A whole month!!! Lots of news, good and bad.

Whoa! Can't believe I've been too lazy to post on Blogger for a whole month, nearly two! Lot's to talk about.

First of all, welcome home, Jacoby!

Been really busy for the last month and a half. At school, we've had essay after essay, book after book, project after project! I had to write a 7 page in class essay with no earlier preparation in two hours on the monster in Lord of the Flies, I've got to finish reading 1984 over winter break, and I have to finish a project worth most of my semester grade in the first couple days back to school. We've been working on the same Career project for months!

Earlier this month, I was in my first Fencing tournament! It was awesome. The place it was at was so much more... organized, than the elementary school gym in issaquah, that I go to for lessons. It was a Regional Youth Circuit, and wasn't worth any national points. I did great in the early prelim rounds, winning 2 out of my 4 matches with the people in my pool. Once the real matches started though, I lost my first match to the only other student from my fencing school, 15-14. I had a big lead for a while, but had no concept of clock management and was too aggressive. She took back the lead by one and ran out the clock, while I tried desperately to get back the lead. FAIL. In the end, I got 9th place out of 12, and surprisingly enough, the girl who beat me in my first match, Jade, won in 3rd place. Congrats!

I've read a lot of great books lately. I spent weeks reading through the Belgariad series, and it is fantastic! One of the best fantasy series ever! I started the Mallorean, but just didn't get into it. I finished book one, but then moved onto something new. Today, I went to Barnes and Noble and got three new books. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson, Magician: Apprentice (which I'm now reading) and Magician: Master by Raymond E. Feist. I've heard it's amazing, and it's pretty good so far. I'll find out I guess.

I've also seen a lot of movies in the last two months. I've watched all of the X-Men movies, including the new one, I've watched Star Trek (twice! In the last two days! Awsome!!!), Up, Sherlock Holmes (Good movie!), Old dogs (ok), and 21, the blackjack one. Most of the movies I've seen have been terrific, and I'm excited to go see Avatar tomorrow. Supposed to be fantastic.

Now for the bad news...

Winter break has been very eventful, although that is not necessarily good. Not good at all. I spent the first week being lazy, playing the new call of duty game and ping pong at my dads. We celebrated our first christmas with our dad's girlfriend, Jackie, and her family. That was fun, but afterward, was when the bad started. We couldn't go skiing Christmas day, because Jackie's daughter, Caroline wasn't feeling well. Turned out that skiing was the worst of our problems. That night, Caroline was even worse, so they decided to be safe and take her to the hostpital. She had a Pneumonia that was resilient to antibiotics and one of her lungs was filled with fluid, and the other was half filled. A few more hours of waiting, and she'd have died. Because they couldn't get the antibiotics to work, the weren't sure whether or not she'd be all right. Last night, the antibiotics began working though, and she's gotten a little better, although I haven't gotten the most recent news, because I've been with my mom the last few days. I'm seeing my dad tomorrow though, so I'll ask then. Luckily, they think she'll live, although she'll have to spend the next few weeks in the hospital.

Well, good luck Caroline.

That's all I've got to talk about for now. Sorry I've been gone so long.

Ender

While I was at camp this year, I read a ton of good books! The last assigned book we had for L.A. class this year at school was Ender's Game by Orson Scott card, and I was beyond excited. My dad had read the book to Ezra and I a few years ago, and we both loved it. So, I read it at school, and decided it was the best book I'd ever read. I then read the parallel novel, Ender's Shadow, which was almost as good, and ten times more interesting. At camp, I reread Ender's Game, then read Shadow of the Hegemon and Shadow Puppets, sequels to Ender's Shadow. I tried reading the final book in the Shadow quartet, but it seemed really boring (and the book got destroyed by water damage!).

For those who don't know, Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow revolve around an International Fleet military school in outer space, dedicated to turning the most brilliant young minds on Earth into military geniuses, for one purpose: Defending the Earth from the Third Invasion of the Buggers. And their sole hope is Ender Wiggin, a Third child. Both of his siblings were deemed wrong for Battle School, Peter for his ruthlessness, Valentine for her compassion, but Ender, his birth requested by the government, is the perfect mix. But the hand that is Graff, the "principal" of Battle School, can not overwork or underuse this tool that is Ender. If he breaks him, the human race is doomed. Ender's Game follows Ender, while Ender's Shadow follows his right hand man, Bean: a genetically altered boy, the smallest, smartest kid in Battle School fights the system, determined not to become a tool, for fear of being broken.

The remainder of the Shadow series follows the Battle School students after the end of the Bugger Wars, as the take their places in Earths new government, working toward the end of the wars following the Hegemony's fall from power. Bean also tries to survive many attempts at his friends' and his own lives.

Catching up

Crap!!! Sorry I wasn't able to write another post the night of my last one. After I got off the computer, my brothers claimed it for the rest of the night, and have since then. The only reason I can write now is because Jordan is still asleep, and Ezra flew to Virginia the other day to visit a friend. Jordan and I are still in Savannah for another week, until this Friday, though.

Yesterday, my Grandmama took Jordan and I to a family reunion, where I was able to meet a bunch of the family that I'd done research on for my family tree, and those I hadn't known existed.

Over the last week, I've seen a ton of new movies. I saw Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and I've gotta say, it sucked. My dad said he felt nauseous afterward, and there weren't even many disgusting scenes.

We also saw Ice Age III: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, and it wasn't half bad for an Ice Age movie. A bit silly of course, but it was way better than Transformers II.

And last, but certainly not least, the best movie of the series so far in my families opinion (Tilly, Jordan, and Ezra), HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE!!! Sadly, we weren't able to see it the day it came out. We had to wait until Thursday. The movie was terrific!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They did skip a couple of scenes, but what they didn't skip, they did really well. Especially the Weasly's Wizard Wheezes! Awesome place! Oh yeah, and the Felix Felicis scene was hilarious!!!

I'll probably have more time to write now that Ezra isn't going to be hogging the computer, so I'll write later, although I may not get a chance until tomorrow. I've found a lot of really good TV shows. Maybe I'll write about them.

Tag! I'm IT!!!

I got a tag from Bettina to answer some questions about books! This is the first time I've been tagged for something, so tell me if I'm doing something wrong... or right.

Tell me about the book that has been on your shelf the longest...

On my dad's shelves, of which we've got four huge full ones (he had to give a bunch away when we moved to Seattle), I have no idea. We have hundreds of really old ones. He just told me that he thinks that he's had some old copies of the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit for the longest.

On my shelves, I have a few books of my dad's that are really old, but of mine, I think that they are either The Guardians of Ga'Hoole series, the Young Wizard series, or some old Harry Potters. I remember reading Ga'Hoole in 3rd Grade, Young Wzards in 4th Grade, and the Harry Potters are just pretty old, and I'm not sure how long we've had them. Oh, and we've got some old Spiderwick books from when I was in 4th grade too.

Tell me about a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (i.e. a person, a place, a time, etc.)...

Hmm... This is a tough one. I'll go by the examples...

Person: I'm gonna trave back to the Young Wizard series by Diane Duane from the last question. For those who don't know what it is, the first book is called So You Want To Be A Wizard, and it is about a girl who, running into the library to escape from bullies, finds a book called So You Want To Be A Wizard. You know how there are those guide books for little kids, like So You Want To Be A Doctor, or stuff like that? Well, that was the kind of book Nita found. She takes it home, does what it says, and of course, she's learning how to be a wizard. I remember that this book got me into that same habit a long time ago. For maybe a year or two afterwards, whenever I found a guide book about wizardry or stuff like that, I would always get it and try to follow the instructions, hoping that somehow, against all odds, I'd become a wizard. It never worked, of course, but that main character reminds me a lot of myself, and how gullible I am a lot. Of course, it's not gullible if it's true. So, I guess it's only me. ^_^

Place: The Spine, in Eragon. Of course, where I went, it was sort of the opposite. Instead of mountains, it was a ravine. Close to Kathryn's house, if you go down her road, there is a huge ravine, covered in ivy, thorns, and loose dirt. One day, we decided to try to go down there, and it was hard to get there, but once we got there, it was almost like a sanctuary. No people, tons of wildlife, and pure quiet, other than a trickleing stream. That is how I always pictured the Spine. As a place where no one would venture because of the possibility of danger, but upon arival, there isn't much danger at all.

I'll skip time. I can't think of anything for that one.

Tell me about a book you acquired in some interesting way (gift, serendipity in a used book store, prize, etc.)...

I have a lot of books, and it's very difficult to remember the story of each one. There are a lot I got from my dad, one of his old ones, like the Belgariad, Ender's Game, and Calvin and Hobbes, there are a lot I got as birthday presents, some I had to get for school, and some I just happened to come into possesion of, but I think the coolest way I got a book was the ARC from J Scott Savage for Farworld: Water Keep. I was going crazy over it! I read it three times in a month, and wouldn't put it down. I was just eexcited to know an author.

Whoa!!! There was one other one I forgot! For my Bar-Mitzvah, my friend Alex tried to send out for a signed copy of Warriors from Erin Hunter. He sent her a letter, and thought she'd just passed it off or didn't get it. In fact, she didn't get it until two months later, when she sent back a signed copy of Eclipse (Warriors, not Twilight), and a letter back. He gave me both, the letter which is on my wall with the rest of my book related posters, and the book, which said, "Happy Bar-Mitzvah, Brian! Erin Hunter". I was freaking out over that one. I'm such a bibliophile, or I guess a better way to say it would be to say book fanatic, or book freak. Or Bookworm.

Tell me about the most recent addition to your shelves...

The most recent edition... I haven't been to a bookstore in a while, cause I've been rereading a lot of books lately. It was either Hunt for the Dark Infinity by James Dashner or The Demigod Files by Rick Riordan. Both were terrific, but DarkIn was more story like. It was terrific, by the way, if I haven't already posted about it. (Wow! I haven't!!!)

Tell me about a book that has been with you to the most places...

Like Bettina, I haven't been many place. I'd have to say that Eragon has been the most places. It's been to camp a few times, it's been to NY, Savannah, Atlanta, Seattle, Florida. Being my favorite book, I carry it around a lot. It's never been out of the country though.

Tell me about a bonus book that doesn't fit any of the above questions...

Hmm... I could do my favorite book, which would be Eragon, I could do the book I'm anticipating most right not, which would be Warriors: Sunset (5 days) or The Last Olympian (May 5, I think), I could do most read book, which could be Eragon, Harry Potter, Charlie Bone, or Lost Years of Merlin, there are a lot of possiblilites. I'll just go with all of that for now.

Oh, and I tag:

Anna, (and if they happen to read this, J Scott Savage and James Dashner) ^_^ Everyone else has already been picked!

San Diego - The Rest

Well, here's the outline of the rest of my trip. I just got back yesterday:

Seaworld - Day 2: We spent that morning at the beach, and hung out with Dan again until about 2:00, when we went back to Seaworld. We rode the Atlantis rollarcoaster (Ok), went to a Pet's Rule show (Ok, sorta lame. The animals were cool though), The Sesame Street/ Elmo 4D show (I can't believe they made me go to that. It was beyond lame.), Rode some Raging Rapids ride twice. You're sorta in a raft, and go through a bunch of water things, like waterfalls, water guns, and waves. You get soaked. The first time we went, I got a little wet, but not too badly, while 3 of the 6 in our raft got wet. The three that didn't, including me and Ezra, wanted to go again. The other's including Jordan, reluctanly agreed. Those three were nice and dry afterward... I wasn't. Ezra was though. We were going to go to another Shamu show that night, but we were too cold and wet, so we went home. I spent the rest of the night watching Batman Begins on TV. It was a pretty boring day. Better than Day 1 though.

Legoland - Day 1: Terrible. Not even gonna talk about it. Lame coasters, long lines. Terrible. The only semi-good thing about it was miniworld. They had lego sculptures of cities around the world, like DC, New Orleans, Vegas, New York, and a few others. Not too bad.

Pool - Day 1: We spent our last day there at the pool of the hotel we were in. It was ok. My eyes were sore after a while, I got a bit sunburned, I played some pingpong. It was pretty fun playing with my brothers. That night we watched one of the funniest movies ever, A Knight's Tale, starring Heath Ledger. Hilarious. I'll talk about that later.

We came home afterward. The first half of the trip was by far the best. Second half was really boring. Since I missed two days of school for the trip, I now have a ton of work to make up. We started reading Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie, we started two big projects, and we started a really important unit in Math that I need to learn.  Great.

Spring Break, San Diego, and reads

Finally!!!!! Today is the first day of Spring Break for me!!!! Wow. There's only a few weeks left of school. Then it's off to camp, then just a few weeks of Summer left, then High School... Wow. Everything is passing so quickly.

I got off really lucky. No homework for my vacation except for setting up a Science Project, which I can't do quite yet. On Tuesday, I'm gonna go to California for the first time with my brothers, My dad, his girlfriend, Jackie, and two of Jackie's kids, Emmy and Caroline, both of which are older than my brothers and I. My friend Marek got unlucky. He's going on a roadtrip with his family for 8 days into the middle of nowhere with his hyperactive little brother and no computer. Kathryn is even luckier than me. She's going on her annual trip to Hawaii. Lucky her. So many kids at my school are going there. I've never been to Hawaii, and I want to soooo badly. 

Well, we're going to San Diego. A huge zoo, Seaworld, and best of all, the beach!!!! Warmth!!!! It's been freezing for weeks here on Mercer Island. It's torture. And it's been raining. If it's going to be cold, it should at least snow instead of rain.

I've also got a mission over spring break. Kathryn wants me to read a book called The Shack that she's been going on and on about, saying somthing about it "strengthening her relationship with God." We had a long argument, or well, you can't really call it an argument. It was more like a discussion about religion. I told her I'd read it if I could start it before the end of break. I had already been planning to read The 13th Reality 2 over spring break (finally!) and before that, I have to finish rereading Brisingr. I'm probably gonna finish Brisingr tonight, so I'll be done with 13th Reality in a few days. Does anyone else know about this book, The Shack? It was a New York Times Best Seller.

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt

This was an amazing, touching story about a calico cat who is abandoned at the edge of a forest by her owners. The pregnant mother wanders the forest until she finds a sad old hound dog, Ranger, chained to a post by a house in the bayou. He is maimed in one leg, having been shot by his owner, the evil Gar Face, years ago. Now, the chain is all that keeps him there. She sympathizes with Ranger and they are instant friends, living in the shadowed area under the crooked house. When the kittens are born, Ranger is like a father to them. And they are given one rule: Stay in the Underneath. Puck and Sabine respect this rule, until the trickery of a sunbeam gets the better of one of them. As Gar Face breaks up this family, Ranger, Puck, and Sabine must find a way to bring it back together. 

Meanwhile, there is magic at work in the Bayou Tartine. A thousand years ago, there lived Grandmother moccasin, an old snake, bitter after the betrayal she felt when her loved one fell for another and she morphed back into her serpent form. She has waited for many years, lonley but for one companion, the Alligator King. Until she meets her daughter, Nightsong. She is a sweet and loving companion, with a voice like sweet honey. They are happy, until another betrayal tears Grandmother Moccasin apart, and she sets out to wreak her revenge and gain a new companion. And she bides her time...

This story was amazing, told by the trees of the forest. It has the perfect balance of mysticism and reality, and a thousand emotions bundled into it. I really loved it. It was also a National Book Award Finalist! It's funny how I learned about it. I really had no desire to read it. I read it to participate in an author chat on Wandsandworlds.com It was a really fun chat. I'll be sure to post the link when it is released.

Work, work, and, uh, more work

Whew.... I've had so much homework this weekend. I missed most of last week, and had to make up all of the work this weekend. The flu has been going around Mercer Island, and my family caught it. My mom's boyfriend gave it to my mom, who gave it to Jordan, who gave it to Ezra and I. Luckily for me, most of the school was sick too. Over 200 kids were out on Tuesday and Wednesday!!! Even a lot of the teachers were sick.

Well, I just finished (sorta) my massive load of homework. I had 4 math assignments (I only finished 1. My math teacher is very lax on all of that, and said I had a while to do it all,) 2 science assignments, 4 history assignments, 3 language arts assignments, and a spanish assignment. What a load! And even worse, the trimester ends at the end of the week, so I need to make sure everything is in by then! I've also got a huge test on Friday on To Kill a Mockingbird. I'll write about To Kill a Mockingbird once I've watched the movie. I finished the book a while ago, but I havn't seen the whole movie yet.

Sorry I havn't posted in a while. It's not that I've been busy, but I havn't had anything to write about. I havn't seen a movie in ages. No new books to talk about, other than To Kill a Mockingbird. Hmm.... Oh! I do have a book to talk about soon. I read The Underneath by Kathi Appelt a few weeks ago, and participated in an author chat on this chat website. I'll talk about that one soon, too. Hmm... I havn't gotten much work done on The Necromancer Apprentice. Yeah, nothing new has really happened. I'm seeing two Shakespeare plays soon, The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest. I tried reading The Merchant of Venice, but I gave up pretty quickly. It took me 10 minutes to even vaguely get the first page. And these are small pages.

Well, that's all really. I'll post soon. Oh, and to Bettina (and Jacoby. You havn't really talked 'bout them) good luck on the SATs!

The Necromancer Apprentice

Everyone else (aka. Bettina and Jacoby) have been talking about their stories, so why not talk about mine.

My story is about a 14 year old necromancer named Polsvend, who lives with his twin brother and the cruel old man who claims to have rescued them from their evil parents when they were babies. The old man is a master at necromancy, and teaches them both. Steensvend, Polsvend's brother, is adept at necromancy and idolizes the old man for his skills and for rescuing them. Polsvend, however, is a mediocre necromancer, having only successfully raised someone from the dead once, it ending in a miserable failure after the skeleton went berserk and tried to kill them all. They are both maltreated, although Polsvend more so, and Polsvend completely distrusts the old man. However, when Polsvend's suspiscions are confirmed with his brother's murder, Polsvend must go on a journey to find the truth about his family and avenge his brother. This adventure may mean more to the world than Polsvend knows, though. And it's already unlikely chances. How is an inexperienced necromancer supposed to fight an alliance of master's alone?

Oops. I sorta slipped from explaining the book to making it into a synopsis sorta thing. I started writing the story around last September. I just wrote the prologue to get my idea down. Then, I based the whole story off of that. I've been adding to it ever since.

I got the names from a few different things. One of them I named after one of my friends. A bunch were based off of the Dutch language. Some were just words that I morphed, like Literati and Senkor, two countries in the story.

I've had so many plot changes: My original plan was to have the Prologue take place in the past, and the real story having entirly different characters. It then changed to possibly being in the future. And then, it became  what it is today, being the present.

I have a lot more to explain, but this is enough for now.

A lot to talk about... but not really/ The 13th Realiy: Hunt for the Dark Infinity Blog Tour

Sorry I haven't posted in so long. All last week my computer was broken. It couldn't connect to the internet and had to be erased intirely. Luckily, all my files were saved, including my story, which is now 12606 pages long and has 41 pages. It is lacking subplots though, and is a bit of a bore for a while. I need to have more characters, and more for my character to do in the first few chapters, other than run. I've posted the first few chapters at the critique group section on the Farworld forum under Critisism for The Necromancer Apprentice if you want to read it. Or you can email me to get the prologue. I've already sent it to you, Jacoby, right?

I've got a few short movie reviews to do.

Push -

It really sucked. Don't see it. It was so boring and disgusting that me, both of my brothers, my mom, and her friend said that they should have seen something else. It didn't even tie up all the plots at the end. If your going to leave something open for a sequel, at least make it a good movie.

Pink Panther II -

It was silly, of course, but it was better than Push. If you saw the first one, you should see II, but if not, it's not worth it.

My weekend in movies was really dissappointing.

On Friday though, I had a really fun/funny/guilty time. I went to a paintball (painball) party for my friend, Alex. I got a few bruises, but it wasn't me that got hurt. The big rule was to not shoot someone up close. When you get close, you're supposed to yell surrender. The first piece of guilt was toward my friend, Marek. We were playing a game called Presidential Assasination, and Alex was the president. I killed him, with a paintball to the chest. My turn to be president. My two secret service agents, Alex and his dad, died, and the other team rushed up to me. Marek yelled surrender. I didn't hear, and shot him in the leg from 5 feet away. My friend Sean hit me in the thumb afterward, somehow killing me. Marek had a huge welt, and was rather pissed off at me. It was rather funny though. Next, in the last game, Alex ran in front of me just as I started to fire. I hit him in the back, and he went down. He had a gigantic welt and was mad. I hadn't meant to hit him, so that wasn't funny at all. 

That's pretty much all that has happened since I last posted.

Oh, and for James Dashner's blog tour, The 13th Reality: Book 2: Hunt for the Dark Infinity comes out in 5 days!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait, and I highly encourage you to buy it!!! Was that good enough? I don't know what else to write? Also, the Maze Runner is coming out (hopefully) in September. And I really want that ARC.

Inkheart: The Movie

Today, I went to see the movie version of Inkheart! It was actually pretty good. They ruined it, but they ruined it well. Wierd, I know. There were a few major changes, mostly in the beginning and end, but other than that, it stayed pretty true to the book.

****Movie and Book Spoilers Below****

• They changed the beginning. Dustfinger chased them around a marketplace somewhere snowy, instead of finding them at their home.
• Fenoglio had a manuscript of Inkheart in the movie.
• Elinor wasn't recaptured after they went to Fenoglio's village. She tried to go home, but instead went back to, with Darius, fight against Capricorn.
  
• Mo and Dustfinger went back to Capricorns village willingly, to try to find Resa.
• And the big one was that Meggie didn't finish reading Fenoglio's alternate story for the Shadow, and had to finish it by writing her own ending on her arm, in which ALL of Capricorn's men died, including Mortola and Basta.
• Resa could talk again at the end.
• Fenoglio asked to go into the book.
• Dustfinger was sent home to his wife by Mo at the end of the movie, and Farid stayed with the group at Elinor's house.

They made it so that they could not make a second, but it was still a good movie either way.

Inkspell

The last time I read Inkspell, I never actually finished. Over winter break though, I finally finished reading it, and it was terrific!!! I loved it, especially the world the Cornelie Funke has created. Although in the book, it was Fenoglio who made it. And Fenoglio is not happy about it. Everything is going wrong: Cosimo the Fair is dead; the Laughing Prince has lately been known as the Prince of Sighs; and the Adderhead is practically in control of the land. However, when Dustfinger, Farid, Meggie and Gwin appear in Inkworld, things my start to get better. Or maybe they won't. Mortola and Basta are out for revenge toward Mo, and when he is shot in the Inkworld, Resa must keep him alive until Meggie can help with her magical voice. I absolutely loved it.

I think that the best part was probably the Spelt Mill. Meggie, Farid, and Dustfinger went to a Mill in Argenta, the realm of the Adderhead, and they are ambushed by Basta. What I loved was that Farid saves the day, attacking Basta and the Slasher, his minion, with fire.

Right now, I am reading Inkdeath, book 3. It is great so far! I can't wait to see how it ends. The end of Inkspell really made me want to read more. By the way, tomorrow is my full day of writing! I'll post on it tomorrow morning.

Fencing

Fencing: An olympic sport which is based off of swordfighting. 

Before 1st lesson:

I'm so excited!!! I start fencing lessons at the South Bellevue Community Center tonight!!! I've wanted to do this for so long. Watching Fencing in the Olympics really fueled my entusiasm (I don't usually use that kind of phrase.). And reading ton's of fantasy books really helped. Plus, if anyone has seen The Princess Bride, they'll know how that played into it. I can't wait. I am so jumpy that I decided to use a homework pass on one of my assignments. I wouldn't be able to finish more than 1 assignment because I'm so jumpy. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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There. That got rid of some of my jumpyness. Sorta. I'll post about my lesson after it happens.

By the way, I've gotten a lot of work done on my story in the last few days.

Like Bettina, I'm having trouble ending a post.

Awww... My cat looks so tiny curled up in a ball.

Ok. I'm done.

After 1st lesson:

It was really fun! I loved it. First, we started by learning the footwork: Engard, Advance, and Reverse. Then, we got a sword and learned how to hold it correctly. (The type of fencing we're learning is Epee, which is the French word for sword.) We also learned how to do the footwork while holding the sword, and how to do the basic attack: the Lunge. It was actually very tiring. Not only was the sword heavy, but holding the same bent-knees position for so long while moving hurts. I can't wait for my lesson next week.

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year, everyone!!! It's finally 2009, and I'm confident that it will be a good year! (As long as we don't move.) First of all, later this year will be the start of high school! I can't wait to see how it's gonna be. Also, I hope to have finished my book by the end of the year. If many people could write a 50000 word novel in a month, I'm sure I can finish my rough draft with a years work. Only 44000 more words to go... to reach 50000. There are also some reading goals I want to meet. I want to have read some Shakespeare, for one. I'll figure out others later though. One Shakespeare is enough for me... for now anyways. My dad and I are going to see The Tempest in May, so I need to read that by then.

Lot's to do in so little time. A year is shorter than it feels.

Warriors: The Power of Three: Long Shadows

I just finished reading Long Shadows, the fifth book of the third series of Warriors. I can't say it took me long. I got it after school on Tuesday, the day it came out, and started it that night. I stayed up until about 11:00 reading, and didn't put it down for more than half an hour at school the next day, and read for about two hours afterward. I finished it around 5:00 in the afternoon yesterday, and I loved it! I think that it was the best one out so far. It had so many twists, that I can't mention without spoiling the book, that made it so great, although I was surprised at how little went wrong. The first problem they solved smoothly, the second problem ended well, and only the third big part had some trouble, and I can't say it ended well.

The third series of Warriors is definitely the darkest. (Even the names sound dark. Starting with the second, there is Dark River, Outcast, Eclipse, and Long Shadows. The last was supposed to be called Cruel Seasons, but the publisher thought it was too dark and changed it to Sunrise.) However, in all of the third series, only one cat has died, and not until the fifth book. More cats died in the first book!!! And the authors say that they are always trying to think of new ways to kill the cats. I hope they puts some of those evil methods to use soon.

Either way, it was a terrific book, and I would highly recommend it. Now, I'm reading Inkspell.

Pillage

Wow. I just finished reading Pillage, Obert Skye's new book. It was a really great story, (especially the dog piling salad) until I got to the end! That was one of the worst endings that I have ever read. I mean, the boy finds out that one of his best friends is a bad guy, and it's like he's not even surprised!!! The guy turns into an ogre thing, and all he says is "You?!?" How unemotional can you get? Then the rest was the whole Star Wars thing, where the crazy uncle is actually the dad. Then they win and they all go in for cookies. Yay (Brian says in a bored voice.

Luckily, the rest of the story was great, so it wasn't a waste of time. Also, the cover looks really cool!!!

City of Ember

Wow. The City of Ember was surprisingly better than the book. Then again, the book wasn't that great. The movie was much more exciting. It's a good thing that my little brother, Jordan, hadn't read the book, else he wouldn't have wanted to see it. The book was way more boring. I think they did really well with it. My favorite character was Doon. He was pretty cool. I liked how he liked to invent stuff and take care of his giant moth. Well, it wasn't that great, so I don't have much more to talk about.

Christopher Paolini Book Signing

Awesome.

I got to meet one of my favorite authors, Christopher Paolini, at Seattle Town Hall. He is the author of Eragon, so I got Eragon, 2 copies of Eldest, and Brisingr signed. I would have gotten just one copy of Eldest signed, but one of my copies was mangled, so we got a nice, neat paperback for $5. Not only was it a book signing, but it was a big party!

When my mom and I first got there, some guys from the Seattle Knights, a group of people who were taught to do theatrical sword fights, greeted us. Then, my mom and I went over to some of the stands, a picture thing, and a "fortuneteller." Luckily, it didn't cost anything. I hope it was right (which they rarely are) and I will do well in school. Then, we went and got some cookies.

For the next part of the party, we went upstairs to watch the Seattle Knights put on a show. It was silly, but the sword-fighting was pretty cool. Afterward, Christopher Paolini came up and talked about the books. Something that he said that his favorite line that he wrote was an Urgal saying, "Die, puny human!" Afterall, what's the point of writing a fantasy novel if you can't say things like that!

After his speech, he started signing books. It took hours for us to get a turn. On each ticket, there was a letter. First, they called A's to line up, then B's, and so on. We were D's. A's took an hour. B's took 45 minutes. C's also took 45 minutes. We had to wait in line for about half an hour. Throughout the wait, we got to talk with some of the Seattle Knights. One of them had 60 pound armor on. Another we talked with talked about the Seattle Knights, training, her armor, and what kind of things like that she did. When we finally got the books signed, my mom was really peed by the wait.

It was a really cool experience, and I hope he comes back someday.

Brisingr

Wow. Brisingr, Book 3 in the Inheritance Cycle, by Christopher Paolini, was terrific, awesome, amazing. Overall, it was one of the best books that I've ever read. Two of my favorite scenes in the book were surprisingly, not ones that are spoilers, so I can describe them here!

In the first one, Roran and some of the solidiers of the Varden are attacking an army of the Empire's men who are attacking Surda. During the battle, which takes place in a raided and small Surdan village, Roran is able to find a good place to fight. There is a wall of wagons blocking off most of the allyway, so that only a few solidiers a a time can get through. There are a couple of archers on the rooves of the surrounding buildings that are helping Roran. Roran is getting beat up anyway, but the mound of Empire bodies that he is fighting on is steadily getting higher. By the end of the battle, Roran is beat up, but Carn, the spellcaster with the group heals him and tells him that overall, Roran himself killed 193 solidiers. It was such an awesome scene.

In the second scene, Rorans leadership is challenged by an Urgal that is in the group Roran is leading. The only way for them to settle the disagreement without him offending the Urgals on behalf of the Varden, is for them to wrestle for leadership. Surprisingly, Roran was able to tire him out and he won. It was a great scene.

I loved it. By the way, tonight, I get to go to the Christopher Paolini book signing. I am beyond excited.

Over the Fence Library-Upcoming Fantasies

Hi guys. I just wanted to tell you that I've finally decided to get rid of Over the Fence Library (I never posted there anyway) and make a new site, Upcoming Fantasies. There, I'll talk about upcoming YA or MG fantasy books that I'm excited about. I'll also say when their released, and any other news I can find about them. However, after I read it, I'll post more on it here, at Bookworm.