Another Update--My Life is Full of Them

Hello, internet. My laptop is not fixed yet, nor do I think it ever will be. I write from my mom's iMac desktop. It's getting late and I'm trying to wind down before I go to sleep, so I figured I might as well write a blog post, so you can learn what has been happening in my life recently.

First and foremost, I got a boyfriend.

*falls out of chair in surprise*

*gets back in chair and falls out again*

I know, dear reader. I was shocked too.

I met him last November at a 4-H camp. This is the post where I release it into the public, so I'll say that  he is very nice and I wish for all the world he lived in the same town I do.

But, alas, we live two hours away... much to the relief of both of our moms I'm sure.

I liked him enough that I gave him the link to my blog, so he's probably going to read this post. Probably. A message:

Hi Michael! I like your face! - Hannah

..

Second, I got rejected by two literary magazines. I told you a few posts ago about Lightning Cake, the tiny zine that publishes flash fiction... I did not tell you about The Luna Station Quarterly, which caters to women sci-fi writers. I submitted a piece that I wrote back in October (on my birthday, to be exact).

They wrote me a really nice letter back critiquing the little pieces in the story that made them ultimately reject it, and I think I'll print it out and frame it.

Lightning Cake was also really nice about it all. Though my story (about a girl with a love impediment) fit the requirements and was well within the word count limit, they wrote back telling me that my story had too much bulk to it to be successful in their magazine. This was the first rejection I got, so I was pretty down in the dumps for a while. Then, after I'd consumed some ice cream (yeah, sorry, mom) I went back to my computer and reread the piece, and of course I agreed with everything they said.

Currently I am writing this piece about a girl named Amelia who is spending her final summer in her little hometown before she "runs away" to college. She works in an orchard and dates a boy who's afraid of animals, and the whole thing is so absurd and silly, but it's so much fun to write.

I don't know how long it will get, but as-of-now it is on its way to being a good-length novel. How many scenes I want to write yet! It's so much fun, and this summer I am putting it first and foremost on my long list of things to finish. Maybe I'll get it done by August if I just saddle down and do it.

It's a goal.