Timber! and other news

Hey everyone! College has started along with a lot of other stuff. The biggest event that has happened is that my Grandfather passed away a week from last Sunday. I had to drop everything in the middle of last week to attend the viewing and funeral. I'm still sad about it. Christmas will be the big reminder that he's dead. At Christmas (well, around that time) all my Mom's family gets together for a Christmas celebration and we always went to my Grandfather's house. I don't know where or if we'll meet this Christmas. We'll see what happens.

I've contacted the Whetstone (went to a dinner of theirs) and signed up to do at least 1 article per semester. I can't commit to more because my schedule's still being decided. So, my getting to know the people there has begun. I'm really considering taking over from the current managing editor after she graduates next spring. That would look good on a resume.

I was still catching up on homework from last week this morning and the last bit I had to do was to write a short mini-play (1 scene with minimal number of characters). It was due today at 12:30pm (hence why I sat down and wrote it this morning and not tonight) so I got to work this morning and actually had it done in time. Anyways, this is the first part in an experiment of mine this semester. That experiment is a course in playwriting. We shall see if I survive. If I do, then I'll come out of it with another method and perspective of writing. If I don't, I'll know that playwriting is not my thing. This course will definitely help with fleshing out my characters, though.

About the play now. I received the comment that I need to show more through my dialogue, but my scene directions were vivid. Mind you, this is a short scene so there is not much room to play around with the characters. The assignment was to find a picture and write a scene off of it. My picture was of a young man bundled up in winter clothes posing beside the roots of a fallen tree.

Oh and as a parting note, NaNo is on the way (less than 2 months to go!). I've already got my story idea ready. It's an idea that's been floating around in my head for a while. It revolves around one of two sci-fi characters that I have created in my head. However, I have appropriated it for my Lwyn: A Space Trader's Daughter series. It shall be the book that explains how it all began. Now I just need to finish Adventure at Anwar first. I've got less than 2 months to do it! I'll use it to train for the crazy marathon that is NaNo.

Do you know what NaNo is? I've been referring to it without explaining it. A bit of explaination for those who do not know of it is in order. NaNo (short for National Novel Writing Month) takes place during the month of November. The goal is to write the 1st draft of a 50,000 word novel, in 30 days. Crazy, eh? Well it's all good fun. I did it last year for the first time and had a lovely, hectic blast. Second time around should prove to be even more fun as I know what I am doing this time. As for last year, Firequeen was the novel (novella) I started. I didn't win last year (I only wrote 17,000 words) but I think I have a better chance of doing so this year as I write a sci-fi novel this time around.

Until next time!

(finally, here's the play!)

TIMBER!

by Anna Mittower

Cast of Characters

DERRICK, male in his early 20s (college age) Nicholas’s roommate, strongly opinionated and quick to voice his opinions, quarterback on the school football team, popular and always dressed in the latest fashion, goofs off but still gets good grades, acts rashly.

NICHOLAS, male in his early 20s (college age) goes by Nick, Derrick’s roommate, loves the outdoors, doesn’t speak up much outside of close friends, but is still opinionated, dressed comfortably, doesn’t really care about fashion, cautious.

REPORTER, female in her 20s, dressed smartly in a suit, very curious, and wears a big smile constantly.

FIREFIGHTER, male in his 40s, looks like he’s been on the job for many years, a veteran, heavy build, about average height.

SCENE 1

(It’s the middle of winter and Nicholas and Derrick are standing at the base of a very large and old oak outside their dorm on campus. Both are bundled up against the cold. Ground is saturated from the previous night’s heavy rain. A strong breeze is making the oak tree sway ominously.)

NICHOLAS

Are you sure it’s wise to climb up that tree? It looks like it might fall any minute.

DERRICK

Give me a break. It’s perfectly safe and I have to do this.

(starts climbing up tree and pauses at first branch. He shouts.)

My honor is at stake. I can’t back down now, not after Gordon dared me. Anway, I’ve been wanting to test it out for myself.

NICHOLAS

(shouts up to Derrick)

You’re mad to take him up on his dare! He only wants to see you hurt yourself. You’re stupid!

DERRICK

(Derrick has climbed beyond earshot. Doesn’t hear Nicholas’s last line.)

What a view!

(climbs onto the branch that is his destination and stares around the campus. Shouts down to Nicholas)

You should climb up here and see this!

(Remembers what he’s supposed to do and stares down at the branch he’s on. Gordon’s dare is to cross to the next tree over on a branch bridge. The two branches intertwine, but as Derrick starts across the branch feels less stable as the tree rocks in the wind.)

NICHOLAS

(watching from the ground gives him a better view of the oak starting to lean. Shouts to Derrick)

Get down Derrick! The tree is falling!

(waves arms wildly to attract Derrick’s attention. Derrick doesn’t look. Nicholas stands looking horrified as he watches the tree falling. Once Derrick falls Nicholas kicks into action and rushes under the falling tree to try and catch Derrick. He half succeeds and Derrick knocks both of them to the ground. Nicholas tries to drag Derrick out of the way of the falling tree but a branch lands on him and Nicholas can’t get it off.)

Don’t move Derrick! I’m going to call for help.

(Runs to the dorm.)

DERRICK

Hurry up!

NICHOLAS

(comes back at a run)

Help’s on the way, Derrick. Hold on.

DERRICK

My leg’s killing me, and my back.

NICHOLAS

Well that’s where the branch is laying on you. Is there any other place that hurts?

DERRICK

I am sore all over.

(He groans)

Just wait till Gordon sees me like this. He’ll have a good laugh at how stupid I was. Sorry for not listening to you earlier.

(Siren wails in the distance before Nicholas can speak. Firetruck pulls up followed by an ambulance and people dash over to Nicholas and Derrick. They cut the tree branch and put Derrick on a stretcher and then put him in the ambulance.)

FIREFIGHTER

Are you alright?

NICHOLAS

I’m fine. I’ll probably be sore all over from being a cushion for Derrick like that.

(laughs quickly)

FIREFIGHTER

Do you know why he was up there in the first place? A warning was issued for this area about the possibility of old trees falling in the high winds today.

NICHOLAS

Someone dared him to cross from this tree to that one by going across a branch bridge. I tried to talk him out of it, but he went right on ahead and did it.

FIREFIGHTER

(shakes head)

That was very foolish of him.

NICHOLAS

I think he realizes that. He admitted that was he did was stupid while we were waiting for help to arrive.

(Another vehicle pulls up quickly. It’s a white news van with a large number 21 on the side. Reporter gets out followed by a camera man and comes over to where Nicholas and the Firefighter are standing.)

REPORTER

Hello. I’m a reporter for Channel 21. What happened here?

(Eyes the fallen tree and the obvious scrapes and bruises on Nicholas’s face and hands. Thrusts a microphone at the Firefighter.)

FIREFIGHTER

A young man climbed up that tree and fell out of it when the tree toppled in the winds.

REPORTER

Is this the young man who climbed the tree standing here?

NICHOLAS

No, it was my roommate, Derrick, who climbed the tree. An ambulance just took him to the hospital.

(Is nervous because the camera is pointing his direction and the reporter has transferred the microphone to him)

I’m all scraped up because I tried to catch him when he fell.

(grins sheepishly)

He was a bit too heavy to catch and used me instead as a cushion to land on.

REPORTER

(laughs lightly then turns to the camera)

So here we have a young hero in the making. He has just saved his first victim from death.

(Nicholas looks skeptical at this. Reporter turns back to him, microphone ready)

So how does it feel to be a hero?

NICHOLAS

I-I don’t feel any different. I’m just glad I was able to help.

REPORTER

(turns back to camera)

So there you have it. A young hero.

(turns back to Nicholas)

Now, can we get a picture of you beside that tree? An angle showing the roots of the tree would be best I think.

(Nicholas and camera man follow her around to the other side of the tree)

NICHOLAS

(Climbs up onto the tree’s roots and poses with a triumphant look on his face like he just conquered the tree.)

How’s this?

REPORTER

Perfect!

(Picture is taken and the reporter looks satisfied. Everyone but Nicholas exits. He walks back his dorm. Curtain)

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!

Grand Opening!

Yes, it's the grand opening of this blog, or rather the debut of it as hosted on this site. This is now not just my writing blog, but also the official place for all my writing (at least until I get a webpage up which won't be for a while).

I'm currently working on editing my novella, Firequeen. I just recently finished the first draft (on February 29th) and have been desperately trying to get people to actually read it and give me feedback on it. So far, only 1 person has done so. Ah well, I shall still proceed with editing the first 20 pages of it (that's the first 4 chapters). I have been successful enough to get this novella to count as homework for one of my english courses. Of course, that means that I have to turn in 20 edited pages of it on Tuesday! I'm currently on the 3rd and 4th page of it. I should post a picture of what a page looks like when I'm done editing it! ;) It's covered with marks. After all, I am an English Major!

Yesterday I got some editing done on a hike with my roommate. She was out to do observations so several times I just sat down on the trail and worked on editing while I waited for her to catch up. One major event happened, though. I was attacked by a garter snake! Well, it tried to bite my ankle, but, as I had on tennis shoes and long jeans, it didn't get my skin. My roommate got some lovely pictures of it. I'll have to post a picture of it soon along with a picture of me editing on the trail.

Today I also went on a hike with another friend. We went halfway up a trail nearby and jump-roped for bit. Nothing eventful happened on that hike though. I just love all the trails! Just one reason why I love going to college in the mountains.

Till next time! (When I should hopefully have 20 pages of Firequeen edited.)