Officially INSANE

[Moonitic]

Okay, I'm around...but not.

A "friend" of mine asked me to take over coaching the color guard at the high school we graduated at. I was supposed to do it ONLY on Mondays, starting Sept 9th.

Well, it's now Sept 25th. Guess who is thisclose to being the official coach for the squad? Yep, it's me. I spend a LOT of time out on the field yelling at & encouraging a group of high school students that were terrible twirlers when I first took over. They've had very little supervision & support. They're starting to come together now. On October 7th they have Band Festival, where they compete.

In other news, I'm just about at 150 pages for the novel based on Arconia. Some of it you'll recognize. Some of it, well, *I* don't even recognize it! It'll be a little darker.

That's about it for now. Time to catch up on some housework.

[Swordsman]

When/where/how can we read the 150 pages so far about Arconia? Also, who's in it?

[Moonitic]

I'm typing the story into the computer now. Yes, I use a notebook & pen to write first drafts. Once it's in, I'll make available a SMALL portion of the book. Don't want to ruin the surprised, ya know.

Some characters have been changed. Some have been combined. Moon Willow is a little more "grown up" & darker version of Arconia. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

[Moonitic]

The book will, we sincerely hope, be published by a traditional publisher.

The fights will be as historically accurate as possible, to add to the realism, yet there will be a good mix of fantasy.

And, as a last note...Lord Tellurine (the real person) will be my co-author. I've already discussed it with him. We've been writing together since high school, & the essence of the story wouldn't be the same without his input.

I hope to have the first draft of the first book done by December. Yes, it will be more than one book.

[Willow]

Hmmm, someone should be using green letters to post here. Wow...it's amazingly obvious.

[Moonitic]

You wanted to know...

February 9, 1994, with HilandDoug as my coach. 15 first & second place medals & trophies later... Next question? Thanks for finally being honest about how you feel about us. It's been a year & the games were getting boring. At least you confirmed the suspicions.

And I still don't know what this has to do with coaching a flag squad or writing a novel. Zelly, it's time to shut this thread down. I didn't mean for it to become the Mango Show. I just wanted to let you all know where I was.

There are some people in the world who would ruin a funeral simply because the deceased was getting more attention than them.

FIN

[Iwant2bafencer]

Yea, so anyway. Moon! I So want a signed copy of the book/books/series! I agree with Mango in the idea that you should set up a booth at nationals. Wait where is nationals? I can't drive ok I can, but not to far, I'm not a member yet, I'm not good enough for nationals. Nope on second thought I think you should just drop by my house, I'll get a book, feed you lunch, we'll have girl talk. j/k but I still want a signed copy !

Color Guard can be rough. I've got a few friends involved in it, and I don't think they leave the school anymore. They do school, then practice for upteen hundred hours, then most likely sleep at the school. I help to much to. I just can't say no to those 'please', and 'it would mean so much' and the infamous 'will you help us out?' and then those beedy little eyes pleading with you! Gah! Horrid I tell you! ok I'm shuting up now.

-------------------------
Carpe Diem
Ad Asha

[Moonitic]

Wanna,

It is VERY difficult right now. The girls have had NO adult help for a year. They're desperate to work & to work hard. On Monday we have Band Festival. They'd really like to earn high marks. We're really stressed because our uniforms have been ordered & we're HOPING they make it by Monday. All of a sudden, it's down to the wire!

As far as the book goes, once it's published I can only do what I can do to get it out there. If I were going the (YUCK!) self-published or "vanity press" route, it would be easy to set up a table at Nationals (provided I could GET there, you know). But we're going to try extra hard to get published by a traditional publisher. A book signing event might be do-able.

[Swordsman]

Colorguard...hmm. Methinks I'll refrain from calling them "flaggots", lest it earn me a foil 'twixt the ears. No, I have nothing against colorguard - I personally think it looks really cool. I just think the "flaggots" label is especially hilarious.

In other news, a mutual friend of Rayen and I is in colorguard, and recently knocked half a canine off with a flagpole. It was pretty funny, actually, but only because she was laughing about it - didn't seem to hurt her a bit!

I have a lot of respect for people with the grace, conditioning, and technique to be good at colorguard. I also have a lot of respect for anyone who volunteers their time to help coach any high school sport (or other activity).

[Moonitic]

Lemme guess...

You're pushing for an autographed copy, aren't ya Sword?

The girls prefer to be called "guard." The flags are no longer flags but "silks."

In my best granny voice, "When I was their age, we were respected!"

Okay, anyhoo...Thanks for the support. This has been a seriously difficult thing to deal with.