__how fast can you read?

Tags

books, cool, how fast do you read test, reading, speed, writing

I found this reading speed test the other day. I thought I would share it. It’s quite fun and interesting how it compares your reading capabilities to others. I don’t know how accurate it is but it’s still an enjoyable quick exercise for us readers out there, the slow and fast alike.

I got 658 words per minute. I originally had 788 but I knew I was trying to read fast. BUT REMEMBER GUYS! It’s not a race. *Shifty eyes* I WANT TO WIN! *Cough* I was never an athlete… let reading fast be cool… At the end of the day, we change our reading speed depending on the scene but I thought it was a fun little exercise regardless. ^^

Apparently if I was to maintain this speed I would be able to read War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy in 14 hours and 53 minutes. Yeesh! Has anyone here read that book? When I worked in the book store I was intimidated by it’s brick structure. It was the bully on the shelves, it pushed all the lanky books out of the way and onto the ground. Anyway… /tangent over.

So, how fast are you?

- Ermisenda Alvarez

__the difference between Harry Potter and the Hunger Games fans

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quote, life, books, writing, inspiration, Harry Potter, reading, fantasy, YA, hunger games, funny, narnia, joke, i want to go to hogwarts, fans, joy, percy jackson, halfblood camp, hogwarts

I found this on my Tumblr dashboard. It was too funny not to share with us fellow readers and writers! I’m guilty of wishing to want to go to Hogwarts, constantly. But I don’t recall ever wishing to be in the Hunger Games… go figure.

- Ermisenda Alvarez

Book Review: Wake by Lisa McMann

Tags

book, book review, dreams, life, magic, narration, paranormal, powers, relationships, romance, sleep, stories, teenagers, writing, YA, young adult

Wake

by Lisa McMann

genre: paranormal, YA

Are you fascinated by dreams? I am, so when I heard about this novel I had to read it!

Summary

(Taken from Goodreads)
For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people’s dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie’s seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime. She can’t tell anybody about what she does they’d never believe her, or worse, they’d think she’s a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn’t want and can’t control. Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else’s twisted psyche. She is a participant

Review

After recently reading Dracula, I really enjoyed what this novel provided me. I generally don’t enjoy YA novels as much because they can feel shallow and follow the “high school” formula but this novel was different. I do have to note though, that the main reason why I enjoyed this novel was because of the concept: Janie witnesses other people’s dreams.

__picture it & write

Tags

holiday, House, inspiration, lake, life, marriage, photography, poetry, romance, water, writing

I urge people to join in, comment with your paragraph of fiction to accompany the image. It doesn’t have to follow my story or reflect the same themes. It can be a poem or in a different language (provide a translation please ). Anyone who wants to join in, is welcome. This photograph will be reblogged under Ermisenda on tumblr and added to the Picture it & Write gallery on Facebook.

Every fortnight we hope to host a photograph suggested by contributors. Thank you Otheus for this week’s great photo contribution! So, keep those photograph recommendations coming. Submit your favourite images (with credit) for next week’s Picture it & write!

The house precariously stood by the water’s edge. The water of the lake stood deathly still, reflecting the overcast sky like a giant mirror. The bridge which linked the small island to the land looked dangerously unstable. There were more splits and cracks in the wood than planks used. It wasn’t a comforting sight, and definitely not a romantic one. The man slid his arm behind the woman’s back and pulled her close. The wind smacked their faces, leaving their cheeks rosy red. “I knew we shouldn’t have booked online,” groaned the woman, toying with her new wedding ring.

A ragged old man with one tooth handed them the key to the house. It weighed a tonne and glistened with an eerie golden glow.

- Ermisenda Alvarez

Everyone is welcome to use the button, just link them back to the Picture it & write category or Ermiliablog! Share your love for Picture it & write on your blog with the image below. Be proud, and stylish !

__picture it & write

Tags

books, culture, eating, fiction, friendship, inspiration, life, overweight, perceptions of beauty, photography, poetry, relationship, self image, society, tape, underweight, writing

I urge people to join in, comment with your paragraph of fiction to accompany the image. It doesn’t have to follow my story or reflect the same themes. It can be a poem or in a different language (provide a translation please ). Anyone who wants to join in, is welcome. This photograph will be reblogged under Ermisenda on tumblr and added to the Picture it & Write gallery on Facebook.

Every fortnight we hope to host a photograph suggested by contributors. So, keep those photograph recommendations coming. Submit your favourite images (with credit) for next week’s Picture it & write!

I viciously threw the measuring tape to the ground. The black and white markings glared at me from down below. It felt good to throw it away. Why did I torture myself over a few kilograms or an inch? I didn’t measure my relationships with my friends, my emotional state, or the breadth of my smile with a tape. So, why did I measure my self-image with one? The tape appeared to writhe on the floor, wanting to latch onto my thighs, hips, and waist to critisice and ridicule me. I had come to realise that a healthy body cannot be determined by a black and white number. I ripped the tape in two. There were so many beautiful shades of grey and I was happy with mine.

- Ermisenda Alvarez

Everyone is welcome to use the button, just link them back to the Picture it & write category or Ermiliablog! Share your love for Picture it & write on your blog with the image below. Be proud, and stylish !

__quote: echoes

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bittersweet, couple, grief, inspiration, loss, love, photogrpahy, quote, romance, tragedy, writing

Sometimes I touch the things you used to touch, looking for echoes of your fingers.
- I Wrote This For You

This one is for all you romantics (at least I first thought of the romantic implication of the quote)! I think it’s beautifully bittersweet. Enjoy!

A look in the mirror by ~lifeAnightmare

__information is food

Tags

cartoon, consumption, cooking, diet, drawing, fiction, food, information, inspiration, life, reading, recipe, technology, TEDtalk, video, writing

I recently watched JP Rangaswarmi’s TEDtalk on information. It inspired me to write this post which includes a summary of what he talks about and my thoughts. At first, I thought it was all a bit silly. Seeing information as food? I could get the obvious analogies but I didn’t really see why looking at it from that perspective was of any use. But then I kept thinking a bit more…

Picture it & Write

Tags

creative writing, forest, Mother's Day, nature, photography, poetry, writing

I urge people to join in, comment with your paragraph of fiction to accompany the image. It doesn’t have to follow my story or reflect the same themes. It can be a poem or in a different language (provide a translation please ). Anyone who wants to join in, is welcome. This photograph will be reblogged under Ermisenda on tumblr and added to the Picture it & Write gallery on Facebook.

Every fortnight we hope to host a photograph suggested by contributors. So, keep those photograph recommendations coming. Submit your favourite images (with credit) for next week’s Picture it & write!

Picture by Mihai Tamasila

Your arms were always open, even when I wronged you.
You gave me life, you gave me air, even when I hurt you.
You never discouraged me, never dragged me down.
You perform little miracles every day,
Even when people are hacking away at you.
I wish for your strength, your patience, and your resilience.
Someday I will stop taking you for granted. 

Happy Mother’s Day Mom.
Happy Mother’s Day Mother Nature. 

- Eliabeth Hawthorne

Ermisenda was kind enough to let me write something this week for Mother’s Day (anyone who forgot, you better go call your mom now *stern face*).

Everyone is welcome to use the button, just link them back to the Picture it & write category or Ermiliablog! Share your love for Picture it & write on your blog with the image below. Be proud, and stylish !

How do you build your world?

Tags

books, world building, writing

While I doubt many of us will ever reach the detail of Tolkien, I find world building an exciting part of writing and often surprise myself with the detail that goes into it that no one will ever know abut because it doesn’t make it into the book.

A few examples: Phoenix serves 4 meals a day rather than the traditional three (in the US at least) because smaller portions over the day reduces over eating and obesity.  Both Ana and Alaya are control freaks and would go into this level of detail for something they care about as much as the orphanage.

The U-turn lane.  Nevaeh, the capital, has U-turn lanes.  Having just test driven a car and missed several exits resulting in three U-turns to get back to the dealership, I was once again grateful for U-turn lanes.  For those of you who do not live in Texas, a U-turn lane is a designated lane to the far left of the access road to the highway whose sole purpose is for people to get off the highway and avoid two red lights otherwise required for left turning and going back down the opposite direction on the highway.  They didn’t have these U-turn lanes in Kansas City where I went to college, and boy did I get lost.  GPS is a wonderful, life saving invention, without which I would be unable to drive.

How do you build the world for your stories?  Do you write it down or is it all in your head?  How do you decide what makes it into your book and which parts only you will ever know?

-Eliabeth

Book Review: Dracula by Bram Stoker

Tags

books, bram stoker, classic, dark, dracula, fiction, gothic, mystery, reviews, romance, stories, vampire, van helsing, writing

Dracula

by Bram Stoker

genre: horror, Gothic, classic, vampire

Have you been meaning to get around to this dark classic? I finally did!

Review

Before you continue to read my review, I probably should state that I don’t really enjoy books of epistolary nature (told through letters and diaries) and I also don’t like the writing style of classic novels. I am someone who enjoys a gripping story and fast-paced, powerful writing. I loved the story of Frankenstein, but the writing annoyed me to no end. The writing in Dracula also annoyed me but thankfully it did have a great plot. A “true” vampire novel to say the least.

My first substantial introduction into the Dracula story was with the movie ‘Van Helsing’ when I watched it many years ago (I was 12 or so), I thought it was the best movie ever. Only now, after reading the original novel, do I realise how silly and inaccurate the movie was. For one: Van Helsing should definitely have not been played by the rugged, attractive Australian actor, Hugh Jackman, considering the fact that the Dutch character was old, overweight, and balding (if memory serves me right). For two, where the heck is the rest of the team and why are there werewolves involved? Either way! I loved the dark themes of that movie and fell in love with Dracula and his flock of voluptuous, blood-thirsty vampire ladies. The corrupt, evil, alluring vampires were one of my first, if not first, love of the supernatural. I can’t stand romantic vampire novels (I’m not judging!) because I love it so much better when they are truly, and inherently, evil (cue thunderstorm strike and manic laughter). Only now, 8 years later, did I decide to read the book. So, here it goes!