Author Eccentricities

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you know that I said I was posting a post about how weird I am. Well...here it is. You also know that I mentioned doing 2 posts...in 24 hours. The other post refers to 100 years since the (Edmund Huntle sunk) Titanic. Also, if you're looking for the #TCWT blog chain post, you've found it. Thanks for checking me out. It means a lot. It would be way cool if you took the 15 seconds or less it takes afterward to check out another post, or one of my pages up top. Or you could watch my book trailer. Ok...if you did all of that, it would probably take more than 15 seconds, but it would still mean a lot. Please do me that favor. If you don't want to, at least check out my book, The Dreamers, and maybe buy it. :) Just kidding, you don't have to. But it is pretty good. In fact, it's awesome. And that's why you're here. Because I am awesome. ;)

But...I am also kind of weird. Wait, what's that you say? (or at least think amidst your thoughts of leaving this post). The reason you're hear is to here how weird I am? Not how awesome? Oh yeah...it does say eccentricities up there. Well, thank you for pointing out the obvious. I guess I'll get on with the post.

Okay. That was my strange introduction. I really want to thank you for checking me out. It really is awesome! If you couldn't tell by my introduction, I am kind of sarcastic. My thank you doesn't have a trace of sarcasm. Seriously. The fact that you are reading what I am typing right now is really pretty awesome. Think about it. O.o

I am told that I am actually not that sarcastic in person. I can see how that is true. It easier, and more fun, to be sarcastic in a blog post. I sound more like my main character, Sam. Maybe that's where I get it. Hmm... In fact, if I were to talk like this next to people who know me, they'd probably be surprised.

Enough procrastinating. (I'm good at that too.) On with the post.

I am fourteen years old, and published my first book when I was thirteen. I am one of my state's Top 50 Authors, and was also called to be Idaho Student of the Year for 2012 by the PTA. I like reading, writing, building, drawing, and most stuff that involves creating. Destroying can be pretty fun, too, though. If for some reason, you actually want to learn more about me, or my main character, (alter ego) check out my About Me page. Welcome to my blog. Welcome to this post.

First weird thing about me. I have a strange taste of music. I still like a lot of songs that most people enjoy, but I also like artists that not many people like, or at least, admit to, liking. As a writing tip connected to music, I have found that it is best to have music that matches the mood of what you're writing. For general inspiration, (and AWESOME music videos) check out the PianoGuys on YouTube. They did the music in both of my book trailers.

I don't play a lot of video games. Most kids my age, and older and younger, do, but I just don't. Lots of people think that's weird. When it comes to iPad games...well, you've got me. :)

Since another part of this post is my habits as a writer, I'll go into those.

I usually have a lot of water and snacks nearby when I write so I don't have any excuses to go out of my room and stop writing. I hole myself up in there quite a bit. But, if it results in two blog posts in one day, and two. Haters of intense editing added? I'd say it's worth it. At least, today... :)

Another habit I have is checking stats as I write. How many pages, words, etc. especially during NaNoWriMo. If you want to know why that is, I've added a link to a post where I explain it. Hey, look at that! I've added a few other links here! Check them out! They're pretty cool, I promise. Well, most of the time. :)

As I briefly mentioned before, procrastinating is definitely my worst habit. Yup. I have a shirt that says "hard work pays of later, laziness pays off now." Unfortunately... I tend to live by that shirt a bit too often. :)

Anyway, thanks again for checking out my post! While you're here, check out my other stuff, like I said before. It's not like you have anything better to do than support a young author on his blog by taking five seconds to click a button, do you? Haha...I'm so mean. I'll use reverse psychology as I have in the past. DON'T click around my blog. I'll bet you can't help it. :P

Maybe one of these ideas will pay off...

Dream on!

Oliver Dahl

(& NOT Sam Kullen this time, he has to do homework).

Titanic: 100 Years

Tomorrow, April 15, marks the 100th anniversary of the tragic event that changed the world. Possibly one of the most well-known ships to ever sail the sea, The Titanic, or Unsinkable, proved its name wrong 100 years ago, tomorrow. Only 705 passengers survived the event...leaving another 1523 out of 2228 under the waves.

The world knows the Titanic hit an iceberg, which then sunk the ship. When discovered in 1985, it was found that the ship had split into two pieces. Even with this information known, the scientific community of this area in history still debates on how it actually sunk. While other ships probably communicated with others, including the Titanic, telling them that there were icebergs ahead, the Titanic, thought to be "unsinkable," plowed through. Thus began the most famous maritime disaster in history. For more info about the Titanic, click here, as everything that follows is purely fiction.

Above, it says, "the world knows." As Dreamers, we know that it wasn't an iceberg that sunk the Titanic. At least, not directly. At the time, the Dreamers were a small group, perhaps a dozen, not much more. Edmund Huntle, the so-called "founder" of the Dreamers was posting his findings in newspapers and magazines around the world, wherever someone was foolish enough to mistake it as a fiction piece. Those wise enough to mark it as truth and explore Edmund's "Dream Realm," became Dreamers. These men and women had enough creativity that they broke the psychological boundary that holds us back when we Dream. This gave them the ability to literally live inside of their dreams, as we do day-to-day. It also gave them the power to make whatever they dreamed become reality. Unfortunately for Edmund, and all of his fellow passengers on the Titanic, this was uncontrollable to the point where even nightmares could become reality. And so they did.

While searching the world for new Dreamers, Edmund boarded the Titanic as it left on April 10 to pick up passengers and mail in France. On April 11, the ship, with Edmund on it, left Queenstown, Ireland towards New York.

The night of April 14, three days into the voyage, a single man dreamed what would become a nightmare for everyone in the world. Edmund was haunted by the accounts and messages from other ships ahead of them, warning this enormous ship, and others near, of icebergs near their waters. His mind continued to worry, even as he fell asleep. This sparked the dream. A mere hour or so later, strange sounds echoed throughout the cabins. Passengers wearily awoke, worrying also, what the worst could be. Edmund, trapped in his dream, reminded unaware that the world around him was falling. And that he was falling with it.

The ship fell, and the scant number of lifeboats were filled. More than a thousand helpless passengers were left behind. One of these was Edmund, fitfully asleep until he fell beneath the waves, into oblivion.

Thankfully, these kind of things can be avoided nowadays, as Dreamers have developed rings that keep them anchored partway into consciousness as to allow them to control their dreams better, and use this ability to help the world, and inspire growth.

What would YOU dream if you had a Dreamer Ring?

Dream on!

Sam Kullen

&

Oliver Dahl

Young Author Spotlight: Spencer Brokaw

Today, I have the honor of introducing to you a fellow teen author, and online friend Spencer Brokaw. I am going to be starting a series of blog posts that sponsor, or spotlight young authors around the US. I learned about Spencer when he did a guest post on a twitter follower's blog. I commented on it, we got in touch, and, as a result, you are reading this right now! I want to thank him for helping me out on his site as well, and hope this can be the first of many blog posts to follow.

Interview with Oliver Dahl

This last month, I had the opportunity to connect with fellow young author, Spencer Brokaw. He offered to interview me on his blog. In exchange, I offered to spotlight him on The Dreamers Adventures. That post will come soon. As for now, the interview!

 

What is your book about? Where can it be purchased?

The Dreamers is about a kid named Sam, who becomes a Dreamer. This means that he can live inside of his dreams, and also affect events on earth through his dreams. He and the other Dreamers have to band and work together to help save the Dream Realm, (the place where all dreams take place) from an evil villain, Malfix. There always seems to be one of those little nasties somewhere, doesn't there?

 

As for where it can be purchased... I am always so thrilled to tell anybody the answer. Which is...well, practically anywhere online! Amazon has it in print for $9.99, the list price, and as an eBook for $2.99. Barnes and Noble has it in print and on their Nook eReader. Most online Print book stores have it as well, including Books-a-million, Powell's, and plethora more. To get links to these pages, check out Bookstores for print books, and eBooks for eBooks. Thanks to BookBaby, The Dreamers is available on 8of the largest eBook distributors in the entire world. This number will undoubtedly grow! In addition, it is available to most eReaders through GoodReads at The Dreamers

When did you begin writing in general?

I began writing when I was in kindergarten. In messy crayon, I'd take pieces of printer paper, write brief sentences and little pictures on them, staple them together, and call them books. Yep.

During my early elementary years, I didn't really write much, I did, however read a lot! (more on this later, I think). In the fourth or fifth grade I began writing what is now a 550 page epic...which has to be rewritten...again. :) When I first finished it, it was less than a hundred pages long...in a rather large font size. During middle school, I rewrote it to its current length. My writing abilities have since dramatically increased, and so I now see this book as not up to my current par.

What gave you the idea to write your book?

I originally got the idea for The Dreamers when I was still just starting to write my first book. I had a dream that I was running through a jungle, and some spies were chasing me. I hid under a tree, but one of the spies shot me in the leg. I woke up. When I did, I realized that my leg was hurting. Pulling up my pant leg, I saw a bruise there... In exactly the same place the spy shot me. This got me thinking. What if what happened in our dreams happened to us on earth? I wrote the idea down in my little notebook, and held it off. When I discovered NaNoWriMo, in 2010, I decided to use that idea to write for during that crazy month. (if you don't know what NaNoWriMo is, go check it out!)

How did you come up with the title?

I have to say, I didn't really think very much about a title. Sam was a Dreamer, and that was pretty much the main idea behind the book. I believe that most things you hear or see about a book from the author should be relevant and important to the message of the book. The Dreamers: A Story of Sam Kullen seemed to do the trick for me.

 

Who designed the cover?

To be honest...I have NO idea. I'm not kidding. I get a lot of comments about the cover, (hey, it does look pretty sweet!) and am asked this question a lot at book signings. I put the cover as a whole together, but I don't have a clue as to who made the cover image. As far as I can tell, someone made it for a desktop background. I wish I knew, though, so I could thank them!

If your book was a movie, who would you pick to play the main characters?

I thought long and hard about this one. The 3 main characters in this book are Sam, Thep, and Flitch. I think that Sam, the ”mainest” character could best be acted by Alexander Ludwig, or Aaron Johnson. They don't really look alike, but a mix of the two of them would be good, I think. For Thep, Jeff Bridges was the only guy I could find that really matched the way I imagined Thep. Think of him as from the movie Tron, but a little younger. And Flitch... Well, he's his own character. I don't think any actor could really do his part the way I imagine him.

What books do you plan on writing in the future?

Wow. I could talk about this question forever, but I'll try to keep it brief. :) I have a sequel to The Dreamers in the editing process, and possibly a third one, though nothing solid yet. Another series called The Stone Chronicles,which. Consists of my 550 page epic. I hope to publish it through Shadow Mountain, but, like I mentioned before... It's still got a ways to go.

Were you an avid reader before you began writing?

Yes! I was a very avid reader! In elementary school, I think I was one of the top 5 kids with the most hours read. This was in 3rd grade! I remember in kindergarten, I was reading easy chapter books on my own, and writing down dreams I had while other kids were learning the alphabet! The fact that I was in challenge, (the gifted-talented program) also helped boost my creativity.

What TV shows, books, and movies inspire most of your stories?

Not many media sources really helped inspire The Dreamers. It was all kind of in my head already. However, after I had written the book, movies like Inception and Tron reminded me of my own book.

How did you go about publishing your book? Did your parents help you, or did you do most things on your own?

This is another topic I could talk forever about! You'll have to check out my huge blog post on it at Self-Publishing. If you threw in copyright law, you'd be in trouble! These kinds of things usually end up in what could be an hour long heated discussion about the difference between a copyright and patent, or a time when my parents just nod and agree with everything I say as I discuss the frustrations if making a cover or registering a copyright. Do yourself a favor and just look at this post if you're really interested. There's no way I can abbreviate it this much, though others undoubtedly can.

What kind of music do you listen to?

Music! I love music! When I'm writing, I LOVE listening to the Piano Guys. Go check out their YouTube channel right now! They do a ton of amazing, inspiring things that just suck the writing juices out of you into the keyboard. (If you play piano, their stuff is also a ton of fun to play!)

 

When I'm not writing, and even when I am, I listen to a lot of weird music. Stuff not a lot of people like. I won't go into artist names, or else I'll get infinite blackmail. :) some of the bands I like are: Owl City, The Fray, OneRepublic, Coldplay, and many others. I don't ever listen to songs with vulgarity in any form if I can help it. That stuff doesn't help creativity.

What are other hobbies you have outside of writing?

I have a lot of hobbies outside of writing. I'm involved in Boy Scouts of America, Nstional Junior Honor Society, (not exactly sure that's a hobby... :/ )

 

I enjoy playing piano, (watch me play an AMAZING song at About-Me)

 

I also enjoy reading, drawing, building, blogging, photography, and a host of other activities