Spring Break Fun

Last week was Spring Break for us. Lots of good times like playrooms, donuts, Starbucks, writing, hanging out with friends, reading, and eating yummy food.

One of the places we went to was Lotte World. It's a Korean version of Disney World even down to the blue castle, which we got a kick out of.

But it was fun and a really different experience. Half of the park is inside, which was nice because the weather was anything but springlike. It's an enormous building that's like 30 stories high but a theme park is inside with floating balloon rides and even a monorail.

I think the boys' favorite ride was the pirate ship. They wanted to know if it would take them to Bora Bora.

I wish!

MiG Writers is Blogging!

My fabulous critique group, MiG Writers, has started up our blog. Our goal is to chat about writing and everything important to a writer.

I've written a post on Creating Unforgettable Characters. Check it out here. Hope you'll stop by from time to time.

Another Fabulous Contest!

Wow. This is the time for contests. Check out Martha Flynn's latest contest here. You can win a copy of Prophesy of the Sisters and a gift card. Check it out!

Book Give-away! The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Beth's having a rocking giveaway at her blog. Check it out here. Have fun.

Book Giveaway- Penguin Prize Pack

Check out Presenting Lenore's awesome contest here. You'll have the chance to win 11 YA books such as If I Stay, Reluctant Heiress, and Prada and Prejudice! Don't miss the party because it all ends on Apr. 5th.

Mmm... Love that Smell

Don't you love the smell of fresh squeezed oranges? Chocolate chip cookies? How about baking bread?

My critique group always is helpful to remind me to incorporate smells into my stories. And they are right. Smells really add a strong mood to a scene.

In teaching, we're told that scents help our student's remember concepts. So in my classroom, I like to have the plug ins. In the spring I put something fresh in like Jasmine and Christmas it's always gingerbread.

Similarly, in my stories, I'm always searching to add my sensory details and not the typical ones that might come to your mind right away. One of my favorite sites to get ideas is Bath and Body Shop. Check out this link for a list of different scents that might inspire you.

I think warm vanilla sugar and wild honeysuckle are my favorite for today. Tomorrow I'm sure it will be something different!

Busy Revising

Oh it's been so long since I've blogged. I've been having way too much fun revising my paranormal lately. When did revising become fun? Maybe I'm becoming a revising geek? Uh oh.

My class with Jill Santopolo has been AWESOME! She's been pushing me to work on deepening my characters emotions and adding tension to the plot.

I've taken a new twist on my novel with Jill's help by bringing in a love triangle into the story. She mentioned this sometime not too long ago (hence my love triangle post) and after mulling over it, I'm going for it. Big time.

I've never written a romance before but I'm realizing this story is definitely that and man, I'm having a blast doing it. Of course, I'm still doing all my crazy adventure stuff too because I hate getting bored.

The picture I attached is inspired from Carrie's blog. You can make your own here.

I'm going to call her Aleysha but haven't decided what superpowers she has. Any ideas?

Korea's Turtle Ship

When we went to the War Museum, we visited the replica of the Turtle Ship. It's truly amazing in design and beautiful in appearance. As a history lover, I had to learn about this ship. There was a video there which I watched but then I went a step further and did some reading up on it. Here's what I found:

During the 16th century in Korea, the Japanese attacked the Korean shores. To stop them General Yi Sun-sin was asked to defend his people. But he knew he needed something special, something different to outmaneuver the large Japanese fleet.

So he took an early design of a turtle ship and improved it. This ship had no keel but a flat bottom of ten heavy wooden boards. From those, he built the ship up on the sides and rounded out the top. The ship’s total length amounted to 110 feet long.

The arched and sloping roof was covered with iron plates. These plates held jagged spikes and knives to hurt boarding enemies. General Yi Sun-sin even went so far as to cover these spikes with grass and hay to surprise of the enemy when they boarded the ship. Ouch!

The cool part is at the ship’s bow, a dragon head arched out, its fanged mouth open and wide enough for a cannon to fit inside.

Yi Sun-sin cleverly burned mixed sulfur and saltpeter to create a black smoldering cloud. This cloud hovered over the ship and hid it from invaders.

In Yi Sun-sin’s journals he writes the cloud was, “Like a mist so that the enemy could not see the ship.” Approaching enemies would never know where the Turtle Ship was or the moment of their attack.

Using the forty cannons on board, General Yi Sun-sin wielded a fierce attack on the Japanese. At the battle of Myeonnyang, 133 Japanese ships fought against 13 Korean ships. General Yi Sun-sin came out victorious and was able to protect his beloved Korea.

Fellow Blogger Hits One Year!

Stop over to Tabitha's blog to celebrate her one year anniversary of blogging! And if you make a comment, you'll be entered to win a fabulous book.