I dragged myself to the NaNoWriMo finish line a few days ago. This was especially sweet because of that late start, but I accomplished my goal. I can’t wait to check in and see how everybody else is doing!

My mom used to make us sit around the table, hold hands, and say what we were thankful for.  We rolled our eyes.  We made snide remarks.  But she was persistent and wouldn’t let us eat Thanksgiving dinner until we did it.  Many years later, I’m thankful for this yearly memory.  It makes me laugh.  So here are a few things that I’m thankful for.

I’m thankful that I’ve lived in so many different places.  I’m thankful that I know how to swim.  I’m thankful that my son lives.  I’m thankful that I grew up in a family with books.  I’m thankful that my husband handles my quirks with grace and humor.  I’m thankful that he has such a fantastic singing voice and that he uses it so often.

I’m thankful that I’m surrounded by amazing people.  I’m thankful that my life is charmed enough that I can worry about small things.  I’m thankful that my daughter pats my face when she sees me.  I’m thankful that I found those purple heels elsewhere for 40 bucks cheaper.  I’m thankful for blog comments because they make me feel connected.  I’m thankful that I write even when it’s inconvenient.  Or hard.  Or tiring, or baffling to others.  It’s my high.  It saves me.

What are you thankful for?  Have a wonderful day, everybody.

This is my new obsession.  This shoe, right here.  Unfortunately, I can only find one pair for sale in the entire WORLD, and I’m not in the habit of sending forth messengers to pick up my shoes from Australia.  Then again, maybe it can be my reward for winning NaNo (I’m going to finish, oh yes I am!) doing some heavy duty revisions on my novel, and surviving the holidays without eating myself into a coma. 

I haven’t been posting because I, like everybody else in the blogosphere, have been busy.  BUSY.  I’m nearly caught up with NaNoWriMo, which pleases me to no end.  We’ve been working hard on Shock Totem (We’re closing for the month of December in order to put the next issue together, so hurry and get your submissions in now!) and then there’s something called, oh, I don’t know, Real Life.  Real Life has been going pretty well, too.  But Thanksgiving has thrown itself into the mix, and I have to say that I’m pretty resentful.  Although I am thankful for a lot of things, Thanksgiving has earned itself the reputation of being one of the worst. holidays. ever.  For example, I need to get off the computer and throw stuff into the car so that we can endure…er, enjoy an eleven hour road trip to join our family.  I have fantastic in-laws, but nobody wants to spend that long in a vehicle.  With small children.

Maybe I deserve those shoes after all.

Happy NaNoing and happy Thanksgiving, all!  I’ll check in later. I miss reading everybody’s blogs.  I’m excited to catch up in December.

It’s a holiday tradition.  Every year I look this thing up and then spend an exorbitant amount of time playing with it.  It’s sweet.  It’s charming.  It’s all about destruction and making children scream.  Lovely!

If this sounds at all enticing, follow this link.  For those who aren’t familiar, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Then get back to your NaNo novels.

Thank you guys so much for your help with the writing playlist.  It is coming along swimmingly!  After The 69 Eyes was mentioned three times yesterday, I finally looked some of their stuff up, and wow.  I want to hug this playlist to my heart for ever and ever.  Keep it coming!

Still hard (ish) at work on the NaNoWriMo novel.  You will see by my NaNo Stats Graph that my word count has picked up.  I write quickly when I have the time and concentration.  Hence my being several days behind, but I’m not going to give up because I’m not a quitter.  Lately my novel has veered off into a new and interesting direction that, frankly, is leaving me a bit baffled.  What on earth does my subconscious have planned?  I’m not entirely sure, but I’ve learned to trust it.  Letting go of the reins tends to make for a stronger story.

Good news!  So do you guys remember my story “Ephemerality” that I wrote based on a picture by Chris Howard?  I was thrilled that Mr. Howard enjoyed my story enough to send me the image.  Which is even more gorgeous when you hold it in your hands.  I’m hoping to frame it this week, possibly along with the story.  Thanks, Chris!  You and your pretty handwriting have a great day!

Also, Shroud put up it’s TOC for The Terror of Miskatonic Falls anthology.  There are a few familiar names, but it’s mostly A Book of Strangers. (Which I thought would be an awesome story title, but it’s already taken.  Snap!)   I’m excited to read their work.

Rock on!

The Write-A-Thon rocked.  I bumped up my word count, but my real joy was listening to my NaNoWriMo playlist.  Fantastic!  The music might just be the best part of NaNo.  It’s strange because I usually prefer writing in silence, but music and the push to productivity go hand in hand.  It’s halfway through NaNo.  Some of us are struggling.  Let’s put together a NaNoWriMo playlist.

What songs do you write to?  What do you think other people might find inspiring?  Leave your music suggestions in the comments, and I’ll add them to the list.  That way we can look them up and add them to our playlists if we find ourselves in need of inspiration. Moody, atmospheric, fun…what do you think that we’re missing out on?

1.Suicide Sports Club- ”0220 Boy”

2. Muse-”Starlight”

3. Emily Bindiger-”Aura” (.hack soundtrack)

4. Breaking Benjamin-”Evil Angel” “Diary of Jane” (acoustic version)

5. AFI- ”Silver and Cold”

6. Placebo-”Infra-red”

7. Rayzd-”Sora”

8. Celtic Music

9. Sigur Rose () album

10. Big Band Music

11. Zoe Keating’s “Natoma” album

12. Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, 2nd Movement

13. Hans Zimmer soundtracks (Pirates II)

14. Bach’s cello suites

15. Pantera “10s”

16. Kittie “Spit”

17. Misfits “Bullet” “She”

18. Amanda Palmer “Runs in the Family”

19. Less Than Jake “How’s My Driving Doug Hastings?”

20. Gogol Bordello “Start Wearing Purple”

21. Sweaty Nipples “Coma”

22. Sneaker Pimps “6 Underground”

23. Carbon Based Lifeforms

24. Aes Dana (not the death metal band)

25. Cell

26. HUVA Network

27. Solar Fields

28. Lustmord

29. Tim Hecker

30. Vibrasphere

31. Ludo “Love Me Dead” “Broken Bride”

32. Locksley

33. Faded Paper Figures

34. The Kooks

35.  The Bravery

36. Imogen Heap

37. Metric

38. Meatloaf

39. George Thoroughgood

40. Nickleback

41. Evanescence

42. Portishead

43. Queens of the Stone Age-”Nobody Knows”

44. Bodyjar-”Hazy Shade of Winter”

45. Dresden Dolls-”Coin-Operated Boy”

56. Bob Dylan-”It Ain’t Me, Babe”

57. The Strokes-”Last Night”

58. Them-”It’s All Over Now Baby Blue”

59. Tex Perkins-”I Know You Know I Know”

60. The Meat Puppets-”Back Water”

61. Brian Eno “On Land” “Another Green World”

62. Robert Rich-”Stalker”

63. Neverending White Lights

64. Jeff Buckley

65. Nick Drake

66. Peter Bradley Adams-”Longer I Run”

67. Bon Iver-”Skinny Love”

68. Good Old War-”Weak Man”

69. Murder By Death-”Until Morale Improves, The Beatings Will Continue”

70. Pink-”Funhouse”

71. Ingrid Michaelson-”Be OK”

72. Rodrigo y Gabriela-”Diablo Rojo”

73. Lady Gaga-”Poker Face”

74. Ewan McGregor-”El Tango de Roxanne” (Moulin Rouge Soundtrack)

75. -Rachmaninoff-”Allegro Scherzando” piano and cello duet

76. Yo-Yo ma-”Unaccompanied Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major”

77. Pink Floyd-Dark Side of the Moon

78.  Roxy Music-Avalon

79. Beatles-Love

80. Ludovico Einaudi- “Divenire” Primavera”

81. Pearl Jam-”Jeremy” “Black”

82. Ryan Adams- “Two” “I Taught Myself to Grow Old”

83. Rob Thomas-”Cradlesong” “Fire on the Mountain” “I Am an Illusion” “All that I Am”

84. Tyrone Wells-”Sea Breeze” “In Between the Lines” “More”

85. Hurt

86. Garfield Mayor-”Softly Softly”

87. Darren Hayes-”Words” “Walk Away”

88. Brendan James-”Early Morning April” “Green”

89. Black Stone Cherry-”Things My Father Said” “Blind Man”

90. Leona Lewis-”Take a Bow”

91. Bon Jovi-”One Wild Night”

92. Fleetwood Mac

93. Asp

94. Project Pitchfork

95. Bella Morte

96. Faith and the Muse

97. IAMX

98. The 69 Eyes

99. Deathstars

100. Eisbrecher

101. Oomph!

102. Das Ich

103. Kaizer’s Orchestra

104. The Exploding Boy

105. A Perfect Circle-”Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums”

106. Starflyer 59

107. Black Signature

108. Mew

109. Angelspit

110. Ego Likeness

111. Rammstein

112. Megaherz

113. Tumor

114. Porcelain and the Tramps

115.  Marilyn Manson

116. Cruxshadows

117. Steinkind

118. Wumpscut

119. Cattletruck

120. Front 242

121. Miss Kittin and the Hacker

122. Oaeeene-89

123. Ministry

124. Drowning Pool

125. Kaizer’s Orchestra

126. Corrosion of Conformity

127. Collide

128. Collide

129. Blutengel

130. Arritmic

131. Dead Can Dance

132. Autumn Tears

133. Nightwish

134. Sufjan Stevens “Concerning the UFO sighting near Highland, Illinois” “John Wayne Gacy Jr.”

135. The Horrors-”She is the New Thing”

136. Emily Bindiger-”Fake Wings”

137. Elbow-”The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver”

138.Saudade-”I Have Come to Claim My Throne”

139. Beirut

140. Gogol Bordello

141. Man Man

142. Balkan Beat Box

143. Andrew Bird

144.

1986 called and it wants its hair back!  So this is my chop choppy haircut that is the end result from my stabby stab visit to the salon.  I wore my most ‘86 shirt (from what I could remember.  I was seven years old then) and sang about Jem being truly outrageous, truly truly truly outrageous.  This look takes me from grocery shopping with the kids to a bar fight to a biker rally and back again.  Thanks, Salon Guy!

I received an acceptance from the 2010 edition of 52 Stitches and hooray, many of us will be sharing a TOC!  That’s one of my favorite things about this writing business: I love opening an anthology and seeing who is inside.  Which reminds me!  My contributor’s copy of Vicious Verses And Reanimated Rhymes: Zany Zombie Poetry for the Undead Head arrived a few days ago.  My poem and Matt Betts’ poem were originally side by side, but they were fighting and another poem had to come and sit between us. 

My poem is first, though.

Tonight I have a NaNoWriMo write-a-thon!  I’m excited for it!  As soon as the kids are in bed, I’m heading over to a local coffeehouse with the Vegas NaNo group and I’m planning to hang out until midnight.  My novel has had to take a backseat to other things in life, but this should help me immensely.  I’m a fast writer.  Not Ray Veen fast, but still pretty fast. Four hours of solid writing time will rebuild my self-confidence.

Rock on!

Google history: journey it’s just the rain, it’s a grind location, the last unicorn cast, .hack//infection trailer, why is it called steampunk, shadow hearts covenant missed treasure “dawn”, i love men wearing fancy hats, the minefield of caddishness

Dear School Bus Driver,

I am extremely sorry that you were forced to endure the sight of me running out to you in my pajamas.  Nay, not just any pajamas, but a pair of bright pink fleece pajamas with multi-colored polka dots all over them.  It has been cold, and these pajamas are warm and snuggly.  But quite honestly, good sir, I am trying to write a novel in 30 days, and I got off to a rather limping beginning.  Now I am settling into the swing of things, and I just don’t have time to pretty myself up.  Why waste time brushing my hair, putting on mascara, and changing into socially acceptable clothes when I could be writing, for crying out loud?  I will only see you for 60 seconds, and then I will wave goodbye as you drive my precious child off to school.  I know that 60 seconds of these rather loud pajamas seem like a lifetime, but our trials only serve to strengthen us.  Besides, my mother bought me these pajamas.  You would look askance at a gift from my mother?!

Please do not judge my son because I look like an oversized pink cupcake.

Yours,

Mercedes M. Yardley

This gorgeous flower is called a Surprise Lily.  Charming and appropriate to today’s post.

I was surprised twice this week.  The first surprise was when the wonderful K.M. Walton challenged me to a friendly NaNoWriMo contest this weekend.  We were both struggling with our word counts. You guys know how I feel about challenges.  My antennas quiver and I drop everything in order to win.  (Right, Mason? Right, Kurt? Right, Matt?

Except that I didn’t.  I totally lost.  And not only did I lose, but I lost pretty miserably.  My current word count right now is less than four grand.  Wait, what?  How could this happen?!  I hate to lose!  Except that I don’t mind losing to Kate, because she’s just awesome.  Come on, she thinks that Bit-O-Honeys blow, just like I do!  So stayed tune for an audio file of me singing a K. M. Walton song.  Heaven forbid.  Run, my friends, run.  Run far and run fast.  SAVE YOURSELVES!!

Then my friend John shot me an email saying that my story The Exquisite Beauty of Death was up at 52 Stitches.  I’ve been so busy that it completely slipped my mind.  Yay for 52 Stitches!  The girlie character in that story was one that had been in my mind for quite a while, but I wasn’t sure where to put her.  She may show up somewhere else one day, the sweet thing.  Anyway, pop by and give it a read if you have the time!

Also, tomorrow I’ll post a picture of my new Rock and Roll haircut that I obtained along with my stabby stabbed eye area.  (Which is fine, by the way.  Thanks for the concern!)  It’s not bad, per se.  The above mentioned John said that it reminded him of Siouxie Sioux.  Google that and you’ll get a general idea. 

Weep for me.

Words that I can’t spell: etiquette, maintenance, aluminum, dialogue

Dear Guy at the Salon,

Thank you so much for spazzing out when you cut me in the vicinity of my eye with a sharp pair of scissors today. I’ll admit that I was disconcerted by sudden blinding pain and blood that immediately coursed into my vision, but your cries of, “Oh, I can’t stand the sight of blood!” and “I cut her, she’s bleeding, oh, I hope that I didn’t get her EYE!” calmed me right down. It’s nice to know that my petty fear of blindness could be assuaged by your hands fluttering to your chest as you assure me that head wounds tend to bleed a lot…although you thought this might be a bit excessive. Although I A) didn’t stop bleeding for 15 minutes and B) have a tendency to scar, I was comforted by the fact that you took a whole dollar off of my bill. That was swell.

Yours,

Me

(I posted this on the Shock Totem board, but not here.  And all is well!   In fact, since he so abruptly finished with my haircut, I am now sporting a rock&roll look that only adds to my street cred. I could claim to play bass in any band, and nobody would dare to second guess me.  Bwa ha ha!)