Soundtrack Sunday: Lullaby of Resembool (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)

It's Soundtrack Sunday again! The day where I post awesome music to write to or just listen to for pleasure if you're a fellow soundtrack junkie. One of my lovely readers shared with me her playlist of anime OSTs last week and she reminded me how awesome the Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood score is. This is one of my favorite animes and I love how the score captures the steampunk genre of the story. 

This particular piece has lots of cello which if you haven't noticed already is one of my favorite instruments. It's called a lullaby but it's more of a waltz to me with the thrumming violins. It makes you want to sway to the tune. I could see a host of people dancing to this in beautiful dresses. This is perfect for a historical or steampunk novel! You can listen to more epic music in my Soundtrack Sundays YouTube playlist.

Have you heard this piece before? What do you think of it? Have you seen Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood?

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Click here for last week's Soundtrack Sunday!

Monthly Summary: May 2015

Oh. My. Gosh. This has been a busy month, the busiest one of the year by far. I've been traveling and seeing family like crazy, plus writing to get my books ready for submission to editors and agents. Writing has been TOUGH to squeeze in, but I have managed it--except I fell behind and now I have to catch up. Still, it has been a fun month.

What I did:

1.) I've been writing every day this month with a minimum of 1000 words and a max of 3000 and I'm finally nearing the end of the rewrite of Red Hood! I've also been writing in Subsapien Biomech when I can, but I may not finish until participating in the July Camp NaNo (which I was not planning on, but this book needs to be done. :P )

2.) I wrote a review of Age of Ultron for Geeks Under Grace! I looooved the movie!

3.) I went to my cousin's wedding in Tennessee and saw a lot of my family! It was so fun. We stayed in an awesome hotel with clear elevators and my own little desk for writing.

Me (left) and my sister Mc'Khayla (right)

4.) I finished From the Mouth of Elijah by Bryan Davis and Failstate: Legends by John W. Otte! Reviews coming up soon!

5.) I did (and still am at the time of writing this post) visiting my best friend down in Florida for her high school graduation! We've been writing together the last few nights! She pretends to hate it, but we both know better.

Me (left) and bestie Cassidy (right)

6.) I've finished at least one drawing this month: Happy Matt! The first happy one I've drawn lol. I'm trying to finish the Matt expressions, but this month has been so busy ... Oish. I'm chronicling my drawing challenge over on my deviantART which I really need to update ... I will when I get back from my trip lol.

What I Learned:

1.) Don't Procrastinate - I'm really regretting procrastinating with Red Hood. It was due to busy-ness yes, but I should have focused more then I wouldn't have to write 20,000 words in two weeks. So basically stick to your project and stay focused and schedule around vacation time.

2.) Writing in Bits - To catch up on writing I've had to get over 3,000 words every day before going out of town which is way above my average. What helped me accomplish this was writing in bits. Every hour I would write for ten minutes, in which I would get 250 or more words written. This way it spread out the work and made that large word count far less intimidating.

3.) SCHEDULE - Like I've said, this month has been nuts and I would never have gotten all my posts in consistently if I didn't plan out what I was going to post and scheduled as many as possible. I cannot stress this enough. If you want to be consistent then planning your blogging schedule for the month (or even further ahead), then posting on time becomes far easier.

4.) Line by Line Editing in Person is Fun - Since I've been at my bestie's the last few days, I've been able to be with one of my writing buddies in person. During that time, she has helped me edit blog posts (like this one). It's really fun to read out a post and have your friend give you live critique of it.
(EDITOR'S NOTE. Yep. This has been happening. ^ ^ Frequently and often. It's fun for the editor, too :P)

Me (left) and my bestie Cassidy (right)

5.) Word Warring in Person is Fun - My bestie and I have also been word warring the past few nights despite our full schedules. It's really been a motivator and it's fun to discuss the warring sessions between each war. Doing it over chat is fine, but in person is definitely the best.


What I'm Going to Do:

1.) I'm going to finish the rewrite of Red Hood by June 7th and start micro edits that Monday! Normally I would wait a bit, but I'm on a time limit since I want the book to be ready by September. I'm also going to continue to try to get Subsapien Biomech done. July for sure. Working on two books at the same time is hard.

2.) In the drawing department, I'm going to work on Emil's and Mor's expression challenges and hopefully finally get to that Matt and Bryce drawing of them happy.

3.) My cousins are coming to visit from South Carolina!

4.) Some friends of mine are coming up to go the zoo!

5.) I'm currently reading The Seventh Door by Bryan Davis. Next I'm going to read Omega Dragon by Bryan Davis and Failstate: Nemesis by John W. Otte.

Last Month on Stori Tori's Blog ...

The top five most popular post on the blog for May 2015 were:

1.) Writing Lessons from TV Shows: Avatar: The Last Airbender

2.) Beautiful People #9: Ingrid

3.) The Book of Encouragement

4.) Interview with Dina (Red Hood)

5.) 7 Tips on How to Give Your Shorts Stories the Power of a Tornado, A Guest Post by Cassia Taylor

Coming Soon to Stori Tori's Blog ...

Here are some of the posts coming up!

For Tea Tuesdays, we've got more Firefly blends coming up!

June 5: I'm calling for questions for Faol, a werewolf from my steampunk fantasy Red Hood! The interview will be following two weeks afterward. 

Faol

June 6: On this day, I'm doing a post on Inciting Incidents.

June 12: I'm contributing in a blog tour for Turning Point, a really exciting YA collaboration project. 

June 13: A book review of Song of the Ovulum by Bryan Davis.

June 20: A how to post most likely on anime relating to writing. I'll probably update this with a confirmed title. 

June 26: Beautiful People!


That what be happening in the life of this aspiring writer! I'm slowly working my way toward my goals and I'm hoping one of these publishers for Red Hood will be the one. *crosses fingers*

How was your month? What did you do? Are you looking forward to any of the upcoming posts?

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

30 Things You Might Not Have Known About Me

One of my blogging friends Adriana Gabrielle did this tag on her blog a couple months or so ago and she made it open to pass on so I'm taking on the baton. It sounds like fun. ^ ^ I've done other facts posts and I'm going to try to see if I can include things I haven't ever said in one of them before. Let's get to it!



1.) I have tried over fifty kinds of tea and counting since I do reviews of them every Tuesday. I LOVE tea.

2.) I have scarily accurate intuition sometimes. While playing hangman with a friend over webcam, I guessed her word in one turn and I'd never heard of the word in my life. I've also sensed that my friends have needed comfort even over IM.

3.) I don't really like sugary things. The only mainstream pastry that I really like are Oreos. Other things I can do without or I can't eat too much of at one time like donuts or cake. I prefer unusual sweets like scones, Russian Tea Cookies, and Crunchie Bars.

4.) On the other hand, I crave salt. I have to have a lot of salt. Chips, crackers, pretzels, extra salt on my food ... I cannot do without it.

5.) I can mimic over twenty accents and voices including Scottish, Blue's Clues, and Italian.

Like this guy's accent.

6.) I am scared of wasps. When I get stung, I react to them more severely than normal as in the limb swells up three times bigger. Whenever anyone is stung by one of those flying buggers in a group it's always me. I was walking down steps with my dad and apparently there was a nest under the stairs. I get stung. I was walking into my fencing class with my mom and apparently there was a wasp nest on the building. I get stung. I sat on a chair under a lean-to with five other people around me and apparently there was a wasp under the chair. I get stung. Do you see a pattern here?!

7.) I'm not a big fan of eggs. I like them fried and in an omelet, but any other way I just don't care for.

8.) Don't like ketchup. I know. It's an abomination in this country.

9.) I really like bugs. I like butterflies, millipedes, rolly-pollies, grasshoppers, daddy-long-legs, praying mantids (that's the plural) and others. As long as it can't bite, pinch, or sting me, it's my friend.

10.) I. Love. Meat. I like beef, chicken, pork, fish, frog, quail, dove, rabbit, deer, turkey, buffalo, and I plan to try more. Steak is my bestest friend.

Well, not my only friend.

11.) As a kid I lived on twelve acres of land and we had creeks with islands we made little play houses on and we named one Mistletoe Island, because it had mistletoe growing from the trees. The plant of love is parasitic. What does that say about love? ;)

12.) I like sharp, pointy, dangerous things. I own three swords and ten or so different knives, including Legolas's knifes, a deer cleaning blade, and a bayonet.

It's a knife in a dragon necklace. Too much epicness to handle right there.

13.) Due to childhood trauma, some cartoons freak me out--including some Facebook stickers--especially the bunny ones.

14.) I've never been vaccinated. Yes, I'm still living. No, I'm not riddled with disease.

15.) I really like classic PC games. King's Quest, Conquest of the Longbow, Spelling Blizzard, Croc, and Space Quest were my childhood. If you know any of those games, then you are an amazing person.

This is Croc.

16 .) I can't do rotten food. It grosses me out. I can tolerate vomit and spiders and stuff like that, but I cannot do some furry, nasty veggies.

17.) I used to Swing Dance in 4-H.

18.) My favorite Studio Ghibli film is The Secret World of Arietty. I flipped out when I found an Arietty cosplayer at MomoCon last year.

Me and the Arietty cosplayer.

19.) Some of my favorite video games are The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Kingdom Hearts, Assassin's Creed II, and Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.

20.) My favorite Disney animated movie is Beauty and the Beast. Belle is my kindred spirit and the Beast is awesome.

See? We think the same way.

21.) My uncle used to call me Petunia as a little kid. No idea why.

22.) I love the smell of leather.

23.) I'm allergic to Pachouli which is a semi-popular candle scent. Keep that stuff away from me.

24.) Reptiles and amphibians are my friends. I like snakes, lizards, frogs and such. Like with the bugs as long as they don't bite or try to kill me, I'm buds with them.

25.) I have trinkets from different films I like including the Evenstar, the Key to Erebor, and the Mockingjay Pin.

My Erebor key.  ^ ^

26.) I like a lot of musicals and I've been to a lot of plays. Some of my favorites include: Cats, Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Sound of Music, and Into the Woods.

27.) Owls are my favorite bird.

28.) I have a friend who was in the TV show King of the Nerds and she mentioned me on TV during an interview at the premiere.

My friend Kelsey. ^ ^

29.) I cut my thumb open on my eighteenth birthday while playing with those Legolas knives I mentioned earlier and I didn't realize I did it until I got blood on my presents as I was putting them away. That got graphic ...

30.) I was driving to the beach with a friend and a flying turkey smashed into our windshield in time with a Taylor Swift song. True story.

Turkey + Windshield = This

Well, that's thirty things about me. I hope they were somewhat interesting. Now what in the world am I going to write in any other fact tags I decide to do lol. Thanks for reading!

What are some random facts about you?

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If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Wonderful Word Wednesday: Exiguous

It's Wonderful Word Wednesday again! Do you as a writer ever struggle finding that perfect word to describe something or you want to shake your writing up with some new words? Each Wednesday I post hand-picked descriptive words for writers and other vocabulary nerds out there. ;) 

exiguous

adjective

1.) scanty; meager; small; slender: exiguous income.

Example Sentence: Bryce and Matt grew up with exiguous provisions; Bryce often had to fight with other graftings for clothing and food.

My poor brothers Bryce and Matt.

Have you seen or used this word before? What do you think of it?

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Click here for last week's word!

Tea Tuesday: Captain Mal

I'm not really a coffee person. I prefer tea, and I know a lot of fellow writers love tea, too. But have you ever wanted to break out of the Early Grey or English Breakfast norm and try something new? Well, let me help you find some cool new teas! If you need a little hot and flavorful boost to help you reach your writing goal or you're just a lover of tea or you'd like to try some tea but aren't fond of the stereotypical types, these Tea Tuesday posts are for you.

This weeks tea is ... 

*drum roll*

Captain Mal

How I found it: I'm back with another fandom set from Adagio Teas. I've had my eyes on this one for a while and now I've finally gotten the Firefly set! Shiny! Any Firefly fans out there? Then this is the set for you. I'll be reviewing the six teas of this set: Serenitea, Captain Mal, Inara, Zoe, Jayne, and River Tam.

This is the same site I bought the Avengers set,Sherlock set, Tolkien set, Avatar: the Last Airbender set,  Doctor Who set, Attack on Titan set, RWBY set, and Divergent set from!

The Tea: The first thing I thought when I drank this tea was, "Oh my gosh it smells like Nathan Fillion!" Not that I picture what Nathan Fillion smells like in my head. ^ ^' I'm a bit of a fan of his lol. This tea is certainly manly and bold like Captain Mal from the Chocolate Chip, chocolate chips, and cocoa nibs, and then tangy, mischievous, and a little bloody from the blood orange. And kind yet stern from the Almond Oolong. It is such a yummy blend! It definitely makes me aim to misbehave. ;)

Serving Recommendations: I steeped this tea for three minutes and added sugar. 

How much is it and where can you get it? You can find this tea at the Adagio website. I bought this tea in a sample set which was about $22 including shipping and you get a goodly amount of tea since you only need about a teaspoon per cup. Some of these teas you can buy individually for about $10 a pouch. 

So how good is it? Love this tea! It is unique and tastes just like Captain Mal. If he has a taste ... XD Four stars.

Have you tried this tea? What did you think of it? Have you seen Firefly? Who's your favorite character?

Bonus! If you are a first-time Adagio customer I can send you a $5 giftcard! Ask in the comments for details! (This is no joke and no catch I seriously can. It's part of the amazingness of Adagio Teas)

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Click here for last week's tea!

Soundtrack Sunday: Children of the Sun (Two Steps From Hell)

It's Soundtrack Sunday again! The day where I post awesome music to write to or just listen to for pleasure if you're a fellow soundtrack junkie. I happened to stumble on this piece while going on YouTube to look up another song and I saw this on my subscription dashboard. It's Thomas Bergersen so I had to listen to it! I'm loving new pieces with epic background music mixed with epic lyrics. It makes an absolutely fantastic combination! Merethe Soltvedt's voice is so perfect! 

I loved her performance in "Stay" and I was pleased to see her back in this epic piece. Unfortunately the piece is so new, that no lyrics are out anywhere, but I will update this when they do come out. So click play and give this epic piece a listen! It is full of epic orchestra and anthem lyrics fitting for a fantasy or sci-fi. You can listen to more epic music in my Soundtrack Sundays YouTube playlist.

Have you heard this piece before? What do you think of it? Have you listened to any Two Steps From Hell?

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Click here for last week's Soundtrack Sunday!

Writing Lessons from TV Shows: Avatar: The Last Airbender

I love Avatar: The Last Airbender. It is my favorite animated show of all time. It began my love for antiheroes, anime, and Kung Fu. Besides Avatar's many fantastic themes and all around epicness, it had many aspects that can gather to better our writing.

Warning: There will be some spoilers along the way.

Here are six things Avatar: The Last Airbender did very well:

1.) A Main Goal Carried Throughout the Series - Unlike most shows this one had a goal from the very beginning: learn all four elements, take down the Firelord, and stop the Hundred Year War.

This goal propelled the series, everything the characters did was to reach this point. When you establish a goal at the beginning of the series and have that carry through, you have this inner drive that makes the books, shows, movies, or whatever feel propelled and not like they're ambling off in any direction. They feel more focused and when the heroes finally complete that goal, though the series ends and you're sad, you feel this pristine satisfaction that can only be accomplished by doing this.

Aang defeating Ozai

How this can be applied to writing: If you intend on writing a series, keep this sort of thing in mind. A goal like this can lace together your stories in a special way that scattered goals or individual book/movie/season goals could not.

Aang and Zuko finally ending the Hundred Year War

2.) The World Building Was Fleshed Out - Avatar's world was so well thought out. Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko created world felt unique and realistic from half and half animals like platypus-bears, turtle-ducks, and badger-moles to the individual kinds of bending to the cultures of each nation and even sub-cultures within each nation. I love how each nation had a different government system. The Air nomads had a council, the Water Tribe is more, well, tribal with a chief, the Earth Kingdom has a monarchy, and the Fire Nation is an empire.

Platypus Bear

How this can be applied to writing: If you want your fantasy, sci-fi, alien, steampunk, dystopian, etc. world to feel the most real, then make sure to give it a good amount of thought. Think of culture, landscape, fauna, religions, governments, clothing, and more. You don't have to go Tolkien with it, but you need to know what your world is like and in turn you can write a better and believable story. For more help on worldbuilding, I wrote a post all about it.

The Earth King

3.) The Characters Changed in Natural and Powerful Ways- At the beginning of the show, Aang is a goofy kid, Sokka is a sarcastic weakling, Katara is an inexperienced, country girl, and Zuko is a rage-fueled banished prince. By the end of the series Aang is a wise and powerful Avatar, Sokka is a skilled swordsman and tactician, Katara is a graceful, waterbending master, and Zuko has tamed his anger and become merciful and kind Fire Lord.

Unlike characters changing in illogical ways like Daniel from Daniel X, annoying ways like Tris Prior in the novel Insurgent (I love the film and they fixed this problem in it), or not at all or any development erased like Ben Tennyson in Ben 10, these characters grow older as the show progress and blossom in their traits and skills.

Aang in Season One

How this can be applied to writing: As your story goes, your characters must change and they must change significantly, but without completely forsaking their old self. People change. That is part of being human, but we still keep fragments of ourselves even as we grow from children to adults or from one experience to the next.

Aang in Season Three

4.) The Bad Guys were Legit - In any shows, books, and movies I read/watch, I always look for the villain to show me he/she knows business. If he/sh doesn't, then I don't believe the hero will have that tough of a time defeating this so-called foe. In Avatar, I was convinced from very close to the beginning.

Though Zuko at first seemed a bit like the regular bumbling kiddy baddy, he soon grew to become a formidable opponent and then Admiral (or whatever rank he was in the respective episode) Zhao came into play and he truly made a ruthless villain. But particularly in the third episode of the show convinced me this Fire Nation thing was legit. When Aang goes to his Air Temple home, he discovers the entire Air Nation was obliterated by Fire Lord Sozen.

These people meant business.

Furthermore each main villain of the season became more opposing than the next from Zuko to Zhao to Azula to finally Ozai. Each one was powerful and posed a greater threat against our heroes. Though I loved the Legend of Korra (at least until the end), I felt like this was a fail point since, to me at least, Amon was the most intimidating baddie of the show.

Admiral Zhao

How this can be applied to writing: For a bad guy to feel like he's actually a threat to the heroes, he must be driven, he must be human (as in he has motivations besides, "I'm evil." He can be any race you want. ;) ), and he must be powerful either in combat, money, influence, or whatever. These are the key points of a three-dimensional villain and are necessary to make a truly great villain, one that your reader will remember and still fear long after putting down your book. For more about writing villains check out my post How to Write a 3D Villain Part 1 and Part 2.

Fire Lord Ozai

5.) The Characters Failed Sometimes - To make victory all the sweeter and seem truly hard to achieve then the characters must fail at times, and the characters certainly did in this show, twice majorly, during the coup that overthrew the Earth King that ended up almost killing Aang to Day of Black Sun where the main characters lost almost all of their allies. This showed the bad guys were no picnic to take down. Azula smashed them in both of these instances. This also made you think, "How are they going to possibly win?"

Day of Black Sun

How this can be applied to writing: The ultimate goal of the hero's cannot be easy to achieve. Failure shows that this task is difficult. Having your character fail at one or more of their goals also increases tension in your story and makes it more compelling for the reader

Katara getting severely wounded Aang to safety.

6. ) Most of the Characters of the Series Became Relevant at a Later Time - One of the coolest things about this show is how most of the characters come back into play, especially those from the first and second season. The Mechanist, Tao, Haru, Jet, Smellerbee, Longshot, The Boulder, the Hippo, The Swamp Guys, and more come back into the story and play significant roles that progress the plot.

The Mechanist's inventions help both the allies and the enemies, the The Boulder, the Hippo, and the Swamp Guys becoming allies on Day of Black Sun, and Jet, Smellerbee, and Longshot show up in Ba Sing Se and help unravel a conspiracy. These are all great characters and I love how they are used more than just their most basic purpose.

The Boulder

How this can be applied to writing: Use your ensemble of characters to their fullest potential. Instead of creating new characters off the bat, see how you can use your old ones first. Bring them back later in the series or book. You never know what second uses they can surprise you with.

Jet

Avatar: The Last Airbender is a beautiful, well-written show. If you haven't seen it, watch it. If you have, awesome maybe we can do some geeking out together in the comments. All this talking about it makes me want to rewatch the show for the six or seventh time lol. You can learn how to better your writing from almost any source with a story, this show is just one of them.

Have you seen this show? Who's your favorite character? Are there any writing learning points I missed?

You may also like:

What Anime Can Teach Us About Writing

Writing Lessons from Anime: Characters

Writing Lessons from Anime: Interior Monologue and Thoughts

Writing Lessons from Videogames: Assassins Creed II

How to Write a 3D Villain Part 1