string cheese theory

Okay, this is pretty cool.

Just a reminder: my writer's blog is now See Girl Write.  Musings on writing, editing, publishing, etc.

NaNoWriMo has turned my GPA into a disaster.

That is all.

Wow.

As of this moment, I have 25 classes left until classes end.  That's about 24 hours of academics left.

Wow.

It's odd, what a disconnect impending graduation creates. It no longer feels very important to stick around at school when I don't have classes. We're allowed to leave campus anytime we have no classes, which doesn't exactly encourage stick-togetherness, but still, I expected myself to grab onto school and hang on for dear life, just for fear of the Big Change. Instead, I find that I'm eager for college to come - I'm living my life right now just waiting for college to begin.

My motivation is shot - my own fault, I know - and though I'm still getting some writing done (mainly a short story that's been bashing around in my head), I haven't gotten excited about any idea enough to send out a query. And what I definitely don't want is to send out a query I don't care about, sell an article, and then deliver some drivel piece that no one in their right mind would pay for. That's not the way to build a career, and it's no fun either.

On the music front, looking forward very much to the upcoming Arctic Monkeys concert (right before my blasted English and science finals). The Red Hot Chili Peppers are coming to town over the summer, and I'd love to go...but tickets are $65 apiece, and that's just too pricey for me.

My wishlist for this summer:
-Find a way to go to the Willamette Writers' Conference (volunteer again for free admission, perhaps?).
-Take some road trips during the summer and write. Somehow I always write best when I'm in a new location.

Thoughts on the most recent movies:

( Mission: Impossible III )

( Stick It )

Enjoy your weekend, y'all. I'm off to shop for a graduation dress with a friend (and what's with needing a dress for prom AND a dress for graduation? I may go to a private school, but I do NOT have $200 just sitting around!).

Nora

Lately, the library has been my favorite place to be (books, wireless internet, no cell phones), and I'm slowly working my way through all the new YA fiction with particularly interesting covers or premises. Thoughts on the two most recent follow. These are only my opinions, based on what I enjoy reading

( Wrecked )

( Sweetblood )

Other than that...life goes on. Working on putting together a proposal for a novel in one of Puffin's YA series. I've got the query done, but I'd like to have the outline and sample chapters complete as well before I send out the query. I'd hate not to have it ready if I get a "go" from the editor.

Also, I'm getting well at last. Thanks to the miracles of amoxicillin and azithromycin and Zyrtec, that is. Let's hear it for prescription drugs! Woo!

I'm very tempted to make May my very own National Novel Writing Month - but right now, it's not a novel that I want to work on. Keeping that in mind, I announce the creation of a new month: National Magazine Article Writing Month (NaMaWriMo).

NaMaWriMo RULES:
1. Compose 31 article queries by the end of the month
2. All queries must be ready to mail out by May 31
3. All queries must be for truly saleable articles that I'm eager to write
4. All queries must be directed to the appropriate person
5. All queries must be truly suited to the target magazine
6. Changing the target 31 times does not count as writing 31 queries. That would be pointless.

Ideally, even if I fail at this (likely, considering that May is "hell month" at school), it'll kick me back into writing-and-sales mode and out of write-a-few-words-on-the-MAX-each-day-if-I-feel-like-it mode.

Here's hoping.

Here's the question that I've been tumbling over in my head for the last, say, week: does the National Writers Union guarantee healthcare for all their members? Or would a "pre-existing condition" disqualify you, like it does with many insurance companies?

I ask this only because, as I prepare to head out for college, my parents are worrying more and more about how I'll pay for diabetes care over the next 80 years of my life. They figure, if I work in a traditional job, my employer will have to give me healthcare, whereas if I'm a writer, I'm totally on my own.

Does anyone know the answer to this?

In other news, I've successfully avoided a "summer job" for the fourth year in a row by telling my parents that I'll spend the summer writing. In fairness to me, this isn't as much of a BS defense as it sounds; I spent the summer before my freshman year and the summer before my senior year working on my second and third contracted books, respectively. But this year, I don't have a book contract and a scary September deadline hanging over my head; all I have is a need to sell some work so that I can make some money and a desire to complete another novel.

Towards that end, I went to Powell's City of Books and bought Writer's Market. True, it's WM 2005, not 2006, but it was a used copy. Here's how I figure it: if I can buy WM05 for $15 or I can buy WM06 for $30, and I have to verify every last detail of all the market information anyway, why should I pay double just to feel like I have the newest thing? Plus, it meant I had enough money left on my Powell's buy-back to get several very pretty journals.

I'm such a journal junkie. I still have my novel journals from the last two Europe trips, with pages ripped out and taped back in, detailed descriptions of the foods everyone ordered, dreadful sketches of the castles and different places that I wanted to use in various scenes...they're so much fun to read. They're also interesting in a purely cultural sense: apparently no one in France has ever heard of the college-ruled spiral notebook. The journals I bought there were always gorgeous.

Right now, I'm brainstorming article ideas. And using the "Avoidance" technique to read Les jeux sont faits, which is depressing but excellent.

( Thoughts on two very well-written movies I've seen in the last month )

I'm trying to convince my parents that they should pay my way to the 2006 Willamette Writers Conference. Their lack of enthusiasm does not bode well for my hopes regarding the 2006 SCBWI Summer Conference. I curse my lack of money.

Cheers, all.