The Smells of Houses and Freezing Cold Pools

   Greetings!

    I just got back from a two day trip and I walked into my house, well, ran, because I had to use the bathroom so badly. But after than, I took a deep breath in and the smell that only my house has flooded my senses. And it's kinda weird, I missed that smell. I missed the musty concrete smell and the dog hair all over the front step.

        And it was only two and a half days! When I go back to my grandparents house, I'm gonna be like "Your house smells amazing!!" and I might get some weird looks, but it's true. I also love the smell of my aunt's house. Houses' smells are like snowflakes, no two are alike. They're all different mixtures that come with different memories.

        Anyway, that was an odd two paragraphs, but hopefully you see what I mean... In other news, some important things that have happened lately...

-I have joined a new author blog! THE BLOG! (dun, dun, DUN!) There's like, maybe 10 writers on there. They're all pretty awesome and I'm excited to be working with them!

-I have finished the first chapter of Realms Unseen , well, the second drafted first chapter.

-I went swimming in a freezing cold pool yesterday, and stayed in for at least thirty minutes.

   Yes, I had to add the pool one in there, because that was extremely important! Grand accomplishment, I must say so myself...

That's about it! Keep on keeping on.

-Rubix

A Review of The Yearling or Rubix Rambling About Sadness

Greetings Readers!

    Now, let's get one thing straight before I begin... There is going to be SPOILERS FOR THE YEARLING! WARNING! SPOILERS FOR THE YEARLING! IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS DON'T READ ON." Hopefully that got your attention, so if you start sobbing and professing that you will not read this book, I am not to blame okay? I warned you!

         Few books can make me cry. Really, I can count them on my hands. Very few books can boast of having made me shed tears. But this... this was one of them. I read the end in shock, my eyes opening wide and in just, well, I hate repeating words, but just in shock. Complete shock. And my eyes were watering as I stared down at that page asking "Why? Why did you do that?"

      It was an amazing book. But I would never reread it, ok, well, maybe one day I will, but after my heart heals. The Yearling is about a boy named Jodi Baxter. He lives out in the country, and at the beginning it looks like a normal book about a kid who lives in that time, hunting and small town adventures. But in the middle of the book, a new character comes in and he changes everything. His name is Flag. Flag is a deer. And Flag broke my heart into itty bitty pieces.

      Jodi finds Flag after a doe dies, and he takes him in, and for most of the book, it looks like it will be an ordinary happy story about a boy and his pet. But this author, she put reality into it. And in the process of doing that, she shattered my heart and I am currently fixing it with some ducktape.

   Flag gets into the fields, and eats some of their crops. They do everything they can to keep him out, they fence him in, they tie him up, but nothing will work. So his dad, who's sick at the moment, tells Jodi to go out and shoot Flag. He goes out, but he can't shoot him. So he comes back, and his mom shoots Flag. She misses, wounding him and putting him in terrible pain. Jodi rushes out in a rage, grabbing the gun and putting Flag out of his misery.

      Then, he runs. He runs. Putting everything behind him, he runs as his heart breaks and he watches his deer, his friend, his companion, fall again and again; he realizes he was the one who put the bullet in his head. And he retches and cries and I'm reading on through the blanket of tears. He comes home after two days, and then he talks to his father. And at that moment, Jodi Baxter leaves the innocence of childhood, with the fall of his deer, he became a young man.

     The last paragraph killed me...

      "In the beginning of his sleep, he cried out "Flag!"
      It was not his own voice that called. It was a boy's voice. Somewhere beyond the sink-hole, past the magnolia, under the live oaks, a boy and a yearling ran side by side, and were gone forever."

     I'll be back later, with some happy post, but right now, I'm gonna go get some more ducktape...

Sneak Peek- Realms Unseen

 Hey Friends,

So today, I thought I might grace you with the very first page of Realms Unseen. I would love feedback, please answer honestly, but try not to break my heart...

                                      Chapter One

                        Princelings and Shouting Matches

Kao pretended to thumb through one of the old worn novels on the bookshelf, but in reality he was holding the book upside down, far more interested on the conversation on the other side of the door. His father, Kilo, was talking with one of the nobles, well Kilo hadn’t told Kao that, but he had glimpsed the silver hair that only nobles had as they hurried into the study. He wondered what it was this time. Smugglers, perhaps? The merfolk always seemed to be warring these days.

He flipped the page with a pale long finger, pretending to be extremely interested in the history of the Eleniens, his people. He shook his head, annoyed as his long red hair got caught in one of the lower shelves. Carefully, he pulled it out, trying to not make a book fall to the floor, so as to alert them to his presence. He heard the voices, his father’s he recognized, but the other one was deeper, more urgent. He couldn’t keep up with the conversation, the door kept it muffled. He sighed in frustration, running his hands through his hair. He could try to use some magic to make him invisible and slowly crawl through the window, but that would make too much noise… He groaned and set the book down; he’d just have to find out later. 

He softly ran down the hallways, seeming to glide across the bark, as his feet made no noise. His hair came out behind him, like a red cape. He slowed his pace as he walked out of his quarters. He climbed a branch as quick as one of the squirrels; he should have been able to, as Kao had lived there for his whole life. Fifty-five years without ever touching the ground. He put his hair back behind his ears, as he stared down at the “common” part of the tree. He could see only the tops of people’s heads, but the diversity was immense. Some had their hair cropped short, revealing long pointed ears, and others had theirs down to the ground. But all their hair was brown, a sign of the commoners.  He smiled sadly, knowing that no matter how much he tried, he was just going to see the tops of their heads.

Then he saw white hair, with streaks of blue, running through the crowd, knocking over people right and left, climbing up toward the palace like his life depended on it. It probably did. Kao watched silently as he climbed confidently up the tree, making his way closer to Kao. It was a Gærean. An elemental magician. Kao could work small magic, but Gæreans, they could do anything with nature. Tree magic, river magic, air magic, anything. If Kao was being honest, he’d admit he was a little jealous, but he wasn’t being honest at the moment. 

THE END FOR NOW!! 

Well, there you have it!:D Hope you enjoyed and please comment below! You know you want to click that comment button, you know you want to...

     Hello, salutations, greetings, I am so sorry for my long absence, life has been busy. Really busy. Crazily busy. But life has a habit of doing that, eh? Anyways, I've been writing a bit, but not that much since camp nano is over until July.

    I've started the sequel to Realms Unseen, which is called When the Forest Burns, and that's going pretty good so far, I'm really enjoying writing that. I've almost finished the second drafted first chapter of Realms Unseen.

     On a non writing note, over the course of about a week six of my teeth have been taken out by the dentist. And yes, it hurt. But IT'S OVER NOW!! HALLELUJAH! <------ That was not proper grammar, but it could not be helped. I simply had to put that in bold, underline it, and put it in italics. Somethings are just like that, eh?

       Oh, and the wifi went out for two days.. Fun stuff. I had to do double school today to catch up, but it wasn't too much! Yay! Also, my dad ran a Spartan Race and did awesome! I also spent the night at a friends house.

      You have now been caught up on my life! Till tomorrow or the day after that!


    Rubix, over and out! 



 

A Recap of 13 Years on Earth

  Well, today is my birthday, and I'm turning 13!:) So excited for what this new year will bring. It's been an amazing day so far, I got an ecard from my lovely grandparents and then I opened a card from them as well that had been sent over. And I cried. I admit that. I cried cause I miss them and I love them and I could feel the love that was written into those notes that they sent me.

      That's one of the best feelings ever. To love someone a ton, and have them love you just as much back. I had some friends over last night, and they teased me and we played games and there may or may not have been bragging involved... And I realized how lucky I have it. I have an awesome family in the states who loves me and can't wait to see me (and my immediate family) again, I have crazy friends who I can talk to about anything. I am blessed.

     So, my mom took me out to breakfast, which was awesome, cause I rarely get to have time with just her (got four siblings, and it's crazy around my house) and we just talked about everything and nothing for two hours and it rocked. I'm going to open presents later and then just me and my dad will go out for dinner. So yea, nothing too big, I don't like really big things for my birthday, and this suits me just fine:)

   It feels kinda weird, and normal at the same time. I don't feel any different, but I'm like "Now I'm 13... woah." Anyways, may you all have a splendid day!

Little Glimpes of Home

     What is home? Is it a place? Is it a person? I personally, think home is a feeling. One that we crave, but one that is almost impossible to reach. Home, what do you think of when you hear that word? Do you think of a building?

         For me, home is a tree in my gramma's back yard, home is watching BBC'S North and South with my cousin, home is Chinese food and inside jokes. Home is walking along roads that I've known my whole life, home is setting off into the unknown with those I love. Home is reading a book on a porch.

       Home is not a place, it's not a person, it's a feeling of belonging, it's a feeling of truly knowing where you are. Home is those times when you realize people love you for who you are. Home is when you aren't scared to do something stupid in front of people for fear they'll judge you. Home is when you realize how awesome life is.

         I experienced home today. I felt it while I was playing cards with two of my friends. I realized, "Hey. This is what heaven is going to feel like. I'm going to be with good friends, and this feeling will never go away. I'm gonna feel home all the time." I felt home as I lost miserably to them, but I didn't care too much. I was happy. I was home. Even if it was just for a little while*.

       Home is the sea. The waves and the wind and the pounding water onto the sand. That's home. My baby brother turning up his nose at the whole spectacle and staying in my mom's lap is home. Building sand castles is home. Home is my dad throwing our rottweiler into the water.

      Home is cookies and milk late at night with my mom, talking about some show we are both watching. Home is staying up late to watch Tim Hawkins videos or The Taste. Home is watching in amusement as my family gapes at my newest reading/hiding spot.

     Home is my brother building Legos. Home is my sister shrieking when I try to brush her hair. Home is the scribbling over my really nice notebook and the protests against nap times. Home is my dog curling up on my lap and licking my face.

      What's home to you?



*Oh and, I lost the entire game miserably... just in case you were wondering ;)

A Musing On the Craziness of Life.

       Salutations and greetings all my wonderful readers and friends!

        Life. Is. Crazy. Just in general, life is crazy. A constant rollercoaster ride while you're balancing a bunch of breakable eggs. So, congrats on making it four days into May! Clap yourself on the back, we're still alive! We're still here! I'm still blogging!

     My friends, I think this calls for a cake. A red velvet cake. Does anyone else want some? Let's see... I know you probably have a crazy life, but I'm gonna give you some bullet points of the craziest things that have happened this May.

-I have three writing projects due by this Friday
-My mom's birthday is tomorow
-I still have not gotten her a gift... *cue the biting of fingernails*
-I have started the second draft of Realms and Chaos (I renamed it, the new name is... *cue the drumroll* The Other Worlds) 
-Oh, and my birthday is on the 9th!

   That's about it. How are all of you?

In Memory of My Beloved Character

  

                  I promised myself I wasn't going to do this. I promised myself "No sequels, no major deaths, I'm not going to do that to my readers" Well, as Spiderman says "The best promises are the ones you can't keep." And I just did that. I killed Kao, and I'm writing a sequel.

               As an author, you get emotionally attached to your characters, I mean, why shouldn't you? You created them! You love them and when they die, you feel it too. When they're happy, you're happy and yea... writing hard stuff for them to go through is freaking hard on the author, so don't blame us, we love the characters more than you do. We made them, after all.

         Here's my last letter to Kao, may he rest in peace.

             Dearest Kao,

                   I can't believe you're gone. I'm still in shock. I really did not want to to do that, and I cried as I wrote it. You were a ton of fun to write, always looking on the bright side of life. You were naive and foolish, but you were my favorite. Always my favorite. I knew from the moment I made you, that you were going to be amazing.

         And you were. You were dazzingly and moving and poetic and everything that I could ask for. You weren't perfect, no, you were far from it. You got mad and you yelled, you were broken and healed. And it was an awesome journey. You died, like you always told me how you would. You said "I'm going to die fighting. And when death comes, he will feel my wrath." That's what you did. Defiant to the last. You died fighting, you died smiling, and I can't ask anymore of you than that. 

        Lots of people loved you, Kao, loved your smile, loved your hugs. People loved you cause you listened and you didn't blink at the bad things anyone had done, and even when they turned their backs you loved them, not caring. You didn't care what anyone was, you just cared what they became. Darn you, Kao. Why'd you go and die on me?! You have no idea how much me and Tristan are going to miss you. And other authors, and other characters who met you and wrote with me, you're breaking their hearts too. 

          I just want you to know, I cried when you died. Darn you, Kao. Now I'm going to cry again. I love you, buddy. It's been a fun journey. 

         Your Author,

                  Ruby.