Tuesday, September 25, 2012

I am Number Four Series

I got into the I am Number Four series, through the movie. Sorry but I didn't hear about it or the book The City of Ember though I will talk about that series later. The first book of I am Number Four is really good. It is the story of an alien race called Lorien. Their world was destroyed by this other race called Mogodorians. The Mogodorians want to destroy the last nine Lorien who are the only ones that can stop the Mogs. The catch is the Lorien have to be killed in order. So you have number one though nine and guess what the first three were killed leaving for ta,ta, ta, ta, to be the next victim. All kidding aside I really recommend this series its simply a fun read.
To be honest though I thought about half of the second book was boring. In the Power of Six we meet Seven who is held up in a Catholic Monestrary in Spain with her guardian who doesn'w want to remember Lorien she would rather be a servant in the monestary. For a quick paced action book  I found the parts with Seven very boring hand hard to slog through. You might not think so but I am Number Four was so good I slogged though it.
I almost didn't buy the third book, however, I am glad I did. This book was so well written I finished it in about three weeks and that's due to me putting it down for about four days because I was hardly coming up for air the Rise of Nine has, you guessed it number Nine in it. Its fast paced and didn't let down or disappoint. The only thing I wish Pitticus Lore had done differently is I would have liked a cliff hanger that kept me wanting more at the end of the book. I mean(granted it's a movie) but Empire Strikes Back ended giving me a deep sense of anxiety about what was going to happen to Han Solo. Luke Skywalker barely made it out of Darth Vader's clutches, arrgh, what's going to happen next?
I would have loved a cliff hanger like that but you can't always get what you want. Sing it! " But if you try sometimes, you get what you need! Oh, yeah!" Sing it Mick!  Anyway that's all for now.

Suffering as a part of the Christian Life.

It takes some of us longer than others to discover the unfairness of life. Perhaps we have been working hard for a promotion only to be passed up. Maybe we had a parent who was taken from us at an early age and our relatives unsure of how to handle the situation were of no help or made a tough situation worse. Or perhaps your parents were destructive people as mine were.
I was reading Phillipians chaper two the other day and it was talking about how if we are Christ's we will suffer with him like he suffered. I don't know about you but sometimes that's not exactly what we want to hear. I have been living with an angry destructive man who likes to threaten people around the house. He was suppose to be there just for a few weeks to work around the house, he isn't even paying rent.
Work as I have been griping about has been really hard also. Very challenging. Some stupid mistakes on my part got me called into the office by my store manager but I know God will get me through my stupidity as well as just dealing with how tough it can be at times fixing other people's mistakes and looking out for the well being of my employees.
To me to be a manager means to serve others at a greater compassety. To be a store manager means to build up your assistant who will help build up your management team. Look after the employees and keeping your store on course. Which is more than I want to do. It means letting go of selfiishness and putting others before me.
What I was missing with the verses before it was talking about suffering, it was talking about being in fellowship with the Holy Spirit something I have only begun to do and also recieving God's ministering love. Oops! I have been missing out on that and that is something I need if I am going to endure hardship. God doesn't say he's going to change the world and make it fair he said he will use unfairness in the lives of Christians to change them so we react differently in Curcumstances.
I know you may not be Christian, but I hope this gives you some perspective on what it's like to be Christian. I have suffered without Christ, being angry for abuse I was going through, I have dispaired to the point of death and wanted a bus to hit me or God to kill me. I was too young to understand suicide. God was there and kept me alive but I had no hope I hoped against hope because I suffered without God. I don't have all the answers on suffering I just know that what God tears down(he allows suffereing he isn't responsible for it. We will suffer either way. Life isn't fair but I now have someone who will turn my suffering around and build me up. Like Joseph in Genesis who suffered unjustly and God used him to lead a nation. ) he will rebuild.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Uglies series

This week I am going to recommend the Uglies series, now I need to say first off that this is a teens series so if you are not into that then feel free to stop here. This series is a future light distopian society. In this world children at the age of eight or so are taken away from their parents and put into dorms and are labeled Uglies.
At the age of sixteen they are cosmetically enhanced into Pretties who live on the Pretty Island and attend Pretty parties, and eat drink and be merry. Tally Youngblood wants to be pretty more than anything. Her friend becomes a Pretty sooner than her and she has to admit he has changed it's like he doesn't want to be with her anymore.
A friend of her's tells her she doesn't want to be pretty and takes off. Then a group who call themselves Specials abduct Tally and tell her if she ever wants to be a Pretty she will find her friend or remain Ugly forever. I have to admit I really had a hard time with the first book Uglies. The Tally is an unsaisticated airhead and she is selfish.
(Slight Spoiler Alert) Yet she changed at the end of hte book in the end she chooses to do the right thing after so many people who trusted her were betrayed and she chooses to infiltrate the Pretty society.

Pretties is my favorite book so far. In this book Tally is inflitrating the Pretties as a Pretty herself. She is going to parties, she is also trying to remember what her infiltrator group told her. They believed that the Specials not only made Pretties, beautiful but they did something to thier brains which is why they were so shallow.
The Third book is Specials, Tally ends up becoming one because she impressed the Specials.I have to admit by the third book I was really routing for Tally. Which is why I hated much of the ending. I wont tell you anymore but how you think it ends may not be how it ends. Right now I am on the third book called Extras. After the first three I was hesitant on reading anymore. It was slow going at first. Its a new Character called Aya.
In this new society Tally helped to bring about everything is about noteriety and reputation. Aya is an Extra and she wants to be somebody. I  thought it was going to be boring but when they got to the mountains and found some almost humans there it got really interesting. I highly recommend it its gotten really good.

I really enjoy Scott Westerfields world building I really got into it after a while.
Sorry I missed some posts. I have gotten really busy but I need to keep up. I am going to post how things are doing. They are going really well I made it past inventory and we are entering the busy season at work and I am really having a hard time with the girl who I work with who is from New Jersey. She's like I am going to do this, I am going to do that.
Yesterday she quipped that she was going to leave early. I think it needs to be said that she is a really good worker but she whines constantly and calls in sick a lot. When she is there she works but I just want to tell her to find another job. It really drags on my spirit to have a really negative person there like that.
Pushing away the daily whine, if I put it into perspective I could always put someone like that into one of my stories. Heh,heh.
I think most of my really good work has come out of extreme pain and suffering I have endured, however, as I am trying to write for kids I have to lighten it up. I can't do stories for really young kids that are like my poem Weeping Rain. The summation being that a heroes former sidekick gets turned into a lycanthrope and he has to kill him. You know guys I have to admit I really have a hard time talking about my life. I feel like I have to embelish it or I have to make it interesting. The truth is I really have a hard time believing I deserve it. I am getting better though. I have a lot more self worth than I did. I didn't become subserviant to the active alcoholic that has been living with us for two and a-half months or so making our lives living hell.

It was like visiting my childhood. Everyone gets angery but with an alcoholic you can't reason with them. Their ears don't work you do what they say or else. This guy liked to threaten us with violence. One of the guys called the cops. I wish it had been me. He recently appoligized not to me but someone else. That housemate then acted like everything was better. Until this guy gets help, I really don't put much stock in a simple I'm sorry. I've seen it too many times before. Where I struggle is drawing the line between unforgiveness and tough love.

This is where I lean on God I suppose. God let me go through this hard time so he could grow me I know that. Afterwards he moves us on. Well I am putting another post up after this on a writer I recommend reading so if you are here for that continue on to the next post. Thanks for reading ,  -Brian

Thursday, September 13, 2012

The Fall of Gondolin


The Fall of Gondolin
Based on the Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien; First Age of Middle Earth.
I.                    Elendil remembers.
Oh shadow of Tirion,
Thy seven singing fountains,
Their unfathomable deeps,
Around which I danced,
Upon widening glance
Turgon’s glistening tower high above.
Gondolin, oh Gondolin city on a hill,
Thy high white walls,
Thy wide white stairs spilling like waterfalls
Below to Silvery gates.
II.                  The Coming Night.

Night gathered its stars burning bright,

So also burned the silver and golden light

Upon the courts of Turgon.

Pulling out lyres sang we of Tirion and the west,

And of the frozen tears in Hexacarte.

I lost myself in the mantle of Idril which burned bright

In the golden light of Gilingal.

Maeglin watched from the shadows.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

The Princess and the Dragon

Hey everybody, I was going to put up a peice I did on the fall of Gondolin from the first age of Middle-Earth, however it turns out I don't have it saved anywhere but my computer which I didn't bring with me. I don't have it saved in the Cloud yet. I wanted to give you a snipped I wrote based on a awesome dream I had. Its traditional fantasy, which I said I would never write, then again I said I would never live in California either so there you have it. Anyway without any further adeu I give you the Princess and the Dragon.


That night in November brought winds in from the Western Ocean, islands of clouds floated silently across an otherwise clear night. The sky was bejeweled with stars and the moon showed its brightest that night.  Jarred stood on the dock with many subjects all dressed in their finest. Many boats filled the harbor and from the docks to the shore were filled with all kinds of small boats all filled with lanterns to commemorate the Independence of the Kingdom of Brightwood.
The Castle was brightly lit, its banners hung in the breeze. Jarred spoke softly with friends. The sounds of brown pelicans started him for a moment. The King and Queen celebrated celebrated with their courtiers inside the castle. Something Jarred would normally have been a part of had he not been given time off for recouperation from a greivous wound he had suffered a mere a month ago. He had perfered the water on his time off of guarding the princess. Fishing seemed a simpler life than his time at court.

Chastity, one of Jarred's friends, commented on the Princesses' forthcoming birthday Celebration, when a horrible cry came from the sky unlike any sea bird Jarred had heard in Harborough Bay before. It was then a large red head and snake-like neck came out of one of the larger clouds over head. Jarred snapped to attention," Jarred wait,"Kalil, one of Jarred's other friends said." It looks like it's going to move on."
Sure enough it rather high up and it's eyes weren't on Castle Brightwood.

However, slowly, as he watched it, the dragon began to descend, but it's eyes were distant looking far off beyond Brightwood Castle.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

My Plans for This Year

I am applying for Tel-Aviv University this year. Still trusting and continuing to trust God and learning in new ways to trust. I am really struggling at work under the pressure. My boss had a coniption fit the other day I wanted to say something mean to him or something still it wasn't that bad. I don't handle stress well and when I am in the middle of something and I have a demading coworker I tend to snap at them.

Not sure what the right action here is. I make appologies where I need to. Not to continually whine on this subject I really don't like to share the uglier side of myself with people. Who does? Anyway, I am trusting God on going to Mt. Hermon Writers Conference this up coming year as well as Comi-Con.

I've been reading a lot of library books but it has recently occured to me I need to be reading my giant book collection at home. I had a really good hike up Mt. Burdell the other day. I got to see all the surrounding area around Novato. You know what ever your view of San Francisco Bay might be the people of Marin County preserved a lot of Open Space so Novato itself is surrounded by Forested hills and off in the distance you can see the salt marshes.

In the fall and I think in the spring you can see Western blue birds on Mt. Burdell. Awesome. I don't know if you take as much inspiration from nature as I do but I know J.R.R. Tolkein did and what a rich picture he gave us huh?
I suppose I've rambled enough,

Signing off see you later,

Brian.

Current Works in Progress.

I am sorry for my missing my writing work post this last week AGAIN! I have been working a lot lately. Let me do a sum up of what I am working on. I am writing my testimony if how I went from a Satanist to a Christian which is taking a lot out of me. I have some ideas for some more Lord of the Rings poetry. I have written some work on my comic book story as well as an alternate tale of Mortimer Crane an accountant who aspires to be a superhero. Which I hope you will find interesting.
That's about all that's going on in the writing world other than I am starting to draw character concepts of my protagonists as well as birds and beasts of my world which go anywhere from sparrows to strange human like mutations. Its been a fun place to create and design. If there is any advice I can give anyone its write. Even if your world concept isn't strong for heaven sakes write already!!
You can build detail and flesh things out as you go. If you think you can turn in a first draft to an agent please don't expect to hear anything back from them. I have been working on my current concept for over ten years and it has changed and grown in a lot of pleasant ways to what it is today. You don't have to take as long as I did just don't expect to have all of your ducks in a row before you write.
Push yourself. As one artist said in a how to draw superheroes book lately it's not inspiration that pays off it's purspiration so get to work and share it on my site if you want. Now you don't have to give all of your trade secrets away but it helps just to share with other writers. I share with my family and nonwriter friends and I get blank stares. Or I get an experience like Daffy Duck when he tries to upstage Bugs Bunny. Silence and Crickets. "Ha,ha everyone laugh at the duck!"

Cheers see you next time!!