Grace Writing

To start off - THIS IS OFFICIALLY MY FIFTIETH POST!!! I'm so excited! Thank all of you for supporting me and reading my blogs, and know that I couldn't have gotten this far without every single one of you. I look forward to seeing you and talking to you more and more as I continue to write these posts! And now onto "Why We Won't Be Celebrating Halloween This Year" . . . A lot of Christians don't celebrate Halloween, and I respect their decision, but I, personally, LOVE Halloween. It's one of my absolute favorite holidays (besides Christmas, which obviously comes first because it's just so amazing). I mean, you get free candy and people don't look at you weird for putting on a costume. I could do a whole post about how weird the idea of Halloween is - I mean, all it is is that you aren't technically trespassing on someone's lawn when you go up to their door and bang on it, begging for sweets while dressed like some sort of fict...

Book: To Kill a Mockingbird Author: Harper Lee I recently read To Kill a Mockingbird  by Harper Lee for school and I decided to do a book review on it. So here's a quick description of the story, in case you haven't heard much about it:    Living in a small town called Maycomb and experiencing the fun of summer and the sufferings of school, a young girl named  Scout Finch watches her father  Atticus Finch,  an attorney, risking everything - his job, reputation and even his life - to prove the innocence of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of a crime he didn't commit.  The characters - Atticus Finch, Scout Finch, Jem Finch and Calpurnia, as well as others - were well-rounded and had a sense of reality to them that I know as a writer I struggle to create. They spoke, acted and thought like one would think them to, but not in an overdone or annoying way. I loved the perspective on the story that it had. Written in light of the events of the C...

I recently got my first tube of lipstick. I was very excited, as I see makeup the same was as I see colored pencils - it's nowhere close to easy, but the process is enjoyable and fun, and it usually turns out pretty in the end (unless I totally mess up and have to start all over). The lipstick I got is a brighter color than I thought it was going to be, but I like it all the same. (lightish style) My little sister doesn't seem too thrilled with the development. Jokingly, she calls it red (although I am CONVINCED it's just a bright/deep pink), and says things like "oh, you don't need it! Why are you wearing it?!"  Since all of her comments are in jest, I take no offense at them. I play along and I laugh, and I pretend to defend myself as if I really care. But the more she does it, the more I realize that girls have to face this in real life all the time. People tell you things like "that color's not good on you" or " way too muc...

I've learned a lot from watching my Mom and Dad's marriage. It's led me to know what I want to look for in a marriage, eventually, when I'm older, if I ever DO get married. Their marriage helps me know what a marriage is really about, and I couldn't thank them more for that. You see, a lot of girls my age dream about marrying the perfect guy. Living in the perfect house. Having a lot of money and clothes and having a happy family and good, stable jobs. I'm not saying that that's a bad thing, but I think it's a bit unrealistic. It's not impossible, I suppose (other than the perfect guy, thing. Nobody's perfect! *Hannah Montana song now stuck in my head forever*), but in order to have all those things, you need to have a few others. So, here's what I want for my future, if I ever get married. Jesus. Not every marriage has Jesus, and a lot of them do okay without Him. But it's a lot harder, I think. Without Jesus, who do you have as...

I have decided, after giving it minimum consideration, that my cat is the best cat ever. I am, of course, biased, but I do not care. You see, my dear cat, Layla, is a drama queen (as seen in the image to the right), but thankfully she's a drama queen in the best possible way. She likes to follow me around the house, wakes me up early in the morning, ordering me to let her out of my room, even though she often insists on coming inside on her own (though not always. Other times, I haul her up the stairs anyway). She's quite patient, especially for a Siamese cat, as she lets my sister and me do pretty much whatever we like to her (i.e. picking her up, petting her, giving her unwanted hugs, etc.), so long as we don't hurt her. Her eyes are the colors of an icicle and I'm sure she can stare into your soul, though that has not been scientifically proven (yet). Her adorable little white-tipped paws are fluffy and amazing, except when her claws dig into your skin as she tri...

I have found my new favorite song. Go ahead and click on the video, listen to it if you haven't heard it, and then read on. This is a pretty popular song right now, I think (I don't know for sure because I'm in another country), so I'm sure many of you have heard it. But, out of all the songs on the planet, why is this my new favorite song EVER? For one simple reason: they're saying something every girl - and guy - needs to hear, but rarely does. How often is she (or he) told these things? Let's look closely at my favorite lyrics in the song: I see you dressed in white Every wrong made right I see a rose in bloom At the sight of you Oh, so priceless Irreplaceable, unmistakable, incomparable Darling, it's beautiful I see it all in you Oh, so priceless How often, really, do we hear this? How often do we tell people this? How many little kids grow up not knowing their worth? E ven now, all grown up, h ow many of us don't know o...

   What's it like being a teenage writer, you ask? (Or, maybe you didn't ask, but I'm going to continue anyway . . .)    I'd like to say that it's filled with adventure and excitement at every turn, but in reality it's just sitting at a computer and helping other  people (who are apparently "not real") go on adventures and face excitement. Let's start with a basic overview, shall we?    1. Wake up at around eleven, groggy because I stayed up until 3 AM last night    2. Lay in bed scrolling through Facebook for twenty minutes    3. Finally convince myself to get some breakfast    4. Eat said breakfast    5. Read. A lot. Like, probably for two-five hours. Maybe longer.    6. Realize that I should be writing    7. Get distracted by television for thirty minutes while eating lunch    8. Convince self to go write    9. Get sidetracked by...

      The world seems much nicer at first glance than it does when you look deeper into it.    It looks like a fairy tale when you first see it. It feels welcoming and loving when you're a child, and then the older you get the more you recognize the evil that inhabits it.    When I visited Thailand on our vision trip, I saw that evil for the first time in my life. I was around eleven.    I remember walking into the Buddhist temple, having left my shoes outside as they were not allowed to be worn indoors. I walked quietly over the cold marble floor through the dark room and lowered myself to the ground, looking around me in awe. I came as a tourist, but others came to worship.    What did they worship?    A green statue. The Emerald Buddha, it's called. All around me Thai people bowed low to the floor as medieval peasants would in front of a king, their hands palm-down on the floor in front of them in wor...

   Today, I actually have a question for you .    I know, it's a bit odd.    The thing is, though I love writing blog posts, I've been struggling with what I should write. So I decided, "why not ask the people who are reading them?" Makes sense, right?    I've got a few subjects that I could write about, and I really want you to tell me the truth about what you enjoy reading most, and what you would enjoy seeing (whether I've written things like that before or not). Don't just read it and brush it off - give me your input!    Okay, here goes. I could write about . . .     1) My Books    This is probably one of my favorites to write about, because it's what I'm the most passionate about (second to God, of course). This includes things like my Character Guest Posts , and anything else I happen to come up with. If you want things like this, give me specifics! Do you want to know about characters? Se...

   One of the toughest things I struggle with when writing my blogs (or my books, or anything else, really) is that I don't have a very "tough skin" yet. This means that it hurts me when people don't like a post, or when someone offers critique on one of my stories. It's not that I don't believe what they're saying in those critiques of my stories or posts, it's that it hurts to hear them say it!    At the same time, with my blogs, I struggle when one post doesn't get as many views as another. This mostly hurts me because my posts about MK life/life overseas get tons of views, but when I write about what really is important to me (my stories) they don't get half as many views.    I've had to keep some things in mind when I look back over critiques or look at the amount of views of my posts. 1) I'm not writing to please other people, I'm writing to please me    I don't write my blogs to see how many views they get, I writ...