Tuesday, April 7, 2009

The (French) Hunger Games

« The Hunger Games » Critique

Dans le paie de Panem, un jeu affreux est crée il y a soixante-quatorze année. Pas les enfants à le âge douze à dix-huit sont sûr. Tout les enfants sont inscrire dans « The Hunger Games » - seulement une enfant suivit à jeu.

Mais « The Hunger Games » n’est pas un livre de répugnant meurtrier et mourant. Dans le quatre cent pages livre, il y a seulement dix-huit décès. (Un mort par vingt-deux pages !) Et, parmi le décès il y a une histoire d’amitié, d’amour, de courage et de force. Simplement, « The Hunger Games » est magnifique.

Mais encore, il y a les erreurs. Manque de le histoire de Panem, en particulaire dans les premiers pages cause de confusion, et plus attention à le mode dans le début peut-être écarter le lecteur homme. Mais, pour le lecture femme, le mode et romance dans le livra est un plus superbe ! Aussi, le nom des caractères dominants sont très bizarre ! Il y a diminué le réalité de l’histoire (pour exemple, Katniss et Peeta - ce deux bizarres noms sont le noms de les caractères dominants ! Quand j’ai lu le livre, je ne reconnaît / support pas le noms - presque). Finalement, le endroit et temps de l’histoire n’est pas crédible. Mais en général, « The Hunger Games » est le plus écrire livre j’ai lu, et je vais lire - sauf le suite (que nom est « Catching Fire » et va être dans le librairie en le premier de septembre, 2009.

Avec des cruelles et des charmant changements des intrigues, un fois vous lisez « The Hunger Games » vous n’arretez pas !


And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is what you get from a french school. Fun eh? I have to write one other critique, just like that, a legend, and an advertisement, all by this week, all in "francais". (Oh, and by the way, that bit was entirely unedited, so please excuse the mistakes! I'm editing it tomorrow).

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

The Food Chain

I got another story idea!!!  But don't worry, it's on hold.  But this is my fleshing out time, so I don't forget about it.

So, it's called the Food Chain, because I was thinking about the food chain, then this just waltzed in.  It's about a wierdo named Mellie and a boy named Penn.  Mellie is magical - a mage-in-training - while Penn is.. well.. just Penn.  He's this blacksmith's son (do not think macho.  Penn's this wiry skinny dude, the ones you would picture steriotypishly to be with glasses) and really has no magic at all.  Which, Mellie thinks is a lot greater than having some - in thier world, the "haves" are grouped together, and as are the "have-nots" - so even though Mellie has (according to her)  0.000001 magic abilities, she still has them and is in the same class as the super, ultra-powerful gals.  Which really makes her kind of self-conscious (relation to how I'm feeling, subract the magical powers).  She tries to run away, meets Penn being beat up by some older guys, and runs back.

But that happened 4 years ago.  Now, Penn is 19 and she's 17.  (This is medival-ish - no electricity, just magic.  Think Eragon).   Penn's turned into this somewhat-better dude, and she's seeminly gotten worse with magic.  But she's been making nightly trips and has a few stashes of stuff - she's planning to escape.  Not so easy when the high-security school hunts you down, but oh well.  Suddenly, this old and famous seer gets a vision of her and a boy defeating this evil, corrupt, turned-bad wizard.  At the same time, Millie is found out of the school grounds and they are going to turn her to the dungeons (filled with eels and trolls) but luck is on her side and the vision saves her.  She's cast out until she defeats him.

Great!  She's out with no time limit of getting back.  No way will she go find that evil dude (Mr. Sinister for now).  But then she meets Penn and *something* drives them both to get to Mr. Sinister.  Maybe a teensie twilight-ness (if you know what I mean) but besides that, I have a really, really, really, really dumb kids story.

:) fun.

Sarah

Monday, March 30, 2009

You deserve this one..

I feel mean that I haven't posted in a while, but really, I haven't done much. I went to school (more depressing I'm-not-a-complete-person, oh-watch-all-the-people-who-are-better-than-you-walk-by and why-on-earth-are-my-friends-friends-with-me-when-they-deserve-better), did math - answer this one:

The width of the triangle is one third the length. The perimeter is 48 cm. Find the length and width.

That was one of my favorite questions... mainly because I explained it a little and the smartest guy said he didn't get it :) I love feeling smart.. although I hate to admit it's usually at another person's expense. Oh well - and if that question was too easy, try this one:

Johnathan has 7.00$ in nickles, dimes and quarters. He has twice as many dimes as nickles, and 3 times as many quarters as nickles. He has 42 coins in total. How many of each coins does he have?

That was fun too - my teacher was feeling nice, he gave us these really fun, neat, easy questions... finally.

As for writing, I'm stuck at finding a name for the band of escaped friends Vince joins up with -- any ideas? Any help is appreciated :)

But seriously. I haven't done much interesting stuff lately. I went to a party with my friends (Taken is a GOOD movie) and am going to play raquet ball Wednesday. No Empyrean for ages... I've given up hope. But hey, at least I know I have the self-confidence and stuff... maybe I should ask my teacher about it. But not now. Now, I can't even go skating, which was awesomely scarily fun.

Oh, god. My parents are kind of making me have a birthday party. Scarryyy, right? (Eh?)

S a r a h

P.S. It's SOOO awesome have a story again. I need a story to write, every second. Without something I feel... empty. (NOT good. Invincible is like.. my rock, lol).

Friday, March 20, 2009

Death & Grad

Finally I got a little bit more of Invincible done. I've had the beginning part for a while, but the ending I wrote last night. Finally!

Even though I'm on my March Break (which is almost over) I've hardly gotten anything done! It's horrible - I had lists and lists of things to do.. but none of them were done. Time flies, but seems to be going slowly... ahh!!!

Anyways, on of the things I did do was buy a grad dress. AHH!!!!!! (And a warning, this is a bit more personal). I'm super freaked out because all the girls in my class are like, superstar model quality, and I seem so.. normal - or even below that. Sometimes I feel like I'm missing some sort of natural human instinct that would make me normal - and I'd know how to make my hair look nice and I'd know the right things and be more like the other people. But it never seems to work out the first time for me, and something is always wrong. But anyways, my main point is now that I have a dress that looks pretty okay, I'm worried that other people will find thiers and look so much better, and I'll feel left out and abnormal and somehow behind, again, as always. I mean, I just wish I could truely feel and be beautiful for one day, right? I wonder if thats ever going to happen...

But oh well, I guess some people just aren't meant for the spotlight (which I'm pretty okay with). If you want to see the dress, go here: http://i44.tinypic.com/33yp4kn.jpg (and yes, I did go crazy editing it.. but seriously, editing stuff is superdooperly fun! (And anyways, there's always the chance that some freako-stalker dude will be looking here... (although probably not, seeing as I only have 2.5 readers). But still!

Back to the normal writing stuff...

Invincible
“You’re not invincible, you know.” Wings said earnestly. I could hardly hear her over the rain, and frantic beat of my heart. Thunder seemed to rumble in approved. Nowadays, Wings seemed to know everything.

I was about to say something, about to contradict her, when she held up her hand and continued. Cool, moist air washed across the room. We were seated on the windowsill, staring out into the grey, foggy day.

“No one is, Jamie.” Wings whispered. I winced at the use of my other name. I still hadn’t totally recovered from meeting my parents. It was like the discovery had ripped a hole in my heart - one that had been previously covered by a stretch of fine fabric. Now, that was gone and could never come back. It was all or nothing. I couldn’t choose.

“I’m no one.” I told her. All my life, I’d believed myself to be invincible. It made me overcome problems - high self-esteem was better than low, I thought. The amazing things in life just seemed to compliment the fact; escaping the Bishop, the authorities, heartache and break… I’d been invincible to them all. Vince.

“No, your someone. Just not an invincible someone.” Wings said. I stayed silent, hoping she would realize that this conversation was over. She didn’t understand. Invincible was me, it was who I’d grown into. It was my world. My pride… it was like my clothing. Without clothes, well, you’re naked. If I wasn’t invincible, what was I?

But Wings didn’t take the hint to stop talking. “I know you used to be unbeatable, but that was when your world was of, what, a few thousand?” She asked. I gave a small nod. “Well there’s five billion people on this earth. We’re all equals, put in these lives for reasons. No one is invincible here.”

“But I want to be.” I said. “I need to be.” This was the first time I was actually speaking my thoughts, to anyone. It felt weird. Safe, but dangerous. I’d grown up learning not to trust anyone, taking myself as my only confident. But throughout all those times, I’d wanted more. Someone with a different perspective.. someone like Wings.

“It’s better if you’re not invincible, Jamie.” Her hand squeezed mine. “If you are, it means your perfect. Life is about learning, and becoming perfect moments before death. That’s why you die moments after perfection - if your perfect, there’s nothing left to learn, and nothing to do. If your invincible, there’s not point in living your life any more.” She said, slow and quiet.

I frowned, beginning to see her logic… but it was against all of mine. A car rolled on a gravel road in the distance. Fatigue was beginning set in with the lulling rain, dulling my senses. A kiss in the rain brought them alive again.

We sat there in silence for a little longer. The car from earlier seemed to be closer. Suddenly, the sound of a gun shot ran out, and a single bullet whistled through the air.

“Oh.” Wings cried, quiet over the pouring rain. It started to fall faster as she fell, my heart matching the pace of the rain.

Wings fell backwards, back into the top floor of the tower. A dark, red stain appeared over her heart, and inside my own chest I felt mine shatter.

“Wings…” I knelt beside her, horrified. A moments negligence, and now my friend was dying. Because of me. “I’m so sorry.” The words were so hard to get out, crowded between tears hardly held back.

“It’s fine. Meant to be… you’ll find a way.” She looked at me, eyes fluttering almost closed. “Vince…”

“What is it?” I brushed the hair out of her face.

“Vince, my name isn’t… Wings…” I could hardly hear her, “I’m Sylvia Browning.”

“What? Sylvia?” I whispered. I leaned closer, trying to hear her last words. But nothing more came, and her last breath brushed across my face and was carried off into the wind.

I felt like capturing the air, preserving everything and anything to do with Wings - or Sylvia, for that matter. She couldn’t be gone. I wouldn’t let her.

But she was.

* * *

Gradually, the pain seemed to fade. But never was it fully gone. I left Wings where she was, the falling leaves on the floor of her final resting place a blanket, and the old earthy wood her mattress. I couldn’t bare to bury her - if I did, there was no way to see her face again, and it was a closure that she was dead.

In my mind, she was not fully dead. I lived for the thought her coming back - how could my life go on? For almost all of it, I’d been alone, half living. I’d needed someone, anyone to talk to. Another being, someone else. Wings had taken that position, but now, the hole in my heart she’d filled had transformed into a gaping, black ugly one, twisted in spite and hatred towards her killers, and still hurting day by day.

“Yo, Vince! Get over here.” Peter called. He waved me over to some tracks. A boot mark in soft, squishy mud.

“That looks deliberate.” I said. With Wings gone, the strive to be normal had ceased and I’d fallen more into my shell of a being; the army being.

“Maybe. I was thinking a trap.”

“Or detour. They could be walking backwards.”

“True, but that always leads to some sort of mistake.” Peter countered.

“Not for the pros.”

“Guess not. How about you run along that way, and Harry and I go this one? The other guys can do a perimeter check.” Peter, as leader, decided most of everything. There was no saying no to his direct orders, but he still loved to argue over smaller facts.