*Important Notice*

This blog will be moving to stayandwatchthestars.wordpress.com as of now for... reasons. Mostly because I've grown to like Wordpress and hate this URL (Nerds Inc? Seriously?). Anyway, sorry for any inconvenience.

My Hero Monday: JK Rowling

This month, I've decided to participate in My Hero Monday, a monthly blog link-up over at A Girl's Voice and Free As A Girl With Wings (both of which are amazing blogs, and I highly encourage you to go check them out). It celebrates female heroes, and also encourages people to learn about new ones. If you'd like to see other blogs participating, or join the link-up next month, I've included links at the bottom of this post.

Also, over the course of November, this blog will be moved over to http://stayandwatchthestars.wordpress.com/. But don't worry- it'll still have the same content and everything, just a new URL and layout. If you'd like to leave a comment on this post, I ask that you do it on Stay and Watch the Stars instead.

And now, [finally], let's begin!

{website/ blog} {pottermore} {twitter}

Full Name

Joanne "Jo" Rowling. She writes under the names of JK Rowling and Robert Galbraith

Birthdate

July 31, 1965

Current Age

49

School(s)

 Wyedean School, St Michael's Primary School, University of Exeter

What books has she written? Which one is my favorite? Why?

JK Rowling was the author of the Harry Potter series, along with a few of "spinoff" books (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Quidditch Through the Ages, etc.), and a couple of mystery novels (The Cuckoo's Calling and The Casual Vacancy). She's also published a novel named The Silkworm this year.

I haven't read either of her mystery novels, but the Harry Potter books have basically been my go-to series for the past six or seven years. I've loved the stories for a long time now, and I think they were one of the many things that inspired me to write. If I had to choose a favorite out of all of them... Maybe The Deathly Hallows or The Prisoner of Azkaban?

When did I first hear about her?

My mom and dad handed me the first book when I was in third grade and said "YOU NEED TO READ THIS SERIES." Well, maybe it didn't happen exactly like that, but my memory is fuzzy. All I know is that my parents recommended the Harry Potter series to me, and from then on, I was hooked.

What makes her one of my heroes?

Well, first off, she lost her billionaire status because she donated so much to charity. Honestly, I think that's something that billionaires should be obliged to do. Oh! And she was the first female novelist to become a billionaire, too! But anyway.

She went from being a single mom living in poverty to one of the most famous authors of our time. She's one of the people who proved to me that yes, you really can make a living off of being an author, and more. Not that it's likely. But still.

And finally, although I've always loved reading, JK Rowling was the one who turned that spark into a raging bonfire. She's an amazing author, and, in my opinion, an amazing role model as well.

Quotes

"Wherever I am, if I've got a book with me, I have a place I can go and be happy."

"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might not have lived at all- in which case, you fail be default."

"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

"I would like to be remembered as someone who did the best she could with the talent she had."

"We do not need magic to change our world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already."

Also, honorable mention goes to Malindo Lo (for inspiring me to write more diversity into my stories- you can find nevillegirl's post about her here) and Tamora Pierce (for writing fantastic fantasy novels and amazing heroines).

Be sure to check out the other My Hero Monday link-up posts!

November 3:

nevillegirl @ Musings From Neville’s Navel

Cait @ Notebook Sisters

November 10:

Bridget @ Nerds Inc.

Mawa Mahima @ All Things Wordy

Artgirl @ Alien Cows

November 17:

Charley @ Charley R’s Leaning Tower of Plot

November 24:

Orphu @ A Mirror Made of Words

Wrap-up by Engie @ A Girl’s Voice

What's Up in the Marvel Universe

There's a lot going on in the land of Marvel right now. I, for one, have been geeking out almost nonstop for the past week or so. A lot of this stuff is really awesome- for example, Marvel's first movies led by a woman and a POC have been announced. Also, the Age of Ultron Trailer has been released and it is perfection.

So let's take a look, shall we?

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First off, the absolutely perfect Age of Ultron trailer I mentioned. Gaze at the glorious thing that is this trailer. Done? (I'm not kidding. You need to watch it.) Good.

First off, the creepy Pinnochio music in the background needs to be mentioned. *shudders* And poor Bruce on the jet.

But what I really want to talk about? BALLET DANCERS. If my memory serves me correctly, one of Black Widow's covers back when she was with the Red Room was as a ballet dancer. So does this mean that we get to see more backstory for Nat in the Cinematic Universe? Let's hope so.

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Second, we got a full list of all the movies for Phase Three! For those of you who aren't IN the Marvel fandom and are more like casual bystanders, the Marvel movies are set up in "phases". Phase One was everything up to The Avengers, and Phase Two will include everything between Iron Man 3 and Ant-Man.

No Black Widow movie, unfortunately- but look what we do get! Carol Danvers AND Black Panther! DC did beat Marvel to the punch with Wonder Woman and Cyborg, but honestly, I'm not going to complain. I'm just happy that these two major companies are both starting to introduce more diversity into their films.

So, anyway, here's the list:

Pretty awesome, huh? I'm loving these gorgeous logos. Also, the introduction of Carol Danvers and the Inhumans means a future Kamala Khan movie is a possibility!

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And, in miscellaneous-but-still-awesome Marvel news (yes, there's more)...

• The Guardians of the Galaxy are getting their own animated TV show on Disney XD!

• For those of you who haven't heard already, there's an alternate universe where Gwen Stacey got spider powers instead of Peter Parker. Well, Spider-Gwen (as she's been dubbed by fans) is getting her own ongoing comic series! Also, several other fantastic Marvel ladies, including Gamora, Peggy Carter, and Silk are getting their own series as well. 
• The new Thor series (starring a mysterious woman as the new Thor) has started off with a bang. 
• And finally, the amazing Natasha Romanoff is getting a YA novel! It will be written by Margaret Stohl (author of the Beautiful Creatures series), and will come out in May 2015.

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So, anyway, I hope I haven't missed anything (but I probably did)! What are you looking forward to the most?

Planning for NaNoWriMo

I'll be doing the YWP again this year! My word count goal is currently 25,000 words, although I'll have to see how doable that is since I have a busier schedule than last time. You can check out the page on my WIP if you want to know more about it.

But enough about me- you want to know about how to plan for your novels, don't you?

Well, don't worry! I've got some tips coming!

Characters
One of my favorite parts of writing is seeing the characters come alive in my mind- there's a kind of magic to it. Character creation, for me, is a very long process, that starts with a concept and develops in my mind until I feel ready to write it all down.

I've always character questionnaires to be quite fun, so you might want to look around for one you like. Here's a link to one I've found that I liked.

Character story arcs are very important (but also fun!) These are woven in throughout your plot (or at least, that's how I do it). Basically, your character(s) should undergo some change through the novel. Maybe they mature a bit, or learn to trust their friends a bit more, or similar. So write that down.

Another thing that I find handy is to create timelines for my characters- a year by year (or month by month, or whatever) list of the major events in their life and influences on their personality.

Doodling your characters (if you like to draw) is fun as well, and can help clear up the picture in your mind.

Or throw your characters into a random situation, like a sit down dinner, and see what happens.

Basically, whatever works.

Story Arcs

Last year, my creative writing teacher gave me some excellent tips about this magical thing called the 8 Point Story Arc. It's basically eight "points" used to structure to main plot of your novel.

Stasis/ The Normal World
This is what life is like for your main characters before what most people call "the inciting incident". It should basically be a snapshot of day-to-day life for your characters before the action starts. And like a snapshot, it should be short- only a couple of pages at the most.

Trigger/ The Inciting Incident
This is what sets your character on their big adventure- something that the main character can't control. Sort of like Cinderella's fairy godmother.

The Quest
This is simple enough- it's whatever adventure the trigger set off. On your basic story arc, this is one part of the Rising Action.

Surprise
You may just have one of these, or you may have several. But the important thing is, the reader has to go "I did not see that coming."

Critical Choice
This is where your protagonist(s) make the big choice- the one that decides which direction the rest of your novel goes in. Many times choice is between hard but good or easy but bad. This point is what causes the climax.

The Climax
The highest peak of tension in your story. This event should ideally be caused by your character's critical choice.

Reversal
The reversal is the end of the critical choice and climax. It should change the status of your characters, like Cinderella going from a peasant to a princess.

The Resolution
This is where the story comes full circle. Any questions the reader had should have been answered by now, and your characters should have undergone some change through the story.

Are you doing NaNoWriMo? How do you plan to outline? Let me know in the comments!

Shipping and OTPs

Before we get started on the actual post, I'd like to let you know that I've written a co-review of "Kill the Moon" (S08, E07 of Doctor Who) with nevillegirl at Musings from Neville's Navel. You can find the post here.

For those of you who aren't neck deep in nerd culture and fandoms, I'm going to define what these mysterious "ships" and "OTPs" are (No, it has nothing to do with FedEx).

Shipping (Ship is short for relationship, I think?) generally means that you think two characters would make/ are a cute couple. Sometimes people also ship characters as just friends- they don't necessarily have to be in a relationship.

OTP stands for "one true pairing". The thing is, most people have multiple OTPs. It can be taken in different ways, like you have one OTP per fandom, or even per character.

So, anyway, now that I've defined those critical terms and self-promoted a bit (as usual), let's get started! I'm going to be listing my OTPs and my thoughts on them/ why I ship them. Hopefully, this one will have a bit more substance than my horrendous INTJ characters post.

Let the shipping begin!

Clint Barton/ Natasha Romanoff- Marvel Cinematic Universe



"Agent Barton was sent to kill me. He made a different call." -Natasha Romanoff, The Avengers

How could anyone not ship this? I mean, they're just so perfect for each other. You want chemistry? They've got chemistry. I can totally imagine them going on this super romantic dinner date and then right afterwards going out to kick some HYDRA butt or something.

Cecil/ Carlos- Welcome to Night Vale



"Neat!" -Cecil Baldwin, WTNV Episode 16 (The Phone Call)

Why do I ship them, you ask? HAHAHA Cecil and Carlos are just... They're just... so cuuuuute together. Also I have a weakness for ships where one or both of the people in it are super awkward and nerdy and obviously in love but have a really hard time expressing it and I just... It's perfect. They're perfect for each other.

Jenny/ Madame Vastra- Doctor Who



"I'm a lizard woman from the dawn of time, and this is my wife." -Madame Vastra, The Snowmen

Jenny and Vastra are really one of the only reasons I'm still watching this Moffat stuff. I don't have as much to say on this one, but... PERFECTION.

Sherlock Holmes/ Molly Hooper- Sherlock



"You've always counted." -Sherlock Holmes, The Reichenbach Fall

As I said, awkward-nerdy-but-still-adorable ships are one of my weaknesses. I don't really have a whole lot to say on Sherlolly either, though, aside from that it's cute.

Billy Kaplan and Teddy Altman- The Young Avengers



"Oh, ugh. Is love really going to save us all?" -Loki, Young Avengers #13

Why, you ask? Excuse me if I laugh at you again. Billy and Teddy are the best together, there's no denying it. They understand each other, and they're just such a (I feel like I'm really overusing this word but) cute couple.

Gertrude Yorkes and Chase Stein- The Runaways

"I was reventilating him. Anyone who says different gets fed to my dinosaur." -Gertrude Yorkes, Runaways #16

Throughout most of the original series, they hated each other (Well, at least, Gert hated Chase. I have no idea if Chase hated Gert or not.) and then BOOM.  They were absolutely in love and it was perfect. And it wasn't perfect, either. It was realistic. They had their ups and downs. It wasn't all just fluffiness and rainbows, but they still stayed together, and... I think that makes it all the better.

Let me know what your ships and OTPs are in the comments!

INTJ

First off, before we get started here, I'd like to shove you in the general direction of gently nudge you toward the new page I created on my current WIP novel.

And now that you've done that (You have, right? Thanks. You're an awesome human being. High five!), on to the actual post. Basically, I'm going to list a few characters who supposedly share my personality type and my thoughts on them and our similarities (because I like making lists).

If you want to try this, you can take the test here and find the character list here.

Brief summary of my type (INTJ): INTJs are clever, analytical, pragmatic and logical, and are not scared to tell someone (or themselves) when they're being stupid. They emphasize efficiency, making them simultaneously loners and excellent leaders.

Batman from DC Comics
As you probably already know, I'm not a huge DC fan and I really don't know enough about him to judge my thoughts on this one, but hey, I'm Batman!

Ebeneezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol
Um I really don't think so but oookay? Maybe I can see him being an INTJ, but I'm still not really very much like him.

Four (Tobias Eaton) from Divergent
I haven't read Divergent yet but I'm going to file this away for future reference.

Some Incarnations of the Doctor from Doctor Who
That's not very helpful. Maybe if I knew which ones it was talking about? Twelve, I suppose?

Severus Snape and Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter
NOPE. Voldemort isn't an INTJ.  I can say that for a fact. I mean, those long "I'm going to gloat and rant about you before I kill you" speech he does every time he gets his hand on Harry isn't very "clever, pragmatic, and logical" of him, is it? Maybe I can go with Snape. But not Voldemort.

Marvin the Paranoid Android from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
AHAHAHA My life is complete. I am Marvin the Paranoid Android. I guess I can maybe see a tiny bit of a resemblance? Maybe?

Smaug from The Hobbit
Why yes I do have a nasty habit of hoarding treasure. This is turning into less of a "deep thoughts on my similarities to the characters" and more of a sarcastic commentary.

Amon from The Legend of Korra
WOAH OKAY let's take a detour and talk about storylines that don't live up to their potential, yes? Because Amon and the Equalists had a lot of wasted potential. When they were first introduced, I had kind of expected them to be more of a metaphor for other real life equal rights movements. But then the show kind of brushed them off as being bad guys who think that the Benders are privileged even though they aren't. I felt like the storyline would have been a lot more interesting if it were more about Korra questioning the world as she knew it, and who was right- the Benders or the Equalists. If that makes any sense? Anyway. Back on track.

Scar from The Lion King
Why am I always the bad guy? Geez.

Loki from the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Um, yeah, I can agree with that one, actually. Even though he's a villain.

Tiana from The Princess and the Frog
YES AN AWESOME AND AMBITIOUS DISNEY LADY! AND SHE'S NOT A VILLAIN!

Professor James Moriarty and Sherlock Holmes from Sherlock Holmes
Annnnd another villain.

Khan from Star Trek: Into Darkness
First Sherlock, and now Khan. I'm sensing a pattern here.

So basically a short list of villains, with a few heroes and more sympathetic villains scattered in between. And I must say, I like a lot of the characters on this list.

My Favorite Comic Books

So, yes. It's been a really really long time since I actually posted on here. But hopefully I'm back now! And to get this blog up and running again, I've compiled a list of my favorite comic books, including what I liked, what I didn't like, etc. Enjoy!



The Avengers
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Main Characters: Iron Man, Captain America (Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes), Thor, Red Hulk, Spider-Man, Hawkeye, Wolverine, Spider-Woman
What I Liked: I've actually liked a lot of the Brian Michael Bendis stuff I've read so far. He does a really good job with the team dynamics, and sometimes the plotlines.
What I Didn't Like: You know how I said "sometimes" the plotlines? Yeah, well, in Avengers they're kind of a hit or a miss. Some I loved, some I didn't.
The Verdict: 6/10



Hawkeye
Writer: Matt Fraction
Main Characters: Clint Barton, Kate Bishop, and Pizza Dog
What I Liked: They were really funny, and the characters were really relatable. It was also really interesting reading a comic about a not-so-super hero while he's not being a... well... hero. And the cameos in vol. 2 were a lot of fun too. And Pizza Dog. I love Pizza Dog.
What I Didn't Like: It's fun. Not that that's a bad thing, but sometimes it feels like that was the sole goal of the book. When the plot did get "serious", it felt kind of... I don't know... dull. I dunno. Maybe I'm not making much sense here. Anyway.
The Verdict: 8/10



Amazing X-Men
Writer: Jason Aaron? I think?
Main Characters: Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Storm, Firestar, Northstar, Iceman, Azazel
What I Liked: Firestar's character development was great. Her change through the course of the story... She became a lot more confident in her place as an X-Man. And Nightcrawler's back! He's been one of my favorites ever since I got into X-Men. So that was great. I guess... just the characterizations overall. And the plot was very well done, too.
What I Didn't Like: The way it ended. I can't really go into detail without spoilers, but... just no. I didn't like the ending.
The Verdict: 8/10



Young Avengers
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Main Characters: Wiccan, Hulkling, Miss America, Kate Bishop, Kid Loki, Speed, Prodigy, Marvel Boy/ Noh Varr/ The Protector/ whatever he calls himself
What I Liked: The team dynamics and character development were AMAZING. I loved each and every one of the characters. And the writing was hilarious. And Billy and Teddy were just so darn CUTE together.
What I Didn't Like: The plot felt really rushed sometimes, like they were trying to cram too much into too few pages. And am I the only one who didn't get the whole Kid-Loki-Turning-Into-Teenage-Loki thing? I dunno.
The Verdict: 9/10



Excalibur (Classic)
Writer: Chris Claremont
Main Characters: Captain Britain, Meggan, Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, Rachel Summers
What I Liked: These are probably the oldest comics I've read which means they're from before 2000 and WOAH THERE'S MORE THAN ONE TOKEN GIRL ON THE TEAM THIS IS SHOCKING. But seriously. The plot was great (I loved the concept of the Warwolves), and a lot of my favorite characters were included.
What I Didn't Like: I found the art kind of meh, but that's just personal preference. It's also annoyingly hard to get your hands on a copy.
The Verdict: 7/10



Runaways
Writers: Brian Vaughan and Joss Whedon
Main Characters: Gertrude Yorkes, Karolina Dean, Nico Minoru, Chase Stein, Molly Hayes, Alex Wilder, Xavin, Victor Macha
What I Liked: Um. EVERYTHING. No. Just kidding. I'll try to be a bit more specific here. Most of the time, the art was great (most of the time meaning "when it wasn't that weird manga stuff"). The plotlines were stupendous. But the best part was the character development. If you like excellent, three dimensional characters, chances are you'll LOVE Runaways. As an added bonus, Joss Whedon was such a huge fan that when Brian Vaughan left he wrote a few issues.
What I Didn't Like: As mentioned before, after a little while, (around vol 9 I think?) the art style switched to a really weird manga-but-not-really thing and I didn't like it at all. Also, since the series was canceled in 2009, there are a ton of strings left untied that'll have you making up headcanons for years to figure out what happened.
The Verdict: 10/10 as long as you pretend everything after Joss Whedon's books never existed.



All New X-Men
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Main Characters: Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Angel, Archangel, Iceman, Shadowcat, Storm, Mystique (I feel like I'm forgetting someone, though...)
What I Liked: The plot was really unique, and it was pretty cool to see all the old X-Men trying to adjust to modern day life. Kitty's banter with Bobby was a lot of fun to read. The dark path Jean has started heading down is pretty interesting, although I'm not quite sure what's up with her relationship with Hank? But oh well. He's got to be better than Scott.
What I Didn't Like: SCOTT SUMMERS. Ugh. That guy. Get it? Huh? Huh? Thinly veiled Night Vale reference? But seriously. He's starting to get on my nerves. A lot.
The Verdict: 8/10