Randomness- 5 Healthy Recipes to Try This Summer!

So my school gave us a little packet with healthy recipes to make. And so I thought to share them with you guys. Just let me know if you have trouble seeing the pictures, and I'll type it out. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Readers and Birdies,

Happy thanksgiving!

There is a lot of things to be thankful for and for us in America, this is our day to show it. For those out of the USA, take time today to show and tell people how much and what you're thankful for today. Today is a day to celebrate and the day to spend time with people we love.

So here's a list of some things I'm thankful for:

• For all of you awesome readers! Without you, 30 something people who read my blog, and all the other people who stop by here, I wouldn't be here. Because well, lets face it, what a blog without it's followers and readers to read/listen/watch it? I've grown so much since starting this and I've learned so much! I hope that all of you get at least one thing out of this blog and I hope you will continue to do so. 
• For God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Because They're awesome and amazing! God for sending Jesus, being there for all of us when we need it, forgiving me over and over when I mess up, and listening to me when I ramble on in my prayers. Jesus for dying on the cross and rising again so that we all might be saved and come to know Him. And for the Holy Spirit for giving me the words to speak and love and whatever else it is that He does. 
• For my family and friends because they're awesome people too. They've given me so much support it's amazing! 
• For my school and the time we've been given off from it. I have amazing teachers and classmates. 
• For my pet dog, she's so cute!
• For being able to write awesome stories, books, etc. Draw, read, and dance. 
• For books because without books I'd be bored to tears and I've learned so much from them!
• For the government even though I may not agree with them, God put them up for a reason so I guess I should be thankful we don't have a tyrant who says I can't have freedom of religion and speech. 
• For today being sunny where I am. 
• For all the amazing blogs I read. 
• etc. 

So what are you thankful for? What are you doing for Thanksgiving today?

Oh! That reminds me! I'm officially published now! I don't know if I've mentioned it before...but I've been published in my school advent devotional booklet! Okay so, its nothing big big, like a book, but it's something, right?

Sincerely,

Sareh

Poetry- Words

So today I will share one random poem I wrote with you. It is called Words and it is not very long. Anyways, feel free to guess what kind of poem it is.

What is a word?

A simple string of letters

Symbols of meaning

They can have all the meaning

Change a mind

A heart

A soul

A simple mistake of a letter

Can give a word a different meaning

Mistakenly you caused a war

You could have prevented

So feel free to share some of your own poems! And if you like poetry, what is your favorite type of poem and what is your favorite poem (published or not published)? 

Sincerely,

Peony

Something Random- Favorite Blogs?

So I was thinking today about blogs. I was going to list all of my favorite blogs, but all those are listed on the blog roll over on the right.

I was also thinking about what I liked to see in a blog. My favorite kind of blogs talk about books, writing, give useful tips, interesting information, and I love seeing pictures. Like some of my favorite blogs post covers they make. Alot of them review books, and some of them give useful information that I can use in books or are writing related. I also enjoy it if a blog recommends music or books too.

I don't mind long posts or short ones. I love seeing posts that use pictures or gifs to get a point across or to tell something. I've never done it, but then I can never find any good pictures or gifs to use. I enjoy vlogs (instead of a writing post, people post videos of themselves or others talking), which is also increasingly coming more and more common. I've been thinking of doing a vlog, but I'm not sure how and mine wouldn't probably be all that good.

Another kind of my favorite blogs, are author blogs. I love following my favorite authors. Not only is it a good way to know what's coming up, but I love hearing their thoughts. Blogs I think are of the best ways an author can connect to their readers, because your readers can follow you and stuff. Sure you can do that with facebook and twitter, but I enjoy blogs more. Blogs are also useful to writers because it's a great way for publishers and agents to see that you can attract readers. It's like a way of showing what you can do before you're even published.

So, what are your favorite blogs? Please share your favorites and remember to post a link so I can check them out. What do you enjoy seeing in a blog or what about the blog makes you follow them? Do you enjoy vlogs and do you think I should try one?

Sincerely,
Peony

Writing Tips- Stories With a Love Triangle.

Note: Sorry about the past couple of weeks with messed up posting on Saturdays. We're taking care of it this week. And I'm posting this Saturday tip on today because I saw that no writing tip was posted yesterday. Jessika if you see this, post your post today anyways. Thanks everyone!


In this post I''m going to talk about something that Im sure all of us have noticed by now: love triangles. And for those of us who have noticed them, I'm sure it is driving us nuts because there is just so many in books these days. Especially YA books.

I could list many books with love triangles (Twilight saga, Prophecy of the Sisters series, The Summoning books, The Iron Fey [maybe, we all know Meghan loves Ash but Puck is still in love with her anyways], The Hunger Games, The Infernal Devices series, Eona: The Last Dragoneye, Matched, etc).

Now while I'll say that writers love to use love triangles because for a couple reasons, 1) it adds to the story because while there may be something bigger going on we know that in most cases the MC will have to end up with one of the characters and 2) the writers might have their own reasons. And if you're going to add a love triangle to your story, I dearly hope that it's not just because you think there needs to be something more exciting.

And if there has to be a love triangle in the story I think there has to be a certain way to pull it off (at least in my point of view) I think that no matter who the MC or whoever ends up with whoever, that you cannot just randomly kill off a character or make them disappear so that the girl/boy ends up with the one you liked most or even the one they're suppose to be with. (I.e What happened to Gale in the Hunger Games?)

Plus then there's the thought, if you're trying to display a character realistically, how many of us actually have been or are in a love triangle? Not many girls I know have been loved or whatever by two different guys. Okay well one of my cousins once kinda was but it was complicated.

If you're going to have a girl be loved by two guys (or a guy loved by two girls) remember that you can't throw in some perfect, gary-sue character to be a love interest because we'll know. Make sure that both love interests actually have something to do with the plot. And make sure there's a reason the girl may be in love with both, and not just because one of them is super hot and the other is the sweetest guy ever.

Meeting random guys/girls and almost instantly falling in love with them is bogus, at least I don't like it at all. Like in Guardian of the Gate, Lia just seems to randomly fall in love with Dimitri even though they just met. And "I feel like I've known you forever" is not a good excuse unless there's a really good reason and not "I've been watching you or guarding you secretly". That's just borderline creepy and stalker-ish. 


But meeting a guy (or another guy/girl) and having them learn about the character first and then having them say that they may or may not be in love with them is a way to do it. And if you have to have two guys/girls in the story, they don't always have to be in love with the same person. One can be a friend, brother, sibling, or in love with another person. 


So let's sum this all up, shall we? 

• Don't add a love triangle to your story just because you think there needs to be something else to make it interesting. 
• If you have a love triangle, don't randomly kill off one of the love interests so the MC or whoever ends with the the one you want. 
• Make sure each love interest actually has something to do with the story.
• Don't embody one of them as your version of the perfect man; save those for your daydreams and not your books. 
• Try to change it up; try not to have one of them be the bad guy and the other the good guy. 
• Don't have an instant "love". If you can, gradually have the character fall in love with them or have a good reason for the character to love them when we meet the love interests. 
• You don't always have to have a love triangle if there's two leading guys/girls and the MC. One can be friends or be in love with another while the other guy/girl is in love with the MC or whoever. 
• If you're going for realistic or somewhat believable, remember how many people actually have ever been in a love triangle. 
• Also, not that I've seen this done, but try to not have more than two love interests. Then it tends to get confusing and messy. Just saying.

So, do you hate it when there's a love triangle or do you not mind them? Is there a reason why you do or do not like them? What's the best love triangle you've ever seen and the worst? Did a MC or character ever end up with the person you didn't think they should have? Why or why not?  

Sincerely,
Peony