Going to Florida... AGAIN!

I can't believe it. My family is taking a road trip to Florida this week! It's weird. I feel like I just got back from the Florida Christian Writers Conference, and now I'm heading right back down that way. Ha.

The reason we're going is that my brother, who blogs as DTHRocket, wants to visit a college down there. We'll be camping in Daytona, and then we're hoping to go see a space shuttle launch, one of the last ones they're going to do.

Well, I've got to get back to packing. I'm so excited!

Under the Stars (a tag or two)

Melody from Vividry gave me the Music shuffle tag! Here's how it works: Put your music player on shuffle. Then answer the following questions by using the title to each song that plays while on shuffle. 

This might be interesting, because I have so many soundtracks on my ipod… Here goes:

Are you male or female? Remembering Childhood (from Hook soundtrack) 

What do people feel when they are around you? One of Those Days (from Night at the Museum soundtrack) —I'm not sure how to take that…

Describe your current relationship?  O Church, Arise (Keith & Kristyn Getty) 

Where would you like to be right now? Walk Like An Egyptian (Go Fish) - oookay… I guess Egypt it is…

How do you feel about love? Danny Boy (James Galway) - LOL! That's my brother!

What's your life like? Created For This (Go Fish) 

What would you wish for if you only had one wish? Circle Of Life (Lion King soundtrack)

Say something wise: Dubrinium (Pendragon soundtrack) - Is that wise?

If someone says "Is this okay. . ." You say? Presenting the Hook (from Hook soundtrack) - I'll plunge me hook into you, matey!

How would you describe yourself? Here I Am (Spirit soundtrack) - That works, I guess. :)

How do you feel today? Where You Belong/Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus (Newsboys) - That's a good one!

What is your life's purpose? Slaves and Masters (Pendragon soundtrack) 

What is your motto? This One (Michael Pearce Donley)

What do your friends think of you? Jazz Suite No.2 —Waltz (Dmitri Shostakovich)

What do you think of your parents? Alright (Go Fish) - No, really, they're better than just alright!

What do you think of very often? Uranus, the Magician (from The Planets, by Gustav Holst) - Uranus? Why Uranus? In any case, I'm thinking of it now!

What is 2+2? Big Fan (Night at the Museum soundtrack)  - No, I'm not a big fan of numbers…

What do you think of your best friend? Introduction (to "The Prodigal's Sister," an audio book!)

What is your life story? With My Life (Pendragon soundtrack)

What do you want to be when you grow up? The Submarine (Atlantis soundtrack) - LOL! I think my ipod has a sense of humor…

What will you dance to at your wedding? The Banquet (Hook soundtrack) - Does that prove it or what?

What will they play at your funeral? Socca (Equador Mantra) - They're going to play lively South American music at my funeral? Fun!

What is your hobby/interest? That's How You Know (Enchanted soundtrack) - Huh? Know what?

What is your biggest fear?  Lucy Meets Mr. Tumnus (Chronicles of Narnia) - THAT'S my biggest fear? Mr. Tumnus? I LIKE Mr. Tumnus!

What is your biggest secret?  River Secrets, chapter 3 (audio book) - What a coincidence!

What do you think of your friends? One of These Days (FFH) - It's only slightly different from the answer to "What do people feel when they are around you?"

What will you re-post this as? Under the Stars (Lion King soundtrack)

I tag:

Hepzibah

Galadriel

Bethany

Gray

(It's totally optional, but very fun.)

Melody also tagged me with the "Which 8 books would you like to live in for a week" tag.

Eight books, huh? Okay…

1. The Binding of the Blade,  by L. B. Graham. (I'm counting series as one book) I'd love to live in Kirthanin! And it would be awesome to see the events happening before my very eyes.

2. Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis. Who doesn't want to go to Narnia? Of course, I'd probably want to stay there longer than a week…

3. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien. Another given. Any part of the book would be fine. Except… maybe when they're in Shelob's Lair. *Shudder* I don't like spiders. Especially giant ones.

4. Dragons in Our Midst, by Bryan Davis. I would so want to meet Bonnie and Billy and Prof and the rest.

5. The Blue Sword, by Robin McKinley. Damar is such a cool place. I'd love to hop on one of the amazing horses and gallop across the desert in my pajamas. :)

6. The Flicker Chronicles, by Me.  Yeah… The Inner Realms are all so colorful. I love color. And I'd love to interact with my characters in real life.

7. Peter Pan, by J. M. Barrie. I don't like any of the movies (except for Hook), but I love the book. It has a certain sparkle to it. And I'd love to show Peter Pan a thing or two, and bring his cockiness down a notch. He's not the only one who can fly, after all. 

8. Dinotopia, by James Gurney. Okay, I admit it. I'm a Dinotopia geek. I like books with pictures. Especially colorful pictures of adventurous people living peaceably with dinosaurs on a lost island that no one knows about. How cool is that? And of course, the story isn't half-bad, either.

I just realized that all of these are fantasy. Oops. I was planning on including a few non-fantasy. Oh well.

I'm supposed to tag 8 people for that last one, but I'll be lazy and leave it open. If you want to do it, I tag you.

I'm Editing Right Now

Sorry I haven't been blogging much lately-- I'm right in the thick of National Novel Editing Month, a.k.a. NaNoEdMo. It's inspired by NaNoWriMo, but instead of writing a novel... you edit one.

You can read last year's post about it here. Last year I failed. I didn't make it to the goal of 50 hours, even though I did make quite a bit of progress in my plot. This year I'm working on The Shadow of Rebellion 2-4 hours every day.

Anyway, I should get back to editing now. I just thought I'd let you all know what I'm up to.

Cheerio!

My Adventures in Florida

Now that I've had a chance to finally unpack and get some sleep, here's my post about my experiences at the Florida Christian Writers Conference!

I took the Greyhound bus with my mom from Minneapolis to Ocala, Florida. 36 hours. Not fun. (If there's a next time, I'll probably take a plane, even though it's more expensive.) Anyway, when I finally got to the Lake Yale conference center, I just wanted to collapse on a bed and sleep. I'm glad we got there a day early, because then I could relax a little before the conference started. The location was beautiful, right by the lake.

The conference was amazing. Bryan Davis (who wrote Dragons in Our Midst) taught the Teen Track, and it was so much fun to interact with him and the other teens.

If I had to pick my favorite part about the conference, it would be the late-night critique sessions with the Teen Track. Each person had a chance to have their work-in-progress put up on the projector, and then the other teens would have a chance to give suggestions and ask questions. Then Bryan Davis would go through line-by-line and work with it, and helped the writer see how to improve it. These sessions were so much fun, and I learned a lot. 

Here's a picture of the entire teen track, including Sam the Hippo :)

I met so many cool people at the conference. Aside from the teen track, I met Jesse Florea (the editor of Clubhouse Magazine), talked with Torry Martin (the awesome creator of the character Wooton Bassett from Adventures in Odyssey!), and took several workshops taught by Jeff Gerke (who started the Christian Speculative Fiction publishing company Marcher Lord Press). By the end of the week, my head was swimming just trying to remember all the names of the people I'd met!

For me, the most unbelievable part of the conference was when I won the award for "Best work for a first-time conferee." At first I thought that someone had made a mistake. I was so overwhelmed. I felt like God was telling me that I'm on the right track.

After the long bus trip home, I had to sleep for a week. But the conference was such a great experience that I'd love to go again next year, even though I don't know if it would be possible. Anyway, I'm glad to be home, and I'm excited to be working on my writing projects again!

Florida Christian Writers Conference!

Yup, I'm going!

My mom and I will board a Greyhound bus at one in the morning (Tuesday), and we'll travel more than 1,500 miles to get to Ocala, Florida, where we'll rent a car and drive the rest of the way to the conference at the Lake Yale conference center. I'll be doing the Teen Track with Bryan Davis, author of the Dragons in Our Midst series and other cool books. I've never gone to a writers conference before, so I'm not sure what to expect, but I'm excited all the same. Here are my goals for the conference:

-First of all, to learn. I want to learn as much as I can about the craft of writing and editing, so I can improve my craft and better prepare my manuscripts for publication.

-To step out of my comfort zone and meet other writers. I'm not a networker, and talking to people in person has always been hard for me, but I want to overcome that. I'm looking forward to the teen critique sessions, where we can interact and help each another while working on our manuscripts.

-To explore the publishing world, which I know almost nothing about so far. I'm not ready to submit query letters, or anything like that yet, but I want to keep my eyes and ears open and see how the industry works, and which publishers might be a good choice for me in the future.

While I'm at the conference, my mom will spend a relaxing time resting and scrapbooking.  :)

It would be great if you could pray for me this week. I'd really appreciate it. Please pray for safe travel both ways, health for me and my mom, that this conference would be a positive experience, and that I would not be afraid to approach people and make friends.

I've got to go pack now! I'll be back on Monday the 8th.