World All Around Champion

The first Russian to win the World All-Around since Svetlana Khorkina in 2003 is...

Aliya Mustafina

Aliya qualified first into the All-Around and qualified into all of the event finals. Bross was in the running for silver but an uncharacteristic fall on beam knocked her out, but a strong performance on floor got her a silver medal.

2010 World Championships Team Final

It was the Russian Renaissance, Russia has not won an Olympic title since they turned from the Soviet Union. Russian team was lead by Aliya Mustafina and they won the gold, and the U.S. won the silver.

Advice to Writers: Thomas Powers

Ask Yourself Repeatedly: What Is This About?

The most useful advice on writing I've ever received comes from Gil Rogin, who told me that he always uses his best thing in his lead, and his second best thing in his last paragraph; and from Dwight Macdonald, who wrote that the best advice he ever received was to put everything on the same subject in the same place. To these dictums I would add the advice to ask yourself repeatedly: what is this about?

-THOMAS POWERS

I like this quote most in particular, I like what it really means.  Writing should not be about just writing about a whole bunch of words on a page and calling it a novel. If you watched the New Moon movie premiere with Stephenie Meyer, her advice was to just write write write. Do not consider a novel just a bunch of words written on a page. A novel needs to have plot, interesting dialogue between the characters, twists in the storyline, and an ending depending on if your book is a series or not.

Advice to Writers: William Trevor

By the End, You Should Be Inside Your Character

By the end, you should be inside your character, actually operating from within somebody else, and knowing him pretty well, as that person knows himself or herself. You’re sort of a predator, an invader of people.

-WILLIAM TREVOR

The characters are the most important part of the book. You need to think like the character as you're writing them. This brings me to an article I saw on writer's digest. There was a writer who was a theater actor and he was able to do his characters much more easily because they have been accustomed to be someone else everyday of their life. I think this is where my minor in Theater comes in handy.