NaNoThon

Today is the NaNoWriMo marathon and I thought I'd blog while doing it, updating you all on my progress!
So here goes...

Beginning word count: 23,349
Goal: 30,000.

9:58: *in bed* Two minutes until the NaNoThon starts... I could be writing.... Nah, I'll just go back to sleep. I COULD BE WRITING! *gets up*

 

10:00ish: *turns computer on, feeds the dog, lets her outside* NOOOOOOOOO!!! Computer! Work! Work! Turn on! *momentary moment of panic* Ah, it's working. Good.

10:00ish: Computer turns on. Whew.

10:07: Checks into the NaNoThon twitter, even though I don't have twitter.... Also tries to check the live stream but youtube won't work. -.-

10:10ish: Finally starts writing!

10:23: Starts writing this blog post.

10:27: Gets back to writing.
Word count: 23,595.
Last sentence: They looked around sneakily - just in case anyone happened to be in the office at 1:30AM on New Years; it was the right thing to do - and then entered the Big Boss' office.
Listening to: Junior's Farm by Paul McCartney

10:30: Actually gets back to writing.

10:33: Feeling sneaky because my characters are snooping around in an office where they aren't supposed to be looking for clues... and The Pink Panther theme just came on.

 

10:46: I'm still waking up.... Only managed 600 words in the past 40 minutes. Also, I'm having a HORRID time spelling the word 'sleuth' correctly. I think I spelled it wrong through the entire first book.... *facepalm*
Word count: 24,016.

 

Last sentence: "Of course."
Listening to: Nice 'N Easy by Frank Sinatra... Though something from the Master and Commander soundtrack just came on. Adagio (from concerto grosso, I think).

10:49: Finished Chapter 11. I'm actually doing chapters in this one... and they're actually pretty good in terms of chapters. Nice length, nice cliff hangers at the end... Hee hee. Now I'm going to get myself a bowl of cereal so I can escape the Christmas music that came on.

10:52: I'm baaaaaaccck! Miss me? Ha. Nevermind. I got cereal and I must be really tired because I tried to put the cereal in the fridge. *facepalm* My Christmas music has given way to Ken Medema, thank goodness. And now I'm checking the NaNoThon twitter feed.....
Also I'm trying reeeeaaallly hard not ot include a Sherlock quote in my novel.
Right now the sentence is: "Varina," his face went white, "it's the paw print of a wolf!"
I reeeeeaally want to change it to: "Varina," his face went white, "it's the paw print of a giant hound!"

10:58:  Finally getting back to writing... My characters have comfy chairs.



I'm sorry. I have Doctor Who on my mind.

11:00: It's the one hour mark. I don't even have 1,000 words. I have to rectify that! I WILL have 25,000 by 12:00!!
Word count: 24,076
Last sentence: "This adds a whole new dimension to the case!" she sunk down in the Big Boss' comfy chair.
Listening to: Secret Agent Man Theme. Fun fact - a line from this song is the title for the second novel in this spy series.

11:03: GETTING BACK TO WRITING! BYE!

11:12: Changed writing places... Now I'm in the living room instead of the kitchen. Mom's on the phone with Grama (hi Grama!) and I need to concentrate really hard so I need quiet. Music doesn't count. But if there's conversation around I want to listen.

11:18: WOOOOO 1,000 words written today!
Word count: 24,405.
Last sentence: The time was 2:24AM.
Listening to: Jet by Paul McCartney.

11:38: Word count: 25,007 (wooooohooooo!) Only 1,000 words more until I get to where I'm supposed to be today.... Though, as I said yesterday, I'm hoping to get all the way to 30,000 words today!
Last sentence: "Who says I haven't figured out the code already?" Daniel said with a grin.
Listening to: I've Got You Under My Skin by Michael Buble.

12:00PM: Hour #2 is done!
Word count: 25,683. I've written 2,334 words today and I reached my goal of 25k before 12. Now I think I'll get to 26k (which is where I'm supposed to be for today) and then I will take a break. Because, as I said, I have some piano and voice to practice, a shower to take, and some editing to do!
Last sentence: "How do you know that?"
Listening to: Christmastime is Here by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. Yeah.... Christmas music. My computer's playlist of music is on shuffle.

12:21: I think that sitting in that comfy chair in the living room did wonders for my writing... I got a lot more written over there than in the kitchen (where I have since moved back to). Well, I think I shall take a bit of a break now! I'm off to take a shower.
Word count: 26,032.
Last sentence: "Except a super secret code....." Daniel muttered under his breath.
Listening to: The Only Way to Have a Friend is to Be One by AD.

1:00: I'm back. And I have a sneaking suspicion that my long, wet hair will annoy me to death in the next little while.... I'm going to try write a quick 1,000 words and hopefully be done by 1:30. Then I'll have to take another break to do some music. Lunch? Who needs lunch! Granola bars are the new lunch....
I'm back in the living room now. I seemed to write quicker out here.

1:05: Writing starts... NOW
......or once I re-open my document.

1:06: Writing starts... NOW!

1:17: Awww my mom brought me a sandwich, some carrots, and some apple. THANKS MOM!!
Word count: 26,456.
Last sentence: SPOILERS SORRY!
Listening to: The Fury by AD.

1:57: The time has come.... for me to take another break.
Word count: 27,434 (I've written just over 4,000 words today!)
Last sentence: Chapter 12. Haha kidding. "Somewhere quieter!" Varina replied.
I just wrote a brilliant scene though... Daniel and Varina are laughing their heads off because "they forgot to file their paperwork, Wazowski."

Okay, break time! Before this madness continues.

2:40: Doing lip trills.... Warming up for some singing. I don't know why I'm telling you this.

8:51: Back from the banquet at my friend's church! It was fun (although all the 'banquet' consisted of was salad and fondue). I can't decide if I still want to write a bit more tonight or not... Maybe I'll do some editing for Jessica. That sounds good.

Final word count for the night: 27,434 (at the time of this blog post). I wrote just over 4,000 words today!

What did you all do this fine Saturday? Was it fine where you are? Or was the weather bad? Here the weather was bad for the first few hours... then the sun came out... then it POURED rain.

Live long and prosper.

What am I currently.....

I've seen these around and since I want to blog about something tonight I thought I would do this. I'm kind of making up my own questions though....

What am I currently:

Reading? I just finished an Agatha Christie novel today. 'Death in the Clouds.'

 

Yup, the one the Agatha Christie Doctor Who episode was sort of based on.... I personally loved that episode (although the shapeshifting bee was a bit much....) and it was what got me interested in Agatha Christie.
I absolutely LOVED Death in the Clouds. It was really good! Although there is a bunch of D-words and H-words throughout the book.... which was really annoying The rest of it was amazing, though. And I even guessed the murderer! It was just a feeling I had when I started the book... and it turned out to be right.
Now I'm going around talking like Poirot: "My estomach."
I'm also reading House of Mirth by Edith Wharton for literature which I am enjoying.... And War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells which is pretty interesting. I'm not too far in it. I think I shall read some more of that tonight.

Listening to? The Only Way to Have a Friend is to Be One by the band AD. They were around in the '80's and I loooove them. I'm also listening to Ken Medema at the moment. He's a blind pianist/singer who is Christian and AMAZING! I think it would be really cool to see him in concert. He's pretty old, though, so I don't think I'll get the chance.

Writing? Camp NaNoWriMo! I reached 21,000 words today.... I'm about 2 1/2 days ahead, which is good. I was DETERMINED to introduce my plot today and I did it! HUZZAH!!! At 20,600 words... my plot was finally introduced.... I'm going to be doing a LOT of editing in those first 20k words. Although who knows, maybe I'll keep a lot of it in. I did want it to be more of character building novel than a mystery novel.
Also, I finished editing Friend's Project and will start on Kat and Kadet by Miss Jessica Hammond tomorrow (or Friday....). She introduced me to a knew way of editing which sounds a lot easier than anything I've done in the past so HUZZAH once again!
Overall, I'm feeling really good writing-wise. Sometime in the next few days I hope to write up a (second) Character Encounters for this month. I say second because I already wrote one... but it contains spoilers so I have to do another to post here, which I don't really mind. It will feature my mysterious character that I mentioned once upon a time.

Studying? I dissected a frog today. It was SO. COOL! I found its brain and saw the different brain lobes.... Also, I cut open its stomach. She GORGED herself before she died! It was amazing how much stuff was in there!

Watching? Well, Mom watched a Star Trek episode tonight. I wasn't really watching it... though I did catch a sentence here or there. It was the episode where they meet Abraham Lincoln and have to fight to the death.

Eating/drinking? Not eating anything currently. I did just have two cups of water, though.

Live long and prosper, image of Serek! (quote from the Star Trek episode).

Orthodontist and only God is awesome

Around four years ago I walked into my orthodontist's office for the first time. I can just imagine being a bit frightened about what was going to happen to my mouth... I had an expander put on the top of my mouth. My mom had to use a little wrench to turn it every day. Slowly it moved my teeth out and made my mouth bigger. A little less than a year later I got something stuck underneath my expander and couldn't get it out. It was very painful. My mom took me to the orthodontist and he took my expander off a month early (yay!). After that I had a retainer for awhile. After the retainer I had headgear to wear at night. Finally, not even two years ago, after a very long process, I got my braces on.
This morning I got some joyous news... I will get my braces off at my next appointment! =D Six weeks is a long time to wait...
When I first got my expander off I couldn't stop feeling the top of my mouth, since I hadn't felt it for nearly a year. I think I will have the same sensation when my braces come off and I can feel my teeth once more.

Can you believe I can't find any AD songs on Youtube?? Instead I use Grooveshark, a website my saxophone teacher told me about. You can look up any song or artist and listen to their music for free. It doesn't even require an account. Plus, it's legal.
Now I sit listening to the song "You are the distance" by the band AD. I find the lyrics to be very true. I especially like the chorus:

You are the distance, but oh, so near.
How can the one I love be the one I fear?
There is no peace 'till You choose to appear.

Perhaps I will listen to a bit of Ken Medema... He is a truly amazing artist. He sings tell Bible stories and the piano just flies under his fingers... It's hard to imagine he's blind and can't see the keys. One of my favorite songs from Ken Medema is "Sittin' in the Window Prayin'" which tells the story of Ananias "Sittin' by the window prayin', waitin' for the break of day" when God calls him and tells him to go to to Saul and talk to him. Ananias is shocked "Don't you know that he's got orders from Jerusalem to put us all in jail? Don't you know that he's got orders from Jerusalem to run us out of town on a rail? Don't you know that he's got orders from the powers in Jerusalem... Do you know all that? Do you want me to go still?" In the end he goes (but he stops to buy a bagle). When he reaches the place where Saul is he rubs the mixture of mud on his eyes and "Instead of a enemy, see's a friend." It is truly a wonderful song and a wonderful telling of the Bible story.
My other favorite Ken Medema song is "Wade in the Water". Two semesters ago when I found out we would be singing Wade in the Water in choir I was overjoyed. It was lovely, but not like Ken's version. In Ken's version he changes some of the words to tell the story of the man healed by, I believe it was the disciples. The man had been lame for 45 years (I think... I haven't listened to the song for a few months) and then one day he was healed and was able to walk into the healing fountain. Ken Medema's version is breathtaking... His piano skills are amazing. Parts of the song sound like rushing water. He truly has a God-given talent.

As I listen to these powerful songs I reminded of something my pastor has said in church a number of times.
"Only God is awesome."
Since hearing that in his sermons I try to use the word "awesome" less and only save it for when I am describing God. If you think about it, awesome should only be a word for God.
Webster's 1828 dictionary of the English language (it's huge, but the best dictionary around) describes awe as: " Fear mingled with reverence and admiration. Reverential fear."
As Christians, we fear God (Psalm 19:7-11 "The law of Yahweh is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of Yahweh are trustworthy, making wide the simple. The precepts of Yahweh are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of Yahweh are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of Yahweh is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of Yahweh are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.") in reverence and admiration.
As I said above, I try to use the word "awesome" less. Instead I say "cool" or "amazing". Sometimes "awesome" seems like the only word to fit what I'm trying to describe and I use it... But I feel a nagging in my heart as if I've said something wrong.
Only God is awesome.
Food for thought. ;)

P.S. Happy birthday Grama (Mom's mom)!! I love you. =D
Also, happy birthday to my friend's brother!
And to Freddie Mercury (the band Queen's leader singer).