Sorry!!! (and a partial rant)

Oi, I have been such a bad, bad, bad BB. Y'all can punish me. I haven't been updating B1000 faithfully, and I have so many things I want to post about!


This is going to be a post mainly on how PB is going, but before I do so, I want to first and foremost say that if in any way I sound like I'm bragging or being pretentious about my work, I do not mean it in that way. I know what writer's block is like, and I had that same experience with PB for...meh, maybe an year and a half, and the most recent one was about 2 months long. So, again, please do not get the wrong idea that I'm trying to boast. It's just something that occurred to me last night.

So last afternoon, I found the time to write a bit of PB. I've probably said it a billion times already, but Pandora is a pain in the neck (or the bum, whichever preferable). She can be so annoying that she's so much fun to write about. I've finally figured out her personality: she's a cross between Hermione Granger and Emma Woodhouse with a quick temper and tending to be a bit of spoiled brat (which she knows, but doesn't like to admit). The most bizarre thing is, I intended to make her a lot like me, and ended up letting her write the story (so it seems *roll*). So now, Pandora is not, indeed, like me. OK, so I am like Hermione, but not in the way Pandora is. Pandora has this really annoying, bossy, know-it-all (ok, I can be a little bit of a know-it-all), but Dora is good intentioned like Emma Woodhouse...yet still ends up in a strange situation.

I wrote this scene last night which I enjoyed reading as well as writing (I mean, which Pandora wrote). I want to see what you guys think of it so far. Note that Pandora goes through a name change at this point (which is Ch3), and she is called "Lena" or "Noelena", and right now she's in Sandria (long story how, and it would be spoiling Ch2) dressed in a Regency England-style gown. Phil is a guy who becomes a friend and mentor of hers (in the last chapter, his leg got injured...that's another spoiler, so I can't explain much at this point), and the two have a brother-sister-type relationship. So here's the scene! Enjoy! (P.S. I changed it from 3rd person to 1st person narration. It's easier and makes it more fun for me. The original PB, for some reason, skipped from 3rd to 1st person, but I'm fond of 1st right now.) (P.P.S. Some of it is slightly altered from the original in my WordDoc due to the fact that it'd reveal too many spoilers.)

Then I stormed out the front door. How could Phil be so idiotic? And why did boys always act as if they had no brain in their skulls?
It was a little chilly, and when I stepped out, I saw Phil cutting up some wood, limping a little as he walked to and fro between stacks of lumber.
Walking up to him, I put my hands on my hips, and, right before I was about to open my mouth to scold him, he looked up at me. We were about a yard apart, and I could see that his dark hair was plastered with sweat onto his forehead.
“How do you do, miss? Are you traveling from the town?” he asked, and began to bow, but lost his balance from his limp. He began to fall, but I quickly caught him, and, somehow, he ended up right in my lap.
I sighed, clucking my tongue. “Don’t be ridiculous, Phil,” I said, trying to sound angry, though it was all quite amusing.
“Lena?” he looked up at me, confused, squinting his eyes. “I barely recognized you, what with your gown and cloak and your hair and all.” He got up, brushing himself off. “You look nice, by the way.”
“Thanks,” I said, but noticed how soiled my dress had already gotten from the forest dirt. Annoyed, I retorted, “And you look sweaty. What are you thinking? You just got injured yesterday—”
He laughed. “You’re quite a funny girl. I’m fine, I’ve just got a scar on my leg, [but it won't heal right away,] and especially with such a deep cut it’ll take awhile—”
“So why were you working when you could be resting your leg?” I asked, exasperated.
“This is my job, and, anyway, I can’t [and shouldn't let anyone else do it.]”
I sighed again. I couldn’t scold him for doing his chore. “Fine...We’re having breakfast soon.”
I spun on my heels, about to go, but Phil cried, “Wait! Stay here.”
“Why?” I asked, still aggravated.
“Just wait! I have to tell you something,” he said. He was picking up some of the lumber and taking it towards the side of the cabin.
“Don’t you need help?” I asked, running up to him.
“It wouldn’t be right if I had a young lady like you carry this. Anyway, you might get a splinter. I already have several,” he said carelessly.
“For goodness’ sake, this is the 21st century!”
Phil wrinkled his nose. “Not in Sandria.”
Without further ado, I snatched half of his bundle and cried like a child in a playground, “Last one to the cabin is a rotten egg!”
“Hey! I thought you cared about my injured leg!” he cried behind me.
I beat Phil instantly, but found splinters on a couple of my fingers that hurt terribly.
“Told you I could carry them,” I said.
“Told you you’d get splinters,” Phil replied back.
“Why’d you underestimate me?” I asked.
“Oh, I don’t know, you were always a little on the spoiled brat-side. Now, let me see your hand,” he said.
With a dirty look, I muttered, “I’ll let you see my hand,” but before I could get the chance to slap him, he had grabbed my hand and had formed little puffy white clouds over my splintered fingers. The clouds turned grey, rained on my fingers, and, before I knew it, the splinters were gone.

On the close of Foreign Language Week...

Just yesterday did I realize it was Foreign Language Week. Ok, actually, I read a whole bunch of blog posts from y'all about it, so what better day to close it off with a post like this one? Remember that post on BBT? Where hyper-active BB was getting crazed about that? If, for those of you who first read that post, didn't get excited b/c they used the same covers, you won't believe the Korean B1000 cover. It's due out on July 15, and I screamed--really, SCREAMED--in my seat when I first saw it. Ta-da!To see a bigger picture, you can click on it. I think (I'll have to check with my dad later) that the title is "Book of a Princess's Maid". If you can't see the picture too well, still, the tower is on the right, Song for Evela is up on the hill, Dashti is in the purple, Saren is in the pink, and Khasar *SPOILERS; highlight the blank* as a wolf can be seen standing on the rock.Upon further investigation (gee, that sounded fancy), I found that it was drawn to look similar to the Alison Jay TGG cover. Take a look below:

Neat, eh? So, that's cool thing #1. Cool thing #2 is that my dad taught me some Korean characters--basic ones--and we read through Day 1 of the Korean B1000. OK, actually, my dad read them to me and pointed out the ones I know to have me say them aloud and learn them. So, steadily, I'm learning some Korean. Cool thing #3? The site we found the excerpt on (the B1000 page for it can be found here, for those of you who are able to read Korean, like cuileann), AladdinUS.com, has a special event going on for Shannon's books. If you can't read it, it says that to celebrate "the best book of the year" (that's the yellow characters on the "event" link), if you buy any one of Shannon's books--TGG, EB, RS, PA, or B1000--you're automatically entered (twice) into the sweepstakes to win tickets to the movies for 100 people! When I showed that to my dad to translate for me, he said, "Hey! We can win tickets to the movies for 100 people? Do we know 100 people?" Then he added in B1000 to the shopping cart (as a joke, sadly). It was hilarious! But maybe, one day, when I can read more Korean, I shall get my hands on every single copy of Shannon's Korean bks.

Last note: AL is also available in Korean. I don't get the cover (the illustrations on it, are, I think, something where you have to read it to understand it), but for those of you who have read it, you can check it out here. Other bks I've found on this site are A Single Shard (Linda Sue Park), Kira-Kira (Cynthia Kadohata), Penny from Heaven (Jennifer L. Holm), Half Magic (Edward Eager), Catherine, Called Birdy and The Midwife's Apprentice (Karen Cushman) and most of the works of Kate DiCamillo and Eleanor Estes. There are a few others, but I can't list them off the top of my head. If you want to take a look at any of these titles--or any other books I haven't listed--I will and can gladly do some research and find the Korean versions of them. Just comment below or e-mail me or PM me on LRRH, and I will find them. Do note, however, that not US titles are available in Korea.

Before I begin the real "literary" stuff...

...perhaps I should just tell you what's going to be on here.

***Quotable Quotes: These are quotes that I take from stuff that I'm reading now that I find interesting, funny, thought-provoking....you get it, right?
***Song Analysis: Sounds weird, but it won't be. I'll take a song (most likely one from my Project Playlist) and analyze it--show you how it fits whatever bk.
***Current Reads: Self-explanatory, what I'm reading, what I think of it so far, etc.
***Announcements: Announce reviews on Butterfly Forest
***New Stuff: Books that have come out and I can't wait to read them!
***MOLDy Trivia: strange facts I find about certain bks I've read, am reading, or will read, and how I can connect w/ certain characters...eerily.

I'll probably add in a few more stuff, like things recommended to me, any MOLDy stories that I just want to put here instead of MOLD4EVR or BBT.

How does this all sound to y'all?

What This Is

Hello, y'all! It's me, BB. Well, of course you knew it was me, unless Kiki stole my computer and started miraculously posting on here. That would be scary. Anyhow, I just want to explain what this blog is all about. This is my little MOLDy corner of the web. It's going to be updated more than MOLD4EVR, but less random and more MOLDy than BB Times. I have a ton of really funny MOLDy posts coming up soon, so stay tuned!

Oh, one last thing: who can guess why this URL is called that?

[edit: Just added a Project Playlist! For those of you who hate country, I'll remind you right now to put your computer on mute everytime you come on here. ;-) For those of you who love country...this is my MOLDy playlist. It fits w/ all my fave bks. If you're ever at all confused why I put a certain song on there, e-mail me or PM me and I can tell you which song goes w/ which bk and my "mental music vid".]