Missed two days of writing last week, but I still got 16 handwritten pages in. The rest of it was previously written material. Not too bad. Not sure how many typewritten pages that turned out to be, but I was able to submit the 1st 30 pages for my CWII class. Here’s hoping I have better movement this week

Still stuck in Chapter One. But I was able to crank out 5 pages. It’s 12 pages long, but probably won’t type up like that. And I’ll still be using already-written stuff.

Today was definitely a good day.

I’ve started the revision process for Book 2 yesterday for my CWII class. 4 pages yesterday, 3 pages today. I don’t consider that bad. My goal, whenever I’m in Writing Mode, is to write at least a page.

Normally, I would be doing this on my breaks and at lunch. But since I have two other classes, I’m writing during my hr lunch. Not so much at home. Yet.

The 1st 30 pages are due next Thursday. Hoping to have a better day tomorrow.

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

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 #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

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

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

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

If it seems like I’ve been MIA from the blogosphere and only posting a couple of times a week, it’s because I’ve been up to my hairline in school stuff. I realize it’s been a while since I’ve done a Weekend Wrap-Up. For a while it’s because there wasn’t much going on on the weekends. I should get back to that, seeing as how this weekend should be blog-worthy. Although, New Years was blog-worthy, too, and I didn’t blog about that, either. Go figure. So, let me catch you up on what’s been going on.

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

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

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