The 2008 Olympics

08/08/08 What an interesting date and it won't be back for another 100 years. What memories will we make today? I don't kow about you, but today is the day that I will be deciding whether or not its worth it to watch the Olympics. Though this won't happen too often (this is a writing blog after all), I think its time to step on the political soapbox. The politically incorrect one that is. I want to challenge you to think about the Olympics and what it stands for.

In ancient times, the Greeks would stop all wars and fly the white flag for the Olympics. It was a time of unity and peace. Even today, countries come together to celebrate, and yes to compete against each other, but outside wars and barriers are supposed to be left at the door. I say supposed to because that is not often completely accomplished. Many countries have used the Olympics in the past as a political platform for good or bad. Unfortunately, China, the host country this time, is doing this and I would that it is for bad not good. The Communist government is trying to convey an image of a united China to the world. The sad part is that they are trampling all over the Chinese people to do it. China is a hotbed of human rights violations. They are murdering their own people through their policies and laws. You must have heard recently on the news or in the papers about the protestors both foreign and native.

Several groups of foreigners protested about human rights violations and once group even set up a banner proclaiming that "Christ is King" (Amen to that!). They were removed and sent back to their hotels. And what about the Tibetan monks who staged a protest as well? They were also just sent away. What most people don't realize, since we live in a country that has free speech, is that these reactions were lenient compared to the usual methods employed by the Chinese government. Usually any foreigner who dares to speak out against the government is deported immediately and their Visa revoked. They could be permanently banned from ever entering China again. Same happens with those who take on the dangerous job of preaching the gospel to the Chinese people. And as for any native protestors. . . Ever wonder why there are so few willing to speak up? Imprisonment awaits them at the very least. And that includes interrogation and perhaps even torture. They also face the very real possibility of being branded a traitor and executed. The Chinese government does not want the world to see this. But that is not all. There is no religious freedom at all. One has to attend the State Church or be punished. To be a Christian is a "crime" punishable by death. It is even worse for those who are caught teaching other to preach the Gospel. These are just a few of the multitude of human rights violations that China's government has committed.

Should we condone such actions? If we turn a blind eye to the situation and do as China's governement has urged and "Don't use the Olympics as a political platform" we are condoning it by our very indifference and apathy. We have to take the stage and make a stand. Some have said that President Bush should have boycotted the Olympics, but I am of the opinion that words will speak louder than actions in this case. President Bush needs to tell the Chinese government that if they continue with the violations of the Chinese people, then the US will not continue in it's support of China. Taking our business and our money elsewhere would be a drastic step only used as a last resort. I hope it would never come to this. Surely the UN would step in before it came to that. But I do firmly believe that it is our duty to use the Olympics as a political platform and use it to pressure the Chinese government to put an end to the violence and persecution.

It still have to decide whether to watch the Olympics. I hardly watch it at all when it's on anyway because I'm really only interested in the results of the lesser known sports. The Dressage, Jumping, and Eventing competitions are the ones which capture my interest as I love anything to do with horses. The question is now, what will you do?

Until next time!

Writing Updates

Yes I'm back. Two blog posts in one day. That has got to be a record for me. I had originally thought to combine this with the other post today, but I felt that it wouldn't work too well as the content is totally different. I haven't updated anything about my writing since the beginning of June. I've been meaning to do this for a few weeks now, but something called a job has been keeping me busy and tired.

Yes I did finally manage to get a job at long last. I'm working at the local amusement park. Well, local isn't really the appropriate word, nearest would describe it better. I find it amusing that I have now worked at two of the most "cool" hanging out places for teens-the mall and an amusement park-and now I am rather indifferent to both. They don't hold any charm for me now. Not that they had much charm before. Anyways, I've detoured. I was going to talk about my writing.

The anthology fell through because 1) I didn't get Houses of Enemies finished in time and 2) The Old Has Passed Away... (which I did send to them) wasn't what they were looking for. I still need to get a move on and submit the latter to Andromeda Spaceways. It just might have a chance there.

With the starting of a job, my work on Adventure at Anwar started back up. I think I've added another 1,500 or so words to it. I have to estimate because I still have some stuff to type up onto my laptop. I've been writing on the job again like I did last summer, only there's not as much time to do it this time around. However, a few hundred words here and there do add up over time.

I have a new contest on the horizon. I'm really excited about it because it is for homeschoolers (and their parents and college age homeschool alumni). It has 20 different categories. The only draw back is that there is an entry fee. It's $5 for the first entry and $3 for each additional entry. I'm interested in 4 of the categories. Novel, Novel Cover, Blog and Blog Post are the ones I'm interested in. I may have 1 or 2 more that I may look into in the Short Story categories. However I would have a lot of work to do between now and October 21st. That's when all the entries have to be in by. if I was to do it, I'd send in the first 10,000 words of Adventure in Anwar for the novel category, this blog would double for both the Blog Post and Blog categories. I just hope I don't forget about it what with being so busy with school. I'll try to remember.

Speaking of school, it starts on the 18th, well classes start the 19th but I move in the 18th. Less than two weeks to go! And I just started packing today. Typical.

By the way, both of these posts today were written at work!

Until next time!

Vacation

Our family vacation is at hand, or at least it is in progress. We left Wednesday morning and traveled all day, stayed at a hotel and then got up dreadfully early in the morning so we could get to the Creation Museum when it opened. We spent a good 6 hours in that place walking through the exhibits and exploring the garden (which included a good deal of running back and forth on the small suspension bridge as well as a fun time on the pontoon bridge and the petting of one goat and one lamb who were being taken for a walk outside of the petting zoo). I would post pictures but as my camera is dead (and as I haven't bought a new one yet) I have no pictures available to post. Ah well, you'll just have to go and see it for yourself! (Which I highly recommend!)

We traveled on further that day and arrived at Taylor University in Indiana that evening. That is our present location as the main portion of our vacation will be taken up by a computer conference, ICCM. However, today we took a detour to another part of Indiana to visit my Grandma and other relatives. That was fun, though we didn't do much besides talk and look at pictures. The computer conference actually started tonight with the opening "banquet" and introductions. Just reading the word introductions on the schedule wasn't enough to prepare me for the actual thing. It meant that every single person there almost had to introduce themselves. I think it went on for nearly 2 hours in which time I was bored. However, I had brought something to do. And that was...editing Firequeen! And I am happy to say that I succeeded in editing several bits of it.

I changed the number of chapters from 18 to 19 and in the process was reminded that I hadn't changed the beginning to match the end in the issue of when Struana died so I proceeded to rectify that incongruity. Then I mostly did line edits. I have at least one part where I need to write some more (at the new end of chapter 12) but I haven't gotten to that yet as I wish to examine another one of my scenes first to see what some feedback meant about it.

Hopefully I will be able to get more editing done during this conference as I won't be paying attention to most of the sessions.

Until next time!

Summer days are here at last!

The summer is finally here and along with it comes the whole responsibility of finding a job so I can pay for college. My progress so far? I've applied to one place and am halfway through another application. A third application (in the form of an email) will be sent out today or tomorrow.

But enough of that. I've finally started to get my writing going again. My major accomplishment is that of finding someone who has promised to read Firequeen through and give it a good critique! I'm really happy about that because I've been despairing of finding anyone to help me. (Of course it does help that I'm critting his book for him).

In my last post I mentioned an anthology that I intended to submit to. Well there have been two changes where that is concerned. First, they are paying for the stories now! Second, they have named the anthology "The Dark Whole" and that has made me reconsider as to which story I will send them. It sounds like they want fantasy that is a bit darker than "The Old Has Passed Away, and the New Has Come to Stay". I have dug through my short story archives and found a piece which I think will fit. It's definitely got to be the darkest piece I've ever written (though it's not that dark). At present it is titled "Houses of Enemies" but I'm going to change the title as I don't think it fits anymore. However, I still plan to submit "The Old Has Passed Away..." to Andromeda Spaceways magazine.

That is all that is going on with my writing. Now I must be off to go and edit "Houses of Enemies". I need to get it submitted asap.

Until next time!

Finals

I'm back, even if it has been several days. The editing process has ground to a screeching halt because of finals for school. The only thing I'm writing at the moment is a paper on Crime and Punishment for one of my two English classes.

I'm still stuck on page 7 and 8 of Firequeen. I just typed all the edits in (including the extended scene) and that actually added about a page to the novella. So the total page count is about 91 (published) pages.

Right now, I'm looking ahead to this summer and the fall and I'm trying to plan out my next move. Over the summer I hope to finish editing Firequeen and finish writing the 1st draft of Lwyn: A Space Trader's Daughter-Adventure at Anwar. Hopefully I can get the latter mostly edited by the time NaNoWriMo rolls around again in November. I've also been looking at several publishing opportunities. One, of course, being the Q (my school's literary magazine). I want to submit The Old Has Passed Away... to them sometime, but first I have to edit it. Also, I wanted to try to get it published elsewhere first because the Q isn't picky about it being a reprint. I've got two places I'm looking at: an anthology that will be coming out at the end of year (deadline July 1st) and an Australian magazine, Andromeda Spaceways. I think I've decided to try for the anthology first as I have a better chance of getting it submitted there. There's no advance payment but there is the possibility of royalties if it sells well enough.

At this rate I won't be submitting The Old Has Passed Away... to the Q for a long time, but I do have another story that might possibly be ready by the fall. I just came up with the idea for a story based around 1 Corinthians 13. I won't explain it all here at this moment, but it has to do with a world where what you name your child comes true--but with a catch. The story would follow two parents trying to outwit the system so there's no catch. I'll see if I can write this over the summer before I forget all the details that aren't written down in my writer's notebook.

Also, in my planning for the fall, I've been thinking hard about getting involved with the Whetstone, the campus newspaper. One of the staff members is leaving and their column would be open. I was considering starting up a column that would feature all the clubs that are on campus. There seems to be a general apathy toward committing to a club and I'd like to see if I can change that.

As another bit of news, to sign off with, I will be working on the staff of the Q in the fall. It's a course that I signed up for. I hope that I won't be overwhelmed in the fall, but the fall semester always seems to be easier for some reason.

Until next time!

George MacDonald

I suppose that you all have heard of the writer George MacDonald? If not, then I would suggest that you read some of his works. I am still woefully lacking where the reading of his books is concerned. However, when reading some of his short stories this semester, I came across a nice quote of his and I'd like to share it with all of you.

"I do not write for children, but for the childlike, whether of five, or fifty, or seventy-five."

Isn't that just a wonderful quote? I don't know if it would apply to my writing as much, because my stories aren't as childlike as his, but it's still something to think of.

The editing of Firequeen is still plodding along. I resolved one difficult sentence today only to get stuck on another. Ah well, it'll get done eventually.

Until next time!

Music + Editing = wonderful experience!

I had the most enjoyable time this afternoon. A fellow student was giving his senior recital at 3 pm and I had the pleasure of attending it. For an hour I sat there and listened to his playing of the piano and working on editing Firequeen at the same time (though I did more listening than editing all told). He's graduating this year, unfortunately, so I won't be able to enjoy his playing much longer.

The editing progresses, hampered by the fact that I'm having to write a lot of new material for it. Just today I wrote a whole new scene for it and I'll probably have to go back and expand even that with more description and details. That is my weakness where writing is concerned. I don't have enough details and description to bring the scene into focus. When I am finished editing, Firequeen will be very much in focus.

Until next time!

The Editing Continues...

And I'm back. The only progress I've managed to make is that of editing two pages so I am now on pages 5 and 6 of Firequeen.

However most of that editing was done on top of a mountain! I, along with the same friend as yesterday, climbed up the same trail. (This is the third time in three days that I have gone hiking. How unusual.) However this time we went all the way to the top and stayed there for almost an hour doing homework. I found a nice little niche for myself and settled in, though I found that my right foot and ankle had decided to go to sleep on me and were numb when I tried to get up. That is such an odd sensation. Here's a picture of me in my niche on the mountain top. The picture doesn't show it, but I had a wonderful view off to my left of the valley and other mountains. Gorgeousness!

And now with this picture, I'll take my leave. Until next time!