What's Kate Doing This Semester?

With all of the COVID-19 chaos, I decided it was best for me and my health (both mental and physical) to take a leave of absence this semester. Luckily, with all of my dual enrollment credits, I won't fall behind and I should be good to return (most likely remotely) to school in the spring. But I still wanted to make sure I spent this time at home doing something meaningful. I'm taking time to relax and see friends (on video chat and at a distance outside) and hang out with my family, but I didn't want to look back on these months and feel like I'd let life pass me by.

So what am I doing? A little of this, a little of that, and a lot of writing.

Writing a musical - "Firstborn"

I'm finally writing that musical I've been talking about writing for forever! I still have little confidence in my abilities as a lyricist and I have zero experience when it comes to composing, but I'm working on the book of a musical called "Firstborn."

It's a comedy (think "Wicked" meets "Something Rotten!") about a woman who promises two witches her firstborn child separately, so when the baby is born, both witches show up expecting to claim their prize. Instead, they're forced into joint custody, which is difficult when one witch is Wicked and the other is GoodTM.

It features an enemies-to-lovers F/F romance, a spunky and naive heroine who is a mixture of Ariel/Fiona if Ariel and Fiona had been raised by witches, and a musician with the personality of Orpheus from "Hadestown" if Orpheus were a horrible songwriter.

I'm having a lot of fun figuring out these characters' unique personalities and voices. I love writing dialogue, so scriptwriting is always a blast. I write so much faster when dialogue is the main focus, so I'm breezing through these pages no problem. The goal is to have the rough draft done by Christmas, which I think I'll be able to manage without any issue.

Writing a YA contemporary romance - (still needs a title)

My Josie Jones book (I'll figure out an official title eventually) is about a bisexual girl named Josie Jones who finds herself crushing hard on two different girls in her town. But there's a problem: Josie isn't fully out yet. Rather than going through the awkward coming-out process over and over again to friends, family, and classmates, Josie decides to throw a big summer party at which she'll come out to everyone all at once. It's going to be quite the show and turn coming out into a celebration rather than an obligation. Josie just has to navigate the complications of a love-triangle romance and teenage friendships and other shenanigans and misunderstandings first.

While my plot needs some work (it's so much easier to have my characters sit around and crack jokes rather than to have a conflict-filled scene), I love the vibe I'm building: it's summer-y and fun and full of queer girls and baked goods. Add a semi-dysfunctional but all-around really supportive family and you've got the feeling of my book. I made some collages featuring pictures from my Pinterest board to show you what I mean.

My mood board

My main cast of characters (starting upper left and going clockwise): Josie Jones, Hannah Ridley, April Harrison, Cassidy Morgan, and Drew Goldman

Querying Once Upon a Stage

Remember my F/F YA contemporary about theatre girls? It was previously titled All the World's Afraid, but since that title didn't make any sense after rewrites, my beta readers helped me land on a new title.

The querying process has actually been going really well! I've had lots of interest, including multiple requests for full manuscripts (no true bites yet after that, but one agent is reading the manuscript now!). I'm really hoping someone picks it up, because out of all the books I've written (and there have been many), this one really has my heart.

Eleanor's aesthetic

Sonya's aesthetic

Journaling

With college and then the pandemic hitting, I got super behind on journaling. I wanted to make sure I didn't forget to write about anything later though, so I'd take notes on what I did each day in my phone. I now have a HUGE list of notes in my phone, so I'm slowly working through the days and catching up on the days I missed journaling about.

NaNoWriMo - Mamma Mia: Here We Go to Hell

I can't tell if I love or hate the title of this book yet even though it makes me snicker every time I think about the pun I've created, but that's the title we're sticking with for now. I can't stand "Mamma Mia," but I love the concept for this book:

"Mamma Mia" meets "Supernatural": After learning that her mom sold her soul to one of three demon lords, seventeen-year-old Sophie Lewis and her friends venture into Hell to find out who has it and how to get it back.

It's going to be so much fun to create the world of Hell and all of the demons in it. I already love my main character and her friends. I'm very excited to get started on this project in November.

My (very rough) book cover

Reading Jane Eyre

This is a classic I've meant to read for years, so what better time to finally read it than during a global pandemic? It's slow going because I have to have an incredible amount of focus to comprehend the sentences I'm reading, but I'm liking it so far. I don't know a ton about the plot, so I'm curious in what direction this is heading.

Continuing with vocal lessons

My vocal teacher is continuing lessons with some of her students (like me) virtually, so I get to keep up with my vocal work. My range is slowly stretching, which I'm really pleased about, because now I can comfortably sing more mezzo-soprano songs rather than struggling through them. There's a ton more work to be done, but it's all about practice and commitment.

Learning editing and proofreading

I took a certification course on proofreading a couple months ago and now I'm learning about other kinds of editing through YouTube so I can branch out with my writing skills. I've even started offering my freelance services to make some extra cash while I'm stuck at home, and not only is it fun, but it's also helpful to those who need the second set of eyes. I'm having a great time with it!

Learning to tap

Tap has always been my weakest spot when it comes to dancing in musicals, but anytime I've done it, I've had a lot of fun. I'm utilizing the tap floor we built in our basement to really focus on the basic moves.

Whenever I've tapped in shows, I've just been thrown in to all the complicated steps because there isn't time to slow things down and teach me the foundational stuff, so that's something I've been missing all these years. Luckily, now I have the time to spend a half hour perfecting a basic shuffle. I've even got a single time step down!

Max is teaching me most of the basic steps, but I've also been using YouTube to learn some fun combinations set to music, like in this video:

 

Learning/polishing audition monologues

I'm great at practicing a variety of songs, but when it comes to monologues, I always scramble to find and memorize one, let alone have the time to polish it before an audition rolls around. Not anymore! I got myself a fancy binder ("fancy" meaning I created a simple graphic to print out for the cover) and organized all of the monologues I want to work on, both comedic and dramatic.

I'm marking up my monologues with various notes, recording myself, and using those recordings to critique what could be better. An audition opportunity came up the other day for some short digital performances at my community theatre and rather than half-assing a barely memorized monologue, I had something prepared I could submit!

My fancy binder 💖

Practicing photography

I've learned how to take some pretty good headshots over the past few months, but now I'm focusing on other aspects of photography and digital editing. It's been a challenge, but a good one! I recently went through a fraction of my book collection to sort out old books to sell (because again, any cash I can make at home is great right now!) and focused on taking artsy pictures of them so they'd be more eye-catching to potential buyers. I think a lot of them turned out nicely!

Some examples from my book bundle photos

Practicing drawing

I am not an artist by any means when it comes to putting a pencil to a sketchpad, but it is fun to stretch a different part of my creative brain sometimes. My boyfriend is an amazing artist, so we've been video chatting while watching different how-to-draw YouTube videos together and he'll give me pointers on how to do different techniques. I'm pretty happy with how my human eye turned out the one night we watched a video about that.

Learning about a hodgepodge of topics

I made Fridays my "hodgepodge day" so I can explore a variety of interests I might not want to dedicate an entire semester to. I've done photography some days, coloring/drawing on others, and this past week I watched a bunch of different YouTube videos and crash courses about psychology fun facts. It's been a nice way to end the school week. Here's one of the videos I watched if you're interested in learning more about psychology (in this case specifically, motivation):

 

Teaching violin lessons

I've been teaching violin to a few students over Zoom these past few months, and while it was a little weird at first, it's a lot of fun now! It takes a lot of creativity to figure out how to teach a young kid how to hold their violin or put their fingers in the right places on the strings when you're not able to just physically guide their hands to the right positioning, but I'm getting it.

Exercising

I've definitely exercised way more in these six months at home than I have ever past years. It's been a lot easier to stick with my exercise goal this year though! My mom, brother, and I have been playing a lot of "Just Dance" recently, which is both fun and a hell of a workout. I sweat more doing that than I ever do with regular cardio workouts. Maybe it's because my competitive side forces me to work harder than I would if I were just jogging on my own.

What have you been doing this semester, whether or not you're currently in school? Any exciting writing projects in the works? Leave a comment!

August Wrap-Up

Books I Read

3.5/5

First off, I want to say that this story is HUGELY important for all of the representation it has and the topics it deals with: Asian culture, what it's like to be Asian in the United States, socioeconomic issues, sexual assault and the #MeToo movement, etc. So many important things were talked about in a really great way (and this is an #OwnVoices story!). But the way that message was delivered didn't totally work for me. The book was long, way longer than your usual contemporary, and it could've benefited from some trimming. The real meat of the story didn't start until at least halfway through the book. I enjoyed Dani as a narrator, but I didn't like Claire for the longest time (that said, she does go through some nice character development), so it made her chapters hard to read. And I couldn't stand any of the male characters in this book, even the ones I was supposed to like. It would've been better if the assholes had been assholes and the allies/more supportive male characters were actually nice. Honestly, 90% of the characters in this book were problematic and unlikable, which always makes it hard for me to get into the story. There was also a lot of "telling" in the first person narration rather than showing the characters' emotions. But, all that aside, this book still has an excellent message that deserves to be told and I hope everyone who needs to hear this story finds it! I'm sure a lot of people can identify with the problems the characters face and feel validated by it.

2.5/5

I really wanted to like this, but I just didn't. The concept was much better than the execution. I love the idea of a story being told about all of the people besides the "chosen ones" and the issues they face in a semi-magical society. The problem was, because these characters weren't the chosen ones, their plots were . . . kind of boring. I didn't feel connected to anyone and the romances/romantic attractions felt fake. I was also confused by the setting because the worldbuilding was never explained. It took me a while to figure out how things worked and why the "indie kids" were called indie kids, etc. Speaking of the indie kids, every chapter opened with a paragraph about what they were going through, but I found myself skimming these passage every time because I didn't care. All of it fell a little flat for me and took me a while to get through because I was bored. But on the upside, there's a lot of diversity in the cast of characters, I adored the spunky younger sister, and it deals with some important conversations about mental health.

3.5/5

The curse of hyped books is that I went into this with expectations way too high, and that affected my enjoyment of it a little. 😭 This book isn't a bad book by any means; in fact, it was a really good book! I just didn't care for elements of it because of my personal reading tastes. I loved the artistic vibe (I mean, look at that cover, it's gorgeous) and the vivid descriptions of New York City and the Love, Simon-esque friendship/relationship blooming over social media (though it happens in very different ways). Felix was a great narrator and a wonderfully complex character, even if he makes shitty decisions sometimes (okay, almost all the time). But he felt real to me. I didn't care for most of the other characters except for Felix's dad, who I actually sympathized with a lot because he was trying and didn't always get the patience he was expected to give in return. The conversation about gender identity and intersectionality and privilege was so important, but the execution wasn't from me. I didn't buy that any of these teenagers would talk as formally as they did by hitting the nail directly on the head rather than being more nuanced. I talked about this book with other writers in a virtual book club and one woman did say that she thinks the blunter conversations regarding trans/gender issues had to be more straightforward in order to reach audiences who might not be as deeply steeped into queer/diverse culture as we are, and I could appreciate that argument. For me, though, it felt like I was being talked down to. But I can see why this style is important for readers who might be learning about these queer identities for the first time. So, to sum up, I really loved the messages this book offers and Felix as a very real and raw trans character, but for a book that relies on characters to carry a reader through, I didn't relate to/like any of the other characters enough.

Movies I Watched

5/5

DAMN. This woman is smart. She delivered such a powerful punch the last thirty minutes of her routine, which is so much more than just a stand-up routine. I'd compare this to a TedTalk before I called it a comedy act. That's not to say that she isn't funny (because she's hilarious), but the stand-up quickly turns into a powerful commentary about queer identity, mental health, and the impact of comedy (in good and bad ways). All I can say is, go watch it and find out for yourself what I'm talking about.

1/5

Not for me. Weird acting, weird dialogue, and weird character choices all around. It wasn't scary, though it was gross. I thoroughly enjoyed making fun of it with others though, LOL.

1.5/5

This is a hilariously bad movie. The main character acted way too young for his age and the dialogue was . . . strange. It wasn't outright horrible, but just weird enough to be off-putting. But the main thing that made me rate this so low was holy shit there were so many plot holes! This kid should have been murdered so many times over from the stupid decisions he makes, and yet somehow he survived over and over again. There were way too many times where I had to shout, "Do the neighbors not hear any of this screaming?" or "What happened to the police car that was just outside?" or "Why did he just let him go???" None of it made sense. I easily counted at least a couple dozen cases where something was conveniently ignored or not fixed for the sake of "suspense." Because I couldn't buy the situations in which the characters were put, a lot of the drama and fear was lost on me. But it does get a .5 boost in rating from the few ridiculous laugh-out-loud moments.

Quotes I Wrote

I'm writing a musical! It's a comedy ("Wicked" meets "Something Rotten!") about a woman who promises two witches her firstborn child separately, so when the baby is born, both witches show up expecting to claim their prize. Instead, they're forced into joint custody, which is difficult when one witch is Wicked and the other is GoodTM. It's a little hard to copy/paste the quotes from my scriptwriting program into blogger, but I will share more details sometime soon!

I'm also drafting another YA contemporary! It's a love-triangle romance featuring all queer girls and it's full of summer-y vibes and shenanigans and misunderstandings and all kinds of baked goods. And a semi-dysfunctional, but all-around really supportive family.

***

“Whatever you decide to do,” Aunt Rachel said. “I think it’s excellent that you’re turning your sights toward partners of the same sex. You know what I’ve always said, no self-respecting woman should ever bother attaching herself to a man. No offense,” she added to Mom. “But you hardly count, Parker.”

“Thanks?” Dad said, confused, but good-natured.

“If it were up to me,” Aunt Rachel continued. “The whole world would be gay.”

Aunt Rachel often made broad statements like this though she’d never once introduced us to a girlfriend or even said the words, “I’m a lesbian” to the family. It was something that was never talked about but was mutually understood. Aunt Rachel didn’t like labels, so I guessed this was just par for the course with her.

“You don’t think that would be a little difficult for population growth down the line?” Mom said.

Aunt Rachel propped an elbow on the back of her chair. “Artificial insemination exists.”

“What’s artificial insemination?” Gus asked. He had some icing on his upper lip.

“I’ll tell you when you’re older,” Dad said, at the same time Mom explained, “It’s when a doctor puts another man’s semen in a woman’s cervix with an instrument in order for her to get pregnant.”

Gus looked like he only understood about a third of the words said, but he shrugged and said, “Cool.”

And just like that, we’d gone from talking about my love life—or lack of one, really—to cervixes. Only in the Jones’ house.

Pictures of the Month

Josh surprised me on a rainy day with sunflowers from his garden!

We had a virtual cooking date and I captured his flair in three screenshots 😂

Jackbox game night!

Went on a "walk" together

Distanced lunch with friends!

We got way too much pizza 😂 (Or just enough?)

A more detailed post is coming soon about what I'm doing this semester, but here's a sneak peek at some of the stuff I'll be working on during my leave of absence from school!

Distanced backyard hangout!

I spent an hour on YouTube watching drawing tutorials and I'm pretty pleased with how my first try turned out!

Cozy spa/"Supernatural" bingewatching day

Why yes, yes I did rearrange my desk for the soul purpose of it being easier for my right-handed self to pick up my cup of coffee while I write. I like the way it's arranged much better now!

I tried to get a cute picture of Scout panting, but she ended up looking like a demon possessed her instead 😂

She loves being tucked into bed💖

You don't like your new hat, Scout?

Scout turned 11 this year!! My spunky old lady 💖

She loved her new toys

And her cake 😂

How was your August?