Sunday, November 2, 2014

Unfolding November

We are big Halloween fans in this household, so the end of October is kind of chaotic.  We had three separate costumes for each boy this year: they went as a caterpillar and construction worker to a Halloween party last week, dressed up as Indiana Jones and Superman for daycare on Halloween, and then went trick or treating as Marty McFly and Doc Brown from Back to the Future.  Ben and I were George and Lorraine McFly (the 50s versions) and we trained Milo to tell people who he was after he said "Trick or treat!"  A lot of people got it! We ended up exhausted with a ton of candy.

I'm getting super excited for November.  I never realized how much I truly love this month.  I like all the grateful/thankful chatter on Facebook, hype for the parade and the delicious Thanksgiving meal, and the promise of Christmas hovering right around the corner.  This year I'm doing National Novel Writing Month (write a 50K novel in the month of November!) and I am challenging myself to interview my Papa (and possibly my stepdad's lovely mother) for The National Day of Listening, which takes place the day after Thanksgiving.  I also have the bittersweet joy of remembering my dad during November.  It used to be a really sad time, remembering the day he died and our first Thanksgiving without him.  I'm going to try to refocus it this year to remember him happily!



This chick popped up on the Pandora station I play at night for the boys, and I love love love her covers.  I've been seeking her out on YouTube and will probably download her album so I can make some more mix cds for the car.  She's also my writing playlist right now.  When I was in high school, I wrote a looonnng serial Harry Potter fanfiction and used to dash home after school and put on musical soundtracks and write for hours.  I had a COUCH balanced in front of my ancient desk top and I was so happy.  I'm feeling echos of that now, with a new writing spot in our new office, with songs making me think of my characters. A lot of times I hold back, because I want to write something LITERARY and deep but the truth is I mostly want to read about teenage girls falling in love and having advnetures, and I mostly want to write about it, too.  It's okay if everyone is doing it.

I'm also deep deep in reading another young adult series that has me hooked.  I held off for a long time because the author was actually a fanfiction writer before she was published professionally.  I used to follow HER serial series and was a huge fan, but also followed a lot of controversy about her writing and whether her lines were "borrowed" from other places.  The fact remained that I loved her story lines and her romance, and I love her series for the same reason.  It's The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare.  I'm devouring them the way I did the Twilight Books- rolling my eyes at obvious plot points, feeling a little annoyed that all the characters constantly do huge and selfless things without ever hesitating or acting like humans (most of them aren't), but feeling desperate to see what happens next, to read the subtle flirtations, to see if they'll finally get together.  I've read the first three novels over the past two weeks, the second two each in a day.  I'm headed to Barnes and Noble for the fourth today.

I have to be very careful with my reading material during NaNoWriMo, because I have a feeling that what I read and listen to will really influence my novel.   I'm trying to balance the pleasure reading of The Mortal Instruments with some of favorite authors like Madeline L'Engle and Anita Shreve to keep it from becoming a full-on fangirl Mary Sue extravaganza.

At any rate, I'm so pumped to have this month unfolding in front of me, with so many projects I'm interested in and so many things to read and enjoy.  It's been a long time since I've felt so good about the ways I spend my spare time.  I guess you really do just have to find what you love and do it for the rest of your life.  (For me, it's going to Rushmore.)

Let me know what you are reading, what you're writing, and what you're grateful for.  I send wishes for a fabulous November.

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2 Comments:

At November 3, 2014 at 11:46 AM , Blogger Becky Goerend said...

My husband is doing NaNoWriMo with his advanced 6th grade English students. What an adventure. I REALLLLLY need to get back into reading. That's my goal for the month.

 
At November 9, 2014 at 7:24 AM , Blogger ashlie said...

Um, that is AMAZING that they're doing it at school. Best of luck to him! And I definitely go through seasons in life where I'm reading a lot and where I'm reading nothing. I hope you find something that clicks for you!

 

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