Making the Most of Summer

I've been told that I haven't blogged in a while an I need to. Firstly, here's why:

https://hawkandyoung.com - 6 free short stories and their shiny new covers!

https://hawkandyoung.wordpress.com - New author interviews, articles, and pleas for your help.

https://www.patreon.com/hawkandyoung - Support me and my co-author's writing endeavors!

https://rejectedmanuscripts.org/shortfiction/son-of-hades/ - vote for our short story to make it into an anthology!

I've been entering lots of writing contests, too. There are still 2 entries out waiting for rejections. :P


Soon I have to get back into my classroom and transform it for a new school year full of new challenges. I'm taking my summer break and LOVING the most out of it!

People ask me, 'do you have any big summer plans?' Well no, and while we sort of wanted to go to Holiday World this summer, which is like a 200 dollar day trip, we've had 2,000 dollars in medical bills to pay with 3 more on the way of an unknown amount.

Yes, with insurance. Except for the dog's heartworm treatment, we do not have pet insurance.

Blessings though, there was a time when 2,000 dollars would have been the end for us. We continue to struggle, yes, but it is not completely insurmountable. We will crawl out from under this and be okay.

But let's not dwell on the numbers, rather, let's look at us being healthy and making the most of our days.

Sunday the weather was perfect for a swim. Afterward I made a fire in the fire pit and there were no biting bugs, a cool breeze, and partly cloudy skies. It was perfection.

While I woke up with a headache today, I could sleep in. That small luxury alone is a huge blessing. I could read a book in comfort and not even get dressed. I could take a bubble bath or a nap. This is the kind of day I dream about having during the school year when I'm working and the weather changes and I feel crummy but I have to go to work and deal with my students also feeling crummy.

Before that happens, I want to use up the coupons in my wallet. I have all these little free food coupons I was gifted before I left school to places I don't normally go. Let's try something new! It could be a week of 'never leave your city' or 'staycation' trips where I and the boys pretend to be tourists in our own town. If they would go for that.

I want to keep having mini dates with hubby. Even though I sometimes complain that we never go where I want to go because we can't afford it, or he wouldn't enjoy it so I can't enjoy something I would have otherwise enjoyed (like parades, air shows, zip lining, or theme parks), I still enjoy talking to him about our book series, going to places, and being with him. He tells me that he takes me places just to be with me. If I can't go to Monday night Trivia, even though everyone else there is either his family or his friends, he says he won't go without me. I need a friend to go with me to some of those other places that he won't.

I want to paint a picture and color an adult coloring book page.

I want to read a bunch of books in my library. I'm reading Game of Thrones right now.

I want to work my butt off writing. Things are getting rejected, things are getting accepted. I'm making tons of new writer friends on Twitter and getting some awesome words down on "paper" every day.

Some days I wax poetic:
Hold onto me 
and I'll hold onto you. 

 If I feel your grip 
slacken a little in mine 

 My grip will fail 
We'll both drift off into space

Angry, Baby
It's an angry day 
dream in anger 
Frustrations fall on deaf ears 

It's an angry month 
nightmares reign 
Timelines don't sync up 

Been an angry year 
Money spent 
Hopes faded to dark 

What comes after anger? 
Acceptance 
Bring on the numbness

Or haiku:
Our story book ends 
Dusk rainbow soft before night 
New story begins

Sometimes I ponder myself and my values:
You say there is freedom in not tweeting what you were gonna say, but I shudder to think that you are dishonest with me. I get that some things are better left unsaid, but if it would change the course of history for the better, even brutal honesty has its place.

Sometimes I go back to high school:
I watched you open your locker from across the hall. You pulled out my note, started to unfold it. Your buddy jumped on your shoulder and you silently slid it into your pocket. My heart beats 'keep reading', 'keep reading' as I walk to class.

Sometimes I raise the temperature:
At a loss for words, your dripping chest emerges from the hot tub. "Join me?" Slowly, I strip off my clothes and take your hand to step into the bubbles, my temperature rising with more heat inside that out.

The offer dangled before him like the apple of Eve's sin. He wanted so badly to taste it, but hadn't yet decided which he would regret more, having done it, or having not. His head said turn away, but his body lusted forward. His heart was torn.

Beneath the brim of his black fedora, two brown eyes smoldered. My breath caught in my chest. A slow smile crept across my mouth as a blush colored my cheeks and I forced my eyes down. "You like my hat?" I wanted to fling myself at him and connect my lips with his.

Sometimes I'm random:
The plane began a tail spin, dropping out of the sky. My heart dropped with it as the pilot ejected. News media claimed the pilot was fine, but I looked at the bruised face attached to the hand I held in the army hospital, willing him to wake.

Gazing in wonder at your tiny fingers and tiny toes, thinking about how people congratulate me for making you, but you were not made by me. You are beautiful, full of hope and promise. I did nothing but carry you and I will carry you for the rest of your life.

Puckering up is lips in thought, he cocked his little head, then declared, "It means you have to say you're sorry?" 
"While you should apologize for a mistake, it means you have to try again." 
"Re-sil-ien-cy" 
"Kids have it. Adults don't."

And then I dream:
I saw you and I found my feet flying towards you, huge smile bringing tears. First I hugged you, held you, felt your warmth and strength as some tears leaked out. I sniffed and blinked, backing up to look in wonder at your face. Was this real?
https://hawkandyoung.wordpress.com/2018/06/14/ellysian-empire-united-under-one-banner/

Slice of Life, Summer Edition: Plus, Where I Learned to Outline My Novel

This summer has been very rainy. My garden has gone nuts, which means a huge harvest, but it also means it's too muddy out there to weed. I lost a tulip tree. It sat in a swamp that used to be my backyard for a week. Bye bye. The lake in my front yard kept coming back.

We tried to go to Holiday World in early July, supposed to be the hottest summer month, but it rained.

Now, a scattered showers and overcast day is the best time to go. No lines! We got to ride some rides twice in a row, or some rides for the first time because there were no long lines in the hot sun.

But this rain was relentless, and eventually cooled the air temperature down to uncomfortably cool when wet. They closed the park early, before a lightning storm hit, and took names of people for free admission on another day. I'm looking forward to it. even though this theme and water park is exhausting. It's built on hills and those water slides have 7 or 8 flights of stairs to the top. That walk back to the car (even though we got good parking because attendance was low) is killer! I'm working out before we go again!

Also, I made a whopping 8 cents. Found in the parking lot. I love finding money.

You know what's going to happen. We are going to go back to school in early August, and that's when it's going to finally be summer. It'll be hot and good swimming weather and we have to make the kids stay indoors and learn. 

But let's not think about that now. I have a couple more weeks before I have to think about that. Sort of. I've already been planning. Shh.. don't tell anyone that part of my brain is still on teaching mode.

I'm distracting myself with writing for Camp Nanowrimo. I have over 10,000 words. I'm pretty pleased with myself. I couldn't have done it without writing up an outline and using Scrivener. 

Here is the basic outline idea.

http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/secrets-story-structure-complete-series/

http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/how-to-structure-scenes/

Scrivener makes this easy.

http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/my-writing-process-pt-1-of-2-how-i-use-scrivener-to-outline-my-novels/ (part 1)

http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/my-writing-process-pt-2-of-2-how-i-use-scrivener-to-write-my-first-drafts/ (part 2)

Love Weiland and Scrivener!

Dear 12-Year-Old Writer-Me

I know lately I've been posting all ME ME ME, MY BOOK THIS, MY BOOK THAT, but self-publishing is all about self-promotion. The free Kindle version sale is about to end and I have to plan for the next big thing. (My smashwords books are always free.)

Camp Nanowrimo! 

I've set a goal for only 30,000 words in July. It seems like you would ask:  "Why only 30K? This is SUMMER, Woman! You have nothing to do but write!", but I know life will get in the way. Plus, at the end of July I will be planning more intensively for my new school year.

To prepare, I have written an outline for the new work I want to work on. This fantasy novel has been in notebooks, written down since I was like 12. It's time I gave it an adult spin. It's time I showed my 12 year old self that I believe in her and what a good writer I have grown into.

Dear 12-year-old writer-me,  

Your ideas are awesome! Continue to write them down because you will never lose them that way. Go ahead and fall in love and out of love so you can write about that, too. In fact, you already know a lot about love and people want to read about it. 

Having an obsession with paper is okay.

Keep drawing and doodling and studying. 

Study people, know people's emotions, because you will have to learn to write them well, and work with them, too. You will need to find Beta Readers, keep a job, and feel lonely without friends so get to know people. They are important.

Someone will love you for who you are, so don't compromise on yourself. 

Keep being a good friend. Don't be afraid to be vulnerable, not just empathetic. You'll make closer friends. Finding friends as an adult is much harder. Life teaches you to be on guard, to not wear your heart on your sleeve, but that is not what difference-makers do. Live. Love. Dream.

I was pretty well set on the path to writing greatness when I was younger. I didn't know it at the time, but I knew I had a great imagination, a love for people, was quite observant, and I had a thirst for knowledge, especially social knowledge.

As I got a bit older, I loved camp, too. :) I think I tried to write a book outline about camp, but it never amounted to much...