Twas the Night Before NaNo

Twas the night before NaNo and all through the night,
Every Wrimo was waiting for the stroke of midnight.
Computer and paper was out and prepared,
For NaNo was, finally, practically there.

Coffee was brewed, or tea steeped if you wished,
Work was forsaken and school was dismissed,
Sleep would not come on this night of the year,
For NaNo was, finally, practically here.

Wrimos waited, breath bated, fingers twitching to type,
On this one and only most anticipated of nights.
Time went by slowly like water through stone,
NaNo was so close yet it seemed so remote.

Browsing the forums of the NaNo website,
Eyes constantly flicking to the clock on the right.
It's 11:59, so close to the start,
NaNo's finally upon us, it will finally start.

--

Just something that kinda popped into my head. :) It makes me smile so maybe it'll make some of you all smile.

Unfortunately, I can't do like the poem says and dismiss school tonight. I've got an early start tomorrow and haven't had any good rest for weeks so I need all I can or I will fall asleep during class. I might, might, be able to get some writing in, in the morning before class but I probably won't get to write anything until the afternoon or evening. (It's a six hour class. Unfortunately. Argh!)

I hope everyone has a merry, merry NaNo! :D

Puppies!

(Pics at the bottom!)

We have the puppies! To be honest I was starting to think that they might have died because Bugs was starting to spend what seemed to be all day under one of the cars. It'd been a couple weeks since me and my dad checked out the cave and so this morning me and him went to go check it out. I was expecting to see and hear nothing just as before but we were going back into the brush, Bugs in front of Dad and him before me. And then we heard barking! There were three of them, a white one, a black one and a brown patterned one. They were outside the cave and dad got them and all of a sudden, we had puppies!

We brought them back and showed my brother and mom and they were so excited! So about an hour later my mom urged me to go back to the cave and see if there were any more puppies and so I did, taking Bugs with me. I didn't really think there would be any more but when bugs went into the cave I though there probably would be. She was down there for a minute or two before I began to call for her and she came back out and three more puppies spilled out behind her! I grabbed them all but I had four puppies in my arms (I had brought a puppy with me thinking that if there were any in the cave they might come out if they heard a puppy outside) and after getting a few feet away from the cave I set them down to rearrange them in my arms but the new brown one ran back to the cave and inside before I could catch him. I brought the two new white ones and the brown one I'd brought with me back to the house and set back out to get the remaining one.

Bugs went down in the cave again and the brown one came out with her but didn't come out far enough and ran back inside once it'd caught sight of me and my dad. But for the moment it was out we could hear another puppy whimpering inside. So there were two left!

Bugs wouldn't go near the cave after that but I finally thought to get Bugs on a leash and get her over there. She finally went down into the hole and out came the Brown one and I snatched him up. And there was a little white one behind him but this one was even more wary than her brother and she stayed down where I couldn't reach before going around the corner and deeper into the cave. It took two or three times more of Bugs going back into the cave before the white one came out far enough for me to snatch her.

So we have seven in total. One black one, two brown patterned ones, and four white ones! The black one and three of the white ones are female and the rest are male. They were five weeks old Tuesday and already eat hard food and drink water, though not exclusively.

I think I'll keep one of the brown ones and maybe a white one if I can manage it. My brother is keeping the male white one and I don't know which one my moms gonna keep.

Also, last night bugs wasn't around. I believe she went back to the cave so that makes me wonder if there are still puppies in there. . . I guess I'll have to try and find out!

Here's some pics of Bugs, Ghost (the father), the cave and the puppies!

(Warning: Many pics ahead!)

Bugs and Ghost

Ghost

Cave entrance with my Dad and Bugs

All the Puppies

Bugs with the Pups

My Dream Writers Desk

Last post I mentioned that me and my dad had built a custom desk for me. Well, it's finally finished.

First let's take a look at the desk I had before:



This picture was taken before my desktop was completed so my 27'' monitor isn't up there with a keyboard and mouse. Now imagine how little space there was up there :-p

Building my new desk took a lot of hard work. It all started in August. My birthday was coming up and I decided that I wanted a desk. So I got drawing my dream desk, looked at some pics online of some desk styles that I might like and stuff. There wasn't much to see really. The only things I found were the average plain jane/john desks that can be bought from staples or ikea. But I eventually found this:

That's a picture of Charles Dickens desk. I couldn't really make my desk look just like it, what with having a computer and all and plus it's not much bigger than the desk I already had. But I really liked the way the top was done with distressed wood and framed out. And the color.this was enough to get my creativity going.

So with that to go on I began to draw. I knew I wanted a space for my desktop and tower, speakers, some books and still have plenty of room for papers and my laptop and drawing tablet and anything else I might need.

This is what I drew:

('Tay Tay' courtesy of my mom)

I know it looks nothing like the Charles Dickens desk but this is what I needed.

Anyways I didn't get my desk on my birthday, things were too busy and then next month we were preparing for vacation so early this month my dad taught me how to use cabinet vision to draw up my cabinet and then the next day we went up and started building it.

I don't know about you guys but when I see pieces of wood on the floor like that I just can't see a cabinet. But  we started to put them together and got this:

And my uber awesome counter top!

(My dad is there for size scale :p)

Anyway, that was day one. The next day we built the face frames and and drawers and long(er) story short this is what happened:

It actually took 3 days to build because even after we got it home we still had to touch up the counter top and stuff.

And then the stain took like 2 weeks to choose and then apply. It was horrid having to do all that work and more than once I wanted to rush it. There was so much sanding and staining and with the cabinet so massive on top of it all it took forever!

But we eventually finished it (yesterday) and here's what it looks like!

It's so awesome but it gets better. Here's a pic of it with all my stuff on it:

So there it is! My dream desk from fantasy to reality. I can't wait to really start using it come next month during Nano.

And speaking of Nano, I'm going to a Nano kickoff party tonight. It'll be the first write in I've ever gone to so we'll see how it goes :)

Four Days Till NaNo!

NaNoWriMo is almost here!! Four more days! I can't wait :D

Actually, I still don't have a scene by scene outline yet, I have to do that in the next few days, and some of the parts of my plot are still fuzzy but I still can't wait. And guess what? I'm going to have a new desk!

I don't think I've ever mentioned this but my Dad is a carpenter and owns a cabinet shop so me and him went and built me a HUGE desk. It's got paper trays and a book shelf and a place for my desktop and room for my laptop to sit up there and spread papers everywhere. It's so awesome. Me and my mom are staining it right now and it should be done before the first of November. I can't wait! Right now the counter top, knee space, drawers, adjustable shelves, and the inside of all the cabinets are stained so there isn't too much to do. I'll post pictures when it's done :)

And for the first time, I will have distractions during Nano. It's a scary thing I haven't really had to deal with before. I've got violin and guitar lessons and then have to keep up with practicing them every day. The video game Assassins Creed Revelations is coming out next month on the 17th and I know I'm going to loose 3-7 days until I win it. And then, of course, there's Thanksgiving. And I know there's something else I'm forgetting but I can't seem to remember. . .

I'm also thinking of attending write-ins for the first time. I'm thinking of going to the midnight kick off party to start with but I'm not sure. . .

Well, can't wait! I hope this year will be just as fun as the last two! :D

Pottermore!

Last night the first clue for the magical quill challenge went live on pottermore.com! It was 3 in the morning (for me) and I was just about to go to bed when someone on twitter said the clue was up and I checked and it was! The clue was 'How many breeds of owls mentioned in Eeylops Owl sign x 49! Hurry!' Luckily I had the first book right next to me so I flipped to diagon alley and found the owls (there are five), got the answer and answered it.

I started to freak out a little when I was redirected to sony.com but then I realized that must be where I should be going and calmed down. Before I could register I had to click on the magical feather whilst it was floating around a bunch of other ones. Anyways, I started to register and omg it said I was magical and that was like so awesome! Then when I got to the very last step and pushed continue it said to verify the two words. There was no two words. I clicked continue again. Still no two words. I even refreshed. Nothing.

So I freaked out completely before realizing that something must not be up to date and then jumping on a different browser and doing everything over again and this time - thank goodness! - the word verification was there! So after that it said I should be receiving an email soon so I happily went to my email and found nothing there and then waited. And waited. And then I started to freak out again thinking I must have typed the email wrong and so I went through the whole verification process again and put in a different email address and went and checked that one and there was no email so I figured there was just a lot of people and waited. I waited for over half an hour with no email and I was becoming resigned to the fact that I probably didn't get in that day. But since people on twitter were still getting their emails I waited, but without much hope.

And then I got them! I got the emails and I'm registered and I totally can't wait for the beta to open!

So, I'm now SwordQuill106 and ScaleEcho47! Yee! :DD

So last night was full of excitement, overjoy, freaking out, disappointment and anticipation! And now I know I should be tired since I didn't get to bed until after 4am but I'm still excited and I think I'm only running off of adrenaline.

But at any rate, I'm glad I got in last night instead of wasting away in front of the computer for the next week and ignoring August's Camp Nano and my Row80 challenge.

So, is anyone else pumped about Pottermore and trying to get in? Or have you gotten in already? So curious friends!!

Pottermore! ROW80 Update 6/23

So this will be the last update until next month! I've got a little break but I feel like I will still do a bit of planning and plotting during the break so I can be more fit for writing next month. I can't wait! I think I'll accomplish much more in the next round than I did this one.

So. . . What does everyone think of the mysterious Pottermore so far? I'm still not quite sure. From what J.K. Rowling said in the video it sounds like a sort of interactive thing to accompany the books, with added content and new information about the Harry Potter world. It's still a bit hazy I think, what it's really going to be.

But even so I can't help but be excited! It sounds like it could be really cool, but I can't help but worry that it may not be as wonderful as I'm hoping.

Nevertheless, I can't wait for October. And perhaps, just maybe, I could be one of the people to get early access to Pottermore on July 31st. I'm at least going to try ;)

What is everyone else thinking about Pottermore? Are you excited about it? What do you think it'll be like?

Other ROW80ers here! Until next month!

100k (Day 30)

Well, I had to write about 8k yesterday and today, but I've done it! I actually did it! Twice as much as last year. I wonder what I'll aim for next year. . .

Well, that story with the villain has been going well, I've code named it The Journalist until I can come up with a real title. I've got nearly 15k written on it, so that's a very good start and I am in love with it already, even though there are a lot of things that need to be worked out that I didn't have time to work out, it's still good. I'll probably work out those kinks some time soon. I also think I'll try to write everyday. Unlike last year I just stopped writing for a week or so, then finished my NaNo book, moved on to edit it the next month, and then didn't write a whole bunch after that until the beginning of NaNo again. Not this year! This year, it will be my goal to write everyday so I can create a habit.

Anyway, I am so happy write now, I had a chocolate chip cookie, and took a (needed) shower, and feel so much better and I'm fixing to reward myself with my neglected video games, life is good :)

I hope everyone is satified with what they accomplished this month and will be returning for the insanity next month, and perhaps Script Frenzy in April. No idea if I'll do that though since I wouldn't even know how to begin writing a script. . .

Enjoy your first I-don't-have-to-write-today day tomorrow! Or TGIO (Thank God It's Over)!

EDIT!
Just so I can look back on this next year and see exactly how everything was at the end, here's the wordcounts for all of my stories I've done this month:

The Chronicles of Siron:
Book I - Remnants: 57,415
Book II - The Key: 26,658 (unfinished)

The Journalist: 14,573 (unfinished)
Fork: 834 (unfinished)

Yeah, Fork hardly even counts does it? Anyway, so there it all is! Got the idea to do this from leofair's blog post here.
(Note: The NaNo word validator counted up a few hundred more words than my scrivener word counter.)