I'm Participating in NaNoWriMo

I'm participating in NaNoWriMo for the first time this year. Nervous, anxious, and happy excitement don't even come close to describing what I am feeling.

I don't know what I'm writing; I've never gone past the 5,000 or 6,000 word mark when trying to write a novel on my own. Do I expect to win NaNoWriMo?... No. But I am very competitive so I'm hoping this will help drive me, and stop allowing life to get in the way.

What am I most excited about with NaNoWriMo? I think I would have to say, I'm most excited for the challenge. Work has not exactly let up, although it has lightened up on me from the time I was putting in for September. I can only hope it doesn't pick up again.

What am I most worried about with NaNoWriMo? Mostly, I'm worried I'm not even going to start writing a novel. I have the briefest of ideas and need to flesh it out more. How brief? I couldn't give you a one sentence summary even if you held a gun to my head. My idea you could say is still hiding in the fog of my brain.

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year? I'd love to connect with you, my username is Pixi714 - same as my twitter.

Cheers to a productive November. Good luck and happy writing to all participating!

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Book Review: Led Astray the best of Kelley Armstrong

Led Astray the best of Kelley Armstrong is a collection of short stories all written by Kelley Armstrong. There is one short story that is original to this collection; all the others have been previously published in other publications.

Each story, while short, pulls you in to the world which I think is a great accomplishment. In short stories the author only has a short amount of time to grab you and explain what they need to so you can follow and understand the scene and characters.

There are so many characters and some I wish had longer stories. There were a few of the shorts, that once they were over, I had to put the book down to recover. I wanted more about those characters that badly; I didn't want the relationship to be over.

If you haven't heard of Kelley Armstrong, go pick up this book. You'll find yourself hooked on all her series after these short stories.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review by my request via NetGalley.com as approved by the publisher, Tachyon Publications.

I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

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Dewey's 24-hour Readathon The End

Well, another Dewey's 24-hour readathon has come to an end. I didn't finish any books, and am not even half-way done with Crown of Midnight. I never picked up (other than to move them) the manga/graphic novels I checked out of my local library.

I participated in the first few mini-challenges, and had tons of fun with them. You can find my entries on my social media, one I posted on Facebook, and I think there were a few others I posted on Twitter.

How many hours did I read? Well, even I don't know this one. There were some breaks because I became tired with the book and put it down. There was a break for lunch and going to the Cider Mill, and I did take naps through the night time period because I was tired, and because I didn't want to be completely tired today. Perhaps in April I'll take notes and I can compare reading stats between readathons.

Since I am not even half-way through Crown of Midnight, I'm not sure I'm going to get to Queen of Shadows this month. I still think I can get to and through Heir of Fire, but I may have to return Queen of Shadows and request it again later, or go get my own copy.

Now that the readathon is done...it's time to go do the work that followed me home. *starts crying* Hopefully this won't take very long and I will be able to get halfway through Crown of Midnight before I go to bed tonight. (Follow me on Twitter to see if I make it.)

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Dewey's 24-hour Readathon Hour 0

Okay, so I'm a little late. I went to bed at a reasonable hour, and earlier than I usually do. For some reason, I woke up around 4 in the morning and just laid there. I felt tired enough to fall asleep immediately; go figure as to why I only laid there wishing for sleep. So here we are, 15 minutes in and I'm just starting this post.

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? - I'm reading from the wonderful state of Michigan.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? - I'll go with Crown of Midnight since it is the book I am currently reading, and really want to read this series. The next book in the stack is Heir of Fire. I do have some smaller books to break it up and help myself feel like I've accomplished something.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? - I'm not really thinking about snacks. It's usually whatever I feel like at the time, so I have a few to choose from. Some healthy, and some not so healthy.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself! - I can go with the flow really well. No I don't mean meld into a crowd and think what I'm programmed to think. I mean I'm good at thinking on my feet, and allowing snafoos to occur and not freak out when plans change.

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what's one thing you'll do different today? - I'm thinking I'll take more breaks to nap this evening. Hoping this will help keep me going the full 24-hours.

On with the readathon! May all participants have fun in whatever mysterious, historical, or fantastical places you may be transported to today.

September Goal wrap up and October Goals

September was not a great month. My job required me to work a lot of extra hours so I didn't have a lot of time to do other things. Here are the goals I had for September and how I did.

1. Read 5 or more books - this may be kind of ambitious with how things are at my day time job, and with my family. FAIL - I was only able to read 2 books in my spare time, with what little time I had while listening to audio books while I worked.
2. Post on this blog 2-3 times per week - again this may be kind of ambitious, but I'm going to do my best to make it work. FAIL - I was not able to post as often as I would have liked.
3. Post YouTube videos 2-3 times per week - I already have most of these planned out, it's just a matter of recording and editing. FAIL - I again was not able to record and edit videos for uploading as often as I would have liked.
4. Post on Twitter 2-3 times daily - it's already September 4, and I'm not doing too well with this. Thank goodness there is still plenty of time for improvement. FAIL - I did good for a few days, but most of the month I don't think I posted at all, or maybe posted only once.
5. Complete a story outline - outlining is something I have trouble with and need to practice. Hopefully I can knock one out this month. FAIL - I do have ideas, but was not able to put them 'on paper' as you may say.
6. Finish mudding our bedroom - obviously this has nothing to do with reading or writing, but our bedroom has been in a state of construction for several months with nothing done to it. It's time to finish the project. COMPLETE - Yay! I finished one goal....

I managed to complete only one goal, and it didn't pertain to writing or reading. Hopefully October will be a little better.

1. Read 6 or more books - again this may be ambitious, but if I fail this goal, it means I will not have finished the Throne of Glass series before the books will need to go back to my local library. You may wonder why I don't renew them, it's because I won't be able to as there is a list of people waiting for the books so I have to return them.
2. Post on this blog at least once a week. This should be doable.
3. Post on YouTube at least once a week. Again, I shouldn't have a problem.
4. Post on Twitter 2-3 times daily.
5. Create a Facebook page. This is already done, and you can find me on Facebook here.
6. Post on Facebook at least once daily.
7. Complete a story outline. This will need to happen if I hope to participate in NaNoWriMo next month. Until earlier this year, I hadn't heard of this, but of course wasn't worried because there was almost a whole year. Now here we are, one month before, and even almost half-way through the month before. I have about 2 weeks to complete this.

I'll be participating in Dewey's 24-hour Read-a-thon, I'm hoping this will at least help with my goal to read 6 books. I will also be a cheerleader helping to keep others reading.  

Here's to you and good luck on reaching your goals for this month. I'll let you know next month how I did with mine.

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