Chucky.

GAHHHHH I HAVE FINISHED EXAMS!!!!!!
...I don't actually feel this excited about it. In fact, I don't actually feel that excited at all. It's really just a relief to be, you know...finished. Finally.
It's a bit weird though. I still can't quite wrap my head around the idea that I never have to go to school again. Ever. In my life.
Weird.
Anyway, I've been trying my hardest to make the most of my time off (even though it's only been about four days) instead of just doing the tempting thing and, y'know, lying around in the sun now that it's actually sunny. I've been trying to read a lot of books for my course next year, so that I don't get there and just freak out about how much I have to do. (And, yeah, I admit, so everyone else doesn't just show me up. I don't wanna be the one kid who doesn't know anything. Like I was on my open day. It isn't fun.) A couple of weeks ago, I read Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk, and it was amazing. Seriously. I think it's now my second-favourite book ever, knocking 'Gatsby' into third. (Behind The Bell Jar, my all-time favourite book. I know I know like every angsty-teenage-girl says that. Wah wah wahh.)
It's kind of hard to describe IM to someone who hasn't read it, but it's basically about modelling and revenge there's a really cool scene where someone burns down someone else's house, and omg it's just amazing and you should all read it.
There are two things I particularly like about Palahniuk's style. The first is the disjointedness of it all. He wrote an Afterword in the back of Fight Club where he says how he wanted to write only key moments, so basically all the build up and down is cut out. There's the key event. End of chapter. Next chapter. Key event. End of chapter. No sort-of guiding chapters to help you through, just bam bam bam.
The other thing I really like is how he doesn't really give away the main character's name. I think that's really cool.
Anyway, reading IM really inspired me for the book I'm working on currently. It got me thinking about just the way a book is written, the voice. And the narrative is all jumbled up, so you're jumping about through time trying to work out how things happened, and at first stuff keeps getting missed out to throw you off, but then you go back and fill in all the blanks and... it's just amazing, really. Read it. Go. Now. Stop reading this. Read it.
Anyway, so I got sidetracked. I was talking about FC. Well after IM it occurred to me that I only ever really read one book by an author that I like, and that struck me as odd. Like Gatsby. I love that, but I haven't read anything else by Fitzgerald. (Tender is the Night is staring longingly at me from my shelf though. Maybe that'll be the next one.) So I decided I'd read FC because y'know why not. I wasn't sure I'd like it was much as IM, wasn't really sure it was my cuppa tea.
Long story short: it is also amazing. Like gahh. I'd never seen the film which made everything better becausebecausebecause it's all going along really amazingly and then...THAT TWIST. I did NOT see that coming. Who did though? Why did nobody warn me?
I haven't seen the film, but I'm not sure I want to now. I feel like a lot of the aspects of the book work because it's a book. I'm not exactly sure you could translate it to film. (I mean, I know they did so that doesn't really make much sense. But still.) Although apparently the film does have a different ending, so I might have to check it out to see...
But both these books have definitely gotten me thinking about the book I'm writing at the moment. I like writing books for teenagers (probably because I am a teenager. I mean...what do adults even think about? Haha.) but why should that mean my book couldn't be experimental, or weird? It got me thinking a lot about the timeline too. Why should it have to be told in a linear fashion? I'm gonna have to go back to Slaughterhouse 5, read that again.
I'm reading one of Palahniuk's newest ones atm. Pygmy. Yeah he hasn't got any more normal... I let ya know what I think of this one when I've finished. Then onto maybe... Dracular?
Anyone have any classic-book suggestions for me to add to my summer reading list? Preferably not romances. I'm trying to widen my horizons but still... romances? Bleh. Pride and Prejudice was enough for me! What's on your reading list this summer? (If you even have one. If not and you're just lying in the sun - good on you. Sounds idyllic!)
Oh, and before I go, a few other things:
1. Everyone read those books, they're great. IMHO. People never seem to agree with me on books......
2. If you're a bit stuck for writing ideas, check out this website: http://writingprompts.tumblr.com/ I have nothing to do with it I promise. But I was looking for some prompts and the creative writing ones on there are really cool!
3. I wrote this weird thing...about the circus...and love... If you have time, or would like to, I'd appreciate it if you checked it out :) http://ourbraveheroine.deviantart.com/art/Circus-Girl-376945392 
...I'm so shameless...
But thank you!

A While.

Sorry. It's been a while, I know. I've just been doing my (hopefully) final exams (unless I have to resit. Haha.) I'm quite tired too. But I've only got one left now, so the end is in sight!!! And then, to do all the fun things I've planned to do this summer: read and write, basically. I'm working on a few serialised-book projects, just of little ideas which only make up short stories, that I'm hoping to post online somewhere. Not sure where yet. Recommendations would be appreciated :)
And right now I'm reading Fight Club. I've never seen the film, but so far the book is amazing. Like a-ma-zing. It reads like a film too, like it only shows the key parts of each scene, not all the build up. I think that's what I like about it so much. I haven't been able to put my finger on it 'til just now.
And I wrote this little poem about exams, feel free to check it out here:
http://ourbraveheroine.deviantart.com/art/The-Seven-Year-War-376138748
Now, I think I'm going to sleep (or write. Tiredness has become someone the epitome of writing for me.) but hopefully I won't leave it as long next time. How're you all? Well I hope? :)

A Haiku A Day: More Haikus!

I've kept to my challenge! (Which is a miracle because I never stick to anything.)
I hope you're not getting sick of them because I've got a lot more to post but... here are the haiku's I've written over the past few days.

Day 3: (I think Day 3 might be my favourite so far :) I posted it on my deviantart gallery too, if you'd like to check that out :) http://ourbraveheroine.deviantart.com/ )
Tightrope walker. No
safety net. Applause encore
or a broken neck.

Day 4:
I'm not posting Day 4 because it got a little, um...personal. Yeah. Anyway.

Day 5:
If I could refuse.
Leave. I would. In a heartbeat.
Or would I? Silence.

Day 6:
I put you on back
to front. You keep me warm when
I don't think you should.

Day 7:
Lions tigers bears
Oh my! Asleep on your shoulder
Eyes open all night.

Day 8: (Today! A Week! I've been doing this a week!)
I've been give the-
all clear- when I might crash, code,
flatline in the night.

I'm still not sure if I'm doing this haiku's right. Like, are the syllables right? Also I'm fairly sure there's a thing about how the last line is supposed to pose a question or an image or answer it or something... I'm unsure. I've tried to research but it's hard. I'm not sure you're just supposed to run-on-line them all either. But there aren't really any rules to writing (aside from basic grammar) and I like these, and I write for my own enjoyment, and it's good practise, so it can't be a waste, right? It is pretty hard to summarise your day in 5,7,5, and I must say it does really get me thinking, not only about writing and imagery but my day and my own (weird) head. So yeah. Haikus. I reccomend them.
Also, I don't know if any of you are on Deviantart, but if you are I'm really excited to tell you I'm gonna enter a competition on there :D You know that feeling when you see a competition and the prompt just screams this story into your head? That's what this did! So I'm super excited. Unfortuantely... the deadline is May 20th... and my exams start in less than a month so... yay! Busy me! Haha. I'm determined though, and hopefully you'll be able to see the end result :) Any other writers out there, you should enter something too! Even if you don't expect to win (I'd love to, but I don't), it's still all good practise and they can really inspire you and things :)
I'm rambling now. I should be writing. I'll leave us all to it.
Hope you like the Haikus.

ACID

Soooooo I just recently read ACID by Emma Pass. It's just out (and it's exciting because I've met her. Twice. Yay! Haha. But seriously. It's happy when someone you kinda know writes a book, and even happier when it gets published. Naaw. This is turning into a ramble now. Anyway.)
So I wasn't really sure what to except from ACID. I'm always like this when I read a new author. My expectations are either skyrise-high or bottom-of-the-ocean-low. For this book, they were fairly low. That's weird. I don't know why. It wasn't that I thought it would be a bad book, it's just that I'm pretty particular when it comes to YA books (I think it's because I'm almost out of the intended 'YA' category now, sadface :( ) and I only like certain voices. I like first person past tense. (Although my appreciation of present tense is slowly growing. Thanks, Hunger Games.) I also like description. I don't like 'teenage' voices, where they whine and stuff. It's annoying. So I was kinda worried about ACID. Then I started.
Reading ACID (I'm just beginning to wonder if it's actually capitalised when other people write about it. It is on the cover, both covers I've seen. Oh. I don't know. Anyway.) is similar to how I imagine getting caught in a hurricane would be. One moment you're walking along. You stop to tie your shoelace or something. Then BAM you're getting whisked away, thrown up in the air, and dropped, and caught, and thrown again. I suppose what I'm trying to say is, ACID is a quick read. Really quick. It took me two days. And I'm not the quickest reader. And normally, I get bored. So I was excited when I got gripped by ACID. I love it when a book grabs me.
ACID is about this girl, Jenna Strong, who's the only girl in an all-male maximum security prison. (You should have seen my friend's faces when they learned this. I think most girls nowadays dream of being in an all-male maximum security prison. They were disappointed when the guy Jenna comes across there isn't fit. But then she punches him in the face and all it restored.) It's set in the future, when ACID, a police force, have taken over and forced Britain to being this terrifying police state. One of the great things about ACID, is the world is really well built. There are loads of cool ideas, like LifePartnering, when your husband/wife is picked by the government. They also dictate how much TV you have to watch and have really censored media and books. When you're reading, the world is so well built, I felt like I might close the book and find myself walking through it.
Anyway, Jenna soon breaks out of the prison and is on the run from ACID. (Pretty quickly too, which I found somewhat of a shame. I think this is because on the blurb I read, it built up the only-female-in-an-all-male-prison aspect of it, which sounds quite exciting. But in truth this part doesn't last long - 3 chapters - which I think is somewhat disappointing. You don't really get much chance to connect to characters at the start of the book, which means when someone is hurt early on, and Jenna gets all upset and blames herself, you're just kind of thinking 'Am I supposed to care about them?' So there ya go.) One of the other things I liked about ACID is Jenna's personality. So many YA heroines are just so whiny. Or they think about things too much. Their thoughts are like quicksand, drowning you. Jenna's not like that; she changes her mind pretty quickly, and doesn't tend to dwell on things. Not only did this make her a pretty unique - and not annoying - character, it also helped with the pace of the story, which is REALLY FAST. Like really, I'm not even kidding. It just keeps speeding along. Emma Pass seems to make some pretty radical decisions too, which other YA novels don't tend to dare to do. Like she radically changes Jenna's appearance - like, hair transplant, face surgery, even eyes - not once, but twice. This, I thought was cool. I mean imagine that as a film. You're just warming to this actress, and BAM! It's suddenly another actress, but same character! :O (ACID would make a good film, I must say. And I hope, if it was made into a film, they would change the actress. I know they wouldn't, because Hollywood think we're stupid, but seriously, just getting her a wig or dying her hair wouldn't be enough. Like seriously.) And Jenna doesn't even moan about this! If I woke up, looked in a mirror, and had been surgery-d to be all different, I'd be a little WHATTHEHELLWHY. But Jenna's just like "Oh. Cool." See? Not whiny. I bet a lot of other YA heroines would spend a whole page like, "My hair, my long brown hair. I'd never really liked it that much anyway - it was just so, brown, and boring, and lifeless - but it was mine. Now, my hair is...blonde! I'm not a blonde person, I never have been. Why do they think they get to make these decisions for me!" blah blah blah.
Plus, there's loads of twists in the book which I never saw coming (though one of my friends says she did, but we'll have to see about that...) Anyway there's definitely two that are total surprises! (Unless you're a genius.) So that's exciting. In fact, the book's going along really well...
The problem is, then you hit the end. And the end is where it kind of, slipped a little for me. It's not a bad ending. I'd say it's a good ending. Explosions and stuff. It's just, I didn't feel the ending lived up to the rest of the book. Here's why:
So you really like Jenna, and you're thinking, 'Yeah, I like you, you're a kickass girl, you don't need any stupid love-triangles to further the-' and then suddenly this thing (which I won't mention for spoilers, because I still think you should read it) happens, and then you're like 'What? No. Jenna? Jenna. Jenna, don't do that. It's silly. It's stupid. It's a bad idea. Seriously. No, seriously. I already said. It's a bad idea. Wait, why? Why? Why? Oh. Right. Cool. The end.' It's not out-of-character for her, exactly. It's just a little weird, and perhaps a little...underwhelming. It's still good though. It's just the rest of the book is good, you're a little surprised.
But overall, ACID is really really good. I would definitely recommend it if you're looking for something quick, easy and exciting to read :) Probably not if you're looking for something deep and sci-fi-y though.
I just got really scared thinking I saw a spider, but it was just the shadow of my lion's mane hair. Yeah, my hair's a bit of a bird's nest.
That is all :) Hope this wasn't too long and ramble-y.
And go get ACID! (The book, I mean. :P )

A Haiku A Day #Day2

Okay so... I just wrote this today. It's a bit of an epic, I admit, but I'm actually quite proud, so :)

Day 2:

Goldilocks and three

bears eat. I watch for a 'prince'

who'll never arrive.

Paper skin rose eyes

spider leg cheeks. My sister

sewed through her finger.

Spinning wheel witch

no castle walls. My sister

is sleeping beauty.

Me, red riding hood.

I slink home again. Dark wolves

lurk in dark forests.

I claw, wall of vines.

They howl and writhe and rise. Out

here rain could hide me.

Discarded sheep's clothes

line stairs from my bed. Bigger

wolves lurk in my head.

My sister did indeed sew through her finger in her textiles exam. It was very dramatic. I've never seen anyone so pale as her after it happened.

I'm a little obsessed with fairytales. I don't know. Whenever I can't think of what to write, they seem like the perfect inspiration. Just the bright imagery... It sticks.

No more of these for a little bit, I promise. (I'm getting obsessed now. Everything I think of is in Haiku form. Oh dear.)

A Haiku A Day, #Day1

So I'm heading to uni next year... (Hopefully if I get in. Otherwise I've gotta spend another year living at home. I have no insurance choice uni. At the time, this seemed a good idea! Eg. 'I don't want to go to a back up uni; I'll just wait a year if I don't get into to my favourite one!' ...Now it does not seem so appealing. Anywho.) And my plan is to study English with Creative Writing. The thing is, a lot of these courses...they do poetry too. Poetry. Like, I'm okay with short stories. But poetry? Poetry? It's not exactly my forte, let's put it that way.
But anyway, I want to get better at it, or at least build my confidence, so I've come up with a plan: A Haiku A Day (until my exams are over, because I'm a little busy revising at the moment) and then, after that, A Poem A Day. (Because I only just found out NaPoWriMo exists and I'm a little late and very jealous!)(If you do not know what NaPoWriMo is and like writing poems, please google it.)
And to build my confidence, I'm going to subject you to them! (Probably not all of them, or if all of them, they will probably appear in little groups. Otherwise it just gets annoying.)
Feel free to tag along and join in. :)

Day 1 (This is my one for yesterday. I haven't got one for today yet. Maybe when I've lived today... We'll see.):
I got caught in the
Rain. Torrential downpour. He
Stared through a window.

I am not good at Haiku's. (...Does Haiku's have an apostrophe? The corrector just told me it did. I am confused now.) Please feel free to give me advice on how you actually write them. :)
Also, yesterday went kinda downhill for me, if you were wondering. I hate walking when it rains. I especially hate walking when you've straightened your hair and it rains. I especially especially hate walking when you're carrying a comic and it rains and your coat is so tight the comic won't fit under it. :(

Hi! :)
So I've been wondering for ages what people put in their first blog post... But I think I might have actually worked something out.
So today I went to a book launch for this local writer's book. (Her name's Emma Pass and her book is called ACID if you were wondering. It's out today. This is her blog http://emmapass.blogspot.co.uk/) And while I was sitting there, listening to her talk about writing and getting published, and staring at the back of the head of her agent (who I really wanted to talk to, but didn't dare) and publisher (""), and staring at all these huge posters of the new cover of her book, with this frown-y red-haired girl striding towards me...
I don't know. The atmosphere just felt really friendly, the air all light, and I couldn't help think about how much I'd like for it to be me, sitting up there on that stage, being asked weird questions about my book and how I wrote it, and a lot of questions about libraries.
And then I couldn't help but think about how, actual, if she could do it, maybe it wouldn't be so hard for me to get to be up on that stage, staring at the face of my agent and publisher, surrounded by massive posters of my book cover with my own frown-y heroine on. Or a cat. I feel like my book cover would have a cat on it (if I ever get one!). I don't know why. Just...cats.
That's all really. That's my first blog post. I should really just press 'post' without checking it through because otherwise I'll put off rereading it and then never post it. So here goes. Sorry for the spelling mistakes :P bye! :)