Since I have last spoken to you I have done my History Fair Project (probably failed), got my first kiss (OMG!), got a boyfriend (that was okay), lost a boyfriend (he's a loser anyway), and (most importantly) SEEN THE FINAL HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE TRAILER!!!!  IT WAS AMAZING!!!

Seriously though, the latest trailer was pretty awesome.  It's definitely the best trailer so far and I loved the fact that they included Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape in it more than they previously have especially since (spoilers!) Snape is one of the most important characters in the whole book.

I have had writers block for who knows how long, but I've slowly been coming out of it.  I have wrote a few things that have been in the mind for a while and the first part of my book is finally coming together.  The second part has lots to go before it's done.

My cousin is getting confirmed today.  For those of you who don't know, it pretty much means she's becoming an adult in the church.  I did this back in December, so I know what she's going through.  I'm also her sponsor, which is an honor that is normally reserved for those over the age of eighteen, but since I'm awesome, they let me be her sponsor.  Sponsor pretty much means I have to take her up to the Bishop, hand him the card with her saints name on it, and smile!

Although smiling wasn't techincally part of the job, I just think it's a nice touch.

I'll update again when I finsih the chapter of Lilys Tree I'm attempting to finish.  So you'll probably hear from me in a few months, but hopefully you'll hear from me in a few weeks.

Thanks to Kaleb Nation (mentioned him again!) for this idea.

In 2008, I didn't do much, actually.  I went on my third Disney Cruise, I entered High School, and I came up with another brilliant idea for a book, one that I think will go far.  After the slow events of 2008, I'm ready for an increase in pace.  I'm ready to finish my book.

As I mentioned before, my new years resolution is to write 3-5 pages a day.  This is a lot more than it might sound to you non-writers, but it's quite a lot on any days you might have writers block, but sometimes not enough on days you are flowing with ideas.

I made a video that lists everything I will do in 2009, and here it is:

Last night I came up with a New Year's resolution.  It wasn't until just now that I realized it could be for New Year's, though.  I'm going to try to write three to five pages everyday.  Three pages if I'm typing and five pages if I'm handwriting.  Hopefully if I do this, I'll have at least one manuscript finished by the end of 2009.  Obviously, there are going to be days that I will be incapable of writing, such as when I will be on a cruise ship in the middle of the Bahamas or when I am obsessively watching Kaleb Nation on BlogTV.

It was because of Kaleb Nation that I came up with this goal.  While I was watching his live show last night, my dad and my sister told me that I need to become famous, like him.  They told me I need to write a book, and write fast, because I'm getting older and losing my cuteness factor.  Hopefully I'll follow my new resolution, which I will be starting today, and I will get a book published before I leave High School.  Or, at least, on it's way to being published.

On the topic of Kaleb Nation, I came up with this picture.  It's a spoof of his book.

Some people in the chat during his BlogTV were asking why he named his character Bran and they said it sounded like Raisin Bran.  So, of course, I immediately went and made this.

I talk about Kaleb Nation a lot, don't I?  Julie and I have a joke that we can't go a day without mentioning him in a conversation.  It's almost true.  We talk about him a lot.  He is one of my idol's.  I plan on writing him a letter and sending it to his P.O. box.

That's all for now.  I'll try to update before I leave for my Disney Cruise and I loose internet connection (I'm going to die!).  I'll tell you how my goal of three to five pages is coming.

I just wrote an amazing entry, a whole page long, then Internet Explorer shut down before I could post it.  So I'm going to try to recreate it.

I saw Twilight this weekend.  It was really cool, but I felt that something was missing.  There wasn't enough romance.  Mike was funny, though.

My flight to Chicago is tonight.  After we land, we'll be driving to Iowa, to my Grandma's house.  On Thanksgiving, all of my Dad's side of the family will be at her house and we'll have our big Thanksgiving meal at lunch and open presents after that.  We open presents because we celebrate Christmas with that side of the family on Thanksgiving.

It's a bit late to tell you, but I joined NaNoWriMo.  NaNoWriMo is where you try to write a 50,000 word novel between November 1st and November 30th.  I'm at about 25,000 words, so I need to write 25,000 more in the next four days.  Great...  I'm going to try really hard to finish it, even though I'll be on vacation.

I haven't been writing my main book, Lily's Tree, because of my NaNo novel.  My NaNo novel is called ShadowDancer and, in case anyone is interested, you can moniter the rest of my progress here.

I'll see if I can update from Iowa and tell you about my Thanksgiving.

-Shannie

So I decided to add three chapters to the beginning of my book.  Each chapter is going to focus on one of the three main characters over the course of one day.  It will hold all the contents of the first chapter spread out through three chapters.  I think this is going to better display the characters personalities.

That's all that I have to say at the moment.  Other than the fact that I am assistant director of the school play, Midsummer Night's Dream.

Anywho...Bye,
Shannie

So I'm going to re-write chapter nine slightly.  I am also going to try to add more detail and dialogue (did I spell that wrong?) because the book is going to end up being only 100 pages long and that's no fun.  I want it to be the size of a normal book.  I don't know what a normal book is, though.  Maybe the size of The Lightning Thief.  That's a good sized book and a very good story.

I was re-reading this book called Writing Magic by Gail Carson Levine and it's all about writing Fantasy.  There is this one chapter called Suffer and it's all about how you've got to make your characters suffer because that's what makes people read more.  I counted how many times I make the main characters suffer in the first book.  This is a rough count:

Katrina: 2
Sarah-anne: 1
Lily: 3
Jacob: 13

Aw, poor Jacob.  He's everyone's favorite character, too.  I never really got that, though.  My favorite's are Lily and Katrina, but I realized that I don't talk about them much, so I need to fix that.  I'll add another chapter about what they're up to, and I think I'll add another chapter that talks about the characters before this whole vampires, dark magic, kidnapping problem happens, to show how strong a friendship they have.

And you guys  are thinking right now "What is she talking about?"

Yeah, you'll see some day, hopefully.

-Shannie

p.s. I got a manicure and pedicure and i haven't destroyed it yet!  I have the worst nails on the planet (my sister has the best) and last time I got a manicure, it was destroyed before I left the building.

I just wrote two seperate posts and they each went away because Internet Explorer stopped responding, twice.

Golly!

Anyway, I wrote chapter nine and chapter ten, but chapter nine seems weird, so I think I'm going to re-write the whole thing.  I also feel that the friendships in the book don't seem strong enough so I'm going to work on those.

bye,bye,

Shannie

My birthday is on Wednesday.

*hint, hint*

Not that I would want any birthday wishes or anything....*hint*

But in other news (I say that a lot), I made a Livejournal!

So, yeah, visit that, and I'll be really proud of you.

If you don't?  I'll be sad.

:(

-Shannie

Breaking Dawn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In one week, I will be standing in line for Breaking Dawn.  And I will be in the front of the line, oh, trust me.

And, in other news.  I have written chapters 1-8.  I think that's an accomplishment, considering it took me one year to write that for the last draft.  But the last draft also reflects my silly sixth grade-ish-ness.  The first draft was also never completed.  Draft number 2 is way better.

In other Lily's Tree related news, I had a breakthrough today!  An epiphany, you could call it.

I came up with a plot for the fourth book that actually makes the other books make sense!

It's amazing, I know.

But the problem is, it no longer matches the title of the book: Lily's Sacrifice.  I have a better name for it, but it doesn't go with the whole "Lily series" thing that's going on.

So now, I'm going to rename all the books, except the first.  The only one I'm having trouble with is the second book.  I would ask for your help, but you don't know the plot!  Ha, ha!

If you're wondering, here are the original and new names for each books:

Lily's Tree: Lily's Tree
Lily's Flower: idk
Lily's Krystal: Crystal's Journey or Crystal's Power
Lily's Sacrifice: Katrina's Future or Katrina's Power
Lily's Story: The Grace Story

-Shannie