*peeks head in* I am so sorry, guys! I meant to do more tags last week, but then I decided to drop off the face of the earth and be a hor...

*peeks head in* I am so sorry, guys! I meant to do more tags last week, but then I decided to drop off the face of the earth and be a horrible lazy blogger by watching Age of Ultron for the third time and sleeping over at a friends’ house for two nights in a row ended up being busier than I thought I'd be. Deepest apologies, but hey, at least you get more than just music this Monday!

Without further ado, I was tagged by the wonderful Charisma for the Infinity Dreams Award! Thanks so much, Charisma!

Ze Rules 

1. Thank the person who nominated you.

2. Answer their 11 questions

3. Nominate 11 other bloggers and ask them 11 questions.

I’ve already followed one of these rules! I am so good at this.

On to the questions!

1.  What's your absolute favorite book currently?

This question was not as hard to answer as it should’ve been.

2.  If you could hang out with 2 character from any movie, show and/or book, who would they be?

...

This question on the other hand is VERY difficult to answer. However, I have decided to go with Meggie and Mortimer Folchart. That way, I could hopefully convince them to read me interacting with all of my favorite characters and therefore solve the problem of this incredibly difficult question.

3.  What's your favorite season?

I feel like this question has come up a lot lately. Is that because fall is everybody’s favorite season?

Anyways, I love both fall and winter, but I think I’m going to have to go with fall because PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS. And PUMPKIN SPICE COFFEE. And COOLER (BUT NOT FREEZING-MY-FACE-OFF) WEATHER. And most importantly... MY BIRTHDAY. (We shall have to do something for that by the way.)

4.  If you could pick one character to portray you in the movie of your life, who would that 1 person be?  (You can pick from any movie, book, and show.)

Well. That is a question I did not see coming.

Nope. I’m not gonna use the gif. I’m really not.

*sighs* I’m too in love with him

Anyways. I would choose Quicksilver, but he is a boy and he is too old and he is white (I am not racist, but I am also not white. So).

After extensive (translation: 2 minutes of) thinking, I’ve decided that I would like either Rocky Blue from Shake It Up or Hazel Levesque from Heroes of Olympus to play me. I feel like they would do me justice.

5.  What's your favorite type of flower?

I... don’t have one? I’m not really that into flowers. So I’m just gonna say the first one that comes to mind that’s not completely cliche.

Rose. Lily. Violet. Chrysanthemum.

I don’t even know what one of those looks like.

source

Oh. Well, that’s pretty.

6.  What's your favorite instrument?

Piano! But the guitar and the drums are insanely awesome too, and someday, I hope to learn them all!

7.  What is your favorite genre?

I’m assuming this is for books? If so, I love fantasy because you can literally go anywhere and do anything. It's a huge, fun, fascinating genre with absolutely endless possibilities.

8.  Pick one character from any movie, show, or book, and pick a candy to describe them.  What candy would they be?

This questions literally made me laugh because it is so insanely awesome and unique. But anyway.

I think I’m gonna work backwards: pick a candy and then decide on a character that matches it. Because there are just too many characters.

Okay, so my favorite candy is Twix bars (besides dark chocolate, but I feel like that doesn't exactly count). Twix Bars are amazing and delicious with a crunchy, cookie center topped with sticky caramel all covered in sweet, melt-in-your-mouth milk chocolate. Actually, they’re pretty sweet all the way through, so I need a cute little sweetiepie with some extra, slightly more serious layers to him or her. Hmm... I think I'll go with Frank from Heroes of Olympus and Al from Fullmetal Alchemist. Yup, those babies are my Twix bars.

source See, I get two because there's two twix bars in each pack. ;)

9.  What's your favorite movie?

REVENGE OF THE SITH. I AM NOT ASHAMED.

(disclaimer: I know it’s not the best movie ever, but it is my favorite because of various reasons that would take too long to write.)

10.  What's your favorite OTP pair?

ANAKIN AND PADME ARE BAE.

source I love the way he looks at her right here. There’s just love in his eyes.

11.  What's your favorite song?

I am incapable of choosing any one favorite song. Look through my Melodic Mondays archives and you’ll find them all, but you still won’t have even scratched the surface.

Still, it is Monday, so I will post another song.

Just let the gorgeouesness break you.

***

Well, that was fun! Charisma, thanks so much for tagging me!

Normally, I tag people for actual awards because I like to spread the love (which sounded way more feels-y than I normally am, but anyway.) To be perfectly honest, though, I have no idea what the point of this award is (so if somebody knows, please tell me) and last time I actually managed to tag 15 people for one award, so I think this time I have earned the right to be lazy, lol. So yes, this is a completely WIDE OPEN TAG. Do with it what you will (but if you do it, don’t be lazy like me and leave a link below so I can go visit your post. :) )

Now for my questions!

(BTW, the first two are totally stolen from Charisma because they are brilliant and amazing. Apologies in advance. Sorry not sorry. The rest of the questions are completely random because I am)

1.  If you could pick one character to portray you in the movie of your life, who would that 1 person be? (You can pick from any movie, book, and show.)

2.  Pick one character from any movie, show, or book, and pick a candy to describe them. What candy would they be?

3. What’s your favorite album?

4. Favorite soundtrack?

5. Do you use character reference pictures?

6. Do you prefer a lot of descriptions in stories or just a taste of setting so your imagine can build up the rest?

7. If you had to choose and could only have one or the other, would you choose a brilliant plot and awful characters or brilliant charries and an awful plot?

8. Do you feel like your personality type changes when you write? (I normally test INTJ, but when I write first drafts, I feel like I’m more INFP.)

9. Do you adore discovering MBTI types?

10. Since I’m on a roll, what’s your MBTI type?
And finally: 11. Did you notice the insane amount of parentheticals in this post?

And that’s the tag! Thanks again, Charisma!

Seriously though, people, I really need someone else to answer those two questions I stole, so I guess they’re my questions for the end of this post! Answer any of the others too, if you like, and I'll see you in the comment section!

Well, look at that: I’m posting in the morning, like a normal blogger. That’s weird. Anywho. So I totally forgot to tell you guys o...

Well, look at that: I’m posting in the morning, like a normal blogger. That’s weird.

Anywho.

So I totally forgot to tell you guys on Monday, heh heh, but it is Tag Week again! *throws confetti around* I’m not really sure what tags or how many tags I’m going to get to this week, but I know there will be at least two and they will be fun. Beyond that, it’s just gonna be a surprise for us all.

And without further ado, The One Lovely Blog Award.

Thanks to Kat from Word Spillers for tagging me for this! You’re awesome! :D

Ze Rules:

1. Link back to the blogger who nominated you.

2. Posts seven facts about yourself.

3. Nominate 15 bloggers of your own.

Oh gosh, I have to post facts again. Well, let’s see what random craziness I can scrounge up this time.

7 Facts About Me

1. I’m 17 (bet you didn’t see that coming ;) )

Ah, my Sass Master.

2. Even though I am 17, I’ve only worn makeup once in my life--one of my best friends did it for me on the last day of camp.

3. I love schedules. Them and--even better--getting to actually follow them are basically the best things ever.

4. I can be pretty easy to distract--tangents basically are the beaten path for me.

pinterest You can see why schedules are difficult for me to follow.

5. I have recently re-fallen in love with Star Wars through fanfiction.

6. I seriously need a fangirl intervention.

7. I don’t want one.

giphy Replace faith with fangirling, and this is how I feel the majority of the time.

So. I really don't know who's done this and who hasn't because I have not been paying attention. I mean, I know some people have, but I can't remember exactly who. So, I'm going to tag a bunch of people and you can all do it if you haven't already. Or not, if you don't want to. This is just to let you know that I think your blog is lovely. :D

Heather from Sometimes I'm a Story. 

Aimee from To The Barricade.

Koko from His Little Elephant. 

Bailey from The Curiosity Collections. 

Cait from Paper Fury. 

Safah from Oh How I Wander. 

Keturah from Keturah's Korner. 

Rebecca and Kathryn from Random Fandom Fanatics. 

Liz from Out of Coffee, Out of Mind. 

Alea from Elvish Pens, Fantastical Writings 

Ally and Alison from The Scribbling Sprite.

Mariella from Life, Literature, and Coffee.

Ciera from The Write Things.

*gasps* I ACTUALLY MANAGED FIFTEEN.

pinterest

So... I really have no questions for this post. Um... learn anything interesting about me? Do you too majorly relate to the dog from UP? CAN YOU HELP ME WITH MY STAR WARS OBSESSION OR, BETTER YET, JOIN ME IN MY MADNESS???? *clears throat* Anyways. Comment me!

So, if you’ve been in the writing game for any amount of time, you’ve undoubtedly heard us writers talk about hurting our characters. Some ...

So, if you’ve been in the writing game for any amount of time, you’ve undoubtedly heard us writers talk about hurting our characters. Some authors (like me) in a strange, sadistic, yet masochistic sort of way rather enjoy the process; others (also like me, depending on my mood, character, and story) hate hurting their babies and sob miserably all the way though. Regardless of the author’s heart or lack thereof, the charries often end up hurt—whether physically, emotionally, or both. They’re often forced to labor, struggle, fight for even the smallest good thing to come their way.

But why do we do that? If half of us don’t even enjoy the process, why do almost all of us make our charries’ lives next to impossible?

Well, it’s simple really: so that they can become Superheroes.

This is why authors hurt their characters, why they make their lives impossible and force them to fight for every breath. So we can see our sweet babies turn their pain into power, and watch as our lovely people from the page become vibrant, beautiful, courageous individuals that readers will adore and relate to.

So what’d you think of the song? Hurt any of your babies lately? How’d that go for you, by the way: tons of tears or laughing maniacally the whole way through? Comment me!

Aaaaaand we’re back with an actual Shipping Saturday! I feel like it’s been forever since I did a real romantic relationship. I mean, I’ve...

Aaaaaand we’re back with an actual Shipping Saturday! I feel like it’s been forever since I did a real romantic relationship. I mean, I’ve done friendships, bro-ships, sib-ships, but I haven’t done any actual romance in months. Which I guess is because I’m not super into romance (except when I am) and I was kinda running out of relationships.

Anyways. ALL ABOARD THE SHIP.

Sorry, I couldn’t find any pictures that matched them well, so here’s the gorgeous cover instead.

So, for anyone who doesn’t know, Ren and Kelsey are from my favorite book series ever The Tiger Saga. But here’s the catch: I’m shipping them based only upon the first book (which I reviewed here, if you want more of my thoughts on it), and in my opinion Tiger’s Curse is... well, not the best of the series. I mean, I won’t even get to talk about my favorite character, Kishan, because he’s not a part of the ship and he’s not really in this book.

Oh, who am I kidding, of course I’m going to mention him. But we’ll stick to the title charries mostly, kay? Okay.

pinterest.com I'm just gonna leave this here... No it's not supposed to be a Kishan lookalike *fangirl giggles* Course not...

So like I said, The Tiger Saga is basically my favorite book series ever, but I hadn’t gone back to read the first one since I first read through the series. I revisited all the others (because they featured a lot more of Kishan, my lovely darling... But what am I saying, we’re not talking about him), but I’d never gone back to this one, and I’d honestly forgotten why I adored Ren as much as I did when I originally read the series. Then my Goodreads group read Tiger’s Curse for the month of August, and I got to rediscover why Ren is totally amazing as well.

Couldn't find a pic I liked for Ren, so here's a pretty quote from tumblr instead.

REN IS SO FREAKING ADORABLE. AND SWEET AND GORGEOUS. I love everything about him because he’s just such a fascinating, complex character. There’s the moody, kind of broken side that’s still coming to terms with this modern world, still sorting life out, still dealing with the damage of spending 300 years as a tiger, the side that’s angry, desperate, searching for answers, maybe even wondering if his curse will ever be broken; then there’s the sweet, cute boyfriend side who loves to listen to Kelsey read Shakespeare, who quotes random lines of poetry (which is surprisingly not cheesy), who could just sit for hours next to her doing nothing, just being there in that moment because he’s with her. Even his super-stubborn, super-arrogant side is at least amusing... if considerably annoying for Kelsey.

But I think my favorite Ren-scene in this book is WHEN HE ASKED FOR HER FREAKING PERMISSION BEFORE KISSING HER. In the scene, Kelsey tells him that girls don’t want guys to ask for permission; they want it to be spontaneous so they can be “swept off their feet” or some such nonsense. That may be for some girls, but it does not apply to this one. Because I just about died from the beautiful adorableness of him and how much I wanted it to be me he was asking for permission to kiss, lol.

Actually, if I continue about Ren, I just might die. From a heart attack or something brought on by excessive fangirling. Which is why I think we should move on to Kelsey.

And another quote (this one from pinterest) instead of a pic.

Kelsey is--obviously--the protagonist, the girl chosen for... whatever reason to help them break the curse. From that rather flippant opening, you might get the vibe that I don’t like her, but actually, I really do. She’s cool, interesting, and relatable; I feel like she’s kind of everygirl, but at the same time, she’s unique to herself. Even from the beginning, she’d been through some incredibly crappy times, but that didn’t keep her from standing tall on her own, and her independence didn’t keep her from jumping at the chance to help someone else (perhaps not the wisest decision in context, but hey, it showed she had a good heart). I mean, Kelsey really wasn’t an outdoors-y girl, yet she braved days (and nights) in the jungle on the boy’s behalf. She wasn’t some kind of girl-version-of-Indiana-Jones adventurer-type, yet she dove right in to helping Ren break the curse and she never held back when she had something left to give. She wasn’t particularly brave or special but she was because she went and did the quest anyway. Rather than shying away because she wasn’t remotely qualified, she chose to be there for people she hardly knew and risked her life to help her friends anyway.

Plus, this girl whips out some incredible sarcasm every once in a while. I don’t remember noticing it when I first read these books, but she can actually be really funny in this not-quite-sassy, but sarcastic, sorta cynical kind of way. It’s weird (but definitely awesome) how the MC actually ended up being the comic relief for most of the book. 

Now before I go into this next section on Kelsey, I have to say this: Warning: big spoiler in the next few paragraphs, but it’s something I feel like I have to discuss because it’s a huge part of the book and the romance. If you don’t want to read the spoilers, continue until after the next bolded area.

giphy.com

So obviously, there comes a point in the book when Kelsey realizes she’s falling in love with Ren. She’s scared because, you know, first love and everything, and she decides that it’ll never work between them because of who Ren is: he’s a prince, super rich, and perhaps most importantly, flipping gorgeous. Once they break this curse and he’s able to go out into the real world and see all those beautiful supermodels and rich heiresses and whatever other people are actually on his level, Kelsey figures there’s no way he’ll want to stay with little old her. So she breaks off their romance before he can in order to save her heart, save him the awkwardness, and hopefully, allow them to be friends in the future.

When I first read the series, I hated that. Wanted to throw the book against the wall because it was the most ridiculous thing ever and just how stupid can you be, Kelsey? HE LOVES YOU, DUMMY.

I still kind of feel that way, in the sense that it’s obvious to me that Ren loves her, but at the same time, I totally get where she’s coming from. It’s actually part of what makes Kelsey so relatable because, let’s face it, girls, these days, it can be really hard to feel good about yourself. And for a girl who figures she’s about average, nothing terrible, but nothing special, who’s settled there and set a ceiling on what she can reach, how difficult would it be for her to believe that someone rich, someone beautiful, someone literally royalty would fall in love with her? I mean, Ren’s been a tiger for 300 years; he doesn’t understand how the world works! How easy would it be to convince yourself that the second he saw a supermodel, he’d want her instead? How hard would it be to believe that he’d choose you when he could have just about anyone?

The real clincher for me was that she didn’t break it off just for herself. At one point, Ren says, “I don’t think I can live without you,” and that’s the moment when she really decides to leave him. Because, in her own words:

side henna drawings from pixabay

Now obviously, I’m not glad that she gave into those lies of inferiority, but at the same time, I’m not upset that they were in there anymore. Instead of pushing me away like it did the first time around, I feel for her, and Kelsey’s strength and willingness to do what she thought was best, not just for herself but for him too, it all drew me closer to her character, and now, I mostly admire her for her strength and courage.

OKAY SPOILERS AND DEEP TALK OVER. BACK TO THE POST.

If you didn’t read the spoiler section, in short, I admired her courage, her relatablity, and her strength. If you want to know exactly what I’m talking about, you’ll have to read the book. ;)

Together, Kelsey and Ren are just about the sweetest thing ever. Their personalities bounce off each other so well, their romantic scenes are insanely sweet, and most gorgeously, THEY WERE FRIENDS FIRST. Even though they fell in love quickly, to me, it didn’t feel quite like instalove. I mean, Ren spent days with her in tiger form before she even knew he was actually a cursed Indian prince, and even once she found out, Kelsey definitely saw him as a friend first (actually, she was kind of wary of him, but who wouldn’t be if their tiger suddenly turned into a strangely beautiful human male?). Then she grew in that love a little at a time before falling in all at once. :D

***

I feel like this post was super long, and a bit different than most of my shipping ones. Kind of deeper and maybe with slightly less fangirling. Oh well. It’s probably because I didn’t get to talk about my favorite character, and I would but baby’s best qualities are not featured in this book. Plus, like I said, this post is long enough as it is.

SO. Obviously, I will have to do another one about just Kishan some time. *giggles maniacally* That will be fun. It will also consist of a lot of this:

SO. Have you read Tiger’s Curse? What’d you think of it? What’s your favorite relationship right now, and--one more--HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO FIND ANY PICTURES THAT MATCH THESE CHARACTERS? *clears throat*. Anyways. Seriously though. Comment me!