The Pokemon teacher and Pikachu on ice coffee…Oh dear!

Weather: Lovely 80, windy weather. 🙂

Working on: Updating my website, lesson plans, updating my new Ebay store, and freaking out to get my work done!

Currently Listening to: Damaged by Dainty Kane (have had it stuck in my head for days)

Currently Watching: Disney Channel shows

Currently Playing: Stuck on Pokémon Trozei still, but I’ve only touched it for I think 15 minutes since last month’s update! >.<

Currently Reading: Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George

Thoughts and feelings: Overwhelmed, head hurting, but more like I have to rush!

Holiday(s): Labor Day! YEAY for being off! I needed to work. >.<

Wallpaper: Because I found out Thursday that HELLO KITTY AND I HAVE THE SAME BIRTHDAY (WE’RE TWINSIES!!! *fan girl squeal*), I have a summery Hello Kitty wallpaper. It is hot pink with a sky blue boarder and she is dressed as an ice cream vender, serving and handing an ice cream cone from her card to a little mouse! =^_^=

Icon: Because Hello Kitty and I are now twins, I have to give my sister a glittery, Fabio worthy icon! ;D (Fabio is one of our Elite Four members and he is always fabulous, so much so that we do not say fabulous anymore, we say “that’s so Fabio!” ^_-).

Hello, heya, how you doing?  Morgan here! It’s been WAY too long since I last updated, but I did warn you guys at least.  I apologize just the same. Thanks for being supportive and checking on me.  School started August 20th for us, so we are eight days in (plus three days of meetings and open house, but I’ve been eating lunch with co-workers for once, trying to be braver, which is fantastic).  I’m beat! -_-;;  I work with boys this year and I am thrilled they like Mario, Power Rangers, Digimon, Legos, and other games (although they also love Iron Man and Batman, my two least favorite superheroes…*sighs* I have my work cut out for me), but boys are so full of a different kind of energy that I haven’t been around in a while, not since I was growing up with Miles, my little brother, and all our male, younger cousins.  I’ll get in the swing of it though.  🙂  I’m back in my old room from last year (go figure), but sharing it with a different teacher (two male instructors).  They are super nice, upbeat, and great with the kids.  I enjoy working with everyone and that makes a huge difference! We can do this together, I mean: my name is in the stars!

Enough jabbering! Let’s get to some updates on my author persona!

 Spirit Vision 2 is well into edits! I finished chapter 14 on round one of edits last night, making me 62% finished on round one edits. For those who do not know, we go through two full rounds of edits, that means reading carefully through and discussing the whole book twice. If it needs a third round (which is common), then we do that as well. That means that we go through the book at least three times! Sheenah is working so hard and I am grateful for her time and love for my work.

Suzy, my lovely artist, showed me the third work in progress (or WIP) of the Spirit Vision 2 cover and it looks incredible!  ^o^ I cannot wait to share the final product with you all! She also released her first original art book, which I received this week. It’s stunning and sadly (?), I own about 1/3 of the prints in it and they are hanging around my apartment! I see more I want and I ordered more prints BEFORE I saw her art book! >.< I have a problem, but check out her work sometime. She even drew me a chibi version of my series’ main character, Stary Moon. HOW DARLING IS SHE?! >.< It’s pictured above and the art book on the left hand side.

OH! One of my dreams came true! Last month, Dan Wright AKA Pandragon Dan, my press mate and only dude, needed some voices for an episode of his web series, T.W.A.T.S. I told him I was interested and he put me in it! 😀  That’s right! I got to try my knack at voice acting! I had such a blast doing it and Dan and I had a lot of fun chatting back and forth about it.  He may have plans to use me in the future, but I will keep it at that. 😉  Here are the links to his video (I am in episode four).  It is divided into a part 1 and a part 2. WARNING! Part 1 has a little bit of foul language and one comment.  Part 2 has SEVERAL (none coming out of my mouth though). So, to be safe, I would SUGGEST you by 16 to watch them just so no one gets in trouble, but they are really good. Excellent job on the story Dan!

We are still working on Spirit Vision’s audio book.  I do not have much information on it, but rest assured, it is coming.

Some of us at the Paper Crane Press took the ice bucket challenge (I took the cold water challenge in May).  Check it out here!

Fairly soon too, around Thanksgiving, I will have a one page spread and interview in my college’s monthly alumni magazine! This such a huge honor to me.  More info to come!

Last month, I had a giveaway on Goodreads.com and the winner is Emma McKnight! She received her copy and is reading it currently. Happy reading Emma! ^_^ I also got a very detailed review for “A Sweet, Little Dream” from a Goodreads review, Guy. Thank you for the praise and creative criticism my good sir.

If you have been checking out my Facebook and Twitter, you probably saw how I was up for Indie Recon Live’s Best Indie and Small Press awards! This is a real honor.  For round one, the fans voted.  Spirit Vision is in the Best Young Adult book category. The top ten entries made it to round two, ending August 29th, and thanks to your guys support, I made it to the top ten and on to round 2! =D I love you guys to recesses pieces!!! <3 I was #5 in my category, which is amazing.  Round two goes about the same way: voting. You can vote once per day per category.  It is until September 15th and only the number one spot becomes the winner and gets the award.  No matter the outcome, I am honored my nomination was accepted and making it to round two; you guys’ belief in my truly touches my heart and makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Click here once per day to vote for Spirit Vision for Indie Recon Live’s Best Young Adult Book.

Holly Barbo, the author of “The Sage Seed Chronicles” and my press mate is up for “Most Satisfying Ending” Vote for her here.

For the first time, I got to host a spot for a blog tour! It was really exciting! 🙂  It was for Paper Crane Press’ very own Michelle Franklin and her newest work, “The House Guest.” I adore this darling little children’s tale set up in her famous world of magic her fans know her so well for. You get part two of an excerpt set right here. Check out her guest spot here if you missed it or want to go back and enjoy the wonder again.

A few days ago, I also had my dear high school, theater camp, and fellow otaku pal, Ms. Amber Gonz, on my site as my August Aspiring Author spotlight.  Her interview is so fun and her historical fiction sample stunning.  I want to give her a thanks and shout out for being my eighth Aspiring Author!  If you want to be an Aspiring Author, just e-mail me at mescomnick@hotmail.com with the topic “Aspiring Author Spotlight.”

For new updates:

• I added a new top ten (my #25th one! Huzzah!) to celebrate the release of yet another awesome Muppet film! =D
• Added a new Fun Writing to its respected page.
• Updated my “To be a nerdy otaku page” and my Pinterest.

I  believe, for now, that is it on the author book front. More things will be coming fairly soon when I get adjusted to school and get edits closer to be completed. In the mean time, hold on tight and learn a little bit more on my school life for 2014-2015 at FMS and some of the fun weekend things I’ve got to do! ^_^

I am still in the special education and basically do the same thing I did last year, being a shadow, just different students and I am in seventh grade this year instead of eighth.  I am starting my third year of riding the bus with two of my kids from last year, so we have a good time (one is an otaku like me).  I even had a five year old propose to me on the bus! 0.o  I went to the intermediate school at the end of last year to talk to the sixth graders (who are now seventh graders this year at our building) about my book and how I love Pokémon. So, by reputation, I am still the Pokémon teacher OR the author lady! It is so cool so many of students come and ask me how far I am on my second book in the series. ^-^

But…I have made a partner in crime beyond my wonderful friends at FMS! We have this awesome new teacher, Mrs. Wilson, in science.  Get this guys! Her name is also Morgan.  She is also 25, married to her nerdy love, and…is a nerd herself! She came to me all excited on the second meeting day for I was wearing my orange Camp Half-Blood shirt from Percy Jackson (it was the only orange shirt I had and our theme was construction since all the schools were under massive construction this summer).  She was so giddy, which shocked the staff for she was very quiet the first meeting day.  I invited her to lunch with my group and we discovered how many otaku and nerdy traits we share.  I am trying to convince her to make her cabinets look like Tardis’ with butcher paper! We enjoy geeking out and she is super sweet.  My boss joked and said she was not sure it was good I have a partner in crime. She writes as well and will be an Aspiring Author Spotlight in a few months.  =D  YEAY OTAKU MORGANS WHO WRITE AND ARE IN EDUCATION!!!

I will also be getting a little display for all my books at the FMS library thanks to our new and lovely Hippie Librarian. She’s so supportive of my work, bragging about me in front of some former teachers of hers at open house (where I got to be a personal tour guide for a nice family and just smile a lot).

Speaking of open house, I have something semi-connected:  Open house was a few days after Robin Williams passed away. I adore this main for his humor, wit, talent, that we were the same faith, and overflowing love. I felt like I lost an uncle.  I know the press was hit fairly hard with the news.  I wanted to put a quote on our door each month or so, but I was struggling to come up with one that fit my mood.  I dug through some holiday cut-out (since the staff knows I reveal the daily holiday every day) that were dusty and no one wanted. I found a cute little Snoopy dressed as the Red Baron, reading a book on top of his dog house. I kept digging and right under it, I saw a very well hand-drawn and laminated Genie from Disney’s Aladdin, one of Mr. Williams’ iconic characters.  It was fate! I had to share Robin Williams with the students. The issue was finding a school acceptable quote. I finally found one.  He was talking about his acting, but I think it applies to life and learning as well:

“There is still a lot to learn and there is always great stuff out there. Even mistakes can be wonderful.”- Robin Williams.

I want my students to see not only that they will learn all their lives in all they do, but to not fret about mistakes and to never give up.  Mistakes mean you are trying and sometimes, they are not mistakes at all.  Push on, try your best, and make your dream com true no matter what. God speed Captain, my Captain Williams. <3

This summer has been busy working on book items, hanging out with my family and friends as much as I could (especially my guy bff and neighbor Evan), and having a little time for me, such as to read manga and books.

The past three Saturdays have been fun-filled and busy.

On the 16th, Derrick, Evan, my College for Kid co-teacher Alesha, and I all went to the family fun center where you can bowl, play mini golf, go-carts, arcade, eat, bumper boats, washers, and such.  IT. WAS. GRAND! We all were hooting and hollering so hard (we are not that good at bowling), but it was fun to egg each other on and Evan and Alesha were SO competitive at go-karts, making Alesha curse…A LOT! 0.o It was strange to hear, but fun to watch (I was in the passenger side of the first round of go-cart races). Golf was a mess of giggles and I finally used about half my tickets I have saved up since high school to get 10 cheap toy cars (Hot Wheels knock-offs) for my classroom, only costing me 1000 tickets! -_-;; This one little boy had over 7,00 0 tickets and just kept feeding them to the machine, having BAGS full! >.<  The food was good and we had neat Pokémon, book, and gross/random thing discussions. We stayed for five hours and look forward to hanging out again.  I always try to go at least once a year with friends and since Alesha and I didn’t see each other at College for Kids AT ALL (other than the meeting, which was sad since Mrs. Pam retired), this was our time to hang.  ^-^

On the 23rd, my friend Tabby (Miss Eevee in my Pokémon Elite Four) and I went and got massages at my favorite place a few towns away. She had never had a real massage before and since she is a bride, I knew she needed to de-stress.  ^_^ The lady was super nice and told Tabby she needed to rest a lot more, take time for her.  She said I needed to take a minute to rest myself too, mostly my shoulder muscles tight (I carry a bag all day and I sit down a lot).  She gave me an exercise to try.  After this, we went to get a quick lunch, and had a three hour shopping spree (sale racks, of coarse), at Rainbow, JCPennys, and Rue 21. It was fabulous…I mean, Fabio!  After this, we were exhausted and almost fell asleep on the couch as the boys discussed where we were eating for dinner. It was a great day!

This last Saturday, my in-laws, Derrick, and I went to the state botanical gardens for the annual Japanese Festival (this is Derrick and I’s second time going).  It was scattered showers all day, us getting soaked once or twice (other than when my bro-in-law Nathan/Fabio and I frolicked through the squirting water foundations and got super soaked).  Still, it was a grand time!  I got to eat some yummy sushi and gyoza (my poor mother-in-law was doing her best with her chopsticks and Derrick kept putting his hands under the sushi, being a meanie).  We got to see some traditional dancers, who were lovely, a cosplay fashion show, the sumo group from last year (just as great), buy stuff from venders, and FINALLY found the candy man! Holy Spun Sugar! 0.o He was so sweet to the kids, quick on what he wanted to do next, creative, and just an all around entertainer beyond his candy-molding skills, like a hibachi chef does more than cook.  I was so glad my in-laws found him afterwards. We had a fantastic time, celebrating Derrick’s birthday early.  Afterwards, we went to eat at Fitz;s (the root beer makers).  They have a restaurant attached to the factor and you can watch them make the package the pop and get pop from the assembly line. My in-laws were so amazed by it (it was my third time going, but it had been about nine years since my last visit).  I bought some kawaii things (and my father-in-law spoiled us by getting us all the Japanese snacks we wanted ON TOP of buying the tickets and dinner…-_-).  The pictures will be on my Facebook very soon. I’m just glad it was not 104 degrees like it was last year; we were so sweaty last year and spent half our cash on water and soda. >.<  I hope to go again one day and have time to explore the gardens that I have loved since a child again, but there is just so much to see and do! The event is grand! Banzai!

Well kiddos, it’s late and I have to do some observations and school work tomorrow; back to the real world.  Slap a carrot stick, hug a bag of cotton balls, and whisper your dreams to a can of beans.  Ahola!

P.S. The Pikachu on coffee comment was something my husband and I were talking about on our way to Wal-mart (we have odd conversations).  We were trying to think of a name for our region for our league (the Poke Crew).  I told him we were in America, so it needed to reflex the culture, such as Burger spelled backwards (Regrub?).  We were cracking up trying to pronounce it and he said if it was an American Pokémon region, there would be hardly any Pokémon centers, but a McDonlad’s on every block and a Starbucks between each one.  We busted out laughing until I asked him how a sick Pokémon would get better. Derrick pondered a second and said, “Not sure, but at least there would be coffee.”  I then imagined poor Pikachu all jazzed up on coffee, us noticing the games have water, lemonade, and soda you can purchase, but no coffee (or juice other than berry juice, which it strange too).  Derrick them started jittering in his seat, his eyes huge, and started saying Pikachu super fast and hyper, in a good impression of him, and did a thunder bolt. We agreed Pikachu on a coffee rush would be humorous…and scary. Let this image sink into your skulls as you sleep tonight! =)-