Excitingness

"You don't mess with a lion. The lion is the king of the jungle. The lion will destroy you." - Part of my analysis of The Old Man and the Sea. This is deep, AP-level stuff, guys.

Today I received an email from Figment. Attached was a permission form for something I'd written and posted on their site to be included in an anthology.

I went back to reread it/figure out what I'd actually said and decided I really don't like some of the phrasing. But hey. Gaiman's Law dictates I'm going to be annoyed with something no matter what.

But still--published in an ebook being sold for charity. I an okay with this.

Also, can we appreciate my writing group and our collaborative story involving Rick Santorum taking over the world and being stopped by an army of hipsters.

Interesting Statistics

“Human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.” - Gabriel Garcia Marquez


I'm going to shamelessly rip off this entire post from butcept at My Two Cents. Hopefully she won't sue me. Somehow I get threatened with lawsuits rather often from writing group people (butcept being one of the two facilitators)-- and I haven't done anything to them.


I write this for two reasons. 1. I think it's interesting. 2. I'm trying not to look at Twitter to see all of the Deathly Hallows reactions. Stupid Twitter.


Anyways, last meeting she did a poll of our religious views. There were only six of us there, but here are the results:


1 atheist
1 apatheist (technically atheist but doesn't really care)
1 apathetic (really doesn't care at all)
3 agnostics (or perhaps not; we maintain that it's impossible to know)


And I'll go ahead and add three people who have come to a lot of meetings despite none of them being there Wednesday night:


1 more atheist
1 non-denominational
1 belonging to a Quaker Meeting that has absolutely no "requirements" regarding theology


And the only thing we have in common by default is a love for writing. Most of us have done some amount of acting (or want to). We all read a lot, of course. Most are musicians of some sort or another. And the average writer (according to a random website I saw, so don't necessarily give it too much credence) apparently has an IQ far higher than the average human. Oh, and one more thing: we're all awesome. ;)


Now, nine people isn't really an accurate survey, but...I don't know. Take what you want from it.


(Note in regard to fairness: there is another member who would come regularly and meets all of the other similarities, except her church's youth group meets on Wednesdays so she skips out on us. And I'm not sure about the rest of the members, so for all I know this is pure coincidence, even if the six of us are the ones who come more often.)


(Another note: And now I'm incredibly angry because it turns out my aunt would have given me a ride home from the movie theater after the midnight showing of Harry Potter because she's always up late anyway, and...I have a pretty freaking awesome aunt. Dangitdangitdangit. Oh well.)

I Open At The Close, Part 3: The Effects

"When people say Fruit Loops are just gay Cheerios, I tell them 'I always knew there was a reason I liked Fruit Loops better.'" - Anonymous

The funny thing about the joy associated with finding the community of Nerdfighteria is that I haven't made any close friends online in the two years since then. Sure, NotVeryCharming and I originally bonded over my "Nerdfighterlike" T-shirt (which I happen to be wearing as I type this, funnily enough), but  we had already met. What it really did is make me feel...hope for myself... even if my current situation was still generally miserable (middle school sucked for many reasons I won't go into).

I started writing stories around the same time that I started reading Harry Potter, and since HP was my first, biggest, and longest-lasting love, I wouldn't be surprised if they had something to do with each other. For the sake of the story, let's assume they did.

That July, I joined the teen writing club at my local independent bookstore, which is possibly the decision (or rather, my mom making me go) that has had the most influence on my life...ever. 

I would not have one and a half finished novels sitting on my flash drive.

I would not have received a check in the mail for that thing I still can't tell you guys about and I'm sorry because I honestly thought I'd be able to in March or so. I just got back in contact with the people involved and they don't know either because they're waiting on another component.

I would not be nearly so much of a well-rounded person as I am today.

I would not be writing this now. 

I would still be listening to wizard rock or something from DFTBA rather than having YouTube's Death Cab for Cutie playlist going in the background. (I realize that the vlogbrothers' original intro music was by Death Cab, but that's just an unfortunate coincidence, I promise- my friend recommended them to me.)

I would not have read 90% of the books in that list over to your right.

And of course, I would be bereft of all of the myriad of experiences I've had with the people I met through that club, as well as everything they have introduced me to. But you all know how much one person can change your life, much less many. 

Thank you, all of you, and perhaps it's stretching it to thank Harry Potter for causing all of that, but I really can't separate it anymore and it's nearly midnight as I'm writing this and I'm feeling nostalgic so I don't particularly care.

Ironically enough, all of that means that it was Harry Potter that indirectly dug me out of my fandom-hole, metaphorically shouted "Go live in the world!" and kicked me out the door.


I still dress up in my Hogwarts clothes and wear them to school as often as I can (we have three spirit weeks per year so it's usually pretty easy), and have pretty much mastered the art of contextually incorporating Harry Potter references into my schoolwork, so in some ways not much has changed.

However, a lot has changed since middle school. I now have far more than just one real life friend, a newfound self-confidence*, heaps of meaningful memories (even if I wish I could forget some of them), and...I could go on for paragraphs upon paragraphs, but honestly, I think 3 posts and counting on this subject is pushing it as it is. Bottom line: Harry Potter has affected my life in a huge enough way so that I can't separate it from anything else. It has made me who I am.

Story over, or rather to be continued over the course of the rest of this blog's life. Part 4: The Conclusion, tomorrow.

*Yes, self-confidence. Two or three of you are probably thinking "Hold on...she has self-confidence? What about all of those emails and chat messages crawling with self-doubt?" All I have to say about that is that time was I wouldn't have even told you those things, and that having the courage to live a fuller life gives you more reasons for doubt. Self-confidence gives you the courage to act, or to speak, even if you do feel completely terrified.

Community Service Mini-Informal Essay Thing

This is another queued post, because I have no life and therefore spend a heck of a lot of time thinking about blog-worthy things yet I don't want to post more than once per day. You'd think I'd have better things to do than contemplate the assumptions, trends, and connotations associated with the word "liberal." Well guess what: Either I don't, or I just multi-task rather well. Or both.


(Paragraph of Self-Deprecation Has Achieved Completion)


Anyways. I was actually working on my Civics & Economics (we're in the Civics portion now) homework and realized the mini-informal-essay I was writing might be of interest to you guys, since it's about my involvement with my old elementary school's writing club, which I talk about on here from time to time. (I can't help but feel that my teacher's judging me, though. I write my Economics book report on For The Win by Cory Doctorow, interview Alan Lastufka for the Economics powerpoint, and now I'm confessing that I write novels in my free time for Civics. Nerd pride, you guys. DFTBA.)


At any rate, here is the essay:

I volunteer as a mentor in the writing club at my old elementary school, and have been doing so for over a year. This club is comprised of 4th and 5th graders, and meets on a bi-weekly basis.

In June 2010, the teacher-sponsor of the club announced she was leaving to take a job at a different school, so in the fall, my best friend (the other mentor) and I were the ones to take the initiative in finding another teacher to keep the club going.

Our job main job is to circulate among the students throughout the hour, answering their questions, proof-reading their stories, and keeping them on-task. Sometimes we lead small groups in which the students read their stories aloud before listening to feedback given by the others. In November, I organized participation in National Novel Writing Month’s Young Writer’s Program, the adult version of which I have now completed two years in a row. This involved helping the kids to set a reasonable word-count goal for themselves and to then meet it by the end of the month. The majority of them completed and even exceeded their goals, and several of the same kids are now in the midst of NaNoWriMo’s sister program, Script Frenzy.

Being a high school mentor for these kids is a unique experience, because I don’t hold the status of at teacher, nor do I view them as being strictly under my authority despite that I do expect them to listen. There is a relationship of mutual respect and understanding, which has done wonders when it comes to them listening to my writing advice. I’m close enough in age that I’m not in the “I’ll never be that old” unreachable category, but I’m also in talks with a literary agent to get my one completed novel published. This allows them to believe that I give them suggestions based on experience rather than curriculum or “this is just the way I want you to do it,” as is sometimes the belief regarding teachers.

I find volunteering with this club to be very fulfilling. It’s exactly the kind of club I wish the school had had when I was there, so I’m glad to be a part of making it possible for the kids like me who are there right now.

A Roman Dinner Party

There's this thought I have at approximately 8:30 p.m. every other Wednesday. It goes something like this: "I love writing group I love it I love it I love it."


But that's not what tonight's post is about.


Today was our Latin class' Roman Dinner Party/Fashion Show Day (which is ironic, since I have the class first period).
We learned that Roman women would pin their sleeves instead of having them sewn together, so I figured I'd destroy a shirt I hated and pin it with my Nerd Buttons (of which there are 14*). Mainly it was an excuse to wear the buttons, but my justification was that Roman women probably wore pins that they liked, so I wore the pins that I like.
Then, since it's International Week (whatever that means), we swapped classrooms and played an old Aztec game that's a bit like Sorry.


And since I think about humanity a lot, all of this plus some of the other things we've been learning in Latin made me realize that people as a whole really haven't changed much in the past few thousand years.


We still like food. We still choose which clothes to wear. We still play dumb games that take forever to get a marker out of the Start position. We still want. We still hurt. We still love. We still die. We still use gross generalizations to make a point, and we still stay up later than we should to write blog posts about Deep Things.


And I don't know whether that's a comforting thought, or if it's just really scary.


But there you have it. My Random Thought of the Night, when I should be doing my chemistry homework instead of talking to you or editing the current draft of my work in progress...

In Which I Listen Selectively

I'm reading a blog post on Figment. An author is giving writing advice. 


Tip #4 goes out on here to rock4ever95, since the subtitle of his blog is "A place for me to stroke my inflated ego."


"4. Be true to your vision and voice. I believe that being a successful artist in any medium requires a massive ego. If you don’t have one, I have to question the unique or lasting value of your art."


Tip #5, however, I choose to ignore. Clockwork would remain a non-sensical half-formed piece of crap if not for the very specific feedback of my writing group. I am not giving them up without a very big, very bloody fight, and probably not even then. They're incredibly helpful. Plus, I like them.






"I'm not dead yet!"


Then again, I do try to keep them away from first drafts. Even they still have yet to see what NaNoWriMo 2010 spawned.


I would also like to draw attention to #10: "10. Ignore all lists of rules or how to’s for writing fiction."


So there you have it. The rules will help, but you should definitely ignore them. What a worthwhile thing to read.

Look! A Download!

The first of today's quotes goes out to those of you doing NaNoWriMo.


"Go spit in the face of our inevitable obsolescence and finish your @#$%ing novel." - John Green


And yes, he did the censoring himself.


Then there's the humor quote, not to say that the previous one wasn't funny, which is a true story from my computer programming class.


"Friend 1: *burps*
Friend 2: Congratulations: it's a boy."


First off, I would like to say just how much I truly love our writing club meetings.


For those who do not know, last meeting I brought the first chapter of a story in a notebook. Someone else--Hannah-- went home with the notebook to write chapter two. My chapter was a lot of set-up but I didn't have any idea where I was going with it, so there wasn't a lot of detail.
This meeting, when I saw that notebook on the table, I was filled with fear. I've been bringing writing to be critiqued for over a year now, but I've never collaborated with someone other than a silly poem about dolls and action figures since I was five and writing a story via email with my grandpa. Putting something I'd written--that I cared about--out in the open for Hannah to take wherever she wanted...I was scared. I ended up loving what she'd done with it, but that was just chance. I'm sure she would have written whatever it was well, but would I have been okay with the content?
The answer is that it doesn't matter. It's quite literally out of my hands now, and I have a new batch of anxiety stewing about Sarah Gray's upcoming additions. It's like having a child and giving her away for foster care, except I have to watch her grow up and have no control over what her numerous parents do or don't do in terms of her upbringing.
Yes, this story is a girl, I think.


The story I read, which can be found for free download here, is a prose version of "Boxcar Blood" by Alan Lastufka and Luke Conard. I'm very pleased with how it turned out, and even more pleased with the reception it received.
One person said it was "like a John Green romance."
While a comparison of my writing to John Green's would be a huge compliment in my mind regardless, this was especially awesome because that's exactly the style I was going for, and I hadn't mentioned anything of the kind beforehand.


In other news, I've got three tickets to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 for the IMAX on Friday afternoon. I am so excited.

A Day Full of Writing Club

Ezra, you'd better re-visit the comments of the Socratic Seminar post. Kenny's brought up some interesting stuff. I don't know if you subscribed to the comments on that one or not.


Today was the first meeting of the elementary school's writing club. I walked in with nothing more than a very vague outline from the presiding teacher regarding what she planned to do, and a few vague notes I'd written on what to say if I was required to say something about any given topic.
Fortunately, she came into the library a bit early and went over everything in greater detail. The club looks like it's going to be very group-centric, with lots of peer-revision and discussion like we have at ours. I was actually asked to  describe one of our typical meetings. I showed my copy of Thoughts on Life, and passed it around for the kids to look at. One of them started reading one of the stories (the only one in there I wrote in elementary school, oddly enough), and pointed out a typo. Oops.
It looks like I'm pretty much in charge of the kids interested in the YWP (of which there are about 15 or so), since I'm definitely more comfortable with fiction and have experience with NaNo in particular, and Ms. Cornick is focusing on the kids entering the nonfiction contest.
Apparently I made quite an impression on the kids with my "published" book. The nonfiction ones were asking her about it.
I also read aloud Plot Chickens, which was fun. 
The YWP has something called a "virtual classroom." Once Ms. Cornick figures out how to give me Educator Status as well, I can add students to my classroom, keep an eye on their stats, and send them NaNo Mail. Since we only meet every two weeks, this is very good. Each classroom comes equipped with a set of forums that only members can use.
I'm really excited. I hope the kids have the motivation for me to have a decent time interacting with them and helping them through their novels. Their homework was to start outlining. Our next meeting is November 3rd.


Speaking of writing clubs, tonight's meeting was awesome. We talked about The Hunger Games for a good twenty minutes before actually starting, and the stories and poems were fantastic. As in, more so than usual, I thought. It was interesting when we all started laughing at the most horrible, disturbing parts, though. Writers are strange.
We only stopped because an employee came in and told us there were impatient parents waiting outside (of which mine was not one. Dad likes sitting and reading for 1+ hours.)


I have a list of blog topics sitting next to my bed like the ones I had a lot of in August. Despite having stopped posting my English journals, I feel like I'm still posting an awful lot. Hopefully the quality is at least partially worth it. Of course, since you're all still subscribed, I assume you at least find it worthwhile to skim through my posts, which I don't mind in the slightest if you do.

Plot Chickens

This week's the Book Fair at the elementary school. It's also Spirit Week. Today was pajama day, in order to coincide with PJs and Cookies Bedtime Story Night. I'm here in my pajamas, reading Strega Nona and sneaking Girl Scout cookies.
Along with Strega Nona, my mom also saved out another (future) library book for me to take a look at. It's called Plot Chickens, and is utterly hilarious. It's about a young chicken named Henrietta learning to write (and includes the comments from her not-so-talented relatives). She sends off a query letter, and many months later, receives a reply: "Dear Ms. Henrietta: We do not publish books written by chickens. Even if we did, we wouldn't want this one. We didn't like it. Don't quit your day job. Have a nice life. Hunter Fox, Editor."
"The aunts were devastated, but Henrietta vowed not to brood over her rejection."

Forget bringing a story of my own to writing club next time. I'm reading Plot Chickens. This book is amazing.

I can hear the Samoas calling...(Oh, wait, they're called Carmel Delights...oops.)

I might also read it to the writing club here once it starts...

In Which I Talk About Me And Am Rather Boring

Time for some self-indulgence. And also an announcement.


The English journal posts, both the prompts and my responses, are not what I'd hoped them to be. Therefore, I can no longer promise one every other day. (But you're probably okay with that.) That is the announcement.


Now for the self-indulgence (or is it narcissism? Or is it just self-absorption? or maybe...):


I turned 15 today (yaaay). It actually doesn't feel much different, but I assume that's because I've been considering myself 15 for awhile. I often have to backspace and correct myself. Now those days are over. (btw: THANK YOU FOR THE BIRTHDAY WISHES! You know who you are. And if you're not one of them, it's okay. I'm not offended. Really.)


I can get my permit now (although I'm planning on putting it off until December, because of, you know, NaNoWriMo). That's simultaneously exciting and terrifying.


Today was actually the best birthday I've had in a good while. In 6th grade, for instance, I threw up within the first half hour of school due to being accidentally poisoned. Keyword: accidentally. Long story. 7th grade was mostly terrible all around. In 8th grade, the party was fun, but I don't remember the birthday itself terribly well, so let's go with average. I assume I had a good day in 9th grade simply because I loved most of first semester.


But this year...


It started out with some hilarious things happening that either few people outside my family would get, or just aren't funny unless you were there, so I won't go into detail.
In English, we had an assembly (*sad face*) instead of class, but it was about college, which is at least relevant and important, so that was okay. And I got to sit with my friends. 
In computer programming, I got a bagel. It occurs to me I could have gotten a free bagel had I mentioned it was my birthday, but oh well. It's better off this way, anyways.
I got to play with toxic chemicals in Chemistry earlier this week, which was fun, and today I finished my test early so I got to read loads of Ranger's Apprentice 9: Halt's Peril, which was freaking fantastic. All of my vocab sentences for the past two days are regarding that book. That's the great thing about the series- it doesn't get worse as it progresses, as most series do. Read them.
And...I baked brownies and took them to writing club. I got to hear great stories, had exactly the reception I'd hoped for on my own, and generally had a good time of it. 
I've also racked up a total of $50 of birthday money so far, which means my iTunes library will be growing very soon.


Good stuff. And a song about the Fermi Paradox by Hank Green that isn't uploaded yet but I saw on Twitter that it will be. 


Actually...this entire week has gone smashingly. (I never use that word. Why did I use that word?)


Interview update: The interview will be occurring sometime closer to November 1st. Not sure exactly when. It will be by email, and I assure you that you will know just as soon as it's posted. But first there's some more work on the first part of that secret project to be done...


Also, elementary school writing club is due to start on October 20th! I'm quite excited, although I'm also nervous.


And I'm reading Strega Nona by Tomie De Paola aloud to an undefined number of elementary schoolers and their parents tomorrow night. Let it suffice for me to say that the number is larger than I expected when I signed up to do it.

To Forget or to Kill

Hi. I have a lot of quotes for you today. Some are funny and some are not. That's what comes from going to school. But first, let's have the ones from the notorious Google Reader.


“There’s no way not to lose fights. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t fights worth fighting. But, it does mean that thinking that you’ll only be happy when you win is the surest way of never being happy.” - Hank Green


"Everything good in life is either illegal, immoral, or fattening." -a poster someone gave my math teacher for laughs.


"If you don't have answers, you must have questions." -letter from my math teacher to students & parents


And then there is English...which I'm not going into in this post. For now, I'll just say that there are a lot of posts labeled "philosophy" in the near future...


Just to get this out of the way so you all know (because it came up at the meeting last night, for those not there): Yes, I used to be very into Twilight. I was just very quiet about it. Then I "recovered from Twilightus," as my dad would say.


Last night I asked the question "Which is worse: to have great parents whom you love very much and are loved by suddenly have no idea who you are, or to have so-so/on the bad side of okay parents who suddenly want you dead, or at least wish you didn't exist?
All of you chose the first one, if I remember correctly.
I agree.
On the way home, I asked my dad what he thought. He thought the first one was better. I asked him why, and he said "There comes a time in everyone's life, usually around your age, where you realize that your parents don't actually know you. I can tell you I love you hundreds of times a day, but you'll still wonder whether I would if I knew the real you."
Considering that the question spawned from a nightmare I had in which he a) had no idea who I was b) was married to some other woman who wasn't my mom and c) was bothered by my reaction to him not knowing me, I would say that this point has already arrived.
But I don't think it's a point. I think it's a wave (ha, sorry for the physics reference). That point in my relationship with him was subconscious and happened at a different time than, say, the conscious point with my grandma.
Ah, adolescence. How I both love and despise thee.
Speaking of which, when I was in maybe 3rd grade he said "Your teenage years will probably be both the best and worst years of your life." This is true so far.


My grandma also thought the first one was better when I asked her this afternoon. She said that with the first one there was always the chance of love, whereas with the second there wasn't much hope at all.


And last but not least, here is a spoiler-free commentary on Mockingjay. I still haven't started.

http://italktosnakes.blogspot.com/2010/08/numb-no-spoilers.html

To Be Their Doctor

I can pretty much guarantee that you won't be hearing from me on this blog tomorrow, even though we have a meeting.
Why?
School starts, for one thing, and then I'll be finishing Catching Fire as soon as possible and starting in on Mockingjay. No spoilers at the meeting, please.


But here's a quote for you to enjoy, taken from the website Nerdfighter Secrets.


"A lot of secrets involve people wishing The Doctor would come and take them away. But I want to be someone's Doctor. To be the one to change their life, to always be there for them when they have nothing, to know that I saved one person...and they saved me."


This site, by nature, is anonymous, so I don't know who to credit for that one.


I like this quote a lot. It shows a lot of "I am someone who can do stuff-- not someone who needs stuff done to them."
As Ezra said of the main character when I read the first few chapters of Clockwork at writing club, "It seems like she doesn't do things. Things happen to her."


I was struck by this observation at the time. Struck by how true it was. And from that point on I started to try to slowly change my language throughout the book to show her develop into more of a do-er. I hope it worked.


Also, my dad asked me yesterday if he could read Clockwork. Although he isn't part of the target audience, he is a very good writer (although he's barely written anything besides emails and computer/programming-related articles since college, as far as I know) and will appreciate it for what it is. I expect to get excellent feedback from him, as I do on all of the stories, essays, and song lyrics I show him. However, he doesn't get that email until we've finished reading The Hunger Games together, which won't be for awhile because Emily's borrowing my copy at the moment.

Elementary, My Dear Watson. Elementary.

Which doesn't have the slightest thing to do with this post, but I thought it was somewhat clever, because once again, I am at the elementary school. The teachers started work yesterday, and I've been helping them out in getting ready for the new year.
I was moving locator cards to different binders this morning (why they keep all of the old locator cards I don't understand- all of the parents have to fill out new ones anyway), and then I called Emily after lunch about writing club. Elementary school writing club, that is.
The teacher who was doing it last year isn't working here anymore, but we have loads of great ideas and want to manage it ourselves. We're thinking of having it on Fridays so we don't have to worry about getting our homework done, and because Emily doesn't have marching band practice on Fridays.
So I talked to one of the other teachers who helped out last year to see if she would be our adult supervision (since we aren't allowed to be alone with a bunch of kids). She thinks she'll be too busy with meetings and stuff, and since her department is math this year instead of writing, it's not even related. (Errant thought: ooh, it's raining. I love rain.)
She said maybe the Writing SIP (school improvement plan) committee would be interested, and (I think) she'll talk to them, so hopefully it will be a go.

Some of our plans for them, assuming we get to do it:

• The YWP. Yes, I know, I'm insane trying to help 30-odd elementary schoolers through their versions of NaNoWriMo while simultaneouly trying to finish my own. But I think it'll be fun, and it won't be mandatory for them to do it. If they don't want to, they can just come to meetings and write other stuff as per usual.
• Making books. Emily's step-mom knows how to actually make certain types of mini-books, so we might be able to get her to come in sometime and do a workshop sort of thing.
• Poetry contests (a few kids did them last year)
• Maybe the bare books that we did last year, but I don't know how to get them and that would involve collecting money from the kids, which is a thing I'd rather stay away from
• Writing partners. In addition to the small groups we had last year (which I think is a good idea), we were thinking of maybe pairing up the kids with each other to write stories together. Kind of how Emily and I are working on the Peace/War poems together, but probably not of that ilk. My grandpa and I wrote a story together over email when I was in kindergarten and drew pictures for it in Paint. It'll probably be more like that. Some of them will be paired up with kids their own age, and some older kid/younger kid groups.

So that's what we've discussed so far. The next list is random brainstorming I'm doing on the spot that Emily and  I have yet to discuss. And I realize this bit sounds like one of those boring curriculum guides. But I'm surrounded by teachers, so their mental waves are probably rubbing off on me or something.

• Emphasis on reading other books and applying them to the students' writing
• Learning about quotation marks (which might not be appropriate for them. I don't know, because although I first learned about them in first grade in a small group with two other AG students, I'm sure most kids take longer.) I really enjoyed that, and it's good to know.
• More usage of the small group model. I feel like we get a lot of good stuff done in our writing club, and even though we're a bit older, I think they can get some benefit from a similar sort of thing as well. So what if at the beginning of the meeting they get into their groups and read to each other and give feedback? Not for very long, of course, since there's other things to do. We only see each other once every fortnight, yet I think we know each other pretty well considering it's only that often. Therefore I'm inclined to think that sharing writing= bonding of some sort, or at least familiarity.

I guess what I'm wanting is for this year to be more writing-centric, specifically improving it (the students' writing). And maybe what I have in mind is a little too intense and serious for the average elementary schooler. But it's what I would want, were I one of them instead of a manager/leader person.
Last year was pretty lax, I guess. Not much work was done. Mostly the kids just talked to each other about random stuff (and who am I to judge-that's what we do, too!) but our meetings aren't about doing the writing- we do that on our own time. These meetings are, however, and I want stories/poems/whatever to come out of them.

I was just called over into the media office where my mom's working, and there has been an email from my couselor (for those of you who read my massive rant before I removed it due to the fact I had calmed down and didn't need people to hear my anger anymore). Child Development has been removed from my schedule and Computer Programming has been inserted. Computer Apps (which is second semester) can be discussed in October. Apparently I am "very fortunate" that this change in schedule could be done. Ms. O'Riordan, in the words of those aliens from Toy Story, "You have saved my life (not really)- I am eternally grateful."
So there's some massive amounts of happiness.
And at the moment, my second semester seems pretty easy. I mean, sure, I have to start learning Latin, but I'll just park my TARDIS below the classroom and it can translate for me. So no sweat there.

Sorry...and also my query

"Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week." - George Bernard Shaw


It turns out there were a few things I intended to mention in my last post....but didn't.


Last night I said it was more important to focus on the "Martin" aspect of the character than the "guy" aspect of the character. Get to know him as MARTIN as opposed to A GUY. He has a personality. Let us readers find out what it is.


Also, there are some weird people walking around Food Lion at 9:00 at night. After we dropped Emily and Jessica off at their house, we went to get some milk, and the moment we got back in the car we both voiced the same thought: "There are a lot of weird looking people around Food Lion at night." 
(Actually, it turned out that Mom had gone to the store as well, so now we have 5 gallons of milk.)


I started Part 6 of Ascension last night. Hopefully it will be longer than the rest of them, since they've been getting steadily shorter and shorter. The plot is progressing.


Now to send out those queries.


And here's my query letter, for those who weren't there. It's been edited since last night, so even if you were there, please give any feedback on my changes.

Dear [Agent],

Nearly every civilization has a coming of age rite. In the 51^st century, 15 year-olds travel to the dark side of their tidal-locked planet to live without adult influence for a month.

When Terry Massey first arrives, she’s expecting to have a blast, make the friends she’s never had, and start a new life. Her first few hours are great, but then things start to take a turn for the worse. An informal gang of thugs is terrorizing specific people for no apparent reason, her new friend is furious with her, and she’s surrounded by robots who might be trying to take over the world. The only person she identifies with keeps melting away into the shadows, and by trying to find him, she only succeeds in further isolating herself from the rest of her peers within the paradise of an enormous library.

She discovers a hinting of a secret of epic proportions within that library, as well as Colin, the devilishly charming and clever boy who led her there in the first place. As events escalate with the unbelievably irrational behavior of the rest of their age-group— especially the thugs— Terry and Colin join forces with several tea-addicts who sound like computers and an infuriating old man with secrets of his own. Together they must discover the truth behind both the actions of their fellow citizens and the enormous conspiracy that’s been lurking in the Palace’s tower for hundreds of years. And with the thugs after them, they’d better do it fast.

THE CLOCKWORK EXPERIMENT clocks in, if you’ll pardon the pun, at about 83,000 words. I live in Cary, North Carolina, and I’ve been writing for about 8 years; however, this is my first novel.

Thanks for your time and consideration.

           

                                    Sincerely,

           

                                                   Olivia Wood

On Hot Guys (haha)

"It's to see without looking,
to read without words,
to feel deeper than just the surface,
to do the impossible." response to the question "What is love?" by Cavalier on the Nerdfighter forums.

There were what, 10 of us at the meeting tonight? I think that's probably a record.


Emily, can you send me/post in a comment the rules for that type of poem you read? I want to try writing one.


The only downside about having so many people is that not everyone gets to read. It's great to hear different opinions on stuff, but it's also nice to have a lot of stuff to give opinions about. And now my stack of un-read ARCs has grown to 4 books high.


So Delaney and Sarah Gray are in favor of the Generic Hot Guy. Which, I agree, is sexist. But who doesn't like the Generic Hot Person of the Opposite Sex? It's just that some of us feel bad about it, and others don't see anything wrong with it. At least, that's my perception. (On a related note, I read yesterday about a phenomenon known as the "Edward Cullen High," a term which I thought was hilarious. It's the same thing as what my dad calls "Twilightus.")


But as we discussed two meetings ago, fiction has an effect on real life. If we demote guys to nothing but Hot or Not So Much, then that's bad, even if it's only consciously in terms of fictional ones. It's important to remember that other people are people like ourselves, as opposed to An Attractive Piece of Flesh And Nothing More. While they're enjoyable in fiction (as we the readers don't actually have to interact with them), in terms of real life, it's not as appealing.


And speaking of which, the "I think you should mention that the only person she identifies with is a hot guy" comment in reference to my query letter, was definitely true. And also funny. So good for you.


And there's my segway into the part about myself. I'm glad that all of you thought the query letter was pretty good. That makes me feel loads better. In fact, for my readers who I don't know IRL, I'll post it for you to take a crack at it as well. Look for that...soon.
I'll be sending out the next batch of e-queries tomorrow morning, then. It'll give me a valid excuse for not working on my essay. And if none of those tests come back positive, I'll start in on the snail mail ones in September or so. 


All of my other projects or sort of in a "I Don't Know Where I'm Going Mode" as my one sister decided to drop out of all of them. So now I'm not exactly sure what to do. But I fully intend to finish them in one shape or another.

Vessel of Varied Topics

As the title of a recent episode of a podcast I follow said.


"You're cooler than the flip-side of my pillow." -One of my sister's friends (in this case not to anyone or anything in particular. She just says it sometimes.)


5th grade boys are just plain strange. Sorry, male readers, but you used to be one, and while I may understand you better now, that inner 5th-grader is still there somewhere, buried deep down inside of your souls. This point comes as a result of a conversation I had with aforementioned sister about some boys in her class last year. Some guys don't understand girls/women. But it is really you who are the enigmas. End of topic.


I didn't read my query letter at the meeting today, as I had planned, as the two people I really wanted critiques from weren't there. (I depend on you to make my stuff better, you know. I don't just bring stuff in for fun, even if that is part of it.) Next time, probably.


There weren't any new people, and while new people are interesting, I was glad for a small group of people who have been around for awhile. It was more relaxed, and we had more time. We were even done slightly early (**gasp**).


I read a poem, which is something I don't do very often. It got exactly the reception I'd hoped for, so that was good. :)


And I missed Beth. She was the first person at writing club to hear one of my stories ("Last of the Nine, in case anyone was interested. Sorry for those of you who aren't in the club and don't know what I'm talking about), and the story she read at that meeting remains my favorite out of  all the ones I have heard (at meetings) since. Sorry.


I suppose that now I'm slowly accumulating non-IRL followers, I should be more conscientious of them. 
So if my blogging about more personal things that you don't understand bothers you, please tell me. I won't stop, but I'll cut down on it. Really the only super-personal ones are Wednesday evenings every other week, because I've just seen everyone at our meeting. So you shouldn't worry about it too much. But tell me if it bothers you.

We're Tough

One quick thing before I get on to my main topic.

I hate when people say "You have great taste in music." All it means is "You like the same music that I do!" It's very arrogant (yes, subconsciously arrogant) to presume that your tastes are the objective standard for "good/great taste."

Anyways.

My sister and I were having an...um...argument, of sorts today. I was giving her critiques on some of her writing...and perhaps I was a bit harsh.

 I think I have less inhibitions about telling her exactly what I think, as opposed to keeping my mouth shut, because as my sister, she's "required" to "like" me. Friends are only your friends because they like you. Siblings and other family members have no choice. So you have to be more careful and polite with friends. Because they can always leave.

Now, I usually don't have many negative things to say about my friends, and usually the ones I do have aren't very negative at all. Even my criticism of writing or whatever isn't negative. It's just "it would be better if..." But still

But that isn't all.

At writing club, I'm used to my work being torn at. And I'm glad for it, because it ends up better. I don't take it personally. I take it as a compliment that you care enough about me and my work to want to make it better.

And you all are used to it as well. We're tough, but sometimes I forget that other people aren't used to it.

Also, I'm participating in Life in a Day. It's a YouTube project where you upload stuff filmed on the 24th that answers any of the following questions: "What do you love?" "What do you fear?" "What makes you laugh?" and "What's in your pockets?"

My parents were gone most of the afternoon shopping for furniture, so I didn't get to do the thing I was planning on, unfortunately. But I'll still upload what I have, and that will be that.