Thursday, January 30, 2014

Where Have I Been?

Hey everyone!  I notice I get a lot of views from Russia, the UK, and Germany, and of course other countries as well.  Thanks for the constant viewings.  I do apologize for the lack of posts.  I promised a lot of book critiques and I have given none.  To answer why, I decided to tell you that I am now a college student. 
 
Yes.  I go to the University of Houston.  That's all I will tell you.  Well I'll add that I'm majoring in English and following my heart's dream of being a Writer.  I have already succeeded with my play, A Dragon's Tail. It was a great learning experience. 
 
Now in my second semester of college, things have been somewhat bleak.  I have not published a single short story, I'm questioning the validation of Creative Writing classes, and I have become intrigued by the study of literature. 
 
I have not published, I have not even published my play.  I stare at things I have written and curse them for not being the way I intended and beg them constantly to please work with me!  I get frustrated with my writing because usually, once I have written that start to finish first draft, maybe editing for grammar errors and better ways to say something, I end up not knowing what to do with it.  I stare at it and curse at it, trying desperately to figure out, how do I fix this story?  Now recently I had some ideas for two short stories I am working on.  I actually have four short stories that I have typed first drafts for.  These two or at least one in particular, I have thought of an idea that I would like to implement.  Here's the problem: School Work!
 
The sacrifices one makes for the pursuit of knowledge.  Believe me it's really tough.  But it is also rewarding.  Just last semester I took a course on Contemporary American Fiction.  We had to read ten books.  Ten Books!  Zehn Bucher!(Forgive me.  I don't know how to put the umlaut on to the 'u' on this blog) Ten!  I have never read ten books in roughly three months!  And let me tell you; it was strenuous but absoulutely rewarding.  Of those ten books I now have I believe three maybe four favorites out of those ten books.  Heck I will write a post about those books I read.  We talked about things regarding consumerism, postmodernism, style,  themes, Grand Narratives, etc.  All of this was very thought provoking and somewhat disturbing.  I'll write you guys a post on it. 
 
I also took another mind bending class.  It's called Introduction to Interdisciplinary Art.  In this class we studied various artists that broke boundaries.  Heck in fact, I'll write a post about some of things I remember in the class. 
 
Creativity wise this semester I have hit a road block.  I am conflicted because I must devote my strong sudden interest in literary studies full attention.  There's a lot of reading this semester.  I'm not taking any creative writing class. It seems as though I do not have time to be the least bit creative.  However, I have decided to use this blog as a substitute.  Oh and I am in an Honors play, so at least I'm acting again. 
 
I'm going to write a couple of posts and change the purpose of this blog.  What?!  Change purpose?!  Change Focus?!  What the hell is wrong with you?!?!  I thought this was supposed to be about Fantasy!  And it still will be.  I'm shifting gears to allow myself to write about other things for a couple of reasons. 
1) I can't keep up with all the gaming news and film news and such. 
2) I can't keep up with all the news because I have academic and school related priorities that must be attended to first. 
3) To be honest I'd rather write about something else: In the sense that I would like to broaden the topic range so that I can show you guys some new ideas. 
 
Never fear!  I will still write about Fantasy related things.  But it's going to be different.  I'm going to bring in new topics, using literary discussion and references.  I will apply those literary stuff to the Fantasy books I read.  I will also write about some of the artists, new stuff that I have read.  But it will all be approached differently.  I'm even thinking of renaming the name of this blog.  We will see about that of course.  I feel as though it needs to have my name in it in order for it to be recognizable.  Like I said, we shall see. 
 
I want to show you guys the neat ideas that I am learning.  I want to set the stage for myself.  It's also that I have not run this blog professionally and to me that's a problem.  I want to be posting and blogging, not blogging writing, and showing the world my ideas.  That's why I intend to write you guys a series of posts that will show you what I want to do.  I hope then that because I am branching out into other topics that I will bring more people to this blog and show them what I have learned.  Believe me!  There is nothing like knowledge.  With this, get ready for hopeful a slew of posts that will excite you.  Get ready.  Let the show begin. 
 
Starvix Draxon