Summertime, Summertime, Sum-Sum-Summertime!

Yes, I graded my final essay for my online classes and e-mailed all the graded essays and transcript forms to the high school students in my Shakespeare Literary Analysis course on Friday, and now I have time to WRITE!!

Since January, my schedule has been crazy. Besides home schooling three teen boys in grades 7, 10, and 12, I've taught two co-op writing classes for high school students with a total of 16 students since September. Meeting on average twice each month for a total of 18 classes, the students basically turn in ten expository essays each plus an MLA style research essay which takes eight weeks from start to finish (not counting my grading time) and also do an informal oral presentation on their research project for the class.

Then since January, I've taught quite a few online classes: a 4-week grammar family workshop, a 4-week intensive literary analysis course on Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, a 4-week poetry writing family workshop, a 4-week Shakespeare family workshop, and a 4-week intensive literary analysis course on Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. During this same time, I also put together most of a grammar e-book based on the grammar familyworkshop course and helped to proofread/edit a 10-month language arts curriculum textbook on "partnership writing" written by my boss.

But now it's summertime!!! And I'll have more time to write!! I still can't believe that since January I've only written a prologue and three chapters on my new story, Only by Moonlight. The good news is that I'm 2500-words into Chapter 4 and hope to complete the rough draft in the next day or two before sending it off to my two amazing pre-readers, ladylibre on FFn and EmmyDana on Wattpad. I'm really hoping to return to my weekly chapter postings so that I can move this story along. It's been difficult writing it because with so much on my mind and so much time between writing chapters, I'm not keeping it simmering on the backburner of my mind like the rest of my stories.

I hope also to pick up a few of my already-started but unfinished stories, excerpts of a few of which I've posted here on this blog. We'll see; I'd love to have a writing-intensive summer!! However, I am teaching one summer class: Fan Fiction!! I taught it for the first time last summer, but since I was designing and writing the class as I was teaching it, the class was quite time-intensive. But with the class all prepared and ready to go, I shouldn't have to use too much of my time on it this summer.

The Fan Fiction class is designed for students ages 12-18, and we'll define and discuss the genre of fan fiction, study and critique a few fan fiction stories, then write three chapters/stories (not necessarily all from the same fandom): a 500-1000 word flash fan fiction chapter/story, a 1000-2500 word chapter/story, and then a 2500-5000 word chapter/story. We'll also discuss how to deal with writer's block and how to finish one's story. With two completed novel-length stories under my belt plus several shorter stories (one shots), coming up on 3 million reads/hits on my works between FanFiction.net and Wattpad.com, and teaching writing for over 20 years at the elementary, junior high, high school, and university levels, I feel confident in teaching a fun and productive course. Here's the link to the registration page if anyone's interested in signing up; the class is 4 weeks long and begins July 8: Brave Writer Online Fan Fiction Class.   

But I am planning to work on Only by Moonlight as much as possible during this summer, especially before September comes when I'll be teaching two overlapping classes: a 4-week intensive literary analysis class on American poetry and the 6-week MLA research essay course. After I return the final research essays, I'll be teaching another intensive 4-week literary analysis course on F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (and hoping the new movie will be out on DVD in time for us to watch and discuss it for our class).  So I will definitely have a busy fall ahead of me, but perhaps I can write ahead enough to keep the chapters coming even while I'm teaching in the fall.

I am planning to join Camp NaNoWriMo and write a lot of chapters during July, perhaps enough to keep me posting well into the fall despite my busy teaching schedule. I guess we;ll have to see. ;) I got a great deal of Pinned but Fluttering done during NaNoWriMo 2012 and I completed Evening Star during NaNoWriMo 2011, so I do plan to keep going with NaNoWriMo in November. There's nothing like writing 50,000 words in one month to keep a writer on her toes. ;)

So these are my summer plans, and I hope that I get a lot accomplished so that you may all enjoy Only by Moonlight; I'm so excited about the plot, and I hope that you'll all like it, too. :)

Writing with you, my friends,

~Cassandra :)
xxxooo

Some Recommendations for You

While I have been able to write little this winter and spring due to health issues, I've been reading fan fics like a madwoman. Since I have little to share on the writing front (I do have Chapter Three of Only by Moonlight drafted at least), I thought I'd share a few fics in progress as well as some completed fics that you may enjoy. 

Currently my WIP obsession is with Pattyrose's "The Cullen Legacy." It's a brilliant, sharp, poignant All-Human (AH) tale of Edward's leaving Bella after a weekend together seven years previously and the fallout from that weekend reverberating even to hopes for the White House. Pattyrose kindly updates twice weekly, Tuesdays and Fridays, with flashbacks to their past mixed with the repercussions in their present and future. It's my addiction; I simply can't let it go.  

On Wattpad I'm quite enamored with Tardis19's "Wild Turkey." A rather light AH high school love story with some angst here and there, it's a lovely romance. Tardis' completed stories are also brilliant with my favorite being "More Than Life" with Edward as a writer and Bella his editor. ;)  

I am also very much enjoying Twilover76's "Changing My Course." Bella is the daughter of the potential Republican presidential candidate who falls for Hollywood actor Edward--and sparks fly! Charlie and Renee (especially Renee) are hate-worthy in this story, and we can't help but love Edward's chutzpah in stealing Bella away from the limelight, her parents' expectations, and her smarmy fiance, James. 

As "Serenity's Prayer" by ladylibre draws to a close, her "Black Ice" (a Rosalie/Edward love/hate story) is really taking off. While part of me rebels against any story that's not Bella/Edward centered (okay, I can handle Bella/Carlisle stories, too), "Black Ice" is a story I read with the same sick fascination as gawking at an automobile wreck on the side of the road...although this story may end up more bloody by the end.... ;) 

And I am also drawn (moth to candle-like) to "A Second Chance" by DeePattinson on Wattpad (also on FFn under D-Twilighter: "A Second Chance") in which pregnant and recently-widowed Bella marries her stand-offish late husband's brother only a month after Riley's funeral; Edward has obviously been in love with his brother's wife for years. Very complex and poignant story, but it hasn't updated for a while. :( 

As for completed fics, I've read three of the four "Angel" stories by drotuno, lately finishing #3, "An Angel's Promise." The fourth "Angel" story is complete, but I like to read other stories between a series, so I'll try "Haunted Angel" over the summer. 

I've also very much enjoyed Emmamama88's "Virgins and Villains" (BPOV) and "Love Rescue Me" (EPOV). Actually, everything that Emmamama88 writes is absolutely brilliant. Check her stories out!! :) Her more recent (and still in progress) "Popsicle Sticks" is worth following. 

I've always loved SparkingWand's "Don't Take the Girl" which I recently re-read, and her current WIP "Compass" is delightful. SparklingWand is also posting on Wattpad under JeanneDoddMcDonald, so it's lovely to "see" her on a regular basis. :) 

A couple more completed stories I've enjoyed: "OsaBella" by myg was full of Quileute legends with the addition of bear shapeshifters as well as vampires as Bella, the high school psychologist, battles her bizarre and forbidden attraction to Edward, a high school senior. And HelloElla's "Nobody's Little Girl" was poignant and simply amazing, definitely one not to miss.

In addition, I list all of the completed fics I've read in the sidebar under "Fics I Have Read in 2013." You can see by the sheer length of the list that I've been doing much more reading than writing. :/

There. That should keep you all reading until I can complete the third chapter of Only by Moonlight. ;)

ENJOY!!

Warmly,
~Cassandra :)
xxxooo

PS And I have to add a new favorite that even made my Favorite Fan Fics Completed list in the sidebar: "Empty" by Hev99 is simply out-of-this-world good!! She's brilliant!! 

Back to Writing Again...at Last!

This year has not been conducive to writing for me. 

After completing Pinned but Fluttering on January 5, I've been exhausted, overworked, in pain, or sick until now. 

Seriously. I'm not surprised that I only wrote the Prologue and Chapter One of Only by Moonlight so far, considering how terrible I've felt since the holidays. 

After teaching two online classes at once in January (never again!) then another online class in February, plus keeping up with the grading and lessons for my IRL co-op expository writing class for high school home-schooled students which has been overfilled all year, not to mention homeschooling our three teen boys, one of whom is graduating from high school in June, and we have a recipe for severe exhaustion and a flare-up of chronic pain due to autoimmune issues. 

The good news is that I've rested for much of April, and the current online class I'm teaching is very low-maintenance. In addition, my IRL high school class is working on their research papers, so I haven't had much grading to do for the past few weeks. 

In addition, my doctor ran some metabolic tests and discovered some mutations and other issues, so he decided that I should try some modified B-12 shots which seem to be helping in the areas of mental energy and sleep. I haven't seen much physical energy or reduction in pain yet, but I hope that they're coming along. 

So this week I completed the first draft of Chapter Two of Only by Moonlight and sent it to my pre-reader, ladylibre. She gave me excellent advice (as always), and I plan to make a few adjustments and post the chapter either Saturday night or Sunday afternoon, preferably the former. 

I hope now to be back to posting weekly chapters, but I make no promises until school is finished on June 14. May 20 and onward will be rather crazy with a high-maintenance online class to teach plus grading and returning the MLA research essays to my co-op class, so those four weeks may be a little scary. But until mid-May, I hope to be posting regularly, and again over the summer. 

Dealing with autoimmune illnesses is difficult as stress and overwork definitely worsens the pain and both mental and physical exhaustion. But I'm praying that these injections (which I'll be injecting myself...yay) will help to clear the mental fog as well as strengthen me physically. I'm praying, too, that as my sleep lengthens and deepens, my pain levels will fall, too. I'm leaving it in God's hands. 

Thank you so much for bearing with me during my "slump" here this year. I so appreciate the kind and supportive messages so many of you have written to me on Wattpad and FFN as well as on Facebook. You all are the BEST readers ever!! And I hope that you'll really enjoy the second chapter of Only by Moonlight. 

Writing for you,
~Cassandra :) 
xxxooo

Slowly Writing and Re-Writing Only by Moonlight

I've been having some pretty serious physical difficulties over the past couple of months. I've been diagnosed with a bevy of autoimmune illnesses, depending on which doctor I've seen: first it was fibromyalgia, then rheumatoid arthritis, then chronic fatigue syndrome. Now I'm being tested for mitochrondrial diseases. 

Despite the variance in diagnoses, the end result is over a decade of chronic pain that is somewhat controlled by eight methadone pills per day and a great deal of sheer exhaustion. I've overworked myself since the first of the year, and life is catching up to me at the moment. 

After completing Pinned but Fluttering, I took January and February off from writing. In early March I picked back up with my new story, Only by Moonlight. The response to the Prologue and first chapter have been amazing, but I've really struggled with the second chapter. 

Then this week it dawned on me: because this story was written in third person limited omniscient point of view, I was feeling too distant from my characters. As I drafted, I felt that I was "telling" more than "showing"--relating the story through a filter of distance rather than capturing the raw emotion and reactions of a first person narrator. 

So I've since rewritten both the first chapter and the half to two-thirds of the second chapter of Only by Moonlight in first person. I'll be switching the new first chapters on Wattpad and FanFiction.net later today and will keep working on Chapter Two.

And I do have an image of Bella's quilt for Chapter Two that I'll be posting when I upload the chapter. :)  

So thank you for your kind understanding of my physical condition, my busy schedule of homeschooling three teen boys (one graduating this year), teaching an overly-full high school class in expository writing, and teaching online courses for homeschooling families at Brave Writer, plus keeping my own essay grading business afloat. 

I took this week off after Easter--no homeschooling, no teaching, no grading, and it's helped some, but I really need an additional week or two (or perhaps a month) off in order to feel a real change in my health. 

But I'm also missing the creative outlet of writing fiction, so I shall continue, albeit more slowly and painfully than I would like. ;) 

BTW, I'm thrilled that Pinned but Fluttering has passed 1.6 million reads on Wattpad (and an overall total of nearly 15,000 votes on all my works combined there) plus over 1500 reviews on FanFiction.net. 

And even the mere seven pages I've posted of Only by Moonlight has garnered over 90 votes and over 100 comments on Wattpad plus 64 reviews on FanFiction.net; the reads/views on each site are comparable at about 1200 each. Thank you for reading, voting, commenting, and reviewing my stories!! You all just overwhelm me with your love and support!! :)

And if you're interested in the fan fiction stories I've been reading, check the sidebar under "Fics I Have Read in 2013" for a complete list of all the completed stories I've been following. :)

Thanks again for your compassion and understanding, and I hope to be posting more chapters for you soon. :)

Warmly,
Cassandra :) 
xxxooo

New Story: Only by Moonlight

Today I posted the Prologue to my new fan fiction story, Only by Moonlight. I'll add the links to the sidebar later today for Wattpad and FanFiction.net.

This story has been wandering around in my brain for over a year. I plan to edit it later into an original story that I may try to publish...if it ends up being good enough. 

I posted this Prologue exactly two months to the day after I posted the Epilogue for Pinned but Fluttering. It's been weird being away for two months, but after more than two years of posting weekly chapters (and sometimes more often!), I needed the break. Besides, my work schedule has been crazy between the co-op high school writing class I teach and the three online classes I taught over two months (in addition to homeschooling our three teenaged sons). So taking a break from writing only made sense. 

But I really missed it. I missed the freedom of letting ideas flow, of following my characters as they speak and act and think and ponder and wonder. And I missed the sense of accomplishment that came with posting a completed chapter each week. But mostly I missed hearing from my regular readers on both Wattpad and FFN. I've made some wonderful friends, and not posting my writing to them made me feel off-kilter over the past two months.

And for the first time, I have a pre-reader!! The lovely and immensely-talented ladylibre has agreed to pre-read for me and keep me from committing grave errors (and she already caught two major ones in the first chapter alone!). So don't miss reading her superb stories Black Ice and Serenity's Prayer; they're both top-notch!! 

We both knocked our heads together for several days, trying to come up with a title. My dear ladylibre suggested using "Moonlight" in the title, and as I was flipping through images to make the book cover, I saw a book cover for Sometimes by Moonlight which I tweaked to the more appropriate Only by Moonlight. 

Finally. That lack of title has been driving me crazy. I designed the simple book cover although I'm hoping that someone vastly more talented will come along and offer to make me a really nice one. But I do like this one well enough for now and will be content even if no one steps forward to design a proper cover for Only by Moonlight.

My plan is to write on Friday evenings and Saturdays, then get the chapter to my delightful pre-reader, then edit it during the next week and post it the following weekend. I have Chapter One almost ready to post since my pre-reader already went through it,so it will be up this coming weekend (March 9th-10th). 

I'm glad to be back to writing, and perhaps you'll hear more from me now that I'm back among the living...I mean, the writing. ;)

Warmly,
~Cassandra :)
xxxooo

Making the Top Ten...and the New Story

I am thrilled to announce that Pinned but Fluttering was voted into the Top Ten Completed Fics for January at TwiFanFictionRecs!! Thank you to all of you who voted; I was ecstatic to find out that Pinned but Fluttering came in at #8!!

In addition, TwiFanFictionRecs featured Pinned but Fluttering earlier this week with its own post right here! 

And in further good news, Pinned but Fluttering passed the 1.5 million reads (hits) mark on Wattpad this week! It's also received more than 10,000 votes. The total number of hits on all of my Twilight fan fiction stories at both Wattpad and FanFiction.net combined surpasses 2.6 million. 

That number simply boggles my mind.   


I also found out this week that I am to be published in an arts journal called Ruminate under my real name. Thanks to a dear poet friend, I have a subscription to this wonderful journal, and in one of their e-mails, they asked for reader notes (125 words max) on the topic of "glimpses." I scribbled something out and e-mailed it in, and this week they contacted me to say that mine is among those they've chosen to publish in the spring issue coming out later this month. 


What a way to celebrate my birthday this week!! 

In addition, I drafted the first chapter of my new story (still debating the name) last weekend, and then sent it to the lovely and immensely-talented ladylibre for pre-reading. She gave me some excellent advice, and the chapter is ready to post. However, I still need to:

• name the story (we've been tossing around titles, but I'm still undecided)
• create a Wattpad/FFN book cover
• decide whether to write/post a prologue

But I feel really good about where the story is going. I may slow down my posting schedule to once every two weeks rather than weekly, but we'll see. This year has been so incredibly busy so far that my head is still spinning. However, I missed writing these past months, and it feels wonderful to be writing for you all again. 

And thank you for the lovely birthday messages, both on Facebook and on Wattpad. You all are simply delightful, and I wouldn't be writing without your kind support of my work. 

So off to work on the new story...and I think I'll probably write the prologue after all. ;)

Thanks for everything!! xxxooo

~Cassandra :)