It's officially a new semester with a new round of even cooler classes (mythology and Chaucer, anyone?).  I survived last semester just fine, with all papers and presentations getting good grades (lowest overall grade last semester was a B).

If I have learned anything in college, it's how to meet deadlines.  I don't always start far enough ahead, but I get things done and I do them well.  That's got to be a marketable skill, right?

So I recently had an epiphany-attack, which you can read about over here.  Other news?  I'm really excite for the semester and life in general.  I feel like things are coming together and I'm getting a sense of direction.  Still don't know about career paths, exactly, but I'm more certain of what I need to feel fulfilled and I have a better idea of what my skills are and what I can learn to do.

Optimistically,
Marki

Writing:

• Still not writing much fiction, unfortunately.  Of course, if I didn't read so many blogs and webcomics I could probably get more done.
• I am, however, keeping notes of new ideas as they attack my easily-distracted brain.

• Anthropology is hard.  Not the reading/comprehending part so much as transitioning from the conventions of English paper writing to anthropological conventions.  Also, I have a remarkable tendency to think of awesome paper topics that haven't really been researched yet.  This makes the acquisition of sources difficult and the meeting of page-length requirements almost impossible (seems you can only waffle so much in the social sciences).  Current difficult topics include the use of graffiti as a means of critiquing society, particularly in San Francisco (which I have never visited); also the use of non-traditional media by Native Americans, particularly the use of political cartoons, as a means of social commentary/example of a colonized culture appropriating a tool from the colonizing culture to use against that culture (normally the reverse is true).
• Urban fantasy class has been pushed almost entirely to the side because of anthropology.  I have to turn in my final paper on the 10th.  The professor is encouraging me to write something more like an article in a fantasy literature magazine, rather than something more "academic," which is neat and possibly easier to accomplish since urban fantasy hasn't really been noticed by academics.*
• I apparently now know every tense/conjugation in the Spanish language, excluding the obsolete.  Still can't remember preterite worth a damn.  My vocabulary is still laughable.  I probably take the composition assignments too seriously, but at least my grade is reflecting that.  I still test badly in Spanish.  Also cannot seem to compose sentences except on paper.
• Philosophy quiz on the 7th, paper due on the 13th.  Paper status:  I'm sorry, what were the topic options again?

Real Life:


*  There has been a lot of work done with magical realism, but not much of that overlaps.  My theory is that magical realism is considered more "literary" and the fantastic elements are put in the work without much explanation (requiring more suspension of disbelief).  In urban fantasy the world is built, rules are made and the logic and rationalization of the world is explained to the reader.  The reasons I see for this difference are twofold:  1). urban fantasy frequently involves fairly intense political scheming/intrigue, which requires the reader to have an understanding of the world and its politics; 2). urban fantasy is meant to be read for entertainment and is marketed to the everyman while magical realism takes itself more seriously as a work of Art and therefore is aimed more at edification and making other writers feel talentless.

It's recently come to my attention that, though I check my friends page every morning, I haven't posted anything on my journal since April.  Oops.

So, update:

• Working at the video rental store was awesome while it lasted.  Unfortunately, circumstances (read: misleading owners) led to the sudden closing of our store.  So I guess I won't be working there again next summer.
• Figured out plot of the story I've been trying to seriously crack down on and write.  I haven't actually written the parts I figured out, but it's a start.
• Trying to write a serious/literary graphic novel script.  Reading the blogs of feminist geeks makes my brain do weird things.
• Not actually writing much fiction, as I am still in school and trying not to drown in the sea of academia.  Must learn to schedule fiction-writing time to maintain what's left of my sanity.

Yeah, that's about it.


Marki

Over the long weekend I sat down and made myself write something about a pair of characters who'd popped into my head the other day while I was out walking.  So I sat down at my parents' kitchen table and wrote eight pages of graphic novel script.  I knew the characters wanted to be in a graphic novel and I'd intended to write the script but I'd expected to fail miserably, as I have in previous attempts in this format.  These first pages of the script are actually workable, though I'm sure my pacing is off and I'm not quite sure how to fix it.  But I've succeeded at something I've been trying to do for a couple years now.  It's a start.

Last semester I took my first ever class on writing. Here's what I learned:

• I'm not as bad a writer as I feared.
• I'm not as great as I'd hoped (but who is?).
• I now know what weaknesses show up again and again in my writing.  I can fix it.

I'm not in any writing classes this semester and I find that depressing.  I still write, when I get the chance (and I'd get more chances if I didn't keep finding new-to-me web comics to catch up on) but I don't have the same chances to workshop my writing.  I'm thinking I might need to locate/start a writers' group.  Or, you know, I could just register for that fiction writing workshop class next fall...

Anyway, so now I know what needs work and I can work on fixing it.  If my writer-muscles don't atrophy before summer break starts.  I'd hate to backslide.

Here's hoping to much writing and improvement.

Marki

It's Nation Novel Writing Month again (and has been for almost two weeks). Last year I didn't participate because I had too much to do. This year I still have a ridiculous amount of work to do, but I'm participating anyway. Since I've been feverishly writing every chance I get I thought I might as well use the NaNoWriMo excuse. It helps that one of my classes is creative writing, so at least part of what I write can be used towards that.

What's the story you ask? Well, it doesn't have a title, yet, or even a pathetic working title. It takes place during the Prohibition and follows a pair of rum runners getting into all sorts of trouble. As my roommates know, this was inspired by my reading of the webcomic, Lackadaisy by Tracy J. Butler. Hopefully my story has come into its own and doesn't look like poorly-concealed fan fiction, but if it hasn't I can't be too upset. It's NaNoWriMo, it isn't supposed to be brilliant.*



Marki Queen


*That is not to say Lackadaisy isn't brilliant. It's truly amazing and you should read it. I was referring to poorly-concealed fan fiction as not being brilliant.

I started reading Dominic Deegan ages ago, got to the Ecstacy & Evil storyline and decided that it made me uncomfortable.*  Recently I decided to go back and read it.  I'm in college now.  It can't be anything I haven't heard before.

That was Thursday.  I just finished the entire comic twenty-five minutes ago.  My eyes are bloodshot, my sides are aching and everyone on my floor thinks I'm nuts because I've been (apparently randomly) bursting into near-hysterical laughter for days, but I'm proud.  Dominic Deegan started in May of 2002 and has gone on almost daily ever since.  That's right.  Nearly seven years worth of webcomic in FOUR DAYS.  I am amazing.  (And I didn't flunk/skip any classes during this.  Of course, there was also a weekend in there.)

So if you have time to kill, or just more self-control than I do, you should check this out.  It's amazing.

God love you Mookie!



Triumphantly,

Marki Queen


P.S.  I intend to create my own emoticons for this journal.  These ones are cute, but don't have the scope required to convey my feelings.


*It turns out that the page that made me uncomfortable was the very last one in that arc, so I could have kept reading it then anyway.  I just wanted to make that clear.

November is National Novel Writing Month and every year I plan on doing it but I always forget until the beginning of December, when it's too late to participate.  This year I had plenty of warning, and a whole support group to keep me on track and remind me of what I was supposed to be doing.  Unfortunately, I never got past the 200-word mark due to the fact that it is nearing the end of the semester and all of my classes have large (or at least time-consuming) projects due at the end of the month and I've had no time for free-writing.

Several of my friends have had similar problems, and so we've made it our goal to postpone our own personal novel writing month for December.  We'll be following all the same rules and guidelines and attempting to write the same number of words, but in a month when we are out of school for the most part and might actually be able to make time.

Anyone else who missed out on the actual NaNoWriMo is welcome to join us.

Hopefully,
Marki Queen

I'm Marki Queen, the as-yet-unpublished author of numerous works of fantasy, mystery and horror. Welcome to my LiveJournal.

My entries here will most likely fall under one of three categories:

1. Writing:  This could mean a poem, a short story or a chapter from a novel. These will be in raw form, so feel free to post comments and reviews about what you did or did not like and any questions that don't appear to be answered in the material itself.
2. Reading:  What I think about things I've read. It might be a book, poem, short story, news article, movie or something else I want to review. I'll try to give actual reasons for why I did or didn't like something instead of just gushing about how "great" or "stupid" something was.
3. Other:  Occasionally I might post something that doesn't fall into either of the two categories above. It might be a random question I need feedback on, a rant, or just a heads-up (like this post). I will try to keep these posts to a minimum.

I will do my best to make sure that each entry is clearly labeled.  That way you can skip over the entries you don't care about.

If you made it this far, thank you very much. I hope you aren't disappointed with this journal and the content it should soon host.

Thank you for your interest.

Sincerely,

Marki Queen