Monday, May 20, 2013

Writing!!

So....exciting day!  Just got back from a sleepover with my friend Olivia Rogers, who I am writing a couple of projects with.  It was like an amazing and fun 24 hour period of time that we got to work on our stuff!  It was super refreshing to catch up and talk through a ton of stuff.     We are doing a lot of things together....a novel, short stories, a poetry book.....

We worked for a couple hours on our poetry book, Ripples.  And finally, after about 9 months, we've finalized it and sent off for the proof copy!  I still can barely believe it.  We are  self-publishing it on Createspace, a company owned by Amazon.  There it will be available to order and have shipped to anyone!  Our dream to be published is coming true....!   So next, the proof copy will be shipped to one of our houses, a copy just like it will be after publishing, so we can make sure everything is perfect.  If we need to, we can go back after that and fix stuff before it is finalized.   Then it will be published!  We are so excited!  ...There are 65 poems in the book - it has been super fun working with Olivia.  It is so much better doing it with a friend; you can keep each other on task, give each other ideas, and get twice the work done.  :)  8 times the fun.  Co-authoring has been great for us - in our poetry book, we each wrote about half the poems.  We keep them all on a doc - and add new ones as we write them.  We also edit each others, and give some feedback.  We haven't yet written a whole poem together - but it would be fun! We put the poems together in an order that puts them near others of the same style.  Ripples doesn't really have a certain style for the whole book - except for that everything is our thoughts.  That is pretty much the theme....these poems have parts of us in them.  We have funny poems, descriptive poems, deeper poems, no boundaries, really.  I can't wait to share this with you!
  To see a preview for the book - visit : https://www.createspace.com/Preview/1124542
  I'll keep the blog updated as the news comes and we receive our proof!!  More details later..

We also worked for a couple hours on our book, Go East on No Road.   We have made incredible progress in the last week (plus a few days) - we wrote about 5 chapters!  This puts us up to 16 chapters total now.  We are still set on finishing this book - we know we are not quite halfway yet, but getting close.  Again, writing it together has been what has kept it going.  We need both of our ideas and determination to do it.  It's amazing to look back to August, when we started, and see the difference between our writing then, compared to now.  It is huge.  I feel like we've progressed so much ......  we've also analyzed so many things together and come up with methods for doing things right - that's one of our favorite things to do.  We think a lot alike...it is good to have someone who thinks so much like you - you know they will understand what you're trying to say.  :)

So lately we've been editing some of the earlier chapters, while continuing to add more to the current spot, Chapter 17 at the moment.  At the sleepover we were able to basically rewrite the Prologue and Chapter One - that was an accomplishment, considering it is one of the most important parts to get right, that we were working on the same computer in the same room (we had never really done that before-only calling on the phone and Skype..) and of course the fact that it was about 11PM.  I am really glad that got done because it has been a really hard part to do.  Now the first two chapters have been redone, and we're still making progress on the current part!  We are moving. :)

Our hopes.....well, we know that the start of the school year this fall is going to make us terribly busy.  Olivia is homeschooling - and I have been accepted to Sumner Highschool of Arts and Sciences in KCK!  It is a public school - so it will be a big change after 9 years of homeschooling.  I will be a freshman....wow I'm really excited, although a bit nervous.  Anyway, that will make our schedule real busy, so we definitely want to establish a great pattern and habits this summer so it will be easier to be productive in the short times we have when school starts.  If all goes well....we want to get a lot done this summer - even 3/4 of the book or more!

So I have been really happy with this lately, and have been writing a lot.  Olivia and I are constantly learning new things and teaching each other - so glad we are doing it!  I love to write.

~Caroline M.





Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Home Again!

Well, we are safely home and back in Kansas!  It's officially been a week!  I am really excited to be back and see people, but also know I'm going to definitely miss a lot of people back in CR.  It still doesn't really seem real, it's just like we are away for two weeks and will get back and keep on living there soon...don't think it's really sunk in yet!  
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Some of my highlights - 

spending time with great friends - Sears, Granados, Paola and Eduardo....
meeting great new friends from the Spanish school and volleyball team....so many!  
learning how to play volleyball and getting to be a setter on the team....
the easy schedule and no stress or business....
.........................
I really missed a lot of people while we were gone, the regular events that always kept our weeks busy, inviting people over to our house for dinner and all the ministry things, and people that are apart of our lives here.  

We had a great welcoming committee at the airport last Monday night, and it was SO good to come back to such a clean house!  The weather......Hm.  What can I say?  It was beau-ti-ful for a day or two...then it started to get cooler on the first....now it's SNOWING!  We went from like summer on Wednesday, then Spring, then Fall in the evening, and now winter.    Crazy!  I mean, it's  MAY!  What a welcome!  I guess we didn't miss all of winter after all!  Here are a couple pictures :)  Lucy and Charlie loved it.  :)



I also got to go back to Brighton last Wednesday, my twice-a-week school.  I had been keeping up with all my classes (Biology, writing and history), turning in my assignments by email - it was a great reward to get to go back and see everyone again.  I have a couple of days left before the school year ends.  :)


I have been writing some more poems lately - more on that later. :)  
Our poem book (Olivia and I's)  is also in the last stages before we self-publish it!  It will be on Amazon....to see a preview, view this link!  We are very excited


SO thanks everyone for the great welcome, and can't wait to keep seeing everyone I've missed so much!  

Love,
Caroline