On the way home from a sweltering summer day, whilst sitting in the passenger seat of the car after arguing about critical aspects of our reality, I pondered about my new-found realization that:
Growing up is when you have
the wisdom to know when
to put someone else’s happiness
before your own.
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I absolutely adore this kind of music—the kind that alludes to dark themes but gives you a sense of dreaming and longing underscored by a femininely haunting and sensual voice. This particular song by Phantogram (cool name!) reminds me of a cross between The Raveonettes and Blonde Redhead.
In a moment of brief epiphany this past Sunday, it has occurred to me that lately all I want to do is escape…that is, into my imagination. When I was younger, I found reading to be one of the most mundane of activities that one could possibly do. As I look back now, I realize that I was gravely, carelessly wrong and that I obviously missed out on a lot of good things. Perhaps my desperate need to escape is a by-product of stress and other trivialities, but whatever the case may be, I find myself back on my original journey of discovering new pieces of myself, of the puzzle. I’ve lost touch with art but haphazardly found a new one of a different kind in the process. I’ve grown confused and sometimes disappointed with myself as a result, but I’m starting to see the bigger picture now. Art is a part of who I am and unlike other things, I will never lose it nor will it ever fade as time passes. It’s always inside me, just dormant and ever so slighty awakening in the most fleeting of moments. Because of that, I’m aware now that sacrifices have to be made and my rationing of time is in dire need of a reassessment. That is, if I wish to pursue all of my dreams in this one short lifetime. And acknowledging painful truths that grace comes with age is not always easy, but is a necessary aspect of wisdom nevertheless.
I used to think that my life was just riddled with storms here and there and that they would just eventually pass. But I’ve come to realize and accept now that for someone like me, storms, like art, will always be there as well. And the sooner I adapt to—instead of fight—this actuality, the sooner I can live life without the constant and often fruitless need for an umbrella.
I found this series last week and I can honestly say I am extremely obsessed now. I, along with thousands of other fans, am eagerly awaiting the arrival of book 3.
Here’s the first book’s description stolen from Amazon:
Kelsey Hayes was just a freshman in high school when her parents were killed in an automobile accident, sending her into the foster-care system. After graduation, she takes a job at a circus in Oregon to earn money for college. There, she becomes fascinated with the star attraction, a white tiger named Dhiren. When the tiger is sold to the mysterious Mr. Kadam, Kelsey is heartbroken-until Mr. Kadam offers her a job as Dhiren’s traveling companion. Because of her strong affection for the tiger, she agrees . When their truck is hijacked on a dirt road outside of Mumbai, Dhiren leads Kelsey deep into the jungle. There, he reveals his true nature: he is a three-hundred-fifty-year-old Indian prince, cursed by an ancient magician to live out eternity as a tiger. Young-adult readers will be enthralled by this mystical adventure story of a girl who risks her life to save the man she comes to love.
Colleen Houck, the author of this series, self-published the first two books through Amazon and Createspace and recently found an agent and got a deal with a publisher so needless to say, I find her very inspiring! The third book is being published with her new publisher so it’s been delayed but hopefully it’ll be out before Christmas. I love tigers so this was like a dream come true because I’ve never encountered such a cool story with tigers in it, ever, until I found her series.
I finally figured it out! So needless to say, I am very excited because now I can finally record and edit to my heart’s content minus the technical difficulties.
This is tentatively the main theme song for Red Reverie, hehe. I love Thrice!!!
I’m planning on buying this book for writers called “Stein on Writing” and perhaps by the end of this year or early of next, I’ll buy another book about how to find writing agents and sending query letters to publishers. I’m definitely going to try out indie publishing for sure though on Lulu and Amazon. I haven’t been writing that much as of late because of the simple fact that there’s just too much going on in my life, apparently. It is really difficult for me to find the time to both read and write and do video editing all at the same time, all while trying to keep the apartment clean and free of laundry and dishes. On a sunnier note, I finally got a solid plot line for Red Reverie going. All I’ll say for now is that I moved the location to here in Japan to make things more authentic. I’m extremely excited about writing it and am diligently *trying* to maintain a steady schedule of writing one page or at least 250 words per day. Oh and check me out on Goodreads!
Restored Macbook Pro to factory condition cos I messed up deleting my old Windows partition and it wouldn’t partition the drive anymore // After I restored, I created another Windows XP partition so that I can use Vegas Pro 9 for video editing // Starting fresh and importing only things I need instead of using Time Machine because I had too much junk and clutter to begin with // Got my book in the mail today: Daughters of the Witching Hill // Pre-ordered another book for the Kindle: Insatiable by Meg Cabot (which I can’t wait to read as well!) // Found a new home for Cookie, but it won’t be until August // Still looking for Mini’s new home // Ken is going on shift schedule next month in July // Gots to do my FAFSA by deadline June 30 // Really tied up at work with the magazine // Video editing on hold but have lots of footage to edit, i.e. Disneyland trip last Monday.
