In the bat's mouth

I love this print by Francesca Montanari. I originally wanted to get it for myself as a personal pat on the back for finishing the NaNoWriMo (especially since I listened to a lot of Bat For Lashes during the process), but now I think it will just be a Christmas present "from Seve." He already knows what I got him, haha. A tight budget where we're both privy to who bought what, where, and when kind of kills the surprise of gift giving for us. But maybe I'll manage to sneak in a nice anniversary gift that'll knock his socks off. Hmm . . .

Shewolf

Guyz look another wolf in glasses!!!!11one

It's here. November 30th.

Many of my bloggy buddies have been participating in 30-day challenges, including a photo for every day and 30 items of clothing to be worn in 30 days. My 30-day challenge has been the NaNoWriMo - write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. And I'm about to ride this wave out in glory, people, GLORY.

I have consistently written 1,667 words every day. I had some NaNo friends who ran hard in the beginning, boasting impressive word counts of 20,000 at day 3 when I was only at 5,000. But some of them burnt out after such energetic sprints, and I'm here to say that slow and steady wins the race.

I attribute this success to my job. I write 1,000 words on average daily. It's all draft work; only about 200 ends up being publishable. With that in mind, the majority of my NaNo novel will probably never see the light of day. But writing comes easy for me. And I am so happy that I've crossed the finish line! And GUESS WHAT the story isn't anywhere near being over. Yay '50s doo-wop werewolves!

I hope you guys don't mind my boasting, but writing is my only real talent, aside from this one time when I made a prom dress out of duct tape.

This helps me write my wolf book

The Book Smart Wolf

Well gosh crap it's snowing.

My new office window!

So, I recently completed my goal of reading and viewing all Harry Potter literary and film installments. Thoughts after reading: I wish I was Harry Potter.

Writing the NaNo while finishing Harry Potter has given me a whole new perspective on world and character building, and the scope by which Mrs. Rowling managed to juggle so much in such a perfectly executed fashion. It boggles me that her mind was able to store so much, though I'm beginning to learn that with the power of Microsoft Excel anything is possible.

My own novel is struggling with elements of brooding darkness and quirkiness that don't seem to mix. I'm getting the word count down for sure; writing isn't the issue, it's feeling accomplished in what I've written. My wolves are wearing glasses and listening to '50s doo-wop music one minute then debating the handling of a severed head the next. They're dealing with a haunted canoe, falling in love, missing their moms, hunting down ghosts, discussing the merits of devouring the haunted canoe . . . I guess it's silly of me to expect anything real to come of this project. I went into it knowing it'd be just for kicks. But since when am I a werewolf novelist?

Also. Due to my husband's fervent dislike of the title On All Fours, here are some other titles for your consideration:

Red Riding (turns out this is the title to a TV series)
The Book Smart Wolf (serious consideration at this point)
Muzzle (boring)
Wolf Like Me (TV On the Radio song title)
Haters Gonna Hate Now Let's Go A'Howlin (made this one up on the spot while typing this post)

I worry that anything with "wolf" in the title will be tossed aside as another Blood & Chocolate or Twilight knockoff. Lord help me, if I ever attempt to publish this thing I'll need a good query letter to sever that connection, but when you're an agent with a daily slush pile to tackle, the wrong title can set a bad taste in the mouth that spoils the rest of the letter. Hmm.

Oh, and for the record, Harry Potter was a much better boyfriend than The Hunger Games. By far.

Sh*t my coworker says

So so busy. Work + NaNo have me writing writing writing. I shouldn't even be taking this blog break. I love this Barnaby Ward sketch as it's a good reflection of my mind right now. Just busy and cluttered. But I'm getting everything done! That's what counts. Seve's incredibly busy too. Read: TWO PLAYS AT THE SAME TIME. Plus school. Crazy.

Oh, and we're officially going to Florida for Christmas! Didn't think it would be possible, but my Mum and Bum-in-law have very generously secured the trip for us. Trying to think of how on earth I can ever repay them for their kindness.

Also, I was daydreaming about how funny it'd be to have a "fashion blog" dedicated to people in pajamas and sweatpants, but in really sexy poses and pretty photo shoot settings. They'd act like it's real fashion, and list where they got each item. Winnie the Pooh onesie - $15 - Walmart.

And OH YES Halloween was fantastic! Though Seve's "Proud to be an American" t-shirt drew a fine line between Garth and Joe Dirt. Luckily, Trent scrawled "Aerosmith" over it.

k TIME TO WRITE MORE bai.

Oh it's a skull that's neat

Oh, hey guys! Hope you had a Happy Halloween. I've just been busy noveling and such with the NaNoWriMo. So far so good! Oh, and I did a little redesigning here on the ol' bloggy. Anyway, more blog stuffs later, time to novel again.

On All Fours

Well, I think ya'll know by now how much I love this wolf by Rosie Music. While procrastinating plot outlining I made this little cover for my NaNoWriMo novel. Seve thinks my title suggests an innuendo; my friend Daniel said if I wanted an innuendo I should have named it Doggy Style.

Well, I'm here to say that I hope my cover and title alike suggest a werewolf novel without silly full moons, silver bullets, or innuendos; but rather awesome Buddy Holly references and book smart wolves.

But, you know, without being all hipster-pretentious. Actually, this cover doesn't really convey my story at all, I just thought it was cute. Maybe too cute. Because there's scary stuff in the novel too, like getting your hand ripped off, accidentally eating your favorite horse, and whatnot.