2009 World Champion

And the 2009 World Champion is . . . Bridget Sloan!

It makes me happy another Team USA win. But there was a fault, the WOGA 3 peat star Rebecca Bross was in the running to be the World Champion, her beam routine was near perfect and her score bumped her to the top. But then a small titanic moment happened on her last tumbling pass fell down with her score being deducted by final point and was awarded the silver medal. I had a hard time finding the actual video during the All-Around but this is the video from the event finals.

Uglies by Scott Westerfield

Uglies
Tally Youngblood is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait for the operation that turns everyone from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to party. But new friend Shay would rather hoverboard to "the Smoke" and be free. Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world and it isn't very pretty. The "Special Circumstances" authority Dr Cable offers Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever.







I read this series when it was first published, way before the Hunger Games came out, and I found the Hunger Games to be a much interesting story. This is a dystopian book series, but I did not like the writing one bit. The idea for the story is interesting, I'm just not crazy about Westerfields writing. Westerfield's writing was too bland and kept me wanting to put the book down not even eager to get to the next chapter. I didn't feel a connection to the book nor to the characters. It's not that bad of a book.

Advice to Writers: Donald Hall

T.S. Eliot's Advice to a Young Writer

Then it was four o'clock, or nearly; it was time for Eliot to conclude our interview, and take tea with his colleagues. He stood up, slowly enough to give me time to stand upright before he did, granting me the face of knowing when to leave. When this tall, pale, dark-suited figure struggled successfully to its feet, and I had leapt to mine, we lingered a moment in the doorway, while I sputtered ponderous thanks, and he nodded smiling to acknowledge them. Then Eliot appeared to search for the right phrase with which to send me off. He looked at me in the eyes, and set off into a slow, meandering sentence. "Let me see, said T. S. Eliot, "forty years ago I went from Harvard to Oxford. Now you are going from Harvard to Oxford. What advice can I give you?" He paused delicately, shrewdly, while I waited with greed for the words which I would repeat for the rest of my life, the advice from elder to younger, setting me on the road of emulation. When he had ticked off the comedian's exact milli­seconds of pause, he said, "Have you any long underwear?"

-DONALD HALL


This is mostly saying "Don't settle for anything less." If you are querying an agent, don't settle for just any agent. I do have some writer friends who just wanted to have an agent, but their agent wasn't really good. So now they are having to find a new agent. This goes to the point of querying agents who you don't want to work with, and don't just settle. If you are a young writer, keep writing.