Happy Halloween and NaNoWriMo!

Happy Halloween!

I'm still sick- my cold turned into sinusitis but at least now I'm on some antibiotics so I hope to feel better soon.  Today's Halloween, so I'll spend tonight watching scary movies and munching on chocolate (diet is back on Tuesday morning!).  

And now for something completely Crazy:

find it here

Last night I dragged my sick butt (I originally typed sick little butt, but who am I kidding?) to the NaNoWriMo Kick Off Party at Capital Ale House.  This year the turn out was good, but not as big as the past two years that I've been going.  Also I was not my usual social butterfly self, but I did get one of the comfortable chairs and chatted the night away with book club/NaNoWriMo buddy, Susan.  Good times and good beer- even though I was very careful not to drink much because of my meds.  

So National Novel Writing Month kicks off November 1st, and for those of you that don't know it's basically a month of intense writing in order to churn out a novel, or to write at least 50 THOUSAND words in 30 days.  I "won" the challenge in 2009, but never finished the novel, and then I failed in 2010.  This year I'm trying something different- I'll be writing a collection of short stories that will be connected somewhat loosely.  I am determined to finish this year!

So determined in fact that I'm doing Fake Steph's Epic Write-A-Thon- 24 hours of writing on November 5th!  Now, straight up, there is no way I can write for 24 hours, but I'm going to really immerse myself in writing and shoot for at least 10k word count in one day since I know that there may be days that I can't meet my daily word count (personal goal will be 2000 words a day, but it's always easy to be optimistic in the beginning).  It's really important to get a head start in the beginning because it just gets harder once you start losing enthusiasm for the project and just start introducing new characters for the sole purpose of killing off and plumping up your word count. 

Despite being sick and Saturday being rainy and hella cold, I was able to help my niece and a few of her girl scout friends get zombie-fied for the Zombie Walk.  I wasn't able to actually do the walk, because it got pushed back to 4:30pm and I had a book club meeting to go to, but I did get dressed up and went to the pre-walk meet up in Byrd Park.  Here's a pic of my sister-in-law and our zombie girl scout troop:

Have a wonderful Halloween and let me know if you're doing NaNoWriMo this year!  Add me as a buddy if you are- I'm Rigby9091 on there!  

Not Much of a Wrap Up Post

So volunteering at the Kinder Corner at my local Octoberfest the night before a 24 Readathon turned out to be a bad idea.  I just assumed that I was too old to stay up almost 24 hours straight, so Sunday was a bit of a wash for me, and I stayed in bed most of the day telling myself that my allergies were just bad.  Then Monday I could no longer tell myself it was allergies.  I have a cold.  A bad one, or I'm just being a baby, it's hard to tell. I even called in today, which I rarely do since I prefer to get paid if I'm not feeling well.  So now I have today and tomorrow off and hopefully I can be good for tomorrow night's Zombie Walk Make-Up Workshop.  Although if I'm still sick come Saturday's Zombie Walk I won't need any make-up, I already look, walk and feel like the living dead...

Anyway, I had planned an official wrap up post for Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon.  I was going to brag on the organizers, the cheerleaders, the readers and all the awesome bloggers who participated in my Book Sentence Challenge.  But really, all I want to do now is curl up on the couch and wait to feel better or just die already.    So thank you, to everyone, for making the Readathon so much fun!  And most importantly:

Readathon would not exist if it weren't for Dewey, and her memory will live on forever through the blogger's lives that she touched. 

I would type more but my head hurts and I'm tired.  I just wanted to get online while I still had some energy but it is gone. I am sure I will feel better tomorrow, I just need to take it easy today. 

Readathon Hours 16-24

 

 We are in the home strech!

It's hard to believe I'm still awake, although I may nap soon in order to be fresh for my time of Cheerathon!

Books/Pages Read: None
Challenges Done: None
Blogs Visited: None
Snacks Consumed: Tried to take a quick nap, so snoozed whilst the Hubs brewed me some coffee!

Books/Pages Read: 51 pages of The Lover's Dictionary

Challenges Done: Re-read Challenge:
Weirdly enough, I'm not re-reading any books this go around (except maybe Scary Stories 3, because I can't remember if I read that before).  So what are my favorite Re-Reads?

(in no particular order)
The Final Friends series by Christopher Pike
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
The India Fan by Victoria Holt
Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
It, The Stand, Eyes of the Dragon and most Stephen Kings novels but those 3 the most
The Idiot Girls Action Adventure Club by Laurie Notaro
The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe

...and probably a million more.  I used to be the queen of re-reads, but since blogging the world of books has opened wide and I no longer have to re-read because I'm bored or in a reading rut because my tbr piles are so full of undiscovered wonders.  But some books, the ones on my list, will always call me back to them.  I can remember the first, second, ninth time I read them, they are connected to moments and memories of my life.  Books are familiar friends, the ones that makes us laugh or cry, the ones that hold us, the ones that like to yank the rug from beneath our feat, and the ones that call us home.

Blogs Visited:  None
Snacks Consumed: Just coffee

Now it's time to get my Cheer On!!!

Books/Pages Read: None, it turns out I can' really listen to audio books an cheer... at least I can't cheer properly and I owe it to the readathon participants to read their posts and not just copy and paste a cheer (well, I am copy and pasting cheers, but I'm prefacing them by a real comment, such as Wow, that cat is fluffy, or I don't think you should have eaten that!)
Challenges Done: None because I suck and I'm not doing this for charity... I should really do that next time because I'm feeling pretty shallow right now.  Of course I'm really only deep in the Jack Handy's Deep Thoughts kind of way, which is actually shallow too....
Blogs Visited: A bunch of blogs for bloggers who names start with M!

Snacks Consumed: Käsekuchen, which is some awesome form of German cheesecake I picked up last night at Octoberfest.  And coffee!

Books/Pages Read: Still Cheering!
Challenges Done: Still Cheering!
Blogs Visited: Still on the M's, but I'm finally done with the Michelle's so it should go faster!
Snacks Consumed: the rest my slice of german cheesecake and the rest of my cup of coffee and some water

Books/Pages Read: None, Spent the hour cheering!
Challenges Done: Coming up with witty rhymes to keep the readathon fun times!
Blogs Visited: Finished the M's and breezed through the N, O, P's!!
Snacks Consumed: Just some water, all my snacking is giving me acid reflux!  Time to take a quick nap so I can be back on the readathon attack!

Books/Pages Read: 72 pages of The Lover's Dictionary (finished)
Challenges Done: None
Blogs Visited: None
Snacks Consumed: An allergy pill (allegedly non-drowsy). I probably could have stayed awake, but thought I'd be better if I took a half hour nap and woke up at 5am...

Books/Pages Read: But
Challenges Done: I
Blogs Visited: Slept
Snacks Consumed: Though the 5am hour....

Books/Pages Read: Waking
Challenges Done: Just
Blogs Visited: Minutes
Snacks Consumed: before 7am (so most of 6am, asleep!)

 Books/Pages Read: 90 pages of Scary Godmother

Challenges Done: End of Event Meme:

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? Hour 22 and 23, in which I slept!
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? The Lover's Dictionary was fantastic!  And I really enjoyed both the second volume of the Twilight graphic novel and Shel Silverstein poetry (I read Every Thing On It, but all his books would be good). 
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?  Other than sending  cheerleaders to my house to keep me awake in the wee hours?  Nope, Readathon is perfect!
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?  I really thought the Cheerleading was well organized, and all the Readathon hosts were right on time. 
5. How many books did you read? I think I finished 6, but read a bit out of 3 others.  My pile has scattered, so I will check it out later.
6. What were the names of the books you read? I will fill this out when I am less sleepy.
7. Which book did you enjoy most? Toss up between Every Thing On It (which made me laugh and read things out loud to my Hubs) and The Lover's Dictionary (not all the parts made me laugh, but I did want to read so much of it out loud!)
8. Which did you enjoy least? I guess Who Killed Mr. Chippendale?  I was expecting a bit more from it.
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? Just prepare cheers ahead and try really hard to leave a personal comment before cheering, so that you're not just copying and pasting as you blog hop.
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?  I live for Readathon, so yes I will participate, even if you ban me.  I will definitely be a cheerleader and reader next time, and maybe a challenge host again.  

And the Posterity Library Challenge over at Roof Beam Reader (quite the clever challenge!)
And Fancy Terrible's Get Up Offa That Thang- perfect early morning wake-up challenge!
Blogs Visited: None, but I will try to visit a bunch when I wake up!
Snacks Consumed: Nuts, coffee is busy warming up~, half of a very large cup!

Readathon Hours 10-15

And the Readathon goes on!  My little nap refreshed me and my headache is gone!  May take another nap later since I'm signed up to cheer during hours 18-21, but that's okay.  I'd rather nap a few times then crash and burn, falling asleep and miss the entire evening!

So how's everyone doing?  How's the reading , and more importantly, the snacking going?

My youngest niece (and the one named after me!) enjoying a donut. Sadly, I was not invited to this little trip to Krispy Kreme, but I wants me a pumpkin donut!  Oh, Krispy Kreme, you are to donuts what household chemicals are to meth- highly addictive and dangerous to my health!

Books/Pages Read: 78 pgs of Twilight Graphic Novel Vol. 2 (finished!) and it was GORGEOUS!
Challenges Done: My Perfect Anthology by Reading Romances.  Here's my (completely self-absorbed) answer:

Okay my Anthology would be called Stories for a Midnight Book Girl and it would feature stories by my favorite authors and feature me in every story!  Narcissistic?  Why, certainly!  :)
Authors: Stephen King, Joe Hill, Maeve Binchy, Christopher Pike, Sarah Addison Allen, Dean Koontz, Laurie Notaro, Meg Cabot, Maureen Johnson, Edgar Allan Poe (you didn't specify the authors had to still be alive!), Lauren Oliver, Frank Millar, Kristin Cashore, and Dan Wells.  It would come with a bonus cd featuring songs about me by bands like Coldplay, U2, Snow Patrol, Metric, The Bangles, The Beatles, Rufus Wainwright, Ryan Star, and Toad the Wet Sprocket.

I know, I need professional help.  Hopefully that'll be a prize I can win later on in Readathon!

Blogs Visited: Reading Romances
Basket Case Space
Snacks Devoured: This little piggy is full for now, but I hear pizza calling my name!  *Kaaaate, Kaaaaate, eat me, Kaaaaatieeeee* Oh, shut up pizza, I will come cook you in a minute!  Food can be so demanding at times!

Books/Pages Read: 76 pages of Every Thing On It, reading the super funny poems out loud to The Hubs.
Challenges Done: Book Trailer Challenge hosted by Quirky Girl Reads
The Book Trailer I choose: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhl7lbRNxoM
Blogs Visited: Books I Done Read
Snacks Devoured: The Hubs says Pizza Time!! So cheese pizza and red wine (and more water- my poor, poor bladder!)

Time to close my challenge and pick one random winner and one spooky sentence winner!  A huge thanks to all that participated- your creativity AMAZES me! ;)

Books/Pages Read: None, I spent over an hour looking at awesome book sentences though!
Challenges Done: Picked the winners for my own challenge!
Blogs Visited: Over 60!  Wow, people, wow!  Here's some (and I am too lazy to link all these):
The Avid Reader's Musings
http://avidreader25.blogspot.com/
Books and Things
http://killie-booktalk.blogspot.com/
Cerebral Girl
http://cerebralgirl.blogspot.com/
Haunted Orchid
http://hauntedorchid.blogspot.com/
Sherry Ann's Book Blog
http://blogbysherryann.blogspot.com/
Raist24
http://raist24.blogspot.com/
Bøker og sånt.... (oh, that's right, throwing a little foreign language your way!)
http://askine09.blogspot.com/
Jane's Book Blog
http://janeharfeld.blogspot.com/
Northern Stories
http://northern-stories.blogspot.com/

Snacks Devoured: More pizza, finished my glass of wine, some water and bite sized Kit Kat bar.

Books/Pages Read: 104 pages of Every Thing On It
Challenges Done: None
Blogs Visited: None
Snacks Devoured: Just water this hour, although I think it's time to pop some caramel corn!

Books/Pages Read: 15 pages of Every Thing On It (done, and it was good!) 17 pages of Ghost Poems

Ghoulies And Ghosties

From ghoulies and ghosties,
Long-leggity beasties,
And things that go BUMP in the night,
Good Lord deliver us.
                    Anonymous

Challenges Done: Not a single one this hour (it never posted!)
Blogs Visited: Sorry walked the dog, made some pain-in-the-ass caramel popcorn, and texted with my niece who WON"T STOP texting me.
Snacks Devoured: The pain in the ass caramel popcorn (it is yummy though!) and even more water.  Giving that bladder quite a work out today!

Books/Pages Read: 12 pages of Ghost Poems (finished) and 86 pages of The Lover's Dictionary
Challenges Done: Feed Me, Seymour and the Friendship Challenge (where I once again prove my loyalty to Stephen King- that crazy Annie Wilkes ain't got nothing on me!)
Blogs Visited: None, trying to get some reading in before I have to cheer in a couple of hours!
Snacks Devoured: Um... this hour?  Hmm, maybe a mini Baby Ruth and more water.  May need to snack on some sleep for a few minutes soon, but The Lover's Dictionary is sooooo good!

Book Sentence Challenge

It's still early in our 24 Hour Readathon, but you've earned a fun break.  And I've got the perfect challenge to keep those creative minds of yours churning.

It's time for the Book Sentence Challenge!!

 

The five sharp teeth bite the it girl.

This is a simple challenge, using the books you have in your home (sorry, e-books do not count during this challenge) make a complete sentence out of the book titles.  Take a picture and either upload to your blog, facebook, or twitter account.  You must use at least 3 books and use ONLY the titles.  It doesn't have to make perfect sense, but in order to make it fun and challenging you can't add words.

Now for prizes:

One random winner will win a $15 Amazon gift card which will be emailed to you.

And because I love Halloween, I will personally pick a book sentence that I consider the "spookiest" to receive a copy of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  

This challenge is open to everyone and will last 3 hours.

This is my second time hosting this challenge, but in the past I've been a participant.  This was my first attempt on my very first Readathon way back in Oct of 2009:

When she was bad, Scarlett burned Whitethorn Woods.

Good luck, can't wait to see your results!  Simply comment with your link below.

Readathon Hours 5-9

Readthon is going good- and in Hour 4 I managed to mostly stay off the computer, yay me!  Hour 5 doesn't look so promising though, as I'm getting hungry so lunch will have to be gotten.  Many thanks to my lovely husband, Aaron, for making the Starbucks run!  Happily sipping my Salted Caramel Mocha.

Be sure to stop by hear at Hour 9 for my Readathon Mini-Challenge!

Books/pages read: 24 minutes of the audio book for The Night Circus (read by the incomparable Jim Dale!)
Challenges done: None, fixed lunch instead
Blogs visited: My friend Kimberly, who just started blogging TODAY in order to get the most out of readathon, The Bookie. Give her some follow love! 
Food eaten: Home made bacon cheeseburger, water and the last of my Salted Caramel Mocha (sad face).

Books/pages read: listened to 10 minutes of The Night Circus audio book, just started Breathe, 8 pages in!
Challenges done: Top 5 Mini-Challenge hosted by Lisa's World of Books:

Top 5 books I'm looking forward to: 

Of course I'm looking forward to King's new book, I'm a Midnight girl!

 I feel like it's been forever since Delirium, and I needs more!

 I really looked Graceling, and loved Fire, so I am definitely looking forward to this one!

 Despite the fact that The Passage took forever to read, I really want  to read the sequel!

What can I say?  I have a thing for serial killers (fictional ones, not real ones!)

Blogs visited: No new blogs this hour.
Food eaten: Coffee, water and a Lubecker Tart that I got at last night's Octoberfest:

Books/pages read: Listed to 34 minutes of The Night Circus audio book
Challenges done: I'd Rather Be At The Beach's A.K.A Challenge (which is fun, go do it!)
Blogs visited: I'd Rather Be At The Beach
Ballet Book Worm
Into The Hall of Books

Food eaten: Just water

Books/pages read: Have a huge headache, so I took a quick nap!
Challenges done: None, because I was napping, but I woke up so I can post mine for Hour 9!
Blogs visited: In The Next Room
The Joy of Booking
Food eaten: Munching on some Energy Mix from Planter's NUT-rition line.  Drinking water. 

Books/pages read: 162 pages of Twilight Graphic Novel Vol. 2.
Challenges done: Hosting the Book Sentence Challenge now!
Blogs visited: The Story Girl
 Ramblings
KiwiRia

Food eaten: a mini Twix bar and more water.  I need one of those portable toilets for the next readathon!

Readathon Hours 1-4

It's finally here! Readathon has begun!  I'll be posting about every four hours, and just editing the posts as I go so that I don't completely overwhelm your Google Reader.

 Hour 1, Things I Done:

Books/pages read: 19 pages of Bad Girls Don't Die (finished), 49 pages of Who Killed Mr. Chippendale?
Challenges done: Just the introduction meme
Blogs visited: Abducted By Books
Food eaten: Way too many mini-quiches and cups of cofee

1)Where are you reading from today? Richmond, VA!
2)Three random facts about me… I collect Halloween mugs, my middle name is Lorene but it's pronounced Lorena, and despite being a Washington Redskins fan and being raised to hate the Dallas Cowboys, I love and watch the Dallas Cheerleader's Making the Team show on CMT.
3)How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours? about 20
4)Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)? Nope!
5)If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time? Stay connected through Twitter and TURN OFF WORD VERIFICATION!  Cheer even if you aren't an official cheerleader!

 Hour 2, Here's What I Did, How 'Bout You?:

Books/pages read: 39 pages of Who Killed Mr. Chippendale- almost done!
Challenges done: Character Challenge

Character- the Black Cat from The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe

Blogs visited: Amused, Bemused and Confused
At Home With Books
Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog
The Brain Lair
Recreational Reading
Must Read Faster
Naked Without Books
Food eaten: Sadly, not a damn thing.  Didn't move from my spot even to do the Character Challenge. ;)

 Hour 3, Stuff Done By Me:

Books/pages read: 10 pgs in Who Killed Mr. Chippendale? (finished) 7 pages in The Turn of the Screw (put aside for now, it's a little to slow of a read for Readathon, but I will finish it this month!) 26 pages in Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones.
Challenges done: One Librarian's Book Reviews Book Puzzles:

Half-Minute Horrors (which is on my Readathon Tbr pile!)

Blogs visited: One Librarian's Book Reviews
101 Things in 1001 Days
Fake Steph
Lisa's World of Books
Epic (Chocolate) Fantasy
Food eaten: Cherry Orchard yogurt, water

Hour 4, My Readathon Chore:

Books/pages read: 81 pages in Scary Stories 3 (finished!)
Challenges done: The Avid Reader's Musings- State Setttings Challenge
Blogs visited: The Avid Reader's Musings
Food eaten: 1 mini Baby Ruth, water, 1 mini Kit Kat, Salted Carmel Mocha (thanks Hubs!)

Readathon Snacks- YUMMY!

 Readathon Snacks!

 

(yup, that's some eye popping bowl o'candy!) 

Got Readathon Snacks? 

 

 

You're reading all day and all of the night
And Sunday morning you'll surely look a fright
But just look at those books, a magnificent sight,
If Dewey's 24 Readthon is wrong, I don't want to be right!

Got Readathon Snacks?

Pre-Readathon Fun!

Tomorrow's the big day!!!  I am so super excited about Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon that it's a bit ridiculous.  And I'm okay with that, having embraced my spastic inner nerd long ago.  I'll be off to shop for Readathon snacks this morning, so expect another post soon.

Saw this on Facebook and it cracked me up:

Now I'm a fan of Twilight, and even though I'd already read the Harry Potter books, Twilight was the book that finally made me feel that it was okay for me to read YA even though my own young adult days are gone.  So I'm not Twilight bashing, but that said, this quote is totally true.  Twilight is literary candy, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Last night the Hubs took me to see Paranormal Activity 3 and it was super creepy and I screamed lots and once again wondered why the hell I keep insisting on going to see movies that I know will scare the crap out of me.  But ignoring my mental issues for a moment, we got to see the trailer for Daniel Radcliffe's new horror movie The Woman in Black:

Bet you wish you hadn't tossed that Elder wand, eh Daniel?

And I have to say, he's actually looking pretty handsome here, it actually took a few moments for me to recognize him.  

Tonight I'm off to an Octoberfest where I get to volunteer with the kid's soccer corner and turn down all that free beer that will be flowing from the free beer steins in order to be all sober and non hung over for tomorrow's Readathon.  Oh, the sacrifices to fun (and most often, dignity) that my inner nerd requires!  But I'm not only reading and obsessively twittering tomorrow, I'm cheering AND hosting a mini-challenge at Hour 9 and honestly my mini-challenge will be AWESOME.

Okay, now that I've started to go all caps on this blog, it's probably best to end this before I hit the caps lock for good.

Snacks to be posted later!

And I want to see your Readathon piles and snacks, and twitter names so that if I don't already follow you I can for tomorrow's big event! If you don't have Twitter or you never use it, trust me, Readathom is so much more fun with Twitter.  Just save the search for #readathon and we'll all be connected and my inner nerd will totally recognize your inner nerd.