A Bookish Sort of Update

 before all the christmas business starts up, i wanted to post a few updates about a few sorts of booky information.

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1) after a whole lot of personal upheaval/stress/development type stuff, i will be back to editing my novel after this weekend. the goal is to get through it and start querying in january 2013. (if you're reading this, and you read the rough draft of my manuscript, and you're interested in reading the more finessed variation of the book, let me know.) i'm really excited to get back to it and i hope that 2013 is the Year in Which Ang Acquires an Agent as well as the Year in Which Ang Obtains a Publishing Deal.

2) furthermore, but along those same lines, i'll be outlining books 2 and 3 in the series betwixt editing. i'm really excited to get back to my characters, guys. like, really, really.

3) also, i think i'll be back to writing My Beautiful Disaster (tentative title) instead of my murder mystery book once querying begins.

moving on to something a bit different:

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4) i hit my reading stretch goal for the year. as of today, i've read 105 books, which is crazy and awesome. i'll probably read a good bit less next year, as i'll be writing and editing and querying (oh my!) throughout 2013, but i'm still going to aim for 60 books, or 5ish a month.

that's all for now.

:)

Happy Birthday to Me!

hey-o! 

for my birthday, i thought i'd make a hodgepodge post in which i shoe you a few of my favorite things. so, here we go!

in no particular order:

chuck taylors, because duh.

ben whishaw as Q in skyfall. OHAI BOY.

lattes (particularly with fun foam designs)

Daryl fucking Dixon, yo. Obviously.

Foo. Dave Grohl is cooler than you.

Mumford & Sons.

books.

Ten. (and the TARDIS, i suppose)

Marcus Mumford's lyrics.

and last, but definitely not least:

Cupcakes. Because of reasons.

anyhoo. there's obviously more where that came from, and i forgot to link to the original files, and for that i apologize, but: 

happy birthday to me!

hope you all have a fab day.

2012: 12 things.

with my 30th birthday approaching rather quickly, i thought i'd make a list of things i did in 2012, if only for my memory. in no particular order:

1) i lost 25 pounds, making me the thinnest i've been in over a decade.
2) i became a Whovian, because life is simply better with The Doctor.
3) i wrote a book. it's 74K of YA fantasy, and i'll be querying it in the new year.
4) i lived in nashville for the majority of the year, and loved every second.
5) i saw mumford live, finally.
6) i made a handful of new friends, whom i am convinced will be around for the long haul.
7) I (am on track to) read 104 books. holy awesome, batman.
8) i stopped drinking soda, finally, and for real.
9) i ran a 5K.
10) i grew my inner-book nerd to an exponential degree.
11) i loved fiercely.
12) i learned that i'm stronger than i think i am.

on december 8th, i will officially begin my 30s, and while there's quite a bit in my life that is in flux right now, i refuse to let it get me down. i got this.

thanks for being mostly awesome, 2012, but onward and upward, i say. happy birthday to me, y'all.

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NaNoWrimo 2012 : Thoughts on Drafting

you know what makes me laugh?

the assumption that so many people live under in which they actually believe writers are all hippies who write flowery words all day and never do any work.

fact #1: most writers i know are completely neurotic about their craft.
fact #2: writing is intensely personal, thereby enhancing the aforementioned neuroticism.
fact #3: writing well is hard. if it were easy, everyone would have a book deal.

i think one of the best parts of nanowrimo is that it forces people to put up or shut up. you will either write that required 50K or you won't, and really, it's all on you. if you're someone like me, who reacts well to this sort of pressure, you will likely thrive during nanowrimo. if not...well, it's likely that you'll hate nano. and here's why:

drafting a manuscript is bloody difficult on a good day.

so, when there's a looming deadline and a rather intimidating word count requirement...

you have to shove through the doubt and the fear and the questions and JUST WRITE.

but that's the beauty of nano, for me: because to finish a draft, well ... you have to finish a draft. which means you have to write the words. which means they have to get out of your head and "onto paper."

and that brings us to:

fact #4: the first draft of anything will be shit. if you think otherwise, you're crazy.

that's what revisions and edits are for. duh.

NaNoWriMo 2012

my life for the next 30 days, folks. i'll post a few blogs, i'm sure, but mostly, i'll be writing a creepy little story that's been plaguing me for the last few days.

are you NaNo'ing? GOOD LUCK if so! 

MWAH! 

-ang