Sabrina Giles's Blog

Creative Hiatus & Questions for You

Happy Fall, y’all!

A lot has happened this month, including my birthday! Funny story – I actually thought I was 26 this past year, but in fact, I’m 26 now… So you could either look at it like I lost a year, or like I get a do-over. I’m going to look at it as a do-over and I can feel it in my gut that 26 is going to be a good year for me.

Now onto this post’s message –

I’m happy to announce that I’ve scheduled for Ensuing Darkness and its sequel to head to the editor’s desk in late Jan. Woohoo!

I’ve realized a while back that I’ve kind of been stuck on Ensuing Darkness for far too long. It’s my first book, and I’ve still been messing with it, much to the chagrin of my early readers and my family.

I am a perfectionist at heart, and I just kept trying to edit it to perfection myself since we couldn’t afford an actual not-me editor. Then I had my girlies and took a looooooooooong break from anything creative.

There were a few windows in the last 5 years where I was able to dabble creatively, but they were all short-lived… until now. I have touched Ensuing Darkness for the last time until the editor tells me what to do. Eliciting Darkness, book 2, is almost complete. However, I have almost decided not to finish it until after the editor and I have finished with book 1 in case there’s some big changes that will effect book 2.

Until then, I’ve been uploading the chapters from Ensuing Darkness onto Wattpad, where it is currently #12 under the Complex tag. I’m so happy for this!

[image error]There she is! Kota’s looking good at the #12 spot!

Now some questions for you…

What would you like to see from me on this site?

I’m a writer, graphic designer, and artist, but I’m also a mother. I would love to have one main site with two sides to it. Ex. – One side showing how I run my home and businesses successfully. One side that focuses on my creative endeavors only.

Would you like something like that? Or is it too complicated?

Would it be better to keep them on separate sites?

I want to give you all the best experience I can, but I feel like I have a lot to say, and finding the best way to present it to you has been difficult for me.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments! Have an awesome week, everyone!

Proof That Practicing Works

Trying to improve on my new watercolor painting skills! From sketch, to 1st and 2nd attempts. For all the people out there who are skeptical about repetition, here’s proof that practice makes progress.

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Re-branding

Just to make sure everyone knows, I’m re-branding right now. I will be starting school on July 30th for my BFA in Graphic Design at Full Sail Univeristy. I’m stoked, and I hope you are too because that means all the more awesomeness will be coming your way!

I’ve thought long and hard about this decision, and what finally won out was that I’m not sure I’d enjoy marketing for other people (unless I truly loved their product, message, and method), but I always love creating something new in my sketchbook, on canvas, and on my laptop. Whether I get paid to do it or I’m just making pieces for myself only, it makes my heart happy… and I gotta follow that.

Also, I was told that if I wanted to pursue a job for graphic design, Media & Communications would not allow me to get a high end job because even though they teach a couple courses in it, that’s not technically what the degree is for. Soooooo no.

I know I want to merge writing, art, and design. Jobs in Graphic Design actually require knowledge in all of those areas, and most of them still do some copywriting and marketing on top of their design duties. Sooo I’m set!

Who’s ready to see where this journey takes me? Who’s ready to see what awesomeness I can come up with in my downtime between chasing minions and being a college woman? I am!

P.S. Are you attending school too? What for? Let’s connect in the comments and maybe we can catch a digital cup ‘o joe/tea together.

Deciding on a Degree

So, I’d like to re-introduce myself, because some of you are new to my page. Hello! I’m Sabrina Giles. I’m the mother of a 2-year old and a 3-year old, both girls. Yes, they keep me busy, as does my four-legged buddy named Charlie.

I’m married, and while my husband is currently active duty military (USAF), he is transitioning out into the civilian world. He gets out in December, maybe earlier, and we have no idea where we’re going to be or what he’ll be doing. It’s all both exciting and terrifying.

I’m a Multi-Passionate Creator who is on the journey to rediscovering my passions and uncovering my true calling, so I can attend a university for that degree and be content with my decision. I’ve always had a fear of attending college, because of the debt and because I could never decide which degree was right for me.

All of the things I’m seemingly passionate about, you don’t technically NEED a degree for. There are tons of people killing it in Graphic Design, Writing of any kind, and Marketing with no degree at all. Half of them have degrees in something else that may or may not help them, and half of that half has a degree in that industry either making the same wage as everyone else (but some, much more).

 

So which do I choose? How Do You Decide Something Like This?

Some say you’ve just got to make a decision and deal with the consequences…
Some say to go for what you love and the money will find you… I say “It might…”
Someone once told me, that instead of going to school for something you’re already good at, go for something that will complement it, or go to school for something that you can’t learn well enough on your own, something you NEED a degree for to earn a good wage or succeed.
Go for something you’re good at, because the degree will be easier for you and at the end you’ll have that graduate stamp of credibility.

 

I like all of those tips, and I’m trying to consider them carefully.

 

If I followed the second tip, I’d choose either Graphic Design or Creative Writing (if I can ever make myself write again), because that’s what I used to love and as far as I know about Graphic Design, it’s what I still love.

If I followed tip #3, I’d go with Media & Communications because while I can always make “the stuff”, I can never find the right way or best way to talk to people about “the stuff” so that they become interested in it. I’m not a good communicator, and maybe, hopefully, this degree could help me out.

As for the last tip, I’m back at Graphic Design and Creative Writing, because I know I’m good right now, but just think of how amazing I could be afterwards! How many connections I could make, all the amazing people I’d meet and beautiful projects I’d be a part of!

Phew! Man, I’m gettin’ all breathless over here just thinking about it.

Anyhow, I know that whichever one I decide to go with, I’ll have to stick with it until the end, because my chosen college doesn’t let you just switch from one degree to the other. If you switch, you start all over, so I gotta do it right the first time.

 

I will, however, say this. At this moment, and since I found this amazing school, I have decided to go for a BA in field and a Master’s in another. So I’ve got two choices. Graphic Design and Creative Writing both have Master’s programs, but Media & Communications does not.

What school am I talking about? Full Sail University. Go look them up and tell them future student Sabrina Giles told you about them. They are amazing, and they will take you places. I soooooo can’t wait to go there! This year!

Graphic Design Week

Week 1 of my experiment was focused on Graphic Design.

I started venturing into the medium after not being able to afford a kickass cover for my book, and being forever in awe at the ability to make those stunning works of art that all the books were wearing at the bookstores. I loved them. I could stare at them all day, and I did, several times.

So I decided I would teach myself, and so I did. I even had a job for a while as a book cover designer for a publishing company, but sadly, I’d just had my first baby, and I didn’t have time. I didn’t even have time to sleep, and it felt unfair to the company for me to only be able to commit 2 hours a day to working when I knew they deserved more. So I quit that jobs and Motherhood engulfed me, then I had another sweet girl a little over a year later. Now, almost 4 years later, I have enough time to dive back in, and in truth, I’ve been dabbling here and there in my spare moments until this past week when Hubs and I sat down to talk, and he told me to try and devote 1 week to each of my passions, so we can see what I really love, and what I could see myself making a career out of. So that’s what I did!

Was it hard? Yes!

My creativity felt like a roller coaster, because I was constantly worried about people thought/were going to say/etc… Then one day it clicked, and instead of thinking about who would want my pre-made book covers, I just started making art… and I felt it. That click in our hearts that tells you, you found something. I broke through a barrier this week, I’m happy to say, and I feel a little more like me again.

Here are the pieces I made this week, and I’ll be posting every time I make something else. Whether I go for a degree in Graphic Design or not, I think I’ll always do it on the side. I do love it so much. P.S. The last 2 covers “Free Fall” and “Kiss Me at the Top” were made 2 days before I started the weekly experiments so I decided to go ahead and include them.

Re-Discovering Passions and Uncovering A True Calling

I decided too late to take note of my new (and lengthily) experiment.

Rediscover My Passions & Uncover My True Calling

(with pictures)

 

A little backstory first.

Last week, Hubs and I decided that I might just have enough time to start school (for real this time). I’m excited, but also very nervous. Since having my sweet girls almost 4 years ago, I kind of got lost in motherhood. It’s quite common, but lemme tell ya, it’s hard to get out of.

I fell in love with writing when I was a child, being home-schooled in the middle of nowhere. I had no friends, except for the ones I created myself. I also had a natural talent for graphic design, hand-lettering, calligraphy, painting, and sculpting. By the time I’d met Hubs, writing had almost completely taken over my mind, or that is, until we had kids.

Fast-forward almost 4 years and I’m finally getting enough time for me again. I want to get a degree, but in what?

I wrote books to have a social life (in my head), but would I still like writing now?

Would I still enjoy graphic design? And isn’t everyone saying the market is too saturated for that?

I want to be smart, but I also want to do something that makes me happy. How horrible would it be to get a degree in something that makes money but that I hate? That’s no way to spend what precious time we still have left on earth. Right!?

 

So I’m on a mission

 

I have to find out what I still love, and what I can make a career at… I’m thinking by August.

We’re already 1 week down, and I’ll share my pictures from that at the bottom of this post and in my gallery here.

I won’t be spending time on each and every one of the passions I listed above, because not all of them relate directly to a degree, but some of them can be used in a degree. (Ex. hand-lettering, sketching, calligraphy, and painting are all often used in Graphic Design.)

The next weeks will be focusing on:

Writing Fiction

Writing For the Web (blogs, articles, etc.)

Videos

Social Media Marketing

 

“Writing Fiction” corresponds to the Creative Writing degree, while the other three correspond to the Media & Communications degree, and as I said, I’ve already done my Graphic Design week. I’ll be writing a separate post on that next, so I can actually focus on everything that happened that week.

I would also like to share with you some industry research I’m finding on all three degrees.

Some of you might be wondering why I chose these three degrees; Creative Writing, Graphic Design, and Media & Communications.

I have loved books since I was a child, both fiction and non-fiction, but writing fiction became near and dear to my heart, and my sanity, while being home-schooled in the middle of nowhere with no other kids around. Those connections still run deep, but since having children, getting married, and being able to get out there and have a couple of real life friends, I haven’t been able to write anymore. I have had the hardest time even writing on here, about non-fiction things, and it just stumps me as to why I am so blocked.

Maybe it’s because my mind is tired of introverting, because we don’t have to do it anymore to stay sane. Maybe I think my ideas aren’t good enough, or have all been said too many times to still resonate and carry valuable weight anymore.

Either way, writing is still one of my greatest skills, and this week I’ll be working on regaining control of my subconscious and moving that block.

My first form of action is to write one post about all of this, which is what I’m doing now, so I’m already on the right track. I’ll keep going even if I have those demeaning and negative thoughts, because they’re just thoughts.

“Even if those thoughts are from us, it doesn’t make them fact.

They are just opinions of ourselves, and we can change them.”

– Sabrina Giles

 

I’m not sure what I’ll write about after covering week 1 of my experiment, but I hope you decide to follow along, and don’t hesitate to chime in. Let’s converse!

Now, here are those pictures from my Graphic Design Week:

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Welcome to the New Site!

Welcome to my new digital digs. You like? Me too! Click the “Read More” button to see what all’s happenin’!

Firstly, thank you for coming over and checking this out! You’re awesome, and I can’t wait for you to see and enjoy (hopefully) everything I have to offer.

If you’ve been a follower of mine for a while now, then you know that I’m a crappy blogger. I really am. I seem to only come on here and post when there’s something important I think you need to know about, or something super-freaking-awesome you just NEED TO SEE.

I’m trying to be better about that this year, so cross your fingers, and toes, and whatever else you can cross.

Christmas and New Year’s Book Haul

On top of adding 6,ooo words to Dark Relics Saga #2, I’ve also added several, and I mean SEVERAL books to my collection over the holidays. I can’t wait to read and share with you! I’m currently also finishing up some reviews on my recent reads.

Shelf 1 (left)

Not all of these are new, but the ones that are include:

Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake   (How did I just now realize that these aren’t together?!)

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

A Whole New World by Liz Braswell

Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead

 

Shelf 2 (middle)

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

Paper Towns by John Green

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Truthwitch by Susan Dennard

The Novice by Taran Matharu

The Inquisition by Taran Matharu

The BattleMage by Taran Matharu

The Forbidden Game by L.J. Smith (borrowed by little sister)

 

Shelf 3 (right)

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks

Rapture by Lauren Kate

Moon Chosen by P.C. Cast

Sun Warrior by P.C. Cast

The Dark Prophecy by Rick Riordan

 

I know not all of these are in the genre I write in, but hey, who only reads one genre, right? Haha. Some are just for me, some are for Hubs and I, and some I got specifically for Hubs but will be reading as well. And that one I borrowed from my sister. I love them all and can’t wait to read them. Maybe I’ll make a video once I read through them all! Or… how about three? To keep them in nice digestable sized videos for ya.

Happy New Year’s Eve!