Giveaway -

If you are interested in book giveaways, check out this site: http://www.laurendestefano.com/blog/?p=329 - you can win a paperback copy of WITHER by Lauren DeStafano. Good Luck!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone!

A few of my favorite things from Flickr

1. Project Spectrum, 2. stranded knit in progress, 3. Flute Player, 4. Storm, 5. Wolf's Lair, Hollywood, 6. Sun!, 7. Untitled, 8. Alice1-1, 9. /terminal velocity/, 10. Patchwork of colours, 11. Untitled, 12. Haunting prospect, 13. the new purl, 14. Pretty Pink Daisy Petals . . ., 15. _GER3697, 16. Myself, 17. IMG_7235, 18. Scone Maze, 19. 27/365, 20. Snowing from the trees, 21. bien au chaud, 22. perspective, 23. Elvis Lives, 24. Untitled, 25. Socks Bex, 26. Graveyard from top of the Bass, 27. peace and comfort, 28. Frosted Chocolate Malt Cupcakes, 29. The Rococo Shawl - Hand Knit Wool & Llama Shawl (in Teal), 30. The garden seat, 31. Woman sitting on bumper bar of a car at Warwick Farm racecourse, 32. Prairie dog, 33. Toni Frissell: Weeki Wachee spring, Florida, 1947, 34. guard, 35. Ghost outside the Window, 36. Stripey Wednesday Socks

Besides inspiration, I use my favorites on Flickr to bring a smile to my face when I really need one, when I need some happiness.

I went to the viewing tonight of a woman who was my first Sunday school teacher. I can remember putting my offering into a little plastic white church (a quarter at the time), saying a prayer, then having my lesson. Miss Reva (she was married, but was always called with the 'Miss' in front of her name) was an inspiration for the way to live. She was nice to everyone and did not have an unkind word to say about anyone. Heaven has indeed gained another angel. I know you're up there in Heaven Miss Reva, reunited with Lydia, another member of my church, who died this year.

No new flute...

...but I did buy myself a piccolo. I did not meet my word count for the beta version of Camp NaNoWriMo although I will for sure try again in August.

But for what I did write and for some of the things I have been through the past couple of months I decided to buy myself the piccolo, since I do have a flute already, albeit one I've had since the 5th grade and has so many dings and scratches on it and the pads have probably dried up as well.

The one I bought is one to just play on and didn't cost a lot.

Hopefully playing this weekend....

Goal setting and treats

I haven't been writing as much as I would have liked during Camp NaNoWriMo so I've decided to to give myself a treat to get the word quota up and over where it should be.

I played the flute and piccolo in high school and I would really a new flute. I have recently come across some old marching band music and would like to play again but my flute needs a bit of work so I'm thinking about buying a new one. A piccolo would be nice too - I would borrow one from the bandroom when I had to play so I never had my own.

So to reward myself for reaching the 50K for one month I will buy a new flute. For reaching the 50K for both months (100K total), I'll buy a flute and a piccolo. Now these won't be professional models. Just ones I can play at home for my own enjoyment.

I found an outline (4 pages!) for an idea I had written in November 2010 when I wasn't able to complete the regular NaNoWriMo and have been working from it. I had totally forgotten about writing it and came across it again while organizing all the materials I saved. (I save items to read as PDFs at a later date so I don't waste paper.)

Look what was waiting for me after work

I don't know whether to enjoy it or save all the stuff inside - I so want to mail those postcards to myself. Maybe I'll buy a second one to actually use!

My goal is to participate July and August both and see about getting two more novels written. Well, started anyway - and the voices out of my head so there will be room for more.

Camp NaNoWriMo is now open!!!!

What a wonderful surprise to check the NaNoWriMo page this evening and find that Camp is now open!!!!

Now I just have to decide what to write. I may have to haunt the the adoption threads to find a plot and some characters.