Well, I meant to update this every week in November, but as per usual, that didn’t happen. But, hey, we’re here now, so let’s talk about the things we love! 🙂
WRITING: NaNo was good this year. I didn’t make it to 50,000 words but I did get 29,116. That’s more than half and better than I’ve done in previous years. But really, the take away from this was that I still really love my story and there was no way I was going to be able to write the entire thing in a month, much less in 50,000 words. With all the words I did write, I’m not even half way through the story. I have no idea how long this is going to be, but it was liberating to just write.
I’ve had problems in the past where I over think every word choice and every scene. But I feel I truly let go of that this month. I just wrote whatever came to mind, even if I cringed while I wrote it and knew I’d have to change it, or kill the words, later. It didn’t matter, November was all about getting the words out of my head and onto the page.
That was a lot easier to do with my handy dandy AlphaSmart. I love this thing. *Hugs little keyboard*
READING: Two notable things here: 1) I finished Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. I think this was one of my favorites of his. I’ve mentioned this before in my other reviews of Gaiman’s work, but sometimes I feel really disconnected from his characters and stories. It’s not always a bad feeling, but I’m used to being very sucked in to a story and sometimes reading Gaiman feels like a short drug trip that leaves me bewildered by the end.
Well, that wasn’t a problem with Neverwhere. This was pretty solid for me and the characters and world felt real and interesting. I enjoyed it a lot.
And the other cool reading thing is that I got to meet Brandon Sanderson last week! 
I love his books, I love his writing style, world building, characters, everything. He’s a genius and I just want to crawl around in his head and figure out how he does it so well.
Anyway, I got to meet him and get a few books of his signed. I brought along my copy of Mistborn and ended up buying two new books. The one he was touring to promote Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection and an older one I’ve been meaning to read (an am currently devouring) Warbreaker. Sanderson is such a cool and nice guy. I ended up being near the end of the line and it was close to 11:30 by the time I got to him but he still smiled and talked to me even though he must have been exhausted.
I told him he was a big inspiration for me and then mentioned that I should be finishing up my NaNo. He said he needed to finish his too and then told me to go back to writing. 😀 I walked out of there glowing. 😀 Now one of the major things on my Bucket List, after getting published, is to become well known enough that I can be actual friends with the man. *sigh* A girl can dream. 😉
DOING: Well besides the usual Thanksgiving and getting ready for Christmas stuff, I found this fun little app called Colorify. It’s basically a digital adult coloring book with tons of different designs, patterns and mandalas. Here’s some of my better ones.
It’s really relaxing and a little easier than actual coloring with pencils and paper, since I can do it while laying in bed.
PLAYING: Hearthstone came out with a new expansion last week called Mean Streets of Gadgetzan. I’ve been playing a lot over the last few days. It’s a fun expansion with over 130 cards. I don’t have many yet since I only had the gold I’ve been hoarding over the last month. But I managed to get two dozen packs the first day and enough dust to craft a few extra cards.
This expansion introduces a few new card mechanics and combos, like being able to buff minions while they’re still in your hand, or summon a small minion that gets bigger every time it’s summoned, or being able to create your own spells. It’s very fun to play around with.
WATCHING: I recently discovered that my local library actually has a decent selection of DVD’s available. I picked up a few the other day, including Jane Got A Gun and Tales of Earthsea.
Jane Got A Gun was fantastic. A tiny bit slow at times, but totally worth it in the end.
Tales of Earthsea was beautiful. Of course, it’s Studio Ghibli, they can’t do ugly. But, I felt like there’s a lot of the story I was missing. It made me desperate to read the book so I could understand it all. Earthsea has been on my To Read list for a long time. I’ll put it at the top now and find it after I finish Warbreaker.
Well, that’s what I’ve been up to the last couple weeks. What have you been, or will be, Writing, Reading, Doing, Playing or Watching? Leave a comment so we can squeal about the things we love! Thanks for dropping by!
I feel really good about this year. I have this new dragon project I’m really excited about and, with both kids in school, I have a couple hours every morning to write. At my best I can do about 1000 words/minute.
5 Stars 
5 Stars 
5 Stars
DOING: Well it is Halloween and it’s been a fun weekend. We made the boy’s costumes because what the boys wanted was pretty specific. William is a Wither Boss from Minecraft and Jacob is a spinosaurus. Not exactly costumes that you can find at Wal-Mart. We like using cardboard, duck tape and felt.
PLAYING: Well of course I’m still playing far too much Hearthstone. I’ve been working hard to build the good decks that can compete in Ranked mode. The highest I’ve gotten is 13th with 2 out of 4 stars. That’s out of 25 levels, by the way. It’s tough because I’m still missing one card in my top deck.
WATCHING: I’ve been in a period piece mood lately, so I checked out the Amazon Original Love & Friendship. It’s based off a Jane Austen novella and it was great fun. All the characters are so ridiculous and crazy, but, as is typical with all of Austen’s work, everyone gets their happy ending. It was an enjoyable little movie to watch.
WRITING: I’ve been very busy outlining my new WIP. I’ve got the first couple chapters planned out in pretty good detail. Now I just have to decide which way I want the main conflict to go. I’ve got the set up and I know how I want it to end but there are a lot of ways to get from point A to point Z.
The whole family enjoyed it. The little boy who played Pete was great and Elliot the dragon looks amazing. He’s basically a big green dog with wings.
Kricket's Korner 