A Little About Nick

Shop Talk: I've just finished the first draft of my revised story from Assignment 6. I managed to awfulize it adequately - I think. More importantly my protagonist, Nick, will have listened to his conscience and done the right thing. By the end of the story he has grown more morally responsible. I like that. Another thing I'm excited about is what I'm learning in the little bit of research I'm doing for this story. Nick is into skateboarding - a topic I know virtually NOTHING about. I did some looking around on the web and discovered that many skateboard companies love to exploit death, darkness, and menacing images and make them appear cool. Then I discovered that there are skateboard communities out there that are trying to change that image and are christian people who want to bring glory to God. Since my story has a moral slant, I've already looked into some magazines that like that kind of thing. And if I do this right, I can tap into the info I found on the different christian skateboarder websites and convincingly portray Nick as a cool skateboarder with strong moral convictions. Maybe this doesn't make sense. Hopefully it'll all come together and I'll be able to tell you more. Basically I'm still revising the piece, but now that I have the story roughed out I can really focus on making my character believable and making my plot strong. Honestly, I haven't spent this much time and effort on any story I've written so far - I told you , I really want to get it right. This is kind of where the rubber meets the road and I get to take all of the information I've been inundated with and make it into a real live, publishable story. In other shop talk news, I'm thinking of joining an online critique group. This is an online group of writers that share their work and offer constructive criticism and praise. I'm SO nervous about people reading my work and honestly critiquing it! I'm in the process of finding a group that will be a good match for me.


The girls are home from school this week. I'm liking the laid back days of school vacation. Everyone sleeps a tad later, we wear our jammies until after breakfast, and we don't have any real plans! Ahhh, no plans! That's nice sometimes, isn't it? Yesterday we ventured out to our local paint your own pottery place. Katie and I had pieces we've been working on and wanted to finish. Allison and Becky got to pick out something new to paint. My girls love this kind of thing and for 2 1/2 hours we were all engrossed in our projects - Allison included. I'll have to take pictures of our pieces after we get them back from the studio - they're waiting to be fired. Everyone seems to be getting along well and I'm actually able to take some time to work. I do love having my girls home with me. Kindergarten registration papers came last week. I'm mostly fine with my baby going off to school full time but sometimes I about hyperventilate when I think about it!! Can you imagine? My baby off to school. YIKES! I've had someone small at home with me for 13 years so this will be a big change for me. Not to mention a big change for Allison too - being away from home ALL day. Why don't I homeschool her, you ask? It just doesn't seem like the right thing for us at this point of our lives. Allison will thrive and grow and learn at school - I know that. If God wants me to homeschool her or the other two, He'll let me know. But for now I really don't think that's what He wants for us. You know I've prayed about this alot - I still am praying for clear guidance about school decisions for all three of my girls. God won't let me down - He knows just exactly what's right for my girls and me. Oh, the comfort that comes from believing those words...

Got to do some laundry...