February | A Basket Full of Memories

What's up, wordlings? So this summary is late but I wanted to write it the week after the conference so I could give you all the full scoop of what happened down in Florida. Also, I had a book review scheduled to go up last week while I was away but it didn't go up for some reason. That'll be ready for next week, guaranteed :) 

This month was a pretty crazy one but it left me feeling satisfied with the direction I'm headed and gave me a new drive to pursue my end goal. Besides that, everything that happened was super enjoyable and I've moved into March with a whole basket overflowing with memories.

Previously, In the Month of February...

1) I tried to write and edit, I really did. However, I realized I had more school assignments than I had anticipated and so I poured my time into that for the first ten days of the month. I'm making up for it as we speak—write like the wind!

2) Tori came up :D We spent ten days exploring the city and the mountains. Instead of rambling on about how awesome it was, I thought, I'd share some pictures instead :) 

Our Valentines Day consisted of ice-cream and a photoshoot at a national park

The ice throne at the ice castle! They played Narnia music too!

Our adventures at the science centre included giant rubber cubes, tony stark technology and a little plush red blood cell that now sits in my bookshelf as one of my writing pals

Can't go ten days without at least trying to turn Tori into a slurpee addict like me!

We visited an antique book store!

Our trip to Banff in the mountains

We signed our names on the wall of the waffle house in Banff ^ ^  

Winter hiking to the frozen water fall

3) I went to the Florida Christian Writer's Conference! If you follow my Facebook page (which you totally should!), then you'll know of the long list of amazing things have happened while I was there.

My purpose in going down was to try to pick up an agent. It's pretty much impossible to get a contract on the spot but I did have two of the agents request a full manuscript from me! One of them wants a book proposal too which is really good news.

The next piece of good news is that I won an award! I got first place for my flash fiction piece, "Adrift". The award is a really sweet victory since that story in particular has been rejected in the past.

The winners from the teen track! Anna, Bethany, me, and Laura

Beyond that, Focus on the Family has some new projects for me, Splickety wants to see my work in their magazine, and I was offered an opportunity to co-teach next year at the conference.

Maybe it sounds cheesy but my favourite part about the trip was getting to reconnect with some of my favourite people, build relationships with new peoples and talk to so many amazing authors! I'm so inspired coming home from Florida :)

Technically I met Ben Wolf last year but this year we actually had some great writerly talks

This sweet lady, Starr, was such an inspiration to me this year. I can't wait for her book to come out sometime in the future! It's gonna be amazing ^ ^ 

Me and my mentor, Bethany Jett :) 

Amanda Davis lead the Teen Track this year and she did an amazing job! I'm so glad I got to know her better this year

February's Monthly Media

1) I re-watched most of "Your Lie in April" with Tori while she was here as well as the beginning of "Guilty Crown". We've agreed to webcam while we finish the both series together. We also watched "Spirited Away" which I really enjoyed.

It was a marathon of feels

2) When I found out that Tori hadn't seen "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", I promptly sat her down, made popcorn, and played the DVD. To this day, it's probably my favourite movie of all time. If you haven't seen it, track it down! DVDs are cheap these days if you can't stream it so you have no excuse ;)

One of my favourite scenes

3) While Tori was here, we went to go see "The 5th Wave". I wasn't a fan of the book for many reasons but the movie fixed a lot of the problems. I actually enjoyed watching the film and I'll probably see the next one when it comes out too.

Well, it wasn't a trashy movie....get it? Cause there's a trash can? 

4) Unfortunately I wasn't able to read Gracekeepers as planned. Instead, I read a play for school and have started a novel for my literature class: "Station Eleven". It's a good story so far but I'm pretty early in yet so we'll see how it goes.

Coming Soon to the Month of March...

1) The rest of "Living City" is scheduled to be completely (well, at least the first draft) edited and I'll be able to write the second draft. This also means it's time for me to look for Beta readers. If anyone has tips on that, I'd be incredibly grateful ^_^

2) Flash fiction time! I've got my list of Splickety themes and I'm gonna start on them. I hope to have at least two written and polished but that's subjective to how many assignments I get this month too.

One of my classmates sent this to me after we handed in a major paper recently XD

3) "Crec" is a hard project. If you've been following me for awhile (or even for the last three months), you'll know my progress on this one isn't as progressive as I'd like. I had the beginning critiqued at the the conference and I also have been working on the timelines of each of the characters. It's difficult, to say the least. As much as I hate to admit it, I think I have to start over. This is the last time, I swear! After this, I'll just have to fix things in the rewrite.

I'm not sure if I'll actually get to starting on it this month but if not, I'll be working on my timelines still so that I'll know what I'm doing when I do start it. 

March's Monthly Media

1) Station Eleven will be read. Since it's for school, it kind of has to be XD I've been wanting to read it for awhile now, though, and I find it interesting that my prof wants to study a mainstream novel.

I have no proof to confirm this but from what I've heard, it's got similarities to that "Night Circus" book that's gotten popular in the last year. If you've read either book, let me know!

2) I'm re-watching "Heroes". For one thing, I love it. Also, I want to watch that new season that came out recently but feel the need to at least catch up on the first season to refresh myself with the premise and the characters (even though most of the characters have been excluded).

Another reason why I'm watching it is because I'm considering cosplaying as Claire Bennet when I go down to Realm Makers in July. They have a costume night and I feel like I could probably do Claire. It's a toss up between her and Tris from the first book/movie (I have long hair so...). Let me know in the comments as to who you think I should do!

So that was my month and also the plan for March :) I'm looking forward to how the opportunities that have been opened up to me will shape my year and ultimately, the path to my becoming of a writer.

See ya all in the comments!

What were some of the highlights from your month? Have any goals for next month?

Keep up the awesomeness, Wordlings!