Fowl Play

I've read the Artemis Fowl books for years. At one point, I owned all of the books, and The Artemis Fowl Files. Unfortunately, one year, I got moths in my room, and they ate some of my books. I've yet to find the money to replace them.

Either way, they're amazing books. I love them. For the longest time, there were only six books in the series. (There are also The Artemis Fowl Files, and two Graphic Novels currently.) I waited and waited for a seventh book to come out. At some point, I lost track. Recently, however, I decided to check again, in hopes that I would find a new book out.

This time, I was right. There was a new book. I was so excited, you wouldn't have believed it. I read the entire prologue and first chapter on the official Artemis Fowl website, and I fell in love with the book. It's amazing, and our beloved fifteen year old Artemis has gone quite undeniably insane. I guess you can't blame the kid, after all the stuff he's seen and done.

Yesterday, when I went to the library, I put the newest book, Atlantis Complex, on hold. I could barely contain my excitement. Hopefully they will get the book in later this week and I'll be able to read it, at which point I will inform you of how amazing it undoubtedly will be. I desperately want to rant about the series, but if you haven't read it, I would be giving you spoilers. I refuse to ruin the books for you, because I hope you will read them. You won't regret it.

In case you were curious, the books in the series now include Artemis Fowl, The Arctic Incident, The Eternity Code, The Opal Deception, The Lost Colony, The Time Paradox, and The Atlantis Complex. All six books that I have read were amazing, and I have no doubt that the seventh book will easily live up to my expectations.

Don't say d'Arvit,

Shansie

Talented?

You know, I can sing and write and whatnot, but aside from that, I don't have any natural talents I can think of. I"m not really sure if those count as talents anyways. I guess my academics are kind of a talent - I'm gifted and all, but does that really count as a talent? I mean, anything I've ever been any good at is something I've worked very hard at. Stuff doesn't just come easy for me very often.

Remember how I taught myself to sing? I taught myself to write much the same way. I was reading at three years old, and after immersing myself in my books for years and years (and thus losing any social capacity I might have had), I started writing, and my writing slowly turned into what it is now, after a ton of essays and playing with poetry and about seven different attempts at books, not to mention the countless rewrites of books that consisted only of the first chapter.

I got good at riding and working with horses after spending every waking moment I possibly could at the stables from the winter of my freshman year until I left to go to school. I took lessons as long as I could afford it and I worked cleaning stalls and feeding and riding every horse on the property until I got some degree of horse sense.

It's like that with everything I do: gymnastics, horses, singing, writing, schoolwork, bicycling, and now I'm working on photography. Funny thing is, the first time I did these things, no one had the reaction of "Oh, you have talent." My singing received a multitude of shushing and kids telling me to "shut up," while my writing often garnered dishonest opinions when I only wanted critiques.

So, this is my question to you: Can you really consider any of these to be talents?

Well, while I'm posting about talents, I might as well do something I've been putting off for a while. I'll let you guys see my deviantART. Yup, I don't have much up there, but it's a little bit of random stuff. Nowhere near as cool as I see some people, like *Shichigoro756 (You're welcome for the free advertising. You're awesome.), posting, but hey. It's something. Maybe one of these days I'll get something really cool up there, like if I ever post part of my book, or figure out how to take pictures in the fog. Don't worry, I'll be sure to let you know if I do. But even though I don't really see it as anything spectacular, you should take a look. The more feedback I get, the better.

Deviously yours,
Shansie