Surprise!!! (click this and be surprised!)

Hi! I have a surprise...!

CLICK HERE AND BE SURPRISED!

-Anika Walkes

raindrops | from a beauty in words

pitter patter

on the roof

raindrops

splashing

all around

me

pooling

in

puddles

at

my

feet

the

tears of

the sky

coming

down

in torrents

soaking

the

face

of

the

earth

raindrops

splashing

all around

the tears

of the sky

soak

the ground

so...what do you think of my poetry?

it was originally posted over here

but I wanted to share it here, too

thoughts? suggestions? critiques?

talk to me, frens

stay  beautiful,

it's a beautiful day

Wake up and smile 'cause it's been awhile

It's been like a whole day since I stopped so You could hold me

This child awaits, strong in the faith

Lord you are the refuge that I can't wait to get to

'Cause I can't let a day go

Can't let a day go by

Without thanking you for the joy that you bring to my life

And oh, there's something 'bout the way

Your sun shines on my face

It's a love so true, I could never get enough of You

This feeling can't be wrong, I'm about to get my worship on

Take me away, It's a beautiful day yeah yeah yeah

It's a beautiful day yeah yeah yeah 

When trouble seems

To rain on my dreams

It's not a big, not a big deal, Let it wash all the bugs off my windshield

'Cause You're showing me in You I'm free

And You're still the refuge that I've just got to get to

So I won't let a day go, won't let a day go by

So put the drop-top down, turn it up, I'm ready to fly

It's a love so true, I could never get enough of You

And oh, there's something 'bout the way

Your sun shines on my face

It's a love so true I could never get enough of You

This feeling can't be wrong, I'm about to get my worship on

Take me away, it's a beautiful day yeah yeah yeah 

It's a beautiful day yeah yeah yeah

I've got no need to worry

I've got no room for doubt

No matter what's coming at me, You'll always be the beautiful I sing about

There ain't no limitations to Your amazing grace, Your amazing grace

And oh, there's something 'bout the way Your love shines on my face

Oh no I could never get enough of You

This feeling can't be wrong, I'm about to get my worship on

I'm gonna sing a brand new song, yeah I'm about to get my worship on

Take me away on this beautiful day yeah yeah yeah

It's a beautiful day, yeah yeah yeah

(this one's my favorite)

It's a beautiful day, yeah yeah yeah

Such a beautiful day

(-Beautiful Day by Jamie Grace)

Have a beautiful day, you guys. 💕 

how you can use pinterest to improve your characters - pt. one | character images

So, I guess it's October.

Which means NaNo is coming at full speed and ahhhhhh!!!! I am excited but scared at the same time. I shall be tackling the first draft of my novel, Gifted, this year and eep! I just can't stop being enthusiastic!

But then, in the beginning of November, shall come this thing, this thing that will make your stomach leap with excitement and dread all at the same time.

Starting to write.

*cue horrified gasps*

Yes, yes, 'tis true! But do not worry, my cupcakes, I shall bring forth my amazing writer-ly wisdom and direct you down the path of success! The path of VICTORY!

*cough*

Anyway, today I'll be posting the first of three parts in a series about how you can use the amazing Pinterest to improve your already amazing cast of characters. Because, hey, who likes underdeveloped characters? (Hint, hint: no one.)

pt. 1

CHARACTER IMAGES

I have about...six different boards for character images on my Pinterest account. And they are all very, very useful to me.

"But why?" you ask. "Why so many?"

Well, my lovelies, I like to try to be organized - in real life and online. The real life thing doesn't work out the best, but the online thing does! Therefore, I have six different character image boards, which include:

Teenage Girls
Teenage Boys
Little Girls
Little Boys
Women
& Men

wait, what? aren't we talking about character images? what are the character boards for?

Why, my lovelies, character boards hold loads and loads of images of random people that I have found on Pinterest! You see, what I do is when I find, say, an image of a random teenage girl, I will save that picture to my Teenage Girls board, and later on, when I am looking for a new character image I will go through the images I have saved and choose one that looks like my character.

so...what is a character image, exactly?

Usually, for my characters, I find a model/actor who looks like I would imagine my character would, and "choose" them to be my character's visual "image". Usually, once I find an image for my character, I'll make them their own board and start saving as many pictures of the model/actor as possible (check out Raven and Baie's character visual image boards).

If I can only find one picture of my character's visual image, I usually just stick with that and work with what I have.

how on earth do character images help me improve my characters?

When you're writing your book, you want to have a clear picture of what your character looks like in your mind. You don't want just a faceless person who you try (and sometimes fail) to describe to your readers.

It's kind of like drawing. Freehand is fun and expressive, but copying something - say, drawing a picture inspired by one you saw on Pinterest - will give you a clearer view of what it will look like in the end. We as authors should want to know exactly what our characters look like so that we can describe our characters' physical attributes to the best of our abilities to our readers.

Do you use character "images" for your characters? If you do, do you like it? If you don't, does it sound like a good/fun idea? Talk to me, peeps!

stay beautiful,

we can do BIG things

I've always wondered if I'll ever be able to do something BIG.

Something life changing - for me or for other people.

For a while I thought that I couldn't, that maybe I'd just do some small things in my life because I'd never be able to do something BIG. That's for the pros.

Actually, no, it's not.

Ever heard of the TV show "America's Got Talent"? My siblings and I are obsessed with the show, but that's beyond the point.

Last year, a 12-year-old girl named Grace Vanderwaal won AGT (American's Got Talent). She is gifted with a beautiful voice, and now, after winning, is pretty famous. Auditioning for AGT was something BIG that she did, and it helped her dreams to come true.

Only about four days ago, a 12-year-old named Darci Lynne won AGT for her amazing talent in ventriloquism. She is self-taught and has only been doing it for two years, but she's better than anyone I've ever seen! Auditioning for AGT was something BIG she did, and it helped her dreams come true, too!

Those are both examples of people who took what they were good at and did something BIG with their talents to help their dreams come true. And they're both only 12 years old! How cool is that?

Now, I'm not saying that everyone has to go out and win some contest for singing or being the best magician. No, not at all. I'm just saying that we need to stop saying "I can't".

Because we can do BIG things. If only we try.

Stay beautiful,

a summer photo dump | family camp and corn feilds

My sister got a professional camera, but I probably use it more than she does.

I've told her she might as well give it to me (she hasn't agreed yet, but she will someday...) because I use it so much. Especially now that I've started photography class.

She got it in the beginning of the summer, and I've been using it to take pictures galore these past few months. It's just so fun!!! And I'm pretty good at it.

Seeing as I did one photo dump and you guys enjoyed it, I thought you might like to see some pics I took over the summer. Most of them are from July/August because I didn't start using the camera much until then. I love taking pics in late summer, though. The corn is tasseled but still green, the moon is beautiful, and it's just the perfect time to take pictures for me.

Half of the pics are from family camp, and the other half from around our house. Enjoy!

Did you like my pictures?

Do you like taking pictures during summer?

Stay beautiful,