Flooding- Desperate Need of Prayer

As some of you may know, the mid-Atlantic and some of the New England states have been viciously assaulted by tropical storm Lee. This storm has set records. It has set a new record of rain fall and amount of damage. It was even worse than hurricane Agnes, who struck the Mid-Atlantic and New England states pretty hard back in 1972.

All this rain flooded a river called the Susquehanna River. It is the sixteenth largest river in the United States that flows from New York down into Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania. When that river flooded, so didn't it's tributaries and other streams and cricks.

I live along the back roads, and we didn't have much water. But I can not say the same for other people in my area. The flooding had submerged two whole nearby towns in water. Houses any less than two stories that weren't on hills were under thick, muddy water. Whole businesses were under water as well. Bridges were completely covered in water. Roads were covered, so weren't detours and the interstate (though that has been reopened). Gas wells have also been under water, and some of the gas and oil leaked into the water. It's hard to imagine. In all my life, I never thought that I would witness something like this.

Though I wasn't effected, sadly I had family members who were. I had two aunts and uncles and cousins who had to evacuate their house in order to avoid the flood. My one cousin and her parents went to another house that my uncle owned, which was on top of a hill. My other cousin and her mother and father had to take shelter at my grandparents' house. My aunt and uncle and cousins who lived up in New York were also effected by the flooding. My cousins missed their first day of school because of Lee. I was also worried when I found out that a couple of my mom's aunts (making them my great aunts) had to evacuate their home/restaurant. It was also pretty scary when my dad went to work yesterday and he ended up trapped on the other side of one of the flooded bridges. He managed to find a way back home that wasn't closed though.

I also have friends in various counties who have been effected by the flooding. I still have yet to hear from some of them. I'm getting even more worried.

My school has been closed down for the past couple of days. The first day was because of all the water covering the roads. Today it is closed because it is serving as an evacuation center for the people in my school district who have nowhere else to go. Other schools have been serving as evacuation centers as well, those who haven't been effected by the flooding. I was distraught when I learned that one school that normally served as an evacuation center didn't get the message about the flooding from the Red Cross due to a communication error. The fire department there had to take it's place, and it quickly became overwhelmed. Churches have also been taking in people.

Which brings me to something else. Some of these evacuation centers lack the proper amount of food and water. We take for granted these things, but there are people out there now who do not have food and water. Others do not even have adequate shelter. Some people are actually trapped in their homes, waiting for rescue. The National Guard was called out to rescue those who were trapped.

Some people chose not to evacuate their homes. The majority of these were elderly people. Many of them had lived through Hurricane Agnes, and they swore they would not abandon their homes. They said they will stay in the second or third floors of their homes. One even said, "I lived here in this house when Agnes came through, and I didn't leave. I will not leave it now."

Some people did heed the warning and evacuated. Which was a good thing. Entire houses have been ripped away by the flooded river. They were just ripped right off of their foundation. One house nearly collided into a nearby bridge and nearly knocked the bridge out. Thankfully, the bridge is still standing firm and strong.

Some businesses decided to try and fight the water. The local movie theater here was busy pumping out water while people came in to take apart the seats so they could save the fabric. It was a tragic sight to see. That movie theater is the treasure of that town, and it is extremely beautiful. They also do plays. It has helped out with countless fundraisers too. I would never have imagined that theater may end up needing it's own fundraiser in order to help with repairs. What's even sadder was this place was remodeled just last year in order to accommodate more theaters. To see all that nearly destroyed by water is just awful.

Hopefully, the theater has flood insurance. Unlike some people who have been effected by water. In one of the towns that is more further away, people who have been flooded do not even have flood insurance. Their agents said they wouldn't need it. Those people are now going to have to pay for those repairs from their own pockets.

In another town, a curfew had to be established last night. People had started to loot houses. At nine 'o' clock that night, all people had to be inside. That just makes me sick. That people would even dare think about looting a place during a natural disaster is just unbelievable.

This is no joke people. It felt like we were back in the time of Noah when the Great Flood came. I heard references to it all day yesterday. Some today too.

Thankfully, some of the water has died down. But it's far from over. Other places still have water rising. As that water in those places starts to lower, it is rising in other places. So needless to say, we are not out of the tunnel yet. We can see a light, but it's not over yet.

Yes, we are all in great need of prayer over here. I am asking you on behalf of all the people of this area who have been effected by the flooding. Some of you who are on thelionscall know and have been praying, I just ask you continue to pray. For those of you who are just learning about it on here, please, don't hesitate to pray. I don't care who or how you to pray to but please, we need all the prayer we can get over here.

Staying strong,

WriterFreak

Recent Reading 9

I finally managed to snag time in order to work on this new recent reading. The book I recently read a few days ago was Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian.

In this book, Percy Jackson and his friends at Camp Half-Blood must defend Olympus against Kronus's oncoming assault, which turns into a war spread all across New York City. The gods and goddesses are off fighting against their other enemies, and Olympus is virtually unguarded. And more than likely, it is Olympus's last stand.

What did I think of it? I actually thought it was good. I do have a couple of complaints though. For one, the battle seems a little long. I love books with battles in them, but this one just seemed to be dragged out. I also have a quip about the ending (which I won't spoil for you.) Other than that though, I thought it was good. Fair warning, lots of violence and intense scenes.

Recent Reading 7 & 8

Hey guys, guess what I have been reading for the past three days? Percy Jackson! Oh yes, I'm still a fan of this demigod. I just managed to finish reading the third book on the 31st of August, and finished the fourth book on the first of September.

And I decided to start calling these reviews my recent readings. Sort of makes more sense to me.

In this epic third installment of the Percy Jackson story, it's almost Christmas, and Percy, Annabeth and their friend Thalia (a daughter of Zeus) are summoned by Grover to a military school in order to save a couple of half-bloods who were just discovered. The mission turns into a quest to save Annabeth and the goddess Artemis from the clutches of a Titan god and searching for a creature that can bring death to the Olympians.

What did I think of it? To be honest, I think this one is actually my second favorite. My first favorite would probably be the first book, but I don't know, the last one is really catching my attention, we'll see about that. This one was cleverly written and very interesting. Fair warning though, the stakes are being raised higher in this book. So there's more violence in it than there was in the other two.

In the fourth edition of the Percy Jackson series, Percy finds himself thrown into his deadliest mission yet. It has just been discovered that the Labyrinth still exists, and Luke plans on using it in order to invade Camp Half-Blood. In order to prevent that from happening, Percy, Grover, Annabeth, and Tyson (Percy's Cyclops half-brother from Book 2) enter it in order to find Daedulus and convince him to give them Aridne's string, which can guide anyone out of the Labyrinth.
What did I think of it? To be honest, I think this one is my least favorite. Though there are lots of twists and turns, some of them just don't seem to make much sense to me. Though that could just be me. Overall, the book was pretty good and I did enjoy it. I'm going to warn you again though. The violence in this story is worst than any of the others so far. The stakes have definitely been raised. And you can sense that the greater war is coming in the next book.




Well, there you go.

God bless,

WriterFreak

Other News:

I just updated the blog so that people can comment without having to log in using a google account. I trust that my followers and any other readers can be mature when they are sending comments. If they can't be, then I will turn it off. So don't abuse this priviledge.



The image of Nikabrik will serve as my warning picture (think of it as a seal) unless it's being used in posts about my fics.



No More Summer Vacation

Summer vacation is drawing to its close now. I must say, this summer has been rather cruddy. Though the birthday weekend was lots of fun. (That's right folks, my birthday was last week.)

In the mean time, I'm going to give you the low down so that you know what to expect and what not expect.

First, don't expect updates to come frequently. This includes not only my blog, but also my stories. I'll probably be lucky if I can update a story a couple of times a month, if that. I may get luckier with the blog.

For my TLCer friends, don't expect me to be on the chat so much anymore. In order to make more time for writing, I may just have to cut my TLC chat time. You'll probably more likely see me on the weekends.

Let's see, what else is there...

If you do see an update on my stories, it'll more than likely be my Narnia falling to Telmar fic. If not, then my story that talks about how Caspian and Liliandil came to fall in love and how Caspian finally got over his romantical love for Susan.

I wasn't sure, but if you guys wished, but I could throw in a chapter study for each of the chapters of my fics. In it, I can provide you with some good background information on the characters and settings and such that you may not get in the regular story. But again, I'll leave that up to you.

Some of you were wondering how I came up with the names for some of my characters. I was thinking about doing a post that explained where I got them. I'm not certain when I'll get a blog post of that done, but I think I will eventually.

I may- no scratch that- I will put up some new one-shots here and there on occasion. I already got a Narnia songfic featuring Michael W. Smith's song "This Is Your Time" in the making. And I plan on redoing my "This Is Home" Narnia songfic shortly.

My Star Wars fic The Star Is Falling will probably be placed back up once I do some major editing work on it. This includes taking out the poor morality and replacing it with a better kind. It also means getting a more constant idea of where I'm going to go with that fic. I had several different directions I wanted to go. But with this fic, I needed two. (Considering that there is always two different endings to this series.)

Any other fics that I have up that aren't complete will be put on haitus until further notice.

My Narnia/His Dark Materials fic that I'm working on with Anya and Book will be coming around hopefully.

No other new multi-chapter fics will be posted until I got the ones I'm currently working on done.

When I finish reading any books, I will put a review up for you to check out. So don't worry about that.

And I will post updates in my life if I feel that they are worth mentioning.

There we go. You now know what's going to basically take place during the next nine months. We have a long road ahead of us. I know I do, cause this year is the year of many changes for me. I'm sure some of you do as well. Let's all pray that we all have a safe school year this year. (Or a good year in general.)



Yes, it is the leprechaun again. What can I say, I like him. :P














Wishing you good fortune,

WriterFreak

Liebster Award

"The goal of the award is to spotlight up and coming bloggers who currently have less than 200 followers. The rules of the award are:

1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.

2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.

4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.

 5. And most of all - have fun!"

 

Isn't this cool guys? I can't believe I got nominated for such an award. This is very cool, very cool. I would just like to thank my friend from Elizabeth L.W. for mentioning me. She runs a blog called  ImaginationalWonders. Thanks again Elizabeth.

 

Now then, here are my top 5 picks. This is going to be hard because I follow nearly thirteen or some number of people like that.

 

1. The Writings of An Aspiring Authoress. This is my friend Autumn Elizabeth's blog. She is the one who first introduced me to blogspot. She's also a friend on TLC, and the one who I fondly call my "Sister-from-another-mother."  It's mostly her writing on here. Though there are a few things such as life thrown in here and there.

 

2. Define Wierd. This is my friend Hudson's blog. He is one of my friends on TLC. He and I first started becoming friends when we both discovered we had a taste for rap artists such as Eminem. His blog is mostly about his photography. Check him out, this guy is an amazing photographer. The pictures will not disappoint.

 

3. Musings of a Hedgepickle. This is my friend Ajnos's blog. She is the local TLC lady hedgehog. She is training to become a linguist. She and I often have interesting conversations involving linguistics. (Considering the fact that she and I are into the subject.) Her blog is mostly about her projects she's working on and such. Do check her blog out!

 

4. Thoughts From the Fourth Estate. This is my friend Will's blog. He is a member of the TLC (I won't reveal who he is because I don't want to give stalkers his identity). I will say this, he and I have grown to become friends from the moment he and I first met on the TLC chat. We couldn't be more different though. Some of our political/moral views will clash at times. And sometimes, he and I will have debates about that. Overall though, he is a good friend and I am glad to know him. This is his political/journalistic blog. So expect a lot of that to be there.

 

5 . The Clashing of Swords. This is my fellow TLCer Shieldmaiden's blog. She is a little philosopher as I like to refer to her. Though she's rather young, I have a feeling she will grow to become a good thinker. As you can guess, her blog mostly deals with philosophy. And some of the topics she talks about are very interesting. If you look at her first post, you will find that I am mentioned in it. (This was a result of a philosophical discussion she and I had once.)

 

Well there you go folks. Those are my top 5 picks. Hope you all enjoy the blogs.

 

God bless,

WriterFreak

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Effects Of Conversion On My Stories

Great news everyone. On Saturday I managed to tell my brother and a few friends I was converting to Catholicism. They were accepting of it. My one friend was rather surprised though because he remembers how nasty I use to be towards Catholics. When I was younger I use to call Catholics every name in the book. I use to say that they sucked. I use to say that they were all greedy. I always use to say that every single Catholic priest was a child molester. Geez...now you know how evil I use to be don't you? Thing is, that's only the beginning. Needless to say, my friends were surprised. One of my other friends also said, "Dang, that's a significant change!" I got to say, I agree with him.

With my progress out of the way, I'm going to discuss something regarding my stories. I'm not sure if this has ever crossed any of your minds, but I thought, "I wonder what my readers think will happen to my stories now that I am a Catholic?" Some of you may expect that there wouldn't be a significant change. That is quite contrary. There's such a significant change that I can barely describe it. But I'll try anyway.

Two of my major fics I deleted as a result of my conversion to Catholicism. They are:

The Star Is Falling- a Star Wars fanfiction that was based in the Force Unleashed universe. It was my idea of what the third story would be like. I decided to delete it because of the mentioning of Galen and Juno having sex before marriage being portrayed in a positive light. (Which I didn't agree with deep down anyway but I was going through a stage of rebellion during the time I was writing it.) While I do plan on putting this story back up, I'm not sure when.

The Lion's Materials- A Narnia/His Dark Materials (a.k.a Golden Compass) crossover. Now that I'm a Catholic, whenever I read through that I can't help but feel sick. Especially because of my derailing of the Catholic faith and making it sound like a repressive association seeking to control the entire world. I no longer believe this. Thus, this is the reason why I deleted it. Besides, I found it was horribly written anyway.

These stories won't be effected as much by my conversion:

The Fall of Narnia- I thank God that I didn't a specific denomination in mind when I was plotting this story. While Henry's conversion to Christianity wasn't intended to be the main focus of the story at first, it became such as soon as I started writing. I'm glad that I didn't keep a specific denomination in mind. This way, I can have Henry start his road down to Catholicism.

That Was Romance, This Is True Love- A telling of how Caspian and Liliandil fell in love after the movie-verse VDT and how Caspian abandoned his love for Susan. This wasn't really suppose to be a major Christian piece either, but you can definitely see the Christian elements behind it.

Narnia Characters Speak Out- There shouldn't be much of an effect on this story either. Though I'm going to figure out a reason why there are some Protestants in Aslan's Country. (As a member of the Catholic Church, I do not deny we believe that it is our faith and our good deeds that get us to Heaven.  We do not claim that Protestants, Orthodox, and non-denominationals won't make it to Heaven. But we don't claim that they do either.) Along with a few people who were Pagans. Though I don't think this should be too hard.

Other:

The Final Showdown- Another Narnia/His Dark Material crossover that I'm co-writing with BookObsesserNumberOne and Anya. To be honest, I'm not too sure where this is going to go now that I am a Catholic. I'm hoping that we can at least make it to where we can finish it. After that, I don't plan on doing any Narnia/His Dark Material crossovers. In fact, I'm not even certain if I'll have anything to do with His Dark Materials anymore beens because that story is relatively anti-Catholic (though it targets all religion in general, it focuses on Catholicism).

Just thought I let you know on the status of my stories.

God bless,

WriterFreak