And thus begins December...

I am proud to say that as of 12:23pm on November 30th, 2012, I completed NaNoWriMo for the first time.

Extracting Demons is my first real attempt at novel writing and I am proud of where my first draft ended up. For the next few months, I will be spending extensive time editing and rewriting- a task not for the faint of heart to be sure. I am hoping that somewhere around February it will be ready for self publishing.

I've been going back and forth, wondering if I should go through all the anxiety of submitting query letters and trying to pick up a publishing house/agent/etc. I know in my heart this isn't the novel/series to do that with. Not to say that I don't think my work is good enough for publishing. It definitely will be once I am done with it. However, the genre I'm writing in is currently over-saturated and going the self publishing route makes more sense for me.

Once I get some editing done, I'll begin to post excerpts from the book. Other than that, I'm working on marketing myself, which is an extremely uncomfortable task for me. I just need to grow a set and do it, right?

Side note for anyone doing NaNoWriMo next year:

Using OpenOffice is not the best idea. The word count programming used in OpenOffice is different than the one used on the NaNo site. They count differently and when I first went to validate my word count, it was off by around 1200 words. Not what one wants to see when they think they are done! I double checked my word count using Google Drive. It seemed on par with the NaNo site.

So next year, while I might be writing in OpenOffice, I'll be checking the word count accurately using Google Drive each time I update.

Cider and Milestones

Today marks the day where I am officially 1/5th of the way done with my novel. As in, 1/5th of the 50k word goal for Nanowrimo has been met.

That's fucking awesome. This is easily the longest story I've managed to write. Normally I get to 5k and either end up bored with it myself or scared to put more effort into it. I'm a short story kind of girl. I like to get my thoughts expressed concisely.

Then again, maybe I haven't yet found a character worth more than a measly 5k.

This character though, is definitely worth it. At this 10k mark I feel like I haven't even gotten to really delve into what makes her amazing. Which is good. Instead of just water ballooning the reader in the face with it, I'm digging up fossils.

How do I feel at this milestone? Good. Really good. And excited but nervous for the rest of it.

What am I drinking to celebrate? Fox Barrel's Blackberry Pear Cider.

It's delicious.

How can you say no to delicious?

PS- Everyone should watch Wonderfalls. Everyone should also watch Red Dwarf. This has been your PSA for the night.

Supplies!

Nanowrimo weekend writing supplies:

6 pack of Angry Orchard Apple Ginger Cider
Bottle of Jack Daniels
2 packages of Keurig Starbucks coffee Breakfast Blend
Leftover Halloween candy
Software to block myself from Facebook

 WOO!

Possibly the most confusing abbreviation ever

Guess what?! It's NOVEMBER! And that means its National Novel Writing Month. Or, as its fondly known, Nanowrimo. I found out about this around July this year and have been incredibly excited to get to November so I can start writing for it.
To participate, all you have to do is write. To win, all you have to do is write a novel of 50k words or more all within the month of November. A challenge indeed!
So time to stop being lazy and WRITE. I'll try to keep track of my progress on here a bit and I've joined the Ft. Lauderdale regional forum group for it on the Nanowrimo site.
If you want more information the official site is http://www.nanowrimo.org
I encourage everyone to sign up and participate!

Hair Metal & the Apocalypse

     Three years ago I learned that a show called Supernatural existed.
     Six-ish months ago I learned that show is currently available online from Netflix.
     WHY THE HELL HAVEN'T I WATCHED IT UNTIL NOW?!
     Seriously, what is wrong with me? This show has been airing since 2005. In 2005 I'm pretty sure I was obsessed with all things occult related. I'm pretty sure I'm still obsessed with all things occult related. It has two obscenely good looking guys in it. Why am I so late to the damn party?!
     This isn't the first time something like this has occurred. It was at the tail end of season two that I realized Haven existed. If it hadn't been for a random Syfy (I still completely disagree with the change in the network name, for the record) promo I caught online I never would have known about it. I knew all about Eureka, Warehouse 13, and Alphas (still need to watch all of Sanctuary and Being Human but that's a topic for another day). So why not Haven? Haven has Emily Rose. SHE IS HOT. And quite frankly, the show is more my cup of tea than any of the others I just mentioned (the exception being Eureka. Super science still wins). I even modeled and named my Star Wars: The Old Republic character after Audrey Parker ( a little obsessive, I know, but as previously stated...Emily Rose is gorgeous).
     What I'm really trying to say here is this: Facebook, please stop giving me ads about Duracell batteries and city building games. I don't care. I'm just going to stick to Google+ because I make sure to follow Felicia Day and you know what? At some point she ends up in EVERY good show. It's only a matter of time before she magically appears on Haven. A girl can dream, right?
     Also, I need to stop living under a rock. Or at least get a rock with cable. I can't trust the internet to provide me with accurate knowledge of things. Which sucks. Because I HATE cable.

Mmm. Pastels.

Practicing using pastels. I made this for my aunt who is so wonderful that she is meant to live somewhere that looks enchanted.

Recently Watched

I've been watching a lot of Netflix lately. Here's what's been on my recently watched list:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Negima!?
Monk
Cruel Intentions
Lemonade Mouth
Geek Charming
My Little Pony Friendship is Magic
Drop Dead Diva
Stargate SG-1
The Good Witch
Eureka
Doctor Horrible
Damages
The Guild
Arrested Development
Fraggle Rock
Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior
Life
Being Human

And that is a culmination of what's been causing me to procrastinate. That and I really really want to finally get through all of Buffy. I just got to season 5. Woo!