Seize The Day

A new school year already huh? My advice, enjoy every minute of it. Sure there will be the normal drama and that teacher that you don't like will surely be a little extra grumpy, but do your best to ignore those silly things.

The best part about high school is your friends. Cherish them, try to somehow hang out a little more. It's tough when graduation comes and you loose touch with these wonderful people. All of my good friends now were all friends from high school. So what does that tell ya? It means that while it sounds kind of goofy, really enjoy as much as you can. Go out, plan parties, go to football games, and do whatever is fun today. Of course I have to put the disclaimer in that you must be careful no matter what. While I'm sure you've heard that a million times, this is not a contrived disclaimer.

You will also hear this a million more times, but I'm going to say it again. These are some of the best times of your life. People say that so much because it's true. You can literally do anything with your life and make whatever it is you want come true. Doctor? Astronaut? Writer? Yep, whatever you want is all in front of you. I'm actually stoked for you just thinking about the opportunities that are out there now. Just in the last ten years think about how much life has changed. Not just your every day life, but life around us all. Is it unthinkable that in high school, we didn't have cell phones, myspace, Facebook or Twitter? Think about how much that alone connects you to the world and to endless people across the globe. It's happily mind boggling.

It's an exciting time to be in high school and an exciting time to be entering the prime of your life. If you haven't seen it, check out the movie Dead Poets Society. Yeah, it might be a bit dated (Spoiler: and a bit depressing) but the message that it conveys still rings true today. Seize the day and make it yours.

Nick Valentino wrote a Steampunk novel called "Thomas Riley" which will be out on Echelon Press in October.

In the meantime check out the brand spanking new Thomas Riley Website... hey, you can even sign up to be a sky pirate.

Or see my blog at: http://nickvalentino.blogspot.com

Or if your really crazy, check out Thomas Riley's blog written by Thomas Riley and Cynthia Basset themselves here.

Back-To-School Nightmares!

Back to school, known in my book as night terrors! Admit it. You've had these awful nightmares, too where you're sitting in class – whether it be high school or college – you're faced with the big exam and you haven't opened a book in days. Weeks! Or, in my case, Years!!

This is how the Dream Dictionary interprets this dream (nightmare):

This dream may be interpreted on several different levels. If you are the student you may be feeling inadequate or lack self-confidence.

Ya think? Isn't that the nature of all authors? My school nightmares are always the same. I'm sitting in class, happy, confident, no worries until I realize I'm staring at an opened textbook and have no clue what it contains.

The class is always some terrifying subject like Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, or Applied Physics. I start to squirm, sweat and try to sort out how I got away with skipping class for a whole year...or ten years, and begin to madly cram for a semester exam. Dire consequences await if I don't pass. I won't graduate! I'll be publicly humiliated! (see above - inadequate, lacking self-confidence) Worse yet, although I'm a full-grown adult, I'll be grounded by my parents!

Have you had a back-to-school dream? Leave a comment below.

'Tween author, Mary Cunningham writes the award-winning series, Cynthia's Attic. Look for Book Four, "The Magician's Castle" DEC 2009 from Quake (Echelon Imprint). While you're waiting, look for the series on Amazon

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Cynthia's Attic Blog