Random Bits

I'm so proud of myself, I went to all my classes today! I know, it's really not that hard to go to all of your classes, but I just think about how it would be so much easier if I skipped one and took a nap. I love naps! So, it was a great accomplishment to not give in to my desire for sleep.

I think I'm going to Wales next summer. I went to an information meeting last night which was so cool. It did mean that I had to miss Leading Edge, but I'll go to Leading Edge a ton before I ever go to Wales. And P.S. I love You is currently one of my favorite movies. I love the part when they get to Ireland. Basically, I watch it for that, but the other stuff's good too.

Also, I bought my first bit of eggnog a few days ago. That stuff only comes around from now until Christmas time, so I have to take advantage while I can. It's pretty good. And that's about all of my news at this moment.

Rain, Rain, Please Stay

Okay, something major happened today: I started enjoying my Shakespeare class. It's not that I didn't enjoy it before, it was just challenging. But now we're brainstorming about research topics, and I'm having a really great time. So, my Shakespeare class is no longer the bane of my fall semester. I suppose I'll have to think of something else to substitute for it.

I tried looking for something to do with Shakespeare and soccer. There are some articles that I found that I want to look at. Tonight, I'm going to look at Shakespeare and science fiction or fantasy, something Lord of the Rings-esque. I can write my research paper on whatever I can find that works, so who knows.

And I love rain. I heard some people complaining about the rain, but really it's not that bad. I could see myself living somewhere where it's rainy. It's just so cozy. I don't know. Maybe it's because I grew up in mostly dry areas. I was born in Colorado, but I don't remember too much about it. Then we lived in El Paso, Texas, which is probably one of the hottest places ever. Our grass never grew, and our front yard was lava rocks. Now my family lives in Boise, which is still classified as a desert because it gets less than 10 inches of rain a year. I think it's still a pretty place though. Maybe I'll see how I like a year in a rainy place. Of course, first I must finish up my time here in college in Provo. It's a nice place, although I worry about the safety of pedestrians. I suppose it's about the same for most college towns.

Snowman

I wrote another song last night. First I wrote a ten page paper though, which was actually one of the funnest papers I've ever written. It was for my Myth, Legend, and Folktales class. Man, I love that class! I had to write a book article outlining some of the major plot points that corresponded with the Hero's Cycle in any book of my choice. I chose Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn: The Final Empire. I think the Mistborn trilogy, even though I'm still trying to finish up the last book, has actually helped me understand another level of folklore. It's one thing to read about folklore and recognize it in your everyday life, but it's something special to watch the process unfold as it does in the Mistborn books.

So, I got to write ten pages on that. It didn't take me very long. As nerdy as it sounds, writing about Brandon Sanderson's book made me really excited to go home and do something. There's something about myth, legend, folktales, and fantasy in general that just gets me so excited. I definitely chose the right major.

Anyway, I was pretty hyper when I got home at 11 last night, but I wanted to write a song. So I did. It's about a snowman. I like it a lot. I think it might be my favorite of all the songs I've written so far. And now, I'm still feeling that jittery excitement, so I think I'l use it to get some writing done.

Per-maybe-haps...

I set a goal for how many words I wanted to write per day this week. Yeah, it totally did not happen. I had the bar set at 1500, but maybe since it's midterm time, I'll take it down a notch. I think today's the first day this week that I really have some time to myself. Crazy.

I don't know if this a good thing or a bad thing for my writing, but I've been writing some songs. My friends want me to put them up on youtube, and I might. I don't think I'd ever do anything professionally with music unless some opportunity arose, but I have a lot of fun. I actually wrote a song about one of my characters, except it's been like 2 months and I haven't finished it. Part of that is that I haven't finished the book, and I don't quite know how this guy's story turns out. But hopefully I'll be able to write at least some words this week, if only like ten, and then before you know it, I'll figure out how to end the song.

Oh wait, I lied. I did write a little bit. There's a flash fiction contest by the word of mouth podcast. It has to be under 100 words (including the title) and include character, conflict, and resolution. I wrote out some funny ones, and I think I might send one in. You never know. I believe the deadline for those is October 11th. I've got to go for now, but I'll come back and add in the link in case anyone is interested.

At Long Last

I have some great news! One of my poems, called "Broken Glass," has been accepted by Leading Edge, a science fiction and fantasy magazine run by BYU students and editors. It was kind of a sudden thing. At the beginning of September, I became the Poetry Director at Leading Edge. The previous Poetry Director has been promoted. So, I went through the poetry binder and did a lot of sorting and mailing and stuff. Our next issue is set to be out sometime soon, and I soon discovered that we were lacking in the poetry area. So, I decided to write a poem of my own just to see how it would do. I don't write much poetry now. I know at the beginning of my blog I have some poems that I wrote just when I was bored or for a class. But I concentrate most of my writing time on stories.

I had some cool ideas running around in my head that night, which was lucky, and then I took my poem to Leading Edge to see what the reaction would be. I got one of everything, a pass, a reject, and a rewrite. So, I rewrote it and brought it back. No, I didn't accept it because I wrote it. I accepted it because other editors read over my poem and said that it was good. It wouldn't have been fair if I had done things that way.

But as it is, my poem is going to come out in this next issue of Leading Edge! If you would like to purchase a copy of Leading Edge or submit a story or poem, please go to the website and follow the instructions.

It's a little weird thinking that I wrote something that's going to be published. I mean, it is just a little poem that I wrote, but everyone has to start somewhere right? Hopefully this is just the first step. Good luck to all of you writers out there! And feel free to submit your works to Leading Edge as long as they follow the guidelines. We always enjoy reading a good story or poem.