Inconceivable!

It's hard to believe that I am nearly finished with my second book. I started writing and dreaming of becoming an author when I was only in the 5th grade. At ten years old, my dreams were more about those award-winning authors who made millions from selling their stories to big publishing companies. Now, it's about fifteen years later, and my focushas changed a lot. However, I am still writing and I am very proud of myself for that.

My writing style has changed a lot, obviously, as I have grown. I have also changed it a lot just since I published my first book. Hopefully my readers will think that I have changed it for the better, since I was conscious of their feedback while working on this second story! My writing can only get better from here with experience.

That being said, I am so excited about this second book coming out! I haven't gotten a date set yet, because even though I only have one chapter left to write, it is going to be difficult to find the time to work on it in the coming weeks. Marching band season is incredibly busy and stressful for me (the good kind of stress!) so we shall see. Once I do have a date set, though, I am planning on doing a $0.99 special price on Kindle only for the first month to give all of my dedicated readers a reward for coming back and reading my second work! After that, it will be $2.99, but I am also planning on doing a few special free book days in between. After three months, it will be available on other platforms besides the Kindle through Barnes & Noble, iPad, Smashwords, etc.

Something else I have been thinking about a lot lately; rewriting old stories from when I was young. Some of my friends must remember my twin characters Jenna and Jemma of "Daredevil," and even more may recall when Rachel Carson moved halfway across the country in "The Yellow Notebook." These stories didn't have anything to do with color guard, since I had never heard of it before, but I was thinking maybe I could integrate them into the Spinsation series somehow. Let me know what you think!!

Human Relationships

Isn't it funny how human relationships work? I like to sit back and think about the psychology of it all sometimes. When you meet someone new, you hope that they are being honest with you, but you are suspicious that they might be. You also have the understanding that they are putting their best foot forward because they are trying to make a good impression on you just as much as you are trying to make a good impression on them. You can't really start to get to know what that person is truly like until you get past all of that nonsense.

There's also a problem if you go the other direction. If you are completely yourself when you first meet someone new, act as if you don't really care what they think of you, they might think you aren't interested in them because you don't care about their opinion of you. So... be yourself but be your BEST self I guess is the best advice.

I have problems behaving like a "normal" person in public often. I would be the kind of person who would organize and then perform in a flash mob (and I have on a small scale before). I dance out of nowhere. I occasionally burst into song. I snap my fingers. I can't whistle but if I knew how to whistle I probably still wouldn't whistle because the sound of whistling sometimes drives me a little crazy. Point being, I don't do what everyone else does all the time. I'm a menace to society. I also enjoy my life a lot more than a lot of people who are so worried about social norms that they actually alter who they are on the inside to fit some sort of outer mold.

We are Rome, ladies and gentlemen. Just please don't forget that Rome did fall.

Balancing the Arts and Earning

I've had a lot to do lately, and I am trying to do all of the things that I did when I was younger on top of it. The way I see things, when I was young I did a lot in order to improve myself as a person. I read, wrote, exercised, danced, sang, did math problems, took care of my pets, cleaned my room, etc. I still do a lot of those things but other responsibilities of being an adult have taken over a huge portion of my self-improvement and I feel as if I had been at a stand-still of personal growth for the last several years. It was like I suddenly felt content with the person I had become and was perfectly happy being that person for the rest of my life. Maybe I was at the time, but the world keeps changing, so if I can't change with it then I am going to be stuck!

So now I am incredibly busy (much like I was when I was young). I read almost daily, I write in a journal 1-2 times per week (although sometimes this blog is all that counts as my writing for the whole week, pathetic I know), and I write to my pen pal 5-6 days a week. I still dance, of course, but I am dancing more now, and watching what I eat, too so that I don't get lazy and just eat whatever is available. The only problem with all of this, I feel, is that my job performance may soon suffer because I am so self-focused right now. There are definitely two possible outcomes; I am going to crash and burn, or I am going to continually grow and become better at all of this.

Everyone wants more spare time. I say, for what? But then again, I find myself having a hard time finding the time to work on my next book, too. Hopefully I can remedy this as well.

Do you think we'll make it?

You can look all the time at these quotes such as "it's not about the destination, but the journey" but until you can apply that in real life, these quotes are just words.

Take me for instance (and who could be a better example than myself when it comes to writing in my own blog?); I enjoy color guard. Duh, I know, because if I didn't enjoy it then why on earth would I spend so much time thinking about it and writing about it and teaching it, etc. So, I love color guard. When, during all of my color guard adventures, am I the happiest though? Is it during the 4.5-11 minute performance time that I usually can't even remember anyway because of my incredible adrenaline rush? (By the way, it doesn't matter if I'm performing or watching my students perform, my physiological reaction is the same!) Is it the endless hours of rehearsal? Is it the long car rides to performances? Is it the breaks where everyone gossips and bonds? Is it the actual spinning of my equipment?

Really, it is a combination of all of these things! If I took any one of them away it would not be the same. The end game might be a gold medal for me, or just a good championship performance, but really it is all of the fun and memories that are created along the way that make me love what I do so very much...