding power in yourself, sadness, and hope. I loved it. Elisa is smart and strong all the way through and I loved seeing her come to believe that. And it's set in the desert, and the world is SO well built and believable, and all the characters are amazing. Cannot WAIT for the next one!

Plain Kate by Erin Bow

Kate, an exceptional carver and orphan, has to leave her town when too many people start thinking that her talent with wood means she's a witch. She makes a deal with Linay, an actual witch, who helps her leave and makes her cat able to speak-- but the deal has repercussions that Kate never foresaw. It draws her into a tangle of shadows and death that is almost impossible to get out of. I first have to say, Taggle is my FAVORITE talking cat I have EVER read about. I loved him so much, in every way. He never lost his catness even when he could talk. And Kate is such a smart and brave and likeable heroine, and Linay is probably the most complicated and well drawn out bad guy of the year. I'm still not even sure I would call him the bad guy. The writing is gorgeous, simple and poetic. The world is beautiful and scary, and this book made me cry SO hard. I hit the big climax and started crying, and pretty much didn't stop until after it ended. I know it won't affect everyone like that, but everything about it just hit me the exact right way. I get teary even now, ten months after I read it. And if it had just been completely sad, nothing good happened, I would have just disliked it, but it was so full of hope and perseverance in the end. I loved it.

That took me ages! But there it is, my favorite books of the year.

Kelia

October Writing

So, nano starts tomorrow! Incredibly excited and nervous like always, but at the moment I'm really happy because of all the writing I did in October. I had a goal the whole month to write every day, which I never told anyone about but I succeeded! Still can't really believe it. I wrote very little some days, as little as a 18-word poem, or as much as a 2,140-word short story. Four days of the month didn't produce anything finished but I ended up with 9 short stories and 18 poems. That makes this by far my best writing month since last November. Most of my poems will never be read by anyone else and some of my short stories were more like beginnings, but I am unrealistically fond of most of it. I really hope that continues into next month, and good luck to everyone who's attempting the mad dash!

Kelia

Nothing Post

This is a nothing post, because everything I've wanted to post about has dried up as soon as I try to write about it. I rediscovered last month how very much I love reading, and how much I hate writing reviews. So you won't be getting any unless I am VERY inspired! But I have been writing down every book I read, because in the spring I started getting worried at how little I was reading and wanted to see how much exactly I had read, and I've kept it up. I have read 37 books so far, 8 for english, 12 rereads (because I only went to the library to get books out for english this spring/summer I reread a lot of books, which was different but really great too), and 17 new books. Up until August I had only read 5 new books, this past month I've been reading constantly. And I've found some amazing books! At the end of the year I'll do a complete list, with my general opinion of the books if not a review. I have at least 5 so far that I've absolutely loved.

And it's started me writing again too! Nano being SO SOON has really, but I'm sure the books have helped. In september/this bit of October I've written 7 poems and 4 short stories. That makes 6 total for this year, which is pretty amazing considering I've written one or two other than that. They're super short, the longest is 1600 words but they're super fun. Just scenes or snippets of a story, some of them work fine by themselves, some could definitely be part of something longer. I love having time to do all this again! This summer was amazing, but definitely did not leave a lot of time for reading and writing. I think I read maybe three books all summer. So I'm making up for it now. And I maybe have a plot. At least some characters who I definitely think I'll use, though the plot's a bit vague right now. But there's a pretty big family in it which should be fun!

Other things about this fall so far: being the only kid still home. WEIRD. It's very quiet. And I feel oddly antisocial, I talk to friends and sisters a lot but I go days and days without seeing any of them. It wasn't so bad when a sister was around half the time, but everyone's Very Busy and I think I have to start making more of an effort to actually see people. And I miss my sister! But in good news, I get to see one of my best friends tomorrow!

Piano is eh today, but I have a lesson tomorrow so hopefully that'll change. It's almost like I'm doing so much that none of it is interesting, which makes absolutely no sense at all. I don't understand how my brain works in regards to piano. But I've decided I really like teaching, it's always changing and frustrating and rewarding. Half the time I have no idea what I'm doing, which is always fun.

And it is FALL! The leaves are yellow and orange and falling fast. It was really windy today and they were gusting off the trees, and there's a definite bite to the air. Fall always seems wistful to me. I guess my October experience is different from most everyone else's, I'm always planning frantically for nano instead of Halloween (though sometimes I do both). But I'm going to soak up the trees and wind and blue skies and chill when I can, as I think my story will be set around this time.

Anyways those are some of my thoughts lately. I've been wanting to blog again for a while and we'll see if I actually do more than this one post. Weirdly enough I plan posts in my head all the time, mostly about books I'm reading, but as soon as I try to write them out they shrivel up and stop working. Partly because I think too much about what other people are going to think, but maybe I can't do such planned out and formal posts. I'll try just doing thought vomits like this and see if it works. This nothing post turned into such a random journal entry! Hopefully I'll post again before six more months go by.

Kelia

Summer

Today feels like summer. Cloudless blue skies, warm sand beneath my feet, heavenly 64 degrees, and most of all the ocean.

Every spring I realize how much I've missed the ocean. I get used to it in the summer because I'm always there, but the first time I go back (when it actually feels somewhat warm) I just want to stare at it forever. I wish it could be this warm all the way to July. It is really windy, at the beach there was a steady stream of sand blowing knee high and at times it would blow so hard we were forced backwards! But I love the wind too, and it was a warm wind. If it's back to 30 degrees tomorrow I'm going to go into withdrawal, this little taste of summer has been so amazing. Let's just skip April and May, can we?

Sunsurfer

Through reading another blog I discovered this tumblr, which is now probably going to be my favorite site on earth. It's called Sunsurfer and it's a blog of pictures of beautiful things. Landscapes, houses, odd and fascinating things, each picture is gorgeous and makes you want to be there. The first picture is a foggy day in Budapest, Hungary, the second is a sunset reflected in a soap bubble in Norway, the third is a place in Portugal. *love* The site is http://sunsurfer.tumblr.com/ and you should really check it out.

Happy New Year! It's weird how used to it being 2011 I am already. Probably because I was thinking about it so much in December, that whole month I couldn't stop thinking about it being a new year and what last year was like. So much changes in a year. A year ago I hadn't met some of the loveliest people I know, hadn't even heard of the theatre where I met all of them, didn't have my permit, hadn't won a competition, didn't know what it would be like with only one sister home, hadn't discovered some books and two TV shows that make me ridiculously happy, hadn't written a novel about Iris and Darius, hadn't even started learning the concerto, hadn't gone to see the Trans-siberian Orchestra, was nowhere near as into acting as I am now, and I hadn't had some of the best days of my life with my family and amazing friends.

That's all the good stuff. It was a pretty awesome year, though there was plenty of the icky days and bad things and crying, but there was enough good to balance it out. And this year is going to be just as incredible, and hopefully I'll be able to be more positive and keep it all in perspective and not worry so much, but I know I'll have fun.

As for resolutions I didn't really make them, since I only completed one from last year, but I kind of some vague plans. Like: keep writing poems, at least one a week since I got so off in the summer and only got 80 out of the 100 I wanted. And finish my nano by next year though I don't know how motivated I'll be to do that. And possibly try scriptfrenzy again? We'll see how it goes. Happy new year!

My top 5 books of 2010

I didn't read a whole lot in 2010, but there were a bunch of books that I fell in love with. I can't narrow it down to 10 but the top five are very clear, I LOVE these books. (These were books I read in 2010, not necessarily published this year but I think most of them were.)

5. Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

Completely fell into this world, it's so complex and dark and the characters are awesome. It was very fast paced and engrossing.

4. How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford

This is a hard one to describe, but I think the biggest thing I loved was that it was about a friendship. A complicated and messy and painful and amazing friendship, that was as real as all of mine are. I loved the characters and the writing style and the ending.

3. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

A very very powerful book, you saw the main character change so much. The way the plot elements wove together from day to day was amazing, the little glimpses of feelings in each character mattered so much. It is one of the only books I've read with completely real and understandable, if not likable, popular mean girls. I felt so hopeful at the end, it left me with such a good feeling.

2. Stolen by Lucy Christopher

I wrote a review for it already on this blog which is here http://toliveinarainbow.blogspot.com/2010/09/stolen-by-lucy-christopher.html and I'm not going to repeat myself, so I'll just say, WOW. What an amazing book.

1. Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Stolen fought with this one for number one, but Jellicoe Road eventually won. Not because Stolen is any less good, but this one is a bit less painful and I can remember it without being so sad. Pretty much this is an incredible book. Complicated, emotional, characters and a crazy haphazard plot that weaves together perfectly and just purely beautiful writing. I fell in love with it from the first page (and the characters! All of them! Are amazing!) and it's definitely one I'm going to be rereading lots, I just read through a page of quotes from it to find one to put here and it's just making me want to read it again. And I can't choose one.

So those are my favorite books of 2010, what are yours?

Kelia

Just had to post this...

Because it is so awesome I couldn't resist. I'm sure there are many quotes that say the same thing, but this is just so simple and true. Pretty much why I love music.

Guess what?

I FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot believe Nanowrimo is over. This month has been full of surprises! But I finished at last, my crazy insane plot-stuck-in-on-the-second-to-last-day novel is done. Not really since it ended SUPER abruptly but it's done for now, I'm not looking at it again. I already started a new story. NOT because I don't want to EDIT my novel or anything, it's because I made a goal to keep writing and to write 500 words a day for the foreseeable future so I had to! But I also don't really want to edit it.

Anyways: nano. You know that plot I was so glad I finally figured out one month ago exactly? Yeah. First day of nano I wrote 300 words and decided to switch. I was going to take a risk and face the unknown and all that stuff. I'm actually really glad I did, because while my story is not very good (it's just SO light compared to my past novels and I'm not sure how I feel about that) it was super fun to write, and mostly the funness was how risky and unknown everything was. I've always been a planner and I decided to be a pantser for a month. Partly it was really fun, I had some crazy amazing days where I put off writing all day and then would sit down and BOOM something unexpected and awesome would happen, but I also had days where I just did not. know. what. to. do. The story that I ended up with would never be here if I hadn't done it like that, three quarters would not exist pretty much. A whole character who I LOVE would never have appeared, because he was something random I did for words that turned into the rest of the book pretty much. And that was the best thing, setting out at the beginning of the month with a vague idea of what the book would be and having it be SO different and awful in parts but amazing in other parts.

I will definitely have to see how I feel about it in another month, because while I like it I don't have this love for it like I do the last book I wrote. And most of the time it felt like I was writing a practice novel so I'll have to see if in a while I think there's things I can salvage or not. But either way I'm going to keep writing, and also, I wrote 9 poems in November! Compared to 1 in October, so that makes me happy.

First sentence of nano 2010: The sea was green that day, on top of everything else.

And I just want to say, congratulations to everyone else who did nanowrimo! It's a crazy thing to attempt and like they say, no matter how many words you wrote that's that many more words than you'd have if you hadn't tried. And this video is awesome, it pretty much sums it up. http://blog.lettersandlight.org/post/2053755708/nanotoons-a-farewell

Goodbye nanowrimo, till next year!

This month has been insane

Things I Have Now that I Didn't Have A Month Ago:

My permit (I can drive! It's kind of scary but pretty great, and I needed to get it.)

A plot (Finally. I really like my plot, but I also have a sinking feeling that I'm going to fail nanowrimo this year. We'll see...)

A good stash of candy for nano (I have to have candy, if I get my quota every day I get a piece!)

No time (Driver's ed took up most of it, plus I had to do so much piano because of this sonata festival I was in. This week has been the only semi-non-busy week of the month, and then tomorrow Nano starts.)

The ability to cry onstage (I love acting class, it's amazing.)

The LAST performance of Thumbelina coming up (It's going to be so sad... In a way it really needs to be over since we've been doing spaced apart performances since June, but I love this cast to death and I'm going to miss them so much!)

An obsession with the PBS miniseries of Sherlock Holmes (I'm in love with it *grin* It's so fantastic. They only have the first episode so far on the website but I'll get to see the second tomorrow! That'll be my reward if I write 1,667 words and don't immediately rewrite them.)

And that's all for now. I can't believe Nanowrimo starts tomorrow.

Kelia

Randomness

I don't think I have the right kind of brain for keeping a blog, every time I try to write a post it ends up either boring me, or I have no idea what I'm trying to say. So whatever! This'll be short and choppy.

It's fall! I love trees in the fall, but when they lose all their leaves it makes me sad. Right now I'm just trying to enjoy the red and yellow and orange and not think about snow.

It's the last day of September, which means that Nanowrimo is one day and one month away. I am not much farther in having a plot, though I think I've given up on the idea of writing a non-fantasy. The ones I have come up with are definitely fantasy, and I have to decide on one soon and start fleshing out the characters. But I actually finished my first story since last nano! It's very short, about a page, and very dark and sad but I love it.

I've read three books since Stolen. I reread The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley (third time if I count it being read aloud to me) which I adore, and I read The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff which was awesome, and How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff which was so good! How I Live Now had a fantastic character voice, it felt like the character was talking to me the whole time. It was the first book where sentences a paragraph long didn't annoy me, they were just like run-on sentences people use all the time while talking.

Tomorrow is Friday which I'm very excited about, almost all of my favorite shows air Thursday night so I watch them tomorrow on Hulu. A good thing about September is all the shows start again!

I haven't written as many poems as I should have this month but here is the latest, the 5th.

A sound is whooshing overhead

the dark is seeping through the walls

and rain surrounds this house

this lonely house amidst the storm.

It's really random, it isn't even raining. Oh well! Tomorrow is October...

Stolen by Lucy Christopher

So. Stolen. I think this is the first book that's made me cry (really sob, not just eyes watering) since I read Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles, which I read 3 or 4 or 5 years ago. This book really got to me. It was such an emotional book, everything that Gemma felt was portrayed so well and so truly.

Stolen is a letter written by Gemma to the man who kidnaps her out of an airport and takes her to The Middle of Nowhere, Australia. Her time there is terrifying and awful, and yet the more she delves into the mind of her captor the more she realizes that nothing is simple, not even hate.

I loved the writing in this book, it was so fluid and natural, told from after but never giving away what happens next. And I loved Gemma, she was so relateable and she never gave up. Everything she was thinking and feeling made sense, which was good because it would have ruined the book if the narrator was annoying. And Ty-- Ty was a real person, not just some evil kidnapper. At the end of the book my thoughts about him were almost as complicated as Gemma's. This is definitely a book that will stay with me for a while--more than anything I know I'll remember the beautiful description of the Australian desert (and the heat) and how frightening, and sad and overwhelmingly real it was.

NaNoWriMo ramblings and books

I finished Mockingjay a few days ago, which I'm not going to say anything about other than everyone is going to have their own opinion of it and no one is going to read it the same way. But a really good review of it is here which I agree with, but warning: VERY spoilery.

I also read Incarceron, which was awesome!! The world felt real and I loved the characters, and the plot was really complex and it had me skimming to see what happened next. I was completely engaged from the beginning, and even though the world and their situation was dark it never felt like a very dark book (though that might have been because I had just read Mockingjay). I canNOT wait for the second, which comes out in the U.S. in December but came out in Great Britian in 2008.

Incarceron is about a boy named Finn, who lives inside the vast metal prison Incarceron. But Finn is different than the other prisoners there; he believes he came from Outside, and he wants to escape. Claudia lives Outside and is the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, as

she tries to untangle the web of mysteries that surround her she helps Finn because she knows he can help her too...

In other news, it's the beginning of September (strange) so that means NaNoWriMo is less than two months away! I have no idea what I'm going to do for a story. I have one plot I could do, but it really doesn't excite me. I think I might actually not do straight-up fantasy, which would be interesting! The only non-fantasy stories I've written have been short. But I think that two things I definitely want to do this year is have it be more of a character driven story, since the last two nano's were lacking in that, and have the season and place be a part of the story. Like summer by the sea, or autumn in an old house in the woods, or winter in a city. I probably won't be able to resist having some kind of supernatural twist to the story but I do want it to be modern I think.

One of the things I hate the most about nano is the first sentence. I want to get it perfect, but I will sit there forever staring at the page and deleting attempts if I let myself, so I have to just pick a sentence and go with it.

Nanowrimo 05's first sentence was spectacularly bad: After my parents died, my whole world started coming apart. *shudder*

And Nano 06's was just plain blocky: Epsilon looked down at the earth.

Nano 07's was alright: The school bus dropped me off in front of the library, and I hurried inside.

Nano 08's was in a dream but that doesn't quite excuse it: I gazed up at the sky, my smile growing till I felt like it would tip me over.

And Nano 09's (which was a rewrite of my 08 novel) was very short: She was running.

Oy. Hopefully this year's will turn out decent. Also I've been really bad this year about writing in general, since last year's nano (other than poems) I've probably only written about 10,000 words. And it's all snippets of stuff, random scenes and starts of stories that never got more than a few hundreds words on them. I think I'll have to try and write a short story between now and nano to get my gears running, I know how awful it is to jump into nano and not even be used to writing 500 words a day.

Now I have to go think of a plot!

kelia

Actually reading actual books

A few minutes ago I finished a book... and it so happens to be the FIRST book I've finished since the beginning of July. This is crazy!! So not acceptable, but my insane busy summer left me practically no time to read. And TV shows take up so much less brain space than books, and I need brain space for other things. So in the last week of summer Mom suggested "Why don't you get a book out?" and since I was kind of sick I thought it would be relaxing. I missed it so much!! All the other books I had tried to pick up didn't keep my attention but I loved the feel of 13 Treasures and it was just the right thing to read.

13 Treasures is about a girl who is sent to her Grandmother's house for the summer when her mother becomes fed up with her 'trouble making'-- a result of the fact that Tanya can see fairies and no one else can. At her Grandmother's she finds mysteries at every turn, and her attempts to solve them only lead her closer to the danger hiding at every turn.

Evil fairies, old mysteries, frightening woods... I knew I was going to like this book as soon as I read the flap. I do love my evil fairies. Though there was actually not very many fairies in it other things made up for it, the detailed look into the world of people who can see them was done very well and you really felt for the characters. Something was always happening with the plot and the different threads wove together perfectly. Tanya was 13 and the book had a little bit of a younger feel, but it didn't really bother me. It was Michelle Harrison's first novel and I'll definitely be looking forward to her next-- and I really hope I continue to read more.

One thing that might help is that Mockingjay is in at me for the library! I am SO excited to read it, I'm just scared at what a roller coaster it's going to be. Fingers crossed that no one I love dies!

(Also I have to say, that I love the cover of 13 Treasures. It's so perfect, with those gorgeous gates and the raven, and it's glittery!)

Kelia

This is where I fail at blogging

So yes, I fail. It's now been more than a month (!!!) since I've posted on my blog. This summer has turned out to be a lot busier than I thought... and I'm a little bit lazy too.

Right after my last blog post I went off to piano camp, which was completely amazing, though different than last year. Last year I kind of assumed that all the same people would come again, but only about half did and half were new people. I really missed some of my friends from last year but it was awesome meeting the new people, even though we all only really started talking the last 3 days. We all decided it needs to be 2 weeks long! That would make it perfect. What with the whirlwind of master classes, trying to snag a room to practice in (and ending up sharing rooms a lot) concerts, and lessons, it feels like it passes in the blink of an eye. It was amazing seeing my friends from last year who did come, and all the teachers, and being surrounded by music every day. The thing I love most about the camp is the atmosphere of living and breathing music and pushing yourself to do the best you can. My new favorite song is Chasse-neige by Liszt, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lZ_52DOXis which you have to go listen to, it's incredible. My teacher said I couldn't learn it though (and maybe not ever) because my hands are waaay too tiny to do the jumps. :( But she said I could start learning the Chopin etudes!! I'm so excited for that, I'm getting the music on Wednesday.

I have to go but I'll leave you with another song that I absolutely love but cannot find the music for, I think I'd have to go to Bulgaria to get it. It's Nocturne by Vladigerov, and I don't think this video quite does it justice but it's the best I can find on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RszzQgTWmPs

Next time I post it's going to be all about theatre again!

Kelia

Theatre

"You know that feeling you get, when you see lovely folks that you used to work with (that you liked), or old friends that you have lost touch with (whom you enjoyed), and you get this deliriously giddy feeling in your soul?

And, just like that, you realize that you missed them, and you didn't even know it?"

(A quote from the lovely blog A Fanciful Twist.)

This is exactly how I felt when I started doing theatre again last month. I hadn't done any since Emma in 2008 (which seems like such a long time ago now) and only got vague wishings to do it again sometime... and then when I started doing it it was like oh my goodness I LOVE this I've missed it so much!!!

This month has been a whirlwind of theatre, and it just keeps getting more crazy and fun. We did two shows in a school, I spent 9 hours at the theatre one day, one week I was there 4 days out of 7 and the next week when I had three days in a row off I didn't know what to do with myself. I was playing piano for a musical for the first time, that was really fun (when people had nothing to do they would come over to the piano and ask to run songs, usually going really fast for fun :D ) and interesting because I was the musical director and had to direct the songs. It was fun but I really missed being backstage, and seeing them rehearse made me want to be acting more than playing the piano. On the last night I actually was in it, they needed someone for the Tinker who was just in the first scene and had no songs, so that was great. I did my last show on Monday night which I'm really really sad about :( but I'm going to be doing more stuff with the theatre in July and August so I'll see most of the cast again this summer. The cast for Thumbelina was awesome, they were all good actors and singers and there were a lot of super nice people. I hope I'll be able to act in a show this fall, and I have a feeling I'll be doing stuff with this theatre for years.

I've been too busy to write many poems though, sadly. It's the first month since 2007 when I haven't written at least 4... maybe I'll get a burst of inspiration this week and write a bunch :D This is the only real one I've written, which I just wrote this moment!

When I go to bed lately

I listen to music

till it calms my mind and my limbs are immobile

soothed into a coma-state

my thoughts drop away

Until this month I'd forgotten what

it feels like to lay awake

busily thinking

for hours and hours and maybe

then sleeping

The ipod trick works

but I'd forgotten, too

how it feels to be so filled

with music and sounds and people and voices

that you never want to fall asleep

you just want to keep

reliving the day

Thoughts

Something I've always wondered: would I like myself if I met myself? It could go two ways I think, either everything I did would make sense and I'd be able to understand it all and we'd (the two me's) get along perfectly, or I'd annoy myself terribly because I'd be able to pick out all my faults from the outside, for once. I kind of think it would be a mix of the two. I'd find myself frustrating and I'd probably criticize myself a lot because we'd have the same faults, but at the same time I could be entirely myself around myself, more so than with anyone else.

So yes, just rambles :) What do you think?

Wordle Awesomeness

I just discovered this site, www.wordle.net that will show you your most used words in any piece of writing. It's so awesome! These are my most used words for nano 09. (I don't know how to make it bigger, but you can click on it to see it full size.) I figured those three names would be the most often used, but apparently I used Went, Looked, Think, Asked, Going, Like, Eyes, Just, Demon (of course) Around, Get, One, Face, Go, See, Back, Vera, and Still the most too. Probably the longest word in there is Enchantment.

I made one for my nano 06 too, and a lot of the words were the same :P Oh well. Also, I LOVE their fonts.

Changes

I've decided after almost a year of not posting that I want to get this blog started again. But it will be different, instead of posting just poems I'm going to be posting about books, music, and whatever I feel like pretty much :D I had gotten bored with posting poems (and I'm not as into writing them anymore, though hopefully that's just a stage and I am still writing them sporadically) so I want a broader range of things to talk about. It'll probably mostly be me exclaiming about things I love :D

Right now I love TV shows. I've started watching a lot more than usual this spring, just in time to get really attached to them before their season ends for the summer. Why do they all have to end at once?? The good thing about summer coming though is that Lie To Me comes back in June! And White Collar will start again in July, so those are two very good things to look forward to. And besides all the shows I watch coming back in September there are going to be a ton starting too, this link has their previews. http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-05-13/bring-on-the-new-tv-shows I think Undercovers, Hawaii Five-O, and The Event look really good along with a bunch more.

Another thing I love: the picture at the top of the post. So many colors!

Kelia

Poem

I haven't written any very good poems lately, though I have still been writing them. But here's one I like, any advice?

We sit
in the tree,
on the sand,
on the bed in the room.
The wind is shushing
all worries away
the waves are pounding,
pulling back,
pounding, pulling back
emotions spill over
and we pull them quickly back
nothing can disturb
the hot sun
and bright sky.
The wind is shushing away
all worries
and all worries quickly fade
the rustling leaves
and yellow-green sunlight
casts a warm veil over
the tree, our tree
our tree where we are queens.
Darkness flows in
through the window
tickles our feet
the room slowly enlarges until
we see the whole world
in it's ceiling.


Also, I filled up my whole poem journal! I got it for my 9th birthday, so it's lasted me five years. It has (I think) 167 poems in it. Thank you Sarah, for giving me my first!
Kelia