Tell Me A Story

It's time to let the monsters out. Let them play and have fun; this is the only time of the year they are allowed to. Let the dark part of your imagination come out and write a story.

          It is no secret that Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year. So, because my birthday is coming up I decided to play a little.

This is a writing contest

This contest is in honor of my favorite tv show of all times “Are you afraid of the dark?”

1^st place wins a $25 gift certificate to Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

2^nd place wins a $20 gift certificate to Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

3^rd place wins a $15 gift certificate to Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

The winners’ stories will also be posted on my blog.

Your job is to write a story. It can be about anything you want. It is your story, so you pick the plot.

Rules:

1.     It has to have some horror on it.

2.     It has to be in by 10/30/2012.

3.     It has to have somewhat of a happy ending.

4.     When you submit it, be sure to include your name and your email address.

5.     All stories should be submitted to my email: throughthepages123@gmail.com

6.     Make sure that the subject of your email says “Writing Contest.”

Best of luck to you!!!!!!!!!!

I should have mention that there are going be two judges. Myself and Professor Vicky Sloan. Vicky is an amazing person. She is an English Professor at Clinton Community College and she is going to stop me from being bias. :D

What's your favorite place?

By Charina SM

A few months ago I saw this picture that the author Michael Lorde shared on facebook; and it brought back a lot of memories from my childhood. Many of you know that I grew up in the Dominican Republic. If there is one thing you can say about the small town of Quisqueya, San Pedro De Macoris is that it is a loud place. It doesn’t matter how quiet the people of your house are; truth is that the animals, motorcycles, neighborhood’s kids, neighbors, and people selling things are loud enough for you not to have a moment of complete peace in your head. There is always something going on that will get your attention whether you want it or not. Because of all these things, I have developed a love for a very specific room in my house - The bathroom.

Now, don’t get the wrong idea. The thing about the bathroom was that it was the only place quiet enough for me to hear my own thoughts. I could block all of the outsides noises and concentrate on one single thing at a time. There were no family members calling me to do chores. There were not friends trying to get me out of the house. There were no people being rudely loud next to me. There was just me. For as long as I wanted to, because no one tries to bug you when you are in the bathroom.

So, every day when it was my turn to take a shower, I would go in and it was like walking into another dimension. I played with the water; created random situations in my head, with characters that were amazingly awesome. I pretended that I was them, and said their dialogs out loud. There were days when I played for two hours or more. Then, when I got tired of being a witch with super powers; or the princess with a family that didn’t want her to have adventures with her friends, I would take my shower and get out. It used to drive my family up the wall. They couldn’t explain how one person could spend so much time taking a shower.

One day my step mother spied on me, to know what took so long. Of course, I was talking to myself and she freaked out and told my dad that I was losing it. I mean how can you explain that you were just repeating the dialog of the voices in your head, without sounding like a schizophrenic? I was extremely angry. She trespassed the privacy of the bathroom, and she also trespassed my magical kingdom. And the worst part was that she didn’t even notice it. My father trying to keep the peace of the house, asked her to let me be. I think, in a way he was the only one who understood what I was doing. Or maybe, he didn’t want me to feel uncomfortable when I visited him.

Today I still have a lot of characters with random situations in my head. But I don’t have to go to the bathroom to get to my magical kingdom anymore. Now I have my bedroom to do that. I don’t think I will ever stop doing that. It is not something I can control. Sometimes I find myself doing something, and I completely space out. It is a part of who I am. It has made life more interesting and sometimes easier to deal with. Because the world in my head is a hundred times more amazing than the one I live in.

What is your favorite place in the house? Why?

Thank You!

Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day everyone. I want to take a moment to reflect on what Memorial Day is about. It is not just a day to stay home from work or school. It is not just a day to get together with friends and family to have a drink and some food. I think that today is about remembering those who sacrificed their life to make sure that we still have the freedom to have that drink or eat that food with friends and family. So take a moment to think about those who are no longer with us but whose sacrifice we will never forget. Think about their families. Think about all the men and women who still fighting today. And the families who still waiting for them to come home. So, today I pray for all this people who I don’t know and probably will never meet, but whose actions impact my life. And thanks all the military men and women and their families for their sacrifices. Happy Memorial Day.

Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2011

Eeveryday I learn something new. Everyday I read something that makes me think that some people are just...stupid. This morning as I was trying to get up to date with my online work, I read a new thread from "The Nexus Group" on Goodreads. The thread is about the most frequently challenged books of 2011. Reading this list I was shock by not only the names of the books that I saw in the list, but also by the reasons why the books were challenged.

One of these challenged books is "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. Oh, and it gets better, here are the reasons why it was challenged:  " Anti-ethnic; anti-family; insensitivity; offensive language; occult/satanic; violence"

Here are my thoughts on that:

OMG!!! are this people serious? "-.-"
For The Hunger Games:
Violence - I get it.
Occult/Satanic - WHAT???? HOW? WHERE?
Offensive Language - WHAT?????
Insensitivity - If you are that sensitive, maybe you shouldn't have pick up that book.
Anti-family - WAS I THE ONLY ONE THAT READ ABOUT A KID THAT WAS SACRIFICING EVERYTHING FOR HER FAMILY?
Anti-ethnic - please explain this part to me, like I'm a five year old "-.-"

Visit the thread and share your comments about it. I think "The Nexus Group" had a great idea by showing this list. I want to see what the 2012 one is going to look like. Here is the link to it. http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/865473-most-frequently-challenged-books-of-2011#comment_id_48846915
BTW:  I have a friend who's 10 year old daughter is currently reading "ttfn" by Lauren Myracle, and there is nothing wrong with that book. 

Happy Easter!

Book Covers

By Charina SM

            Do you remember the saying “never judge a book by its cover”? Well, my friends let me tell you it may be true; but we all do it anyways. There may be that moment when we are walking in the store and we just have to stop, because we saw that cover that captured our attention. It happened to me, and I’m sure it has happened to you too. I’m not saying that every book with an amazing cover is a good book. But we have to admit that sometimes when you don’t know a thing about that book or the author, that cover can mean the difference between a sale and you walking home without a good book. So, to get to my point; I get mad whenever I see a good book with a bad cover, or when I see a book that had a great cover and they changed it. Why do people changed book covers? If it was a bad cover I will get it, but a great cover to something ugly? I just don’t understand. For example, a couple of weeks ago I did a review for Awakening the Nightmare by Lanie Malone. Those who read the review know that I liked the book. It is an ebook and I wish I could buy a hard copy, because I like the cover as well. But today, as I was trying to put the book on my Goodreads listopia “Judge A Book By Its Cover!” I notice that they change the cover of the book to something that I have to say doesn’t do the book any favors. The old cover looked artistic and mysterious, I thought it was perfect for the book; the new cover looks like a poster to a bad zombie movie. Lanie Malone, and the person who made the new cover, should go back to the old cover. Take a look for yourself and let me know what you think. 

  Old Cover:

 New Cover: