National Novel Writing Month Is A Go

Well, November is upon us. That means that this blog will be on hiatus while I attempt to write a 50,000 word (at least) novel this month.

Regular content will resume on Monday December 3. I hope to see you back then!

If you are curious about the progress on my novel, check in periodically for my wordcount on the widget in the sidebar over there on the right.

Knit and crochet projects will also be kept updated on the left as they progress.

Happy November to you all! To my fellow Wrimos, good luck!

See you in December!

Roundup

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Got a few quick projects done this past week.

A few more ewoks, for starters.

The pattern is by Etsy designer Lucy Ravenscar and can be purchased here. I used the small hook for these guys again (E), though I did end up going up a hook size to G for the second two hoods. As you can see on the bottom one, the hood with the size E hook didn't really fit the ewoks. I only made bigger hoods for two of them though because my daughter had already claimed the first one. I ended up letting her keep it since these are a surprise for someone anyway and they won't be expecting a set number.

She was just so sad when I told her the ewoks weren't for her. I couldn't resist, especially after she dug out her Princess Leia for the ewok to play with.

I also made a little fall housewarming gift for my stepmother, that I will be sending her way this week.

Pumpkin Bowl by Cori 2012.

Pattern: Crochet Pumpkin Treat Bowl by Meredith Crawford (available for free at her blog, One Sheepish Girl)
Yarn: Knit Picks Brava in Orange, remnant green and brown
Hooks: US G, US H

This was super quick and easy. I did it in an evening. I did end up using a different leaf pattern (kind of just winged it, actually) because I got a little confused by the pattern provided for the leaf. I am pretty sure that was just my ineptitude though.

Anyhoo, so that's what I've been up to.

I will not be updating with any more projects again until December, since National Novel Writing Month kicks off tomorrow. I will still be working on stuff though when I am not writing, so hopefully once I start posting again, I will have lots of things to show you. In the meantime, if you're curious about what I am working on, I'll be keeping (or at least trying to keep) the current project list over on the left side of the blog updated for you.

My goal is to get that dang shawl finished before I start posting again, too. Fingers crossed.

Until then, have a happy November, you guys!

The Challenge Helps

With all of the time I have been spending on Tumblr lately, I have found myself getting deeper and deeper into the Dragon Age fandom (and to a lesser extent the Mass Effect fandom). That has included finding and reading a lot of really fun fan fiction.

This in turn has led to me wanting to write more fan fiction.

I have been kind of dithering over this, mulling over ideas and trying to decide where (or if) to start. Earlier this week I finally got the kick in the pants that I guess I have been waiting for. A group on LiveJournal has decided to host a "big bang" for Mass Effect. Basically it is a drive to inspire new fiction and art within the fandom. Intrigued by the concept, I looked up the information on it.

For fic writers the minimum story length is 8,000 words, and we will have until September 25 to write it (with a few checkpoints and hopefully a beta-read along the way). I saw that word count and actually scoffed. Two months for 8,000 words? Dude.

Meanwhile, about two weeks after sign-ups end, authors are required to submit a short summary of their story for the artists. The artists will then choose one that sounds interesting to draw an illustration or companion piece for.

Then, at the end of all of that, all of the stories will be posted along with their companion art for all of the fans to share and enjoy.

I had never heard of a big bang before this, but oh my goodness it just sounds fun. While telling my husband about it I even came up with a story idea, yay! So I went ahead and signed up to do this and I am really kind of excited. As crazy as I get in November doing Nanowrimo, that challenge to hit a certain word count every day was an amazing motivator, and I love the sense of accomplishment I get from hitting my numbers. Also, I think this will be a good warm up for November as well.

As you can imagine, there is a lot of crossover with Mass Effect and Dragon Age fans, and after hearing about the Mass Effect big bang, there is now one in the works for Dragon Age too for later in the summer. This is excellent news to me.

I need to write more, and this is a good way to do that while adding a little bit of fun.

To sign up for the big bang I had to create a LiveJournal account of course (I actually had one until earlier this year that I signed up for ages ago and never ever did anything with so it got deleted--but this is okay because it gives me a fresh start this way). So I did that.

I figure no use letting it go to waste. I'll be rounding up all of my old written fan fiction (mostly Stargate Atlantis) and posting it on my LJ account, and that will be the home to anything new I write, which will most likely be Dragon Age and Mass Effect. I've put the link up over there on the right in case anyone ever has any interest in checking it out, though I know it's not everyone's cup of tea.

So, there you go. Challenge issued, challenge accepted. Let the plotting begin!

Looking Ahead To November

As of this writing, I am almost done with the revision of Choices. I managed to stay pretty far ahead of my self-imposed schedule once I got started because I found myself getting into the story all over again and remembering how much it surprised me. I mean, I really do love this thing. I hope those of you that are reading it are enjoying it as well, and that you continue to do so.

Currently I have two chapters left to revise, which will end up being three chapters because one of them will be expanded and split into two in that process. I should get them done next week. I'm actually going to be a little sad to wrap up the story, I have come to realize. But I was recently reminded that for "winning" at National Novel Writing Month, I actually have the opportunity to get five free paperback copies of my book printed up. I believe I just might take advantage of that offer, because it will be awesome to have a physical book in my hands that I wrote and it will also mean I can just pick that up and revisit this story and these people any time I feel like it.

Here's the funny thing, though. I really thought this story was a one-off. I had no intention of writing anything else in this world. These characters' stories have been told. Also, I am so deeply steeped in this world of ongoing series in which we exist that I really wanted to just write something that could stand alone on its own. But throughout the revision process it dawned on me that there just might be more stories to tell after all. 

One of the side characters in Choices definitely caught me by surprise as I was writing, and as I was rewriting I kind of fell in love with him a little bit all over again, in that way a writer does with someone they want to know more about. Yes, yes, I know, I made him up, don't I know everything about him already? Nope. That's not how writing works. Not the way I do it, anyway. 

Obviously I can't tell you who this character is, because dude, SPOILERS, you guys are only up to chapter three after all. But I seem to have come to the decision that my novel for this year will be his story. It might touch on things that happened in Choices, about his interactions with Laren and the others from his perspective, perhaps. Mostly though, it will be about where he goes next, because I've realized that his story is really just beginning where Choices leaves off. 

It's kind of crazy to realize it's only just June and I already know the basic elements of what my story will be come November. But you know what? I'm not gonna argue with the muse. I really didn't set out to write a series, and I don't even think this will be one in a traditional sense, but I guess I am just not ready to give this world up quite yet after all. 

Choices Is Going Live in One Week

Alright guys, it's almost here. I am officially announcing that starting next Thursday I will begin posting one chapter a week of my novel Choices.

Chapters one and two have been fixed/rewritten/updated and I am hoping to get chapter three done before the weekend is out. I've made the decision not to include any preambles when I post, so each week it will just be the chapter itself. I would love feedback from you if you are willing to give it. Just put any questions or comments you have in the comments for each post and I will do my best to respond to what you throw at me.

I've said it before and it bears saying again, I am really amazingly surprised at how happy and proud I am of how this story turned out. I truly hope that at least some of you enjoy it as well.

Like with my Stargate rewatch posts, I will be gathering all of the links to the chapters on their own page (the tab will be at the top of the blog, right above the post title) as they go live. I wrote up this introduction for that page, and I thought I'd put it up here for you guys as well, to give you a little bit of an idea of what the story is about and also put out the few disclaimers I am gonna deem necessary for this thing.

~*~

Choices is the novel I wrote for the 2011 National Novel Writing Month event  (also known as NaNoWriMo). The second draft was written in the spring and summer of 2012 and posted here on Searching For Me a chapter a week to share with my friends and family who have been asking me when and where they might read my story. I know this story isn't perfect, but I am ridiculously proud of it all the same, so I wanted to put it out there for anyone who might be interested in what (in my opinion at least) ended up being a really good story. 

When I started planning for the 2011 NaNoWriMo I actually had a very different story in mind. It was one I had been kicking about for a long time and finally thought I was ready to write. I was oh so very wrong on that score. The more I thought about that particular story the more I saw the holes in it, holes I had no real desire or ability to fill in at the time. But I was dreadfully attached to the two main characters, and I knew that I still wanted to write about them. So I thought about it for a bit and in the end I decided to just try them out in a different story, something smaller, something without the huge sweeping scale I was trying and so clearly failing to achieve. Choices was the result. 

Have you ever come across an interview with a writer trying to explain that a story just seemed to appear out of nowhere and almost write itself? This is pretty much what happened to me with this novel. Characters I thought would be throwaway encounters turned out to play major roles in the proceedings. People I thought were not that bad, just misunderstood perhaps, turned out to be positively dreadful at their cores. People I thought, hell, intended, to be antagonists ended up being allies after all was said and done. I had my main character, and I had her faithful companion, and once I let them loose on the page, it was really all I could do to follow along behind them on their ride.

I am hard-pressed to categorize Choices but I suppose at its core it is a romance. But it is also a coming of age story, and more importantly the story of a woman trying to find a way to live her life on her own terms in a day and age where society isn't really inclined to let her do so. It is a bit of a fantasy in the sense that it is not set in any world that we might recognize as our own, but there are none of the traditional fantasy elements to it. It is perhaps my tribute to the works of Austen, though I lack her subtlety and therefore my story (and characters) are rather more blunt than Miss Austen would ever have thought proper, I am sure. 

A disclaimer for those who choose to read this: 

As I said, it is a romance, so there will be some steamy bits. I had to close my eyes when writing a few of these scenes. I'm not saying this is erotic fiction, it's not. But these are real people doing the things real people do, and I don't want to catch anyone off guard. There are also some very not nice people doing some very not nice things. There are violent acts and appalling decisions made. I don't think I am overly graphic in describing any of this, but...well, my threshold is not your threshold. I think that perfectly reasonable adults should have no problem reading this, but in case I'm wrong about that. Well, at least you've been warned.

~*~

So, if your interest has been piqued, please check back here next Thursday for chapter one! 

Yup, It's Happening

The paper pile that killed our black ink cartridge...

With all of the writing I have been doing, and while I am really not caught up in any video game at the moment, I realized that the time was right to begin my second draft of Choices.

Here is my battle plan:

-Read through entire story (highlight any basic editing fixes needed, highlight any areas that need expansion/scrapping/rewording/relocating).

-While reading through story, keep in mind feedback notes from my beta readers and determine where those notes might be addressed within the story.

-Make a "second draft outline" once finished reading, giving an overall idea of any major changes to each chapter.

-Start the rewrite, one chapter at a time.

-Post finished second draft chapters here on my blog. (I think I've even figured out a way around the annoying formatting conversion from Word to Blogger.)

So there you have it guys. If you've been asking or hoping to read my 2011 Nano novel, it's coming. Soon. I am hoping to start having a chapter a week for you guys within a month at the most.

I made it through the first two chapters making notes last night. Hopefully I can keep the momentum going (and ignore the siren song of the universe that is trying to tell me to play Mass Effect 3 again).

Wish me luck.

Pitching Practice

Can I just say again how awesome the people behind National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) are? They really are fantastic. The primary goal is to give struggling writers that kick in the pants they need to actually write a complete novel, and they do quite well at that. It certainly works for me.

But if you follow their blog, you can see that they also keep trying to encourage writers throughout the year. More than a few published authors got their start by participating in NaNoWriMo, and the people behind the program are tickled to acknowledge that fact. They are also going beyond the event itself and working with people in the publishing industry to give us would-be professionals an extra leg up.

Enter Pitchapalooza.

Any interested Wrimo can submit a 200 word pitch of their Nano novel for a chance at an introduction to an agent or publisher. Twenty-five pitches will be selected at random and sent to writing consultants The Book Doctors, who will then choose a pitch and introduce that author to an agent or publisher that fits their manuscript. That is a huge foot in the door, because without an agent, it is extremely hard to get your book even looked at by publishers in this day and age. Self-publication is certainly an option, of course, but it is not without its own perils.

So, I went ahead and submitted a pitch this weekend. Here it is, for those who are interested (and curious as to the subject of my recent novel, Choices, which I will be posting here before the year is out).

In the city-state of Pelos, the will of the high society is the rule of law. Power lies within the control of the noble Houses, and every Head of House schemes to make sure his House sits on top of the pyramid of influence. 

To Laren of Jade, a once powerful House now flagging in prominence due to financial woes, none of this has ever been worth paying any attention to. She wants nothing more than to be left alone with her books and art, to continue the mostly peaceful existence she has known all of her life. Such is not her fate.

Laren hadn't given up on searching for love, she had just never bothered to go looking for it. When her father announces that she is to be married to the heir of one of the most prominent Houses in Pelos, she finds herself thrown into a new life, suddenly embroiled in the political intrigues of Pelos she had so long avoided. 

Just when she thinks she has learned to navigate these new waters, the unthinkable happens and Laren's life takes a turn she could never have expected.

So, my hat has been tossed into the ring, and my fingers are crossed. The announcement of the twenty-five finalists comes next week, on March 5. That's actually my wedding anniversary, and it's our seventh, which is a lucky number in itself, so, maybe that will play in my favor? One can hope, at least. Wish me luck!

That Familiar Itchy Feeling

I've shied away from making any resolutions for the new year thus far. Mostly, this is because I failed so spectacularly to fulfill my 2011 resolutions (or goals, I think I called them). This is not me being down on myself, it's just a simple fact. Yet somehow despite not achieving most of what I wanted to achieve, I still entered 2012 feeling pretty good about the year I had just left behind. Just because I didn't get a lot of things done that I had expected to do or that I thought I wanted to do doesn't mean I didn't accomplish a whole heap of stuff.

So. No resolutions.

Still, if I were inclined to make any, I know there would be at least one in there about writing. I have kind of, not resigned myself exactly, but more like decided to not press myself to write actual fiction throughout the year with the exception of National Novel Writing Month. The truth is, these last two years NaNoWriMo is the one thing that really managed to get my writer's butt in gear. I go insane throughout the entire month of November and think that I can't possibly manage it, and yet I love the experience. Even more so, I love the final result: a finished first draft.

I do very much intend to post my 2011 novel here over the course of the year. Hopefully as I edit it/write the second draft. I kind of feel like I need to get myself going on that front, but at the moment I feel like there's no hurry. I really do want to do that, and I am more or less happy with the story, so I think that even if I can't bring myself to do an extensive edit, I won't be too ashamed to put it up more or less as is.

Yet lately I've been feeling an itch...a drive to sit down and write. I feel like maybe I can find an hour out of each day, or even an hour out of three days a week, to sit down and do this. It will mean changing my lovely solid comfortable schedule, of course, but I think it might also be worth it.

Right now that feeling is more just a vague urge jumping up and down in the back of my head, clamoring for attention. I am not sure what exactly it thinks I am meant to be writing at the moment. I have considered opening up my file of story ideas, maybe perusing that will give me some inspiration. But I am not sure that's the path to take. With the start of a new year I feel like maybe I should be writing something new as well. Something fresh, something I haven't already started and abandoned once (or more).

So for those of you who wonder if I am writing anything new, I can only provide this answer:

Not yet. But...maybe...probably...soon.

That Warm Glowing Sense of Accomplishment

Hey, it's December? Yay! Look who's back! Hey guys! I missed you! Thank you for putting up with my foolishness over this past month. Believe me when I say, it was totally worth it.

Why is that?

Because I finished my novel! I finished my novel a whole day and a half early! I beat my 2010 word count by about 13,000 words too! My finished novel, Choices, weighs in at 88,044 words in fourteen chapters. What's more, I am actually amazingly satisfied with this story.

You may be wondering why I am so amazed at that fact, but the simple truth is, I really didn't think I was going to have it in me this year. I hemmed and hawed about what story to write, as some of you certainly may remember from previous posts. Initially, I thought I would do a massive Stargate fanfic crossing over all three television series. But I could never figure out how to get all of those characters in the same place. So then I moved on to doing a semi-fanfic, a story set in the Dragon Age universe but featuring original characters and only loosely involving the events of the game.

By October I had scrapped those ideas and decided to go with a story from my file of stashed story ideas--snippets that I wrote from random inspiration or outlines of a story that I put down on the page for later when it popped into my head. I had settled on a story and began doing the pre-November legwork. I named my characters, I wrote an outline, I drew a map. I played nations tetris with said map on more than one occasion. Toward the end of the month I started to get a bit frustrated because I had realized that the catalyst event for the story, the whole reason the characters had to do what they did in the way they did it, hung on a really flimsy plot device. I knew it needed to be reworked, but I couldn't really come up with a viable answer. Without that, there wasn't a story. At least, not the story I had thought I wanted to tell. In addition, I realized that this story would require me to write about wars between nations and several large-scale battles involving swords, archery, horses, and magic. That meant making a magic system. That meant doing a lot of research to write battle scenes I would be satisfied with. I realized I really didn't have it in me. It just wasn't there, not this year.

With a few days left before November began, I threw it all out. I kept the principal characters but I took them out of this huge sprawling fantasy set and put them instead into a very small setting. One city-state, inspired by the the era of Jane Austen, but not existing anywhere in our world. I removed the conflicts regarding the fates of nations from the table and replaced them with smaller, personal conflicts. No magic, no dragons, not even any swords (though, yes, there were horses). I drew a map, I wrote a loose story-guide, not an actual outline, just the series of big events I wanted to touch in my main character's tale. I decided to do something I never do, which is to write the story from first-person perspective.

I have to confess. When November first dawned, I didn't have very much faith in this story. I hadn't put nearly enough thought into it. I didn't know if I would be able to get a whole story out of it, let alone 50,000 words. Yet as soon as I sat down and started writing (and then pulled up a new page and wrote down a few sentences describing what should happen in each chapter so I had at least a little bit of a road map), a wonderful thing happened. The words and the story just started to flow. By about 20,000 words my characters had started taking over and were telling the story for me. Yes, I hit most of the main points I wanted to, but a lot of the other stuff surprised me. Someone I thought was essentially a good guy but who didn't really get along with the protagonist turned out to really actually be scum. Another person I thought would be a mild antagonist turned into my protagonist's best friend, as much to my surprise as to hers.

It's not a fantasy. It's not a big, sweeping epic. If anything, it's a romance, though aside from the (totally accidental) sappy happy ending, I don't know how much it really qualifies as that either. What this is in the end, is the story of a young woman who was content to let other make her choices for her, until she finally received a wake up call and decided to take control of her own damn life. It's not that simple for her, of course, when is it ever? The world she lives in doesn't really think women need to make that many of their own choices. She never really thought twice about that, until she did. So this is the story about how she figured out how to take control where she could and to make peace where she couldn't.

I still don't know if it's any good or not. But it doesn't matter. Because as unsure as I was about this story when it started? Now? Now, I love it. It is one of my favorite things I have ever written. It's not perfect. There are definite issues with the pacing. I know there are plot lines I started to develop and let fall by the wayside as the story progressed. It will need to be cleaned up. I hope to share it with you, in the new year. I won't promise to do so, because, well, there's always the chance that I'll pull it out in January, reread it, and realize I hate it. But if I don't, then I want to post it here, a chapter a week, for you to read if you'd like.

Even if it never sees the light of day again, it's still my novel. I'm still incredibly proud of it. Thank you, NaNoWriMo, for giving me the opportunity to write it. I can honestly say this story wouldn't have happened without you. I can't wait to see what we get up to together next year!

Signing Off Until December

Well, folks, we've reached that time of November where I am in crunch-time with my Nano novel. I know that the little word count box over there on the side of the page says I'm almost to my goal, which is awesome. Problem is, I still have about four and a half chapters to get out in the next ten days to finish the actual story, which is way more important to me than hitting the word count.

I really really had hoped to start the third season of Stargate Atlantis this week, but we're going to hold off until December 5 to start that up. I apologize for the delay. I had crossed my fingers that I could still do the rewatch blogging during NaNoWriMo, but alas, those take up a lot of time. While normally I consider it time well spent, at the moment that's seven thousand words a week worth of time being taken away from my novel.

Normal posting will resume on Thursday December 1, so please stop back by then. Hopefully I will be doing a victory dance.

I hope everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday, however you choose to spend it. See you on the other side, guys!

+2 To Productivity

Well, I've hit the home stretch on my blanket, huzzah! I might, might, just finish it this week. We shall see what we shall see on that front. But it is looking good, my friends, looking good. I absolutely love this pattern. It is gorgeous. I will likely never use it again though. Because, well, dang. Very time-consuming on top of the normal time consumed in blanket-making.

I did cave in and take a day out last week to make myself that pair of fingerless gloves I was thinking about. They turned out to be pretty fantastic, actually.

NaNoWriMo Mitts by Cori 2011.

Action shot!

Action shot (the sequel)!

Pattern: Idony Fingerless Gloves by Sarah Francis
Yarn: Red Heart Wintuk Sock & Sweater in Grape (1 Skein)
Hook: E

These worked up very quickly. There was one little confusing bit in the pattern in regards to how the increases were written, but it was explained pretty quickly in the comments on the blog where the pattern was posted, so that didn't slow me down much at all. I even found a use for that super fun random vintage Red Heart sock yarn my mother-in-law gave me. There is enough left over that I can probably make a matching accessory of some sort, possibly a hat, though I will save that for a later day.

I am pleased as punch with the finished project. I have been thinking about making a pair of fingerless gloves for quite some time now but have always hesitated because I remained unconvinced they could actually do much good in the keeping my hands warm department. I am glad to say I was wrong about that. These work like a charm to keep me comfy in my chilly office. I am considering them my NaNoWriMo good luck charm, as I am already doing ridiculously well on my word count (more than a little ahead of where I need to be at this point). Of course, I need to keep the story itself at a sustainable pace, but that's another issue entirely.

Nonetheless, these turned out wonderfully and that made me very happy, which in turn gave me a little extra boost of motivation with my blanket, which also made me happy. Circle of happiness, yay!

Okay, gonna go try to get something creative accomplished. Until next week, folks.

Just A Wee Bit Insane...

NaNoWriMo starts today. So that's 50,000 words (at least--but more importantly a complete story) I've gotta write in the next thirty days.

I am a little over halfway done with the blanket--I've got two weeks to finish it. Sure I can do it (I think), but I am also gonna freak out about it a bit.

I've got two other sizable projects that I would like to finish before this month ends. (This is not going to happen, but that won't stop me from trying.) I've already realized I need to back-burner the KAL sweater and finish the other project, which is not for me, first. Otherwise I will feel like a miserable excuse for a human being.

My daughter has recently discovered that it is SUPER fun times to plop down in my lap right on top of whatever project I am working on and refuse to move.

A friend has approached me about commissioning a couple of baby hats and I have already had to tell her I won't be able to work on them until after Christmas because I am so swamped craft-wise.

Yet despite all of that I am seriously thinking about taking a day or two of Yarn Time this week to make a pair of these (sans beads). What? I mean, it's cold in my office, and I can't be expected to reach my word count if my fingers are too frozen to type, right? Right? Anyone....?

Sigh.

Happy November, y'all. Let the games begin.

DragonAgeDragonAgeDragonAgeDragonAge

I suspect that I will be spending much of this weekend playing Dragon Age. I only have what, nine days left in the month? In order to focus on my writing during November for National Novel Writing Month I make myself abstain from video games. Sadly, this is much harder than it sounds. I am right now about half way through Orzammar, which is my last treaty quest to do, but then I still have to find the Sacred Urn and save the arl and get to the Landsmeet...sigh. I would love to say I will get this game wrapped up before November, but I really don't think it's going to happen. Of course, that could be a good thing, since as soon as I finish I would want to start a playthrough of the DLC, and probably Dragon Age II after that...yeesh. Seriously, I am addicted to this game, and DAII even more so than Origins.

You would think that I would have gotten my fix this past week when I played the new DAII DLC, "Mark of the Assassin." But no. It only made me hungry for more. Sigh. Also, Felicia Day, who voices the character of Tallis that joins your party for the new quest, is awesome and I would like for her to please be in every video game I ever play ever again, okay? Can we make that happen? 

At least I will get a little bit of a fix each Tuesday throughout most of November. Felicia Day's webseries, Dragon Age Redemption (starring none other than Felicia Day as, hey look at that, Tallis) has arrived and I am enjoying it immensely thus far. We only get six episodes though, but hey, I will take what I can get, really. 

Here are episodes one and two if you've got twenty minutes to kill and a swords & magic itch to scratch:

  

The live action Templar is pretty nice to look at, and he seems to not be as much as a zealot as most of the Templars that DAII throws at you. This is a lovely bonus. I am very curious about the mythology about the Qunari they are building up between the DLC and the webseries too. I know everything was completely approved by Bioware, so I am hoping that we get some more back story on that as the show progresses.

So, anyway, that's my plan for the weekend (well, for my "me" time anyway, I actually do have some quite fun stuff going on that involves other people as well). I hope you all each have an equally fun weekend ahead of you!

Just don't forget to watch out for darkspawn, yo.

National Novel Writing Month

November is almost upon us, and that means National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is just around the corner. If you are a writer and you haven't heard of NaNoWriMo, I strongly urge you to swing by their website, newly relaunched for the 2011 event, and give it a looksee. It is definitely worth checking out.

The basic idea is that sometimes you just need a little extra push to get that novel written. So each November, anyone who wants to participate in NaNoWriMo sets this goal for themselves: During the month of November, I will write a complete 50,000 word novel. 50,000 words is about the minimum requirement for most novels in the publishing world, so that's the goal set to "win" NaNoWriMo, though of course you are free to go over that. It breaks down to about 1700 words a day, which really is actually manageable, provided you don't get a massive monster block or anything. The site serves as a networking tool to help you contact other writers in your local area in online forums or for get-togethers to write or hash out stories or commiserate and whatnot. You also get "pep talk" emails from writers throughout the month. Basically it's a huge support net to help get you motivated and keep you going to hit that goal of a finished novel.

Now, let's face it, the time crunch means you have to pretty much skip the editing part of writing. That's kind of the point. I know that I, for one, get hypercritical about reading and rereading what I have already written, sometimes to the point of stalling out on forward progress. Starting stories has very rarely been a problem for me. Finishing them has. I've only finished two complete non-school assignment stories ever--one of them was last year's NaNoWriMo effort. That 1700 words a day goal means that I don't have time to obsess over all of the small details and ensures I just keep on moving forward towards that final page.

Granted, no one who bangs out a 50,000 (or more) word manuscript in a month is going to automatically have something worth publishing come December. What they will have, however, is a first draft. They will have the confidence that comes with having actually written down their whole story. That first draft will then be ready to undergo some heavy editing, possibly expansion, and just might eventually become something you want to shop around. It could also easily become something you stuff in a drawer (or on a spare flash drive, which is then stuffed in a drawer) and never think about again. But the experience will only make your future writing efforts that much stronger.

I have been going around in circles trying to figure out what my story would be this year, and I finally think I have figured it out. I have an outline, I drew a map (then played nation tetris and now need to redraw said map). I've been naming characters (and finding pictures of people to hold in my mind for those characters as I write them to aid in my descriptions). I can't start writing the actual story until November 1, mind you, thems the rules, but I can (and will) lay as much of the groundwork behind the story as possible before then.

I have realized that even though my story this year is set very much in a fantasy setting, it is actually kind of going to be a romance novel, of all things. At least, the central story seems to be more about how these two people find each other, lose each other, find each other again and then what happens to them from there than about the actual events during which this romance takes place. I'm...well, I'm not too sure how I feel about that, but that's the story that wants to be told, so what can I do, huh?

Again, I will hope to post the story here, chapter by chapter, after November if I succeed in finishing the story. I meant to do it last year but wanted to get the editing done first and I really haven't been able to bring myself to dive into the job that editing that particular story will be. If I decide to post here for the 2011 story, it will be an "as is" effort with only minor editing.

As a heads up to y'all, I will be a bit scarce around here throughout November. Currently I am planning to only post Monday through Wednesday, which would be my Stargate Atlantis Rewatch and yarn craft posts, with Thursday and Friday dead days on the site. It is possible that the rest of the week might have to be put on hold as well, but I am hoping that won't be the case.

So...off I go to do some more plotting. Wish me luck, friends! And for my fellow writers out there, please join me!

Avoiding The Extremely Ridiculous

Lately I have been watching the first two seasons of the old 90's teen series California Dreams. It has made me quite thankful for the advent of Netflix, and my subsequent subscription to the service. Without Netflix, I probably would have bought this when it came out on DVD out of pure nostalgia and then ended up a month or two down the line selling the set and wishing I hadn't wasted my money.

Watching this show is a weird experience. It's not entirely bad, mind you, but I would be hard pressed to say that I am completely enjoying watching the show again. If you're not aware of this show, it was part of NBC's late Saturday morning lineup aimed at teens and preteens. It was probably the most successful of those series after Saved By The Bell, with which it had much in common. Instead of focusing on the group of kids' hijinks in school, however, California Dreams was centered around the band formed by the main cast and followed their attempts to get gigs and deal with the "typical" teenage problems all while balancing life with the band. I say "typical" with quotes like that, but actually I have to admit, even though the drama is heightened for television, the actual issues the show dealt with for the most part were things that, as a teenager, were often a big deal to me. It is just that the problems and their solutions are so ridiculously portrayed that I have a hard time taking it seriously now.

But when I was a kid, I adored this show. It was second in my affections only to Saved By The Bell, I have to admit. That's why I wanted to watch the show again, after all. But it doesn't really hold up well to the test of time, I suppose. I don't know how surprising that is, given that even after my complete rewatch of all of SBTB, I ended up giving away those DVDs.

It probably doesn't help that I married a professional musician, so the whole band aspect of the show now just makes me cringe. Also the music, while being mostly inoffensive, is so bland. The band didn't have its own sound, they just played whatever kind of sounded like what was popular at the time. Watching it now, having the experiences with actual musicians that I have, I just feel like these kids are posers. I know, I know, it's silly. It's just a television show. But my life has altered the way I look at that kind of stuff. Plus the producers apparently had no idea what live music was supposed to sound like. I mean, come on. Sigh.

So why I am I still watching? Well, there is the part of me that is enjoying the trip down memory lane. As I said, I did love this show once. It is nice getting to revisit with that Cori of a bygone day and remember her hopes and dreams (and subscription to Big Bopper). Like I said, it is not all bad. The show has its amusing moments. Besides, as I ride out the last of my pain meds from this week's dental escapades, it is the perfect level of mindless distraction.

It's been getting more and more awkward though. True sitcoms are few and far between these days, and of those that are still around, I don't watch very many of them. Those that I do enjoy are, I would like to think, a little bit off the beaten path and have evolved past the old-school format. California Dreams, though, is from a time when that old format was flourishing. As someone who is trying to be a storyteller, the formulaic approach to the show is, at best, tiring to sit through. It makes me very glad to have access to all of the smart, well-written, modern shows I have access to these days.

There is a fine line between funny and ridiculous, and this show wasn't even trying to stay behind it. I have found as I get older that some of the more obvious attempts at humor--the physical, the slapstick, the playing dumb--are much more rarely able to make me laugh than actual wit. What makes this whole experience awkward for me personally is that I have recently been thinking that I want to try my hand at writing something funny.

The people behind National Novel Writing Month recently announced that they want to do a NaNoWriMo Summer Camp this year. The idea is to allow people who really can't devote the kind of time required in November or the people who want to write more than one novel in a month during the year a chance to have the fun in a month other than November. My writing buddy (who is a teacher, and for whom November was very much less than ideal) and I of course want to participate in the summer camp.

I know, I know. But Cori, you haven't even actually started revising your novel from last November! Why would you want to write another one? Yes, yes, you're right. But...let's not talk about last year's book right now. It will get done if it gets done and right now is not that time.

But back to summer camp. So, my friend and I want to try our hands at another novel-in-a-month this summer. After giving it some thought, I told my husband I wanted to just write something fun and silly. Silly. Not ridiculous. Not unintelligent.

Quite some time ago I mentioned that I wish I could capture some of the fun and funny the way that the Harry Potter books do. Every night I read a few pages of those books to my daughter (we're on the last one now), and whenever there's a funny scene, it just makes me itch to create something in the same vein. So when I say I would like to write something fun and silly, I am thinking something like my favorite bits from Harry Potter. Something along the lines of greats like Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. But watching California Dreams, I have started getting worried that perhaps that is the best I will be able to do. Hence the awkward.

Not gonna stop me from trying. Hopefully my fears are what will help me avoid that particular path. I mean, I don't even have an actual story in mind yet, it's early days. But oh my goodness do I hope it's more Neville causing a distraction by turning into a canary than Sly and the rest of the guys dressed up as girls getting hit on by the football team. Sigh.

Note to self: All of the writers I listed above to emulate are British. Perhaps it would be a good idea to watch lots of Coupling and drink lots of tea while getting prepared to write. Also, avoid setting it at the beach with surfers in a rock band.

Check.

~*~*~

Oh, and as it is Friday already (when the heck did that happen?), don't forget to swing on over and check out this week's Gronk! I am super excited because preorders for the first Gronk book start next week. Huzzah! Also, now I want to make a Gronk plushy....

Time to Start Researching Australia

It is truly amazing how much work goes into writing a book beyond what a reader sees on the written page of the finished project. For example, I spent the month leading up to last November doing quite a bit of brainstorming, outlining, plotting, and world-building so that I would be at least marginally prepared to get the details of Etrasia right when I actually started writing Living Legend.

I did a little bit of research for my book before I started writing it, certainly. After letting the manuscript sit for two months and then reading through it again, however, I now know where I need to go back and dig deeper so I can provide a more authentic feel to my story. Most of this research probably won't even end up in the book itself (the expansions to the story as it is mostly will require fleshing out the world-building a bit more extensively, which is what the research will let me do).

For example, I realized upon reading through my story that the population numbers I have in my head for Etrasia just aren't realistic to the setting. Thus, I need to start doing some research on Australia. Why, you may ask. My story isn't set in Australia, it has nothing to do with the outback or aborigines. Well, that is certainly true enough. Etrasia, however, is in my mind approximately the same size as Australia, however, and though the environments of the two continents differ vastly, the population is actually spread out about the same. So that means I need to start figuring out what the actual population of Australia is (or what it was when the civilization there was slightly less technologically advanced). From there I can extrapolate the sustainable populations for small villages and larger cities. That, in turn, will let me get a better grip on the actual size of each nation's army, because I know I vastly underestimated that in my original notes.

I also need to research the actual dimensions of the continent so that I can figure out the mileages within my book. Going hand in hand with that, I need to figure out how far horses can reasonably travel in a day so that I can pin down more accurate travel times for my characters. My readthrough left me feeling like the travel timelines were a little vague and more than a little shaky, and I would like to firm those up in draft two.

Other research notes I made for myself while reading through my manuscript:
-Layouts of castles and medieval cities.
-Bone up on basic medieval architecture.

Then, of course, there is the ending. I still feel like I made it entirely too wishy-washy "oh there's hope for us all" and I feel like if I leave it like that, then when I continue this story in the next volume, I am gonna have to kill off one of my favorite characters. Look, I am not trying to purposely make it all gloom and glum or anything, I just feel like the situation these people wound up in at the end is one with some serious consequences, and they weren't even acknowledging this fact. While the romance is part of the story, it isn't meant to be the center, at least partly because, as much as I think these two characters really do love each other, I also firmly believe they just aren't meant to be. This is really intended to be one of those "it's better to have loved and lost" situations, but I didn't end the book with that implied, and I am not happy with that. So...that's gonna take some reworking, I think.

There are also one or two instances where the characters are acting kind of, well, out of character. I need to either fix that, or have a good reason I can show my potential readers for why that is.

All in all, I am really happy with how the first draft came out, especially considering it is a NaNoWriMo novel, which means it was written in thirty days. There is plenty of room for expansion, and I have some good ideas for where and how that expansion needs to occur. There are a few plot points, events, and characters that I feel came across a little vaguely, but I believe that is down to me not doing enough behind-the-scene world building, and once I have that in place, I can go in and tweak those spots to make them fit into the flow much better. It's pretty exciting, I have got to say.

One of my goals for the next month or so is to hit up the library to start some of this research I need to do and to sit down and do some more of the necessary world-building. I think Baby Girl and I are going to start getting pretty familiar with the local library. Assuming she can behave herself. Otherwise, I might need to find someone to bribe once a week to keep an eye on her while I go do research...

I am going to set myself a goal to try to have draft two finished by the end of August. I don't know how realistic that is, but that is my hope. That gives me September and October to think about this year's NaNoWriMo effort, as well as to start on the research for my next big project.

The more I start to flesh out the world I want to set my SF book in, I have to say, the less I think my original story idea fits the setting. So as I am fleshing out this world, I am going to also be looking for exactly what story it is offering to tell.

My brain is truly awhirl with the possibilities. I love it! Now, if I can just keep the momentum going, this could be a darn good year for writing.

Have a great weekend you guys! No post tomorrow as we have a rather insane travel schedule for getting to Seattle, and I have no idea when we will actually get to settle in to our hotel room, and therefore have internet access on my laptop. But I will be back Monday (hopefully) with all sorts of reports from the convention for you.

Confetti!

By which I mean several small bits and pieces...

Realized that yesterday's blog was my 100th entry on Searching For Me. That's pretty spiffy, I would say. So, maybe some literal confetti is in order as well as the figurative kind. I started this blog mostly as a writing exercise--mainly to make myself write at least five days a week so as to keep in practice and hone my craft. I would say I have mostly done pretty okay so far. To those of you who are reading, thanks.

In other quasi-writing news, I am through chapter twelve of the read through of my first draft of Living Legend and still really enjoying it. I have also found one glaring contradiction that definitely needs to be addressed (it came about due to my frenzied writing schedule, I think, just a throwaway line that makes something that happens later a little fishy if I leave it as is). I also found a few instances of characters acting very unlike who they are in my head, so I need to try to establish valid reasons for the behavior or do some rewrites there. Of course, there is also the fact that about two-thirds of the way through writing I decided that one of my mains shouldn't speak in contractions. I am finding lots of early (and not so early) places of her using contractions though so my Big Pink Pen of Doom (it was going to be red, but I couldn't find my red pen) has been going nuts circling. That is probably something I will be continuing to search for through my next two drafts, I am sure. But it is progressing well, I think.

In a recent blog entry, Stargate writer Joseph Mallozzi listed what would be his dream team composed of characters from all three shows of the franchise. It consisted of Ronald Greer, Vala Mal Doran, Rodney McKay, and Ronon Dex, with Richard Woolsey holding down the fort at the base of operations. I have to say, I loved this team! I do think a few more additions would be necessary though: Daniel Jackson (mostly to keep Vala in check, but also because his linguistic and anthropological skills are good for first contact), Major Lorne as the team leader (Greer is awesome but he's got a temper and needs to be taking orders from someone a with a cooler head), and T.J. as the medic (because with Rodney and Ronon and Greer, they will need a medic available). It was a fun little thing to picture in my head this group of adventurers, all very different, and try to conceive of how their team dynamic would develop. I started wondering how I would get them all together, what with Greer and T.J. being stuck on the other side of the universe and all. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I really want to write a story with these characters. So, unless I succumb to the urge to write this before November, this is going to be my fan fiction NaNoWriMo novel this year.

Watched the season finale of Human Target last night and absolutely loved it. Though I have to say it raised a lot more questions than it provided answers for me. I have my fingers and toes crossed that this show gets picked up for a third season. I really do enjoy it so very much, and the cast is just clicking like it is nobody's business. I really hope to get to see them work together for a long time to come.

I am still working my way through getting caught up on Questionable Content. I am now past strip 1,000, so I would say that is progressing nicely. I did finally catch up to where I started reading it (I was surprised that I have been reading it for so long), and now I am enjoying getting to read those strips all over again and getting the inside jokes and references to previous story lines. My poor husband is getting drowned in emailed links to strips I think he'd find amusing. He also has to listen to me giggle maniacally while I read them, since we share an office. But the guy's a trooper, and I am reminded once more how lucky I am that he loves me!

I took the Jeopardy! Online Test last night. I think I got maybe a third to half of the questions right. That's not great, but it's better than last  year, which is at the very least encouragement to keep trying. There were a few questions that I clearly had no clue about, a few that I think I knew the answer to, and at least three that I did know the answer to but couldn't pull it out of my brain in time. Grr. Still, I am glad I did it. As unrealistic as it is to think that I'll end up going on Jeopardy! and winning big, it is a quite lovely little daydream nonetheless.

Now, if only we can get Wheel of Fortune to come back and hold their next round of auditions when I am actually in town...

Amendment

So yesterday I read a a really interesting article about fan fiction, from the perspective of someone who writes it, and has written it for quite some time.  It was up on Pink Raygun (which is a fabulous site for fans of genre) and looks to be the beginning entry in a series on the topic.  After reading the first article I am definitely looking forward to more.   This is partly due to the fact that it was well written and about a topic that I have some personal experience with.  But my anticipation is largely due to the fact that this article once more got me thinking something I have been thinking for quite some time.

I need to start writing fan fiction again.

Some of you might be nodding your heads in understanding with this, others might be wondering if I have completely lost my marbles.  Fan fiction, in my experience, is something that people either understand or don't.  Most of the people in my life don't get it.  I am at peace with that.  As far as I know, nobody I love enough to really care about their opinion on the matter has judged me for my involvement in the activity.  My husband, in fact, has always been quite supportive of my writing fan fiction.  He has had some minimal exposure to fan fiction in the past, but mostly, he understands the two things that are most important to me about it:  It is an incredible way to practice and improve upon my writing, while sharing it with a group of peers who will give me feedback; and it is a way to delve deeper into a community of people who love something that I also love, as deeply (or more so) as I do.

My drug of choice was Stargate Atlantis.  It was my gateway into fan fiction and I never really strayed far from the fold.  That is, honestly, the only fandom I have ever been so involved with that I wanted to write more stories for it, and read what other people had to say as well.  It was a way of getting more SGA during the breaks between seasons, or, increasingly, the ridiculously long hiatus between season halves.  Sure, I have toyed with writing a few crossover stories involving the characters from Buffy or Bones (I love crossovers), but they would have been set largely in Atlantis.

Once I stumbled across the SGA fan fiction, I was, quite simply, hooked.  Finding the archive site Wraithbait was a revelation of sorts for me.  You see, hardly anyone I know watched SGA.  My husband, if home, would watch the occasional episode with me (and we are currently watching the whole series together), but he isn't that big at sitting down and watching serialized television, so I couldn't have the kind of in-depth speculative conversations with him about the series that I wanted to have (though he is kind and patient enough to have listened to me ramble on about the topic ad nauseam on more than one occasion, to be sure).  Fan fiction gave me that outlet, though, and I will always love it for that.

I'll admit, when I say I was hooked, I mean, I was spending hours a day poring over every new story added to the site, and would get antsy whenever there wasn't anything new to read available.  Then a series of stuff happened that caused me to get so far behind that there was no way to get caught up again, especially when some other stuff happened that cut significantly into my reading time.  So it has been a few years since I have spent much time on Wraithbait, or since I have written my own story.  I have a few started stories or story ideas hanging out in my writing folder though, and I think the time has finally come to get back to them.

I don't know that I will ever get back into fan fiction with the same fervor of that original experience.  That's probably okay.  But I have realized that I do miss that community, and I would like to go back, even if it is only for a brief visit once or twice a year.

One of my goals for this brand new year is to work on my writing, and today I would like to make an amendment to it.  I would like to dust off and finish one or two of those fan fiction stories that are waiting oh so patiently on my hard drive.  I may or may not upload them to Wraithbait.  I definitely think that my November novel may be a fan fiction story this year, if one of my ideas seems like it might lend itself to the length (you'd be amazed at some of the novel-length fan fiction stories I have come across over the years).  It seems like a perfect fit, to me.  I will be able to dive right into the characters and setting without the need to worry about world-building and without getting too bogged down in descriptive text.  This will leave my non-November writing time free to focus on the world-building, character development, research, and story plotting that I would like to devote to my original story.  The more I think about it, the more I like this idea.

I love this feeling, when my brain is all afire with new inspiration and ideas are just racing around like particles in the LHC.  This year I will not fear the blank page.  I will instead look upon it as the on-ramp to the highway that will lead me directly to becoming the writer I want to be.

And A Happy New Year to You

Wow, we have finally reached the last day of 2010.  I don't know what your year was like, but mine was one heck of a roller coaster.  I am sure that 2011 will be no different.

I think that for the most part it was a good year.  I am not looking back on it with any major regrets, and that is a good thing for sure.  That doesn't mean there aren't things about myself I would like to improve in the coming year.  While I don't really believe in New Year's Resolutions, I do believe in setting goals for oneself.  The start of a new year seems as good a time as any to do that, certainly.  So, to close out this blog for the year, I am going to share my goals for 2011 with you.

Read More Books
I have a pile of books in my room right now (I believe I have shown you a picture) that need to be read.   When I get a new DVD or book, I try not to just put it on the shelf without watching or reading it first.  DVDs are easy to work my way through, but books, which I used to blow through like nobody's business, are another matter altogether these days.  Pretty much the only dedicated reading time I have is during meals when my husband isn't home.  That time isn't completely dedicated either, because while the reading is a nice distraction from the huge mess my daughter is usually making of the meal in front of her, I do still keep an eye on her to make sure all is right in the world.  My book pile wouldn't be a problem if I didn't continually add to it, but, well, I am a bibliophile, married to a bibliophile, and I am sure you can guess how that goes.

Really, this goal boils down to better time management.  My daughter's nap-time is an excellent time for reading, but usually I witter that away on the computer or playing a video game.  Same thing with after she goes to bed.  So.  My first goal for 2011 is to find a way to update my routine to allow me to get in some regular quality reading time.

Finally Get Our CD Library Under Control
Oy.  This is one I have been trying to get done off and on for a while, since we moved into our house 3+ years ago.  Between the two (now three) of us we have well over a thousand CDs.  The thing is, we rarely listen to them anymore now that iTunes keeps all of our music in one convenient space-saving place.  We have done a good job on curbing our purchase of physical CDs, certainly.  But right now all of those CDs from before the paradigm shift are sitting in boxes in our garage.  Some of them have been imported into iTunes, a lot of them haven't.  Thankfully I had the foresight to type up the title/artist of each CD as I packed it when we moved.  I even thought to notate which box it was packed in (I numbered the boxes).  Earlier this year, I did go through our spreadsheet and compare it to my iTunes, but now I need to do the same for my husband's iTunes.  Then I need to pull out all of the CDs that need to be imported and do that.  Then I need to find something to do with the bulk of the CDs that we no longer need to hold on to, once they've been imported, as well as finding something to do with the physical CDs we do want to keep.  It's a big task, but I am determined to get it done this year.  Along with that, I would like to get a connector for my iPod to put in my car so I can stop burning CDs to play when I am driving around.

Knit, Knit, Knit
Sadly, this is a carryover goal from 2010.  I did start the process of teaching myself to knit earlier this year, but then got completely derailed by a glut of big blanket projects for various weddings and babies and my daughter and such.  Also, I find it really hard to get motivated to make practice pieces.  So for 2011 I am going to try a slightly different approach.  I have a few patterns for knitted projects and the yarn and needles for them as well.  I think I am just going to dive into the pattern, along with my trusty copy of The Knitting Answer Book, and just see what happens.  This could be a disaster, or it could be awesome.  Finding out should be a bit of an adventure.  I am also planning to alternate projects between knitting and crochet, (I really do have a problem making more than one project at once) and that way I won't be giving up my true crafting love completely.

Write
This goal is divided into three parts.  The first is that I would like to revise, expand, and edit the novel I wrote in November.  Basically, I want to get a second draft banged out, and get one or two people to read it and give me some feedback.  Second, I have another story that I want to start the groundwork on.  I will need to do some actual research for this one, and start in on the world building, as well as getting some characters and a plot/outline worked up.  I don't know that I plan to actually start writing this book in 2011, but I want to seriously dig in to the prep work.  Third, I definitely want to participate in (and win) National Novel Writing Month again.    Maybe getting the first two parts of this accomplished is a bit ambitious of a goal, but I think I can do it. 

So, there you have it, four of my personal goals for 2010.  There are a few other things I would like to get done, of course, but these are the big ones weighing on my mind as we close out the year.  I don't have any huge plans for ringing in the new year tonight--my daughter and I are going to dinner with friends and then we'll hang out at our place for a bit (Hubby has a gig).  I have really come to enjoy these quiet New Year's Eves, though, so I am looking forward to it.

I hope that, whatever you have planned for tonight's celebrations, you have a wonderful (and safe) evening.  Happy happy New Year to you all!

I'll close out with my favorite song to listen to on December 31, A Long December by Counting Crows.  I started listening to this on New Year's Eve because I had a few (to my younger self) crappy years and this song always makes me pause and remember that there's always hope things can get better.  I have found that even if it wasn't a bad year, this song still strikes home with me.  It is a beautiful tune, and always worth a listen.





Also, tomorrow is the Rose Bowl, so GO FROGS!!!

One more also, don't forget to check out today's Gronk!  It's another guest strip, but still awesome.  In today's strip, Gronk tries to replicate Schrodinger's experiment.  It, um, doesn't work out well for Gronk.

Bits and Pieces

Ooh, ooh!  I totally finished Towers of Midnight yesterday and it was so freaking awesome.  I love Perrin so much.  He's cool again, huzzah!  Also, Moiraine!  And I'm very annoyed that there are now Whitecloaks that I like.  What's up with that, seriously?  Plus, it's going to suck to be Aiel in the future, apparently.

Um, that's pretty much the extent of the review I am going to do on that particular book, other than to say oh wow.  I loved it.  I can't wait for the next (and last!) Wheel of Time book to come out.  I suspect my husband and I will be fighting over first-read dibs ferociously.  But if you'd like a more in-depth review, Leigh Butler over at Tor has two, one that is spoiler-free, and one that is so totally not spoiler-free.

This means I can start playing Kingdom Hearts today during nap time.  Sweet.  I've got my walk-through saved, and I am determined to get this damn game played, y'all.  Reading-wise, I have two months worth of comic books and graphic novels (including the Serenity GN about Shepherd Book's backstory, which I may actually review for you if I get motivated) to read through, so I am gonna get those all read up (just in time for my December shipment to head my way) before I dive into my next book.  I have two clamoring for my attention right now, so I am going to use the time to decide which one to dive into first.  I'll let you know when I do get that figured out though.  I know you're desperate to know. 

Oh, hey, did you notice?  It's Friday!  That means time for a new installment of Gronk, yay!  Please to check it out and enjoy, here. Poor Gronk may not want to watch Battlestar for a while, but hopefully she'll give it a chance eventually!

Speaking of web-comics, one of my all-time favorites is called Looking for Group.  It is completely and utterly fantastic.  Basically, it's an RPG that you read instead of play, if that makes any sense at all.  The story centers around an elf named Cale who is good and pure and always wants to do the right thing.  This is a bit of a problem because all elves are evil in the world Cale lives in, but apparently nobody bothered to tell him that.  So, as he goes along, looking for adventure, he picks up a group, made up of really awesome, really not-nice people.  This includes one of my favorite characters of anything ever, Richard the warlock (or, Dick).  It is updated two times a week (Mondays and Thursdays) and each installment is basically a fully colored page out of a graphic novel.  There is an overarching story-arc, but there are smaller story-arcs as well.  So far, they have released three volumes of the series in really nice hardcover graphic novel format.  I'll admit, it makes a lot more sense when you sit down and read big chunks of it at once, but it is still highly amusing and entertaining on a page by page basis.  If you're interested in giving it a try, you can check out the first couple of pages and then decide where to go from there.  Here is a link to page one. 

Anyhoo, the reason I am telling you this is because I wanted to share an awesome moment in my life with you.  A while back I was telling my friend Miss T about the comic and when explaining it to her I mentioned the bunny that ends up being the constant companion of Richard the warlock.  I'm not going to explain why, or go into the bunny's story line (yes, the bunny has its own story line) here, because, well, spoilers.  But suffice to say, the bunny is totally awesome.  I was telling my husband this past weekend about my conversation with Miss T, and was amused that she was interested because of the bunny's story line.  I was saying how wonderful it would be if the guys over at LFG decided to make a bunny plushie (there is already a Richard plushie, which yes, I own).  Then, two nights ago, I click on a link to LFG in my feed reader and find this. My reaction may have caused my husband to come running in from down the hall to see what the heck was up.  Seriously, I must own this, and soon.  I just love when stuff like that happens, when you are saying to someone, "Wouldn't it be so awesome if X existed?" and then the next day you find out that someone just went and made X!  So splendid.

Proceeding in the random flow of this post, I also wanted to share one of my most recent addictions with you.  I am sure you have seen it around on the internet (Facebook, most likely).  It is the site Damn You Auto Correct, which I finally caved and added to my feed reader the other day.  I am so glad I did.  Some of these things are just weird, but some of them make me seriously fall out of my chair or start crying from laughing so hard.   It also gives me a weird sense of not being alone in the universe.  Because really, who owns a smart phone and hasn't had one of these moments, seriously?

And finally, I realize I haven't talked about this yet this month, but yes, I totally finished my novel on Tuesday, huzzah!  Total page count for the first draft was 137 pages (which is an excellent number if I do say so myself) and 76,487 words.  I feel so amazing for having done that.  I will definitely be revising this story and expanding upon it in the coming year.  I can think of a few dead-end plot elements I'll need to to through and excise, and a few scenes (mostly from a certain character's point of view) that I want to go back and add now that I know what the actual story  arc for this first novel turned out to be.  I do definitely want to write at least one, if not two more books in this universe as well, because, well, while I feel like a lot of stuff did happen in this book, it largely set the stage for a lot more other, bigger, stuff to happen next.  Also, the conflict that I thought would be the big final conflict in this book?  Totally didn't happen yet, it's got a little while before it comes to a head, I think.  So, there you are.  NaNoWriMo, it rocks.

I am off to have lunch with a friend from my former job and then to have a spectacularly relaxing weekend.  Maybe, just maybe, I'll get motivated and put up some of the Christmas decorations inside.

I hope you guys have a wonderful weekend as well.