Waterfall Picture

This is completely random, but I took this cool picture of a waterfall in Michigan. I've been wanting to try this technique on moving water (to make it look smooth) but the lighting has never been just right or the pictures all turned out blurry. But I finally got a good one! :D See?

The technique is like this: you set your camera on a slower shutter speed to blur the motion. It either needs to be really shady, so as to keep it from being over-exposed, or you need a special filter (I think it's a polarized filter--they're not hard to find.) I can't remember exactly, but I probably used the filter on this picture. Then you either need to hold your camera completely still or put it on a tripod (which I didn't have with me). I was actually kind of lucky. I took 8 pictures of the waterfall, hand-held, and one of them turned out clear. Yay! Anyway, that's it. Try it sometime, though, and let me know if you get some good ones. I'll keep trying too!

My Summer Adventure

Probably the biggest thing that happened this summer was my trip to Michigan. I spent the whole month of July living with my aunt, uncle, and cousins and watching the kids while their parents worked.

It was quite an adventure! I had never flown by myself before, so I was a little nervous. Also, I had to make a connection in Chicago with just enough time to get to the next flight.

The view from the plane was incredible! I spent most of the flight looking out the window and listening to the soundtrack from The Hobbit on my iPod :). 

The connection in Chicago went fine as well. It turned out that the plane was delayed, so I ended up waiting for at least an hour. At least I wasn't rushed! And it was awesome to fly over Lake Michigan too. Again, amazing view! (I don't have a picture, sorry.)

The rest of the month I spent hanging out with my extended family. I had so much fun with my cousins, playing in the pool, playing with toys, and much more! 

This is my cousin Jackson. He's nine, and he loves sports (specifically baseball). That picture was from the day we found three little tiny frogs in the pool (yes, I'm serious--look at his fingers!). We had fun carrying them around and giving them rides on the pool toys (and shrieking a little when they jumped). When we got out of the pool, we put the frogs and a little pool water in an old gatorade bottle so we could show the kids' mom and dad. (We let the poor little guys go that night--the live one(s?) at least...)

This is Margo. She turned six the day I left, and she loves Barbies, unicorns, princesses, and the colors pink and purple. I was there for her birthday party (a pink-and-purple-princess-themed pool party with a unicorn piñata) which was fun and a little crazy (I think there were seven or so little girls). The picture above is from an evening when we got dressed up for a photo shoot. That was fun too! Margo and I played a lot of Barbies and My Little Ponies while I was there... Sometimes Jackson joined in with his Transformers (like if we needed an ambulance or something ;)). 

They're a busy family! Jackson plays baseball, both kids take piano, and that's just the start! (I don't have any baseball pictures, unfortunately, because I only took them on my aunt's camera.) Another thing that raised the busyness was that they got a new puppy about a week before I left! She's a little German Shepherd puppy, absolutely adorable and she'll be a great dog... but she's still a puppy. Which basically means someone needs to be watching her at. all. times. 

The picture is from a few weeks ago, so she's probably a lot bigger now. Her name's Rune.

When I got home, my family had made a giant banner for me (of which I also have no picture...). Keeping with the adventure theme, Avery drew a picture of Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit coming back to his home (it looked kind of like the picture from the movie advertisements). And keeping with the Hobbit theme, they wrote "There and Back Again" and lower down, '(we promise we didn't sell you stuff to the Sackville-Bagginses)'. It made me smile :). 

And that's about it for my adventure! There was more, of course, but I can't really fit everything here. I know I'll talk about some of the other parts in other posts, so I'll end here for now. It was a great experience, though, and I can't wait to see my aunt and uncle and cousins again!

Interviewing Characters

So much for blogging over the summer... I'm glad to be back though!

Anyway, I'd thought about talking about my summer, but then decided I didn't want to, so instead you get to hear (ok, read) about something much more exciting. At least, I think it's exciting.

If you've read any of my posts last school year, you hopefully know by now that I was at that time working on a novel. Well, I'm still working on it, but I have gotten farther! I wrote the rough draft of the first 3 chapters in time for OYAN Summer Workshop ( I might consider letting you read them... email me). Unfortunately, I had (have) no idea what is supposed to come next. Aand, I didn't work on it much (at all) over the rest of the summer. Yes, I was busy. No, I didn't really try. You're probably wondering what's so exciting about this. Don't worry, it's just background.

So a few weeks ago, I decided to try something new. See, there's this glorious thing called a Character Interview, which is exactly what it sounds like. You ask your character(s) questions and write down their answers. I know, it sounds a little strange, and it certainly feels strange at first. But I have yet to find something that better helps me understand my characters! It's just fantastic. Anyway, I decided to try asking my characters what they wanted to happen since I wasn't thinking of anything by myself. I started with Bryllen, my main character, since I know her best. (I had also interviewed her earlier with some more general questions.) It was so fun! I didn't make any incredible breakthroughs or anything, but at the very least I got to know Bryllen better. Which is always good.

After Bryllen, I moved on to my ally, Kendric. I felt like I didn't know him well enough to ask about the plot right away, so I started with just my general questions (I have a list from a book which works great). It was a blast to see how different Bryllen and Kendric are. Even so, when I asked them the same questions about the plot, there was one big thing they agreed on. I'm not going to tell you what it is because it would take a ton of other explaining. But I was kind of surprised (I have a feeling those two agreeing will be a rare occurrence), and I now have to figure out what to do with it. Do I make it happen, since they both want it, or do I make sure it doesn't happen, for the same reason? *evil author grin*

I understand if you don't find this as exciting as I do. It's hard to explain how amazing it is to get to know someone you created. But if you're a writer, I would seriously encourage you to try interviewing your characters. I can even send you the list of questions I use if you want! :)

P.S. I might post some of my character interviews here sometime, but I think it would be even more fun if my characters answered some of your questions! (See this post and this post to learn a little more about my novel.) If you have a question for either Bryllen of Kendric, please comment below! It doesn't have to be related to the story either...

Also, I started a Pinterest board for pictures/quotes that I associate with Bryllen. (here) I'm purposely trying not to pick ones with distinct faces because I rarely imagine my characters with distinct faces. But it should still give you an idea.