Update version… oh nevermind.

It’s been awhile, folks. Here’s a quick sum up of things that have happened in the last four months:

• Graduated college (May)
• Enrolled at Pace University, NY (April)
• Moved back home (June)
• Got my first iPhone (June)
• Started Freelancing work (June)

There haven’t been a lot of big things happening, I suppose, but the end-of-semester craze caught me up and took me away. The post-graduation weeks were spent taking it easy and preparing myself for the transition home. Now, I’m preparing myself for a transition to New York and full-adult life.

I’ve signed up for four classes at Pace University, starting in the fall, and I’m honored to have been chosen for a graduate assistantship. This means that I’ll be crazy busy doing the things I love, which is okay. Also, I’ll be in New York City. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I’d be able to go there, much less go to graduate school there! How crazy is that?! When people ask me how I feel about it, obviously I talk about my excitement. But there’s also a form of awe that replaces my excitement. New York City? Really?

Regardless of how I’m feeling at any given moment, it’s happening! And I’ll be sharing all my adventures and misadventures (probably more of these than the former) with you guys, step by baby step (though probably on my other blog).

In terms of writing, I’d like to record a few goals here so as to give myself something creative to aim for over the summer. I tried (and failed) to participate in April’s CampNaNoWriMo, so I’m going to try again in July. I haven’t decided what I want to do for it this year, but I think I might expand the novel that I started for my senior thesis.
Also, cool thing to note:

• Got published for the first time!

Granted, it was in my school’s literary arts magazine, but I’ll take it. I plan to republish the piece in a few days time for your enjoyment =)

On another note, I’ve been considering doing more creative Nonfiction writing. I took a class on it this past semester, and I realized that I very much enjoyed that kind of writing. In order to consider exploring and understanding my style in the CNF form, I am going to keep writing… and hopefully publishing, some on here.

Another thing that I want to begin exploring and writing on is the website Medium. I’m fascinated by the diversity of content and style, so I think it’d be worth delving into. I have yet to post anything on the site, but once I do, be assured that you guys will hear of it. =)

I think that is all for now. Forgive me for my hiatus! Sometimes life claims you and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

Presenting… Girl in the Middle!

 

Guys, it’s here! “Girl in the Middle” is now available at Barnes and Noble!! Seriously guys, go check it out.

I can’t say enough how happy and blessed I am to have been involved with this project. The learning opportunities have been abundant, and I’ve discovered something I love doing, an object of passion. It’s been cool to see how my love of writing has led to the discovery of the field of publishing. Bailey has been elemental in this discovery because of her willingness to involve in me in the production of her first novel, and I can’t imagine how excited she must be over this if I’m as excited as I am. 

It was the debut of the Professional Editing/Proofreading/Publishing class, fall 2012. When I first saw this class offering, I was ecstatic. I’d always loved editing, so my hopes for this class were high. In the end, looking back on it now, the class far exceeded my expectations; the entire class got to be involved in two publications (the Journal of Union Faculty Forum and Girl in the Middle, the young adult novel). I poured myself into the paragraphs, especially when it came to the novel; it was during the review of the first couple chapters that I realized my affinity for working on books over academic-style publications. Throughout the process of editing, I fell more in love with the process, and I realized that this is what I was made for. It was a cool realization, and a little scary. So, I’ve run with it, and it’s been a really cool experience to start figuring out what’ll happen after graduation. I’ve been thinking about grad school, and the program offerings at a few of my “top schools” (Pace University and University of Baltimore are two that stand out) have boggled my mind. Who knew that grad school got so specific!?! Frankly, I’m excited to see where my life goes.

I’ve also been considering internships, and in fact, I had applied to a telecommuting internship for this fall at Familius. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself in the top twenty selected to continue the application process. Ultimately, it didn’t work out, but the fact that I’d survived the first culling was enough to keep me going. Right now, I’m helping Bailey out with doctoral research, which will be used to inform the characters in her dissertation, which will be a sequel to Girl in the Middle. Guys, I’m so excited to be involved. No words at all. =) 

Suffice to say, finding your niche changes everything. Before I stumbled on this hidden passion of mine, writing seemed like it could become a drag. Don’t get me wrong… I love writing, but I love the revision process even more; it’s almost like it’s a different kind of writing. Now that I have more of an idea of where my time will go, I don’t feel as pressured to churn out short stories and poetry like a manic genius. I’ve decided that I can take it slower and spend more time cultivating ideas and characters, because that’s how I do things. If there’s something I’ve realized about myself in the last couple months, it’s that I’m a slow, sequential/logical processor; I have a hard time starting something and not finishing it. If I don’t end up finishing something before I start something else, it’s likely that I’ll never finish anything, which is why I have a lot of half-finished short stories and unrefined poetry stowed in my computer folders. Everything is organized, but it’s an organized chaos of words. Even the novel I’ve been “working on” for over a year isn’t anything more than a whole lot of historical stuff. It’s cool, but it’s not the actual story, and this is connected to that “sequential” thing I mentioned earlier; I can’t write a story unless I know a good deal of the background information, and for a world that only exists in my head, I have to get it out and down. To rival the clamor of my characters in Erad-du (yeah… I’ve named something… can you believe it?), I have my thesis stuff to think about. After a solid couple months of thinking about it, I’ve pinned down the idea I want to be writing about, but have yet to really produce anything I want to continue to work on… but I’m getting inspiration from EVERYWHERE. So it’s a good and bad problem. 

So, yes. BUY THE BOOK AND REVIEW IT!! =D You won’t regret it, really. 

Anyway, this is my update. A little scatter-brained, but such is my life recently.