Have you ever wanted to create a cartoon design of your own? I'm a fabric artist so I frequently come up with my own designs with no particular source of inspiration.

First, let's clarify the word cartoon. I'm not referring to drawing cartoon characters although the word is the same word. My use of the word cartoon is more in the sense of a pattern drawn on a large piece of paper (usually 18" x 24").

There are many ways to practice turning on the creative juices. It always starts with a blank piece of paper. Now instead of deciding to draw anything in particular, I just pick up a pencil or pen, place the pencil on the paper somewhere and let the flow begin.

One technique is to draw a rectangle somewhere in the middle of the paper. Now you have certain defined spaces to fill with straight lines, curvy lines, groups of lines, shapes, repetition of shapes or free flow.

The center space can be filled with circles of various sizes, a simple leaf design or triangular shapes. Shapes can be repeated in various ways by changing the sizes of the shapes. The outside space around the edge of the paper can also be filled with similar shapes or just drawn curvy lines or straight lines.

At this point, I don't think about placement or an actual design, just let the process of drawing take place.

After you have created some shapes and lines, begin using colored pencils or crayons to fill in these spaces. Use three colors to start with, use three colors that you really like. Then add variations of these colors, lighter and darker, softer and brighter. You would be surprised what can happen in this process.

These images that you're creating are mostly abstracts but if you really like flowers and leaves, draw flowers and leaves. Just do very simple drawings with simple color schemes.

As you practice the above techniques, it will be easier and easier to draw designs starting on an empty page. The page is your canvas, it's there to serve you, so let things happen. If you love the color purple, use only shades of purple, then add a little black here and there, with some soft greys.

Once you get comfortable with the process of creating designs, begin to look at the overall balance of the various elements you have created. Could they be smaller, larger? Could they be placed in a different area of the paper and have a greater visual impact? Could you add a bright lime-yellow to make the other colors pop?

Another technique is to take an abstract drawing you've created, cut the paper in strips or any kind of pieces you want, then re-assemble the drawing in a new way. Look at the overall effect. Do you want the shapes to pop? Do you want the colors to be more dominant? Does your design have energy and flow to it? What do you want to convey with your drawing?

Practice the above process as often as you can. I try to draw something on a daily basis and a lot of times I do this late at night before going to bed or early in the morning before my busy day begins. Find a slot of time for your creative juices to beging blossoming. I really believe that becoming creative (in whatever medium you choose) requires practice, practice, practice. Soon you will find your inner voice and direction for your art to express itself.

I love American football and I recently caught a game of my favorite team, the Chicago Bears. I love sports because it's easy to look for and find metaphors between sports, life and business.

The Chicago Bears defense is one of the top rated lineups in the NFL. They are intimidating, intense and dominating.

There was one play in particular that I witnessed Sunday and have seen over and over in football and I see it in life as well.

A wide receiver on the opposing team was wide open and about to catch a pass for an easy first down. He had the ball in his hands... however... he dropped the ball because he was more focused on the impending hit he would receive from the defense after he caught the ball.

He would have easily caught the ball, but there would be a price to be paid afterwards. He knew a hit was coming and he allowed it to distract him from concentrating on the next step. He was looking too far ahead and it prevented him from catching an easy pass.

It is important to know what your next step is at all times.

That wide receiver's job is ultimately to catch the football when it is thrown to him. What he does after he catches the football is important, but he must catch the football first in order to gain any yards or progress afterwards. The job of the offense is to gain yards and score points.

People come to me all the time when they have struggles with focus and concentration. I hear it every single day, "I can't concentrate."

The solution is simple, and like any other muscle, you can train your concentration muscles and improve your abilities.

How many times in life do you drop the ball and miss an opportunity to progress because you were thinking about or worrying about something that might (or might not) happen later? You were so busy looking ahead that you missed something amazing that was right in front of you. Perhaps you think about work when you are with your children or partner. Perhaps you obsess about your relationship when you should be focused on your work. How often are you truly in the present?

Visualizing plants the seeds of greatness into your subconscious. Visualizing your goals and the big picture of it all is something you can do whenever you want. Yet there is a delicate balance between visualizing your future and doing the actions today, in the present, right here and now that will lead you progressively to your destiny. There is a healthy balance that must be achieved between these two powers.

What I would like for you to do all day today is ask yourself the question, what is my next step?

What is the next step?

And then I want you to simply focus on it.

Concentrate fully on that one step and completing it. Turn off all background noise, eliminate all distractions and put your blinders on to that one thing you are going to be doing and then do it to completion. If possible, turn off the phone, put a do not disturb sign on your door or cubicle and don't do anything other than what your next step is. Don't check your email, don't turn music on, don't allow yourself to do anything else. Focus 100% on that next step.

The more you practice this, the more efficient you will become, and you will achieve your goals in record time.

This principle is illustrated in detail in the audio program, TheTimeCommandments! I encourage you to study it and master it. I have broken down thousands of historic universal success principles into Ten Simple Strategies that I apply to my own life and my own business with amazing results. You can go faster than you think you can. And it's easier than you think it is.

When it comes to your day, your work, your family or your business, define what the next step is that you must focus on and then do it fully and invest all of your attention into it.

If a story is best with a few unexpected twists and turns, then meeting up with Tanya Batt, storyteller and writer and full time fairy is set up to be magnificent. I ring her expecting to conduct an interview by phone, only to find she’ll be passing my way (a mere thousand kilometres from her home) in a few days time and just might be able to pop in.

The few days pass and no Tanya. However she calls that morning, and says she’s on her way. Will be here in around an hour.

Not being the most fastidious of house cleaners, an hour represents a mad rush around, picking up children’s toys and clothes, cleaning kitchen benches and other similar tasks. No Tanya. I’m worried. I do not give out the best instructions. Perhaps she is lost and wandering the New Zealand countryside looking for an odd arrangement of tall pine trees, a barking dog and our house, frustrated at the lack of good cell phone reception.

That alone would be a good reason to be late I figure. Tanya Batt, story weaver has another idea that out sells my meagre reasoning. She’s late because a worsted wool pea coat beckoned to her from the side of the road. Passing an Antique shop, where the coat hung, she became slightly diverted. Two hours late, but certainly not empty handed she drives up in her silver story telling machine, with her treasures squished up inside. As she enters my house, she promises to show me her haul before she leaves.

On first meeting, she is everything a full time fairy should be. Elfin, with a turned up nose and a felted top, a matching pixie hat and sublimely beautiful French red dancing shoes. My five year old, who has been expecting layers of taffeta and glitter is a little disappointed but, as I explain, queens, princesses and fairies all need to be able to wear day to day clothes on occasion.

I am quick to prepare lunch- vegetarian for Tanya. Salad with a divine organic cheese she pulls from her van and sadly (for her- perfect for me) forgets to take when she leaves. It does not matter that we are eating mid afternoon. This is fairy time and therefore not constrained by such earthly inventions as clock watching. Even my concern for her ferry crossing later on is met with unconcern. “I can always catch a later one”

Tanya is a storyteller, and like all those who spin a tale, she is best at drawing out another person’s story. To pull out her own tale is harder than spilling out my own, faintly aware that she may store a fragment of my story to be used at some stage in another time and place. But once food is shared and my story played out, she is ready to unfurl her own story.

Storytelling has been her desire since a child. At thirty-five she can see her journey to now began as the eldest of seven children, travelling around as first her father, then step father worked in the outback of Australia. Movement settled in her bones, and she has followed the travelling star since.

Her love of dramatic secured at fourteen when she came to live with her father and stepmother. A huge box of costumes were her playthings, with only young siblings to play with as an alternative. She remembers “Walking along the shore line in as Little Bo Peep, asking people if they had seen my sheep” and dressing as a nun for mufti days at Pakuranga College. “I told everyone I came from a convent.”

She went to teachers College with a firm plan not to teach. ‘I wanted to understand education and I needed the paper to prove myself as a storyteller for education.” Once the paper was received she went out and began to tell her stories.

Storytelling has taken her around the world. She spends her time travelling, and then comes back to her home in Waiheke. She loves taking her home with her- home represented by a biscuit tin filled with rice cakes, and a supremely diverse range of clothing. She is a little eccentric, but entirely (as true eccentrics are) comfortable with it. It is natural, with no airs or reservations.

She considers herself lucky “to make a living out of my creativity” and is looking to new places to cultivate her creative urge. This includes the Storyteller Festival she has instigated on Waiheke Island, which runs during Queens Birthday weekend. Full of stories from herself and other performers, the festival is her baby, designed to move children and adults into an imagined world- one that I see she moves in and out of with facile.

It’s time for her to leave my world, and I walk out with her to her “vantastic.” I have spent the last few minutes thinking about her recent foray into our local antique shop, and can not imagine what she has discovered.

It is a bike. Or rather, it is a horse bike. Think beautifully carved wood shaped into a carnival horse, on cast iron wheels. It is delightful, and entirely unusual. Its new owner cannot resist demonstrating its usefulness, pedalling it on our stony driveway. There's more- a vintage red balldress redolent with sequins and taffeta- just the sort of thing a fairy may wear. “The dress and the horse bike are a perfect match,” she says. “I think I could build a whole show around them”

The Vibration tarot framework uses the Thoth tarot because it is most closely attuned with the Creative Forces Vibrations. This Thoth Tarot mediumship is of a very pure from, uses a structure that did not exist in Egypt, but is most appropriate for people living on Earth at the present time.

The Creative Forces Zodiac Tarot Spread is purposed for both the "psychic" and the "not-so-psychic" entity. Many psychics are of the opinion they cannot give themselves a reading, and many "not-so- psychic" are convinced they cannot give themselves a reading. The Thoth Tarot Creative Forces Zodiac Spread, based upon Cosmic Vibration Math and Astro-Logic, now provides an excellent, unbiased, way for both the psychic and the lay person to perform self-readings with uncanny accuracy and professional expertise. These readings are not limited to that of worldly and psychic nature and can provide information from spiritual realms of consciousness also.

The Creative Forces layout is structured according to a base completion of twelve and aside from the individual meaning of the cards, the layout provides additional information when interpreted using the phase relationships of the cards. Cards in resonant positions serve as directional markers for additional significance. Part of completing a meaningful reading involves correct understanding of the phase relationships of the creative forces and appropriate interpretation and understanding. Conventional tarot readers have no knowledge about these phase relationships and the importance of addressing them in the reading.

"Upside down" tarot card matrix positions do not change Creative Force Vibration patterns or the interpretation of the meaning of the card. Reversing the top and bottom of a tarot card does not reverse the meaning or spirit nature of a Creative Force Vibration. There is no such thing as an upside down Creative Force giving an upside down meaning for a tarot card. Such vibrant forces are simultaneously central, spherical and multidimensional. Opposing card matrix meanings and relationships occur naturally relative to the locations of the cards in the Thoth Tarot Creative Forces Zodiac Layout. Reverse card meanings, like old wives tales, have no true, valid basis.

The structure of the Creative Forces layout now makes possible a quick and easy keyword association format so that the tarot card reader can analyze the 12 stages of the querent’s question. The Major Arcana cards that form any part of the reading represent a great amount of power structures bonded and locked together, and these are the power cards. Any layout consisting of 4 or more Major Arcana cards has a considerable amount of power. Layouts having 6 to 8 Major Arcana cards have special significance and power.

This information serves as a basic introduction. More information is available on the multidimensional nature of Creative Force Tarot by clicking on the links below.

The Falling Value of Film Entertainment

Forty years ago, people who wanted to see a movie on a Friday night had just a few options. They could watch what was on TV, they could go to the local drive-in, or they could go to the local movie theater. The advent of video stores that sold hundreds or thousands of movies on video tape/DVD gave people new alternatives. They could watch this week's new movie at the movie theater, or take in last winter's box office smash in their own home. The technology required to burn tapes and DVDs subsequently turned every home in to a lending library for film and video. The rise of two-hundred-channel cable companies gave us two-hundred channels with something on. Now the best selling studio and independent films are available for download from from sites like video.google.com, www.movielink.com, www.unbox.com and www.itunes.com.

As the rise in movie viewing options has increased, the average box office value of new films has fallen. That's hard to believe isn't it.

Block busters like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter mask the truth that more movies are being made by more people than ever before and yet the estimated revenue for each film is actually falling. Tens of thousands of feature films and documentaries are now available for sale through a variety of venues. A growing number of producers are making their movies available for free online in the hopes that they will develop a following that will result in "sell-able films" later on.

The falling value of the average movie has dramatic implications on the lives of people who make movies for a living.

Five Survival Strategies

Consider selling your products directly to viewers without going through standard distribution channels. A producer investing tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on film for distribution on DVD should set aside a quarter or more of that budget for a media campaign that targets the market for the film. If they spend that budget wisely, customers will be looking for the film. Producers who find a solid, reliable international storefront for their films keep the percentage usually allocated to a traditional film distributor. For example, if you post your film on www.CustomFlix.com, your customers will be able to buy your DVD through Amazon (and soon download it through www.UnBox.com). You receive 60%-70% of product sales every month and retain complete control over your content, rather than waiting months or years for distributors to send checks.

Be very careful when choosing more traditional film distributors. Many distributors will evaporate in the months and years to come due to competition from turn-key distribution solutions offered by large, well funded competitors. You do not want distributors to have control over your content when they go under. Work with distributors who deliver cost-effective, fast-launch, flexible multi-national multimedia distribution and marketing solutions for their customers. Make sure there's an escape clause if they go into bankruptcy or fail to provide timely payments or accounting.

Work directly with community theaters, activist groups and social networks to have your films shown. "Four-walling" which used to be considered an amateur filmmaker's trick was demonstrated to be a sound business strategy by Mel Gibson's block buster The Passion of the Christ. That movie was premiered to Christian communities across the United States and their word of mouth drove it to be one of the most successful independent films ever made.

Work with your screenwriters to focus on less expensive, more character-driven films that target under-served market segments. There are tens of thousands of writers trying to write a great tent-pole film. The competition is fierce, the number of producers/studios who can fund that film is small. There's are far fewer writers/producers focusing on writing Christian science fiction or Christian mysteries although the Left Behind books and the DiVinci code indicate those markets exist and spend money.

Find funding through angel investors rather than through more traditional lending and investment mechanisms. Movies are a risky business, and they are growing more risky all the time. Fortunately the cost of making them is also falling fast. Angel investors will often pay to have a movie made as part of an artistic statement or act of community involvement while other investors will be driven more directly for a desire for profit. Producers will assemble groups of angel investors who fund projects, and those investors may elect to make their money available as grants rather than as loans or stock ownership. "Rich Patrons" may well be on their way back and they are certainly worth cultivating.

Evolve to Survive

Some trends are irreversible. Horses gave way to cars. Silent movies gave way to talking pictures. The movie industry is changing radically.

Those who want to make and sell movies for a living must revise their methods accordingly. They must make more films for less money, and the films they make must be better targeted so they are more cost-effective to sell. The good news is, great scripts, exceptional acting talent, strong technical skills and good business sense will be enough to give many producers the great careers they deserve and many viewers will end up with "new classics" to watch.

It's a common fallacy that in order to enjoy the art of stained glass at home as a hobby, one must make a substantial investment. Though it is true that you will need to make a noteworthy amount of time and resource investment into this activity, as you do with any other hobby, you may be surprised at how accessible stained glass making really is and how you can get by with some basic tools and equipment.

One quick and simple thing you can do is buy a stained glass beginners kit if you are just starting off. This normally includes all the bare essentials you will need to get started with your first stained glass masterpieces. Well not exactly masterpieces, but you get the idea. After some practice your skills will shine.

Some basic tools you will need include a lead knife, diagonals, bent needle-nosed pliers, flux brush, light table, grinders, and newsprint end roll. As you get some experience under your belt you can acquire more tools and accessories as deemed necessary by you- the master craftsman!

If you do your homework earlier on before diving in with both feet, you will find that some of the tools you use will continue to be used by you for many, many years to come. And during that time you will create even more and more elaborate stained glass patterns and materials to either sell, or showcase off in your home. What a wonderful deal!

I've personally been involved with stained glass for about 14 years now and let me tell you, it still is a treasure to wake up every morning knowing that another concoction that you dreamt up is waiting to be created by your two capable hands and one quick-witted mind! I hope you get to experience the rewarding pursuit of stained glass making with the right equipment.

In J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, the first person narration is critical in helping the reader to know and understand the main character, Holden Caulfield. Holden, in his narration, relates a flashback of a significant period of his life, three days and nights on his own in New York City. Through his narration, Holden discloses to the reader his innermost thoughts and feelings. He thus provides the reader not only with information of what occurred, but also how he felt about what happened.

Holden's thoughts and ideas reveal many of his character traits. One late Saturday night, four days before the beginning of school vacation, Holden is alone, bored and restless, wondering what to do. He decides to leave Pencey, his school, at once and travels to New York by train. He decides that, once in New York, he will stay in a cheap motel until Wednesday, when he is to return home. His plan shows the reader how very impetuous he is and how he acts on a whim. He is unrealistic, thinking that he has a foolproof plan, even though the extent of his plans are to "take a room in a hotel.., and just take it easy till Wednesday."

Holden's excessive thoughts on death are not typical of most adolescents. His near obsession with death might come from having experienced two deaths in his early life. He constantly dwells on Allie, his brother's, death. From Holden's thoughts, it is obvious that he loves and misses Allie. In order to hold on to his brother and to minimize the pain of his loss, Holden brings Allie's baseball mitt along with him where ever he goes. The mitt has additional meaning and significance for Holden because Allie had written poetry, which Holden reads, on the baseball mitt. Holden's preoccupation with death can be seen in his contemplation of a dead classmate, James Castle. It tells the reader something about Holden that he lends his turtleneck sweater to this classmate, with whom he is not at all close.

Holden's feelings about people reveal more of his positive traits. He constantly calls people phonies, even his brother, D.B., who " has sold out to Hollywood." Although insulting, his seemingly negative feelings show that Holden is a thinking and analyzing, outspoken individual who values honesty and sincerity. He is unimpressed with people who try to look good in other's eyes. Therefore, since it is obvious that Holden is bright, the reason for his flunking out of school would seem to be from a lack of interest.

Holden has strong feelings of love towards children as evidenced through his caring for Phoebe, his little sister. He is protective of her, erasing bad words from the walls in her school and in a museum, in order that she not learn from the graffiti.

His fondness for children can be inferred when he tells her that, at some time in the future, he wants to be the only grown-up with "all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all." He'll stand on the edge of a cliff and catch anybody who starts to fall off the edge of the cliff. He got this image from his misinterpretation of a line from the Robert Burns poem, " if a body catch a body comin' through the rye."

When situations are described, in person or in a book, they are influenced by the one who describes them, and by his or her perceptions and experiences. Through Holden's expressions of his thoughts and feelings, the reader sees a youth, sensitive to his surroundings, who chooses to deal with life in unique ways. Holden is candid, spontaneous, analytical, thoughtful, and sensitive, as evidenced by his narration. Like most adolescents, feelings about people and relationships are often on his mind. Unfortunately, in Holden's case, he seems to expect the worst, believing that the result of getting close to people is pain. Pain when others reject you or pain when they leave you, such as when a friend walks off or a beloved brother dies. It would not have been possible to feel Holden's feelings or understand his thoughts nearly as well had the book been written in third person.

I hear it all the time “Metal is Dead” but if you were to only go out on the town in such a city as Toronto on a Friday or Saturday night you would soon find that on every corner there is a club or venue and in this building there are people enjoying good ole Canadian Metal Bands and having a fantastic time moshing in the pits and banging tomorrows headache into reality and they are loving every minute of it.

It seems that in this day and age the only thing that people tend to believe is real and available is what they see on much music and that the only styles of music that are still alive and kicking are the ones that have expensive videos on these shows but alas I am here to tell all those who may not know that Canadian Metal Music is indeed quite alive and the scene is only growing larger. Don’t listen to the mass media when they try to shove their “instabands” down your throat and into your delicate ears oh no there is certainly more to life than what we are being pedaled by the profit hungry record labels and the music industry in general. If the band doesn’t have a cute little virgin dressed like a hooker or five pretty boys then you don’t tend to hear much about them and why is that? Possibly because the powers that be don’t think this will sell it’s definitely not what they are trying to force on you so it must not be popular or they would have capitalized on it sooner right? Well with bands like Slipknot breaking records and going platinum on every front how could one possibly think metal is dead? It’s NOT!

The Toronto Metal Music Scene is blasting on almost every street every weekend and almost every night the week, there are amazing bands out there all the time playing their hearts out for fans that are more than grateful to have them and one large question most of these fans have is. “Why haven’t you guys got a record contract yet?” I can’t readily give you an answer for this but I suspect it is because the industry believes it’s own hype that the genre is dead and how can you tell them any different when it is so hard to find good new metal bands in the record stores and why is this? Well I suppose it’s because no one is signing any of them. I’ve been to my fair share of amazing Metal shows in and around Ontario and they usually consist a some very good talent and I am usually in disbelief when I hear how long these bands have been playing and that they have not yet been recognized and given the opportunity to be heard by the world at large it is a travesty that this genre is being denied for if it wasn’t for this music many of the other bands we love so much wouldn’t even be out there to begin with I mean you would be surprised to hear that many non-metal bands were influenced and decided to go into the music industry because of their favorite heavy metal bands.

One place that I have found online that is a great place for independent bands to get noticed and to network is myspace.com If you were to visit this site you would soon discover that most of the bands there are metal and that tells you that at this giant of online networking “Metal Music” is one of the top styles that people are listening to and enjoying on a daily basis. I myself am a Canadian performing artist I am the vocalist for the Metal band “Downer St.” I have become friends with many Canadian Metal bands that I have found on myspace and have seen them live or have done shows with them and many of these bands are blessing Toronto with their sound and I really think that they all deserve a shot at the big time. The best way to support your local metal bands is to go out to their shows and request to hear them on your local radio because if the fans don’t show their support these bands will become among the numerous talents that fall into the cracks and it is a shame. If this article helps to get one person to listen to one of these fantastic Canadian bands if it helps people notice that metal is still one of the most listened to music genres I have done my job and so have you.

Dan Brown's mystery/detective novel "The DaVinci Code," published in 2003, has sold more than 40 million copies and its narrative was made into a script for the needs of the recently released Columbia Pictures film carrying the same title. This worldwide bestseller has been translated into 44 languages and is currently the sixth biggest selling book of all time. Can you imagine which one holds the first place on that bestseller list? Well, it is the Bible.

By examining Christianity and traveling through history, Brown's book invites the reader to reconsider what is firmly believed for centuries now in relation to Jesus Christ's deeds and life choices. Offering a conspiracy theory, which is headed by the organization of Opus Dei belonging to the Catholic Church to cover up the "true" story of Jesus, the plot of the novel has helped generate popular interest in speculation concerning the Holy Grail legend and the role of Mary Magdalene in the history of Christianity. But regardless of the glowing reviews it received from the New York Times, People Magazine and the Washington Post, the book has been heavily critiqued by many as poorly written, inaccurate and a source of confusion between speculation and fact. The criticism generated focuses on the speculations made to base the story's plot and the misrepresentations of core aspects of Christianity, the Roman Catholic Church history and the numerous descriptions of European art forms, historical facts and architectural designs. Brown was accused apart from actually copying the facts of the 1982 published book "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" written by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, to distort and fabricate history so as to serve the story's purpose.

But isn't that exactly what a novel does? Although I have not been a student of any professional writing classes up until now, I believe, and that is because I have read a variety of fiction novels, that the writer creates art by writing a story and art can take any form. The art form of literature has many focal points, one of them being fiction. High-fantasy stories that do not portray real-world historical facts, although very often the writer is based on them, do not have to suffer that kind of negative criticism. Although Brown's book is not one of my favorites, I was astonished to discover how many people have been attacking the author for writing a "fake" story, what is known as fiction. It is generally agreed that it is much more interesting when one relies on facts, to portray them as they really were recorded by historians and experts, but this decision belongs to the writer and has to be taken while writing the story. Regardless if one disagrees with Brown's theories or finds his book amusing, the criticism should not be directed, at least in my opinion, on whether or non professor Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu took the right road towards the French country side, but whether or not one likes the story and finds the language used and the arguments made by the author accurate and constructive. Of course, it is always nice to know exactly which road one should take in order to escape from the Louvre Museum in case of an emergency, but I will agree with a famous quote that is accredited to Buddha that "There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth... not going all the way and not starting.

The release of the movie, Underworld, starring Kate Beckinsale, about a romance between a vampire and a werewolf has publishers scrambling for manuscripts dealing with paranormal romances. Unlike historical romances or classic romances, this genre is a lot more imaginative. Typically, there would be fantasy elements in the story. Either the setting is futuristic, or in some fantasy world or the hero, the heroine or both are not normal people.

Take underworld for instance. You have a Romeo and Juliet love story. This time, the setting is paranormal. Romeo comes from the werewolf clan while Juliet is from the vampire clan. Unlike a helpless Juliet, you have one who kicks butt, shoots down the enemy and saves the hero.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first Underworld movie and had to see the sequel, Underworld Evolution. There, the story of the vampire and werewolf lovers continue.

Though paranormal romance seems like a recently hot subgenre, this genre has been around for ages. Take Buffy the Vampire slayer and Spike, her vampire boyfriend. Or go back even further in time to Dracula, the king of all vampire stories. In the original, Dracula had seduced three women and bit them, turning them into vampires. More horror than romance, it could also be considered the grand daddy of this subgenre.

While the classic romances might cast the heroine as the damsel in distress, waiting to be rescued by her knight in shining armour, modern day paranormal romances (and a number of other modern day romance tales) feature stronger heroines.

In Warrior Girl, the first book in the sfxfantasy series, the heroine, though captured by the enemy escapes on her own. Instead of sweeping her off her feet to safety, the hero, just hovers around invisibly, watching her escape with the intention of testing her mettle. His intention is not to seduce her but to recruit her as a warrior.

From there, as the feelings between the pair develop, you'll have a paranormal romance set in a fantasy world that breaks many of the rules in traditional romance novels.

Romances, paranormal or not appeal to the human heart. The happy ever after ending, like the fairy tales we grew up on, though may not come true in real life, happens in the world of romance novels. Paranormal romance stories extend on that, with the thrill of a fantasy world, a futuristic setting or with people with superhuman abilities, creating a story that thrill the heart and imagination of the reader.

Word search puzzles can be are difficult to solve. Some puzzles end up being infinitely difficult with large search areas, numerous words, and extremely long words. Not to mention that the words in a word search puzzle can be placed downwards, upwards, backwards, forwards, and diagonally. That’s a lot of different ways for the words to be placed and you may not always catch every word.

It’s best to develop an organized method to your word search madness and have a better chance of finding all the words hidden in your word search puzzle. This way you will be more efficient in your word search as well.

Try starting your search for words at the top of the puzzle and moving from left to right work your way down the puzzle line by line. While doing this keep an eye out for words in general but also try to pick out a word from your word list to be looking for specifically. It’s easier if you just look for the first letter of that specific word while you are searching. When you find that specific letter you are looking for check the surrounding six letters in each direction of that first letter. If any of them match the second letter in the word you are looking for then its possible that you’ve found your word. Continue along checking the subsequent letters in the chain. If it forms a word then you’ve found it, if you come across a letter that doesn’t match then move on with your search.

Once you’ve reached the bottom of the word search puzzle with the left to right search start again at the top and search up and down vertically while moving from the farthest left vertical line to the farthest right. Follow the same search pattern and once you’ve reached the end you should have found most of the words.