Promoting Creativity – Jessica

After a short break I am now back with Promoting Creativity (which I’m thinking about renaming, anyone have suggestions?)  This month I had the pleasure of interview my friend and fellow writer, Jessica! Hope you all enjoy reading it. 🙂

1) Tell us a little bit about what you do.

What I do, well, currently I am a student. Starting in 2017 I will have three years left. YAY! As for a job, I work for a company called Thresholds. The company runs just under twenty homes for the developmentally disabled. So, depending on who asks me what I do for a living, I tell them I do shit. Literally. Depending on the home I will either take someone out to go see a movie or I will be changing someone’s brief. But enough about that. Besides being a student and a worker, I’m also a missionary. I’ve been to India, Mexico, Ecuador, and the Philippines. The Philippines was my very first medical mission trip. Let me see….I play the guitar, I write when I can, LOVE Netflix, I sing, I read a TON, and I take 3 mile walks like everyday! Everyday! I think I got that question covered.
2) When and why did you start writing?

Writing was always a way to get my feelings out and not actually talk to someone about it. Especially my parents. So my writing really started out as a diary, which became a friend as I never really had any. I keep all of my diaries and I think my first one is dated back to 2009/2010. Later I thought I’d try if I could write a story. I always loved writing papers in school, so why not outside of school. I’ve completed two books, but they need a lot of editing.

3) Tell us about a project that you are currently working on that has you really excited.

I’m working on a book about a young boy who solves cases for dead people. I know what your thinking, I’m copying off of “Ghost Whisperer”. Not really. Actually I didn’t even have the show in mind when I started writing the book. I haven’t finished it, but I’m nearing the end. It’s intended to be a series. Outside of writing, I’m working on writing my own songs with my guitar. I’ve actually written a few. Again, the lyrics tell how I feel and say a story.

4) What are some of your goals for the future?

To get through this semester and transfer to Lansing Community College. Survive the next three years. Get a job as an ASL interpreter. Grow stronger with my boyfriend. Grow stronger in my faith. Get married and have kids. And go to Africa!

5) How can we support you?

Well, advice on how to get a book published would be great! No clue on how to do that. Prayers, lots of prayers. Support in my fundraisers would great as well. My job does not pay enough considering I’m a student and a missionary. Both cost an arm and a leg. Guess I have lots of those.

Don’t forget to check out Jessica’s blog! 

 

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September Wrap-Up

Wow I can’t believe it’s already almost done with September! I feel like I say something similar every month but really guys, life goes so fast when you’re an adult. It’s kinda sad.

But anyway, I ended up doing really well on my goals this month. 

Writing:

 Three day write-a-thon 50k w/ Grant.   This was completed in the middle of the month.  Writing so many words in so little time was truely insane. I only made it to 30k but still I tried. The post about what happened is here.
Work on Chamomile.  At this point I’m done with the first draft. With a total of 46 pages, and around that many poems.  I’m not sure how I feel about the poems, but hey at least I finished another collection. Now on to editing.  I shared one of the poems from Chamomile here. 
Send A Mad Woman’s Voice to an editor.  This is one of the completed goals that I am post pleased with. Since starting to write poetry in the fall of 2014 I’ve seen my writing get a lot better, but it’s still not to a place where I’m 100% happy with it.  I’d been wanting to get a second pair of eyes on my work, but Grant doesn’t write poetry and mostly hates reading it too. Finally this month I was able to find someone whom I could trust and I sent it off! I am beyond excited to hear back from her later next month.

Reading:

Get a library card. YAY!!!! I finally have a library card! I got this at the beginning of the month when Grant and I moved.  If you follow me on instgram (@abi_pearson21) you’ll have noticed that I have waaay more pictures of books than usual. 😀
Read at least 10 books.  Psst you and I should totally be friends on Goodreads. 😉 In total this month I read 18 books! Having a library card has really helped. 😀

 

Blogging: Start up Promoting Creativity again.  Technically this one isn’t completed yet, but it will be tomorrow. I have the interview waiting in my drafts! 🙂

Life: Update more about my counseling. I only posted once about this, but I’ve decided I’m okay with that. It was a good post, though I do say so myself. 😀  I’m thinking I might start posting about my counseling once a month or so.

 

The end! That’s all for my month’s wrap-up.  What goals did you have for this month, and have you been able to complete them? 

 

Story Cover Ideas

Two weeks ago, when Grant and I tried to write 50k in three days, I wrote a couple short stories. One of them I’ve been editing over this week and decided to make a cover for. The title of the story is And So The Stairs Went Up. It’s an absurdist/experimental story somewhat in the style of Wittgenstein’s Mistress by David Markson. Told in the point of view of a female stuck between worlds where her only respite seems to be climbing an endless staircase.

Anyway I have several ideas for the cover to this story, but I haven’t been able to make up my mind as to which I like best.  I have a running poll on my facebook going so I thought I’d also do a blog post about it. These are rough draft ideas, but please feel free to give ideas on what I could do better, and also which you like best.

1)

2)

3)

As always, thanks so much for reading my blog! 🙂 

Wolf By Wolf – YA Alternative History

Goodreads Synopsis: Her story begins on a train.

The year is 1956, and the Axis powers of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan rule. To commemorate their Great Victory, Hitler and Emperor Hirohito host the Axis Tour: an annual motorcycle race across their conjoined continents. The victor is awarded an audience with the highly reclusive Adolf Hitler at the Victor’s Ball in Tokyo.

Yael, a former death camp prisoner, has witnessed too much suffering, and the five wolves tattooed on her arm are a constant reminder of the loved ones she lost. The resistance has given Yael one goal: Win the race and kill Hitler. A survivor of painful human experimentation, Yael has the power to skinshift and must complete her mission by impersonating last year’s only female racer, Adele Wolfe. This deception becomes more difficult when Felix, Adele twin’s brother, and Luka, her former love interest, enter the race and watch Yael’s every move.

But as Yael grows closer to the other competitors, can she bring herself to be as ruthless as she needs to be to avoid discovery and complete her mission?
From the author of The Walled City comes a fast-paced and innovative novel that will leave you breathless.

Find on Goodreads and Amazon.

I got this book from the library a couple weeks ago, the cover was what drew me in at first. And then I also really liked the sound of the plot. Now I’ve finally gotten around to reading and finishing this book.

I’ve been having a hard time writing this blog post because I haven’t really decided how I like Wolf By Wolf. On one hand the premise is really well done. Yael taking Adele’s place made for a great story and it wasn’t easy.  I also liked the world-building, the world felt like it was in the 1950’s and at the same time it felt different.

At the same time I didn’t really like Yael. I mean she was fine, but she wasn’t really a great character. I didn’t feel like there was anything compelling about her. I didn’t like any of the other characters either. Luka, the mysterious wanna-be lover was about as stereotypical as they come. Felix, the brother, had no character development. He felt like a plot pusher.

In the end I gave the story 3 stars. It’s an okay story. I’d love to know if anyone else has read it, comment and let me know what you thought about it.

#ThreeFictionalCharacters Tag

I was tagged by Elisabeth the other day, and now I’m finally getting around to doing it. I’d been seeing this tag go around and it sounded super fun. I’ve had a hard time deciding which characters to pick. Five years ago I would have had no problem, Eowyn from The Lord of the Rings, Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice and  Anne of Green Gables. Now I’ve changed and I’m still finding it hard to decide who I am and what I’m doing. This tag was definitely interesting for me.

1) Amelie Poulain.

It’s rare that I find a character that matches me so closely, but when I first watched this movie I fell in love. Amelie was me. The optimist, the socially awkward girl who wants to make friends but doesn’t know how. The girl who wants to help people and fall in love.

2) Anne Elliot.

Anne Elliot, as well as being the main character from my favorite Jane Austen book, Anne and I also have some things in common. We’re both introverts and both feel a big duty to our families.

3) Cath Avery.

I read Fangirl a couple years back and like with meeting Amelie, I found a character so much like myself it was scary.  Cath’s dealing with anxiety, meeting new people and going to college seemed a lot like things I’ve gone through. Also she’s a writer!

So there we go! My personality as described by three characters.  Who else has done this tag? I’d love to read your posts. 🙂 

Alternative Thoughts – Updates on My Mental Health

“Don’t worry Abi, don’t worry.”  These are words that inevitably I tell myself a hundred or more times a day when I’m feeling anxious.  Of course it’s more than just worrying.  It’s a constant stomach ache, it’s not being able to relax, it’s a tiny voice in the back of my head always telling me something will go wrong.  It’s an endless cycle of feeling fine and then feeling so not fine. It’s not being able to text someone back for an hour because I’m scared I’ll say something wrong, even if it’s just a simple conversation. It’s not being able to leave the house because what if I forget to close the door and my cat runs away.  It’s a driving need to be perfect so that nothing will go wrong, but knowing that I’ll never be perfect and always screw up despite my attempts.

Anxiety for me usually starts as one thought, and then it spirals. One second I’m preparing to send an email to my internship and suddenly I wonder, “What if I did this wrong?” From there it just goes down-hill. From “Of course I did this wrong, now they’re going to be mad” to “I’m going to get kicked off the job, and then they’ll tell everyone how horrible of a writer I am.” And then I’m paralyzed with anxiety, not knowing what to do or how to make things better.

When my counselor was able to talk to me about these spirals, we started working on recognizing the thoughts that begin the spirals. Once I’m able to recognize the original anxious thought, I begin a process to form an alternative thought. First I have to take time to write (or think, depending on how bad I feel) all of the evidence that supports my anxious thought. Then I write out all of the evidence that does not support my thought, and from there I come up with a more balanced thought to replace the anxious thought.  Like in the case above, a more balanced thought (after considering the situation and all the evidence) I might come up with is: “Maybe I did this project wrong, but I did the best I could, and I can always fix my mistakes.”

Anxiety makes me feel like I need to be perfect, but the simple fact is: I’m not.  My counseling is helping me to give myself space to not be perfect, to accept the fact that things go wrong, and to not get so worried about it.  Life is messy, ups and downs happen, and I will always make mistakes. The good news is I can also always fix those mistakes.

It’s been hard work, learning to take myself out of the moment and take a step back.  But slowly I’m making progress. I had a very good week two weeks ago, but last week was a rough week.  This week has been okay and that’s okay.  At least I’m working on getting better. And that’s my balanced thought about this topic.

Thanks for letting me share. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this process. If you do something similar feel free to let me know what, and how it helps you.