Weather: Lovely spring!
Working on: Updating my website, doing all my odds and ends things so I can write heavily tomorrow and Monday
Currently Listening to: Girls on Film by Glee. I’ve also discovered Pelleek recently. He does metal or rock versions of gaming, anime, childhood, and nerdy culture and makes it sound AWESOME! I jam to his Power Ranger theme song medley for hours while I write; helps get my creative juices flowing! <(‘.'<)
Currently Watching: Episode eight of “Bodacious Space Pirates.” Different than I thought…
Currently Playing: Really haven’t played any games in about a month…Will get to new Pokémon Trozei this week; pay check, woot! 😀
Currently Reading: “House of Hades”: Book 4 in the Heroes of Olympus (Percy Jackson 2) series
Thoughts and feelings: Mind. BLOWN!
Holiday(s): International Jazz day! Call the trumpets! ^.^
Wallpaper: A stanza from my poem “Watch and See” from my collection, “A Sweet, Little Dream.” You can get it on Paper Crane’s website; it is the free wallpaper of the month.
Icon: My mom sent me this last week and this is my favorite childhood movie and Disney movie of all time…Dang! I DO feel old! *cries and grows mushrooms in the corner*
What’s crack a lackin’ home skillet biscuits?! Oh yeah! I’m so hip! *hears grasshoppers in the background* My bad! I hope everyone is doing well and will have a safe and family and loved ones filled Memorial Day. Please make sure to take a moment to remember the fallen soldiers, heroes, who gave their lives so we could live in this great nation. God bless every single one of you and your families. <3
I know I announced it on my medias and so did the press, but things, sadly, have been so hectic in my life that I haven’t had the time, or in some days, the energy, to post it formally like I should, so I DEEPLY, HUMBLY APOLOGIZE to you all! *bows deeply at the waist* Thank you to all of those who have been loyal in following me. I will be proper on times and updates for Spirit Vision 2 (which is due in a few weeks for review…EEEEWW x() But…here is the official website announcement…*dramatic drum roll*
On May 17th, 2014, my first ever collection, “A Sweet, Little Dream” was released!!! =D The cover is right here, ideas for it by me and created by my publisher Sheenah. I think it looks so lovely! This collection has short stories, poems, scripts, quotes, and other literary works of mine, all from my youth until my senior year of high school (1997-2007). I have an introduction/explanation in front of each one along with the year. There are also three very special dedications to three amazing people who inspire me so AND a BONUS feature you can ONLY get in the printed copy, which will be out in about two weeks! ^_^
Here is the official blurb and where to purchase the e-book version of it for only 99 CENTS at all retailers!:
“This collection was born thanks to adventures to magical places that my youthful imagination crafted, a royal decree that henceforth let me be known as “The Queen of Details,” and a very energetic “role model for today’s youth.” Writing had always been a comfort, a way of expressing myself since my voice was locked tight due to shyness. But because of these events, gifts, professors, and people in my life, light was shed on a pathway to writing as a career. In this collection, you will find works mostly from my high school years, exploring an array of genres. You’ll learn about my younger self–both child and teen–who made me the woman I am today.
It all started with a notebook, a pencil, words of encouragement, and a sweet, little dream.”
I made “A Sweet, Little Dream” its own special drop box page on here. You can click the link OR you can hover over the book tab at the top of the webpage and slide the curser down to “A Sweet, Little Dream.” If you notice, “Spirit Vision” has its own page as well AND I have a section of “Fun Writings,” free writings I did that did not make the cut in my collection, but I want to share them with all my fans! 🙂
More information on the paperback super soon. Check my social medias often. I want to thank everyone for their support and I hope you enjoy these first stories of mine, the stepping stones to my career as an author today. Next year, I will be compiling another collection from my college days and adult life (2007-the present). I cannot wait to share that collection with you too! ^_^
Going with the book, the free wallpaper for the month of May from Paper Crane feature a stanza from “Watch and See” from my collection. You can get the wallpaper for yourself for FREE at the link and check back at Paper Crane’s site each month to get the newest freebie. ^_^
Like I stated early, my manuscript for Spirit Vision 2: The Power of Mortals is due SUPER soon! School has been so busy with state testing and me studying for another teaching licensing test to add on to my certification that I haven’t gotten to work on it as much as I wanted to sadly. I still have a long way to go, but luckily, I have a three day weekend to work and school is over in 3 and a half days! That’ll help a lot! I can tell you I am on chapter 18…Doesn’t help you much since you don’t know how many chapters there are, but…I wanted to give you guys a LITTLE, TINY something of my progress! ;] I will keep you guys updated on my editing stages like I did with Spirit Vision 1, to keep you in the loop; I think that is important.
I also am sorry for the LATE delay for the Spirit Vision art contest. I had three wonderful entries on-line and I added them today to the Fan Base page. They will be published into the Fan Gallery in the back bonus section of book 2. I had five entries from students in my district as well, but they were working on two major art shows at the same time, so, after talking to several and the art teacher, I extended theirs to May 29th and will see what I get. ^_^ The five I have are fantastic! I am so lucky to see all these different perspectives of my characters. Next update, I will have all the pictures and names for a full reveal. Thanks again you grand artist!
I have been busy and slacking on my webpage and again, I am sorry; may, I sound like a broken record, eh?! 0.o I will be updating this website at least twice a month and still do my Aspiring Author Spotlight the last Friday of each month (look forward to May’s this Friday!) along with at least two blogs: either top tens or reviews from me on cons, games, anime, and so forth. I KNOW the one at the end of June will be a review for Cosplacon 2014! ^.^ The will update things that need to be updated on the site as well like always. HOWEVER, I don’t want to exclude you all and still keep you in the loop of my work and life. Sooooo…I will be updating my facebook once a day. It could be book related, something about what I like, an event I went to, or something fun and random to get to know me better, but I WILL update my author facebook every day. So, please check that out and spread the word to others so we can all support each other! I will still update my other medias too, but not as much. To be truthful…I…I really am not a huge fan of Twitter…*ducks and waits to get stoned* >.< My goodreads and Youtube I update when they need it and Pinterest…I can do for two months without touching and then the second I do, I get sucked it! Gah! I try to avoid it, but I did add some Spirit Vision themed photos to it last week since it’s been a while. Make sure to follow me on all my medias guys! All the links are in the blue cherry blossoms at the top.
My have been working with the co-owner of the card shop I do my monthly Pokémon classes and book signings at on the inner cover. She is an amazing artist and is doing a sketch of some minor characters with a shocking reveal…I’ll leave you at that, but I am honored to be working with her and supporting a local talent! ^_^ Suzy and I have deicide on the sketch I wanted Spirit Vision 2’s cover to be based on (she is too good to me; she had four choices for me to pick from!). No other news there, but at least that’s a start. Also with Sapphire, my inner cover artist, she has made me Spirit Vision buttons! 😀 The first shipment will be ready for Cosplacon, where I am doing my first EVER panel with my good friend, Samurai Dan, about writing! Dan and I have been working hard on the script and outline, me learning so much. He is a panel expert and its my first one; he is so patient with goofy me! >.< It’s June 13th or 14th, so it’s VERY close. I look forward to it and will give you guys updates on how that is turning out…Any way! I will be selling the buttons for the first time at the convention in June. The picture is below and Sapphire did a pretty job. What do you guys think? I’m going to charge $2 each or 3 for $5. E-mail me if you are interested! ^_^
I had another Pokémon class last weekend and it was our biggest one yet and the store was opened late! The kids, of course, are on time for this, but not school most days! *sighs* >.< They were so lively and pumped and it did my heart good. <3 We even joked about getting blankets out from the adults’ cars and playing on the porch until it opened and the kids loved the idea! Ha! It all worked out and I did sell a book and signed two. 🙂 The kids kept thanking me and shaking my hand. They are all ready for the summer events where we will have our own Elite Four Challenge! My four guys: Nathan (my brother-in-law), Nathan B (my hubby’s best friend), Evan (also known by the students as Evanchu, Derrick and I’s mutual best friend), and, of course, my husband, Derrick, be the Elite Four members of our town! Like the game, the kids have to challenge each one, only using one deck (the members can also only use one deck) and if they lost at one, they have to start all over! Order doesn’t matter. IF they beat all four, then they battle me as the Champion! Hehe! If they beat ME, then they are the champ of the month and will get a free pack of cards, a fake crown, and a free Spirit Vision button or bookmark. Tabby, our lovely Ms. Eevee due to her fox ears and tail, will be our ref, deck builder, and my helper. It will be tons of fun and the kids are SO pumped! 🙂 I hope to spread the love of Pokémon to many and I have revived it with some adults. Hehe! It’s great seeing their reactions when I play a classic card or their befuddled expression when a middle schooler whips out a new X/Y card. Lots has changed in the game in 15 years! If you’re in my area on June 28th from noon to 2:30, stop by Gamers Bazaar to join us for only a dollar. More info and updates on my facebook closer to time.
My friend and College for Kids co-worker (MAN! That starts in about a month! You guys will hardly hear from me in July because of it…But, I love it!) is trying to get me to do a local book reading and signing in about a month at the local library, which will be great so I can reach more people in the community, especially adults. I will be on the radio in the first week of June sometime, talking about my new collection and events for me and Tuesday, I get to go talk to about 120 sixth graders about my book, like my middle school book signing, but in the gym…with a microphone…everyone staring at me…these kiddos going to be at our building next year and remembering if I messed up…0.o No pressure! But, it’ll be good practice for the con in mid June, especially since Dan has a big mouth (Love you Dan!) ^^ So, yeah, I have lots of things planned.
All my Anime St. Louis 2014 pictures are FINALLY up and the videos on my Youtube Channel, so please check those out. I love sharing our experiences. Also, I’m sure you guys know this if the follow the press, but I want to extend this greeting: Please welcome Mr. Dan Wright to Paper Crane Books! ^_^ *throws sprinkles in the air and hugs a turtle* Dan is such a fun guy…and our only guy right now. Boy, I feel SORRY for him! ;D Michelle had a cute short story published not too long before my collection and all of Holly’s Sage Seed Chronicle books are avaible as a digital box set. Lots of cool things for the press!
*Pants* I THINK that’s everything! -_-;; Busy summer! Okay, time for your dose of “Around a month in the life of Morgan Straughan Comnick” *dramatic two 0’clock soap opera music in the background then breaks out into the Pokémon theme song!* What?! That’s what I would want my soap opera theme song to be like! HA!
On May 2nd, my church had our rag time night to raise food and money for the Minstrel Food Alliance food pantry to feed hungry families. It was a great time! We had lots of items to raffle (including a signed copy of my book and the winner happened to be my one of my co-singers…=D), food, and music. I got colored butcher paper and had the idea of taping them to the tables and I had a basket with baggies of crayons, golf pencils, candy, and stencils and asked everyone, mostly adults, if they wanted to color on our tables! Well, I either got strange looks or laughed of joy! We had some great doodles and during clean up, I cut them out and put them in our church office. Derrick even drew and it was a dragon with a rainbow and tree by him! 0.o I’ve never seen Derrick draw ANYTHING other than a messed up stick figure and that was once. I was so proud! ^_^ Daddy drew one of his famous horses. We had a kids room for a half hour and had four darling little ones. We played puzzles, watched and sang “Frozen”, blew bubbles, they drew us pictures of Elsa, and we pinned them to the cardboard, and we gave them gift bags. They had a blast and were dancing in the aisle to the music. The highlight was us though: The Rag Time singers. We were a quartette, but our friend Maria threw her back out the day of and was in such pain! 🙁 We dedicated all our songs to her and her hard work, so it was me and two awesome guys, Chuck and Larry! I had SO much fun! Larry was the leader and called us in, singing “Alexander’s rag time band” and Chuck and I opened the doors widely and we sang the second line, smiling, holding hands and swaying. The crowed hooted and cheers like we were the next rock group! My nervous eased and I just smiled wide, danced, fake flirted with the boys, and had a grand time. My dad said he could even HEAR me (my singing voice is quiet although I try). We got a lot of praise and I had a blast. It was a lot of hard work and sometimes it was hard, but it was worth it to help others, work with my church, and show I could sing and shine! ^_^ We raised over $500 and several pounds of food! Thanks to all who helped!
I got to drag out my red boa from my Knightingales Girls Chorus days in high school and wear one of my FAVORITE dresses! It was so much fun! 🙂
School has been insane with MAP testing, our state testing. Since I worked in special education, I test students one on one and meet qualifications for their needs. It took me and my students about two and a half weeks to finish! o.o We BARELY got ours in on time, but we finished 40 minutes before it was due! Being in a little confided room all day will get to you. But, I did get some studying done and a lot of reading and working on my personal letters and gifts for my students as good-bye presents. My teaching test…yeah…let’s say I ran into problems and wasn’t allowed to take it, barely getting a refund, messing up my plans! >.< I have to take it at the start of June. I can’t go into details and frankly, I lost too many brain cells from stress, anger, and tears to bring it up again (my daddy being my saving grace; I owe you so much dad)! I am still studying, but never as much as I like. Still, most of the questions are situations. As long as I focus, study my facts, and try my best, I can only do the best I can and hope I pass for I only have one shot before they change to a new test. Still looking for a teaching job…nothing yet, but, I’ll keep trying. At least middle school wants me as an aide and has plans for me next year. It’s nice to be wanted! 🙂
Only three and a half days left and it’ll be nuts! Monday I will be gone at the intermediate school, meeting my new students and doing my book assembly for the sixth graders. Wednesday is our fun carnival, which I am looking forward to; I donated a copy of my book for the raffle and all money goes to our backpack program that helps feed needy families in our district. Thursday is the talent show and three of my students are performing in it. And Friday is a half day, so CRAZY TOWN, and our last day. Staff check outs, moving since construction on the building starts ASAP and we are not allowed in the building at all most of the summer, and probably some fun teacher things too! ^_- I will give you guys details on these things next update.
OMG! Guys! I’m SO pumped for the remakes/slightly new Ruby and Sapphire games coming out around my birthday! ^_^ Generation Threes titles were my favorite game play wise and I was hoping since it has been ten years since their release and its the only game where the leaders and Elite Four do not have headshots for battling sequences…! =D The thing is, normally, I get one and my brother or Derrick get the other, but I played all three games of the generation and LOVE them all the same…I’m not sure what to do?! 0.o Also, the announcement for the NEW MIGHTY MORPHIN’ POWER RANGERS MOVIE!!! SO going opening night! I have lots to look forward to entertainment wise now…Just wish I had more time! Also, did anyone see the season finales of “The Big Bang Theory” and “Once Upon a time?” HOLY FUDGE NUGGETS, they were EPIC!!! Sheenah and I had like a 30 minute discussion on the cliffhanger for Once Upon a Time and all my students were talking about “Big Bang” the next day at breakfast! I’ll miss these shows…*Sighs* Sadly, I was disappointed in Glees, but the “Old Dogs” episode Chris wrote was AMAZING! I have his “Land of Stories” book and he is such a charming writer! ^.^
So, yesterday, I had a little “Congrats for going to high school and thank you” party for my four wonderful students and my two all star helpers who have taken it upon themselves to help my students. We had a good time eating snacks, laughing, and playing the Wii (Mario Kart and Super Smash Brothers, which only the boys did, but ALL the kids got into Mario Kart!). I did get them each a small gift; I wrote them each letter in a little personal notebook telling them what I admire about them and enjoyed about this year. I got a little misty eyed and choked up. At the end, when they were leaving, three of the six were crying and I got hugs from five of the six. I know I have not been given the chance to be a real teacher yet, but I wouldn’t change this year for anything. Those kids, my first group, will always be so precious to me and losing them, even though they will do bigger, brighter, better things, is more difficult than I thought. I’m not sure if I made a difference in their lives, but even if it was a speck, a glimmer, a hope, that fills me up to the brim. How sad am I? I hope every year isn’t like this or I will melt into a puddle before I get a contract! HA! :'(
Also, I must admit a sad truth today folks and brace yourself; it’s a wowza! *deep breath like I am in confession* My in-laws had me converted into the modern world today…That’s right, I now have a…*gulp* An I-phone! 0.o And the latest one at that! I go from a no internet, simple, $8 a month phone from AT & T for almost 3 years to the newest thing to hit Apple! It’s a REAL jump and I’m still figuring it all out. What sort of world have I been transported in to? I still am so grateful for my in-laws for buying it and all the accessories for me from their hearts. They INSISTED and spoil me so! I love them! Derrick is having a ball being my sensei. Hehehe! ;D I have to admit, it’s pretty cool so far, still making my head spin a tad, but picking the ring tones out I wanted was RAD! They are going camping for a week and want us to come to the camp site for a night to have a weenie roast with our pals. I’ve never been camping, so it should be…interesting…
On the family medical, my grandma is back home now and doing better. She still had a lot of trouble moving and my brother sleeps over with her on the weekends when my mom works at the hospital, which is so sweet and oddly responsible of him…Love you bro-bro! 😉 But, my Aunt Joni has been to the hospital twice. She has stroke like signs the first time and was there for a few days. Two days later, she and my uncle were eating dinner and right before he was going to mow, she blacked out and he had to do CPR on her before the ambulance came. They said if my uncle hadn’t have done that…we would have lost her. She has a pacemaker now. At one point, the night before she got so bad, her heart rate on the heart monitor showed she was at 12 beats a minute! 🙁 That’s SUPER slow! They think the function of the brain that sends electrical signals to tell your heart to pump is not functioning correctly. I am sending her warm vibes to recover.
Time to update you on website updates! Added a top ten blog since it’s been a while! This one is not anime, manga, cartoon, Japanese, OR Power Ranger related?! o.o NANI you screech?! “B…b…but Morgan, that’s ALL you are! How can this madness be?! Is up down, a bird a frog, can a ball sing?! What is going on?!” is exactly what you’re thinking. I know; I’m a psychic type! 😉 But, I still think it’s something fun everyone can relate to. Here’s the others:
- I mentioned the organized, individual pages for all my works now. If you just click on the “Books” page, you can click on the cover of the book you want and it will take you to the right page, so it’s all cool like the other side of the pillow!
- All four Blog drop boxes are current and up to date.
- I did add a new piece to the Fun Writing section to celebrate my release for “A Sweet, Little Dream.”
- To be an Otaku page is current.
- The Fan base has the three Internet Spirit Vision Art Contest entries on it if you want a sneak peek.
- I added Dan Wright’s website and blog to my Links page.
- I DID move Suzy’s artist info in a drop box below the “About the Author” section, but the content is the same. Speaking of Suzy! I ordered 4 of her prints and 10 of her keychains; 2 from Cardcaptors and 8 Mysaki movie figures! They are SO kawaii!!! =D
Friday, May 30th, make sure you guys come back here to my website to meet and greet our May Aspiring Author: my good friend and co-worker who JUST graduated with her degree in education (along with my dear friend Nathan, who graduated with his degree in computer business), Ms. Alesha Sikes! She as a fun interview and neat sample of her work to share with us on May 30th, so check that out!
Now, I have to slide on a banana peel, shake hands with a meditating frog, and not get absorbed into the world of gadgets my phone is hidden within its teal toned case! Let’s have a good start to summer!