catching up

Now that NaNoWriMo is over, I feel like I have my life back. Sort of. I'm no longer tied to my laptop for hours a day, but December brings its own craziness. So here are some little snippets I've been wanting to tell you but haven't taken the time to yet:

• Amazon is once again offering a free Christmas mp3 every day of the month through Christmas. Of course, these are hit and miss in their quality, but it's worth checking out.
• Last year, I blogged about Christmas music. Karen left a comment recommending Selah's Rose of Bethlehem. At that point last year, I'd already spent way too much money on Christmas music, so I didn't consider buying it, even though I love Selah. Yesterday, it popped up as a recommendation on Amazon. I listened to the 30-second preview of each song, and then I downloaded the mp3 album. Phenomenal! I highly recommend it.
• I officially have my first cold of the season ... fortunately, this cold seems to be controllable by DayQuil. Most of the time, cold medicine just knocks me out, but today I felt better after taking it! I'm hoping my ears don't get plugged ... that would make singing quite difficult!
• Speaking of singing, we have our first official Singing Christmas Tree concerts this weekend. We had a dress rehearsal last night, and things were pretty rough (as in nearly all the altos stopped singing during one song because we couldn't find our notes. It was truly painful). We have another dress rehearsal tomorrow night, and the concerts start on Saturday ...
• But I'll be missing the Saturday concerts because I'm going to see The Nutcracker in Omaha with our international students!
• You might notice new badge on the left hand side of the blog. I've joined another book review program--"Blogging for Books" for Waterbrook Multnomah. Multnomah put out the Palisades romances in the '90s, but they do publish books that aren't in the Christian romantic fiction vein. I'm very excited about the first two books I'm going to review for them, but as I don't have the books yet and the reviews can't be posted until sometime in January, I'll keep you in suspense a little longer!
• Saw The Blind Side with my sisters and cousins on Sunday. I loved it! It's a feel-good movie and it actually portrays Christians in a positive light! (Side note: Tim McGraw looks completely different when he's clean shaven and not wearing a cowboy hat!)
• I haven't posted on my other blog since Halloween. I do intend to remedy that soon, honestly!
• The latest issue of the Advance should be mailed tomorrow. (Finally!) You can also see it here. Note my awesome cousin Nate, trumpeter extraordinaire, on page 3 and my wonderful student council kids on page 8. The STUCO kids make my role as adviser fun and incredibly easy!
• I'm having a love affair with apple cider. STUCO sponsored a Thanksgiving social, and we majorly overestimated how much cider we'd need. I brought a full jug home with me, and I've been drinking some every night. How had I never before realized just how awesome cider is?
  
• My apartment is still completely undecorated. I did put up my stairwell decorations, so anyone who goes to the mailboxes will think I'm ready for Christmas. It's just a ploy. Maybe I'll have some time on Saturday???
• Cari suggested I write the book jacket synopsis for my novel and post it. That's a great idea ... I'll just have to force myself to do it! I will throw you a bone for now ... the title is Together for Good. 
• Have to give them points for creative marketing ... I got this in the mail the other day:
  
  
  
  
  
  I really have no interest whatsoever in the show (especially after reading the review in TV Guide), but I could always use another jump drive!
  
  
  
  
• Our amazing drama team took second place in our district this week! I love drama competitions because I don't have a real job to do--I just go along because I'm state certified and our drama director isn't. So I get to enjoy the play without the stress that comes with being in charge! The play is called "Searching for Happily Ever After." It is, as one of our judges so aptly put it, "Walt Disney meets the Bible."
  

month of insanity, day twenty-seven

I win!!!!!!!!!!

At 9:38 p.m., my phone rang. When I hung up a few minutes later, I looked down at my word count and saw that it said 50,008. I immediately called Stubes. Then I sat down to wrap up my novel. At 10:45, I uploaded a scrambled version to the NaNoWriMo website, and this is what I saw:

The official NaNo word count is 50,718.

Yippee!!!!!!!

Tonight, I plan to sleep well.

month of insanity, day twenty-three

I'M CAUGHT UP IN MY WORD COUNT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally!

I've discovered that 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. is my optimal writing time. I can crank out words like nobody's business during that two hour time period. Unfortunately, I also require sleep, but I'm not getting too much of that during the week.

I just looked at the word count meter on the left side of my blog. I'm more than 75% of the way there. That's so crazy!

I'd planned to cover a year in my novel. At 38,613 words, I've covered about two months. I know how the book is going to end, but I may have to change the time frame for that ending.

Tomorrow, I'm headed to conference one-act. I'm not sure when we'll be back, as we have to travel two hours to the competition, so my writing time may be cut short. For the first time since day two, I need to churn out less than the daily 1,667 to stay caught up, so I'm optimistic that I can stay on track.

When I realized I'd crossed the 38,333 mark, I started clapping and cheering (NaNoWriMo brings out strange things in me). I abruptly stopped when I remembered my neighbors, who last night pounded on the adjoining wall to silence Val's singing--at 9:30 p.m.!

month of insanity, day seventeen

Things I've learned in the last seventeen days:

• Watching my word count meter go up on the NaNoWriMo website is addicting. I have to fight the compulsion to update my word count every five minutes.
• My dishes won't magically do themselves. Yet I continue to hope they will.
• Most of my television viewing is extraneous. When I have to decide between watching a TV show or writing, I almost always pick writing ... and I don't miss the TV. I am keeping up with four shows (NCIS, Bones, Fringe, and V), but I'm taping most of them and watching them at odd hours.
• Facebook is never more attractive than when you're supposed to be doing something else.
• I really like listening to country music while I write.
• I actually can function on four or five hours of sleep ... but I don't like to!
• NaNoWriMo and dieting don't go hand-in-hand. It takes so much less time to grab fast food or a snack than it does to make a healthy meal.
• When I'm really focused, I can bang out 1,000 words in an hour. The problem is that I'm rarely focused.
• Fruit snacks are great brain food.
  
• I may be the writer, but sometimes I feel like I have little control over my characters. A new one will suddenly appear, one will make a decision I disagree with, another will refuse to die for pages and pages. Writing is an odd exercise.
  

month of insanity, day fourteen

By now, you all know that I'm writing a novel. In a month. The title of my Word document is "Insanity," which has absolutely nothing to do with the plot and everything to do with my mental state when I decided to do this!

As I write this, I'm at 12,967 words--just over a quarter of the way there. However, this is the 14th of November, so I should be approaching 25,000 words! I have managed to write every day except yesterday, when I didn't get home until midnight (and then I stayed up writing until 1:30, so I wrote during my day, even if it wasn't technically still Friday). I definitely need to kick it up a notch!

I've set a goal for myself today--to reach 19,000 words. Considering my average is just under 1,000 words per day, I'll really have to focus if I'm going to write 6,000!

Honestly, I'm beginning to doubt if I can make it to 50,000. I'd been planning to have a writing blitz during Thanksgiving weekend, but that weekend it quickly filling up, and it's looking like I won't have too much time to write then. (It's all good stuff--especially the bridesmaid dress fitting!!!--but I'll have to readjust my writing timeline.)

Two things keep me pressing ahead, in spite of my doubts: 1) I really want to be able to say I did it! 2) A printing company will print a free proof copy of any NaNoWriMo winner's book. I would love to hold a copy of my novel in my hands--even if I'm the only person who will ever read it!

month of insanity, day seven

This is so me!

month of insanity, day three

It's day three, and I'm still in it, but I'm struggling.

Yesterday, I basically started over. I kept what I had already written, but I totally changed the way the story was headed.

Today, I had great intentions. In the nearly six hours since I left work, I ...

• got a haircut
• ate supper
• watched NCIS with Val
• sang through all of my Singing Christmas Tree songs ... some more than once
• downloaded a free mp3 album from Amazon
• watched the first half of V (I quit watching in order to write ... funny!)
• drank approximately four cups of coffee
• played a Straight No Chaser video for Blendy
• previewed a bunch of songs on Amazon and iTunes
• drank a root beer
• blogged
  
• wrote a grand total of 130 words

Hmmm ... I'll probably be up late because of the coffee, so maybe my creative juices will kick in soon!

month of insanity, day one

NaNoWriMo began today. I started at 12:01 a.m., and I wrote 787 words before I went to bed. At this point, I think my novel is headed towards being really, really terrible. But the point isn't to write a good novel! (I didn't know what I was going to write until I actually started writing. I'm now questioning the wisdom of going with that idea, but I've already started, so I'm sticking with it!)

I left for church at 10:15 a.m. and didn't get back home until 6:30 p.m. Since then, I've written about 300 words and procrastinated a lot!

Here's my official Day 1 picture, complete with the items that will help me survive this journey:

• laptop (which has Facebook pulled up. Facebook is the procrastinator's dream/nightmare!)
• candle (for ambiance)
• liquid refreshment (in this case, lemonade ... but I've already consumed way too much pop!)
• Burt's Bees (there's actually a second one on the other side of the laptop. Can't risk having dry lips!)
• cell phone (to keep in touch with Blendy, who is also attempting to write a novel.)
• headphones (way more comfortable than ear buds ... and they make me look so cool!)
• comfy pajamas ('cause what girl wants to be uncomfortable while torturing herself?)

You can keep up with my progress by checking my official NaNoWriMo page. Wish me luck!

speak before the silence

NaNoWriMo begins tomorrow. During the month of November, you probably won't be hearing from me too much--unless I'm procrastinating. Then you might be hearing from me a lot!

Some things to say before I go silent:

• My incredible cousin Nate, who joined us on our awesome road trip to Oregon, has been selected to the All State band for the second year in a row. Last year he played 3rd trumpet; this year he's playing 1st! I gave him a check for my concert ticket the other day (so Aunty M, if you're reading this and haven't seen a check, go shake your boy down!)--I'm excited for November 20!

• I've been doing so much reading lately! (I'm sure that's about to stop, what with NaNoWriMo and all ... ) A few books I highly recommend (and may review at a later date): Coming Attractions (Katie Weldon Series) by Robin Jones Gunn, Get Married: What Women Can Do to Help It Happen by Candice Watters, Anathema by Colleen Coble, and Shades of Blue by Karen Kingsbury. I'm pretty sure I'll be writing about Coming Attractions and Get Married sometime ... maybe after November 30!

• I made the best hot fudge sauce the other day. It's my great-grandma's recipe. I have fond memories of eating this sauce on vanilla ice cream at her house. Muy delicioso!

• I'm beginning to seriously think about church membership. I grew up in a church where membership wasn't stressed, and I'd honestly never really thought about officially joining a church before. Some of you will remember that just over a year ago, I decided to switch churches. I wouldn't say that membership is pushed in my new church, but it's definitely encouraged. I'll be writing more about this later, I'm sure!

• I had the greatest thought last week as I was watching the tail end of an episode of LOST on some cable channel late at night: When LOST comes back in January, I won't have to watch it alone and then bore/confuse my mom with the details at work the next morning. Why? Because Val and her roommate will be able to watch it with me!

• Watch this video. (Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to embed it here, so you'll have to click through to the website.) Now be jealous of me and my mom--we're going to a Straight No Chaser concert in December!!! Merry Christmas, Mom!

writing, reading, and browsing

• I'm going to do it. At least I'm going to try. After starting and never finishing a multitude of stories, I'm going to write a novel. Next month. It will probably be terrible, but that's OK. I've signed up for National Novel Writing Month, affectionately known as "NaNoWriMo." My sisters and I have talked about doing this for a while, and last year I even joined a writing group organized by my friend Jen's brother ... and I got all of 1600 words down before I quit. That won't happen this year--I'm determined to finish!
• I just read Lonestar Sanctuary in an evening. It's the prequel to Lonestar Secrets, which I reviewed for Thomas Nelson. Lonestar Sanctuary was good, but I didn't enjoy it as much as Lonestar Secrets. For one thing, I had the bad guy pegged pretty quickly, though I couldn't figure out his motive. Also, I wanted to scream, "You're married; it's OK to admit you like each other!" at the two main characters a few times (I think I had that reaction while reading Lonestar Secrets, too). Here's a brief synopsis of the story:

Everyone close to Allie is dying. A madman is targeting her, and she doesn't know why. With no one else to turn to, Allie and her daughter Betsy head for the Bluebird Ranch.

Every day, Rick deals with the guilt of knowing he was responsible for his best friend Jon's death. When Jon's widow shows up at his ranch, Rick knows he must protect her, so he offers to marry her and adopt Betsy.

Rick and Allie's marriage of convenience soon turns into something more. But will Rick be able to trust Allie with his past--and will she learn to trust him with her heart?

Maybe I should be a book jacket copy writer ... what do you think?

• Have you ever clicked the "next blog" button at the top of my blog (or any other blogger blog)? I did tonight ... and I learned that Jennafer is moving to Disneyland, Kat really likes writing poetry, and J believes the Kremlin will be responsible for a nuclear apocalypse that will be blamed on the Jews and Americans--oh, and he was crucified in a past life and may (I wasn't clear on this point) be Jesus reincarnated. Then I got stuck in some horrible loop where clicking "next blog" sent me back and forth between a Japanese blog and this blog called "Robots 4 Change." J was definitely my favorite!