Updates

So let's see, new things... I've had to put off the book on my tribal history because of some personal issues, but I hope to get back to it very soon. The goal of the project is to do a combination of two main things. First I want to document the tribes history, of course. It is a small tribe and not many people have bothered to write very much about them, so there's a lot of blanks to fill in. Fortunately there is a strong oral tradition, as in most Native American people, so it's just a matter of taking the time to listen to the Elders. The second part is the fun part, for me anyway. I'd like to weave the tribal legends into the book, there are so many and they are so vivid. It will be very interesting to see if I am able to integrate them into the book so that both facts, and the wonderfully detailed and imaginative legends of the tribe's origin can come alive and capture the readers mind and heart.

In the mean time, I have started on yet another novel. It has characters that my best friend and I came up with together when we were 12 and 13 years old. A project that she had faith that I could tackle all those years ago. (Ahhh to be that naive again... NOT! *Laughs hysterically*) I have finally started the book now though, and it's moving along very well. I'm about 100 pages in and the characters are still strong, are in fact, getting stronger. It is another Chick Lit book, but much lighter then my first, and pretty fun. I'm going to try to get in here to post at least once a week, but I have also started college this fall and things get pretty hectic so no guarantees.

My Favorite Books

Today I thought that I would do something different. I'm going to write about some of my favorite books and why I like them so much.

I want to start with Louisa May Alcott's' Little Women, which has been one of my favorites since I was a little girl. I think that this book had so much impact on me because it was the first book that ever made me cry. It had a tremendous impact on the way that I saw books, from then on I expected more from my books then a laugh. I expected to be moved or touched by the books that I read after Little Women.

The next book I want to talk about is Alice Walkers' The Color Purple, reading this book opened my eyes to an ugly truth about the way that African Americans in the South lived. Certainly it took place in another era, but in my 14yr old mind, it should've been on another planet as well. I had never known before reading that book, that people had been forced to live like that. And then to overcome all the things that society and circumstances had piled in front of her, I thought that Ms. Walkers character Celie was one of the strongest women that I'd ever read about.

The third, and last book I want to talk about for now, is Dee Browns' Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. This book changed the way that I saw myself, until I found this book I considered myself "White". While my skin is white, my father is Native American and so am I. I might've been the whitest Indian around, but I was an Indian. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee completely changed how I saw the Native American people, my people. They went from a group of uneducated alcohol and drug addicted people, to a group of people that were still fighting in every way that they knew to overcome the bonds of oppression that still held them struggling on the ground. It was a life changing moment for me to realize that my heritage was nothing to be ashamed of, indeed that it was something to be proud of.