"The Rumors of my Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated"

At least I think that's how the quote goes? I know someone famous said this (or something like it) once ago, but I do not know who...*shrugs* I'm too lazy to look it up on Wikipedia right now.

Anywho...I'm back! Lots have happened since my last post...almost 2 months ago! OMG! I'm so behind on this blogging thing. First things first, a quick on life: "The Hobbit" came and went...and we did great despite several hiccups thrown in there at the last moments. I completed both my substitute teaching orientations and have now been working at various schools nearly everyday. My schedule is very sporadic and I usually don't know if I'm working on not until the last minute in the mornings, but I'm actually enjoying it. It will definitely help me gained experience in an actual classroom and learn how to deal with students behaving at their worst. (Because who wants to behave when there's a sub in the room?!) The costume shop where I was periodically working has now closed the actual store, finishing out the month of Halloween sales. And while I did not complete (or really even start on) my Halloween costume, I did make a "Dr. Horrible" lab coat for my friend. I was very proud of myself despite the issues I kept having with the patterning. (I took a different pattern and work it to create my own for the coat. Yay for using the skills I learned in college!) I will post pics of the coat later on...including the ones where my friend posed in his entire costume.

So now that September and October have come to an end, what do I have in store for November? More subbing, sewing, babysitting, and...writing! Lots and lots of writing! Because guess what I signed up for? (Hint: Look at my sidebar for my shiny new web-badge!) Yep, I'm participating in the National Novel Writing Month challenge for the first time. I'm both excited and terrified! My reasons for such insanity? I'm a writer who never seems to stay focused on anything long enough to finish it. I currently have so many WIPs, I don't know what to do with them all! And its not like once I stopped working on one, I stop forever. No, I'll come back to it eventually...work on it for a bit...then abandon it again until I rediscover it or something reminds me about it. So what is NaNoWriMo, you ask? It's a challenge to celebrate the art of writing and see if the participants can write 50,000 words (or more) between 12:01 AM on November 1 and 11:59 PM on November 30. Intense, right?! That's an average of about 1,667 words a day...no biggie, huh? I'm challenging myself this month to see how far I can get. I have not make it to the 50k goal by the deadline, but at least I'm going to try! =D

So which WIP did I choose to work on this month...well, I don't have a working title for it yet, but it's a gaslamp-fantasy mystery I have done working on for a little while now. (Gaslamp-fantasy is related to the Steampunk genre, but focuses more on the fantasy than science. It's like science-fantasy as opposed to science-fiction...at least that's how I see it.) Before today, I had primarily worked on creating the extensive world (including a map complete with names) and its civilizations, detailed character sketches for my main characters and important secondary ones, lots of research, and a vague summary idea of what I want the main plot struggle to be. And now after working on my WIP on and off for a good part of the day, I'm 2352 words into it with a very rough draft of the first chapter, part of the second chapter, and a basic outline of the prologue. Not bad for the first day, huh?

So it looks like another busy month for me...but I will try not to neglect this blog quite so much as I have before...I hope! I'll definitely post more about my WIP (summary, brief character sketches, etc) later on once I have time to work on it more. I don't know if I'm going to get much writing done over the next several days due to various things I'm attending. (I'm going to w00tstock on Tuesday, "Shrek the Musical" on Thursday, and the Texas Renaissance Festival on Saturday!) But I'm sure Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday will be full on writing when I'm not at work! Now to end this post, I'm going to join a blog-fest I discovered through a fabulous blog I read by Roni @ Fiction Groupie. The blog-fest is being hosted by Summer @ ...and this time, concentrate! who wants people to post the working space for NaNoWriMo. So here's my entry: my work-station/desk in my bedroom...

Yes, I have two monitors for my one laptop...and yes, that is the Tenth Doctor as my background...and yes, there's a blue dinosaurs and 4 costumed rubber duckies on top of my desk...and yes, the colored piece of paper on my laptop keyboard is the map I referred to earlier... =/ Normally it's more cluttered, but I cleared it off in preparations for NaNoWriMo...because I needed something to do while I was counting down until midnight last night! I mostly do my writing here, though I do carry a paper-notebook with me to jotted down ideas throughout the day and my iPad is handy for when I'm sitting on the couch  or in bed watching TV. And speaking of bed...mine is calling out to me for I have to work in the morning as a high school history teacher...wish me luck!

~Namárië