Back Again....

So here I am...back again. Pleased?

I have had an incredibly interesting summer. Not good or bad...but interesting, chalk full of good moments as well as bad ones, but neither overpowering the other so much as to give the entire summer a label of "best" or "worst". We're just going to have to settle with interesting.

If you've been a regular reader of AM Station, you know that I had major writing aspirations for the summer. I would like to take a moment to say that all of none of them were accomplished. As you know, I've neglected my blog (even going so far as to consider never blogging again...I know, the HORROR). I haven't worked on a single WIP and I certainly haven't even opened AWAKEN to continue edits. I haven't scribbled a single poem and have scarcely made time to journal.

So many reasons, so many excuses, so many thoughts...where do I even begin?

CYSC (the camp I attended in June) really threw a curve-ball at my life as far as my schedule was concerned. It was an amazing experience and I'm still pondering how it has impacted me. However, taking a whole week break from writing when I'd written nearly every day for this past year was really rough. And then coming home to spending two weeks with my cousins (another amazing thing of this summer) also messed with my goals for the summer.

Add to all that my job, getting ready for a huge festival my dad's nonprofit put on this past weekend, as well as typical summer, family, every day life sorts of things...even when I did have the time to write, it was hard to find the energy.

Shout out to all your writer mamas out there. I don't know how you do it.

Anyway...even deeper than that, however, was the nagging feeling that I'm going to have to take a whole year off of writing. At least, not in the way I've been used to. I'm going to be applying for NET Ministries for the school year of 2016-2017 and basically what NET (National Evangelization Team) is is teams of young adults who go around the country and give retreats to middle and high schoolers. I'm really excited and feel like this is where God is leading me...but nonetheless somewhat fearful of all that I'll have to let go of to fully dive into the year. I'm not exactly going to have the time and energy for the next great American novel, unfortunately.

Knowing that I'm going to have to take that break is really killing me. I'm just so confused as to why God has given me the talent of writing when He keeps asking me to give it up in different ways. But yet I know that He doesn't want me to stop writing...I just need to figure out what He wants me to do with my writing.

So, friends, here we are at the end of another long, reflective, perhaps too-deep blog post. I do want to apologize to all to whom I promised interviews and blog tours and such. Another reason why I slipped away from the blogging world is I definitely over-committed. Anyway, I've missed you all desperately and hope that you're all doing well. I'm trying to figure out a healthy balance between my blogging/blog visiting/writing WIPS/etc. as summer starts to end and I look to beginning my senior year. I really feel like I'm in great need of some writer support as I "get back in the game".

Also...I just realized that tomorrow officially marks three years since I created this blog. Wow. Insane how fast time flies. So much has happened!

Looking forward to hearing from you all about what you've been up to and hopefully "visiting" some of you soon! Thanks for reading, as always, and sticking with me.

IS THIS THING ON?!?!

I think I nearly forgot how to blog. It's funny, before the A-Z Challenge, me blogging two weeks apart would have been GOALS, but now it feels so WEIRD.

How dare I leave you for a week longer than I promised! Did you survive?! I do hope so.

Camp was amazing. So, so, so incredible. I met some of the most incredible people and really grew in my relationship with Jesus, which was awesome. But more on that later.

The amount of selfies that happened
was ridiculous.

The reason for my prolonged absence was because my cousins were in town. I kept telling myself that I was going to blog, but it was so hard to break away. I grew up with these cousins (we lived in the same town until I was fourteen) and we're all super close. Especially Alex and myself...she knows me better than anyone, and defines the term "best friend" for me. Anyway, so we were super busy this past week and gone doing crazy things (pool, museum, put-put, the works). But more on that later.

Us being weird. So basically us
being us.

Unfortunately, the insanity is not about to die down. I'm taking an impromptu trip to visit Alex and family (GOING BACK TO MY HOMETOWN YAY!!) with my youngest brother tomorrow. But I have some things lined up for next week, so hopefully I'll still be able to at least blog, if not visit other blogs. But more on that later.

Speaking of which, I've missed reading everyone's blogs so much!! I can't wait to see what y'all have been up to.

Also...I decided to do Camp Nano! Life is already insane enough, might as well add some crazy. I'll be working TBN (which I talked about in my summer goals post). I'm still going to be doing my best to blog two to three times a week though, don't you worry.

LASTLY...a huge round of thanks goes to Rachel Pattinson for nominating me for the Infinity Blog Award! She's a doll, guys, seriously.

I'm supposed to give eleven facts about myself, so here we go. Brace yourselves.

1. I had a make-believe best friend named Katelyn.
2. I had a make-believe villain named Michael Alvin who lived on my top bunk until I moved to the top bunk and then he moved to my closet. He could make himself super tiny during the day and then at night he would come to his full size. He was friends with all of the Disney villains and his sole purpose in life was to marry me. 
3. I used to force my brothers to go on "Michael Alvin" hunts during the day and sometimes I would try to rub the skin off of their faces to see if they were actually Michael Alvin wearing a mask.
4. I had a crush on Ty Pennington (from ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Addition) for like...five years. Or so. (OH MY GOSH, I found out that his name is actually Gary a few weeks ago...like WHAT EVEN my childhood is ruined.)
5. I've been to a different school for each year of high school so far. Thankfully, I'm staying homeschooled for my senior year.
6. I was the Artful Dodger in the musical Oliver my sophomore year.
7. My neighbors, cousins, siblings, and I put on Annie the musical in my backyard about seven summers ago. I was Annie (of course, because I always had to be the center of attention). It was terrible. We have a video of it, and let's just say, y'all should be glad that my sass has gotten somewhat under control since then.
8. The first year I did NaNoWriMo, my brother Joseph made an account and pretended to be a guy my age and we messaged for a long time before I discovered that it was actually Joseph. I was so, so, so mad. SO MAD.
9. I HATE Skittles. With a passion.
10. I'm discerning doing a year of missionary work before college. (Prayers appreciated!)
11. I dress up literally every day. The worst part of camp was that I could not bring my maxi skirts or my wedges. Not about that athletic shorts life.

Now for Rachel's questions:

1. If you could be any superhero, who would it be and why?

Black Widow! Because she's kick butt but still feminine and able to depend on others as well as still care about them a lot.
2. If you had to choose between permanently too hot or too cold, which one would you choose?

Too hot! I love love love heat and am still recovering from winter. Actually, I am not really sure that there is such a thing as too hot.
3. What's your ultimate writing dream?

Oh man...honestly, I don't have one. I mean, I have goals, but they're just kind of...there. I'm trying to figure out how God wants me to use my writing in life. Right now, I'm just writing for Him and me, and it's going really well. I guess I would have to say that I'd love to be published. Or have an agent represent me. One of the two would be pretty sweet, but I'm also content where I'm at right now. 

Now...for the eleven bloggers that I'm nominating! 

1. Ashley
2. Jessica Wolf
3. Opal
4. Nicole S.
5. Jack
6. Abigail Post
7. Candice Williams
8. Rcubed
9. Katie Grace
10. Emily Ann Putzke
11. Jo

(No pressure to do this, guys, seriously...but just want you to know how much I love you and how awesome your blogs are!)

My questions:

1. Would you rather be a butterfly or a bumble bee?
2. Post a paragraph or a stanza of your latest writing project. (I guess that wasn't really a question...will you please post a paragraph or stanza?)
3. What are your blogging goals for the rest of the year?

Okay, now I'm off to go read up on all of your blogs. It's good to be back.

A Blog Tour, a Break, and a BRAND new book!

I hope that you're surviving this week! I have an awesome YOU'RE ALMOST DONE IT'S NEARLY THE WEEKEND treat for you, after two quick announcements. Actually, they might not be quick, because, let's face it, I'm me and nothing is quick, but we'll see. I mean, look at this opening paragraph! It's already three sentences longer than I thought it was going to be. Now four. Now-- you know what, I'm just going to continue.

FIRST OF ALL, I want you to go over to the INCREDIBLE Rachel Pattinson's blog RIGHT THIS INSTANT and SIGN UP to be a part of her book tour, taking place this July! Rachel is a doll and deserves all the support the writing community can give her! So go read the details right now and AGAIN, sign up! (Wow, that whole paragraph is exclamation points. Except now it isn't.)

I'll wait. Waiting. Waiting. Oh my gosh, hurry up!

Okay...back to our regularly scheduled program...

SECONDLY, I'll be taking a break from blogging next week. (Wahhhh...I know, I'm crying too...I know, I know, it's okay...please, try to control yourselves. GOODNESS, it's just a week, not forever!) I will be at summer camp (a "high adventure, outdoor" summer camp-- oh goody! Just what I love--the outdoors!! Actually, I do, I'm just not very athletic and kind of a wimp. But the week is a summer camp/retreat week, so I'm looking forward to spending time with God and seeing what surprises He has in store for our relationship. Man, this is a lot to be in parenthesis. Maybe I should go back and edit so it's not in parenthesis. You know what, nope, I'm just going to leave it. Except I was taught in first grade by Sister Anger Issues that you don't have to read what's inside parenthesis. WELL, at this blog, YOU DO. SO THERE. Anyway...) I'll be gone Sunday through Friday (or maybe Saturday. See, is this a good use of parenthesis?! Yes, yes it is, thank you very much).

OKAY. Finally, let's get to the main point of this post, which is an interview with EMILY ANN PUTZKE. I recently participated in a book tour for her new release AIN'T WE GOT FUN. If you missed it, too bad. Just joking, here's my review of AWGF. But this time I'm not waiting for you to check it out, you'll have to do it on your own time.

Here's a little about Emily:

EMILY ANN PUTZKE and Gi Rowland have two big things in common: their love for God and coffee. Besides writing historical fiction, Emily enjoys being an aunty, photography, Irish dancing, spending time with family, attempting to play the guitar, reenacting, and reading. She loves polka dots, war movies, and all things vintage. Her first novella, It Took a War, was published in December of 2014. You can learn more about Emily Ann Putzke and her books at www.authoremilyannputzke.com and www.facebook.com/authoremilyannputzke.

Who is Gi, you ask? Well, you'd better read AWGF and find out!

And here's a lot about Emily:

AMS: When you were little (we're talking like five), what did you want to be when you grew up?

EP: Many things … a librarian, a cashier, a zookeeper, an artist. I started writing stories when I was about 6 or 7, so the author ambition followed shortly after. 

Quite the extensive list!

AMS: What inspired AWGF? What was the writing process like?

EP: Emily Chapman and I had been wanting to write a story together for a while. We even started a story with handwritten letters, but we both got too busy. Then in December of 2014, Emily emailed me and suggested we try a new story and post the letters on our blogs as we went. We already had picked the names and the Great Depression for a previous story, so we took those and ran with them. We sent the letters through Googledocs, which allowed us both to be able to add suggestions/edits to each other’s letters. We exchanged a ton of emails, sorting out the plot and planning the ending letters.

What a great start to an amazing novel! Google Docs is basically my absolute favorite thing about technology, so incredibly useful. 

AMS: What are the pros and cons of co-authorship?

EP: I love co-authorship because of the collaboration, camaraderie, and bouncing off each other’s ideas. Emily Chapman and I work really well together, and we had tons of fun writing AWGF. The hard part was being flexible, because sometimes our expectations and ideas differed. Also, there’s just so much to think about and coordinate that it was overwhelming at times.

That's awesome that you two were able to click over this. I loved reading AWGF because your writing voices and styles were different, but meshed well together. It does sound overwhelming, though! I'm sure it had its stressful moments.

AMS: Can you tell me about the publishing process for AWGF?

EP: The first thing we had to do after editing AWGF was get a cover and have the book formatted. We hired Rachel Rossano for both jobs, and she did such a great job! We chose to use my publishing imprint, The White Rose Press. We also had to purchase an ISBN, then upload the files to Createspace. Once the files are submitted to Createspace, we ordered proof copies to make sure everything looked ok, then approved it.

Amen to that! The cover is GORGEOUS. 

AMS: What are you working on now? What writing brilliance can we expect next from you?

EP: I’m currently knee deep in rewrites for a novel titled, Resist. It’s based on the true story of Hans and Sophie Scholl, a German brother and sister who wrote a distributed anti-Nazi leaflets during WWII.

Sounds intriguing! I love World War II stories, especially true ones.

AMS: What are your summer writing goals?

EP: I’m hoping to finish the rewriting of Resist this summer, and also write a Sleeping Beauty retelling for the Rooglewood writing contest.

Oh, awesome! I'm debating about writing a retelling too...

AMS: What is your most recent favorite book?

EP: To Kill a Mockingbird. But I’m currently reading All The Light We Cannot See and I’m thinking it might be one of my favorites … but I haven’t finished it yet so I can’t say for sure!

LOVE LOVE LOVE To Kill A Mockingbird!! I read it about five years ago, and totally fell in love with it. Actually, now you mention it, I think I'm going to have to go back and re-read it this summer.

AMS: Is there a particular piece of writing advice you follow to a T?

EP: I love this quote by C.S. Lewis: “Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.” I have that pinned above my writing desk and I find it really encouraging!

I have never heard that quote, but anything that comes from C.S. Lewis is pure gold, and that's the truth.

AMS: What is your favorite kind of ice-cream?

EP: Definitely chocolate panda paws. I’m a chocoholic.

Oooh, that was my childhood favorite!! Now I'm more of a vanilla girl.

Thanks so much to Emily for doing the interview!! I'll see the rest of you in a week, have a fabulous weekend!!! =)