To the grindstone!

 MY STORY

Hullo there.

You might notice I'm trying to clean things up around here. Don't mind the mess... I'm working on it. I'm quite busy nowadays. Alright, I'm busy now. The past three days have been full of do-nothing bliss. We had off from school, which meant cleaning my wardrobe, thrift shopping, church, yummy baking, and lots and lots of BBC programming. The mid-season finale of Doctor Who? Cried. Two nights in a row I stayed up til 2 AM watching Sherlock. I promise it wasn't all wasted in front of the telly. There was knitting, and jogging, and apple picking (although it was more of an apple picking up kind of thing). I wish I could take a full week off and avoid school some more. I'm so relaxed now.

 

Don't ask. Just listen.

WRITING UPDATE

 I have been working up a brainstorm for my NaNo novel. I have some new concepts I'm toying with. Writing a dystopia is going to be a blast, methinks. I have so many great ideas. The question is, which ones do I use? It seems like new scientific facts keep cropping up, and I want to incorporate them all into my novel. I'm still getting to know the characters as well, but they're also very exciting. I plan to dedicate October to outlining my novel, so that November is less of a mess. NaNoWriMo 2011 was all over the place, and I don't want to relive that nightmare.

Most of my actual "writing time" has been devoted to epically failing at college essays. I need one done by Monday for English class, and I'm stumped. I can either write about my family life, or an experience that had a deep impact on my life. Easy enough, right? Except that this essay is going to be reviewed by my teacher AND my peers. Helpful, but also a chance to be really vulnerable. As if I liked the idea of a stranger reading my precious writing for the sole purpose of judging it. I'm sorry, I can't wear my heart on my sleeve all the time. Too easy to get it broken that way. So now I need to hit that perfect balance of "hullo-my-name-is-Monica-this-is-me-but-not-all-of-me-because-that-would-be-really-off-putting" and "here's-my-essay-make-it-really-good-but-please-don't-judge-me". Stressful, eh?

READING UPDATE

Finished The Serpent's Shadow by Rick Riordan. Fantastic, as usual. Do I sense an Olympian/Egyptian cross-over coming on, Mr. Riordan? Because I would probably die of joy. Of course, I had some issues with the book. Namely how the Walt-Sadie-Anubis thing was resolved, or rather, NOT resolved in a resolving sort of way. Anyways, everybody should read all of his books because he is amazing.

What now? Probably one of the books I mentioned earlier this month. I think The Mark of Athena is due either tomorrow or the day after. Percy Jackson, here I come!

How about y'all? Any reading/writing/life stories you want to share? The comments are below. Until next time.