I'm Back

Hello everyone! I'm bacccccck! Didcha miss me? I missed you!

Alright, so I'm going to keep this very short because I am freakishly sore and tired and I need to do some homework before I flop into my bed never to move again. Okay, well hopefully I'll move again, but not for 17 hours AT LEAST. Anyway, I arrived home safely, just a little delayed.

I'm back at school and running like the hounds of hell are hot on my heels towards freedom. You see, I only have 6 days of school left (plus 4 days of finals). I still have an essay to write (a very technical, complicated one) but that's really about it. I'm exhausted and I'm ready for it all to end. Needless to say, I'm a little short on patience right now. Oh well, I suppose.

Okay, that's about all I can manage right now. I need to go lay down before I collapse.

Arrived Safely

Hello everyone, just a quick note to let you know that I am here in Virginia, safe and sound.

My flights were pretty good. The wait over in the airport, however, was not okay. There were some changes made at the Calgary airport, so there was a lot of waiting around. But it was okay, I entertained myself with magazines and a yummy Tim Horton's sandwich. However, when I got to Chicago, I ended up waiting for 5 hours! The plane we were supposed to take was delayed in Omaha, and then the stormy weather in Chicago prevented the plane from landing in a timely manner. It really sucked. So I got to Roanoke at about 12:20am. Didn't get home until 1am -ish and then I needed to make dinner (aka, a sandwich).

Anyway, on to a quick WIP Wednesday post.

Since the last post (which was a few weeks ago), I tidied up the Ballroom scene and am now happy with it. I wish I could have done more, but I have been too busy with school essays. On the side of the screen it tells you how much I've done recently. I can't see it right now, but I believe it's 10 000 something.

So how are your work-in-progresses coming along? If you're doing NaNo, how's that going for you??

Laptop's Take Over

Natalie's laptop here. Natalie is currently in the air flying to Chicago where she will then board another plane to fly to Roanoke, Virginia. In lieu of this, I have taken over her blog -inserts evil laugh-

Ahem.

Continuing on... Natalie's dad found this amusing cartoon and I thought I'd share it with you fabulous people. Enjoy.

Sincerely,

Natalie's laptop... aka, her better half.

Keeping Things Positive

Guaranteed to always make me smile...

Karamel & Daisy

Yes, it is a cat in a box.

I Have the BEST Blog-Friends EVER!

Thank you everyone for your kind words, thoughts and hugs. Each and every one is appreciated. I never expected to have this sort of support from my readers when I first started this blog. But now that I have you guys, I don't know what I ever did without you. I'm grateful for your friendship, probably more than I could ever express in words. So thank you so much. I treasure you all.

My family is doing pretty well, considering. Honestly, it was just a bit of a shock. However, hopefully we can take this bad situation and run with it. We're a tough little family and I know we'll make it in the end.

Okay, but that's enough "blah" for the week, don't you think? Possibly even for the month. So in lieu of that, I will tell you about some positives that came out of this week-- because, in my opinion, looking at the positive aspects of life will always get you through the darker sides.

1. I wrote my 2nd Anthropology Midterm and got 98.33% (59/60)!! I believe that exam was worth 25% of my grade. So yay!

2. I did a presentation in my GNED (science) class and I think I did pretty well.

3. I wrote my Theory midterm and it's all done! Yes, finishing the exam deserves to be on this list, regardless of whatever grade I get in the end, LOL!

4. My family and I went to see 2012 last night. I quite liked it. Lots of action, pretty entertaining acting etc...

5. My Mum is making cake tonight for my grandmother's birthday dinner tomorrow. We're also making butter tarts. Yum yum.

And, I've saved the best for last...

6.. I know I haven't mentioned it on here, but I leave Tuesday to visit my boyfriend Christopher in Virginia, for the American Thanksgiving. Since he has the week off, I decided I could go visit him (I'm only missing 3 days of school). I leave Tuesday the 24th at 1pm Calgary time and I won't get back till Sunday the 29th. This is partly why I've been so busy recently. I don't want to take homework down with me, so I've been frantically trying to do all the work I can before I leave. This is especially hard considering all my term papers seem to be due either before I leave, or directly after I return. Alas, I only have my Theory term paper left, which I will tackle tomorrow. Thankfully, we paid for the trip with points. My Christmas trip down there will also be paid with points, so I don't have to worry about that!


So your turn. What great thing happened this week? Did something make you smile, laugh? Snicker in glee?

Post Cancelled

There will be no post today due to urgent personal matters.
I am unplugging until further notice.

Crazy crazy!

Okay, so this week is just as crazy as last week (work load isn't as much, but alas, I must attend class this week, LOL!) Therefore, my load seems just as hefty. Unfortunately, because of this I don't have much time to blog until Friday-ish.

I will post a WIP post tomorrow, but I don't know how detailed it will be.

Thank you for understanding! You guys rock!

Thank goodness I have such wonderful commenters ♥

Question

So my dear lovely friends, I have a question for you. As most of you know, I am crazy busy with school work. You also know that I want critique partners and beta readers, but I don't have time to devote to reading/editing their stories. This puts me in a bit of a sticky spot. I want some advice/opinions,* but I can't get any.

That is, until Wendy from Where Ladybugs Roar offered to read my story "free of charge."** This generous offer got the gears in my head moving. I wondered if any of my other blog-friends would be willing to read my story, and give a critique (whatever type they have time for) knowing that I can't return the favour? I also wondered how exactly I would go about offering up my story for people to read. Because, quite frankly, I don't want just anyone to read my story. I think I need to feel comfortable with the person for them to read it (like Wendy).

So this is where you guys come in. Would you be willing to read the first 50 (give or take) pages of my work-in-progress and critique it, knowing I can't return the favour? And how do you suggest I go about picking who would read it (I don't want to hurt feelings but I want--need-- to be comfortable with the person)?

Once I have some feedback from you guys, I'll announce what I decide in a post.
Hope everything is going well for you!



*My two editors right now are my mum and my boyfriend Chris. They are both exceedingly helpful-- trust me, they don't let things slide by. However, I would like some more opinions, especially writer opinions.*

**Isn't this just awesome of her? I couldn't believe it when I saw what she offered. I got all giddy and excited. Thank you Wendy! You ROCK!**

FINISHED!

I FINISHED!! Woohoo! I wrote 4 term papers this week and they are all just spiffy! I actually finished my Anthropology paper last night at about 8:30pm, but I was too tired (and sore) to write a post. I did however, read all of your blog posts! Such funny, wonderful writers you all are! I'm happy to see that most of you guys are just bookin along on your NaNo stories! Keep up the good work ladies!

Okay, so for the word cloud I posted a few days ago... Although I didn't specifically require that you guess their last names, many of you did! Unfortunately, my Heroine's last name wasn't visible in the picture. It's visible on my Paint version, but when I transferred it on here it got blurry and small. So that's not really fair, is it? But since it wasn't a requirement, I won't count it. However, if you did get my Hero's first and last name right, you ROCK!

So, here it is, what you've all been waiting for... I'd like to formally introduce you to the Hero and Heroine of my current story, The Sound of Snow...

William Huntley, the sixth earl of Rochester & Miss Katherine (Kitty) Beckett!

Good job everyone who figured it out! If you said William Rochester, that counts (since it is his title). If you didn't get it right, don't feel bad. It was really hard because "Katherine" and "Beckett" weren't visible on there, just her nickname, Kitty.

As well, this is the first time I'm telling you the working title for my story. Yes, it is very similar to my blog title-- it really suits, so for now it's staying.

Other characters names...

Nicholas Langley, the fourth Viscount Wakefield & Elizabeth Langley, Viscountess Wakefield. These two characters are actually the Hero and Heroine of my other story, Forever.

Yay! Thanks for playing along guys! For that, everyone gets a hug! The bragging rights, however, go to Anissa, B.E. and Karen since you all guessed the first names correctly!

I'll be back later today with an important question post for you guys! So make sure you check back.

*Update: I'll be asking the big question tomorrow instead of today*

WIP Wednesday

Oh. My. Gosh. Look at this, I'm posting and it's not even dark outside! What ever shall we do? Quick, fetch the thermometer, I must be ill! Or perhaps I have been taken over by an ALIEN! Oh my!

Ahh, sadly, my story is not as exciting as all that. I don't have school today because it's Remembrance Day here in Canada-- Veteran's Day in the US. Therefore, I have a bit more time to do homework and uh... do more "homework" ie, blog. I will also be home tomorrow to do more of the former and less of the latter. Because of this middle-of-the-week day off, two of my three classes tomorrow are cancelled. Excellent. Extra long weekend for me! Sadly, it will be taken up with writing my History term paper on Rousseau and his views of education and my Anthropology paper on the Japanese Macaques. Sighs.

Anyway, on to the work-in-progress talk! I FINISHED the ballroom scene! YES, GASPS ALL AROUND! Unfortunately, it didn't go quite as planned. I did as everyone suggested and just wrote without editing and... it didn't turn out so well, LOL! I mean, the writing is quite good. Reading back, it's enjoyable and error-free. However, I messed up on some important points. So... whenever I get the chance to write my story (I'm hoping tonight! We'll just have to wait and see though...) I will be trying to fix these errors, because they are big enough that it will keep me up at night. For example, three characters just disappear in the scene... and then suddenly they reappear. Not good. Anyway, I'm really hoping they will be relatively easy to fix.

I'm not sure if any of you have been following, but on the side I've been updating my word counts. It's a slow crawl, but it's still progress. I've gone up a few thousand or so. And I've also put up my word count so far this week for essays. This will be going up drastically tomorrow and Friday when I write those two papers-- UGH!

Okay, now before I go, I stumbled onto this from someones blog-- I can't remember who! If you know, could you let me know? Anyway, it's a really neat thing that shows you your most used words. To make your own, click here.

Here's mine for my work-in-progress:



Hmm... Can any of you spot some of my character's names? I spotted 10. Of course, the picture isn't as blurry on Paint. If you can tell me the name of my hero and heroine, I will give you a giant hug and the right to brag to everyone. Awesome prize, eh?
*Some of the names up here are for the same character: first name, last name, and title.*

How are you doing? If you're doing NaNo, how's it going?


*Hmm, the brown of that picture doesn't quite go with my blog. Ah, well, what can you do?*

What's Different?

Yesterday for my Anthropology class, we went to the zoo. It was a lot of fun. I quite enjoyed having my professor there, telling us weird but interesting facts about all the primates we came across. She used many terms that had me going, "huh?" with big bug eyes. But that's okay, I still had fun.

While we were there, we were given a task. For 30 minutes, we had to pick a primate and watch it while writing down anything they were doing. At the end we also had to write the primate's type, gender, sex, and rank. For example:

12:00 - "Big Mama is scratching her back with right hand. Just ate whatever she found."

12:02 - "Big Mama appears to be sleeping while her baby grooms her."

This observation is worth 10 marks towards our term paper, which is worth 20 overall. Easy, huh? That's 50% right there for doing it. And yet, some people didn't do it, or didn't go to the zoo. I don't get it. Anyway, for the rest of the term paper, we have to pick a primate (can be the type you just spent the last 30 minutes freezing your butt off to observe) and write about how the zoo is, or isn't meeting that animal's specific needs.

Now, when picking my primate, I had several different thoughts:

1. It had to be cute, which did not narrow it down, because they are all cute... except Howler Monkey's (poor guys, they are ugly as Sin and sound even worse).

2. They had to be interesting to me. What made them different from the other monkey's I could pick?

3. What were my classmates going to pick? I don't want to pick what they're going to pick. For one, how could I quietly observe the animal if there are 50 other people crowding around? And two, I want to be different.

So, I picked the Japanese Macaque, better known as Snow Monkey's. I think they are cute, have really interesting behaviours, and best of all, only 3 other people were studying them. Yay!

However, this got me thinking. As writers, we want our stories to be "cute." In other words, we want them to appeal to people on the surface. But we also want them to be interesting and enthralling to our readers, right? And in the end, we also want our stories to be different from any other story out there. Sure, the plot may be similar, but that's bound to happen. What we really want is for our story to have pizzazz and punch to it. We want our story to stick out in a reader's mind long after they've finished it.

So my question for you is: What is it about your story that makes it so interesting to readers? What's different about it?

*Btw, in the picture, the Macaque is resting in a hot spring. In the winter they love doing this. It's just like a hot-tub!*

Neato Keano Contest Alert

Want the chance to win a Kindle? Yes? Me too. Click to go to Lisa and Laura's blog: Lisa and Laura Write where they are giving away a Kindle! It's really easy to enter, so you should definitely try! Why not, right? You've got nothing to lose!

I've only read a few of their posts, but so far I think this is a blog I'll be sticking with. They seem quite amusing. Annnnd they just got a book deal! Woah, eh?

Okay, I should go to sleep. Finally.
Sorry if this post sounds a little crazy.
I'll be saner tomorrow.

My Version of Cake Boss

Hello guys! This post is my version of Cake Wrecks... sort of. While the Cake Wrecks blog (and book) is all about professional cakes going horribly wrong, this post is going to show you some cakes that are just plain awesome. I suppose this post is more in line with the show Cake Boss, or something like that. Sorry if you were expecting a spew-your-drink-out funny post. I was tired last night and didn't specify what was going to happen. Oops! But I'm sure you guys will appreciate the artistic eye needed for these fabulous cakes! At the end I will tell you who made them!

First up...

Okay, you caught me.

These are some of my personal designs.

I actually won an award for them in Sparks

(I was 5 or 6).

Mickey Mouse

A ferocious lion!


Giraffes, and coyotes and mountain lions-- oh my!


Sorry about the picture quality here but this was the best I could find.

It's a 3D puppy (the arm is actually another layer of cake).

A wedding cake with delicate sugar butterflies.

Here's a close up. You can see the butterflies better.

Two bunnies bowling!

Here's another shot of them.

A carousel! The horses were made of cookies!

*Side note: the tops of the sticks were covered by cute little ribbons*

A fish!

And my personal favourite.... The Dragon!!!

Now, any guesses as to who made all of these cakes? No? Anyone?

My Mum!

I was a lucky kid, huh? All of these cakes were for my birthdays (except for the wedding cake and the fishy). To see more of her artistic nature click here to see my Halloween post where everything was made by her.

Hope you enjoyed!

Which one of the above cakes did you like best? What's your favourite type of cake?

Blog Awards!!!!

Okay darlings, I've been failing horribly in my blogger duties by not acknowledging or passing on these fabulous awards. I'm so sorry! Will you ever forgive me?

Anyway, I am going to try and make this as quick as possible. However, that may be difficult seeing as there is so much to get through. But just bear with me, 'kay? It'll be worth the wait. Promise.

First award up is....

"The Heartfelt Blog Award!" A big thank you to Kristi at Moms Own Words for this kind award!

The rules of the Heartfelt Award are as follows:

1. Display the logo.
2. Nominate up to 9 blogs that make you feel comfy or warm inside. 3. Link to your nominees.
4. Let them know they have been nominated by commenting.
5. Link to the person from whom you received the award.

My nominees are:

1. Diana at Writing Roller Coasters
2. B.E. Sanderson at The Writing Spectacle II
3. Jennifer at A Slice of Life
4. Roni at *Fiction Groupie*
5. Wendy at Where Ladybugs Roar
6. Lady Glamis at The Innocent Flower
7. Melane at Chasing the Dream
8. Kristen Painter at Divalicious Blog
9. Karen Amanda Hooper at The Kindrily

Next....

Thank you to Mary Anne Gruen at the Starlight Blog for giving me the "One Lovely Blog Award!"

The rules for this one are:

1.Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered.
2. Contact the bloggers to let them know they've been chosen

1. Candice at Suffering from Writer's Blog (LOVE your title!)
2. Julie Dao at Silver Lining
3. Patti at Patti Nielson
4. Jessie at Louder Than Noise
5. Erica at Laugh. Write. Play.
6. Judith Coughlin
7. Jade at Jade Hears Voices (LOL!)
8. Mariah Irvin at Constantly Risking Absurdity
9. Stephanie L. McGee at Chronicles of a Novice Writer
10. Stephanie Thornton at Hatshepsut: The Writing of a Novel
11. Mary E. Cambell at Writers Butt Does Not Apply To Me (AHH!! GREAT TITLE!)
12. Susan R. Mills at A Walk in My Shoes
13. Kristi at Moms Own Words
14. Hilary at Hilary Wagner
15. Michelle at Writer Ramblings

Phew. I'm getting tired. Are you getting tired? Okay, well the next two are painless, I promise you!

Next up....

Thank you again to Mary Anne Gruen at the Starlight Blog for giving me "The Icing on the Cake Award!"

Like Mary, I'm giving this award to all of my followers! You guys are the icing on my cake and you deserve this sweet blog award! Thank you guys!

.

Okay, ONE MORE!

Lynnette over at Chatterbox Chit Chat gave all of her followers this cute little award. Again, I'm giving it to all of my blog followers because you guys are just so awesome!

.

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There, see, that was quick! (HAH, maybe to read it was...)

I'll be back later with the Cake Blog.

No Post Today

Yep, no real post today. However, I thought I'd stop in to let you know that I've got a big day planned for tomorrow, so you should definitely check it out! I'm giving away 4 blog awards (I've been slacking in this department... oops!) and will be treating you all to my version of Cake Wrecks. If you haven't checked out the Cake Wrecks blog before, you are seriously missing out. It's one of my favourite blogs ever and it cracks me up everyday.

Okay, that's all folks! Hope your word counts are soaring! I'm opening up my WordDoc right now!

WIP Wednesday & Other Life-Related Updates

Hello darlings!

Have you noticed that the blog-o-sphere has been extremely quiet recently?! I know NaNo is the reason, so I won't make anyone sit in the corner. Not that I'd make you do that anyway...! Just keep up the good work gals! I'm cheering for you!

Okay, so I just got back from class where there was a grand total of 6 students out of 25. Yep, 6. And my other classes are no better. The campus is dead. They are changing final exam policies, professors are making tests take-home, and as of today, they are considering closing the school for a few weeks-- possibly even for the rest of the semester. They are treating every illness as H1N1, therefore banning sick students from campus until 1 week after their last symptoms. According to my Anthropology professor, 30% of the student population is sick. That's not counting teachers and janitorial staff and administration. On top of that, there are the few students who are skipping just cause, and there are a few who don't want to get sick, so are avoiding school. At the moment, I'm praying I don't fall victim to the flu! I honestly can't afford to miss that much class-- unless they close the school down, of course. Anyway, I wish everyone who is sick a speedy recovery! *Mum sent me the piggy picture. Isn't he adorable?*

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But that's enough of the doom and gloom! On to my work-in-progress! Definitely not as depressing, wouldn't you say? Okay, so I know I haven't discussed it on here before, but I'm not participating in NaNo. Firstly, because I have no time. I also don't think forcing myself to rush words would work very well. My inner editor would get that evil glint in her eye and start concocting cruel things to whisper at me while I write.... And I'd rather keep her as silent as possible! However, that does not mean that I'm not going to try and write as much as I humanely can. This means that I will be including essay word counts in my grand monthly total. Yes, this is just a ploy to make myself feel better. Just go with it! I will post totals of things on the side (essays and stories) so you guys can follow along with my progress.

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Anywho... I'm still writing the scene that I have dubbed the "Ballroom Scene." Although I'm still working on it (insert HUGE sigh), it's actually going pretty well. I'm happy with everything I have down. It's just rather slow going...It's the first time the Hero and Heroine interact, so my inner editor won't let me put any words down unless they are utterly perfect. Ugh. It doesn't help that I took the weekend off from everything. However, I have gone up 1500 words from last week. And I'm hoping to write at least that much tonight!

Is everyone sick where you are? How's your work-in-progress coming along?

A Peek @ Halloween

Okay my lovelies, here's the post I've been hinting at, but putting off! Halloween, Canadian style. What? You didn't know there was a difference? LOL! Well, you soon will.

Me, in a penguin costume @ Grandma's.

Notice the possibility of a snowsuit under the costume.

I kid you not.

I am wearing one.

Cowgirl this year! Yee haw! Calgary is the New West, people.

I'm having troubles believing that I wore this out trick-or-treating.

More likely, I wore a snowsuit and a coat over top of this.

PS. I'm at my Grandma's.

Best costume EVER!

Yes, my lovely Mum made me this costume.

We once belonged to the SCA, so this costume served multiple functions:

1. Something to wear to the SCA.

2. Endless hours of dress-up.

3. Halloween costume.

I still have this costume.

I wish I could put it back on.

Alas, I think it might fit over my leg. maybe.

Any guesses as to who I am?

Red hair, leaves all over me, looking evil and smug?

Yep, that's right. I was Poison Ivy from Batman.

It was a smashing good costume.

I even had little mittens that my Mum had glued leaves too. I could blow on the glove and sparkles would come out of the leaves, like in the movie.

Neato, eh?

Again, notice how I'm wearing layers.

Okay, now this picture only shows you a part of the costume I wore.
For this year, I was Medusa.
So here, you can see my wavy hair and make-up. Oh, and our outdated kitchen. But never fear, the kitchen is no longer black and white.
LOL!

Just some Halloween bags. My Mum's talented at drawing isn't she?

For a few years my parents ran a haunted house in our scary old garage.

It was always a huge success. Unfortunately, it took way too much time for my parents to set it up and take it down each year, so they eventually stopped.

However, this is a picture of one of the best years. As you can see, it was even nice out!

Everyone, meet my Dad. LOL!
A few years ago he was Darth Maul from Star Wars.
My mum diligently painted his whole head and then she fashioned horns out of play-doh, baked them, and then glued them to his head.

Voila!


Sighing. Yes, I'm a spider. I'm not quite sure why I agreed to this.
I hate spiders.
Loathe them.
And yet, here I am, dressed up as one.
I even had a huge spider butt that swayed when I walked.
At least I was a cute spider.
And again, notice the layers people.
Notice the layers.



Our evil cat, Karamel. Yes, it's a sad irony isn't it?
Look how she holds prisoner to the decoration.
Evil incarnate.


My personal favourite leaf bag designs that my Mum made.

Sulley & Mike Wazowski

So there you have it folks. Some Halloween pictures from my past! I obviously dressed up more times than that, but I couldn't find pictures of the events. Sorry!

So what are some of your favourite Halloween costumes?

Need Sugar

Okay, so apparently I'm still being blog-lazy. I promise you, I will eventually post old Halloween pictures. Just not today. I'm tired. And rather grouchy.

I want to write. Really badly. Problem is, I'm sleepy. I made dinner, ate dinner, and washed the dishes. And now I'm tired, LOL!

I'd try to boost my energy levels up with coffee, but I don't drink it. I'd try tea, but it puts me to sleep-- always. I suppose I'm left with one option...

Sprite and leftover candy.

Here's hopin' it works.

Good or Bad?

Wow, I've been slacking. Oops. It seems the second I get home for the weekend I become this lump. It's a wonder I even get my laundry done, LOL! But never fear, I have been reading your blogs. I just haven't been commenting because I'm rather lazy, as we've already determined!

Anyway, I have my phone back. Yay! I called MRU security Friday and only 10 minutes earlier someone had dropped it off. Phew! I'm so glad there are still some honest people out there! The person could have easily kept it. So please help me send the good samaritan some positive thoughts!

Okay, now, I had this whole post planned where I was going to post my old Halloween pictures. I even scanned them in. However, that's about where I stalled, LOL! I'm thinking I'll post it tomorrow. That way you can all share your Halloween tales!

So what are we doing today you wonder? Why, we're going to discuss vampires of course. It is Halloween after all. But not just any vampires. We're going to discuss Stefan and Damon from the new show The Vampire Diaries. What? You aren't watching it? Scoffs. Well you should be.
For those of you who are watching the show, what are your thoughts? Who should Elena pick? Stefan, the goody goody WUSS, or Damon, the smoldering bad ass with issues?

LMAO! Gee, can you tell who my favourite is? But no really, I don't mind Stefan at all, nor will I shun anyone who likes him more than Damon. I just think that Damon is so much more interesting and I feel there's more chemistry between him and Elena.

What do you think?

*Hello to all my new readers! I hope you enjoy! If you have any questions, or would like me to talk about something specific, just let me know!*