NaNo Time Cometh

On Monday sign-ups begin. Sign-ups for what? NaNo.

I'll be reactivating my account there to get ready for my fifth year participating. Three out of the four previous years have resulted in wins, and this year is sure to bring in my fourth success. I am currently debating between two different ideas:

Duty's Tomb - The setting for this tale is near the ocean. (Why that's important I have no idea, but my muse demands it.) One of the main characters is a priestess who is essentially being trained to be a human sacrifice. The story would revolve around different types of sacrifices and why people feel they're important.

The Fantasy Gate - One of my many ideas that doesn't want to die. This would be completly in first person. The protagonist in this is a fairy soulbound into service to a particular family. The person she is currently bound to dies, and she is compelled to serve the next of kin who doesn't know about a good chunk of what his eccentric mother had been up to before she died.

I'm strongly leaning towards Duty's Tomb. It was a close second to Piper's Debt last year and I've started doing a wee bit of world building. And, unlike Death to Life, this world building doesn't involve fire breathing ducks. Yet.

You Can't Please Everyone

Obviously I'm very hard at work today since I have had time to make a second post. Here's another list I stumbled upon, showing that you can't please everyone.

For example, one genius had this to say about "To Kill a Mockingbird," by Harper Lee -

“I don’t see why this book is so fabulous. I would give it a zero. I find no point in writing a book about segregation, there’s no way of making it into an enjoyable book. And yes I am totally against segregation.”

I totally see the point here. Harper Lee should have written about unicorns instead. They're so much more enjoyable to read about, as well as an issue we all must deal with... on candy mountain.

Lawlerskates!

There is only a month and a half before it's NaNo time again. Have you picked out what you're going to write? I'm currently debating between two ideas, which I'm sure I'll go into some other time. For now, I direct you to Miss Snark's Archives for some inspiration. The stuff on this list is as inspiring The Eye of Argon is. (If you haven't read The Eye of Argon, you just have to. There are no words to describe it.) One of my favorite lines listed is this -

"Weston was known for the firm but genital hold he had on his men. It was one of the reasons he was chosen for this mission over six other equally qualified men."

It made me lol. I hope you lol too.

Dreaming of Unicorns and Rainbows

The weekend is almost here. Hooray! I have nothing planned for this weekend. Double hooray!

Lately almost every weekend has involved some little outing or another. They've all been a lot of fun, but they sure cut into my sleeping time. During weekdays I typically get between five-six hours of sleep, so when the weekend comes I like to go into a short little coma. Ten hours a night then is very, very good.

I've been getting even less sleep lately since traffic has gotten worse and so I have to get up even earlier. Go to bed earlier, you say? But I want my ME time. Most days I get home from work, take a ten minute nap, then head back out to teach, go to band, or ride some horsies. Then I get back home and want to write, read, role-play, and hit things with my virtual sword. Oh, and I like to eat dinner somewhere in there too. Dinner is good for me.

Not that I'm whining. Well, I am, but I wouldn't want to give any of these activities up. I just miss my sleep sometimes. We'll be reunited this weekend though. It's going to be good times.

In other news! I wrote above that I like to ride some horsies. That's right. After many years of no horsie lessons, I've started taking them again. I have to start back at the beginning since it has been so long, but that's okay. The instructor already lets me get the horse out of its stall and saddle it up on my own, though he watches and reminds me of things like how putting the bridle on upside down probably isn't a smart idea. Neither is leaving the saddle on once you've taken off everything holding it in place.

Of course, this horse doesn't mind my mistakes too much. I think he has seen every n00b riding mistake known to man. And woman. He just looks at me with these bored eyes that let me know he's oh so smarter than me, the fool who keeps forgetting at least one of the billions of straps. Or who can't remember to always sit up and lean forward since she's so busy staring at her hands or trying to keep her feet level. At night I think the horse laughs about me to all his horse buddies.

That's about all that's wassup with me right now, except that I sent out three query letters regarding Death to Life yesterday. I'm still optimistic enough right now to convince myself that at least one will ask for a partial. In another week I'll be telling myself that they're using the papers I sent them to teach their children to make paper airplanes. In a week after that I'll have probably heard back from them, for better or worse.

Oh, I made an excel spreadsheet! I'm just throwing this in here because it made me feel happy and organized. This spreadsheet is where I will record where I've sent each novel, when I've sent it, and what the reply was. This way I can send out fifty or more letters and not be confused about where I've already sent and whether or not I'm still waiting on something. And I'll have a ready-made list for when Piper's Debt is ready to be sent out. How exciting!

That's really all that's wassup with me. Enjoy your weekends! Visit your sleeps as well! My sleeps says, "Hi."