RTW: What Book Brings Back memories?

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival’ where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing or reading related question and answer it on our own blogs.  You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This weeks topic:

What book brings back memories?

                Wow this is hard because every book I read I have some memory of it and something clicks when I read it or think of it again.  So there are so many books to choose from.  I grew up and learned to read on Goosebumps, I read a lot as a kid but then took years off only reading when I had to.  I could pick Twilight, because it was the first book I read and fell in love with again as an adult and revived my love for reading.

                So many options.  So after some internal debate I’m going with White Fang.  Yep this is one of the last books I remember reading for fun when I was in…okay I want to say 4^th grade but my past time memory is kinda iffy.  Anyways I remember reading this book multiple times and crying each time.  I would hide with my copy (I ended up having more than one as they got damaged) in the corner of the empty class room before school, as I hid from the morning games to read.  Or take it with me to my favorite climbing trees on the property way out in the woods that the only sounds were of nature and climb to my special spot.  Though, for safety reasons please head my warning climbing down a tree while eyes are still blurry from tears is not a safe thing, thankfully my butt broke my fall each time.

                I haven’t read this book in so long now that I couldn’t begin to tell you everything that happens or why I love it but just thinking about it makes me think of Zeus.  He was the family dog and back then he was young but would always follow me when I was on the 3-wheeler and went out.  My loyal companion content to just lay next to the tree while I read, though he was smart enough to move away when I made my descent.  He was a German Shepherd mixed with Chow and he looked to me kinda like a wolf.  He made it even more special.  He passed away of old age just over a year ago and well now thinking about this I really want to re-read this book again. 

                There you have my book memory.  Care to share your own?

RTW: Uses for books besides the obvious

            Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival’ where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing or reading related question and answer it on our own blogs.  You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This weeks topic:

What’s your favorite use for a book besides reading it?

             

         Well I haven’t been around for these much the last couple of weeks sadly but I’m trying and this one was too good to pass up.  I have used my books for a multitude of things besides reading.  For instance when I was assembling my guest daybed by myself I used books to keep the frame level with the sides/railings so I could screw them in.  It was very helpful and useful.  My books have also been known to hold things I needed to keep safe, like the tickets for the concert I attended last week.  I couldn’t lose them so I put them into a book on my shelf for safe keeping until we left.  Oh and on the same note as the daybed assembly I used a bunch of books and a flattened out cardboard box as a coffee table for a card game once.  Books have a multitude of uses you just have to be creative.  I haven’t found another use for ebooks besides reading yet but give me time. 

                What about you?  What creative uses have you found for books besides reading?

RTW: Prom

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival’ where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing or reading related question and answer it on our own blogs.  You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This weeks topic:

It’s almost prom season, and since we love to read and write about teenagers, we want to hear your prom stories!

Prom.  Okay then.  Well the prom here is open to Juniors and Seniors thus we get two proms, more if you’re invited to it as a Freshman or Sophomore, or hell even after graduating.  Anyways, I myself only went to the planned two.  I also can't find my photos at the moment so none to share there.  The stories will have to do.

My Junior prom was okay.  I went with some friends not bringing a date (I didn’t date in high school I was too shy and would never ask anyone and since no one asked me out…yeah I was single).  The one person I thought about bringing as a friend (he was a Sophomore and couldn’t come without being invited) didn’t work out.  See he had this huge crush on a friend of mine and she was bringing a date and well I didn’t want to cause any trouble, and frankly if I had a date I didn’t want to have them hanging out with someone else the whole night.  Call me crazy.  Prom wasn’t anything spectacular, I hung out with friends, not the ones I had planned to hang out with they sorta abandoned me, but I had fun.  I danced, I laughed and when it was all said and done I went home.  Only feeling slightly sorry for myself that my friends whom we’d been talking after party had ditched without saying word one to me leaving me out.

Still I’d say it was a good time. 

Now Senior prom was much different.  I still went alone, much to my grandmothers displeasure (she tried to set me up with someone from her church telling this person I’ve never met that I couldn’t get a date…yeah keep in mind this year I didn’t want a date).

My dress was comfy and so were my shoes because well…I went in flip flops.  Now I had heels to wear but the previous year no one wore shoes after 15 minutes they were all under tables.  So I got a simple easy pair of heels but it was raining that night.  I’m horribly unbalanced as it is so when I went to have dinner with my dates (my friends) and had to walk from car to restaurant in the rain I slipped on my flip flops  as I had seen others do.  No one could see my feet anyways so I said screw it and left them babies on.

So aside from my shoes, after an amazingly fun time at dinner which our party had the place pretty much to ourselves we headed to the dance in the school gym.  I don’t remember the theme right off hand to either one.   They were decorated nicely, it was still a school gym but we didn’t  have a huge budget like in the movies so it wasn’t super fancy.  The music was good, and we had a great time.  We danced and laughed and had a great time.  I even got to dance with a couple people whom I had crushes on so it was great.

Senior prom unlike Junior prom I was better prepared and had after party plans and well a better understanding with my friends.  We went to a friends house and all took turns changing into regular clothes (keep in mind I live in the country so our gatherings usually involve a bomb fire and such so not conducive to dresses and heels).  Then we headed out to the fire, roasted hot dogs and simores and did some more dancing.  There were a bunch of us and we stayed out for a long time until we eventually moved to friends living room and all passed out on the floor or some piece of furniture. 

That was a great time.  I’ll never forget it.  Prom wasn’t this huge turning point in life that the movies and books sometimes make it out to be but it was special and times I’ll never forget.  I hope you all had your own special memories of prom.

RTW: Images that inspire my WIP

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival’ where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing or reading related question and answer it on our own blogs.  You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This weeks topic:

What images inspire/represent your WIP or favorite book?

Okay so this is pretty late so I’ll make it brief.  I have been running around all day and just want to have dinner and curl up to my shows and then go to sleep.  I love looking at images they can inspire new stories or simply scenes in stories.  Here are a few for my current story.

Isn't life perfect with this as your backyard?

Learning

Learning some more

Letting lose

Hot guy

So there are just a few. Now off to go relax although putting these together has made me want to write more.  Sigh my poor brain is tired, as is my body.

RTW: Who helped you in your journey?

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival’ where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing or reading related question and answer it on our own blogs.  You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This weeks topic:

Who has helped you on your reading/writing/publishing journey?

First I have to thank my Ma (grandma on mom’s side) she and Pa raised me until I was 4 (Navy mom sent off).  Ma would read to me every night before bed and teach me to read.  I learned to read rather early, mostly it was memorization word for word and then I started putting words I knew in my head to what I seen.  I read all the time up until high school because of her.

My 5^th grade teacher Ms. Bishop who had me writing a short story for an assignment and showed me how much fun it could be to write something from my imagination. 

I stopped reading and writing through high school.  I had too much to read for classes that I won’t lie I didn’t want to read and found difficult to give my attention to and thus couldn’t read anything that kept my interest because I felt bad.  Reading a new book when you haven’t done your homework didn’t seem right.  Yes I was studious.  Then it just seemed to be forgotten.  In college I would read what I had to yet again and nothing more.  Until a TV show of all things reignited my love to read and write.

So I’d like to thank the show Moonlight and all of the amazing readers/writers who I found in fan fiction.  One in particular is Patty, she introduced me to it and told me to go for it.  I couldn’t believe how much fun it was to start again.  And through that and the friends I met through there I had people recommend the Twilight books (Tammi said they had some semblance to main characters in Moonlight).  I started and I was hooked on reading once more and haven’t stopped since.  Same with writing, I’ve been writing a fan fiction to this day and along the way realized I had my own original story to tell as well.

Erin, who I worked with and found a fellow writer in. Now we disagree a bit on things like what is considered good literature but it’s fun, we push each other.  We get each other to read things and also push each other to write (she’s working on a couple stories too).  She is someone I can always call when I’m not sure if Lexi is giving me a bit of a conundrum to work out.  She also makes me laugh and goes to the movies with me so we can goof off and just spitball ideas of crazy stories and fun adventures we hope to have one day when we’re super successful authors J.

Morgan too, though we’ve lost touch over the last year.  We always talked about writing a movie.  We loved movies and thought we could write one where the characters didn’t do stupid things, like run up the stairs when the door is 5 ft away, or be free but hear something and go back into danger to investigate.  We started throwing around ideas as a joke but I really started writing them down, plot lines and character notes and outlines.  I still have it and one day hope to finish it.

All of the amazing people whom I’ve had the pleasure to meet at different writers conferences and online through blogs.  Hearing words of encouragement from different people who are in different stages of their writing journey makes me feel I can do this when I get down and discouraged.  That includes you all.  Thank you.

So who helped you?