In Which I Did An Awesome Reading

Man, it's finally getting warm here and that is so awesome. Put all the plants outside, got the patio furniture out, set up the fountain and might have to think about mowing the lawn next weekend.

Good Times.

Last Sunday I did a reading for Second Story.

Second Story is this great series held at a local writing center here in the Twin Cities called The Loft (it's an awesome place and I'll be teaching a teen class there this summer and I'm SO EXCITED.)

Second Story takes an established author and a newbie author (me this time) and pairs them up. They do a reading, then there's a Q&A and then themed snacks and a signing.

The best part is, it's offered free of charge. And when I started attending the Second Story readings a few years ago, I desperately wanted to be invited to be a reader one day.

And then that day arrived!

I was paired up with author S.A. Bodeen who writes great books about survival situations (being trapped in a compound, being trapped on a raft at sea, getting kidnapped. Check her out, her books are great!)

 

I even got my own reserved parking space! (I was going to get a pic of that, but forgot)

The reading was fun. I tried something new and read an action scene and that went well. Then I signed books, and after everything I hung out with some friends to do some writing, then we went to a bar across the street for some snacks.

One more check off the bucket list!

How have you awesome peeps been?

In Which I Workshop

So, I know I mentioned before how I applied for an Advance Children's Workshop. I wasn't sure I'd get in, since the class was limited to 10 people and you had to actually submit a writing sample.
I mean, I'm confident in my writing, but you never know who else is applying and the last class at the Loft I attended had some AMAZING writers, so if people like that were applying, then I had no clue if I actually had a shot.

BUT! All that aside, I was accepted as one of the workshop participants!
I'm excited because it's specifically to focus on critiquing everyone's work, which is definitely something I always feel like I need (whether I do or not, I dunno. Sometimes I'm ruled by my feels)

Also, I learned that one of my new friends from my last class at the Loft also was accepted in this one! It's nice, sometimes, to have a friend already in place.

Here's a description of the class:

Advanced writers need less discussion of the basics, and more specific criticism of their own work as their voice emerges. In addition, most advanced writers have honed their critiquing skills over a series of classes, and understand how to give and take criticism effectively. With that in mind, the bulk of this class will be devoted to readings and teaching artist-led critiques of student work. You may not get to read every session, but then again, you may, so please come prepared. Advanced topics and individual questions will be covered as the needs of the class dictate. There will be no one-on-one teaching artist critiques. Enrollment limited to ten students. No class meeting on July 3.



About the Teaching Artist(s)

Lynne Jonell is the author of seven picture books, three chapter books, and four middle-grade novels, all with major publishers. Her first novel, Emmy & the Incredible Shrinking Rat, won the 2008 Minnesota book award; her third novel, The Secret of Zoom, was purchased by President Obama for his daughters. Her first chapter book in the Magical Mix-Ups series, Hamster Magic, was nominated for the Minnesota book award and kicks off a planned series of twelve for Random House. Her books have received starred reviews in Horn Book, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, Booklist, and Sesame Street Parents, and have been published in ten languages. She has been awarded a Hawthornden Castle fellowship for 2013. Lynne lives in Plymouth, Minnesota with her husband, has two grown sons, and loves to sail. Future publications include The Boy Who Could Speak Cat (Henry Holt, 2014), and Deep Water Magic (Random House, 2014).


Woo! Excitement!

In Which My Class Is Almost Over

Tonight's the last night of my class - the YA Novel class at The Loft.  I'm both excited and sad.

Sad, natch, because it was a lot of fun and I met some really, really great people and writers. And because I always left class super motivated to work work work on my writing. I mean, I'm usually pretty disciplined with my writing, so it's not like my class has made me do more work (outside of critiques I normally wouldn't have done without the class) but it has made me all itchy to get to work right away each day instead of putzing around a bit.

So I'm going to miss seeing the peeps every week and having that total buzzed feeling afterwards as I drive home.

But I'm super excited for tonight's class! We're having kind of a hodge-podge class, since we finished all the critiques last week. Everyone's going to talk about some of their favorite YA/MG books and favorite craft books. And we're also going to have a favorite pages reading.

That's where each of us in the class are going to take 5-10 mins and read some of our favorite pages of whatever we're currently working on.

I'm super excited to see what everyone else reads, because so many of them are great writers and I really want to hear some fun excerpts. And I'm also really excited to read my excerpt as well. It took me quite a few hours to figure out what section I should read. Because I'm really in love with my All That Remains WIP so there were a lot of sections vying for a chance to be read aloud.
I finally made a decision based on how long each section would take to read, and how much back story I'd need to fill in for the listeners before I got started.

The section that won is about 7 mins, read aloud, and only has characters in it that the class is familiar with from my 20 page critique a few weeks ago. Easy peasey.

So there you have it! Last class = bittersweet.

All right, so let me know how things are going for you? How's the writing? The yard work? The kids?

In Which I Need To Budget

In the past I'd maybe go to a few local conferences a year and call it even. None were so expensive that they'd break the bank.

But this year is a little different. I planned to take a class (it's going on right now) and I planned on 3 local conferences (Children's and Young Adults Literature Conference, 4th Street Fantasy and the MN SCBWI conference in the fall). So there you go. A couple hundred dollars here and there and I'm set for the year.

But then I really enjoyed my class. And I found an Advanced Children's Writing Workshop.
And I also learned that Donald Maass will be here in the fall for a Story Masters workshop (the people I heard about this from said they attended this conference last year and that it was amazing)

So if I were to throw these two into the mix (and these are way more expensive than the others. The Story Masters conference is like $500) and suddenly I find myself spending more money than I planned...

Which made me realize that I think I've reached a point in my writerly life where I need to budget better. I think this year is a wash. I've applied for the advanced class (though you have to actually supply a writing sample, so I may not get in) and depending on how that goes will make my decision on the Donald Maass conference. But I think, starting next year, I'm going to have to actually sit down, figure out how much I'm willing to spend that year on writing related expenses and budget accordingly.

This will be especially important if I apply to Hamline's MFA program for next year (very likely).

So how about you? Do you budget your writing expenses?

In Which I Clean

Ugh I spent the whole weekend cleaning. Blergh. I mean, yay for a clean house! That's awesome!
But also, now I'm tired and I have to get through the week before I get another weekend. AAAnd I have a wedding to attend this weekend. Me=busy.

My class has been going well, though. Tonight is the first night we're going to start critiquing. I'm really excited for that portion. I'm bringing my 20 pages tonight to be critiqued next week. I had to be a big girl and figure out how to use a Kinko's since I didn't want to print and collate 160 pages. Me = lazy.

Turns out Kinko's don't really exist anymore. Guess they were bought out by Fed-Ex? But there was a Fed-Ex Office near my house so with Twin's photocopier expertise it ended up being a lot easier than expected.

Me = mothereffing adult.

Aaand that's really all I have for today. How about you? How was your weekend?

 

In Which I Take A Class

Yay! I'm super excited!

Tonight is the first night of my 8 week long class at The Loft.

The Loft, for you non-Minnesotans, is a literary center in Minneapolis. It's dedicated to making writers more awesome and expanding our writing community.

It's great.

Anyhoo, if you remember, one of my 2013 goals was to take at least one class this year and tonight is my first one!

I signed up for a class called The YA Novel.

 

Young Adult (YA) is having its heyday, and you don’t have to be a teen to love reading and writing these transformational books. If you have a Young Adult project started and you’d like to make its character more real, its plot more dynamic, or its themes more moving, this is the class for you. If you want to learn to read YA books as a writer and apply what you learn about craft to your own project, this is the class for you. And if you need somebody to light a fire under you to encourage you to finish your first draft or dig into revisions, this is definitely the class for you! We’ll deepen our understanding of the craft by discussing great YA books, working through writing exercises, and critiquing one another’s work in a large-group setting. The teaching artist will also read and comment on one 20-page section of your YA novel during the course of the class

 

 

I really hope I get something great from the class. I also hope maybe I'll meet some new, awesome people and, perhaps, snag a letter of rec from the teacher that I can use to apply to grad school.

 

Wish me luck! I'm sure I'll blog plenty more about the class as it goes along.

 

 

How about you? Have you taken any classes recently for anything?