fairy skeletons.: Month in a Nutshell: June 2015

June always tends to be a rather lethargic month, but no matter, because lots of exciting things brightened this month for me!

@topazwinters Hobbit problems are the best problems, tbh.

— christina im (@_christinaim) June 25, 2015

On the blog

• I shared some very exciting publication news—a poem of mine, "Still Life with Broken Hearts", was part of the second issue of -Ology Journal.
• More publication news! My poem "Mouth" was in the third issue of Glass Kite Anthology. Both of these publications came out on the same day (which also happened to be my last day of school, so it was a great way to start my summer break off with a bang). 
• My Fiction Friday feature became Weekend Wordfest, and I talked about Tumblr poets because Tumblr poets are amazing people. 
• ...and even more publication news. My weird star-filled Rapunzel retelling found a home in the latest issue of Rose Red Review. 
• Although I already posted about this bit of publication news back in November, I feel it's worth mentioning again, because my story "They Held Starlight" was released this month by Young Adult Review Network aka YARN! Also LOOK:

Yay @_christinaim! Did you know you are the youngest writer we have ever published on YARN!? L

— YARN (@YAReviewNet) June 22, 2015

I'm not even going to pretend I didn't freak out when I learned this

• I did Beautiful People again, this time focusing on everyone's favorite privileged dork, Charles Mareil! (Also, his parents.)

That one time I was offline *gasp*

• This first week of June was the second-to-last week of my freshman year of high school, so naturally things were hectic as teachers realized they had procrastinated on assessing us all semester.
• Cue WEEK OF DOOM. A brief recap of that week in particular:
• On Tuesday, I gave my honors presentation for my literature class—comparing author's craft as it relates to theme in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (a text from class) as opposed to Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar (a text I chose). I think both books are very valuable contributions to the literary canon, but F451 is really misogynist, which makes me unable to love it. The Bell Jar, though—oh gosh, I think I've found a new author to add to my favorites list. Sylvia Plath's words are just gorgeous.
• On Thursday, I presented for my health class (aka absolutely the most pointless class ever to sully my schedule), and I presented my final project for AP Statistics, which was a short animation film/parody of Harry Potter designed to show off a study + statistical inference that my group had conducted. 
• On Friday, I had to wear a dress to school, which I haven't done in at least two years. This was because our world history class was presenting final research papers.
• Then the last week of school, or actual finals week, rolled around. 
• Cue WEEK OF NOTHING. I only had three actual finals to do—all in my easiest classes.
• That'd be health, physics, and Japanese. 
• But! In world history, I got to eat Chilean empanadas and drink mote con huesillo and listen to my world history teacher tell stories about living in Chile. It was great. (Also the empanadas and mote were DELICIOUS. Oh my goodness.)
• So after that, my summer break started! It's been horribly delightfully uneventful so far.
• This isn't exactly offline, but I had the wonderful opportunity to work with Serena @ Reading Over Sleeping and redesign her blog. I installed a responsive theme and did color/font/header customizations. I think the result wasn't too bad! (BTW, if you've got a Blogger blog and want a free responsive redesign, talk to me on Twitter @_christinaim or in the comments.)
• The weather is so pretty and obliging outside. It's very suspicious, because this is the Pacific Northwest and the weather does not get so nice without an ulterior motive. 

I've been reading

• All the Rage by Courtney Summers. One of the best books I've read all year.

PSA: ALL THE RAGE by @courtney_s is a valuable, brutal book that will rip you open and leave you for dead. (That is code for READ. IT.)

— christina im (@_christinaim) June 8, 2015

• The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama, for school. I had some issues with the slightly stilted prose, portrayals of female characters, and slowness/loose ends of the plot, but otherwise it was a lovely, quiet, elegant read.
• Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. OH MY GOODNESS CAN SIMON SPIER BE MY BEST FRIEND? ALSO: SHIP SHIP SHIP SHIP.

PS: Remember, you can check out all my reads of 2015 here.

I've been watching

even the opening sequence is pretty, gosh

I'm still recovering from my severe post-The 100-finale show hangover, but I've found two shows this month that might help me in that process. First up is a wonderfully executed BBC period drama called The Paradise. It centers around the fictional first department store in England, called—you guessed it—the Paradise, and a country girl with big dreams who comes to work there.

Aforementioned 'country girl with big dreams' is Denise Lovett, and oh my goodness. I love her. The first thing I noticed about her was how earnest and good and helpful she was. She's willing to work hard to gain acceptance and success and independence, and she loves her job so, so much. I think this is the first period drama I've seen where the heroine works for a living and places her occupation above pretty much everything else. So that's really refreshing and lovely.

denise lovett: actual ray of sunshine

This show also has a really cool group of characters interacting, and I love that there are so many multifaceted, dynamic female characters who are driving a lot of the storyline. My only problem with the characters, I think, is in the male lead, Mr. Moray. He's honestly kind of a sexist blockhead, although I'm told he gets somewhat better.

But the costumes are brilliant. Apparently one of the same people who worked on the Wolf Hall costumes also worked on the costumes for The Paradise, and in my opinion, it shows. Everyone's clothes are just beautiful, especially with the colors in this show being the way they are.

Anyway, if you'd like to discuss, I've finished the first season. And, um, where is the fandom? (Please tell me there's a fandom.) SHOW YOURSELVES.

american history that's actually cool? yeah, i didn't believe it either

I came across AMC's Turn on Netflix—somehow the show is so underrated that I'd never heard of it before!—and immediately my interest was piqued by the premise. A show about George Washington's Revolutionary War spy ring aka one of the few actually interesting parts of American history? Sign me up.

I was captivated right away by the show's details and framing designs. The fonts used (no don't say anything, fonts are very important to me) are gorgeous, and the costumes actually seem somewhat accurate, which is very cool. And oh gosh, the music is flawless. But the most beautiful part of this? Check out the killer opening credits sequence (although warning for a bit of promotional gobbledygook at the end):

Anyway, it took me a little while to warm to the characters/story, but once I did, I couldn't get enough of them. The first character I loved? Predictably, the most important female character in the show, Anna Strong aka amazing brave reckless Patriot lady who takes no crap from men:

yes! you deserve a high five, anna strong!

But soon I discovered I liked the protagonist, too—Abraham Woodhull aka sneaky cabbage farmer who is actually kind of adorable sometimes and also wears lots of hats:

plus, he's super crafty and has the most precious facial expressions sometimes

Anyhow, the show has a great plotline and a very well-rounded cast of characters, in my opinion, so it's super, super cool if you like history and spies and things. Do check it out! I don't think it gets enough love. (And if you'd like to discuss in the comments, please know I'm not even through the first season yet, so no spoilers please!)

ahhhh

I went to the movie theater to go see Pixar's new film Inside Out! This movie was adorable and incredibly inventive—one of the most ingenious animated films I've seen in a while. Plus, the characters are all so precious, and Sadness is pretty much me IRL.

Help, someone teach me how to Instagram

Click each image to go to full-size!

i actually cooked a thing. (my mom helped, naturally.) to my surprise, it tasted fabulous.

i participated in a book photography challenge. you might remember this book from the first-ever #litlove.

poetry is hard, pretty much.

Links of interest

• Jade Mitchell, one of Words Dance Publishing's contributing editors, put together a Summer Poetry Package to help people keep creative over the summer.
• Graham Moore, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of The Imitation Game (one of my favorite films of ever!), discussed how one should write genius characters when one is not, in fact, a genius.
• Winter Tangerine Review's newest feature, titled "Shedding Skins", pulls apart the evolution of a poem—complete with multiple drafts of the featured poems and valuable commentary from the featured poets themselves. It's brilliant. (I especially love Rochelle Hurt's "The Post-Confessional Poet".)
• Paola Bennet traveled to Santorini (!!!) and came back with some gorgeous photos and words to share.
• Sana @ Artsy Musings of a Bibliophile talked ten reasons (though there are many, many more) why you should be anticipating the release of Sarah J. Maas's Queen of Shadows. 
• Over at Words Dance, the talented and wise poet Meggie Royer conducted an interview with the indomitable Peter LaBerge, founder of The Adroit Journal and brilliant writer. (I think everyone already knows how much I love both Meggie Royer and Adroit.)
• Thistle Magazine interviewed my darling friend Topaz Winters. There was so much loveliness in this conversation. Also! My name comes up because Topaz is one of the most wonderful and supportive friends/coworkers I could ask for.

So we're halfway through the year already! How have you all been doing? Are you glad it's finally summer (winter for my friends on the other half of the globe)?

PS: Watch this space. I've got something extra-special planned for tomorrow to kick off July. Writer friends, you'll love it.