The World is My Classroom, Part 2

As I sit at my desk amidst the mess of my clothes, books, and art supplies, anticipation rises for tomorrow, when my college classes resume. I attend Northwestern College in Minnesota, where I am in my second year of studying art and animation.

In this previous post from 2010, I gave my reasons for not going to college, and what that meant for my education. But since I’ve now been in college for a year and a half, I’ve decided that it’s time to add to the record of my unusual educational journey.

I loved growing up homeschooled, and my “2 years off” after high school were packed with even more fantastic learning opportunites. I attended the Florida Christian Writers Conference, wrote two more novels and started a couple of screenplays, practiced my drawing, studied story structure, read voraciously, took over ten thousand photos, earned some money, performed a piano solo at the State Fair, and dissected my favorite movie plots.

However, despite all of this, I eventually realized that God had something more in store for me. (Isn’t that a common theme?)

Some of the reasons I finally decided to go to college:

-I finally figured out what career path I wanted to pursue (pre-production for animated films), and I needed to learn and improve my skills a lot before I was ready for it. I know there are a lot of great online schools out there, but a traditional college seemed like the best environment for me.

-I began to feel lonely spending all day at home, since everyone in my family either worked during the day or went to school themselves. Despite my severe introverted tendencies, I wanted to be a part of a community that fosters faith, learning, and fellowship.

-College can be a fantastic place to make important connections, find opportunities and new experiences, and become a well-rounded human being. At home I was so wrapped up in my own little world, and I wanted to break out of my self-inflicted shell of comfort.

-I felt like God wanted me to go to college for his own reasons. He’s omnicient, so of course he’d know what’s best for my life. I decided to trust him and go.

-Last, but not least, I was intensely curious about the whole thing.

I looked at several colleges, and after praying a lot about it, I found myself here.

Many of my peers have a like-minded passion for learning, which is both exciting and inspiring for me. Some, however, simply float through college and aren't even sure what it means to learn. I try to enjoy every day (even the challenges), and embrace each door that God places before me in my path to knowing more about Him and His incredible creation. 

NaNoWriMo... AGAIN!

So, it's November.

You know what that means, right?

NaNoWriMo! 
(aka National Novel Writing Month)

Yup, I'm writing another novel. I don't know when I'll find the time to squeeze it in around work and college and work and more college... Yeah.

But I do have some secret weapons:

-M&Ms
-Write or Die
-Fingerless gloves
-Friends who are also writing!
-My Snowflake document 
-A NaNo playlist full of soundtrack music that fits my story
-A Pinterest pinboard full of images that make me excited to write
-My sketchbook

My novel this year is fantasy with strong elements of steampunk. It's set in Victorian London. I've been doing a lot of research in the last year or so getting ready for this, and I STILL don't feel qualified to write about a real time and place. So I'm just going to toss all my nonfiction books about Victorian London out the window and write the dang story first.

Title: Twyndyllyng

The story revolves around a young inventor named Alexander "Phoenix" Gaffney, the son of two ornithologists. He's working on a revolutionary invention that could change history forever if successful - the world's first flying machine. His only problem: ever since boyhood he has been cursed with a degenerative disease that will kill him if a cure is not found.

His mother, who gave him his mythical nickname when he was first diagnosed, raised him on fanciful stories of a powerful being called the Twyndyllyng, the magical link between humans and birds. If anyone could help him, the Twyndyllyng could. However, the Twyndyllyng has not been seen for over a century, and for Phoenix, time is running out. And if by some miracle, he can find the Twyndyllyng, he may find that she's not at all what he expected.


That's it, folks! What are YOU doing this November?

Lost in a Patch of Melancholy Wildwood

(Written while walking by the lake at my college)

Why does walking in the woods make me feel melancholy? Why do I feel sadness at the trees and birds and dirt and leaves?

The humid air can't be the reason, because I feel the same way in the fresh morning stillness and in early spring's snowy slumber.

Wild raspberries
Cattails at the lake's edge
Oaks near the sky
Wind rustling leaves all around me
Distant road noise
Ferns on my left in feathery whorls rising to my hip.
Why the bittersweet longing?
Why the deep sighs?
Why the film of water over my eyes?

Mud, packed hard beneath my shod feet.
One dead yellow leaf.
One sick red leaf, still attached to the stalk.

More ferns, an oak rising from their midst. Steadfast and older than my house.
The hill behind looms like a buried wall mossed over by time. Baby birches try to win each patch of sunlight dappled on the slope.

Crack.
I step on a gnarled twig and wish I didn't have to wear shoes. Shoes are for people who conform to society - to a city life.
I may be in St. Paul, but I'm lost in a patch of melancholy wildwood.
Well, not exactly lost - since I have yet to stray more than a few feet from the hard-packed mud path.

The breeze stirs the water into tiny ripples, dozens upon dozens of neat little lines swarming toward me on the bank. But a net of reeds stops them, surrounding my hidden spot of shade with inch-deep, still pools where a blue damselfly hovers. He comes close to see my shoe, his wings invisible until he comes to rest on a green frond. His bulbous eyes regard me even as I regard him.
Splash.
What was that? Are there fish in this little lake? The ripples grow, then diminish again.

Now a fallen tree, split lengthwise down the trunk, forgotten by the others who still stand tall, piled over with dead branches and fungi.

A board by the lakeside, covered with moss on one half. What is it from? A quarter-sized shard of bright blue plastic rests on top. The husk of a fallen wasp nest shares the clearing, as well as a diet coke bottle, missing its label.

Now I can see a giant crane across the lake, a marvel of metal and cable looming over the full crown of a mature tree in someone's backyard.
I return to the path.

Orange collars around doomed trees and the stump of one already taken. A pink flag half-buried in the sandy soil says "wetland delineation" I think.

Mud puddles in the tire tracks.

Hey! There's another path branching off. Should I take it? It goes up the hill and disappears. But my feet are tired, and the flat path I'm on goes around a bend. I can't alter course now. Onward!

A red-painted stake labeled OAK
Some questionable red-orange berries.
Stinging nettles!

I hear an animal in the ferns. Probably a chipmunk. But no! I see now that it is a gray squirrel. I should have known. The campus here is overrun with the cheeky little blighters.

With all this humidity, it smells like Como Conservatory. I can almost imagine I'm in Florida. I hear the tropical sounds of a chittering woodpecker and the sweet warble of a curious oriole. They must think I'm odd, trying to write while I walk. I stumble over a bump and stand still, hearing more birdsong mingled with the beeping sound of a vehicle backing up somewhere. A robin scolds me, for standing too close to her nest, I suppose. Very well, Mrs. Robin. I shall continue my hike.

At last I come to the place where a stream empties into the the lake, after tumbling over some rocks.

Packing peanuts and Styrofoam coffee lids? Tut-tut.

I sit down by the mini waterfall and inspect the rocks. These look man-made. Yes, I believe they are. Someone has poured concrete over the little rocks on either side of the rapids, perhaps to control erosion. The water smells brown. Crusty foam eddies up into the crevices by my feet. If I was feeling more adventurous, I'd hop across on the damp rocks to the other side. What interesting sights and smells lie over there?

But I have a bag full of sketchbooks and my Wacom tablet, so maybe that wouldn't be a wise endeavor for today.

People wade in the shallows upstream. Talking, but I cannot understand them from here. I pick out the word "slimy" and that's it.

And now I reach the end of the path. As I step out into the empty parking lot, the hot sun instantly causes my neck to prickle with sweat. Ah. The enchanted walk is over. The melancholy has evaporated. Life is back to normal.

Time for a snack.

London vs. New York City

This spring I've had the opportunity to visit two huge cities in two very different parts of the world. During spring break I went with my college's art department to London, and then after the semester ended, the Symphonic Band went on tour to New York City.

I had not been on a plane since I was five years old, and suddenly I had the opportunity to fly TWICE in one season!

My trip to London was by far one of the coolest things I've ever done. I've always dreamed of visiting the city. Not only is it the home of some of my favorite fictional characters, it's also where several of my own stories take place. I also took over a thousand pictures while I was there. Once I have the chance to go through them all, I'll post a few of the best on my photography blog.

I got to see so many things in London and the surrounding areas, but it felt like I never got to spend enough time doing any one thing, because we had so much more to do! Among the many wondrous things I saw: Windsor Castle, the Tower of London, the British Museum, a fantastic geek store called Forbidden Planet, Tower Bridge, and Kensington Gardens. We did a LOT of walking. In fact, one of my favorite things we did was a "Dickens walking tour of London," even though it rained part of the time. Since I'm working on a novel that is set in Victorian London, I loved learning about what life was like during that time period, and seeing nooks and crannies that still carry wisps of history.

I took a day trip out to Oxford by train with a couple other girls, and thoroughly enjoyed seeing C.S. Lewis's house "The Kilns", eating lunch at the magical "Eagle and Child" pub where Tolkien and Lewis's Inklings met, stepping into teeny shops, and wandering streets, getting lost and found again in the maze of cobble-stone alleyways... It's an enchanting place.

The only bad thing about my trip to London is that now I'm desperate to go back and LIVE there. Seriously.

New York is an entirely different experience, but it's no less impressive. To a girl from a suburban Minnesota farm, the dazzling array of lights, glass, steel, and people evoked an overwhelming feeling of other-worldliness. London was vibrant, but New York put me into sensory overload.

Since I went with my college's band, we got to do home-stays with some very interesting people. The tour to New York was combined with a few days in Pennsylvania, so we rented a bus and drove around a lot. Between New York and Pennsylvania, here are some of the things I did during the course of the trip:
-ate Philly cheese steak (my verdict-- meh)
-rode in a Mini Cooper (yay!)
-watched "Sherlock Holmes" in a host family's fancy home theater
-experienced a Long Island sunset on the beach
-learned what "Wawa" is
-stood beneath a dead whale shark
-went to McDonald's in Times Square
-stuttered awkwardly when someone begged for money (twice, I'm sad to say)
-saw a Jackson Pollock painting
-tasted "Water Ice"
-bought a calzone baked in a brick oven
-stood in the room where the Declaration of Independence was signed
-got in trouble for crawling over the railing at a Broadway show


In conclusion: New York was cool, but... I left my heart in London.

Big, Fun, Scary Adventures

Every time a new year rolls around, I make a list of Big, Fun, Scary Adventures I want to have in the upcoming weeks and months. This was started by the good folks at NaNoWriMo, and since I like it better than making ordinary resolutions, I've made it a tradition.

Last year's adventures did not all happen the way I'd hoped, but I had many great experiences anyway. The biggest, "funnest", and scariest adventure of last year? College. Yup, I started college. (I'll have another blog post about that later.)

This year, I've got quite a list of adventures. Some of them are bigger than others. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Build a treehouse
When my brother and I got home from break this year, we decided it was time to finally build that treehouse we've always wanted. Now that we're older, we can actually do it right. We're starting out with a goal of constructing a simple and sturdy platform aloft.

2. Cut my hair
I haven't cut my hair since.... middle school, I think. I was going to cut it last year, but I never got around to it. Time for a new look. (And possibly some extra cash if I can manage to sell it!)

3. Edit The Shadow of Rebellion
I wrote this sci-fi novel way back in 2008, and I've tried several times to edit it. This time, I'm actually going to push through all 100,000 words and get it polished up.

4. Go to London
Yes! If all goes as planned, I'll be in London over spring break! I've always wanted to visit there, and since I have a novel set in London, I'm excited to see it in person.

5. Finish setting up my Etsy shop
One of last year's adventures that I never completed, my Etsy shop needs some finishing touches. I'm hoping to sell handmade bags to start with, made from "upcycled" materials such as t-shirts and blue jeans.

6. Plan and script a webcomic
This is something I've wanted to do for years now, and never really got up the courage to try. I love to read webcomics, and I've got a bunch of stories that would look amazing in a visual format like a graphic novel. My goal is to write the script, design the characters, work out a style for the comic, and build up a buffer of pages before I start releasing it online, hopefully next January.

These are my Big, Fun, Scary Adventures for 2012! What are you hoping to do this year?

Another Round of Novel Writing

Yes.
It's that time of year again. November is, after all, National Novel Writing Month.

This will be my 7th year participating in NaNoWriMo, and hopefully the 7th time I "win," ending the month with another 50,000-word novel. I'm preparing to block myself from Facebook, lock myself in my dorm room, attempt to avoid any and all distractions, and write like there's no tomorrow.

Call me crazy, but this is my favorite activity of the year. This year I'm doing something totally new: I'm trying the seat-of-the-pants approach. No outline, no extensive worldbuilding, no research. Whee!

So what am I writing? Having been thoroughly inspired by books such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Airborn, and Leviathan, I'm going all-out Steampunk!

Y'know, like this:

Or like this:

Even though I don't have an outline, I do have a general idea of where I'll be heading with the plot. Here's a short teaser for Silver Sky:

"In an imaginary world where all compasses point to the Queen's palace, an awkward, bookish young woman named Sylvianna is shocked to find that her rich family is actually made up of feuding sky pirates. She's kidnapped by the worst of them all, a man named Sean Fletcher... her long-lost father.



As she reels with this discovery, she struggles against her family history, social expectations, and her own secret desires for adventure. But eventually, she realizes that she must become what she most hates -a pirate- to stop the empire from destroying itself."

Want to join the writing fun? Head on over to the NaNoWriMo website and get yourself signed up!

Welcome to My Treehouse

After much careful thought, I've decided to change the title of my blog from "Evergreena's Journal" to "Evergreena's Treehouse."

Why?

In the last few years since I started this blog, I've done a lot of exploring, learning, and growing. My life has expanded in many ways. When I first started my blog, I only knew that I loved to write. So I made that the main focus of my blog, creating an online "journal" where I could jot down my stories, goals, and random musings.

Lately I've been searching out God's will in my life, and how I should best use the gifts and passions he has given me:

--In early 2010, I went to the Florida Christian Writers Conference, and discovered that I don't love writing itself, I love story.

--Last December, I re-discovered my passion for art, and decided to embark on a self-taught journey until I start college as an art major next fall.

--In the last four or five months, I began to sense that God may have a place for me in the film industry, perhaps the animated film industry. I'm currently experimenting with animation and 3D modeling.

--I recently opened an online Etsy shop, Rachel's Re-Creations, where I hope to sell various items crafted from recycled materials.

--I continue to take thousands of pictures with my DSLR camera.

--And I'm still writing novels and short stories.

I don't fit in a "journal" anymore. That metaphor no longer applies. My multi-faceted life requires a bit more space to move around in online. I need a place where my friends can explore with me, a place where creativity happens. So I thought, "If I could build my dream studio in real life, what would it look like?"

A treehouse.

A no-brainer. My virtual treehouse is born!

And through all of this change and exploration, I know one thing for sure: whatever career path God leads me on in the future, I will always create.

Accomplishments and Adventures

I'm back! I dropped off the face of the blogosphere for over a month, and I'm sorry that I haven't been posting or commenting on other people's blogs. I've been so busy lately that I had to let my blog hibernate for a while.

It is that time of year again! I've been working on my list of Big, Fun, Scary Adventures for 2011. (These are akin to New Year's Resolutions, but Bigger, Funner, and Scarier... and more Adventurous!) Last year, I had these four:

1. Attend my first writers conference
Last March, I went all the way down to Florida for the Florida Christian Writers Conference, and I had a great experience and learned a lot. You can read my summary of the trip HERE.

2. Get my driver's license 
I completed this one just in time! Just a few days after Christmas, I passed my driving exam and got my license. Unfortunately, I don't have a car, so it doesn't help me much.

3. Write a song every month
This is the one goal that kind of flopped. I wrote lots of pieces and parts of songs, but I didn't finish any of them. Oh well.

4. Start a photography blog
I did start a photography blog, which you can visit HERE.


My list of Adventures for 2011:

1. Write 250,000 words
2. Set up an Etsy shop and sell stuff
3. Make a short film with my brother
4. Go to college
5. Cut my hair

Every single one of those goals is Big, Fun, and Scary. At least, for me.

The first one, about writing all those words, may best be broken down into monthly goals. So I started a list of writing goals from January through May:

January
-Write Nanooks in Trench Coats (this is goofy, crazy, 4-day novel writing race to 50,000 words with my brother. I already won, by the way.)
-Type out Greenheart, my NaNoWriMo novel that I wrote mostly by hand
-Plan and outline my 2YN novel (an online writing course I'm doing)

February
-Start writing my 2YN novel, and get at least 40,000 words into it

March  (National Novel Editing Month!)
-Finish editing The Shadow of Rebellion, my sci-fi novel

April (Script Frenzy!)
-Finish writing my screenplay "The Twin Confessions of Melody & Harmony"
-Write a steampunk short film script (yes, this ties in with Adventure #3 above!)

May
-Finish my 2YN novel (it's a young adult novel, so it'll probably end up around 75-90,000 words)

I haven't decided what my writing goals will be from June forward, because I may have new story ideas by then.

I make goals like this and write them down so that I'll have something to work toward, and when I come to the end of the year, I can look back and see how far I've come. It's both a motivator and an encouragement.

What are some of the big, fun, and scary adventures that you will have in the year 2011?

A Compass to Point the Way

For my birthday, my parents gave me this lovely brass compass. Cool, huh? It came in the mail today. Now my head is full of exploration and quests and sailing ships and steampunk-ish adventures. 

These words were in the card they gave me:

"You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13

May this gift always remind you of your true compass, the Word of God.

It's a good reminder.

Turning Twenty

Today is my last day as a teenager.

It's hard to believe, even for me. I certainly don't feel like a twenty-year-old. I've often felt that I don't fit my age, starting way back when I was eleven years old. I realized then that in many ways, I was both older and younger than other kids I knew. Here's why:

I felt older because I read so much and was well-informed about a wide variety of subjects (I think a lot of it came from being home-schooled, but that's another topic altogether). Also, I wasn't swayed by most of the fickle notions of my generation.

But at the same time, I felt younger. I didn't feel the need to grow up fast and be burdened with the cares of adulthood. I spent hours climbing trees and exploring in the woods with my siblings and the neighbor kids. My brother and I played with our Beanie Babies and created a world for them to inhabit in our imaginations (we continued to do this even through most of our teenage years). I was content to be a kid and let the adults deal with logistics and issues that came up. Many of my friends were eager to grow up, find new acquaintances, get a job, start a family, etc, but for me, it was enough to read and play.

It was a precious time for me, and I'm glad that I had such a great family who encouraged me and loved me all through my childhood.

It's weird to think that I'm leaving that era behind me now, as I make the transition into adulthood at last. I still don't feel ready to step out on my own, but I need to trust Jesus to guide and protect me as I follow his call for my life.

God willing, I'll find a college that feels right to me and I'll start the next stage of my education surrounded by Christian peers and mentors. I'll always love my family --they're my best friends-- but I know that I'm destined to eventually follow a new path, perhaps I'll start my own family someday (although that's really hard to imagine right now!)

So, as I take a deep breath and step into another year of life and growth, I'm turning my thoughts to the future and how I can use these next years to glorify God with my life as an adult.

Soli Deo Gloria!

The World is My Classroom

I made the decision not to go to college right now, so that I can pursue self-directed study. That may sound crazy to some people, but with the support of my parents, I decided that this is the best path for me, for now.

So what am I doing? What is "self-directed study?" I'm using these years to hone my writing skills, to study, practice, and learn more about photography and photo editing, and I'm attempting to capture and compose the music I hear in my head. I'm studying language, the sound and flow of words in English and other tongues. I'm reading books on writing, and analyzing my own writing for ways to improve. I'm journaling, journaling, journaling. I'm experimenting with photography, I'm trying my hand at portraiture. All of these things and more.

I must train myself to think of these years as my "college years," even though I'm not actually going there.  I need to get into that mindset, so that I'll start acting that way, with focused intensity, dedication, and imagination, so that I'll be productive and gain knowledge that will open doors for me in the future. Above all, I'm placing my trust in God's hands. I may not see it yet, but I know he has a plan for my life.


The world is my classroom... and now is the time for learning.

Diving into Script Frenzy!

Sorry I haven't posted sooner. I've been back for over a week now, but things have been so crazy!  And I now have 40 followers! Thanks, Margaret Rowena! :)

I'm right in the thick of Script Frenzy right now. It's a fun challenge to write 100 pages of a script during the month of April. I did it last year, and loved it, so this year I'm doing it again, this time with a goal of TWO screenplays! Heh. I may have bitten off more than I can chew. Here's a brief summary of my two projects:

Project #1
"The Twin Confessions of Melody and Harmony"
A screenplay, teen/family (and a hint of comedy)

Melody is a friendly girl with an academic mind, a gift with people, and a love for the great outdoors...  and she's clumsy.

Harmony is a solitary girl with her own ways of doing things, usually with her computer or a paintbrush, but she's socially awkward.

They’re both stubborn, creative, competitive... and they each have their secrets.

Filmmakers. Rivals. Twins.

Project #2

"Merrily"

Another screenplay. This one's a humorous fantasy action thriller. *grin* The kind that makes you want to eat Milk Duds while watching.

Merrily is a girl with a secret. She’s on the run from the FBI and a group of maniacal killers, even though she’s completely innocent. But that’s not her secret. 

Phoenix is a boy with a secret. His adoptive father works for the FBI, and his own inventions are sometimes purchased by the government. But that's not his secret.

They can fly.

When Phoenix is sent across the country on a mission to catch Merrily, he discovers that she's a whole lot more than anyone could have imagined. Together they search for the truth, and along the way, find that they're part of a much larger plan.

Ha! I finally have a plot! Yay! *ahem*

So, what do you think?  Can you picture these two ideas as movies?

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!

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.

The Thing About Plot Bunnies

What is a plot bunny?

plot bun•ny
noun
A seemingly exciting plot twist idea for your work-in-progress that takes the form of an adorable, infuriating rabbit who leads you down a winding trail that either goes on forever, and never ends anywhere; or takes you through a dark and scary forest; and sometimes ends up in a happy meadow; but most often it all ends up with you, the writer, falling into a rabbit-hole and having lots of wacky adventures in an insane world with oddly familiar people who vaguely resemble your characters.

How's that for a run-on sentence? Maybe I can get this definition into the dictionary.  :)

A New Adventure

I have taken the leap and created a new blog.

Evergreena's Journal will continue to be my "main" blog, for my poetry, writing stuff, and other creative endeavors. I've done some things with photography here. But I began to realize, especially after seeing Hannah's new project for the year (which you can visit HERE), that I wanted to do more with photography.

The new blog is (tentatively) called The Adventures of Evergreena and Her Camera. You can visit it at camera-adventures.blogspot.com  It's still under construction, but I would love it if you would comment on it and follow me there.

Hello, New Decade!

My 50th post, and the first of the year 2010! It's also the beginning of a new decade! Huzzah!

In honor of all my blog followers, I'm giving away this award to all of you. The "Good Times" Award! I made it especially for you wonderful people.

I'm looking both behind and ahead. 2009 was a pretty good year, even though I didn't accomplish many of my original goals. Let's review my "Big, Fun, Scary Adventures" list from the beginning of last year...

1. Read the encyclopedia
2. Build a treehouse
3. Edit my novel
4. Memorize Fighter Verses
5. Finish geometry
6. Get a driver's license
7. Start a card-making/altered book business

So... The only thing on my list that I actually accomplished was number 5= I did finish geometry. *joy upon joy*

However, I did memorize most of the fighter verses for 2009, and I read half a volume of letter "A" of the encyclopedia. And I did edit some of my novel, just not all of it.

Even though I didn't really finish all my goals, I did have a few unexpected highlights. For example:
-I graduated from high school
-My family drove down to the Grand Canyon on an epic road trip
-We made an award-winning movie
-I took first place in archery
-I wrote another novel, this time by hand.

And now, my goals for 2010, also known as Big, Fun, Scary Adventures!

1. Attend my first writers conference! 
I am all signed up for the Florida Christian Writers Conference, and I'm excited and nervous about it. My mom and I are going together, and I'll be doing the Teen Track with Bryan Davis, the author of the Dragons in Our Midst and Oracles of Fire series. I encourage any of you who are interested in writing to come! I don't think it's too late to sign up.

2. Get my driver's license!
I've been putting this off for too long.

3. Write at least one song every month!
Ever since I got my keyboard, my interest in songwriting has grown, and now I've recorded a few short pieces. If I can figure out how to post them, I will.

4. Start a photography blog!
This is a last-minute idea I got from Hannah. I'm not yet sure what form my new blog will take, but I love photography, and she has inspired me to step out and try something new. I'll let you know more as this gets started up.

So these are my goals, my dreams, my adventures for the year 2010. I continually dedicate my life to Jesus my Savior, and I give all the glory to him. Soli Deo Gloria!

THE END! And some excerpts!

I'm DONE! Yesterday, I finally finished my NaNoWriMo novel, Bluewillow! I'm so relieved and glad to be done writing for awhile. The final word-count is 76,114, which is only a thousand words over what I estimated it would be. That's almost 200 hand-written pages!

Here's a brief synopsis of the plot:

Bluewillow

The Flicker Chronicles book 2
A girl with blue hair wakes up under a willow tree and can only remember other people's memories. She sets out to find a mysterious inter-dimensional portal that could somehow be the key to her past, but she gets caught up in a struggle between colorful worlds. Will she turn to the true King before it's too late?

Here's the banner I made for the book: 

And here are a couple of short poems from my novel. I wasn't expecting to write any poetry, but these just appeared on the page without me really thinking about it. :) And then I put them to music, and turned them both into songs.

"In the wings of the morning, in the depths of the earth

Ring songs of great value and words of great worth

The birds of the air and the fish will cry out

When the people are silent, even stones will shout."

And then a silly one:

"My honey went away, away, away,

In search of another day, away, away.

My dear sweet girlie

Went all a-twirly

And fell into a portal swirly

And made my head turn gray, away, away."

Later, when I type out my book and start editing (it needs a LOT of editing), I'll post some longer excerpts. But for now, I need to turn my attention to other things, namely Christmas. I enjoy making gifts for my family, but that will require a lot of time and energy, so I'm putting my finished draft aside for awhile. 

Swine Flu and Novel Writing

Yeah... I'm sorry I haven't been posting at all during November. I wanted to keep you guys updated with my word-count goals and excerpts from my novel, but less than a week into the month, I got really sick. I never went to the doctor to get tested, but I had all the symptoms of the H1N1 swine flu. I had a fever for nine days, and felt poorly for over two weeks.

Of course, that didn't help with the novel writing. I've never been sick during National Novel Writing Month before, so it was a frustrating time for me. I wanted to make it to at least 75,000 words, and hopefully finish the whole story, but with several days in there where I didn't write ANYTHING, I was really behind. My parents kept telling me to give myself a break, but it was hard when I've been planning this book for months, and looking forward to NaNoWriMo all year.

It was also hard to accept that I would be writing alone this year. In all the other years of NaNo, my brother was writing with me, and then my dad tried it and my younger sister did it for a couple of years. But this year, the others weren't able to write novels for one reason or another, so I was alone. (And since I was sick, I couldn't go to any write-ins with local Wrimos.)

I did make it to 50,000, though, and then for the last three days of November, I wrote over 5,000 words a day!  Yay! My final count is 70,213 handwritten words. So even though it felt like a terrible month, it was not totally unsuccessful.

And yet, my book is not yet completed. *sigh* Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to write I go... And when I finish, I'll come back and post a few excerpts for y'all to pick on and admire. :)