Tag: nanowrimo

It’s Halloween

I did my celebrating on Saturday, but it’s nice to acknowledge the actual day. I dressed up as a haunted porcelain doll. I love things that require makeup but I can just wear normal clothes.

This is a good wig. I don’t have enough excuses to use it.
I really nailed the crazy eyes look here, I think

I’ll also take any excuse to bust out the pearls.

Halloween means the first snow of the season. This just about tracks for what I grew up with in Denver, but my first October in Chicago, back in 2014, all of my coworkers assured me that snow on Halloween was early for Chicago. It almost feels like the generally accepted standards for season and climate are changing on us. đŸ¤”

Someone should probably look into that.

My windshield when I got in the car this morning.
The view from the window next to my desk in the office around 2:0o p.m. CST
Glad I’m not trick-or-treating in this weather.

This is my first Chicago winter without an ass load of hair, so we’ll see how that goes. I’m slightly apprehensive and trying to reconcile with the fact that I’m a hat person now.

Observe my lack of hair

Did a tarot card pull this morning. Seemed appropriate for the date. Came up with the Three of Pentacles, which speaks to diligence, hard work, industriousness, and hints that the fruits of your labor will pay off if you stick with it. I’d say that this bodes well for the upcoming marathon that is NaNoWriMo.

Three of Pentacles from the Linestrider deck. This actually might be my favorite card in the whole thing. I heart ravens

Speaking of NaNoWriMo I’ve set some concrete goals

  • Write a cumulative 50k words between the 4 projects that I’m working on (2 short novels and 2 short stories)
  • Complete one of the short stories (hopefully a second or third draft – ready to shop around to friends for feedback)
  • Complete first draft of one of the short novels (rough “discovery writing” draft, not fit for human eyes yet)

I will probably update throughout November, but whether it’s a daily update or just a frazzled braindump at the end is TBD.

Seeking some advice: I have had select songs from the hit musical Cabaret stuck in my head for days and it’s driving me slowly up a wall. Good songs, but not uninterrupted for hours and hours on end. I love Liza, but not that much. How do you get weapons grade earworms out of your head? I will try almost anything at this point.

Anyway, I’m going to celebrate this snowy Halloween in the best way I know how. With a spooky bath bomb (courtesy of Bathomet ), some tawny port, and a spooky novel that seems short enough that I can finish it in one sitting. I’ll report back on how I like it. October has been a dismal reading month for me, so I’d love to knock one out in the cozy Halloween spirit.

10 year tawny port, Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss, and a skull shaped grey bath bomb. I would have gotten amontillado instead of port to be seasonally thematic, but sherry is so hit or miss. I’d want my fav specialty liquor store to recommend one to me, but that was pretty far out of my way and I wanted to get home before sunset because I didn’t want to run into any Spooky Halloween Ghosts on the way home đŸ‘»


Unfocused Check In

I have had a very slow reading month this month, which is really weird since October is usually a record setting month for me each year. Don’t know what’s up with that.

Actually, I do know what’s up with that. When I’m not writing I’m binging early 2000s anime like my life depends on it. Each time I try to pick up a book I read a few pages and it just slides off my brain like a wet, slick goop. I’m hoping I snap out of this funk soon. Probably need to read a graphic novel or something to just reset.

I’ve been taking a writing workshop that’s a ton of fun, and now I’m prepping for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriM0). I’ll probably be posting frustrated updates re: NaNo throughout the month of November on this blog, so get hype for that.

I feel bad that this little blog is largely abandoned. I like having this space and need to come back to it more often. I’ve picked Twitter back up a bit and have noticed that my engagement with blogs is inversely proportional to my time on Twitter, so that maybe tells me something valuable. Definitely worth thinking about as we approach the 2020 election season.