Reading List

I finally finished Chesapeake by James Michener (yes, it look me freakin' FOREVER to read. I haven't been making as much time for reading as I typically like), so I'm moving on to my GIANT reading list. I got several books for Christmas, my sister leant me a book, I have a few I've had on the shelf waiting on me, and I'm ready to read them! At the rate I've been going, it'll take me a year to read all the books on my list. When I was in college, I made a point of reading for pleasure everyday (and that's on top of all the reading I had for school), and went through a book a week. So, here's my reading list:

1. Shakespeare's Christmas, by Charlaine Harris (209 Pages)
This is the third book in a series by Charlaine Harris, who also wrote the books that the show True Blood is based on. These books are short, easy reads. They'd be good beach reads. My sister leant me this book, and I'm planning on tackling this one first, since it is pretty much the opposite of Chesapeake.

2. Things I Learned About My Dad in Therapy, edited by Heather Armstrong (230 Pages)
This is a book of essays by several writers, which was put together by Heather Armstrong (who writes http://www.dooce.com/, which I'm sure I've mentioned before!). The description for the book says that it is "A funny and poignant exploration of fatherhood-- warts, poop, and all." Haha.

3. Hawaii, by James Michener (937 Pages)
So, by the time I finish the first two books, I figure I'll be ready for another Michener book. Chris has read Hawaii already, and he says it's great. Considering the fact that Cheseapeake is probably on my top five list now, I'm pretty sure this book will be one I like as well.

4. Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen (335 Pages)
I believe I mentioned this book in a previous post. The reason I mentioned it is that it was originally written as a National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) book. It takes place during The Great Depression, and follows a man who walks out of his medical school exams to join the circus.

5. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Dubliners, by James Joyce (372 Pages)
I bought a Barnes and Noble Classics book with both of these in it awhile ago, but I have yet to read it. From everything I've heard, reading Joyce is a bit of a dauting task. But, I've never tried, so I'm a gonna.

6. Caribbean, by James Michener (667 Pages)
I got this and Hawaii for Christmas, which is really exciting. Chris will probably read this before I do, and he tends to read more than I do of late, so it will be waiting for me when I get through the other five books on the list!

So, that's 2,750 pages. If I want to finish these books by six months from now, I have to read an average of 15.2 pages a day, which should be pretty easy to do.

Here's the STACK of books I'm planning on reading:


I LOVE BOOKS



Here is the stack next to an average-sized rabbit for scale.

Yeah, baby!

So, I guess I better get started! Anyone have any suggestions for good books to add to my list?

Epic Fail/ Happy Thanksgiving

Whelp folks, there is no way I'm going to be able to finish my NaNoWriMo novel this month. I have failed you all. Please don't judge me. Or, if you do, just don't tell me you are judging me. Life has been insane with trying to find a job (scary!), recording an album, and traveling for Thanksgiving, and somehow the novel-writing did not make priority. However, I plan on finishing my 50,000 words, hopefully by the end of December. I will let you guys know when I finish (if you're interested). The perfectionist in me does not like not finishing (double negative, I know!), but I think I owe it to myself to focus on the job search, enjoy the holidays, and to write in a fun, leisurely manner.

So that's that.

As for Thanksgiving, I traveled back home and spent time at my dad's house and then at my mom's house. T'was lovely.

So here is my list of things I'm thankful for:

1. Non-judgmental blog-readers (that's you!).
2. A wonderful family (which is HUGE-mongous and crazy and absurd and awesome).
4. A wonderful boyfriend who loves me and who has finally finished making our workbench (ten points for him).
3. Healthy, sweet-cute bunnies (Coltrane had a health episode right before I left for home for Thanksgiving, which was quite worrisome. But, he's doing great now, so whew!).
5. Avocados.

I hope you all had wonderful holidays. I ate so much I literally couldn't move for 4 hours.

Ch-ch-ch Changes!

Why hello, it is nearly 2 AM, and I just pumped out a bunch of writing for my NaNoWriMo book attempt. And, I DON'T HAVE TO GO TO WORK TOMORROW. Let me repeat: I don't have to go to work tomorrow! Let the unemployment begin! I have a very exciting meeting tomorrow though, about a position I'm very interested in. Cross your fingers for me. More detail later.
I just wanted to point out that I made some changes to the webpage. The Ryan's Recommendations section is now a page of its own, and there is a tab above you can click on. Right now there are 20 items on it, all of which are things I enjoy, like, and recommend. Actually, on occasion there will be an item on there I want but don't have yet. Anyhow, check it out if you're interested. Also, I moved everything to the right side of the page to make more room for the actual blog posts. I thought things were starting to look cluttered the other way. It was a little distracting. So, any feedback would be greatly appreciated. There are a couple new things on the right side of the page now too, like a Pageview counter. I thought that was kind of cool.

It is really fun to play around with the site, but mainly I just want to figure out what works! If there's something you want to see (or that you don't want to see), let me know!

Ok, I tried to be a big girl and stay up late while Chris watches his nerdy Sci-Fi show, but now I'm ready for bed. Goodnight, lovlies.

Excerpts

Holy crapnoid, it's been awhile, yes? For those of you just tuning in, I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month, which means I'm writing a 50,000-word book this month.

I've made it past the 1/5-of -the-way-done mark with the novel, which is pretty cool. Problem is, I'm still behind the recommended daily word count. I literally wrote 4,000 words yesterday though, so I'm feeling a bit burnt out. And my prose has steadily gotten worse as I've gone. But, good prose is not the point I guess. I've found that I love writing long, descriptive sections the most. Dialogue and people's thought processes are not my favorite.

Anyways, here are two more excerpts for your reading pleasure:

"The Victorian house on the tree-lined street seemed to lean ever-so-slightly to one side, like it was trying to peek around the large oaks in front of it. The paint on the outside was pastel purple and was peeling off, especially on the back side of the house, which got the most sun. The trim and accents were white, once. Now they were chipped and browning with age and neglect. The house could have looked like a gingerbread house once, but was now sagging and faded. Two large bushes flanked the walkway in front of the large, bowed porch and were never trimmed, much to the chagrin of the neighbors. The grass was scratchy and dry, but still managed to grow rampant. It cushioned the fall of the oaks' acorns in autumn, and it curled itself into the cracks in the walk, as if searching for a secret something. The address numbers that were nailed to the front of the house were tarnished brass, and the nail holding the 6 in "767" had loosened, causing it to flip over, disguising itself as a "9." The mailman, who had given his two weeks notice a few days earlier, felt sorry for his replacement's inevitable confusion. There was an old-fashioned mail slot in the door instead of a mailbox. This house, which should have been begging for some attention but wasn't, was Mr. Ryker, and Mr. Ryker was this house."

"The Monday morning sun started peaking through the blinds of Brennan’s room. She left them open slightly, so she would know what kind of day it was going to be as soon as she opened her eyes. If it was dark in the room when her alarm went off, she knew it was going to be rainy or grey or both. If it was light, she knew it was going to be sunny and bright. Brennan found that her mood was greatly affected by the weather, so she wanted to know as soon as she could what the day was going to bring. The idea of not even looking outside until she left for school seemed unreasonable. Why wait to know how the day was going to hit her?"

GOODNIGHT!

Falling Behind

Whelp, it's day 5 and I've fallen behind word count-wise. You may have noticed that my NaNoWriMo widget says the same number as it did yesterday. And that is because yesterday was our monthly 3-hour gig night at the local pub. So I did zero writing. But I feel ok about the fact that I didn't stay up past 1 AM again, which is when I was crawling into bed last night, mainly because I'm already tired enough. And it's FRIDAY so I have more time to write in the upcoming days (cuz it's the WEEKEND!). I have this wonderful picture in my head of how my Saturday is going to go:

I wake up late (I'm talking 11 or so), and get out of bed, refreshed and ready to start my day. I make my way downstairs, feed Coltrane, and start the coffee (aka Reason-For-Being Juice). I put a CD on, most likely Ray LaMontagne (currently obsessed with his new album!). While the coffee is brewing, I whip up some pancake batter and start the bacon. All the while I'm singing and "dancing" in the kitchen (dancing in quotes because I SUCK at it). Once the pancakes are going, I have my cup of coffee, and the bacon is done, I make a couple fried eggs and start singing louder, hoping to wake Chris up with the sound of my melodious squawking. I will most likely have to go upstairs and bug him to get up, but, when he does come downstairs, there will be two very lovely plates of yummy food waiting for us. We'll sit on the couch and eat, and I will fire up my netbook. When I have a belly full of breakfast, I will wrap a blanket around myself (cuz it's cold in our house), pour myself another cup of coffee, and write for hours. And hours. And perhaps take the occasional break to do things like pee and tell Chris to stop yelling at the TV screen (which he seems to have been doing a lot lately... whether it is at the World Series peeps or at the video game he's playing) because "I'm trying to write my damn book!" I may have to pull the "I made you breakfast, so you have to do what I say" card, which has absolutely NOTHING to do with the fact that I decided to make him breakfast in the first place, I swear.

PS- I just found this NaNoWriMo SONG! Awesome.

And, can I also just say, you all are lovely, and I hope you have weekends to match.

PPS (haha, PP)- Check out these books, one by the guy who started NaNoWriMo, and one by some other lady who claims to have the answer to my novel writing questions, and one bestseller that was actually orginally a NaNoWriMo novel:

Because I Promised

Whoa guys, this whole writing 1,667 words per day thing is hard! I'm actually really enjoying this though... it's nice to make myself write everyday. So, as promised, and because it's almost 1 AM and because I am too tired to write a whole blog post, here an excerpt from my National Novel Writing Month attempt. It's just the first paragraph, and I'm still hestitant to discuss my whole plot plan (plot plot?), because I'm working through it a little more, so you'll just have to take it as it is!

"Brennan counted the umbrellas around her in the chilly drizzle and came up with fourteen. She rolled that number around in her head, probed it, picked it up to look underneath it, and silently searched for its significance. Not that she believed in things like meaning or fate. At least not out loud. She had just turned fifteen, so perhaps there were fourteen umbrellas because the universe was reminding her that she was another year older, and that another year of life was gone away."

GOODNIGHT!

I'm 50!

Hey all you  non-crazy people, this is my 50th blog post! How insane is that? I'm counting on you to tell me how insane it is, because I am insane myself and therefore do not have the perspective needed to make a judgment call.

I am insane because I have decided to write a NOVEL this month. Which, by the way, is also the month where I'm trying to find a new job, the month where my band is recording its debut album, the month where I started going to therapy regularly, the month where I'm trying to get back into my exercise routine, and the month where Thanksgiving lives.

I hope I'm not the only one attempting this thing who has so much going on.

Last night I wrote my first 1,661 words. It was fun, challenging, and taught me a lot. For one, I'm so freakin' bad at dialogue. Two, this thing is driving itself in a way. Three, 1,667 words is kind of a lot. Four, I better start writing long, descriptive paragraphs so this thing will be long enough. I think I have in my head how a short story is written, because that is the only kind of fiction I have ever attempted. Five, trying to write in the living room with the World Series on= bad idea. Six, I will have no social life for the month of November.

This book has no name yet, but I have a plot idea, four main characters, and two minor characters. So that's something. I will divulge more when I'm feeling more comfortable than I am right now. Hopefully that will be soon! Tonight I have a ton going on. I have an hour planned for writing, but that's really it. It may end up being a late night.

Love to you all for your encouraging words yesterday!

Oh, and I voted today! You should too!

PS- I took my scrolling amazon widget down, and replaced it with my NaNoWriMo word count widget. Check it!

NaNoWriMo

No, that's not gibberish you see up there... that's the National Novel Writing Month abbreviation. This morning, my wonderful father sent me a link to the NaNoWriMo page, and I was instantly intrigued. I've always always wanted to write a book, and here's the excuse I need to give it a go. You "win" by successfully writing 50,000 words during the month of November. That's about 1,666.6666666666667 words per day, which is a lot. To the left of the blog posts, you will see my NaNoWriMo widget, which gives you an updated word count for my book (ha, that sounds weird). Actually, it isn't working right now because of incredible amounts of traffic at the NaNoWriMo site (how many times can I say that? Many...) Problem is, what the heck am I going to write about? I just heard about this today, so I have zero time for planning and (literally) plotting. It doesn't actually matter, because the whole point of this thing is to poop out those 50,000 words... there shall be no editing for the whole month. Then, after-the-fact, these insane "novelists" can decide if they want to pursue editing and/or publishing or if they want to abandon their work. I will probably end up with 50,000 words that have little to do with each other, but I guess we'll see!

So, today is November 1 (Happy Birthday Mom!), DAY ONE. My blog posts for this month will most likely revolve around this crazy undertaking, and may even contain excerpts. I may get little-to-no sleep, and I may have a complete nervous breakdown. I may not succeed. But hey, I bet I learn a helluva lot about myself and about my writing. 50,000 words is so very many words. I'm used to writing short blog posts, poems, songs, or short articles, so this is like my Marathon. With zero training.

Wish me luck, keep me posted if you're participating too, and check out what it's all about here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/.