Laura's blog

The Internet is distracting!!! Thank you, Captain Obvious. Now that you have stated the obvious, what exactly am I going to do about it? The problem, you see, is multi-faceted. The Internet is distracting, but also necessary. I need to check my email, edit my group paper/project in Google Docs, look up sources and articles etc. online, read the news and the weather, make the occasional appearance on Facebook so that my friends don't think I've forgotten them, etc. I spend at least an hour a day on checking my email and other necessary -- often school-related -- Internet tasks. What I don't need to do is get into pointless arguments with bigots in the comments section of YouTube, spend forever on Pinterest, tweet 24/7, debate the merits and flaws of Communism and religion with people I only know via Facebook, defend against stereotypical/cruel/bigoted comments directed at social groups I may or may not belong to, or spend hours on Goodreads analyzing some random novel ...

Before I recommend anything, first allow me to geek out a bit. I saw The Hunger Games movie at the midnight premiere, and let me just say, it was fantastic. It's the kind of book that is very well suited to be made into a movie -- suspenseful, action-packed, with lots of great character stuff going on as well. I was gasping, laughing, wincing, flailing, and at one point honest-to-God crying (along with everyone else in the theater). The acting was spot-on, the costumes induced extreme envy, and the script (which Suzanne Collins, a screenwriter, worked on) was great. I may be alone in this, but I thought the jerky camera techniques were very effective in showing emotion and atmosphere. Favorite character: Cinna, although I also loved Rue. Kiss rating: epic but not overdone. Seneca's beard rating: F/ING EPIC. My awe was such that I was completely distracted by The Beard of Awesome. "Is...is it real? Psst. Psst, Katherine!! Look at his beard!!!" "I can ...

Title: Hush Author: Donna Jo Napoli Genre: Historical fiction, young adult What it's about: Irish princess Melkorka is a young woman with dreams. She is the first daughter of the king and she loves stories, especially tales of warrior princesses. Her dreams are shattered when she and her younger sister are kidnapped by Vikings and sold into slavery, to live amongst people her culture considers to be less than human. To survive, she must change everything she is and everything she knows. In defiance of her captors, Melkorka takes a vow of silence. She might not be a warrior princess, but she finds an inner strength and power in her silence. Why I recommend it: Hush is based on a true story about an Irish princess who was kidnapped by slavers. Donna Jo Napoli is not afraid to be bleak; Hush is a tough book in many ways because of the brutality of Melkorka's situation. Slavery, rape, abuse, and fear all feature prominently, but they are all handled tastefully. ...

Hello and welcome to the 21 Minus blog tour! Are you excited? Good. You should be. :) 2 1 Minus, hosted by Anna Waggener , aims to showcase writers 21 and under. With that in mind, I present my interview of 15-year-old writer and blogger Nick Hight   from New Zealand. He doesn't know who interviewed him yet, and I don't know who interviewed me. That's part of how you win the contest -- but more details on the rules after the interview. Interview with teen writer Nick Hight: 1. Why did you decide to start a blog? Because someone I know -- who’s not even one of my mates -- told me I should. Seriously, that’s the only reason. She said I should give it a go, and I thought, why not? At the time, I didn’t intend to meet other writers online or post about writing or anything like that at all -- it was just a way for me to rant to the world. 2. What is your favorite book or movie and why? This is a tough one, because I have a whole heap of favourite books and movies...