Another year, another opportunity to write!

A list of last years "writing" related progress and this years "writing" goals. In 2012 you can expect me to finish pieces that I've started, add some color and innovation to my writing ideas, and grow as an aspiring writer. [More]

Lunch with Philippa Ballentine and (MIA Tee Morris)

     Meet a published writer: Check!          About a couple months ago I started to follow the blazing trail of Philippa Ballentine and Tee Morris across the Internet.  I picked up the trail when I caught wind of the name “Phoenix” in my Twitter stream.  Those that I follow is mostly made up of technology and design geeks.  If you’ve been reading my previous post I’ve designated one of my characters with that name.        It is the original re-tweet from Pip to Tee then by Joel Cochran (BlendSig founder) as a follower of Tee:      I hit the link and found a rabbit whole worth exploring.  I purchased Pip’s Geist first, because out of her books I thought this would fit right in my spectrum.  I read it in 2 days and posted a review.  It fit my mold, but then it did something else exciting.  It opened my eyes to an array of explosive creativity.  Pip’s world, in A Book of the Order series, re-organized my book collection (so to speak, as I read a lot on Kindle now) and pointed me at a new direction of fantasy novels.  She also expanded my reading range and introduced me to Steampunk.  I knew of it, but had a wan interest.  I equate it to be like when someone mentions LARP (live action role play) and considered it a nerdy fad.  To answer your question, yes, I realize that I am a geek, but not a nerd.  Over the last two months I have become very excited about learning more on Steampunk.      Back to the topic, today I had lunch at Bungalow Alehouse in Gainesville, VA (one of their favorites) with Pip Ballentine.  Unfortunately, Tee Morris was unable to attend.  He was needed at work to provide business justifications to his IT department on why he should have a Mac (tell them you need to test the company sites from a Mac for accessibility).        I went into this luncheon with the mind set of zero expectations and no in-depth questions.  Mainly, I just wanted to be friends with these awesome folk who I have a lot of commonalities with.  This is the first time I’ve ever reached out to a celeb personality, although Pip doesn’t admit to it.  For as outspoken as they are, I would expect that the sky is the limit, as far as media popularity is concerned.      The first thing she did when we meet was gave me a hug.  All of my friends who read this now know exactly why I like her.  We talked about Tee and Boom (yeah, you know it), books and stories, tips and support for writing, NaNoWriMo, writing music, traveling, parents, dragons, and laundry.  It was a wonderful 1+ hour of friendly conversation.  I had no reason to be nervous, especially, as we easily jump into our conversations.  It was an enriching experience and I hope that we can do it again.     Thanks Pip for your entertainment on the paper, internet, radio, and in person!  Congratulations to Pip and Tee for their wedding on Saturday 10/8/2011!

Getting Serious About Writing

This year’s goal to write has been progressing as expected--slowly. I’m not following a well-developed and documented set of steps to reach my goal. It is my own creations. Step Number 1: I started committing to my writing quest publically by creating a blog full of stories. [More]

Entering 2011 November NaNoWriMo

This year I’ve decided to place a challenge on myself for writing. The National Novel Writing Month contest will help me accomplish this goal. I don’t expect that I will complete the required goal of 50,000 words to win recognition, but I badly want to try. I’ve encouraged my nephew to join with me and participate in the NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program. He will be able to set his own word count goal. He is a lot like me—a dream writer. He has a dream and then it is followed by an outpour of ideas. He uses notebooks right now to document his stories. This spring on a trip to Utah I showed him a couple good writing programs (Scrivener and yWriter) to help him organize his thoughts for writing. My favorite feature about the NaNoWriMo is the fact that what your writing doesn’t have to be perfect, it doesn’t require editing or reviewing, it’s just writing. My friend, Jon Maki (you remember him from Herioc Protraits), is a writer and participates in this contest.  He is a 2009 NaNoWriMo winner. NaNoWriMo has yet to update their site information for this year’s contest so please disregard the note on the image for 2010. My user profile: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/824585 I’ll write more on this as the time comes closer and include my word count in the left column of my blog, but for now I’m still trying to decide on what to write about. I have three stories in my head: Phoenix (which you’ve already read about here on my blog), a fantasy story (combines a lot of my favorites together), and a science fiction book that I’ve been thinking about for several years. The requirements for the NaNoWriMo are that you can’t use pre-existing material. With that in mind, please read the descriptions below detailing my current choices. My first idea is to write more about Phoenix. What I’ve written about her I could not include in this contest, but she is a strong enough character and I have other ideas that I haven’t shared about her. The ideas are that she has a military background and is living as a high school student (no more risky business). The second idea is a fantasy story that has a main female lead and supporting friends. This story has a draft blog post that I’m still developing, but I may just have to stop in order to use this idea in the NaNoWriMo. This story doesn’t have any major scenes plotted out yet. I just have the intro, which may actually be pushed after a painting of the world as it was. It combines a lot of fantasy novels I’ve read, but with new spins. Finally is my epic series book that I’ve obsessed on for the last few years. I haven’t written any story for it, but have done a lot of research for it. I’m afraid that if I use this as my story I would become too attached to the specifics and it will cause my writing output to slow down. I don’t want to share it with you at this time, because I hold it close to my heart. Only my mentor, my husband, two of my closest friends, and my sister actually knows the whole story. They’ve all been very supportive of it and me. Who wants to join me on my NaNoWriMo contest in November? You can participate or you can support me through questions, ideas, babysitting (so I can have time to write), and encouragement.

First Post

Where to start?  The best place is for me to explain why after blogs have been popular for so long did I decide to start now.  I've always been full of ideas, stories, and technical opinions, but I've never been motivated to start sharing.  I always figured my view was not distinct, that people wouldn't be interested in what I have to say.  Lately I've been obsessed about an idea for a book I'd like to write (no spoiling it until it's I've actually finished).  I've been trying to motivate myself to start writing, but haven't found the time or the drive.   I am also afraid that my ideas or stories could one day bring a real profit and I don't want to risk sharing it to find out someone did profit on my idea.  So why now? I am tired of holding my creativity back.  Even if the world doesn't care I still want to shout out at it.  My thoughts are becoming more and more impressive as I get older that if I don't share them they might lite me on fire. Please bear with me as I transition into the world of blogging.