HIGHLIGHTS OF MARCH // st. patty's day + five poisoned apple winners announced!!!

March was a flurry of CRAZINESS and EXCITEMENT, two words that sum up everything really nicely, if you ask me. Since this is supposed to be a blog plot, however, I suppose I'll have to elaborate. ^.^

~LIFE~

- A few peeps from my youth group went to a St. Patrick's Day parade in our area, and when that was over, we hung out at the nearby "Shamrock Festival" going on. Lots of crowds, lots of green. O_O

via GIPHY

What's funny - and also sad - is that incredibly few people actually know who St. Patrick is! I didn't even know myself until our youth pastor talked about how he was a missionary, and how he used the shamrock to share with people about the Trinity (very cool, no?). My youth leader even talked to an Irish person who didn't know anything about it.

It goes to show that most people don't even know what half the popular holidays even mean. They just celebrate because it's such a big tradition. xD

- The soccer season has started, woot woot! I almost didn't make it into the league - in fact, for a few days I was certain I wasn't going to play. Lots of people had signed up, and the teams were practically full. Almost 50 kids had to be rejected, and my sisters and I were three of the ones turned down. But my awesome parents talked to the guy in charge of the league, asking if there was room on a team for only me (seeing as I had signed up jointly with my sisters and the younger age groups were STUFFED).

And guess what? I made it on!!! And I like my team and coach a lot, so... YAY! Soccer forever. <3

via GIPHY

(This may or may not be my excuse just to use a Messi gif. 'Cause Messi is undeniably awesome.)

~

I got a lot of reading done, which actually surprises me even though spring break stopped by to help. Five whole books in the bag (and only one of them less than 4 stars!), and then most of a sixth.

You'll see what I mean in just a moment.

~MARCH READS~

Five Enchanted Roses by Kaycee Browning, Savannah Jezowski, Jenelle Schmidt, Dorian Tsukioka, and Hayden Wand

- pirates + omens + a mysteriously dashing captain

- ghouls + Lonely creatures + sentient castle

- stone statues + “the Witch of the Wood” + some hilarious one-liners

- jaguars + despicable villain + giant egret

- yellow rose + lots of… well, Scottish-ness + ugly scar

- my favorite collection of the two I’ve read!

- 5 stars

(Okay, so I didn't read ALL of the stories this month - I read the first in January and the second in February. But since three stories is more than half the collection, I'm counting it. :P [And this is why I said most of a sixth, btw.])

Messenger by Lois Lowry

- short but packs a powerful punch

- soooo attached to the characters by now

- the mysterious Trade Mart

- Forest is unique and scary and I love it

- my heart feels shredded

- 5 stars (this quartet is growing on me, I tell you)

See How They Run by Ally Carter

- a secret sisterhood society

- handsome boy becomes wanted fugitive

- annoying (but still good…) writing style

- annoying main character

- still liked it A LOT

- 4 stars

Son by Lois Lowry

- a quiet kind of powerful
- all she wants is her son
- I N S P I R I N G
- an ending that is just akdljrfgjoivrdgjlk
- this quartet has definitely grown on me
- 5 stars!

Take the Key and Lock Her Up by Ally Carter

- 3rd Embassy Row book
- on the run
- craaaaazy plot twist O_O
- writing style bothered me even more
- Grace is just as annoying
- good finale but overall my least favorite of the trilogy
- 3 stars

Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld

- Deryn. Is. So. Cool.
- none of the war and politics stuff went over my head! Yay!
- Alek is very brave and stupid and I like him *nods*
- the perspicacious loris and its maniacal laughter
- awkward consequences of a brilliant disguise
- ACTION! NARROW ESCAPES! A GIANT OCTOPUS THING!
- 5 stars

~WRITING UPDATE~

Not much to say here except that I reached 70,000 words for this draft of Dusted Red. I plan on being very, very close to the end of the draft by the end of April.

Fellow Camp NaNo-ers, let's do this thing.

via GIPHY

I didn't get much scheming done for the sequel, but I did more brainstorming for a fantasy novel stewing in my mind. I have a growing playlist for it (composed of instrumentals by Two Steps From Hell and Audiomachine, along with some Ruelle <3), and a growing board on Pinterest. So as you can imagine, I am getting suuuuuper pumped for it. O_O I can hardly wait to start planning it more! Hint: It will most likely have a volcano, some smol dragons, giant worms, and maaaaybe some evil sirens?? So. FUN TIMES.

~MARCH POSTS~

I won't bother pasting the graphics, because they all look the exact same, but here are the links to my posts for Julian's Five-Part Writing Special, an epic event that I and several other awesome bloggers took part in. Lots and lots of information on Dusted Red, so I hope all you lovely persons who read the posts enjoyed learning more! If you haven't read them... well... *wink-wink* *nudge-nudge*

Part 1 - introducing the story

~

Part 2 - a step into the story world!

~

Part 3 - a peek at the main character :D

~

Part 4 - presenting side characters and villain!

~

Part 5- collages and charrie songs... IT'S PARTY TIME!!!

~AROUND THE BLOGOSPHERE~

Lots of fun posts from blogger friends all over the place! How could I ever choose only a few to showcase??

Both Faith and Christine - and probably some other bloggers I can't think of right now - had their blogiversaries! (Why is February/March such a popular time for starting blogs?) Click their names to go watch their epic Q&A vlogs!

Sarah shared about her mission trip to Belize. I don't know about you about you, but I looooove travel diary posts like this. And it sounds like she had an amazing time. <3

Melissa wrote a heart-rending, so-true Easter poem about Jesus' sacrifice for us. It's utterly beautiful, so please go read it. <3 And I hope everyone had a wonderful Resurrection Day!

Nicole wrote an epic post about Middle Grade books that YA readers should pick up as well! Because let's face it - MG is awesome, and sometimes a break from the gritty YA genre is super refreshing. Go check out her recs! :D

I. Keep. On. Forgetting. TO DO THIS. I meant to do it in my January wrap-up, for goodness' sake! But... better late than never, right?? Anyway, my dear, DEAR friend Danielle/D.G. Snapper/Snaps/Whatever-You-Wanna-Call-Her started a blog waaaaaay back in January. And she is one of the most epic bloggers ever already, so you absolutely must check out her little corner of the Internet! She participated in the 5-Part Special, and she is just on a roll - picking up followers left and right, mentioning cinnamon rolls in every post without fail, filling the blog with humor and well-placed gifs and lots of Jesus. <3 So yes, head on over to her blog, peoplings!

~FIVE POISONED APPLES~

The day has come!!! (Or rather, the day came on March 31, with Rooglewood's Facebook party. First the honorable mentions were announced, then the finalists were announced, and then the WINNERS were announced. So much exciting, aklfjrijkdljghhr. O_O)

I didn't win, but BEHOLD the final cover. And those names!!

Yep, that's right. My lovely friend Skye has won the contest!!!!!! AND I AM SO EXCITED FOR HER!!!! *squeals*

Aaaaaall the stories sound great - there's paranormal, fantasy, even contemporary! - and I cannot WAIT for December, when this beautiful anthology comes out and I can buy it and read it, because I am desperate to devour these winning works of art. O_O (Check out the collection on Goodreads HERE.)

I'm a tad disappointed I didn't win, of course. I mean, DUH. But the rights to my story, The Seven Huntresses, revert back to me, opening up sooooooo many awesome opportunities. God has a plan for everything that happens, so now I need to trust Him and move forward with Casimir and Ayla and the other precious charries down a new route. It's going to be an adventure. <3

~

All right, I think that wraps up March! Sorry for the unusual publishing time for this post - I wanted to get it up today so I can slip back into my normal Monday posting (the 5-Part Special taught me a lot of things, and one of them is that Friday posting does NOT work well for me :P), but it wasn't ready until now, lol. 

As for my April posts, you can expect... *drum-roll*... lots of tags! Because it's about time I started catching up on those. xD 

To all who are doing Camp NaNo like me: MAY THE WORDS BE WITH YOU. April is going to be super duper crazy, but also fun! That I know already. :D (aaaaand we're already two days in. Yikes.)

God bless! <3

~ Lila Kims