Of October Madness

I know I used this in my last post, but I’m posting it again because it’s an accurate depiction of my feelings right now. (Which is why I put together this handy graphic. ;))

I’m a little in shock about it being November already. How. Even.

Still, my October madness ishness was as follows!

Life

I feel like I was gone all month — if not literally, at least mind-wise.

I went to a fair/rodeo thing for the first time in forever, which was a lot of fun. Also some NaNo events — yay!

Then last week I was camping . . . Just the right thing to do before NaNo instead of plotting, am I right? 😉

I was also sick for a week smack-dab in the middle of the month, which totally threw me off. Not to mention my dead internet.

I basically spent the month in a blur of being insanely busy and unprepared, flailing around trying to get caught up on things and prepare for NaNo and panicking over The Rose and the Raven and not having my NaNo novel plotted. …Actually, I’m still panicking over those things! Funny how that works…

Watching

I saw Ever After: A Cinderella Story, which I always hear about but had never seen. It was not what I was expecting, but fun.

I finished my re-watching catch-up of the Hunger Games movies (paiiin) because for some reason the final one is coming out in a couple of weeks… I still haven’t read the books so I know next to nothing about what’s going to happen in Mockingjay Part 2, except a certain couple of deaths; but I have a feeling I’m going to be very upset about the entire movie. *sigh* I don’t even know why I inflict this series on myself…

I also saw Age of Ultron again. HAWKEYE!! 😀 No, I’m not going to shut up about him; he’s just the best, okay? Don’t deny it.

Star Wars Youtube Stuff

I saw two Star Wars things recently, so that gets its own category this round of Ishness. 😉 Have you seen the new trailer for Star Wars Episode VII (The Force Awakens) yet?? It is HERE and looks amazing.

And it’s not new, but I only just saw it and thought it was funny enough to share if you haven’t seen it: a Star Wars Episode I (The Phantom Menace) parody of the song American Pie. It’s really funny.

Reading

I read nothing in October.

I know, I know, you’re probably as shocked as David Tennant… And so am I. But my month was SO insane I had positively no time to read. I was going to read a very long book for review (that I happen to be EXTREMELY excited about. I’ve been waiting for this book to come out for a year now) and didn’t get to it and consequently got to nothing else.

So. No books. It’s sad.

Writing

Mostly my writing this month was (trying to) plot The Silver Forest. And getting distracted by Tare from my Kedran’s Wood series (because he has no sense of timing) and ending up plotting his series as well accidentally, and being informed there’s yet another novella in the series, bringing it up to 9 stories. Also Teague, from The Other Half of Everything, who has, if possible, an even WORSE sense of timing, tried to distract me too. So I ended up writing snippets of both of them (not together, though; thank goodness).

I also did some writing of (my possible Rooglewood Press contest entry) The Rose and the Raven, bringing its total up to 5k words, as I believe I mentioned. It’s currently on hold (perhaps indefinitely…. I don’t even know right now. But I can’t focus on anything besides NaNo at the moment).

My total words for October was about 3000. Which, for the month before NaNo and considering the insanity, I’m calling a win.

October Snippets

For fun, here are some snippets of The Other Half of Everything, and of Tare and friends. In which Teague makes it his life goal to turn Meridian into a bookworm, and Tare makes spicy tea.

The Other Half of Everything

    Teague sighed as if he carried the burden of the world on his shoulders, and stood up. “My new life goal is to turn you into a bookworm. Preferably of fantasy. Read this.” He held out a book with a plain brown cover.
    “What?” I said.
    “Read it,” he repeated.
    “Why would I want to read a book?” I protested.
    “Pretend it’s a movie.”
    I gave him a look. Then I tried again. “Why would I want to read this book?”
    “Because I am selflessly lending it to you. What do you do when people are kind enough to lend you things?”
    “Normally I put them carefully on a shelf and then do my homework,” I said without thinking, forgetting momentarily that I had graduated.
    “And then?”
    “And then I procrastinate over doing them until the last second before I have to give them back, because I never actually want to do them and am just being polite.”
    Teague gave me look of mild disbelief. “Polite? You?”
    I leaned forward slightly, looking him squarely in the eye, and said very seriously in a lowered voice as if it was a secret: “Are you talking to a mirror?”
    He pushed the book toward my face and I was forced to grab it as he dropped it—which apparently he knew I would do. Infuriating. Then he turned and started crossing the room. “Just read the book.”
    “Again: why?” I asked his retreating back.
    “It’s homework,” he said over his shoulder.
    “Homework?” I repeated.
    Teague spun halfway round. “Yes. Because I am your employer and I said to read it.” There may have been a glint in his eye.
    “You’re evil.”
    “Nope. Just your employer. And are you not listening? I said this was my new life goal. It would be extremely considerate of you to go along with it, you know.”
    I shook my head and gave up. It was too ridiculous. “If you say so, ‘boss’.”
    “ ‘Teague’, thanks,” he corrected as he sailed off through the door back to his writing.

***

A series of loud thumps proceeded from the direction of the kitchen. Then silence.

“I don’t want to know what that was!” I called.

“Remarkably wise of you,” Teague called back.

“I still don’t want to know what that was!” I warned.

“That’s probably for the best.”

***

Mixup at Kedran’s Wood (KW 2.5 novella)

Tare leaned over and poked the fire in the hearth with the poker. “Anyone want some tea?” he asked.
    They sat in stunned silence, blinking at him, until he finally looked over his shoulder at them.
    “Some what?” Ivy demanded.
    “Tea,” Tare repeated with a flat look. “You know—that thing that people drink.” There was a strong note of sarcasm behind it.
    “But why would—?” Lavender began, trying to understand why Tare was talking about tea or why he would have any.
    “Because it’s there,” Tare cut in, exasperated, “and I thought I’d offer you some. Have it if you want.” He flapped a hand in the direction of the table. “Otherwise, forget it.” And he dropped into a chair.
    Now that they looked where he had waved, they saw the brown tea pot crouched on the table among the other stuff, steam curling upward from the spout.
    “Did it not come in black?” Baz teased.
    Tare tilted his head with a fake and humorless smile. “Haha.”
    Marie poured some of the hot tea into a few brown ceramic cups and handed them around.
    “Ooh, cinnamon!” Baz said happily, staring into his cup.
    Tare sent him a weird look. “There’s . . . no cinna—”
    But Baz had taken his first sip, and started to cough. After a cautious sip from each of the others, most of them were coughing too. Tare just looked at them all like he couldn’t figure them out.
    Adrian grinned. “Come on, guys, it can’t be that bad.” Adrian took one large gulp, choked, coughed several times, and managed to splutter, “What is in that?”
    Tare gave him a hard stare. “I told you. It’s tea.”
    “That’s not tea, that’s dragon fire in a cup!” Jake gasped, clutching at his throat.
    “Well excuse me for not noticing the dragon when I was making it. I guess I need to work on my observation skills.”
    “No, really, what is it?” Marie asked.
    “It’s ginger tea,” Tare answered, nonplussed.
    “No way—what else?” Adrian said.
    Tare shrugged. “Lemon and honey . . .” He paused as if thinking. “And cayenne pepper.”
    “Seriously?” Ivy exclaimed
    “Oh my goodness,” Lavender managed.
    “Is that what the little floaty red specks were—not cinnamon?” Baz squealed indignantly.
    “What is wrong with you that you would ruin perfectly good tea like that?” Marie said.
    “And then feed it to your friends,” Adrian added.
    “Maybe he wanted a good laugh,” Jake said.
    “Maybe he wanted to kill us,” Baz put in.
    “Maybe, I’m neither laughing nor killing anyone and don’t understand what is wrong with you that you are all dying on me over some tea.” Tare folded his arms.

What’s Next?

So that’s what was up in October. As for November, well, as you may guess I’m very busy writing! If you’re doing NaNo and would like to be buddies on the site, you can find me here. 🙂

I don’t know how “around” I’ll be online this month, but never fear — I’ve scheduled some posts of some old writings of mine on the blog this month so that I won’t entirely forget and abandon y’all. Hope you’ll enjoy them!

And good luck on whatever your plans are, especially all you NaNoers! (Only because you may need more “good lucks” than less insane people. 😉 ) YOU CAN DO IT!

Meantime, I’d best get going on filling this November with some Ishness of its own.

I’m off into the Silver Forest. I may get lost on the way, but it’s bound to be interesting all the same. See you on the other side…

(And I’m just going to leave you with this thing I made, even though only Leverage fans will get it…)

#WritersLife Tag: NaNo Edition

I wasn’t specifically tagged for this, but writerly stuff is pressing on my mind what with NaNo coming in less than a month (EXCUSE ME? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN??), and Cait did say to consider yourself tagged if you’re a writer, and she stole this herself, so… Yes. I’m just going to do this tag because I want to. 😉 So I’m stealing it from Cait @ Paper Fury and using it for my own purposes. *devious laughter*

I’m NaNo-theming this #WritersLife tag because NaNo is coming sooner than any of us are going to be ready for it.

WRITE FUEL:

WHAT DO YOU EAT/DRINK WHILE WRITING?

I actually don’t usually, because food is messy around laptops (ask my character Baz about the properties of Devious Mustard…) and I’m not really a snacker… I will sometimes drink hot tea or something during NaNo while I’m writing because, let’s face it, November can be cold sometimes, and if I’m going to be writing for like three hours in a day, I might want to drink something warm.

WRITE SOUNDS:

WHAT DO YOU LISTEN TO WHILE WRITING?

Generally instrumental music like soundtracks or Celtic music I have around… During NaNo it either has to be inspirational (i.e. sound gorgeous or epic) or it has to be REALLY fast for ideal typing speeds. I’ll listen to stuff with lyrics if I really like it and if it won’t distract me. I haven’t yet decided what my music of choice is going to be this NaNo, but last year when I was word-warring myself against a timer, I listened basically non-stop to this song which is stupendous for fast typing.

WRITE VICE:

WHAT’S YOUR MOST DEBILITATING DISTRACTION?

During NaNo, every. single. thing. that I can come up with. I’m a horrible procrastinator. But probably the internet. I know, that’s sooo surprising. But it only takes a minute to check email, the NaNo forums, Goodreads, etc., right? …Right? *hours later* “Oops, I should have been writing, now it’s bedtime.” #fail This year I’m going to have to set some serious rules about internet (even though I have super-good excuses like being an ML who should be keeping track of stuff. But I must write too!).

WRITE HORROR:

WHAT’S THE WORST THING THAT’S EVER HAPPENED TO YOU WHILE WRITING?

When I lose some writing because I was stupid and didn’t back it up. Fortunately, that hasn’t happened TOO often… During NaNo, it’s being behind and feeling completely and utterly stuck, writers-blocked, and despairing. That’s generic, though. The worst thing that HAS happened is probably my first year of NaNo, when the final day dawned and I still had 8k left to write, absolutely no plot figured out, and no inspiration. (I overcame it though! Nearly five years later, I’m still amazed I managed to write 8k of utterly pantsed NaNo novel that day.)

WRITE JOY:

WHAT’S THE BEST THING THAT’S EVER HAPPENED WHILE WRITING OR HOW DO YOU CELEBRATE SMALL VICTORIES?

The best thing is when you finish something. That never, ever gets old. But, during NaNo, it’s easily hitting the wordcount goal for the day and being super inspired/on a roll and ahead of schedule. Fabulous feelings! I don’t celebrate much, usually, other than being excited and maybe shouting it through the house or posting somewhere online to squeal about accomplishments. For big things, I might reward myself with some chocolate or reading a Diana Wynne Jones book or playing on Pinterest.

WRITE CREW:

WHO DO YOU COMMUNICATE WITH OR NOT COMMUNICATE WITH WHILE WRITING?

My sister gets the main load of writing complaints and excitements. My lovely braintwin/writing buddy Christine, too, gets a lot of that. And during NaNo, there’s a wealth of forum places on the NaNo site to celebrate and commiserate, especially with people in your age-range, or genre, or region. So some of that goes on.

WRITE SECRET:

WHAT’S YOUR WRITING SECRET TO SUCCESS OR HIDDEN FLAW?

Secret to success during NaNo is setting a timer and word-warring against it to really fast music. It works. I only survived last NaNo (on a road trip) because of that. Because, wonder of wonders, if you actually start writing and write for 5 or 10 or 15 minutes, at the end of that, you WILL have words. And that’s going to add up. Who knew, right?

Hidden flaw? I’m a procrastinator, a perfectionist, and I don’t actually sit down and START writing during NaNo. …Not that those are all that hidden. *cough*

WRITE-SPIRATION:

WHAT ALWAYS MAKES YOU PRODUCTIVE?

I want to repeat the above writing secret. NaNo wordwars, either with yourself or someone else, are super productive-inducing.

WRITE PEEVE:

WHAT’S ONE THING WRITERS DO (OR YOU DO) THAT’S ANNOYING?

It’s really annoying when I don’t write. Like, when I say I’m going to write and I don’t. Or anytime during NaNo when I SHOULD be writing and am not…

(Thanks, Mal. I needed that…)

WRITE WORDS:

SHARE ONE SENTENCE FROM A PROJECT, PAST OR PRESENT.

Well, since I haven’t started my NaNo yet (obviously) I can’t NaNo-theme this answer…

A line from The Rose and the Raven, my current Sleeping Beauty retelling project:

Whatever it was, it wrapped around his heart—the feeling of an almost insubstantial web . . . the shadow of a black cloak, a whisper’s echo, a ripple in a midnight pool; an invisible spiderweb, greyed with ashes, clinging to him somewhere that he could not shake off.

I’m not tagging anyone, since I did after all “steal” this, but if you’d like to do it on your blog, feel free to take it as well, NaNo-themed or otherwise!