Archive for the 'Mentors' Category

September 15, 2010 | Inner Mean Girl 40-Day Cleanse,Life in General,Mentors,Prescott College,School Daze,Summer 2010,The 4-1-1 on Me,Uncategorized

I’m participating in the 40-day Inner Mean Girl Cleanse.. For 40 days, I am joining women around the world to cleanse my system of 6 toxic habits of my Inner Mean Girl (gossip, comparison, judgment, expectations, and obligations) and replace them with self-loving habits instead.

This week’s toxin is: Unrealistic Expectations

The Mission: To give up over-promising and perfection for the next 7 days.

When my friend told me about Prescott College, I thought “Well, this school sounds perfect for me.” I browsed the website for hours, reading everything about the program I was thinking about entering. And then the next thing I know, I’ve decided to do it. I’ve decided to go back to school after 17 yrs and finally get my degree.

This time, I’m going back for me, and the degree isn’t going to be English. It’s going to be Nonprofit Management.

I attended the 3-day orientation and felt slightly overwhelmed, but excited about starting. Excited and apprehensive because I had to step outside my comfort zone and ask complete strangers to be my teachers. My original grad date was Dec 2011. If I took 3 classes per semester, I would graduate in Dec 2011. It seemed like a reasonable goal at the time.

Until I actually started school.

Two classes.

And promptly had a teeny, tiny, breakdown 2 months in. Seriously.

I couldn’t figure out why it was so hard until Babendude pointed it out.

“It’s because you didn’t have a job.”

Ah. And the light bulb clicks on.

When I was going to school, I had been going full time. My parents wouldn’t let me get a job until I transferred to ASU. And even then, it was on campus and part time.

I took three classes for the first time this past semester.

And it nearly killed me. Emotionally.

Graduating in Dec 2011 was a nice goal, a nice expectation. But an unrealistic one, I now realize. My life was different back in the 90′s. I’ve grown up since then. Which is why my grad date is now Summer 2012, taking two classes per semester. I agonized over that decision, too. I felt like I was letting myself down, letting Babendude down. I really wanted to finish next year. But I’ve come to terms with my limitations and have to compensate for that.

No over-promising for the next 7 days? Hah. Nooooo problem.

Technorati Tags: 40-day Inner Mean Girl Cleanse, Prescott College

September 6, 2010 | 3rd Semester,Creative Writing II,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Financial Mgmt,How coolio is THAT?,Life in General,Mentors,Prescott College,School Daze,Summer 2010,The 4-1-1 on Me

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.

THANK YOU’S:

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

August 17, 2010 | "Whoa whoa I gotta go...back to schoooool...again",3rd Semester,Life in General,Mentors,Prescott College,Reading is FUNdamental,School Daze,The 4-1-1 on Me

Romance author Carolyn Brown has a book coming out in October with this same title. I’ve been reading her books in between homework assignments and right about now, this feels appropriate.

I am so tired of school right now it’s not even funny.

Today, I busted out an assignment two hours before I had to meet my mentor. Didn’t give a damn if it sucked or not. She said I did good.

One–or both–of my mentors for my Fall semester may or may not be approved by my core faculty. I was worried about it for, like, a day.

Now, I don’t give a damn. I could probably use the break.

I have a 10-page research paper due on the 5th and I haven’t really started on it. Earlier this month, I had to change topics when I couldn’t find enough academic resources. I stressed about it.

But now, I don’t give a damn.

The summer semester ends Sept 6th. The fall semester starts 10 days after that.

Right now, that little window of Education Freedom is lookin’ like a slice of heaven.

I’ve got stack of 9 books in my TBR pile and I’m gonna spend that free time reading my ASS off.

Technorati Tags: Carolyn Brown

June 16, 2010 | "Whoa whoa I gotta go...back to schoooool...again",3rd Semester,Creative Writing II,Life in General,Mentors,Prescott College,School Daze,Summer 2010,The 4-1-1 on Me

So, I’ve talked about my Creative Writing II (a.k.a. CWII) mentor’s feedback regarding the first 100 pages. Well, for the first assignment, I had to go chapter by chapter and define the major plot and the subplot. The first 100 pages is 9 chapters and the first few pages in chapter 10. Not even halfway into this exercise, I wanted to stop.

Subplot was winning.

And then the doubts crept in.

I stink.

I suck.

I’m doing this wrong.

I can’t turn this in, my teacher is going to laugh her ass off.

At this point, I’m going to have to write on a piece of paper

THIS IS ONLY A FIRST DRAFT

and hang it in front of me as a reminder.

I have a feeling Georgia is going to be both teacher and cheerleader.

June 10, 2010 | "Whoa whoa I gotta go...back to schoooool...again",3rd Semester,A Whole Latte Trouble,Book Two,Creative Writing II,Life in General,Mentors,Movie Queue,Prescott College,School Daze,Summer 2010,The 4-1-1 on Me,Writer Moment

It’s the second week of school and I got feedback from my mentor regarding the first 100 pages of Book 2 earlier this week.

The story lacks focus. You say your main plot is about the investigation into this fellow yet from what I can nearly 100 pages in, Draven has does very little to show the reader that she is this awesome, kick-ass informant. We see much more of her at school or with her friends just talking about “stuff” that is arguably sub-plot and fails to move the main plot along.

I see very little tension at all in the book. I assume as a reader that a book which focuses on a sleuth will have elements of tension, danger not only from the investigation itself but from Draven’s cover being blown. I also assume that in her role, she will make enemies. So, that also adds to the danger/tension. But I see none here. In fact, she is just hanging out like nothing is going on at all.

So, that is the plot, sub-plot and story-telling side.

There are some issues with redundancy and consistency. I’ve highlighted them in some cases and made comments on others.

There are cases when I feel the dialogue is forced. Some pages of dialogue go on for too long and fail to move the story to the next level.

Also it is hard in some places to know who’s talking in your dialogue exchanges. Watch for it.

Consider your pop-culture references and how they might date you as an author and how a reader may take that reference. There are many. While they may be funny to you, your readers are teens today.

Consider your use of stereo-typical representation of Hispanic youth. “Chica, Chiquita, etc.” Just make sure that you are 100% comfortable with these references and they are genuine.

There’s a scene in CLUELESS where Brittany Murphy’s character said something hurtful to Alicia Silverstone and Alicia responded with, “That’s way harsh, TY.” That line was running through my head after reading this. LOL.

But I have to remember that it’s a first draft. The novel, not the feedback.

It’s not going to be good the first time. Nor is it going to be good the second, third, or fourth time.

It’s a story that I completed some time last year and then promptly put away because I didn’t want to look at it anymore. It was a hard write. Then I pulled it out—I don’t remember when—and started editing it. I got midway through Chapter 8 before putting it away to start Book 3 (NaNoWriMo 2009 Fail).

I wish this was the only class I was taking this summer, because I won’t be as focused on the process as I normally would be. The revisions won’t be as good as I want them to be, or should be. Yeah, I know it was my bright idea to create a book revision college course, but even though my concentration is going to be pulled in three different directions, I still expect this to be a learning experience I can carry through to future books.

Technorati Tags: CLUELESS, Brittany Murphy, Alicia Silverstone