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Hey everyone!
Keeping things fairly brief;
Who and where: My name is Gideon Harris (17), and I’m an avid learner & reader! From northern California, one of 9 siblings, raised homeschooled, and I love to write!
What and why I write: I write regularly about my work and publish it on my blog every weekday. I joined Kingdom Pen to expand my creative side a bit more to write analogies that better explain concepts and ideas. My blog can be found at buildsbygideon.posthaven.com/
Favorite books: Just a few of my favorite nonbusiness/psychology books include:
Artemis Fowl series, The Connecticut Yankee, Airman, everything by CS Lewis, Anne of Green gables (specifically “Rilla of Ingleside”), LOTR & the Hobbit, Little Britches series (Ralph Moody), Swallows and Amazons series, & pretty much every WW2 historical fiction & non-fiction book written.
I absolutely love historical fiction, so any book recommendations related to that topic would be hugely appreciated!!
Personal interests: I love to get to know people and what they’re really excited about! I study a wide range of topics related to psychology, leadership, speaking, writing, and business; if you ever want to lose a few hours of your time, feel free to ask me anything related to those topics 🙂
What I do: I work for several companies doing behind-the-scenes people and project management (don’t let the words fool you, it’s not quite as fancy as it sounds).
I work as the operations manager for my parent’s skincare business; I do everything from making the products to fulfilling orders.
I work as the grease for a Ghostwriter who serves a few well-known people (including Dave Ramsey’s close friends).
I also am a programmer for a CNC machine shop where I get to make interesting prototype parts for different companies looking to test physical products before they go to the public. (One of the cooler projects my boss got to work on several years ago was the Apple watch)
And I just got some more small-time work for a business networking guy where I will get the opportunity to write copy for a couple of different social media platforms and some behind-the-scenes work for hiring young interns!
In all honesty, that makes it sound like I do a lot, but I only play somewhat small parts in a bunch of different areas in reality.
Hi, Gideon!! It’s so great to meet you!! *shakes hand* My name is Lexi (15) and I’m happy to be the first to warmly welcome you to Kingdom Pen! Wow, you’re homeschooled as well? We already have something in common! 🙂 That’s so neat you like LOTR! Me too! *high-fives*
So, a few things about myself… I like to read/write fantasy, I’m the proud owner of two cats, I love photography, and I play the violin. (And, if you haven’t already noticed, I love exclamation points, too! 😀 )
You sound like you do some pretty incredible work!! That’s so neat!! And we’re all really happy to welcome you to Kingdom Pen! See you around the forum! *waves*
Hello Gideon, welcome to Kingdom Pen! My name is Wyn, and I write fantasy and other speculative fiction. Wow, you have a lot of siblings! I also like LOTR! Do you have a favorite book, or specific part or aspect of the books you like best?
You’re interested in psychology? That’s so cool! I don’t know a ton about it, but I’m definitely interesting in learning more some time. And your work sounds really interesting!
It’s so nice to meet you, and I look forward to seeing you around!
@buildsbygideon Hi Gideon, and welcome to the Kingdom! I’m Linyang, and I enjoy writing crime and fantasy! It’s very nice to meet you!
Wow, those are a lot of things that you do! And I know some people on the forum who write historical fiction (*cough* @gracie-j *cough) so I’m sure you’ll fit right in!
Feel free to explore the forum, and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask!
Lately, it's been on my brain
Would you mind letting me know
If hours don't turn into days- Rank: Eccentric Mentor
- Total Posts: 1379
Hi Gideon, great to meet you! You can call me JC, I write Biblical fiction.
I absolutely love historical fiction, too! My favorite book of all time is Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, so that would certainly be my first recommendation if you have not read it yet. I’m currently reading Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables and am loving it so much that I have no doubts it will become my second favorite book. So I would recommend that one too, if you haven’t read it.
The Anne of Green Gables Series are novels that hold a very special place in my heart. Rilla of Ingleside was actually my favorite one, too! And C.S. Lewis is great. I enjoy his Narnia series and his book Mere Christianity the most. But he has so much good stuff.
Again, great to meet you and hope I see you around the forum!
@buildsbygideon Hey, fellow homeschooler!! I’m Grace (but my Japanese alias is Kadotake, you can call me either one lol).
That’s so cool that you like the Artemis Fowl series; they are some of my FAVOURITE books I’ve ever read, and I’m only reading the series for the first time actually, lol! I’m currently on The Lost Colony. Who’s your fave character from the series? 🙂
A few questions:
What’s your fave movie?
Pineapple on pizza, yes or no?
(This one’s oddly specific lol) Have you seen the Artemis Fowl movie adaptation?
Anyways, welcome to the forum!! I’m sure you’ll love it here!! 😀
staring at the fields
if nothing's really real
i'll make the winter now my homeHello Gideon, welcome to Kingdom Pen! I’m Abigail and it looks like I’m a tad late in welcoming you here. Anyway, welcome and that is all so awesome about all the things you do!
Leadership and writing. I’m always open to learning any tips people have on those subjects:) And *high fives* another C.S. Lewis fan! Clive Staples is one of my top favorite authors (currently reading the Of Other Worlds compilation and taking a Hillsdale course on his work). My favorite book from Narnia was the first one, which was your favorite?
What is you favorite setting to write in? (Sorry, that a question I ask all new KeePer’s:) Personally I love winter settings. I mostly write poetry and fiction (but honestly, I’ve written in almost every genre except horror and crime-drama).But to wrap things up, welcome again and it’s awesome to have you here at KP!
Hey there! Welcome to Kingdom Pen! I’m Kathleen and am also a part of the seventeen gang.
Your favorite books and authors are some of my favorite as well! I’m currently reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, and have been wanting to read Ann of Green Gables for awhile now.
All your work in those companies sound really interesting. How long have your parents run a skincare business? I used to help out bunch with my mother’s business as well, from customer service to hair modeling. XD It was pretty fun, but now I mostly hang out on Kingdom Pen.
Anyway, cool to have you here! Looking forward to getting to know you more!
Wow, first off, thank you all so much for the many hearty and warm welcomes! 🙂 Sorry for the late response!
@Lexi M – Super nice to meet you as well!! 😀 What style of fantasy books do you like to read and write? And yes, I love my work, it really makes life super interesting!
@Wyn Rose – Howdy Wyn! Yep, the only middle child too 😉
As far as books go, I’d have a hard time picking a specific one, I find I like certain ones in certain moods. The aspect that I like the most about them is the sense of mission and purpose behind the heroes, for example, Airman (one of my all-time favorites) is about a teenager sent to prison for a murder he didn’t commit, and he struggles with the morality of wanting revenge, learning to be patient and steadfast, and achieving his dreams by accident.
What areas of psychology are you interested in?
@Linyang Zhang – Heyo Linyang! 🙂
Ooo crime and fantasy! Do you ever combine those? What got you interested in writing about crime?
Haha, yes many things, unfortunately, takes up a lot of my time, but I’m working on improving that so I have more time for other things like writing and getting to talk to other young writers like yourselves!
@Joy Caroline – Hey JC 😀 super nice to meet you as well!Biblical fiction! Fascinating! What do some of your stories look like in relation to the bible? Do they come in contact with the stories and people?
To Kill a Mockingbird has been recommended to me before, but I am ashamed to say I have not read it yet. Excellent timing though, I just finished a book earlier today and will pick that one up next 😀
Yes!! I haven’t met too many people who’ve really appreciated the Rilla of Ingleside, so I’m so glad to hear that you do! 😀
CS Lewis is amazing! Mere Christianity is by far one of the best books on Christian apologetics that I’ve read! It’s so clear and straightforward, while yet being super deep the more you think about it! It’s one of the books that’s wanted me to dive deeper into my own faith and who I am to be before the Lord.
@Kadotake-san – Hey Grace!! Love the alias! I’m curious to know what the story is behind the name 🙂
Wow, you’ve certainly been missing out, only the first time!! Aren’t they amazing! The Lost Colony and the Eternity Code are my two favorites! Who’s your favorite character?
My favorite movie would have to be Life Is Beautiful, its an Italian WW2 film about a Jewish man and his family, super sad and wonderful at the same time. It’s one of the few movies that have brought me to tears! The downside is that all but two lines in it aren’t in English, so you have to use subtitles, but it’s absolutely worth it!!
Pineapple on pizza, 100%, anyone who says otherwise doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
And the Artemis movie, I haven’t seen it, because I don’t want it to ruin the books for me. They have a huge place in my heart and I don’t want to ruin it by watching what seems to be a movie that barely resembles the books.
Have you seen the movie? And if so, was it anything close to the books?
@Abigail M. – Hello Abigail! Thank you so much 😀
Awesome!! I’m curious to hear more about what got you interested in leadership, that’s not super common among the people I’ve met as being an interest!
Haha, to be completely honest, I had to google who Clive Staples was because I’ve only ever seen his initials in print! I haven’t read the Of Other Worlds compilation, what drew you to that and taking the college course on it?
Question is, which do you consider the first of the Narnia books? The one he wrote first, or the one in story chronological order (The Magicians Nephew). My favorite is definitely The Horse and His Boy!
Favorite setting to write in, that’s an excellent question that I don’t have a specific answer to. I love sitting down at the end of a rainy day when everyone goes to bed and all but one light beside an armchair is out and handwrite ideas or hopes for the future. It’s super peaceful and I’ve gotten a lot of fantastic ideas because of it!
Ooo yess, so few people appreciate the winter, so cozy and comfortable! What subjects do you typically write your poetry on?
@Kathleen – Hey Kathleen! Thank you so much! 😀
Certainly can’t have too many of us ;)! I’m so glad to hear that those are some of your favorites too! Mere Christianity is amazing as I’m sure you already know! You will absolutely love the Anne of Green Gables series if you like the other authors! The first couple of books were really good, but the later ones are the best in my opinion!
Thank you! I love working in many different areas, a challenge, but one that grows skills very quickly! My parents started the company back in 2009 to fix the problem of having dry and cracked skin, then decided to build a business around it!
That’s awesome!! Your brother was telling me that you were the one primarily responsible for the video editing & filming? Fantastic job, I’m really impressed with how clean they turned out!
I’m curious to hear how you got started in photography and develop those skills? It’s not very common to see real results like those in a person of your age and working together with your siblings to really grow Kingdom Pen
- Rank: Eccentric Mentor
- Total Posts: 1379
So I have two WIPs right now, they’re both about St. Paul. The one I’m focusing on the most is The Apostle’s Sister, which is about Paul from the perspective of his younger sister Temira, who is strongly attached to him. The second is The Anointed, about Paul from the perspective of his youngest nephew Seth, who is adopted. Seth is definitely a crucial character in TAS and I wanted to try an entire novel from his POV. That one’s kind of an experiment and I’m not sure where it will go, but I definitely want to get TAS published someday. (Paul’s sister and nephew are both mentioned in Acts 23:16, but there is next to nothing known about them. I thought it would be awesome to explore what they might have been like.)
Great! You’ll love TKAM! Definitely let me know what you think when you start reading.
I’m not sure why Rilla of Ingleside is so underrated, lol. I thought it was probably the most moving and emotional of all nine books.
Well, to be honest, I don’t remember exactly how I became interested in leadership. But I’ve always had the want and will to do it and as they say “be the change you wish to see in the world”, “leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality” and “what you do has a far greater impact than what you say.”
(Warning: I love quotes as you may have noticed:)And yes, it took me a bit to figure out who Clive Staples was, and actually, the only reason I know is because of the author biography on the inside cover of my Narnia book.
I go by chronological order with books, but I loved the Horse and His Boy too. C.S. Lewis made it really hard for me to choose a favorite:)
What drew me to The Other Worlds and college course? Well, I have always loved Clive’s work, and obviously, so have millions of others. And when something becomes a famous classic, I have to read it to see what made it so great (which is why I’m a third way through War and Peace right now and frankly, it’s not as boring as I was anticipating) or in this case study a course. But I also took the course because I was interested in him as an author and a person, I wanted to see what made him C.S. Lewis and learn about the significance of his work. The Other Worlds is just for fun. Reading his essays on writing and other assorted topics and learning about the world of Boxen and such.That is such an awesome setting to write in! And yes winter is wonderful. I love the cozy/indoors/fireplace aspect of it too, but though everybody thinks I’m crazy, my favorite part of winter is the frigid weather (yes, I know) but the snow, ice, and wind are core inspirations for my WIP that I’ve been working on for the past three years.
And as for what my favorite subjects are for poetry? My answer is so diverse, I could fill a whole page with it. Seriously. But long page, short: whatever object, thought, whim, memory, idea, or experience that catches hold of my imagination. Thence I have a huge variety of things that I like penning poems to:)
@buildsbygideon Oh, yes, I combine crime and fantasy a lot! I think I got interested in writing crime because I’ve always been really interested in the mafia and criminal organisations and the like, and I also enjoy reading thrillers and such, and when I usually write it goes something along the lines of “people asking other people about third party which is usually a bad person or something” so crime has been an extremely enjoyable genre for me to write of late. I guess that this is more suited for me because I actually don’t enjoy reading fantasy that much. So it’s been a win-win for me.
Have you ever thought about writing fiction in addition to what you post on your website?
Lately, it's been on my brain
Would you mind letting me know
If hours don't turn into days@Joy Caroline – Oh wow, that’s fascinating! A book I really enjoyed was similar to that, called A Tale of Three Kings, about King David, Saul, & Soloman from David’s point of view, and that of his right hand, some of the stuff in it was, of course, added because there isn’t transcribed conversations, but it brings it into a more vivid, story life fashion!
How far are you through both of those WIP’s?
@Abigail. M. – Haha, gotcha, I assume then you’ve read a few books related to the subject of leadership?
Interesting! That’s awesome! What do you think is one of his (CSL) lesser-known works that should be more appreciated?
Would you be open to sharing one of your favorite poems? I’m not normally a person who especially likes poetry, but I’m curious about what you’ve written!
@Linyang Zhang – Ooo, the Mafia! My brother is fascinated with that as well, he keeps insisting that our family become a big criminal enterprise haha! Do you have any crime fantasy books in the works?
And to be completely honest, I haven’t really considered writing fiction very much, I do occasionally, but it’s not exactly a story format. It’s more of a parable kind of style to explain certain life principles. I’m big into life purpose and mission, and have discovered a lot of interesting little things about learning and how to learn about many different things in life!
@buildsbygideon I just finished drafting a crime-fantasy novelette, actually! And I’m currently plotting a long crime novel with no magic. It’s been quite fun.
That sounds like awesome goals! There are indeed a lot of things to learn.
What do you like to see when you read? What makes a book stand out to you?
Lately, it's been on my brain
Would you mind letting me know
If hours don't turn into daysAh, I definitely relate to being in different moods for different books. Airman sounds interesting!
Yeah, I don’t really know a lot about psychology yet, but understanding people and the way they think and behave interests me. Not exactly all the intricate science behind it, though I know it’s important, but rather why people think and behave the way they do. If that makes any sense 🙂 .
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