Hmmm...have you noticed I have not written any really long, in-depth book review lately? I've noticed and it bugs the heck out of me. I've been meaning to do The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp for about two weeks now, but just haven't been able to get to it. So, I've been filling up YA Tuesday with random information that relates to YA like YALSA Awards and my 100 Followers' Contest. Well, I've added mini-reviews and book trailers as a way to have relevant posting even though they are not full reviews. But, soon... The Spectacular Now. Maybe next Tuesday.
But what about my YA writing adventures? Where have those gone? They are still in my head. And, I haven't updated Livejournal (where I said I was going to focus on my writing) lately. So, here is what is going on.
I had given myself a 5 month ultimatum for finishing my first official novel...an urban fantasy of sorts with a strong romantic element. Well, I have about the first 1000 words whick rolled out very easily and then it all slowed down when I took some time to figure out character needs, motivations, etc. Also, adding to all that was graduate school. I now don't have time for anything else! But, the novel will be written, at the very least this summer when all I will do is work summer school. No graduate school.
I am taking a fiction workshop, playwriting workshop, and science fiction form and theory this semester.
The last thing I turned in to fiction workshop was a self contained chapter for another novel I concocted a long time ago. It's about a teenage boy, baseball, and the meaning of life. I have chapter one (about 2500 words) and will one day write a full novel.
For playwriting I am working on a paranormal, coming of age play about a teenage girl who "dances with the devil." It's a reworking of a Tex-Mex urban legend from South Texas. I think this will be my graduate thesis. I had formerly put on Livejournal that my thesis would be a YA novel about a teenage girl who had to come to terms with her sister's death. I have the beginning of that, but I think I will put off. Why? I enjoy playwriting and my professor said what I write this semester can be used in my two semesters of thesis classes next year. Since this is "acadamia" my thesis has to be "literary" and I don't want my YA novels to be limited by this. I can write a very "literary" YA but not by the end of next year with my crazy, hectic life. A play...well, it's just a lot more feasible.
Good news...one of my poems will be published in Touchstone, a literary journal! I am so excited! I finally feel semi-legitimate! And, one of my flash pieces (it is actually the prologue to my future YA novel about the girl whose sister died) is being seriously considered by another literary journal! Yea!
So, I am emersed in YA! In my own YA even though nothing is published or close to being published. But one day...maybe I can get a whole novel written this summer. That is the first step. I am as a good a writer as many of my favorites, the only thing is that I'm new to all this. I'm just a 'lil Tex-Mex girl living along the border with 3 babies, a husband, and 2 dogs who drives a Saturn Vue, teaches high school, and goes to grad school. Why should I make it? Then again, why should I not?
Interested in knowing more about this girl/devil urban legend...check out the following link.
My play is based on the story but I am taking a lot of poetic license and making it my own. I have the first 11 pages written so far...only about 90 left to go!!!
1 comments:
Hope the work on your novel goes well; I know it can be a tough road!
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