New Adventures!

Sorry I haven't written in forever! Emmalee read me what she had posted, and I think she summed up my life at the moment quite well. She's a great secretary, I think everyone should have an Emmalee.
    So, I told a friend of mine I'd make his birthday cake in September. I don't think I've talked about him before, so we're just going to call him Ty. Any way, I told Ty I'd make his cake and yesterday I was hanging out with him and a few other people at Coldstone and he said "Hey Sooz, I want that kind of cake" pointing at an ice cream cake. "Okay" I said and he was like "Really? Aren't those kind of hard to make?" and I gave him that look like 'are you doubting my domestic skills?' and then I responded with, "I love a challenge" SO, I am going to do a trial run this weekend I think...who wants ice cream cake???? Let me know if you live in the general vicinity of my house :)
    On an entirely random note, sort of entirely random because I had Emma make mention of it last post, but I saw the new Jane Eyre movie and I LOVE it. Even though its REALLY sad...until the end. It does end well, that made me happy. After watching the movie I read the book, and I liked them both really well!
However, I feel that the girl that plays Jane in the movie is an awkward kisser. I know this is random, and I refuse to admit how many times I have watched this movie since I first saw it...but its a lot, and at first I was trying to figure out why its awkward when they kiss...and its totally because she's AWKWARD. SUPER AWKWARD. Go watch the movie and you'll totally see what I mean!
BUT, in watching this movie, I thought the guy that plays Mr. Rochester (Michael Fassbender is his name), looked kind of familiar...like I'd seen him in something else recently. He kind of looks a little like Hugh Jackman at first, and then it hit me...He's MAGNETO in X-Men: First Class!!!!!!!! Another of my recent favorite movies! Only he's more attractive in that one because he has short hair and no facial hair.AND, because in Jane Eyre, Mr. Rochester is like 40 or something and they totally made him look older than he actually is (he's actually 34...in case you were wondering...).
  
     Um...I'm in school this semester. Yay for Soozee! I'm going back full time...lets pray I don't die, or fail. Both would be equally horrible. I am taking 2 English classes (Critical Intro. to Literature, as well as Post 1800 British Literature) a health class, and an Ethics and Values class that I am no very excited for, however, after this semester I only have math to get through and I'm completely DONE with generals!!! HOORAY!!! Be excited/happy for/with me!!!!
     Many of my brothers will die after I confess this next random thought of the week...I kind of like country music lately. There is a song by Blake Shelton (not even like pop country...we're talking COUNTRY country.....CRAZY!) called God Gave Me You....oh my gosh, I love that song. Its already made it on the top 25 in my itunes...in fact it is currently #3 after All We Are by Matt Nathanson (which will remain #1 for forever if I have any say in it!) and There There Katie by Jack's Mannequin. OH, PS: I am going to see Jack's Mannequin LIVE in October! I'm SUPER DUPER excited for that one! Me, Fort, and my brother are all going. Its going to be sooo much fun! But yeah, Soozee and country music, who knew?!?!?! Right!?!?!?!
    I'm just going to apologize now and let you all know that if I don't blog very much in the next little while it is only because I'll be a hermit in school. But, I love you all and will update, or have Emmalee update as often as possible, k!?!?!?!

NOTE: Please read in a British accent

Hello!
     This is Soozee's secretary Emmalee, yes I am in fact British, so its best if you read everything I write today in my native accent. Soozee has been far too busy lately to write and has requested I write you very quickly in her stead. She has been incredibly busy working both jobs as well as making a few cakes, attending a few weddings, and writing...she is always writing!
     In other random news, she also wanted to fill you in a little bit on the whole Digger situation, he did move about an hour away, and about 2 blocks from Soozee's best friend Fort. Ironic, I know! And she also said to mention that she has talked to Digger more now than when he lived here, so we are looking at this as good news.
     Soozee's best friend Tex got married over the weekend and Soozee said it was a beautiful occasion that she was very grateful she was able to attend. Tex has been like family to her for years and I have had the opportunity to meet both him and his wife on a few occasions and join with Soozee in wishing them the best in their new life together.
     Soozee also requested I inform you of a few movies she will be mentioning next time she posts. She has seen the new Capt. America: The First Avenger movie and absolutely loved it! So much in fact, it inspired a Chris Evans movie week, so I'm sure she'll have pictures to post as well. Also, she just watched this years version of Jane Eyre, which I was very interested in seeing as well. There were actually quite a few more well known actors in this version, including the guy that played Magneto in X-Men: First Class as Rodchester. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing my native countryside and also the story unfold. But, I will let Soozee talk more about that later.
    Over all, she is still alive and I hope this will suffice for those of you that have missed Soozee's random ramblings as she calls them. If you have any questions or concerns for her well being, feel free to comment or e-mail me at ninjasecretary@gmail.com and I will be sure and pass along a post-it note with your request.

Best Wishes,
Emmalee Fairfax

Jake's New Name

So, I took into consideration all of your ideas and talked to a few friends and decided to change Jake's name back to Nick. So, his name is now Nicholas Andrew Sorensen. I think this will clear up all the confusion the two JA names created. I was talking to Digger about this change and he thought it was brilliant. Oh, and he moved an hour away. Yeah, that kind of sucks a little bit...but at least he moved to the same area as all of my best friends (Fort, Tex, my brother, etc) so, its not an entirely sucky thing.

New Name For Jake

Jake has had many names. After talking to Digger about my book, it was quite obvious that having both a Jake and a Jason gets WAY too confusing. SO, I need to change Jake's name. He's had several names through out the drafts. Some previous names are:
Nathan
Tyler
Jake
Adam
Nick
Matt
or Andrew
what do you guys think? Do you like any of those names, or do you have a different one not starting with J that you think would be AMAZING to see in a book?

Its Fancy, Its Nancy, IT'S FANCY NANCY!!!!

For her birthday last year, a good friend of mine requested a Hello Kitty cake. It turned out fabulous and I was soooo freaking proud of that cake! Man, it was beautiful. So, this year when I asked her what she wanted, she had to think about it. How do you top THAT cake? I mean really. It was a work of art. And then, she said two words that first sent me scrambling, but I recovered and came up with something BRILLIANT! Those two words were: FANCY NANCY. I had heard of the books, though never read through any of them. Sad, I know, but I have since remedied that. My friend said that the first one was her favorite, so I took that as my main inspiration and then went from there. Here is the end result:

Beautiful, no? I think so! I am so proud of how this cake turned out! Its a 6" cake of funfetti goodness that I decorated entirely in pink. I googled Fancy Nancy pictures, printed them out, lamenated them and then put them on toothpicks so they would stand up on the cake. GENIUS! Thank you to my sister and sister in law for their help! I don't know what I would do without my good friends that are constantly inspiring me!



And, since it is the first Friday of July, I am linking this post in with Becky's link party!!! Heck yes, so much fun!!

A New Beginning

I have gone back and forth on whether or not to post this, but here it is. This is the new opening for my book. Let me know what you think, k? Thanks!!!

KYLA

The sunshine and breeze created dancing shadows across the snow around the cemetery. I could almost hear the words of the eulogy being spoken on the air as I knelt down in the snow, I was finally here. It was cold and wet, but I didn't really notice. I touched the headstone as if touching it might help me feel closer to him, but I knew he was gone.

Jakob Andrew Sorenson

May 16, 1986 – November 20, 2010

A few tears fell silently to the ground as the memories flooded back through my mind. This was not how my story was supposed to go. My life was just about to begin, and now I felt like it had come to an abrupt end.

            “It was a beautiful service. I wish you could have been there for it.” I jumped, not expecting to see anyone. I hadn't even heard her approach. I recognized the woman's voice and looked up to see Jake's mother standing a few feet away. I stood, brushing the snow off my coat and attempting to look presentable. I was trying to think of the words to say that would somehow make this okay, but they weren't there. Instead, all I could say was,

            “I'm so sorry...” sorry for not helping him, sorry for not being here, sorry for everything...the words were not enough, they seemed like cheap filler words for an unspoken emotion. As we approached each other, she held her arms and I fell into her embrace. She held me close and tight as if she could take away the pain I was in. I was amazed at her compassion and strength. She was dealing with the loss of her oldest son, he pride and joy. He had meant the world to her, and now he was gone. All of those hopes and dreams shattered like glass across the pavement.

            “You have nothing to be sorry for, Kyla”

            “I should have been here. I should have done more. I should have...” She took a step back so she could look into my eyes. Her gaze was penetrating and sincere. There were tears in her eyes, too. I knew this was just as hard for her as it was for me.

            “There is nothing more you could have done. You were in the hospital during his funeral with a fight of your own. We all know you wanted to be here, and none of us think less of you for not coming. We are all just grateful that we didn't lose you too.”

          Jake’s family, as well as my own had been holding their breath the night of the accident. After all that happened, I should not be here right now. In fact, I shouldn't even be alive, let alone breathing on my own, walking around three states away from the horrific car accident that took Jake's life. The doctors kept telling me it was a miracle I was still alive, and when I kept improving so quickly, they said they had never seen a recovery so quick and so thorough from such a serious accident.

Inspiration

I have been feeling totally lost when it came to Changing Tyde. I knew there was more to write, I just didn't know how. Then, the semester ended and I had more time to write, so I wrote a few scenes I really fell in love with, the only thing was, they were single scenes, not more of the story. I felt like I was forever away from being done with it.
     A couple summers ago, I hung out with AHG a lot and I was writing quite a bit and I would bounce ideas off him about guys and how my two main guys should act and what not. It was a lot of fun, and I felt like Jason was becoming an actual character. I wrote one scene in particular that I sent to AHG when it was done and he was really surprised by it and said it was really good.
    Now, fast forward two years and I'm still not done writing Changing Tyde. I feel like I'm hitting a brick wall. A few months ago, I recruited Digger to help me just like AHG had, but Digger is incredibly busy. So, last week after church I asked if he had any time this week so I could bounce ideas off of him. He said Wednesday night was probably the only free night he had. I worked until 8, but then we could get together. So, Wednesday night comes and I call him when I get off...no answer...so, I leave a message. About a half hour later I get a text from him apologizing because he spaced it, but that he will make it up to me. So, we reschedule for Thursday night.
     Thursday night around 8PM still haven't heard from Digger, so I send him a text asking if he has time that night, or if he needs to reschedule, or if he is just too nice of a guy to tell me doesn't want to/have time to help me, and that if the latter option is the case to please just let me know so we don't waste our time. No response for like 45 minutes when there's a knock on the door. Its Digger. I open the door and he apologizes again for not being able to meet up. He had work stuff come up again and needs to reschedule. He also said that he didn't want to text me to reschedule because he felt really really bad for not being able to meet with me. He said that he really did want to help me and that he had Sunday afternoon to meet up.
     One of my friends says I am too forgiving, especially when it comes to Digger. Apparently I was supposed to be all hateful towards him for rescheduling again. But, he didn't have to come over to my house to apologize in person. He didn't have to apologize at all, we didn't have a set time or a set plan for Thursday, really. He didn't have to do any of it, but he did. Because he's a good person. As he left that night I could help thinking that he really is one of the nice guys you don't come across very often. Its sooo frustrating dealing with him a lot of the time, but when it counts, he does care.
     So, fast forward to Sunday. I had sent him a copy of my manuscript (which is still just around 100 pages) and highlighted parts I wanted his insight on. We got together after ward stare and ended up talking about it for about an hour or so. It was so great to talk to someone that hasn't heard about this story for the last 3 years (not that I am ungrateful to all of you who have listened to me go on and on and on and on about Jason and Jake and Kyla! I LOVE YOU!!!) it was fresh insight and also, he gave me some great ideas of ways to improve the characters and just some things he thought might help. He didn't know how long the story was until he pulled it up to read it today, so when I asked him what all he read he was like "Suzy, its 100 pages long! I only had time to read the highlighted parts. I had no idea you had that much written" which made me laugh! ha ha!
     Any way, I have a lot of new ideas. Digger liked it a lot and told me I am a good writer and that my story is believable, which is exactly what I was going for. So awesome when you get the idea you are trying to get across. I have a lot of work to do, but I finally feel like I can make progress! HOORAY!
    Also, through out the conversation, Digger brought up Twilight and why it works, which leads me to believe he has read the series, which makes me laugh a little bit inside because if you ever meet Digger, he doesn't come across as the Twilight reading, bachelor/bachelorette watching guy that he actually is. ha ha ha, I'm still laughing a little bit. He's a very interesting guy, but I am grateful for his help. He wants to be kept in the loop on my book, and I am more than happy to bounce ideas off of him.
     Therefore, stay tuned to changes that are sure to come soon to the one and only Changing Tyde. You know you're a little bit excited, as you should be!