May is a great month. A spring month, of growing things and new beginnings. I'm excited about May! So much to learn and do and see (especially in Denver this year!).

So... here's my May Mantra...

May is My Month to...

• write a novel (Nanowrimo style)
• lose 5lbs (really doing it through caloriecount.about.com)
• to take it easy (which isn't always so easy)
• get a dog!
• exercise 3-4 times a week
• create more artwork

So there ya go! Have a happy May!

Is May YOUR Month for something a-May-zing?

I've been writing a coming-of-age children's/young adult novel called Annville for the past 3-4 years. I'm very close to being done with my portion of editing. I'm putting this up here to make me get it done. I only have 2-3 more scenes to tweak and a few more edits to make. My goal is to have it done in the next week.

So, below are the first 10 pages.

If you'd like to recieve the entire book draft & be part of the first readership group and offer feedback, please comment below or send me a message through my contact form.

In about a week I'll send out the entirety of the book in PDF format to whomever wants to read the first completed draft (I'm limiting this to 10 people at first I think, so think fast! FYI.)

Click here to download:

Annville_2012_Draft,_Pages1-11,_Megan_Evans.pdf (266 KB)

(download)

Click here to download:

Annville_2012_Draft,_Pages1-11,_Megan_Evans.pdf (266 KB)

Hello neglected blog.

Hello faithful readers and friends.

One thing I've learned in my 33rd year of life is that creating one thing every day for entire year is difficult. But I also must look at the bigger picture:

This year I have moved more toward my dreams and made some significant changes. In September 2011 I gave my resignation at my 40-hour-a-week job, but I didn't actually leave that job completely until mid-December. So 3 months of my 33rd year were spent working a full-time job while working on other projects and jobs and ramping up thoughts, work, and ideas for how this new season of my life might look. (Jenn Peppers at Verge Coaching has helped me tremendously in this endeavor as well as Adam who knew I could make the change even before I did.) December 2011 and January 2012 have been a whirlwind, but one I've been excited to get wrapped up in.

I have created over these past few months some new goals, which will have to suffice for all the neglected 33rd Project time: 

• to be a creator
• to create beauty
• to do great work
• to build relationships with people locally
• to help people move forward (whether in business, in goals, in dreams)
• to be an asset to people in their work using my talents, knowledge and skill

My daily work now revolves around: graphic design, web design and development, illustration, book design, ebook design, literary and other creative writing, and art (in many forms and fashions).  Some of that sounds a little vague, but there's still more work to do to narrow my focus... but if there's something else I've learned this year, it's also that I'm a variety girl.

It's only been now, two months into this change, that I'm able to take a break, reflect and look back. March 11, 2012 is the end of the 365 (366) days that this blog will have been in existence.... until then I'm going to try again to create daily again, now that I have a bit of time to devote to moments of "making" again. 

Is there anything you want to see over this last month of dedicated creativity?

What is creation? I've been weighing this a lot lately because I seem to have started weighing what is creation and what is not and feeling like I'm not creating anything (anything worthwhile) and therefore not posting anything here. Is anything made creation? But when I put it out there with my name on it and have people looking at it and pondering it, judging it, weighing themselves it's goodness or ugliness—this is good, this is bad.  This is not good enough.

Good enough for what? I ask.

Creation for today: the above ramblings.

These are actually "Haikus" I wrote a while back, but I found them and cleaned them up a bit to share them here. Obviously they don't fit the 5-7-5 kind of haiku, but they are simple.

Inside a hollow cavity
lives something existing
unknown to us all except
through meeting eye-to-eye
and a smile

The heavy moose
plods along his way
reaching to eat the branches and
we all stare.

A continuous sound
chirp chirp chirp chirp
a mentronome of nature
that we sleep in rhythm by.

My soul is capable
of ultimate love, of
giving life, of sharing joy
of walking this body,
toward anything.

Music finds a heavy heart
and then finds just the right key,
turns the lock,
opens the heart's door, and
pushes out the rock that
weighs it down.

So from the There are No Rules blog (which I subscribe to), I read this post on this blog (Catching Days) and I decided my creation for today would be my prose/poem about my obsessions. These are the first few things that came to my mind and that, yes, I do adoringly obsess about:

Red sunset skies, boxes full of old and unknown things,
other people's letters,
holding my husband's hand in bed,
driving on back roads, natural green things,
sinking into the words of a book and into its story too,
surprising color vibrancy, old-world script fonts,
having conversations with toddlers, having kind and slow conversations with elderly people who talk and listen,
scones with lavender, cardamom,
the whipping wind before a heavy rain

I do not blog often... as I'm creating daily here on The Thirty-Third. But this little project has probably helped me be less perfectionistic about blogging and posting, so I finished up my blog post about the "What's Fiction For?" Salon over at evermeg.com, and here it is!

I just wanna say here to the world that I have every intention of submitting some of my writing to a magazine or fiction publication (ie. Glimmer Train, etc) at some point this summer. Hope the web/twitter/blog world will help hold me to it!

For today, tomorrow, and the next (Thurs-Sat) I will be away from internet access and possibly even cell phone access, BUT I WILL BE CREATING! Actually I'm headed out to make more time and room to create. I'm going to be working on my book, which is currently called Annville but I'm hoping to find another title for this book so don't hold me to it.

So for your enjoyment for today, I'm attaching the first chapter of Annville.

Be prepared. When I get back you'll see the creation fruit of my work!

Click here to download:

Annville_Draft,_Opening_Chapters,_Megan_Evans.pdf (150 KB)

(download)

Click here to download:

Annville_Draft,_Opening_Chapters,_Megan_Evans.pdf (150 KB)