Ideas for my Novel

All my life, I've been a writer. I used to write 50-100 page stories (hand-written pages) when I was a young teenager. The last few years I've gotten interested again, and have read a ton of books on writing. I also took a Creative Writing and a Creative Nonfiction course. I've submitted a few short stories to magazines only to have them returned with a big stamp of disapproval on them. I have written a few articles for an online magazine and gotten $15 or $20 for them. But now it's time to step it up a little. I would like to write books, targeting approximately the 9-13 year old audience. I don't know why I'm posting this, except to ask for any tips or words of encouragement. Maybe seeing this in writing will get me ... well, writing.

I Almost Died Today

Okay, so not really. But I did go skidding through the ice on an overpass (getting onto I-430 going toward Maumelle). The car in front of me was going about 20 miles an hour, even though there was no current sleeting action, just slightly wet and (apparently) slightly slick roads. I slowed down (I did NOT slam on the brakes, just a gentle push) and went spiraling out of control and my car was moving sideways toward the guard rail. The funny part was, I was on the phone with my mom, and I never put the phone down. What she heard was something like, "Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, oh, oh, ah, hang on, hang on, okay, hang on, let me regain my composure." I ended up steering out of it, but then headed in the other direction toward the other guard rail. But, I was fine. I did, however, turn around and go home instead of going to work.

Schedule for this Semester

Here's my tentative schedule for this semester, in case any one of my 3 readers was just dying to know.

Sunday -- 2-4 hours with the 6 year old boy with autism that I work with.
Monday -- no work, but quilting every other week and school at night. (This will probably be my main ebay and other on-the-side money-making day).
Tuesday -- class from 1:40-3, and 6-8, and possibly working earlier in the day some days.
Wednesday -- work from 11-6.
Thursday -- work from 10-1, class from 1:40-3;3-5:35, then drive to another campus and have class from 6-8.
Friday -- work from 10-6, including an autism social group that I helped start.

I Think This Will Be A Good Semester

I had my first class tonight -- Developmental Psychology. I took it in two parts in Fayetteville (like early childhood and adolescence or something) but I need some more psych electives, and this looked like a fun one, and one that could potentially help me with work. My instructor is a professional Patsy Cline impersonator, and says she'll never keep us longer than an hour and a half or two hours at most. Tonight, she talked for about 30 minutes, reviewing our syllabus and all that, and I zoned out for a moment, then realized class was over when I noticed everyone around me getting up to leave. We have 3 tests, including a non-comprehensive take-home final. :) So this should definitely be an easy A.

My other classes include Applied Psychology (an overview of different psych jobs out there) and a class called Psych and Cinema, which I understand is a fun class for seniors where we watch movies and analyze the psychological conditions in them. These are both taught by the same professor, who has one of the highest ratings on the facebook "rate your professor" site.

I'm also taking ASL 2 at a community college, and have the same wonderful teacher I've had for 2 other classes.

The best news is I only needed 2 textbooks this semester, and got them both for a total of...$13.00 including shipping!