Justin Pyfrom's Blog, page 7

An Odd Week of Peace

This week has been uneventful. Not to say that nothing had happened because a lot had happened. Working with students is never boring and I love it that way. However, everything has been peaceful throughout the last two weeks…

So, this blog post will indeed be shorter but I am happy to say that I am preparing to get all of my short stories through Audible. One of my friends wants to try his hand at voice acting and I agreed to give him a chance…if he can hold an American accent. Though I do love his accents as well as others, all the protagonists in the short stories are Americans so I have no choice but to stick with the specifics. This is going to be fun.

On an additional note,  I have two more chapters/episodes to type up before being told with the second draft of the first installment of my LGBTQ+ Crimeverse. It’s coming along nicely and I already have an idea to have a Philadelphian narrate the audiobook. I’m feeling really good about this series. This means that the story is good but an editor is inevitably going to rip it apart in order to make it better – even great. But I’m ready for it. Eagered for it, actually. That’s all for now…I suppose.

Please don’t forget to follow me on my social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads) on my web page’s right side. Also, I love hearing suggestions of what books to read outside of my norm (Science fiction and fantasy) as I am a part of the Goodreads’ reading challenge for 2023. I aim to read 200 books this year and I am already at 51. I’m almost done with the Colin McCool series; I’m on the last book of the main series.

New Student, New Wisdom To Be Gained

So, I have two new students in my Grade 9 class and two in my Grade 8 and with it brought a whole new set of challenges. However, it wasn’t as bad as my previous student. She was a total nightmare and all my students hated her. Even Jack-Jack didn’t like her – and he likes everyone. Anyway, I would like to focus on the two that I’m responsible for.

One of them is a young lady that has the aspiration of becoming a manga artist. Her English is fairly good and, while shy,  is very gifted. However, she hides the deep pain that she expressed in her memoir assignment. I’m not going to get into what she wrote but, I’ll be the first to admit, that I had to take a moment to collect myself. Yes, a fifteen-year-old almost made a thirty-four-year-old author cry. That girl clearly has a gift.

On the other hand, I have a young man who is clearly the sporty type.  He has the wickedest of tempers (typical teenage boy); I learned that recently. Apparently, he was misinformed about his school supplies (namely his laptop) and he was going bored and frustrated. This caused him to start falling asleep in class which led to him being yelled at by ours truly…and this caused him to lash out.  Everybody was wondering what I was going to do next; actually, I was, too. I didn’t want a repeat of my previous student. I didn’t want to lose my cool, again. So…I talked to him. You know, good ol’ fashion heart-to-heart after he calmed down. My heart was smiling at that and he’s much better if not a bit hyper. Still, what do you expect from a teenage boy?

Anyway, being a homeroom teacher is going to become a bit more difficult now that I’ve been tasked with getting the English Room up and running before the beginning of the next semester. That’s a long story and a post in it itself so, to keep it simple, we are creating a library full of English-written books for international students. This has now become a necessity for two reasons: one, China doesn’t like their books mixed in with others, and, two, which is more important, the owner of the school loves the idea and wants to capitalize on it. Regardless, I am here for it and loving this project.

Please don’t forget to follow me on my social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads) on my web page’s right side. Also, I love hearing suggestions of what books to read outside of my norm (Science fiction and fantasy) as I am a part of the Goodreads’ reading challenge for 2023. I aim to read 200 books this year and I am already at 44. You know what…I might as well go through the entire Druidverse series.

February’s Book for 2023 Reading Challenge

For the month of February, I have read 14 books. These are the books I loved during the month of February.

   

These are the books I really liked during the month of February.

 

I’m Back…And I’m Exhausted!!

Grad Student. Teacher. Author. Nerd. It’s a good thing I always have a weekend to myself because I would have broken down a long time ago. Well…actually I did suffer a fatigue snap during my first year in China but, again, thank God for weekends/days off. Seriously, I do need my day of unplugging and winding down. Now! On to some good news…

So, in two months, I will be releasing my new novella with the help of my artsy friends who having with working diligently on their respective projects.  It is amazing how much you are able to accomplish when you work with the right people. Anyway, the only thing I’m feeling wondering is how I want to release him. Should I release them all at once? Or should I release them one by one? I do have to hire translators but I will worry about that next month.

I’m going to really enjoy every second of this.

I’m going to keep this short because, again, I am exhausted.  However, I promise that my next blog post will be its usual size. But, right now, I need to sleep…badly.

Please don’t forget to follow me on my social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads) on my web page’s right side. Also, I love hearing suggestions of what books to read outside of my norm (Science fiction and fantasy) as I am a part of the Goodreads’ reading challenge for 2023. I aim to read 200 books this year and I am already at 35. I’m reading the Junkyard Druid series, again.

January’s Book for 2023 Reading Challenge

For the month of January, I have read 22 books. These are the books I loved during the month of January.

        

These are the books I really liked during the month of November.

  

These are the books I liked during the month of November.

Something Wickedly Delightful This Way Comes…

A new year means new projects and challenges for my artistic friends and me; this year is no different. In addition to that, we have been making it more of a practice for all of us to plan ahead and much more meticulously. That last part was meant for me because I have had moments where I didn’t plan for something that almost always led to a mishap and a headache. So, I downloaded a Project Management program and I prayed that would be enough. Now…for the wickedly delightful…

As I explained in a previous post, I wanted to spread my wings to other cultures in a respectful manner. I also wanted to do this to challenge and educate myself on other cultures. Not to mention, I wanted my readers – present and future – to be introduced to and entranced by cultures. So, when starting this project, I vowed to do everything accordingly:” hire a photographer/model from that culture and let them go wild. I found it to be more authentic that way. Four photographers were hired, four models were chosen, and we all got to work.

Carlos Ximenes, a Brazilian model, was the first person I spoke to about this project. I always wanted to work with him after seeing him on a gay hookup site and I was so pleased when he said “Yes”. His only request was that he picked his photographer which worked out wonderfully as I made a new friend in the process.

As for the other three photographers, they were already close friends of mine as well as the models. Two of them have modeled for me before and they were more than willing to do it again especially when I told them about the fact that they would be portraying literature’s most renowned narcissist. It would amazing to see them become excited about it all. Then…they got hit with another lockdown. China…

Anyway, this month is the month when the other three photographers are going to start – and finish their portion of the project. Everybody is working diligently to ensure that their version of Dorian Gray enthrall the readers of their culture as well as anybody else who wishes to indugle. I swear April cannot come soon enough; I can’t wait to show you all the brilliant work of these brilliant photographer. I’m not going to give away the title until the photographers are done, though I am proud of the title that I have chosen for this literary project.

Now, please don’t forget to follow me on my social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads) on my web page’s right side. Also, I love hearing suggestions of what books to read outside of my norm (Science fiction and fantasy) as I am a part of the Goodreads’ reading challenge for 2023. My goal is to read 200 books this year and I’m already at 12. First month is always the first push.

New Year, New GoodReads Challenge

Following the end of 2022, I completed my GoodReads Challenge by reading 231 books with 23 books read in December. Out of all the books I’ve read in that month, my two favorites are these:

I grew up listening to Brandy so it was beautiful to learn more about her and her struggles as a woman and an artist. Agatha Christie is one of those authors I’ve spoken so highly about, but I never actually read her work. I’ve watched the movies, though. So, I told myself that this year I would aim to read all of her books and this one was my first.

This year, I’m participating with the goal of reading 200 books and I’m already at 8 books. Since I’m on holiday, I have more free time between my MA and writing.  January and February are going to be a bulldozer for me with this GoodReads Challenge.

Now, please don’t forget to follow me on my social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads) on my web page’s right side. Also, I love hearing suggestions of what books to read outside of my norm (Science fiction and fantasy) as I am a part of the Goodreads’ reading challenge for 2023.

Goodbye 2022…Hello 2023

Allow me to extend my appreciation to everybody who has been reading my blog posts over the years, especially in 2022. I feel myself getting better on my path. NOW! I want to share what I want to explore for 2023.

First and foremost, I want to finally release the book from my Sinful Delight Project. If everything goes according to plan, the English version along with its translated print (Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese and Chinese) will be released to the public at the same time – on the same day. This is going to be great for you and me because I get to recreate Dorian Gray in a completely new way. I am very proud of what I am doing and the brilliant minds I am working with to expand my version of him. Fair warning, you going to be seeing him a lot.

Patreon is off the table for the foreseeable future. YouTube, too. I figured that I would want to get my MA, first, and use my newfound knowledge and improved skillset to teach online and, if I’m blessed, at university. Exclusive Creative Writing teaching is pretty far in the future, like 2026-27. Right now, I want to get my degree while being the best ELA teacher I can be.

I would like to start writing fan fiction and short stories for literary magazines. However, that would require a month of me picking topics from my journal and writing them all out. Then, I would need another few months to edit and revise them all before submitting them. Not to say that I can’t – or won’t – do it; I just need to be able to space my time out accordingly so I don’t overwork myself. Don’t want to go through another “fatigue snap”.

And, let’s not forget my debut novel for my LGBTQ+ Crimeverse should be coming out this year. I’m aiming for a PRIDE release, so there’s that. I’m working really hard on it and I’m enjoying using my Philadelphian style of storytelling. I really hope everybody likes it.

Oh! And I might have to do another makeover on my website to accommodate the growing trend of book trailers and teasers. I’m going to be having a lot of fun with that because I’ve always been a good fan of American Horror Story teasers for each season. Now, I get to work some with some great minds in videography and photography to bring them to life. I should make a YouTube Channel for that, but I haven’t decided, yet. It’s tricky for me because I have to remind myself to check my social media every so often. It’s hard. Haha!

Yep, 2023 is going to be a lot of fun and I hope you all enjoy this new year. Happy New Year!!!

Planning For the Next Big Trip

I am completely drained in the membrane. have spent the last month going into overdrive with all the teaching duties because of a recent change in the school schedule. Simply put, we got “Uh oh” news and “Oh!” news.

First, the “Uh oh” news. We had a meeting where we ended up learning that our summer semester got cut short by a week because of a domino effect that I still can’t seem to understand. Nevertheless, I, along with other Calvert teachers, had to move at a much quicker pace to finish as much as we could so that the last week would be the Final Exam. My students instantly picked up on it as they were already familiar with my normal speed of teaching. They asked me about it and, of course, I was honest with them and, of course, they got into gear and started to finish their work.

“Final exam and, then, Chinese New Year.”

Oh, that leads me to the “Ah!” news. China finally lifted the travel ban – allegedly. It’s the government so none of us fully trust the new notice all that much. So, my boss volunteered himself to be the guinea pig since he wants to visit his fiancee in Hungary. If it turns out fine, I will be preparing myself to go to Spain to finally do some sightseeing. Well…here’s hoping.

Now, please don’t forget to follow me on my social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads) on my web page’s right side. Also, I love hearing suggestions of what books to read outside of my norm (Science fiction and fantasy) as I am a part of the Goodreads’ reading challenge for 2022. I’ve already completed this year’s reading goal, but I’m not stopping. Right now, I’m at 214.

November’s Book for 2022 Reading Challenge

For the month of November, I have read 10 books. These are the books I loved during the month of November.

     

 

These are the books I really liked during the month of November.

These are the books I liked during the month of November.