Happy Halloween!

I’m taking the day off of blog posting so I can spend that time tracking down a birthday present for my dad. I knew I forgot something. >_>

Just for Fun: Character Interviews!

It’s been a long time since we did something just for fun, so here it is: Character interviews!

Cute but totally unrelated to writing

I thought I’d share some pictures of Rocco doing his thing. ^^ I’m so proud of my puppy and how far he’s come in the past few weeks. We’ve only had 8 lessons, but he can run a course now, and he does really good as long as I don’t get lost! This first picture is him on the catwalk. I used to be so afraid he’d try to jump or fall off, but he never does. He’s so brave!

Rocco loves the A-frame, but he’s not supposed to be just standing there! He climbed right up to the very top, and decided it was a nice view and just looked around. Sheesh Rocco, this is a timed event! At least he’s better here then on the teeter totter. He’ll do the teeter. Crawling on his elbows. With his eyes shut. >.<

Competition height is a lot higher than this, but since Rocco is only 10 months he’s not allowed to really jump. We can’t wait until he’s old enough to get points for these endeavors, but we love practicing anyway! The feedback is also great. Right after this picture we have a jump and a tunnel, and Rocco kept going for the tunnel when I asked for the second jump. One of the people also running the course was kind enough to point out I needed to switch sides to tell him that!

Rocco loves the pause table, which shocks me considering how full of energy he is. I should probably also mention that in a real competition Rocco would not be allowed to wear a collar, or if he does it has to be a trial collar with no tag.

Rocco is doing really good for his age, but the problem with having a puppy is…when he gets tired he just goes to sleep! I had to take him out early yesterday because he fell asleep and couldn’t seem to do more than stumble around after the first few rounds. >.<

Silly puppy.

NaNoWriMo just 9 days away!

National Novel Writing Month begins November 1st, and I need your help. For the past two years I’ve competed in NaNoWriMo while in Washington. These past two years I have also failed. I made it to 10,000 and 15,000 respectively. This year I want to win, but I need help keeping myself honest and actually writing the 1,667 words a day I need to succeed.

My story this year is going to be about two civilizations that live in the dragon lands. The only two civilizations who can. One group consider the dragons sacred, the other group considers them sport to be hunted.

My main character loses her dragons to the slayers, but finds out he is still alive, and being held for a major ceremony that makes a prince into a king. She sets out to save her dragon, and probably falls in love with the prince and rights all wrongs in the process. I’m kind of fuzzy on the details right now. ^^

I will post regular updates on where my word count is, and where it should be. If you see me falling behind, crack a whip! Yell! Do something!

Oh, and in other news… The Written Connection now has its own domain, which forwards you to its current address. You can see it here: www.thewrittenconnection.com annnnnd, we have a couple more additions to the blog directory! Yay!

You all must love me lots.

I expected things to be dead while I was on vacation, but what I didn’t expect was such a huge influx of visitors on my first post back. Thank you so much everyone for visiting me. I feel quite popular!
I’ve got lots to share about Hawaii, my new blog directory, and NaNoWriMo, but I’ll try to take this one step at a time. Since my post about Hawaii is going to be very image heavy, and I don’t yet have my notes typed in for NaNoWriMo, today we get to talk about the blog directory.

The Written Connection is my attempt to help the blogging community out by connecting it together. I haven’t finished the logo yet, but it’s going to be a Moa Chicken. ^^ Wait till you see my pictures of Hawaii’s jungle fowl. You’ll love them.

The goal of this blog directory is to make it easier to find other writing blogs. Right now, the only way I can find a new blog to read is through the wordpress search engine. This gives me almost no access to blogspot, and certainly no domain blogs like my noveling blog, www.uninvoked.com has. We need to change this, and you can help!

If you have a writing related blog, please tell me about it. I would love to include you in my directory. If you know of other great people not listed, please provide me with links. Please also consider linking to the blog, tweeting, or facebooking the link. The more people we can get to step up, the more traffic everyone will get. ^^

aloha!

As we speak I am lounging in a beautiful condo on the beach, looking out at the ocean and an endless field of palm trees. While I am only here a few more days in hawaii, I am also looking forward to my return. I have so many wonderful things to share with everyone. Pictures, experiences, and some projects I started but never posted on before I left.

For those of you who don’t yet know, I started a blog directory to help connect writers who blog. I don’t have a link for you yet, but if you have a writing blog and I have not yet emailed you for inclusion, please contact me. I want everybody!

That’s all I can really type here on this little phone. Aloha! Mahalo!

Going on Vacation!

I am going to disapear for a week or so you guys. ^^ Hawaii awaits. I’ll try to post something during the week, but I may be too busy doing not much on the beach!

Well…that was interesting.

As those of you who read my Body of Art post know, I entered a competition with a hoodie decorated with a reading theme. (Shameless advertisement: It was advertising a free online novel I wrote, more on that some other time.)

Only two people entered the contest, and despite the many, many people who said they would vote for me…I lost. It didn’t bother me that I lost, and the good people at the store were kind enough to give me a consolation prize, or some drawing that came from entering, or something like that. Cool beans. Free markers!

Well I forgot all about it, until this morning when I got a call. Apparently they made a mistake, I’m the actual winner. They failed to tally online votes, sticking with in-store votes only.

Which means…what? I’m not sure. Except that I really think they should count all the votes before passing out prizes. You know?

Wiggling my toes in a new idea

I feel like I’m on an endless beach, with ever grain of sand on the beach a possible idea for a new novel. The ocean is my memory, and as each wave washes away some of my ideas in forgetfulness, new ones appear to take their place. I can only pick one grain of sand to build a new story with, but which one?

 Strictly speaking, I’ve got 4 or 5 well developed plot ideas ready to go right now, but my mind doesn’t want to apply themselves to those ideas just yet. A part of me is drifting over that sand, looking for just one that glitters differently.

How do you decide on your next project?

ITS FINISHED!!!!!

There are still things that need fixed. I am not done editing, by no means done polishing, but all the big gaps in Life of a Suburban Unicorn are filled. I’m proud of my work. I like the ending. I liked how satisfied I felt writing it. There isn’t a major plot point I want to change. I’m going to sit back, away from the manuscript now, and just spend some time not thinking about it. I believe I’ll come back to a beautiful manuscript that makes me proud. It’s time to start a new story though, and I can’t wait to try the new technique I’ve got planned.

I’m going to try the Index Card Technique. I think it’ll be fun plotting endlessly before I write the novel, instead of just stumbling through it the first time.