Yay yes this again! I missed our amazing conversations :)

Ooh, going to the Pacific must have been spindiddly. I saw it once, which I'm eternally glad of because it would have been sad to have never seen the ocean, and I remember that it was absolutely beautiful - also amazingly powerful, though, and it made me wonder how sailors ever tried setting off across it in the voyages of discovery. And no, I've never actually tried seafood - I had a chance to try some - oysters? - once but they looked so awful that I refused XD And wow, it must have been so nice to see your family in Canada! I have a baby cousin in Mexico who I've never even visited yet, if you can believe it...

As for our summer, it was really nice :) We didn't go anywhere that far away, but we visited some amazing parks that are fairly close-ish to us. And, of course, I took advantage of the free summer days to read read read and write write write, which was an edifying experience lol. And we went to libraries and to a couple of activities, which were really fun. Besides, of course, the baby bunnies which habitually come to our garden in the summertime :))))

Anyhow, I'm so glad to be seeing (reading?) you again! Don't worry about awkward beginnings - I can never think of things to say to begin conversations either :/

Flamie hiii!! I've missed being able to chat with you!

The Pacific Ocean and Canada sound wonderful! I've been to Montreal and I loved it :) I have eaten seafood - I think it was mussels or something. I haven't gotten many opportunities to branch out and try different types, though.

My summer was pretty good, like Amethyst said! We went exploring in nature a lot, going hiking in the nature areas nearby, which was fun. And we also took some chess lessons with a very hilarious, fun teacher who made lots of witty remarks; he was very no-nonsense, but in a sparky way. (We already knew how to play chess, but it ws fun to play it with other people). Have you ever played chess?

I have to go now so I'll stop there... but it's so nice that we can go on chatting now!

Hey guys! I definitely missed this too- it's like having online pen-pals!

I've played chess a few times with my brother, but he almost always beats me. We usually play more games in the winter; in the summer we like to be outside :) What other games do you like? Settlers of Catan is of course my favourite. My second favourite is Carcassonne, and then maybe Clue. 

Hiking and going to parks sounds awesome! There's a small nature park close to my house, and I love going off the paths to explore. (I know in nature parks you aren't supposed to go off the paths, but in this one it's allowed. And it's hard to resist- there's so much to explore!) I love all the trees, making forts on hills with my siblings, imitating bird calls, just everything. One time we saw two fawns in the woods! There is also an old ski lift from the 1960's with the old posts and pulleys which we explored once! It was cool, but a little eerie the way old buildings are. 

Are you still homeschooled? I wish I were, but I'm back at my freezing cold school. The air conditioners are always on and I get cold really easily. The best part of the day is the bus ride home when I get to unthaw :/ Uggh, I know I should be thankful for my education, but it's hard sometimes ...

Oops, sorry I always write so much! Hope to hear from you soon!~

I'm alive!! Sorry it's been a while, I had tests in Spanish, Chemistry, History, Geometry, P.E., and chair placements in band that I was practicing for! Now I'll go on a posting spree and catch up w/ everything :D

So I didn't get to reading The Last Battle this summer. You probably know how it is when you find more books you want to read and read them first instead, and you don't actually get to reading the books you wanted to read in the first place! I'll let you know when I read it though- hopefully soon! 

Do you do any art: drawing, painting, ect.? I like sketching sometimes, mostly horses :) I took an art class 2 years ago and also had landscape painting lessons a reeeally long time ago. I'm a perfectionist, and I always hate how my paintings turn out because they're nothing like how I imagine them to be! I've been reading some graphic novels with very beautiful art lately, and I kind of want to try doing some sort of a story in a graphic novel format now. 

I hope you had good weekends! Bye for now!

Hello again! Calligraphy and illumination sound beautiful! I feel like talking about books and writing, so hopefully that's good with you! :) *launches into book discussion!*

I'm currently re-reading The Mysterious Benedict Society, which is very good and very funny! I love books that can make me laugh, no matter how serious the situation the characters are in! I've had it before with other series (have you read the Green Ember??) that I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time, so I just sort of made an awkward choking noise!

I often dream about the books I'm reading, and meet the characters in my dreams too. When I was reading Lord of the Rings for the first time, I dreamed that one of the characters was bad, and then I didn't trust that character for a long time. (He turned out to be good, which was almost a disappointment!). 

Are you two writing any stories at the moment? When I write stories, I have so much fun with my main characters, and then I struggle getting conflict, or making antagonists. Part of me just wants everyone to be nice and good, but then it's not a story! Do you have any tips on making villains and things? I also want to write about meaningful things, and topics I care about, but it's so hard to incorporate that without making the story too serious, so I'm not sure what to do. Any thoughts about that? 

Hope to hear from both of you soon! 

That's definitely good with me! There's nothing more interesting than talking about books and writing :)

No, I haven't read The Green Ember, though I've heard of it - I should probably try reading it. And yes, definitely books with some humor are The Best.

Omg, I've dreamed about book characters once or twice too! Only after I'd finished the books they came out in, though. Oh dear, he was good :/ He should have had a proper respect for how he appeared in your dream. I myself just finished reading Ivanhoe - it was better than I'd expected it to be, and though it does go into long, long descriptions, it somehow manages to keep you interested all the way to the end. I finished it in about three days ;) 

Yes, I'm writing stories - four of them, two of which are solo writes :/ Rather obviously, none of them are advancing that quickly. Probably I ought to just leave one of them for later, but now I'm wrapped up in all of them, and so it gets very difficult. Oh dear, yes, I sympathize - antagonists are very tricky to inlude in stories. My tips would be to either go ahead and make the villain wIcKeD but know that he/she will be ousted in the end (which usually makes the ending wonderful and worth all the things your characters went through in the rest of the story), or introduce a villain who has a reason for doing the things he/she does (for example, a troubled past), and have him/her/whatever relent in the end. Also, it helps to make the villanies of the villain open new paths for the heroes or force them to take new routes that might be better for them in the end.

Yes yay, it's great to hear that you also try to incorporate things that matter to you in your books :) I also do that, where possible. In fantasy, it's helpful to include those elements but in a semi-disguised form - for example, if you want to talk about the wildfires in Canada, you can have the heroes have to fight a string of fires or something like that. In realistic fiction, if you don't want it to become too serious, you can have your protagonist worry about it (e.g., taking the same example of the wildfires, "Grandma was adamant that 'The wildfires can't touch me', but when I thought about the fires encircling her tiny town out there in Canada, I couldn't help hoping she'd be all right.") I've found that that also helps to add depth and meaning to my writing.

Anyway, I sould probably stop there for now, but I hope this long ramble helps :)