Book Support Groups Rock

Song in head: Clock Town Theme from The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask

The book support group this last week was a success! Here was the agenda in case you want to make your own:

[ ] Welcome

[ ] Write up story practice 

[ ] How is our writing time going this week? Good excuse or no?

[ ] Good books we are reading beside our novels, what we like about them

[ ] Anything you have learned from that book?

[ ] Name of our novel and premise

[ ] Share premise with family or friends and see if it's something they would like

[ ] Progress of our novels

[ ] Questions or help that the group could provide?

To be honest, the meeting went a lot longer than anticipated, but like the creation of a book, we will focus on the best parts next time, and probably cut some of the introductory points. For this next week I think the support group agenda will look more like this:

[ ] Welcome

[ ] Write up story practice 

[ ] How is our writing time going this week? Good excuse or no?

[ ] Premise honing

[ ] Questions or help that the group could provide?

As you can see, it's literally just taking past points away. I’ll report next week on if this helped. I really want to discuss the second point, write up story practice. One of our group members suggested we try a write up, which is kind of like a writing practice game. We decide on three words we have to use in a mini story, and make it happen within 5 minute! Our words this week were, float, wrestle, and break. Here is what I came up with:

The balloon floated above the crimson sky as it wrestled the wind, breaking the streams of air forcing its inevitable accent. “How am I alive?” It thought, “I’m just latex and string, with a bit of helium inside, I haven’t even been to kindergarten!” Its invisible synapses fired as it went, higher, and higher. Looking around, it saw the small Earth beneath and the now appearing sea of stars. “Where is the top of everything?” He wondered, until it felt a strange sensation, its head was boiling, its body was ripping. It died. 

I think the game does start to get the writing motor running, and so I appreciate the member that suggested it. What helped me the most was when we got to the last few points of the meeting. And I think the other members might agree with me. Just talking about our novels, what they are about, and being vulnerable for help with them, was a great moment. I had been stuck on a story beat for weeks, and bringing it up helped me to finally decide on what should happen next.

It also helps us because the meeting is almost like a checkpoint for the week. It's saying to ourselves, "by the next meeting I need to write past what we discussed, and if I don't, I won't be able to use this great resource of multiple minds helping me out". It forces me to write, and that is never a bad thing in my mind. 

Another subject I brought up was pen names. A lot of authors have them, it makes sense why they would want to change their name slightly or majorly. Take my name for example, Kurt Jensen. You know how many Kurt Jensen's exist in the world, and specifically Denmark, where my name comes from? A boatload of immigrants worth, that's how many. And so I've been thinking about making a pen name for myself. Kurt Jensen, or KJ is fine, but very generic. Like John Smith for Danish people. My middle name is Douglas so maybe Kurt Douglas? Since it sounds like Kirk Douglas, the famous actor? I'm not trying to steal the man's popularity, but I could see it attracting some eyes and minds. I imagine people being like, "Kurt Douglas, I've heard that name before...he is someone famous, is that the same guy? He wrote books?" That wouldn’t be the reason for that specific pen name though, it would just, as they say, roll off the tongue a bit better than Kurt Jensen. A pen name could also not relate to my actual name at all, for example, I could use the name Trevor Inkwell. 

Here is a small poll to vote for some potential pen names for myself. And if you have a good one, please let me know in the form (there will be an option for it): https://forms.gle/WCiaTKGyA3mFcFdy5

I know it's a bit early but I wanted to mention a couple of my future book signings coming in September at both the Utah, Orem Barnes & Noble, and the American Fork store. The book again is Rye’s Rite. The times and dates are below:

• September 7th, 3 pm, at the Barnes and Noble in American Fork, 773 Grassland Dr, The Meadows, American Fork, UT 84003
  
• September 21st, 1 pm to 4 pm, 330 E 1300 S, Orem, UT 84058

If you want to meet me again, get a copy signed of Rye's Rite, or just chat, please do! Speaking of Barnes & Noble book signings, I wanted to mention something about them that maybe not a lot of people know about. There usually isn't an online form you simply fill out to get a book signing there. Instead, you will need to call each store for a very specific email that only they know. You send that email a message, and wait for a response. As far as I know there isn't a way for you to find it easily online, perhaps this is intentional, I could see spam emails flying through that address like birds at a nightcrawler convention. 

And now, a non-writing update from me, starting this August I will be leaving the Forest Service front desk to go back to school for game design, at the University of Utah. Having a permanent Forest Service job was a dream come true, but after looking and imagining myself in current, and different positions within the organization, I have determined that the potential jobs wouldn't be conducive to the skills and future I want in my life long career. The Forest Service has been great to work for, and I invite anyone that loves the outdoors, and conservation projects, to apply at usajobs.gov . I truly feel loved and wanted in the organization, so no hard feelings from me. 

I am open to any creative endeavors within or out of a gaming company. I definitely want something more creative, writing jobs included. I will most likely go into a job that helps with tuition, but I'm open to any part time gigs. If any of the readers of this newsletter have any job offers or connections, let me know at my email, kurtless64@gmail.com

Thanks for the few new subscribers that have been trickling in, I hope you find this newsletter helpful and interesting. Let me know if there's any subjects you would like for me to cover in future publications. And as always, thank you for reading!

Sincerely,

Kurt Jensen