Please learn from me, everyone...

for God's sake, don't have yourself reading so many books at once. Here is the ENTIRE list of everything I'm reading right now:

1. The Trouble with Magic by Madelyn Alt [library]
2. Hiroshima in America by Robert Jay Lifton and Greg Mitchell [personal]
3. Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys [bookstore borrow]
4. The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis [personal]
5. Storm Kings by Lee Sandin [personal]
6. Tempest in the Tea Leaves by Katie Lee Townsend [e-reader]
7. Walden by Henry David Thoreau [personal]
8. NOS4A2 by Joe Hill [personal]
9. Eight Girls Taking Pictures by Whitney Otto [e-reader]
10. The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis [personal]
11. Paprika by Yasutaka Tsutsui [personal]
12. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien [personal]
13. A Garden of Earthly Delights by Joyce Carol Oates [personal]
14. Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl [e-reader]
15. Night Film by Marisha Pessl (ARC) [personal/bookstore borrow]
16. The Sound of Paper by Julia Cameron [personal]
17. What You Really Really Want by Jaclyn Friedman [personal]
18. The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings by Edgar Allan Poe
19. What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard N. Bolles
20. Living with Guns by Craig R. Whitney [library]
21. Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung [e-reader]
22. All Roads Lead to Austen by Amy Smith [e-reader]
23. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling [e-reader]
24. Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan [e-reader]
25. The Magnolia League by Katie Crouch [e-reader]
26. The Thirteen Hallows by Colette Freedman and Michael Scott [e-reader]
27. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie [e-reader]
28. Buddha by Deepak Chopra [e-reader]

Yeah, so what if I can pick up easily where I left off? Doesn't make it less anxiety-inducing. Good Lord.

Hey, let's play a game! How much of this list can I trim down before year's end? Will it be all 28 or am I screwed like whoa?

Stay tuned to learn if I dig out of this stupid hole!

Good Lord... owww

Okay, I reached the coveted 50k goal for my novel, but it ain't done yet...

50556 / 80000 words. 63% done!

In order to completely finish, I need to write about 4,300 words a day until the 30th. I could pull a large miracle on my free days and write more than that. Like today, for example.

If I succeed, I'm gonna give myself a nice reward. Like stuff from LUSH or something else... perhaps this book in glorious paperback? We shall see!

NaNoWriMo 2012: Houston, We Have Cowbell!

Okay, I hit the ground running today, getting to 3,000 words. That's going to be the daily goal; along with finishing the grad school application and finishing my current novel project. So yeah, a f***-ton of writing. To be honest, every time I write 2,000 words a day, I feel I don't do enough. But that's the thing: that's a lot of words... for ONE project. I need to have several going. Plus, I could prevent burnout by switching mindsets for different ideas.

But I have to be careful. I don't want to hurt myself with this. But here is my solemn promise: if things get nasty during the month, I'll drop NaNoWriMo and work on what's important at the moment: the application. We'll have to see as the month goes on...

Happy writing!

Update on Camp NaNoWriMo

On a lighter side of things, I'm making headway on my Camp NaNoWriMo novel. Since I'm playing catch-up and all, I may not post much about it here for now. Will keep you all updated.

Reading Challenges for 2012

After the (somewhat) success of the Haruki Murakami Reading Challenge (I have until the 12th of January next year to finish), I have decided to take on several more, but with smaller goals.

And so, here we go!

A reading challenge for those who dig stories about unfortunate (or fortunate) souls going back into time to dig up the past, learn about their present days, and even warn the future (or just change it, y'know).

I'm going for 10 books:
The Time Quintet by Madeleine L'Engle (5 books total)
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
Time and Again by Jack Finney
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Time After Time by Karl Alexander
Somewhere in Time by Richard Matheson
Wanna give it a go? Click here for info!

A reading challenge that asks you to do the unthinkable: to read whatever damn books you haven't read yet!

I'm going for 50 books. Good luck to me...

Wanna take down some books you been meaning to read? Click here for more info!

A reading challenge that takes from a C.S. Lewis quote, but mainly asks the challenger to read (number chosen) of books that go over 700 pages.

I'm going for 2: The Agony and the Ecstasy and The Passage.

Wanna see what C.S. Lewis meant? Click here for more info!

A reading challenge that wants you to read some short story collections. Read a few, gain a favorite writer, y'know the drill...

I'm going for 8 collections, 3 I'm already working on (H.P. Lovecraft, Lydia Davis, and Edgar Allan Poe).

Wanna see if Lydia Davis really does rule the flash fiction kingdom? Click here for more info!





Good luck to all.... and may God help me in 2012.

And because I never learn...

count this as my hat in the ring for next year. I'm going for Script Frenzy, where I write a 100-page screenplay. It is in April 2012. Haven't written a script in a while, time to brush up on my skills! Or at least, read a few books and write little screenplays.

After thinking it over, I have decided to adapt Angela Carter's novelette "The Bloody Chamber" as my project.

More on this as it gets closer to time. And as for the question of will I do NaNoWriMo again? I don't know, right now... it's a maybe. It's going to depend on one thing: when in grad school, will it not get in the way of what I need to do?

So there you go. I'll have to decide (like this time) at the eleventh hour.

Such is the way things are.

ETA: whoo! It's my birthday! Here's to a quarter-century of existing!

NaNoWriMo update

Alright, into the first week and the word count issssss...

*drum roll*

12053 / 50000 words. 24% done!

Compared to Invisible, kinda crummy, ain't it? Either way, it's coming and going, but going along pretty good so far. It's interesting, but lacking in serious description and overall detail. Hope to fix that once I decide to edit the blasted thing. The stats on the site say that I should finish by the 29th. Erm... give me time. I can up it to my birthday, or even better.

~

As for other things, I will begin work on my grad school writing sample, begin the final showdown with Invisible, eagerly wait for this book to come out, and begin to psych up for the holiday rush starting tomorrow. And of course, finish up reviews and stuff. Also tomorrow. Of course.

And it begins...

I just began my NaNoWriMo novel, a Southern Gothic tale about a poet. This poet, a woman named Merle, takes in a boarder (a painter from Washington D.C.). The boarder's paintings start talking to Merle, giving her nightmares and horrific daytime visions. But the thing is... is it all in her head? Or is the boarder someone that she doesn't seem to be? Y'all shall know this little tale by the name of Whisper. (As the NaNoWriMo site also knows it as...)

Either way, I almost felt like abandoning this, but persistent determination has led me to no other choice than to saunter on. If it gets to be too much, and I can't even finish other major tasks (like the story for my graduate school application and finishing Invisible), then I will pull the plug on Whisper.

Today, I plugged in 1776 words. Whoo, the year America became a country (sorta)!