It was All for You

He humbled Himself for you…

He went through persecution for you…

He died for you…

His love is unconditional towards you…

As we celebrate this holiday, let’s remember the Reason for the Season. Remember what Jesus did for me and you. Remember the Ultimate Gift He has given you.

“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:10-11

I wish you all a very blessed Christmas!

Scrumptious Blog Award

The spectacular Kiri Liz has awarded my blog!

Thank you so much, Kiri! Your blog is absolutely scrumptious as well! ^_^

Rules-
1: When you receive the award you must post about it on your blog and leave a link to my blog.
2: Answer all the questions to the tag below.
3: Do not award anyone who has more than one hundred followers.
4: Come up with ten questions for the tag.
5: Keep your questions clean and refrain from using bad language.
6: Tag 5 to 10 people.

Here are the questions Kiri has asked:

1. What's your favorite Christmas song?
Goodness me, what a tough question! Um…all of them? What Child is This might be my most favorite, it’s so pretty but also really powerful. It means a lot to me. O Holy Night is also another I love. For the secular ones I’d probably say Sleigh Ride, Silver Bells, Let it Snow, Carol of the Bells, and Winter Wonderland. Yeah, I just really, really love Christmas music! I’m pretty much happy with all of it.

2. Do you prefer colored lights on your Christmas tree, or just white lights?
I personally find white lights a lot more classy. Colored lights can be fun, but there’s just something beautiful about the white lights illuminating the room.

3. If you won $500 to go shopping for Christmas gifts, what would be the first thing you would buy?
I’d probably start out with something for my little sister, she’s always the easiest to buy for. Most likely a movie she wants or something.

4. Favorite Christmas cookie?
SUGAR COOKIES. Just any kind of sugar cookies. I love them so much.

5. What's your oddest or most special Christmas memory?
So many wonderful Christmases… I can’t think of anything real odd (which is odd in and of itself because silly things are always happening to my family), so I’ll go with something special. But that’s hard, too! ALL my Christmases have been special. Last year my little sister surprised us all on Christmas morning coming downstairs completely decked out as Santa Clause saying she was “Chris Pringle”, which was HILARIOUS because she has this obsession with the chip brand Pringles. She went around, with a big bag, pulling out handmade Christmas gifts for all of us. It was so hilarious and fun. She’s a mess. That definitely has to be one of my best Christmas memories.

6. Christmas isn't Christmas without:
My family!

7. If you could only ask for one thing for Christmas, what would it be?
Health. Because I have so many health problems and I really wish they would all just go away. Does that count? I really don’t need anything, so I have no idea what I’d ask for.

8. How do you view Santa Claus (in film, stories, advertisements, shopping, etc.)?
Meh…I don’t really like Santa at all. People kind of replace Santa in Jesus’ stead it seems to me. Christmas is so big on Santa, it takes away the True Meaning. To be completely honest, I find the whole Santa Clause thing silly and annoying.

9. Moving away from Christmas-related questions, if God called you to become a missionary to a foreign country, where would you go and why?
Oh my! I have no answer for this. There are so many places in need out there, I wouldn’t even know where to start. That would be completely up to God.

10. Do you believe it is okay to do something just because the situation allows it (the situation justifies the action sort of thing)?
If anything goes against God’s principles, it is never okay to do something. If something is iffy, then one should stray away from doing it, even if the situation seems to allow it. The world allows a lot of things God does not, and we should always stand on God’s principles, no matter what the world says. (I’m not sure if that is exactly what you meant, hopefully that answers the question well enough.)

Here are my Questions:

1. What is your favorite book?

2. If your house was burning down and you could save one item, what would it be?

3. What type of shoes do you prefer wearing?

4. What’s your favorite instrument?

5. If you could visit any fantasy world, where would it be?

6. What’s your favorite season of the year and why?

7. If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

8. Do you have any pets?

9. What color is your room?

10. Let’s say you could make absolutely any fictional character come to life, who would you choose?

I pass on this award to all these lovely people:

The Dandy Lioness
ZNZ
A.W.
Jessa Bri
Beth Grace

You all have very scrumptious blogs indeed! ^_^

All Done!

FINISHED!!!!

As of Monday afternoon, at 143,310 words, I am officially finished with writing my NaNo 2012 novel More Purple than Amethysts.

I was determined to finish this story up before New Year’s because I have so many other writing projects I want to work on during 2013. I was terrified I wasn’t going to make it though. By December, I looked at my outline and groaned at how much more of the story I had left. The incentive to finish was with me though as I thought of all the other things I wanted to work on, and I had promised I wouldn’t start a single new writing project until this story was done.

Thus I pushed myself, on and on, determined I’d do this thing.

Then the ending approached and it was one day last week that I was all, “O___O I can totally finish this thing before Christmas.”

Challenge. Accepted.

After writing so much throughout November, I was desperate for a break. I love writing but sometimes I just need a rest from it. I was really hoping I could enjoy Christmas and New Year’s without worrying about scrambling around trying to finish this monster of a novel. So with more incentive in place, I charged forward, tore my keyboard apart pounding on it mightily, forced my characters to get along so the story could end on a happy note, and “The End” came at last!!

Despite hoping to finish it quickly, this story proved to be an extremely enjoyable one. I don’t recall ever having a novel go so smoothly. Usually I always come across scenes I just don’t want to write, or find myself abandoning it for a while because I’ve lost interest, but these things did not happen this time, which was a blessing, indeed, since I wanted to finish it as soon as possible.

An awesome thing also happened the day I finished…

My NaNo Winner’s shirt came in the mail!!

I thought it was the coolest thing that my Winner’s shirt happened to come the very day I officially finished up my NaNo novel; it was like a happy little reward.

Now that the novel is done, I plan on not even thinking about any writing projects until after New Year’s. I’m taking a break! But come 2013 I have many a writerly thing on the agenda that I’m quite excited about.

For now, I’m trying to catch up on all the things I abandoned since NaNo and am in great anticipation for Christmas.

…Can anyone believe it is next week? o.O

Happy Hobbit Feels

Okay, no spoilers or anything but…

I SAW THE HOBBIT YESTERDAY AND IT WAS AMAZING AND EVERYONE SHOULD SEE IT AND JUST AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*dies from overexcitement*

Um. Ahem. Yes.

I saw The Hobbit movie. And it was wonderful. I have a few complaints, but they followed the book a lot better than I expected, and it was just…beautiful. Absolutely and completely beautiful. The scenery and the music and the actors and just EVERYTHING. I loved it so much, there are no words.

HOBBIT. FEELS. EVERYWHERE.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is all.

NaNo 2012 Highlights

NaNoWriMo 2012 has come to its end. That mad clicking of typewriters has quieted, those overused mugs of coffee have finally found their way to the dishwasher while their users have found their way to bed, the world of the writers his calmed.

…Or has it?

I think instead, writers are celebrating their great achievements of this fantastic month, basking atop that glorious mountain of satisfaction all us participants have been climbing this month. And what a sight it is from up here!

As this month closes, I thought I would give an overview of the goings-on of my 2012 NaNo.

On October 31st, I excitedly stayed up to begin writing when midnight hit. I stayed awake until 2, happily tap tapping away on my keyboard, finally beginning to write this story that was beckoning me all the month of October. I got 2k words written that night before sleep seized me in its grip.

The first two days of NaNo were a little bumpy due to some stuff going on those days, but I was determined to get a fair amount of words written. Tallying up with the 2k I wrote that night, I ended the first day with 8,108 words. The second day I just barely managed to squeeze in 4,307 words.

After those first two days, it became much easier as life settled a bit and I got into the swing of things. For the first week of NaNo, I always like to go a bit (okay, maybe more than a bit) insane and then settle for the rest of the month. As a result, I managed to reach that 50k words on the 10th.

Once I reached that point, I did begin to settle a little on the writing. Though, getting pretty obsessive over these things, I continued writing every day. It was around this time that I decided I want to make it to 100k. I had the last two years, so why not again this year? To do this though, I was going to have to keep myself going strong. Thus I set out a goal to attempt writing 3k a day, although 2k would be acceptable if 3k could not be reached on certain days. I kept to this plan fairly well.

Last year’s NaNo I decided I wanted to write at least 2k every single day of November and just to see if I could actually do it. And I did, which was exciting, but I figured I would never do that again because it proved to be a pretty stressful task. But then this year happened, and it was sometime around halfway through the month I was like, "You know what...WHY NOT!" Thus far I had managed to write every single day of the month, and it was already half done. So sure. Let’s do it!

I am ecstatic to say I actually achieved my goal!!

My NaNo Calendar I made for this year naming how many words I wrote each day
Click for Larger View

Today I wrote 2,435 words, ending my NaNo of 2012 experience with 115,005 words.

What really shocked me about this NaNo is how much I managed to get written amidst all the busyness of life. Because life has just been a good deal busier this November than it was my last two, and I really did not even think I'd make it to 100k. My first NaNo, I ended with 111,500 words and I thought I would NEVER beat that. I kind of went insane on my first NaNo. But then this year, the year I thought I would not do too good at all, I actually passed my word count from my first one. It was a very pleasant surprise!

For the majority of the month, other than the first two days, I really did not have too much trouble trekking onward, to which I am so thankful for. My characters eluded me often, my story went places that surprised me, I even had one crazy moment where I almost threw out my outline just because other ideas jumped in my head (I then realized that would be insane and completely mess up the whole rest of this book series, but I think all us writers have those moments sometimes). But these are all the reasons I love writing. It really is an adventure. Sometimes its hard, sometimes you want to give up, sometimes you’re just too confused to know what on earth you want, but, even amidst all this, it’s exciting and wondrous and just an all around amazing adventure.

That was what NaNo 2012 was for me. I was taken on an adventure that I would not have given up for the world.

The adventure isn’t over yet! Not this one anyway. My novel still has quite a bit to be written. (About a whole other 50k actually… >.>) My goal is to finish it by New Year’s, so more and more writing shall ensue through December.

Regardless, my 3rd NaNo is over and I had an absolutely fantastic time!!

Favorite Snippet of the Month-

Irevik began traipsing forward, greatly anticipating finding some animal for his dinner. Riana turned and held up a hand to stop him. "Please stay here, Irevik. I'm afraid you're just too big and loud. Someone might discover we're here. I'll try my best to gather us all enough dinner, all right?"

The dragon seemed hesitant at first but eventually nodded his large head politely.

Riana smiled and gave him a pat. "I'll be back soon."

Eldoren frowned as she disappeared beyond the trees. So why is she so polite to you?

Irevik tossed his head, letting out a haughty huff.

Oh, you're not all that handsome, you big oaf. His breath was taken from him when Irevik suddenly pounced on him. Eldoren dropped to his back while Irevik held him down with one of his foreclaws and began licking him with his long, forked tongue.

"Stop! Stop!" Eldoren cried out, flailing his hands up in front of him in a futile attempt to deter the dragon. "You ridiculous dragon, get off me!" Despite his protests, his words came out in half chuckles. Irevik was probably the only one in the world who knew how ticklish he was, and the dragon made a point to take advantage of this whenever he could. "Come on now. Get off!"

Irevik eventually pulled away, vibrating with laughter. As Eldoren sat up, frowning deeply as he wiped off his very dragon saliva covered face, he heard a quiet, shaky rumbling to his left. Looking over, he was surprised to find Razel watching them. Her body shook lightly, and this noise came from her own throat as she chuckled at them. Her dragon laughter grew louder when Eldoren stuck his tongue out at her. He looked over at Irevik and found his dragon winking at the female dragon. He rolled his eyes. Irevik was the only dragon he knew in all the world that winked.

Quite a Bit of Ecstasy

It has been a while since I’ve updated on my NaNo progress, hasn’t it? Or written a blog post at all. I guess because I’ve been busy actually doing NaNo. Eheh. But not only that. Lots of awesome things have been going on as of late.

Thanksgiving happened and was a very pleasant one. I had a lovely day (and even more lovely food and food…and more food…). There are so many things I’m thankful to God for, it would probably end up being a list adding together longer than the Lord of the Rings book. God is so good!

Image by Little Birdie Blessings

Last Sunday, on the 25th, I very much excitedly hit 100k words on my NaNo!! I was super de duper ecstatic about that!! Except for the fact that I think the novel in full is going to be around 160k words or perhaps more and I want to finish it by New Year’s…we’ll see how that goes. Trying…

On the same day, my awesome parents bought me one of those nifty NaNo Winner T-shirts. I’ve always wanted one, but never got around to actually acquiring one. This being my 3rd NaNo, I decided this would be the year. Because 3 is just a cool number for some reason. I cannot wait for it to get here!

Also on that Sunday, we put the Christmas tree up amidst a bit more Christmas decorating. Decorating for Christmas is one of my most favorite parts of the holiday season. I just love getting the house all prettiful and festive. It’s thrilling to go downstairs and see the tree glimmering in the living room. It just adds to the excitement of the season!

Needless to say, Sunday was a spectacular day.

The awesomeness continued on Monday, which happened to be Cyber Monday where most things being sold on the internet are much cheaper. I’ve been wanting a tablet for a while now. And, with Cyber Monday going, we found the one I wanted for quite a good deal. Thus… I got myself an Android tablet. And I absolutely and totally love it!! My ecstasy is bubbling over to finally have one.

Picture courtesy of my mother over at Sweet Tea and Simplicity

As far as NaNo goes, everything is quite well. I really have not had much trouble with my novel at all. I’m kind of in shock with how smooth the writing has gone all month. Trust me when I say, that never happens for me. Most of my novels seem to take pleasure in giving me all sorts of trouble. Not to say this one has been perfect, it will need a whole lot of work, but for now I just want to get to the end. It’s the first draft after all, it isn’t supposed to be perfect. Or so I keep yelling, I mean…ahem, politely reminding my perfectionist side.

I cannot believe tomorrow is the last day of NaNo! It feels like the month just started. This has been, by far, the quickest NaNo I’ve ever done. But that’s okay, because that means we’re getting close to…

THE HOBBIT MOVIE!!!

Only two weeks away! *screams in uncontrollable excitement*

And then it will be Christmas!!

So much awesomeness and excitement going on!

Image by Little Birdie Blessings

I hope you all are having an excellent holiday season!!

Fighting the Halfway Point Blues

Can you believe November is already halfway over?

That also means we’ve made it halfway through NaNoWriMo!

I know to some, thinking there is still a whole other half of NaNo to do is kind of overwhelming. I think the same. Those keyboards have been working harder than ever, those coffee mugs have never felt so loved, your fingers are screaming at the idea of a whole other half a month to keep going, your characters also may be screaming at you (mine are…a lot).

But that does not mean you should give up! We’ve made it this far. We’ve climbed up halfway the mountain, and though journeying on seems impossible, that beautiful prize of satisfaction is just waiting for us at the top.

For motivation and the drive to go on, I have some buddies keeping me in line.

The Doctor is very serious about NaNoWriMo. He loves books after all. And besides, how could I ever say no to him?

Even Loki is on the NaNo boat. And, trust me, he doesn’t mess around.

When you’ve got two very powerful aliens giving you orders, well…woe be to those who rebel.

Even Larry my laptop, who has a place just above the keyboard to put text in, has been cheering me on. Actually…screaming at me might be the better term.

Larry has a very…er…pushy personality. He might be as scary as Loki.

That’s really all the motivation I need right there. Gracious, just the Doctor picture would suffice for me.

I think our greatest motivation, though, is looking to the top of that mountain we climb, knowing very soon we’ll be there, novel in hand, with a satisfying feeling unmatched to anything else.

But, unfortunately, motivation isn’t always enough. We actually need means to get the words written, yeah?

Just the other day, one of the participants on the NaNo forums said to really get those words written out, she covered up the word counter on her word document so she could focus on the writing and not worry how many words were there. I thought this was brilliant. I have a horrible habit of just staring at the word counter down there in the little corner, worrying about how many words I have and how many more I need to get out, instead of focusing on the story.

So during my writing today, I tried just that. Getting out a sticky note, I cut it in half and stuck it right where the word counter on the computer screen is.

Let me tell you, it really works miracles. I found I could just focus solely on my story and stop thinking about that word count so much. And, as a result, I ended up getting more words. …Though it’s extremely tempting to peek under that piece of paper.

Another tip that is the only way I’m ever able to accomplish writing is by not allowing myself to touch the internet until I’ve written my daily quota of the day. That internet sure is distracting. So…so…distracting.

If anyone has any motivation or tips for getting those words written, I’d love to hear them!

Only half a month more. Let’s climb this hill. We can do it!

As Happy as a Smiley Face

 

Here is a perfect picture of how I felt as of early afternoon of yesterday.

Why?

BECAUSE I HIT 50K WORDS!!!!!!!

I’m just kind of bouncing around with glee.

You see, it occurred to me a few days ago that if I kept writing at the rate I was going, I could make it to 50k words on the 10th. Now, if you knew me you’d know I love the number 10. I mean, what’s there not to love? It’s the perfect number. Right? 10 is awesome, there’s just no denying it. So hitting the winning 50k mark on my NaNo on the 10th was just too resisting to pass up.

Off my life went into the cupboard.

Image not mine

I was hoping it’d be safer in a cupboard than a wardrobe. One can never be sure where things will end up inside a wardrobe.

And off to the land of writing I went!

And writing…

and writing…

and writing.

And then there it was! Like opening the wardrobe to find Narnia inside, 50k words! (Okay, not quite that exciting. But exciting nonetheless.)

After I hit that 50k mark, I went to the cupboard to retrieve my life back, glad (and perhaps a little surprised) to find it there and waiting.

It still may get stuck in the cupboard yet though.

Hitting 50k words does not mean my 2012 NaNo is finished. Far from it! I plan on continuing writing a great deal throughout the entire month. My adventure is far from over. NaNo 2012 has much more to give. And I look forward to it all!

Now, if only my characters would stop fighting…

Favorite Writings of the Day:

Sucking in a quick breath, Riana snatched up a long sword on the table beside her and thrust it into his hand.

Eldoren looked down at it in confusion. "What's this?"

She jerked away, doing a quick glance around to see if they needed anything else while also trying to figure out why she was even doing this. "I knew you were simpleminded but I thought by now you would at least know what a sword is."

She smirked to herself when she heard him huff in frustration. "Yes, but why am I holding it?"

"Do you have a weapon?"

"No. Unfortunately, mine got lost during our last attack."

"Well, now you have one."

5th Day Updates

The 5th day of NaNoWriMo is drawing to its end.

I cannot believe the first week of NaNo is almost over!

What have I been doing for these first 5 days of NaNo you ask?

Let’s see here…

Oh yes! I’ve been doing everything in my power to keep my two main characters from killing each other. That’s right. It seems Eldoren and Riana, my NaNo novel’s main characters, have a great desire for the other to not exist. I’ve endured one fight after the other. I’ve spent hours upon hours listening to Eldoren complain…and complain…and complain. *sigh* I’ve pondered over why Riana seems to be utterly heartless. I’ve gone to bed each night amazed that the two are still alive. …Yep. It’s definitely NaNoWriMo season.

So, it’s obviously been going terribly for me, right?

NOPE.

I’m thoroughly enjoying myself! I mean, yes, my MCs this year are beyond infuriating, but they’re mine and I love them. I’ve never had MCs like this before and I’m actually enjoying the change and challenge. They make things…interesting, that’s for sure. And plus, there’s Eldoren’s dragon, Irevik. Irevik is lovely and hilarious and all around ridiculous and is quickly becoming my favorite of the many, many dragons in this series.

I’ve been extremely pleased with how smoothly this story has been going honestly. Thus far I have not hit any walls of writer’s block-ness of doom yet (yay outlining!) or got into many writer, I’d-rather-die-than-write-right-now ruts. In fact, it’s all been going so smoothly…

I HIT THE HALFWAY POINT TODAY!!!!!

I am so excited! Now, it is nothing to my 35k words I had on the 5th day my first NaNo (I’m literally embarrassed at how crazy I went that first NaNo, dear me…), but last year for my second one I hit the halfway point on the 5th day as well. So…success? Each year I keep telling myself I’m not going to get so obsessive and just take it slow and easy. But…it seems there’s no doing it. I have a tendency to get very obsessive with things, and NaNo is definitely one of those things. *sigh*

Ah well, I’m still pretty excited about my wordcount, despite me pretty much throwing away my life to get there. I also am hoping to get this book done quick. I am very much enjoying it, but I have many writerly plans for 2013 and am aiming to get this one finished before then.

Sorry, Life, you’re just going to have to wait.

My first two days of NaNo ended up being fairly stressful, but all in all I’d say I’ve had a pretty great first week of NaNo thus far. I’m looking forward to the rest of the month.

I hope all of you NaNo’ers are having a good first week as well!

The best of luck to everyone!!

Favorite Writings of the Day: (This is something I did on my blog last year during NaNo and thought I’d continue the tradition.)

Irevik took wing, splashing in the stream and sending a rain of droplets all across his rider before bursting into the sky. He made it look like an accident, but Eldoren knew better. He spluttered out water and shook his arms, shaking his head at his dragon's nonsense.

Oh, Irevik, you silly dragon you.

Watching the Minutes Go…

NaNoWriMo begins for me in just a few minutes here. I’ve stayed up to midnight to bring in the very first seconds of NaNo with as many words as possible my last two NaNo’s, and I have every intention of doing the same this year! There’s nothing more exciting then watching that clock going on the eve of NaNo, knowing with each passing minute, you’re closer to starting that crazy, month-long challenge. To see that story that’s been buzzing around in your head finally come alive on paper.

I have latte currently in hand (and trying to figure out how to type this while sipping it) in order to keep me awake for as long as possible. Unfortunately, I do not like coffee, otherwise I’d be glugging it down.

I’ve got one of Owl City’s newest songs Gold blasting away to also keep my already fizzling brain alert.

Now to just wait…

Anticipation…

Excitement…

Inspiration…

Characters screaming in my head to start already… (Sheesh, guys! Hush! Your time to come alive is almost here.)

NaNo…

‘TIS ALMOST HERE!

Colors of a Dragon Scale – My NaNo Series

With the coming of NaNoWriMo in one week (ONE WEEK? GOOD GRACIOUS!), and since I seem to use my blog during November as a NaNo journal of sorts, I thought I would share what I’ve been writing for my NaNo’s.

Since my first NaNo in 2010, I’ve been writing a series called The Colors of a Dragon series. I started the first book for my first NaNo, and the second for my second NaNo. And guess what? I’m writing the third book for my third NaNo this year. Shocking, right? I plan on doing this until I’ve finished the series. I think I’ll have 7 books of it (that’s quite a lot of NaNo’s to be working on the same series…) but that number keeps changing, so we’ll see.

Anyways! The series is a high fantasy story about a group of newly ordained dragon riders. Each book follows a different pair of riders while the last two books will be the finale with all the characters. Each book also has a color theme. The first one was blue because it was about two riders with blue dragons, last year was pink (yes, the dragons were pink), and this year we have purple, thus the series name, Colors of a Dragon Scale.

Now, instead of rambling about this series (oh, too late. Whooops.), I’m just going to share my little blurbs of them.

~~~~~~~~~

Colors of a Dragon Scale Series

In the great land of Aerigethel, dragons lay down their eggs every twenty-three years and entrust the humans to care for them. Seven years later, the eggs are ready to be hatched. From all over the land, people come to touch the eggs, for if the egg lights up upon their touch, they are chosen as that dragon's keeper and rider. After extensive training, these special chosen ones are proclaimed dragon riders and keep watch over their land alongside their dragons.

In the region of Sivral, ten young people have finished their training and celebrate their new call of a dragon rider. The merry festivities of that day are quickly ruined when the princess of Sivral, Princess Iraila, is captured by mysterious beings. Though they have only been real dragon riders for less than a day's time, the new dragon riders of Sivral are each sent out in pairs all across Aerigethel on a quest to find the princess and bring her back safely.

Though many wars have taken place throughout its long history, Aerigethel has had a few years of peace. But now Iraila's capture is just the beginning of many perilous events that causes this world to fall into war again, and the dragon riders might be its only hope.

Book One – More Blue than Sky

Eryth, a kindhearted half-elf, and Bryth, a subdued elf with a mysterious past, are amongst these new riders along with their shimmering blue dragons, Neriin and Reshin.

Together, these girls travel far from home to find the princess, who is also a dear friend to them. What was first just a rescue mission, turns out to be a very perilous quest, growing more and more dangerous and perplexing with each passing day.

Through their journey, the girls find strengths they did not know they had and secrets they wished they never learned.

Book Two – More Pink than Sunsets

In the second book of The Colors of a Dragon Scale series, the rambunctious twin brother and sister, Naidren and Nyria, are sent off westwards with their curiously pink dragons, Ferrleth and Afayleth, towards the region of Immengoth to search for their captured cousin, Princess Iraila of Sivral. As they arrive at its borders, they are met up with two other dragon riders of Immengoth who proclaim Immengoth might be in threat of war and any outsiders of the region must speak to the king in order to pass through the land freely. Naidren and Nyria are none too pleased, but know if they are to search the land for the captured princess they must acquiesce to these wishes.

Things fly into great disarray when knights of Sivral themselves are found attacking those in Immengoth, while knights from the capitol region, Githrendor, are also growing very hostile towards this region. Naidren and Nyria find themselves in the middle of it all, trying to prove the innocence of their home region, Sivral, while also attempting to survive this chaos.

The two riders and their pink dragons suffer through many hard times as they solve the puzzle of why these wars have started and how to stop them. But all the while they fear for their cousin, Princess Iraila, who is still captured and lost.

Naidren and Nyria suffer greatly, and lose much, but they strive forward, seeking the light of the Creator and following His guidance, hoping someday all will be put to right.

Book Three – More Purple than Amethysts

Catastrophe, dishonor, treachery, foolishness, and a life of loneliness...

Eldoren, a pompous, conceited boy who has been in want for nothing his entire life, and Riana, a mysterious girl who seems to want nothing to do with people at all, are more than surprised when they find themselves with the same color dragons and thus thrust together as dragon rider partners. Surprised...and highly displeased.

Things only grow worse when the princess is captured and the two are forced to go questing together in search for her, neither finding teamwork, especially towards one another, appealing in the least.

What starts out as an already bad situation grows only worse as Eldoren, Riana, and their dragons, Irevik and Razel, run into one peril after the next. They find themselves being hunted to the dark corners of Aerigethel by a raging red dragon and mysterious man, while rumors of war whisper across the lands.

As tragedy, dishonor, treachery, foolishness, and a life of loneliness follows these two riders, Eldoren soon discovers his partner is far different than she ever let on. And Riana, in turn, watches as her arrogant male companion grows into something she'd never thought he'd ever be.

~~~~~~~~~

So…er…yep.

This will be my first time writing a book with main characters who are somewhat erm…unsavory. But don’t worry, by the end of the book I’ll have put Eldoren and Riana through enough torture learning experiences to straighten them out. Should be good fun!

Now, if I can only get through my head that NaNo really is only a week away…

The NaNo Waltz

The NaNo Waltz

A NaNoWriMo Parody to “The Christmas Waltz”

By Lauriloth

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Inky pens in hand
Lightbulbs gleaming inside
Inspiration coming alive
NaNo's on its way,
It's filled its days
With words, words for you and for me

It's that time of year
When the writers go mad
Every one you see
Seems to say
Happy NaNo
May your word count goals come true
And this month we write
In thirty days time
Hopes your fifty thousand
Words come too

Happy NaNo
May your word count goals come true
And this month we write
In thirty days time
Hopes your fifty thousand
Words come too
Happy NaNo to you

NaNo Cometh

That time has come upon us again. That time of blood, sweat, and tears. That time that our eyes burn out of their sockets from long time exposure to our writing devices. That time that our brains fizzle out from ideas overload or abandon us altogether as we push those minds of ours to give us the inspiration we need. That time that our associates give us odd looks because every time we look at a calendar we scream in terror only because October is almost over.

That time is NaNoWriMo.

Yes indeed. NaNo is almost here and the writers of the world are going mad as we prepare for that crazy challenge in November. 50k words in one month.

The time has come.

Today is officially NaNoPrep Day according to the NaNo site. I can imagine NaNo participants all over the world are scrambling around pouring out those creative juices as they prepare for the task of NaNo. It’s exciting really.

If you have no idea what NaNoWriMo is, you can check out the official website NaNoWriMo.org and discover the amazing challenge of writing a 50k word novel all in only 30 days along with thousands of others. Or, if you rather, you can read my own post I made last year about NaNoWriMo here: National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

If you’re already well informed about NaNo and are participating yourself but unsure how to begin on planning for your NaNo, I also have a guide I put together on how I plan my own novels: Step by Step Guide to Outlining a Novel

Or, if you’re just curious as to how I stepped into the wonderful world of writing, you can read all about it here: My Grand Adventure of Writing

This will be my third time to participate in NaNoWriMo myself and I’m just beyond excited for it to begin.

Ah, I can hear it now, those brains churning and inner lightbulbs flashing as plot ideas flow through thousands of minds—characters beginning to come alive, new worlds forming, beautiful stories just waiting to unfold.

I love this time of year!

Happy NaNo planning to all you NaNo’ers out there!

Prettying Up Bloggy

I know I said recently (or not so recently) that I was going to blog more, and yet barely any posts have made their way to my blog. I actually have quite a few posts planned. But first, I wanted to pretty up my blog a bit, something I’ve been meaning to do for…well…a very long time.

I’ve been adding all sort of things to my side bar, changed some settings, rewrote my welcome and profile, etc. I even added labels, something I literally meant to do the day I made my blog, and here, a year and a half later, I finally did it. Hurray!

I’ll still probably add and fix up some things here and there, but overall, I’m a lot more pleased with my blog.

I’ve also been joining more blogs, and have just been a lot more active in the land of blogging, which is exactly what I’ve been trying to do.

Anywhoozle, I do promise I’ll have plenty of new blogposts coming your way soon. I’m quite enjoying getting back into the blogging world.

I hope everyone is having a lovely October!

Can you believe the month is already almost halfway over? o.O

A Very Hobbit-y Birthday

“I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.”  -Bilbo Baggins

Today, on September 22nd, marks the birthday anniversary of two of the most beloved fictional characters created.

Our dear Bilbo Baggins-

 

And, of course, Frodo Baggins-

 

I thank Tolkien for these dearly loved, inspiring heroes, and want to wish them both a very merry (and hobbit-y) birthday!

Happy birthday, Bilbo and Frodo!

A Little Bit of This, a Dash of That, with a Pinch of Other Stuff

I’ve been in a bit of a blogging rut as of late, which is probably evident in the fact that I haven’t posted in a month and a half. I’ve been suffering from blog post block, which is like writer’s block but with blog post ideas. Add that with a touch (okay, okay, a lot) of laziness, and my blog is off to the land of abandonment.

I blame the summer. (Are you saying I should blame my own laziness? Pft. That’s ridiculous.) Upon summer days, comes, what I like to call, the “don’t wanna’s”. I don’t wanna do this. I don’t wanna do that. Yep, lazy summer days are what they are. (There. See? I blamed my own laziness a bit.)

But then something happened.

Just a few days ago, I opened up the front door, expecting a blast of heat and misery, only to find my skin did not melt upon contact of the outside air. “What is this?” I thought. “Could it be…”

Fall!

Just a tiny hint of fall was in the air. The unbearable heat was beginning to leave. Now when I say leave, I mean the temperature went from the high 90s to mid 80s. Yes, that’s a hint of fall for us. But that’s okay. Fall is around the corner and my heat hating soul leaped for joy.

I always get excited and reenergized come fall. The long, summer days are over only to be replaced with crisp air and bustling hours.

Just as my blog has been in a rut, so has my soul. The Lord has been working through some things with me and revived my heart and soul. Add this with a hint of fall, and out comes an invigorated, alive, ready for life and all it brings me. Let me just say, God is good. So, so good.

Beautiful bird image from Little Birdie Blessings. Alterations by me.

So, with my soul restored and the excitement of fall around the corner, I’ve had all sorts of things in mind to do. And that includes…

Blogging! Yay!

Being as how I haven’t blogged in a very long time, I thought I’d throw out a post of all the random things I’ve been doing as of late.

My latest endeavor has been a full-fledged, major cleaning out and cleaning of my room. This has been something I’ve been needing to do for months and thought with the excitement of fall coming, now would be the perfect time.

Three and a half full days I spent cleaning…and cleaning…and cleaning. I’m very much a perfectionist, especially when it comes to cleaning, and it was high time my room got a good cleaning and organizing. So I was very happy to do it.

I just accumulated so much stuff that desperately needed to be rid of.

Sometimes I wonder where all the things I have come from.

It is fun searching through the old treasures though.

These little self-put-together sock dolls used to be very dear friends of mine. The green one on the right, fondly named “Socky”, was my favorite but one very sad day was chewed up by one of the dogs. Poor, poor Socky.

Oh the things one finds while cleaning out…

Mom randomly presented this rubber ducky keychain to me one day, claiming it’d be the perfect keychain for when I get my first car. I approved greatly. Now if only I had a car and car keys for it..

I had a heaping mess of jewelry that had no proper home for years.

That was remedied by recruiting my brother to place a few nails in the wall of my closet--

After a major cleaning out of my closet and drawers and any other random items I found about, I brought out the big guns.

I was determined to be rid of every speck of dust that resided in my room. My mom asked me what I was going to clean, and I told her, “You point at it, I’m cleaning it” aka EVERYTHING.

Boy, did it feel fantastic to get done! What a satisfying feeling! Me and my perfectionist self sure does enjoy clean things.

And, amidst cleaning, I stumbled upon Chris Tomlin’s CD And If Our God Is For Us, something I had no clue I had.

Now, how I had no clue I owned it, is still a mystery to me. Chris Tomlin and Owl City are my two most favorite things to listen to. I’m still baffled by owning this CD and being completely oblivious to the fact. Regardless, the moment I found it, pop it went into my laptop, and pop went my eyes when I listened to it. Chris Tomlin did it again with his brilliant voice and fantastic lyrics. I’ve become obsessed with the song Our God especially on that CD. I don’t even want to think about how many times I’ve listened to it since I found the CD.

Another thing that has coupled with the anticipation of fall is a renewed interest in photography. Having a mother and many friends whose passion is photography, it’s just something I’ve always been surrounded by. I like it a great deal, but I rarely pursue it. Yet, through the years, I occasionally get on these photography kicks for a couple of months, and it has come again. Now, I can’t boast any great skill, but I enjoy doing it nevertheless. I’ve been quite in the shutterbug mood.

Which is a good thing since I want to start blogging regularly. Blogging and photography often go hand-in-hand, yeah?

Others things that often arrive with fall is new seasons of TV shows. I’ve been very much spazzing over the new season of Doctor Who.

Thus far it’s been quite a fantastic one!

Why yes, I am a major Whovian. Have I not mentioned that yet?

Writing is something else I’ve been quite busy with. I just recently finished writing a novel and am now trying to hurriedly finish editing it so I’ll have all of October to start planning for NaNoWriMo. Because, oh yeah, the coming of fall also indicates NaNoWriMo will soon be upon us.

I’m both excited and flailing about in terror over that, but we’ll worry about it when it comes.

Those are a few of the random things going on in this elf’s life. I do very, very much want to become a devoted blogger. A dear internet friend of mine suggested I make a list of blog post ideas, so I think that’s just what I’ll do. I’m determined to fight off this blog post block, even if it means pulling out chainsaws and sledgehammers to do it.

You will not defeat me, writer’s block!

Ahem. So yes. Hopefully there will be more posts to come sooner than a month and a half away.

Happy coming of Fall to you all!