I - drank - so - much - coffee!!!! *Twitch*

I really love espresso. Unfortunately, I am unable to channel the energy into, you know, productive things.

But not this time! I have just crossed the finish line of the world's greatest Calculus Marathon. Sixteen pages of freaking calculus study problems, holy crap I rule the world of mathematics! Oh man. I sat there with assorted episodes of House, Psych, Flight of the Conchords and Firefly playing while evaluating more integrals than have ever been evaluated by a single person in a twenty four hour period. That's the good thing about math, though - it's the only kind of homework I can do while watching tv.

I'm also 30k into my NaNoWriMar. My protagonist superhero is attempting to escape from the sewers of the enemy lair. I wrote all 30,000 words in the first six days of March and haven't gone back to it in ages because my workload at school has become so heavy that it is CRUSHING MY SOUL. Anyway I'm going to pick back up with it today, and let my MC out of the sewers.

AND I've officially passed the big Three-Oh in the MAD Book Challenge. Thirty freaking two books down in the year of 2009. Highlights? The Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton (thankyouthankyouthankyou Marshall for recommending them to me), the collected works of John Green, Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule, and my favorite book in the world - Terry Pratchett's The Truth. Oh, and The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. I've been meaning to read that for ages, and I finally borrowed it from Sarah... Oh man it's fantastic. If you can read it without crying, you HAVE NO SOUL.

Ah, in looking back at my list of books, I see that I have written "The Harvey Boys" instead of "Hardy Boys". Hmm. Oh, and I haven't written down the other two Anita Blake books I've read. And I just finished Jumper by Steven Gould (holy crap, Marshall has recommended like everything I've read.) Never mind, I've read thirty five books this year.

WORD

Or, more appropriately, WORDS. Three thousand and twenty five of them, to be exact.

I just started writing my MarNoWriMo* about an hour or so ago, and I'm trucking right along. It's a fantabulous superhero novel and I'm writing it in the POV of an unidentified first person narrator, which I'm really enjoying, to my surprise. I'm actually really liking this one, too. Things are going well.

*Technically that stands for March Novel Writing Month, which is a little redundant, but that's how most of the people on nanowrimo.org refer to nanos that they write outside of November. Personally, I favor NaNoWriMar, or National Novel Writing March. I think I'll stick with that from now on. Yeah, it totally sounds better.

But anyway, I expect I'll be done with this one earlier in the month, this time. The February one was good, but it was very... plotty. Whereas an X-Men inspired story pretty much never comes in contact with the word 'plot'. At least, not in the same sentence as the word 'good'*.

*Not that I'm saying anything bad about X-Men. James Marsden in sunglasses? Hugh Jackman? I mean, even with the uglyugly hair, he's still all Hugh Jackmany. And... did I mention James Marsden?

Two down, ten to go

Oh, wow, when you put it that way it sounds dreadful.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have finished my FebNoWriMo. NaNoWriYe is going well so far - two nanos under my belt and still not particularly stressed, so things are looking up! This NaNo was about a magical carnival. It was inspired by Deborah - when I frantically confronted her, panicking about my complete lack of plots for FebNoWriMo, the first thing she suggested was "karate-chopping sandwich-making elephants", and I know how to take an idea and run with it.

"Bohemian Rhapsody" was playing when I finished the whole nano - coming in at a grand total of 53,019 words. "Lights" by Journey was playing when I hit 50,000. Oddly enough, if you switched the two around they would have been appropriate for the scenes I was writing at those moments.

So, this nano started out all, like, pure comedy, and ended up weirdly sentimental and... I don't know, emotional? I got kind of dark for a while there. Then again, it also has a pretty big reveal at the end, and I didn't screw up the surprise either (which I normally do). It's actually reasonably hard to see it coming, I think.

And I did write over 10,000 words of it between when I got home from school and now, so.... Yeah. I swear I've written this nano in like six marathon writing sessions and the rest of the time I've just been lazing around trying not to feel guilty about not writing.

Happy Valentine's Day!

<3s for all!

Seriously though, this has been a good Valentine's Day. My NaNoWriMo t-shirt, No Plot? No Problem! book, and NaNoLand Chronicles book were all officially Valentine's Day presents. I also managed to snag the last box of Indiana Jones Valentines at Target on the half-off sale, thus acquiring many fabulous Shia LaBeouf Valentine's Day cards and temporary tattoos.

Plus I finished reading THREE very Valentine-appropriate romance novels recently. In order of how much I liked them, they were: "Having the Boss's Babies" by Barbara Hannay (which was so sucktacular that the best that can be said of it is that it was short), "Fulk the Reluctant" by Elaine Knighton (which was also sucktacular, but had the benefit of being unintentionally hilarious), and "Let It Snow" (which was actually sort of awesome. It's got three stories in it; Maureen Johnson's was good, John Green's was predictably MADE OF WIN, and Lauren Myracle's was okayish).

AND, in the spirit of Valentine's Day, I decided to give the MC of my current NaNoWriMo a love interest. Her name is Red and she knits, and she's totally perfect for him. J is being adorably awkward around her at the moment (aw). Plus, I'm officially over halfway done with my second nano and not remotely stressed out (yaaaay).

This is in no way related to anything (but since when do I care?), but I am currently dancing around in agony over the fact that I do NOT have the sequel to Terry Goodkind's "Wizard's First Rule", which I loved. I must must must have it. Now. But Sarah is bringing me "The Book Thief" to read tomorrow, and I... gah, I have to read that too. So, poo. But at least this way I have a couple guaranteed-to-be-great books lined up, especially after reading all those sucky romance ones.

The tables have been turned

You know how you can be having a really crappy day, and then suddenly something happens that just makes everything better?

I've been feeling a bit stressed out recently, due to the fact that I have a MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR SUPER FREAKING MAJOR project due in school on Friday, and a poo load of tests and stuff, AND an essay due soon which if I do not pass, I will literally not graduate (not that I've ever failed an essay in my life, but I still manage to freak out).

And so when I got home from school I was ready to hit someone. But then we went to the library.

I am a HUGE supporter of libraries. Libraries are, I believe, the source of justice and light and kittens and rainbows. I LOVE libraries. I've worked in them for four years, and librarians are some of the coolest people I've ever met. But I haven't been to a library in almost a year, on account of having the most fantastically epic library dues in the universe (because my family all uses my card, and my sisters both lost books. That made it worse, the fact that I couldn't go even though it wasn't my fault.)

And anyway, today I HAD to go to the library to get a school book, so my parents paid off my card. And I checked out books! Books! From the library! AHHH! I hadn't realized how much I missed it until I went back.




Oh, I also should mention: know that plan I had to write a NaNoWriMo every other month this year? I'm taking that back. I'm doing one EVERY month, in what (if it's not the first) is at least one of the first NaNoWriYe s ever. Bring on National Novel Writing Year, 2009!

My FebNoWriMo is a humorous novel about a magical carnival and it is currently pwntastic.

I am tired, but also victorious

I just won my first NaNoWriMo of 2009.

At 50,655 words it is not particularly lengthy, but--and I hesitate to say this--it is actually... decent work. Like, reasonably well-written. I find this surprising.

"Elevation" by U2 was playing when I hit the 50k mark, and "Beautiful Day" (also by U2) was playing when I finished the novel.

It is now one o'clock in the morning and I got like four hours of sleep last night, so I am very, very tired. I shall celebrate more in the morning.

For now, I'm going to bed.

Chris Baty is the man

The Man, I tell you.

So I was just filling out the NaNoWriMo 2008 survey and it mentioned something about "The NaNoLand Chronicles". I didn't know what they were, so I nipped on down to the Office of Letters and Light to take a look.

For only ten dollars, you can buy a book of nanowrimo fables written by Chris Baty, which are -- and I quote -- "designed to warm the heart, embolden the noveling soul, and radically transform the general public's understanding of muskrats, sprout farmers, and the dangers of tea-oversteeping."

It is difficult to explain how much I MUST HAVE THIS BOOK.

And then, of course, there is "No Plot, No Problem," which is the best book in the world and which I for some reason do not own a copy of. While I was at the OLL, I glanced at the description for NPNP (we nanoers know how to abbreviate!) and I read the following statement:

"All copies autographed by the author."

Let me explain something to you. What I have for Chris Baty is a form of hero-worship. He is, quite simply, The Man. He is hillarious and witty and came up with the NaNoWriMo program, and let's face it, NaNoWriMo is sort of the best thing to have ever happened. Ever.

I must have a book autographed by Chris Baty.

This is a simple statement of fact. The NaNoLand Chronicles costs $10 and NPNP costs $15. I need $25.... I think I have enough money (poor person that I am). Oh, and also they're having a sale on NaNoWriMo t-shirts, $10 for a shirt, so more like $35.

Gah. I do not have money.

On the other hand, this money will be going to the OLL, and I want so badly to support NaNoWriMo! It means so much to me, and I'd love to be able to give back.

Okay, Chris Baty. I give in. I think I'm going to buy them all.