Hello there, my amazing nonexistent readers. How are you today? Well? I hope so. Moving on.
You know what Taiwan loves? No, not manga or anime, though they like it. Not cute stuffed animals. Not food, even though they realy like that as well. Nope. What Taiwan loves is paperwork. Or, to be precise, what Taiwanese government officials love is paperwork. Superfluous, redundant paperwork. Seriously, it get to the point where you should carry your passport and visa everywhere, because odds are somebody's going to want to see it. Just last week I wanted to take a look at the Taipei Public Libary, just to see if they had anything in English, but to simply get it you have to be older than nineteen and have some form of ID. Not even to get a library card. Just to look.
Moving on again. A key difference (one of them) between Taiwan and China is that Taiwan's been rabies free for a good couple of generations. China is not. Actually, rabies still runs rampant in China, even in Shanghai, where I used to live. I should know, since I got bit by a monkey at a zoo there and had to get a series of rabies shots, and, later, my thumbnail removed. The thumb's perfectly fine, but my pride will be forever wounded. Long story short, China has rabies, and since Taiwan's the equivalent of China's whiny college student who wants to get out of his mother's house, they love making trouble for anyone coming out of China. Not that I blame them, but sometimes I feel like I'm stuck in a fight between two petty children. China won't realize that Taiwan's never going to become part of it, and Taiwan just won't get over the fact that China has a large store of missiles...pointed right at them....and they're not far away....right, someone tell me what I was talking about, again? The sudden fear that China's going to nuke Taiwan into nothing has paralyzed my mind.
Which has meant that my poor dogs, Daisy and Happy, have been in the USA for sixth months so we could get them here. (The dog to the left is Happy.)
For the last two weeks they've been back, but in quarantine, just to make sure they don't have rabies. Even though we've gotten them rabies vaccinations since they were born and numerous blood tests show they're clean, they can't come home for another eleven days. Thankfully we got to visit them in the quarantine area in a city called Taichung (has a nice diner) today.
The poor guys have been stuck in a cage for the last two weeks, in this dirty hellhole they call a facility. Let's just say that Asia's standards of cleanliness differ greatly from that of the West. The sad thing was that I wasn't even surprised. I shouldn't judge, because it's not like they have the money to make it much better, and the employees were great (mathematically speaking, about 98% of the Taiwanese are extremely friendly. They have the highest percentage of friendliness in the world) but my dogs have already been through a lot. I'm surprised they don't hate us for dragging them through all the airports and planes, but they were happier than ever to see us. I love dogs.
Right. Enough semi-ranting for now. I'm tired, and the hour is late. Tomorrow I'm going sightseeing. We'll see how that turns out, yeah?
Story Word Count: 116,000 words and going strong. Seems that the closer exams get, the more I'd rather write.
Thanks for reading,
-Ari
Hello there again, nonexistent readers of my unknown blog. How lovely to see you all again.
This weekend I haven't done much, thanks to getting about a pint of blood drawn for testing and resulting in me becoming extremely giddy (dui, for some strange reason I get into a drunken-like state after losing blood) and then having to lie down for awhile. But I did manage to get some sightseeing in, and am I amazed. The hospital I went to is near the area where a lot of old government buildings, and all of a sudden my and my mom stumbled upon the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall.
And wow, is it amazing.
For those of you who don't know, Chiang Kai Shek was one of the men who helped build Taiwan and made it independent from China. (Note: Never assume that Taiwan is part of China. It's not, and the Taiwanese would like to be very clear about that.) There's mixed feelings about him on the island, but they still built a huge memorial for the guy, and it's 
beautiful.
The gateway actually reminds me of a place from my story. The picture to the left is the actual memorial (thanks, Wikipedia!) and even though it doesn't quite capture how big and grand the building is, it's a good shot. Within is a big statue of Kai Shek sitting on a chair - yes, similar to the Lincoln Memorial, except this has Asian style. :)
So I saw that, and also some other beautiful buildings in the area. Personally, I think it's the best looking part of Taiwan, save Yangmingshan, of
course.
On other notes, the weather here is definitely taking a turn for the...different. Apparently Taiwanese winters are foggy. Really foggy. And rainy. Basically, very damp. I'm not sure if it will snow or not, but since I live on a mountain, I'll probably be the first to know. Today we celebrated Thanksgiving at my church, and we get two days off from school this week.
Writing-wise, my story's going pretty well. I'm writing the end, and it's 
quite exciting. It's not an action-packed ending, but it's really emotional, and definitely bittersweet. I don't like happy-happy endings. For me (and in my writing) everything comes with a price, and this time the price is big. NaNoWriMo's starting to wind down, so my heart goes out to all the novelists scrambling to get in their 50k quota.
Also, time for some book recommendations! The library at my new school is much better than the one at my old school, so I've been checking out books like a mad woman. Right now I'm in the middle of Cybele's Secret, a book by Juliet Mariller. It's the second in the Wildwood series, but it's not so much a sequel as a a loosely-related book in the same universe, through a different character's eyes. If you like historical fantasy and rich Ottoman Empire-inspired cities, then this is for you. Of course, I recommend reading the first book, Wildwood Dancing, first. It's vaguely based off the fairytale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, and it has the same magical feeling in it. The cover art is just as beautiful.
I think that's all for now. I'm really having fun with this blog, and I'm going to keep adding on more to it. Enjoy.
Sarn Progress: 111,000 words and going strong.
Cheers,Ari
Apparently so. It's been a long time since I've updated this thing (approx. two months) and a combination of guilt and boredom propelled me to post on it again. It probably doesn't matter much, since nobody reads this thing, but I think it will be good to keep tabs on my life once in awhile.
So. One of the main reasons I've been so lax in writing lately is because I've been sick. Got surgery when I was ten and I guess it wasn't ready to kick the bucket yet, because I'm still having some complications related to it...or something. It's been two months of testing and we're still not sure what's wrong with me. Something to do with my immune system and my endocrine system. All I know is that I'm getting sick of being sick.
But enough about me. Despite being housebound 75% of the time, I've managed to see a bit more of beautiful Taiwan. It's getting chilly here, which I didn't expect - winter clothes are coming on. It seems like time's moving pretty fast; next week we have our Thanksgiving break, and after that Christmas is just around the corner. And this month is November, which means...
NaNoWriMo. Possibly the most insane fun things ever invented in the history of writing. I'm far behind blogging about it, since November is more than halfway over, but better late then never. I'm not in NaNoWriMo this year - working on last year's draft suits me fine - but a load of my friends are, and I wish them luck. May rushed prose abound wherever you type, you guys.
Sarn Status: 107k, writing the ending. Hope to be done and editing by Christmas.
So we had a four-day weekend this week, which was really nice. Unfortunately I spent most of my time studying - I've been in Asia way too long, man - but I did have some time to go out and explore Taiwan some more. I went to the Taipei Zoo, and a market known as Ximending, and they are both very well-known places, especially for tourists. I usually prefer to take the road less traveled and all that, but this was pretty cool, I have to admit.
Right. I'm not trying to give Asia a bad name, but I have to say that zoos here are usually...held up to a lesser standard than in Western society. Sometimes it can't be helped - on the whole, Asia doesn't have as good a quality standard of living as America and co. does, so they don't have as much money to make the zoos all awesome. But the Taipei Zoo is very, very cool. It's kind of far out - we had to take the MRT for almost an hour - but it's worth it. There's an aviary - my favorite part - a section about the animals endemic to Taiwan, a nocturnal house, an African section a Rainforest section...I could go on and on. I took a lot of pictures; they're not posted on here, but you can go to my DeviantART gallery to see some (I love photography.) We spent the whole day there, walking around in the humid Taipei heat, having a ball. The crowning jewels, of course, were the pandas, recently imported from China. There was a parade in their honor; yeah, people are that excited about them. But seeing how Taiwan and China are constantly on edge, it makes sense.
The day after, my sister and I went to Ximending, a sort of market, but not the kind I'm used to. No idea what the word means in Mandarin, but I'm guessing it's something like "the anime/manga lover's paradise." Because that's what it is.
And let me say that I really dislike anime and manga. My sister loves it, so she was totally enthralled by the market, and I was mildly amused and somehow horrified at the same time.
First off: the people. I have never seen people like this before. Little girls with hair dyed so much it was kind of orange, with one-inch nails adorned with lots of glitter, waaaay too much makeup, mini-skirts and high heels? And then me: no makeup, jeans and a t-shirt, no jewelry. I almost died laughing - after I managed to rip my eyes away. And the guys were just as bad, if not worse. Skinny jeans and hair that looked better than mine, and so many piercings I wasn't sure where to begin counting. They're living anime characters, or so they want to be.
Second: The stores. Oh, the stores. I have never seen so many cosplay costume stores in my life. Maid outfits, schoolgirl outfits, whatever - it was there. Then there were these cafes where the waitresses were dressed up in lolita (some kind of anime style) dresses and spoke in whispery little voices. Yeah, to me. I've had nightmares like this. I wish I had taken pictures, but I forgot my camera at home.
Taiwan is definitely different from Shanghai.
Tune in next time to see where I go next, hmm?
-Ari
So today after school I decided to go exploring around my neighborhood a bit. Like I said before, I live on a mountain known as Yang Ming Shan, so the roads aren't really very flat. More like steep hills and winding little pathways everywhere. No two houses are at exactly the same height. And it's really quite interesting, because everywhere the jungle is trying to creep back into where we've cut into the face of the mountain. No wall doesn't have budding vines and ferns creeping on it, and all the trees become tiny little worlds all their own. Even with all the tiled houses (some of which are more like palaces) it's obvious that this is a wild place.
And it's actually kind of sad. See, all the houses here are completely walled in, so that everyone is protected - or trapped - from the world outside. Not like in America at all. I don't even see our neighbors. And that raises a question. Why are we even living on this gorgeous mountain if we're trying so hard to keep it away?
Just something to ponder. Let's see what else I can find out.
Hey there, everyone. Instead of talking about books, I figured I'd talk about something less common: my life in Taiwan as far. For the record, I'm American, and so white I glow in the dark, so I kind of stand out in Asia. But I've been living here for eight years and counting, and Taiwan is the eighth place in a long list of areas I've lived.
So far, it seems pretty awesome. The people are nice, the food seems pretty good (milk tea!) and my school is good, albeit hard. In my opinion, Taiwan is a mix of China, Thailand, and Korea. The people speak like Chinese (mostly), but they don't act much like them in some areas. They drive kind of crazy, like Koreans (no offense, you guys; I loved living in Korea) and the markets and stray dogs remind me of Bangkok. Somehow it manages to blend together in this place I now call my home.
And, for the first time since I was eight, I'm living in a house. A real house, with a yard. And a pool. Not to say I'm biased or anything. The only downside is that my dogs are in America at the moment, because customs are being kind of picky. We have to wait until Christmas.
Now, the one thing that I have to say about Taiwan is: God, it is freaking gorgeous here. I live on a mountain called Yang Ming Shan (Shan means mountain, but I'm not sure what the other two words are yet), and it's about twenty minutes from the downtown area where my school is. Okay. Remember how I said Taiwan is kind of like Thailand? Scratch that. It's more like Malaysia, or Indonesia, or some beautiful, tropical place that is simply brimming with life. No one told me I was going to live in a rainforest. Well, I am, and it's awesome. There are birds galore, monkeys, tropical bats, mice deer and way too many insects for my liking, but what the heck. Yesterday my family and I went on this flat hiking trail not far from our house, and I swear it's like you stepped back in time, way back to the Jurassic. I'm talking giant ferns, big leaves and vines hanging everywhere, mossy outcrops and little streams flowing around. Gorgeous. Breath-takingly so.
Not to mention the fact that I appear to be living on some sort of volcano-like structure. Forget shan. My house is on Yang Ming Freaking Volcano. There are geysers and natural springs everywhere (and yes, sulfur really does smell horrible) and it looks like there should be dinosaurs, or someone from Lord of the Rings, roaming around. So far I've lived through two (minor) earthquakes and Typhoon Morakot.
I'm starting to think this is a sign. The first book in a fantasy series I'm writing takes place back in Shanghai, which is known as the Zhongshui in the future, about one thousand years from now. I was kind of disappointed when we moved because I wouldn't be living in the city of my story anymore.
I found out I moved somewhere even better. Taiwan is the exact place I imagined that Book Number Two (which I'm tentatively calling Bone Teller at the moment) looks like. Not kidding.
I'm really thinking it's a sign.
Over and out
-Ari
So far I've kept my promise to myself, and I'll be trying to update this every day. Today's topics for discussion: my story, my website, and young authors in general. Let's get this started:
For anyone who doesn't know already, I love writing, and as of this moment I'm working on a story that I'm calling Fantasy at Heart. It's, obviously, a fantasy story, and it takes place about a thousand years in the future, in the ruins of the city once known as Shanghai...the people who live there now are different, changed. Everything that makes us human was disappeared, and the survivors are barely more than animals. All the parts of us that we love have been forgotten.
But what if someone begins to remember?
That's all I'm going to say for now, because I'm paranoid, especially on the internet. Right now it's more than 91,000 words and counting, and I hope to finish it for November so I can write the sequel for NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. If you want to learn more about me and my story, you can visit my website, which is listed in the link bit to the right. It's all about me and my travels around the world as a young writer.
Ah, young writers. It seems like a lot of them are popping up lately, from Caryn Kluver to Nancy Yi Fan to the infamous Gloria Tesch, and some are better than others. This has raised a question for me: why? Why do we young writers feel this innate need to get published as soon as we possibly can, no matter how good or bad or stories may be, how mature our prose is? I want to get published because I love writing and I know that I'm going to be writer, no matter what. If I get published now or in ten years....well, I know I'm going to be published. But it seems that ever since Christopher Paolini's parents self-published his book and it was subsequently picked up by Knopf, it's become the "in" thing to be a teen writer. Personally, I think most of us should wait. Teenage skills are constantly being improved (in most cases) and that if you get published now, you're going to look back in a year and see how bad your writing was in comparison to the present. So I think most kids should wait.
There are, however, some exceptions. There are some teens who are truly gifted and write stories beyond their years. Words are their plaything, and they bend them and use them in new ways, ways that have never been seen before. They're rare, but I've seen them. And they should go for it.
The question is, are you one of them?
That's all for now. Next topic: Books I love and books I hate.
I seriously have no idea if anyone is going to read this, now or ever. After all, I am technically a nobody, just another person who want to make something in life. But perhaps someday, someone will read this. Even if they don't, that's fine. This is for myself. My name is Ari. I'm a teenage writer who is currently living in Asia, and I've been moving around the world since I was in third grade. I've lived in seven places in four countries (so far), and I've visited over twenty and counting. What I love most is writing. I discovered this pretty early on, and ever since no one has been able to stop me. My title work, Fantasy at Heart, is what all of this is based off of. Above all things I am a storyteller, living happily within my own fantasy at heart.
That's all for now.
-Ari
