Plots and Seams

  The Shards of Ailevon is finally available  in print form!!!!! :D :D It is available from Amazon or CreatSpace . I would love it if you bought one or told your friends about it! ~CH~

Happy December everyone!! Christmas is almost here and NaNoWriMo is done!!! So, I didn't write all of the first draft of Dark Fire Book 2 this month. I was away for a couple of weeks. But I was able to write 12,000 words out of the 35,000. That's the most words I have ever written in a month! I will try and finish this draft by Christmas. We will see how that goes :) Have a great week and enjoy the last month of the year!    ~CH~

Sorry that I haven't written a post in a while, life has been busy. I mentioned in my last post how I have been editing. Not just revising, but totally re-writing my book. That has occupied a lot of time.  I have a love/hate relationship with editing (actually, with writing in general). It's hard work and I procrastinate at lot. But it's also amazing and fun. I get to take my first draft, which is a poorly written version of my story, and make it what I meant it to be. I get to leave out all the annoying and weird things that I first wrote and make it way better. It's awesome. I haven't finished editing Dark Fire book 1 yet, but I am about three quarters finished. I will hopefully finish the second draft in December, since this month I will be busy writing the second book of the Dark Fire trilogy. Today is my first day of NaNoWriMo!! I have never written an entire first draft in a month, so we'll see how it works! I intend for Dark Fire book 2 to be around...

So, after my lovely break from writing in August, I have now begun to edit my fantasy novel! Instead of going through and cutting words and rearranging sentences like I did with my last book, I have decided to just rewrite my entire book. It sounds like a daunting task, but so far, it's actually really fun and freeing. On another note, an exciting package arrived in the mail today. The proof of The Shards of Ailevon! So, now I need to read through it and see if there are any things that I need to fix (I've already found a few), and then I will be able to make The Shards of Ailevon available in print form!! I was rather excited!! :D ~CH~

Today, I thought that I would tell you some random facts about myself. At first I couldn't decide how many to do, then I decided to do seven, since it is the perfect number :) So, here you go, seven random facts about yours truly: I LOVE soundtracks!! Lord of the rings, How to train your dragon, Avengers etc. The new Cinderella has quickly become a favorite. It's so beautiful and magical! I have a ridiculous fear of sharks and sea serpents in lakes, ponds and pools. My favourite Austen hero is Mr. Tilney. He is friendly, funny and forgiving.  In 2010 we went to Costa Rica, and there I was stung my a scorpion! Thankfully, it was not poisonous. My favourite book of the Bible is Psalms. It's so poetic!   I have been wearing glasses since I was five, because of a lazy right eye. I can see fine without them now, though I still wear them most of the time. I love coffee crisp chocolate bars!! Hope you enjoyed this! ~CH~

Last week I finished writing the first (or rough draft) of my fantasy!! The last two days of writing (Thursday and Friday), I wrote about 1,000 words each day. I felt like I was getting practice for NaNoWriMo. :) For any who are unaware, I am making this a trilogy. I am not sure yet what I am going to name each of the books, but I will be calling the trilogy Dark Fire. I have begun to outline the second book of this trilogy, while I let the first book sit for all of August. I will start editing it in September. I am hoping to write the second book in November for NaNoWriMo. 35,000 words in 30 days? No problem. ;) ~CH~

I finished making the Elsa dress for my niece!! I had originally wanted it to be fairly screen accurate, but it turned into more of an Elsa 'inspired' dress. I added this ribbon to the dress because I thought it looked too plain. Sorry that I don't have a picture of the dress without the ribbon.  I attached the cape to the dress with snaps, so that it would be removable. I also made this cape for my younger niece (she's 2) so that she would be able to play with her sister. Let me know what you think! ~CH~

First of all, sorry that I didn't get this post up last week. The camera that I use was causing me problems so I wasn't able to get the pictures onto my computer until today. Anyways...  on with the post. My oldest niece is going to turn 4 in August and she LOVES Frozen. So I am making her an Elsa dress for her Birthday. Since she often 'plays frozen', acting out the songs and many of the scenes, I think she will enjoy this :) The dress I used for the pattern. I am making the dress from this blue material and I am using the shimmery material for the sleeves and cape. The front and back pieces.  I know it's wrinkly. I have yet to iron it :)  I did some ruching in the back with elastic thread. Yay, for not having to put in a zipper!!  Attaching the front and the back. The sleeves. Isn't that shimmery material gorgeous? BTW, my fantasy is now 25,000 words long!! Almost there :D ~CH~

I have been working on writing the rough draft of my fantasy for many months and there are days when I just hate it. I have written over 21,000 words but I still have more than 8,000 to go! Sometimes I struggle with is how terrible my book feels. It's frustrating to have a great story idea in my mind but then when I go to write it down, it stinks. One thing that I have found very encouraging is how many quotes I have found on Pinterest or blogs that remind me that my first draft doesn't have to be good or even make sense, it just has to be written.   Editing and revising will come later. Right now I just need to write... even if it's terrible.   Well, thanks for listening to my rant about what I have been struggling with recently! Sometime this week, I hope to put up a post of a fun sewing project I will be working on. :) ~CH~

Hey all! Here are some drawings I did last year. They are all freehand but are based off of pictures I found on Pinterest. They are mostly Disney characters. Enjoy! Accalia- the main character of my book, The Shards of Ailevon. A dragon Elsa Anna Rapunzel Tinkerbell Ariel Jasmine

Hey everyone. Today I wanted to share some literary quotes with you... but I couldn't figure out which to use, so I decided to use some opening lines from several stories. Enjoy!     First, let's start with some classics: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." - The Bible. "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."  - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."  - The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. "The surging, seething, murmuring crowd of beings that are human only in name, for to the eye and ear they seem naught but savage creatures, animated by vile passions and by the lust of vengeance...

Over the past several months I have grown to love cauliflower. That might sound weird, but it's true :) I have found so many uses for cauliflower on pinterest. I use it to make pizza , cauli-tots, and I've even used it to make savory muffins! So when I found this recipe the other day, I was intrigued by the idea that you could make grilled cheese from cauliflower. It worked really well and tasted great!! Cauliflower "bread" Mmmmmmm  :)

Last December, a few of my friends and I decided that we were going to cosplay to see The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. We got to the theater a few hours early, so we stood out in the foyer for a while. We got many funny looks and several people commented on our costumes  :) It was tons of fun!! Hobbit Elf- Tauriel Elf Don't we look very middle-earthy with our 3-D glasses? :)

It's been two months since I published The Shards of Ailevon and I've sold ten copies!!!! It may not seem like much, but to me it's pretty exciting!! In honor of this momentous occasion, I though I would share with you the program I used to write it.  One Year Adventure Novel . At a home school conference, a few years back, my dad found this program and pointed it out to me. I had written a couple short stories and enjoyed it, so he thought I might like this program. He was right!! Though the program was designed for the novel to only take one year to write, it took me two years. Editing took longer than I thought it would  :-/  Oh well, it's published! :) For the fantasy that I am writing this year, I am using the second year program, Other Worlds . I am not following it exactly, it's like what Barbossa would say:     Oh, and as an update on my fantasy, I have over 15,000 words written, so I'm halfway through the first draft!!!

It has been a tradition in our family since before I can remember to eat homemade pizza on Friday night. I recently began to use this recipe for my pizza dough and I love it!!! It's light and delicious!! Pizza dough recipe I normally make either a cauliflower or zucchini crust pizza for my mom. Today I made cauliflower. Cauliflower pizza recipe Till next time!!

In honor of Pi day, I decided to make a chocolate pie for dessert. I used chocolate pudding as the base and made a marshmallow-like frosting. I found the recipe for the frosting here. Beating the frosting The chocolate pudding Ready to eat!!

Last year I made a stuffed whale out of jeans for my niece. I followed this tutorial (which includes a pattern).  It worked really well!  :) The fins and tail. The body. All of the pieces, sewn and turned right side out. Pleats. They were a pain!! Sewing on the fins. Almost there! Just need to stuff it and sew on the tail! Inside out. Partly stuffed. Finished! What do you think?