Almost! Almost!

Tomorrow is the Harry Potter madness! So excited!



(Also, sorry for not posting for two weeks. I didn't realize it had been that long between posts. Bad Sass. Bad.)

I'm rolling right along with NaNo. Right around day eleven or so I had a change of heart with my story and took a three day break. It was a good break, because I came out of it and decided that no, I was not going to write this story from the perspective of the snakeshifter. No, I was going to write it through the perspective of one of the very human coworkers of the snake shifter. And not just any human coworker. No! I was going to write this thing through the perspective of the office gossip chick.

Let me tell you, things got interesting.

I did get three days behind in my writing, though, and I'm still working to get caught up from that. Last night I was "only" 4800 words behind. I'm going to try to get back on track by the end of this weekend, and then I'll tackle the holiday when it gets here.

Thanksgiving typically kills my word count. If I'm not ahead of my word count by that Wednesday, I'm generally doomed to miss my 50k goal. We're traveling back to KC again this year (MO side, kthx) to see family and of course we have to hit all three Thanksgiving dinners. But I will make 50k this year. I will. Why?

I want my discount on the Windows Scrivener!

So yeah. Cheer me on. I'm totally making it this year.

To keep in the spirit of Harry Potter-ness, here it is. The Harry Potter cast tries their best at American accents. Enjoy!

'American Talk' With Josh Horowitz And The 'Harry Potter' Cast



~Sass~

Harry Potter and the Movie Marathon

Harry Potter is almost upon us.

I admit to being a complete book nerd (like you haven't figured that out already?). I waited in line to buy each book as it came out (insisting, of course, that I get my own separate copy in addition to my husband's so that we could both read the books at the same time), faithfully saw all of the movies, and of course had to buy them all on DVD. Except for the sixth one, which we somehow still don't own, but I intend to remedy that.

Since I had anticipated not having a job on November 19th when the movie comes out, I planned on going with my whole team to the theater that day to take over an entire row of seats in a midday show. That plan did not change when I got the new job. So guess what I get to do with manager approval? Take the day off and go see the movie. Damn straight.

It's going to be crazy. We're going out to brunch, going to see a 1pm-ish movie, hitting up the happy hour at a nearby bar and grill, and then possibly doing dinner. Yes, I am friends with an entire team of Harry Potter fans. We are awesome. And somewhat insane.

(Yes, we did secure a baby sitter for that day. I am so not bringing our little bundle of teething cuteness into a theater.)



Of course we have to prepare for the 7th movies by watching the first six. I'm still trying to figure out how to fit in that many movie watching hours with a finite number of free weeknights and weekend hours available, but I think we can pull it off.

Anyone have an extra scarf? :)




~Sass~

Cold Hearted Snake

Snakeshifters. Yes, there, I said it. I have snakeshifters in my NaNo this year. The awesomeness that is reptilian were-form has me trying to think up all kinds of great battle scenes for later in the story. Although, typical to NaNo, I haven't quite figured out who my bad guys are yet. I've simply referred to them as... THEM. In capital letters. It's my flag to go back and change the reference once I know their identities. I can't tell you how jerky it is to read through a paragraph and see "THEM"... "THEY"... "THEM"... "THEIR," but oh well. It's all part of the fun.



I am a little behind, though. As my husband put it, our 7 month old "thinks sleep is for the weak," and by that I mean as of last weekend he's been waking up crying multiple times a night. I don't know if he's teething again or what. Since it's super dry here we started running a humidifier in his room. That helps some but he's still waking up way more than he should, and it's making my brain short circuit. Hard to stay up late and meet that word goal when I suddenly cease to function after about 7:30.

I'm most of the way through season 2 of Weeds, though. That show is freaking hilarious.

We have a new plan to tackle our lagging word counts tomorrow. Multiple birthday parties and game nights shall not interfere with snakey NaNo goodness!

A JOB I HAS ONE

Much happiness. I'm still gainfully employed as of 9am this morning when I accepted an internal position. Made my Monday a lot better, let me tell you.

Don't forget - it's the first day of NaNo! Join in the craziness! I mean, come on, I got my husband to do it, and he's never written a sentence of fiction in his life. If nothing else, make it your goal to beat him. :)

Those of you already doing it, what are your first lines? Here is mine in all of its silly glory:

"What do you mean, you 'lost your tail'? How do you lose an entire appendage?"

I have no idea where I'm going with it, but that's half the fun!

So how was your Monday?




~Sass~

The Waiting Game

For those that don't know, I've been laid off and my last day at work is November 16th. I've been applying to various jobs and interviewing like crazy... which has led me to one conclusion.

It isn't the applications or the interviews that are the stressful part of job hunting. The stressful part is the waiting.

To be honest, the first couple of rejections smarted a little bit. I haven't had to interview for a job since I worked in retail (temp agencies and promotions are freaking awesome, btw) so getting those first form emails or phone calls saying "we picked someone better than you!" is a little damaging to one's pride. Worse than that, however, is when I hear nothing at all. "We should have a decision by the end of the week"... and then two weeks later I have to assume they didn't like me. I actually feel that's worse than outright rejecting me, because then I'm left to wonder what went wrong.

Just tell me so I can move on!

I understand why some recruiters / companies skip the rejection phone call all together, but it is a little rude, and it does reflect badly on the company. Avoiding confrontation by avoiding contact altogether? I would rather get a form rejection.

Anyway, back on point, there are two positions I'm waiting to hear about. Both are internal. Both are trying to make their decision by the end of the week. What has this done to my nerves?



So yeah. Until I hear back about either of these positions, I'm going to be a little scatter-brained.


Quote of the day (courtesy of Despair.com):

Excuses - "If you keep asking others to give you the benefit of the doubt, they'll eventually start to doubt your benefit."



~Sass~

Hi, How's It Going?

Wow. It's almost been a year since my last blog post. It's like I've been busy or something.

< ~~ (Totally his fault.)

I've decided that I took way too long of a break from writing and I need to get my ass back in gear. I miss it. It misses me. But you'll have to excuse the first few posts because woah I'm rusty and this isn't as easy as it used to be. Stuff no longer flies from my fingertips like... like...

Well, see, there you go. I can't even do a simple simile anymore! Aaahhh!

I'm not going easy on myself, though. Jumping right back into NaNo again this year to make sure I can hit the ground running with some of the ideas I have fighting for life in the accumulated mommy slush that is my brain. After taking a two year break (!) from my wolf story I went back and read it and got excited all over again. Need to spruce up the ending, work on some consistency issues, and get that puppy submitted. That's it. I'm doing it this year. (ooo, look, I accidentally made a pun!)

In the mean time, to keep you all entertained, witness the frightening glory that is Germany's Got Talent:





~Sass~

The Game Plan

Okay, so I'm lagging a little bit on NaNo. Lagging is better than a complete stop, however, so I've come up with a game plan to keep myself in his race.

Right now I stand here:



Technically, I was supposed to be here by the end of last night:



That's about 4200 words behind. But, that's okay. I've been behind for all but the first day of this NaNo and I haven't stopped yet. So what is my plan? There are a few things to consider.

1 - We're leaving for KC on Wednesday, and we're driving. From Denver to KC is about a 9 hour drive if we speed a little more than is necessary and don't stop much. It might be 10 hours if we decide we're not in that much of a hurry, or if there are too many Kansas State Troopers hanging around. Since I'll be in the passenger seat of our comfy rental car (because we are so not taking OUR car on that long of a trip) I'll have some time to pound out a few thousand words. If I don't get carsick.

2 - I'm pretty much not going to write from Thursday to Saturday. This is because I have a very large family and multiple Thanksgivings to attend, plus my mom's 50th bday party on Saturday, and some additional baby shower registering on Black Friday (*shudder*)... not to mention the fact that there are a lot of people waiting to see the pregnant lady. I still haven't posted or sent anyone baby bump pics so they're kind of antsy. Due to the insane amounts of food I'll be eating that baby bump will probably expand to make me look like I'm 7 or 8 months along instead of 6. Anyway, not a lot of writing from Thursday to Saturday.

3 - This leaves me with only Sunday (and if all else fails, Monday after work) to do any catch up from Thanksgiving week. That blows. Why? Because Sunday is November 29thth, the next to the last day of NaNoWriMo. The site will be slow from everyone validating their word count -- which is why Monday after work is completely out of the question. If I wait until the last minute to update my word count I may not register as crossing the finish line within the deadline even if I DO actually do it. This means I want to have my NaNo completely done by Sunday the 29th or I only want to have 1-2k left to go.

So, with all of that in mind, I have to be damn productive from now until next Tuesday.

I figure if I can make myself pump out a good 3k words a day from now through Tuesday, that will leave me with a word count of approximately 46,400. Like this:



(I like pictures, can you tell??)

That means all I would have to do is write 3,600 words between Wednesday through Sunday. My hope is that I can write those 3600 words in the car on Wednesday and have some breathing room for Thanksgiving, but this is uber slacker we're talking about here. I'll probably get 2k in the car and have to find time to write the last 1600 somewhere in there. This is assuming, of course, that I actually make my 3k a day word goal from now until then. But I shall banish such pessimistic thoughts.

I CAN DO THIS.

And if I can't... well, hey, I've got more words written this month than I've done combined in the last two years. That's huge. I've found out that even when I'm brain fried and baby tired (which is like every day after 6pm) I'm still able to force 1k words into a word processor a night. If I choose, I can make that a daily ritual. And I will choose to do that. Oh yes, I will. I miss writing. It's time to insert it back into my busy life.

Root for me, people. I'm on the path to victory!


~Sass~