More Photo Love for My Storyboard

Everyone knows Pinterest is quite the addictive site, but it's become even more so now that I made a storyboard there! I am spending forever just going through pictures, and it's awesome how some have sparked an idea to develop on.

Source: Uploaded by user via Amber on Pinterest

Source: meganfromminneapolis.tumblr.com via Amber on Pinterest

Source: browndresswithwhitedots.tumblr.com via Amber on Pinterest

Source: arrowandarrow.com via Amber on Pinterest

Source: iloveswmag.com via Amber on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Amber on Pinterest

Source: lapetitefashionistablog.tumblr.com via Amber on Pinterest

Do you have any favorite photography boards on Pinterest? If you do, you should share them with me so I can get lost some more in ideas :)

Music Monday: Blitzen Trapper

Have you ever listened to Blitzen Trapper? 

If not, you MUST! 

They are magical. 

And quite excellent.

With a touch of quirk.

And a folk rock Dylan-like vibe.

So click below and love them with me.

The end. 

Writing Rants: Beginning of a Novel

When it comes to writing, beginnings are my thing. When I open a blank document, I can just do it. I've always said if all it took was a beginning, I would be a best-seller by now. It's the follow through. Getting my characters through everything without it completely falling apart on me is where I hurt the most.

BUT

With Gus Novel....

I have never been happy with my beginning. For the life of me I cannot figure out WHY! I've been told numerous times not to worry about it. Obviously I'm not in a hurry to get published. This story has been brought back to life over and over again since 2008. I write TONS of scenes out of order. I'm never the type that can write straight through. Most scenes never make it into my stories, but there is something about having the right beginning that nags the living bejeeze out of me.

And. I. Cannot. Write. This. Beginning.

It seriously is going to drive me insane. I have no doubt in a few days I'm going to from looking like that girl you see in the top left corner of the blog to something like this:

Yep. It's gonna happen people. I can feel it.

Book Talk: Wicked As They Come by Delilah S. Dawson

Wicked As They Come by Delilah S. Dawson


Released: March 2012
Genre: Adult - Paranormal - Steampunk
Publisher: Pocket Books
Pages: 395

Amazon | Goodreads

Have you ever heard of a Bludman? They’re rather like you and me—only more fabulous, immortal, and mostly indestructible. (They’re also very good kissers.) 


When Tish Everett forces open the ruby locket she finds at an estate sale, she has no idea that a deliciously rakish Bludman has cast a spell just for her. She wakes up in a surreal world, where Criminy Stain, the dashing proprietor of a magical traveling circus, curiously awaits. At Criminy’s electric touch, Tish glimpses a tantalizing future, but she also foresees her ultimate doom. Before she can decide whether to risk her fate with the charming daredevil, the locket disappears, and with it, her only chance to return home. 


Tish and Criminy battle roaring sea monsters and thundering bludmares, vengeful ghosts and crooked Coppers in a treacherous race to recover the necklace from the evil Blud-hating Magistrate. But if they succeed, will Tish forsake her fanged suitor and return to her normal life, or will she take a chance on an unpredictable but dangerous destiny with the Bludman she’s coming to love? 

---

Come one, come all into an incredibly imaginative world of steampunk paranormal romance! I guarantee you'll want to stay a very long time.

Delilah Dawson's debut novel, Wicked As They Come, was an instant all-time favorite for me. Not only does it have a narrator that I could easily fall into step with it, it's full of imagination, fantastic characters, twists, and one very sexy Bludman named Criminy.

I'm trying to contain my fan-girling a bit here. I actually had to just delete most of what I had written because Criminy's name showed up about a million times. So let's start discuss how amazing the world of Sang is and how badly I want my own locket to get there. I think the best way to describe the world is to take straight from the book when one of the characters Casper tells Tish, "Sang is what would have happened if my bookshelf threw up." It is SO true! This world has it all. Magic and a traveling gypsy carnivale. People who aren't actually human, but are called Bludman. No, they're not vampires even though they do need blood to survive on. It's not just Bludman that are roaming Sang. There are even animals that are blood thirsty! Yes, blood thirsty bunnies! It's crazy!

But there are others in Sang who do not like the idea of Bludman walking around. They want to exterminate them all. Make Sang a "pure" place. It's like Sang has its own segregation and you see it when Tish wakes up one day to find her locket, the only thing that is keeping her to be able to go back and forth between the real world and Sang, is gone. What an adventure it takes her on as Criminy and her travel towards the city. The travel doesn't just introduce you to even more unique characters, more blood thirsty animals, ghosts, or even sea creatures (!!) it surfaces the inner strength that Tish has had inside of her all along. While I've never been big at "love at first sight" type of things, the love Criminy has for Tish sweeps you up and oh mah gosh do things start heating up!

Here is where I will try to keep my fan-girling short. Criminy is wonderful. From the words he uses, the way he carries himself, you want to pounce the guy. And yes, I'm aware he is not real, but if you are a bookworm this kind of word usage is totally normal. I love how protective he is towards those he cares about. Yes, he can be a bit over-baring, and sure he does have a temper, drinks blood, but whatever. He's fantastic. The more I read about him, the more he revealed himself, I understood why he was so attracted to Tish and why he went through everything to get the locket back not knowing what would happen between them.

Delilah Dawson's writing is seductive and addicting. It pulled me in and did not let me go. Even after I finished the book, I wanted more of the world! Thankfully since this is a trilogy, more of Sang will be coming back into my life....but sadly that won't happen until 2013 :( Until then I'll just re-read and I encourage you all to go pick up a copy and welcome this world into your life.

Happy Rex Manning Day!

No, I am not making this up.

Rex Manning Day has been bouncing around the net for a while now, everyone trying to figure out what day to really celebrate. Then this amazing human being made THIS POST and this other amazing human being made a WEBSITE and a TWITTER account for this glorious occasion. (Okay it could all be ran by one amazing human being, I don't really know who is behind it.)

If you haven't ever seen Empire Records you won't understand this and we obviously cannot carry on an intelligent conversation until you do. So unless you can score yourself a copy and watch the best movie to ever graze your TV/Computer Screen then you will just have to follow above with what the poster says. 

That's right, it's just three simple sentences and you can all say it with me:

We mustn't dwell. Not today. Not on Rex Manning Day! 

Enjoy today. Throw your hands up in the air like you just don't care. Quote Empire Records from beginning to the end. Blare some music. Dance and mosh around. Laugh your head off. Enjoy yourself with friends and family.

Live. Live. Live.

And if anyone or anything tries to stop you on this day, give it a little damn the man, a little save the Empire, and rave on, rave on, mah dears! 

Weight Loss Sucks: The Truth About March

Oh March, how I do not miss you. The thing is: I didn't do crap in March. Well, I take that back, I did A LOT of things but nothing to really help with my weight loss. I had to stop taking the Phentermine because it screwed with my stomach so much. In between the last week of February and the beginning of March I had lost probably about 10-12 pounds on them which was awesome! I wish my stomach could have handled them, but being completely cramped up for days on end was just not worth it to me.

With all of that going on, I only had ONE day off the ENTIRE month. I hate crappy. I drank soda to help give me energy because I was doing 56+ hour weeks between work, internship, and class. And you know what? 

I didn't gain a pound back all month long.

Seriously. How DOES that work?! I know I posted some workout routines that I'm trying to do, but I didn't stick to them. I've only exercised maybe 1-2 times a week if that. This past week or so I've had several people ask me if I have been loosing weight or tell me they can see that I'm loosing. I haven't measured myself (mainly cause I can't find my measuring tape thingy), but I know I loose inches faster than I do pounds and I can really feel it in my jeans that now sag and in a lot of my shirts. 

My grand total as of yesterday morning is.....

189.6

I keep balancing back to this weight off and on since the New Year began so maybe now that I've maintained for a whole month it's really starting to show. 

With my internship ending tomorrow *sad face* and school ending in 3 weeks *VERY HAPPY FACE!!* and me getting at least 1 day off a week now *EXTREMELY HAPPY FACE*, I'm getting my act together and have been doing my workouts already this month and putting myself into better eating habits. I've noticed that since I've ate a lot of fast food and crap, I just feel gross. My belly always feels like crap, but I'm all sluggish and just blah and CRAVING fresh fruits and stuff. It's like I don't even know me. 

Goals for April:

Kick the soda to the curb and drink WATER!!

2+ mile walks three times a week at least!

Work on upper body!

Source: strivingforfitandfab.tumblr.com via Amber on Pinterest

Supernatural Sunday: You've Just Been Garthed.

Once upon a time like many things on this dusty ole' blog of mine, I started doing a recap of Supernatural because well Supernatural is awesome pants. Because of Friday's episode, I have to bring it back to life.

Friends don't let friends hunt drunk.

Party on, Garth! was probably one of my favorite episodes this season. The writers of Supernatural can not only give a great spooky plot or add in a lot of tear-jerking moments, it brings a lot of humor to the table. When an episode is based on being funny they become a Supernatural Instant Favorite for me. 

I was so excited to see DJ Quall's character, Garth, being brought back to the show. We've seen a lot of hunters throughout the seasons, and some leave an impression. Garth to me is like how Ash was. A great character to run into who brings their own certain finesse. I loved how the show opened with the camp tale theme. We all know teens in the woods listening to a ghost story is never a good start. When a brother of one of the campers stumbles up drunk during a camp tale of Jenny Greentree, he sees something no one else sees: a psychotic ghost that is about to rip his insides out. 

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Which brings us Garth. Cue in the background music and Garth showcases this kick-butt hunter who has no problem digging up the bones of Jenny Greentree and lighting her on fire with the great tagline of: You've just been Garthed. But "Garthed" she was not because right as he was going to meet whoever he was "hearting" on the phone, Garth hears the scanner come about another kid, the brother of the dead one, found dead in the woods. Grabbing his phone again, he calls upon the brother hunting duo.

The boys are on the road, sadly still not in the Impala, and Dean is checking in with that b!tch Meg asking how Cas is doing. Last episode I was happy to see my Angel Food Cake around, but to be honest, I was kind of hoping Cas would be gone a bit longer. Everything is just so more dramatic with that boy involved, and I'm glad this episode kept going on the comical note. The boys head to Kansas, meet up with Garth as he displays his lack of hunting ways, and finally pull clues together to realize that this spirit was brought on by a scorned business man and now his two ex- business partners' children are having to pay the price by a Shojo, a Japense alcoholic spirit. The only way you can see her is when you're drunk.

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The idea of having to hunt drunk is obviously clever and hilarious. One of my favorite lines from it came from Sam when he looks at his brother and asks: Can you even get drunk anymore? Isn't it kind of like a liquid vitamin for you now? Dean and Sam are no stranger to delivering the humor, but when Garth busts out the sock puppet to talk to a girl who sees the Shojo after she accidently drinks an "adult drink", I knew most of the greatness was going to lie in him. While the boys have no exact objections on drinking there is one part of the episode that my hopes starting hitting my living room ceiling and that comes in the form of an EMF reader and Bobby's flask. We all saw Garth sit there tinkering with the EMF reader, how it went off, and not much was said. While in the car with Dean he starts realizing after Dean tells him the flask he is drinking from belonged to Bobby that that's why the reading became so strong. Garth sparks the question to Dean that I have been dying to know: Is Bobby still around?

There has been hints since the death of my beloved Bobby that his spirit was still around. After all, we don't know what decision he truly made when he was trapped in his own mind. It wasn't until the boys are racing to the beer factory to save the life of one of the businessman's sons that I knew without a shining of a doubt Bobby was with us. 

This Shojo spirit is no screw around. The Ring lookalike creepy girl was throwing Garth through a window, knocking Sammy Boy out, and when Dean appears with the sword he got the magic mojo in (by a guy working at Japense restaurant), she's ready to kill. Right at the moment where it almost looks like Dean is about to bite the dust when the sword gets knocked out of his hands, it suddenly without the help of anyone alive in the room, gets shoved across the floor and right in his grasp.

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Oh yes, if you had any doubts in your mind that Bobby wasn't in there you were crazily mistaken. Even after Dean sliced into the Shojo (and almost taking the poor kid's head off), he knows that there is a great possibility Bobby was in the room. It didn't matter that Sam confessed he tried contacting Bobby back when the beer disappeared and nothing came out of it. It still didn't matter after Sam caught Dean talking to an empty room trying to call Bobby out knowing he was the reason why the Shojo was dead. When Garth makes his departure from the hotel, blaring Poison none the less, Dean finally agrees to disagree so to say that Bobby's spirit is not around.

Before Sam and Dean climb back into their...what the crap kind of car was that anyways? Gawd, do I miss the Impala....Dean goes back into the motel to get Bobby's flask. And that is where...oh gosh I get emotional just typing it...we see that Bobby is in fact BACK!!

[ Source ] 

There he is, standing right in front of Dean's view thinking that Dean can see him! And as I pumped both fist in the air letting out a I KNEW IT!! I FREAKING KNEW IT!!! and scaring the crap out of my niece, we quickly learn that Dean doesn't see Bobby at all. Not even when Bobby tells him very frustratingly, "I'm right here, you idjit!" Boy, did the tears come to my eyes hearing that. I'm not even kidding. My niece laughed about that one on me too, but I couldn't help it. The last scene is the door closing and me wondering what is going to lay in store for Bobby. Seeing the preview for next week I have high hopes that there will be a real reunion for Dean, Sam, and Bobby!

I don't follow Supernatural things as closely as I used to, but I was honestly shocked to see Jim Beaver there. I knew Jim  had tweeted he was working on some movie, but all along he was just coming back home :) I think the show did a great job of keeping this a secret, and not only do I hope Bobby is back for good, I'm crossing my fingers that this is not the last we see of Garth.