Don't Judge an Author by Their Covers

Welcome to the Tramway!

Now, I usually don't have the time to write two blog posts in a week, but I saw a situation on Twitter that I felt needed to be addressed.

So for those who don't know, on Twitter there's a lovely community called the #WritingCommunity, where writers interact with each other. Usually it's positive, but there is on occasion some mean spirited arguments. I witnessed one of these.

So an author I follow had a thread discussing how you don't need to have a book perfectly edited, or a professional cover to be published. Another writer responded and said that, NO, authors should get digital designers to make their covers and not (to paraphrase) be "cheapskates who do not appreciate their work."

The author I follow felt attacked, and shared this in a retweet, and several people responded to the commentor, who they were NOT happy with.

Now I'm not going to name the people involved, because I don't feel it's my place two, and I do not want the person who made the comment to get cyber-bullied. In this blog house we do not bully! Plus, maybe the person didn't mean it to be offensive, or was having a bad day and poorly worded their tweet, or is a digital designer struggling to get work. In any case, I will not paint a target on anyone's back.

So, do they have a point? To an extent... yes. I think it's good if creators can support each other, and give one another work. HOWEVER, if you can't afford to have someone make your cover, that is totally all right, and you should not feel guilty about it.

I spoke to a non-#WritingCommunity friend, and they said something I felt should be shared here. "If you feel confident enough to make your own cover, do it. If you don't, then hire a digital designer (if you can)." In any case, as my friend said, "It's your book."

You know your situation, you know what you want from your project. Do what is best for you. Also, no one says you CAN'T publish a book, earn enough revenue, then hire someone to do a cover for a second release. Heck, big publishers do it all the time. There's countless different covers for the Harry Potter books, for example, or the Warriors series (as my friend pointed out). Another example is comics, they have alternative covers all the time!

I think that sums up what I wanted to say. If you are the author who made that comment, I hope you realize how your comment came off the wrong way to some people, and that you did not mean it to be mean. Calling people "cheapskates" is unfair, and I hope that you don't get cyber-bullied over it. And to my other writers, please do not seek out that comment to harass the person. If you run across it in the wild, and do wish to comment, feel free to, but please remember to be kind, and be cool.

All right, that's all for now. I'll see you in the next post. May God bless you and all that you do. See you on the Tramway!

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Reaction/Review (Spoilers) Submission & Lady Luck Updates

Welcome back to the Tramway in a galaxy far far away, but... not a long time ago (unless you're reading this in the future, like 2030). 😜

All right, jokes aside, welcome back to Tug & Tram Blogging, or hello if you're a first time reader (which you might be if you're here for peoples' opinions on the newest Star Wars movie. If so, bare with me a little).

So as you can probably tell from the title of this blog, I have finally seen Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. And BOY do I have thoughts on the film!! I'm very glad I was finally able to see it, having had some parts spoiled for me, and just hearing people's reactions, I was very concerned. I was worried that the film was going to be a disastrous end for the Skywalker Saga. I was pleasently surprised. But first, I'd like to discuss my senior project and my submission process for a short story.

Lady Luck Update

So for those who don't know, I'm working on my senior project a year early to get it done in time for my senior year. Because its a novel and most people do shorter poetry books, I figured it would be a good idea to get started ahead of time.

Currently I'm in the editing stage. I printed off my 144 page novel and have been working on trimming it down and fixing typos. So far I've been able to trim the page count down to 135 (136 if you include the title page). I'm about halfway through editing, I checked yesterday and I made it to chapter 7, and have 6 more stories to go.

I also realized that this means my book, about a superhero named Lady Luck, has 13 stories in it.... that was 100% unintentional. You should've seen my friend react when I told him that, he burst into laughter. I guess fate has a funny way of doing that to us.

Another change I haven't started on yet is doing more historical research. As I discussed in earlier posts, I will be tackling some very serious topics because my story is set in the 1940's. These will include Nazis, racism and the Japanese Internment of World War II. If you are not familiar with the latter, I suggest you look into it. (My school did cover it, but I'm not sure that all do. If they don't, they should).

Japanese Internment is still a sensitive topic for many people, as there are still survivors from that era with us, such as George Takei of Star Trek fame, who wrote a book "They Called Us Enemy," about his experiences. I want to read it at some point, but don't have access to it at the moment.

In any case, I want to make sure I handle the topic carefully, especially since history is sadly repeating itself with our current internment camps for refugees, or as the media sometimes calls them "illegal immigrants," (PSA: no one is illegal, remember the Golden Rule, and if you think about it, most white Americans are descendants of illegal immigrants).

A concern I have had is that, given I am white, that it might not be my story to tell or a subject that I should tackle. To remedy this I will likely include a disclaimer in case I get facts wrong, and work my hardest to represent the stories of Japanese Americans un-rightfully imprisoned with the respect they deserve.

Submission Update

As I have mentioned on Twitter, I have been trying to submit one of my short stories, "Ticket to a Wrong Time," and get it accepted. So far Ticket to a Wrong Time has been rejected 3 times, the newest being very recently. The quest for a home for my short story continues. Also, I wish to mention that I am not salty about the newest place rejecting my piece (which I will not name because that would be inappropriate and could lead to harassment of the publication)

So, what next? I'm not entirely sure. I guess I'll just have to keep submitting. If you know any places that accept weirder, more niche fiction, please let me know.

 All right, onto a more fun topic, shall we?

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Reaction/Review (Spoilers)

Ever since I was young, I have been a fan of Star Wars. The first film I saw was Return of the Jedi (don't ask me why, that just happened). Having seen all the films now, I've definitely become a big Star Wars Neeerrrrd. In short: I'm a fan.

What I'm NOT a fan of is the Star Wars Fandom and how they sometimes act. Ugh. The internet is just a brewing grounds for toxicity, which we've seen happen since The Phantom Menace. And every proceeding Star Wars film. I swear if we had the internet during the era of the original trilogy, I would pity the people who lived during that time.

But, that's beside the point. Kind of. When I heard the first reactions to Rise of Skywalker, I was concerned. My older sibling spoiled a big thing for me (which I was okay with, since I figured it would be a long time before seeing the movie). Hearing that without context made me VERY worried about how the sequel trilogy would end up being as a whole. Would it be a clear story or a clash of authorial intent and continuity?

Well, TROS does change some plot points, including Rey's parentage. From this point on, there will be spoilers.
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When I heard that Rey was Emperor Palpatine's granddaughter, I was shocked. WHAT?! This ruins the best part of The Last Jedi! I thought to myself. However, because I had time to think about it, and get used to it, I became more accepting of the idea, and it allowed me to enjoy the film without being distracted by the shock.

The Rise of Skywalker is an amazing end to the Skywalker Saga. We have several homages to the prequels and original trilogy. Like podracing? We've got a chase in the desert. You like aerial dog fights? We've got a big one in the finale.

Getting to see Harrison Ford as Han Solo one last time was great, and I was honestly surprised to see him. I'm glad they didn't reveal that in the trailers. He really bounced off Adam Driver in that scene, it was easily one of the most emotional of the film. It parallels Han's death in The Force Awakens, and I thought to myself "Is he going to stab his Dad again?" Thankfully he didn't, but it would've been funny.

I liked seeing Ben Solo's redemption. It was different enough from Darth Vader that Ben finally came out of the shadow of his grandfather, and became his own character. Seeing him throw his lightsaber into the waters on the Endor moon, killing off Kylo Ren for good, was amazing.

The finale of the film was gr8. We had hundreds of ships, including the Ghost from Rebels, joining together to finally end the war. I was a little annoyed that the Final Order (aka Neo-Space Nazis) had ships which could destroy planets, but AT LEAST it wasn't another death star. And was definitely more practical than one giant space station.

Rey's character arc as also handled really well. Rey has some very emotional moments, but grows and learns that you can choose who your family is. She rejects her legacy as a Palpatine, and at the end of the movie, says that her last name is Rey Skywalker.

A sad part of Rise of Skywalker is that this will be the last time Carrie Fisher is seen as Princess Lea. I was worried about how they'd use her character, but it worked well. They gave her a proper send off, that had my eyes watering.

Also, I got to see something I've ALWAYS wanted to see. Before going to see TROS, I told my friend Jacob that I felt the biggest mistake of Star Wars was that we never got to see Lea be a Jedi. And what does TROS go? Reveal that Lea had a lightsaber!

We get a flashback (which I never expected to see) with deaged/CGI Luke and Lea and Lea has a lightsaber!! We also see why she never used it, because she had a force vision that someone else would need it more. Rey and Ben make good use to her lightsaber and Anakin's.

At the end, Rey buries their lightsabers at the Tatooine homestead, and reveals she has her own lightsaber now, and that's how the movie ends.

Final thought: I was concerned about the Emperor returning, but it worked really well. The Emperor was a fun villain and just as mad. And he's once again dead (again). Hopefully this' the last time we see him.

Overall, I'd rate Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker a solid 9 Anakin lightsabers out of 10. It's a gr8 movie, and I recommend any Star Wars fan see it. Oh yeah, this was the first time I saw a Star Wars movie in theaters.

All right, that's all from me today. Let me know what you think of Rise of Skywalker, but DO NOT BE MEAN TO PEOPLE WHO DISAGREE. I want none of that toxic shit in my feed. On this blog, we do not tolerate hate. But I trust you all.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you on the Tramway!

My Passion 2020 Experience

Welcome back to the Tramway!

Happy New Year everyone. I apologize for not having any new posts in December. Finals week was hectic (as I'm sure many of you know) and I didn't have wifi for a while. But I'm here now, and first Tug & Tram Blogging post of the decade! Woo!

It feels like I haven't stayed put for long this vacation. I've been at my Mom's, gone to my Grandma and Grandpa's for a family Christmas and recently my longest road trip ever: to Atlanta for Passion 2020.

If you're unfamiliar with Passion, it's a yearly Christian Young Adult conference that is held around New Years' Eve. You can read more about them here: https://passionconferences.com

Now I'm not the most experienced traveler, growing up the farthest I ever traveled from home was to Michigan for camping. Last year I went to NACA (the National Association for Campus Activities) in Covington, Kentucky. That was the farthest I'd ever traveled, and Atlanta was definitely a step farther. We left at around 9pm and made our way on our long trek in a Cardinal bus, which are usually comfortable, but unfortunately we got an older one.

Despite the bus' age, the ride was still pleasant and not uncomfortable. We made Atlanta in good time, along with a few rest stops.

Of COURSE I find something train related on my ride. Found this in a gas station and I almost bought it, but the $90 price tag kept me from buying it. Maybe someday, or I'll buy an electric model train version. 

We got to the hotel, and then walked to the Mercedes-Benz stadium, where Passion was held. Before that, we visited the CNN HQ in Atlanta to get some food.

A picture of part of the CNN Headquarters. We stayed on the bottom floor where the food court was, to get up higher we'd need to buy a tour, which we didn't have time for. Apologies for the bad lighting. 

We walked to Passion, made our way through an ocean of fellow young adults (around 65,000 in total, from all around the world), and began. I won't go into detail of all 3 days/6 sessions (because that would take too long) so I'll summarize.

Passion was an amazing experience, and I'm glad I went. I don't remember if I've mentioned on here my religious background, so in case I didn't: I grew up in a Mennonite household, and NO, I'm not Amish!! 😜 (little Midwestern humor for you there). Last year was rough for me and my family, which I'm not going to get into, to protect my family's privacy. 2019 took a very big toll on my faith and mental health.

The Mercedes-Benz Stadium. I know some people aren't the biggest fans of modern aesthetics (I personally am fond of the Art Deco aesthetic myself) but this' a cool building. 

Passion helped me by giving a boost to my spirituality and relationship with God. I won't say that it made everything better (that would be unrealistic) but it certainly helped. I was able to take something from all the speakers. I took a lot of notes which I am going to reflect on in the coming year. I want to begin this decade right, and make this year a good one.

During Passion the leaders announced a new mission, the share the light foundation, which hopes to get some form of the Bible translated into the last remaining languages that don't have it yet by 2033. One of the Co-founders of Passion challenged us (the 65,000 poor college students) to raise $1 million. I was shocked and somewhat skeptical, but willing to be proven wrong.

So, how much did we raise? $1,214,075. That's right, POOR COLLEGE STUDENTS DID THAT (& of course our Young Adult leaders). It was amazing to see that number come up. It's a strong message against the stereotypes of young people (Millennials, Gen Z) being lazy or "snowflakes." Well, this snowflake generation just raise over $1 million to increase access to Christianity to billions of people. It was definitely a highlight of the conference.

Our last speaker was Shelly Giglio, one of Passion's co-founders. 

And now for a quick highlight reel.

Sadie Robertson

Sadie Robertson (as in the Duck Commander/Duck Dynasty family) was a speaker on the second day of Passion. She shared an encouraging message on social media and how we can live happier, by making Jesus our main desire, and talked about how she met her fiance because of Passion (he sent her an Instagram message which she didn't see for 2 years!)

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve night we brought in the new year by singing a praise song, led by the band Passion (I think, it might have been Hillsong) and watched as fireworks were set off.

Roof Opening

During the afternoon on the second day the roof opened up during a song, and the wind blew in, making it feel like God was among us. Later Mr. Giglio (one of the Passion co-founders) told us that when it was opened wasn't planned. In fact, the roof had been malfunctioning earlier, so when it opened was by chance, and just so happened to fit right with the song.

A picture of the roof of the Stadium at night. 

Worship

Overall the worship was amazing. We had wrappers, several bands, including Crowder, one of my favorite Christian artists. That was the first time I'd ever seen him live, and he was just as good in person as in recordings.

I think the best moment for music was on the last day when members from Passion (the band), Hillsong and Crowder all came onto stage together. It was a powerful moment, and one that I will not forget.

Of course, Passion had some chaotic moments. Trying to get supper on the second day was a nightmare, because lots of people were trying to get food in an hour before the next session. Trying to wade through the crowd at the stadium concessions was like trying to swim upstream during a rainstorm.

I went to Great!Wraps in the CNN Center (which was equally chaotic) and then learned that the gate closed at 7:30 pm, when the next session started. Panicking, I got my order and had to speed walk back to the stadium while attempting to eat a super gyro (it was great, but I wish I'd had more time to enjoy it!) I got gyro sauce in my mustache, which wasn't the best, but I survived.

Overall, my Passion experience was amazing and very refreshing. I recommend any Christian young adults in the 18-25 range to go to Passion if you can1. Next year it will be in Atlanta at the State Farm Stadium, and for the first time its going to be held in New York City!! I'm hoping to go again next year, so who knows, maybe I'll see you there in the crowd.

I'm going to end this blog post here, so as to not make it to long. Have you ever attended Passion? What was your experience? Let me know here on Blogger, or my social media (you can find me on Twitter @ConductorPat & my blog's Facebook page).

May God bless you and all you do. Thank you for reading, and I'll see you on the Tramway.