I wrote some more of that novel-in progress I'd submitted to Literary Awards. It seems to be a pretty good piece of writing for a first draft. I felt really good about the writing that I'd done, and had been writing down a lot of impressions and reflections from this trip to Florida for some future writings, but everything came to a halt a few days ago. I'll get to that in a moment. Remember that story I told you about the girl changing her life because of her upcoming class reunion? I've decided to add a character. I have a few aunts down here that I can exaggerate into the mother from hell. As I was reading about this woman's boyfriend, his father sounded almost just like my aunts. It shows that even in high school, they were the same old aunts. I've also toyed around with changing the catalyst slightly. I mean, the reunion will still be the target date to have all of this "life revision" completed, but I thought about using a diffeerent catalyst, like something I remember from high school that I think is really unique. It will give me great material for a flashback sequence, where I can make more use of this class secretary. I've added a few elements to the original, so it should work out fabulously.

On to why all the writing stopped. My financial aid is in crisis right now. I've been working so hard to get my gpa up and qualify for more grants and scholarships, but the money isn't coming. I can't take out the loan I would have to to return to Purdue because I don't have a viable co-signer (no cosigner at all really). That leaves me here with not enough money to go back, so I will have to either transfer or take a year off to work and save enough to go back. Ugh! Nothing like a school crisis to kill a good creative buzz. And the negativity down here kicked what little was left, except to inspire a new character.

So if you are praying Christians out there, pray for me. This is going to be a tough month coming up. I have no idea what the Lord has in store for me, but I know it will lead to blessings (and good writing!).

The new update for you, as far as my writing goes. I've had quite a summer, one that I'm sure will yield a lot of new material, but for the moment, I've been focusing on some of the things that I'd already started. I wanted to get some work done on the piece I submitted to literary awards this past semester. I don't think I will resubmit it, but I do believe in it, and I would like to see it published one day. That, of course, would be the best way to close that whole chapter, to be able to see it in print and feel validated. But besides that, it's a great story, and it's going to be even better.

The piece that I'm thinking about submitting for this year as the novel-in-progress needs a lot of work. I started it when I came to Florida last year. I got the idea after reading a magazine article about Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston's trip to the Holy Land. Don't laugh, it's not a crazy book about the two of them. It's a serious story that actually has nothing to do with Whitney, Bobby, or the Holy Land, but more with why someone would have thought that it would have been a good idea to take them there. In other words, kind of what I thought they could possibly be looking for, and whether or not people really do find that.

On to another oldie but goodie. I started a story my senior year of high school about a woman who decides to make some major changes in her life when she gets a reminder notice about her high school reunion. She hasn't done what she had always planned to do, and she decides that she is going to do all of the things she said she would as an eighteen year old. I've always thought it was a good idea, kind of like a Last Holiday with Queen Latifah, but better and one that more people can relate to. I mean, believe it or not, by the time you graduate college, four years have passed already and the reunion is only six years away, thirty is only seven or eight away.

So anyway, those are the things I'm working on. I thought that maybe I would have something to post on a secure site for people to read soon, but it'll be a minute or two before I do that, simply because of the time I have to spend working in order to pay for school and whatnot. I will write more often though.