Turns out he’s a writer like me.

And he’s releasing a new piece next month, Section 1138: The Adventures of the Parallels. Isn’t it cool? Agent Apple Tree looks fierce, doesn’t she? For all you comic book fans out there, be sure to get over there and get in on the ground floor. And support a fellow creative soul while you’re at it.

I’d been sitting on the fence for a while now about what route I should take for publishing the DA series.

After talking with Bryan and checking out the site for his upcoming comic book, I think I’m leaning towards the graphic novel genre. I think it would be kinda cool to see Draven in Technicolor. It would mean a lot of re-writing of the first two books. And it’s possible that I could eek it back out to 6 from 4. If I made the novels small enough.

It would also mean of lot research, more writing classes (Gah! Like the ones I’m taking now aren’t enough), and some trial and error (more trials, very light on the errors, please). Talking to Bryan about his work and writing in general, I was so envious. He has one job, works 25 hrs a week…and spends most of his time writing!

I WANT THAT LIFE! Can I put that on my Christmas list?

I wish, wish, wish, I could do that but the only way I could is if I played the lottery. And I don’t. Even when it gets ridiculously high.

But I digress.

Meeting and talking with another Creative is like getting a hot poker in the butt. I get a little more jazzed, a little more stoked, a little more…inspired. And that’s always a good thing. At least to me, anyway.

But it also let’s me know that I’m on the right track when it comes to that degree I’m working towards and that I really need to start making more creative connections.

I seriously need to get out more.

Technorati Tags: BLISS/REBAR, Section 1138: The Adventures of the Parallels

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

Edit: I received the signed mentor eval for my CWII course: and it’s an A! Woot!

Happy Labor Day! Today officially marks the end of my summer session. I survived 3 classes. Barely.

Sustainable Financial Mgmt: A+

Creative Writing II – Revising Your Novel: Not sure yet. My core faculty hasn’t signed the eval yet.

Advanced Children’s Lit: C+ (despite being a writer, I’m not good at writing nonfiction. Essays and research papers suck!)

The first two were mentored courses and the last one was an online course through Prescott.

Georgia McBride, founder of YALITCHAT, for being a great CWII mentor. I learned so much from her and will be able to carry it through to my future books. Even go back to DA Book One and work some magic there.

Chantal Sheehan, former-CFO-now-Executive Director of New Global Citizens for being my Fin Mgmt. At one point during this course, I felt like I probably should’ve taken a basic accounting course before jumping in to this class, but she still did a great job. I’m looking forward to working with her with her again in spring 2011.

Thank you ladies for taking the time out of your busy, busy schedules to mentor me. My experience with you will be utilized in the future. I swear.

I have a 12 day break before the fall semester starts up again and I plan to enjoy it. From here on out it’s going to be 2 classes per semester. That means my grad date will be pushed back to about summer 2012, but I don’t care. My sanity will remain intact. And Babendude with thank me for it. LOL.

Technorati Tags: Georgia McBride, YALITCHAT, Chantal Sheehan, , New Global Citizens

After reading Shel Silverstein’s autobiography for my ACL class, I would life swap with him. But only certain parts:

~ Endless travel

~Homes in different places

~ Camping out in the conference room of my publisher to take over the production of my book (if I was going the traditional route, that is) and have people be on Celise Patrol (glorified gofers that would bring me whatever I needed)

~ Worldwide adoration of YA fans

~ To have ideas come so ridiculously often that if I don’t have any paper around, I have to use what I got–whether it be my arms are the tablecloth at the restaurant where I’m eating.

~ To leave a million dollar legacy that includes: continuing royalties, books translated in 20 different languages and sold well over 20 million copies.

~ To know that I lived my life to the fullest, doing what I love most, and not have any regrets whatsoever.

Technorati Tags: Sunday Scribblings, Shel Silverstein

“…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

1. What is your last name? Downs

2. A 4 Letter Word: Dunk

3. A Boys Name: Darren

4. A Girls name: Dawn

5. An Occupation: Director

6. A Color: Dark Blue

7. Something you wear: Dress shoes

8. A beverage: Daiquri

9. A Food: Dumplings

10. Something found in the bathroom: Drain

11. A place: Disneyland

12. A Reason for being late: Dead

13. Something you shout: Dammit!

And in 2005, I “grew” some horns as Darth Maul’s wife. If the Sith are allowed to mate, I imagine she would look something like this: CLICK FOR BIGGER VIEW

Great make-up job, yes? The hubby’s real good at that. For the record, breathing was not an option in that corset. This year, I’m only doing Storm at work. I’ve decided to be something else this year for the actual event (again, you’ll see next week). And it involved buying these sexy heels that I will probably only wear once:

I found these puppies at Hot Topic and had one helluva time trying to get them closed. They didn’t buckle—or snap—because really, that would’ve been too easy. Instead they button. Yes, button. Revolutionary, I know, but I’ve come to discover that only shirts and jeans are allowed to have buttons. Not shoes. I’ll be breaking them in this week, a little at a time, because my feet are already protesting at being crammed inside these babies for hours on end.

At this store called Shiek (I’m really hoping this was spelled wrong on purpose), I picked up a pair of Dereon’s:

Yes, Dereon as in Beyonce’s clothing line. Now, I can wear the shoes with the jeans. LOL. I may want to hurl every time I hear “Single Ladies”, but I like the design of some her jeans. And these are the only pair of shoes from her line that I would wear in public and not feel like a complete and utter dorkus.

School Daze – Working on my research paper this week for my EIS class: The Art of Healing: The Benefits of Art Therapy for Young People. I get to read books like The Freedom Writers Diary by teacher Erin Gruwell as research. By choice, not by requirement. If you’re a writer, you need to see this movie. And read this book. If you’re an aspiring teen writer, or you write for teens, then you really need to see this movie. And then read this book. I had an English teacher like Erin when I was in high school—Mrs. Smith—and she is the very reason I stuck with the writing. Not that I was ever thinking about quitting, but the encouragement was always positive and consistent. The rough draft of my paper is due this Sunday, so wish me luck. I haven’t done a research paper since college.

Writing Movement – I’ve been preparing for NaNoWriMo. Last week, I got two more chapters outlined. Altogether, I now have 6 chapters. At this point, I’m going to stop. On the blogs I’ve been reading lately, there’s been some posts about preparation for this challenge. On one blog I was reading (can’t remember for the life of me which blog it was) about the tips for getting through it. Turning off the editing mechanism won’t be hard for me. I tend to write the first draft all the way through without editing anyway. However, the “no time for getting stuck” part (a.k.a. writer’s block) may trip me up. As I mentioned in last week’s Weekend Wrap-Up, I’m a pantser by nature.

When I have a story in mind, the only thing I have is the title, the names of the characters, and a vague idea of the plot. The story itself emerges as I write. For this challenge, I decided to outline first and I’ve discovered that it’s really, really, hard. And I don’t like it. You have to know how the story is going to play out ahead of time and it was difficult for me to picture that. In regards to the “no time for getting stuck” tip, I’ve decided to stop the outlining process at Chapter 6. I’ve got a good start. I think I’m just going to wing it from that chapter on. If you’re looking for a writing buddy, look me up at DravensMom.

So, how was your weekend?

Technorati Tags: Savers, Bubbles of Joy, Original Pancake House, Niobe, THE MATRIX, Hot Topic, Shiek, Dereon, Beyonce, Single Ladies, The Freedom Writers Diary, Erin Gruwell, NaNoWriMo

FRIDAY –

We stopped at the Hoover Dam. TRANSFORMERS was filmed there, y’know.

Got to Vegas a little after 3, checked into our hotel, Excalibur, then explored our surroundings a little bit, trying to get ideas for what we wanted to do. That night, we went to dinner at Cathouse in the Luxor:

This restaurant was designed to look like a bordello. The setting was very intimate and it was where I had my very first real alcoholic drink. I say real because I am not a drinker. I don’t like the taste of hard alcohol, wine, beer, wine coolers, etc. The only alcoholic drink I’ve ever really liked is sangria. And Olive Garden makes the best ones. The only reason I can drink that is because the taste of the alcohol is heavily masked by additional stuff. Taking that into consideration, the bartender gave me a couple of choices that I could handle without gagging, so I tried a Strawberry Blonde (Ketel One vodka, strawberry puree and something else). It wasn’t too bad.

I had a few good sips before I started to feel tired. Thank goodness we had coffee with dessert (little red velvet cupcakes, btw). I had sauteed garlic shrimp pasta for dinner and Mr. Maul had grilled tuna, seared raw (ewww, gross!).

After dinner we walked over to New York, New York Hotel where I encountered show girls:

a little touristy kiosk that had this funky headpiece:

and Gallagher’s Steakhouse, which, according to Mr. Maul, has the best steaks he’s ever eaten:

On the way back to the hotel, we got some good shots of the Statue of Liberty:

and the special memorial for the firefighters and police officers who lost their lives at 9/11:

There were plaques placed at certain intervals, of quotes made by famous people, and I had Mr. Maul take a picture of two of them. This first one is by Martin Luther King, Jr.:

And it says:

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in the moment of comfort, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy.”

The other quote is by Nelson Mandela:

and it says:

“There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.”

We also got some night shots of the, well, nightlife:

and our hotel:

But wait, there’s more

SATURDAY –

We went to the Luxor. I’d forgotten how cool this hotel was:

We checked out the Bodies Exhibition:

I wanted to see this exhibit when it came to my city, but I didn’t get a chance. This is one of two exhibits that’s permanent. And just like the sign says, all. The. Specimens. Are. Real. Humans. Right down to the fetuses. We were told that the bodies are from Asia (at least, in this exhibit. I don’t know about the other ones), from people who hadn’t been claimed or donated their body (and/or body parts) to science.

This was a very interesting and educational exhibit. I got to see the affects of a smoker’s lung, a brain ravaged by stroke, a liver ravaged by cirrhosis (I spelled it wrong, but you know what I mean), the different stages of a fetus forming bones…I could go on, but you should really see it for yourself. If you ever get to Vegas, go see it. If it comes through your town, go see it.

Before you go in, you get your picture taken against a blue screen. We ended up buying two pics. One was of us standing between the specimens you see in the picture, another was of us in hologram form. If you move the pic back and forth it changes from human to skeleton. Very cool. I also bought a magnet.

We passed through MGM Grand to catch the monorail and encountered this Lion Habitat along the way. Here’s the Daddy:

The Mommy:

and the babies (aren’t they the cutest things?!!), but they were kept in a separate area.

This habitat is pretty much out in the casino area, connected to a gift shop. There’s no fee to see them. You can stand there all day and watch them. Until they put them to bed, of course.

We hitched a ride on the monorail to the Mirage Hotel to check out the Dolphin Habitat and Siegfried and Roy’s Secret Garden. The Dolphin Habitat was a place of research only, so there were no planned shows, which I thought was pretty cool. Just the interaction between dolphins and their trainers. This is the view from the top, where about 5 dolphins were kept in two different areas:

and this is the view from the underwater observatory room:

Looks like he’s saying, “I seeeee youuuu”.

At the Secret Garden, we saw white lions:

playful white tigers (who reminded us of our cat):

sacked out leopards:

one alert leopard:

and a young leopard that had to be coaxed to “come out and play”:

It was a hot day and a lot of the kitties were sacked out. It was pretty funny. The white lion at the top (the one where I’m in the pic) was laaaazzzzily cleaning one paw. Seriously lazy. He was licking his paw like he was savoring an ice cream cone. At the time, he was the only kitty awake. The other one didn’t wake up until we were ready to leave and he looked over at Mr. Maul in the cutest way. He got the shot. And then he went back to sleep. LOL.

After leaving the Mirage, we saw this casino as we crossed the street: the infamous Casino Royale.

As gaudy as it looked, I still wanted to capture the James Bond reference for posterity.

Ah, yes, and here’s me, pooped from all the walking we’d done that day:

I managed a 1 hr nap before I had to get up and get ready for the show.

SATURDAY NIGHT -

We checked out Mystere at Treasure Island. This is one of six Cirque du Soleil shows in Vegas. We hit up the Mystere store before the show started where I bought an $8 keychain (it had dance figures on it and looked like a charm bracelet. Very cool) and Mr. Maul snapped me in a mask:

The show was an hr and a half and we had good seats. Actually, there wasn’t a bad seat in the house. We were in the back way at the top, which is good because then you can see everything. Mr. Maul got a shot of the stage before the show:

You can’t really see them but there are two old-fashioned baby carriages on there and “baby sounds” could be heard periodically. The skit with the baby was pretty funny and I don’t know about the other shows, but this was very interactive. Glad we were sitting up top. Mr. Maul got another good shot on his camera phone before it was confiscated. Yes, confiscated.

Yes, they tell you no flash cameras, no audio, no smoking, blah, blah, blah. They even make it a part of the show at the beginning. We just didn’t realize how serious they were. Needless to say, he wasn’t the only one who disobeyed the rules. He got his phone back after the show, though, and was asked to delete the pics. We still had a good time.

After the show, we walked over to the Wynn Hotel and ate at Stratta. We didn’t make any dinner plans beforehand because we didn’t know how long the show was going to last. We wanted to eat at a nice place, but the two places we checked out wouldn’t accept walk-ins. We ended making a reservation at Stratta because we didn’t want to keep looking around for a place to eat.

The reservation was for 1015.

The only thing I’ve ever eaten that late at night is a bowl of cereal, ya’ll. I had salmon, he had lasagna (but wish he’d ordered a pizza after seeing it at the table next to ours) and we shared a slab of tiramisu for dessert.

We didn’t gamble a lot. We were too busy checking out the scenery, but we killed some time in between by playing some $.25 slots. LOL. Yeah, that’s about as risky as we get. We didn’t win anything.

All in all, we had a great time. He wants to go again, just do it cheaper…and try to see more things. Like the fountains at the Bellagio, Fremont Street Experience, and the Sirens of T.I. show at Treasure Island. We got out of dinner just in time to catch the 1130 showing, but it was cancelled due to it being too windy.

I didn’t post all the pictures, there were just too many. But if you want to see the rest, you can check them out HERE.

So, how was your weekend?

Technorati Tags: Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, TRANSFORMERS, Excalibur, Cathouse, Luxor, Olive Garden, New York, New York Hotel, Gallagher’s Steakhouse, Statue of Liberty, Martin Luther King, Jr, Nelson Mandela, Bodies Exhibition, MGM Grand, Mirage Hotel, Dolphin Habitat, Siegfried and Roy’s Secret Garden, Casino Royale, James Bond, Mystere, Treasure Island, Cirque du Soleil, Wynn Hotel, Stratta, Bellagio, Fremont Street, Sirens of T.I.

Part of the class will be the process of sharing my findings and my wonderful BF suggested a blog. Well, duh. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that first. So, later on that day, I created a blog (Non-Profitation) that will chronicle my journey in getting my degree. I’ll be talking about school a little bit on here, but the bulk of it will be on this new blog. Feel free to follow along if you like. I’ll be posting the link to it in my posts here, whenever I talk about school. Right now, there’s only an introduction, but the real posts will start this weekend (when I attend a volunteer orientation at a local NP) and move forward with college orientation at the end of the month.

Saturday night, Mr. Maul and I attended a surprise going away party for one of our DSG guys. He enlisted in the Army and will be gone for 5 months starting Sept 1st. We had a blast. I didn’t get in the pool, though. Spent most of my time on land, talking about TRUEBLOOD. One of our Biker Scout dudes is a big fan like we are. I think he’s going to be Eric for Halloween this year. He told me I should be Tara. LOL. Apparently, the HBO store has shirts that say Merlotte’s and he thinks I should get one. LOL. I don’t know if I’m going to have my braids then, but it’s an idea. I don’t think I want to be Storm again.

Mr. Maul and I went to see G.I. JOE on Sunday. The best thing about that movie was the shirtless shot of Channing Tatum. Seriously. It didn’t help that the auditorium we were in had projector issues during the first few minutes of a new Denzel Washington movie. It had that post-apocalyptic, Mad Max feel to it. If you saw it, hit me up in the comments section and gimme the deets on that. It looked interesting. Anyhoo, the mgr came in and said they were having projector issues and that it would be a few minutes. He came back 5 mins later and said the issue was beyond their control and we were being moved into another auditorium. It was smaller, and, major disappointment of disappointments, they didn’t show the same previews! Which I totally didn’t get.

Do they show different previews in different auditoriums? If you work at movie theater and know the answer to this question, hit me up in the comments, because I’d seriously like to know. The hubby and I were a little miffed that we didn’t get to see that Denzel preview. And that we had to sit a few seats down from two teenage boys who reeked of smoke. Blech!

In the end, we got a free popcorn coupon for our trouble. Mr. Maul wanted to get a ticket refund and go another time, but I talked him into staying. Now that I think about it, we should have. We could’ve gone after I got back from Volunteer orientation and seen that preview. Not that I’m bitter about that, mind you.

Writing Movements – I’m still looking for beta readers to read Book One. If you’re interested, check out the deets HERE. I’ve sent it two people and only one has responded so far with comments. They’ve been minor, but I haven’t made any changes yet. I won’t do so until I send it to an editor. I’m waiting to hear from one who’s been on vacay last week.

Finally listened to the TRANSFORMERS 2: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN soundtrack. Not as good as the first one, but I like the new song from Linkin Park –of course—as well as the songs from Green Day (21 Guns) and Staind (This is It). The theme song, a remix from Cheap Trick, royally sucked. Wasn’t too impressed. Should’ve ixnayed Nickelback, too. I totally skipped that song. But, The Used did a great rendition of Talking Head’s “Burnin’ Down the House.”

And, of course, there’s the requisite laundry day. 3 loads. I hate doing laundry. I wish I was rich enough to have someone else do it. So, how was your weekend?

Technorati Tags: Prescott College, TRUEBLOOD, HBO, G.I. JOE, Channing Tatum, Denzel Washington, Mad Max, TRANSFORMERS 2: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, Linkin Park, Green Day, 21 Guns, Staind, This is It, Cheap Trick, Nickelback, The Used, Talking Head’s, Burnin’ Down the House

HOW FUN WAS THIS???

Here’s mine:

I could’ve played with this thing forever. Go on over and enter the contest and create your own.

Technorati Tags: Diana Peterfreund, Dull Boy, Sarah Cross