Q&A Answers

So, I only received five questions, but here's my answer to each!

1) Leilani Sunblade: Why did you start writing, and what made you keep doing it after that? (Stories and such, I mean.)
I read the Life of Faith books, featuring Elsie Dinsmore, Violet Travilla, and others, and I went on the LoF website.  There was a suggestion to create your own LoF stories, so I did!  I invented my character, Grace Annelise Woodley, and wrote about six "books" exploring her life from age ten to adulthood.  I caught the writing bug after that and I mostly wrote random little short stories, the majority of which have long since been thrown away or deleted.

2) July A. Emmance: Emma, what are your thoughts about banning all guns because of the Newtown shooting?

Guns should never be banned for two main reasons. 1) Most of the shooters in these tragedies have acquired their weapons illegally or didn't own the guns they used.  Thus, legal, upright gun owners should not be punished. 2) The only thing that will stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.  Yes, there needs to be gun reform, but I think mental health care and armed security at schools should be higher priority.

3) Kylie: If you had one super power what would it be an why?

Oh, gosh, just one...um...I think I'll say the ability to create force fields.  I'd love to be able to protect people (and also throw them like Violet does to Dash in The Incredibles, lol).

4) Mady R.: How do you feel about living in Illinois? Is it boring, interesting, ect. I know I have my opinions!!

It's not the best, to be honest.  I'm not a fan of the taxes and some of the laws here in IL.  But this is where all of my close friends are, and I'd hate to not know them.  Plus, Illinois has some of the best history in the country, in my opinion (apart from that long list of corrupt governors).

5) Anonymous: I'm very sorry if this is offensive, but I noticed in your "About Me" you mentioned your Lord and Savior, may I ask whom he/she/it is?

That's not offensive at all!  My Lord and Savior is the Lord God.  I'm a Christian, and I believe in the God in the Bible.

6) Leilani Sunblade: If you could have any animal, real or mythical, wild or tame, extinct or living today, for a pet, what would you pick?
Hmm...a wolf. :)

7) Anonymous: I'm really curious, what's it like being homeschooled (whats your daily schedule, do you learn the same subjects everyday, do you do PE?)
Well, let's see.  My daily schedule definitely varies, but that's because most of my core classes are at the co-op this year, so I just have homework I have to get done before each Friday.  I usually do school whenever I feel like it during the day (morning, afternoon, or night).  That's the beauty of being homeschooled.  I can write an English paper in the morning, spend the afternoon writing my book, and then do history homework and a math lesson after dinner.  I don't do the same subjects every single day.  For PE, any physical activity out of the norm counts for me (random walks, swimming if we're at a hotel with a pool, every Thursday in MOPS when I'm carrying around babies and working my muscles), and then we have a Wii Fit. :)

Well, that's all!  Feel free to ask more questions in the comments section, and I'd be happy to edit my answers in.  Doing Q&A sessions is fun. :)

A Random Activity

So we went to my grandparents' house yesterday, and on the way home, I decided to play a little game since I was bored.  I watched the passing cars and tried to nickname the passengers/cars and see what crazy people drive on the Illinois highways.  Without further ado, the list I came up with:

~Sunglasses Family (a dad, mom, teen daughter, and preteen son all wearing sunglasses, chewing gum, and trying to look cool)
~the Blanket Car (blankets piled in the backseat and tied to the back of the trunk; presumably, there were blankets in the trunk, too)
~College Dudes (a car full of guys about college age)
~Headphones Boy (self-explanatory)
~Dusty Traveler (a station wagon so dusty and dirty that it appeared a pale brown instead of its natural silver)
~Young Hipster Couple (self-explanatory)
~Car Clone (duplicate van of ours, from the color to the bug guard on the front; only thing missing on theirs was an antenna topper)
~at least 6 people on cell phones (sad, sad, sad)

So, yeah, IL highways...are kind of bizarre, haha.

NaNo Book Update

Hey, everyone, just wanted to do a quick update about my NaNo book, talk about writing, and a couple other things!

1) So far three people have submitted questions for the Q&A.  I'm going to give it through the weekend, and then I'll answer them. :)

2) My NaNo book.  The good news: I'm still actively writing in it, even if it's just for fifteen minutes a day.  I'm definitely to the part where the conflict is becoming evident-although not so much in the scenes I'm at right now.  The bad news: It's taking me way too long (in my opinion) to finish this darn thing, and I already have sequel ideas. :P Don't you fellow writers hate when that happens???

3) What I love doing is basing things in my books off of my real life.  For instance, there's a short scene I just wrote in my NaNo book where my main character and one of her friends are jamming out to VeggieTales songs, something I've been doing these last few days.  Also, this is an appropriate time to share this picture:

I'll so be doing that some day.  Anyways, a lot of my characters are based on people I know in real life or they're a mix of people in my life.  For example, the main character is pretty much an exact copy of me.  Looks, personality, likes, dislikes.  She's different in some ways, but anyone who is close to me in real life might just start calling my m.c. Clone Emma. LOL.  One friend is based off of my good friend, Hannah, and she has a sort of boyfriend who is reminiscent of Hannah's sort of bf.  Then another friend is a mash-up of Kiersten and one of my very good friends.  I was thinking about how I use my life to create my books, and that reminded me how Heather Vogel Frederick did that with MDBC.  I can only hope what I write turns out as well as her novels.  Crossing my fingers!

Well, that's all.  I have to get back to writing. ;) Thanks for reading. <3 (That's a heart, in case it's an epic fail and you couldn't tell.)

Red Carpet Round-Up

I spent my evening in a positively lovely way.  First I watched the Golden Globes red carpet, then Once Upon a Time (latest episode=shockers and sadness), and then the Golden Globes where Tina Fey made a very mean joke at Taylor's expense.  But now it's time for me to talk about some of the red carpet fashion.  I've collected 13 of the best, worst, and mediocre, and since my main sources had over 100 pictures of different stars, I think my number is probably best.  We're going alphabetical by first name, so let's start!

Adele in Burberry-7/10

I love how it's classic Adele, but I'd love it more if the dress was a deep maroon or some other color besides black.

Amy Adams in Marchesa-8/10

Perfect for her in every way except the color.  Much too close to her skin tone.

Hayden Panettiere in Roberto Cavalli-6.5/10

I liked this until I saw the ruffly part at the bottom.  The dress either needs to be chopped off above that or the bottom should be smoothed out.

Jennifer Garner in Vivenne Westwood Couture-6/10

The pattern isn't very attractive, but I'm generally a big fan of Jennifer's red carpet looks so I'll let it slide just this once.  'Sides, she always seems like such an awesome mom.

Jennifer Lawrence in Dior Haute Couture-4/10

LOVE her make-up, her hair, the belt, the color, just not the design of the top of the dress.

Jeremy Renner-9/10

It's a habit of mine to ignore the guys on the red carpet.  I mean, yeah, they're attractive, but I'm only looking for the dresses.  But, c'mon, he's Hawkeye!  And I'm thinking Hawkeye needs to wear a tux in the next Avengers movie.

Jessica Alba in Christian Dior-9/10

This is one of my favorite looks of hers.  Just ditch that furry clutch!

Kristen Bell in ???-9.5/10

Lovely color, and a great cut since she's a mommy-to-be.

Michelle Dockery in Alexander Vauthier-5/10

I love the ancient Egyptian inspiration, but the gold top needs to end higher up.

Rachel Weisz in Louis Vuitton-4/10

The retro feel is great, but that sheer polka-dot skirt is T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E.

Stacy Keibler in Armani Prive-3/10

She has had some STUNNING looks (for example, her dress from the 2012 Golden Globes), but this falls far short of amazing from that lackluster hair to this sad dress.

Taylor Swift in Donna Karan-10/10

Yes, I'm probably biased.  But my mom called her look stunning.  Tay looked beautiful and parfait for the occasion.  The back of the dress was awesome, too.

Tina Fey in L'Wren Scott-7/10

Funky pattern, nice shoes, nice hair; I just hate how the part at the top is white whereas the rest of the dress is black and champagne-colored.

So that's the Golden Globes fashion round-up!  I've heard from a reliable source (a Twitter direct message from Megan Rose Wong herself) that Fashionista Jane is planning to showcase some of the red carpet fashion on her blog tomorrow.  I'm excited to see what she thinks!

My Friday...How Do I Describe It?

If I divide my day by class periods, then I had four good class periods (including lunch) and two meh ones (including chapel).

Shakespeare was fun, of course.  It's my favorite class this year.
English was meh since we learned something "new" (that wasn't new to me or to anyone who took this "Great Books" class).
Lunch was fun.  
Algebra was...insanely amazing.  That's crazy, right?  I hate math.  I think I've made that clear.  But I caught onto all the concepts quickly and felt very smart.  
History was good.  We took a test, and since I finished so quickly with mine (like, 10 minutes), my teacher graded it before class was over.  I only missed one problem and I got over one hundred because of extra credit questions.

So, yeah, I'm definitely riding on a high right now.  Let's just hope everything doesn't come crashing down this weekend.