A portrait of Miss Smith

Art & sewing are in 3rd place in the poll (so far), so I thought I'd post another pencil drawing.  By the way, what kind of movie reviews would you be interested in reading?  All the ones I've posted thus far have been new movies (to me, at least); however, I could also review some of my favourites.  Or least favourites; but then, I'd have to sit through them again...

Now, the drawing.  For their birthdays and Christmas, my siblings each give me a list of book/movie characters they like; I pick one, and then draw a portrait for them. Well, for Emiko, I decided to draw Harriet from Emma (2009), and I didn't realise until later that I was actually drawing "a portrait of Miss Smith", like Emma does in the story.  Lol.

[Note: this was slightly edited in GIMP, for printing purposes]


As you can see, the Woodhouses' landscaping is very...minimalistic.  And I still can't draw curly hair very well.

By the way, a bit of random news: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is going to be in 3D!!  And I'm pretty excited.  =)  While I don't want The Hobbit movies to be 3D (I think it would be bad for continuity and atmosphere), I would go see Voyage in 3D.  I wonder if the soundtrack will be released before the movie is?

And thank you for all the character name ideas; it was very helpful!!  I've got it narrowed down to 2 names, but haven't decided for sure yet, and I'm open to more ideas, too.  :)

Read More

Name for a character?

As I mentioned before, I'm writing a historically-inspired, 18th-century story, sort of like Sleeping Beauty but not exactly; and I need a first name for the heroine.   Right now she's Briar-Rose; but that's terribly cliche, "Briar" doesn't sound so good by itself, and I'd rather not use a name from Sleeping Beauty, particularly since I've already (coincidentally and unintentionally) used another one from that story.  Ideas would be greatly appreciated!  :) 

I'd like a name that has a good nickname, or it could just be a short name.  Something that's a bit unusual, not too popular, and is easy to say.  She's a quiet character, a bit like Fanny Price from Mansfield Park, so it would be good if the name reflected that.

Read More

Opinions wanted: Short chapters vs. long chapters

[By the way, please vote on the poll on the sidebar if you haven't done so already!  =) ]

When I outline a story, I almost always decide, from the start, how many chapters it's going to have, and what their titles will be.  My average number of chapters in a book tends to be roughly 15 or less; but they end up being, overall, rather long chapters.  Is this good or bad?  For the purpose of discussion, let's say that a short chapter is 10 pages or less, and a long one is more than 10 pages.

Years ago (when I read a lot more often than I do now) I scarcely noticed chapter length, if at all.  These days, I prefer chapters to be short.  That's just my own opinion, though; and, as a writer, I'd like to hear what everyone thinks.  :)  Does it even matter how long it is?  Or what chapter length do you think is best, particularly for a 300 page book? 

The funny thing is, writing a book is totally opposite to reading one, for me--when reading, I'd prefer it if books didn't have long chapters and "cliffhanger" types of endings, but it's lots of fun writing those kinds of stories, lol. 

Read More

Currently practicing

This piece:



It's got to be ready for performance by the end of April, or thereabouts.  Right now I can play the first 3 pages (up to about 4:30 on the video) pretty good, but the last 2 I'm still learning.  Mendelssohn is my 2nd favourite composer, so I'm glad I'm learning it--I just hope I can do it justice!

I love the first movement of the Goldmark concerto, too:




But I'll probably be learning something by Bach, next.  :)  Which is cool, too, because recently I've had a higher appreciation for his and Mozart's music.  In fact, that's actually the subject of a future post... 

Read More

A poem by me

Something I wrote yesterday.  It's still a first draft, and I'm no poet at all, but I like writing "poetry" for fun.  :)  I have an idea of someday studying the major different meters and learning to write a proper rhyming poem, but for now I just try to follow a general pattern.  The main thing I dislike about this poem is the ending...it doesn't seem quite right.  Also, the title is one of the most unoriginal I've ever come up with, but it will do for now, I guess. 







(This was LOTR-inspired, and is supposed to be from Pippin's point of view.)

Read More

Some Celtic Thunder

Singing a classic.  Enjoy!  :)

Read More

Selflessness

The Lord Of The Rings

So I was re-watching The Fellowship of the Ring, extended edition, last weekend; and I was struck by something which I hadn't "seen" before, in the Council of Elrond scene.  I was thinking of one part of that scene in particular:  Elrond, the elf who presides over the meeting, sums things up by saying that there is only one thing to do with the powerful but evil ring--somebody has to take it back to volcanic Mt Doom and burn it there...it can't be got rid of any other way.

Silence. 

Then some heated words are exchanged about if it should be destroyed, or who can be trusted to do it.  And pretty soon nearly all of the members of the Council have jumped up out of their chairs and are arguing.

Frodo doesn't.  He sits there nervously, watching their reflections in the ring, as if he understands something which they don't.  He then stands up quietly and volunteers to do it.

Of course, his own voice is overwhelmed by everyone else's, and not everyone hears him at first.  The Council members just want to argue, to hash it out until they reach an answer that's "comfortable".  Or, for a moment they've so lost sight of the big picture, that they let their prejudices and distrust of each other get in the way--they're too engrossed in their own interests to acknowledge Elrond's words, "You will unite, or you will fall".   

Frodo could change his mind, but he doesn't.  The argument diminishes to silence as everyone turns to him in surprise; he again offers to do it.  This time, he is heard...and nobody contradicts him, or offers to take his place. 

I've always liked the Council of Elrond scene, but I never quite realised before how unselfish Frodo is in this scene, and how some of the other characters--as much as I REALLY like them--are not.   It's only a few minutes in the whole trilogy, but it's a defining moment which sets Frodo apart.  He's never fought a battle, he doesn't have any magical powers, and he's no prince among his own people, but he did the right thing.  That's part of the essence of his character.





P.S.  On another topic, the more I think about it, the more I think Elrond--at least in the movie version--is somewhat to blame for the whole One Ring problem.  He could easily have seized the ring away from Isildur and thrown it into the fire himself, couldn't he?  ;)  I never really got that part.  Even if he and Isildur had, literally speaking, gone over the edge in the attempt, Elrond still would have saved the world a lot of lives, pain, and trouble.  I rather think that that was the day when the strength of elves failed. 

Read More

Reading list...

As of July 2011 (updated).  Titles in bold are 'books to be finished'.  Subject to change...

1. Beowulf
   
2. The Children of Hurin, J. R. R. Tolkien
3. The Coral Island, R. M. Ballantyne
4. Dombey and Son, Dickens
5. The Federalist Papers, Hamilton, Madison, and Jay
6. A House to Let, Dickens & others
7. Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon, Austen
8. The Mark of Zorro, Johnston McCulley
9. Midshipman Quinn series, Showell Styles
10. Newton Forster, Frederick Marryat
11. The Pirate City, R. M. Ballantyne
12. Quentin Durward, Sir Walter Scott
13. Twice-Told Tales, Hawthorne
14. Two Years Before the Mast, Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
15. Hans Christian Andersen: The Complete Fairy Tales and Stories
16. David Copperfield, Dickens
17. The Space Trilogy, C. S. Lewis
18. My Cousin Rachel, Daphne du Maurier
19. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Bronte
20. Hornblower and the Hotspur, Forester
21. The Wreck of the Grosvenor, W. Clark Russell
22. Joan of Arc: In Her Own Words
23. Sir Charles Grandison: A History, Samuel Richardson 
24. The Man Who Knew Too Much, Chesterton
25. Arsene Lupin series, Maurice Leblanc
26. William Wilson, Edgar Allan Poe 
27. Auguste Dupin trilogy, Poe - reread
28. War and Peace, Tolstoy 
29. The World Set Free, H. G. Wells
30. Whose Body?, Dorothy Sayers
31. The Adventures of Captain Hatteras, Jules Verne
32. The Trial - Kafka
33. To Kill a Mockingbird
34. The Queen of Spades - Pushkin 
35. The Poe Shadow - Matthew Pearl

Read More

An unexpected concert

Today started out like an ordinary day. For one thing, I was in deep thought most of this morning, before school.  I was thinking about publishing one of my stories, and imagining what it would be like if it was ever made into a movie.   This led me to also thinking about the fact that I believe anything is possible.

Scarcely 20 minutes later we get an email from the orchestra; which I played in for almost 6 years, up until recently, when we had to quit due to a schedule conflict. The email said that the concertmaster was sick, the orchestra had an important gig coming up this very evening, and would/could Emiko and I (formerly 2nd/assistant concertmaster) come and perform with them?

So it was one of those random but cool moments (like the day we bought our big vacuum cleaner, but that's another story). I was actually nervous today, because I hadn't seen all of the music; but Emiko and I, feeling somewhat encouraged by my Sherlockian concert attire, went and did our best, and it was really fun. One of the pieces we got to play was a few movements from Ballet Parisienne by Offenbach, which we had played before and was one of my faves. 

So yeah, a random day, but it was fun, and definitely emphasized my thoughts from this morning. 

Sometimes things do happen like they do in books! 

Read More

Opinions wanted: happy endings vs. sad endings

Pretty much what the title says...I'd like to hear what everyone thinks about this:  when you get close to the end of a really, really good book, how do you want it to end?  How do most of your favourite books end? 

There's good things about both, I think.  The happy ending often symbolizes the ultimate victory of good over evil.  The sad ending could be due to a variety of different reasons...human nature, for one. 

Another thing is, what do you think of a happy book having a sad ending?  [Examples would include A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Twain and Kidnapped (to some extent) by Stevenson.]

As far as sad endings go, I usually don't like Gone with the Wind types of stories where it's just one disaster after another, only to end in a...well, disaster.  On the other hand, certain books, such as Lord of the Flies, have to end on a sombre note to really get their point across.  And, to be realistic, sometimes the story has to have at least a bittersweet ending, as in The Return of the King.

Thoughts?

Read More

Book Review: "...you are a clever lad, and you ask advice--mind you follow it, or it's little use asking it."

 
Percival Keene
by Captain Frederick Marryat
Edition: Heart of Oak Sea Classics, Holt Paperbacks
Overall rating:  4.5 out of 5 stars.  I would probably recommend this for ages 14+

Recently, I became a fan of the Hornblower TV series (not all the episodes, just some) and also the Master & Commander movie; which really got me interested in the Royal Navy genre.  Years ago I had read the Mutiny on the Bounty trilogy, and attempted to read Moby Dick; so for me, this was a revisit to the Age of Sail.  I've been on the lookout (no pun intended) for a good Royal Navy series--the Hornblower books are rather boring and the romantic stuff later in the series is bad, and I tried the first M&C book, but that was bad too, and ditto for The Powder Monkey.  I also read half of Mr Midshipman Easy (also by Marryat), but it was a comedy and not really my cup of tea.  In short, all of this doesn't have much to do with this book review, except to give you an idea of where I'm coming from.  ;)

[If there are any typos in this review, let me know.]


The story:  Percival Keene spends a good deal of his childhood playing practical jokes and trying not to get caught.  His life changes, however, when he finds out who his real father is: Captain Delmar, a proud naval captain, who takes a great interest in Percival and gets him a place as midshipman on board his ship, the Calliope.  As Percival begins to rise in rank, age, and sense; he becomes obsessed with one idea, and that is to get Captain Delmar to acknowledge him as his son.  Repeatedly, Percival proves himself a talented and loyal officer, and--in adventure after adventure--he goes to great lengths to win the captain's good opinion; but after a time he begins to wonder how long he must work to overcome his father's arrogance, or if it is even possible.




My thoughts:  Charles Dickens said, of reading this book,  "I have been chuckling, and grinning and clenching my fists, and becoming warlike."  While I did not become "warlike", this book is definitely entertaining, and will make you grin or LOL more than once.  Even on shore, Percival's pranks and the adventures he runs into are interesting and oftentimes hilarious; he's sort of a British Tom Sawyer. 

Besides being entertaining, the book is also fast-paced, and through it I learned some interesting things that might come in useful for a writer, such as how much prize money a ship's company could expect to get, how powerful having connections was back then (the speed with which Percival got promoted to lieutenant, captain, etc, was amazing), and the kind of tactics and missions that were carried out during the Napoleonic Wars.  What's great, too, is that this book was written by a REAL captain, so he not only knew what he was writing about, but he had lived some of it, too.  His writing style is quite good, and there is little or no bad language--an example more recent authors should follow.  The romance, too, was sweet and not inappropriate.  As far as technical tall-ship stuff goes, Marryat throws some in, but not so much that you're overwhelmed; there were also notes in my edition of the book to explain some things.

Although Percival isn't the kind of character you really really like, he's still a pretty good character and improves somewhat as the book goes on.  He comes to have a strong sense of duty and patriotism, and faces his problems and goals with a lot of energy and perseverance.  He has faults, too, though; like when he admits to the reader that duels are wrong, but he's going to do it anyway because he doesn't have much of a choice...not very convincing.  However, on the whole, he's a pretty good guy.

His father, Captain Delmar, is despicable, which is one of the problems with this book: Percival is constantly striving to be humble and respectful and obedient to his father, so that his father will help Percy with his career and might acknowledge him someday...and, therefore, I started to lose interest a bit, because it's hard to sympathize with, watching Percy try to get the esteem of such an awful person.  On the other hand, later on in the book this actually works out, because at that point you're wondering if he ever will succeed in his goal.  Kind of an annoying plot at first, but it works.

Now, keep in mind that, as with all history, there are different ways of viewing the Age of Sail.  This book is sort of like a Hornblower episode with Cpt. Pellew: Percival gets to be heroic more than once, there aren't any tyrannical captains, and, overall, officers and crew get along just fine.  You get the impression, too, that the Navy was an excellent profession for people like Percival, who could thereby turn his energy and strategical thinking to defending his country.  So, it's good to know that the Hornblower TV episodes are, indeed, authentic in some ways--even if this perspective is just one of many, it nevertheless seems to have been the perspective of a real officer from that era.

Though this book is often humorous, there are a couple themes that are serious.  One is making the right decision: Percival has to make a lot of choices, and though you might not always agree with him, it does make you wonder what you yourself would do, if you were in his shoes.   The other theme is about life and death; a good quote is:

"'Why, Captain Keene, I thought just now you did not care whether you lived or died.'
'No more I did at the time, Cross; but when we are so wonderfully preserved, we cannot think but that we are preserved for better things; and as Providence has interfered, it points out to us that it is our duty to live.'"

The ending was excellent.  I was hoping for a really happy ending, but instead it was bittersweet.  Still, it was a good way to end this story, which might easily have gone on and on; it certainly left me wanting to read more books by Marryat.

Read More

It's March already?!

Time goes by so fast.  :(  It already seems like a long time since the Olympics started; yesterday, of course, it ended, with an amazing hockey game.  I hardly know a thing about hockey, but it was a really close game, with an incredible second goal made by the US--in the last SECONDS of the game!  Then Canada won during overtime; a bit disappointing for us, but still a great game.  :)

I've had a cold the last few days, and, knowing colds, it'll probably stick around for a week or two.  But it's not too bad.  Then today while violin-practicing, I also managed to stretch my left hand too much, which not only hurt but was very stupid; so tomorrow I got to remember not to do that...

Thirdly, I've been experimenting around with the blog layout...very frustrating work, too.  Ideally, I'd like a double sidebar--one on each side of the page--I know how to find out how to do it, but it'll probably be a while till I get around to it.  Anyway, I have an "Alice in Wonderland" theme going on, I guess.  I love those books.  The new movie looks pretty bad, despite being PG; I'll read some reviews when it comes out, but I doubt I'll be going to see it.  Somehow, Alice wearing a suit of armor and fighting in a battle doesn't seem right, lol.  What do you think of the trailer?

On a happier note, my story is coming along pretty well--about 86 pages at the moment, and I just started Chapter 5.  I've thought it over, and I've decided to self-publish it with Lulu or a similar site, when it's all done.  :)  I'm probably thinking too far in advance, but still, I can't wait!  Hopefully it will be illustrated, too.

P.S.   I should be done with Percival Keene soon, so there should be another book review sometime this month.  I'm reading Hamlet, too...so far it's somewhat interesting, but still not very good, as far as content goes. 

Read More