Regina Caroline Donaldson Mock

Birth pictures of Regina with Wil and I.

I know it is late in coming, but Wil and I are proud to announce that we are parents.  Regina was born on Sunday, September 29 at 6:08 AM.

Regina at 2 months of age.  Look at that smile!

Regina is healthy and such a cuddle goblin.  Just like her daddy, she will arch her eyebrows at me to express her various emotions.  When she smiles, it is big and precious.  She is the coolest person I have ever met.

Baby News

As some of you may, or well, may not know, Wil and I are going to be parents.  I am due to give birth on October 4.  So either late September or early October baby!

We decided that we wanted to know via ultrasound if we were going to have a baby girl or boy.  We figured either way we would be surprised now or when the baby came.  So it seemed logical to us to just learn the gender now.

So with no further ado, we found out yesterday we are having a baby girl!

Her name is Regina Caroline Donaldson Mock! 

Regina for Wil's mother.  Caroline for my mother, my great grandmother, and several other female members of my Mom's family.  We also decided to give her both our last names.  I know the name is a mouthful, but most times she'll be just known as Regina Mock.

The doctors says Regina is looking healthy and good.  So, yea!

We are both so happy and can't wait to have Regina in our arms!

Snacking and Writing

I read this great article/cartoon a few years ago from the New York Times called Snacks of Great Scribblers by Wendy MacNaughton.  MacNaughton is an illustrator and artist that is based out of San Fransisco. 

Illustration by Wendy MacNaughton

It is what writers eat while they are writing and that is pretty neat.  Lord Bryan drank vinegar, F. Scott Fitzgerald ate canned meat from the tin and apples, Walt Whitman ate oysters and steak for breakfast, and Emily Dickinson snacked on her own homemade baked bread. 

The closest to my snack habits that I believe I have is to Michael Pollan who drinks pu'er tea and roasted almonds, but I drink just general American black tea, though I do enjoy Chinese tea, and usually pistachios.  But I eat almonds every so often.  Vendela Vida snacks on pistachios while writing so I am close to her snacking habits also.

I will also drink green tea, water, and ginger ale.  I actually really do not eat food while writing, but I drink a lot.  I usually take a break to eat meals.

I thought the article was fun and interesting.  What do you all like to snack on and drink while writing?

Revising Fiction II

I got feedback from my Creative Writing II class for my second installment of the book I am writing a while ago.  I just finished updating my piece. 

I knew when I posted it what was going to be the biggest problem and my peers pointed it out.  Too much back story and exposition.  Another big point my peers made  was "Who wants to go to a club to celebrate their birthday and sob about how messed up their life has been?"  Yep, that is what I did!  I went all emo and stuff.

Telling myself a joke:

-Brooke, would you like an emo cheese cake?

-Why would I want an emo cheese cake, Brooke?

-Because it is self cutting just like emo grass.

When I was writing my second submission to the class, I made a big mistake.  I forgot that if I wanted to write a happy scene I had to be in a positive mood.  I used to know this rule about myself, but forgot when I took a break from writing.  I can always write sob stories, but happy stories, I need to be in the right mind set.

So with that in mind, I re-wrote when I was feeling positive and spread my heroine's back history throughout the book.

I added more detail to the bar because it did lack description as my peers pointed out.  I also added a smell of typical club funk when the protagonist walks into the club.  I also make sure that the conversations stayed on point for the most part and did not jump around as much.

People said there was a lot of blushing, so I did a word find, and guess what?  There was a lot of blushing going on.  So with the word finder I found where all the blushing was and changed more than half of them and kept a few.

As to my main character being sweet and innocent.  I never meant to portray her like that, but I want people to take the characters as they will and form their own opinions.  Yes, I want to try and portray her as a nice person who can be considerate and responsible.  When I envisioned her, I envisioned her as an average American.  I thought some of her positive qualities could come from the fact she is a normal person who has made mistakes and has had experience in life.

How many people did you know who got arrested, especially in high school and for dumb stuff?

How many girls in high school got called a slut whether they deserved it or not?

I am keeping her back story as is right now, but I overhauled the chapter that had all of her back story in it.  Hopefully it will not feel as a much as shock with the re-write.

Thank you for the feedback everyone!  It was a help!

Creative Writing II Class

 Love Dr. Seuss!

My Creative Writing Class II class has been a blast to take.  I not only enjoyed the class, but I also enjoyed the people in the class.  I have been in writing classes before, but I found this class to be the most constructive and gratifying writing class I have had.

I was able to get to know everyone in the class, and everyone had a wide range of opinions and tastes.  Everyone worked hard and gave good constructive critiques of not just my work, but of their peers.

We did two critiques almost every week and would read ten to thirty pages for each critique and had to write 500 pages.  Being the long winded person I am, I almost always went past that.  I like the formula that we had to do our critiques in.  We started with something positive.  Things we liked about the story.  If we had a problem with the piece, we had to suggest ways to fix the problem.  Then we would talk about pacing, structure, the point-of-view, the target audience, who the piece would alienate, and so on.  When I critique people's work in the future, I plan on using this formula.

In class, we had to publicly tell our opinion of the piece we were critiquing.  Yes, I was nervous at first, but we did not have to stand in front of the class to do this.  And once you have done this a few times, it got a lot easier.

And no one in our class was ever like:

Love you, Mr. Ramsay, but I would never want to work for you
or get a critique from you!  I'm a wuss like that!

Everyone stayed respectful and professional.  You know it is a good class when people are giving their opinions littered with humor and people are laughing.  I always find laughter to be a good sign.

Even though most of the class was taken up by critiques and submitting our own work -everyone had to submit at least ten pages of different work twice- we also talked about platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs, to get your work out there.

We also talked about the movement of Booktubing and Booktubers.  One of our classes, we all did our own Booktube viedo.  I did the Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.  I said "heart-wrenching" a lot and I do mean a lot, but I love that book.

We also had a guest speaker, Ed Schubert, who talked about everything from e-publishing, editing to the writing process.  He is currently the editor of Orson Scott Card's online literary magazine *Intergalactic Medicine Show.*  We also had our teacher, Ms. Golda Fried, talk about her own writing experience and how it was like her to get published.  She has written a novel and a book of short stories called Nellcott Is My Darling novel and Darkness Then a Blown Kiss stories.

We also talked about having other people talk about and plug your works.  :D 

We also had to create our own blog, and well, blogged.  We have had a lot of chances to write in class of not just our own work and our critiques of others, but with blogging.  We also had to edit our work from the critiques and write a sample query letter.

Thumbs up with all the practice with writing we had to do.

I will try to keep writing on my blog because it is good practice with writing.  I just have to think of topics that I can write on.

So, overall I enjoyed the class and everyone in it!  I will miss you all!

Now to answer Ms. Fried's questions of my plans for my writing future:

I wish I could have written more during class, but I always wished I could have.  I believe my writing output will be much better with not having to write papers for other classes.  I plan on continuing writing in the future.  I want to continue to practice writing even if its not for a book or for a short story.  I would like to finish writing my book, Harper's Winter Vacation.  If I do finish writing my book, I would send out query letters to agents.  It was not hard to find agents and publishers out there, especially ones that I liked.  The true question is whether I will be picked up or not.  If I do not get any bites, I plan on epublishing my work, like maybe on Create Space.

Schools Kill Creativity?

I had to do a forum post for my hybrid class of Children Development II.   As from the look of my post below and past blog posts, I can be rather long winded.  But since I am taking this Creative Writing II class, I decided to share my post since it was on the wonders of creativity.

Sir Ken Robinson's big point of Schools Kill Creativity is that creativity is just as important as learning how to read.  Creativity is squandered by today's standards.  Creativity is part of being human and one of our most extraordinary gifts.  We have no clue what the future holds.  Children have an extraordinary capacity for innovation.  Yes, I am summing up some of his points.

I loved his stories, especially the one about the teacher and the six-year-old girl.  It sounded like a joke, but I could so see it happen.  The teacher asks the girl, "What are you drawing?"  The little girl said, "I'm drawing God."  The teacher responded with, "But no one knows what God looks like."  The little girl responded back, "They will in a minute."  That made me laugh.  The one with his son also made me laugh because frankincense does sound like "Frank sent this." 

But his whole point is that children will take a chance even if they have no clue where to go with it.  Children are not afraid of being wrong and making mistakes.  Creativity comes from the fact of people and children taking risks   With time they are taught, mistakes are bad and wrong and children and people become afraid to take risks.

He believes that the creative arts are just as important as any subject.  Almost anywhere in the world, people value mathematics -I think he meant to put science somewhere in here also- and languages, then the humanities, and at the bottom is art.  He says this is due to the Industrial Revolution, though it helped standardize education, but also made getting a job a priority-"Don't do that because you won't get a job"- and we see intelligence is shaped by academic ability.  Children and people are geared to go to get a higher education, but people can also feel deterred since they did not get the right grades in school.

He believes that we need to adopt a new outlook on human ecology where we need to take a new view on how we look at intelligence and how we educate our children.  We need to embrace creativity, imagination, and educate their whole being.

I actually agree with him.  I think a lot of early education programs have the right idea already.  I have heard more than one of my GTCC Early Education professors say that they wished the later grades taught more like the early education programs where the whole child is embraced.  I think the type of education and how we look at intelligence that Sir Robinson is talking about will embrace all types of different intelligences of the child and of many people.

Publishing House

So, I am going to look at five big publishing houses and give my impression of them.


Little, Brown and Company:

Little, Brown and Company is having their 175th anniversary, which is really freaking cool.  I was greeted by a Thomas Jefferson quote that says, "I can not live without books."  I can fully agree with that.  I was also greeted by an advertisement of J.K. Rowling new book, the Causal Vacancy.  It made me go "Ooo! Love her!"  So they have published fiction and non-fiction with one of their writers being Louisa May Alcott who wrote Little Women.


Penguin Group:

Penguin Group is one of the largest English-language trade book publisher.  Theodore Roosevelt joined G.P. Putnam's Sons, which one say would become the Penguin Group, as a special partner.  He published several books with them.  How cool is that? 



Harper Collins Publishers:

Harper Collins Publishers is a publishing company that is located in New York City.  I found a website that said they were established in 1817 and made Mark Twain a household name.  They also made one of my favorite authors a household name also and that is Kim Harrison.


Random House:

Random House says that it brings you the best in fiction, nonfiction, and children's books.  Random House successfully defended in court the U.S. publication of James Joyce's Ulysses, which set a major legal precedent for freedom of speech.  It also publishes the Webster's Dictionary.  Who doesn't like a good dictionary?


St. Martin's Press:

St. Martin's Press is apart of Macmillan.  From the Macmillan website, they say that "Palgrave Macmillan is a global crossmarket publisher. Palgrave Macmillan’s trade list is comprised of serious non-fiction representing the best thinking and research in the core areas of Politics, Business and History along with Current Affairs titles across a range of subjects."  Their website has a clean looking setup.


Conclusions:

It is hard to compare and contrast all these publishing houses.  They all have sweet histories and individual and nice websites.  They each have their own niche, followers, and style.  I say each to their own.  I would go with any of these publishing companies if they would take my book and get it out there.

If I could choose though, I would first rule out St. Martin's Press due to the fact I am writing a fiction piece and non-fiction being their thing. All the others have urban fantasy and romance, so it was hard to narrow it down.  To help narrow it completely down, I picked one of my favorite authors, Kim Harrison, and looked up her publisher.  So if I had a choice, I would go with Harper Collins Publishers.

Literary Agents

Ah, literary agents!  What can I say? 

But you really kind of need an agent, don't you?  These people are supposed to work on your behalf to get your works published and several hundred other things, but you have to get accepted first.
I expect a lot of:

So in my quest to look for a literary agent, I have found three that I like:

Eddie Schneider at JABberwocky Literary Agency:

I really liked the sound of JABberwocky Literary Agency who can be found at  http://awfulagent.com.  I love their sense of humor.  I liked what I read of Eddie Schneider and that he had a sense of humor made me smile, but I also liked his special notes that he is "happily consider queries by persons, or featuring protagonists, of any race, color, creed, religion, national citizenship/origin, gender or sexual orientation, disability, age, or physical appearance. Further, I will not attempt to editorially limit the presence of characters in any of the above in order to sell a project, and will support any client who has been discriminated against by a publisher or editor because of such status, in the hopefully unlikely event that this might occur."  You can send a query letter to him at queryeddie [at] awfulagent [dot] com.  He would like a brief one to three-page synopsis, which can be included in the query letter.  The synopsis must be pasted below the query letter.

Nephele Tempest at The Knight Agency:

 

I like the Knight Agency works along side their clients to not just help them write, but learn about their side of business and about the finances.  I also like that they are a green agency, which means they do not take paper queries.  Their website also advises people on how to write a query letter.  Ms. Tempest has a lot of experience and has also worked a writer.  All queries should be sent to Submissions (at) KnightAgency (dot) net.  Queries should be kept to about one-page in length and that all text be contained in the body of an email and be addressed to a specific agent.

 

Sara Crowe at Harvey Klinger, INC:

 

Sara Crowe has a lot of experience in the literary world both in the United States and abroad.  Ms. Crowe has been ranked among the top three YA and MG agents in Publishers Marketplace.  You can send a query to her e-mail at  sara@harveyklinger.com or to the Harvey Klinger website.  She says feel free to include up to 5 pages below the query.  It should be pasted in as plain text in the body of your email.

 

Revising Fiction

For those who do not know this, I am taking a Creative Writing course right now.  It is the reason I started this blog.  We are learning about different mediums of writing and how to get our work out there.  But anyways, our revisions were due today from the comments our peers gave in class.

I liked having a lot of other people's opinions on my piece.  I had a lot of different and constructive comments.  But some of the advice contradicted itself so it made it hard sometimes to choose what to do.

Grammar:

I needed some help with my grammar.  So many books these days that I read will have blaring grammar errors, which drives me nuts as a reader.  It takes away from the reading experience.

I do not wish to do that with people reading my work.  I changed as much as I could find from everyone's suggestions.  I also have a bad habit of presenting awkward sentences.  I used every line edit I could and went through it page by page each time.

Date, Where at, and Location:

I love books that go over long periods of times, but sometimes it is hard to figure out how much time has passed and where the scenes are.

A lot of people did not know the year or where the scene was taking place.  I decided to do what I have seen in some fantasy books.  Gives readers dates, where they are at, and the location the scenes are happening.

I'll see how that pans out.

Internal Dialogue and the Protagonist Talking to Herself:

One of the biggest problems that people commented on my piece was the internal dialogue and my character talking to herself.  Some thought there was too much of my protagonist talking to herself while the other half were fine or liked the amount.

First there the grammatical problems I had with the internal dialogue.  I changed that to make it less confusing for the reader.  Then I tried to streamline some of the internal dialogue and tried to make more clear when the protagonist talked to herself.

Hopefully it will work out better, but I still left a lot of it in there.  Readers got a view of the protagonist's personality and about her motivations.  I will probably cut back on it in the future, except for big moments to the protagonist.

Description and Detail:

A few people said I had too little description of scenes, a few others said I had way too much description, and the majority of comments wanted  more description of my protagonist.

After reading the description of my character, I really had to completely agree.  How could I describe so little of her?

Next, I added small bits of sensory details that did not have to do with sight, like smell.

As to the too much detail.  There was a good chunk of people who thought I described the characters way too much, like with they wore and how they looked while others said I did not describe the characters or the club enough.  I decided to keep the description in.

I kept it in because the club and the characters I described in detail will keep making appearances in the story.  I decided to describe it so I would not have to later on. I also tried to streamline some of it.

As to the too little description people, I re-read through the characters and the scenes I was describing.  Some parts, I just had no clue how much more I could add.  Others, I added a line and tried to spread some of the descriptions out.

Flashback Opportunity:

I had a chance to fill in some of my protagonist's background and to let readers see a glimpse into her life.  I did not take it.  In truth, I wanted to, but I did not have time.  And guess what, almost everyone noticed!

So I went back and took the opportunity to flesh out and hint at what people will learn in future.  I tried to make it not too long since she was at a club and in the company of others.  People get caught in memories all the time, but if you do it too long, someone usually pops you out of the memory or moves on.

Ellie's Strong Language:

A chunk of people did not like or understand why Ellie talked the way she did and felt it was too strong.  Some people had questions on what she was saying.

You ever listen to what some people say when you're walking around?  I hear people say literally LOL or OMG and other texting speech all the time.  This is what Ellie, the protagonist roommate, is studying for her English and Sociology senior thesis.  The changing of the English language due to social media.  She is blogging about it and tweetering or tweeting -kind of like birds talking is what I have thought about twittering- about it.

I thought about scarping it, but I really liked the idea of making fun of this type of speech while trying to poke at the idea that times are changing.  It is one of the themes of the piece.  I told myself to be bold and if I did send this in to try to be published, it could be changed if the editor really hated it.

What I did do with my re-write is that I introduced this idea earlier than I was originally planned and explained some of what Ellie was saying.

Thanks again for feed back everyone.  I used what people gave me and your thoughts made me consider and think.

Booktubers Part II

So in review of Booktubers, here are some of my non-expert, personal thoughts:

I believe a good Booktuber has to speak clearly and actually sound like they read the book they are reviewing instead of reading the back cover.  I am not talking about recommendations or books mentioned, but true reviews.  All the Booktubers I watched sounded like they all really read the books.  Many of them also responded to their followers posts and/or would verbally respond to other Booktubers or their followers in their Vlogs.  

I do not need the best sound or video quality to watch a Vlog, but it does help with clarity and keeping my interest.  Who likes having to re-watch something because the sound quality was too poor to follow what was said?  

Some of the Booktubers did freestyle Vlogs, in which they would not edit their video and just speak.  Others edited their videos.  I like both of these styles, but I believe when doing either, the flow of talk needs to be smooth, not perfect, just smooth transitions so I, the viewer can follow what is being said.

Having a background scene, like a bookcase or a bed, is not needed for me to watch a Vlog.  But having a background or pleasant set-up is nice.

With any book reviews -does not matter if a person is a Booktuber or reviewing a book for a magazine or newspaper-, I think people should be blunt if they liked the book or not.  I do not think people should be nasty about it, but be truthful.

All the Booktubers I watched are awesome and each has their own style.  It was really hard to choose my favorite Booktuber.  I would say it is a tie between kissmyfrog and Bunny Cates.  I loved Bunny Cates energy and her bookshelf with family pictures in the background.  She covered a lot of subjects having to do with books and was very down to Earth.  Kissmyfrog made me smile and I loved her quote of wanting friends not followers.  She covered a lot of different books of different genres and has many of the same interests I do.

Some Booktubers have posted their opinions on what writer’s and Booktuber’s say.  ItsMikeysMind did one and so did Jackson Pearce at https://www.youtube.com/user/JacksonAPearce.  

I would not become a Booktuber.  I am not that photogenic/videogenic, but I am planning to start following a few of these Booktubers.  

Booktubers Part I

Booktubers is an awesome movement on YouTube where different people talk about things that relate to books and do book reviews.  These are done as a Vlog, which is like a blog, but done in video form.  Every Booktuber I visited Vlogged about book reviews, but would also talk about anything related to books and some other interests.  Booktubers are new to me, and with me being such a bibliophile, I cannot believe I did not find this out before now.  I am definitely not an expert on Booktubers or this movement, but below, I will be presenting several Booktubers and defining some of the lingo that they use. 

justkissmyfrog at https://www.youtube.com/user/jsutkissmyfrog:

The first Booktuber I went to is justkissmyfrog.  Pretty sweet name for a Vlog.  She is a British woman who is going for her Masters.  I wish her all the luck in the world with that!  

I watched her book haul of 2013.  A book haul where one goes to a bookstore or thrift store and buys a stack of books then presents them.  She presented more than 10 books –I lost count- where she presented some fiction books, like some young adult books and Great Expectations, and some non-fiction books, like a traveling book, a tattoo book, and a recipe book her mother had put together for her of family recipes.  I love family recipes!  During her review, she commented on several books she picked up just due to the book cover.  A few of the books she had read, others she was at various stages of reading, some were of what other people had read and recommended to her, and others she hoped to get to read.  

One of her fans, subscribed her to a magazine that would also every so often send her books.  It is or like a Book Club.

A few of her followers sent her books.  One was a graphic novel inspired by Jane Austen’s book Northanger Abbey.  I love classic books and to mix it with a graphic novel, you cannot get more awesome than that!  Well, for me, you really can’t.

Bookables! at https://www.youtube.com/user/Bookables:

Next, I went to Bookables!.  This young woman reviews not just books, but movies and T.V. shows.  I noticed that she liked reviewing a book with its movie. 

I watched her Breaking the Spines Tag given to her by ReadingwithJack.  A book tag is where other booktubers will give their peers a theme, like colors of the rainbow, and the booktuber will match books with the theme, or in this case, Bookables! talks about books with broken spines and the wear and tear of her books.  She answered questions from others on books with broken spines and her preferences, like dog eared pages versus bookmarks and hard versus soft covered books, and about how she treats her books.  Her Harry Potter books have taken quite a beating, which some of mine are no better than hers.

AmirasBookReviews at http://www.youtube.com/user/AmirasBookReviews/:

On we go to AmirasBookReviews.  I found Amira to be perky and happy.

I watched Amira’s Book Review: Cinder.  Cinder is written by Marissa Meyer.  It is a book I have thought about reading.  This book’s premise is based off of Cinderella, but with a twist.  The protagonist is a cyborg!  Amira gave a brief summary of Cinder, but did not want to give too much away in order to not spoil the book for everyone.  She gave Cinder a 4.5 out of 5.  She reviewed the characters.  Amira loved Cinder because unlike most heroines in the young adult genre, she is not whiney.  Amira really enjoyed the character and I think it was one of her favorites.   Amira’s review made me want to go out and read that book.  Awesome job, Amira!  I am sold!

Bunny Cates at https://www.youtube.com/user/BunnyCates:

First thing I noticed when I clicked on one of Bunny’s Vlogs is that she is responds to a lot of the people who post on her Vlog.  She is very interactive and energetic. 

I watched Bunny’s #FridayReads (hash)TAG! - Feb 08 2013.  First, #FridayReads is a hashtag on twitter in which people post what they are reading over the weekend on Fridays.  Bunny explains what #FridayReads is then goes on to tell what she is reading on the weekend.  She says that it is great way to learn about new books and to learn about what book trends are out there.  Bunny also has opened her YouTube page to let others upload their #FridayReads.

In a lot of the book hauls, Booktubers mentioned books that they were going to read, like justkissmyfrog and Danny Marks at https://www.youtube.com/user/dannymarksya.  I combed through a lot of the Booktubers videos, but could not find Book Clubs, except when I watched justkissmyfrog.  One of her viewers signed her up for a magazine that would deliver books to her ever so often.  But I am sure they are there, but I am not finding them right now.  There is a lot of video out there.  I could also not find the The Saddest Books ever, but I am sure that it is book tagged somewhere.

My Bookshelf/Bookshelf Tours are where Booktubers show viewers their book shelves and show how they organize and categorize their bookshelves.  Bunny Cates, ItsMikeysMind, and Danny Marks all have videos of this.  ItsMikeysMind can be found at https://www.youtube.com/user/ItsMikeysMind/.

A lot of the Booktubers did shout outs to their fellows.  A shout out in Booktuber terms is where they mention other Booktubers and talk about Booktubers they follow.  These were usually located in their Vlogs or personal comments.  Some like Bunny Cates did a Vlog/live streaming video on shout outs.  Also, ItsMikeysMind also did his own shout outs.

Goodreads and Shelfari

Goodreads and  Shelfari are websites that readers can review books and recommends books from your reviews. 

It is super easy to sign up if you are on Facebook for Goddreads.  It is easy to find many of the books I have read and authors I like on there.  All you need your author's name, one of their character's names -I tried it out and it worked-, or the title.  It is super simple to rate books and from your ratings, you get book recommendations.  If I had a bookshelf on here on would call it, Flights of Fancy.  I usually read whatever takes my fancy. 

My teacher for Creative Writing II, Golda Fried, has written a book called Nellcott is My Darling, which it real awesome.  She is on Goodreads  right now and it having a book drawing.  Right now, 218 people are in the book drawing!  For my friends following me, here is the web address that Ms. Fried's book can be found at: http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/43319-nellcott-is-my-darling .

Shelfari is done by amazon.com and it seems to have just as a wide variety of books as Goodreads.  I would join the popular series book club just to see what others are reading and what other people are liking.  

I already have several friends on Goodreads.  I would recommend these two sites to friends who like to read.  I love to read and I like getting recommendations and I think others would like that also. 

Guess What Am I?

You can clip me, hold me, stick me, throw me, stab with me, and play with me.  I come in many colors of the spectrum and I can express myself in many colors and in many mediums too. 

I can be fat and bulky or slender and slim, but can still be gripped with thumb, fingers, and hands.  Some like to even use their toes or their mouth. It all depends on your preference on how I am held and used.

Some strangle me, some lightly grip me, but all use me to express themselves.  They list with me, draw with me, and scrawl and play with me.  I help them express everything from boredom, fear, pain, love, and happiness to all that in which is in between and beyond.  I am there to help express it all.

I have helped others go to war and others to bring peace.  I help give words of comfort.  I also give words of pain.  With my tip with in your grip, you guide me to what I tell.   I am a just tool for all.

Finally, you can buy me, sell me, borrow me, steal me, and accidentally take me.  You curse and stress when you need me or lose me.

What am I?

Cycle of Hope and Terror by Me

 

Dragging darkness too much to bear

Waging against skittering flight

Amidst fears and tears, there is cheer

Resounding fright for all to hear

Quaking with disgust at the sight

Dragging darkness too much to bear

Viewing at you is a mirror

Beckoning light to find the might

Amidst fears and tears, there is cheer

Flesh gives a cauterizing sear

Bloodless hands death grip burning bright

Dragging darkness too much to bear

A quick, languishing bloody tear

Plowing through obstacles to fight

Amidst fears and tears, there is cheer

A way becomes grotesquely clear

The source flashing, twittering light

Dragging darkness too much to bear

Amidst fears and tears, there is cheer