Archive for the 'Book One' Category

May 20, 2010 | A Royale Pain,Book One,Draven Atreides,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,How coolio is THAT?,Life in General,Random Thoughts,The 4-1-1 on Me,Writer Moment

On YALITCHAT, I submitted the first 25 pages of DA Book 1 for teen review. 3 responses so far and the feedback has been great. The best part is that one of the reviewers was a guy.

“…Through the whole story I just kept thinking. “Duuuuuude, I would love to read this book, it’s awesome!” I love how the Draven can relate to girls and guys (in a sense). Her life just seems exciting with even a few real details that some kids have gone through…”

Totally made my night.

What I’m loving about this group is that I’m not just getting a small paragraph on what the reviewer thought. I’m getting serious feedback. Feedback that could amount to a 1 or 2 pages worth of suggestions/comments, etc: what could be changed, what doesn’t make sense, what could be added. I LOVE it. These teens are serious about their reading and it shows in their comments. I wish I could submit more, but at least I know I’m off to a good start.

It’s been professionally edited and looked over by beta readers. Now I just have to insert all the feedback.

Technorati Tags: YALITCHAT

December 28, 2009 | "Whoa whoa I gotta go...back to schoooool...again",2nd Semester,A Royale Pain,Book One,Life in General,Prescott College,Random Thoughts,Rio Salado,School Daze,Spring 2010,The 4-1-1 on Me

Over the past couple weeks, I’ve been getting ready for school. Finalizing the Study Contract for my mentored course at Prescott College, signing up for an online class at Rio Salado: Modern Fiction and getting situated with that, figuring out weekly scheduled meetings with my mentor and what day to submit homework…

I’ll be taking 3 classes this semester and I realized that I’m going to be doing a lot reading.

I should be getting Book One back from the editor any day now.
And then there’s the little New Year’s resolution I made about my writing.

School doesn’t officially start until the 11th and I’m already getting that overwhelmed feeling.

I think I just lost my groove.

Crap.

Technorati Tags: Prescott College, Rio Salado

October 21, 2009 | A Royale Pain,A Whole Latte Trouble,Book One,Book Two,Draven Atreides,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Life in General,Road Trip Wednesday,Writer Moment

Road Trip Wednesday is a “Blog Carnival”, where YA Highway‘s contributors post a weekly writing or reading-related question and answer it in on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

You’re more than welcome to participate! Just answer the question on your own blog, and leave a link to it in their comments.

Topic 3:

Turn your WIPs into Haikus

To be honest, I’ve never attempted to write a haiku. It’s another form of a poem and I’ve never been able to write poems, either. But I’m going to try it today.

DA Book One: A Royale Pain
I got a new name
I got a new life in AZ
I am Draven Atreides, Informant

DA Book Two: A Whole Latte Trouble
Time for assignment Number 2
CoolBeans Cafe is my favorite hangout place
This coffee doesn’t taste right

I would do DA Book Three, but I haven’t started that one yet.

Technorati Tags: Road Trip Wednesday, YA Highway

October 12, 2009 | "Whoa whoa I gotta go...back to schoooool...again",A Royale Pain,Book One,Book Stuff,Draven Atreides,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Life in General,School Daze,The 4-1-1 on Me,Weekend Wrap-Up,Writing Movements

If you’re like me, and work for the government, then you had today off. Mr. Maul wasn’t so fortunate. He only gets the major holidays. Shame.

Friday – Got my hair done. I got my braids taken out on Thursday. It was so past time. And there was so much new growth! My hair was so thick I couldn’t feel the heat from the blow dryer. LOL. Heh. Yeah, it was that thick. But it looks all pretty and straight now. On the way to the beauty shop, I was getting off the freeway and a guy dressed in camos flew by me on his motorcycle. When I caught up with him, he was at a stop light waiting to turn into a strip mall. On impulse, I stopped next to him and quickly thanked him for serving our country. “Thanks, I appreciate that,” he said. Didn’t know the guy personally, and I never even got his name, but I just wanted to thank him, y’know? A soldier will never get tired of hearing that, I’m sure.

Saturday – Made tissue flowers with the girls this morning at The Gurl House. Find out how it went here. After that, I went to Old Navy and proceeded to drop $300 on winter clothes. Mostly sweaters and ribbed long-sleeved turtlenecks. I love turtlenecks. Most I’ve ever spent at one time on clothes (because I sincerely hate clothes shopping), but Old Navy had some good sales goin’ on. Sales on winter clothes. Go figure.

That night, Mr. Maul and I went to Dave and Buster’s to celebrate the birthday of one of our friends. It was a small group this time, but that’s cool. We all had a good time.

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Technorati Tags: Old Navy

September 8, 2009 | "Whoa whoa I gotta go...back to schoooool...again",A Royale Pain,A Whole Latte Trouble,Book One,Book Stuff,Book Two,Draven Atreides,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Life in General,Movie Queue,Music Queue,School Daze,The 4-1-1 on Me,Weekend Wrap-Up,Writing Movements

When we have 3-day weekends, I always feel a little off. Case in point: I went out to the mailbox and left some mail for the carrier to pick up.

It was Sunday.

For some reason, I thought it was Saturday. Go figure.
Mr. Maul and I went to the movies three days in a row. We saw GAMER, EXTRACT and ALL ABOUT STEVE. Interesting concept about GAMER: people playing people. Gerard Butler was in a game called “Slayers”, but they also had a video game called “Society” that was a real-life version of The Sims. Those are the type of video games I would not want to play. And how about Michael C. Hall (DEXTER) playing a real bad guy? I say real because in DEXTER, he’s a bad guy, but for the good of the public. There was even a funny little dance scene and a surprising—not to mention interesting—cameo from Milo Ventimiglia (HEROES) as a character in “Society”. Saw a couple of good previews, too. One was called NINJA ASSASSIN. And for the life of me, I can’t think of the other one. We saw a preview for A CHRISTMAS CAROL and surprisingly, Mr. Maul wants to see it.

For the record, I had no interest whatsoever in seeing EXTRACT. He had mentioned the movie in passing, saying one if his friends thought it was good. Needless to say, it came as a surprise when we walked up to the window and he said “2 for EXTRACT.”

“EXTRACT? We’re not seeing EXTRACT, we’re seeing ALL ABOUT STEVE.” I said.

“I thought we were seeing EXTRACT. I mentioned that Travis thought it was good,” he says.

“It was a comment you made in passing, Mr. Maul. You said nothing about actually wanting to see it.”

I went along with it, but I was seriously pissed. I think he has little conversations with me in his mind. Maybe he told my “imaginary self” that he wanted to see that movie–or had thought about seeing it–and just forgot to tell me in real life. It was okay, some parts were funny, but I would’ve enjoyed it more if I hadn’t been so pissed. We stopped by Target afterwards and I made him buy me a CD.

Tantric has a new CD out called “Mind Control”. I love Hugo’s deep voice. I have song #6, “Kick Back“, on repeat. I like the chorus:

Show me to rise/rise above/show me how to rise, remember how to love, yourself

And the chorus overlay:

When life is kicking you kick back, don’t be a victim of the mistakes that were made when you were growing up, a young child not taught to be an adult, raise your arms you’re free, don’t have to give it up

Very cool CD. I give it 4 1/2 Snaps.

It’s the second week of school and that overwhelming feeling I got last week is now down to a dull ache. I know what I’m going to be writing about for my Diagnostic Essay and I have a topic idea for my research paper. I’ve told myself to take it one week at a time. It’s the only way that’s going to save me, truly. No more looking ahead. My co-workers and my family are going to see a different side of me as it is, thanks to the schedule I’ll be keeping. No need to freak them out even more, eh? So, uh, yeah. Here we go. Be sure to check out my “learning journals” over at Non-Profitation.

Writing Movements – Still waiting to get a quote from an editor regarding Book One. Hopefully, I’ll be able to send it out the first or second week of October. Revising Book Two has been shelved for the moment until I can get into the School Groove. I’ve been writing content for the Draven site (3 quizzes, actually). I’m in the design queue for the end of Sept, beginning of Oct. Not sure when I’ll start the podcasting, but I’ll be sure to keep you all posted.

So, that was my holiday weekend. How was yours?

Technorati Tags: GAMER, EXTRACT, ALL ABOUT STEVE, Gerard Butler, Michael C. Hall, DEXTER, Milo Ventimiglia, HEROES, NINJA ASSASSIN, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, Tantric, “Mind Control”, Kick Back, Non-Profitation