ATTENTION!

For all of you who haven't noticed, I have sort of abandoned this poor blog. :(
BUT! If you want more silliness, snark, and blatant honesty about ADVENTURE AND GOOD LITERATURE, You'll go to my other blog called 'The Adventurer's Compendium'.
HERE'S THE LINK!!!
http://velociraptorsandoatmeal.blogspot.com/
CLICK. IT. NOW.

A children's library of sorts...

Over the past few centuries, books have been a solitude, whisking many a child away into the pages of lore and introducing them to worlds beyond and unknown. Some may be filled with magic and wonder, while others may be a completely different world altogether. The phenomena that literature of the centuries has lived on is simply extraordinary. I myself have been reading since I could hold a book in my hands, and that has in no way, shape, or form hesitated in any way. Whether it be a novel, comic, poem, sonnet, or epic, I have never gone a day without a book in hand.
One of my absolute favourite books as a child was The Shut-Eye Train by world-renowned children's poet Eugene Field. *points at photo* That's him. Ain't he adorable?


The book itself is a children's book of poems that is now, sadly, out of print. I can remember many a night when I would hear this poem being read by my Dad:
Come, my little one, with me!
There are wondrous sights to see
As the evening shadows fall;
In your pretty cap and gown,
Don't detain
The Shut-Eye train -
"Ting-a-ling!" the bell it goeth,
"Toot-toot!" the whistle bloweth,
And we hear the warning call:
"All aboard for Shut-Eye Town!"

Over hill and over plain
Soon will speed the Shut-Eye train!
Through the blue where bloom the stars
And the Mother Moon looks down
We'll away
To land of Fay -
Oh, the sights that we shall see there!
Come, my little one, with me there -
'T is a goodly train of cars -
All aboard for Shut-Eye Town!

Swifter than a wild bird's flight,
Through the realms of fleecy light
We shall speed and speed away!
Let the Night in envy frown -
What care we
How wroth she be!
To the Balow-land above us,
To the Balow-folk who love us,
Let us hasten while we may -
All aboard for Shut-Eye Town!

Shut-Eye Town is passing fair -
Golden dreams await us there;
We shall dream those dreams, my dear,
Till the Mother Moon goes down -
See unfold
Delights untold!
And in those mysterious places
We shall see beloved faces
And beloved voices hear
In the grace of Shut-Eye Town.

Heavy are your eyes, my sweet,
Weary are your little feet -
Nestle closer up to me
In your pretty cap and gown;
Don't detain
The Shut-Eye train!
"Ting-a-ling!" the bell it goeth,
"Toot-toot!" the whistle bloweth
Oh, the sights that we shall see!
All aboard for Shut-Eye Town!

THAT, my readers, is 'The Shut-Eye Train'.
Growing up with Mr. Field's poems was something that very rarely happens nowadays, seeing as so many parents are attached to their precious technology....(See, I wouldn't mind if we all went back to using good old Snail Mail!) That is where my thoughts on the Kindle or Nook come in.
I understand how technology is advancing every day, and everybody and their Grandmother wants the brand new Apple product, but an electronic book?! *heavy sigh* WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO?!
Does the world really want to throw away something as wonderful as paper books just to have a touch screen digital reader? Is that the only way to get people my age to read? I think not.
I still hand-write stories from time to time, and (if I'm feeling up to it) I'll use parchment and a quill!
(And yes, it does make me feel like a student at Hogwarts. It's awesome.)
But to save this generation from getting rid of something so pure and lovely as books, us writers (Well, every writer except for Shmeyer....) and readers have to stand together and show the world what matters: LITERATURE ON PAPER!
Well, dear Readers? What are your thoughts? Leave a comment if necessary.
Sé onr sverdar sitja hvass!

Why Led Zeppelin and Nightwish are relevant:

**Song Lyrics and Titles belong to their respected owners**
Led Zeppelin formed in 1968 and consisted of four strapping young English lads by the names of Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Bonham, and John Paul Jones. The four of them started out as a folk-rock n' roll band playing gigs in local clubs in England, and blossomed into one of the greatest rock bands in history. Today, the name 'Led Zeppelin' is a household name, if you will. One hears the word 'zeppelin' and immediately their thoughts see images of a curly-haired, thin blonde man prancing around a stage with his shirt un-buttoned and too-tight jeans hanging off his waist with a microphone in hand, along with thoughts of an equally thin man in a dragon-adorned jumpsuit playing an electric guitar with a violin bow. Being a child who grew up with nothing but Zeppelin and the Beatles playing on my parent's FM car radio, one can conclude that I am one of the very few teenagers of my era who knows a song other than Stairway to Heaven. Thanks to my rocker of a father, my taste in music is quite different from many of my peers, Thank the LORD. Who knows what my life would be like if I listened to today's pop culture? *shudders* Frightens me just thinking about it! Thankfully, I grew up to be a teenager who'd rather burn some peach incense and read C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien novels than one who wears too much eyeliner and not enough clothing. (Anyways, back to blogging...*types frantically*)
Nightwish formed around a campfire in Finland in 1996. Then, the band consisted of three members: Tuomas Holopainen, Emppu Vuorinen, and Tarja Turunen. Originally, the Symphonic/Operatic Metal band were a folk-acoustic band, but drummer Jukka Nevalainen soon joined in to give the music a bit of a heavier beat, and the guitars were switched from acoustic to electric. Tarja's operatic vocals mixed quite well with the new, metal-esque sound Nightwish had, which pleased many a metal-head. Skip ahead about 6 years, and Nightwish had matured into one of the Top Artists in Finland and the US. The classical/operatic sounds attracted the prim and proper rockers out there, while the metal beats attracted the metal-heads and goths.
Quite different as the two bands may be, Robert Plant and Tuomas Holopainen shared one thing in common: A avid fascination of Tolkien's world.
Looking at the lyrics of Led Zeppelin's The Battle of Evermore, Ramble On, Misty Mountain Hop, and Bron-Yr-Aur-Stomp, it is considerably obvious that good ol' Robert was inspired by Middle-Earth. The lyrics from 'Ramble On' read:
"Mine's a tale that can't be told; My freedom I hold dear. How years ago and days of old, when magic filled the air. T'was in the darkest depths of Mordor I met a girl so fair! But Gollum and the Evil One crept up and slipped away with her, her, her, yeah." 
Coincidence? No. Does it reek of sheer epic-ness and show that Robert Plant is AWESOME? HELL YES!
The same goes for Nightwish's Elvenpath and Wishmaster; Tuomas states on the Nightwish site that 'Wishmaster' was simply about his two greatest fantasy loves: Tolkien and Dragonlance. In Elvenpath, dialogue from Ralph Bakshi's animated film J.R.R Tolkien's The Lord of The Rings is heard, along with references to the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins and the Elven-Folk.
"At the grove, I met the rest; The folk of my fantasies: Bilbo, Sparhawk, goblin and pixies. Snowman, Willow, trolls and the seven dwarves, the Path goes forever on! The way to the lands where as a hero I stand; the path where Beauty met the Beast: Elvenpath! It's the honesty of these worlds, ruled by magic and mighty swords, that makes my soul long for the past; Elvenpath!"
Both of these bands are unique in their own way, but they both share a love of fantasy literature that connects them tremendously. Even in today's world, which has been overrun by sparkling immortals and shapeshifters claiming to be werewolves, Tolkien's genius lives on in the hearts of many, touching souls and creating worlds for children and adults alike, leading their way out of the absurdity of stressful days and into the forests of lore.  

fanfiction.net & why it sucks.

As a novice writer, I have written many a fan-fiction. In fact, my first ever story was a Harry Potter fan-fiction, where I was Sirius Black's wife and were very happy together. We fought dementors together at a castle in Ireland. Then, I realized that I had gone completely MAD, and I threw it out. To this day, I will admit that I do write a fan-fic from time to time, though I don't flaunt them. A good friend and I are always cracking jokes about how Lestat and all the other vampires from Anne Rice's famed Vampire Chronicles would react if we showed them Twilight. (Trust me, it's not pretty.) But I digress. I am writing here today, AT MY VERY OWN COMPUTER, to say that though I approve of fan-fiction, not many authors do. Again, I will mention Anne Rice. On her facebook, she has said countless times that she HATES fan-fiction based on her characters. To Ms. Rice, fan-fiction steals her characters and makes them into something she never wanted. I applaud her for this, simply because she is 100% correct. In fan-fiction, most characters personalities are tweaked a bit. In my stories relating to the Vampire Chronicles I believe that I have stayed true to the personalities of the characters, but I'm not going to send any of these stories to Ms. Rice! Good Lord, she'd come all the way from California and slap some sense into me! *shudders*
We're going to play pretend now. Imagine you have just had a novel published. Think hard....(Oh, I see smoke! You're using your brains!) Anyway, you have just had a novel published and it is a New York Times Bestseller; Millions of copies have been sold, you've been praised with every award imaginable. Now imagine that fan-fictions are being written about your work, and your ever-faithful hero is being snogged by every woman imaginable. You'd be pretty ticked off, right? Right. So, although this may sound hypocritical, if I was an author, I wouldn't want my characters being whisked off into worlds they have no place being in. But, speaking as an occasional fan-fiction writer, Fan-fictions are a part of society. As a writer, sometimes it helps me blow off steam while I'm trying to get over writer's block from another story. I don't want my fan-fics published; I don't want them on the internet. I write them for fun; to get a good laugh or two. I most certainly DO NOT write fan-fiction to appease some sort of disgusting fantasy. (*cough* Twilight *cough*) My few fan-fictions are not romance in the slightest.
This is where fanfiction.net comes in. I HATE THAT SITE WITH THE BURNING PASSION OF A THOUSAND SUNS. Why, you ask? Because of all the sappy love stories written about characters whose personalities have been changed completely. I actually found a Potter fan-fiction once where George Weasley had given up being a prankster and sold the shop in Diagon Alley to become a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. He married the Mary-Sue heroine and they had sex a lot. I honestly thought I was reading a 13-year old's version of erotica, it was vomit-inducing. (You could tell that they had been inspired by the Queen of the Mary-Sues herself, Stephenie Meyer.)
Now, I have a question for any of my readers out there: What are your thoughts on Fan-Fiction? Do you hate it/love it? I want to know what you think.
Atra esterni ono thelduin. 

'Write Like a Shmeyer Day!' Submission

As many of you fellow Twilight-haters know, 'Write Like a Shmeyer Day!' was just a short 3 days ago, thanks to the wonder that is facebook, and the wonderful Admin that is behind 'No, Twilight is not literature, or Quality Entertainment'. The day-originally-is celebrated in Washington in honor of Shmeyer's garbage heap-er, I mean 'novels'. Of course, being a fellow Twilight hater, Every fan of great literature teamed up with the famed FB group and dedicated the day to writing as disgustingly as Shmeyer, and by submitting their hilarious stories! I submitted quite a horrid paragraph or two, but sadly, I did not win. :( Ah, well. Maybe next year. Nevertheless, I  am in quite a sickly fashion right now, as my sinuses are acting up and making me want to claw my face off. The pain...THE PAIN!! *hack* In light of this, I am going to be a mean, mean writer today, and am going to share my 'Write Like a Shmeyer Day!' submission. I hope it doesn't burn out your adorable little eyes. THIS IS A WARNING. READ ANY FURTHER AND YOU MAY EITHER DIE LAUGHING OR KILL YOURSELF FROM SHEER DISGUST. Enjoy.

My heart thumped fiercely behind my ribcage, pounding hard like a drum. Edward was gripping my arm so tightly I thought the tautness of his grip would tear my shaking arm off. I was shaking vehemently, and Edward's unspoiled body was cold; Like ice. Ice from the North Pole. His flawless face stared back at me, his golden eyes churning a deep honey color. "Edward, I...I think I'm in love with you. In love like you couldn't even fathom." His violent grip became even tighter as he gnashed his perfect, unblemished teeth, which were coated with a thick coat of scarlet blood. "Can't you see, Bella? I am a monster! A creature of the darkest depths of the darkest darkness..." He turned and punched a tree with his snow-white, perfect fist. "And I have fallen in love with the most beautiful and prettiest woman in all of the Earth. And so the lion fell in love with the lamb..." He mumbled, releasing his taut grip on my shaking arm and kissing me robustly with such force that I thought I might feint from the vigor of his lip-lock. "You are mine." he said, his delicious breath smelling sweet. "Mine and mine alone. I can't bear to let you be with someone else, the devastating covetousness drives me insane. Even when you're with your friends, my heart longs for thee." He said, making my jelly legs melt into the sullied dirt. "I'd leave anyone just to be with you." I said, and the shining sun broke through the sinister vines and branches of the dark forest, glaring on Edward. His faultless porcelain-white skin sparkled like diamonds, like precious gems. "Make me like you." I said forcibly. "I don't care if I have to leave my entire family and my closest friends." I snuggled closed to his cold, marble-sculpted chest. "If it means being with you, I'd give up everything that meant something to me." Edward chuckled, the sound deep and hearty. "That's all I ask, my love." He whispered softly, and stuck the needle into my chest, pumping my veins full of coursing immortal venom.


SEE?! I WARNED YOU!! But NOOO!! You had to insist on reading and now you've gone and blinded yourself!! BE GRATEFUL THAT SOMEONE SMART IS NOW READING THIS LAST PARAGRAPH OF MINE TO YOU!! 
*ahem*
Anyways, I'm glad you've put up with this silliness. Today is not a good day for me; I'm sick, it's raining, AND I'M OUT OF VANILLA TEA. *eyes twitches then sneezes*
Screw (Insert state here), I'm moving to Montana to live in the mountains like a hermit. *sniffles and sneezes again* 
.......Maybe not. I'm too poor. I think I'll just nap for an hour or so....anybody mind sending me some vanilla tea? 

10 reasons why Hobbits drink.

1.) They're tiny, so they get drunk faster.
2.) There's a different bar on every corner in Hobbiton
3.) Parties. Parties = alcohol, which = girls, which = HOBBIT DATES.
4.) Green Dragon. Duh.
5.) Gandalf can't live on 'just tea' when he comes to visit!
6.) Merry and Pippin without alcohol is like a horse without shoes: SILLY!
7.) Judging by Tolkien's description and by how Hobbits are portrayed in the films, they're Irish. Enough said.
8.) After saving Middle-Earth from utter destruction, a Hobbit needs a stiff drink!
9.) Because living on Lembas and water is boring.
10.) Oh you can search far and wide, You can drink the whole town dry. You'll never find a beer so brown But you'll never find a beer so brown As the one we're drinking in our town. You can kick your fancy ales. You can drink em by the flagon. But the only brew for the brave and true . . . Comes from the Green Dragon!

Preparing for the PA Renaissance Faire 2010!

Evening, all! As you may have guessed by the title, I am preparing my costume for the 2010 Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire. :3
A good friend and I are going to the Faire next month dressed as...you guessed it, ELVES!
All I need now is the fabric for my tunic and the ears. I can hardly wait!
Until the day of the Faire, I'll keep you updated on elven fun. :3
Atra esterni ono thelduin!