Weekly News

Well, first off, I want to let everybody know that I have a new blog!!!!
(yes, another one, thank you very much.)
So. Yeah. It's called "Under Inspection" and it's a YA book review blog!!!! :) Here's the we address: (www.underinspectionbookreviews.blogspot.com) and I will have the link posted in my blogs list soon!! Hope you visit! :)
So, in other news, I need your help, bloggers out there. Vote, then tell your friends. Have your friends tell your friends. Tell the WORLD!!
You see the poll over here, off to the side?
<------ (over here!)
Well, I need help deciding which novel idea is the one I should pursue now. I have a few here, along with another poll about topic ideas
(right there ----->)
over there, and I would seriously appreciate it if you all voted. It would really help me decide what I should write about next. Thank you!
Moving on... I'm a published author!! Okay, so I have been for a while now, but I'm just getting around to posting about it. (he, he...) I'm sure some of you have heard of teen ink (Kirthi... :) and I have articles posted on their website!! Actually, I have... um... I think 12... but maybe more. I kinda went crazy when I joined and went on a creative writing spree. But I do have a few favorites, so here are the links to those:
http://www.teenink.com/search.php?smodel=all&sall_uid=104848
so, there are a lot of articles on there, but if you value my sanity, please only read these 5:
-Single Tear, free verse
-Echoes, free verse
My Sunrise, free verse
-Guiding, Realistic Fiction
-and I was Looking, Realistic Fiction (posting on this blog!)
Legally, I can't prohibit you from viewing the others (I wish...) but if you do, pretend you never did. I don't like those, and they were much more crude and adolescent then some of my more advanced work. So don't think to harshly of me.
Oh, and also, The whole point of teen ink is to have other teens read your work, and that means that for the past few months, I have been reading other teen's work. So I have a few recommendations for you, if you have an extra minute to kill:
1. Never Stop, by Kirthi
2. Sparrow, by Pandafyre
3. Improvising, by Onjuli D
4. Do You Remember?, by Emily K.
When you go to the site, you will see a search bar to the right. Next to it should be a little sign that says "advanced search" Click on that and put in the information I gave you and search! (You don't need an account to view articles)I would really appreciate it if you would rate both my articles and my favorites. Thank you!
Finally, a little announcement! This is for Kirthi: I need to talk to you about something. Hey, would y'all be interested in a little... shall we say, competition? ;)

Canvas Cape

Sometimes
I just need to
pretend.
I could discuss with you
the great disasters
of our nation,
debate
on the issue
of the war,
but sometimes
I want to pretend
that I'm 6 again,
laugh a pretty colors in the winds,
scream at bugs when they crawl near,
romp around the living room
with a bed sheet tied to my neck
like a blank white canvas
waiting for me to decide what to write.

My canvas is half filled now.
Most people would tell me no,
assure me I still have time to live,
and I do, I guess...
But I feel like
my canvas
has the shadow
of the drawing
to fill it soon,
not really there,
but you can see it
just the same.

I Was Looking

I remember when you found me.
I was huddled in my only coat, thorns scraping my face every time I moved,
the blood mixing with the tears as they streamed down my skin.
"Who are you?" you asked. I looked up at you in surprise, the emotion of you discovering my hideout not quite enough to stop the tears. They continued to plop down on my legs. They bounced as they hit my shivering thighs, wobbling precociously until they finally slid off.
"Who are you?" you asked again, no hint of impatience coloring your voice. I couldn't talk. I looked away. Did you come to beat me too? Was I really that easy to see?
You grabbed my hand and pulled me up, supporting my weight with your arms alone. I was too skinny.
"How did you find me?" I croaked. It didn't make sense. I should have been invisible.
"I was looking."
So simple, so straightforward... it shocked me. How could you have seen me, when I blended so well with the dark, twisted branches of my prison? That's what my soul would look like. That's why I blended so well.
"I thought no one was supposed to find me!" I exclaimed.
"Maybe you needed to be found."

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a story I posted on teen ink. I have other poems and stories posted, also, but this one really stuck out to me for some reason. If you want to view my other stories and such, go to http://www.teenink.com/search.php?smodel=all&sall_uid=104848. Thanks!!

Apolopgy, Shout Out, and Update

First of all, I have two things to apologize for. The first is a previous post of mine. The other is a future lapse in posting.

So, the first apology is for a post of mine, as mentioned. My poem, "Deeper" might be offensive to some of you followers. I wrote this poem in a moment of passion, and posted it onto my blog in another moment of passion. I was feeling particularly strong about lyrical poems (that's my style; I write in free verse, as many of you know) and was felling angry about people who write shallow, rhymey-cute poems that don't have any depth. I wasn't really thinking about those people who write in structured style. So I apologize to all of you who write your poems in rhyme. Many, many of the world's greatest poems are structured. I did not mean to imply that rhyming poems are bad poems. There are many amazing poems that are rhyming (go Rose!) I realize now that my post was offensive, and I'm sorry. I was talking about a very small minority, and no one I know is included in this poem whatsoever. (except maybe the ones who write deeper. ;)

My second apology is for a future lack of posting. Right now, I am very absorbed in a site called Teen Ink, and most of my writing efforts are going into writing for that. I have decided to write for teen ink first, then post my favorite pieces on this blog. Also, I am at the beach right now, so I won't have much time to write due to all the swimming, biking, eating, sleeping, and dunking. (Ha, ha) I promise I will post from time to time, but only once I have some really good stuff to share with y'all. :)

Okay, so, next order of business: SHOUT OUT!
This shout out is to Kirthi Rao, my good friend and AMAZING writer. She helped me really get my blog going, and has once again contributed greatly to my blog. She made me a blog button! It is the best darn blog button EVER, and I am SO EXCITED for people to see it and hopefully put it on their blog. Thanks so much Kirthi! You are the BEST. :)

And the last order of business. An update for all those family members and friends who follow all of my blogs: My blog, Branches, has been temporarily unavailable for everyone who had the link. I didn't understand why even I couldn't get to my blog, until I realized I had changed the address! Silly me! The original title of the blog was My World, but I didn't like that anymore, so I changed it. Then I wanted to change the URL, because it still incorporated the old title. I have changed it on the link list to the left of this blog, and it will be changed on My Life, but for those of you who want to bookmark it immediately, here it is:
www.branchesenvironmental.blogspot.com

Thanks for all the patience, and thank you for following this blog!

Deeper

You can rhyme,
those people,
pretending your a writer.

You say you mean it,
you say that it's all true,
that your writing from your soul.

You can't be.

Writing isn't rhyming,
it isn't the length,
or the words.

It's the feeling,
buried beneath the surface,
the stuff that really matters.

Because rhyming?
That's not writing.
Writing's more.

Deeper.

Fear

Fear was something I could never get used too.
In all my years, the few I have had and the many yet to come, I will never get over fear. One of the most terrifying and creative emotions humans experience. Because, honestly, isn't every fear the fear of fear itself? Monsters, fires, the darkness... they're all just personifications of fear. They all pose some sort of threat, of course, but that's not really why we're scared. We're scared of being scared. Of not knowing, of not being safe... really, that's all fear is. Fear is not knowing. And not knowing scares people most of all.
It was so thrilling, this fear. So complex, so intricate, I doubt I could decipher all it's hidden meanings and implications before the terror changed its course. Because it would change. It's the law of all fear. When something scares you, it must run its course and then morph into a new fear. It just doesn't go away. Always some worry, some fear in the back of your mind that's inescapable. Never will it fade like smoke curling in the night air, like dust scattered in the wind. It just crops back up again, over and over, in different forms, like a whack-a-mole.
So scared...

Summer Night

The first thing I see is the sky.
It's made of a rich blue, deeper than any daytime sky. The center is a beautiful cobalt blue, while the edge takes on a paler hue. It's the brightest thing outside, especially against the trees. The trees are dark, darker than they ever had been. They contrast against the sky to form a gorgeous snapshot. It's picture perfect, like any night should be.
But slowly, I register my surroundings on the lower level. The grass is nice and thick, and curves softly around the thick trunks of the trees. Everything is slightly darker, has just a little less color, as if it was sucked from nature and sent straight to the heavens. Fireflies danced through the air, flashing at random intervals, never in sync, always just a little apart from each other. The air rested thick and sweet in front of me, positively humming with the slow, carefree feelings of summer.
It was as every summer night should be.