THE ESCAPISM PROJECT is almost here!

I’m excited because I can’t wait to work on a book blog, and now it’s also a book blog with other people too. It’s a collaboration work, a masterpiece involving more than one person and opinion. So far my buddies in this are Kristia, Jenn, Cherise, Syd, Anna, Caety, and Wendy. There’s still room for other contributors—we want this to have as many people as possible so it can truly be a collage! If you would like to participate, just message me! And, there’s no deadline to join in, either. Even after the blog is started, we love guests.
As it is, each of us is going to take over once a week, on a given day of the week, to blog about books in a personalized and distinguishable way.
What we have so far is this:
SUNDAY- Not filled in yet.
MONDAY- Not filled in yet.
TUESDAY- Kristia blogs about music.
WEDNESDAY- Jenn blogs about classical novels.
THURSDAY- Syd (commonly known as Squid) blogs about going out of boundaries in the writing world.
FRIDAY- Mariella blogs about living and breathing stories.
SATURDAY- Anna blogs about inkpop, book reviews, and an advice column.
Our other bloggers who haven’t taken up days to blog yet include Cherise, Caety, and Wendy. Since they have the right to just pop in and write whenever they have something to say, they have got the title of odd job blogger (the term has been coined by Cherise. ^^)
This schedule does not limit the book reviews. Our contributors can pile in book reviews every day. Repeatedly. The schedule only helps to ensure that there is never a day of the week where we don’t have a blog post guaranteed. When someone can’t blog that day, we’ll get another person to fill in for them.
And we’re always looking for new contributors. This is basically a magazine. Submit something and if it’s within reason we’ll share it. This is a collage. This is a world. Escapism works different ways for different people. Message me (Mariella) if you want to contribute.
Our first official blog post will be on July 1.
We hope to see you then.

My hands aren't hurting right now. I think the sun is helping

Someone drew a heart on the wall of a building here in the part!

I'm soooo entering Evie's blog layout giveaway because IT LOOKS AWESOME.

http://evelynjanelle.blogspot.com/2011/06/pre-made-blog-layout-come-and-get-it.html

My favorite thing ever is fun shopping trips with Mom :) <3

JESUS: The Perfect Gentleman

...for everything that becomes visible is light.

Therefore, it says: "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."

Ephesians 5:14, NAB

http://weheartit.com/entry/11169206

I have always believed Ephesians 5 to be the perfect example of the mission one ought to set for their life. It's beautiful, it's comforting...it has always set me on fire for my life in a manner different from what other passages can do. No matter how many times I read it, or how many times I am going to read it, my reaction to it will always be the same: It makes me realize my self-worth. It reminds me that in Christ I will always be so much more than you see on the outside. I can shine if I choose to. I can live as a child of The Ultimate Light that brings joy and peace to the whole world. Though nobody can shine as brightly as He does, we can shine enough to help bring light to our own world.

A couple of days ago, there was a thunderstorm. It was the biggest, most epic thunderstorm I have ever seen in my life. It made me afraid at first, then I decided I was overreacting. I remarked jokingly to a friend, losing my mind for just a moment, "Wow, god must be really angry to send us a thunderstorm like this." Perhaps at that moment I was thinking of the Greek god Zeus, because on retrospect I know that our own GOD loves us too much. I just cannot imagine Him sending a storm like that out of anger. He could, but do you think He would?

My friend Jenn promptly put me in my place with her reply. "Or maybe He's putting on this really great show because He loves you so much."

I felt a little bit embarrassed at my own remark. She was so right. "Yeah," I replied thoughtfully, "I think that's it."

But it was only later that I would realize how right she was. I went to the window to watch the thunderstorm. Since at that moment the lightning was taking place behind the house where I could not see it, I instead listened to the thunder and wondered...

I had read a post on someone's Tumblr moments ago about the love of Jesus being a perfect love. No gentleman could beat Him--He is the Holy One, the Hero Who died for us and then defeated death. He created the universe. He is so big. What did I do to deserve such love from Him that He would put on the thunderstorm of such magnitude because He loves me that much?

I have done nothing to deserve this. If this is a love story, I am the ragged beggar with nothing to boast of, and He is the glorious knight Who loves me when there is nothing I can ever offer Him at all.

But the saddest part is, I no longer pray as often as I ought. It took a thunderstorm for Jesus to get me off the computer and to the window where we can talk and spend some time together.

He is so big, but with the worldly things dominating my mind, I BLIND MYSELF TO HIM!

HE DOES NOT DESERVE THIS, to be 'throwing stones at my window,' so to speak, just to get me to look at Him.

But you know what is so beautiful about this story? He forgave me. He forgives all of us in a manner that a normal gentleman never could. He keeps coming back when I forget Him. He keeps giving me chance after chance when I, the ragged beggar, have done nothing to earn it. I don't deserve it. Neither do you. We never will, but Jesus doesn't see that.



http://weheartit.com/entry/11155738
Need help getting out of your jar you put yourself in?
Just ask GOD. He'll open it for you.
But only if you tell Him you want to get out. Are you
having fun in the jar with the common butterflies, or do
you want to be free?

 He loves us more than we could ever possibly imagine. More than we can love Him back. More than a human guy can love us. Why does he love us?

There is no reason. He just does.

I will put my all into loving Him back as much as I can with the tiny human heart I have. He died for me. I do not want to leave Him waiting out a window for me to come speak with Him through the glass. Either I let Him in to be with me, or I come out to be with Him.

To do either of those, I need to pray. To do either of those, GOD needs to help me. He needs to open the jar of worldly things I put myself in, and then give me the courage to climb through and be with Him.

Take, for example, the gorgeous photo of these butterflies being let out of their jar. They have probably been put on display for being beautiful. Maybe a couple of them showed off so someone caught them in a net. One might have done it on purpose to become famous. Maybe they were born in a little cage and have never seen freedom but from an outside source. They were put on a shelf, and people stared at them and said, "Look! What pretty butterflies! See how they have wings?"

They have wings, but if they're in a jar to show off, can they really fly like they're meant to?

Similarly, I might have light, but if I'm stuck in a worldly box with just a little window, can I really shine like I want to?

What I have to do is ask, "GOD, please open this jar...I desire so strongly to be with You and fly by Your side among the saints and angels in heaven. But I can't open this jar I put myself in without Your help. It's closed too tightly...I can't open it."

You can ask this, too. And guess what? He will open it. But only if you tell Him you want to be by His side...and not with the other butterflies in the jar who prefer to be distant from Him.

It's up to you. It's up to me. Where do you want to be?

At the window, we talked about Ephesians 5. He told me that if I wanted to be a child of light, if I wanted to shine, I need only ask. If I wanted to get out of the jar of worldly things, He can take me up to the sky where I can shine like nothing you've ever seen before. He can make me brighter than the stars. So I asked Him to open the window tonight, after a couple of days contemplating what happened. Right now I'm in the process of climbing hesitantly through the window, thinking--what if I fall?

The thing is, I might be going through that process all my life, but I know that He's helping me through the window, so what have I to fear? And the least I can do is love Him with everything I've got. So I'm going to risk climbing through that window!

Guess what? He can make you shine, too. He's PERFECT! Better than a hero in a novel or anyone that will ever exist. And He wants you! How amazing is that?

So my question now is this: Do you love Jesus with everything you've got? Or are you going to make Him throw stones at your window?

Does He deserve that?

Don't you want to get out of the jar of worldly things and become radiant like a star in the heavens? Are you going to ask GOD to open the jar? Are you scared to fall out the window? Jesus will catch you.

Think about it.

I'm spending more time designing covers for this book than I am actually writing it...

So if I write 500 words per day for the next 141 days, until November 11...

I can finish BEAUTIFUL DANCING at 70,500 words.
Knowing me, it's gonna be a longer book than that, but I hope not.

And THE WATER NYMPH POTION is going up on July 23.
If I write 500 words every day for the next 30 days, that'll give me the 15,000 words needed to complete the book. But if I write faster then I can edit it as well, at least the first 10k that will be up.

I'm reading THE WISHING WELL and getting ideas on how to make it more powerful based on the HarperCollins review.

There's my progress in one short, sweet blog post. :D

I think I'm having way too much fun with this.

 

But I'm really, super excited about this project.

And I chose just about the most epic release date ever.

THE EPIC FIRST NOVEL ADVENTURE

Which I stole from Kara. Visit her blog here!

10k was: OHMYGODICANWRITEICANWRITEICANWRITE!!!!!
20k was: I'MSTILLDOINGITWHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!
30k was: Whoa. This is like an actual novel or something.
40k was: Whoa. This IS an actual novel or something!
50k was: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE I could PUBLISH this now if I wanted to! 8D Except...you know...no ending...And it may be short. Maybe.
60k was: Oh look at my baby in it's pretty novel length. ♥
70k was: Okay...Cool. It's long and I've been working on it for awhile. I can wrap this up any time now...
80k was: ...I'm STILL going?
90k was: WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME????
100k was...Well, let's say I considered chucking it off Deception. Many times.

Leave it to Mariella to start plotting a new story when she should be editing an old one.

I'm pretty sure I can do both, though.
And this time, I'm going for a love story. No magic. No supernatural stuff. Let's try something relatable:

The cover I made for BEAUTIFUL DANCING.
Pitch coming soon!

See? It even says in the cover that it's a love story.

So, in honor of this unusual event (SARCASM!) I'm creating a works-in-progress section on the sidebar.

Editing one story, finishing another story, beginning another.

I honestly can't picture myself doing anything else with my life but writing!

Just saw a license plate that said NOFAITH. Made me sad :(

My Memoir On Meeting The Band Perry On My Way Home From Peru

A photo of what happened after I got some courage
and went to say hi to them in the airport.

So. I knew the day I flew back home after so long would be amazing, but I didn't think it would be this amazing. I've already drafted a huge, long blog post about this but it's practically a short story so I'll try to tell about what happened on June 16 in a manner that's not boring and not rambling...otherwise it'll take up the entire blog.

At the Denver airport, I saw some people that looked vaguely familiar but I figured that I was so tired after the two long flights that I was seeing things. I hate the Denver airport. It's so huge and frustrating. There couldn't be people here, among all the strangers that were walking past, that I knew or had even heard about before in my life. Yet, I looked at these people again; I couldn't help it. Then it occurred to me where I must have seen them before--who it was that they reminded me of so strongly.

"No," I thought, turning away in disbelief. "I'm definitely hallucinating. It can't be them."

But my imagination always gets the best of me, so it wouldn't let me forget. Once we boarded the plane, I grabbed my backpack and--ignoring exclamations from my mother and brother asking what I was doing--I dug out my iPod. I only had one picture to judge off of at that very moment, and it was the album art in my iPod.

The EP I checked to make sure it was them.

(The one I looked at in the airplane was the EP that I am showing right here.)

And I studied it. And glanced up at the three people (but couldn't see them well because they were several rows ahead of us.) And showed the iPod to my mom and brother and told them my suspicions. It was my mom who told me that the people were pretty clearly The Band Perry.

"They look exactly alike!" she told me with total certainty. "They even have the same hairstyles!"

What followed was the most agonizing plane ride of my life. I tried to think about whether I ought to go speak to them or not. What if I really was hallucinating and they weren't The Band Perry? What if I went and asked and I totally made a fool out of myself and wasted their time?

Somehow I dozed off and when I started awake again, my mind was made up. I would ask. The worst that could happen was these people saying "No, we're not The Band Perry." It wouldn't hurt to ask. And if the need came, I'd add, "But you look so much like them! It's so cool!" So that it sounded like a compliment and not me mistaking them for someone famous and upsetting them. All that was left to do was calculate what I would do when the plane landed--I had to get off the plane as fast as possible to catch them before they left.

So I did. I raced off the plane, certain that I would be totally unlucky and they'd be gone by the time I got out of the tunnel thing.

But they were right there. Standing right in front of me. Then I struggled against that "Don't bother them. Just keep walking" feeling. But I ignored it.

From left to right:
My dad, Neil, my mom, Kimberly, me, my brother, Reid.

I walked up to them and said, "Hi."

"Hi!" Kimberly replied, and it encouraged me.

So I said, a little enthusiastically, "You look like The Band Perry!"

At this point I was so giddy that I believe what happened next is either a little more blurry than my tentative "Hi," or it could be the clearest memory I have from that encounter. Reid smiled and replied with something along the lines of, "That's because we are The Band Perry!"

Whether he said precisely those words or not, it's one of the best moments of my life--because it was the moment I realized something totally impossible was happening. To me. I was meeting someone amazingly awesome like them in an airport. I had been in a plane with them!

Then, what happened next was even more insane. My mom always manages to pull off the most amazing things. She talked to Kimberly and made it so that we got free concert tickets, and Meet-and-Greet passes. If I'd done this alone, all I would walk away with was a picture and an autograph; but my mom was there, so she made the amazing experience last even longer.

I'm not sure how she does these things, but I'm sure lucky to have her as my mom.

We met The Band Perry a second time at the Meet-and-Greet and saw the concert. I heard Luke Bryan and now have a new favorite artist--he was amazing as well. It was a great night and the best welcome home I could ask for. I remember that day and know that my life is good. It's amazing. The best things happen to me and my family, and this is one of those things that will stand out.

Even now, a few days later, I can't believe it happened. It must be some sort of dream. But just in case, I tagged their official fan page on the pictures I have up on Facebook. Maybe they'll see the pictures and remember us, because I'm certainly never going to forget that day!

Escape.

I'm rescuing this post from my old blog because I like it and it's going to help with The Escapism Project:

It had been so long since I read any stories which really sucked me in. I am so used to creating worlds of my own that I try to become a part of, that I’m impressed when someone else does it. When I read a book that contains more than empty romances and super characters. What I love most are books that leave enough space to allow their readers inside, so they can become a part of it in their imagination. A story so big that it welcomes us in. we become new protagonists and can help save the world.

http://weheartit.com/entry/9308466

Lately, there aren’t many stories that do this. I really think it should be a goal in writing a book. As important as grammar, plot, characters…it is all a dry effort if the readers can’t come in.

And by that, I mean more than just ‘come in’—the kind where you sort of get in but can only stand there, because there’s no room for you to walk about and help solve the mystery, have talks with the characters, and feel like you’re in danger. Sure there are a lot of stories around where you feel as if you were ‘standing there watching everything before your very eyes.’ But to me, that’s not as fun as being a part of the story. How many authors care to make room for their readers among the cast of their stories? How many realize that this does the story so much good?

We all know the close friendship that develops between a story and its author. It’s so amazing, an adventure that we wish could go on forever. How great would it be if we could offer the same escape to our readers—one of more depth than can be achieved by just reading?

What if, instead of just writing stories, we could create dedicate ourselves to writing entire worlds?

It would require more care in our craft. We would have to layer every book element so delicately. It would take so long before we would be satisfied with our worlds. This will not be easy—but it would be so worth it. Readers love stories like that most of all. I sure know it’s worth a try.

I want to try and create a world like that, using Living Breathing Words Escapism. By this I do not mean the blog, but the words I use to write my novels. Are your words dead, or are they Living and Breathing?

I’m not saying that my words are wonderful and I have some superhuman talent that works just like a portal and drops people off in different worlds. I am saying that I plan to work harder so that they eventually do. I dream of someday being able to ask my readers, “What were you doing during the story? Did you have a happy ending? Are you going to do it again?”

Not only will the readers have the satisfaction of having felt like this world was their home, but I as the writer will be proud to know that my story really got somewhere. It came alive, and there’s still people whose hearts reside within the pages of my book.

I really think we should all try it. Don’t we all want our stories to come alive?

Since I've still got a lot to do before the summer ends, I have made a list of all the books I'll be reading and made a goal of words to write daily so I can finish The Water Nymph Potion. I don't know why it's taking so long. I just don't seem to want to sit down and write anymore like I used to. I spend most of my time online, so now I've got to divide that time up. I've got tons of books I haven't finished reading yet so they need some attantion. I'm 17 books behind in the Goodreads challenge.

Also, today I'm going to finish my super long blog post about what happened the day I met The Band Perry. I've got to finish it now before too much of the emotion wears off and it becomes just a memory. It should be up soon. :)

Sitting in the park. In the middle of a vast field of grass. It is relaxing and i keep getting in character for new stories...

"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life" -- Unknown.

The Great Introduction

I can't believe I'm starting a new blog. But I'm a really indecisive person. Someone told me recently that I blog too much for other people, and as I meditated on that, I realized that I was never going to figure out who I am as a person if I don't sit down and think about me. I need to muse over what's going on and know what I think about things. Not always other people. I love having other people read my blog posts, but sometimes you need to discover yourself too.

Last night I had second thoughts about this, though. I tried to shrug it off. "I'll just work on writing in my journal routinely," I reasoned, since I've always had a sort of phobia against opening up to other people--in real life or on the internet.

But GOD wasn't going to have it this time.

"You're starting a blog," He told me, "because things you write in your journal will not ultimately benefit others. Not until they're found one day after you're gone. I made you to be great and to help others. I made you to make other people happy. Start a blog, and I'll tell you what to write--you're going to touch the hearts of other people. That's what I made you for."

And He's right. I'm not on this earth to write just to have something of myself to read in 30 years. I'm on this earth to do things to help others now. Not after I'm dead, but now.

Anyone who knows me well won't believe me. They don't think I'm really going to update every day. They probably don't think I'm going to open up and perhaps mold my life so that it helps others. But I'm going to use this blog, and write about me, and glorify GOD in a way that I don't have to pretend to be anything but who I am. I'm no preacher. I'm not very good at that at all.

But we all worship in our own way, and we all are Christians in our own way. We don't live by a strict set of rules. Christians are people, we have personalities. It's in our individual lives that people will see how we love Jesus and want to help people. We can make a difference, and make people happy, by being ourselves.

So this blog is my broken compass. You don't have to take it like you should do exactly what I do--it's not an instruction manual--it's not even a guide to anything. It's a broken compass showing the directions I go in my life, the choices I make, and the consequences. It's me. I hope that it benefits you in some way.

I don't believe there's a point in a person's existence if they don't use all their talents and be themselves in order to make others happy.
We were put on this earth to make others happy. You don't have to be a preacher to do that. Just be yourself.
And I'm going to work out a way to use my existence to make people happy.
I'd rather be dead than live knowing that I'm giving sorrow to the ones around me. I want to make a positive difference in the world, in what subtle little ways I can.

Everyone deserves a little happiness. And you can do this. You can make people smile; all it takes is a kind word or a hug.

I love you all and thanks for reading.