Snippet

Here's a random snippet of my third WIP because I'm bored. It's only got around 10k words so far.

Comments are welcome :)

I blocked out the sound of the preacher and the quiet sniffles from the crowd that had come to say goodbye. I focused on the carpet under my feet; blue, green and black lines, a pattern, twisting and turning around the room. Each strand holding up its partner, keeping every string in its place the way a partner should. It was as if the carpet mocked me. A voice whispered sweetly into my ear. You failed. You failed. You failed.

The voice was right.

A hot anger boiled in my stomach until it burst without warning, spreading over my chest, down my arms and legs. I found myself standing. I was angry with Dan for dying, angry with myself for not telling him to stay at the Academy, angry with the people crowding this room, pretending they knew him half as well as I did. I lashed out on the pew in front of me, kicking it and startling a bald man seated there. He jumped up and spun around. All eyes in the church flickered toward me.

Two large, heavy, hands grabbed my shoulders. I realized what I had done--made a fool of myself and disrespected the person who mattered most. Dan. In my embarrassment, I pushed past Mr. Stark, who had stood to restrain me, and ran for the exit doors. Tears ran like bullets from my eyes blurring the room. I heard my name being called from somewhere behind me, the voice unmistakable. My brother Jackson was running after me.

“Alice, wait!” he yelled, but I didn’t stop running. I couldn’t. I was on autopilot.

The Worst Day Ever

I found this old story I wrote from 2001, when I was 10. I wrote it after September 11th. I just found it today and I thought I'd share it with you. Here it goes.

(I did not change anything. This is exactly what the 10 year old me wrote so please excuse the appalling grammar mistakes)

The Worst Day Ever

By: Me

Arnold Fog is an average 12 year old boy. He loved to skateboard and swim in the summer, but more than anything he loved to do things with his dad. Sometimes he would spend the whole day playing catch in the back yard with his dad. Like other kids he had a younger sister and brother. His sisters name is Sarah Fog and his brothers name is Josh Fog. Sarah is 8 years old. She plays soccer. Josh plays basketball he is 7. Arnold has a best friend his name is Same he is also 12. Sam and Arnold would go to a baseball camp in the middle of summer. In the summers Sam always spent the night at Arnold's house on Saturdays. Arnold always spent the night at Sam's house on Fridays to escape the little kids in his house. Josh always wants to go to with him but he is to little and will get in the way.

Life as arnold knew it would not be the same for long. Little did he know that his parents were planning to tell him about a big change. There family is moving to New York! When he did find out he was sad that he had to move away from Sam but happy that he gets his own room instead of having to share it with Josh. This he thought to himself would be the best way to spend more time with his dad, but he was wrong. It just so happened that his dad was the reason that he is having to move you see their father had got a job in this cool building called the Twin Towers. His dad was so excited to hear the news of his promotion that he actually ignored his children when they begged and pleaded no tot go, but one week later there they were in the big New York. It wasn't so bad. It almost felt like home. This was in September of 2000.

About a year later the worst thing that could ever happen happened. The cool buildings called the Twin Towers blew up, two planes crashed into them. People were searching for their loved ones everywhere. When Arnold heard the news he began to cry. He knew somehow that his dad wouldn't be coming home from work like all the other daddy's again. His mom did the best that she could do to calm her children. Everyone around the world was confused and devastated that someone would do something like this. A lot of kids were orphans now. Arnold, Sarah, and Josh asked were their daddy had gone. Their mother calmed herself and steadily said that their daddy was in a beautiful place called Heaven.

They watched the news all day. They were shocked to see the list of peoples names that had been found dead. Firefighters had not found anyone resembling Robert Fog. As the children were thinking about what might happen next the phone rang and startled them. On the other end of the phone it was a man with the name of Dr. Goobert. He had bad news. As the children listened to their mother talk on the phone she began to cry. She told the kids that their daddy had been found. The children cheered. Then she continued to tell them that their dad is hurt badly. Then they were sad again. She grabbed the car keys, loaded the children in the car, and drove to the hospital where her husband was. When they arrived their mother took them to a white room that had one bed in it. In the bed was their daddy. As they walked closer they could tell that he was hooked up to many, many machines. They talked to him for a while but then something happened he began to stop breathing. Their mom ran and found a nurse that could help, but it was too late. Their daddy had just died.

She immediately took the kids home and explained what had happened as best she could. She told them that daddy will always be with them forever like an unseen guest. That we would be in their heart, and even though you cant see him he is watching over you. Arnold thought of all the children and families around the world that lost someone too. He wanted to do something but he felt that he would have no importance but he tried anyway. He made cards and handed them out to people. Sarah an Josh still didn't understand. When their mom was cleaning his briefcase she found a note. She read it out loud and this is what it said...

Dear Family,

September 11, 2001

I am about to go to work but I had to say something. I have been thinking what if something ever happens to me. I would miss you terribly. Please don't cry and be sad about me dying. I will be in a wonderful place. I will always be with you no matter where you are. I am going to be late to work so I have to go now bye.

I love you all so much, Daddy

Wow their mom was really amazed now she began to cry again she didn't know how she could ever live on but when she saw those little faces of her children she realized what she was there for. To raise 3 beautiful children. Life wasn't the same but they still played sports and went to school like normal kids of their ages. Things did get better. Its been 3 years since then and they are the wealthiest family ever. Not because of fortune but because they were still a family and they had each other. Arnold is 15, Sarah is 12, and Josh is 11 now and they are always spending time together playing catch in the back yard. Arnold treats his brother and sister like his father would have.

THE END

Great Contest!

http://reveriemedia.blogspot.com/2010/02/incarceron-by-cathrine-fisher-giveaway.html

Contest here! GO look! Books!!!

School

I just got back from giving my first speech for my speech class.

Four other students showed up besides me. That's right. Four.

My professor was trying to record us so that we could watch ourselves, but the camera or the disks weren't working so we spent a long time trying to fix them. My disk only recorded me walking away from the front of the room.

We had to decorate paper bags with pictures of our life. I should have taken a picture of mine, but I've already deconstructed it.

My teacher said I was an excellent writer this week and that made my day. :)
Sometimes when I write stuff, I think it's horrible. Then when someone tells me it's good I feel like it's awesome. I can't explain why I always think my writing stinks, I just do.

Here's a collage I did for art:


I had to write a paper about the elements and principles of design and make this collage. I had to scan it into my computer because I'm taking art online. Yes, I mean online. It's awesome.

I know this is a lame blog, but it's all I have time for.

Awards

I got these awards from LJ Boldyrev



Rules:State 10 things that make me happy. Pass the award along.
Ten things that make me happy:

Talking to my friends on AIM (lol)
Having inside jokes that nobody but me and the other person could possibly understand
Finding out that class has been cancelled
Sleeping late
Writing
Reading
Listening to music
Bunnies
Finishing another chapter for my book
Making youtube videos

Blogs I am giving the Happiness Award to:

Carrie: http://hrhqueenanne.blogspot.com/



Rules: List ten honest things about myself and pass it along.
Ten honest things about me:

I should be doing my homework right now but I'm not
I really like lime green
I live on coffee and monsters
I'm still waiting for my acceptance letter to Hogwarts. My owl just got lost in the mail.
I'm really shy
I have a fear of heights
I love stuffed animals, like seriously
I feel like a kid in a candy store when I walk in Barnes and Noble
I miss high school
I want to be a kid again

Blogs I am giving the Honest Award to:

Jennifer: http://jennifer-daiker.blogspot.com/

Back to School

So, classes started back this week. And BOY, what a week it's been!

Let me tell you something about my college, finding a parking spot at 9 o'clock in the morning is like trying to find a needle in a haystack... a haystack that's a mile high. Every time you think you've found a spot, you see some tiny car that pulled all the way up, making you think the spot was empty and therefore getting your hopes up only to crush them like a bug.

I had to park on the opposite side of campus on the first day and got lost in all the identical brown buildings.




Don't worry though, I managed to slip into class at the last minute only to find that the classroom was packed. I'm talking EVERY desk filled. We have 45 students in that class!! IN A TINY ROOM.

So my first class is US Government, and I'll tell you right now. I. Hate. Government. With. A. Passion.
Now, I'll vote and do my job as a citizen, but there is nothing more boring than learning about all the branches and their powers, especially because we've covered this curriculum at least 1,000 times over my 12 years in the public education system.

The teacher started the class off with a quiz. But not an ordinary quiz, no. The questions were:

What's your name?
If you were a super hero, who would you be?
If you were a super villain, who would you be?
If you could be invisible or fly, which would you pick?

and that's it.
I know, right? What kind of a quiz is that? But hey, it's a free 100 so I took it :P

Then my professor (by the way, I still don't know her name) started teaching class. ATTENTION HIGH SCHOOL READERS!! In high school, the first day is always a blow off day where you can talk to your friends and catch up on what you did during break. In college, it's no nonsense. You go to class, you learn, and then you spit back everything on the final to prove you were at least conscious for the past 16 weeks. But don't let that scare you, college is fun in some areas, you pick your classes and what time you want to go, what teacher you want, what friends you want to take a class with, it's freedom at last, but you have to study and actually learn the material. You can't just "scrape by" like in high school.

After Government, my friend and I headed off to Biology (for non majors). I had never been to the science building, having not taken a science course here before, so she led the way. Let me tell you, that building looks just like a museum. They have glass cases with different rocks and bones, and the creepiest were the skulls of humans and animals.

The classroom is really cool, it's just like the lecture hall we had in high school. There are long narrow tables with swinging/spinning chairs (which are fun to spin on) and each table is on a different step, that way everyone can see over everyone's head. Well, my friend and I sat on the 2nd row by the door (easier to escape to take a phone call, sneak out, etc...). When we were waiting for the professor to show up, my friend Andria walked in. Now, in 9th grade, Andria, Andrea, and I were all in the same class. So this was very exciting for us to have "accidently" picked the same class again. So we sat together and it was just like the good old days :)


Then on Wednesday, Lab was cancelled so I got to sleep in, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Now on Thursday, I had Government and Biology again, but that night I had to go to orientation for my speech class that I'm taking online (along with art)

There were around 200 people there and they made us all sit together. I was shoulder to shoulder with some random girl I had never met. Talk about awkward...

Anyway, we had to get up and introduce ourselves, so naturally when it was my turn, I walked up to the front of the room and the very first words that left my lips were
"wow, it's a lot more scary from up here"
For real. Then I blushed and my professor just laughed.

Then I got to go home and talk to my BFF (whose birthday is tomorrow so go leave her a birthday comment on Twitter)

And now it's Friday and I have a day off! I start back to work this Sunday so I'm super excited about that! I need money really bad right now. College is like a vampire. It's sucks you dry of money.
My books have cost me about $600 for this semester alone!
BE SMART AND SAVE YOUR MONEY NOW KIDS!

l get to babysit tomorrow for an adorable 4 year old. I shall be armed with coloring books, books, toys, and games.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LACEY!!

By the way, if you picked invisible on the last question, it's because your insecure, if you picked flying, it means your outgoing.

Thanks for reading,
AJ Spindle

Bored

I'm so bored. So. So. So. SO. SOOOOOO bored.

I cleaned the house today so now I'm exhausted.

That's all I can type for now.

ttyl people of the world

I want this book shelf!

http://www.csnstores.com/4D-Concepts-99100-FDC1075.html

and I want these 4 books:

Beautiful Creatures

Graceling

Cracked Up To Be

Wondrous Strange

Incase I win that contest. :)

Short story time!

Once upon a time, a girl, just 18 years old, got a license to become a space pilot just like she always dreamed of.

On her first trip into the great unknown she decides to text her bff Lacey and see if she wanted to go with her.

Of course Lacey said "YES!" So they got into the rocket ship and started it up.

They blasted off into outer space and were having a really great time star gazing when Lacey started pouting. Amanda asked her friend what was wrong. Lacey said that she was sad because she would never get to see the stars again because she lives in New York and there are to many lights there to see the sky. Amanda decides to help her friend by catching a star to take home with them. She puts on her helmet and hands Lacey the steering wheel.

Amanda goes out and captures the first star she sees and seals the lid onto the jar. She floats back to the shuttle and Lacey opens the door for her.

"Here you go, Lacey," she says.

Lacey is so happy that Amanda caught a star for her to take home that she decides to write a story about it when they returned to earth. Lacey writes this story into a novel which sells 1 million copies world wide. Lacey becomes rich and buy's a cottage and a mac book. They all lived happily ever after.

The end.

There is an awesome contest taking place here:http://bit.ly/fLZMY

you can win a book called "Hush Hush" by Becca Fitzpatrick!!

Just do what it tells you to!

Poem

I just wrote this poem:

Rain, rain, go away, let me see the sun today
Split the clouds, let the rays shine through,
Or, here I'll sit, without a view

Water is splashing in my shoes,
Oh why didn’t I tell my alarm clock to snooze.
The rain drops pounding on my head
Through puddles of water I dare to tread,
Oh boy, I should have stayed home in bed.

But here I am, walking to my car,
An orange beacon in the dark
I put the key in the ignition,
And turn it 'till it sparks.
Now here I sit, drenched to the skin
Only to see the sun surface again,
Under blankets of gray,
So I turn to the sky and then I say,
Rain, rain, stay away, let me see the sun today.

This Week Has Been AMAZING!

So I woke up extremely late today. I'm talking 2 o'clock in the afternoon late! So anyway, I woke up and rolled over and picked up my iPod Touch from my nightstand to check my email. I had 11 unopened emails and I was elated! I never have very much. I opened the first email from my friend L. J. Boldyrev, it said:

"YOU TOTALLY WON BALLAD! HUZZAAAH!"

My first reaction was "whaaaattt??" then when I was awake enough to remember "OH SNAP!" I opened the next email from Flux Books:

"A.J.

Your trick-or-treating story has earned you a free, autographed copy of BALLAD by Maggie Stiefvater! Very adorable, kina spookky and slightly embarassing -- a job well done :)"

I was in disbelief. I. Never. Win. Anything. EVER! I also had a text message

from LJ as well! (Oh, and even a missed call, she made me laugh!) It's because of her that I won! So THANK YOU LJ FOR MAKING ME ENTER THE CONTEST!! Yes, she told me about the contest via AIM and told me I had to enter right that very second. So I did. :)

I jumped out of bed and ran to my closet to find some warm clothes (high of 60 degrees today, currently 53) and ran to my computer. It was

true, I won!

I logged on and emailed Flux books my mailing address and a quick thank you. I'm still in shock. BALLAD is written by Maggie Stiefvater. I have been a fan of Maggie's since I cracked open the spine of SHIVER, (a gift from LJ, my BFF!) and I loved it. This has been the best week of my life in a long time!

Here's me with the book!

I was like "Look Mom! Maggie signed it!"

It was a dream come true.

If you haven't read Maggie's work, then what are you doing reading this blog?? GO READ IT NOW!!

Just yesterday I got my test results back for a very hard American Lit. test that I spent hours studying for. I was so happy. Plus we had to turn in two essays with our test.

As I walked into my 8AM english class yesterday I saw that my teacher had finally finished grading our excruciatingly confusing essays. I saw all the green markings on my paper and freaked out. I was sad because I knew that meant a low grade. My teacher was coming around to record the grades and I knew I'd have to face the music eventually so I flipped my paper over. In the bottom left corner on the back of a journal entry I saw a small green letter and my heart stopped. Written there was an 'A' and my teacher NEVER gives out 'A's all willy-nilly. Then she came to my desk and I showed her my grade and she said "Oh, I bet you're surprised. You must have done a good job to get that grade!" I was so happy!

I am going to apply to Barnes and Noble either today or tomorrow. I've filled out the application, I just need to hand it in. While I'm there I'm going to get "A Touch of Dead" by Charlaine Harris. It's a collection of short stories about Sookie Stackhouse. My friend LJ wrote a blog review about it. Go check out what she said:

A Touch of Dead Review by L. J. Boldyrev

Make sure you leave a COMMENT for LJ, tell her AJ sent you!! :)

More links for fun:

Flux Books

Flux Books Blog

Flux Books on Twitter

That's all for now,

A. J. Spindle

Life and Stuff

I'm watching Iron Man with my family. It's pretty awesome. I never thought I would like it. I don't have much to blog about. I could ramble on about school and work and writing but nobody wants to read about all that, or do they?? Hopefully I will find something worthy of blogging one of these days.

I'm about to go clean Bella's cage and clean my bathroom. I spent all last week cleaning out my closet and getting rid of clothes that I don't wear anymore. I was so excited to see the floor in my closet. Sadly I had to put a small bookshelf in my closet to house my extra books that don't fit on my main book shelf in my room. My closet looks pretty awesome though. I washed all my jackets (I do about once a year unless I spill something on it) and hung them in my closet all nice and neat.

Um... I have work tonight and tomorrow night. I'm glad that work started again. I've missed all the ladies I work with. In a way, it's like having a second family. Everyone knows all about each other and we help each other out when we can, it's nice.

I guess I better go get started on cleaning. Maybe I will have time to read before I have to go to work. I just spent $73 on books from Barnes and Noble.

That's all for now,

A. J. Spindle

Birthday Surprise!

Wow, times flies when your having fun! I am currently seated on the family couch in the center of the living room. Why am I in the center of the living room, you ask? Well, it's because we are replacing our old worn out carpet with hardwood floors. Half of the room is done. But not the spot where the couch was sitting, so my dad moved it to the middle of the room to put down the hardwood floors where it was.

I made a video for my friend LJBoldyrev's husband. It can be played on this page, or on youtube.com/sibi098

I had to stare at my iTunes library for an hour and a half before coming up with the script. Then I had to film it in my room with the door closed because my dad was installing the hardwood and making a ton of racket.

Next up on my list of videos will be me arguing with myself. Yep, that's right. I'm bringing out the dreaded green screen. I've written a quick script so I know how long to pause while playing my "roles". This video will be a twilight parody and it will be awesome (if I can pull it off).

I'm not sure how I'm going to make three of myself appear onscreen and make it look real. But I love a challenge!

My word count is up to 40,000 on Vampire Prince and I'm printing it slowly so it won't kill my printer. I've already endured paper jams and the horrible "error" screen. And that was only page 2!!

I wish I could do something more fun than sit here and blog, but there is nothing to do. Well, I'm about to wash my clothes and put them away and do the dishes, but that's not fun, is it?

Goodbye for now people,

A. J. Spindle

Vivid Dreams Can Be Tricky

I just woke up from the strangest dream I have ever had the pleasure of dreaming. It consisted of mind controlled polar bears, pirates, ship wrecks, rich people, and Doctor Who. Now I know this all sounds a little strange, but in my dream it was so real that I could taste, smell, and feel everything around me. It was like I had been transported into another world full of magic, excitement, and adventure. I was disappointed to be woken up right before I was to be devoured by an angry polar bear wearing mind control ear pieces.

The dream started out like any normal day until I went over to my aunts house to find her jumping up and down, screaming with joy. When I asked her why she was so happy she showed me a brochure for a boat that she had won. It was small but large enough for her family and myself to go for a ride. Then 'POOF' we were on the ship just like that.

I walked around exploring the ship to find vast game rooms full of arcade games, hotel suites, dining rooms, swimming pools, hot tubs, and people to wait on you hand and foot. It was like a cruise on the inside, but the outside of the boat was no bigger than my house.

My aunt was steering the ship when it hit something (sounds like Bennett Nelson, huh?) and out of nowhere smaller ships popped up in the water around us. Everyone went into full panic mode and shoved their way off the sinking ship and onto the smaller ones waiting to bring us to safety.

After I had exited the ship and was safely stored on a smaller one, I remembered that I had left my childhood teddy bear, Bernadette, on the sinking ship. I tried to get back onboard the sinking ship but the ship suddenly exploded and was on fire.

I was then stopped by random life guards who were standing on the sides of the ship. My uncle decided that he would go back and rescue my lost bear. I followed him back to the S. S. Marine (the sinking ship) and found that there were still people on the boat just walking around, not paying any attention to the passengers who were running down the halls screaming to exit the boat. I searched for my hotel room onboard the boat but couldn't find it. I actually was calling my teddy bears name.

"Bernadette! Bernadette, where are you??"

Then without warning just like the first time, the dream changed. I stopped looking for my bear and looked over the railing of the boat to find land, not that far away. All of the rescue ships had disappeared and I was suddenly alone on the boat except for a boy around the age of 17 or 18. I jumped overboard and started swimming to the land, he followed.

I found myself inside an old abandoned house without knowing how I got there. The boy was searching through the tiny house for "treasure" as he called it. I then looked out the small window about the size of my face to see a herd of angry pirates, who severely needed a bath, surrounding the small dwelling. I turned to the boy with no name and warned him of the danger.

"They can't hurt me, they might want you though," he said plainly and continued his search of the house

I fidgeted in the corner of the one room cabin as the enemy neared closer. They busted through the front door and demanded that we give them all our "booty". I saw an open cabinet miraculously filled with money. Not US currency, but something different, something new. I handed a large amount to the pirate wearing an eye patch and an old hat on his head. He snatched the money from my hand and pulled it up to his face. He inhaled deeply and examined the bills.

"This is counterfeit!" he accused. I panicked and just as he reached out to grab me, the dream took another abrupt change and I was grateful.

I was standing in my church, people all around me but I felt like they couldn't see me. I found an elderly woman who attends my church. She was sitting on the couch in the foyer so I sat down next to her. She looked me up and down. I realized my clothes were torn and dirty from the ship wreck and the pirates attack. I told her about my "dream". I explained to her about the pirates and how they were trying to take me away. Then her nephew Michael came up to her (he's 4) and said he felt sick so she started taking care of him and left me to sit there by myself.

The people in the foyer disappeared without warning, but I didn't panic. I sat there, motionless. A sky light was positioned above me. I heard a noise coming from it so I looked up to find Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant from the British TV series Doctor Who.

They were arguing about something and came crashing through the glass sky light, landing dangerously close to me. I got up from my chair and flattened myself against the wall. They didn't notice me... yet. David took out his sonic screwdriver (an amazing gadget that can do almost anything, that only the doctor has) and he used it as a laser gun, shooting bright blue beams of light at Christopher. Christopher then pulled out his own sonic screwdriver and did the same, only his light was pure yellow. Davids grip slipped and the blue light hit me in the shoulder. I sat still for what seemed like hours, then I was gone. It was black, but I was falling.

I landed on a dirt road. People were walking around me. I sat up slowly, taking in my surroundings. I was in an old wild west setting, like Little House on the Prairie. I laid my head back down on the hard, hot dirt. I don't know how long I stayed like that. But for some reason, I thought I needed to play dead. It seemed like the logical solution in my wild dream.

A young man, around the age of 20 or 21 was riding in an extravagant carriage. He stopped the driver, I heard his voice tell the man to pull over immediately. I laid quiet and still. The rich young man walked toward me. I was counting his footsteps. I could see his face. He had a nice smile, bright eyes, and dark, curly, black hair. He was wearing a top hat.

"Live again," he whispered confidently in my ear and waited. When I didn't move he got up and left. I heard his carriage leave. I sat up slowly. I was still in the wild west but I had a burn across my left shoulder where the laser had hit me. I stood up and watched a group of women laughing at my futuristic clothing as they walked around in large dresses and petticoats.

Again and for the final time, the dream changed suddenly. I was walking into a large building. A girl around my age was waiting inside for me.

"Come on. Where have you been? We've been waiting," she said and pulled at my hand to follow her.

I entered a vast room, at the center were six very large, very angry, polar bears. They were wearing different colored collars that were covered in silver spikes. The room spiraled inward and railings were placed to help with ones footing. A loud, plump, lady was telling us about the polar bears, explaining their diet, feeding schedule, temperament. I asked her a question but I don't remember what it was, or her answer, but while she was speaking to me, a rather aggressive bear pulled at his collar and broke free of his imprisonment.

A guard came in and shot it dead. I was in shock. I tried to get a closer look for no reason

in particular. While I was bent over it's body, another polar bear broke free of it's confinements and took a snap at me. I backed up quickly, barely out of it's reach. It was thrashing and clawing toward me. He was blocking the only exit. I thought I could slip just under his reach and get out but he was getting closer. Kids behind me were crying as the polar bear approached us. I saw it was wearing a small ear piece and I understood it was being controlled by someone somewhere. Just as it took a swipe at me, I was awoken by my father telling me to get up.

After I awoke, I laid there and thought it all over. It felt so real, like I was actually there. Then as I thought over it, I realized how absolutely ridiculous the dream had been. So now, I'm writing about it here to share with you. I'm going to one day turn this into a short story or somehow incorporate it into one of my books.

I do not own these photos, I got them from Photobucket.com.

That's all for now,

A. J. Spindle