College Blog

Hello everyone! I know it's been a long time and I haven't updated my story. I am here to tell you...I still haven't updated my story. I am in between computers at the moment and haven't uploaded my document to this one from my drive yet.

However, I have started a blog that discusses my college life, American Sign Language, and other things related to that. If you're at all interested in ASL or what an Interpreting program looks like, I'd recommend you check out my new blog. The blog post linked is a sexual harassment discussion in relation to my experience with it. My first blog post is about shy people in an ASLIE program.

Please read and share my new blog, I'd love to see more experience related information on the internet about ASL programs. 

Update

Lately, my life has been unusually busy, which has caused book writing to stall. I picked up a second job to add to my first job. In addition to those two "official" jobs, I am also helping at my dad's bookstore and creating the church bulletin. The last two are volunteer and unpaid.

Because of this, I haven't been able to keep up with sign language (I watch videos to keep my receptive up). I also have not been able to write my book.

For about a week I was in Texas with my dad and a few church members for a conference. The conference was about Abortion. I am an abolitionist, so that is why I was there. It was a good conference and very uplifting for my spirit.

I am actually going to overhaul my book when I get the chance. I think there are a few chapters that could be done differently. They have an...unsettling undertone that I did not intend. I didn't see it until I read it again, so I am going to change those chapters. Also, there are some grammatical errors that need to be fixed.

Sam

Merry Christmas!

Hello readers!

I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and give an update on my writing.

My writing is currently on hold due to some research I am doing for my father. They are working on an Anti-Abortion documentary called Babies Are Still Murdered Here which is a sequel to Babies Are Murdered Here. 

This research does stunt my writing only a little because, in the end, it also helps my writing. Following a slippery slope approach is what makes Dystopian books possible. I am a Pro-Life Christian writer and I hope that is reflected in how I write.

I have not had a lot of time to edit my book, but the moment I am able I will start editing it again. I am currently reading other stories on Inkitt and writing reviews. I hope to get my own readership back up after my story is successfully edited for a second/third time.

The chapters are likely to be shortened again, I am going to change from 20 pages per chapter to between 10-15, which is more manageable for online consumption.

Thanks for your patience.
Sam

Authors Note addition

Hello! I recently added an Authors Note to my book that explains why I formatted languages the way I did. It also gives shout-outs to a few people who have helped me this far into the process. In addition, it gives a little more detail about what I am doing with the printing presses in the story.

I am editing my book now, after adding the 6th chapter. Due to new information about presses, entire chapters are going to be overhauled. Mainly chapters 4-6. I am reading my entire story first, again, then I am going to edit as I go. When I'm done I'm printing my book again and having my mother edit it.

I don't anticipate this book being complete for a while. But please continue to support by reviewing, sending e-mails, and leaving comments. Also, share with your friends! I want feedback and opinions. I may not use all of them, but I want to be able to try and adjust the book as needed.

I am also planning on making a new group on Facebook to discuss the book. It would be privet. I also have a Tumblr dedicated to my book called WhenTheSkyCaughtFire. Please go follow that.

--
Sam

Writing Update

Hello,

I now have a facebook group that is dedicated to editing my book. It has around 6 or 7 readers in the group, so hopefully, I can start working out some issues.

On the same line of thinking, if any of y'all are interested in a Facebook Page for my story, if there is enough interest, I'd be happy to consider coming up with one. I would want to wait until I had the 6th chapter up. Historically, I have only ever been able to write 5 chapters before my brain runs out of ideas. I am on five chapters now, I have been attempting to write a paragraph a day.

During the school year, I get so busy that I am unable to write. This summer I plan to focus most of my time on Blogs, When the Sky Caught Fire, Knitting, and other work I have lined up. (Mostly odd jobs) And of course, I am doing my normal photography.

How did my school year go? I know most of y'all probably don't care, but here it is anyway. I got two As, one B, and a C. In my health course I got an S, so I passed all my courses. Next semester I am going to work hard to get either As or Bs and no Cs. I would like my GPA to go up a little, if at all possible. I have a 3.1 which is too close to a 2.9 for me. Can you tell I'm a perfectionist?

Sometimes because of my perfectionism, I have difficulty when writing. I want it to be perfect the first time. So, I'm forcing myself to write and upload chapters first before editing. The raw/rough draft is on purpose so I can get reader feedback on dialogue, character representation, and grammar.

Thanks for reading!
Sam

Charlottesville

When I heard about the protests and counterprotests in Charlottesville I was saddened. What type of world have we come to, exactly? White Supremacy groups are protesting the taking down of a statue. They care so much about this statue that they were willing to kill several counter protesters to make sure that it happened. Where is the justice in that?

At the same time, we need to remember that General Lee would not have stood for the KKK. In fact, he didn't even condone slavery. The fact of the matter is, General Lee did have some degrading thoughts towards black people. That wasn't uncommon for the time. While that doesn't make it right, maybe tearing down everything that has to do with the South isn't the best plan.

As someone who lived in the south and has Southern friends, they resent the fact that all their monuments are being taken down. Tearing down their history doesn't help your cause. Keep that in mind. The civil war is a huge part of the South's history and a huge part of ours. Both sides made mistakes.

At the same time, by fighting so hard for the statues they have raised them up to be idols. For that, they need to be taken down. We don't need the statues to be up anymore, they never needed to be up to begin with.

What I'm saddened by in Charlottesville is the fact that there is so much hate from the White Supremacy groups. The fact that there is a large majority that claims to be Christians? That causes me pain and sadness.

Jesus said, "If you hate your brother, you are a murderer." Make no mistake, White Supremacy people hate black people. They hated the counter protesters enough to send a car through the group, and some of those people were white.

In the book of Revelations and several other places, it talks about people from ALL nations being in heaven. Not just white nations. Also, they would have to hate Jesus. Jesus came from a Jewish family with Jewish roots. He was not the white skinned, blonde haired, blue eyed man that you see in pictures.

Racism is a poison to our society and will cause us to crumble.

Sam

Printing Presses and Dystopian Writing

As you know, there are different sized printing presses. Modern day ones are large and used for newspapers/books. A printer could be considered a printing press. However, I have noticed a flaw with writing a dystopian story with old printing presses.

I have to become a designer.

This wouldn't be considered a problem for most people, but I like to have all the facts before I design. I want to design a more portable printing press for the Rebels in my book. I have run into a problem. What is that, you ask? I'll tell you.

I am stuck between having them use Titanium and plastic. If they use Titanium then it could be only slightly less heavy. Where would they get the Titanium? If they use plastic, can they find a heavy enough plastic so that way the machine can work? How long would the machine last? They could never buy spare parts.

This is where I need help. I need help researching how much a titanium machine would weigh as compared to a Cast Iron machine would weigh. Then I need to find out what the plastic would do when created in the likeness of one of these machines. And I mean both big and small machines.

This is my current dilemma. Ugh.