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!

And then I came back from the dead.

Well, not exactly like that even if I am super white.

I'm halfway settled into my new house. I've been here for a month now. There are still boxes. There is still A LOT to do, but seeing as I am the QUEEN BEE of procrastination, I am actually semi-impressed with how much of my house is done. AND I've been getting super freaking crafty up in hurrr. (Don't ask why I just said it like that. I've switched to 6 AM work shifts on top of my getting up at 5:30 AM for class, and I am freaking TIRED. I also have no idea why I keep randomly writing in CAPS in about every sentence.)

I hope you all are doing smashingly well! I'm writing this post from my office. Yes, office where the walls are kind of a pale pink, slightly dirty, random wood stars, and now have a blotch of Surf's Up blue by the light switch cause that's what color is going to be when I paint it this week.

Right after I paint the living room....or maybe this room. I can't decide which one needs to be done first. Back to the office here. I HAVE MY OWN WRITING OFFICE! It has bookshelves (mismatched ones - holla!), my desk, two big cork boards (for plotting stories), and a dry erase board up! I don't know why I feel it necessary to type all of this out to you but I AM SO EXCITED I HAVE MY OWN WRITING SPACE!!

Basically what this post is all about is another: 

Hi, I'm still alive. 

And: 

I will be back to blogging soon! I have posts to make, writing things to share, and rants! Lord, do I have me some rants (writing rants, duh.)

And also: 

It's Fall and I have cute decorations on my porch!

And then there is: 

I'm going to bed now.

Niiight!

A letter to Summer.

Dear Summer,

While some people anticipate you coming along and soaking up all your sunshine and vacations, this extremely white girl did not enjoy you at all.

I may have enjoyed you a lot more if I didn't live in Missouri, where the second you walk out your door you're instantly covered in sweat. It doesn't help matters that I am in fact a bigger girl. Before you get all defensive on me Summer and tell me it's not YOUR fault I'm fat and sweaty, I'll tell you this: If you weren't so mother truckin' blazing hot this entire season maybe my fat butt could have gone for walks. Maybe my fat butt could have gone for runs. And maybe, JUST MAYBE my fat butt could have definitely worked out a lot more, but seeing as this attic is like 20 degrees hotter than the sun itself, it didn't happen.

Okay. Fine. I probably wouldn't have worked out the entire summer, but the thought is still there!

Anyways.

I also blame you for this ridiculously stressful semester I was put through. I was so excited to go through classes that actually would better my future in the medical program, but sadly, one class was absolutely pointless. I'm not saying that because my halfway dyslexic brain couldn't learn anything. I'm saying that because I kept falling asleep in the class (cause 1. it was freaking hot and 2. it was freaking boring). I'm saying this because I spent the entire summer in a classroom NOT learning how to medical transcribe. Don't even get me started on Medical Terminology. Ya know, the crazy medical language that I think is harder than Mandarin, and not to mention extremely crucial to my medical career. That entire experience reminds me of the four years I spent in Spanish class and can still only count to 13.

So you mix together you're menopausal weather, a horrible semester, and what do you get in the martini glass? A sick Amber. I've never given birth before (nor do I ever plan on it), but I'm pretty sure I know exactly what it feels like. So much that I took a little trip to the ER where I learned two things:

1. I'm allergic to medicine that makes my tummy feel all stoned and happy.
2. Cat scans cost around $5,000.

And if you're wondering if I about sharted myself when my uninsured self got the ER bill, you would be correct.  I cannot wait until I get to see the specialist at the end of the month and see how much that dude wants to charge me.

While I was busy sweating, stressing, and dying - my face decided it was going through puberty again. I have never been so badly broken out in my life. There are villages and villages creeping all over my skin. So much so that I basically use concealer like an underlying foundation for my foundation.

Then there's work. I won't go into details about how that place gave me a freaking ulcer and less hair. What I will tell you is that I did not appreciate being stuck behind an oven that blasts out about 400 degrees.  I'm sure you were laughing it up with all your death rays of sunshine blazing. I was not. I was slathering deodorant on and making trips into the freezer because I was constantly sweating like a whore in church.

Basically Summer, what I'm trying to say here is that I know you and I have never really gotten along that well, but I think after this horrible experience you have put me through, you owe me a vacation. A real vacation. One that involves a beach, NICE weather, an endless supply of fruity drinks with umbrellas, and a hot shirtless surfer boy. Or a Cabana boy. I'm really not that picky as long as he has nice arms and can strut it.

I'll have my passport ready June 1, 2012. I also expect to be put in first class.

Sincerely,

Amber aka The girl who is anticipating Fall like no other.

I found a house!

*does crazy happy dance all over this blog*

If I hadn't been MIA before I know I will be very soon because come Monday I will have a shiny key in my hand to my new place! You have no idea how anxious, happy, and andaljflaksjflkdsfljkasdlfja I am about this. 

That is all.

Have a good month.

Camp NaNoWriMo

All last month I was excited for August to get here so I could jump in and join Camp NaNoWriMo. The plan was to have The Unexpected Clash of Strangers completely finished. But things happened - good and bad - and sadly no Gracie was finished. I'm kind of teetering on what exactly I'm writing for camp. It's Day 3, I probably should pick a story already especially since I have already been assigned camp buddies and everything. At least I'm still sticking to my main genre: Women's Fiction which falls under Chick Lit at camp. I think by the end of the week I'll know for sure what is going to be written.

And yah know, actually write something too.

I know I've pretty much sucked at blogging lately. Like I said, things happened in July and I've been a bit of a busy woman. (Not all fun stuff. Some stuff really sucked butt.) This month I plan on writing as much as my fingers can possibly pound out. Maybe it will be back and forth on stories instead of focusing on just one. Who knows! I have never been a rule follower so I'm cool with that.

Hhmm...this post is kind of pointless really. Mainly I'm saying: I'm still alive! Even though it's one hot beast outside, and I'm seriously thinking of inventing a bra that holds ice cubes in them. I am still here kicking it.

If you're doing Camp NaNoWriMo, let's be friends! Click here for my profile :) Also, every time I say Camp NaNoWriMo out loud the theme song from Salute Your Shorts comes into my head.

Every. Time.