Rising Star Adventure

Still Hanging In There...

Well, I'm still hanging in there was Rising Stars, but it's by the skin of my teeth, as expected. lol I was away from Writing.com for a while and it shows in my points. I need 18,000. When I got back on recently, I only had like 3,400, I think. Now I have 8,900, supposedly. Though I keep calculating and recalculating and I can't get that number. Of course, I also haven't gotten the same number twice, so there's a good chance I'm off. Hahaha Math was never my strong point...

I posted a couple new things in my folder. Here's a kids book idea I'm working on... "Do You Know How Much I Love You?"  It still has a way to go, though. I did my 5 haiku. I did them all as 1 idea with a winter theme. I like writing haiku, but don't feel that these, especially the 1st 3, are my best work. "5 Haiku"  I also wrote two song lyrics for a contest where we had to write a new holiday song. I wrote one Christian and one secular. That was actually really fun! Here's what I came up with--to the tune of "Winter Wonderland." "Nestled By the Warming Fire's Glow"  and "Savior Jesus, Only Jesus Christ"  Actually, I think I'm going to go tell the sponsor of that contest how much I enjoyed it. Thankfully, I (almost) always write what contest I'm doing things for. In case anyone is interested, it was for the contest, "Invalid Item" .

Okay, I told him. Andy~hating university does a lot of great contests, raffles, etc! Here's another I highly recommend! "Invalid Item"  It's a real challenge, but I learned so much doing it and he's not super hardcore about the quality...turn in your best effort and you win. I appreciate that because if I had to turn in an award winning poem about Queen Mary I/Bloody Mary, I would have been in trouble. But instead, I read about her life, gave it a good effort, and he was pleased. I really enjoyed doing that challenge, now that I think about it. Maybe after Rising Stars is over, I'll try again.

One big thing about Rising Stars this month, they made me put cover images on all my RS stuff. I'd tried to do it repeatedly before and never could. For some reason, my brain just couldn't understand what I was supposed to do! But I tried again and I FINALLY understood! Whew! I was actually worried about not being able to figure it out again, but I did. I got some help from a couple of different people, but Lostwordsmith was actually best at explaining it to me. THANK YOU! Now I should probably go do the rest of my portfolio. lol

Well, I was hoping to be able to get my 18,000 points without having to submit anything to magazines. Partly, because I sort of felt like that was a cheaters way of getting points. (Don't ask me why. lol) Also, because I don't really feel like I have anything good enough to publish...especially after reviewing my works for something to turn in. Somehow, in these last couple of months of me not being on WdC much, I've had my eyes opened to my writing. I went back to reread stuff to send out and discovered a lot of what I write sucks. lol Wait, that's not really all that funny. Hmmm...I thought I was a better writer than I am. Interestingly, a couple of my poems were better than I remembered, but all my stories were worse than I remembered. I wonder if I like the poems better because I'm actually not that bad at writing poetry or if it's because I'm not that good with reading and understanding poetry, so I can't recognize when my own isn't that great...things that make you wonder...

Anyway, back to the submissions, I ended up submitting 11 things to 4 magazines. I'll be surprised if any pick anything up, but who knows? I'm really hoping that they will send back feedback that is useful. That would be nice. But like I was saying above about liking my poetry now, I'm thinking of actually submitting a few more pieces. I know it won't count toward RS, but I just like some of them.

I've also gotten a partner for the Candidate/Candidate item and the Candidate/Group item. Lostwordsmith is paired with me in both. We've agreed to do a poem. I think that's easier than a story. But I hope she's not disappointed in my poetry skills. After I was just talking about liking some of my stuff, I mean SOME. A lot of it still sucks. But hopefully I can hold my own in these 2 poetic endeavors. We'll see...

In another (desperate) attempt to get more points, I'm reading and am going to write a review on "All the Light We Cannot See." I'm not a big reader, so I'd planned not to do this, but after calculating the upcoming points available and how many I still need, I changed my mind. I don't want to fail at this and I REALLY don't want to let my sponsor down! I can do this! I can read 1 book (and write a review). On the good side, the chapters are really short...like mostly 3-5 pages. Whew! Also, it's not too boring. But I am having a problem with them switching around past and "present" tense in the book, plus each chapter is about 1 character's situation, so it may be several chapters since I last read about a character and since they aren't interacting (yet), I have trouble remembering which character is up to what and who are they anyway. (Stupid Iraq brain injury...) Anyway, I can get through this...I have faith!

I mentioned above that I've done the math on how many points I have (but keep getting different numbers lol). Well, I also did the math on how many points are left to be achieved. Ummm...I'm in trouble. I shouldn't have not participated much the last couple of months (6-8 weeks). I might not make my points. I pretty much have to do everything that is left in order to make it, I think.

The New Horizons school is teaching a comma class this semester. I've been wanting to take some of their classes. Thankfully, I get points for RS for doing so, so it works out.

Oh, on an unrelated note, I have been nominated for the 2016 Quills Awards for best new portfolio. YIPEE! I don't expect to win, but as they say, it's an honor just to be nominated!

I think that's all for now. My e-mails are starting to stack up, so I should check them.

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