Huh ... So this is what my blog looks like

It has been forever (was my last post really in 2008??) since I've been here.  I created this blog to have somewhere to babble on about books I like and Nano and somewhere along the way I kind of ... well, forgot about it, I guess.

Nano 2009 and Nano 2010 were both successful even though, like all Nano novels, neither went exactly the way I had planned.  Nano 2011 was most definitely NOT successful.  Oh, I finished, er, well, I reached 50,000 words (just, my actual word count was 50,025) but the novel was - in a word - horrible.  I just couldn't seem to get into the story this year.  I had all of these random things going on and every time I tried to pull them together it just got worse.  I went days without writing a single word - almost a whole week once - and couldn't seem to care.  Finally, I decided that in order to finish I was going to have to turn the whole darn thing into a dream.  With a big last weekend push - and a LOT of repetition (because of course my FMC had to explain what happened in the dream to the MMC) - I was finally done.

I really want to revisit the novel - once I get some distance from it - and see if I can't figure out where it went wrong and fix it.  I did a lot of preparation this year in contrast to previous years when I didn't do much at all so maybe that's what went wrong.  At any rate, I really liked my characters this year and even kind of liked the plot I had and I feel like I let them down.  Not a good feeling.  But it's over and done with and next year will be better.

Lately, I've been spending a lot of time on Twitter which, now that I think about it, may have contributed to my novelizing woes this year.  Hmm.  I'm following a lot of authors (I still have that OMG moment when I get a response from an author) and book bloggers (reviewers) as well as hockey peeps and friends.  So yeah, I've had a lot of fun on Twitter (though that's mostly thanks to two fictitious characters who have their own Twitter accounts. :) )

In fact it was through Twitter and the YA crush tourney hosted by The YA Sisterhood that I discovered The SHADE series by Jeri Smith-Ready, which is an incredible series.  The first two books are out now.  SHINE is due next year and I can't wait!  The YA Sisterhood is holding another tourney right now only this time it's the heroines' turn.  Two of my favorite heroines (Kaylee from the Soul Screamers series and Aura from the SHADE series) are up against each other in the first round.

At the beginning of October I was lucky enough to get to go to Seattle for the Northwest Book Festival and see so many incredible authors who were part of that stop on the Smart Chicks Kick It Tour.  I think that was the highlight of my year honestly.  So many authors all in one room = AWESOME!

I seem to be on a huge, and I mean HUGE, young adult reading spree.  I just absolutely love the book that are out now for young adults/teens and there are a LOT of them.  I think in the last week alone I've added at least 10 books to my TBR pile on Goodreads.  I blame this on Twitter.

So yeah ... I'll stop babbling now.  Anyway, I'm going to try to be better about updating.  We'll see how successful I am.