Happy 50th Post!

I have officially written on this blog for 47 days STRAIGHT. I'm going to give myself a round of applause, especially since I don't have this kind of glorious consistency with my actual novelling hobby.

So even though it's been only 47 days and not 50, I don't care. I'm celebrating anyway.

Also, I found a really neat music video for one of my favorite songs, a cover of the song Somewhere Only We Know, originally by Keane. I'm fascinated by the behind the scenes in movies; I get very annoyed if the bonus features on my DVD's and BluRays only come with the stupid trailers as the bonus material. UGH.

And NOW; THE BULK OF THE POST!

I've started a novel that's full blown romance, the entire story is entirely ordinary in the sense of there aren't any fire breathing dragons or princesses that need rescuing, but a broken man and a broken woman come together and help heal each other.
The catch?
They're emotionally stunted individuals, for the most part. Neither of them are good at processing their own emotions, and seeing is how I'm an outwardly emotional person, I've been struggling with how to write their romance. Until I found this bad boy, here's the link.

I've used this blog in the past since this girl has amazing topics like how to tell if your character has PTSD or how to write an emotionally dependent character or how to create rock-solid character traits. I was SO excited to find this post since it breaks down Sternberg's Triangular Theory, thus making my character's relationship make more sense in my emotional mind.

I also found this one on her website which goes into it even more, here's the link.

I've determined that they have empty love at first which grows into compassionate love, and eventually sprinkles of physical intimacy make their way into it. I'm so excited, if it's wrong to fangirl over characters I've discovered in my head, I don't want to be right.

Thanks for reading! Happy 50th post!

Love, Mackenzie

Writing Prompt Wednesday

Here's this weeks writing prompt with the link!

On a side note, I nearly had a heart attack when I thought I missed a day. This post marks 49 straight days I've posted on here so if I missed a day, it would feel like the end of the world.

Thanks for reading!

Love, Mackenzie

The Plague

Hand Foot Mouth is running rampant through our household! Lincoln had it first, and then I got it (it's hard for adults to get it so I guess my immune system is compromised... maybe its because I've been sick five times this winter but whatever) and now Noah has little blisters on his legs too. UGH.
I'm a very social person so the fact that we have to be quarantined for two weeks as soon as the blisters show up is torture. UUUUUGH.
Hopefully we won't go too stir crazy here and I hope this is the last of the plague symptoms we have at the Packer household.

My expression 90% of the time for the past week and a half. Not pretty.

Love Mackenzie

Geekery

I may have posted this song before, but I don't care. I shall post it again. 

But here's the real topic of this post. Avatars.

The struggle is real. I love the Elder Scrolls series and once Josh is done playing through Fallout 4 I'm super excited to take a whack at it. But it's agonizing when I have to design the character and then name it, as fun as it really is for me.

I identified with this illustration so much, it felt so wonderful to know that others struggle just like me. Here's the link to the original post.

Love, Mackenzie

Happy Easter

I hope everyone had a fun and spiritual day! Hopefully next year we won't be contagious and we'll be able to go to church!

Here's the link to this graphic.

Love, Mackenzie

Kress Wedding Video-Grab The Tissues

Okay, I know it's stupid to get emotional over a celebrity's wedding video, but I did, okay? I DID. I cried like a freaking baby because it was so adorable and they just make me happy.

But hey, he's my favorite Tech Producer and his wife is just adorable. (I may or may not follow them both on Instagram...... Okay, I totally do.)

But if you watch it too, I think you'll have the same reaction. The way he talks about London at the end just gets me, you can hear how deeply he loves that woman. ALSO, they're all Christians who aren't afraid to talk about God at a wedding. How lovely!

Watch it. Just watch it. You can spare 7 minutes of your life to get the warm fuzzies. Do it. Click this link and watch it.

How I felt at the beginning:

How I felt after seeing it:

Thanks for reading!

Love, Mackenzie

Good Mythical Morning

I happened to rediscover this Youtube channel last night and made the mistake of staying up until almost 1 AM watching their videos. Whoops.

Anyway, I really enjoy this channel, especially their Will It? playlist. Delightful! Here's my favorite one (that I've seen thus far) from said playlist.

I also really enjoyed their Would You Live In A Biosphere? episode. Hilarious, and something I likely wouldn't have thought of to look up.

Thanks for reading!

Love, Mackenzie

Happy Birthday, Josh!

Happy birthday to my one and only, Josh! Sorry all of us are sick.

Love, Mackenzie

Writing Prompt Wednesday

All credit goes to the original creator of this prompt. (Hint: It WASN'T me.)

Happy Writing!

Love, Mackenzie

God Bless Belguim

God bless Belgium and all others affected by the bombings. <3
Image from www.mapsofworld.com

Signed, Mackenzie

Things Are Slow

At least in my writing world. I haven't made any progress for days and it's maddening.

Also, yesterday morning, my oldest son developed a rash, which we found out this morning is Hand Foot Mouth, which is caused by one of the enteroviruses. That means we have to make him drink tons of fluids and keep him away from every living soul possible (adults can catch it) for the first week, possibly two. Great.

Especially considering how sick the boys and I have been this winter; it's been two weeks sick, one week well. I'm so done with illnesses in this house!

In addition to both of those, the handle on the dishwasher broke so we need to order another one. Josh figured out how to jimmy it so he can still open it, but that means I can't do dishes until tonight when he gets home.

If things get any worse I think I'll explode...

I hope everyone else's weekend has been going well!

Thanks for reading!

Love, Mackenzie

Spiritual Thought Sunday

I found a neat First Presidency Message I felt like sharing. Its called, Families and Prayer by President Henry B. Eyring. Here's the link.

Also, I found a pretty version of Abide With Me, 'Tis Eventide, sang by Kathryn Gowans. Here's that below.

Happy Dedication Sunday!

Love, Mackenzie

Picture Prompt Saturday

Love, Mackenzie

Fun Fact Friday

Love, Mackenzie

A New Song I Love

Love, Mackenzie

Writing Prompt Wednesday

Here's the link to this weeks' writing prompt!

If someone writes something for this prompt. I'd love to read it!

Happy writing!

Love, Mackenzie

Dear Delivery Driver

Dear Mr. Delivery Driver,

I appreciate your little act of kindness this afternoon.

My day had been less than favorable and I hadn't had the best temper. We were running late to the doctors office and we had to turn left on a tricky street, but you stopped and let us through, so for that, I'm very grateful. We made it just in time and the boys liked meeting their new pediatrician.

Love, Mackenzie

Book Review-Safekeeping by Karen Hesse

I wanted to start off by saying, this is my very first book review so if it sucks, I'm sorry. But I'm doing it anyway. SPOILER ALERT AHEAD.
Here we go-My very first book review.

I admit when I first started reading it, I had a hard time relating to the main character, Radley. Not because she comes from a well off family or because of her trip to Haiti, but because I didn't feel a connection. I find it difficult to follow a character on their journey when I don't have grounds of rooting for them right off the bat. But I decided to keep going anyway.

As the story goes on, I realize the protaganist doesn't have much standing in her way. The United States are in complete chaos, you need the correct paperwork to cross state lines and there are raids going on left and right. And yet, she's not stopped by a single officer, not arrested even once, (even though she crosses both state lines and into Canada without the paperwork.)

Radley doesn't encounter a lot of resistance on her journey, which isn't a terrible thing if I cared a lot about her finding her parents, SPOILER they're already dead before she leaves Haiti to come home, but I just don't feel that need to find out what their fate is. I assumed from the beginning that they were dead already. But maybe that's just me.

For the first third of the novel, it's the same thing over and over; she find shelter somewhere along the trail, sleeps for the night, goes dumpster diving for food and then the cycle repeats all the way until she meets her 'sidekick' I suppose I'll nickname her.

She meets up with another character about a third of the way through which she spends the majority of time with for the rest of the novel. This girl is 19 (I'm pretty sure anyway) and she's had a rough past and she doesn't like divulging a lot of backstory, which I did find interesting, because I did feel the need to know about what happened to her.

I must admit the only really exciting part that snatched up my attention was halfway through when Radley and her companion are walking along the road when they're approached by a man in a car. He offers shelter, a hot shower and all the food they can eat, and Celia refuses, dragging Radley along to continue. The man flips the bird and drives away. Celia then tells us she was raped on her way home from work only a month or so before and she could tell the man was hoping for the same kind of experience with the two of them.

And the rest of the novel is spent in southern Canada where they hunker down in an abandoned schoolhouse and try and survive. They are stealing vegetables from a garden only a little ways away, and the woman inside the house gives them food and clothing and two chickens to eat the eggs every day.

When Radley finds out it's safe to return to the states, she goes home to find it in complete disarray. Almost everything has been stolen and she meets with a kid who lived across the street from her and he tells her the grisly fate of her parents and gives her her mother's wallet which was strewn in the street after her parents were gunned down by a few kids at the beginning of the social collapse.

The two of them, realizing they don't have anywhere else to go, head back up to the schoolhouse where Celia delivers a baby girl and they all live happily ever after.

I wish this story had some more pushback on the protagonist, only because it would have held my attention far better than it did. I like the concept, but the story was a bit weak in my opinion. I did however like the writing style because it got to the point, there was very little description, just enough to get a picture in my mind, and then it got on with it, as monotinous as it was.

But over all, I think this was a tender story of a girl who learns to take care of herself instead of relying on her parents for everything, which she said she did in the past. A good survival story, but I wish there was more actual conflict.

And there you have it, my first book review.

Now I'm starting a book called Proof of Forever by Lexa Hillyer, here's a link to the Goodreads page, and once I'm done reading it, I'll write another review.

Thanks for reading!

Love, Mackenzie

Spiritual Thought Sunday

I hope everyone's Sunday was wonderful and filled with the spirit, but since it's daylight savings, I'm giving myself the opportunity to go to bed early and try and catch up on some sleep. Here's one of my favorite Uchtdorf quotes:

Happy Sunday!

Love, Mackenzie

Picture Prompt Saturday

I couldn't find the link to this photo, but I don't claim rights to it.

Love, Mackenzie

Fun Fact Friday

Adult elephants can't jump.

Love, Mackenzie

Writers Block

This Tumblr thread I found on Pinterest describes my writing life currently,

Even though I have 7 different novels in the works right now, I find myself like Spongebob. I've been working hard on the second draft of Savage, which has been renamed All I Wanted for the time being, and I foolishly thought the second draft would be easier. 

WELL.

I reread draft 1 and I found myself seeing plot hole, after plot hole after plot hole. It felt like I was being stabbed in the chest! I was so proud of the first draft and then the reality came crashing down, and I've felt a lot like this puppy.

So I've been working hard trying to break it down into scenes and putting it into a calendar (the first half of the story takes place over a five week period) and it's been helping some, but, for the most part my brain has not been cooperating as much as I'd hoped. 

Starting yesterday morning, though, I started getting up at 5 AM because my brain works so much better and I think far more clearly when I'm alone in first thing in the morning.

So lets cross our fingers that this new method will work better than staying up into all hours of the night. 

Thanks for reading! 

Love, Mackenzie

Writing Prompt Wednesday

Here's the link to this prompts site:

Happy writing!

Love, Mackenzie

Already Mourning

I have a problem with killing characters. I'll be the first to admit it. But not when it comes to killing excessively, but I have a mama bear protectiveness over my little darlings, so much so that I have an issue giving my love interests any sort of major flaw.

There is one story in particular I have in my mind that I started this evening and I'm already getting emotional about the protagonist's brother's death. UGH.

I know the impact his brother has on his life and the thought of him having to watch his older brother/best friend/confidante die right in front of his eyes, makes me want to cry. In fact, I can't listen to too sad of music, because all I can see is Lucius' cold dead body and my protagonist weeping over it (for only about a minute before he punches his other brother in the face, but that's a story for another time)

But I have never actually killed off a major character before. I've killed of plenty of minor characters (*cough cough* Lurker massacre in the city of Anthana *cough cough* Bloodbath *cough*) but brutally killing a character that means this much to my protagonist has never happened and I honestly don't know if I'll recover from this one.

And the worst part of it is,
Once Lucius is gone, my protagonist will have no real family left. He's always had a rocky relationship with his two other brothers, to the point of them feeling less like blood relatives, and more like incredibly irritating people he's forced to deal with on occasion.

I oftentimes feel like a cruel person when I write tragedy into my character's story lines, but it's unbelievably satisfying when they get beaten to a pulp (physically, emotionally, mentally or all three) and they keep getting up and doing the best they can.
AAAAH. This hobby will be the death of me.
Okay, that's a bit dramatic.
It'll be the death of my characters. There. That's better.

Thanks for reading!

Love, Mackenzie

My New Topic of Study

In the new novel I'm working on, the main character is a Gearhead. He's going to be excellent with fixing just about anything, which is awesome. But, in case you hadn't already gleaned from interactions with me, I'm not a Gearhead, which means I have studying to do. So as of now, I'm reading up on diffrent metals and their properties (especially since he's an engineer for his apprentice's prosthesis, which are metal)

I'm looking for a metal that corrodes over time in humidity, either seizes up in the cold or melts in the heat, and which ones are best for conductivity. Also, weight is a consideration.

Here's what I've learned:

The link for the first three metals:

Copper is good for hot/cold conductivity as well as electrical, the purer the copper the better (Pure meaning there is less oxygen in it) Also, Copper does very well in the water corrosion category, it takes a long time for water to make a difference to it, making it a fantastic choice for water piping.

Brass is an interesting metal, because it's properties (including color) change based upon how much zinc is added to it. When it's 32%-39% zinc, its heat working abilites will be higher, but the cold working will be more limited. If you reach 39% zinc, it actually is very tough, but lower *ductility, but the lower ductility isn't a concern with my secondary character's prosthetic arms.

Bronze has low metal on metal friction, making it good for industrial applications, and it does well against corrosion, making it great for nautical applications. It consists of mostly copper, interestingly.

The link for the next two:

Titanium is lightweight and sturdy, and it is 'biologically inert', meaning it's non poisonous, which makes it an ideal choice for surgical implants. Titanium does well in both high and low temperatures, and is also noncorrosive and nonmagnetic.

Steel is another option, which is very strong, but it is magnetic and corrosive, and it has more fatigue life than titanium. Steel shatters in extreme high or low temperatures, but compared to titanium, it does better in the strong and hard material. Although it doesn't make for the lightest prosthetic, and it rusts as well.

A link for aluminum:

Aluminum is another metal I've considered. It's abundant, light and strong, so it can be found in applications ranging from duct work to aircraft construction. It doesn't do well in extreme heat because it burns rapidly (But the melting point of aluminum is 933.52 Kelvin, or 1220.6 Ferenheit, so don't worry, your aluminum ducts won't melt), and if it's ground into a fine dust, it has explosive properties. It's also used in the manufacturing of mirrors since it's so reflective. Certain types of aluminum do well in salt water, where others do not. It does corrode, but it does not rust.

And a link for iron:

Iron is definitely the heaviest metal listed here, and it rusts easily, and is highly magnetic (a lot of magnets are made with iron) but it is naturally abundant (the fourth most common element, by mass, in the earth's crust) So I'm not even going to consider this one, to be honest.

There you have it, a rundown of all the metals I've been learning about! I hope you found it interesting and informative.

Love, Mackenzie

*Ductility is when a solid material stretches under tensile stress. If a substance is ductile, it can be stretched into wire.

Spiritual Thought Sunday

This Sunday hasn't been my favorite. Both boys woke up on the wrong side of the bed and that carried on until we made it to church. We were only able to stay long enough to get a drink from the drinking fountain before Noah had an enormous meltdown. And we went home.

Days like this don't come often, but when they do they're rough. And it doesn't feel good when it happens on a Sunday. About a year ago, we found ourselves having another Sunday like this one, and I felt extremely guilty about missing church. But Josh had a good point.

Our Father in Heaven was once a mortal just like us. I'm confident he had children and a wife and that he dealt with less than cooperative little ones. I think he'll be understanding if we do our best to make it to church and it just doesn't work out every now and then.

What Josh and I usually do on days like these, whether it be because of screaming temper tantrums or if our boys are sick, we have some scripture study and listen to a talk or two, doing our best to spiritually edify ourselves on days where we can't be counted as present in our church meetings.

I hope this will help any of my fellow mama's doing their best to be good followers of the faith. God is good, God loves us and he understands that we're trying.

Love, Mackenzie

Picture Prompt Saturday

I don't own this picture, here's the link to the original.

Happy Writing!

Love, Mackenzie

Fun Fact Friday

I looked it up and it's legit.
Nigglywiggly has officially been added to my list of silly words.

Love, Mackenzie

Safekeeping by Karen Hesse

I found a book at the library that I thought I'd try out, hopefully it won't bore me to tears. Here's the Goodreads page about it.

Safekeeping by Karen Hesse

When I'm done reading it, I'll write a brief review!

Thanks for reading,

Love, Mackenzie

Writing Prompt Wednesday

I don't claim rights to this prompt, it just seems interesting. Let me know if you do something with it, I'd love to read it!

Love, Mackenzie

No. Just No.

I saw an ad claiming this dog was an Alaskan Husky Golden Retriever Cross. WELL.

I'll start my rant with saying that I'm not a dog expert, but I am a dog fanatic. 

There is no such thing as an Alaskan Husky. There is a Siberian Husky and an Alaskan Malamute, both breeds are recognized by the AKC. While these two dogs can be bred without issue, if someone is advertising an Alaskan Husky and claims it as purebred, it's a LIE. 

 Next, the blue merle gene isn't carried in any of these breeds. You would have to mix it with a dog breed which carried it. 

I'm under the impression that the dog pictured above is an Australian Shepherd puppy, like the one pictured below.

A Siberian Husky Golden Retriever cross puppy looks like this, give or take on coat color, but the husky coat pattern shines through. Again, neither Huskies nor Golden Retrievers carry the Blue Merle gene.

Comparing the two as adults:

Australian Shepherd

Siberian Husky Golden Retriever Cross

So there's my two cents on the matter.

Love, Mackenzie