Wish Me Luck

[zil]

Tonight I started the application process for enrolling at BYU-Provo (continuing education, evening classes).  Now I need to go get interviewed by my bishop and a member of the stake presidency.  My application to Brandon Sanderson's workshop class is ready to go, along with my writing sample (thanks to an excellent reviewer here - you know who you are - thank you).  Submissions (for the class) will be accepted starting later this month.  Assuming BYU lets me in, and I'm selected as one of the 15 lucky souls who get into the class, I will be well on my way to being a professional writer.  (If that doesn't happen, I'll have to hobble on my way without the help.)

Feel free to share your own hopes / good fortune in this thread.

[Sunday21]

@zil Yeah Zil! Go Zil! 

[Guest MormonGator]

Rock on @zil! Hoping and praying you succeed in this! 

[Just_A_Guy]

Just don’t mention yours and @MormonGator‘s compound to those BYU-types.  That sort of talk tends to make them cranky.  

[Guest MormonGator]

2 minutes ago, Just_A_Guy said:

Just don’t mention yours and @MormonGator‘s compound to those BYU-types.  That sort of talk tends to make them cranky.  

Dude! You ever hear a BYU administrator use more four letter words than a truck driver?! Tell them you have a :: ahem :: big family. 

Edited October 9, 2018 by MormonGator

[Blackmarch]

Best of luck!

[Vort]

GO, ZIL!

(As opposed to "Go zil", which suggests that "to zil" is a verb of some sort. Keep these things in mind when you start the class; they might come in very important, like remembering the comma in "Let's eat, Grandma.")

[Fether]

GOdZILa!

 

[anatess2]

Ohhh, just finding more excuses to use up those ink bottles, eh?  I don’t think publishers accept handwritten submissions these days.  

[JohnsonJones]

Good Luck!

[askandanswer]

Go @zil,,,,, far, far away

 

Best of luck, may your skills be properly recognised and valued.

[mordorbund]

16 hours ago, zil said:

My application to Brandon Sanderson's workshop class is ready to go, along with my writing sample (thanks to an excellent reviewer here - you know who you are - thank you)

Forgoing my input (capacitor) was a wise choice. I mean, sure I was published when I was 8, but kinda peaked early and don't have much to my name since.

[Vort]

11 minutes ago, mordorbund said:

Forgoing my input (capacitor) was a wise choice. I mean, sure I was published when I was 8, but kinda peaked early and don't have much to my name since.

We knew a family in our ward in State College, PA, the Kendalls, whose young son (probably about eight) wrote a very clever, very witty SF-adventure-spoof book, complete with illustrations. It was a hilarious. This would have been around 1990ish when the book was published. The boy autographed a copy of the book for us. We still have it somewhere.The kid has to be well into his 30s by now. Don't know if he's had any publishing success since then, or if he even cares about writing, but he remains one of my favorite authors.

[zil]

2 hours ago, Vort said:

We knew a family in our ward in State College, PA, the Kendalls, whose young son (probably about eight) wrote a very clever, very witty SF-adventure-spoof book, complete with illustrations. It was a hilarious. This would have been around 1990ish when the book was published. The boy autographed a copy of the book for us. We still have it somewhere.The kid has to be well into his 30s by now. Don't know if he's had any publishing success since then, or if he even cares about writing, but he remains one of my favorite authors.

Well, now inquiring minds want to know if this is @mordorbund!

[Vort]

2 hours ago, Vort said:

We knew a family in our ward in State College, PA, the Kendalls, whose young son (probably about eight) wrote a very clever, very witty SF-adventure-spoof book, complete with illustrations. It was a hilarious. This would have been around 1990ish when the book was published. The boy autographed a copy of the book for us. We still have it somewhere.The kid has to be well into his 30s by now. Don't know if he's had any publishing success since then, or if he even cares about writing, but he remains one of my favorite authors.

"Leave in peace, or leave in pieces!"

Edited October 9, 2018 by Vort

[Anddenex]

19 hours ago, zil said:

Tonight I started the application process for enrolling at BYU-Provo (continuing education, evening classes).  Now I need to go get interviewed by my bishop and a member of the stake presidency.  My application to Brandon Sanderson's workshop class is ready to go, along with my writing sample (thanks to an excellent reviewer here - you know who you are - thank you).  Submissions (for the class) will be accepted starting later this month.  Assuming BYU lets me in, and I'm selected as one of the 15 lucky souls who get into the class, I will be well on my way to being a professional writer.  (If that doesn't happen, I'll have to hobble on my way without the help.)

Feel free to share your own hopes / good fortune in this thread.

My thoughts, you are already a professional writer with excellent skills. I don't think you need Brandon Sanderson's class, but I am sure you will take away what you need to increase upon your talents.

[Vort]

13 minutes ago, zil said:

Well, now inquiring minds want to know if this is @mordorbund!

Well, if he is, then I've doxxed him, so the mods have to do some cleanup.

[zil]

19 hours ago, zil said:

Tonight I started the application process for enrolling at BYU-Provo (continuing education, evening classes).

Now I'm "Cleared to Register".  Progress.

23 minutes ago, Anddenex said:

My thoughts, you are already a professional writer with excellent skills.

Thank you.  But I don't think I can be called professional if I'm not getting paid for it.

45 minutes ago, Vort said:

"Leave in peace, or leave in pieces!"

Sounds very Captain Moroni-ish.

[JohnsonJones]

In regards to various individuals talking about being published, in some ways I would imagine it is more glorious for some than others.

I'm actually published, but I'm pretty certain unless you are a history fanatic you probably would be very bored with the stuff I've written.  It is definitely not the type of material that Sanderson writes and probably NOT the stuff that Zil is trying to write.  My writings would definitely be LOW on the glory scale and not very important on the fame scales (at least in fiction and your every day reading material). 

I would imagine Zil is wanting to write things that are much more interesting to the public.  In this, Sanderson is a great choice from what I understand!

I'm pretty certain he'll be able to guide her very aptly in the fields of writing she desires to go into (and once again, Good Luck!).

 

[NeedleinA]

20 hours ago, zil said:

good fortune in this thread.

Gooooo Teeeeaaaammmm Zil!

[zil]

2 hours ago, zil said:

Now I'm "Cleared to Register".  Progress.

So now they're merging my records from the pioneer days with my new account.  I've explored the daylights out of their online student systems.  And I've mapped the route from home to my preferred parking lot, and mapped the route from there to the building where the class is, complete with time so I know how early I need to leave to be on time.     Sunday I'll meet with my bishop and a member of the stake presidency (hopefully Sunday, else a week later).  Then I just have to twiddle my thumbs until I can submit my application, and then again until I know if I get in the class.

I'm going to be swamped at work until the end of the year - getting them ready to survive without me.   Hopefully time will fly.

[lostinwater]

Good luck @zil ! 

[mordorbund]

4 hours ago, zil said:

Well, now inquiring minds want to know if this is @mordorbund!

Be prepared to be disappointed. The timeline is about right but the location is wrong. I was assigned to speak in Primary, and my young mind confused it with some school assignment. My mom tried to help me, but I was convinced it had to be a poem. My experienced mom was wise enough not to fight it and left me to my own devices. So Sunday comes around and I read my poem. Apparently the Primary president is impressed and sends it in to the Friend. If you're ever digging through 1989 issues of the Friend my poem is in the child-produced section. It's the one with meter issues - a challenge I've yet to overcome.

This story recently came to light when my Junior Primary son was assigned to pick a scripture to read. He wanted the one where Nephi builds the boat. Actually he wanted the entire story. We convinced him to pare it down to one verse in the story. He agreed, so long as he could show the matching picture to give it context. In his mind, no one would know what he was reading without it. To my knowledge, he is the only child in my ward's Primary to include a visual aid while reading a verse of scripture.

[Sunday21]

@zil  Routing for you! Hoping that all the tidying up work goes quickly. Sure of your success! 

[zil]

2 minutes ago, mordorbund said:

If you're ever digging through 1989 issues of the Friend

Gospel Library > Magazines > Friend > [scroll for eternity¹] > [crud. I have to look through all 12? sigh. I'll be back in a while] > [to be continued...]

¹Realize that I should feel old because you were in primary in 1989 and I was ... not.