Update + Sierra College ASSC Flash Fiction Contest

I swear I'm not dead, just swamped with the life of a college student! It's been three months since I started college and I haven't run away screaming... yet. Ha, just kidding. I'm actually loving all of it: the teachers, the classes themselves, and even the homework! I know, I'm weird. But I didn't create this post to ramble about college life. This is the website/blog of a writer, and so let's skip to that part...

Recently, my school (I know, talking about my college again) had a writing contest called the ASSC Flash Fiction Contest. I have no idea was "ASSC" means, but the "flash fiction" part meant that we had to write an entire story in 600 words... 600 words! That's nothing! My book is around 500 pages, and I had to write a story in 600 words. We also had to incorporate the sentence "I had no idea the dissent would be so rapid," word or word. It was definitely a challenge, but I like a challenge and so I enjoyed it very much.

I wrote four stories but we were only allowed to enter two. Even though I liked all of them, my readers voted that I submit the last two stories that I wrote, although I'm kind of in love with the idea for the second story and I might continue it... someday... when I have more time... Yeah right, when do I ever have any extra time. I guess what I mean to say is that I'm hoping to continue it. Anyway, I was originally going to make a pdf of each story to share with you guys. But I'm sick and really don't want to go through all of that trouble to upload it to scribd.com and then embed it here and blah blah blah. So just click on the links proved below to read each story. Hope you like them! And I love comments and reviews and just about anything. So leave a comment, pretty please with a cherry on top!

• Story #1 - Roll to Me
• Story #2 - If the Shoe Didn't Fit
• Story #3 - Crossroads
• Story #4 - Flurry

I'M GRADUATED!

Well, I had a big party yesterday and am now officially graduated from high school! Whoopee!!!!!!

College, here I come!

My Favorite... part 1

FAVORITE BOOKS:

J.M. BARRIE

Peter and Wendy

WILKIE COLLINS

The Woman in White

C.S. LEWIS

The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe

Prince Caspian

M.L. LEGETTE

The Unicorn Girl

The Tale of Mally Biddle

G.K. CHESTERTON

The Ballad of the White Horse

KIKI HAMILTON

The Faerie Ring 

LLOYD C. DOUGLAS

The Robe

RICK RIORDAN

Percy Jackson & the Olympians series

Heroes of Olympus series

A.G. HOWARD

Splintered

ELOIS JARVIS MCGRAW

Mara, Daughter of the Nile

The Golden Goblet

ALLY CARTER

Heist Society

ANDREW KLAVIN

The Homelanders series

GAIL CARSON LEVINE

Ella Enchanted 

KATE SEREDY

The Good Master

A Tree for Peter

LAURA INGELS WILDER

Little House on the Prairie series

MARTHA FINLEY

A Life of Faith Series

ELIZABETH GOUGE

The Little White Horse

BRIAN JAQUES

Castaways of the Flying Dutchman series

MICHELLE BUCKMAN

Death Panels

FRANK E. PARETTI

This Present Darkness

Piercing the Darkness

Prophet

KATHRYN STOCKETT 

The Help

REGINA DOMAN

The Shadow of the Bear

CATHERINE FISHER

Incarceron

KENNETH GRAHAM

The Wind in the Willows

AMANDA HOCKING

The Trylle trilogy

Walk for Life West Coast 2015

Walk for Life West Coast has been happening annually for the past 11 years in San Francisco. I was fortunate to have participated in two of those, one of the being just last Saturday. It is a beautiful thing where people of all ages, races, religions, and backgrounds gather together and speak with one voice against the evil lie that is Abortion.

*(Baby at only sixteen weeks old in the womb)*

Abortion has always been a problem in our Country (and in others), but it has only been in the last couple of decades where it has really sank its teeth into our daily lives and taken hold of the most precious part of a persons life... its beginning and growth in the womb. 

Terrorist have killed 3,000 Americans since 1990... Abortion has killed 4,000 since YESTERDAY.

 Before the official Walk began, there were many passionate speakers who gave their testimonies in the middle of Civic Plaza in San Francisco.

 Some of the speakers included a zealous Reverend with his large, supportive family... a young girl who was able to have her chemical abortion reversed when she realized the horrible mistake she had made... and a woman who had formally been dating Arrowsmith's Steven Tyler when she was underage and was coerced into aborting their child... 

A total of 50,000 people participated in the walk in San Francisco and 400,000 in Washington D.C. just two days before. Even in the face of hateful adversity from the protestors on the side lines, the people in the Walk (myself and my group included) remained peaceful and unprovocative the whole time. 

I hope this blog post was informative and maybe even inspires you to join us in this noble cause next year... 

~Ty

Rain, rain, please don't go away. I wouldn't mind if you stayed a couple of days!

 (it decided to stop raining right as I took this picture but it was just POURING yesterday)

I'm sitting here thanking God right now as the sky pours forth it's healing nourishment onto our dry California ground. There has been a drought here for a while, I heard that people in LA weren't even allowed to get their cars washed because they were trying to conserve the little water they had. Well, now we can put that all behind us. The fields are now green again, the soft pitter-patter on the roof is like a lullaby, the air is cold outside but within our walls it's toasty warm, the leaves off the trees continue to fall, Christmas music is playing... And now all I want to do is sit in front of the fire with a cup of tea and travel back down memory lane...

Yep

Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn...

So I'm sitting in front of my family's first fire of the season watching little Grass Valley's first rainfall of the season. California has been in a drought for a while now and it's such a blessing to watch the pitter-patter outside. I love fall, it's a time of sweaters and scarves, pumkin-spice coffee, colorful trees, long afternoons of reading, and... shivers and coughs. Yes, I'm currently pretty sick right now (please pray for me) and that means I'm not doing much school today... so do you know what that means?

Yes, I live on a farm...

So, yesterday I started harvesting our latest flock of meat chickens at 7:30am and didn't finish until 5:30pm (which is actually a record time). We had rented a trailer and had a few friends come over. Together, we harvested 195 chickens which we are now going to be selling at the local Farmer's Markets.

Enjoy the photos...




If you dare!



Haha!

Cheers!

~Ty

TAC Summer Great Books Program

Hey Everyone!

I know, I know, I haven't posted anything in FOREVER! But I have an excuse. Three actually. One is that this summer has been crazy with finishing up school, work, and everything else. And two is that I just got back a little while ago from a two-week-long College Summer Program! And three is that my family is currently hosting a foreign exchange student from France!

Below I have a bunch of pictures illustrating my experience at the summer program and also of Loic. I hope you enjoy them!

One of the groups I was hanging out with! They were awesome and we had some good times together! First is Melissa, Caleb, Antonia, and Robert.

Too cool for school, ha! Caleb and Robert at the Getty Museum in LA.

Hollywood!

The second group I hung out with. We had some crazy laughs!

This is what I did when I was bored in class. Haha! What do you guys think? Would I make a good Henna artist? ;-)

My awesome roommate Rachel!

The third group I would hang out with! We had a blast playing cards! Extreme spoons is the best!

This was a hilarious parody our Prefects put on about the murder of Julius Ceaser.

Back at home. This is Loic Chantrel, the foreign exchange student who is currently living with us to learn more English. This was at the fair last week!

My brother Zach and Loic in a gift shop in Santa Cruz!

This was one of our favorite rides!

At the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz!

All right everyone. I hope you enjoyed those! I'm going to pick up my teaser tuesdays again next week and hopefully share a lot more stuff with you guys! 

Enjoy your weekend :-)

Cheers!

~Ty

First Book Signing Experience (and pictures!)

Hey Guys!

So, my first book signing was a success! I had so much fun and it was amazing to see the friends and family show up to support me. As well as all the new people who asked a lot of amazing questions! Here are some pictures showing my awesome first experience and the good times!

 Questions and answers/discussion time!

Me reading an excerpt. (I'm wearing a big jacket cuz it was so cold!)

Me talking to a great friend who made this book signing possible!

Me signing some books!

The poster! 

Me and my mom and dad :-)

Halloween Costume

So this was my outfit for the costume party I went to. I was the female version of the Mad Hatter, crazy, colorful, and so much fun to put together! What do you think?

From left to right: Pat, Michael, Zach, Charles, me, Savanna. So, who did you dress up as for halloween?

Teen Campout/Swing Dance Party 2013

So last week I put on a party for my Youth Group. We had a TON of fun with sports, games, BBQ, prayer, dancing. At the end they were all begging to do it again before school starts - we'll see. We had about four hours of sports and then another two of dancing. I couldn't even stand by the time we crashed to watch a movie at like 2am. Anyway, here are some pictures of our dance party on the patios and lawn. It was late but we didn't care!

Summer Faith Camp 2013

Hey All,

So about 2 weeks ago I volunteered for my Catholic church's SFC called:

I was in charge of music and I co-lead the whole thing with my friend Robbie. Here we are putting a skit on for the kids. He is dressed up as a knight in training named Wally and I'm there encouraging him  and trying to convince him not to give up. With help from all around us... God's Love Helps Us To Stand Strong! (our theme this year)

Two more of my friends, Michael (in the red bandana) and Gabe, leading the kids in a cheer. 

And my silly little brother, Michael balancing a toy eagle on his nose!

I would have a lot more pictures of the kids and stuff but I'm not allowed to, so maybe you'll just have to come and join us next year...

:-)

~Ty

See you next week!

(FYI, that's my brother Zach. He helped lead the games.)