Saturday, January 9

My New Book

I've just released my new fanfiction book, Family Legacy on Wattpad! I would really love it if you checked it out! Here's the link-- https://www.wattpad.com/206414840-family-legacy-chapter-one-i-wish-i-wasn%27t-a-malfoyon Wattpad! I would really love it if you checked it out! Heres the link-- https://www.wattpad.com/206414840-family-legacy-chapter-one-i-wish-i-wasn%27t-a-malfoy.
The description is here: Albus Potter, Hazel Malfoy, Scorpius Malfoy, and Rose Weasley are new first-years at Hogwarts, and the four of them only have one thing in common-- they're determined to change the destiny that their parents have unknowenly written for them. Albus wants to be known for something other then his father, Hazel wants to have her Malfoy legacy disappear entirly, Rose wants the Weasley name to be the best, not the sidekick of others. And Scorpius Malfoy wants to be proud of his last name, and change the meaning of it as well.
Follow these four young wizards as they fight to break from the path that the Potters, Malfoys, and Weasley's have always walked.
Chapter One: I Wish I Wasn't a Malfoy
My shining blond hair is covered by my black robes, which I have pulled up to hide the revealing masses within. Scorpius has not done the same, and even though he does not look much like father, the crowd of first years avoid him. They point their fingers at my twin, whispering about the linage of the Malfoy's and how we're all destined to be in Slytherin and take over the world.
All of the first-years are standing outside of the Great Hall, nervously staying as a group and murmuring about which house we want to be in. I can tell the Muggle-borns from the half-bloods, and the children of famous and not-so famous witches and wizards. When you are despised and hated by almost everyone in the Wizarding world, you know who has the most against you. I did all of my research before coming to Hogwarts— Mum made sure of that.
To my right, I don't look. I will not look at the shaggy brown hair that is so much like his father's, or the mass of red curls that hide the brain that she inherited from her mother. It's not that I hate them, but I know that once they see my face, and hair, which is almost identical to my father's, they will hate me.
Everyone hates a Malfoy.
I weave through the crowd and grab my brother's shoulder. He looks at me, then his face relaxes.
"Hazel," he said bluntly, obvious to the pointing fingers," why are you hiding yourself in—" he stopped and yanked my robes back into their place. My blond hair fell back to my shoulder, it's platinum sheen revealing the origins of my parenthood.
"Scorpius!" I hissed. "I told you that I don't want to be a Malfoy, okay? That was my last tactic before they place that bloody Sorting Hat and it tells everyone that I'm in Slytherin, just like all of the other Malfoys before me."
"Don't be ashamed of our name," said Scorpius. His grey eyes drifted over my shoulder and widened in fear. "We'll continue this conversation later," he said, and turned me around.
An elderly but formidable-looking witch with glasses stood a little ways from our group. She wore black robes and a hat, and although wrinkles were all over her face she radiated an aura of power and discipline.
"Welcome to Hogwarts, first-years," she said, nodding at our group. "I am the headmistress, Professor McGonagall." She turned a little towards a pair of giant black doors that framed four hourglasses full of red, blue, green, and yellow gems. "In just a few moments we will be entering these doors, where all of you will be sorted into houses."
My stomach turned queasily. However hard I wished not to be like a Malfoy, I had known my entire life that I would be sorted into Slytherin. Not because Malfoys were always sorted into Slytherin, but because all of my personality traits matched the descriptions of the house itself.
"There are four houses," Professor McGonagall explained, probably to all of the muggle-borns who hadn't even picked up one book to learn about magic before starting at Hogwarts. "Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Huffelpuff, and Slytherin."
Did I imagine it? Or did her face twitch in an odd face when she said Slyhrerin.
"Your house is like your family at Hogwarts," she continued," And will suffer if you break any rules. You break rules, points are taken away. If you do something good, your house will receive points. At the end of the year, we have a celebration for the house with the most points."
From the very front of the crowd a no-nonsense voice piped up. "Can we get sorted to our houses now? Hogwarts: A History explains all of this." Rose Weasley looked at the crowd, smirking slightly. "For those who bothered to memorize all of our textbooks, anyway."
"Who is that?" said Scorpius, trying to see over the heads of a tall Muggle-born.
"Rose Weasley," I murmured. "Daughter of Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley. Harry Potter's best friends."
Scorpius nodded understandably. "She despises us, then."
I wasn't able to answer as Professor McGonagall wordlessly turned around and pushed open the giant doors. Immediately, a warm, comforting glow, like Malfoy Manor's lights entered the hallway.
The Headmistress led us down two tables, which I guessed were Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, from the color of the badges and scarves they wore. Thousands of candles were floating aimlessly across the room, and if I craned my neck I could see all of the stars in the sky, projected on the roof.
Scorpius and I walked together, with all eyes upon us. The line of first-years stopped a couple of meters away from a small, rickety stool. Professor McGonagall now was holding a greying, patched hat in her hand, and a scroll of names. But it was the hat that held my attention. Did it know the tremendous job it had? How did it choose where to put everyone? Could it really see my secrets and thoughts?
Just being near the Sorting Hat made my thoughts seem open, like everyone in the room could read them.
Professor McGonagall unrolled the parchment, and read the first name.
"Brocklehurst, Brook," the Sorting Hat said," GRYFFINDOR!"
I felt my palms sweating desperately as the names ticked by.
"Finnigan, April!"
From the ranks of the first-years a chubby, straight brown-haired girl sat down on the stool. The Sorting Hat was placed upon her head, and April's face twisted as the second ticked by.
The Sorting Hat took several more seconds deciding, until is finally shouted," RAVENCLAW!"
With a relived smile, April yanked the hat off her head and handed it to Professor McGonagall. She bounded to the table of cheering students, and sat down in the middle of a clot of second or third-years.
"Nott, Peter!"
A sandy-haired boy stumbled up to the stage and sat rigidly on the stool. I tipped my head, remembering that his grandfather was a Death Eater, imprisoned in Azkaban.
Just like my grandfather, I thought, as Peter ran off to the Slytherin table in triumph.
Just as MacDougal, Jane, was sorted into Huffelpuff, Professor Mcgonagall peered at the paper and said,"Malfoy, Hazel!"
I swallowed, and felt Scorpius's hand on my back. Fighting all instincts to run away from my destiny as a Malfoy, I took slow steps to the stool, and the Sorting Hat. Sitting down on the hard wood, Professor McGonagall dropped the piece of fabric onto my white-blond hair.
As soon as it touched my I heard a voice in my head that was not my own.
"Hmmm," the Sorting Hat said. I gripped the edges of the stool, terrified. "Very interesting. There's ambition in there, and smarts. Not a huge amount of kindness or patience, so that rules out Huffelpuff. Gryffindor?" I felt like I was going to fall off the chair. "No, not a bad mind, brave, very cunning. I guess that it's going to be SLYTHERIN!"
The hat tilted off of my head, and I left it on the ground. I staggered from the stool and to the Slytherin table, which was clapping like crazy from me.
Wonderful, I thought. Now I'm really a Malfoy.

Wednesday, January 6

WattPad

A perfect platform for young writers is WattPad, an international writer's and reader's site. Bascially, you can post ANYTHING-- a script, story, novel, poem, novella, ext. and get readers, votes, and comments about your work. And if you don't feel really like doing that, you can aleways read other people's work and comment on that.
If you write on WattPad, you can choose form many different copyrights. There is All Rights Reserved, and a bunch of others that I don't know what they are or what the names are. It's very handy because you can also see the gender, counry, and ammount that each person read on you novel.
There have been many succssess sotries on WattPad, wherre books get milions of pageviews ab=nd then someone like Harper Collins (largest published in the world) buys the book and publishes it.
My username on WattPad, if you want to follow my novels and novellas, is Brooke_Writer. I am currently posting a warrior cats fanfiction on my page, but one other novella is on there- Kat and the Great Zoo After Dark Adventure.

I hope you join, and be sure to let me know your username in the comments below. I would love to follow you!

Monday, January 4

My Fight Against Deadlines

This piece was just published on Laura Thomas Communications. Here is the link to the website: http://laurathomascommunications.com/my-fight-with-deadlines/

My Fight Against Deadlines
They are a funny thing: deadlines.
They help writers manage their time wisely and develop good habits. But it’s hard to make deadlines, and sometimes they may seem impossible because we never see them coming. Even as the clock ticks or the grains of sand fall softly into the bottom of the hourglass, the due date never seems to matter until those final, rushing moments. So whether it is a science essay or a writing contest, it often seems like we have all the time in the world. Then comes the realization: we don’t!
Personally, deadlines are the one thing I fear about writing. So much so that on numerous occasions I ignored a deadline until the very last day. Then, when the time came to submit, I rushed and panicked to write a piece in a couple of hours and forgot to proofread my work! The result was a sloppy piece of writing that was not even close to being publishable.
Whenever I got feedback on those pieces, they all said the same thing: “Don’t send in your first draft!”
Clearly, rushing to the very last second was not working.
I tried another way, finishing my writing pieces weeks before the deadline and getting them to the inbox quickly. That was not very smart either. I did each draft at the speed of light and on the same day. This way I could proofread and edit with plenty of time to spare, but I never looked at my story or article from a different angle or perspective. I kept looking at my piece and thinking about how far I had come from my sloppy first draft, not how far I could go to make my piece the best it could be.
I was losing both ways, being pummelled back and forth like a volleyball on the court: too rushed, no proofreading, and back again. I was developing bad habits from my lack of discipline and getting nowhere in the publishing industry.
I really had to sort out my writing priorities. I needed a plan.
So, instead of doing everything way before the deadline or in the last few hours, I went for the spread-out version. Doing the first draft one day, leaving it for a week and then doing the second draft afterward. This process allows me to look at each new draft differently and feel less rushed. I am able to overcome the dreadful ticking of the clock.
Now that I know how to maneuver around the dreaded deadlines, trying to publish my writing is less stressful and easier, too. Even though my experience was painful, it allowed me to grow as a writer. Though it may seem difficult, or even impossible to overcome deadlines, it is doable. You can beat them, as long as you have the right plan.

Sunday, January 3

Descriptions Contest

I was recently reading the poem Words by Pippa Liber, which is posted on my blog. Each word really, is special and unique. Sometimes I feel that we take words for granted, and don't give them enough credit. We do use them every day (unless you're mute). Anyway, I am proposing a challenge to all of my readers.

Write a 10 worded description of anything you would like, using any words you would like. The descriptions will be due on January 14, 2016, by midnight (Midwest time zone). The winning entries will be posted AND the winners will be able to publish any work of their choice (age appropriate and under 5000 words)

Fill out this form, and you'll be all set to go!

P.S: the descriptions will be judged by,

1. Grammar
2. Visualization
3. Usage of limited words

Saturday, January 2

Changes

Hello, everyone! I'm just writing this post to let you know about some changes in this blog.

1) I have started a new blog, The Writings of a Cat. You can find it here. I will be posting all of my OWN oringinal writing on that blog, strictly.

2) This is now a blog to read guest bloggers, book reviews, and writing tips.

Thanks for reading, and contact me if you have anymore questions.

Writing Groups

Although many writers prefer to write alone in their rooms, it is always a new and refreshing experience to write with someone else. Whether you join a large writing group or just write a poem or short story with your friend, the experience is rewarding and can unveil things that you could have never thought of alone. As they say, two pencils are better than one! (Okay, no one says that)

Joining a writing group doesn't even mean that you have to write with other people! Most of the time, if you have a writing group, you mainly write in a room and share feedback. In my writing group, one that I have with my best friends, we mainly just post our poems and stories onto our website and share feedback.

Writing novellas or novels with friends can be really fun as well. You and your friend can write each chapter together, or switch off. It all depends on what both of you agree on. Writing with other human being (so not your dog, even though he might be your best friend) allows you to grow as a writer by taking other people's ideas and critisim into account.

If you end up writing with a partner, remember that you can't be in charge the whole time. They have brilliant ideas, just as you have brilliant ideas, too. Somehow, you must forget about being right and combine both views to create a wonderful story.

Good luck!


I am currently writing a Warrior Cats fanfiction with my friend. You can find our story, River's Descending, here, if you have a Wattpad account. We hope you like it! 

-- Brooke_Writer and lynxkitten65

Friday, January 1

Reading List #10

Here is the final installment of my Winter Break Reading List. I hope you enjoyed!

10. Dragon Rider

Dragon Rider is another novel from the award winning author (Corneila Funke) of Inheart and The Theif Lord. This novel is just as quick-paced as her others, and a worthy addition to read by the fire this winter. The story tells of a young dragon who sets off to find his colony. On the way, he's being chased by a murderous dra-- Sorry! Can't tell you anymore, it's too good! Hope you read it, and see you at the Ring of Heaven. I did it again! I have to stop spoiling the book!