Tea Tuesday: Birthday

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*

Birthday

How I found it: When I received my Firefly tea purchase, Adagio Teas sent me a bonus tea for my birthday. A bit late, but you know ... I ain't gonna refuse free tea. This is the same company 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, and Firefly set from!

The Tea: This tea basically tastes like a birthday cake, liquid birthday cake, which is really cool. With a black tea base, and vanilla, creme, and caramel flavors, it tastes so much like cake it's kind of scary. It even has candy sprinkles in it! If you love cake then this is definitely a tea for you! Treat yourself for your birthday.

I thought this gif was epicly appropriate.

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

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? I enjoyed this tea, though it wasn't the best I've ever had, it was still a good tea. 3.5 stars!

Have you tried this tea? What did you think of it? Have you drank an 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: Stroll Through the Sky (Howl's Moving Castle)

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. This month has unofficially become Studio Ghibli month lol. The week before last my cousins came over and we watched Howl's Moving Castle. I hadn't seen this movie in years and this rewatch rekindled my love for the film--and it's soundtrack. 

Unfortunately the soundtrack is so hard to find. YouTube has gone all Nazi on most of the tracks uploaded. This track managed to escape the purge. Though it is not my favorite it is awesome all the same. This piece perfectly captures the steampunk genre with classical instruments and a bit of a French twist. It's very whimsical and grandiose. Give it a listen and if you happen to find the soundtrack somewhere, please tell me! 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?

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: June 2015

Wow this month went by fast. It wasn't as crazy as May, but it was still pretty activity-filled and very productive in the writing department! I've fallen a bit behind in editing, but not too much. I'll catch up!


What I did:

1.) I finished rewriting Red Hood at 84,014 words so I was only 4K over my intended amount! So happy!

I've now jumped on the Pratt bandwagon since Jurassic World.

2.) I finished Clives Staples Award finalist The Seventh Door! Review up next month!

3.) Two of my cousins came over for a few days and we had an awesome time watching anime, drinking Bubble Tea at this amazing tea bar we discovered, and just being crazy cousins.

Me (left), Kate (middle), and Zach (right)

4.) I finished my drawing of Matt's expressions finally, and I'm now working on Emil's expressions which will be used in a special project coming up next month!

Matt (Subsapien)

5.) I went to the zoo, er, will! I'm going Monday. I thought I was going today, but, well, friend changed plans so I'll update with pics soon!

Update: Zoo pic!

Me in front of the gator tank in this dome
that looks like Jurassic World at Zoo Atlanta

What I Learned:

1.) I'm Grateful - The end of last month was incredibly stressful for me. Too much activity plus lack of sleep plus some drama going on really strained me, but during that tough time I realized I am really grateful for my home environment, my chosen career, my family, and how God has put things together for me. Envy is my fatal flaw and I tend to want what other people have so this was a big thing for me. I've always tried to be thankful, but being grateful has always been difficult.

When I think of Envy, I think of Envy from
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, okay? XD

2.) Cutting and Writing Tightly - I've been doing a lot of cutting in Red Hood to get my word count down for the publisher guidelines. I've had to choose which sentences are really important and this has helped me boil down to the best of the manuscript and make each sentence count. I've noticed as I'm rewriting Subsapien Biomech I'm writing tighter and my sentences are far better. Cutting isn't always evil.

3.) Acquiring Betas - I'm gonna be honest here. I haven't had the best luck with betas. Most of them have proved unreliable or they've given me pretty shoddy feedback. I've tried getting them in a lot of ways: asking friends, posting on a group, etc. Choosing the right betas is really important so instead of choosing like ten, I chose five people I know pretty well and so far the experience has been great. I have not looked at the feedback in its entirety yet, but I'm already getting back chapters to read later and hearing little tidbits of critique and comments and it's been so encouraging. Choose your betas wisely.

4.) Schedule in Vacation Time - For the past two years I've been determined to break the stereotype that no one ever finishes their New Years resolutions. Last year I blasted that out of the water when I worked on three books and I did at least one drawing every month. Since I'm a stubborn and determined person, I naturally decided to do that again this year, and I've been doing pretty good so far.

I made this detailed schedule on how to accomplish my goals, except I forgot to schedule in one teensy little important thing ... VACATION TIME. I have something planned for every month almost down to the week with no time to breathe, so I'm having to carve out precious vacation time, because after writing practically non-stop since March has burned me out a bit. Note to self: next year figure in that I'm not superhuman and need some off time.

5.) God Will Work it Out - I tend to be a worrier. I'm awesome at speculating the worst possible ways things could go. This month my plans got very thrown with different visits that were supposed to happen and I got very stressed out, but thankfully God arranged the plans so they worked out better than what I had in mind and I had a peace about both of the ventures. I thought that was really cool. ^ ^


What I'm Going to Do:
July I'm focusing on writing and drawing with probably only going out of town for the Fourth if that.

1.) I'm going to finish microedits on Red Hood by the 13th then start on going over my beta readers' feedback. I'm also doing July Camp NaNoWriMo to finish up Subsapien Biomech. Poor baby has had to take the back burner since Red Hood has gotten all the attention. Sorry, charries.

2.) I'm going to read Omega Dragon by Bryan Davis and finish Failstate: Nemesis. I'm also hoping to start the Judgement Stone by Robert Liparulo.

3.) I'm going to Realm Makers in August in St. Louis so I'm starting to prepare one sheets and research agents and editors I'm going to pitch to at the conference! So excited! :D

4.) I'm planning on doing a lot of drawing next month. I'm going to finish my expressions drawings of Emil (if I don't this month), then work on expressions drawings of Mor and Able.

5.) I'm going to celebrate the Fourth of July. I don't know how, but it's going to be good.


Last Month on Stori Tori's Blog ...

The top five most popular posts on the blog for June 2015 were ...

1.) Tea Tuesday: Jayne

2.) Questions for Faol!

3.) Inciting Incidents 101

4.) Writing Lessons from Anime: My Neighbor Totoro

5.) Interview with Faol (Red Hood)


Coming Soon to Stori Tori's Blog ...

Next month packs a lot of awesome posts!

For Tea Tuesdays I have two blends from the Tea and Spice Exchange and another Adagio blend coming up! The rest are undecided.

July 3: I have a call for questions for an interview with my character Emil from Subsapien! The interview will follow two weeks later. I did one of these a long time ago, but this was before I started asking you all for the questions. He's very excited about doing it this way. :)

July 4: I'm doing a post called How to Handle Critique. Happy Fourth by the way! ;)

July 8: Stori Tori's Blog's third birthday! Be sure not to miss this post for a giveaway, reminiscing, and a special surprise!

July 10: Beautiful People day! This is a character link-up I do monthly hosted by Paper Fury!

July 11: My book review of From the Mouth of Elijah by Bryan Davis goes up on this day!

July 18: I'm doing a writing post called Writing Lessons from Anime: RWBY!

July 24: The Creative Blogger Award which I was tagged in forever ago and now I'm finally doing. XD

July 31: The Really Neat Blogger Award which I was also tagged in forever ago and now I'm finally doing it.


Lots of cool things happened and lots of cool things are coming! Thank you everyone for your comments and views! :D And I hope you had a happy June 2015!

How was your month? What did you do? Are you looking forward to any of the upcoming posts? Are you going to Realm Makers? Are you a RWBY fan? I'd love to hear from you!

You may also like:

Monthly Summary: May 2015
Monthly Summary: April 2015
FCWC 2015 Report
End of the Year Update 2014
Summer Update 2014

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! :)

Beautiful People Parental Edition: Dina

It's time for this month's Beautiful People! Yay! This is a link-up hosted by Paperfury and Further Up and Further In where you answer questions about your characters. I participated in Beautiful People #1, #2, #3 and the villain special last year. And I've done Beautiful People Author Edition, Beautiful People Valentine Edition, Beautiful People #7, Beautiful People Sibling Edition and Beautiful People #9. This link-up has been just so helpful with character development. 

I'm doing Dina, a secondary character from my steampunk fantasy Red Hood. I know I just did an interview with her last month, but I think this Beautiful People will draw out more about her character ... and she's one of my few characters who actually know their parents ... and Mor already had a Beautiful People so she can't hog them all. If you'd like to participate in this link-up yourself, check out either Paperfury or Further Up and Further In to see how. Here we go!

1. Do they know both their biological parents? Why/why not?

Dina does. She's grown up with her mother, father, and sister all of her life. 

2. Have they inherited any physical resemblances from their parents?

Dina looks more like her father than her mother. She has his brown hair while her mother has black hair an she also has her father's nose and browner skin tone, but she has her mother's eyes.

3. What’s their parental figure(s) dress style? Add pictures if you like!

Well, her mother is a Red Hood, a werewolf huntress, and Dina is also so she wears the traditional Red Hood garb which includes leggings, knee-high boots, a leather bodice, leather bracers, and a red cloak. Dina wears a combat skirt with hers. 

4. Do they share any personality traits with their parental figures? And which do they take after most?

She takes after her father more since she has more of his gentleness as opposed to her mother's stern and strict nature. She prefers peaceful activities over fighting and would much rather just keep to herself and sew as opposed to going out and killing werewolves.

5. Do they get on with their parental figure(s) or do they clash?

Dina gets along with her father wonderfully, but her mother not so much, since Dina wants to be a tailor and her mother wants her to be a Red Hood. 

6. If they had to describe their parental figure(s) in one word, what would it be?

Decent. Dina believes she doesn't come from an exceedingly tough family. People like Claes have it worse. It's just tough for her right now.

7. How has their parental figure(s) helped them most in their life?

Dina's mother has taught her many Red Hood skills including how to use a crossbow. Her father has taught her how to sew which ignited her dream to be a tailor.

8. What was their biggest fight with their parental figure(s)?

Definitely one with her mom when Dina told her she'd rather be a tailor than a Red Hood. That resulted in them not speaking for weeks and Dina crying to her best friend Mor about what happened.

9. Tracing back the family tree, what nationalities are in their ancestry?

Since Dina comes from a fantasy world, she lives in Silfurlund which is a Scandinavian mix with browner skin tones like Spain or Portugal, but with varying hair colors and sometimes paler skin. It's an interesting combination. XD

10. What’s their favorite memory with their parental figure(s)?

When Dina's father taught her how to sew her first dress. She remembers that so fondly. It's one of the things that drives her love for sewing. 

And that's a bit about Dina! If you'd like to know a bit more about her, check out her character interview and bio! If you'd like to know more about her book, check out the My Books tab! Thanks for reading!

Did you participate in the Beautiful People? Are you planning to? If so let me see your posts in the comments!

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: Aggrandize

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. ;) 

aggrandize

verb (used with object), aggrandized, aggrandizing.

1.) to widen in scope; increase in size or intensity; enlarge; extend.

2.) to make great or greater in power, wealth, rank, or honor.

3.) to make (something) appear greater.

Example Sentence: Nzelt the Vulture seeks to aggrandize his rule to Silfurlund despite his righteous exterior.

Silfurlund looks a lot like this place.
(I don't own this image.)

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: River Tam

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*

River Tam 

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: I love this tea! It is certainly my favorite of this set! Like River Tam it is sweet and strange. The tea is a very floral, sweet, and feminine tea with the summer rose, vanilla, marigold flowers, rose petals cornflowers and reminds me of River's innocent and gentle girl side. The earl grey green adds an odd taste into the mix which makes me think of River's more not all there side. Poor girl. I feel so bad for her. She's been through so much. I wish I could give her a cup of this tea for comfort her!

Sweet.

Strange.

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

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? This tea is amazing! Buy it. Drink it. Love it. Five 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 Tea!

And that's it for the Firefly set. :( But more tea reviews are to come! Don't you worry! Next week is the Birthday blend from 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: Evening Wind (My Neighbor Totoro)

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. In light of my recent post Writing Lessons from Anime: My Neighbor Totoro, I decided to share with you some of the beautiful soundtrack from this adorable movie. 

I love the theme for the movie and how it carries through the music of the film. This is a gentle, wistful piece with gorgeous flute and clarinet. This piece is suited for any calming scene. It's very lulling. 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 My Neighbor Totoro?

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 Anime: My Neighbor Totoro

Though I didn't grow up with this film like many people have I've been touched by this Japanese Narnia story (Don't believe me? Mei = Lucy Pevensie). I've watched this film three times now and cried each time. Just recently I watched My Neighbor Totoro with my best friend and during this watch, I realized there are some great writing aspects to be gleaned from this movie.

Warning: I'm going to keep this as spoiler free as possible, but there may be some minor ones.

1.) There Was No Info Dumping - In many kids films, it seems as if the writers think the audience is solely children and not very bright children, at that so often lazy writing is implicated. One of the biggest writing sins committed in those situations is info dumping which is when the writers spell out the situation for the viewers/readers. This was done a lot in the beginning of Big Hero 6. I enjoyed the film later on, but at first the contrived dialogue between Hiro and his brother was just killing me.

My Neighbor Totoro didn't do this. In fact, you didn't know completely what was going on until nearly a third of the way into the film. Instead of  taking the easy route, the writers hinted at the characters' situation as the film went, allowing this intrigue of the unknown propel the story. This film isn't intense. In fact, it's pretty mild, but because you didn't know everything from the beginning, you wanted to keep watching.

My favorite scene of the movie.

How this can be applied to writing: Your readers aren't stupid and holding back information isn't a bad thing. Instead of telling your readers about the background of the characters or other details either in a long swath of narration or having your character conveniently feel the need to spiel about their lives, drop small questions in phrases, interior monologue, and even settings and let your reader put it together. It's funner this way and it's just good writing.

2.) The Movie Started in a Great Place - I could see this film starting in many places. One could have been back before Satsuki and her family ever moved and shown their mother sick or another after they moved into the house, but the writers began where they did because it was the closest to the inciting incident while still giving some background to the story. This gave us time to grow attached to Satsuki and Mei and their awesome dad, before the mysterious Totoros came into play.

The iconic scene.

How this can be applied to writing: Where you start your story is essential to drawing in your readers. I've changed my beginnings so many times to find just the right spot. Choosing the right starting place can make or break a book. Look for a place close to the inciting incident, but far enough so you can learn about the character before throwing them into the action. Before you put your characters in danger whether it be emotionally or physically, your readers must care. 

3.) They Captured the Nature of a Child - These screenwriters did their research. I've often observed in movies that children move very similar to adults and sometimes think similarly to adults as well. I like that in Totoro, Mei and Satsuki act like children, simplistic yet natural and it doing so it captures the voice of a child and you feel with them throughout the story not like an overseeing adult. I loved how Mei tripped while she was running and copied Satsuki.

Mei running after some Totoros.

How this can be applied to writing: One extremely important part of writing especially in first person and third person limited is really getting into the head of a character. This is called voice which is making the reader feel like he or she is seeing through the eyes of that character like describing things how the characters would or portraying the character's thoughts and movements accurately. For example the thoughts of a soldier would be very different than the thoughts of a doctor or high school student. 


My Neighbor Totoro is an adorable film for adults, teens, and children. I would strongly recommend giving this movie a watch not just for its great writing, but also for this heartwarming story about two sisters and a trio of forest spirits.

Have you seen this movie? 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
Writing Lessons from TV Shows: Avatar: The Last Airbender