Archive for the 'Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series' Category

April 30, 2010 | "Whoa whoa I gotta go...back to schoooool...again",2nd Semester,3rd Semester,A Whole Latte Trouble,Adv Children's Lit,Book Stuff,Book Two,Creative Writing II,Draven Atreides,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Financial Mgmt,Life in General,Mentors,Nonprofit Explorations,Prescott College,School Daze,Spring 2010,Summer 2010,The 4-1-1 on Me

Today officially ends the Spring semester.

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

April 27, 2010 | "Whoa whoa I gotta go...back to schoooool...again",3rd Semester,A Whole Latte Trouble,Book Two,Creative Writing II,Draven Atreides,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Life in General,Prescott College,School Daze,Summer 2010,The 4-1-1 on Me

I’m going to enjoy the summer session more.

Possibly.

Okay, I’ll enjoy it more-ish.

Because I’ll be taking Creative Writing II: Revising Your Novel

This is one of the many courses I created and had to find a mentor. And it’s one of two I created that will satisfy the Humanities portion of my degree.

The creative writing course will give me a chance to revise the first 100 pages of DA Book 2 and I’ll have the wonderful Georgia McBride, founder of YALITCHAT, as my mentor. Whoo-hoo!

We’ve already created a Study Contract (not a real contract, more like a course contract: what the class is about, what I’ll be learning, what I’ll be doing, etc) and we’re going to work on a syllabus next.

Did I mention that I was looking forward to this course?

Can’t wait to get started.

Technorati Tags: Georgia McBride, , YALITCHAT

April 26, 2010 | Book Three,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Life in General,Movie Queue,The 4-1-1 on Me,The Family Jewels,Weekend Wrap-Up,WriterMentor

Friday night, Babendude and I went on a date. We’ve been trying to incorporate date nights either Friday or Saturday nights. The goal has been dinner and a movie, but it seems that we get thru the dinner portion and don’t really feel like doing the movie thing after. LOL We’re too full and a bit tired, I guess. So, it’s just been dinner. Sushi at Kabuki. Hey, that rhymes! I think if maybe we tried date nights on Saturdays, went to the movie first–an earlier showing–and then dinner afterwards, we’d be good.

Saturday, we ate breakfast at our usual place. And at this point, let me just say that we eat at Ron’s nearly every weekend. Unless I have a hair appt or he’s hanging out with his BF, we eat there nearly every weekend. And it’s worth the wait, lemme tell you. On our way up there, we kept passing signs for a model home furniture sale, so we decided to check it out after breakfast: 5,328 sq ft, 3 beds, 3.5 baths, garage with loft, a play room for the kids (apparently the kids were aspiring actors because the room had a little theater stage. Complete with velvet curtain and an area to change. Too cute), the master bedroom had a serious walk-in closet and the use of skylights was fabulous. It was just an absolutely beautiful home. And they want $2.3 for it. Yikes! Looks like it might’ve been worth it. “This would be too much for us,” Babendude says. “I’d like something like this, but on a more townhouse-condo scale.” LOL. Indeed.

In checking this place out, I got better ideas for Book 3. The people that Draven are investigating needed an understated-yet-expensive-looking house to live in. Done. And the Mom needed a better job than the one I’d originally created for her (antique store owner): luxury home staging. Done. I love it when this idea shit happens.

Later that afternoon, (more…)

Technorati Tags: Kabuki

April 11, 2010 | Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Life in General,Sunday Scribblings,The 4-1-1 on Me,Writer Moment

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

Deadline.

That’s a word we writers use a lot.

Most of us don’t like it. *raises hand*

The rest of us think it’s easy-peasy. *sticks out tongue and blows raspberry* Yeah. That’s how I feel about those people.

Whether you’re a self-pubbed writer–*raises hand again*–or a traditional writer, we’re all besieged by deadlines. As a self-pubbed author, however, you’re pretty much accountable for setting and meeting your own deadlines. There’s no one there hovering behind you (well, unless you’re part of an accountability group) or send you little reminders that it’s coming up or you’re way past it.

For the longest time, I was on the fence about going traditional. I would wobble back and forth so much, you’d think I was Humpty Dumpty. My first two books are self-pubbed and I was thinking about going traditional for the DA series. I’ve since decided to stick with the self-pubbed route and one of the reasons is deadlines.

Seriously.

That may sound lame to some, but not to me. And I’ll tell you why.

I know my limitations as a writer. I write slow and my Creative Mojo doesn’t work on a consistent basis. And by that, I mean one day I can make page goal and the next, I’m struggling to pull words from my noggin. A deadline dictated by someone else reminds me of those timed essays we had to take in English. I hated those. I can feel myself getting stressed out by just writing that.

I like writing under my own time, my own steam, not someone else’s. I like the idea of writing at my own pace and not having to worry about rushing. Because at that point, the writing feels forced. And when it feels forced, it’s no longer fun. It becomes a “have to” not a “want to.”

As a self-pubbed author, I do set deadlines for myself. They may be farther out than other writers, but again, I know me. And the only person accountable for those deadlines is me.

I’m not part of an accountability group.

I don’t have a crit partner.

And I’m not part of a crit group.

Like Beyonce says, it’s “me, myself and I”.

And for now, that works for me.

Technorati Tags: Sunday Scribblings, Humpty Dumpty, Beyonce

April 1, 2010 | Dance Jam Productions,Draven Atreides,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Life in General,Secrets and Kisses,Sunday Scribblings,The 4-1-1 on Me,Writer Moment

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

So, I looked up the word.

Seriously.

I’ve heard of it, but have never ever heard anyone use it in a sentence. LOL. It’s such an old-fashioned word. Who would even use it in today’s society? So I looked it up and liked the second definition:

a power or process of transforming something common into something special

I would use this definition to describe what I do. I transform something common into something special. Miz Rinda Elliott, I think this needs to be on a shirt.

The Writer’s Alchemy: We transform something common into something special.

You make it, I’ll buy it.

When I was young, I used to talk to myself. I used to have long, in-depth conversations. No, I didn’t have an imaginary friend. No, no one ever answered back. And no, the conversations were never two-sided. I don’t remember what the conversations were about, but I bet they were damn good. It all starts with an active imagination.

My first book, Secrets and Kisses, is a twist on one of my favorite 80′s TV shows, 21 JUMP STREET.

My second book, Dance Jam Productions, is 50% reoccurring dream and 50% real-life. Once I wrote it, I stopped having the dream.

The main character from my YA series, Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant, is based off of my then 16-yr-old-now-20-yr-old niece.

Writers are a unique breed of people who utilize our own brand of alchemy. We take bits and pieces of this and that and Poof! Voila! Abracadabra! a full-length novel appears once the smoke clears.

Yeah. I’m diggin’ it.

Technorati Tags: Sunday Scribblings, Rinda Elliott, Secrets and Kisses, 21 JUMP STREET, Dance Jam Productions