I have to say, I’ve been enjoying writing a lot in it’s many forms lately. It’s quite refreshing and has made me feel like I really am certain on the direction I want to go in life now. I’ve been a bit of a floater for awhile, though I’ve always leaned towards writing. The other day I had an insightful conversation with some friends, which, honestly, had nothing to do with where we wanted to go in life, but it ended up making me think over things. I find myself always coming back to writing, it’s always been a tool in my life to communicate, to let my emotions free and to imagine being in another world. It has helped me through some hard times, put me into better moods, and it’s just always been something I like doing, whether creatively or not.

The writing contest I wrote a short story for really helped put it into perspective. As I was writing the story and talking with my fiance, the energy and excitement I had while writing was coming through clearly. She laughed at me as I talked to her about it, almost bouncing from the thrill. I think that was the first time she had ever seen me so excited and it was also the first time since I’ve known her that I sat down and put in a significant amount of effort into a new fictional story.

Since I’ve been away from home for the last week or so, I’ve had quite a bit of time to think. Mainly on pondering life and where and what I would like to do. In all honesty, the only answer that really ever comes up is I want to write.

I love to write in it’s many forms, but fiction is my favorite. Although, I have to admit, I’ve written several new articles on Helium.com over the last week that are non-fiction and some of them are doing quite well. Two at the moment are ranked number one, which makes me very happy. It just shows that I need to stick to what I know, because the few articles I have written where I did not know as much as my other ones it was clear. My climate change, global warming, clean energy, political type articles almost always rank in the top 3 or so, but any of the ones dealing with other stuff usually fall quite a bit below that mark.

The two newest ones, however, are the highest I’ve had. Two number one ranking articles is fantastic. The articles are up against multiple other people too, one is against 13 and the other is against 31 other articles, so perhaps you can see why I am happy they’re currently ranked first. (They started near the bottom).

Anyway, as life moves forward and I have come to bear the natural responsibilities of being an adult, I have finally made a decision that has made me feel more relaxed. That is, once I am done with school, well, with my Bachelor’s Degree (finally !) in about a month and  half to two monthsish, I am going to continue on with a master’s degree in creative writing. It’s about time I went to school for my passion, not for something that I thought would get me a job.

I know it won’t be easy, but the MFA I am looking into sounds great. The one I am currently set on applying for is from Fairfield University in Connecticut. It offers bi-annual 10 day stays where you meet other class mates, authors, agents, etc., the professionals in the industry, and do seminars and workshops. It’s exactly what I want. It’s exactly what I need. Making the decision feels good. Deep down, smiling from within good.

That is, if I get accepted. I have to apply first, get some letters of recommendation and hope I get in. I’ll hope for the best and in the meantime, continue to write and enjoy what I can do from where I currently am. Cheers!

I had an eventful day today. I was able to get outside to shop and get some food and decided to try something new. I haven’t had as much …how to put it, life experience, I guess, in tasting many dishes across the country and the world. So, today, when the opportunity arose I decided to try some Bourbon Chicken and Jambalaya. I have to say, it was fricking really good. The bourbon chicken was impeccable, meeting my taste buds with a burst of delectable flavors. The jambalaya was also very good. It was a different style of fried rice, basically, at least as far as I could tell. It was delicious! I’d recommend trying both if you get the chance and haven’t yet.

That’s my adventure for the day. My very firsts of two fairly known foods. I feel like a 13 year old exploring the world for the first time…except I am much older than 13, sadly. Oh well, better do it late then never, right !?

First off, I have to admit, I am somewhat disappointed in myself for not keeping up on this blog as much as I intend to. I get lost in time and space and before I know it a month has gone by since I last wrote. It’s ridiculous and I will work on that!
On a good note, I am nearing the end of a short story I have been working on for a competition. I think I may have mentioned it. The company, Blizzard Entertainment is offering a short story competition that is based off of any one of their three major games, Diablo, Starcraft or the  Warcraft series. I am an avid world of warcraft gamer, so I decided to give it a whirl.

I actually started off with an in-depth description of the story, filling in the scene with a lot of information, but after having it completed, I deleted about the first 3 pages of the story or so and basically started it from the middle. Where it gets good, where the few people who have read it seemed to really get into it.

I am struggling with some of it still, but plan on working on it  heavily over the next day or so to get all of the kinks worked out so that the story is complete and that I feel like I have a well balanced tale in the world of Warcraft.

Anyway, as soon as I know it’s safe to post the story online, I will happy do so for anyone who is interested in actually reading it !

My trip to Texas is nearing it’s end. I head home tomorrow and it is a little sad. I have had a great time and have missed my friends so much. I was fortunate enough to meet some people that I have “known” via online for many, many years, and that was also fantastic. I’ve met a number of great people while I was here, on top of the awesome people I already knew. I find it strange that I felt so at home while I was here, even though I did find myself thinking a lot– mostly on how great it would be to finally be living here.

As the day has passed, I have had a lot to think about, moving from across the country is just a small part of it. Life is complicated, as I am sure most people know, and as much as I have been trying to come south for the last several years, it just hasn’t yet happened. This is the first time I have been able to come here and I am so thankful for my time and my friends. It’s been a long time coming, that’s for sure. It had been over 4 years since I last saw two of my best friends, which is far too long.I’m a strong believer that everything happens for a reason, so I have found a lot of peace in that saying. It has helped me passed some frustrations with most things in life. I have seen the truth in the saying enough times to know it’s true.

I can leave here knowing that I have some amazing friends, and that when I do finally manage to make my move south, I can be happy here. Hopefully I will return shortly. This was a great experience that I needed and I am truly thankful for.

Despite the “controversy” over the casting of the new movie, “The Last Airbender,” I went and saw it with my good friend today. We had heard it had terrible reviews, even on rotten tomatoes it had the worst ranking I had ever seen a movie have. I have to admit, I am really confused on why the rating was so low though.

I thought “The Last Airbender” was a pretty fantastic movie. It was rich with story, cultures, interesting battles and pretty nice special effects. There was a couple of spots where the acting was a little cheesy at worst, but overall it was a pretty decent film and I would go see the others in the series, IF they come out.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a lot of negativity about the film because of M. Night’s choice on casting of the film. Or perhaps it didn’t follow the Anime exactly, which always causes an uproar. However, for those of us who had never heard of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” before the movie’s release, I would highly recommend checking it out. Only if you’re into fantasy, fiction, or mystical martial arts theme type movies.

As I stated, I thought it was a pretty good flick.

As some of you may know, I play video games, in particular one game by Blizzard Entertainment, World of Warcraft (WoW). I have been playing it for years and will likely continue to play it for another few years, until something bigger and better comes out. I’m not writing to specifically discuss the game, however, but the global writing contest that Blizzard puts on every year. I am excited to announce I am writing a short story, based in the World of Warcraft saga for their competition. I thought it would be a fun and exciting challenge.

The idea I am going for starts with the current game content from the perspective of a hero of Azeroth (the in-game world) who had just successfully taken place in the final battle between the heroes and the Lich King. I’m not going to go into complete details of my story, but I am excited to write it. I think that WoW has some amazing lore behind it already, so I am just thrilled to be able to write my own little tale to fit within their larger idea and themes. I will add, for anyone who may play the game too, there will be fire, battle, magic, death, and a sneaky rogue. Huzzah!

It’s been a long time coming, but I am finally taking a vacation. I am very excited about it and am looking forward to seeing my friends down in Texas! Woooo. I am thankful that work actually approved my vacation request and that my friends offered for me to stay with them, so it should be a pretty good time. Who knows, as I have been saying, it could be super exciting or really boring! I expect I will be able to relax and enjoy the time there either way. I have needed a get away for awhile now, working so much with very few breaks, even weekends, makes it exhausting sometimes.

I’ve also been out biking a bit lately, anywhere between 10 and 27 miles so far. It must slowly be working because I can now wear my belt I bought that was too small. I was an idiot and didn’t try it on first, go figure. BUT, Like I said, It fits now, so I guess it was an indirectly purchased incentive to lose a little extra weight. Losing weight sucks, especially when you often get cravings for food you shouldn’t eat. I have started to ween myself off of the terrible for me food and am eating healthier, with a few bits of stuff I still need to work on more. It’s all good though, food is good, so I just need to eat the better stuff, maybe continue to be more careful on what and how much I am eating and I should be good to go!

I’m STILL working on school, but I am so fricking close to finished that I might as well say I am done. I have 2 more 5 week classes to go, and like a week left of my astronomy class. Astronomy is completely fascinating and I am really enjoying learning about the galaxy and the Universe and the like. It is pretty mind blowing at times, it’s so huge and there’s so much to it, yet so much similarity too. I dig it.

Things in life are going well and I am feeling good about it. I really don’t have anything I could complain about right now. That’s a great way to be living.

I know it may appear I have stopped breathing, perhaps, since it has been a few months since I last made a post. I am not gone, and I am still working on writing, as well as blogging, but unfortunately, that whole life thing sometimes just gets in the way. As such, I have been up to a lot, so I actually have a lot to share !!

Obviously I’ve been working, but everyone does that, so who really wants to hear about it? Probably not many people, but I’ll share anyway. I’ve been helping some “volunteers,” one being an intern with me, to help them with their new non-profit organization, which is a political action type group that focuses primarily on the youth. The big difference is that the founders themselves are youth, so it appears to be quite effective. So far they have been helpful with me, but also with the other local groups, issue based and political parties. They’re a great group of people so I wish them much luck. For anyone in Michigan, you can find them at www.blueactionmich.org if you would like to learn more about them or have any questions.

As far as writing is concerned, I have not done much fiction, however, I’ve written numerous articles for Helium.com, which have, for the most part, been rated pretty well. I find that I just love to write, it doesn’t have to be fiction. The challenge of trying to articulate thoughts through words on paper (or the computer) is just something I apparently enjoy. The hardest part on helium is that sometimes the people who write articles don’t really have an accurate depiction of truth. For instance, I read an article where a gentleman was attempting to say Nuclear energy was the best renewable energy available. The problem is that Nuclear Energy is NOT a renewable energy source, so I found myself writing an entire article in response. If you would like to read my articles, you can find them here: Kevin’s Helium Articles.

Anyway, on to better and brighter things! I’ve been taking A LOT of photos lately, thanks to my marvelous friend who gave me a beautiful camera as a gift. I truly forgot how much I love photography as well. Unfortunately, I need a lot of practice to get back to where I was with it before, which was only mediocre at best, even then. I’ve been uploading them to FLICKR, so you can see them here: Flickr For Kevin

Now I have to run off to the Dentist office, boooo. Hopefully you’ll take a look at what I have been up to for the last month or so and enjoy!

I’ve been incredibly swamped with work. This is a hectic time right now, so I have had much less play time than I normally would have as well as little time to even think about writing. I guess that is part of life. I have been able to get out and be a little more social, however, which is nice because for years I have not really done much. In an odd sense, I have become rather anti-social. I do not know why, I don’t see know of any particular instance that made me that way, but I have struggled with it for awhile now.

I do like to push myself forward and believe in always trying to better myself, so I am working hard to move past this issue and become a little more of a social butterfly. It is somewhat humorous actually because my work has me dealing with people constantly, meeting people I’ve never met, which does not bother me one bit, it’s only when I am not working that I get nervous meeting people. It’s just weird.

I wanted to make sure people who do read my blog know I have not by any means forgotten about it– I’ve just been a  busy little bumblebee and have lost track of posting. I am going to post more often though because this blog is a great way to release my thoughts and relieve some stress. And…hopefully people enjoy reading my posts too.

I would like to first state, this is not a paid post, it is my personal opinion and honest feelings based on the high satisfaction I had working with Venessa Giunta as a professional editor.

I have been working on my books for a number of years, slowly moving through the processes and finally found someone who I thought would be great for editing my book, Molecular Splendor. I must say she, Venessa Giunta, was incredibly friendly right away and worked with me and my schedule.  She also set up a payment plan that worked well with my income balance, a system that she calls the “New Author Consult” for only $1.00 per page.  I decided to go ahead and take advantage of this low price and can honestly say that it exceeded my expectations.

After she read and edited the story she contacted me for a phone consultation and was upfront about what to expect. She was extremely friendly and energetic about the whole process, allowing for me to ask questions as they came up, explaining in detail her reasons for corrections as well as why she thought certain parts of the story needed to either be changed or removed completely. As the saying goes, sometimes you have to “Kill your baby,” (the part of the story you love, but just does not fit in, no matter how much you want it to).

With her advice and guidance, I now have a much better idea of where the story should be, how it may be able to get there and what sections to focus more on and what parts to just “kill.” She is a professional editor with a master’s degree in writing popular fiction from Seton Hill University and is the senior editor at Loose ID, LLC.

If you’re an author looking for a professional editor, I highly recommend Venessa Giunta.