Freewrite: Apologies. Here's an update.

I'm sorry I've been so bad about writing lately, but my excuse is that I've been writing too much. For the first time in months I've been working on my fiction, so all my writing energy has gone into everything BUT blog material. Sorry. :)

I could have just posted a bunch of Drafts of my writing, but it would be so out of context I don't know if you'd enjoy it. So instead, I'm going to give you a brief update on my life, and then my next post will be on Sunday.

Update 1- Job Search

On Tuesday, I had yet another job interview, this time up in Salt Lake City with LDS Living magazine.

I loved the interview. The work environment seems so friendly and comfortable--very tight-knit and definitely my style. From the questions they posed and the enthusiasm I felt in answering, I think this would be the perfect job for me.

After not getting the Church editing internships, I'm wary about getting my hopes up, but I just can't help getting excited about the idea of working adjacent to City Creek, with a sweeping view of the Assembly Hall and the temple, on a magazine that follows my same values.

So third time's a charm, I hope! They said they'd let me know by the end of this week if I get to come work for them or not. If I get it, I'll post about it very soon, I'm sure.


Update 2 - Editing Job

We printed our second proof of Stowaway yesterday, and the final drafts of text are all done. We should be seeing printed copies in the next week or so.

In the meantime, I'm editing a book for my friend, Greg, which is a very interesting undertaking. He dictated the whole thing using voice recognition software, and so every other day we meet for two hours so I can read it out loud and make sure that it makes sense in written form.

We get through about seven chapters every time we meet, so we're making very good progress. THe goal is to have the whole thing cleaned up for publication by April 11th.

Mostly I'm just catching homophones and stuff, but occasionally we run into phrases like "This condition is was is very to the..." We both just stop and stare and try to figure out what Greg said out loud that the software didn't understand. After saying it out loud to ourselves over and over, one of us realizes, "Oh! It's necessary!" It's like a crazy version of Mad Gab, and can be very entertaining sometimes.

This weekend I'm going to help format the whole text so that he can self-publish it. All my Print Publishing training has prepared me for this precise task. :)


Update 3 - Fiction 

I don't know what triggered it, but lately I've been overwhelmed with creativity. I hadn't done any serious writing since November, but then this week I wrote a lot.

I've currently got three stories going on, and one of those three stories is part of a series. Having so many ideas all at once means that I keep randomly grabbing my phone, scribbling on the nearest sheet of paper, or whipping out my laptop so that I can write down what just went through my head.

When my mind is resting just before I fall asleep is when my best ideas seem to happen, and I learned a long time ago that I can never say, "Oh, I'll for sure remember that in the morning. I'll wait until then to write it down." I always forget. So whenever I get a good idea, no matter what time of night it is or how tired I am, I roll over, fumble for my phone in the dark, and try to make a note in my groggy state. Sometimes it means having to interpret weird autocorrected words in the morning.

When I'm not writing, I'm drawing my characters so I can really visualize them.

You've already seen some Snow Glider stuff, so here's Anastas, the MC's love interest. 

And here's a spread that nicely sums up Nara's relationship with her awesome snow dog, Kai. The words are the lyrics to "Gone, Gone, Gone"

And this is a sketch I don't like of Yiska, who makes a few appearances in Snow Glider. He's a shape-shifter, hence the wolf shadow. I can never draw Yiska right, for some reason. Men are hard to draw. But this one will do for now.

Or I'm lining up my dream cast, should they ever make my books into movies (I can dream, can't I?).

I'm also working on establishing distinct voices for each character. I've learned that dialects define characters more than descriptions usually do. And since I love writing in first person best, I want to make sure that the reader notes a difference between one character and another. There's no point switching viewpoints if both voices are exactly the same.

The series I mentioned has been very entertaining to write. It was originally just going to be one book, and that's the plot line I have most established. But now it turns out that this one book is going to be the last book in the series. Everything else I've come up with has to do with the characters' backstories. Since I'd prefer to publish them in chronological order, it looks like I'm writing the ending first. That will make writing the "prequel" books much more interesting, since I'll have a very clear idea of how it all plays out in the end.


Conclusion

So that's my life as of lately. I'm sorry again that I've been so inconsistent this week. Stay tuned for my long post on Sunday!