NaNoWriMo. Are you down for the cause?

I've never exactly "won" NaNoWriMo. The first time I did it, I think I made it to about 35K then said screw it. The 2nd time I went over the 50K mark with The Unexpected Clash of Strangers, made a ton of progress on it, but then crashed miserably in the end.

Each time I've done NaNoWriMo, I've never had a fresh new idea. I know that's the jist of things, but really who the heck is going to kick me out for NOT having a fresh new idea? Exactly. Last year while having the flu I read some of The Iron Fey series and watched an ABC Family movie about a princess and it struck me that I wanted to write my own world. I've never been a big fantasy reader, but I absolutely loved fairy tales as a kid. My favorite show? Grimm's Classic Fairy Tales. I would come a runnin' full force into the living room when I heard the theme song.

The idea, like most of my ideas, kind of deflated after a month or so. Who was I kidding? ME write a fantasy book? I've only read contemporary novels forever. I had no business trying to come up with kingdom names. So I moved on to other stories then to a few months of not really giving a crap if I ever wrote again (that's for another post). Last month, my characters were tugging at my mind. I went back over what I had written (about 80 pages of stuff), and I picked it apart. Took the good out and left the bad in another file and started tackling the sucker.

I have a new plot.

A few new characters.

A whole lot of bloodshed.

And some awesome creatures lurking through my fairy tale realm.

And most of all, I have a kick butt MC who is about to go on a ride of her life.

Oh, and I have boys. Hot boys.

For my NaNoWriMo, I am working on what I've always nicknamed: Fairy Tale. I suck completely at writing a synopsis, but here's the jist:

Gabby stopped believing in fairy tales the night her father was brutally killed before her eyes. What she saw was a creature in a red hood, but that's not what the cameras caught. Nearly 10 years later, Gabby cannot help but notice how things are starting to get strange. She's seeing things she saw as a child. Like a fairy in her locker, trolls tripping the basketball players, and then the biggest nightmare of all: the creature who killed her father. 


The moment Gabby thinks she's safe, a realm opens up, and suddenly her and her best friend, Jesse, are sucked in to it. Determined to get back home, Gabby takes on the help of a guy named Mason and his band of not-so-merry men. But Mason seems to have his own agenda, and when they're found by a dark prince, Gabby is starting to realize that her father had failed to ever tell her the truth of who he really was. Who her mother was, and who Gabby is destined to be.




Hey. Don't say I didn't warn you I suck at writing summaries.

What about you? Are you doing NaNoWriMo? Find me: sammyjones57 and let's cheer each other on!

Oh October, how I loved you.

I am a big Fall girl.

I know there are a ton of people who love Summer, but me and Missouri humidity heat do not see eye to eye. So when October rolled up with its lower tempatures, my grouchiness seemed to fade away. Not to mention the amazing colors that follow Fall. The 30 minute drive to school which is now turning into a 45 minute one due to construction has never looked prettier. (The picture is a bit scrambly due to my lovely dumb phone.)

Then there is anything pumpkin. Pumpkin coffee creamer, pumpkin snack cakes, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cupcakes, pumpkin shakes, pumpkin Mexican chip dip - basically I am like the Bubba Gump of Pumpkin. Since I got my new place, I knew I wanted to decorate my porch. There were a few other craft ideas I had planned on doing, but I'm kind of a procrastinator so that didn't happen. I am quite proud of my quest of spray painting pumpkins this year!

Note to self: Never ever again spray paint pumpkins inside the house. You will be high as a kite and wonder why you ever thought drugs were fun as a teenager.

The white one with the swirls is my favorite. It was a bit inspired by watching The Nightmare Before Christmas.

What do you love about Fall?

A soda/candy shoppe type of birthday.

I don't know what the deal is, but since the beginning of this year, I love to bake. Early twenties me wouldn't even know what to do with myself if she saw me in the kitchen, wearing an apron, and mixing up ingredients.

I love throwing parties together, and I am lucky my sister pretty much lets me take over my niece's for a while now. Last year we did an Alice in Wonderland theme (back before everything came out for it - I'll do a post on that some other time), and this July she was turning 12 (!!). I wanted something kind of fun to do and not exactly movie/character themed like her past parties. I bought a cupcake magazine which is pretty much the bomb dot com. Inside of it has a Soda Shoppe themed list of cupcakes so after a few brainstorms we put together a Soda/Candy Shoppe Birthday!

For decorations, I kept things a bit simple. Just bought some lanterns and I made some pin wheels. My dad had a crate of old soda bottles so I used those to prop them up with.

All the candy jars were displayed with ribbon wrapped around with a tag. And we had candy. Good lord, did we have candy. We had clear goodie bags and dished out candy to all the kids when they left.

The best part (at least in my humble opinion) was of course the cupcakes!

Root Beer Floats

Orange Cream Pops

Hot Fudge Sundaes

(These were the biggest hit!)

I stress out a lot when trying to put things like this together. I learned that I am not a pro at making icing at all which may have resulted in a tossed bag across the kitchen knocking over a glass and busting it. After it was all said and done I think it went great!