I was thinking of Staind’s song, “It’s Been a While” as I wrote this post. I like that band. And it really has been a while. I can’t remember the last time I visited anyone in my blogroll. There’s a fine layer of dust over there. *blows out a breath and coughs as dust mites fill the air*. Sorry about that. I tend to abandon blogs that haven’t been updated in a while, so I imagine that the few regulars I had have long since found someone else to follow.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but my blog is probably going to remain sporadically updated for a little while longer. School has been an all-consuming evil obligation, to the point where I read if I have any free time. And I’m reading books, not blogs. So, let me catch everyone up before I disappear again.

School Daze – The spring semester ended with A’s in both of my classes, Volunteer Management and Human Relations. Thank you to Shoshana Ross and Chantal Sheehan (again) for being my mentors. You can read more about that HERE. I created the other website to chronicle my journey to opening my own nonprofit, so anything I learn in regards to that will be posted on that blog. Anything about writing will be posted here. The summer session starts tomorrow (I had about a 3-week break reprieve) and I’ll be taking Marketing for Nonprofits with Abbie Fink of HMA PR and an online Moodle course, Self-Exploration Through Creative Writing. I’m still looking for course mentors for the Fall 2011 through Spring 2012 semesters. If you or someone you know would be interested, check out the details HERE.

Writing – I finally finished writing Chapter One of the DA graphic novel. You can read about my first two sessions with Bryan Graham, creator of Section 1138, HERE and HERE. It took a lot longer than I thought because I still want to add stuff and keep the dialogue the same. I realize that I may have to re-vamp the story a little bit and provide more action on Draven’s part. I had an original idea when it came to this series: providing little tidbits at the beginning of each chapter that are based on her assignments. For Book One, since it involved a place called The Royalty Treatment Day Spa, I wanted to put the different spa treatments you could get at this spa at the beginning of each chapter. My mentor from my Novel Revising course stated that the info was distracting from the story, especially since not a lot of the action was happening there. I should only include it if the action is actually happening there. Hence the changes I’ll need to make. Now that I’m going a different route with the series, I can have actual pictures instead of text. In addition to finally finishing Chapter One, the Draven Atreides website is done. Finally! After nearly a year. There’s nothing in The Books area (yet), the newsletter hasn’t been created (yet), I haven’t set up a Twitter account for her (yet), and no thoughts have been written down in her “Diary” (yet), but you can look at everything else. LOL. All of that will come when Book One is released. Now that the series site is up, I’ll be chronicling the process of writing the GN over there as well as here.

Life – Still working the day job, but hope to move into the nonprofit sector by the end of the year. Health-wise, I’m trying to cure a reoccurring body dysfunction. During this process, from Dec 2010 to now, I’ve lost about 12 pounds. And no, losing those pounds was not intentional and not something I could afford to lose. Shit like that just happens when you cut something out. I’m trying to gain some weight back while maintaining a healthy diet, but the good thing is that I got a semi new wardrobe out of it. A lot of the clothes I had before were too big, so I had to go out and buy ones that fit. Oh, the hardship! And it really was for someone like me. LOL. Seriously. I’ve never liked clothes shopping (even when I was young) and would rather spend money on books than clothes. LOL. My good friend and manager left the company last month to move to Florida. Really, really bummed about that. And I found out my best friend is moving to Boston for her dream job at the end of July. Really, really bummed–and depressed–about that. I feel like everyone’s leaving me and moving on with their lives. I’m happy for them and at least will have two new places to visit (never been to either place), but still…*sigh*. It just really sucks.

Soooo, that’s it. In a nutshell. My birthday’s this Sunday and I’ve got some stuff planned, so I may be posting again this weekend.

Technorati Tags: Staind, HMA PR, Section 1138

Fundraising and Resource Development

Intro to Fiction Writing

The first one is a mentored course, and I feel I’m going to be learning a lot from Maureen Baker, manager of Individual Giving and Events at the Musical Instrument Museum. The other is an online course at Rio Salado College and by the end of that course, I will have completed a short story. Short stories were never my forte, but I’ve decided to try again. The DA series has a few little in-between stories that could be told and the best way seems to be in the form of a short story.

So, just like the GREASE song lyric states, it’s time for me to go back to school again. Join me for the ride.

Technorati Tags: Maureen Baker, Musical Instrument Museum

Today and tomorrow is your last chance to add “your two cents” to Chapter 5 of A Royale Pain: A Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Novel. This is the final post for my class project. Comments close on Sunday.

It’s Follow Friday. Hope everyone has a fun and safe Labor Day Weekend!

Blog Hop question of the week: What is your favorite brick and mortar bookstore?

Hands down, Barnes and Noble. Even though it’s hard as hell to get a self-published book on the shelf, it’s my bookstore of choice. I own a Preferred Member card and use it every time I’m there. I love that when I get 15% or 20% off coupons, I can use my card in conjunction and get even more savings. It’s definitely worth the annual fee if you’re at the bookstore as often as I am. Which, is like, every month. LOL.

To join the fun and make now book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:

1. Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Host {Parajunkee.com} and any one else you want to follow on the list.

2. Follow our Featured Bloggers – http://candacesreadingblog.blogspot.com

3. Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing.

4. Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say hi in your comments.

5. Follow Follow Follow as many as you can.

6. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love…and the followers.

7. If you want to show the link list, just follow the link below the entries and copy and paste it within your post!

8. If your new to the Follow Friday Hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!

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 #28: What photos inspire your books?

I can honestly say that the only time I use photos for my books is when I’m trying to describe something. I didn’t do this with my first two books, but found the need to do so with the DA series.

This apartment complex inspired Draven’s living quarters. I went there, photographed the outside, and even toured an empty apartment, writing down everything I saw. Everything I saw ended up in the book.

The Portland Square apartment complex on Portland Avenue had been the first complex Ty had shown me my second day here, and I’d fallen in love with the open floorplan at first sight….

….On the street level is the parking garage, a City of Phoenix police sub-station, a small gym, a reasonably priced restaurant, and a sandwich place. A dog park with wrought iron benches sits in the middle of the street, like a median, and spans the whole length of the street, from Central Ave to 3rd Ave…….

…..As I take the elevator to the 4th floor in building C, I can understand why we’ve never run into each other. The complex has 410 units, 4 levels in each, and the three buildings take up three blocks….

Formally known as The Willow House, this coffee/deli shop was the inspiration behind Draven’s favorite hangout, CoolBeans Cafe. It’s under a new name, new management and totally looks different now. But again, I went there, ate, took pictures of each room, and talked to a couple of the employees (who worked there at the time) to get the story about the place.

Located in a cute historic house, CoolBeans Café is a coffee/deli place and a popular hang out for the students at Craycroft. Rader is already waiting in line. After paying for snacks, we walk around the converted house, past the kitchen where Vanessa hands out food, and check out the porch. Then I take him back to one of three non-smoking rooms.

“Do all the rooms have a theme?” he asks as we sit down.

I grin, knowing he’s thinking that because of the room where I like to sit. I refer to it as the Mother Nature Room due to the paintings about saving the environment and Mother Earth. The books on the small bookshelf are about natural healing, saving the environment, and nature.

“They have poetry slams on Thursday nights and open mike nights out on the porch on Mondays. I’ve yet to go to one, but I’d like to sometime,” I say, removing the lid from my strawberry yogurt and stirring it with a spoon.

“Definitely sounds like an experience. The closets are so small, but it’s neat how they made them into display cases for all that stuff.”

“Yeah, I never would’ve thought of doing something like that.”

He points at the walls. “Are the paintings from local artists?”

“Yep. So’s the merchandise. The books are from estate sales.”

“Nice. So, you come here a lot?”

“Everyday, actually. In the morning for breakfast and sometimes for lunch.”

He nods. “So this place used to be a house?”

“Uh-huh. It’s been a coffee shop for about eleven years. The ladies that run this place, Jules and Van, told me it used to be a real estate office, a pet shop, a knickknack store, and a karate studio.”

Do I sound like a travel brochure or what? Gawd, just shut up and eat your damn yogurt.

The school that Draven goes to, Craycroft School of the Arts, was inspired by the high school my niece graduated from: Metropolitan Arts Institute.

When I first started writing Book One, I took the day off and “shadowed” her. Very fun and very cool (everyone thought I was a new student. Shock abounded when her classmates found out I was her aunt…and a lot older than I what I appeared to be. LOL). The school is in a former office building. There’s no cafeteria–only a break room type of room with two vending machines and a refrigerator–no athletic teams and the former offices are now classrooms. The whole time I was there, I was wishing I had gone to a high school like that.

I’ve never used pictures for my characters. My niece (the girl in the pic) is the inspiration behind the DA series and the character of Draven. Draven’s friends, as well as all the characters from my first two books, are based on everyday people. People I’ve met, maybe people I’ve worked with, or people I saw from just people-watching. When it comes to creating characters, I’ve never been the type to search for pics or tear pics from magazines. It’s always been just people I see and writing down what I see.

So, what about you? Do you use pictures to inspire your stories? Do tell.

Technorati Tags: Road Trip Wednesday, YA Highway, The Willow House, Metropolitan Arts Institute

I made it through another semester without having a little breakdown.

This is good.

Kristi Edwards, North-Central Region advancement officer for the Arizona Community Foundation, and the Director of the Yavapai County Community Foundation, was my mentor for my Nonprofit Explorations course. The only mentored course I had this semester. Being a newbie in the NP world, she gave me a great overview of the NP sector in general, so now I have a better foundation–no pun intended–for the other courses in my degree plan. She was a wonderful mentor and I look forward to working with her again in the Fall for my Fundraising course.

I turned in my mentor evals and now I’m waiting for them to be signed. I get a whole month off before the Summer session starts. And, unlike my first two semesters, it’s going to be balls-to-the-wall 3 classes up until graduation in Dec next year.

No more whining about feeling overwhelmed.

I’m just going to have to suck it up and remember to breathe.

This summer, I’ll be taking:

~ Creative Writing II: Revising Your Novel mentored by the wonderful Georgia McBride, founder of YALITCHAT. I’m so looking forward to this class because I’ll be working on revising the first 100 pages of DA Book 2. A novel that I finished a while back, and started to edit, and then…stopped. So, it’ll be nice to revisit that story.

~ Advanced Children’s Lit: an online Moodle course through Prescott College

~ Sustainable Financial Mgmt mentored by Chantal Sheehan, COO of local nonprofit New Global Citizens. I met with her this evening and got a really good vibe from her. I think it’s another good mentor/mentee match. This organization is doing wonderful things with youth, so I’m very much looking forward to gleaning all I can from her.

Can’t wait to get started.

Technorati Tags: Kristi Edwards, Arizona Community Foundation, Yavapai County Community Foundation, Georgia McBride, YALITCHAT, Chantal Sheehan, New Global Citizens

I was taking three classes, but then dropped the Modern Fiction course at Rio Salado. I guess I wasn’t into is as I thought I’d be. I figure I’ll take up a Creative Writing course at a later date. I’ve also been working on a community project for one of my other courses (which I’ll officially announce on Monday) and that’s overshadowed just about everything. That assignment involved a powwow with my BF and grew into something worth “squeeing” about.

I knocked out one of my New Years Resolutions last month by joining a gym: 24 Hour Fitness. I’m currently taking 2 dance fitness classes a week and let me tell you: that first class was. A. Killer. The 24Dance is on Monday nights at 530, so I basically go there straight from work. It’s all different types of dance—salsa, jive, hip-hop, bellydancing, etc. Seeing as how it was my first time, I didn’t stretch out. And paid for it two days later. By the time the Zumba class rolled around on Thursday evening, I was no longer sore. Of course, that comforting thought ended after an hr in that class. I could barely walk the next few days. Everything hurt and my body was saying things like “Ohmygodohmygodohmygod. Stop. Moving.” But I was sleeping good. Sleeping like the dead. And I had more energy. Now, a month later, I think my body’s gotten used to the high-intensity-heart-pumping classes and I’m no longer sore. Ar least, not as much as I used to be. I think I may be even losing some weight.

In the midst of all this, I tried to join a writing accountability group. “Tried” being the key word because I only did it for 2 weeks. This group was going to help me balance my writing life with my real life. We posted daily goals each week, but by the second week, I was already starting to see a pattern: 1) I would forget was I was supposed to be doing each day and 2) When I was supposed to be concentrating on writing DA3, I would think about something I had to do for school. During this 2 week period, I was feeling a little depressed and was carrying around this…raging anger. I was holding all this in and it was affecting my interactions with my manager at work.

The group itself wasn’t making me feel this, by no means. Part of it, I’m sure, was because of Auntie Flow’s Monthly Visit. The main thing was that I had inserted something new into my life and it wasn’t working. Once again, I was getting overwhelmed. My writing felt forced. I needed to take stock. Even though I was excited and hopeful about being a part of this group, it was just a case of wrong place, wrong time.

I’ve come to realize that until I find a balance with school, I can’t balance anything else. I need to find a groove with school before I can throw writing into the mix. I’m a officially a junior now, in my second semester, taking only two classes. I’ll be taking 3 starting in the summer until I graduate. I may never find a groove. Trying to find a mentor for these classes is a little intimidating and a little time-consuming. It’s something that’s always in the back of my mind, so I can never really relax. I may not be able to fit writing in–comfortably–until I graduate. I don’t want it to come to that, but it’s a possibility. I’m not okay with that, but unfortunately, I know me and my personality… I’m hoping that next year–January maybe?–I may have calmed some and can get back into Draven’s world.

Due to the whole school thing, I’ve also been neglecting my first two books. They’ve been reissued through a new publisher, with new covers, and I have yet to re-introduce them to the public. To help a sistah out, I invested $20-something and change in John Kremer‘s 1001 Ways to Market Your Books. Little by little, I hope to get the word out again about my books.

So…that’s the story. That’s where I’m at right now. You may see more posts, but don’t hold your breath. LOL. I like participating in the Sunday Scribbling and YA Highway’s Road Trip Wednesday. Maybe I’ll get back into the Weekend Wrap-Ups, too.

Technorati Tags: 24 Hour Fitness, John Kremer, 1001 Ways to Market Your Books

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 #16: What’s your favorite display of affection in a YA?

I love it when the guy cups the girl’s face when he’s about to kiss her and then continues to do so while he’s kissing her. I consider it to be a very tender gesture on the guy’s part. It’s like he’s saying, “You’re precious to me and would never hurt you.”

Technorati Tags: Road Trip Wednesday, YA Highway

This is an excerpt from DA 2: A Whole Latte Trouble. It’s the first draft, has yet to be revised, so it’s a safe bet this journal entry by Draven will be taken out. Enjoy the snip while it still exists.

from the moment i agreed to work for The Company, i knew it would be the most best kept secret of my entire life. even when Chief went over the details of my new job at our first meeting, he told me it would have to be kept a secret. several times. in the form of a subliminal message.

“all of your living expenses will be paid for by The Company dont tell anyone and you will be given a monthly allowance of five hundred dollars dont tell anyone for your incidentals.”

Technorati Tags: Sunday Scribblings

Today’s word of the day is brought to you by Sunday Scribblings: Yes

This is an excerpt from Secrets and Kisses, on sale now.

“You can’t─you can’t what?” she sputtered hoarsely.
I flushed again, thankful that my sunglasses gave me a semblance of protection.
“I’m not about to repeat it. What part didn’t you get?” I uttered between motionless lips.
I didn’t know why I was acting like this. No one could hear us, unless that someone had a long-range microphone, but I wasn’t about to get paranoid. This was only a minor setback. It could be fixed. I watched as Ellie shook herself out of her shock and carefully set her bagel on its wrapper. She rubbed her hands together, removing crumbs, then pinned me with a “Let’s get down to business” look.
“Let me get this straight. You don’t know how to kiss.”
“No…yes…I mean─”
“It’s a yes or no question, Sky,” Ellie broke in.
“No, it’s not a question because you didn’t ask me anything. It was more like a…verification statement.” I just made up something.
“Okay. Then tell me this: Do you know how to kiss?”
“Yes,” I answered, then nibbled on my bottom lip nervously. “Sort of.”

Technorati Tags: Sunday Scribblings, Secrets and Kisses