E-books and Life

This has been a crazy week and I have not gotten to work on my story, but to be honest I have lost some of my motivation.  I am thinking it is because I have pushed for 25 days writing all the time and I hope that a break will cure the lack of motivation.

As we go into this Christmas Season I hope to have some good Christmas posts for you.  I know that in the past I have tried to keep my faith as a minimal part of this blog and save all that for my other blog.  But that is hard because you can't compartmentalize your life.  So that will no longer be the case.  I will save the deeper digging into scripture for my other blog.  But you will see some of that here as well.

I received my Nook simpletouch in the mail this week.  I am so in love!!!  I have also been looking for places to get free e-books.  At some point I will add a page of these links to my blog.  But for now here are a few of the ones I have found.  Of course Barnes & Nobles has lots of free books.


Vessel Project
Scribd
Ebook
Many Books

December Goals

I have made up my mind about my priorities for December, and have set some goals.  You may have noticed that I added a ticker to the left hand column.  That is because I decided that I would for one of my goals for December is to give up soft drinks.  I have heard that this is a great way to take off weight, which is just an added benefit.  So I am going to track my weight loss as I do this.

My other goals for December are:

• Clean My Room
• Get Out My Computer
• Find A Job
• Finish Writing my Story
• And cut out soft drinks (and most of my caffeine)

In dropping soft drinks, I am not going  to refuse them completely, but I will save them for a treat, like if I go out to eat.  But drinking them all day every day at home, I am going to quit.  My drink of choice is Mello Yellow, one 12-ounce drink is 180 calories.  I usually drink 6-8 drinks a day.....that is 1080-1440 calories a day.

I would love to have some of you join me in dropping a bad habit this month.  If you would like to join me leave me a message.  

Current Projects.

I haven't formed a schedule for posting for this blog because NaNoWriMo has kept me crazy busy.  But I have decided I will start posting all my writing stuff on this blog, as well as thoughts on what I am reading and  my crochet projects.

So right now I am between a few different books, but not actively reading any at the moment.  Pinterest was a major source of inspiration and recreation, but November has found me straying from that because I have been spending most free time writing.  I look forward to getting back to pinning soon.

I am currently involved in two different online bible studies, and I am enjoying both.  One is an advent study that starts back on Sunday, using the SOAP method.  The other is a "So That" study with Wendy Blight.

I was increasing my time crocheting prior to November.  I even found a great website.  Ravelry which has lots of great patterns and forums to explore.  My current project is a wrap with slits.

Only I am doing it in Magenta.  

Happy Thanksgiving

Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving there will be no blog post.  But I did want to take the chance to wish each of you a Happy Thanksgiving.  Can I make a recommendation?  Do something different this year, perhaps invite someone different to dinner, or carry dinner to someone who will be alone, or maybe just spend some time alone, a bit longer tomorrow with God thanking Him for all that you have, and the many blessings that you have been given.

We should have gratitude daily, and while I try my best, I am sure that many can relate to the fact that sometimes it is easy to get caught up in all the bustle of life and forget.  So tomorrow I am making a renewed effort to be aware of the blessings, of each and every person, even the difficult ones, as I celebrate with some of my family.  There are many who chose to do individual family dinners instead.  I don't begrudge them that.  But I will be thankful for each one that shows and the fact that we get the chance to celebrate together.

May we also use this time to pray for those who do not have the relationships with God that we do.  That God would draw them to Him, and turn their lives around.

Enjoy a blessed and Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Editing your Novel

For those like me who have never heard of it............there is a National Novel Editing Month!!

It takes place in March.

http://www.nanoedmo.net/xoops_2012/

Finished NaNoWriMo

I did it!!!  I finished with my 50000 word count goal before the November 30 at midnight deadline.  I am so excited!!

That said however I have not finished my story.  I will continue to work on it through the month of November.  Then next month I will decide whether to keep writing or start editing.

Characters in my story

I realized today that I have talked often about my story and writing it.  But I have not told you the first thing about it.  I think that is partly because I was going by the seat of my pants and didn't pre-plan the story out.  But today I want to correct that, at least partially.

The story starts with my main character~
A 25 year old female, trying to escape from her abusive husband who has lots of friends in high places, so she must be extremely careful not to get caught.

A 30-year old young man, who is rejected by society, an orphan, his teenage history of being a problem child precedes him, society accuses him of being trouble and committing crimes, leaving society he sets out on his own.

A 15 year old autistic boy, who wakes to hear his parents shot, barely escapes into the woods behind his house.

A 6 year old, African American child, who was found tied to a log in the forest, leg pinned under a log, badly beaten and abused.

All the characters are on a journey to find freedom, peace, acceptance, and understanding, and possibly themselves.

Links to dictionaries, glossaries, thesauri and word lists

Links to dictionaries, glossaries, thesauri and word lists

Found these on the NaNo Forums, but thought I would share

Your Dictionary (If you visit this page, you’ll also find links to glossaries, foreign language dictionaries and industry specific dictionaries.)

OneLook (Go to this page for a list of dictionaries and glossaries that OneLook indexes.)

alphaDictionary (You can find a huge dictionary/grammar directory here. Specialty dictionary links are available here.)

Visuwords (Visual dictionary/thesaurus.)

Snappy Words (Very similar to Visuwords.)

Lexipedia (Its fuzzynyms are particularly interesting.)

Thesauri on-line (By subject field and by language.)

The Bookshelf Muse (Descriptive words in several categories. If you only visit one site from this list, make it this one.)

Personality Traits, Character traits, Human Traits

The Word Savvy Site - Tip Sheets

Over 101 Words That Describe Food

A to Z of Positive Words

Complimentary Adjectives

Unusual and Weird Words

List of Common Abstract Nouns

Compound Word Lists Complete

English slang and colloquialisms of the UK

Index of Common Phrases

A-Z List of Phrasal Verbs

Free English idioms, idiomatic expressions, proverbs and sayings

IdiomSite.com - Find out the meanings of common sayings

English Idioms & Idiomatic Expressions

Idioms of American English

Index of Metaphor Lists

101 Best Similes in Literature

Striking Similes

Creating Characters online

Copied from Forums:

Want an image of your character to look at to keep your descriptions somewhat consistent, but can’t draw or get an artist to draw a picture for you? Luckily there’s a lot of free online avatar makers you can use as a placeholder.

Gaia Dream Avatar Maker. Very cartoony (most of them are cartoony, but this one even more so), but a whole lot of options. Also one of the better choices for fantasy characters, as they’ve got a lot of fantastical clothing options.

Crysandrea Dream Avatar Maker. More realistic than Gaia though still anime-esque. Less clothing options, but more color choices for each item. Great for making humanoid fantasy monsters, or normal people.

Dream Selfy. Fun because it’s animated. Very much chibi. Loads of options, though can be difficult to sort though.

Digibody’s Caricature Maker. Not the prettiest results, but if you’ve got a character that isn’t anime-attractive all the time, this can help you define their face shape and proportions.

Meez Avatar Maker. It’s 3D!~ A fair amount of options. Note you don’t actually have to sign up to use the maker, but you won’t be able to save the avatar so you’ll have to take a screenshot. You’ll have to do that either way, actually…

If your character looks like a human, you can do a search for “PBs” (played-bys) on InsaneJournal. There are a lot of icon makers for journal-based role-playing on IJ, and some categorize by nationality, age, gender, hair color, etc. It can be very useful. And not all of the faces are “celebrities” either.

eLouai’s Candybar doll makers
http://elouai.com/candybar5/newroot.php

It’s a more realistic anime-style than Gaia or Crysandrea, along with stupid amounts of clothes and hair styles. A good thing to note is that, out of the 3000ish hair styles, only 1000ish of them show up if you sort by color. Have fun.

Blog Posts on Writing

7 habits of highly prolific writers

Procrastination Station

Title Scorer

Story Analyzer  For after November when you are ready to edit.

NaNo Progress

Hey. Haven’t posted lately, mostly because I have spent all my time working on my story. The story continues to develop nicely. Although I do know I will need to edit and add some things and fine tune them next month. I will also need to finish it. :)

NaNoWriMo Progress

I am so excited.  I have written 17,571 words in the last 7 days.  This is amazing when I didn't think that I would even get 1500 words.

I can be creative and write.  : )

Better-Than-Almost-Anything Cake

A few years ago I found a recipe on the bake of a cake mix box, that sounded interesting.  So I decided to give it a try.  It turned out to become my favorite cake to eat, and make to take somewhere.  There is never any left.  A great success.  So I thought I would share.

 

Better-Than-Almost-Anything Cake

 

 

 1     box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® German chocolate cake mix

        Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on cake mix box

1      can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

1      jar (16 to 17 oz) caramel, butterscotch or fudge topping

1      container (8 oz) frozen whipped topping, thawed

1      bag (8 oz) toffee chips or bits 

 

 

 

Directions

1.   Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Make and bake cake as directed on box for 13x9-inch pan. Cool 15 minutes.

2.   Poke top of warm cake every 1/2 inch with handle end of wooden spoon. Drizzle condensed milk evenly over top of cake; let stand until milk has been absorbed into cake. Drizzle with caramel topping. Run knife around sides of pan to loosen cake. Cover and refrigerate about 2 hours or until chilled.

3.   Spread whipped topping over top of cake. Sprinkle with toffee bits. Store covered in refrigerator.


I hope that you enjoy as much as I do.

Follow my NaNoWriMo

For those wanting to follow my NaNoWriMo journey, you can do so here:  http://flutterbella.tumblr.com/

National Novel Writing Month

Remember the Author I mentioned in my last post....God is still using her.  She mentioned the other day on facebook and twitter that she wanted to go back to writing novels.  I really was not happy with this, in fact I am ready to stop following her because God keeps using her to prick at me.

I have heard so much talk about November being National Novel Writing Month, and with that comes NaNoWriMo.  I have been ignoring such talk, as I don't consider myself a writer.

Oddly enough I found myself looking at the website for this.  You have to write 50,000 words in 30 days!!  What!?  Are you crazy?  I am not doing this!!

Then 2 days prior to November 1st, I find myself registering for an account, just because I haven't been able to totally dismiss this notion.  Still no intentions of going through with it.  Yesterday found me creating the main character, and developing the beginning scene.  And today, so far I have thought of more of the journey and some additional characters, although I haven't sat down to write for the day yet.

I may indeed be crazy....but I feel God nudging me towards trying this, even if I can't keep up and don't get the word count, just as a growth process.