Wha.. Huh... Where did the year go?

Kinda funny how time gets away from you...I was just thinking of how long it had been since I last posted; my son's birthday party gave it away. Six month's doesn't feel like an exceptionally long time, but I suppose that it is.  Six months is half a year, and when I was 9 that felt like for ever.  Maybe something in my adult brain moves more quickly now.  My harried life of go, come, wait, drive, give, push and pull is so constant that I miss some of the details that kids observe without even trying.  It's as though I can't wait to get to the next thing because I know at the end of that long list of things is nothing that I have to do.  Kinda depressing, right!  Maybe.  I also know that my writing on this site is a means to stem that flow of information and the day rushing past me.  I find that in the middle of being busy, one of the kids might ask me to hangout with them (quite the honor actually!) or my oldest daughter might ask me to play some music with her (also an honor).  My adult brain tells me that I really should "be more responsible" or to "do things when you have more time".  I know that both of those are cop outs.  It's good to be reminded of this and that the worst day at play with one of my kids is always better than the best day of work in the "adult" world.
I was just inspired by Jeff Goins site on writing, an inspirational place for the would be author that I have become.  How is the book going you ask? Quite well incidentally.  Avalon and I have been trying to keep a ragged pace to complete the novel before June.  It's going to be close, but I think that we should be able to manage it.  The story has kept me up at night, trying to find ways to work out some of the more troubling details.  Science can be a pesky thing, especially when you are dealing with experimental stuff like time travel. Plausible goes a long way in fiction, that is for sure.

Back at it again...and this time, we will make it happen!

It's funny how a person will make vows like, "I will make sure to check my blog site and make regular entries etc, etc, lie to oneself oh so smuggly..." and reallllly me it.  This last weekend, a friend of mine let me know that he actually did check out my blog site.... Yikes! Here's how the conversation went,
"Hey, I checked out your blog site."
"Oh really? I haven't done anything there in like, a year or more."
"Yeah, I know..."

Ouch

Well, let it be said that shame is a tremendous motivator.  I should have kept up with my posts, especially after dusting off the thing.  I cleaned it up just to set it back down again.  Oh the humanity!
Well, enough of that, lets get to the update!

A whole year of living has gone bye. We have had to say goodbye to some loved ones during that time.
We all love and miss Kathy Wood, Rick Davey, and Nadine Carne. They will always be with us, not far away, just as far as our thoughts.

The daughter and I did finish writing the book, The Time Keepers and we are in the process of getting it down to a quality edit copy to send out to publishers.  It's a been a tremendous learning experience for the both of us, and while the editing can be a bit tedious, it has really been fun to do.

I have submitted my first short story for consideration to La Frontera Publishing.  It is a great short story about a bounty hunter who goes looking for the man that murdered her father.  If they like the story, it will go into a coming western anthology tentatively titled, Wanted: Dead or Alive.  Really a very exciting prospect for me if I do say so.

Several of my former and current students are going to have their first short story published in the Western Writers Associations annual high school anthology. The story is titled, Sisters of the Old West.  It focuses on a young lady whose parents have passed away unexpectedly.  She is trying to nurse her little sister back to health, but is fighting an uphill battle.  Help comes to her in the form of a former Texas Ranger.  There is a little mystery, death, romance, and ultimately hope.  It is also a very good story.  The students will get the authorship by lines for the work.  Not too shabby for a class of young authors.

I continue to obsess over video games and in the last year have really expanded my gaming habits out into the realm of board games.  I will be posting information about what I have been playing and what has been keeping me busy over the weeks ahead.  Here is to reboot 1.5!  Onward...

C:P

Party down...then back to work...Like a Boss!

Such is the nature of a "good time": short lived, transient, and usually bad for your health in some fun way.  Today was my boy's 16th birthday party, so we did.  It was fun, everyone had a good time!  My co-author and full time daughter, Avalon, was very  diligent and did all of her writing this morning before things go out of hand with the party preparations.  I, on the other hand, have managed to carve out a couple hundred words today.  Don't worry, I will make sure to hit my word count goals before I go to bed, but my daughter amazes me.  She inspires me to put my time in and make it count!  We are making our way out of chapter 2 and into some of the meat of the story, so it is exciting to pen (can I say that? I'm typing!?!) down who these characters are and what they are going to become.  So as not to lose my inspiration, here are some highlights of the day, in no particular order:

• toilet paper mummies
• balloons
• Rock Band
• Just Dance
• hot dog bar
• apple pie for 1
• my son!
• Sonic Generation's

Well, time to get back to it!  Here's the short list of what's up

# of Chapters completed:  2

# of Chapters summarized: 25

# of Hotdogs eaten by me today: 2

# of cups of coffee today: 25

Today's chapters inspired by:  Birthday parties/ Hotdogs/ Soundcloud/ El Ten Eleven (look them up!  very diggable and tasty gooves!)

Holy Smokes...blow the dust offa this puppy!

So here I am, back haunting this old site.  I really tried to avoid it for the most part, but...it's too hard to stay away!  NaNo WriMo started today, and since I am going to be a writing mess for the next thirty or so days (rewrites and edits don't count) I thought that it would be the perfect excuse to break back into daily journalism    by posting the happenings on the new novel that I am co-writing with my daughter.  The working title is called (drum roll..lbblblblblblblblblblblblb) The Timekeepers and it is something that we are both super excited about.  This is my fourth NaNo and my daughters second.  We both won last year, My first novel, The Arklight Compendium topped out at over 50,000 words with room for sequels and everything while my daughter (then in 6th grade) did a stunning 21,000 words in 30 days for her first novel, Alice of 1000 worlds!  Nothing to sneeze at and it's a pretty good book.
This years novel is coming along very well already.  We prepped the heck out of it, writing chapter summaries and character summary charts among other things.  It is fantastic Sci-Fi novel along the lines of Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Warriors and the like.  I will be doing updates on a daily/semi-daily basis to just share how it is going and to more likely vent my frustrations out on the inter-webs. So for now know the basics...
Young protagonists Courtney and James Adams have their somewhat perfect and boring lives disrupted by a violent accident that takes the lives of their parents.  They are sent to live in foster care until the fateful day that they meet their estranged Uncle, Ezra Adams.  Ezra Adams takes on the responsibility of raising two very special young adults who come to find that they have power that most only dream of and that others will kill for.
 That's all for now, but thanks for sticking around.  More to follow
Resident Timekeeper,
C.Perez

Playlist is Character...

Here is the slide with the annotation directions. Don't forget to do the playlist essay...300 words about the first 10 songs that pop up in your playlist and how they represent your character.
P.

Layering effects on writing

This weeks lesson on Layering also comes from Heather Sellers The Practice of Creative Writing: A Guide for Students, Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008, Copyright Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008.

P.

The Truth is Stranger...

Here are the slides!  This next several weeks exercise were inspired from  Heather Sellers The Practice of Creative Writing: A Guide for Students, Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008, Copyright Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008.

P.