Busy week!

    It's been a while since my last post, so I figured it was time for a quick update as to what I've been doing-
    I started a new job! Whoo! I stopped nannying back in December, and applied a couple of places, but because of my trips to the doctor and Physical Therapy, I didn't really focus on looking for a new job. About a month ago, a relative called and offered me a position working as a scheduler from home. Basically what I do is organize a list of businesses by location, make phone calls to schedule appointments, and send out reminder emails. It's boring, but I get to work from home! I love it! I'm on my own schedule and I can work in my pajamas. Even though the company I work for is based here in California, I can continue working when we head back to Utah in August. 
    I started writing again. A little. Kinda sorta. Well, I sat down to work on revamping the ending of Powerful chapter 7 when I got interrupted and couldn't remember the end of the sentence, "I used to think..." so I'm still working on it. But I've gotten the pen and notebook back out, which means I had some downtime. After another week of work (and seeing my best friend again on Saturday!), and Husband of Mine starting his internship, I'll actually be on a regular schedule which means I'll have more time for writing.
    I've been crafting! I learned to crochet. I tried to take up knitting a while ago, but never really got into it. Crocheting is only slightly different, but it seems to go a lot faster for me. When I finish my projects, I'll post pictures of them.
    I also started reading a new book series. 

I'm Back!

    I'm back! Hooray!
    I've been so busy that I haven't even been able to post that I wouldn't be able to post because I'm too busy. We moved back to California for the summer. Husband of Mine has a super awesome internship with Walt Disney Imagineering (Can you say summer of Disneyland?), and after that's over we're heading back to Provo so he can finish up school. 
    

    While he's doing that, I'm also starting a part time job from home so I can work while writing. This is going to be a very busy summer. I'm hoping to get a lot of writing done. I've made good progress so far, and I want to keep working through it because it's going to be awesome. 

    That's all for now! I'm still crazy busy, but only slightly less busy than I was last week. I'll post when things calm down a little after I start working.

    ~Alyson

The Versatile Blogger Award

    A couple days ago, my friend Elise Edmonds nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award. 

    The rules for the Versatile Blogger Award go like this:

1) Thank the person who awarded you
2) Include a link to their blog
3) Select & nominate 15 blogs/bloggers you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly and
4) Tell 7 things about yourself

    So I'd like to thank Elise for the nomination. You remember Elise from one of my posts last week. She's the Magic Writer! 

    Unfortunately, I don't follow 15 blogs. So, I'm going to skip the nominations.

    But I will tell you 7 things about myself:

1) My favorite foods are In-N-Out and Sour Patch Kids.

2) My favorite book is Enna Burning by Shannon Hale.

3) I watch way too much tv, and Psych will always be my favorite show.

4) Disney is the best. Don't argue with me on that. It just is.

5) Dr. Pepper is also the best.

6) My other favorite things are Toothless, R2-D2, and Pikachu.

7) My eyes are both blue and green.

    That's all for now. Back to writing!

    ~Alyson

Magic Writer

    Today, I'm going to ramble a bit about Worldbuilding. It's my favorite part of story writing. There are so many elements to it, that I don't even know where to begin. My writing process is so convoluted that my mind hurts trying to sort everything out. Luckily, I've got a friend who has started a series on her blog about Worldbuilding.
    Magic Writer is the blog of Elise Edmonds, an aspiring author in the midst of writing her first novel, just like me. Here's her bio- 

I’m Elise Edmonds, a new writer, living near Bristol in the UK. I look forward to using this blog for literary inspiration and learning more about the craft of writing. I’m interested in all sorts of books: fantasy, sci-fi, dystopian, young adult, new adult, mystery, classics, chick-lit, historical fiction – and plenty more. I’m currently writing my first novel, a young adult fantasy about a teenage girl who works in a magic carpet shop. I hope to meet many more like-minded people on my journey, so do stop by and say hello!

    We became good friends on Scribophile. She's also on Twitter, which I don't have an account with. She's also almost as addicted to Pinterest as I am. She uses it for a lot of writing inspiration too (amongst other things, but so do I). Most recently she was using it to inspire her Worldbuilding posts by pinning pictures of castles and other fantasy type settings. You can check out her Pinterest here. We share a board about Superheroes, because who doesn't love superheroes?

    Anyway, her Castles and Worldbuilding posts have been super helpful, and inspired me to focus a little more on the scenery in my own writing. I'm just terrible with description, and I find it more of a second draft add in rather than an initial instinct in my writing. But, I was inspired to try and find some pictures of real world places that generally fit with the pictures in my head of my settings. The first place I thought of was Kyla's home. Though very few scenes actually play out at her home, it's still a big part of her life because up to this point in the story, it's the only place she knows.

Free Write #5

    I've been making slow progress with the next chapter of Powerful. I found a new show to watch on Netflix, which was cool because it's a historical fiction based in the 1500s about politics in France, England, Scotland, etc. It's been really helpful to get me thinking about politics in Powerful, but it also meant I was getting distracted when I should be writing.
    So now that I made it through the whole thing (yes, I binge watched the whole show), I'm forcing myself to do a blog post and a free write. Hopefully after this is done, I can dig into chapter 6 again and get it written. I'm super excited for chapter 7. *laughs evilly*
    Back to the free write. Here is the prompt I picked. 

    Growing up in Southern California, winter was no different from any other season (Seasons? What are those?), so it meant nothing to me as a child. It's actually a problem I've noticed in some of my older writing. There are no seasons. I even struggled a little in Rose, though I did write in some snow in winter. It was easier The weather is a beautiful and clear 70ish degrees throughout the entire story. Time stands still.

The Resplendent Shooting Star

    I'm doing another free write. Remember the superhero short story contest I judged not too long ago? Yeah. I finally caved. I'm writing my own superhero short story based on the superhero I created. Meet The Resplendent Shooting Star.

Writer's Sketchbook 13

    In anticipation of the next chapter that I am hoping to write soon, I figured I'd post the next character we get to meet. Now that Kyla has outed her air powers, she has been given a tutor to teach her how to use her air powers. 

    I'm hoping to start the chapter tomorrow or Monday. Since I'm in the middle of a personal project to rip all of my DVDs onto a hard drive, I'm overwhelmed with tv episodes (I have a lot of DVDs) that I'm trying to order and name. Once I'm done with that, I can focus on writing again. Hopefully I'll finish tomorrow. I've been doing this for over a week. It's starting to get tedious.

    Anyway, here's Ayala.

Ayala Varnet