The Magic of an Artist

Just one quick thought: A good friend of mine, Isaac Stewart, is an incredibly talented individual. Recently he took the map I created for my epic fantasy world and turned it into something so dramatic, so wonderful, so colorful, I could easily see it in the inside of an amazing hardcover book. It's only limitations were my imagination, but what he did with it is extraordinary.

Now I just have to try and get a manuscript worthy of it!

Ha!

Homes and such

So, we've decided to buy a house in our neighborhood. Just around the corner, in the same ward, and will be the same ward as the in-laws when they get back from Milan, Italy, this July (serving a mission). We hunted all over the known universe, looked at tons of great and not so great homes, tried to find some around good friends, and even tried to buy a farm.

In the end, nothing was really working out or calling us. Then a nice little house around the corner became available for significantly less than we thought it would sell for, and we took it. Decent sized home, in great shape considering its age and such, and for a really good price under market value and less than a lot of other homes we have been reviewing.

So to all my friends out there who had been hoping we'd go elsewhere, sorry!

OK, now I've got to try and get a chapter written on my middle grade fantasy.

From the mouth of a child

So, as I just noted on Facebook, when your nine year old, the one whose favorite movie when she was two was Sleeping Beauty because of the terrifying fire-breathing dragon, which she loved, tells you that your middle grade fantasy written with her in mind has a scene that is terrifying and gives her nightmares, it's time to rewrite. This is the kid who never has nightmares. Nerves of steel.

That's when I made the edits. Fortunately, in this case the scene didn't have to be completely rewritten. Instead of having the monsters who capture the main character begin to dismember the character in preparation to eat her as a child sacrifice, they just capture her and hold her fast and begin to summon the big bad guy. The good guys come to the rescue anyway, and it's early enough into the book--about a third of the way in--that it shouldn't be too scary.

This does tell me that the transition from epic fantasy writing to MG is just a bit more involved than I had thought. Oh, learning to write for the different age group is not too hard--I've been doing that for years as I switched from my master's program in medieval history to editing for 6th grade textbooks. And then again as I started working for the magazines for adults, others for teens, and yet others for younger audiences.

It is wonderful, though, that I get such awesome feedback right here in my own home. She is the audience!

Writing to different audiences

I'm about a week and a half into writing my middle grade fantasy, and I am absolutely loving it. So much easier to write these shorter works than the grueling epics I've written in the past. Oh, it is so much fun as well to write to my kids. They eagerly await the installments when I read back to them the stories. Of course, these are based on nighttime stories I tell them, so they've already heard some of it.

But the stories evolve as you put it down in written form, and get more complex, rich, and wondrous. At least, that's been my feelings on the matter. Goal is to finish the draft before Memorial Day weekend. That's only another 30,000 words, so it should be no problem.

I know we sometimes call this changing genres, but to me it's really about shifting audiences in terms of age groups. I still write fantasy. With this book I just imagine I'm telling it (or reading it) to my kids. I have the benefit of revision and expansion along the way. Oh, I'm not doing heavy editing. Just fixing major plot shifts that impact the later story.

But this is just so much fun! I think I may be a middle grade/YA writer after all. It is so freeing to be writing actively again. Woohoo!

I'll start giving snippets of plot sometime soon to see how this intrigues readers. If it seems to work widely, the goal is to submit to agents by mid June.

House hunting

We saw two lovely homes yesterday. One is a half acre with chicken coop, dog run, and a garden larger than our current backyard. Five mature fruit trees, sunken trampoline, two sheds, and just acreage galore. All the neighbors have half acre lots as well, except, of course, for the big lots. ;-)

Yeah, the lots just behind us are 1.5 to 3 acre lots. Horses next door and behind us, goats, even a donkey. My kids were really flipping out when we told them. They were dancing on the floor in crazy hysterics of excitement. And it's only a mile north of my in-laws on a very navigable, bikeable road.

The other house we really liked was in a traditional neighborhood. Lovely house, nice neighbors, and a very solid second choice. Of course, when we pulled up I did see a green slug bug drive by with the license plate, "Schlock." Hm, could I really live in the same ward as Howard Taylor???

Ha! Of course! He and his wife are some of the coolest people I know, so we'll definitely consider that. But the farm, that's the dream. If we can just get the price right.

Blogging to Notes in Facebook

I just set up my blog to post to Facebook. Thanks, Ben Crowder, for the idea! I hope it works. I'm not technically challenged, per se, just illiterate. ;-) Creating blogs and interacting online is just something I've done very little with.

Anyway, let's hope this little experiment works. If it does, very, very cool.

Tell me about your experiences blogging and such. What's worked for you? How often do you do it, and what benefits have you seen from it?