Happy New Year!

2009 was a great year, but it had its pitfalls (as many of you probably know) With the putting of Obama into office and his big hoopla health care bill, my spirits were dampened, to say the least. But as usual the good outweighs the bad.

A Recap of the Year~

On January first I joined a forum called the Dragons in our Midst Forum. It is a Christian forum run by a writer named Bryan Davis. There I have met many nice people and made good friends (such as Nathan Petrie).

On May 2nd I turned 13, therefore stepping into teenagerdom where I will be stuck for the next four and a half years. 'Twas a very momentous occasion for me. :)

On May 8th, my beautiful and youngest cousin Alexis Catherine Nielsen was born after a long and torturous wait (we were all anxious to find out if it was going to be a boy or a girl)

In June I went for the fourth year to the wonderful Camp Grace for a week. It was great to be reunited with all of my friends and to meet new ones as well.

Not wanting to go into Lusk for the eighth grade or going to Lance Creek when my best friend, Jessica, wasn't going to be there I decided to take up homeschooling again after about four years of country school. I chose to go with Switched on Schoolhouse by Alpha Omega Publications and it has been working great. Next year I will be attending Lusk High School.

In September during deer hunting season friends from down in Missouri and Oklahoma came up for the second year in a row and stayed at our house and hunted.
Also, I shot a four point mule deer this year, much nicer than my two pointer from last year.

Sometime during these months Garett brought home a new member to our family, Kimber (A.K.A Little Girl), a teddy bear hamster.

On November 5th my younger brother Garett turned 11.

I now stand at 5'9" and Garett at 5'4".

New Years Resolution~

This year I have decided I want to do these things:

Witness to my non-Christian friends.

Get up to 30,000 words written in The Alinar.

Read through the whole New Testament.

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Kind of short, but reasonable. Better than the one year when I wrote I would start a band and I didn't even know an intrument (besides a few keys on the piano) and niether did any of my friends. None of us could really sing either. =)



God Bless and Happy New Year,
Brenna Dixon

Long time no type

So... Merry Belated-Christmas!!!!! I hope you all had great ones. I was going to do this really cool special Christmas post but... the POWER WENT OFF!! Urg!! But anyways, Merry Christmas none the less.

The Christmas parties proceeded as usual this year, except for one due to terrible weather.

And guess what I got for Christmas? Well, at least one of the many awesome things. BOOKS!!
I received The Forgotten 3 by Elizabeth Harms, The Victor by Marlayne Giron, and Rise of the Dibor by Christopher Hopper.

I just finished reading The Victor and have to say that is was completely amazing! I truly loved it. Next on the list to start is Rise of the Dibor.

I (and my brother) also got a Wii Fit Plus board, which is way too awesome for words. And I got Pokemon Diamond so now... well, I'm just plain addicted to it. But wait, why am I carrying on about presents?

Twenty-ten is just around the corner (A.K.A 2010 or two thousand ten or any other way you like to say it). Who has a New Years Resolution? Not me. At least, not yet anyways. By the next post I will though, and I will have a recap of the 2009 year.

I'm now concluding this boring post of rambling about nothing in particular. Hopefully next time I'll have something more interesting to say.

***Reminder*** The LotR Vs. CoN poll will close in 7 days and the winner will be announced, so hurry up and vote!

God Bless,
Brenna

LotR Vs. CoN: FotR, TTT, RotK

Gandalf dies to save the Fellowship while on the bridge of Kaza Dum and rises again later as Gandalf the White.= Jesus dies and rises again to save us.

Aragorn is the coming king that is rejected by many, especially Denathor.= Christ's birth is prophesied and He is a king, which Herod rejects. Or Peter denying Jesus thrice.

Ring= sin or temptation

Frodo, an innocent hobbit, carries out the quest of destroying the Ring to save Middle Earth.= Jesus, who is completely pure and innocent, takes on the quest of coming to earth and dying to save everyone.


Not much on LotR as you can see, but there isn't much straight allegory.
So now that we've covered those, you can use what I've posted as something to think about when voting for your favorite series. :)

LotR VS. CoN Continued: I decided I'd get two birds with one stone today

The title pretty much says it all. I thought and thought, but I didn't see any Bible similarities in Prince Caspian, The Horse and His Boy, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, or The Silver Chair. So today I'll do The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and The Last Battle.

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe:
Edmund betrays his siblings to the White Witch= Judas betrays Jesus to the Roman people.

Aslan dies on the Stone Table so that Edmund doesn't have to= Jesus died on the cross so we wouldn't have to die and, well, stay dead. So we could instead go to Heaven when we die.

Aslan rises again= Jesus rises again in three days.

(Please tell me if I missed anything, it's been a loooong time since I read it)

The Last Battle:
Aslan hasn't been around Narnia in a really long time, and people begin to doubt. The Ape skins a lion and puts the skin on his donkey friend. Everyone thinks Aslan has come back and they do anything the donkey, who is being told what to say by the Ape, wants them to do.= The Anti-Christ.

Finally, Aslan comes back and destroys Narnia and creates a much, much better version. Lucy, Edmund, and Peter have died (Susan doesn't die, and she doesn't believe in Aslan anymore), and they go to Narnia.= The second coming of Christ. God destroys the heavens and earth and makes new ones. Believers go to Heaven.

LotR Vs. CoN Continued: The Magician's Nephew

Okay, I shall now examine the first book of Chronicles of Narnia. There is a controversy of which book is indeed THE first book that you should read in the series. I consider it The Magician's Nephew, although some beg to differ and say it is The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

So in The Magician's Nephew, Aslan creates Narnia. This, obviously represents God creating the world.
Aslan selects a few animals to be able to speak and be intelligent, who he gives authority over the dumb animals. This is like Adam and Eve having authority over all the creatures of the earth.
Aslan offers Digory the chance to atone himself for bringing Jadis and evil into Narnia by going and retrieving a magic apple. Digory finds Jadis there and she tempts him with the fruit, to eat it or take it to his sick mother so she could get better. This is like Satan tempting Eve with the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Lord of the Rings Vs. Chronicles of Narnia!

Which is better? Chronicles of Narnia? Lord of the Rings? Cast your vote!
In my next post, I will be analyzing Chronicles of Narnia and how it relates to the Bible Vs. Lord of the Rings.
During this, feel free to comment and post what you like about LotR better than CoN or vise versa. Input is more than welcome! Please don't be shy to give you opinion.

So with that said... Let the voting begin!

Finding The Perfect Book

Have you ever just stared at the bookshelves in the library wondering which book looks even relatively interesting? Do you have trouble finding the perfect book to fit your taste? Or do you not like reading and you're being forced to choose a book to read by the end of this semester?
I've got a few tips to help you out with those sorts of dilemmas.

First off, never, and I mean NEVER judge a book by its cover. Check out the boring looking books with the tattered covers with nothing but the name on the front.

Pick up books and look at them; don't worry, they won't bite. Promise. Think about what kind of genres you like. Fantasy? Historical fiction? Romance? The genre is usually written at the bottom of the back cover.

After you've overcame your fear of touching books read the blurb that is inside/on the back of the cover.

Open the book. You can do it, I have faith in you. Read a few sentences out of it.

If you aren't satisfied research the author and the book.

One way you can tell if the book is really good is by looking at who published it. Random House is one of the biggest publishing companies in the world, and their doors are hard to get through. If you want your book published by them it has to be good enough that a reader would swim across an evil alligator infested swamp to read it. That of course isn't a sure way to tell if it's good, but it's something to get you started.

Another thing you can do is read the reviews. You know that the reviews in the book are only going to praise it, so go on a book-purchasing website or Amazon and read the reviews for it there.

With these few tips you can be off and running towards your next favorite book or author. Try new genres, separate from your security blanket author who you trust and try new ones. Experiment.

God Bless,
Brenna Dixon

Wagered Heart by Robin Lee Hatcher

Wagered Heart by Robin Lee Hatcher was a wonderful Christian Novel. It is set in the time of the old west, when Sweetwater Montana is just starting out.
I was surprised by how much I liked it, because I usually tend to stick with Fantasy/Fiction genres.
Although slightly fast-paced, the characters were well developed, and I really felt like I had known them my whole life. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves Christian/Historical Fiction/Romance type books.
The action sequences were slightly lacking, but I imagine Miss Hatcher hasn't had much experience in that area. It might also be partly do to the fact that I'm accustomed to exciting, action packed books, while this one was more laid back.

Overall, I would give this book four stars.

I decided to start a blog.....

Hello everyone! As you can see, Nathan R. Petrie is starting to rub off on me >_> (=P) Not only am I writing a book as he also is, but now I've got a blog.
Okay, enough about that. I decided to name my blog because
(1. As a Christian, I'm in a way "Taking the road less traveled."
(2. I really like that saying.
(3. It's an awesome George Strait song.

What you can expect from my blog is a healthy dose of Christianity, 1 cup of seriousness, a smidgen of randomness, and a whole lot of my crazy self.
I plan on posting book reviews, updates on my stories, my opinions on things, and a ton of other stuff that you'll just have to wait and see what they are. Wouldn't want to spoil the surprise. MWHAHAHA!!! =P

This post is sort of like the "Kickoff". Hmm.. now I have to think of something to say to keep you entertained and reading...
I'm currently reading Inkspell by Cornelia Funke, which has been pretty good so far. I just finished Wagered Heart by Hatcher and Inkheart also by Funke. I read the first eight pages of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy before I became completely and utterly bored. Sad, I know. I can read Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring in about two weeks but I couldn't even get past the first chapter of War and Peace.
I'll be posting a review for Wagered Heart and Inkheart soon hopefully.

Some books on my Christmas list this year are The Victor by Giron and The Forgotten 3 by a relative of mine, Elizabeth (better known as Bessie) Harms. I can't wait to read both of them as I'm sure they are both wonderful.

It's funny, the weather here is almost perfect for the first of December. It was cold and a few flakes came drifting down from the gray sky. Kind of dismal in a way.

Huh, there's my randomness for ya. Go from talking about books to the weather.

Well, that's about all I have to say for now. Check here soon for more posts!

God Bless,
Brenna Dixon