Archive for the 'Draven Atreides' 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 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

February 13, 2010 | "Whoa whoa I gotta go...back to schoooool...again",2nd Semester,Book Stuff,Dance Jam Productions,Draven Atreides,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Life in General,Nonprofit Explorations,Prescott College,Random Thoughts,School Daze,Secrets and Kisses,Spring 2010,The 4-1-1 on Me

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.

(more…)

Technorati Tags: 24 Hour Fitness

February 9, 2010 | A Whole Latte Trouble,Book Stuff,Book Two,Draven Atreides,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Life in General,Sunday Scribblings,Writer Moment

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