Monday, December 17, 2012

Eight Days Till Christmas

I woke up this morning and realized that there are eight days until Christmas, and I've done no Christmas shopping whatsoever. Not that I have a lot of money to begin with, but I've been so wrapped up in preparation for the RCC Christmas play that I haven't really thought about gifts. Now, of course, I have eight days to finish all of that. I guess there's always socks, right?

Since I've been absent from this blog for most of December, I thought I'd do a recap of sorts.

About that Christmas play I wrote and directed 

The Christmas play that I wrote about writing in September had its performance last Friday. It was so much fun to hear everyone's reaction to it. The performance went off quite nicely, and I was very happy with how it turned out. I think it was a success! Now I'm putting together the video of it and I'll most likely post it sometime, since I know a lot of people who missed it but wanted to see it.

I posted the text of my speech last Friday as well. Here it is if you missed it. Also, Sara from The Farmerette posted pictures of the play.

[Update: finally got the video up.]



What happened with NaNoWriMo

I ended up with 27774 words. I could give you a hundred different excuses, but I think the main reason I ended up shy of 50k is that my story turned out to be far more complicated than I expected. I thought I was writing a straightforward action/sci-fi with hints of romance, drama, regret, and sacrifice. Turns out I'm actually writing a story about guilt and shame and pride and achievement and greatness and justice and ethics and forgiveness and the problem of evil. And some of the questions my characters are asking I don't know if I have answers to yet.

It's a story that I'm not ready to write yet. I thought I was, but writing my 27k words helped me see that I wasn't. I'm still glad I wrote as much as I did. It was a great writing exercise and helped me push through some writer's block on other projects.

I submitted my work to a magazine for the very first time

I was incredibly nervous to submit it at all, but finally I just took a deep breath and hit send. It took about ten days for the reply, and it was a rejection. I wasn't too cut up about it. It was a little exhilarating, knowing that I actually sent something out there. I printed out the rejection (it was a form rejection email) and posted it on my bulletin board to inspire myself to keep trying. I'm going to try to send out a lot more submissions starting January. I'll keep y'all updated on how that goes.

Go buy Miriam's stuff

Mirriam from Thoughts of a Shieldmaiden is trying to earn some extra money for Christmas gift buying, and so she has put up some of her artwork for sale. Being in a similar situation in regards to lack of money, I thought I'd help her out by linking to her, so go check it out, or click over to view some of her other pencil sketches.

All these Christmas giveaways

Rissi at Dreaming Under the Same Moon is hosting a giveaway for a DVD from one of her choices or a $25 Amazon gift card. It runs until January 7th. I'm thinking I'd want either The Bourne Legacy or Downton Abbey Season 3. Go check out the other DVD's she's giving away.

Also the Inkslinger is hosting a soundtrack giveaway. You can win either The Dark Knight Rises soundtrack or the Hobbit: Unexpected Journey soundtrack. I'm personally going for the Hobbit soundtrack. I loved the music, in particular the dwarf song/walking-fighting theme.

I went to see the Hobbit
via Fandango
Speaking of The Hobbit, I spent the night at a good friend's house and we went to see The Hobbit together on Saturday. I liked it a lot. I think it did a good job in preserving the spirit of the book, but also adding in a flavor of epicness to fit in with the LOTR movie trilogy. It had some great foreshadowing of the LOTR trilogy as well. Both Martin Freeman (Bilbo) and Richard Armitage (Thorin) did a fantastic job. I'm looking forward to the next part and Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug, as well as seeing Lee Pace as Thranduil, King of Mirkwood.

That's how my December's been going. How has yours been?

3 comments:

  1. Glad you liked, 'Hobbit,' Lauren. It's not my scene but I think I'm the only person around who doesn't care. LOL! ;D

    Oh! And please, don't remind me about the closeness of Christmas - I am already in "panic mood." :D

    Thanks for the mention, also - best of luck!

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  2. Christmas really sneaked up on me this year. I can't believe it's already less than a week away! Good luck finding gifts for everyone you need to! Hopefully they're not all socks. ;)

    You may have been shy of 50K, but you still wrote heaps more than I ever have for NaNoWriMo!

    Speaking of writing, good luck with the submissions you plan to do in January! I'm sure you'll get something other than a form rejection the more you keep trying. :)

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  3. I saw The Hobbit twice, once while sitting next to my brother who whispered comments in my ear. Such as how it was Legolas' father who wouldn't help the dwarves - and Gimli's father - reclaim their kingdom. And I went, "Oh, that makes a lot of sense now." I am very excited to see the bit when Thorin and all show up at the Elves and they all get mad at each other. And the barrel escape. And Bilbo meeting Smaug.

    Martin Freeman is brilliant. He was amazing in this movie and I'm still in awe of his acting.

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