Ohh I feel so bad sorry I wrote a summary for you so you didn't have to read all that the day before you posted but forgot to post it ahh!! Thank you for doing it anyways though! This time, I am doing ONE POST, and ONE POST ONLY! I am being FIRM (watch how I quickly collapse under wanting to say so many other things too and having to do multiple posts :))

Ohh that's right!! :) ohh yesss Leaf not Wren thank you (I've really gotta freshen up my WoF!!)

yess me tooo!!! I keep on waiting for it.. and waiting.. and waiting.. TUI HOW CAN YOU KEEP THEM APART FOR SO LONG YOU LITERALLY LEFT OFF IN A GREAT POSITION FOR THEM TO MEET AND THEN YOU ENDED THE SERIES AHHHHH!!!

oh that's cool! Yeah, I get carsick too so... but that doesn't stop me from reading (and regretting it but oh well it's worth it). But mostly I don't read cuz I'm not supposed to and oh well looking out the window is SUPER fun too (not sarcastic I just realized that sounds kinda sarcastic sorry)!!! But yeah my dad likes us to be present too, especially at the dinner table (which I respect).

I get lost in book worlds too, to the point where the character's memories become my actual memories, not just words on a page. They kinda are anyways, though, if you think about it. You've been with the characters on all their adventures, so they're kinda like your adventures too!

Yep! Start school at like 8 and get home at like 2/3 and do homework! :) It's actually pretty fun though because those 6 hours at school are spent being with classmates and friends and it was really chaotic and fun with them!! However, now I go to private school and... let's say my social life isn't.. awesome. It's not horrible either though so I'm grateful for that! But classes are AMAZING!! So yes I do want to go to college because, as I said, I loveeee learning and you get to choose what you learn about and college is kinda like freedommmm but you don't have to be an adult yet! Also excited about roommates bc my dad's stories about what he uses to do with his roommates are hilarious! But I understand your point too..

Yep, it is! I'm Asian American and ahhh Lunar Festival was really recently and I was looking forward to eating allll the mooncakessss I wanttttedddd (my grandma was on a mooncake baking frenzy the whole week before trying to perfect her mooncake skills for Lunar Festival and so we got LOTS of (tasty) mooncakes from her)!!!... but then I got sick.. and sugar was a no-no.. :(

Have you ever had a mooncake before? They're SO GOOD!! And pretty too :) My grandma made regular red bean and lotus mooncake that were AWESOME, but she also made some snow mooncakes with a pandan casing and ube filling that were... EEEKK!! :DD I only got to try a tiny bit though, on account of the cold and all.. but it was worth it! :)  look up "snow skin mooncakes"!

wow 7 already?! Best of luck in becoming a successful author (you probably will :))!!!! I want to too! But I also want illustrations and my brother the supposed-to-be illustrator QUIT on me!! So yeah. :( luckily I'm not a horrible drawer myself, but I usually sketch and he does fictional stuff so.. he's better at that aspect. But yes I might've abandoned my book for the time being but I always come back! Have you ever read Spilling Ink? It's soo helpful and I love it!! Also, one of my favorite writing exercises if you want is asking a character why. For example, completely on the spot:

I'm Cockadoodle the desert lizard and I love ice cream!

Why?

Why?? Well, because I live in the desert, of course!! Why else?

Sorry, but it's my job to ask "why", alright?! Don't blame me for it!

Alright fine, I won't. *sigh* People are always complaining that I'm so judgy.

Why?

Umm.. have you ever met me?

... That's not an answer.

It is too an answer!

No it's NOT!

Yes it is! 

Ok.. so.. that kind of totally got away from me sorry horrible example usually the character doesn't develop so... difficult, but that's the way he insisted on being written... But I feel just doing this helps me to find a character's unique voice and personality, just by giving a name and a statement! Plus it's fun and entertaining. Also it's good for heart's desire. And everything easily writes itself. Do you use this method? If not, what are some of your favorite writing methods/exercises (if you have some)?

Do you do nanowrimo? I'm thinking of joining this year. November's coming up soon!! :D And do you want to publish your books? I want to publish mine traditionally, and recently I've found a buncha really helpful publishing guides and author websites that talk about it.. I could tell you what authors if you'd like!

MP3 player... is that a PlayStation video game thingy (haha I don't know...)? But yes honey I love honey (my school apparently has a "beekeeping Club" but when I went to ask HOW EXACTLY DOES THAT WORK?!? it seems literally NO ONE knows ANYTHING about it so... that's interesting...). My one chore that I actually do right now (I'm amazing at procrastinating chores which is probably horrible but I'm lazy) is getting the mail. Why? Cuz of Cricket oc!! Also my pen pals! Do you have any pen pals?

I have lots of weird quirks. Ex: I can't eat and watch real human strangers, whether on a screen or irl, at the same time. It just gives me a gross feeling. Like my mouth is swallowing and my eyes are looking at this creature (from an early age I declared that I "strongly do not like humanity" (since at the time "hate" was still a bad word) and I kind of operate off that thought now XD... meanwhile my brother was like... but.. aren't you a human???) which means I'm.. swallowing this gross creature?? Idk.

ooh, trilogies and duologies and mermaids!! That's awesome! I'm currently writing I'm still not certain if it's a standalone or the first of a 5 book series rn but yep

Kalimbas look so cool!! Unfortunately, I am on my phone right now and Youtube won't let me access it for some reason and it feels like ALL VIDEOS EVER are on Youtube so I can't listen to it right now.. but I'll do that later (so excited!)

That's awesome you can play by ear!! Quite impressive even if you can't read notes. Favorite song to play on the piano?

I've gotta say, I've been learning piano for 7 years (well, actually we quit lessons like a year ago cuz we weren't progressing) and I'm still only on level 2... but oh well, it's just for fun though (which is great about my parents, all the lots of activities my brother and I are signed up for, it's all just for fun, things we want to do, and they make it work! :) ) I love playing piano though, I'm actually writing a musical for the Phantom Tollbooth by playing out songs on the piano then writing them down, and the lyrics and tunes just come to me really easily.. it's lots of fun!! I lost my paper with all the songs I wrote though, so that's on pause for a while.. (I'm amazing at losing things)

But back to piano! I actually don't think I would be able to read notes if covid hadn't happened! Bc when we were home, we had so much free time, oc, and all these piano books for all these Disney songs, and the greatest hits of all time, and everything just laying around the house, so I was just like, you know what?, I want to play these songs. But the notes weren't labeled like the notes on the songs I usually played were (my piano teacher labeled them before every new song for me, so I never had to learn to read them), so I got out my old piano songs, looked at what notes everything was, took out my new songs, and cross-referenced and labeled all the notes in the new books based on what my teacher labeled in the old books. Hence, I learned how to read notes. :)

Meanwhile, my brother was using the ipad and Youtube instead of the old-fashioned books to play whatever songs he wanted, so he's only just learning to read notes now :)

I actually saw a BTS song performed at a concert.. it was pretty good! My BFF really likes BTS too :) When I can find time (and available Youtube), I'll listen to some more songs by them.. I listened to Idol and didn't like it that much, I mean, it was fine, but wasn't awesome, so I'll try some other songs later! Hmm.. oh, for some reason I thought they switched to English completely, thanks for clearing me up on that! :) And, to me BTS is pretty mainstream, cuz, at least for a while, they were EVERYWHERE and EVERYONE was talking about them.. but maybe it's different where you live! And those really are some pretty good acrosticy thingies (whatever they're called)! Hmm.. let's see.. boys to stream? beat the star? bow to sultan? Yeahh.. nvm..

Oh wow that's amazing, you're amazing! I could never do that! And that story (and your description of walking barefoot on hot pavement) made me laugh, thanks for sharing! Have you ever read The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise? Awesome book! A quote (from literally the first page):

"The whole world was so yellow and shining from the beating-down sun that you had to squint no matter where you looked. The blacktop of the gas station parking lot radiated the heat right back up at you so it felt like you were getting cooked from both sides. I suppose most barefoot people would've been hooting and hopping with that sizzling asphalt burning the bottoms of their feet, but my soles were used to it and I walked along easy as you please."

Now whenever I think of Coyote I'll think of you :)

Yessss! Soda. Poison. Blech. Wow really? That's great for you!! I have to say, I LOVE fast food! I eat lots of it, which is so unhealthy, but oh well. We are trying to cook more dinners and eat healthier and stuff though (yesterday my mom made chicken Alfredo w/ broccoli, it was sooo goood!!). And, oc, my grandparents on my mom's side LOVE to cook and bake, so that's good for us! My grandpa's always experimenting with soup for us kids, trying to make it as nutritious and tasty as possible (his soup is really amazing), experimenting with different ingredients and such. He even explains to us exactly what each ingredient does for your body and why it's good for you! I try to remember, I really do, but.. yeah I can't tell you what's good for what and stuff. But oh well, soup's awesome! I would send you a recipe but... it's all just like, "add just enough salt" and stuff XD (Ik I'm repeating, but their soup and food in general and they grow their own fruits and everything (strawberries, tomatoes, dragonfruit, you name it!) really is SO AMAZING TYSM GRANDPARENTS!!!)

My favorite ice cream flavor is plain old vanilla. Always has been always will be. I get it everywhere we go and ppl like to say that I'm on a mission to try all the vanilla in all the ice cream shops in the world :) 

I daydream... SO MUCH. Some of my most frequent daydreams: chance-meeting my long-lost friends who moved away during covid and we didn't keep in touch and such, meeting one of you CBers by chance (or a CBer convention!!), this is probably horrible but I like to daydream in class about what would happen if I actually disobeyed the teacher, for ONCE, and, like, started singing my heart out in class and jumping on the desks and stuff... however, I hate even the idea of getting in trouble so.. that's never gonna happen, I like to daydream AS the characters in my books and change scenes and redo things and continue the book long after it's over and such (and character cross-overs!), I daydream about finding a magical world irl and basically just anything that I think would be SO. MUCH. FUN. I daydream about. I love to daydream! Daydreams are why I can literally never get bored, they're almost as good as actual adventures, but maybe even better cuz you get to control everything that happens! :D

this probably sounds confusing but I also like to daydream about what I'll dream about at night, bc when you're nightdreaming (if that's not a word, it definitely should be) it's basically the same as daydreaming but you're literally THERE, in the dream, physically (or physically mentally?). I am in awe of all dreams in general. They're really amazing. Sometimes my daydreams (and nightdreams) actually become memories, which is always cool.

Oh, sorry, MCGoA is Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard (me and my fancy acronyms). Have you read it? If not, soooo recommend!! :D

Ooh, love your favorites! Some of mine: persnickety, tintinnabulation, effervescence, sesquipedalian (hence my solo write name, you can see that I am very much a sesquipedalian), fopple, piffle and tosh and all the synonyms of nonsense (there're like 50+ and they're all awesome), boondoggle, murmuration, eldritch, kaleidoscope (hence my text adventure name), abecedarian, quagmire, happenstance, metaphysical, mollycoddling, widdershins... I could go on :)

Hmm.. names for the chat? Maybe something.. idk, naturey and unique? Flowy? Magicky? Idk.

Also, sorry, a reminder just in case you don't check BaB, it's your turn to suggest a book (only if you want to do it though, oc!)! Thanks! :)

and here I end my super long post. Tell me if you want a summary and I'd be happy to give it to you! 

Just passed by a store with a poster of BTS on the display wall and a bunch of handwritten notes and hearts all around it...

Definetely fine! I know my post was SO LONG... so yeah sorry bout that... but I'll keep this topped in the meantime! Take as long as you need and looking forward to it! :)

(and I really do mean it. I'm extremely patient. As in I can and have stood in lines for (quite literally) hours with no complaint)

Hi! Hello! Marhaban (I'm assuming that's Egyptian(?) for "hi", bc a few years ago at Chinese school for some reason one day the teacher decided to NOT teach us Chinese and instead teach us different ways to say "hello" in random other languages?? (btw, annyeong was one of the ones I remember from that class, though I couldn't remember what language it was from!) And that's what I remember? Of course, we also learned that "guten tag" is hello in German, but that's actually good morning, and "hallo" means hello, so...)!

andd we're already off to a long start! :)

ackk you too!! And, wow, really?!? Me?!? Wow, thanks! That made my day (err, night)! :D You too! I love love love getting to know you better! :)

yup private school. Fancy schamcy, huh? XD But yes this is my first year in private school, I've been public my whole life, and my heart shall always (or at least for now, starting to be Anne Shirley dramatic :) ) belong with the public schools. I actually have noticed quite a few changes, and, actually would love to rant, if that's fine? But I'll save that for a later post. 

YESS BOOKS!! :DD (sorry.. got a bit overexcited there..) what books? And they totally are delicious! Do you have any favorite cultural foods (doesn't have to be your culture)?

ooh, yes! I wonder if I could get an autograph now? :) However, it'd have to be your CB name... unless you're comfortable sharing your real one (either that or you have such messy handwriting that I wouldn't be able to figure out what your name is no matter how hard I tried, which is me btw). I'm sure your handwriting is organized and neat and not at all like a hurricane blew in and destroyed everything though! :)

yes, I'm normally totally fine with not having pictures in books, but when I'm writing one pictures help me visualize everything that's happening much better, which is nice

yes, I love the cover! And even if it's not helpful, it's still just really entertaining to read!

I LOVE my stuffies and yes, I still have wars with my stuffed animals with my friends too (in fact, all my friends love their stuffies, who ever said that stuffies are only for younger kids? Cough cough Toy Story cough cough). Buut, those wars mostly include more throwing the stuffed animals at each other than actually acting them out doing the war. :/ We DID tuck them all good night at the end however. And it was still major fun! And some of my stuffies I've known and loved since I was a baby! Do you have any favorite stuffed animals? Stuffed animal stories (irl/made-up)?

Well, I've only just learned about it, but it is basically a worldwide challenge that takes place in November where hundreds (I'm guessing, but probably more) of people come together to challenge themselves to see if they can write 50,000 words, basically the length of an average novel, in one month! So far, it's been SUPER fun and helpful!! In the first 3 days, I made more progress on my novel than I have for 3 years XD! I even actually have a last name for my main character (her full name btw is now finally Esmeralda Oaks, but she goes by Esme or Ez too, and idk if I already said but she's a cat). I highly recommend trying it if you have time next November! They have publishing resources and pep talks from authors such as ACKK Kate DiCamillo and Piers Anthony and Gene Luen Yang and Jason Reynolds and Maureen Johnson and V.E. Schwab and just recently this year Rita-Williams Garcia and so many others I'm forgetting to encourage you throughout the month, and little inspirational messages and live virtual write-ins with more published authors (e.g. Kwame Mbalia just this year) you can join, and regional write-ins, and stuff the whole time too, and really it's just plain awesome.

self-publishing definitely seems like it has so many more benefits than traditional, so why do I want to publish traditional again??? Yup I'm just old-fashioned and sentimental that way, who knows. But that being said, you should definetely go for it!! I think you definitely could get self-published! And hmm author names... for me I was thinking just my real name, but if I had to do a pseudonym, I would go with Jade of the Tiger, mostly because I literally have no other ideas, but also bc it just sounds cool and it fits me pretty well (e.g. unnecessarily long). So, if you ever see any books published in that name, that's me! For you... sorry, idk. What were you thinking?

Ohhhh I know what it is now duh *snacks forehead (I literally did)* Thanks for explaining! And, wow, there's a dedicated fan right there! :) I mostly just listen to music by memorizing lyrics and melodies and "playing" them in my head whenever I feel like it... I mean, it works pretty well? :)

Mine just came a few days back (or was it a week ago? More? Sometimes my sense of time is flawless and sometimes it's just eckk)! I am still currently reading. Yess, I love Cricket too! Especially the poems, I think there was one recently about layers of rock and time or something? That one was awesome!! This issue I love love love the pictures/drawings and design of that one story with all those dragons and the cool fairytale border that I have not read yet because I was too busy admiring the images :) what's your favorite Cricket story? Poem? Section? Character? Issue?

ooh, that's a good question! And, yeah, it takes me a few months to remember to write a letter, like one day to write a letter, and a year to remember to send it. But I've been like this with my one penpal for years now and it's fine (speaking of.. oops, I've still gotta send that letter!)! However, with my other two penpals I quit, one because at the time I still got to see her every day at school so there was really no point (actually she's my BFF and I'm meeting up with her this week!), and the other because covid happened and we just.. lost touch. But yes, as already established, I'm pretty old-fashioned (or like old-fashioned ways ), so, penpals!

I in fact did listen to the kalimba, Here Comes the Sun and another song too, if not just for the doggy :), and yess they are so pretty! Even the name is so pretty! I was actually just listening to some Walk Off The Earth today and they use kalimbas too! :D also, did you see the Google easter egg for the kalimba/instruments like it? It's so cool! I got 100%!

I have not found the chance to listen to Greensleeves yet, sorry, I totally forgot, I'll do it tomorrow, but hmm... favorite song right now? Umm ackk uhh SOO HARDDD!! I'll just say Derniere Danse bc usually I don't love French music that much, but ACKK THIS SONG IS AWESOME!!! :D

Anddd likewise, it totally slipped my mind to listen to those songs too so sorry!! I promise I will tomorrow, I absolutely love just listening to any and all music recommendations you or anyone has for me, idk why. I love music in general. Actually, music in its entirety. And I did, thank you! :)

Hmm.. maybe I am... *waggles eyebrows mysteriously* but no, I have not noticed any flavor difference, besides the fact that vanilla bean has, well, vanilla bean. I've tried vanilla bean, Madagascar vanilla, French vanilla, old-fashioned vanilla, vanilla shake (ice cream), vanilla shake (actual), iced vanilla drink, vanilla extract, vanilla cream bars, vanilla haagen daaz(??), vanilla ice cream sandwich, homemade vanilla, vanilla ice cream from like a thousand different places... they all taste like, well, vanilla. BUT STILL SOO GOOD!!

yess Magnus Chase and Riordanverse!!

wow, seriously?! Thanks!! ~But once you commit you can't turn back~... just kidding, you totally can :) but wow really thanks, this just made my day/night, the second time around! :D (oc, this post is what you get for that comment... :) )

Yup, that's how I'm pronouncing it! And StarFlame sounds cool! Kinda sci-fiey/fantasy too! Love the colors conjures up! I'm up for that if you and the admins are!

And of course! Your RP is amazing! And Calligraphy IS honestly pretty cute... umhumhum I may have sorta designed him with my squish in mind??? *runs and hides in a corner* but anyways! Crystal Jewel (hey! Crystal Snow and Crystal Jewel!) sounds pretty cool too! I read her personality and I was like YESSS!!

some pop recommendations coming up! And I do hope that that was sooner than you did... sorry if it wasn't.

and also the overall quality of this post gradually processed from ehh ig it's fine to horrible bc now it's past midnight so sorry about that too :/ 

And YAYYY so glad that you liked Coyote Sunrise!! It made me cry too! :DD