The new year cometh

The decorations are already down.

I've been going through stuff this year... hard stuff, honestly... and I'm eager to move on. So, I've had my Christmas spirit. We're still drinking out of Christmas mugs until after the new year, but I've already taken down the tree. Bring on 2014 and hopefully some progress on some of my issues. (Ok... stopping for a peaceful breath here).

In other news, and in random order, here are a couple of awesome things that have happened recently:

Sunrise this morning before heading to the wetlands to count
shorebirds, water birds, and various other kinds of birds.

We lit a spiral of candles for the solstice and asked our friends
to each add a light representing a wish they have for the new year.

I have Doctor Who salt and pepper shakers now!
It was a particularly Doctor Christmas this year. Love!

I hope you all have resolutions for the new year, even if it's something generic. We should all start the year looking forward to something, I think. I'll be back in a couple of days to document my own resolutions.

In face of the oncoming storm

Reading material. I have Margo Berendsen to thank for a
couple of these suggestions.

We have all our preparations down to a science now. This will be the third heavy, power-loss-inducing storm to have hit us in two years, and the one with the most warning. Our list of supplies: coffee, pre-ground with no-refrigeration-necessary creamer; water, to drink and in the bathtub for flushing purposes; alternative light sources, matches/candles and battery powered lanterns; emergency radio for, you know, emergencies; blankets and reading material (see photo).

We decided to try to act normal while waiting for this newest weather threat to pummel us within an inch of our lives. I keep hoping the predictions are all worst-case-scenarios and that we're actually going to be completely fine. Denial much? Sigh...

Normal for us is pretty subdued anyhow. But with Halloween right around the corner, it was pumpkin carving time. We broke out the unconventional tools (a wood carving set and a seam-ripper were the most useful implements) and spent the evening whittling away.

If you've read this blog much over the past year, you might have picked up on the fact that I'm a Doctor Who fan. So this year's pumpkins have a theme from one of my favorite episodes: Blink (season 3, ep. 11).**

Doctor #10... my second favorite Doctor, but there are a
lacking of #9 stencils out there, sadly.

Noah's completely terrifying rendition of a weeping angel

The two together on the porch.

I would have taken a better picture of the two of them but it was late, it was chilly, and there may or may not have been a horrifyingly huge spider sighted in that general vicinity earlier in the evening. I was nervous!

I hope you all have a happy Halloween! And here's hoping that the storm decides to be kind. Please no prolonged power outages!

**Every minute spent carving was one LESS minute spent obsessing over the weather channel and the path of this ridiculously slow and threatening behemoth of a storm.

Good Morning, October! When did YOU get here?

It's OCTOBER! That means Halloween is coming! And so is NaNo! *scrambles around for that one notebook with all her novel notes for this year....*

To be perfectly honest, I'm a "pantser" when it comes to NaNo (that's National Novel Writing Month, in case you didn't know. The whole month of November is a creative party! 50,000 words in 30 days! Check it out!). By "panster" I mean I just hop in with no plan, just a vague idea and the motivation to create something. It's actually how I approach MOST of life, come to think of it. Ha... well, there you go... that explains a lot.

Anyhow! This year, I'm going to be visiting my super awesome friends in CA (and staying with amazing awesome Leslie) during the first 14 days of NaNo! Eeek! There's no way I can pants it this year if I want to make the goal. I'm going to have to be a PLANNER! *shudders in fear and chagrin at the thought*

Luckily, I have an idea already! Woot! Having an idea is half the battle right there. What's better is that I've already started note taking... dare I say it... outlining (!!) even. My goal is to have the whole story mapped out by October 31, to not forget my laptop when I get on the plane on November 2, and to get up and write every morning at Leslie's, just like I would if I'm at home... only with more dedication to knocking out words quickly because I wanna hang out with her, too, and not spend all day staring at the computer screen. Write or Die should help with that.

It's ambitious and I'm not sure if it will work out at all, but that's the plan so far... here's hoping! I can't NOT do it this year, though. I like the idea too much :)

Anyone else out there taking the NaNo challenge this year? To be honest, I can use all the support I can get, but I give support equally! Lemme know and sign up, sign up, sign up! Then make me your NaNo buddy! My handle is (of course) fairbetty!

Ok, now here's some random art that I've done in the past couple of weeks... just for fun :)

A new raven :)

Dream Girl with stars in her eyes

Doctor Who fan art

Veggies that I grew!

Remember all those weeks ago when I posted a picture of our seedling adventure... weeks, sheesh, who are we kidding? It was MONTHS! Anyhow, looky what I pulled out of my garden this season. I'm so proud!

Yes those carrots are red. They are still orange on the inside, but they're a brilliant red variant called "Dragon". The golden cherry tomatoes are the sweetest things ever, too! And that's just one of the different heirloom tomato varieties we grew. I've been enjoying tasting the literal fruits of our labor this harvest!

In other news, guess who got to go see the premiere of the new Doctor Who series in NYC yesterday? ME! That's who! I'm one lucky girl! And Stephen Moffat did NOT disappoint. Matt Smith and Karen Gillan were there, too!! Which is all well and good, except that I really want Matt Smith to be The Doctor and not Matt Smith... oh well.

Now to get started growing my T.A.R.D.I.S.

5 tips for writing from C.S. Lewis

I read an article today wherein a letter from C.S. Lewis to one of his fans was described. They listed the following 5 rules as Lewis recommended them to the young person who had written him for advice regarding her own WIP. I thought the rules were worth sharing with you:

1. Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn't mean anything else.
2. Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don't implement promises, but keep them.
3. Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean "More people died" don't say "Mortality rose."
4. In writing. Don't use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was "terrible," describe it so that we'll be terrified. Don't say it was "delightful"; make us say "delightful" when we've read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, "Please will you do my job for me."
5. Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

Good advice for any writer to live by. Thanks, C.S. We'll take these rules to heart.

In other news, I did NOT see the fabled Matt Smith and Karen Gillan... although they did arrive on set later that evening... around 10:30 p.m. with 1,200 other fans all clamoring for their attention... Yeah, I left earlier... because it's a long train ride home and because while I LOVE Doctor Who, I'm just not that kind of girl. If they had been there earlier I would have been excited... sigh... how complacent I have become.

Although... if I had been waiting for THE Doctor, not the man who plays him on TV, I would have stayed until he came and happily run away with him in the T.A.R.D.I.S. Ya know? If only...

Photo from Wikipeida

A girl's gotta have her Doctor Who dreams

I was totally on my way into the City today for my internship... but then what should pop up into my Facebook News Feed but a post from Doctor Who saying that they are filming in the City today! Eeek!

What is a girl to do? I could be responsible, yes... but I've done that before. And sometime's a girl needs to be ridiculous. So I ditched.

I'm crashing at a friend's place for the moment, and hoping to catch a glimpse of Matt Smith and Karen Gillan... or at least the T.A.R.D.I.S. a little later.

Likely I'll miss them altogether, but I'd hate to say I didn't try!