Liebster Blog Award // featuring my amazing forgettery

In which I got tagged several weeks *cough cough*two months*cough* ago and completely forgot about it until I stumbled across a draft post titled Liebster award, did a double take, and then had the flash of rememberency come upon me.

Oops. That wasn't quite my plan.

BUT ANYWAY. Back in March, Faith tagged me to do the Liebster award and hence I'm here today to finally get to that post. Thanks for tagging me, Faith! (and sorry it took so long for me to get to it)

Here are the official Liebster Tag rules:

1) Link back to the person who tagged you.
2) Answer the eleven questions.
3) Tag 11 bloggers, and let them know you tagged them.
4) Ask your tagged bloggers eleven questions.

Alternatively:

1) Do the thing.

So I hereby proceed to follow rule number one and do the thing.


1) What made you want to start a blog?

Technically I never actually 'wanted' to start a blog. My sisters wanted me to. And then my mum got me to for school work. So I could do posts about nature.

In the last three years I've done one post on nature. I'M VERY PROUD OF MYSELF, DON'T LAUGH. *hides under the desk and laughs*

And now I'm glad that I have a blog because I can post about random stuff and writing and generally meet all you cool people.


2) What does your first name mean?

Jane - God is gracious.
I actually rather like that name meaning. It's so true. God is so good.

The meaning of 'Maree' is a little bit more interesting, shall we say. Technically it's derived from the name Mary which means Wished-for child, rebellion, or bitter. Not sure which I'll pick. I mean bitter is a little bit eh. And wished-for child - I don't know but it sounds a bit cliche. Rebellion though. Rebelling against the expectations of today's culture would be a nice plan. Forget about all the 'teenage' stereotypes. Life for Christ.
Yep. That sounds good to me.


3) Did you know when you were younger what you wanted to be/do when you grew up? Do you know or have any idea now what you want to do?

HA. But this technically is two questions. Cheater.

Anyways. I used to think I wanted to be a nurse. I don't know why. I also went through other stages - like everyone probably does - throughout the years before that. If my memory serves me correctly, I once wanted to work in a zoo, be a national park ranger person, and also a baker. Because bakers bake tasty stuff.

And now days, if I was to get an actual paid job...I'd go for pizza deliverer because that sounds right up my alley.

But actually right now I'm doing what I want to be doing. a) Living for Christ and b) writing.


4) If you could see yourself from someone else's perspective, who's perspective would you choose and why? (It could be a family member's, a friend's, your local librarian's, etc.)

Wow, um, I don't know? That would be really cool though. Maybe from a friend's perspective. Or actually maybe from one of the random people I know from online. Because that would be rather interesting. I couldn't pick anyone by name though, I don't think.


5) What was the last book you read? What was your opinion of it? Did you like it, or not so much?

So is this the last book I finished, or the last one I started? Or the last one I read a section from?
Well, the last book I finished was Chokepoint, book 1.5 of The Mission League by Jill Williamson. It was pretty epic. I mean, secret agents, guy-nappings (as opposed to kidnappings), betrayals. It was good. Four stars. Not as good as the first book, but still pretty good.
(If you're one of those people who want the full thing, you can check out my actual review here.)


6) What was the last movie you watched? What was your opinion of it? Did you like it, or no?

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. IT WAS GREAT. *flails over it forever*

Ahem. Yes. I loved the characters and the story and ack everything basically. It was a fantastic birthday present to get for my sister. (Get it? Fantastic? *cue everyone reading this groaning very loud and shoving me into a magical suitcase and keeping me in there forever*)


7) What is your favorite movie adaptation of a book?

Okay. You literally asked for it.

I'm going to say Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I know that technically the movie isn't really an adaptation of the book because the book doesn't have the storyline because it was more of a facts thing, BUT THE MOVIE WAS GREAT SO IT TOTALLY COUNTS. Newt was the best. And Jacob was a No-Mag/muggle that actually played an important and intelligent role and I liked him too. AND ALL THE CREATURES. I think I was a little bit more like Newt than anyone else. Awkward if meeting new people. Excited with animals. Sounds like great fun.

*cough* I'll stop fangirling now.


8) What quote (from a book, movie, or YouTube video) do you find yourself saying often?

*clears throat*
Note: every book and movie that I watch, I pick up lots of quotes. That makes this question very difficult. I quote lots of things every day. (Although not as much as I used to, I'm getting more original)

That said, at the moment I can't actually think of any particular quotes that I use specifically frequently. Other than maybe "I see...I see the light. The light has come upon me. I now know..." Quoted from Kingdom Pen Cinema. *snorts*


9) If you could live in any other previous time period, which one would you choose?

Ooh ooh I think it'd be cool to be around when planes were being invented. Like with all the race to the sky, sort of idea. It's just always had a cool swashbuckling intrigue for me.


10) What would you consider your favorite thing to do in your free time? What do you ACTUALLY end up doing in your free time?

Ooh tsk tsk look at this. Another double question. *shakes head sadly*

Reading probably. And also music stuff - whether it be writing it, playing it or listening to it and reading at the same time. Win-win.

Free time? What is these words? I thought free time went extinct a few months ago.
Well actually on the occasions when I do get free time, I do read and do music. And also hang out with siblings, or chat online to friends. Critique read peoples novels. Write random snippets of story ideas just for fun. All that cool stuff.


11) What is one thing that you always want people to remember about you after you're gone?

To be completely honest, I'd like people to remember how passionate I was about my Lord and Saviour. I'm a work in progress (we all are though, am I right) in this area, but I try to give all the glory to Him. And I'd like that to be the most memorable thing about me.

On a less serious note, I'd also like people to remember me as someone who made them laugh.


So there you are. My very late tag post award thing. I don't think I can tag eleven people though, and eleven questions - wow that's so many. I don't have the skill for that. (Shhh don't look at me like that. Of course I could be bothered, if I had the skill. It's the skill that's lacking, obviously.)

But hey, all the peoples around who comment on my blog and have blogs themselves, do this thing. use the questions I answered. Or think up some more interesting ones.
*starts thinking about lunch*
Or just...eat pizza, or something fun like that.


Have you watched Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them?
(if so did you like it? - and if you did, FLAIL WITH ME. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE PART?)
What was the last book you read?

The Adventures of Lando Erif :: The Day I Won the ARY (Pt. One)

Woohoo here we go with another week of Lando!! It seems like aaaages since I did one of these last, even though I only skipped one Friday.

But we fiiinally finished off The Day My History Book Took a Flight and I didn't actually get around to writing anything until this morning. Luckily though, I still had another of the original stories left over as backup for this exact sort of occasion. 

Wherefore, today we're going to go back in time a little bit (I think? Maybe? It doesn't have an exact specific time stamp, so I guess it could sort of be anywhere. *shrug*) and drop in on the last day of the first year for Lando at Dragon Island.

You know, the day they hand out all the awards for the year. *grins*

So here goes, introducing a New Species of Dragon and a last minute ReLocation mission.

“Small, white and fluffy.”

I turned to Sir George, “You want us to ReLocate an unidentified Dragon that is small, white and fluffy? I didn’t even know there were dragons that were fluffy.”

The twins and I had been called into Sir George’s office and were standing around his large Dragon Pickup screen. A red blob flashed up at me, signalling the detection of a Dragon. 

Sir George coughed. “I figured that it wouldn’t be too dangerous and considering what happened last time—”

“That wasn’t even our fault!” I protested. The last time the twins and I had been sent after a Dragon a failed in a massive way. We successfully transported it, only to return to Dragon Island to find Sir George storming around steaming about a group of new recruits who’d lost their way and had nearly been flattened by our Dragon. The Dragon was just as scared as them and would have ripped up half a dozen houses but for Sir George’s intervention.

“And because of what happened last time,” Sir George when on, raising his voice and pretending he hadn’t heard me. “I thought you could do with something more tame and...small.”

Titus made a choking sound beside me, and Thomas was staring open mouthed at the Island Co-director.

Sir George seemed oblivious to it all and he waved a hand at us. “Well, go on then,” he said. “That Dragon isn’t going to ReLocate itself.”

We staggered out of the office in a daze, making our way to the Nets. “Why is it always us?” Thomas asked. “Can’t he choose someone else for once?”

Titus ran his fingers through his blonde hair and shrugged. “We’d better get going if we want to ReLocate this guy and get back here in time for the End of Year Awards Ceremony.”

“Not like we’re gonna get anything except for the ‘Annoying Recruits of the Year,” I put in dryly.

The twins nodded in mournful agreement and we walked on in silence.

Jonathan, a senior member of the island, stood on duty at the Nets, ready to export anyone through if needed. He nodded a greeting as we approached. “Where you goin’ today?” he asked.

Thomas plunged his hand into his pocket and pulled out his ‘Com Hack’ (short for ‘Computer Hacker’) – as he called it; a palm sized gadget that lived up to its name. Thomas could hack into almost any computer on the planet, but he only used it to hack Sir George’s monitors so we could use the information on ReLocating missions. 

In a moment he had the exact details, longitude and latitude, for our destination. The flashing red dot blinked on the screen, moving slowly across a town somewhere in the middle of New South Wales.
“Get in and I’ll send you away,” Jonathan said, putting the location into the control pad.

I sprang in followed by Titus and then Thomas who was delayed a moment when he missed the Net with his first attempt, but on the second performed a neat flip, landing on top of me.

“Ow!” I protested but had no time to move, as the Net hummed and everything went black.


It must have been a great shock for the little girl when we landed on her trampoline.

She was on it at the time and narrowly missed being squashed by Titus. Her loud shriek would have made me jump a meter into the air had not Thomas been on top of me.

Titus scrambled over to her on his knees. “Don’t worry,” he said quickly. “We’re just good pixies from Fairy Land. We’re here to check that your garden is growing nicely.”

The girl relaxed slightly and just stared at us, wide eyed. “You don’t look like Pixies,” she said innocently.

I shoved Thomas off me and nodded at her. “No we don’t, that’s because we had to get changed from our good clothes so they don’t get dirty in the gardens.”

She giggled. “I’ve got to go tell Mummy!” she exclaimed, running to the side and climbing off the trampoline. She disappeared inside the house and I could still hear calling excitedly. “Mummy! Mummy! The Pixies have come to look at the garden! Muuuuum!”

Thomas grinned at me and then bounded to the ground. “It might be best to move before she comes back,” he said.

“I hope she won’t be too upset when her pixies disappear,” I murmured, following Thomas’s example, and jumping off.


We jogged along the sidewalk of the street, keeping our eyes open for any sign of Dragons. “Any clue what this thing’s gonna look like?” I asked.

Titus peered down a side street. “No idea,” he said. “I’ve never seen a white dragon, let alone a fluffy one.”

Thomas was fiddling with his Computer Hacker again. I looked over his shoulder as a blinking red shape appeared on the screen. In another moment a map of the town flickered on. Thomas looked up and pointed to the left. “That way!” he said.

We wove our way through the narrow back streets of the town, following Thomas’s instructions, every now and then we had to backtrack when we ended up in a dead end.

Thomas stopped at the beginning of an old dilapidated road. “Take a look at this,” he said, gesturing at the device in his hand.

Titus and I huddled around him and tried to see what he was talking about. “That red dot is the signal of the dragon we’re after,’ Thomas began. “But if you look at it closely you’ll notice that it keeps jumping around. It doesn’t move far, not more than a meter or so, but it’s almost as if something is interfering with the Tracking System.”

I frowned as the dot jumped sideways. “Maybe the Dragon is just...jumpy as well as fluffy?”

“It’s possible I guess,” Thomas agreed, “But if it was jumping around that much, wouldn’t we be able to see it from here?” He pointed.

I followed his gaze to the end of the short road. It ended in a pile of rubble and a crumbling old house. “It must be in there,” I said, my mouth suddenly dry. The place was a silent as a grave and a strange feeling hung in the air. A shiver ran down my back.

Titus tapped his chin thoughtfully, staring at the heap of bits and pieces. “Something seems very familiar about that description,” he mused. “Small, white and fluffy,” he trailed off, frowning in concentration.

Thomas walked forward carefully and nudged a scrap of metal with his foot. “This stuff looks strange,” he said, scanning it with his multitasking Com Hack. He raised his eyebrows and took a quick step back. “Okay guys,” he said. “This Dragon thing must be pretty intelligent. This is no rubbish dump. This is a whole heap of lead, steel and really dense metals. The kind of stuff that blocks scanning rays.” He looked up, meeting my eyes, “Not good, this could be more dangerous than we thought.”

“That description though,” Titus said slowly. “All I can think of is that it sounds uncommonly like a—”

A white blur shot from the pile of metal, slamming into Thomas and knocking him to the ground. It crouched on his chest and snarled down at him, its gleaming eyes catching the light.

“Kitten,” Thomas gasped, staring up at the creature.

The kitten remained still, its blindingly white coat standing on end. Titus and I stood frozen to the spot, not wanting to move lest it attack.

“Are you okay, Thomas?” Titus asked, doing his best to keep perfectly still.

Thomas laughed slightly and started raising his hand as if to stroke the cat. “Cute little kitty,” he chuckled.

I gaped, what did he think he was doing? Then I relaxed, it was just a kitten, how could it hurt us? But still, Thomas didn’t like cats.

“Thomas?” Titus pressed, still unmoving. “Thomas, can you hear me?”

Thomas just crept his hand closer to the kitten.

My heartbeat quickened, maybe these kittens could do something to us. A sudden premonition struck me. “Don’t touch it!” I yelled in horror.

The kitten hissed. Thomas’s hand dropped limply to the ground and his eyes rolled back in his head.

The small, white and fluffy kitten jumped off him and slowly paced towards me. I backed away, drawing it further and further from Thomas. 

It hissed and spat at me, but now that it had lost the element of surprise I felt that I had the upper hand. “So what exactly are you?” I asked it, trying to keep it distracted.

Yeah, I know. I was talking to a cat.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Titus kneeling by his younger brother, trying to rouse him. I took another step back and felt something under my foot. I stopped and, keeping my eyes fixed on the kitten, I bent down slowly.

My fingers touched a metal pipe. I picked it up, keeping my movements slow. My white pursuer watched my every movement closely.

“I’m guessing that you went for a stroll out from our pile of junk and Sir George’s scan spotted you,” I said, straightening.

It snarled.

“Oh, don’t worry. I’m not judging you for going for a walk. Everyone does that every now and then,” I said quickly, gripping my weapon tightly.

The kitten pounced, but I was ready. I swung my pipe at the white blur and felt a satisfying thud as it hit its goal.

The small cat fell to the ground, and I raised my pipe to hit it away again. But before I could it disappeared, fading and melting into the ground. “Cool,” I said.

I turned around, running to the twins. “You okay?” I asked Thomas who was sitting up.

He rubbed his forehead. “I dunno,” he groaned. “Hard to tell, but I think that kitten had bad breath.”

“Where is it, anyway?” Titus asked, glancing around.

“I melted it,” I told him, waving my pipe at the damp mark on the ground; the only remains of the killer kitten. “Is that all there is?” I added, looking at the heap of metal.

We all stared at it, straining for any sign of movement. “I think it might be alright,” Titus said tentatively.

“Watch out!” I yelled, grabbing Thomas and dragging him away.

Another white kitten landed exactly where Thomas had been moments before.

Thomas scrambled up, leaning on me heavily for support. I renewed my grip on my weapon, ready to attack. Just then a flash of gleaming eyes shone from the metal heap and more kittens crawled out, all identical to the first one, and all their eyes were fixed on me.

“I think I made them angry,” I said, taking a step backwards. “Titus, you help Thomas and I’ll slow them down a little.”

Titus grabbed Thomas’s arm and pulled him down the street at a stumbling run. The kittens continued their steady advance.

I swished my pipe through the air. “C’mon kitties,” I said. “You’re not scaredy cats are you?”

Three kittens attacked at once, leaping at me. I knocked two aside but the third sunk its claw into my left forearm.

“Yeow!” I yelped, thumping the kitten with the pipe.

It fell, melting into the ground with the other two. I winced at the line of claw marks oozing red blood. I turned my attention back to the kittens. 

They snarled fiercely. Usually a kitten snarling didn’t scare me but these creatures weren’t ordinary kittens. More continued to appear from the junk heap and with every new white fuzz ball my hopes fell further. 

If they all attacked at once there’d be no way I could hit them all.

I risked a look over my shoulder. The twins were at the end of the street, Titus was looking back at me.

“Run!” Titus’s voice came to me, I hesitated a moment.

The kittens growled simultaneously, their advance quickening. I needed no more encouragement: I ran.

My footsteps thudded on the ground, but didn’t quite mask the mewling of the kittens as they set off after me. I sprinted to the end of the street where Thomas beckoned urgently.

When I reached them Titus shoved an armful of metal at me. “Throw it!” he yelled.

I proceeded to do so, hurling scraps of metal at the kittens as they came toward us. When it hit them they screeched in anguish and dropped behind. But more were still pouring out of the metal shelter.

“Time to leave!” Thomas yelled, running out of ammo. 

We turned as one and fled up the street, dashing around corners and into narrow alleys to escape the pattering of paws behind us.

I was gasping for breath when we pulled up in the middle of a large square. “D’you think we’ve lost ‘em?” I asked, looking back over my shoulder.

Just as I finished the query a wooden wall slid across the road. I stared at it wide eyed and then spun around, in time to see identical contraptions closing off the other streets. We’d walked right into a trap.

Thomas was tapping his Cam Hack urgently. “It’s dying,” he said. “All those crazy kitten things are dementing it and it can’t even tell which way north is.”

“This isn’t good,” Titus groaned.

Thomas looked up. “On the bright side, none of the kittens have appeared yet.”

“Except for that one,” I pointed to a small white cat, pacing along the top of the barrier.

Thomas turned around. “They’re on all of them,” he breathed. “What do you think they want to do?”

“I could only guess,” I muttered. “But I don’t think they’re going to leave us in suspense for long.”

Already the kittens were appearing over the walls, jumping to the ground and spreading out in a long attack line. My heart fell as the flowed into the square, pouring like a flood. There were thousands of them.

I backed toward the brick wall of a house at the same time as looking around for some weapon. No such luck, there was too many of them anyway. 

My back touched the wall, Titus and Thomas took their positions next to me. “Let’s see how these kitties stand against the Terrible Trio,” Thomas said.

I smiled at the use of the title other ReLocator Recruits had dubbed us with. Originally it was supposed to annoy us, but when we refused to be annoyed it turned into a friendly nickname thing. “Yeah, we aren’t called that for nothing,” I agreed, straightening my shoulders and glaring at the kittens.

They took this as a challenge and charged.

- - -

Sorry if this is a little bit patchy. I only went over it roughly, so there might (and probably is) a few (or a lot) of mistakes. But I had school work and organising stuff for the afternoon and general to-do list that was overflowing.

So yeah. That's it for this week guys. *salutes*


How are you liking the story so far?
Do you have any suggestions for new Lando stories?
(And if you have given me some before and I haven't gotten to them, sorry - I've probably forgotten, so feel free to poke me about them again.)

April Camp NaNo // I flail about first drafts

April 2017 Camp NaNoWriMo went kaboom.

It started and then was over waaaay too fast. But even with all the craziness of time doing it's thing and life being busy, I had a pretty super time and really enjoyed myself.

So today I'm going to throw all the stuff at you and then give you a compass and a paddle and good luck maybe you'll find the end of the post before July Camp NaNo and I start going on again. xD (Although on that note, I'm not sure what you're going to do with the paddle seeing as I didn't give you a canoe or a log or anything. Maybe try surf on the paddle.)

This April, my goal was 50k. Because I'm a little bit crazy, but not quite crazy enough to have a higher goal than that. Yet.

My cousin and I were talking online almost every day and word warring like crazy for half the time. And on day five she (jokingly) challenged me to a 10k1day thing and I (not realising that it was a joke) said something along the lines of "OKAY LET'S GO." And we ended up totally smashing it. We got our 10k each and had a ton of fun doing it.

And then between day 7-17 we actually got together and she was at my place for a weekend and then I was at her place for a week. We didn't actually get an insane amount of words that week, but it was still a huge lot of fun involving groaning (about stupid main characters who won't do what they're told), brainstorming, camping, laughing, telling jokes, telling spoilers, and allll the fun stuff.

During this week I learnt two things:
1) People just like volunteering me for things without asking me first. 
(I was volunteered to play in their church worship team for that Sunday)
2) I'm a biplane nerd. 
(I don't even know. Apparently I sounded very nerd-y when I was ooh-ing over a diagram of a Curtiss JN-4 biplane.)

Also notice the cabin stats next to mine, WE GOT TO 104.7 %!!!!

And then two days onward after getting back home I hit my 50k on day nineteen.

And from that point onward I had a new goal. I'd reached my official word count goal, but what I was really aiming for...
Finishing the first draft of the final book in my trilogy.

So the rest of the month I was creeping along, smashing the keyboard and freaking out several times every few days.

And then

on day twenty-nine

I did it.

I finished.

I finished the last book. And therefore I finished my trilogy.

-ahem-
The first draft of it anyway.

BUT it was a momentous event so I flailed excitedly and freaked out and started thinking about edits.

*cue distant screaming*

WE'RE NOT GOING TO GET INTO THAT NOW, THOUGH. >.< My next few months are going to be full and I might do a blog post on my plans some time in the near future (when it isn't after 10 pm and I haven't completely forgotten to write up the blog post for the day...cough cough. No this totally didn't happen today...)

So anyways. Time to toss in a few pictures that I made in honour of the characters and story...

Precious Ben. *hugs him forever*

Gloomy, yeah I know. But that's actually -sadly- what quite a bit of the book is. Depressing.

And this one was because Clare was complaining that all my collages were depressing and dark colours *happy sighs over all the smiles*

Now that I've dumped those on you, it's time for...
SNIPPETS!!! 
Now now before you can get too excited, I can't give you very many snippets. For several reasons.

1: It's book three and spoilers for book one.
2: Spoilers for book two.
3: Spoilers for book three as well.
4: Alllll the spoilers basically. xP

But on the other hand, I can still give you some because I'm so excited and want to throw them at all of you just nice like that. *wise nod*

Note: Yesss some of these are purposefully obscure and don't have names. But that's because extra spoiler caution. Although if you know my characters very well it should be faaairly obvious who does what.

---

“Code Echo Foxtrot Charlie…Repeat: Echo Foxtrot Charlie.”
“Unaccessible to this user.” The cool voice buzzed smoothly in his numb ears.
Jonathan Flint growled in the back of his throat. Stupid security programing, he was wasting time. Time he didn’t have to spare.

---

Milson’s pizza had gone floppy when he’d heated it up.
He hated floppy pizza.
Scowling to himself, he slumped back into his chair, wishing he’d had enough time to shower before coming down to the office. But no. And he’d barely gotten four hours of sleep the night before. 
Actually, come to think of it, he hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep for ages. Weeks. Maybe months.
It was all the General’s fault. Obviously.

---

“Lie down.”
He chose not to hear her. “Where am I?”
“Lyon, France.” She picked through the box, pulling out a needle and sterilised thread.
“Lie on…France?” He couldn’t work out what she was saying. Something damp dripped down his arm, warm and sticky.
The young woman nodded, threading the needle.
“How the heck am I meant to lie on France?” He squinted down at her.
She stared at him for a moment before her cheeks flushed a sudden pink, stammering awkwardly. “Oh I don’t mean— that’s not— I meant—”
His brows creased, watching her in confusion. “You what?”
She blushed fiercely. “I meant the town called Lyon. In France.”
“Oh…” Idiot. His brain was still fuzzy, obviously. “That makes sense.”
“Now, lie down,” she repeated.
“Should I lie on France?” he mumbled, not really thinking before the words came out.

---

Jonathan glanced down at the murky water of the Moskva River, the current dragging past with slugish sludge. No way of knowing what sort of disgusting things were in that water. It could be sewerage for all he could see. “No way I’m ever going in there.”
Will shot him a glare. “What’s a better plan then?”
“How about we walk along the bank wall?”
“Yeah and be shot full of holes like a darned pasta strainer. Good plan.” The sarcasm in the outlaw’s voice almost stung physically.
If anyone else in the world was more sarcastic than Will was, Jonathan never wanted to meet them.
He scowled. “I’m not going in that water.”
“Yes you are.” Will was suddenly beside him. “Look, Techo. This is for your own good. I’m just saving your life here.”
“You aren’t—” he didn’t get any further, cutting off abruptly as Will’s hand wrapped around his upper arm and shoved.
He yelled, grabbing for something, anything, to hold on to as he overbalanced and started slipping backward. For a moment he grabbed onto Will’s jacket cuff, but his fingers slipped and he lost his grip completely. The water smacked him hard in the face, taking his breath away with the stunning cold that enveloped him in a moment.

---

“Keep the noise level down, would you?” A voice grunted from above. “Climbing a brick wall isn’t actually that hard.”
“Yes it is,” he replied bitingly. “I’m an IT agent. I don’t do push ups and stupid things like that.”
“My bad. Just hurry up then.”

---

And I will resist the urge to keep going. Because aaaack there's so many more snippets that I want to show you all but I can't. Because allll the spoilers.


So now, because I wrote this in the crazy of Camp and because my first drafts are a little bit insane...I thought it would be amusing to give you a few shots of sections of my story. That may or may not have me yelling at myself in caps for no apparent reason.

Here you are. The collage of random Jane first draft-y-ness that only I get to see normally. For a good reason. *snickersnorts* Anyway. I hope you enjoy:

Note: YES THAT MIDDLE ONE IS LEGIT AND UNTOUCHED ORIGINAL. That's what some sections of my writing look like. All the heared hima dn jist Gjere makes me crack up every time I look over that bit. It's one of the worst. I haven't even worked out what that 'Gjere was a surprising amount considering the time of night' actually is meant to be... Like, it doesn't really make sense in the context of the rest of the scene.
And I accidentally called the villain 'King' instead of 'General' here, too. *pats poor sleepy Jane* My brain was a mess.

Fun fact of the month: It is possible to fall asleep writing (and sitting up) and actually keep typing the thoughts/dreams/VERY VERY WEIRD STUFF that goes through your conscious brain. *cough cough* Totally not speaking for recently discovered experience or anything...*cough cough*


And that about wraps me up for now. (I'm running out of time to finish writing my post so I can publish it before midnight and it's no longer Monday xD) I've rambled on about my novel for long enough (and adamantly avoided the topic of editing) BUT NOW IT'S YOUR TURN!!


How was your April??
(writing/life/basically everything. Just tell me whatever.)
Feel free to share a snippet (or two dozen, I'm not fussed xP) of your WIP in the comments!!
(I'd love to read them alll.)

Blog Anniversary // SURPRISE VLOG // I eat a spoonful of vegemite

On the 28th, April 2014, I started this blog. And somehow it's still alive now three years later??

WHOA.

I'm amazed at my little toddler bloggy. *pats blog proudly*

So the last two years I've been meaning to remember when my blog's anniversary is but somehow only think of it a month or two too late. But not this day!
(*nervous laughter* I came close to forgetting though. Very close.)


Just for the occasion I decided to take a look back at my first few posts. Man, I laughed at myself so hard. I'd just like to point out the fact that my very second post ever was a tag/award thing and guess what? I tagged no one. This has been happening from the very beginning apparently.

Reading through some of them just shows how insanely much my blogging style (and me) has changed.


Somehow I have almost 200 posts (okay, I'm about 15 off the mark but still). Um...WOW. I can't get over that. I don't even know how that happened because gosh that's a lot of posts. Also 30k page views. Dude. What even? How??
In three years, I've only ever gotten two spam comments. Talent, yes. By the same person/thing and both in the last year.
Comments are my favourite things though. All 1,500-and-something of them are were very special for me. (So shout out to all you peoples who have been commenting for a year or two. I notice. I appreciate it. And if you've only commented once, or haven't even done it ever (promise I'm not all that scary) thank you as well. Getting all sentimental now)
RANDOM STATS FLASH because why not.


I had thought of doing a giveaway for this occasion but a) I couldn't think of anything to give away and b) postage cost kills me. So yeah nah. No giveaway for you this time around. :P

ONE THING I'VE LEARNT ABOUT BLOGGING IN THE LAST THREE YEARS

No one actually knows what they're doing. It's all a journey process. We're works in progress and we'll never stop growing.
Those are your wise words of wisdom from Jane for the day. xD

Alrighty so in light of the fourth year of Dear Bloggy's life, I've been thinking over a major revamping. I want to make it look more professional and -I don't know- look better in general. Think aqua/turquoise theme colours and plain white background. (I'm yet to work out how I can still include the tengwar/elvish script somewhere because it looks cool.)

I'm still tossing up this idea, and I'd like to know what you guys think of it. As well as some other questions of what you'd like to see more of on my blog over the next year and stuff like that.

Wherefore, I have made a survey!!
There's only four questions, so hopefully it won't be too tricky.

YES YES NOW I FINALLY GET TO THE ONLY BIT YOU WERE ACTUALLY WANTING. The part where I celebrate my Blog Anniversary in vlog!!! 
(I want to know how many people actually just skipped over my rambling to get down here to watch this part. :P)

I made you wait right until the end of the post, because I'm mean. :P Saving the best for last, naturally. But now you get to watch my awkwardness again. (because who wouldn't want to?)

(and you also get to hear the sounds of outdoors Australia because we decided to film it outside. And then the sun came out part way through so the video got really over exposed. >.<)

Thank you guys all for reading, and if you've never commented before, don't be shy! I'd love to meet you. :D

Would you eat a spoonful of vegemite if I asked you nicely?
(take my advice and answer that with an adamant no xD)

The Adventures of Lando Erif :: The Day I Save the World...Again. (Pt. Eight)

I cannot believe that this story is EIGHT. WHOLE. PARTS. LONG. *flails*

Longest Lando story ever. It hit 11,745 words in all. More than twice as long as any of the others. Yayyy. I'm very excited about that actually, because I've had these stories partially happening for the last few years.

Aaaaand I'm just going to stop waffling on and let you get on to the ending of the story!

::Part One::
::Part Two::
::Part Three::
::Part Four::
::Part Five::
::Part Six::
::Part Seven::

We cornered Zana in the spare bedroom.

Whether she’d been in there already, or if she’d chosen that place to tactfully retreat to, I have no idea, but she was in there, and waiting for us. Except I didn’t know it to start with because she was hiding.

I pushed the door closed, taking a deep breath and stepping forward across the room, glancing around. Thomas mumbled something about sandwiches under his breath, following right behind me.

When Zana flipped out from beneath the bed, she sent me flying back with a popping spell. Thomas hit the wall first and I hit him just after, almost ending up on the floor from Thomas’s scrambling to keep himself upright.

Titus grabbed his arm. “Are you trying to kill my brother?” He flashed a furious glare at Zana, looking ready to jump-tackle her.

“Of course not.” Zana’s sweet smile twanged on my nerves.

Enough was enough.

“Come on.” I nodded at the twins. If we all went at her at once, then she won’t stand a chance, surely.

May as well try anyway.

I charged across the room, vaguely realising after about three steps that I had no idea what I was actually doing. Luckily —or not, depending on one’s point of view— I never actually reached Zana herself.

She flicked her wand once and a surge struck me in the center of the chest, shocks jolting through my limbs. I grabbed forward at the last minute, snatching her wand and jerking it free at the same time as she released another spell, sending me staggering back again.

The cute popping sounds were going to start getting on my nerves soon too.

Sweet tongued fairies, little pops as spells that could take my head of were cast. It was all a little bit down-played and childish really. Why not a couple of explosions?

Sadly I didn’t have dynamite. But I did have a fairy wand.

So I snapped it over my knee.

It exploded in a cloud of burning embers, and I yelled aloud, dropping it and jumping back, blinking my eyes rapidly to try and clear them. Ouch. Not doing that trick again.

Zana screeched something incomprehensible and an orange glow puffed up from the wand, surging a strange sort of humming through the room. The twins doubled over, suddenly gasping and heaving like they were being strangled.

I jerked my gaze up to Zana. “What are you doing to them?”

“Oh.” There came that sweet smile again. “I’m afraid they’re not so good at handling the heat.”

Come to mention it, my headache had started throbbing horribly again. “Heat? It’s…not that bad.” I grabbed Titus’s arm, shaking him. “Ti?”

Titus choked in another breath, pain straining across his face, apparently unable to reply.

Okay then. Zana was being serious this time.

I spun back to her. Up to me then. Time for Lando to save the world. Problem was, how?

“I’m afraid they might die if they can’t breathe. They’ve only got a bit longer before they pass out.” She tsked under her breath. “Humans are such petty creatures.”

“Yeah so that’s a reason to kill us all, right?” I stepped forward, trying to ignore the fact that my hands were shaking like crazy. With luck, Zana would ignore that too.

“Pfft. There’s always reason to annihilate an entire race.” She shrugged, waving one hand carelessly.

It was impossible. How could anyone be that cold hearted?

“I don’t think so,” I replied, glaring at her.

My headache was growing steadily worse, and I realised that if I hung around talking for much longer, it wasn’t going to be just the twins affected.

Okay then.

I punched toward her face, hoping that she knew less about martial arts than I did. She caught my fist and twisted, exploding pain up my wrist. Then her other hand came up and slapped me full across the cheek.

Reeling back, I gasped for breath, everything darkening around me from the force of her blow. I am never going to say ‘hits like a girl’ ever again. That fairy wasn’t just giggles and may-I-chop-off-your-head-please? She had plenty more strength than it looked.

I clasped my hand to my burning cheek, trying to regain my footing properly. Just beside me, Thomas collapsed to the floor, curling into a ball. Panic threatened to flood everything else out, but I held it back with an effort.

Cold fire. I gulped in a deep breath and tried to focus on some cold element inside. Nothing. Nothing at all. Just hot. Very hot.

Plan C. Or was it H by now?

Bending down, I grabbed the two pieces of snapped wand off the floor by my feet and threw them at Zana. She ducked back, giving me enough time to snatch a book off the shelf along the wall and swing it into the side of her head as hard as I could.

It smacked her hard enough that she went sprawling across the floor.

I dropped the book, almost following her down as my vision swayed. But the throbbing in my head improved instantly, and Titus staggered to his feet, heaving in huge mouthfuls of air.

I’d done it.

Crouching nervously beside Zana, I picked up her wrist gingerly and felt for her pulse. Phew, I hadn’t killed her completely then. With luck it would be a case of concussion. Amnesia would be perfect, but maybe too much to ask for at this stage.

“It’s okay,” I managed, my mouth dryer than normal. “She’s out.”

Titus gripped my shoulder, and I twisted, looking up at him. “You saved our lives.”

“Yeah.” I staggered to my feet. “No problem. Anytime.”

Thomas pushed up onto his hands and knees, wincing but otherwise looking considerably better than a few moments before.

“Now what?” I broke the moment of silence, staring uncertainly down at the unconscious fairy.

“I got a plan,” Thomas mumbled, standing.

“Mhm?” I turned to look his way. “Good plan or bad plan?”

“Good plan.”

“Shoot.”

“Duct tape.” Thomas wrinkled his nose at Zana. “I think we should duct tape her up.”

I glanced down at her, then at Titus and nodded. “Sounds fair enough to me.”

Then something jumped at me from behind.

I yelled aloud, flinching in panic, desperately grabbing at the thing that had landed on my shoulder. A moment later I realised what it was. The hybrid rabbit-bird Fluff Ball perched just by my ear, watching me with an offended air as I prised it away.

“What on earth—?” Titus gaped.

“Skvader,” I said, completely butchering the correct pronunciation. “The critter that started this whole thing in the first place.”

The twins both just stared as I placed it firmly in the center of the open book on the floor and pressed it against the pages before slamming the cover shut.

“Did you just—” Thomas stammered in disbelief and I lifted the book and shoved it beneath another book —even though I knew it was useless. “Did you just squish that thing?”

“What? Oh, no. It teleports through books, sorta.” I shrugged. “Where do you think we’d find duct tape?”

The twins both stared for another moment before Titus lifted one should halfway. “No clue.”

I grunted. That made for three of us then.

Two seconds later and the rabbit-bird bounded in through the door, carrying a roll of duct tape in its mouth.

Blinking, I crouched and grabbed for the tape, only to have the creature bounce back out of reach. I narrowed my eyes slightly, glaring at it and lunging forward. Successful only in landing my face into the floor.

The creature dashed from the room and I followed, scrambling along behind. I almost lost sight of it, but sped up, and ducked around another door, almost yelping again as it dropped onto my shoulder. I pulled it away, dumping it in the sink of what seemed to be a bathroom. All along one wall were stacks of duct tape rolls.

Why did Zana keep her duct tape in the bathroom? I haven’t got a clue.

A few moments later, the twins appeared, dragging Zana between them. Thomas grunted at the sight of the duct tape and heaved the fairy over to the ornate looking bathtub and dropped her in.

Reaching over, I tossed Thomas and Titus each a roll of duct tape. “Go ahead,” I offered, my voice squeaking at the end as the rabbit-bird dropped onto me, misjudging and landing on my head instead of my shoulder.

I reached up, thoroughly annoyed, and dragged it off, wincing as it pulled at my hair. “Okay, be right back.”

I grabbed the creature, carrying it outside until I found a book on a low table set against the hallway wall. I flipped a couple of pages, shoved the hybrid in and slammed it shut, lifting one of the legs of the table and jamming the book beneath its weight.

That should about do it.

A scampering came from the hallway behind me and I spun, dreading what I might see.

The creature stopped mid-scamper, sitting upright and staring up at me, it’s tiny nose twitching slightly, wings splaying out across the floor.

“Fine,” I growled, turning on my heel.

A moment later and it was sitting on my shoulder again.

“I said ‘fine’ not ‘sit on my shoulder,’” I protested, pushing it away as it tried to eat my hair. “That’s not grass.”

It just shuffled sideways until it wasn’t right up next to my hair and sat there, wriggling it’s nose disdainfully at everything and nothing.

I wasn’t sure how much longer I was going to be able to take this, but on the other hand it was slightly cute…I pulled it off my shoulder and dumped it —gently— on the floor, ignoring it as it started tagging along right beside me as if my ankle was its personal travel buddy.

A movement whizzed past the window, grey and blurred with speed and I ran forward, ducking into the bathroom again. “Hey guys, Mum’s here—” I broke off, staring at Zana. Or more, what I could see of her past the duct tape half cocooning her. “Wow. You’re not doing this in halves are you?”

Titus looked down at their handy work. “Hmm…nah. May as well go all the way.”

“And I had an idea.” Thomas waved a magic Net ReLocator vaguely. Or rather, four of them duct taped together at the corners. “I thought we could ReLocate this whole island. That way, not only is Zana duct taped, she’s also abducted. And so is her castle!”

“But wouldn’t that ReLocate her onto Dragon Island?” I pointed out.

“Ah…yes.” Thomas bent over the Nets again, fiddling with something I couldn’t even see. “Still working on that.”

“M’kay.” I shrugged and turned back to the door, tripping over the rabbit-bird and almost falling flat on my face. I only just managed to stop myself from falling, catching hold of the sink and stumbling several paces. “Oy, get out of the way,” I complained, stepping over the creature and going to wait at the door while Thomas finished his work and Titus idly started juggling used up rolls of duct tape.


It was only a few minutes later when I led the twins back outside. We met Mum in the main hall entrance and she slumped in relief.

“You’re all okay?”

“Yep.” I nodded.

It had been close, but in the end it hadn’t turned out too awfully.

She nodded us over to the grey dragon, hauling me up first, followed by the twins just behind. “Okay. You’d better be ready to go, because we’re going now even if you’re not.”

“I am.” I nodded quickly. “Would you mind flying up first so we can be over top of the island first?”

She narrowed her eyes in my direction but then nodded. “Okay.”

The wind roared in my ears as the ground dropped away unexpectedly, and I grabbed at Mum’s shoulders to stop myself from falling off completely. Thomas grabbed me from behind, almost breaking my shoulder with the tightness of his grip. I didn’t particularly mind.

He could’ve died. And Titus. And me. I could’ve died.

Not mentioning annihilation of the entire human race.

The dragon soared upward and a moment later I saw a blur of gold as Thomas dropped the Net. It spun downward, slipping from sight as the dragon banked to the side and tipped its wing down, sending us in a streaking line toward Dragon Island.

I craned over my shoulder, watching Zana’s Island.

One…

Two…

Three…

It was gone. One moment there, the next nowhere to be seen.

I felt relief flood through me. That was it. The end. No more Zana Bradford stalking my birthday parties. No more duct tape kidnappings. Phew.

Admittedly I was a little disappointed for a moment, realising how boring it might get without Zana.

Haha. Ha. As if one little ReLocation was going to stop her from ever finding me again.

In the end, all I did was give her more reasons to annoy me.

I’d just bought myself a quick little break before things really started.

- end -

And that brings us to the end of this story! It's been an interesting ride, and jeez it doesn't look like Lando is getting out of this completely. But he's going to get a little break hopefully before Zana pops up again.

In the meantime...I have no idea what I'm doing. As per usual. I'm just bumbling on and hoping there's a story happening by the time I next need one.

Although on that note, I may have found a story idea that I could use for a new serial...


Should I stick with Lando for longer, or are you interested in hearing about this possibility for a new full story?
(possibility. Not necessarily realistically doable.)
Does anyone have ideas/inspiration/requests for other Lando Stories?