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On March 15th, my brother and I were at the supermarket. We’d barely stepped into the store, when a voice announced over the PA system that everyone should have cash ready. The credit card readers apparently weren’t working at the self-checkout. We thought nothing of this, grabbed our groceries, and headed for the checkout.
It was pure chaos. We started in the self-checkout line, which reached halfway down an aisle. Only one of the four self-checkouts was working and, as we stood there, that one was closed down too. Everyone in our line was shifted to the next one regular checkout. As we exited the aisle, we saw that every single checkout was packed with people. We were squeezed in like sardines. Nobody wanted to give up their spot.
My brother and I glanced at each other, but we figured that it wouldn’t take too long to reach the cashier. We waited and waited and waited. The line wasn’t moving. We started grumbling that the person talking to the cashier probably didn’t have her cash out or that she was arguing with the cashier, trying to insist that the broken card reader should take her card.
We heard another announcement about having your cash ready and still we didn’t move. Eventually, the woman at the front of the line walked off to return her groceries, since she couldn’t buy them. We stepped forward, hopeful that the line would get moving. But, nothing happened. The cashier started to explain something to the next person in line, but made no move to start scanning items. The mother and child right in front of us shook their heads and left.
We were finally close enough to hear what was going on. Out of the six or seven cash registers open, only two were working. Our poor cashier was telling people that in order to buy their items, we either had to wait for her register to start working again, which would probably take a while, or go to the back of one of the working lines.
My brother and I decided to leave. We had been standing in line for about half-an-hour and we were tired. My brother described the lines as “like Disneyland, but without the ride that comes at the end. Definitely not worth it.”
We returned our items and headed home. We called our mom and told her the situation. None of us went back to the market for about two days. We never learned what happened with the cash registers. All I know is that they’re working again, two weeks later and I’m very grateful for that.

Spoiler Alert!

Earlier this month, I finally watched a movie that came out ten years ago: Hugo. Until a few weeks ago, I always knew it as “that movie about a boy in a train station.” Now that I’ve seen it, it’s clear that it’s so much more than that.

Hugo is based on a book called “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” by Brian Selznick. The movie is directed by Martin Scorsese and stars Asa Butterfield as Hugo and Chloe Grace Moretz as Isabelle. It also has Frances de la Tour, Helen McCrory, Richard Griffiths, and Jude Law, all Harry Potter actors. The story is set in 1931 and follows Hugo Cabret, who has lived in a train station with his Uncle Claude since his father died in a museum fire. In his spare time, Hugo tries to fix the automaton that his father found in the museum. Hugo is desperately alone and he hopes that the automaton will be like a friend, or at the very least, give him some sort of message from his dad.

Hugo soon meets Isabelle and the two of them work out the secret of the automaton, which leads them to a man named Georges Melies, who was a real person. Melies is known for being a pioneer in cinema, being one of the first directors to add special effects to his movies. Melies tries to ignore Hugo and Isabelle, but they show him one of his old movies, “A Trip to the Moon.” He was depressed after shutting down his movie studio, because of World War I.

Inspired, Georges thanks Hugo for everything he’s done. He just wishes he had his automaton back. Smiling, Hugo rushes off back to the train station to retrieve the automaton for Georges. The movie ends with all the characters going to the theater, where they are hosting a Georges Melies celebration. Georges steps up on stage and publicly thanks Hugo. Isabelle then starts writing a book, all about Hugo.

That’s the abridged story of the movie Hugo. I didn’t know what to expect when I watched it, but I liked it. Asa Butterfield and Chloe Grace Moretz were perfect as Hugo and Isabelle. They were innocent, but determined to help Georges. By the end, Hugo got his family and Isabelle got her adventure.

I liked a lot of the subplots. Richard Griffiths played Monsieur Frick, who ran the newspaper stand. Frick was in love with Madame Emilie, played by Frances de la Tour, who ran a cafe. Emilie had this dog who kept barking at Frick, keeping them apart. At the end, Frick came along with his own dog and the two pooches bonded very well. The two humans and the two dogs make lovely couples. The station inspector was played by Sacha Baron Cohen. He provided a lot of the humor in the movie, but the inspector was also sad. He was injured during World War I and doesn’t let people in easily. He’s in love with the flower shop owner, Lisette, played by Emily Mortimer. Lisette and the inspector bond over the war. Lisette lost her brother to it. Georges Meilies, played by Ben Kingsley, starts off gruff, but as Hugo and Isabelle help him throughout the movie, he becomes nicer and we see what he was like back when he started his movies.

If I had to find something wrong with the movie, I would have to say the design of the automaton. It might just be me, but I was creeped out by its appearance. It looked like it was just staring at Hugo most of the time and I really wanted it to look away.

Overall, I liked the movie. When it first came out, I was right to think that it was about a boy in a train station, but it’s also about the history of movies and how a young boy found his family.

Conflict is what makes a story. Without it, you’re just reading about a character going through events with few, if any, problems. My favorite example is “Mary went to the store and bought some milk.” Not very exciting. But, what if I told you that “Mary went to the store, bought some, milk, and was abducted by aliens”? Now, you want to know what happened. Why would the aliens abduct Mary? Why are they here? Can Mary escape?

Recently, my mom read the sample of a book. She told me that the story was awful. So many bad things happened to the main character, all in a short period of time. There was too much conflict. While my example with Mary and the aliens is straight forward and is more interesting than when she simply went to the store, the sample that my mom read doesn’t seem to know when to quit. Nothing is going right for the main character. She has absolutely no friends and the whole thing sounds miserable. Maybe if the story was about clearing her name and some friends helping her along the way, but no, the story just piles one thing after another onto the main character’s shoulders that you feel exhausted for her. That isn’t a fun story. That’s depressing.

Any story written for fun, should be, well fun. It’s okay to be entertained. Readers want to escape into a good book, follow the characters on grand adventures, and ultimately watch them triumph. That’s what conflict in a story is all about. We want the main character to overcome these obstacles and become a better person. Conflict can help with that, but sometimes, it’s all just a bit too much. The books that resonate with me the longest are the ones with happy endings.

After finishing my book, Silver Rose, I started working on a sequel, Silver Crescent. Earlier this month, I finally finished the rough draft and started editing. I would like to share with you, my dear readers, a sneak peek of Chapter 1 from Silver Crescent.

Enjoy!

Chapter 1: The Rhythm of Memories

A flash by the window caught my eye, startling me back to my surroundings and the present. Slowly, my heart racing, I got up and crossed the room to check. My eyes were adjusting quickly to the dark, but I still almost tripped over a loose floor board. Stifling my cry of surprise, I felt my way cautiously, until I made it to the window and looked out.

Whatever I had seen had disappeared. I was staring out at the dilapidated, old town square of Tealeaf, my home town. The village had been destroyed eight years ago, when a powerful golden dragon invaded and attacked, all in an attempt to find and kill me. My mother, Alice, was a witch. She fought and drove back the fearsome dragon, buying us time, but not enough. She managed to escape with me, my brother Malcolm, and my sister Lydia in tow, but our father died in the attack.

As the terrified villagers fled for their lives, Tealeaf was razed almost to the ground. A few buildings survived, like my old house, but even then, it was crumbling.

“Penelope, what are you doing up?”

I spun around, but it was only Mag, staring at me sleepily.

“It’s nothing, Mag. I thought I heard something. Go back to sleep.”

Mag nodded, dropped her head to the floor, and instantly began to snore.

Spoiler Alert.

It’s no secret that good plot twists can make a dull book good and a good book even better. Take City of Bones by Cassandra Clare and The Blacksmith Queen by G.A. Aiken Both have plot twists, but both handle them in different ways. Please note, whatever my own feelings on these books, they are still good books. I just feel that one has a better plot twist than the other.

In City of Bones, we follow Clary Fray, a normal teenager who discovers that she is descended from demon slayers, known as Shadowhunters. During the story, we meet a boy named Jace and Clary gets a crush on him. At the end, it is revealed that Clary and Jace are not only brother and sister, but their dad is the villain, Valentine. Now, this is a good twist. It plays with our emotions, since we want to see Clary and Jace together, but we also don’t want to see it at the same time. It’s a conflict for the reader.

At the time of writing this, I’ve only read about two-thirds of The Blacksmith Queen, but I’ve already gotten past the major twist, so I think it’s fine. The story as I’ve read is that a king has died and his brutal sons are fighting each other for the throne. A blacksmith named Keeley doesn’t see this as a bad thing, since it means more business for her, until a prophecy names her younger sister Beatrix as the new queen. Now the sons are after Keeley’s entire family. Keeley is a talkative character who is friendly with all the good guys, but starts smashing people with her oversized hammer during battle. Beatrix is a quiet bookworm, who is already aloof and very queen-like. Also accompanying them is the middle sister Gemma, who is a warrior. Gemma and Beatrix hate each other. The three of them, along with a couple of other friends, have made it to the Witches, a group of women who mostly focus on math and logic, but they have a seer in their midst. The seer names both Keeley and Beatrix as queens. This should be the twist, right? Well, not quite. Keeley and Beatrix are talking quietly, when Beatrix suddenly pulls out a knife and stabs her sister, almost killing her.

Here’s the problem: is it unexpected? Yes. Is it good for the story? I’ll leave that up to debate. As for me, no. I don’t think it’s good for the story. Throughout the entire first part, everyone we meet has said that Beatrix is plain-looking and that she wastes her time reading. As an author and a reader, I find this rather insulting that reading is seen as “a waste of time.” I wanted to see Beatrix succeed, to prove everyone wrong. She was the underdog hero. I was annoyed when Keeley was named a queen too. It seemed to take away from Beatrix’s victory. Now, it turns out that Beatrix was the bad guy all along. I haven’t been too eager to finish the book, since my favorite character up to this point is suddenly trying to kill her own family. It feels like a twist for twist’s sake to me. Beatrix didn’t have enough of a personality to make her a hero, so let’s just make her a villain instead. And her motivation is that she doesn’t want to considered plain. Great? I don’t know. Maybe the rest of the book picks up, but at the moment, it feels more like a chore to read after this “twist.”

In my opinion, the best twist is the one set up from the beginning. Clary and Jace meet in the first couple of chapters, so they have plenty of time to develop crushes on each other, before it’s all ripped away. In The Blacksmith Queen, it just seems to come out of nowhere. If this is the type of twist you like, I think you will really enjoy this book. As for me, though, I think it’s time for me to move on and read another book.

On October 8th, my family and I took a trip to The Living Desert, the local botanical garden and animal park. It was me, my parents, two brothers, and nephew. We were there for about three hours and it was three hours well spent. The three most interesting animals were the coyote, mountain lion, and bobcat.

We saw the coyote first and we must have shown up during meal time, since at least two of the coyotes were running around, excited. The third coyote just stared at the other two from where he lay, obviously wondering what all the racket was about. One coyote even stood on a rock and howled. I’ve never actually heard a coyote howl before, so that was exciting.

The mountain lion was active. A couple of people were there with a child. The lion kept running at the glass, trying to get to the little girl. It reminded me of when I was about three and looking at a leopard. The leopard paced on his side of the glass, licking his lips, thinking that I might make a good snack. I ran and hid behind my mom’s leg. The big cats’ natural instincts are to hunt small prey and this child looked like prey to her.

The cutest out of the three was definitely the bobcat. He was playing with a ball, batting it to and fro, acting like a housecat. As we watched, however, the ball came rolling toward us and got tangled in some wire. The bobcat pawed at the ball, until he got it free, at which point, he started playing again. He actually knocked the ball into the air, brushing the leaves of a low hanging tree.

All in all, it was a fun day. We saw so many cute and interesting animals, like a bighorn sheep standing on its own private rocky hill, a tortoise flipping another tortoise from its shell back onto his feet, and even a couple of wolves chasing each other. The animals were truly a joy to see.