No Review Monday, I wasn't able to dig out any books in time.  I have started a new one, Stephen Deas' debut novel The Adamantine Palace.  I have at least a bookshelf's worth of books that I've yet to read, no better time than now to get on reading those.  Review Monday will be up next Monday, this is an amazing book.

What an icky day.  Ever since we finally got that big snowfall that lasted a few days, we've been going through cycles of snow, melt, mild weather, cold weather, and snow again.  Yesterday and today has made the biggest mess of it though.  It was cold all last week and weekend, then overnight between Sunday and Monday it snowed.  It didn't even last the day as it was slushy by Monday afternoon with the temperature already climbing some.  Today we've had rain almost constantly all day.  My backyard has become a swamp!  Dalila can't even use it really to do much of anything, and she hates the rain so getting her outside is already a challenge.  Such a mess.  Of course the last big melt made a mess as well.  When we went to report the accident a couple weeks ago there was a young man also reporting an incident.  It turned out he hit a flooded road at night and didn't find out just how deep the flood was until he was stuck in it, and the flow carried him into a tree.  He was fine thankfully, but his car was considered 'totaled'.  As in no point trying to save it.  Hopefully there's been no repeats, because I'm sure all those hotspots are flooded right now.  There's quite a dozen around here.  Some good news, Mom's car has been fixed now.  Total damage amounted to $3000.  Apparently there was more than just the external damage.  Insurance paid most of that, but a hefty price tag.  I still think those deer had been spooked by something in the trees, dashing out into the road at night (one they're familiar with, by the way, and aware of the traffic) is just not something deer commonly do.  Not like that.

Anyway, I decided to spend the night up in my office, finally putting it into order.  I've been avoiding it, admittedly because all these boxes and disarray seemed so daunting but the only way that'll disappear is to tackle it.  So here I am.  I feel like crap up here though.  This overhead light is way too bright, and coupled with the modem/router...great unpleasantness.  I can't wait to get all my candles out and lamps and turn the overhead light off.  One thing I can't stand is too much light, even at night.  Goodness it's such a mess here.  Time to buck down and get to sorting this stuff out.

One day, I'll have an office that looks like this

I kind of feel like I lost a week, this just flew by.  It was one of those something's always coming up sort of weeks.  Last Friday my mom came home with a busted up car, after having a run-in with some deer.  Four, to be precise.  The first one she managed to avoid, but the second and possibly third and fourth unfortunately struck the car.  They were running too fast to stop in time and she had slowed down to avoid hitting the first one.  They all managed to run off so hopefully none of them sustained any serious injury, but something must have spooked them in order to dart out at night.  The damage was all over the passenger side door, took out the side mirror and scratched up the window.  They left some dents, too.  All in all, $3000 worth of damage.  I'm just glad that's all it was, because it truly could have been a lot worse.

I've been busy at work at a new project that just wouldn't get out of my head.  I love and hate those sort of projects because they just absorb your attention, starting small and blooming into something massive.  Unfortunately it's put things on the back burner a bit, but that shouldn't be for too long now.  Inspiration really does come from the strangest of places.  A friend shared this song, which is responsible for said new project:


Damn you Lilith for you great taste in music! *shakes fist*

Oh who am I kidding, it's turning into a deliciously wonderful tragic tale.  But I'll give it a happy ending.  Maybe.

I will say though, that I've got one bad-ass lead:

P.S. - if anyone knows the artist, please share!  I can't seem to find a name to go with this amazing image and I dearly want to give credit!

Hand of Isis, Jo Graham

Hand of Isis is a riveting historical fantasy story centered around Charmian, one of Cleopatra's handmaids.  It begins in the Halls of Amenti, the Egyptian place of the dead where it was believed a soul traveled to when the body died.  Charmian stands before Serapis and Isis, to stand for her judgement at the hands of Ma'at.  For her failure she begs them to condemn her, but they insist on hearing the tale of her life and so the story begins.

Charmian's mother was a Thracian slave girl who died when Charmian was born.  From her mother she gained blue eyes, brown hair and pale skin - a very Greek appearance.  She was nursed beside Iras, born to Asetnefer who was a slave born in Elephantine.  Iras was Charmian's opposite with dark skin and dark hair looking very much Egyptian, and so the girls grew up together as sisters.  At five years old the two girls meet Cleopatra, a fifth daughter and third princess of a queen who had now died and was succeeded by another.  As a result, Cleopatra was of no worth except as a suitable exchange for a strategic marriage.  That day changes their lives.  Asetnefer returns Cleopatra to the Royal Nursery and ends up returning at night.  She tells Charmian that her and Iras' father is Pharaoh Ptolemy Auletes (something Charmian has always known because Asetnefer has always told her) which makes Cleopatra their sister as well.  And they will now begin lessons together, given to the young princess as companions and belong to her now.  The girls get along well and grow up together closer than friends, enjoying lessons and plays together until the realities of the politics invades their lives.  Murders for the throne, Auletes bargaining his throne with Rome, and Cleopatra's plans to become Queen of Egypt.  It is no easy rise, and even when she succeeds it is to a throne of a now bankrupt kingdom, with Rome knocking at its doors for a promised debt.  Charmian documents the journey as seen from the side of Cleopatra and her position of running the Royal House, as well as the trials and tribulations of her own personal life.  The stress of events that threaten their safety, love gained, love lost, battles that threaten to steal all she loves, the birth of her daughter and ominous dreams and thoughts that she is leery of trusting in.  For Charmian is also an oracle, a gift that has followed her through many lives.  It is she who brings Ceasar to Egypt, she who sees the loss of Cleopatra's second child, and the fall of Egypt.  Her gift however cannot save the Black Land from its inevitable fate, and the story winds down with her death and that of her sisters'.  Again she begs the gods for her punishment, to which there is none for they find her heart worthy of the Peace of Amenti.  And she is offered a choice: to remain in Amenti and be healed of the hurts of life, or return and possibly have a chance to save those few of her loved ones that remain in the world.  Charmian does not hesitate with her choice.

Why You Should Read this Book:
Jo Graham is a gifted storyteller who never leaves even a small lull in her tale.  First person narration is notoriously difficult to write but it is flawlessly done in this book.  As a historical it's not heavy in detail, just enough to create the setting for the story takes place.  It's very real, focused both on the people as much as the events that affect those peoples' lives.  And just enough magic to draw in the avid fantasy reader.  If you love fantasy and especially if you love the ancient mythology of Egypt like I do, you have to pick up this book.  You're missing out if you don't!

And hey if you want to check out Jo Graham, you can find her here at her Livejournal.

I’m still playing around with my new laptop that I got for Christmas (when I’m not playing WoW *shifty eyes*).  I was just getting used to Windows 7, now I have a whole new OS to get used to.  Windows 8 is quite a trip with its layout but I’m also having quite a bit of fun playing around and customizing it.  The battery life is fantastic, lasting about three and a half hours or so.  And the laptop doesn’t burn my lap after five minutes like the old one.  IE 10 still crashes like IE 8 though, sorry IE.  However I’m having a hard time getting to the firewall settings to allow League of Legends finish installing.  App fever has hit Windows, haha.  I still have to transfer all my files and photos and such, as well as Liquid Story Binder.  It took me a couple of days to find something that will replace the free version of Office on the other laptop, since this one didn’t come with it.  Which I found odd, really.  ZenWriter is fabulous, but is too simple for what I used Word for.  Kingsoft Writer seems to be a hit, if it works out I’ll blog about it.

I’ve been back in Warcraft for about a week now, I believe, and I’m having way too much fun with the new pet battle system.  It was implemented in 5.0 I believe, with the Mists of Pandaria expansion (which I still have to get).  Fortunately you don’t need Pandaria to use the system.  In a matter of days I went from 50-something pets to now 153 since pet collection has gotten ridiculously simple.  This is so bad for my collecting tendency!  Battling, leveling and collecting rare pets is pretty much all I’ve been doing.  It does feel good to be back in though.  I know a lot of players, usually older players, now are dropping out saying the game isn’t worth paying for any longer.  I don’t think they’re wrong.  With games like this, it’s always a personal choice whether you continue playing with the game as it goes through its growth or whether it’s time to go.  For me, as long as I can find enough elements that I enjoy about WoW that make it worth the subscription I’ll stay.  Yes there are things I miss, changes I don’t agree with and a slowly growing number of players too lazy to do things themselves, but the things I still enjoy about this game outweighs all that.  I still enjoy my favourite races and classes, the storylines, flying mounts, the different zones and the community interaction.  I’ve met some fun people over the years, guilds are a good way to do that but even through groups I’ve met them as well.  The beauty of a game like this is it’s so dynamic and it really appeals to a wide variety of players – raiders, PVPers, casual players, dedicated players, those who like to play solo and those who prefer groups.  It doesn’t matter which way you prefer to play, you can enjoy yourself in this game.  Sometimes I think certain players forget that.  My favourite is seeing players come onto the servers I’m on (primarily RP servers, one is normal) and complaining about the lack of PVP.  Congratulations, you stated the obvious!  It’s not that PVP never happens on non-PVP servers, it’s just not a focus.  PVP servers are labeled as such for a reason, and if you don’t want to constantly be looking over your shoulder for a member of the opposite faction then you play on a different type of server.  Some players have too much time on their hands.

I am glad though that Blizzard has finally recognized that many players have multiple characters.  Now pets and mounts are available to all characters, certain achievements count for all characters, and the ease at which you level now compared to vanilla makes it easier to get low level characters up.  Now if they could just make a similar mechanic to Diablo III’s stash, perhaps one large bank stash per server so I don’t have to constantly try and mail things between characters.  I like the instant mail, but sometimes it’s a pain in the arse.  Just being able to empty my bags and then continue questing is far more convenient than spending ten minutes playing the mail shuffle.  Then again, my banks could all probably use a good clean-out.

Speaking of Diablo III it’s actually as good as I thought it would be, gameplay-wise.  Leah is still a bit of a twit, but well can’t do much about that.  Getting through Act II was insane.  Belial, the Act’s final boss was a b*tch to finish off.  It’s a three phase fight; phase one you fight his guards, phase two you fight him and his guards (annoying as hell, even with a companion) and finally phase three is full-sized Belial.  I failed that fight about five or six times before I finally beat him.  The Enchantress was a far more valuable companion in that fight than the Scoundrel was, I haven’t yet tried the Templar but because of the nature of the fight ranged seemed a better idea than melee.  But to get through the fight I had to stop trying to keep both the companion and my own health up since the companion respawns after a few seconds.  The fight is enough without worrying about them.  Attempt two was most annoying; I got Belial down to a sliver of health, probably a good shot or two away from death and I just couldn’t get to a health globe before he gave me a smackdown.  I cursed badly (I ordinarily don’t anymore, mostly because I now have a very young nephew with very perceptive hearing) and my mom gave me that oh-so-familiar ‘and you wanted this game because why?’ look.  She’s so tolerant of my vices and I do enjoy them.  Even when I’m cursing at them.

I’ve finished Hand of Isis, and I’m going to go do a Monday Review now for it.  It was really quite good, and I’ll tell you why in that entry.  Later I’ll have to crack open the box with all my books and pick a new read.

That unpacking thing?  Yeah still haven’t finished it.

Now that my back is healed I feel more at ease about carrying boxes upstairs than I was before.  So glad that fiasco is over.  Today I’m diving back into my exercise routine so this never happens again.  Not that I needed a reason, but this gives me that added motivation to just do it and stop waiting for a perfect moment.

It seems no sooner did the holidays come around that they're gone again.  I blame moving in December, and the snow coming late.  And now it's the last day of 2012.  What a year.

Christmas time I always look forward to.  There's a kind of warmth to the season even though it's winter that you can only feel in this time of the year.  Seeing all the houses decorated with Christmas lights and decorations - there's honestly nothing more fun than living in or near a neighbourhood where a majority of houses are decked out with lights.  I wonder how many nights I can go walking around and enjoy it before they all get taken down.  This was also the time of year when I got to see most of my relatives, especially those who I didn't see any other time of the year.  Those were always such great times and memories.  Sometimes I look back and miss them but not with any kind of regret that they're over.  I'm happy that they're there for me to look back on, now that the family's grown on and apart.

Now with year's end here my focus is on the new year ahead.  This year there are no resolutions for me, I'm not going for that perspective.  There are plans and goals to be sure, I plan on being very busy in the new year.  Instead I'm starting my year with something that's been floating around Facebook.  An empty jar, which you fill throughout the year with notes about good things that have happened throughout the year and at the end you open it and look back on the great year you have.  I like the idea in being open to whatever good comes your way and not just what you plan to accomplish in the year.  After all:
The road to success is a journey; it twists and turns, sometimes things are unexpected.  It may not be the path you expect, but if your eyes are always down on the road you'll miss all the unexpected blessings that tend to come along.

Today I'll be doing some prep and planning while I continue to try and heal this back.  I strained it badly last week and it's been pain central ever since, though I've made sure to keep any length of bed rest to a very bare minimum.  The pain at least has started to subside and the more I do the quicker the swelling goes down, so hopefully a week?  Or two?  My New Year's Eve will be pretty quiet, just my mom and I.  Some of my friends will be ringing in the year playing video games, I'll likely follow suit.  I got Diablo III and a World of Warcraft time card for Christmas as well as a brand spanking new laptop all my own, but that can wait for another entry.  Because I can ramble on about those all day long!

Enjoy your New Year's (safely!), and here's to a brilliant 2013!

My whole November and the first couple weeks of December can be basically summed up like this:

• - start NaNo
• - get two days ahead
• - put in moving notice
• - house hunt
• - struggle with word count
• - find house, start packing
• - more struggle with word count
• - lots of packing
• - pack and send out NaNo swap packages
• - finalize new house
• - packing?  Yep still that
• - word count finally caught up
• - NaNo ends
• - call utilities
• - packing done

Yes I'm moving again.  The place we're heading to is a really nice place and I'm way excited.  I'm more excited about where we're moving to than when we moved here.  Don't get me wrong, this house is a nice house and it's in a nice area, there's just something about this new place we're heading to.  I'm hopefully going to take pictures, providing I can get a camera.  My goal this time around is to have a less stressful move than the last one - so far about 95% achieved.  The truck is booked, we have friends to do the heavy lifting (some of this furniture is pretty freaking heavy, no lie) and the place is for-sure.  And we have a move-in date, we'll be able to celebrate Christmas there.

NaNo so far can be easily summed up like this: I got ahead a few days, fell one day behind, caught up, fell behind some more, lost a couple days' of writing and managed to just make it on the 29th.  Rewarded myself for managing it, Magnum ice cream is the most amazing thing ever.  I had a hard time about week 2 with this story, I started hating it.  And it wasn't even like it was work-through-it-fix-later kind of hate, it was I-don't-want-to-be-here hate.  Normally I'd take a break to something else but I wasn't going to allow that during November.  I ended up rewriting chapters 2-4 until I got them going in a way that made me like the story again, and I created a dump file for everything I've written but decided is not going to go into the story.  That way I hadn't lost words I fair and square wrote and managed to preserve my chapters.  In eight chapters my two M.C.s had three bad spats and a new character materialized around chapter 4 with some timely conversation.

Well I needed the word boost.  Dialogue is good for that.  Besides, it's not the first time a new character has shown up out of nowhere, and won't be the last either.  We'll see how he shapes up as the story progresses.

I realized what a tricky main character I've designed here, though.  She had some of her memories locked away and starts the story that way, but along with those memories she's forgotten two significant things: the man she loves and the reason for the whole thing in the first place.  She's reunited with said love interest in chapter 2 and has to deal with emotions her heart remembers to a man her mind can't recall.  Pinning down what that would make one say, do, feel and think is interesting, although difficult because it's something I'm having a hard time connecting to.  I've never been in such a situation so what would be a realistic reaction?  When would you follow your heart and when would you follow your head?

It's a challenge.  And I love it.

I'm going for a story with some didn't-see-that-coming kind of twists near the end, and the whole truth of the situation comes out.  Everyone has their piece of the story, or what they think is the story, and with my M.C. acting as sort of a catalyst for the truth it's going to come together nicely.  Plus her mother's going to get into some serious battle action.  It was a topic in the Fantasy forum on the NaNo boards, I think the pet peeve topic, and one commenter's peeve was about how older women never seem to do any of the 'fun' stuff (fight, have adventures, love story, etc).  I didn't add it with a specific goal of bringing that to light, but the point kind of stuck in my head.  Because you know what?  It would be rather fun to see the 'mother' figure kick some butt here and there.  And I was kind of taken by Rene's role in Thor and the scene when she picks up the sword to defend her husband.  I was a little disappointed that she only got one strike off before being knocked aside; I mean come on, this is Lethal Weapon's Lorna Cole and the character comes from the Norse mythology and gods.  Let the lady kick some ass!

Goodness, what a mess I'm surrounded with.  Guess break time is over, I should get to cleaning house.  Again.

What is it?
Syncplicity is a cloud-based file storage system designed to back up, store and sync your files.  Syncplicity LLC has both personal and business solutions with an eye toward security, flexibility and seamless ease.

How it works?
Install Syncplicity onto your computer by signing up on the website and going through the process.  When the program is installed it stays active on your computer, and the chosen files will sync between the devices you register on Syncplicity.

The Basics:
For the personal edition there are two editions: free and personal.  The Free Edition is actually a pretty good deal with:

• 2 GB of storage
• syncs between up to 2 computers and mobile devices
• unlimited files and folders
• works with PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android and Google Docs
• community support forums

The Personal of course is a better deal and well worth the money especially if you've got a lot to store:

• $15 per month
• 50 GB of storage
• syncs between up to 5 computers and mobile devices
• unlimited files and folders of any file size
• works with PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android and Google Docs
• priority support

The Business Edition is a free 30-day trial with various options after the trial, depending on what suits your business needs.  You can see the full comparison here.

The Pros:
Syncplicity is really easy to use and really seamless.  It's very easy to switch it to a new computer if you're upgrading, add or subtract a device.  The 2GB of space is plenty for backing up writings and Syncplicity automatically re-syncs when a file in the designated folder changes.  Once it's installed there really isn't any kind of further user effort to keep your stuff updated or to make sure the program does its' job.  It works quite well on its own, it's very seamless.

The Cons:
I can't really think of any cons.  The business edition looks pretty customizable, the personal edition looks plentiful enough for the average user, it doesn't even take up much memory in the background.  If you have memory issues where you can't have too many programs running in the background at once you may have to manually turn it on and off to back up your files.  It's not one of those programs where the free version makes you wish it was a little jucier while not making the paid version worthless.

My Thoughts:
I love it.  I love that it's so seamless, I love that I don't have to fuss with it much and I love how easy it is to use.  When I got my new computer and had to bring Syncplicity onto my new machine I had no issues.  Everything syncs, well seamlessly just like it's supposed to.  Plus I like that if it has a hard time connecting to the server or if I go offline and a file changes it keeps the updates and immediately sends the update to the server as soon as connection is re-established.  I can't recommend it enough, it's a great addition to your back-up plan.

Well tea house has left the building.  I'm making a note to go visit the store for more very soon.  But I'm uber excited to see what my swap partners are going to send my way!

Today NaNoWriMo has finally begun!  I had originally intended to start my writing at midnight but instead I'm 'clearing my schedule', as it were.  I've cleaned my office several times now this past week.  When I get into creative crafty stuff there is no such things as "organized" or "clean", haha.  I have a bunch of half-finished projects floating around this desk right now, and that just won't do.  So my plan right now is to finish them off like they're supposed to be, head to bed, wake up and do some writing.  I plan to break this late-night habit this month though; I don't sleep well when I'm crawling into bed at like 3am, and I don't dream very clearly either.  And I very much enjoy my dreams as well as not oversleeping like I'm wont to do when I hit the pillow late.

I'm being kept company right now by Jesse and Crendor's live stream.  Right now they're playing around in Guild Wars 2 on the craziest jumping puzzle I've ever seen.  That probably sounds incredibly boring if you're not a gamer, but I'm watching more for the convo between them than actual gameplay.  I have a couple more things to put together for my swap partner's package for the big ship-out on Friday, some things I decided to handmake.  I got her package today and I love it!  She sent me:

• a copy of the CD she did for the NaNo CD swap, can't wait to check that out
• 3 Orange Blossom Thyme lolipops from the Groovy Baker
• a sticky notepad
• a little Cactus Pups toy, who's currently keeping me company sitting on my keyboard
• a Mini Plush Labbit
• Hot Buttered Rum powder
• 4 World Market hot chocolates: Salted Caramel, Dark Chocolate, Mexicocoa and Dulce De Leche

I'll try to get pics when I can.  I hope my tea swaps come soon.

I have a few more notes to work out for my NaNo story as well, Street Team posts to write and queue and some Review Mondays and Fangirl Times to write and schedule ahead of time.  I purposefully chose not to do more Review Mondays in October so I could do some writer-focused ones in November.  There are a few new sites and such I came upon, so I want to do those in spirit of NaNo.  I also have my NaNo Advent box to prep up.  I saw it on the forums for years and never really looked at it until this year out of curiousity.  If you remember those chocolate advent calendars you buy at Christmas, this is more or less the same idea.  You make or buy thirty boxes or seven or even one, however you wish to do it, and you put a treat in it for every day of November.  You hit your word goal for the day, you get to open a box.  I got my Mom in on the fun, she went out and bought a bunch of snacks that she divided into small bags and labeled and stick in the box for the small word goals.  I'm also going to do a bit of my own for the bigger word goals and for bonus ones (anything I hit over 50k).  LoL time, PS2 time, whatever I can think of.  I'm curious to see how well this form of motivation works.

Or maybe I should call it the Tea House, since it smells like one!

Went out with my mom Friday night for some shopping and dinner.  I picked up all sorts of goodies which I can't keep (they're for my swap buddies) and dinner was...well ended up kind of being an achievement for me more than anything.  Anxiety made it very difficult for me to go out that I just got into a habit of avoiding doing something like go out to dinner.  We don't often get the chance to do this as it is, and mom and I had a lot of fun.  It was worth the jitters.  Right now my desk is a mess of goodies all strewn about - padded envelopes, pens, glitter, lots of teas.  And a snack called Dragon's Lair for my swap buddy.  I seriously can't stop smelling the loose teas - they're so fruity and sweet!  I almost want to replace the rose potpourii on my desk with loose leaf tea, but I love the rose too much.  I hope my swap partners enjoy them; I know I'm definitely going back for some for my own personal stash.  I can't wait to see what they send me!

Goodness this desk is such a mess...

NaNo is almost here.  I still have so much planning to do, and still much catching up to do on my pre-NaNo story.  How time flies.  No word yet on where we're having our Kick-Off this year, or our "official" write-ins but I know I'm going to hit up the Starbuck's a lot this November.  And the Second Cup down the road - I miss that place so much.  I used to go to the one in the west end all the time in high school, it has such a great vibe.  Nice and warm, good music and wonderful hot chocolate.  And with Tim Horton's now having wi-fi I'm certainly not going to be at a loss for writing locations throughout the month.  I need to get out of this house more.  My brain is itching to work on this story.  It seems the closer we get to the start of November the more the more scenes flash in my brain, dialogue I can't write out yet.  It's ten more days, right?  Think all this great dialogue will stick around that long?  I stand hopeful - or sit, rather.

I'm off to be crafty for a little bit before bed, later today the Mum Show!  Pics of that to come soon hopefully.

Movie night was so much fun!  Except for the stomach ache afterwards haha.  Too many rich foods all at once but damn if it wasn't a good night.  We watched Paranormal Activity 2 and Halloween H20, neither of which were scary per se.  Paranormal Activity 2 had some great jump scares once the movie really got going, but it was kind of drawn out in the beginning.  H20 was...shorter than I remembered.  It was like here's Jamie Lee, here's her new life, here's Michael, here's some dead kids, here's Jamie killing Michael.  The end.  Well it never did compare to the first few originals (Halloween got crappy from four onward).  This weekend we're going to hopefully watch the first Halloween movie and Nightmare on Elm street.  On the menu we're sticking to a simpler layout - pizza, veggies and dip and some sweets from Bulk Barn.  I'm not planning on a repeat of last week thank you, worst night I've had in a long time.  But homemade bruschetta is the most amazing thing ever I got to admit.

Thanksgiving as always was good.  Mom actually cooked instead, but we both did the cheesecake.  OMG the cheesecake...there are no words.  It was beyond amazing.  I can't really stand the taste of pumpkin but in cheesecake it's sweet enough to really enjoy.  It really must be tried even if you hate pumpkin pie.

Of course, all that food means a serious detox is in order.  I need to flush all that out of my system before it decides to hang around, so it's been mostly soups and salads and apples all week.  And twice the water intake.  I might start double-walking Dalila too, although that's hardly inviting right now.  It's so cold out holy geez!  There's been a giant wind for the past couple days which usually means something is on its way (a storm in most cases) but aside from some rain yesterday morning there's been nothing.  Wasn't the best day to do yard work but it had to be done and the front lawn looks so much better now.  Not sure what we're going to do tomorrow, we're still wanting to take Dalila to the falls (not Niagara Falls, these are more local) but tomorrow's too busy a day.  My fingers are crossed for Sunday though!

Time to get my butt moving on writing.  Still about 8k behind.  I'm having flashbacks of my first NaNo experience!

Yes, that time of the year is definitely coming once again.  A month sometimes isn't long enough to prepare, or it's an agonizing wait.  Sometimes it's both.

It's almost kind of strange how much it's a part of my life now.  I can't imagine not doing it even though I no longer am an ML for my region.  That's still kind of strange to me as well.  I've been doing this for twelve years now and I was ML for a good majority of those years.  I'm used to it now but there's a little part of me that still misses commiserating with fellow MLs about things, sharing ideas, going through that frantic-but-fun planning stage of trying to organize events AND my own NaNo.  I have happy memories though, and that's enough for me.

This year's novel is fantasy, as usual.  I just can't deviate from the genre - and really, why should I?  I love the genre, I read the genre, my imagination spends about 95% of its time in the genre.  I don't really have the mind for something like sci-fi or mystery or anything like that, and that doesn't bother me at all.  Although I've contemplatedy YA a few times.  I may try that one day, we'll have to see.  This year's story had a bit of influence from the movie Thor, the newer one with Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston that everyone's fawning over.  At least a couple of the characters.  And the idea of different realms/worlds, which also kind of reminded me a bit of the realm idea Dennis L. McKiernan used in his series.  Traveling between them won't be as complicated or even similar to either story though.  I'm still ironing out the details, this story is proving to be tricky - took me three days just to pin down the general arc and where to start the story alone.  I like where this one's going through.  The main character starts out in the realm her mother comes from with some of her memories surrounding an event back home purposefully hidden away.  The only problem is the only other person there who knew what she had hidden away and helped her do it is now gone, and with the same dream haunting her every night for the past ten years she decides to head home.  What will follow is a whole number of truths from all sides of the debate, no one's completely innocent in this story but the severity of those choices will vary from one character to the next.  No one knows the whole scenario but it will be discovered.  The main character will also get her full memory back in the midst of all this.  I've never done the whole grand discovery angle before.  Perhaps it's all the Murder, She Wrote re-runs I've been watching, haha!  That show is amazing.

You can find me here, if you're on the site as well.  Shoot me a NaNomail sometime.

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron and Chris Hemsworth

Storyline: Snow White, imprisoned daughter of the late king, escapes just as the Magic Mirror declares her the source of the Evil Queen's immortality. The Queen sends her men, led by a local huntsman, to bring her back. But upon her capture, the huntsman finds he's being played and turns against the Queen's men, saving Snow White in the process. Meanwhile, Snow's childhood friend, William, learns that she is alive and sets off to save her.Written by G.C. Bendixen  at IMDB

Pros: This was a great and refreshing take on the Snow White story.  It was nice to see that Snow White's beauty was more about her heart than her looks as opposed to other versions.  It wasn't poor little princess, prince come save her.  She was a fighter in a determined-to-stay-alive but she wasn't that sort of unrealistic fighter.  Having the Huntsman as more prominent character was well-balanced; he assisted Snow White without carrying her.  And Queen Ravenna was a spectacular evil queen.  Scheming, devious, sly and yet not wholly evil.  She is a woman who's been shaped by her circumstances but has also given in to the lust for power, who probably would never attempt to redeem herself and yet a small part of you could sympathize with her.  The dwarves were not Disney's tribe, and yet they were still able to provide some comic relief without stupid cheesy elements (I'm looking at you Mirror Mirror).  And the best part - seeing Snow White take the throne.  Without having to marry a prince to do it.

Cons: Prince William was kind of useless.  With a little bit of tweaking you could have told the same story without him.  Characters like that kind of annoy me.  I was kind of disappointed by Kristen's acting.  I was really excited for this movie partly because I wanted to see what she was capable of doing outside that Twilight role and she fell kind of flat for me.  Some parts of the story felt...lacking in some sense.  I can't quite explain it, but it just felt like there should have been more of something.

My Thoughts: it's worth a checking out, especially if you're a Charlize fan because she really doesn't go wrong in this movie.  And Chris Hemsworth was okay, and looked really good.  Avoid if you were hoping this would be a break-out role for Kristen, because she doesn't quite pull it off.  But it's worth seeing at least once.

Just a little post to say I'm off for a legit reason, moving day is today and not sure when I'll regain internet access.  But when I do, posts aplenty!  See you then!

This is something new I've decided to do, a place for me to fangirl my little heart out once a week.  I like the idea of having a kind of 'series' sort of thing and my blog can stay mostly writing otherwise.  And it might give me some discipline too, hehe

So my first entry goes to Jesse Cox of OMFGCata on YouTube.  I first found his channel just after WoW: Cataclysm came out, and I was searching for game cinematics and game content.  My account was frozen at the time (I needed a new time card) and I was going nuts waiting for both a time card and my copy.  There were pre-release events going on (as they always do before a WoW release) and since it was obvious I wasn't going to get back into the game in time to see them I was hoping someone was posting them.  I didn't end up finding it, but I came across Jesse's channel where he had late beta content and was posting the new changes to the game.  Playthroughs of entire zones and their questlines (Silverpine Forest is still my fave).  I've been subscribed ever since.  I like watching his stuff for a variety of reasons, the biggest being he's interesting to watch.  When he films an episode of a game he's not critiquing the game or trying to be an epic player.  He makes jokes and comments, he makes mistakes but bottom line he has fun.  He isn't playing what's popular for views, he plays what he enjoys for the pure enjoyment of the game.  It makes him fun to watch!  But don't just take my word for it, watch some of his stuff yourself:

Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy), Saint's Row the Third (with Crendor), Star Wars: The Old Republic, Silverpine Questline, Terraria (with TotalBiscuit)

And here you can find Jesse's YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

Well first thing's first, I finally have a move date.  Next week!  I'm quite excited, I'll have my own computer space again instead of being tucked into a corner between a t.v. and the kitchen.  I hate using excuses with a passion however I do think it affected my writing.  I'll fix that in the new place.  It's nice not to have to look for places anymore and knowing the whole chaos of having furniture and boxes piled up all over the place won't last much longer.  And a backyard, there'll be a real backyard!  My inner gardener is so happy you have no idea, I miss having plants so much.  A few flower boxes just isn't doing it for me (plus this heat killed off all my pansies).  I'll probably take some pictures once we're all settled in.  I have plans for this new space.

So my "dates" haha.  Well I went back to Chasing Dreams.  I was six and some chapters into it before I dropped off, now I'm back with it.  I love this story, I want it to see the light of day and if that's ever going to happen I had to get over a few things for that to happen.  The biggest of those things was posting samples up for critique.  That's such a huge fear for any writer I think when they start taking those first serious steps to publishing.  You want the constructive criticism, you want those opportunities to develop your shell but at the same time you don't want to hear your story absolutely stinks beyond any sort of redemption.  Not so much the technical aspects, which can be fixed with time and practice, but the very idea itself.  I'm sure there are some writers out there who don't have that fear or were able to easily get past it, but it was difficult for me.  There's only one thing for it though; deep breath and face the music.  Gather your bravery and set forth.  So I did - and was pleasantly surprised!  The overall verdict is that I have a great deal of work to go, however I was given a lot of good ideas of how I can restart the first chapter and get more action going and the critiques were helpful.  No ripping apart of the story itself, one person even said the writing was good.  Everyone likes to think they can tell a good story but when a random person online who has no reason to butter you up compliments your writing it's a nice feeling.  So the rewrite continues, it's still not polished but (to me at least) it's starting to read a little better.  I'm using it as a chance to attempt at more showing and less telling but without going right into editing mode.  Getting the story out is top priority, however I've also been looking up resources for when I get a whole draft finished.  There's much reading to be done for me.

Speaking of reading, I borrowed a copy of "50 Shades" for a date with Christian Grey.  Which probably sounds weird to people who know me because I actually don't like what I've heard and read of these books.  It isn't the so-called BDSM and sex, I've read fanfics and original novels with more sex than "50 Shades" has.  For one, you can't really have an opinion about something you haven't actually read/watched/listened to.  Two, I want to see for myself just what it is about Christian Grey that others are swooning over.  What I've read has honestly creeped me out, but I've promised myself to give it a fair shot before coming to a final thought about it.  Though honestly, not entirely looking forward to this.

This new format keeps making my eyes glaze over.  I liked the old version better.  What can I say, I'm stubborn with my technology :)

Anyway, hi again!  Life has been...well yeah.  When are things going to calm down, I'd like to know.  I think maybe life just doesn't like my attempts at making a schedule lol  Life's just going to have to get over that.  Each time brings some interesting struggles though; for example, I have no dedicated writing space for the sheer fact that there is none in this apartment.  Currently I'm tucked in a corner between the open kitchen counter and the t.v. stand.  I kind of had no choice, I wasn't here when they installed the internet or I would have had them hook up the modem elsewhere.  It makes it very hard to focus a good part of the time, but at least it eliminated the t.v. as a source of distraction.  Now if I could only do that with YouTube...

I've managed to start writing again!  It's not wholly ideal, I stay up way too late but it's only temporary.  We're in the process of looking to move into a new place with more space which will definitely help, in the meantime I'm working on keeping up with the blogging and writing.  It keeps me sane.  So yes there will be regular content.  Some reviews, some thoughts, and lots of progress.

What is it?
Liquid Story Binder XE is a writing program created by Black Obelisk Software solely for Windows. It's a writing program designed to have the capability of a commercial text editor with a great deal of features and flexibility.

How it works?
Liquid Story Binder XE is software that must be purchased and downloaded. You can download Liquid Story Binder XE for free for 30 days, and have access to all of the program's features. After 30 days the program will stop working, and you have the choice of either uninstalling the program or purchasing a code to continue using the program indefinitely. Both the downloading and code purchase can be done directly from Black Obelisk's site, and the code is $45.95.

The Basics:
As stated above Liquid Story Binder only works on Windows machines. Its interface can be as full or as empty as you like; all the features can be used or left off. The workspace is not only completely customizable, but can be saved as well. This way when you restart the program you don't have to restructure your workspace every time. The menu can show up to 15 different stories, as well the program creates a seperate folder for each. The program has a bunch of great preferences such as 20 second Auto Save, automatic save on close, snap windows and others which allow you to customize the program to suit your use. There are even a list of preset different colour schemes under the Display tab, as well you can also customize a colour scheme of your own. Black Obelisk often updates the program and the updates are downloadable directly from their site.

The Pros:
The program's download is small for a program, which is great. I love that the interface is as customizable as it is and can suit my various needs and desires. I'm often moving my windows around and I like that the program remembers my set up for every story I have a file for. It actually really helps me remember where I was in my mind the last time I wrote, if that makes any sense. Also I'm one of those writers who makes a ton of notes on back story, characters etc. and it's great that I can do it all in the program and have it present or not when it suits me. The master File list is multi-functional in that I can see every file for the story, or I can simply focus on Dossiers, or Chapters, or what have you. Save features are good and you have pretty good protection from losing your work.

The Cons:
It does have a bit of a learning curve. So many features can be a hinderance as well as a blessing. Also my version of the program does not have a retrieve function like Microsoft Word has, where if the computer is suddenly shot off for a reason (i.e. sudden power outage) your work is often restored. If this program doesn't have such a feature, I'd like to see it.

My Thoughts:
All in all I love this program, and use it frequently for my work. If you can get your hands on this and you like having a single place for your work and notes you'll love this program. If you like a simple bare bones kind of workspace you'll still love this program. So download it, give it a try and don't be surprised if you stick to it. It's well worth the price.

You know those moments when you read something, or hear someone say something that just strikes something deep down in you and it changes your perspective? And suddenly something you struggled with all falls into place?

I love those moments. They don't happen often enough for me.

My favourite one hit during this past NaNoWriMo which actually not only really helped me (just barely) get over the finish line, but finally gave me something to help keep at the story in the off-season. During NaNo, there's just something about that competition that can help you really get your butt in gear, but the challenge a lot of us face is how to keep it up after NaNo's done. I recall someone asking about how to silence the inner editor or how to not sort of edit yourself as you're writing, and someone responded with a brilliant (IMO) reply: how can you properly edit something that doesn't exist?

Often even a writer can't really see where the story's going to go, though you have the idea in your head. So much can happen between the first words and the last. Characters come and go, events change, things and people that weren't important suddenly are. Editing before the story's written I feel just hampers the story itself. Let it grow. Let it breathe. Let it become whatever it's going to become, and then shape it into perfection. Nevermind if it doesn't sound great now. It will in time. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. I wish I could remember who said that.

I've been seeing this term being bandied around quite a lot lately. Well, it seems to flare up every now and again. But is this advice about building platforms being spread in a helpful manner? How and when does "building a platform" apply?

Firstly, I define "platform" seperately from networking. The definition of platform I'm accustomed to applies to non-fiction writers. A platform establishes them as an expert in their field, essentially what they "stand on". It's not limited to keeping a blog or website or any other form of social media but also tours, workshops, etc. In essence not just being able to say "I'm an expert" but being recognized as an expert. So what use is a platform then to fiction writers? There's no requirement that says we have to establish ourselves as a fantasy writer, sci-fi writer, crime writer, etc in the same sense as a non-fiction writer. At least not via social media. Of course it's great if you've gained many followers or readers on your blog, many being actual readers and not just fellow writers, that would certainly only work in your favour. If people are that interested in your blog they're certainly going to be interested in your book. But it's not going to make or break your chances of being published. A publisher is not going to look at a work that's really caught their interest, check out the writer's blog and reject it because said writer has a low number of readers. That isn't how publishing works. Publishers buy stories because they believe they can sell them, and they have all the tools and know-how to market the book to readers. It is not our job to market ourselves and our work unless we're self-publishing. Promote? Naturally. Network? Sure. But market? Not our job. If a publisher can't sell our work, we're not supposed to step in and do it for them (micro publishing exempted, as that works quite differently from large, medium and small publishing). So what's an aspiring writer to do?

Best advice I've received for aspiring authors is to write something worth selling. All promotion and blogs and twitters and such aside, we're writers first and foremost. That shouldn't be forgotten or put to the wayside in favour of creating a "brand" or "platform" or whathaveyou. Because even the greatest platform or largest reader base isn't going to mean a darn thing if you're not producing something worth buying. It certainly doesn't hurt to network, work on your blog or reach out in the meantime, but don't let it become your main focus. After all, when was the last time you heard about someone getting rejected on the basis of their blog readers and not their novel? ;)

I've had this week to myself, no obligations that require my time, so I'm trying to take advantage of it as much as possible. This sort of feels like the final lap, I have to get done the things that have been sitting around needing to get done that have been bothering me. Since my personality doesn't let me just ignore them and push them aside (though I think they've been pushed aside long enough) then I need to get them done. So far, so good. Monday Review will be back on Monday, I'll be reviewing Liquid Story Binder and there'll be regular activity from here on in. Since I'm kind of out of helpful writerly stuff to review now, I'll probably hit my bookshelf and review some of my favourite authors. I'll have to get back one of my books that I want to review, it's out on loan. Come to think of it, it's been out on loan awhile now...

Finish line, here I come.