I Just Won NaNoWriMo, Does This Mean I Can Read Again?

I did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Take a moment to be awed.

Go on, I'll wait.

I reached the 50,000 goal at about 10pm this evening (actually I hit 50,294 because I was being a good girl and not checking my word count after every paragraph like usual).

Am I done? Heck no!  I think in the end the book I'm writing will be closer to 80-90k, and then after edits back to a nice 70k or so.  I have sooooooo much fixing to do that it's not even funny.  Except some of my mistakes are pretty amusing.  XD

But now I can allow myself to read again.  I just haven't been able to read much this month because I didn't want to accidentally rip off other writers (well, anymore than I could help to).  So I put aside my Generation Dead book, because my novel is a young adult novel, and made little progress in my early Christmas present from Papa King- The Dome.  And I really, really want to read it, but it's huge and every time I cracked it open my own novel somehow managed to glare reproachfully at me despite only having physical form on my laptop.  NaNoWriMo guilt does strange things to a person.

This month has gone by quickly, and for the most part I did a really great job with writing every single day.  There were a couple days (three to be exact) where I wrote not one word.  But thanks to a great early start I was never behind.  I read on someone's blog that the best way to approach NaNoWriMo was to get a lead early on, which is what I did.  Other than the first day, when I managed the minimum of a little over 1667, I was always well ahead.  On average I aimed for 2-3 thousands words a day, which made my days where I wrote little to nothing all that easier to deal with.  Once I passed the 20k mark I even stopped panicking.

Expect some long awaited reviews to post in the upcoming days, but for now I am going to crash.  I've spent the last 3 days with the family or at Write Ins and I am exhausted.  Plus I have to work all day tomorrow. 

Thanks for all the support from all of you guys and gals here and on Twitter.  It meant so much to me, and it really helped spur me on knowing that other people were aware that I was attempting this.  And I'm sorry in advance because I'm going to put you through the same thing come April for Script Frenzy (I just know I can write a horror movie that Tarantino will want to "present"!). 

I Know I Need To Book Blog, But NaNoWriMo is a SOUL EATER!

I have read lots of books since my last review.  Between the readathon and my own love of literature there are 6 or so books I have failed to review in the past few weeks.  In my defense, I've been busy.  Immediately after readathon I worked a few days straight, and then I was busy getting my apartment house guest clean for my Okie friends Bittner and Ame.  Then I pretty much banned myself from the computer whilst they were here.  I got out of the house (!), I only read a little (and that much simply because 13 Reasons Why is pretty hard to put down) I watched a butt load of Halloween horror movies.

My friends were here through the 2nd, so I dragged them to the Richmond NaNoWriMo kick off party on the first.  They agreed, and both are actually planning on participating, which makes me super happy.  Also at the party were my brother Michael and my niece Sam, both whom I introduced to NaNo.  The party was a blast, and I went in quite happy, having woken early that day to get in my word count.

I've wanted to participate in the National Novel Writing Month program for a few years.  Both times I chickened out.  I love writing, and I've even written some short stories I'm not ashamed of.  But I have always failed at writing a novel.  I'm easily distracted by bright and shiny new story ideas.  I didn't think I had the discipline to write a novel (I know I lack the talent, but I'm full of great ideas). I was determined to do NaNo this year.

So far I am doing awesome! I'm ahead of my word count goal, I've ignored distractions and written even when I didn't feel like it.  At over 11k words, I've already written more of a novel than I ever have before.  I'm beginning to believe I can do this!  I don't even care if it's a suckfest, just being able to say I wrote a novel is going to be a huge achievement. 

But I will try not to neglect you, oh dear book blog.  You are part of the reason I feel confident this year.  Through you I have met so many awesome bloggers, some even participating in NaNo, and some who are just cheering us word slaves on.  Thank you!  I might even do Script Frenzy in April (I'm not sure yet because I am not allowing myself to even think of an idea for a script at the moment).

So, books I've read recently and will presumably review in the somewhat near future:

Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestley
Shadow on the Dial by Anne Lindbergh
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Dead Until Dark (re-read for Sookie challenge) by Charlaine Harris

Currently reading: Generation Dead- which I'll try to do a Friday First blog with tomorrow.

But for now I am wordless and tired.  I need my rest so that I can re-set my end of the week word goal to 17k- I would go for 20k but I work weekends and won't have as much time to write as I would like, but I'll re-evaluate after tomorrow.  Wish me luck!

On Vacation... sort of!

I am not MIA- but my friends drove all the way from Oklahoma to Virginia to spend Halloween with me, so my internet time has to be sacrificed.  I had to stay up late to post this!  Will be back by Tuesday to give a post Halloween run down, and maybe actually do a wrap up on readathon!

So, until then dear readers, get reading!  And if you're doing NaNo this year, get plotting!  I expect to see how many words you're up to come Tuesday.  I'm dragging my wonderful friends to the NaNo kick off party just so I can stay motivated.  Did I mention how awesome they are?  Love you, girls!!

My Book Reading Companions Challenge

Reading is seldom a solitary activity if you have pets, so here's mine:

Riley (our first born) This picture does not do him justice.  He is HUGE, I'm pretty sure that makes us bad kitty parents...

Joey (she's a girl). Believe it or not, her eyes have never actually popped out of socket, but they do bulge a bit.

                         

Emmy, our third and final baby. She's a chi-weenie.  She's usually right up against me, cowering from Riley.  He's a bit of a bully.

And I must not forget my favorite baby of all: The Hubs

<----Hubs

So, there you have it.  My reading companions.  Don't forget to check out this mini-challenge here.

Good reading to all!

Mini Challenge: Collections

I collect... weird socks.  It goes back to the day when I was a bookkeeper for a grocery store.  We had to wear khakis, and to top misery upon misery, khaki colored shirts.  So my one rebellion was wearing weird socks, which I've continued to this day.  Here's a few pics of them.  I had to use my cell phone for this one, but here they are:

 

Mini Challenge #6- Perspectives

 Here's the challenge:
Perspectives 

• Challenge: Name three books that are told from a different world view, a different perspective, that you have read and enjoyed. Give a one sentence summary of the book, and another sentence that explains how the book shares a unique perspective. The prize books are great examples of this different perspective. In “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time”, the story is told from the perspective of a book who has autism- he sees the world very differently than someone without autism. “A Prayer for Owen Meany” tells the story of Owen Meany- a boy with a entirely unshakeable certainty about the future…he knows his own ultimate fate, and sees things in a whole different light because of it.

And here's my 3 books:

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz: the story of a young man that sees dead people and tries to help them. >Odd Thomas is such a quiet, unassuming hero that I find quite inspiring.

The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule- nonfiction of account of true crime writer Ann Rule as she discovers her dear friend, Ted Bundy, is a serial killer. 

The Host by Stephenie Meyer: The story of invading alien species told by an invader herself. < I've read lots of alien invading stories, but the unique perspective of the alien itself was refreshing, and made me think of how our world would look to a gentler, more advanced species.

Mini Challenge #4: Book Title Senteces

Okay, here's my attempt at making a sentence:

It reads: When she was bad Scarlett burned Whitethorn Woods.

I almost used the book Little Children in place of Whitehorn woods, but that's maybe too morbid for a fun mini-challenge. 

Still reading Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror- so much reading left to do!!! I'll be lucky to finish 3-4 books this readathon.