Top 5 Things that Kept Us Alive in 2009
We should personally start off with a huge “Thanks” to everyone following our blog. When we started this, we never dreamed to have anything close to 19 followers. Yes, we know that doesn’t measure up to others who have fifty, one hundred, and even two hundred followers, but in a place where we only post Teaser Tuesdays, we think that 19 followers might just be too much. Seriously, we feel so horrible for having that much followers and nothing to post at all. But thank you so much to all of you. This is why our BLOGGER FOLLOWERS are runner ups to the TOP FIVE. If we hadn’t joined the blogging community, we wouldn’t have been able to procrastinate as much as we did in 2009.
So on to the list. It means so much to us that we do this, because we wouldn’t be able to sleep if we didn’t.
5. Glacialis and Our Characters
There’s always that time of day at school when we just want to drop to the floor and die. Oh, and there’s also that time when we just want to shut out completely out of this world. Not to mention all the times where we thought we weren’t good enough for anything. But all of you, our characters, the setting, and the plot itself, had brought us to the realization that you’re all alive inside of us, and even though it felt like you left sometimes, that you’ve always been with us. Special thanks to Mary and her voice, who never gave up trying to get her story out there. We’ve quit on you many times, but you fought to grasp our attention every time we ventured off. The first draft sucked, yes. The second draft was much better, and we even had feedback from some great people about it. But with those voices constantly nagging us to be better, the third draft shall be epic. The least we could do for our story and our characters is to get their message out there. And with them constantly pushing us, we think we just might. 4. Books and Authors
Fahrenheit 451 is just about the scariest book we’d ever read. What kind of society keeps people from gaining knowledge through books. We’re the kind of people who dislike book abusers. We treat books like a mother would treat a baby, like seriously. Anyways, the point is, books should not be hated, but thanked for. Thank you to all the books that served as our writing bibles, pointed us in the direction of what people actually want to read, and entertained us for the most part. We don't have second thoughts when we buy books like we do when we shop for clothes and other things. That’s obviously a sign of dedication. We know we’ve read at least one hundred this year, but if we list them all, no one will end up finishing this post :P. So here’s a few: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (for the steamy romance of Grace and Sam), Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick (for igniting our love for bad boys), Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers (for scaring the crap out of us with description of high school), Beautiful Creatures by Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia (for turning the tables and having a boy narrate a paranormal romance), Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves (for introducing something new to the market), Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (just for existing), Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott (for making us cry), Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (for making me [Serena] not pay attention in class to read it, and Selena do the same thing). Now, it’s safe to say that the novels we betaed for are real books. So here it goes: 365 Days Until I Disappear by Elizabeth Page (it’s self-explanatory if you read it), The Illuminated (or Luminous. Although Sarah Harian’s done another draft of it, we still loved this one), The Infernal Family by Parametric/ Eleanor (for having lots of action and demons) and Evangeline by Teresa Kirkland (for having so many magical elements. I’m almost done reading it! Sorry for taking so long!)So there.
3. AW and Everyone on There
We can’t even try to imagine our year without AbsoluteWrite. When we found the site in August, we knew great things would come from there. And guess what? Great things have. We could ramble on and on about the greatness of this site, but that would be too long. Everyone has given us a chance to grow, not only out of our old shell and into a new one, but also grow into the community. Even if we barely posted, we feel welcomed every time we did. To us, all of you are family. We’d like to thank (and in no order): Karla, Emilia, Amna, Maddi-Rose, Lily, Jamie B, Choco, Becca, Laurie, J.S. Wood, paranormalchick, Sumayyah, Krista, Vero, Tere K., Deniz Kuypers, Kaitlin, Houndrat, Raven, Katiemac (for the amazing query advice), Rebecca S. (for the Hush, Hush fansite!), Corrine Jackson, Amanda, Laura, Sarah Harian, Stephanie, Lia, Parametric, Kody (for writing THE DUFF and making me want to read it), half.jaded, and especially to Liz for wanting to listen to thirteen-year-olds ramble about plotpoints, revision ideas, and crazy characters, not to mention for letting us read her beautiful, heart-breaking story. We love you all. So sorry if we didn’t mention you. Our mind is cloudy with many things right now. But please, note that everyone on AbsoluteWrite deserves to be mentioned here. 2. Our Parents, Gramma, and Each Other
Even though they’re the people that sometimes makes us want to be dead, they’re also the people who kept us alive. And not just literally by feeding us or supplying a roof over our heads, but also emotionally, mentally and spiritually. We’re a crazy bunch,
and we think that’s why we manage to survive living together. We constantly remind them that we love them, even if it isn’t by words. If our book gets published, the dedication would be to them. Also, we survived using each other as support. Without my sister, Selena, I would’ve quit Glacialis a long time ago, and without me in her life, she said she would be getting in and out of trouble quite a lot. 1. God
The most influential force of all. God’s been with us from the start, and God’s been here ever since. It doesn’t matter what religion or belief other people have, there is something bigger than us, bigger than this world, bigger than the universe, even, out there somewhere. And whatever that force is, it’s kept us alive literally and metaphorically. So thank you, God.This post says it all. Understand that these words are only words, and that there’s so much more to say inside of our heads. We thought 2008 was The Year, but we were wrong. 2009 topped 2008 by a landslide. Let’s keep it this way for 2010, shall we? We respectively predict that 2010 will be more explosive (in a good way), and much more ALIVE.
Happy New Years, Everyone!!!
