So, I found myself wide awake after opening up the x-mas short story that I had started, but never finished, last year in December.  I read the two chapters that I had written and decided that I really do like them a lot more then I had at first.  It's an original fiction short story called "Christmas Magic."  I've decided that I'm going to finish it before November, which I'll be participating in NaNoWriMo again this year and I already have a story idea for it.  Not to mention I'll be going for reaching 60k instead of 50k this time, oh yeah I'm crazy alright.

Anyway, about the short story, I'll be finishing it before November and then I'll work on editing it in December and give it to my mom on Christmas day.  I think she'll like it, or at least I hope she'll like it.  She actually asked me how my writing when we went out to dinner the other night, which made me really happy since she hasn't really been behind me when it came to writing before.  Usually she would just tell me to get serious about my future because not many writers make it, but I think she's starting to warm up to the fact that I'm still writing and not going to give up no matter what.

Yeah, I think I'll end this here now before I continue on rambling out longer than necessary.  I'll just say that the genre that I'll be writing for NaNo this year is Romance... I love writing romance.

Toodles for now,
Leslie

Whoa, it's been months since my last update.  I really do need to update more often than I do.  But, anyway, I finished the two classes that I took during the summer semester.  I've received my grade for Legal Research and Writing I (A) and I'm still waiting for my grade in Tort Law to show up (just took the final exam last week on Wednesday and the grades are up... I got a 96 A on it and my overall grade is an A).  And since I got A's in both of my classes, then it means that my GPA for the summer term is a 4.0 and I couldn't be even more happier! xD

Oh and my laptop crashed on me a couple weeks ago, but the Geek Squad was able to fix for less than $100 and I have it back (good as new).  And the most important thing is that nothing was wiped (it wasn't a problem with the hard drive... something just stopped working and they had to replace it... can't remember what it was though), but if it had been I would have still had everything as I back everything up on my flash drive (i.e. - my life).  But I'm going to be purchasing a dell mini this weekend as it'd be ideal for carrying to classes and travel.

I now have a month long break before fall semester starts on August 31st.  I'll be taking five classes (though one of the classes is only one credit and four weeks long).  The total amount of credits that I'm enrolled in is 13 credited hours.  Here's my fall class schedule:

Microcomputer Applications for Business and Economics
Legal Research and Writing II
Real Estate Law
Computer-Assisted Legal Research (this is the one-credit class that's only four weeks)
Family Law

And that's really all I have been up too.  I mean, I've been working a lot this summer, too, since I'll only be available work on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays when fall semester starts.  I'll try to make the next update sooner.

Oh, also, I started writing a new story: Why Not? [Molly II/OC] = http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/viewstory.php?psid=269563

I now know all my final grades for all of my classes and thought I'd go ahead and post them.  Not to mention, I do love grade grubbing =P

Non-fiction prose lit. -- A
Intro to Paralegal Studies -- B
AMHistory2010 -- B
Speech -- B

And I got an 85 B on the final exam (timed essay) for my non-fiction prose lit. class, a 84 B on my final test in AMHistory2010, and an A on my last essay for non-fiction prose lit. that was due on the last day of class.  And those were my last assignments.  Yeah, that's about it so I'll just end this post here.

So, I went and saw Wicked this past Friday night and it was really great.  I enjoyed the first act more than the second act, but it was still all fantastic.  If anyone who has not been to watch the Broadway musical of Wicked, then you definitely need to purchase tickets to see it.  You will NOT be disappointed!  I absolutely LOVE Wicked!  It's the absolute bestest (that's not a word, but does it look like I care =P) musical ever! xD

My two favorite songs from the musical are 'Popular' and 'As Long As You're Mine.'  Glinda is such a ditzy blonde, it's hilarious.  And Elphaba is as awesomely awesome as her character is in the book.  And let's not forget Fiyero ;)  Or any of the others for that matter =P

Anyhoo, that's all I have to say in this blog entry.

Like the title says, I'm just about finished the spring semester as I only have to turn in my last essay for non-fiction lit. and write the timed essay in class tomorrow, and then I am free!  Well... not necessarily, just for one week until the summer semester starts on May 4th.  Which I have two classes that I'm taking so far for the summer now (both are 12-week courses from May 4th-July 26th, but I'm looking for a class that I need that is being taught over the summer so that I'll be taking 3 classes).  And the reason for why I want to take three classes that I need over the summer instead of one like I had originally planned is that I found out that I only need 13 classes until I will graduate with my A.S. for the Paralegal Program from my college adviser this morning.  This means that I can take three classes this summer semester, five classes for the fall semester, and five classes for the spring semester and I'll be graduating with my A.S. in May 2010.

Yeah, so, then I'll be able to take the CLAST exams before moving on to get my B.A. in English after that.  Oh, and I also found out that the only CLAST exam that I'll have to take is the math one because I'm exempt from the English and Essay ones since I got A's in all of my English classes that I've taken.  Whoa, I'm kind of rambling here, I guess I'll stop.  I'm just so excited that I can see an end to attaining my A.S. Paralegal degree... so close... xD

Anyway, so I basically already know what grades I got in my classes just by the grades that I've received in each of them, or just because some professors post grades up on blackboard and they're accurate while others end up posting the grades on blackboard and end up not posting anymore because blackboard messes up the averages, etc.  But, yeah, here are my final grades for this semester:

non-fiction literature prose-- A (I'm pretty positive that I am going to receive an A in this class because I've earned more A's than anything with a couple B's.)
AM History 2010-- B (I know this is what I got because the grades on blackboard are accurate in this class.)
Speech-- Either an A or B (I'm really not sure what I got in this class yet as my speech professor didn't set up a blackboard, but I know it's either an A or B.)
Intro to Paralegal Studies-- C (I'm not positive about this grade, but I'm pretty sure it's a C.)

Yeah, so, there you have it.  Keep your fingers cross and hope that I was right about the grades that I earned.

Okay, so, my day started out pretty crummy when I woke up with an awful tension headache; to which I still have as it just won't subside away.  But it hasn't all been bad.  I had the critique conference this morning with my lit. professor to go over what I've written for the last essay that's due on the last day of class this Friday, and she said that I'm looking at getting an "A" on it.  I just have a few edits that I need to make, not to mention the works cited page to type up and I have to think of a more creative title other than "Essay #3."  But I'm happy nonetheless that I'll be getting another "A" on another paper =P  Writing papers are definitely my strong point, and I suppose it's because I'm a good writer and can think of something to write a lot of the time on a particular subject.

Then, I had my history class earlier this afternoon and it seemed to drag on, especially with my tension headache pounding (it literally feels like there's an elastic band squeezing my head from all sides).  Which, I'm pretty positive that the reason for this tension headache is because I'm just feeling overwhelmed because the two tests that I have this week (one in my history class and one in my intro to paralegal class) are back to back, one's tomorrow and then the following day is the other test, and my final paper for my speech class is due on Wednesday at 3PM during the last scheduled class of the semester (which isn't a problem as I'm sure I'll have it completed as I can get essays and papers finished fast, and well, when I'm under pressure... plus I've got some of it already written; 1/3 of it and I know what I'm writing so it'll be finished in no time).  I'll more than likely have it completed tonight because I do my best writing in the early to late evening.

Now on a more excited note, I'm going to the Wicked Musical at the Florida Theater this Friday night with my mom.  We have balcony seats, too; quite expensive.  But, yeah, that's something that I'm definitely looking forward to, not to mention by then I'll be finished with all of my classes for the spring semester ;)  Especially since I don't have to come back for the Final Exam week, which is next week, because the only final exam that I have is a timed essay in my lit. class and we're doing that during our last class on Friday morning.

Okay, so it's been 7 weeks since my last entry and I've come to the conclusion that I suck at updating blogs.  And this is the blog that I update the most often, isn't that sad?!  But anyway, things have been quite hectic for me between getting papers/assignments completed for class, work, and trying to find free time to write.  I have actually made updates on my "Behind the Mask" fanfic as it's getting to the good stuff (drama and such) and I love writing drama and conflicts for the characters in my stories.  It's so much fun... does that make me a horrible person?  I should hope not.

Anyway, here is where I'm at in my writing:

Behind the Mask [15+] -- Chapters 10 and 11 are posted.  Chapter 12 is 0% completed.  I'll more than likely find time to write some of Ch. 12 in between studying for a test in my history class on Monday and working this weekend. (www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/viewstory.php)

A New Generation [15+] -- Chapter 22 is 20% completed.  I'm going to work on writing it today since I usually use Fridays as a free day (a breather from real life if you will) since my other days are generally busy nonstop.  Fridays are usually when I get the most writing done, so I'll be working on this chapter for the majority of the day before I have to work tonight from 5pm-11pm in concession (thank goodness I don't have to close). (www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/viewstory.php)

And that's about it for this entry.  I'm going to get back to writing ;)

Happy New Year! 

So, the Spring semester of college started on January 5th, 2009 for me.  I've been running around getting to classes during the week and then working on the weekend.  I've been quite busy.  So busy that I have had little time to even think about what I'll write next for the stories that I've been working on.  I've also yet to start the revising and editing on my NaNo novel, and at this point I don't think I'll be able to until after the semester is over since I really need to make the most of my free time by getting assignments done and then getting some writing done.

Here's a list on where I'm at in my writing with my stories at the moment--

HP Fanfictions

A New Generation-- Chapter 21, 100% completed and posted as of last week.  It's about time as it took 10 months to actually get it finished and posted with all the blocks that I've been having with this story.  I think I've actually overcome some of those blocks, but there are still some blocks that just don't want to come down just yet.  I'm really trying to get back into writing this story by grasping at any inspiration for it that comes my way.

Behind the Mask-- Chapter 9, 100% completed and posted as of December 21, 2008.  Though, I just recently put the beta'd version of the chapter up last week, so yeah.

Chapter 10, 5% completed and still being written.  I've already got the whole story outlined, as well as the chapters as far as what I want to happen, but none of the chapters are written.  I'm going to try to have this chapter finished in the next week or two.

Original Fiction

Christmas Magic-- Prologue, 100% completed and posted on Fiction Central.

Chapter 1, 65% completed and still being written.  I know exactly where I want to go with this story as I have it all planned out as well as far as what is going to happen in which chapters and such.  But again, it all has to do with having any free time to write.  I'll probably have this chapter finished shortly after "Chapter 10 of Behind the Mask" as that is first on my to-do list at the moment.

Well, I guess that's it for now.  I really have nothing else to say except that I'm actually enjoying all of my classes this semester and the professors are all great. 

Oh, and the past couple of weeks it has been exceptionally cold here in the north east of Florida-- record lows.  This morning I found that there was frost covering every inch of my car and it took it 10 minutes to even start to defrost the ice from the front wind shield enough for me to wipe it with my wipers so that I could head to campus for a 9AM class.  But, it hasn't snowed or anything.  Though, North Carolina is supposedly getting snow, which makes me mad because it was supposed to snow when my parents, sister, and I were up there in Rocky Point, NC (about a 30 minute drive North of Wilmington, NC) visiting my dad's mom and step-dad (aka my grandma and grandpa).  But no, it had to be in the 70s for a lot of the time for the five days we were up there; the coldest it got was in the 40s and that's hardly cold enough for it to snow.  But, yeah, the other day on Wednesday when I was watching the news, it was announced that NC would see snow around the coast line around Jacksonville, NC, which is south of Wilmington and Rocky Point.  We passed the exit for it on our way up.  But oh well, I'll get over it.  The good news is that the weather should be warming up for us Floridians tomorrow afternoon as the high is expected to reach the 70s.  Though, we're still going to get a hard freeze tonight, brrr...  but at least it's expected to warm up.  Anyway, that's all I have to say in this blog entry.  Nothing else has really happened all that much with me besides what I've already written here in this entry.  I'll try to make the next post quicker than a month for the next entry.

Whoa, it's been a month since my last entry.  So, sorry, but I've been quite busy, first with finals and then this past week I was busy with work and get as much writing done as I could.  I was able to post Chapter 8 of 'Behind the Mask' on December 1st, and I just finished Chapter 9 and sent it off to my beta a couple days ago on Friday night.  I've also started a new short-story with a x-mas theme for the December Challenge at fictioncentral.com and the prologue is now posted.  It's located in the Challenge category, 'Christmas Magic' by writers_block108.

I'll be going out of town for five days from December 24th through the 29th to visit extended family in North Carolina with my parents and sister.  We'll be leaving early x-mas eve morning and I'm not sure that I'll have access to the internet as I'm not sure if there is any wireless networks where my grandparents live as that's where we'll be staying.  So, more than likely I won't be able to update in those five days, but I am going to make the most of the x-mas vacation by writing a lot.

Oh, and I passed all my classes, so I got the 12 credited hours that all four classes together equaled together; each being worth 3 credited hours.  Only one 'A', a couple 'B's, and a 'C'.  The 'A' is of course in English =P  Yep, I love English and that 'A' shows that I really do work hard to strive in the subject.  Now I have 3 weeks off until Spring semester starts on January 5th.

I suppose that's all for now.  I'll try to make an effort to post more entries in one month.

Cheers,
Leslie

I reached 50k words a few hours ago and I have a pretty, shiny purple bar on nanowrimo.org that says 'WINNER!' on it.  Also, I wrote a total of 5,095 words today.  I still have to finish the novel by tying up the loose ends, but I'm close to completing it and I should have it completed before the end of the month.  

Well, guess that's all I wanted to say in this blog entry.  I just had to share my excitement at finally reaching 50k =D

I broke 40k!  Squee!  I'm so close to the finishing line that I can almost reach out and touch it... Well, I'm off to write some more before bed time.

I am back on track... or I should say ahead of the track... with my word on my NaNo novel at 32,106/50,000.  I'm extremely happy.  I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders as I'm passed 30k (now out of the troublesome 20 thousands) as my novel is starting to come to me a lot quicker and the plot a lot smoother.  Everything is taking more form and I couldn't be more happier.  If I keep at this rate I should be able to finish ahead of schedule with no trouble at all.  Well, that's all I have to say.  Just that I'm very happy with my novel. xD

Okay, so I'm only posting to tell where I'm at in my word count.  I was going to try to reach 25k before bed, but that didn't work out so well as I'm awfully sleepy and am about to fall asleep.  But I did manage to hit 22k so that I'm still ahead of schedule.

Here is where my word count for my NaNo novel 'Creatures of the Night' currently stands: 22,019/50,000.

Well, that's all for now.
Leslie

Yay!  It's my 20th birthday!  Oh, and I passed 21k tonight on my NaNo novel (or last night since it's now Nov. 13 and not Nov.12 anymore since it's now midnight).  I'm hoping to reach 25k today.  But, yeah, I don't really have much of anything else to write so I'll cut this entry short.

My word count currently stands at 11,604, though I haven't had the chance to write anything yet this morning and won't be able to until I get back from class.  My goal for today is to reach at least 13k and I'm positive that I can do it as I am free the whole day after my 9AM psych class.

I've just got to the point in my novel where the plot is unraveling even more to reveal some of the mysteries of the world that my MC and other kids are trapped in.  Current chapter that I am writing is Chapter 5.  Well, guess that's all for this entry.

Toodles,
Leslie

I'm super excited that Obama won.  It was announced right after Florida called in to project that Obama won, making Florida a Democrat state, wOoT!  He's expected to give his speech at midnight (EST) in twenty  minutes.  I can't wait!  Just like I can't wait for him to get in office and start making a change for the greater good.  Oh, and Obama is still getting electoral votes, he was at 333 the last time I checked.  Well, that's all I have to say about that.  I just felt like posting my happiness for Obama winning.

Today was yet another day of classes as I had psych at 9AM and humanities at 11AM this morning. And when I got home I fried a burger and baked some french fries for lunch, yummy.

Anyway, the real reason why I'm posting this is to say that I now, officially, have a book cover for my NaNo novel. I had put in a request for one over at TDA but no graphic artist had stepped forward to fill it so I resorted to stalking down the artist pages and then decided to send a PM to NevillesSoulmate and she had it a bookcover completed for me within two days and it's simply amazing!  Here's the link to view my bookcover and and story summary on my NaNo page: www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/400661

That's all for now.  Toodles.
Leslie

Okay, so it's 1:48AM in the morning and I just got home from work.  I had to work 6-CL in concession tonight and since there was two midnight showings {one of Saw V and the one of High School Musical 3}, we didn't get out of there until ten 'til 1AM.  So, yeah, I'm beat.  Not to mention that I had two classes today, one at 11AM and one at 1:30PM.  Oh, and I have a 9AM class tomorrow {or I should say today} morning.

But, anyway, I went to the st. pablo library on Beach Blvd. after my last class to put in my vote now to get it out of the way since I'm sure it'll be busy come November 4th with everyone racing to the polls to get their vote in all at the same time.  So, yeah, I voted in my first Presidential election and it feels great knowing that my vote is going to count.  I'm not going to say who I voted for as that's strictly confidential. =P

Oh and my mommy came to my apartment to visit me {and bring me a bunch of shirts that she got on sale} for a little bit before I had to leave for work.  That's about it.  I'm going to end this blog entry here so that I'm not rambling on.

Toodles,
Leslie

I am so drained from everything that's been going on in my life for the past week and it just got crazier as my 8-week Humanities class started yesterday, though it shouldn't be too bad despite the coursework being heavy as the professor put us in all in groups of five.  And we have our first assignment (the first study guide for ch. 2: myths) to be completed and turned into class tomorrow at 11AM.  So far we've got all but 4 questions completed, and the 4 that aren't completed is the only group member that hasn't sent a copy of the answers to the rest of us as each of us have to do 4 of the 20 questions on the study guide.  It'll be like that for the other 7 study guides as well.  But I'm sure she'll send it to all of us by tomorrow morning, hopefully.  If not, well, it's only 4 questions and I'll have no trouble getting them done myself.

Now, on to my English class, we turned in our Example essays today and were giving the topic proposal and outline forms for the Causal Analysis essay to fill out and be turned in the next class on Thursday.  I went to the library and got both forms completed so that I know what I'll be writing it on.  And I also had my second Stats test today, which I don't really want to talk about because I HATE word problems.  I seriously am going to be surprised if I pass that class with a "C".  Algebra is so much easier than Stats; at least I made "A"s in College Algebra {and I took it in 8-weeks over the summer!} and my final grade ended up being a "B" in the whole course.

And tomorrow I have a test in Psych first thing at 9AM in the morning.  Blah!  Why, oh why, must I be cursed with a busy, hectic life???

Oh, and to top it all off, I had to buy a new cell phone today because my pink razor decided to stop working yesterday morning just because it was exposed to water... AGAIN!  It's not the first time that I've dropped or spilled water on it and it also has taken a lot of hits to concrete, tile, etc. from me dropping it.  It was only a matter of time, though it sucks that it had to happen now because I had to switch my whole schedule around to go and buy a new one.  Which I ended up not getting another razor since they didn't have mine (since mine is over a year old) and only had the brand new razor at $375... around in that price bracket.  Instead I bought a $209 purple LG CU515 ... the cheapest AT&T {phone company that I'm on with my family}, which ended up being $224.51 with the tax.  I'm glad that I didn't need the SIM card since there wasn't anything wrong with my SIM card, just the pink razor.  I was only able to receive incoming calls, but I couldn't look up anything because the buttons weren't working.  Nothing would work.  Yeah, so I kind of already miss using my pink razor, but I really do like my new LG cell phone as it has a lot more features than the razor and it's a lot cooler.  But that still doesn't mean that I'm not mad about having to purchase a new cell phone.

Okay, I think I've bored you enough with my life enough to the point that you're probably falling asleep in front of your computer so I'll just tell you some about my writing projects now.  Well, I haven't had much time to write so yeah, the last time that I was able to get in some writing was sometime last week, I think Wednesday, and so I haven't got much written on any of my projects.  Perhaps I'll get some writing done this weekend...  maybe, but I doubt it since "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" is coming out on Friday and I'm pretty positive that I'll be working all weekend as we're expected to be BUSY!  But I am seriously going to try to make the effort to write at least some.

Well that's all for now as I'm sure you really are getting tired of reading about my crazy life.

Toodles,
Leslie

I feel really lazy today; figures since I haven't even got out of bed or sat up for starters.  I'm laying on my back on my bed with my laptop on my propped up legs.  Yeah, can't get much lazier than that, huh?

I've had to work every night since Thursday night, including tonight.  I worked 6-CL in concession on Thursday, 6-CL in box office (selling the movie tickets) on Friday, 4-10:45 ushering last night (I was in the back 12 theaters with another usher and we actually had a 2-hour break between theaters breaking, it was awesome), and tonight I work from 6-CL ushering (which is 10:30 tonight).  So I think I have a reason to be lazy.  Not to mention that I always studied on Friday and yesterday for my psych test tomorrow, and wrote the rough draft for my english paper on Friday and all I have to do is type it up which I'll go to the library tomorrow after class so I can use the school printers (free for us students) instead of using up the ink in my printer.

As far as my writing projects go--

Behind the Mask-- CH 8 is 5% complete.

one-shot for collaboration-- 60% complete.

And I'm still planning for my NaNo novel.

Well, that's all for now, unless you really want to hear me rambling on and on, which I doubt.

Toodles until next time,
Leslie