National Novel Writer's Month has begun!

I'm on there under the same username as here, if you want to keep tabs on how my second book is coming along.

Anyway, it's been a while (4 months...?) since I updated this journal, so I will give you a brief rundown of what's happened.

1. I got a job. I am officially an Environmental Services Technician, and actually a janitor at a hospital. Today I cleaned up urine. Yay.
2. Back in school. I'm also overloaded coursework-wise. Never take two writing courses and a theatre course all in the same semester.
3. Working on my second book. It lagged a bit over the summer from lack of motivation, but NaNoWriMo has put my lazy posterior back in gear.
4. Debt-free (to my friends at least). I no longer owe back-rent or utility bills to my house-mates. Having a job is nice like that.
5. Not depressed. Things are looking up. I give credit to God, NaNoWriMo, Angel-J, and Chinese food, in that order.

That's it. If you have any questions, hold onto them until December. I'm going to be crazy busy writing until then.

Peace out, war in,

-M

So far, this summer has been poor or mediocre.

The good things that have happened so far are as follows:
-Saw an amazing ballet production starring my cousin who graduated this year
-Found an awesome place to stay down here in Moscow with some of my friends
-Had fun with the Ratchet&Clank series
-Taught a high school English class and signed books
-Got started on writing my next book again

The bad things that have happened so far are as follows:
-I CANNOT FIND A FREAKING JOB THIS SUMMER
-The water here smells horribly of sulfur
-"Familiarity breeds contempt" is actually quite true
-In order to make rent, I have to 'donate' plasma (Needles the size of the Chrysler building)
-I seem to be getting out of shape for some odd reason
-I seem to be developing seasonal allergies (itching eyes FAIL)
-Running out of money... had to sell my silver investments in order to eat

As we speak, I am subsisting on rice and one last box of chicken and some sulfuric water. As we speak, I am filling out job applications. As we speak, we're not actually speaking, you're just reading something I typed. So my weeks have been full of waiting to hear back from places I put in, putting in applications at more places, and occasionally playing a game of DnD. Oh, and writing, which is actually going okay. The thing at the high school got me all fired up to write again. It turns out I have a squealing fangirl who has read my book three times. Awesome.

Oh, and Marcher Lord Press will be running a promotion on my book this summer, including as bonus material an additional 'lost' chapter that was cut out of the final draft of my first book. I really liked it, and it was about 10,000 words worth of adventure and character development... of some people only loosely connected to the plot. So of course, it was cut. But if you want to hear more about the wolf-people in my book, the Istaka, this promo is the time to buy my book. Just a teaser, the chapter is titled "From Pansy to Paladin."

That's about it. I must go eat something before my stomach implodes. TTFN.

-M

Greetings.

I hope you haven't come to enjoy not hearing from me, because here's a random journal. Random is definitely the word, since I haven't updated this in several months. Indeed, it seems that I am incapable of such a thing as updating this journal properly.

This may have something to do with the fact that I have all but no time whatsoever to do anything besides my course work here at the University of Idaho. 18-credit course load, bleah. Next semester will be a little easier, I hope.

The good news is that I did really well on a test I just took a couple weeks ago, one that may qualify me for a full-tuition Air Force ROTC scholarship. I got a 99% on their verbal section. This shouldn't surprise anyone who knows me, or knows that I wrote a book. Anyway, gloating aside, this is important because I really need the money in order to keep attending college.

Also, I'm 21 now, and I can now legally drink alcohol in the United States. Big whoop. It's not that exciting, and doesn't even taste particularly good. "Acquired taste," they tell me, but it's so expensive that it befuddles me how college students can afford to drink as a form of recreation. I'll stick to my inexpensive (read free) form of recreation, playing Dungeons and Dragons. Believe it or not, it's actually helping me write things for the next book. Which isn't coming along as quickly as I'd hoped.

That's really all I have for now. Sorry I haven't been on much, but I should be able to scrape some time together during the summer to drop back by the chats and such. Because, you know, I'll be working at a job with internet access and awesome bosses instead of working on college stuff without time to stop and catch my breath.

I also demand that someone draws me an awesome really late birthday present. Like a knight in shining armor with a laser gun, riding a velociraptor and fighting off a cloud of flying sharks. I don't know. Nevermind. My brain hurts from all this Enviromental Science malarkey I've been working on all evening. Good night.

Peace out, War In.

-M

Long overdue journal entry GO

Things are going well. Not much to report. I have 21 dollars left to my name after paying all my tuition and fees at the University of Idaho. I have a massive paper due by Jan 22nd, and just discovered City of Heroes, thanks to xGnomEx here on DeviantArt. We're going to pal around and defeat evil together once we find a time that we both have free. It's hard to find overlapping time when I'm in college and he's in a different time zone with a job at odd hours.

My new year's resolution is to write 1,000 words a day on the next book until it's done. I'm not sure if this is likely or even possible, but I suppose I'll find out soon enough.

On the really bright side, I got to spend half of my winter vacation in Florida with my stunningly beautiful and geeky girlfriend. I flew out to New Hampshire and then we drove down to Florida. And what did we do during that drive? Sat in the back and watched episodes of Babylon 5 like a pair of geeky lovebirds.

I lay on my back in the grass on New Year's Day, and wasn't cold at all.

I also saw the Radio City Music Hall's Christmas Spectacular, and let me tell you, that adjective doesn't do it justice. It was simply the best, incredible, unspeakably good stage performance I have ever had the privilege to witness. There was a scene where the Rockettes were dressed as toy soldiers, and they moved with military precision, executing a move that I know from theatre experience is really hard to do, PERFECTLY. And then they all fell down in a line in slow motion, catching each other until they all lay on the ground. It was indescribably good.

And that's all. I'm back at the University of Idaho, taking broadcasting, theatre makeup, environmental science, and English courses, both fiction and poetry. Oh, and the Air Force stuff. We'll see if they want to give me a scholarship this semester or not.

You may now continue on with your daily lives.

Well, folks, it looks like my first novel has broken even on cost of publication.

This is fairly rare. Apparently the book is decent enough that people besides my friends and immediate family are reading it. For example, my best friend was walking through the city park the other day and came across someone who was reading it. Someone neither of us know. Imagine that.

So now all I need to do is sit back and wait for royalty checks come in, right?

Wrong.

I must get started on the next book. Several people have demanded it already. Well, in all fairness, I have started it already, I just haven't made much progress. What with the Air Force, the College (if you ever get the idea in your head to take a statistics course, I recommend a power drill to get the stupid thought out), and the few moments of spare time I tend to waste playing Fallout 3, well, I just can't find time to write. Even though I want to.

So I'm going to stop playing video games for a bit.

Yes, that's right. And I'm going to write during Thanksgiving break, and Christmas break, and write until I wear the "N" key off my keyboard. Wait, I did that already. Well, I'll just write until I put the fading M out of its Misery, the H scatters into Haze, and the F,E,and D Finally Explode and Disappear.

And that is all. Return to your mundane lives.

Oh, and I've set up a Twitter feed about my protagonist's current activities in the second book. [link]

That is actually all. Ciao.