Eldarwen (http://thefaithfulelvenprincess.blogspot.com/2010/04/lets-party-shall-we.html) is having a blog party and an awesome giveaway for the Owl City cd Ocean Eyes. And here’s the tag (I love tags ^_^)

1) How old are you? I’m sixteen. Seventeen in August.

2) What name do you go by on blogger? Gabriellan

3) When is your birthday? August 30

4) If you could live anywhere in the world, besides where you live now, where would it be? California. I was born there and I loved the beach.

5) How did you find out about Blogger? From Earwen. I found out about WordPress from her, too.

6) Tell us something interesting about yourself: Hm. My little brother and I have this game where we tickle each other and then blame it on an invisible man. Huh. Sounds less crazy when you’re actually doing it.

7) What was your favorite toy when you were little? Plastic horses. My favorite one was a bay named Star that my sister gave to me for my birthday. My cousin broke off all his legs. *sigh*

What is your favorite meal? Have you ever cooked/helped cook that meal? My favorite meal is barbecued ribs and mashed potatoes, or Shepherd’s Pie. I’ve helped cook both.

9) If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I’d want to be less lazy. I enjoy napping way too much.

10) Are you an outside person, or an inside person? I don’t know. Depends on the season.

11) Are you a mommy’s boy/girl, or a daddy’s boy/girl? Neither, although I spend more time with my mom.

12) In one word, describe the feeling you get when you stub your toe, after just being told by your parents that you are grounded for the next month: (gotta copy Earwen on this one) AARRRRGGGGHHHH!

13) Let’s say you TP’d your friend’s house (for those of you who don’t know what TP’d stands for, it means toilet papered. As in, put toilet paper on their trees, cars, house, porch, etc.). If someone asked you why you TP’d your friends house, you would say: It seemed like a good idea at the time.

14) Have you ever gone swimming in deep, dark, dirty water? Yes, at the South Carolinian beach. Right after watching Jaws. It was…interesting.

15) Have you ever dreamed about getting ready to leave the house, and forgetting to get your pants on? No. But I have started out of the house in my pajamas; and in clothes with slippers.

16) Have you ever done something so ridiculous, that you wish you’d never done it? If so, what? I love doing ridiculous stuff, like making faces at other people when we’re driving. I haven’t regretted any of it. So far

17) Imagine that you saw a purse snatching. What would you do?

a) scream and run away. b) move out of the state/country. c) tackle the purse snatcher to the ground. d) ignore it, start whistling, and turn the other direction. c, definitely. I’m always happy to help – plus my dad had me and my siblings do wrestling matches when we were younger. I like to hit people.

18) How many friends do you have on blogger? I d’know… but I love em all!

19) What makes blogging so much fun for you? I like to talk, and on a blog I don’t have to try to talk louder and faster than all my siblings

20) You’re a turtle, who has bet that you can win a race with a rabbit. How does it turn out? I’d probably feel bad for the rabbit and let him win. I’m such a pushover.

A Funny Story

Why did I say this was a funny story? Because it’s not funny. AT ALL. It’s a terrible story, actually, filled with my misery. This is what happened.

Sunday night, me and my friend Karlee decided to have a writing contest. I forgot I had a dentist appointment. Early Monday morning my mom drags my sorry self out of bed to the dentist so I can get my spacers on. I had no idea what spacers were and in case you don’t know, either, I’ll tell you. THEY SUCK. They’re tiny little rubberbands stuck between your teeth. You’d think they wouldn’t hurt at all. Think again. My teeth are so close together, when the spacers went on my mouth was so sore I couldn’t even sleep. I couldn’t eat, either, so I had to sit at the dinner table and have yogurt while my family had chicken.

Early Tuesday morning I am once again dragged out of bed and to the dentist to get the braces put on. First they had to yank the spacers out, in which process I just about cried, and then they jammed on these metal bands in the back of my mouth. My eyes watered then. It hurt, and the only thing I had for comfort was Spongebob on TV. So finally the braces are on and I’m thinking, not too bad. By the time I got home, I was thinking something else entirely.

Mom gave me aspirin. My mouth had actually stopped hurting so bad by then so I figured I’d take some aspirin and I’d be back to normal. After all, I had a piano recital later that I needed to be in top condition for. The aspirin didn’t do anything and the recital was absolute misery. There was even a reception afterward, and I couldn’t eat anything, which put me in an exceptionally bad mood. My bad mood was helped along even further when we got home and I found my sister had made my favorite dinner, which I also couldn’t eat.

So, starving and miserable, I took that wretched aspirin that hadn’t helped at all, and took…well, a bit more than they said to take. It was just the generic stuff – how potent could it be? Pretty potent, turns out. I got a headache, a stomachache, and a couple of interesting hallucinations for my trouble. The whole point of this to say, while I couldn’t write, the last hallucination gave me a great idea for a plot twist for my novel.

My WIP

My current work in progress is Nobody’s Angel, the fourth part of the Promise Trilogy. Yes, I know, a trilogy is only supposed to have four parts. But the third book, Promise Child, only opened up a thousand new plot threads and it was impossible to end them all. I’m still calling it a trilogy, though. A trilogy plus one, maybe.

At the moment, the novel has thirty-eight pages, 21.300 words, and four chapters. It’s a decent count. I started the novel on the seventeenth of this month. My sister Dominique and I are racing to see who can finish their novel first. It’s not really a fair race. I have my own laptop, my navy blue Toshiba named Tasha, and Dominique uses the ancient desktop in my parents’ room.

My word count goal is 80.000, the same as the other three books. The plan is to be done with the first draft before the end of the month, so I can devote all my time to studying for the ACTs. Not to mention my mother and sisters are threatening to read the first two books. They probably won’t appreciate not knowing what happens in the end.

I finally got my book!

I've been sick for a couple of days (during spring break no less) but on Thursday I finally managed to get up and walk around without running into any walls :) And I got my proof copy from Createspace!

You’re supposed to name eight books you would really like to live in for a week, then tag eight people. Here are my answers:

1. Maximum Ride

2. Any of the Secret Series books

3. Timelock

4. Curse of the Blue Tattoo

5. Firefly Dancer (my first ever novel)

6. Phantom Stallion

7. East

8. Line of Fire (my other novel)

I tag: Everyone who loves a great book! ^_^

Photo Contest

I entered a photo scholarship contest with one of my absolute favorite pictures. You can see the picture (and vote for it, if you'd like!) at the bottom of my blog.

Seven Things...

Here is a list of seven books that everybody should read.

1. The Name of this Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch - it's the first book in the Secrets Series. I think it's YA but pretty much anybody can read it.

2. The Angel Experiment by James Patterson - excellent cast of characters, fight scenes, and flying kids. YA

3. Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by...um, I forgot - my favorite book ever, containing invisible dragons and a girl masquerading as a boy. YA.

4. A Voice In the Wind by Francine Rivers - the first of the Mark of the Lion series. Once again, excellent characters. Christian Romance, I think.

5. Dairy Queen by Catherine Murdock - DJ is one of my all-time favorite novel characters. She lives on a dairy farm, which she basically runs by herself, and she wants to play football. YA

6. Firestorm by I have no idea - first book in the Caretaker Trilogy. Has a very interesting style of writing. For the older end of YA.

7. Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw - I had to read this for school. It's historical fiction. I absolutely loved it; five out of five stars. I guess it's YA.