Infernal Devices: Clockwork Fandom

Hello All,

I hope no one logged onto this in the desperate hope that I had any kind of new information about Cassandra Clare's upcoming Clockwork Princess book (March 19th, 62 days from this very moment), because, unfortunately, I don't. I just have a lot of love and emotions.

So I just re-read Angel and Prince, and I've been going through Clare's blog posts about CP2 and I just need to say that I have no idea how this story is going to end and I'm very anxious about who lives, who dies, what the HELL Tessa really is, and WHO SHE ENDS UP WITH!

 Art Source: cassandraclare.com

I've never had a story stay with me for so long after finishing the book than I do with Clare's Shadowhunter stories. I have friends that don't really like the Infernal Devices, but I love them; the uniqueness of the unfamiliar customs, locations and traditions of not just another country/continent but of another century brings a new level of detail and intricacy to the storyline.

I love the characters; Tessa starts out insecure and unsure of herself, but is constantly loyal to her beliefs, and incredibly independent, as well as smart/sassy and funny. She doesn't let Will or Jessamine's bad attitudes get her down, just counters them with sass (boo ya!).
William Herondale is an interesting beast; he feels everything with a passion that I didn't understand the first time I read through the books, and I "get it" just a little bit more now, but I'm still caught between finding his emotional extremes reckless or endearing.
James Carstairs; OMFG I LOVE JEM. He's soft spoken but never lets anyone speak over him, he's kind and thoughtful and he's not self-pitying, despite his very valid excuse. I know that Clare has pretty much set up this whole story for him to pretty much die in the middle of it, but I'm pretty sure I will mourn his literary loss like an actual dead friend instead of a fictional character, because I want Jem and Tessa to be together with an absurd passion that won't leave me alone.
I mean, to me, their relationship just sounds so much healthier than a relationship with Will would be. From the first moment Tessa meets Jem, she becomes happier, like a weight is lifted off her shoulders, and as their friendship grows, absence from him grows from missing him to an almost physical hurt. Her first kiss with Jem is described as breathing air, while kissing Will leaves her breathless -last I checked, it was really really good to breathe. Jem is consistently caring and thoughtful, and his obvious affections are shown gradually, with more regularity.

I didn't start this post as a "reasons why I want Jem and Tessa to be together" update, I just wanted to gush about the books in general, in the hopes that it will stop distracting me for a few weeks so I can start classes and my show and my internship without wondering what will happen in a book I won't see for another 60+ days.

Maybe I'm crazy, but does anyone else kinda read books and, like, picture them in your head like they were playing out like a movie? Well, that's how it happens in my head when I'm reading, and when I read the Infernal Devices, everything has this not-quite sepia filter, but like everything's covered in a sort of Steampunk fog/smog. It adds another level of interesting to my reading of the books, because I've never read anything Steampunk before, but it's just one more thing that endears me to these books.

I like meeting all of the Shadowhunters with names that we recognize, like Lightwood, Fairchild, Herondale, Wayland, etc. and wondering how we get from these characters to the ones we meet/will meet in 2008/2012. It's also really interesting to get this new level of Council and EnClave politics that we only peek into in the Mortal Instruments series.

I need to end this post somewhere or it will never be finished. So here it is: I love these books, I love Clare's writing and stories, and I will be impatiently waiting for March 19th to arrive.

Thanks for reading,
Amy Liz

UPDATE:

OMG THE INSIDE COVER JACKET SUMMARY OF CLOCKWORK PRINCESS HAS BEEN RELEASED, CAN'T FUNCTION OMG

here it is, for those who are curious

Late Christmas for the Roomies

Hey all,

So I got my best friend/roommate her Christmas gift like super early, but because the place that I ordered it from was having a rough online ordering process and failed to notify me that my thing was backordered, I wasn't able to physically "get" her present to her until after she had already left for Kansas for the winter break.
No biggie, we just said we'd give gifts after break.

However, I forgot to get my other roommate something. So me and T. went to this cute little local bookstore nearby and were looking through some stuff, and we both thought that it would be so funny if I got M. a copy of 50 Shades of Grey. Now, M. is NOT the type of person to be into that at all, or interested in getting it for herself, anyway. T. and I have both had some "interesting" conversations with her about her "inexperience" -which, if she's asking me, then she must be pretty desperate, haha.

So yeah, I was going to get her that and a calendar with cool pictures of London.
...Until I realized that freakin' book is $16 in paperback. PAPERBACK! Are you freaking kidding me?

So not interested in spending that much money for a gag gift...even if it would have been really funny to see her reaction when she opened it.

That's all,
Thanks for reading
Amy Liz

A Goal of Mine...

Hello All,

So for this semester, I'm taking my first ever non-fiction writing course. For anyone who knows me or has read any of my past entries, you probably realize that this is a step in a very different direction for me.

So to get myself ready for this class, I wonder if anyone can give me any suggestions of good non-fiction books to read. It looks like we're mostly focusing on introductory level stuff, like personal essays and stuff like that.
I'd love to research the art of non-fiction as best as I can, even if I'm not thrilled by the idea of writing it, myself.

So if you've got suggestions, please comment under this post!

Thanks!

here's a picture of a cute puppy for your cooperation:

Happy 2013

Hello All,

So I've been thinking about what to do for my New Year's resolutions and about what's coming up in 2013.
I've got:

• Speechless to make into the best debate/learning show the Emerson Channel has ever seen -ever!
• My internship with Candlewick Press to impress people at
• My four classes to beast
• The 32nd Annual EVVY Awards Script to build, supervise and make amazing
• Figuring out how to be a part of Orientation Series next summer
• and....figuring out what i'll be doing for the rest of the year

I've got a lot to do in the next five months, and I think I'm going to be as busy as ever, haha.

So for my resolution, I don't think I could really boil it down into one kinda smallish thing to say to people unless it's something like "my resolution is to make this year the best that i can possibly make it."

I guess that's good enough, right?

On the Sandy Hook and School Shootings/Tragedies

Hello All,

For those of you out of the loop, today a 24-year-old man entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut this morning and began shooting, killing 27 people (that we know of) and at least 18 of them were children. The shooter's mother apparently worked as a teacher at the school and was supposedly one of the victims.

This is only one is a rising number of school shootings happening in America, including the Sikh Temple shooting in Wisconsin, the Aurora, Colorado shooting in the movie theater, the Oakland, California shooting in April, the March shooting in Jacksonville, Florida, and the Chardon Ohio and New Hampshire shootings in February.
That's all just in 2012.

This is becoming a serious issue, and I don't think anyone has any way to solve the problem. Many high schools have metal detectors, but not all of them. Are we going to install metal detectors and have airport security-like checks in every public building we enter? Cavity searches before going to the movies? See-through backpacks and purses when we go to school? Daily locker checks? Will the new fall line feature bullet-proof fashions next year?

This is getting ridiculous, and I think I have what could be a successful, albeit expensive, solution to this problem in the long-run of things.

Make it a requirement for every child in the seventh and 10th grades to go through a rigorous psychological interview with a crew of hired psychologists and psychiatrists. Should the child be found to have a normal psychological constitution, they are free to return to their classes and not have to return to counseling until 10th grade, when this psychological interview will resume again to make sure no mental issues or problems has risen in the last 3-4 developmental years (unless otherwise specified by their parents to receive personal counsel).
Should the child be found to have questionable mental health in either year, they are scheduled to have individual and group counseling 3-5 times per week, in place of a class.

I think these sessions and early checks for mental health issues in young adults will help catch issues that could develop into serious problems that result in extreme acts of violence, such as shootings like what happened on Friday, December 14th, 2012.
It is my hope that, with a program like this, we will have less parents and families burying their loved ones just for going to school, or out to the movies or to Temple or where ever else is no longer safe for daily public use.

A Poem

Disappointment

disappointment isn't a stab to the heart
it's a slow, eroding poison around the eyes
seeping deeper under the skin, causing sobs
and tears until it eventually easts those away, too
until there's nothing left, not even bitterness
just a lowness you can't quite lift yourself
high enough out of to feel "good."





Amy Liz

Why I Should Have My Own TV Show...

Hey All,

Normally I'm not that kind of person. You know, that writer that goes to write in some local coffee shop because Starbucks is too mainstream, and God FORBID if you ask them about what they're working on because that just opens it up for them to brag about how they've had this spectacular and mature idea since they were about 7 and that it's only manifested itself on paper a few years ago and that now that the first draft of the manuscript is done, it'll be published in no time, they just need "the right kind of agent" to represent them. Or the kind of girl that is so obsessed with herself that she's literally thinking "OHMIGOD, I'm SUCH a big f**king deal, everyone NEEDS to know all about me and like, right NOW" -you know the type, don't try to pretend you don't.

In fact, I'm usually the opposite. I stay as quiet as possible in class, thinking "all of these people are probably a lot smarter than me and are really eloquent and if I speak up and say anything they're all going to know I'm an impostor and that I really AM wasting all this money to go to this school."
 And GOD FORBID you ask me about what I'm working on right now. You'll be lucky to get anything out of me beyond "lunch?" or "oh, it's just a thought right now" -it doesn't matter how much I've got down, it'll ALWAYS be "just a thought" when you ask about it.
Or even in my group of "friends" most times, they'll be talking about stupid stuff or funny stuff or technical stuff around me and it makes me think "oh yeah, I can totally jump in on this!" and I'll say something and then the conversation dies with a "uh, yeah something like that."

And then I learn to keep my mouth shut.

But my roommate and I have been joking/talking about something for about a year right now, and sometimes I really think it should happen:
A docu-reality show about our lives.

BEFORE YOU CLOSE THE TAB!

I know that sounds absolutely ridiculous -why the HELL would I want to watch a show about two average college girls living their lives?

Well...
We're pretty f**king weird. Reason number one, above all other things. Not like, I collect all of the eye lashes I've ever shed and she doesn't wash her socks kind of weird -that's just creepy.
I mean, like, we can actually understand what the other wants just by shouting out "meow!" through the apartment, or, heck, we have a Poop Diary -a journal we keep hanging by the toilet so when we're in there for "prolonged periods of time," we can write down our "oh so refined" thoughts.

We're not hideous. My roommate is super tall and pretty, and her senior photos make her look like a supermodel version of Taylor Swift. I'm not too shabby -not supermodel T-Swift level or anything, but I don't break mirrors, either!

When I get angry, no one can predict what comes out of my mouth.
Some precious gems include:
 -(to some hoe "shut up"-ing my "excuse me" when i was trying to get off the train) "Nah bitch, you shut up and move so I don't have to say it in your face again!"
and
-(to a homeless man who flipped me the bird when I didn't have any change for him) "No, YOU fuck off, I'm a college student -I'm living off debt as it is -I'll be you in two years."

I'll be alcohol legal in a few months, so bar trolls might be an interesting endeavor, especially considering my wild temper flares.

Normal girl drama -my roommate and I, who are normally attached at the hip, had this out-of-proportion text fight the other day that was WAY more dramatic than it needed to be (we're besties again, don't worry), but it was still pretty entertaining to the people I was complaining to.

Boy drama -My roommate thinks she has no luck with guys, but there are 2 completely devoted, hopelessly in love boys (one in Boston, one back home) that are begging to be her boyfriend again, and another back home that gets jealous every time he hears that she's been talking with her best friend/ex-bf here at school and keeps asking to see her when she comes back for break. Her "non-existant" love-life is a soap opera; as if I could be so lucky with more than the occasional 40-year-old creeper on the train that tries to offer me a flower and some kind of "marketing" internship after talking to me for 20 seconds (with a built-in not unattractive 20-something hype man that's just as tall as he is imposing). I just want the guy at school that I like to look and talk to me like he does to my best friend -he totally loves her and she won't accept that.

And we both have enough friends/interactions with interesting/fucked up people that (if for SOME DUBIOUS reason we weren't enough to keep an audience's attention), they're issues would totally rank in the ratings.

Like my roommate's almost daily crossings with her ex-ex-boyfriend's ex-hoebag that came out of no where when she and the douche were still dating and was like "oh no, she's my gf now, not you." But I think that after my roommate punched this asshole in the FACE freshman year, the bitch is still afraid of her.



Seriously, though, I think we would be so much more interesting than 60% of The Real Housewives of Bumblefuck Whatever, Here Comes Boo Boo Chiiiiilld, and every single one of the Teen Moms and the 16 and Pregnant idiots.

That's all for now!
Thanks for reading!
Amy Liz