In Which We Celebrate Halloween

Happy Halloween!

I hope you have a fun day full of candy! (mmmmm candy...)

Twin and I will watch a scary movie while handing out candy tonight.


BUT, what we really enjoy about Halloween is pumpkin carving (that, and the subsequent seed roasting). We each carve at least 2 pumpkins. It's always a challenge to make sure no one sees your design until we unveil them to each other.

I don't think this year was my best year, but it still turned out OK.

I like to do either large eyes or large mouths. Brother likes to point out that I excel at huge mouths with a crap load of sharp teeth. And this is true, I do.

Here are my pumpkins for 2010.

I wish I had taken the time to scrape the teeth of this one, but it was late and I was the last one carving as usual

Twin likes to do simple pumpkins. And she likes to brag that she's always the first one done. Which is true. She did 3 pumpkins this year

Brother typically likes to do weird or complicated ones, like a witch doctor wearing another pumpkin as a hat. Or a pumpkin who's been cut in half by a scythe.




Unfortunately it was late by the time we were done, so we didn't have time to roast the pumpkin seeds, so no picture yet of those. Hopefully I'll have a picture of that tonight.

Does anyone else carve pumpkins, or do anything fun for Halloween?

Friday Fun Words

George here today, since last week it was Yvie's birthday and this week it's MY BIRTHDAY! wOOt!

I'm 5 years old. It's quite a distinguished age (it matches the distinguished gray on my cheeks)

For presents we got a few more stuffed toys (which have already been destroyed) and some new antler to chew on. WIN!

Unfortunately Mom forgot to take pictures before the toys were destroyed, so you will have to imagine the giant pink pig for me and the smaller green elephant for Yvie. Also, Tula got a giant tennis ball.

Onto the words!

Trita - a trite Rita

I don't know what this has to do with a trite rita, but it was the first pic that popped up

Fooked - get your minds out of the gutter. This one really means when you've hooked a fool

Concents - when concerts have accents.





Debrate - when you berate a debate. It mostly just ends up in shouting




Cryinfi - when a baby just will not...stop...crying...




That's it! Yvie will be back next week, as usual. George out!

In Which...I Have...Nothing?

So, um, Hi. How are things? Good, good. Nice to hear that.


As you can tell by the title, I've drawn a blank about what to write about. I had some fun writerly posts planned, but can I remember them now? Hell no.


November is going to be a bitch of a month for me. With NaNo, my Mom's B-day, Thanksgiving and a bajillion great video games I need to play, I am going to be busy.

The video games are the biggest issue. Fable III came out yesterday



(I pre-ordered it, because you'd better believe I need the exclusive sword and tattoo) so I want to be playing that like every minute. Not to mention I'm still pretty enmeshed in Halo Reach.



Then throw in Force Unleashed II and Rock Band 3, both also released yesterday, and the super duper exciting Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, with a release date in November, and I am one busy gamer.








It's times like these that I thank my lucky stars that I'm a fast writer. If I wasn't, I'd probably be on a fast train to NaNo failure. But since I can do my daily word count in less than an hour, that leaves me plenty of time for my other nerdly pursuit.


So, what's happening in your lives? Anyone else busy because of frivolous pursuits?

In Which We Generate Conflict

One week until NaNo! Woo Hoo!

Are you excited? I'm excited. I got my scene list/outline created yesterday. Now I just have to figure out some biological questions regarding my sea serpents. (Mostly, should they be mammals, reptiles or fish? I'm leaning towards mammals for reasons related to another character, but there are downfalls to the mammal option as well.)

OMG! This sea serpent is totally badass! I LOVES it!

Have any of you other plotters out there started your outlines yet?

OOOH check out this fun website I found!

It's a random plot point generator!


This is really helpful for me because I'm always looking for bad things to happen to my characters. When I cant' think of something off the top of my head, I always default to "a fire breaks out"

Needless to say, I think you can really only have so many fires in so many novels before you need to break away from that.

At this fun website it generates random bad things that can happen. Obviously not all of them pertain (especially since I write fantasy and there aren't things like phones or cars) but I would say a good 50% of them are usable.

For example:

"Aliens attack"

"Peer pressure is fun. Especially when it convinces your character to shoplift, trespass, or go naked"

"There is battle/conflict/fight/duel and the loser gets their ass kicked so badly it is just embarrassing for everyone involved. This conflict should upset the balance of power, with the winner walking away with all the spoils" (I really like this one)


How is everyone else's NaNo idea coming along? (for those of you who plan ahead, anyway).

Friday Fun Words

They say it's my birthday! LALALALALALALALA! I'm gonna have a good time! LALALALALALA!

That's right ape-friends! Yesterday was my birthday and I turned the illustrious age of 4 years old! That's pretty awesome!

I had a great day too! I got to go on a long walk, and got lots of love. I even got some canned food for breakfast!

Oh, also, I got PRESENTS!

We do things a bit differently in the house because George and My birthdays' are so close together that I get half my presents on my birthday and the other half on George's. BUT! This is what we got yesterday!

TOYS!

Some sad news on my birthday as well, though.

My sister guinea pig, Lady Godiva, passed away during the night. I spent many an hour over the last few years, trying to get in the cage with her.

She would have celebrated her 6th birthday on Halloween.

You'll be missed, grandma pig. The pig cage isn't the same without you.





Now, since I've had a pretty good birthday, I shall celebrate by letting you expand your vocabulary with new words!

Here we go!



Bearnsa - Mensa for bears



Acimex - acid to help clean your clothes after you eat Mexican. Similar to Chipotlaway



Juggin - chugging from a jug



Snowvana - snow nirvana





Parche - a parched arch



And that is all for this week, pals! I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

In Which I Make A Soundtrack

With the new WIP approaching due to the beginning of NaNo around the corner, I've decided for this WIP to make it its own super special soundtrack. A task made easier now that I've succumbed to the siren song that is iTunes.

Since the new novel -

(which I've temporarily titled Glimpse of Another Shore - which is kinda cool because it's from a sea poem, but also ridiculously melodramatic. But for now it stays because if you want a chance to be picked for one of the 30 Days 30 Covers NaNo competition (where graphic artists pick a NaNo WIP and create a cover for it based on the synopsis) you have to have a title and a synopsis entered)

- is a sea novel, and everyone lives on little islands and makes their livings off the sea and there's sea serpents and a Navy and my MC and his siblings are all named after sea aspects, I think the soundtrack needs to be as seaworthy as possible.

I'm sure I'll throw Enya's Caribbean Blue on there. I'll also probably include Dethklok's Into the Water and maaaaaybe Murmaider (which is about mermaid murder and is as awesomely metal as it sounds)

(BTW - I've added a playlist below, in case you want to check out any of the songs I mentioned)

Also I'll for sure add Fair to Midland's Tall Tales Taste Like Sour Grapes since it has kind of a sea sound (and I lurrrrves it) and maybe I'll throw in Dance of the Manatees, not because it sounds like the sea, but because it has manatees in the title.

I HOPE I could find an iTunes version of this: (he filmed this during xmas, which explains the hat and tree)




OMG, isn't that just EPIC AND AWESOME?! My favorite parts are at about 1:30 and 1:45. I should probably actually just look for the Windwaker theme on iTunes and see what I can find

Anyway, this is where you come in bloggy pals - I am looking for recommendations and suggestions for songs which remind you of the sea and/or the water.

I'll check them out on iTunes and then add the ones I like to my playlist.
Hopefully this will be awesome.

Anyone else making a specific playlist for a new project/NaNo?

In Which I Edit

So October has been my own personal editing month - a PeNoEdMo, if you will.

I made myself a little spreadsheet (because I know you all know how much I LOVES spreadsheets) to keep track of where I'm at.

BEHOLD!



As you can see, when I took this screen print it was last week. (UPDATE - I added a more recent screenshot)

It's not a super pretty spreadsheet (unlike my NaNo counter which has colors and special formatting and junk. I'll whip that baby out once NaNo has started)

I've been pretty good about doing the line edits, but not as great transcribing the changes onto the digital copy. Le Sigh.

Ah well, I'm totes on track to be done with the line edits before the beginning of NaNoWriMo (Excitement!!!)

Are you ready for NaNo? Have you been editing, and if so, how's that going for you?

Friday Fun Words

Yvie's back, babies, to provide all my glorious readers with new words to expand their vocabularies.



Unfortunately, this week the word verification machines were pretty lame. Not a lot of words to pick from.

Sigh. Come on guys, you need to give me more to work with here.

Well I'll give you what I got and then throw in some other fun stuff or whatever to zazz things up.


Onto the words!



Imporat - An important rat






Sigh. Yep, that's it. Just one lousy word. Ah well, here's some interwebs fun.

In Which I'm So Excited!

But I'm not so scared. Ha! - just a little Saved By The Bell humor for those nerds who watched the show (I'm looking at you Teebore and Joan)

Who is so frickin pumped for NaNo? Because I am.



I spent last Friday working on my idea. I use the first 5 steps of the snowflake method. Then I write a query and then a scene list and it's time to go!

I've gotten through the query, but haven't done the scene list yet. I think I'll hold off a bit on that until closer to NaNo start.

Does anyone else write a query before they write the first draft? (I think Elana says she does...)

Here's mine, full of choppy and rough draft edges:



In a country where one member of each household must serve the navy in the war effort, sixteen year old Pier Arvin is doomed to spend his life as an "exotic" kelp farmer. Lame.

When Pier finds an orphaned sea serpent he decides to keep it as a pet. Everyone knows a serpent will eat a man faster than he can blink so surely the serpent, Rule, will add some excitement to his life.

Joint swims around the reef and close calls with sharks show Pier you don't have to wear a naval uniform to find action or catch the eyes of pretty girls. But when Rule accidentally injures Pier's younger sister and then attracts the attention of the enemy navy, Pier realizes the idea of war is completely different than the real thing.

Now he has to make a choice, surrender Rule and his town to the enemy, or risk his life in an attempt to free them all.



That's what I have entered in my Novel Info page.

Speaking of which, I need more of you to write about your novel ideas in there.
How can I successfully stalk you guys on NaNo if you have no novel info yet? It's hard. So do stalker me a favor and add some info so I can get all excited for you.

Also, when are they going to add word count widgets for 2010? I want one right now!

Are you excited? Or Scared? (or hopped up on "caffeine pills"?)

In Which October Is An Important Month

Taking a short break from my usual silly fun stuff to let you know that October is Adopt a Shelter Dog Month.

This is a month that is near and dear to my heart. Let me tell you a little story why.


It was January 2007. Our family Sheepdog, Bess, had just died unexpectedly on my youngest sister's 16th birthday. My parents were dogless. Twin, Brother and I were living together and had my frenchie George, who was a year old, to heap love upon.

Then, one night, I received a text message from Twin (who works at the shelter).

This was the text message:





I texted her back - "What is it?" even though I was pretty sure I knew.

"A fawn pied frenchie puppy. 11 weeks old."

I tried not to be excited. I always told myself when I got another frenchie, I wanted a fawn pied girl. But I didn't want another dog for 5 years or so.

Twin texted me another message and pic:

"Her owner bought her at a pet store as an impulse buy. She didn't realize how much work a puppy would be. And also she lives in an apartment and the puppy, Boo, cries and barks a lot."




I didn't want a puppy. George was still a puppy, technically, and two puppies at a time was a lot of work.

Twin texted our parents, to see if they were interested. They said it was too soon for them to get a dog again. But they wanted someone to have that puppy, so they'd pay for half of her adoption fee.

This was an unexpected crack in the wall I was trying to build around my heart. Twin and I agreed she'd bring Boo home the next night to employee foster.

I spent the whole next day trying to come up with better names than Boo. Something to match George's "Georgie Porgie Pudding Pie" nursery rhyme name. I already knew, unless it was a complete failure as a match, that she wouldn't be going back to the shelter.

When Twin brought her home from the shelter, she had pooped in her crate and rolled in it (many puppy mill puppies (puppies from pet stores) don't have a concept of staying clean from their waste).

The first time I saw her in person she stank, she was covered in shit, and I already loved her. Brother suggested we call her Evie after V for Vendetta but Twin and I changed it to Yvie, short for Yvette.

There is not a moment of my life where she doesn't fill my heart with love and adoration. Every time I see her, every time I even think of her, I'm filled with joy.

She didn't need to be rescued by us. She would have been adopted in less than a day at the shelter. But we selfishly snatched her up and every day she lights up our lives.

So, now you know why Adopt A Shelter Dog Month is so important. My family surrounds ourselves with dogs, and Yvie stands out. She was less than 300 dollars and worth a thousand, a million times that. There are so many wonderful dogs out there that are willing to share their lives with someone, all they need is a home, a chance, to show you how they can enrich your lives.