I’m getting more excited about the books as I go through the notes. They’re way more intricate and complex than I thought.  I keep reading parts and thinking oh cool! Now let’s hope I get published once I actually finish! I’m gonna go with one day at a time.  I’ll have to keep reminding myself to take my time. It’ll be worth it in the end, though.

I got some editorial stuff done today too! I got the cover page of the publication drafted up and I think it looks pretty good. Then I made up a mock issue, part of one anyway. I was just playing, seeing what I could do with it. I REALLY enjoyed it.

I researched a little bit about what degree I could pursue editing with. What I found was publishers look for a journalism, English, or communications degree. Did you catch that? English. Enter “woot!” here.

I’ve been excited to go back to school, but for some reason I haven’t been as excited about being a teacher as I think I should be. I had no real reason to doubt my choice though.

A couple months ago I got a call from my academic advisor.  My upcoming history class had been canceled because not enough people were going to take it. So I had a choice of different classes I could take instead. One of those choices was Creative Writing. I jumped on it without hesitation.

I’m a writer. I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I even have book series I’ve been planning out for years. I assumed that while I was teaching I could write. Writing has always been what I really wanted to do, but chances of making money writing novels wasn’t exactly a safe bet. I wanted to have something to fall back on at least. Since my major is elem. ed. that was my focus. Writing was just hiding out in the back of my mind. Something I figured I’d pull out for real sometime in the future.

Moving on. I take the creative writing class. University of Phoenix (where I attend) is set up where each class is 5 weeks long. Because of that there is a homework assignment do before the first week of class.  Of course, the first assignment for  the creative writing class was a short story. Go figure. So I write the story, which you can read here.

I’m seriously hoping that my teacher doesn’t think I totally suck. I probably would have given up if she had. Instead, while everyone was out of the room on a break, she tells me I’m “a very good writer, by the way.” I very nearly cried. Immediately I called the Hubs and told him what she had said while simultaneously doing a happy dance.

Over the next five weeks I became more and more encouraged. My teacher was amazing.  By the time the class ended I had created a blog of my short stories and was motivated to write like I had always wanted to.

Fast forward a few weeks again. I receive a call from my creative writing teacher. She had talked about a publication she was starting during the class. I had been pretty excited to get some of my work in there, but that wasn’t why she had called. She had made this phone call to ask if I would be the editor of the publication. Needless to say I was in a bit of shock. I actually did cry when I talked to the Hubs this time. Almost instantly my whole life plan was in question.

Sure, I want to teach. Teaching would be great, but is it my greatest love? Nope. I realized that what I really wanted to do was major in English. I could get my masters in education and still be able to teach. Then I started to wonder if I wanted to pursue editing. I had never considered it before but now it sounded like something I’d really enjoy. Question is can I get an editing job with an english degree? UoP doesn’t exactly have a journalism program.  So that whole thing I need to figure out.

The point is, I’m finally really excited about my career path. I’ll be doing what I love. As far as the editing idea goes we’ll have to see how I do with this editing undertaking. Best way to figure it out right? So the last 48hrs have been fantastically energizing. I even got to name the publication. How cool is that? I can pull this off it’s going to be freaking awesome.

So. This is it. I’m a writer. It’s what I am and what I love. Oh yeah, and I’m the editor of Creative Phusion, a publication of UoP students, staff, and faculty. Awesome.

Side note. I’m also doing nanowrimo. Holy crap, writing just took over my life. And I like it.