WIP Movie Blogfest

Almost all of us have imagined who would play the characters in our WIPs if they were ever made into a movie. On February 28th, we want you to “cast” your WIP, and post photos of the actors/actresses you would choose to play the characters in your latest manuscript. You don’t have to cast everyone if you don’t want to, just show us your MCs and tell us a little about them.

 Also, we’d like you to tell us which songs you’d have on your WIP Movie soundtrack! This can be one song that fits the main theme of the story, or several songs that make you think of your story.

Right now, I am writing a book about my experiences with cancer. It's in its very early stages (rough draft). It covers three surgeries, several dozen (estimated) doctor visits, etc. Here are my picks for actors/actresses and songs! 

Songs:
- "Firework" Katy Perry
- "Keep Holding On" Avril Lavine
- "Stronger" Kelly Clarkson
- " Breakaway" Kelly Clarkson

Actors:
Me: Played as self
Mom: Cameron Diaz
Dad: Jason Patric
Dr.  #1: PSY ( both of these people are Asian)
Dr. #2: Gene Wilder 
Nurse: Amy Poehler 

Feature and Follow Friday!

Question of the Week: What was the last book that made you cry?

I am not a big crier when it comes to books, but I just finished a novel entitled Heartbeat, which is about a girl who's mom is pregnant and brain dead, but the doctors keep her alive because the dad wants the baby. So depressing, but the good news is that the baby survives! 

Moonless Blogfest

If you lived in a society where arranged marriages were a la mode, whom would you beg your parents to set you up with? Why? 

That's easy- Taylor Ambrose from My Sister's Keeper! (If you can't tell already, I am obsessed with this book) He's got such a nice personality!!!

Feature and Follow Friday!

Question of the Week: If you could read a book for the “first time” again, which book would it be? Why?
That is a very tough question. There are about a gazillion answers that I could give you right now. If I had to choose just ONE, it'd be My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. I would also choose Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom.

I wanted to take a second and promote my new blog, which is entitled Cancer Sucks. I am having major reconstructive surgery this summer and wanted to promote it here to get followers. You'll have to visit my blog to read the whole story! PLEASE follow. Link to blog:secretlifeofmorgankatz.blogspot.com

IWSG: Success!!!!

I wanted to share a good story on this snowy, dreary morning (at least in Chicago, that is!). I just finished my last final English paper ever of high school. We were assigned an analytical paper about our writing over the course of the semester.  Here's the catch- it had to be creative, and it had to have an overarching theme. I was overwhelmed at first, but then I met with my teacher,  and he suggested that I write about the power of collaboration in writing. I got an A on the paper, and was shocked beyond belief.

Feature and Follow Friday!

"I use Grammarly's plagiarism checker because "You can't copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling."(Billie Holiday)

Q: What books are you looking forward to reading in 2014?

1. Dreamland-Sarah Dessen

2. Juvie (currently reading)-Steve Watkins 

3. Just Listen- Sarah Dessen 

Love Is In The Air Blogfest

I eagerly check the mail, looking for that telltale white envelope. It was on the counter. OMG, it's finally here! I ripped it open, careful to make sure that the contents were intact. I was applying for a cancer survivor's scholarship at the time, and one of the requirements of the scholarship was that you had to have a letter verifying that you actually had cancer (people will lie about it-they'll do anything for money).
  I open the letter, expecting nothing more than a simple "Yes, she had cancer" type of thing. I am shocked at what I find. Not only had he verified my illness and treatment, but he had also said all sorts of complimentary things about me, one of which was that She shows unusual courage for her age.
  Although this is obviously not romantic love, love has more than one definition. In this particular case, the love that I am dealing with here is unexpected fondness. I have always thought of this doctor as a nice man, but never thought that he had regarded me so highly!

Feature and Follow Friday!!

Question of the Week: Resolutions: Put together your blogger resolution list for all of us to see!

1. Participate in more bloghops and blogfests. 

2. Host my own bloghop someday in 2014! (How do I even do that??)

3. Be less insecure about my writing.

4. Hop around the bloggosphere more often.

IWSG: Senior Project

Please pardon my lack of a picture. I'm in a rush and don't have time to copy and paste in a picture. Anyway, long story short, I am thinking about writing a book for my senior  project. Senior project is a project in the last quarter of senior year where you do a project of your choice for 4 weeks and then present it to a group of adults who evaluate you. My problem is finding a sponsor. My original plan was to do something in a hospital, but I just found out I can't due to confidentiality laws. It's so last minute, and I don't know how to find a sponsor. Will my book even be worth reading? So many insecurities, so little time!

2014 Goals Blog Hop

 
Top 3-5 books:
1. A Time for Dancing- Davida Wills Hurwin
2. Game Changer- Margaret Haddix
3. Tuesdays with Morrie- Mitch Albom

Goals:
1. Read more!!!
2. Be more open to what I read and to reading different genres of books.
3. Go to the library more often.

Feature and Follow Friday

The book that I found when doing this activity was My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Piccoult. This is a must read if you like a tear jerker. It is a veryinspirational story with a suspenseful plot twist!!! Spoiler: the end is incredibly ironic! This novel was even made into a movie with Cameron Diaz and Abigail Breslin. It's a good movie, but I personally like the book better (books are always better than movies).  This book is often publicized as a YA book, but it's really an adult book due to the themes: cancer, family relationships, and love. This book has changed my life! READ IT! You won't be sorry.

Feature and Follow Friday!!

Q: Tell us at least one new or unusual thing you’ve done in 2013.

1. Started my first book! Anyone out there willing to look at it and critique it??

IWSG: My First Book!

I am writing my first book at the ripe old age of 17. It's a book about my experience with cancer. I had three surgeries in 2012. All is well now.

In terms of my book, I really have no idea what I'm doing. I'm trying to make the book good, yet use my own voice in it. Everyone here is such an incredible writer, and I feel like I need to live up to that. I know the subject of my book is sensitive, but I want to get my story out there so that people can know my story and be inspired by it. When I was featured in the "Overcoming Adversity" book in February 2013, I received a lot of positive feedback. I'm hoping to do the same with this book!

Right now, I am looking for someone to help me with the writing process, specifically critiquing it. I want to make sure that my writing is as good as it can be. Please comment below if you'd be interested in helping me with this.

Ps- What on earth is 'querying'??

Feature and Follow Friday

Q: What’s your favorite Thanksgiving Day food? If you’re not American or Canadian, what is your favorite holiday food?

Hmm...tough question!!! It's a tie between stuffing and cranberries. Fun fact: I'm not a turkey person. It's too dry. I am Jewish, and Hanukkah and Thanksgiving coincided this year! We also had potato pancakes with applesauce last night. All of it was delicious. 

Feature and Follow Friday

Q: Vlog Feature: Tell us why you would be the best feature ever in a vlog. The best two will get picked for next week’s feature. If you do not want to participate, just tell us why you can’t be caught on video.

I cannot be caught on video because I am not photogenic, nor am I good on camera. I studder a lot and have bad stage fright. I always manage to make a fool of myself on stage. I also cannot stand to hear myself on camera. I always sound so different than I how I imagine myself to sound. 

IWSG: Fear

In my English class, we were challenged to write a piece that personified emotion. Here it is!! This fits in perfectly with IWSG Day!!

Fear is staring at me in the face. Her stare is so intense that I cannot look away. Fear is a four year old girl who never takes no for an answer. She creeps up on me every now and then using a sneaky walk to trick me into thinking she isn't there. Fear resides in my back pocket. Sometimes I forget --that she is there, but she nudges me every so often, preventing me from forgetting about her. I tell her to leave me alone. She does, but she always ends up coming back sooner or later. When I am at school, I force Fear to hide so that nobody but me is aware of her presence. 

October Write..Edit...Publish

I am participating in WEP for October. We have to write a piece in the theme of scariness. The best and most eye opening piece will receive an award, which is a gift card. I really hope my piece wins! Everything you see here is 100% true.

“You have cancer”. When I heard that on November 15,2011, I was devastated, terrified,  and shocked. 

   It all started on October 4th, 2011. I went to the dermatologist due to dandruff, and I also wanted to show her a weird bump on my scalp. It’d been there for five years (at least), and three pediatricians had identified it has a cyst, and there’d never been any cause for concern. However, I thought I might as well show the doctor. I was there, and I wanted it to be looked at. 

  When the doctor looked at it, she was concerned because it was red. “I’ll give you two choices”, she said. “ We can either take it off, or I can see you back in a few months to look at it again”. I thought for a second. I knew that if I were to get it taken off, it’d be really painful. On the other hand, I didn’t want to wait. What if it was something bad? In the end, I decided to get it taken off. 

We made the appointment for November 14th, 2011. During that entire month, all I could do was wait and hope for the best. I have to admit that I was freaked out about the whole thing. I hate needles, and I knew that there’d be at least one going into my head, if not more. I only thought about that one aspect, not about the results. I automatically assumed that the results would show that the bump was just a harmless cyst. But I’d soon be proven wrong!

   Before I knew it, November 14th came. My stomach felt like there were butterflies in it.  Unfortunately, that anxiety didn’t get resolved right away. We had to wait an hour for the doctor to come. All I wanted to do was get the procedure over with and go home so that I could study for my science test. My mom asked me, “ Do you want me to see if she has another appointment open?”. I said no. All I wanted to do was get it over with!

   It seemed as though hours passed before the doctor came in. When she finally did, I was terrified but relieved. This meant that the procedure was that much closer to being over! The biopsy was awful. Absolutely awful.I had to get shots of local anesthetic, which was the worst part. The doctor was terrible at giving injections. It was the worst pain I’d ever been in. However, after about fifteen minutes, it was over. I can honestly say that those 15 minutes were the worst part of this entire ordeal. 

   The next day, around 6:00, we got the phone call. My heart was racing- I had a feeling we’d get bad news. Why else would he have stayed on the phone for a half hour? Unfortunately, my suspicion of it being horrible news turned out to be correct. My dad said, “ It’s cancer. You’re going to have to have it removed again”. I started bawling uncontrollably. 

  There was, however, a good part to this story. I have been keeping in touch with my middle school english teacher for several years now. We’ve grown to have a special connection over the past few years. I finally made the decision to tell her about this whole surgery thing. I was reluctant to at first, but it ended up being the best decision I’d ever made. Part of the benefit having a friendship like this is that you have someone to go to for support. I sent the initial email telling her about it. I got a response the next day, and I was scared to open it at first. I guess I was worried about how she’d react. It isn’t everyday that someone tells you that they’re going to have surgery! However, when I did end up opening it, she did not overreact. She ended up helping me through this whole experience. I would have been worse off if I didn’t tell. You really don’t know until you try!

  Anyway, more on that later. Getting back to me, the next few weeks were spent going to doctor after doctor. I suddenly realized that there was a very good chance that I’d 1. have to have multiple surgeries and 2. that there was a very good chance that I’d be put to sleep for at least one. I was terrified at the thought of being put to sleep. I’d never done it before, and my mom has had several bad reactions to it. 

   A few weeks later, I found out that I’d have to have an MRI of my brain to see how big the tumor was. The dermatologist wasn’t sure if she’d be comfortable doing the surgery because she thought that the tumor might be bigger than she thought. 

  The day before the MRI, I was an emotional wreck. I had never had this type of test before, and from what I’d heard from other people, it’s not pleasant!! 

The day before the test, I went and saw my former teacher that I mentioned before. It turned out that that was the best thing. I told her about the MRI, and she said that,” I’ll be thinking of you all day tomorrow!”. That made me feel better. 

  So, the MRI was horrible. It took nearly two hours, and it was so loud that it sounded like a saw was going in my ear. I also had to have an injection of contrast, which is a dye to help the MRI pictures be easier to look at. That was the worst part. I was screaming the entire time.

  Eventually, we decided to go to Northwestern Memorial Hospital for the surgery. They have doctors who specialize in this sort of thing. My main surgeon was really nice. He knew what he was doing, but he also had an awesome bedside manner. I should mention here that right before the surgery, I was tearing up. My plastic surgeon (more about him later) just stood there looking at me, but my main surgeon was patting me on the shoulder, trying to make me feel better, which it did. That just goes to show how much difference a small gesture can make! I’ll get back to that day in a bit. 

   I also had to have an initial surgery to remove the cancer itself. It hurt a lot, but I had a nice Dr. doing it. In total, the surgery took about 5 hours. I was awake for it, and the local anesthesia didn’t even hurt. I got used to it pretty quick. I was relieved when it was over, though. Being awake for a procedure is not fun!

   For the next surgery, I would be asleep, and the doctors would close up the huge wound from the last surgery. Originally, the surgeons said that they were going to shave half my head for the surgery. However, after I broke down in tears at this news, they did a skin graft instead. It was very painful. Anyway, the plastic surgeon was pretty insensitive. He didn’t have a very good bedside manner. Oh well...

  The day of surgery was very overwhelming. We did a lot of waiting that day, and the worst part was the i.v line. However, everyone was really nice. I remember going into the operating room, but that’s it.  I wasn’t at all nauseous when I woke up, and I felt like a princess, with everyone there waiting on me!

  The recovery has been awful. Initially, I missed five days of school, and couldn’t wash my hair for five days. It’s been 14 months now, and the skin graft still itches- a normal part of healing. I have ultrasounds every six months, and so far I’m cancer free! 

  I have learned a ton about friendship in these past several months. Some of my friends were not supportive, while others were. I was hesitant to tell people at first, as I was not sure how they’d react. But the one main lesson I’ve learned through all this is that, “ You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”. In other words, if you don’t reach out for help, you’ll never get it. When you’re a teenage cancer patient, you need all the help you can get!

  After this experience, I am doing everything I can to give back. I volunteer at Advocate Lutheran General Children’s Hospital every summer, and I am going to participate in American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life this summer. I know that even the smallest things make a big difference. 

Feature and Follow Friday

Q: What are some of your favorite magazines?

I really love 'Family Circle' and 'American Girl'. I've never been a huge magazine person.

Feature and Follow Friday

Q: What book (or TV show or movie) have you not read that seemingly everyone else has?

Books: Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Book Thief, Divergent

Movies: The Hangover, The Notebook, The Proposal

I should mention here that I am very picky about books and movies. I often don't finish books that I start.

IWSG: Criticism

In my English class, we've been assigned to write a paper about our experiences with writing. I thought I'd share it with my readers!


           As I walked into my seventh grade English class, my heart skipped a beat.  On the board, written in big, black letters, were the words "Book Reports Back Today".  My stomach lurched out of fear of getting a bad grade. I had been working on this report tirelessly, and was sincerely hoping for at least one of two  things: a good grade and/or positive feedback. Unfortunately, my hopes were immediately shattered. As my teacher walked to each desk with a stack of graded papers, the class's anxiety was obvious. My teacher, Ms. Smith, lurked like a rattlesnake waiting to strike as she walked up and down the aisles of desks. I was terrified for my turn to receive back my report. Ms. Smith stopped at my desk, looked at me with disgust, and said, "This is a pretty bad paper, Morgan. I know you can do better than this." I felt as if she had just punched me in the stomach. After reading that comment over and over again, I was tempted to rip up this paper and burn it in my fireplace. Accepting negative comments has always been the hardest part of writing for me. I have also been extremely conscious of what other people think about my writing. If I receive negative feedback, I automatically jump to the conclusion that I am the worst writer ever.
After this incident, I learned that it is really important to ensure that the teacher can sense that you gave a substantial amount of effort on an assignment. However, effort is not enough to get you the grade you hope for. An incident similar to the above one occurred during Junior Theme. I had been working on my paper in the same manner that I had back in seventh grade. When Junior Theme first started, I had written my first draft. A few days later, I received it back, but with several corrections that I needed to make. I was a bit disappointed, but knew that it could have been worse- and that was shortly a reality. I tried my best to make the corrections that my teacher, Mrs. Brown, asked, but that did not work out as well as I had hoped it would. I received my second draft back, and it had even more corrections on it! On the bottom of the draft, I read the words See Me for a Conference.
When conference time finally came, Ms. Brown and I had a long talk. One of the most memorable things she said to me was, " While Junior Theme is not going the way you planned, it does not define you as a writer." I was absolutely shocked, in a positive way, when she said that. I was expecting her to tell me how horrible of a writer I was. Even though I did end up receiving a C on that paper, it was still a valuable experience. Just because a teacher calls you in for a conference, it does not necessarily mean that her feedback is automatically horrible.
After these incidents, I stopped jumping to the conclusion that I am a horrible writer whenever someone gives me negative feedback about my writing. This is merely one person's opinion. Writing is subjective, which means that everyone has their own opinion about any given piece. Also, because writing is subjective, there is not one right answer; rather, there can be infinite ways to respond to a writing prompt. It is not uncommon for people to have different opinions on the same piece of writing.  Even if I receive a low grade on a paper, I know that I am still a good writer who writes from the bottom of my heart.